Ida

— This is one of those black and white movies that’s visually so striking you sometimes wonder if it isn’t just a little too artfully crafted. In many scenes, the people appear small and at the bottom of the 4x3 aspect ratio screen. Above all, it’s a journey in search of identity, uncovering Poland’s wartime secrets and bringing guilt to the surface. There’s a tension just under the veneer of the film that works perfectly with the stark, controlled scenes. It’s easy to understand why “Ida” (Netflix) is nominated for an academy award!

---

[2013. 82 min. Directed by Dawel Pawlikowski. Starring Agata Kulesza, Agata Trzebuchowska, and Dawid Ogrodnik.]
http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/Ida-review-Self-discovery-against-grim-5499513.php

Wild

— I haven’t read Cheryl Strayed’s book so I came into the movie “Wild” with only the hint of the story provided by previews. This is a very interesting work and it couldn’t have been an easy task to pull off. It’s basically the story of one woman—Cheryl Strayed—coming to terms with herself while walking 1,100 miles across the Pacific Crest Trail after having gone to the edge and beyond. The script is nothing short of amazing, entering the story in the middle of things and filling in bits and pieces of Cheryl’s story through flashbacks, dreams, and mental wanderings, until you have a sense of her life leading up to a trek. Reese Witherspoon is fantastic. So is Laura Dern as her mother. There are many good things about this film but high on the list is the fact that Cheryl isn’t some long-suffering saint or symbol of unshackled womanhood. She’s not exactly looking for redemption as much as just wanting to come to terms with who she is. She’s not a hero, nor even someone with a single flaw, and a film this introspective may not be for everyone, but it definitely appealed to me.

---

[2014. 115 min. Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée. Starring Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, and Gaby Hoffmann.]
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/sep/09/wild-a-two-hour-hallucinatory-montage-toronto-film-festival-review

The Good Lie

— A look at children orphaned by the Civil war in Sudan, the so-called “Lost Boys” who walked as many as a thousand miles looking for safety. I thought this would be a pseudo-documentary, but it’s much better than that. By focusing on a few kids, the story becomes a very real tale of survival, hope, adjustment, growth, guilt, gratitude, and redemption. The events that brought them to the U.S. are horrible but the inherent goodness of these Sudanese, their pride of ancestry, and, to some extent, the contrast between their morality and our first-world version, raise issues about how we value family and respect our fellow man, how lines between good and bad blur, and how our values tend to move from black and white to gray. “The Good Lie” (DVD) is worth seeing.

---

[2014. 110 min. Directed by Philippe Falardeau. Starring Reese Witherspoon, Arnold Oceng, and Ger Duany.]
http://time.com/3450635/the-good-lie-movie-review/

Fading Gigolo

— This is one of those films whose short summary would sound so unlikely you’d think it couldn’t be the actual plot but, indeed, as implausible as it is, it seems to work thanks to Woody Allen and John Turturro’s talents. “Fading Gigolo” (Netflix) is worth checking out on your favorite streaming vehicle.

---

[2013. 90 min. Written and directed by John Turturro. Starring John Turturro, Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Vanessa Paradis, Live Schreiber, and Sofia Vergara.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/fading-gigolo-2014

Foxcatcher

— Good acting and an intriguing story on which it was based aren’t enough to keep this film from falling a little short of the mark. We offer directors leeway in biopics to make the experience more meaningful, allowing fact and fiction to be blurred. “Foxcatcher” feels like there’s been a blurring but I’m not sure any meaning has been added. Instead, it almost seems like some background information has been hidden so we wouldn’t fully understand things. It’s still better than many films, but not among the best of the year in my mind. Once it was over, I just didn’t know what to do with it other than wish I’d seen a documentary version of the story instead.

---

[2014. 129 min. Directed by Bennett Miller. Starring Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, and Mark Ruffalo.]
http://variety.com/2014/film/reviews/cannes-film-review-foxcatcher-1201185646/

The Guest

— Kudos to Dan Stevens who is a perfect pyscho killing machine. This thriller (DVD) takes a traditional, bloody, and fiery path to its inevitable conclusion, but Stevens is so adept at equal parts of charm and menace that it’s fun just to watch everything play out. Even the music and sets are perfect at advancing the story and mood. There’s something so smooth about it that it almost makes you feel you’re part of some inside joke that raises this from B-List to sleek, pop, cult classic.

---

[2014. 99 min. Directed by Adam Wingard. Starring Dan Stevens, Sheila Kelley, Maika Monroe, Brendan Meyer, and Leland Orser.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-guest-2014

Inherent Vice

— I tried to see “Inherent Vice” as a remarkable film, but I kept wanting it to be a bit more coherent, perhaps even have a storyline. Instead, I got something outside the normal range of narrative, something more free-flowing and possibly free-falling. Joaquin Phoenix is very good as the stoner detective tackling a case for his former girlfriend, but the path is more a series of encounters, linked vaguely, and the situations mostly outside any control. Sometimes you start to think you’re in the same drug-induced state rampant on screen, or maybe that’s just wishful thinking. Not tidy, not quick, barely resolved. I think I have a love/hate relationship with Paul Thomas Anderson’s film where I feel like I might love them but I just can’t understand how I sat through the entire film.

---

[2014. 148 min. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, and Katherine Waterston.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/inherent-vice-2014

The Normal Heart

— I finally watched the HBO version of Larry Kramer’s “The Normal Heart” (DVD). It’s incredibly moving and a fantastic cast reminds us how we, as a nation, let so many die while taking no real action for years to stop the epidemic. The failure to even acknowledge the crisis or to help so large a segment of the population, particularly when contrasted with the recent, all-out concern over Ebola, should anger each of us and remind us that inaction can be an unforgiveable action.

---

[2014. 132 min. Directed by Ryan Murphy. Starring Mark Ruffalo, Matt Bomer, Taylor Kitsch, Jim Parsons, and Julia Roberts.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/23/arts/television/mark-ruffalo-stars-in-larry-kramers-the-normal-heart.html