Knock Down the House

— It would have been easy for this film to have been conceptualized as a look at four, grassroots, political candidates and their activist supporters as they challenge the status quo, but then to have morphed into a singular love fest, falling for a feisty attitude and the ability to charm with a media-savvy demeanor and a promise of better things ahead. Instead of abandoning three of the candidates and jumping on the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez bandwagon, the film draws the story into something more substantial than one candidate’s victory. Instead of hailing AOC as David slewing Goliath, it places her in the context of a shift in politics, as one of the group of new politicians coming into their own, angry over the current state of affairs, and heralding changes for the future. Watching the film reminds us that an outsider who’s passionate about beliefs that mirror our own is more valuable than a powerful insider whose power isn’t working for us. It’s a look at how we thought democracy worked when we were in grade school, making us wonder if the 2018 elections were less a fluke and more a harbinger of things to come. You may not agree with the film’s views, but it’s still a very good film and likely to generate discussion. (Shown at True/False Film Fest 2019.)

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[2019. 86 min. Directed by Rachel Lears. Featuring Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, Joe Crowley, Paula Jean Swearingen, and Amy Vilela.]
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jan/28/knock-down-the-house-review-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-doc-brings-down-the-house

Amazing Grace

— If you’re a fan of Aretha or of gospel, this documentary’s for you. If you’re in one of those groups, you probably already know the film documents the recording of Aretha Franklin’s 1972 live album at a Baptist church in Watts, and was meant to be released with the album of the same name—still the top-selling traditional gospel LP in history. Warner Brothers had hired Sydney Pollack to document the event, but Pollack didn’t use clapper boards at the beginning of each take, making it impossible to sync sound with the 20 hours of footage, so the album came out and the footage remained on a shelf. After Pollack’s death in 2008, Alan Elliott managed to digitally sync the footage and planned to release it in 2011 until Aretha herself filed a suit against its release. No one knows why Aretha objected, but she did and it’s only now that the footage of Aretha, at the top of her game, can be seen. It’s an unbelievable chance to see an iconic singer who deserved to be known as the “queen of soul.” (Shown at True/False Film Fest 2019.)

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[2018. 87 min. Directed by Alan Elliott and Sydney Pollack. With Aretha Franklin, Reverend James Cleveland, C.L. Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and the Southern California Community Choir.]
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/nov/13/amazing-grace-review-aretha-franklin-documentary

Cold War

— “Cold War,” with its black and white aesthetics, gorgeous photography, and director’s attention to every part begs comparison to “Roma” but the two, while both based on memories and associated emotions, tell their tales differently. For “Roma,” the recollections feed from a young boy’s perspective and are more personalized. With “Cold War,” there’s a sense of watching from a less involved viewpoint, but not with less emotion and still dependent on memory. “Cold War” may be a more disciplined film with the story pared down to its bare bones, and scenes, taken as a whole, provide the story, sort of a push and pull of love and life. Set in the Cold War, it looks at a love affair that seems destined to fail, at a time where ideologies and passions help bring a couple together and at the same time, keep them apart. The film’s set during a time when borders between East and West Europe move from porous to impermeable, when ideas of art and culture clash, when passions boil and then are lowered to a simmer. In the end, after all the politics and all the history, the sparks that linked the couple are still there but it’s hard not to wonder if the shifts from repression to freedom, and from fear to hope, weren’t necessary ingredients to keep the spark alive, to take the couple to a place where their relationship was what remained to hold on to. However you interpret the relationship, it’s told with such care that this is one of the best films of 2018.

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[2018. 89 min. Written and directed by Pawel Pawlikowski. Starring Joanna Kulig, Tomas Kot, Borys Szyc, and Agata Kulesza.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/cold-war-2018

If Beale Street Could Talk

— Barry Jenkins knows how to lovingly tell individual stories that also tell the story of a larger group. In Jenkins’ film, and the James Baldwin novel upon which it is respectfully based, Beale Street represents the street in black neighborhoods throughout the U.S. where the black experience played out and continues to play out. The film tells two related stories from one person’s perspective—one affirming the power of love and the other the power of family. Jenkins looks at how blacks are viewed from a white perspective but, by using one of the black characters as narrator, manages to also look at how the black community sees itself. Although it looks at white oppression and the black struggle in the 1970s, there’s no denying the issues remain largely the same today. Perspectives are further shuffled by shifting forward and back in time so some of the narration is reflective and some of it reactive. What makes all of this work is exquisite cinematography, fine acting, and a score that‘s perfectly woven throughout. There are times where the film nearly lags from slow pans or knowing gazes but the scene usually moves on just in time. If there was anything I might have changed, it would be to have tightened a few such scenes, but it is a gorgeous film no matter what.

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[2018. 119 min. Directed by Barry Jenkins. Starring KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, and Colman Domingo.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/if-beale-street-could-talk-2018

The Last Laugh

— Great stars make “The Last Laugh” likable enough but not so captivating that I didn’t play games on my iPad through most of it. It had its moments but it’s certainly not among the best of the films about old people following their dreams. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2018. 98 min. Written and directed by Greg Pritikin. Starring Chevy Chase, Ricahrd Dreyfuss, and Andie MacDowell.]
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/movies/the-last-laugh-review.html

Bird Box

— A film I liked watching although I’m sure I was supposed to be uplifted by the end more than I was. It’s gotten odd press and less than favorable critic reactions but I mostly enjoyed it, particularly the bulk of the film where she and the small group of survivors interact. The trip on the river and the ending? Not so much. Sandra Bullock really is a good actor. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2018. 124 min. Directed by Susanne Bier. Starring Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, John Malkovich, Sarah Paulson, and Jacki Weaver.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/bird-box-2018

The Upside

— Yes, it’s a bromance that includes comedic stereotypes when dealing with race, gender, disability, and wealth, but it’s still kind of funny. In fact, a few times I laughed out loud. There’s good, old-fashioned, “Odd Couple” chemistry between Phil (Bryan Cranston), the wealthy quadriplegic who lost his wife to cancer, and Dell (Kevin Hart), his ex-con caretaker who isn’t meeting his alimony payments and has a son who won’t talk with him. Throw in Nicole Kidman as Phil’s smart, sensible, admiring, long-suffering, and probably lovelorn executive assistant, and you’ve got three good actors who can pull off this kind of comedy and make it look easy. It doesn’t leave you pondering any great issues afterwards, and it’s a little embarrassing to enjoy the irreverence, but I wasn’t expecting more than some fun and that’s just what I got.

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[2017. 126 min. Directed by Neil Burger. Starring Kevin Hart, Bryan Cranston, and Nicole Kidman.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-upside-2019

On the Basis of Sex

— This is a film for all the RBG fans in the world, and for all the women who remember how they were perceived in the eyes of the law in the 1960s. It may not be the best film of the year, but it’s a crowd-pleaser and rightfully so. Concentrating on Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s early career, the film focuses on a landmark case Ginsburg argued, putting the first chink in legal gender discrimination and changing the world forever. It offers an interesting take on Ruth and her husband Marty’s relationship too, depicting it as one of shared responsibilities and mutual support. The story is compelling and it’s good to have a vision of Ruth circa 1972, before the rock-star fame she’s acquired as a Supreme Court Justice. It’s also good to be reminded that cursing and protesting and electing people who only claim to favor change may not be as effective as hard, methodical work, done in the background to bring change within the current system. It’s well worth seeing, particularly if you have an interest in Ginsberg or the struggle for gender equality.

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[2018. 120 min. Directed by Mimi Leder. Starring Felicity Jones, Armie Hammer, Justin Theroux, Sam Waterston, and Kathy Bates.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/on-the-basis-of-sex-2018