More from the Library

PBS is going into summer rerun mode but the DVD holds are continuing to roll in from the library, so here are several more.

The Handmaid's Tale (Season One) – 2017 (3.1). Imagine Trump continues to wreak his havoc on our democracy and then is followed by the sanctimonious Pence and you have the scary warning story behind the 1985 novel that became this series. The author Margaret Atwood is working with the series producers to keep things true to the novel and in planned future seasons to take it beyond. The show garnered several Emmy awards, most notably for the drama itself and for the lead actress Elizabeth Moss. Sinclair Lewis told an earlier fascist menace version of this story in his 1935 novel, “It Can't Happen Here”. [Update March 2019: I watched the first couple episodes of season two, which takes the story beyond the book, and found them slow moving, wallowing in horror, and not able to hold my interest enough to watch further].

Coco – 2017 (3.0). Colorful, well-paced and with an interesting story and characters, this movie about family and the remembering of our dead ancestors earned the Best Animated Feature Oscar. The featured song “Remember Me” also won. It is refreshing to watch an animated film without being distracted by the use of many well known actors to supply the voices and the insertion of scenes too cute for their own sake.

The Man Who Invented Christmas -2017 (3.0). This under appreciated movie about Dickens writing “A Christmas Carol” starts a little slow but then soon takes off and draws us into story of the man himself, the writing process and the way he came up with the story that gave Christmas the human empathy we celebrate. The characters truly speak to him as he is writing, especially Scrooge himself (wonderfully played by Christopher Plummer). The production values, acting and directing (Bharat Nalluri needs to do more feature films) in this Canadian and Irish movie are excellent.

Darkest Hour – 2017 (2.9). Gary Oldman inhabits Winston Churchill in this Oscar winning performance about the few weeks starting in May 1940 when Britain faced invasion by the Nazis and pressure at home to let Mussolini broker a peace with Hitler. This is another story so open to the “what if” school of history. If Churchill had not rallied the people and government to stand and fight, it is impossible to tell what would have happened.

Paterson – 2016 (2.9). Paterson lives in the same named city in NJ , which is where he was born and now drives a bus. He is married to Laura and they have an English bulldog. He leads a fairly repetitive life, up in the morning, walk to work, drive the bus, walk home, take the dog out for an evening walk and stop at the local bar for a beer. Laura spices things up a bit with her home and personal improvements, always in black and white and without an particular showing of talent. In his quiet way he does not discourage her, while she overly encourages his artistic endeavor of writing poetry. The city of Paterson has lots of celebrity connections celebrated by thebarkeep, including with the great poet William Carlos Williams. This is a Jim Jarmusch movie, so not a lot happens, but we get to watch quietly as Paterson lives his so-so life, deeply in love with Laura and always observing the people and places he will put into poetry.

Aquarius – 2016 (2.8). Sonia Braga plays 65 year old Brazilian widow Clara still living a block from the beach in the Recife condo unit where she and her husband raised their three children. Developers have bought all the other units and want to tear the old building down and build a new one, but Clara adamantly refuses to sell. The filmmaker is a native of Recife and loves to make movies there. The film is watchable as a bit long study of the current life of Clara with some flashbacks about her past, but it is also intended as an allegory on the social, political and economic change forces in Brazil.

How to Be a Latin Lover – 2017 (2.8). Eugenio Derbez is a very popular actor in Mexico and the humor he brings to this comedy shows why. His character learns early in life in Mexico that working for a living is not the way to go. He scores his ideal lifestyle by marrying a much older American woman of wealth, but after 25 years is supplanted by a younger man. In desperation he seeks out his estranged sister to house him. She has an 8 year old son who the Lothario uses to try to snare his next rich meal ticket. Lots of laugh out loud slapstick and self deprecating humor are blended with just enough heart to not be kitschy, in spite of the low ratings at IMDB. Time to try his earlier hit, “Instructions Not Included”.

My Life as a Zucchini – 2016 (2.8). Animated puppetry is labor intensive as shown in the special feature on the DVD of this French movie about a small group of orphans living at a rural orphanage. Our hero is 10 years old with a no-show Dad and an alcoholic mother he may have accidentally killed. The kids all have similar hard life stories and quite different personalities and coping styles, but they all are ultimately bonded by their common plight and hope that their futures might not be so bleak,

Served Like a Girl – 2017 (2.8). In this documentary several women who served in various branches of the US military are followed as they struggle with the transition back to civilian life. Though their personal stories have differences, there are also commonalities in their struggles. Another common thread in the movies is that they all participate in a competition to be crowned “Ms. Veteran America”, which is intended, like this film, to call attention to the needs of our women veterans.

Carol – 2015 (2.7). In 1952, a wealthy unhappily married New Yorker with a young daughter is instantly drawn to an attractive young woman who works in a department store and has ambitions to be a photographer. While a child custody hearing is pending in the older couple's divorce, the divorcing New Yorker decides to take a break and go on a road trip west, inviting the young girl along. As can be expected, about halfway through the trip they have sex. Despite the age, wealth and class differences, both people are struggling with their sexual identity even as they are clearly drawn to each other. But the greatest difficulty with the relationship is that they are both women. Based on a novel written at the time, the movie goes to great effort to get everything right in the feeling for the time and place and the internal feelings of the women. The story is told on a very personal and non-societal level, which seems to limit the impact it can make on an audience today.

The Disaster Artist – 2017 (2.7). In 2003 a mysteriously eccentric no talent man who believed he was a great actor and cinematic master was befriended by a newbie classmate in an acting class in San Francisco. They moved together to LA and the mystery man self-funded an indie film [The Room] he wrote and directed and in which he played the lead and his friend the second role. Though the movie reportedly cost around $6 million, it was a total box office dud. However, it was so bad that it became a midnight movie cult laugh fest and eventually earned enough to break even. The current movie tells the ludicrous story of making that dud, but never answers any questions about the mysteries of the man. If you want to make a film about the making of a truly lousy film, this may be about as good as you can do.

Faces Places – 2017 (2.7). Agnes Varda, octogenarian movie director, teams up with a young male photographer muralist for a road trip to villages in France, where they park his van and attract locals to pose for photos which he then prints out on large sheets and works with his crew and Agnes to install them on local buildings. The documentary has the charm of an inter-generational road trip and the warmth of interactions between the two artists with each other and with the locals. There is commentary on the philosophy of art and life, but not enough of a message to make the film especially memorable.

The Greatest Showman – 2017 (2.7). Lots of work went into creating this lavish musical about the making of P.T. Barnum. We have a classic rags to riches story with a fall and recovery, lots of vigorous dancing and varied songs, elaborate production values and costumes, and the incredible cast of natural (more or less) oddities. But somehow all the gusto and the songs and music and story do not quite come together enough to fully take hold and remain memorable.

The Revenant – 2015 (2.7). DiCaprio wins an Oscar (on his sixth nomination) for doing survivalist revenge as an 1823 fur trapper (an actual historical person) in the Rockies (at first filmed in Canada and then moved to Argentina as the Canadian weather warmed) who is left behind in the hands of three men after being mauled by a bear. Unfortunately one is a scoundrel who must be hunted down in the next two and a half hours of screen time, for which the director Alejandro G. Iñárritu also won an Oscar (his second in a row). The beautiful all natural light cinematography of winter in the Rockies (and Argentina) by Emmanuel Lubezki also won (for three in a row).

Things to Come– 2016 (2.7). A pair of French philosophy professors are settled into their lives and emptying their nest when the man unexpectedly announces he is leaving his wife for another woman. We follow her as she is at first disrupted and then seeks to identify and explore her new found freedom, including visits to a mountain retreat commune where a young former student is exploring his own emerging activism. There is not much that actually happens in this French movie, though it passes easily enough.

Inside Out – 2015 (2.2). Pixar again used celebrities to voice odd looking animated characters in this psycho babble story about an 11 year old girl unhappy over her move to Frisco from Minnesota. Supposedly we are able to see the girl from the outside and also her emotions from the inside. The interior world is drawn in excruciatingly extensive detail.

Phantom Thread - 2017 (2.2). Put a top notch actor in the role of a temperamental fashion genius in 1950s Britain, mix in his very uptight sister who is his fashion partner, then add a young foreigner waitress who is drawn to him in a sickish way, clothe in ridiculously expensive silly gowns and serenade first with jazzy music and then with classical pieces, make sure it is slow moving, boring and overlong and you have this dud.

Anomalisa – 2015 (1.7). This stop motion animated movie about a bored middle age man having an evening with an ingenue who enchants him is supposed to be a life changing inspiration, at least for him. Rather good animation techniques are marred by three gimmicks, in no particular order of annoyance: faces with visible modular joints, male voices for all characters except the ingenue who speaks with a beguilingly cute voice, and oral sex performed by the old bugger on the young woman.