The Nominees Are Showing Up

The award nominees from the beginning of this year are starting to come through from the library. I have started to use a couple streaming services also through the library. Comcast had a Watchathon week. But the top one on this list is a series from network TV.

This Is Us (Season Three) – 2018 (3.2). The series maintains its high standards as it both advances the story lines and also gives us further filling on the back stories. Relationships remain the focus with plenty to explore between the various central characters as their lives continue to play out. These are all people viewers have come to know and care about enough to want to stay up to date for what happens next season.

Green Book -2018 (3.1). Based on a true story and with an Oscar winning script for original screenplay, this drama tells of a nightclub bouncer in NYC in 1962 who was hired to be the driver and body man for a black pianist making a musical performing tour of the South. The bouncer takes the job because he is out of work for two months while the club where he works is closed for renovation. The men are an odd couple, but they find though they have very few things in common, they can and do learn to understand and appreciate each other. Mahershala Ali won his second supporting actor Oscar for this role and had goos chemistry with Viggo Mortensen.

My Brilliant Friend (Season One) – 2018 (3.1). Four novels about two women growing up in a poor neighborhood in Naples are the basis for this Italian series. Boasting great production values and good acting, the first season captures the feel of the place and time where two elementary school girls grow up to young womanhood midst the tension and turmoil of their families, schools and neighborhood. Told as the memory of one of the girls in her old age, the series beckons for three more seasons to finish the full story of the four books.

Free Solo – 2018 (2.9). This documentary is riveting in following a young climber as he becomes the first to successfully climb El Capitan solo. The feat itself is amazing and the cinematography is equally dazzling.

Bright Lights: Starring CarrieFisher and Debbie Reynolds – 2016 (2.8). Celebrity mother and daughter both died shortly after this documentary movie was made. We get to follow them in their adjoining homes and on the road doing shows and we contrast what we see with footage from old home movies and past performances on the stage and screen. There is no denying the bright appeal of Debbie even in her final months of deterioration, and the wit and humor of Carrie persists even as her personal failings are also on display. The exhilaration of stardom definitely takes its toll.

Mavis! - 2015 (2.8). This upbeat documentary charts the Staples Singers and lead singer Mavis through the decades, using archival footage, interviews and lots of face time with Mavis, her sister Yvonne, backup singers, band members and other artists. Her robust voice and buoyant love of music, family, life and people is uplifting.

The Providers– 2018 (2.8). A medical doctor, physician's assistant and nurse practitioner are each followed in this documentary as they serve their low income patients in rural northern New Mexico. The three people are inspiring in their dedication to their work. The patients are a mixed bag of older people who have paid their duew to society and younger ones who are struggling with addiction issues. The movie largely follows the practitioners interfacing with their patients but also covers some of their personal lives. There is no injection of expert opinion or political argumentation, just the work the people do so faithfully and with such caring.

The Bookshop -2017 (2.7). Adapted from a novel, the Northern Irish village setting of this drama seems to have tried to cram all the characters and plot lines of the novel into a two hour movie, but leaves the viewer wishing for more time spent getting to know the characters and their back stories better and not being in any hurry to have a plot devolve. Though not a particularly good movie, this could have hope if made into a TV series.

Puzzle -2018 (2.7). Apparently a remake of an Argentine movie, this drama starts slow and never effectively catches on, mostly because of a poor script. A dull housewife with two grown sons living at home is given a jigsaw puzzle and discovers she has a knack for quick assembly. This prompts her to visit a puzzle store and answer an ad for a partner for a puzzle contest. She meets the partner seeker, an exotic Asian immigrant who is a successful inventor, and they hit it off beyond just puzzles. But she ends the fling and returns to her family a changed woman. However, we never form an attachment to any of the characters.

BlackkKlansman-2018 (2.6). The first black police detective in Colorado Springs in the 1970s posed by phone as a white KKK recruit and partnered with a Jewish colleague who joined the local KKK branch pretending to be the man on the phone. The black detective wrote a book about the experience and pitched a movie to Spike Lee who was receptive, especially in the context of Trump post Charlottesville. The resulting movie takes too long to tell an uneven and ultimately not overly deep story about a fluke short term undercover operation. There must be a better way to make a movie about the KKK in the 1970s.

Bohemian Rhapsody – 2018 (2.6). This biopic took too long to tell quite little in a shallow way about Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen. We barely meet his family and his end of years lover. His lady friend is around throughout the movie but we never really get to know anything about her, just as we learn very little about the band members. The movie is all about Freddie the performer and the music. And once again the best actor Oscar went to a portrayal of an actual person.

The Favourite – 2018 (2.6). The premise fpr this costume drama was to take the real Queen Anne of the early 1700s and change her story to make it more interesting and modern, with powerful women and ineffective men in makeup and wigs, and film it with unusual lighting, lenses and camera movements. The tale of competition to be the favorite of the feeble queen casts three good actresses and once again the Oscar for best acting went to someone playing a person with mental problems. Bottom line; watchable but not meaningful.

Listen to Me Marlon- 2015 (2.6). Using old introspective audio tapes Marlon Brando had recorded and matching them to footage from his movies, interviews and other film, this documentary comes across as pretentious, which is actually the way Brando was. The result is only as good as your opinion of Brando himself.

Mrs. Wilson – 2018 (2.6). Inspired by a true story and starring an actress playing her real life grandmother, this under three hour drama tells the tale of a man who worked for Brit MI-5 in intelligence during WWII and married a much younger clerical co-worker, with who he had two sons before he died about 20 years later. After his death, the widow began to discover that the man led a double life or maybe even more. He obviously was a philanderer and liar, but how much of it was because of his work as a spy and how much was just him is the question. The script has big holes involving the man being a published fiction writer and it never actually answers the basic questions.

Camilla Dickinson – 2012 (2.5). An Australian 21 year old plays a 15 year old New Yorker and Spokane stands in for Manhattan in 1948, but those are not the main reasons why this adaptation, of the Madeleine L”Engle coming of age novel is not very good. The whole thing is slow moving and just awkward feeling. Maybe that is the way the novel was also, so this screenplay by her Goddaughter may have captured the tale accurately.

I Am Not a Witch – 2017 (2.4). It is not clear what the intention is behind the story told in this movie. Satirizing the belief in witchcraft in a small African country and the exploitation of that belief by an inept government bureaucrat who uses a young girl supposed witch are part of it. In fact that might be all of it.

Stream On

In addition to Amazon Prime, I have started using two streaming services through the library, Hoopla and Kanopy. These provide some viewing choices while waiting for newer DVDs to come available through library holds and PBS to crank up some new offerings.

Three Identical Strangers – 2018 (3.0). [This was watched a couple months ago but left off the lists here]. This documentary has a dramatic way of telling a fascinating story of what can happen when well meaning academics forget about the importance of the human relationship of the people they study.

RBG – 2018 (2.9). SCOTUS Justice Ginsburg is a remarkable woman and this bio documentary does her justice. Interviews with family and colleagues are combined with archival footage and audio recordings of her appearances as an attorney before the high court on which she now serves. Her intelligence, dedication, commitment, amazing work ethic and outspoken brilliance in speaking for this discriminated against have made her an icon to young people, who gave her “The Notorious RBG” as her octogenarian Rap name. Her testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee was mesmerizing and the scenes of Senators of all political stripes paying rapt attention is as inspiring now as it was in 1993 when the Senate confirmed her appointment to SCOTUS by a vote of 96-3.

Victoria (Season Three) – 2018 (2.9). The series maintains the high quality values while still being subject to the complaints about season two, and this year there is too much time spent on the turmoil in the relationship between Victoria and Albert, especially with the introduction of her scheming half sister to the cast. The turmoil seems to be resolved by the time of the great exposition at the Crystal Palace, a major accomplishment for Albert, but perhaps at the expense of his health. Foreign Secretary Palmerston is a major presence and though he seems to exit at the end, history may bring him back.

Churchill's Secret – 2016 (2.8). Michael Gambon plays Winston and Lindsay Duncan plays Clementine in this telling of the three month 1953 recovery of the Prime Minister from a major stroke which was kept secret from the public for many years. The novel on which the movie is based creates a fictional nurse (played by Romola Garai) who tends Churchill and is key to his recovery. The toll the man's greatness took on his wife and children is shown, with the kids in particular coming off as unpleasantly damaged people.

Curb Your Enthusiasm (Season Nine) – 2017 (2.8). Seinfeld version 2.0 continues with Larry David style tact challenged quirkiness and HBO normal profanity. Young women are still supposedly attracted to old buggers - at least those with money. How long can this keep going on, but then why do we keep begrudgingly laughing?

Doc Martin (Season Eight) – 2017 (2.8). This series may be getting a little long in the tooth. New characters get introduced, often only for an episode or so, and the Doc always has an emergency that enables him to demonstrate his extraordinary medical skill, even while his Asperger type behavior continues. More imaginative writing would help insure a few more years in the picturesque setting with the quirky village locals.

Ida – 2014 (2.8). This Polish Oscar winner tells the story of a young novitiate run in bleak Poland in the 1960s, who came to the convent as an infant orphan. On the verge of taking her final vows she is informed that she has an aunt living in a Polish city who wants her to come for a visit. The aunt is a prosecutor and is severe, but with loose morals. The younger woman is informed that their family was Jewish and the two women agree to travel to the countryside to look for the burial place of their relatives who they expect were victims of violent death near the end of WWII. The journey affects each of them differently.

Minding the Gap – 2018 (2.8). Three teenagers from screwed up households in a post industrial rust belt city share a love of skateboarding as a way of escape. One is white and soon becomes a dad himself, one is black and sometimes feels like he is walking the line between black and white. The third, whose mother is Chinese, starts making home movies of their skating adventures and then grows into a documentary film maker, tracking the boys as they try to figure their lives out. There are some really exciting shots closely following the skaters as they whiz through the streets and everywhere that looks challenging. The movie maker probably just had a Go Pro on his head as he careened after his buddies, but the spectacle easily rivals the work of much more highly funded productions.

Short Term 12 – 2013 (2.8). The movie title is the name of a short term residential treatment facility for teenagers. The residence leader is a young woman in her twenties who has had troubles of her own in her youth, so she understands and relates to the kids particularly well. But her troubled background is baggage she has not been able to leave behind and she is not able to open up and share it with her therapist and boyfriend. The film has a genuineness about it and the characters are all appealing in their troubled ways, evoking sympathy for children who are victims of their own parents.

A Christmas Story Documentary: RoadTrip for Ralphie – 2008 (2.7). A Canadian couple who both love the classic movie A Christmas Story, decide to check out the reports that part of that movie was filmed near their home in Ontario. They embark on a quest to try and locate all the places where filming was done for the movie and they make a movie documenting their search. The result is a home movie that grows on the viewer as the joyful attitude of the couple and their success with their mission gains appeal. Along the way they offer lots of trivia about the making of A Christmas Story and we meet lots of people who were involved in various ways with the movie when made or through the years as it became a classic.

A Street Cat Named Bob – 2016 (2.7). Based on a true story and starring the real street cat, this story follows a street busker who took to the streets as a teenager and got hooked on heroin. We meet him when he is on methadone and his caseworker makes special efforts to get him housing. He does not do well with his income from music, until he is adopted by Bob who insist on busking with him, which causes business to improve significantly. There is an offbeat animal lover woman who lives in the same complex and they become friends. This is a feel good movie that doesn't quite get beyond that.

Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far OnFoot – 2016 (2.6). Made by Gus Van Sant for Amazon, this drama based on a true story is about an Oregon man who relocates to the party life in California to indulge his alcoholism and ends up in a wheelchair for life. Abandoned by his mother at birth, he struggles with his psychological burdens and with the help of AA and a good looking lover is able to parlay his quirky humor and marginal art skill into a career as a cartoonist. Slow, without much drama or character charisma.

Isle of Dogs – 2018 (2.6). Wes Anderson accents this animation with Japanese language and setting, but the eccentricity of his work is still present and the limited appeal of his style is even more of a detriment to anyone thinking a young child might like this.

Prime Time

After watching Amazon Prime shows via computer hooked up to the living room TV, I finally figured out how to link Prime with the Comcast Cable, so now can handle it all through the TV. Several movies from the Seattle International Film Festival are available on Prime, so I added those to my Prime watch list along with some of the Prime TV series that looked worth a try. I am not expecting much, but at least if I bail out I can just take it off the watch list and do not have to bother to return a DVD to the library. Speaking of the library, I have put many of the award nominees for this year on hold and expect them to start coming through in a few months.

One Mississippi (Season One) – 2015 (3.2). Surprisingly interesting in several ways, this dramedy series finds comedian and radio talk show host Tig Novato returning to her Mississippi coastal roots following the death of her mother and renewing her connections to places and family she left when she moved to LA. All the characters are interesting, there is some plot and drama and lots of soft commentary on sex, gender, race, politics, business, entertainment and relationships. Season one ends with the return to LA.

One Mississippi (Season Two) – 2015 (3.2). Season two of this series maintains the accomplishments of the first season while developing the various story lines and characters and introducing some new ones as Tig finds herself once again back in Mississippi. Unfortunately, Amazon, the producer decided the series was not popular enough for a third season.

Won't You Be My Neighbor – 2018 (2.9). The PBS children's TV icon Fred Rogers gets deservedly appreciative treatment in this biographical documentary. Many archival clips from his shows are combined with old interviews of Fred and new interviews with family, friends and colleagues. Most moving is footage of his appearance before the ornery Senator Pastore whose Senate committee was in charge of the Nixon budget which was going to cut funding to PBS. When Fred recited the lyrics of a song he wrote for a young boy who asked him what do you do with the hate you have inside, the Senator melted in a way that even Frank Capra would have thought too corny.

Angels Wear White -2017 (2.8). This Chinese drama tells the story of the sexual exploitation of two young schoolgirls by an important politician and the ensuing investigation by the police. We meet the two girls and their parents and also two young women who work at the motel where the girls were exploited and a female lawyer who advocates for the children. In the course of the movie we also meet the police, medical personnel, motel operator and low life criminal types, all of whom are mostly male and misogynists. The female director draws out impressive performances from the young actresses.

Bee Nation – 2017 (2.8). For the first time the Canadian Spelling Bee includes First Nation kids from the Saskatchewan tribal Reserve, and w get to follow several of them in this documentary, meeting their families and hearing from the kids and families about life where they live. Though they know they have disadvantages, mainly economic, they also know they have advantages, like a strong tribal community.

Cultureshock: Freaks and Geeks – 2018 (2.8). A reviewer likened this documentary to a special feature on a DVD. Some of those features were best watched after seeing the movie while others were helpful to watch first. In this case, the movie is actually the one year of episodes of the TV series and watching this documentary first is a good recommendation for watching the series. [Update March 2019: I ordered the series on DVD from the library and then realized I had ordered it about eight years ago and only watched the first two episodes before bailing out and giving it a 2.4 rating. This time the DVD from the library only includes a disk with the first three episodes and the library does not have the other disks with fifteen more episodes. I watched the three and thought they were a little better than 2.4, but will let my original rating stand and not try to find the other episodes somewhere else].

Eighth Grade – 2018 (2.8). The young actress (award nominee Elsie Fisher) who plays the middle school student does a great job of portraying the turmoil of struggling with that stage of life, with the updated inclusion of video blogging and the ubiquity of smartphones. There is an understanding single father, left in charge by a mother who apparently walked away very early, and there is no other adult female role of consequence.

Fahrenheit 11/9– 2018 (2.8). Michael Moore responded to the 2016 election and the first year of the Trump chaos with this documentary covering some of the political, economic and social issues that played into the outcome and what some of the ensuing chaos looked like. Notably absent was any treatment of Russian interference with the process. Pretty standard Moore fare.

Leave No Trace – 2017 (2.8). A PTSD veteran and his teenage daughter live in the forest near Portland, Oregon, because he prefers the hermit life to interfacing with people any more than absolutely necessary. The daughter is loving and faithful but once the two are arrested for illegal camping and are monitored by social workers who try to place them in a better situation, dad cannot stand it and runs away with the daughter. Ultimately she starts to feel like it is time to settle in one place and be involved with other people. Both roles are played well, with another young actress(Thomasin McKenzie from NZ) to watch in the future. Once again, the absence of the mother is not explained.

This Is Home: A Refugee Story – 2018 (2.8). Three Syrian refugee families arrive in Baltimore where a refugee assistance program helps them for eight months after which they are basically own their own. This documentary follows them during that time. The families are appealingly sympathetic, but most of the assistance workers are not impressive in the way they interface with the refugees. A church lady takes one refugee mother under her wing and her help is deservedly appreciated.

The King – 2017 (2.7). If driving the 1963 pink Rolls Royce that once belonged to Elvis Presley around various sites in the US that were associated with Elvis and interviewing people who knew him and encountering people on the streets and talking about him, having musicians and others sit in the back of the car and talk, and having some celebrities ride along, all while telling the life story of Elvis and making commentary on the social and political history of the US sounds interesting but confusing, then that pretty well characterizes this documentary.

Ava– 2017 (2.6). Hormonal Iranian teenager Ava fights with her parents, teachers and classmates, all of whom (with the sometimes exception of her father)are as unsympathetic to the audience as she is as they are overbearing and repressive. The female director was born in Iran but lives in Canada, which must explain how she is able to make a seemingly realistic movie about the bitter life in the country of her birth.

McQueen – 2018 (2.6). A young Brit fashion designer brimming with self-confidence and, in the minds of many in that business, talent, rises and falls and his story is told in an episodic manner in this documentary, using archival home movies and fashion show footage and historic interviews and new ones. Fashionistas might devour this while others will wonder why all the fuss.

Summer 1993 – 2017 (2.6). In this Spanish film a city girl of about seven has lost her parents to Aids and is taken in by her uncle who lives in the countryside. The movie follows the girl and her girl cousin of about three or four as they go through different adventures. Though the concentration on such young actresses is quite an accomplishment, the film does not seem to have any particular point of view, drama or character development.

What Will People Say – 2017 (2.6). Here is another drama about teenage girls dealing with strict parents as part of an immigrant subculture, this time Pakistanis in Norway. The girl goes through a sneaky wild stage in Oslo, but is caught and taken to Pakistan to be watched over by her strict aunt, but that does not exactly work out either. This Pakistani movie covers all the acting up of the girl but never goes into any depth in helping us learn about her feelings or those of her family members beyond that she wants to do what she wants and they want her to do what they want.

First Reformed – 2017 (2.5). From approving critics it seems one has to understand internal Calvinistic religious struggle and austere cinematic styling to adequately appreciate this movie. For we who do neither, this supposed thriller sucks. A mentally and physically sick minister is assigned to a historic church in upstate NY which has no actual congregation. He tries ineptly to counsel a despairing environmental activist and when the man dies the minister gets involved with the widow and in the process spurns a church lady who has been chasing him. The minister is being overseen by the pastor of a successful mega church financially supported by a leading polluter. There were possible plot lines for a decent drama or thriller, but what resulted instead is a disappointing waste of time.

Best Things I Watched in 2018

As the list below confirms, I continue to have trouble finding shows to watch that I can rate very high. Interestingly, the TV has been a better source than DVDs. This Is Us just started the third season, so I am looking forward to that. Another show that is due for a third season is Red Oaks, which just missed this list at 2.9. Maybe 2019 will be better. I have also updated the ratings links in the sidebar to include all shows viewed through 2018.

This is Us (Season One)	2016	3.7
This is Us (Season Two)	2017	3.2
Call the Midwife (Season Seven)	2018	3.2
The Durrells in Corfu (Season Three)	2017	3.2
Handmaid's Tale, The (Season One)	2017	3.1
Call The Midwife Christmas Special 2018	2018	3.1
Crown, The (Season One)	2016	3
Loving Vincent	2017	3
Coco	2017	3
Man Who Invented Christmas, The	2017	3
Instructions Not Included	2013	3
Three Identical Strangers	2018	3
Victoria (Season Two)	2017	3
Poldark (Season Four)	2017	3

Movie Lists Updated through 2017

Using Google Sheets, I have now updated my movie ratings links in the sidebars through 2017, covering just under 3500 shows. The next step is to add in the 2018 shows after the end of the year. When I do that, I will amend this post to show the 2018 update is done.

I could take advantage of the Google Sheets feature of automatic updates, using Sheets as my actual data entry source and maintaining an ongoing list of all movies rated alpha and another for all movies in ratings order, but for now I prefer to just update the online lists manually at the end of each year.

12 over 3 for 2017

I am finally getting my video spreadsheets updated to add in what I watched in 2017.  Here are twelve things I watched in 2017 that I rated over 3:

Call The Midwife Christmas Special 2016	2016	3.3
Mother of Mine [re-watched in 2017]	2005	3.2
All the Way	2016	3.2
Wadjda	2012	3.2
Witness, The	2015	3.2
Home Fires (Season Two)	2016	3.2
Veep (Season Five)	2016	3.1
Little Big Lies	2017	3.1
Tower	2016	3.1
Victoria (Season One)	2016	3.1
13th	2016	3.1
Call The Midwife (Season Six)	2017	3.1

And into the Fall

And here are more.

Red Oaks (Season Two) – 2016 (2.9). The second season maintains the style and approach of the first and thankfully does not bombard us with lots of new characters as it moves through the next year in the lives of the principals. One gets married, one pair of parents divorces, a young pair are sort of on again off again, a father faces possible jail time and at season end pretty much everyone is making changes for the coming year. We shall see what season three has in store for the next year of these lives.

The Dressmaker -2015 (2.8). Sent away from her small Aussie town as a young girl, supposedly for killing a young boy, the woman returns years later as an accomplished dressmaker and quickly acquires the women of the town as customers, even as they continue to gossip about her. Revenge is likely in her cards as she learns the true back story and we are entertained enough to watch it through.

Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood LoveStory – 2015 (2.8). This documentary is surprisingly fun watching. It tells the personal and professional story of a Hollywood couple who rose to the pinnacle of their movie professions ( he a story board artist and production designer and she a research librarian)while raising their three sons (the oldest with autism)and being known to all in Hollywood as the tops in their field and two of the most fun people to spend time around. Interviews with the couple and with many of their professional and personal friends are combined with archival footage from some of the mtriad of Hollywood classics on which they have worked.

The Man in the High Castle (Season Two) -2016 (2.8). This series takes significant liberties with the book on which it is based, but since it is all made up anyway, maybe that is not very important. As the Nazis plot to eliminate the Japanese, all the plots and subplots thicken for the principal characters, but leaving the viewer with the question how long one would want to play along with this fantasy, which started way back in 1962 and has barely moved forward in time.

Nowhere to Hide – 2016 (2.8). When the US led coalition pulled out of Iraq and turned control over to the Iraqui government, a man in central Iraq was give a video camera by a filmmaker who told him to record what happens. This resulting documentary edits five years of videos with written inserts of what is happening in the country as the videos move forward. It is just home movies, but of a dangerous place in a dangerous time.

Red Oaks (Season Three) – 2017 (2.8). The third season is short by a couple episodes as the characters move on another year, some relationships ripen, some are replaced and situations morph. Still a pleasant enough watch as we are invested in the characters. Unfortunately, it has been announced this will be the last season of the series

Training Day - 2001 (2.8). Denzel Washington won the top Oscar playing an LA cop heading a small narc unit practicing its own brand of “street justice”. The movie takes place on the first day of training a new white officer transferring in as a step to becoming a detective. The recruit is shocked by the outrageous way the mentor disregards the rules, but he tries to bend and hang on even as situations quickly escalate and he begins to realize he may be getting setup as a patsy. This is another example of the Oscar going to a portrayal of a mentally unhinged person, but Denzel is such a good actor he deserved to have an addition to his supporting Oscar for Glory (which still holds up on watching anew).

Voices of the Sea -2018 (2.8). In an extremely impoverished Cuban fishing village an older respected fisherman haas married a young widow resulting in a blended family. Though dissatisfied with what the Castro revolution has delivered, the man nevertheless is content to carry on his life in the village. But the woman wants more out of life and dreams of fleeing to the USA. She is not alone in that dream and this documentary shows the lure of the dream and the reality of the difficulty of achieving it and the consequences of failing to complete the quest.

Wonder - 2017 (2.8). A home schooled boy born with major facial abnormalities starts attending a large middle school in this appealing movie. He is strong of character and has supportive parents and older sister, but the kids at the school handle relating to their new schoolmate with mixed success. There are plenty of messages in this well acted film, but it does not get too bogged down until maybe a bit at the end. The DVD special features are disappointing in not telling about the genesis of the book on which the movie was based and on not telling more about the casting, direction and makeup of Jacob Tremblay the excellent young actor who also played the boy in the movie Room.

Mr. Robot (Season One) – 2015 (2.7). This series about an Asperger's type computer hacker who gets involved in taking down an evil global corporate conglomerate started off with lots of promise but by the end of the season it was a bit disappointing as the lead character became more unbalanced and took us with him to the point where we did not quite know what was going on for real and what was just in his head. The prospect of more seasons of such disorientation is not appealing.

Still Tomorrow – 2016 (2.7). A Chinese woman about 40 years old with muscular dystrophy lives in a small village with her parents. She has a husband who works construction in big cities and comes to the village once a year where the couple end up arguing about her wanting a divorce. Though she never finished high school, she has used the Internet and been discovered as a talented poet. Once her work is published she becomes a minor celebrity particularly to young people and she travels to book signings and media interviews. Her mother is diagnosed with terminal cancer and the daughter is not much emotional support. The poet and her husband have a young son, but we never see him, possibly because PBS POV once again cut a 88 minute documentary down to fit in a time slot of less than one hour.

All the Money in the World -2017 (2.6). This is the movie that was basically completed with Kevin Spacey in the role of J. Paul Getty when Spacey's scandals came to light. The decision was made to re-shoot all the Spacey scenes with Christopher Plummer in the role. Most likely this disruption did not improve the finished product, but the real problem is the script. It jumps around so much at the start that it threatens to undermine what is certainly a compelling story about the Rome kidnapping of a grandson of the richest man in the world. Things settle down enough by the end of the film to keep viewers watching. Even though we know the boy is going to live, we stay tuned for the details.

Dunkirk – 2017 (2.6). We have become so used to CGI footage in action movies that it is surprising to learn that Christopher Nolan made this movie about the evacuation of trapped British forces in 1940 with only a minimal amount of CGI and movie lot water tank work. A tremendous amount of logistical work went into recreating the time, place and events but the weakness of this movie is in the script. The attempt to tell the massive story from a subjective point of view of a few participants does not come across effectively, because of the lack of back story on the characters and the absence of cohesion from cutting back and forth between the various activities.

Human Flow – 2017 (2.6). The eye of the artist is evident in the beautiful cinematography of this documentary by Ai Wei Wei about the world wide refugee flows. Footage and interviews of refugees, commentaries by government and NGO officials and on screen data facts are the methodology, but there is no in depth analysis or proposals for improvements to dealing with the largest refugee traffic since WWII in spite of the fairly long running time of the movie.

Whose Streets? -2017 (2.5). The story of the police shooting of Mike Brown in Ferguson Missouri and the aftermath as the community came together in protest was extensively followed by the media at the time. This documentary was made during the events and included additional interviews in the aftermath. While we did get to meet a few of the activists up close, we did not see or learn anything we did not already know.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: The Murder at Road Hill House– 2011 (2.4). Tell the true story of an 1860 murder of a young boy in a British country estate house from the wrong point of view and the result is an inferior mystery drama. This movie treated it like a whodunit that ended in failure to detect, only to quickly turn to a post scripted denouement that was disconnected from all that preceded it.