Uncle Frank

— I was taken by “Uncle Frank” with its well-written script, nice acting, and wonderful Southern vibe. I suggested it to a friend and he liked it too, even mentioning the tone reminded him a bit of the Southern feel Harper Lee provided so well. Initially, it almost seems like another entry in the gay-and-not-out-in-the-1970s genre we seem to be seeing more frequently, but that’s something of a parallel and maybe even lesser story to what ends up being a coming of age tale tale. Beth, the niece of the man who’s made a life for himself in New York City and whose sexuality isn’t discussed by his family in South Carolina, ends up at NYU, and stumbles across Frank’s secret. They soon they forge an even stronger bond during a road trip back home for a funeral. Once they arrive home, the script is easier to guess and not completely believable, but a shift to tug at our heartstrings isn’t the worst thing that could happen. It’s hard not to find a tear running down your cheek by the end. I enjoyed the film. [Amazon Prime streaming.]

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[2020. 95 minutes. Written and directed by Alan Ball. Starring Paul Bettany, Sophia Lillis, and Peter Macdisi.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/uncle-frank-movie-review-2020

Hillbilly Elegy

— It’s always sad when a top notch director and first rate actors can’t carry a film I based on a pretty decent book, but that’s the case with “Hillbilly Elegy,” based on J.D. Vance’s book, directed by Ron Howard, and featuring Amy Adams and Glenn Close. It’s not bad, just disappointing—it iwould be fine as a movie of the week on a cable channel. It’s a look at three generators of dysfunction and one person who escapes the cycle. There’s a lot of screaming and a too many flashbacks, and too little focus on the rustbelt world so many people don’t understand, and it’s characteristic of being isolated and isolating. In the end, the film makes it clear the world from which we come makes us what we are, but our dreams and actions make us what we become. Unfortunately, this must seem like a hopeful misconception of the privileged to people living lives without hope. Some of the parts of this film are pretty good, but it doesn’t come together as well as I’d like. Sadly, I think this is one where too many of the original story’s nuances slipped away when the film was made. [Netflix streaming.]

Small Axe, Season 1: Mangrove

— I’ve seen three of Steve McQueen’s films (“Shame,” “12 Years a Slave,” “Widows”) and, different as they are, they’ve all been very good, so it’s no surprise that the first episode of his anthology for Amazon is very good too. It’s a look at harassment by London police of a Trinidadian immigrant’s restaurant in Notting Hill as the restaurant, the Mangrove, became an enclave for West Indian immigrants, intellectuals, and activists in the late 1960s, culminating in a protest/march in 1970. The result was a confrontation and subsequent courtroom drama vaguely reminiscent of the Chicago 7, but referred to as the Mangrove Nine and with a decidedly British twist. It is well done and worth seeing, but hard to watch without thinking about our country’s current struggles with racism and systemic racism. I also confess I knew nothing of the Mangrove Nine before watching this film and realize I received a dose of “history” through a single lens focused by McQueen to make a point, again speaking to how history is being written today as we receive our news through social media and “news” programs that cross the line between reporting and opinion. It also makes me think about unlikely heroes who may engage in personal acts of resistance, but then suddenly find themselves at the center of a larger, cultural change, and the courage they must find within themselves. Evidently this is the first of five episodes in the first season, all of which McQueen directed and all of which focus on the same community. I’m looking forward to the next one. [Amazon Prime streaming.]

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[2020. 126 minutes. Directed by Steve McQueen. Starring Shaun Parkes, Letitia Wright, and Malachi Kirby.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/small-axe-mangrove-movie-review-2020

Rebecca

— I’m not sure “Rebecca” needed a refresh or an update or anything else, but as long as Netflix come up with one, I watched it. Ends up it’s an attractive film with pretty places and pretty people, but it’s missing the unsettling nature infused in every paragraph of du Maurier’s novel and every scene of Hitchcock’s film version. Kirstin Scott Thomas does the best job of the bunch and she’s certainly chilling but anything falls flat bouncing off Lily James. It might be okay if you have no familiarity with the story but otherwise, it’s a disappointment. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2020. 121 minutes. Directed by Ben Wheatley. Starring Lily James, Armie Hammer, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Ann Dowd.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/rebecca-movie-review-2020

The Trial of the Chicago 7

— I’m an unabashed Aaron Sorkin fan and “The Trial of the Chicago 7” didn’t dampen my enthusiasm for his writing skills and, now with two directing credits behind him, his directing potential. Those of us who are of a certain age know the story, but that leaves 85% of the U.S. population with no first-hand knowledge. Given current events, it makes sense to remind people. I personally thought the film was a little slow laying the groundwork but again, just trying to bring viewers up to speed so they have a sense of the era, the politics, and the groups (SDS, Yippies, Black Panthers…) is a tricky task, and one that Sorkin does well. By the time he'd rounded up the characters and gotten them to Chicago, I was hooked. The original trial was theatrical and left many people shaking their heads in disbelief, just as so many events do today. As our country refocuses on policing, elections, and the courts, it does seem like we haven’t travelled very far in 50 years. It's worth seeing. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2020. 129 minutes. Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin. Starring Eddie Redmayne, Alex Sharp, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong, John Carroll Lynch, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Frank Langella.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-trial-of-the-chicago-7-movie-review-2020

The Boys in the Band

— My familiarity with the “The Boys in the Band” has pretty much been limited to seeing it mentioned among gay theater/film milestones and vague memories of seeing the William Friedkin film version fifty years ago. This all-star version features the same actors who starred in a 2018 anniversary run on Broadway. The play has a gay character for everyone, from campy and flashy to closeted and just coming out of the closet, and everything in between. The plot is something of an all-gay version of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” where liquor flows a little too freely at a birthday party, laughter fades as barbs are exchanged and secrets told, a “game” sets everyone on edge, and eventually the party ends, leaving the audience to have witnessed love, self-pity, despair, and something between hopelessness and acceptance. In 1968 it was ground-breaking. Now it’s a period piece in the sense that LGBTQ characters have become more commonplace, but sometimes still seem like caricatures instead of fully formed individuals. Jim Parsons does an incredible job in the lead and most the rest of the cast does a fine job as well with the script they've been given. It’s hard not be exhausted at the end, and to find yourself thinking about what’s changed and what hasn’t in fifty years. I'm lukewarm on the film, but glad I saw it. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2020. 121 minutes. Directed by Joe Mantello. Starring Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells, Charlie Carver, Robin de Jesus, Brian Hutchinson, Michael Benjamin Washington, and Tuc Watkins.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-boys-in-the-band-movie-review-2020

Enola Holmes

— It’s a solid story centered around Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes’ younger sister, as quick-witted and willful as either of them, trying to find her mother and herself while evading adversaries out to do everything from killing her to, perhaps worse, breaking her spirit and turning her into a "proper" lady. Along the way she meets the young Viscount Tewskbury who is being chased by some of the same people looking for her. Once their paths have crossed, the story shifts toward solving a mystery and changing the world. It’s enjoyable to watch, in no small part due to a fine job by Millie Bobby Brown (of “Stranger Things”) in the lead role. I also need to mention Henry Cavill, someone I’ve mostly disparaged for his two-dimensional acting in the past, but who does a decent job as Sherlock. There are a couple of missteps, one of which is an occasional comment directed to the audience, as though Enola feels compelled to drag the audience closer. It can be irritating when the fourth wall is broken and there doesn’t seem to have been a need for anyone to feel they are more a part of the action. It also uses an increasingly popular convention where narrators feel obligated to tell viewers the key concepts to take away from the story. Such moralizing shouldn’t be necessary if the tale is told well, unless we’ve come to a point where a decline in humanities courses in schools coupled with the convenience of social media helping everyone know what to think, leaves us unable to understand a message unless we're hit over the head with it. Luckily, these two elements didn’t keep me from enjoying the film as entertainment—it’s a nice way to spend a couple of a hours. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2020. 123 minutes. Directed by Harry Bradbeer. Starring Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Sam Claflin, Helena Bonham Carter, and Louis Partridge.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/enola-holmes-movie-review-2020

The Social Dilemma

— A timely documentary on the impact of social media on society, carefully taking viewers down the rabbit hole from happier times when we interacted with people of various viewpoints and major corporations peddled physical products. Fast forward to today, when there’s a new business plan where profitable companies like Google and Facetime are selling their customers’ minds and actions instead of a physical product, carefully shaping what each of us sees to keep us involved with our screens and feeding us messages that subtlety shift our views. Along the way, we stop listening to people who think differently than we do, and we start believing a personal truth instead of a truth shared by society. The film argues that it’s essential we take back truth if we’re ever to mend society, and that we insist tech companies’ business plans be adjusted for the survival of society. The film is interesting in that it tackles the discussion in two ways. People who held prominent positions in various tech companies and believed in what they were doing speak out in a series of interviews, now questioning the direction in which companies have moved and seeing an ethical and social dilemma. Interspersed with these interviews is a storyline about a family affected by social media “addiction,” bringing the problem to a more personal level. The family drama is a little hokey but possibly effective. The interviews are fascinating. The problem seems to be that the film wants to increase our awareness, but the solutions are still in the haze. I’d recommend it, particularly for people who seem themselves as living on the right side in a polarized world. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2020. 94 minutes. Directed by Jeff Orlowski. With Tristan Harris, Skyler Gisondo, Kara Hayward, Joe Toscano, Justin Rosenstein, Tim Kendall, and Vincent Kartheiser.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-social-dilemma-movie-review-2020