A United Kingdom

Last night I went to see A United Kingdom and it was such a lovely and inspiring film!  It tells the true story of Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo), the King of Bechuanaland when it was a British protectorate in the 1940s, and Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike), the woman he met in London while studying law.  Not only is this a touching romance (they fell in love over a shared passion for jazz) but it is also a story of political intrigue.  At first the British government tries to prevent their marriage because South Africa, an important member of the Commonwealth due to their valuable resources needed by Britain, opposes it because of their policy of apartheid.  Later the government tries to remove Seretse as king in a stunning betrayal.  However, the strength of their love wins over Seretse's people as well as Ruth's family and eventually leads to the independence of present-day Botswana.  It is a film which will leave you cheering (and will make you hate the perfidy of Britain's colonial policies).  To be sure, the film is predictable (scenes with Ruth's parents disowning her and British bureaucrats plotting behind closed doors) but I was completely drawn into the love story between Seretse and Ruth.  Oyelowo and Pike give incredibly affecting performances and I had tears in my eyes several times, particularly when the women of Seretse's village sing to Ruth and when Seretse, with tears streaming down his face, gives a powerful speech about unifying Africa.  This film is visually stunning with scenes in London shrouded in fog and scenes in Africa suffused with an orange glow.  It has flaws but the love story is riveting and the message is powerful.

The Sense of an Ending

Last summer I read the best-selling novel The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes and in my review I wrote that people would either love it or hate it.  I loved it and so I have been eagerly anticipating the film adaptation.  After seeing it last night, I have the same assessment of the film as I did of the novel.  It is definitely not for everyone but it is a poignant exploration of one man's life as he is forced to reexamine the past after receiving an unexpected letter.  Jim Broadbent is Tony Webster and Charlotte Rampling plays Veronica Ford, Tony's girlfriend at university.  Their story, as Tony remembers it, is told through a series of flashbacks, with Billy Howle and Freya Mavor playing the younger characters, as Tony recounts the story to his ex-wife (an amusing Harriet Walter).  Then their story, as it really happened, is revealed as Tony arranges a series of meetings with Veronica.  As he sheds his delusions about the kind of person he was and is, he begins to make amends with the people in his life, namely his ex-wife and pregnant daughter (Michelle Dockery).  I really enjoyed this character study because I think that we all view our pasts the way we need to in order to validate our opinions of ourselves.  Jim Broadbent is marvelous (I think that his portrayal of Tony is much more sympathetic than the character is written on the page) and Charlotte Rampling, once again, gives a haunting performance.  I highly recommend this film but, because the mystery unfolds very slowly, I recognize that many might find it to be tedious.

Note:  My favorite line in the film comes when the young Tony goes home with Veronica to meet her parents.  Her mother asks him what he hopes to do with an undergraduate degree in English literature.  I laughed out loud...

My Life as a Zucchini

My Life as a Zucchini is a French stop-motion animation movie about a boy, nicknamed Zucchini, who is sent to a foster home after his alcoholic mother dies where he learns the true meaning of friendship.  This movie was screened at Sundance this year and several of my friends recommended it to me so I saw it last night.  Even though I had an almost visceral reaction to this movie I loved it so much!  It just might be my favorite movie of the year so far!  The subject is one that is very close to my heart.  Both my niece and nephew are adopted and they were both in foster homes before they came to my family so many of the scenes depicted in this film brought tears to my eyes, especially when one of the children says that there is no one left to love them and when another child runs out to see if her mother has come back for her every time someone visits.  It was difficult for me to see children in such distressing situations but I admire the filmmakers for tackling these issues in a way that feels authentic.  They are all wise beyond their years and they have been exposed to things that no child should ever have to deal with but they are, nevertheless, still children so their explanations for things, such as sex, are hilarious.  Despite the grim subject, there is quite a bit of humor in this film.  I absolutely loved the children and I thought they were all fully realized characters with distinct personalities (something to be commended as the film has such a short run time).  I was particularly touched by Simon, who initially comes across as a bully but has a few vulnerable moments.  I really enjoyed the relationships between the children and the love story between Zucchini and Camille is very sweet.  Finally, I really loved the quirky look of all of the characters.  They have oversize heads with large expressive eyes and red noses as if they are all perpetually suffering from a cold and this makes them incredibly sympathetic, in my opinion.  I cannot recommend this film enough!

Note:  I saw it in French with English subtitles but there is a dubbed version, as well.

The Red Turtle

Yesterday I decided to go to the Broadway to see the Academy Award nominated film The Red Turtle and I am so glad that I did!  It is absolutely brilliant with a simple yet profound narrative about life, love, and fate.  A man is washed ashore on an uninhabited island.  After discovering a plentiful supply of bamboo, he makes a raft and attempts to leave the island.  The raft is broken up by a red turtle not far from shore and the man is forced to return to the island.  After several more attempts with the same result, the man sees the red turtle wash up on shore and, in an act of revenge, he turns it upside down.  Feeling remorse the next day, he tries unsuccessfully to revive the turtle.  When the turtle's shell cracks, it is transformed into a beautiful woman.  Years go by and the man and woman eventually have a son with an unusual connection with turtles.  When their son decides to leave the island with a group of turtles, the couple remains to live out their lives in a series of beautiful vignettes.  After the man dies, the woman is, once again, transformed back into the red turtle and it slowly swims away from the island.  The story is incredibly beautiful and affecting and even though there is almost no dialogue (aside from a few exclamations) the characters are able to convey genuine emotion.  I also loved the distinct portrayal of the animals on the island.  My favorite "characters" are the crabs which become the man's constant companions in some amusing situations.  The animation is absolutely stunning and even the gray and sepia tones of the ocean in a storm are somehow vibrant.  I loved this film and I highly recommend it!

Note:  Speaking of Academy Awards, I am so glad that Moonlight won Best Picture.  It is such a beautiful film and I highly recommend it, too!

Fences

On New Year's Eve I went to see Fences, an adaptation of August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis.  Troy Maxson (Washington) is a sanitation worker in 1950s Pittsburgh living with his wife Rose (Davis) and his son Cory (Jovan Adepo).  The fence he is perpetually building with his son becomes a metaphor for how trapped he feels and he lashes out against the people in his life.  Troy is a despicable character who does despicable things such as sabotaging his son's chance for a football scholarship because he is bitter about his own lost opportunity to play baseball, cheating on his wife and forcing her to take in his illegitimate daughter, and swindling his disabled brother (Mykelti Williamson) out of his war pension.  It was very difficult for me to watch Denzel Washington, an actor I have always liked and admired, play such an unsympathetic character but his performance is brilliant.  The same could be said of Viola Davis.  I had difficulty with her character, as well, because, although she confronts her husband about his behavior (in an incredibly powerful scene which, no doubt, secured her the Golden Globe), she becomes his apologist after his death.  In the end it is a movie about a flawed man who ultimately gets redemption for hurting the people in his life because he himself has been hurt.  I didn't like this resolution because, in my opinion, he doesn't deserve redemption.   Despite the lauded performances of Washington and Davis, it's not a movie I would recommend.

Collateral Beauty

On Wednesday night during winter break, I went with my sister to see Collateral Beauty (why, yes, that was my third movie of the day!).  This movie has been much maligned by critics but both Marilyn and I enjoyed it.  Howard Inlet (Will Smith) is a New York ad executive who credits three abstractions for his success:  love, because everyone needs it; time, because everyone wants more of it; and death, because everyone fears it.  After the tragic death of his young daughter, he retreats from the world and begins writing letters to these abstractions.  His colleagues Whit Yardsham (Edward Norton), Claire Wilson (Kate Winslet), and Simon Scott (Michael Pena), worried that his behavior is costing them clients, hire three unemployed actors to personify these abstractions.  Aimee (Keira Knightley), Raffi (Jacob Latimore), and Brigitte (Helen Mirren) portray Love, Time, and Death, respectively, and not only bring peace to Howard, but help Whit, who is struggling with his relationship with his estranged daughter; Claire, who laments the fact that she has spent all of her time focused on her career rather than starting a family; and Simon, who is battling terminal cancer.  One of the reasons I loved Manchester by the Sea, which also deals with the loss of a child, is that the grief is not magically abated at the end of the movie for a happy ending as it is in Collateral Beauty.  However, while the final scenes are contrived, they are also quite affecting and they did bring tears to my eyes (Marilyn was a blubbering mess).  I really enjoyed all of the performances, especially Mirren who was incredibly funny.  I recommend that you see Collateral Beauty for a feel-good movie to lift your spirits (but see Manchester by the Sea for a gritty and honest portrayal of grief).

Nocturnal Animals

The second half of my double-feature was the strangely compelling psychological thriller Nocturnal Animals.  Amy Adams plays Susan Morrow, a successful, but profoundly unhappy, Los Angeles gallery owner.  She receives a copy of a novel written by her ex-husband, Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal) and slowly becomes obsessed with it.  This film has a story-within-a-story as the novel is acted out as Susan reads it.  In the novel, Tony Hastings (Jake Gyllenhaal), along with his wife Laura (Isla Fisher) and daughter India (Ellie Bamber), is hijacked by a gang of thugs, led by Ray Marcus (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), on a remote road in the West Texas desert.  His wife and daughter are forced into the gang's car and are eventually raped and murdered.  Tony works with Lt. Bobby Anders (Michael Shannon) to find the culprits but there is not enough evidence to convict them so they end up meting out their own kind of justice.  Because the novel is dedicated to her, Susan believes that Edward wrote it for revenge because she left him for another man and aborted their unborn child.  She is also strangely attracted to Edward again but, like the character of Tony, Edward ultimately gets his revenge.  This is film-noir at its best with lots of Hitchcockian moments which kept me on the edge of my seat.  To be sure, it is quite strange (the opening alone may be off-putting to many) but I couldn't take my eyes off the screen.  Adams, Gyllenhaal, Shannon, and Taylor-Johnson (who is nominated for a Golden Globe) give outstanding performances and Tom Ford's direction is visually stunning.  I highly recommend it (but it is weird).

Moonlight

Last Wednesday I spent the day at the Tower theater, a small art house theater in the ninth and ninth district of SLC, for another double-feature of films garnering Oscar buzz.  I began with Moonlight, an achingly beautiful coming of age film about a boy searching for his identity in modern-day Miami.  The film explores three pivotal moments in the life of Chiron, beginning when he is a shy and withdrawn child (Alex Hibbert) known as "Little."  His mother (the brilliant Naomie Harris) is a crack addict and he is bullied at school when he is befriended by Juan (Mahershala Ali) who tells him that he gets to decide what kind of life he will have.  Little spends more and more time with Juan, viewing him as a mentor, until he learns that Juan is a drug dealer who supplies his mother.  Next, we see the teenage Chiron (Ashton Sanders) who is the target of a particularly cruel bully at school and an increasingly abusive mother.  He becomes friends with Kevin (Jharrel Jerome) and they become intimate.  Kevin betrays Chiron when he is forced to beat him in a hazing incident.  Finally, the adult Chiron (Trevante Rhodes), now known as "Black," is a tough, hardened, and disillusioned drug-dealer.  In an incredibly poignant scene, he makes peace with his mother who is in rehab and reunites with Kevin (Andre Holland).  It is a difficult film to watch but it does end with hope for Chiron.  I was particularly struck by Hibbert's portrayal of Little Chiron, especially the scene where he boils water by himself to take a bath.  It was heartbreaking for me to watch Little Chiron because he reminded me so much of Sean when he was little.  I loved this beautiful film and I highly recommend it.  However, the subject matter might be difficult for some.

Lion

Another film that is getting a lot of Oscar buzz is Lion so I saw it after the screening of Jackie in a double-feature (I love spending the day at the Broadway).  This film tells the incredible true story of one boy's journey to find his home.  Five year old Saroo (Sunny Pawar) accompanies his older brother to look for work but falls asleep on a bench in a train station.  His brother leaves him there telling him that he will be back for him soon.  Saroo gets on a train hoping for a more comfortable place to sleep but the train begins moving with him trapped inside.  The train stops in Calcutta, thousands of miles from home, where Saroo wanders the streets for months before being adopted by an affluent Australian couple (David Wenham and Nicole Kidman).  Twenty years later Saroo (Dev Patel) embarks on a course in restaurant management and meets a group of Indian students who spark his meager childhood memories.  He becomes obsessed with finding his family by using Google Earth.  I love the scene where he finally finds his village and, as he uses the satellite to view the streets, there are flashbacks of him as a child running along those same streets.  I also love the very poignant scene between Patel and Kidman when Saroo tells his adopted mother that he has been searching for his birth mother (made even more affecting by the fact that Kidman is an adoptive mother herself).  I did find Rooney Mara's role as Saroo's girlfriend to be rather superfluous.  She breaks up with him when his search becomes obsessive and has a tearful moment with him when he finds his family but she doesn't do much else to advance the plot.  There is the predictable reunion scene between Saroo and his mother followed by actual footage of the real-life Saroo with both his mothers but I found these moments to be very well done and incredibly heart-warming.  I really enjoyed this film and I highly recommend it.

Note:  Throughout the entire film, I kept wondering why it was called Lion.  When the reason was explained in the epilogue, it brought spontaneous tears to my eyes.

Jackie

I love this time of year because this is the time when the Broadway screens all of the films generating Oscar buzz.  No one is getting more buzz than Natalie Portman for her performance in Jackie so this film was high on my list to see over winter break.  It follows Jackie Kennedy (Portman) in the days after her husband's assassination through flashbacks during an interview given to Theodore White (Billy Crudup) for Life magazine.  We see Jackie during the immediate aftermath of the shooting in Dallas, witnessing the oath of office administered to Lyndon Johnson (John Carroll Lynch) aboard Air Force One, telling the children about their father's death, making preparations for the funeral, and leaving the White House after her efforts to restore it.  Through it all, Jackie expresses her profound grief and demands that JFK's legacy be protected.  Portman gives the performance of her career and I literally could not take my eyes off her. She physically resembles Jackie Kennedy but it is the voice which sells the performance, particularly during the filming of the White House tour.  I was also struck by the scene between Jackie and a priest (John Hurt) where she discusses JFK's infidelities and the scene where she drunkenly relives her shining moments in the White House by going to each room in the clothing she wore for those occasions.  The score by Mica Levi is incredibly stirring but it is the use of the music from the Broadway musical Camelot that is especially dramatic.  I highly recommend this film for Portman's brilliant portrayal of the enigmatic former First Lady.

La La Land

Last night I was, once again, at the Broadway Theater downtown.  This time I saw a film that I have been looking forward to for months and it was as good as I was hoping it would be!  La La Land is an homage to the classic old Hollywood musical (director Damien Chazelle was inspired by Singin' in the Rain and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) but it is set in modern-day Los Angeles and it tells a very contemporary story.  Mia (Emma Stone) is an aspiring actress and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) is a jazz musician who dreams of owning his own club.  They meet and spend an idyllic summer together full of singing, dancing, and old-fashioned romance.  They both struggle to achieve their dreams but will they choose success or love?  After they make their choice, we get to see what their lives are like five years later but, in an incredibly clever sequence, we also get to see what their lives would have been like had they made a different choice.  Oh, how I loved this movie!  It is charming, delightful, and magical with wonderfully engaging performances by both Gosling and Stone, made even more impressive by the fact that neither of them are known for singing and dancing (Gosling learned to tap and play piano for the role).  The choreography is spectacular (it was choreographed by Mandy Moore, who is most noted for her work on So You Think You Can Dance), especially in "A Lovely Night" shot in the Hollywood Hills at sunset, and I loved the music so much I downloaded "City of Stars" before the final credits ended.  I cannot recommend this movie enough!  It put a smile on my face at I time when I have become a bit jaded about life.

Manchester by the Sea

I live equidistant from a large and state-of-the-art multiplex, where I go to see the latest blockbusters, and a quaint and charming art house theater downtown, where I go to see independent films and documentaries.  I spend an equal amount of time at both:  Thursday night I was at the multiplex and last night found me at the Broadway for a screening of Manchester by the Sea.  This film was easily my favorite at the Sundance Film Festival last year and I was quite eager to see it again now that it is in wide release.  Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) is a janitor working in Boston with a habit of getting written up at work and getting into fights at the local bar.  He is clearly troubled but there are flashbacks to happier times with his brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) and young nephew on their boat in Manchester.  When his brother dies, Lee learns that, unbeknownst to him, he has been made guardian to his nephew Patrick (Lucas Hedges), now sixteen years old.  Patrick does not want to leave his life (and multiple girlfriends) in Manchester to move to Boston but Lee doesn't want to move back to Manchester because he is haunted by the memory of a tragic accident for which he, his ex-wife Randi (Michelle Williams), and most of the town hold him responsible.  Lee attempts to make it work but finally realizes that he cannot live with his demons and makes other arrangements for Patrick, although the film ends beautifully with Lee and Patrick on the boat trying to forge a relationship.  This movie is brilliant!  It is getting quite a bit of Oscar buzz (it has been nominated for multiple Golden Globe awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Affleck, and Best Supporting Actress for Williams) and, should the Academy request my opinion, it definitely has my vote for Best Picture!  The flashbacks of the accident with Albinoni's Adagio for Strings, one of the most mournful pieces in the classical repertoire, underneath it is absolutely gut-wrenching as is the scene where Randi tells Lee that she still loves him.  Affleck gives the performance of his career and, upon a second viewing, I was even more impressed with his portrayal of a man so consumed by past grief that he cannot face the future.  I highly recommend this film, although some might find the excessive profanity to be offensive.

Note:  At Sundance it received one of the biggest distribution deals in festival history, second only to The Birth of a Nation.  Good stuff!

Denial

Sunday found me, for the second night in a row, at my favorite art house theater to see Denial.  This movie features a compelling story, based on actual events, about a libel case brought by an attention-seeking historian, who denies that the Holocaust happened, against a university professor claiming that her book, Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, damaged his reputation.  This movie also features an incredible cast, including Rachel Weisz as Deborah Lipstadt, the professor forced to prove the Holocaust happened, Timothy Spall as David Irving, her accuser, Tom Wilkinson, as Richard Rampton, her barrister, and Andrew Scott (who will always and forever be Moriarty from the PBS series Sherlock in my mind), as Anthony Julius, her solicitor who is famous for representing Princess Diana in her divorce from Prince Charles.  Each give riveting performances, especially during a heated exchange while visiting Auschwitz.  Finally, this movie has a certain timely relevance in its portrayal of a man who clearly makes outrageous and provocative statements for attention and the argument about how much attention to give such a person. I do think that the action bogs down at times, rather like the sedate British legal system with all of its pomp and circumstance (Irving brought the suit in the UK because the burden of proof is on the accused).  There are no courtroom theatrics and the verdict is almost anticlimactic because everyone received the verdict before it was read in court.  However, the story, the performances, and the disturbing present-day resonance make this film worthy of a recommendation.

A Man Called Ove

I often decide to see a movie based on the previews (I hate reading reviews before I see a movie because I like to decide for myself whether or not I will like something) and this practice usually yields positive results.  There was the time when I reversed my ban on all Judd Apatow films to see Funny People because the previews looked hilarious but I try not to dwell on that unfortunate decision.  Luckily, my experience with A Man Called Ove was much better.  For the past few weeks I've been seeing previews of this film at my favorite art house theater and it looked incredibly charming so I decided to see it Saturday night. Ove (Rolf Lassgard) is a curmudgeonly old man who makes his rounds every morning enforcing his neighborhood association's strict rules.  Throughout the movie he tries various ways to commit suicide to be with his recently deceased wife, but his attempts fail, and we see flashbacks to his life for insight as to why he has become such a miserable and lonely man.  A new neighbor from Iran and her boisterous family, a stray cat, a young man who comes out as gay, and his former best friend who is about to be institutionalized give him a reason to come back to life in some hilarious and heartwarming situations.  I loved this movie so much!  Even though Ove is not a very nice person he is so endearing!  Don't let the fact that this movie is in Swedish with English subtitles stop you from seeing it because it is truly funny with many laugh out loud moments.  I especially loved it when the two best friends fall out over a disagreement over which car is better: Saab or Volvo!  It is a lovely feel-good movie and I highly recommend it!

The Birth of a Nation

Nate Parker's The Birth of a Nation was the talk of the Sundance Film Festival last year and it was one of the most coveted tickets.  I tried to get one, to no avail, but I knew that the Salt Lake Film Society would eventually screen it and, sure enough, it is now showing at the Broadway Theatre.  I had the chance to see it Sunday afternoon and all of the hype surrounding the film at Sundance (it garnered the biggest deal for worldwide distribution in festival history and won both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize) was definitely warranted!  The subject of this film is controversial and it is sometimes very difficult to watch but it is powerful, brilliant, and strangely beautiful.  I don't think I will be able to stop thinking about it for days.  It tells the true story of Nat Turner (Nate Parker), who as a child is taught to read but is only allowed to read the Bible.  He becomes a preacher to his fellow slaves on the plantation owned by Samuel Turner (Armie Hammer), who is near bankruptcy.  Many plantations are suffering economic difficulties and owners fear slave uprisings.  Nat is taken to these neighboring plantations to preach to the slaves about submitting to their masters in order to quell the rebellions (and make money for Samuel).  Nat begins to see, by incremental degrees, the evils of slavery, particularly the brutal beating of his wife and the rape of a slave by a guest on the plantation.  As he searches the Bible for justification for slavery, Nat finds more justification for rising up against the chains that bind him.  He eventually foments a dramatic rebellion against his master and those of neighboring plantations (in some incredibly greusome scenes) before being suppressed by the Virginia militia.  Nat is eventually captured and hanged but the film ends with a close-up of a face of a young slave watching the hanging and that same man as a soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War showing Turner's legacy.  Parker gives an absolutely riveting performance as Turner and the scenes where he preaches gave me goosebumps.  The beautiful widescreen shots of antebellum Virginia are juxtaposed with nightmarish close-up shots of brutality (some I had to look away from) very effectively and the stirring soundtrack by Henry Jackman adds to the tension.  I walked out of the theater in tears, as did many others in my screening, but I think this is a film that everyone should see.

The Dressmaker

The movie The Dressmaker had already been released in Australia when I was there.  In fact, the woman sitting next to me on the plane watched it during the flight from Auckland to San Francisco.  I kept sneaking peaks at her screen and was very intrigued.  When I saw that it was going to be released at my favorite art house theater I got really excited and I ended up seeing it Sunday afternoon.  I loved this movie so much!  Tilly Dunnage (Kate Winslet) returns to the Australian outback town of Dungatar 25 years after being sent away hoping to remember the events surrounding the death of a boy which prompted her exile and vowing revenge of those in the town who mistreated her.  Having worked in a salon in Paris, she is now an accomplished dressmaker and, while the townspeople initially shun her, they all request her services after a dress made for Gertrude (Sarah Snook), the town ugly duckling, is a great success.  There are some absolutely hilarious situations with the eccentric characters in the town, especially when Tilly's crazy mother (Judy Davis) refuses to take a bath, when the cross dressing police chief (Hugo Weaving) gives up a confidential police statement when tempted by a feather boa, and when Gertrude tries on her wedding dress (created by the rival seamstress in town) and literally escapes out the window and runs down the street to hire Tilly.  Eventually, Tilly learns the truth about what happened that fateful day and gets her revenge on the townspeople in a great scene.  Kate Winslet is brilliant in this role and the clothes she wears are to die for!  My favorite scene is when she literally brings a football game to a standstill by wearing a bright red couture gown.  Judy Davis had me laughing every time she opened her mouth in a hilarious performance.  I loved the Australian scenery and I found the flashback scenes, filmed in an almost sepia tone, to be incredibly effective at conveying a mood.  It has won just about every film award there is to win in Australia and I highly recommend it!

Note:  Did I mention that Liam Hemsworth plays Tilly's love interest?  He takes off his shirt several times!

Eight Days a Week

Because of Homecoming and parent teacher conferences, I had to wait until last night to see Ron Howard's wonderful documentary about the Beatles, Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years.  Those of you who know how much I love the Beatles will understand how hard that was for me!  I love the Beatles and I really loved this film.  It spans the years between 1962-1966 and showcases some of their earliest performances at the Cavern Club in Liverpool up to their final concert at Candlestick Park.  As I've mentioned, I am obsessed with the Beatles which means I've seen just about everything ever released about the fab four (I own The Beatles Anthology) and there were a lot of photos and footage included that I had never seen before.  I really enjoyed seeing early concerts in the UK and  concerts during their first world tour (especially in Australia) juxtaposed with the iconic Ed Sullivan Show performance and the epic concert in Shea Stadium.  The documentary does a great job chronicling the excitement  and mayhem of Beatlemania in the early years and then the growing discontent with touring when audiences seemed more interested in the spectacle rather than the music.  It includes contemporary interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr as well as archival interviews with John Lennon and George Harrison and it also includes interviews with people (famous and not so famous) who were their earliest fans.  Both of my favorite quotes come from Elvis Costello.  He points out how in tune they sound during their performances, which he considers to be remarkable considering the fact that they couldn't hear themselves with all of the screaming.  He also talks about his reaction to the album Rubber Soul (my favorite album in which the Beatles begin experimenting with sounds which couldn't be replicated on stage).  He didn't know if he liked it when he heard it for the first time and then he couldn't imagine his life without it a few weeks later!  As ever, the best part of any film about the Beatles is the music and I really appreciate the fact that Howard shows most songs in their entirety instead of just snippets.  It is almost like being at a Beatles concert and I highly recommend this film to all Beatles fans!

Note:  As I walked out of the theater a woman standing near the exit took my arm and whispered, "Wasn't that fun?"  Yes.  Yes it was!

The Lobster

No other film that I saw at Sundance this year generated more conversations than The Lobster.  Most people that I talked to didn't quite know what to make of it and that is probably how I would sum up my feelings about it as well.  I knew that I definitely wanted to see it again and I had the opportunity Thursday night.  Hmmm.  In a dystopian future everyone must have a mate and anyone who is single must report to a hotel to find one within 45 days or be turned into an animal of their choice. A recently divorced man, David (Colin Farrell), reports to the hotel and attempts to find a mate, preferably someone who shares his defining characteristic which is shortsightedness.  There are many rules and rituals involved in finding a mate (I especially enjoyed the fact that everyone is required to dress exactly alike). Periodically the guests at the hotel are sent into the woods to capture loners who are hiding.  They can receive an extra day to find a mate for every loner that they catch.  Eventually David decides to escape into the woods and join the loners where, ironically, there are even more rules to follow.  They are punished if they attempt to form attachments with other loners.  Of course, David finds his soulmate (Rachel Weisz), who shares his defining characteristic, but they are soon discovered and punished.  There are many funny moments in this film, such as the propaganda plays put on by the hotel staff advocating the benefits of being a couple and the electronic music played by the loners to encourage people to dance alone.  However, underneath all of the humor lies a scathing indictment of social norms.  It is weird and sometimes disturbing but it is entertaining and I recommend it with that in mind.

Note:  Even after seeing it a second time I'm still not sure about the ending...

Our Kind of Traitor

As a huge fan of John Le Carre (I've read all of his books), I have been looking forward to the movie adaptation of Our Kind of Traitor for weeks.  I saw it Friday afternoon and it is pretty good with only a few minor deviations from the book.  Perry Makepeace (Ewan McGregor) and his wife Gail (Naomie Harris) are on vacation in Marrakesh trying to salvage their marriage when they cross paths with Dima (Stellan Skarsgard) who purports to be a money launderer with the Russian mafia.  He has sensitive information about British nationals who have ties to the Russian mafia and asks Perry to give this information to MI6 because he fears for his life.  Perry agrees and eventually meets with an agent named Hector (Damian Lewis) in London.  Hector has bad blood with an MP who is one of the British nationals implicated by Dima's information.  Hoping to get revenge, Hector sends Perry and Gail on an unsanctioned mission to get proof from Dima who will only cooperate if his family is granted asylum in England.  The tension mounts as Perry and Gail race from Paris, to Switzerland, and the French Alps as they try to protect Dima and his family.  I thought it was incredibly suspenseful and much of the suspense comes from the fact that you don't really know who you can trust.  Both Skarsgard and Lewis (I like him in just about everything he does) give great performances as the larger than life mobster and the devious agent, respectively.  When I first saw the previews for this movie, I thought that Ewan McGregor was entirely miscast as an academic who is bullied into a situation for which he is ill-equipped (I always think of him as the cocky, devil-may-care Alex from Shallow Grave).  But he almost seems diminished in his portrayal of a man caught up in events beyond his control (I had to look up how tall he is because I thought he looked so small and vulnerable on screen).  His characterization is spot-on and I found him to be very compelling as Perry.  This movie felt very Hitchcockian (including a very interesting McGuffin) which is always a good thing in my opinion.   I love spy movies (cliches and all) and I recommend this movie to other fans of the genre.

Genius

Yesterday I saw the movie Genius and it seems as if I am the only person who liked it (aside from a few employees at the Broadway who gushed about it with me afterwards).  I guess you have to be an English teacher to enjoy this movie and, since I am one, I loved it.  It begins in 1929 when Max Perkins (Colin Firth), a long-time editor at Charles Scribner's Sons responsible for editing the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald (Guy Pearce) and Ernest Hemingway (Dominic West), receives a giant manuscript and begins reading what will become Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe (Jude Law).  Thus begins a tumultuous relationship between the taciturn Perkins and the effervescent Wolfe, to the detriment of their other relationships, namely with Perkins' wife (Laura Linney) and children and Wolfe's patron and lover (Nicole Kidman).  The narrative focuses on their attempt to edit what would become Of Time and the River from an unwieldy 1,000 page manuscript in crates to an eventual best-seller.  This movie is probably a hard sell to most people but I thoroughly enjoyed the scenes where they walked through the city editing the book line by line.  I always tell my students that word choice is so important!  One of my favorite scenes is when Perkins takes a red pencil to the manuscript of A Farewell to Arms!  Can you imagine!  Hemingway uses so few adjectives that it is remarkable that someone could find something to remove!  Yes, I know that I am a nerd.  No one else in the theater drew in a breath at that moment.  Firth, Law, and Kidman give marvelous performances, especially Kidman as Wolfe's over the top and jealous lover.  (For some reason Linney just doesn't do it for me and she seemed rather bland).  I loved this movie, but at the end of the day, it is a movie about editing so take my recommendation with that in mind; however, if you enjoy movies about complicated relationships between interesting people you might like it.

Note:  My only criticism of this movie is that these bastions of American literature are all played by British and Australian actors.