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| Captivating Nostalgia and Thrills in SUPER 8 |
Pam and I have reactivated our motion picture screening routine after a hiatus due to family schedules (a granddaughter is a nationally ranked All American in basketball), maintaining our 50-year-old classic 41' sailing ketch Family Ties (which we just sold to a Canadian adventurer), and my novel writing, all of which took tremendous amounts of time.
We have a long list of movies (old, new, and repeats), and are making good progress. There are so many really good movies, although some are disappointing. Here is what we've screened lately (in alpha order) and our recommendations, and a few notes, although not a full analysis. It is rewarding to watch a good story (or read a novel, which I also do a lot of) and recognize the craft of language and narrative structure, which I think is the foundation of culture.
[Boycott Amazon Prime streaming because they cut off the feed just as the credits begin. I think credits are important for giving credit where credit is due, for helping viewers understand a little about how the picture was made, and for giving viewers time to process the story. I WILL AVOID AMAZON PRIME STREAMING until they stop this horrid practice.]
A LITTLE CHAOS (2014) Alan Rickman (Dir).
STARRING: Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Alan Rickman, Stanley Tucci.
GENRE: Period Drama (1682 France), Indie.
HOW SCREENED: Streaming, home theater.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Great script with memorable lines, lavish costumes, sets, and photography, Rickman at his best as King Louis XIV, well-designed flashbacks for Winslet's character. Good narrative structure.
BEN HUR (1959) William Wyler (Dir)
STARRING: Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd
GENRE: Period Drama (First century Jerusalem and surrounds), Adventure
HOW SCREENED: Emagine Digital Cinema, Special Screening
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Fully restored edition. Fabulous color and sound. The Chariot Race is epic. The narrative about the effect of Christ on the first century is underplayed but at once subtle and epic. A cast of 10,000 (not CGI). 11 Oscars
HAMNET (2025) Cholé Zhao (Dir) Spielberg (Prod.)
STARRING: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Zac Wishart
GENRE: Period Drama (16th-century England)
HOW SCREENED: Streaming, home theater
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Great story and script. Focuses on William Shakespeare's wife as she struggles with motherhood and the death of their son. Buckley is captivating. (Oscar Best Actress). Good narrative structure.
HAYWIRE (2011) Steven Soderbergh (Dir)
STARRING: Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender
GENRE: Gun Fu, Action, Drama, Thriller
HOW SCREENED: Streaming, home theater
NOT RECOMMENDED: ...unless you're looking for realistic fight scenes where the woman beats up and kills the man. The story is thin. It seems that they found a female MMA fighter (Gina Carano) who has a budding acting career, and wanted to forego the stunt women to take her place. The fight scenes are terrific, and Gina is doing her own stunts. But the story is only about spies seeking revenge. Poor narrative structure.
JULES (2023) Marc Turletaub (Dir.)
STARRING: Ben Kingsley, Harriet Sansom Harris, Jane Curtin
GENRE: Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
HOW SCREENED: Streaming home theater
RECOMMENDED: Wonderfully entertaining and funny. I did not recognize Ben Kingsley, who holds down the fort masterfully in a nuanced, underplayed role. Harris and Curtin are great catalyst characters. Good narrative structure.
KING ARTHUR (2004) Antoine Fuqua (Dir.)
STARRING: Clive Owen, Stephen Dillane, Keira Knightley
GENRE: Period War Drama, Action, Adventure, Swordplay
HOW SCREENED: Streaming home theater
RECOMMENDED: An epic retelling of King Arthur before he was king, and the coming together of Guinevere, Lancelot, the knights of the Round Table, and Merlin. The armor costumes are amazing, as are the horses. Good narrative structure.
MISS MEADOWS (2014) Karen Leigh Hopkins (Dir.)
STARRING: Katie Holmes, James Badge Dale, Callan Mulvey
GENRE: Dark Comedy, Crime, Drama, Romance
HOW SCREENED: Streaming home theater
QUESTIONABLY RECOMMENDED: I cannot really recommend this film because its moral premise is questionable. But it hits a lot of the right beats. It is well-structured and shocking at times. But the story was so engaging that I told it to Pam (she would not watch it), and after I told her the ending, she wanted to see it. Very Ironic and underplayed ending. There is some truth to the moral premise, and it serves as a cultural reminder.
PROJECT HAIL MARY (2026) Phil Lord, Christopher Miller (Dirs.)
I get into PHN in detail by clicking this link.
STARRING: Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller, James Oritz
GENRE: Epic Adventure, Buddy Comedy, Sci-Fi
HOW SCREENED: EMAX Large screen theatrical, Dolby surround
SERIOUSLY NOT RECOMMENDED: I'm a long-time sci-fi fan, and this was the worst I've ever read and screened. I have a degree in Physics, and while some of the space travel science is okay, it is not a focal point of the movie. But what I hated about this movie was the incessant, nuisance dialogue and Gen Z conversations in an apocalyptic setting. (You also need to read a synopsis to understand the movie.) I had read a long synopsis of the story a year ago (I have not read Andy Weir's book), and I failed to see any logic or science in the basic premise of an organic germ consuming the sun, when the sun's heat, long before getting near the sun, would vaporize the germ. I also didn't buy into the idea that a single woman would be allowed to act with tyrannical powers to control the project to save the earth for all nations. It's not that she was a "woman," but that there was a "single" person with omnipotent powers to do this. And finally, that ONLY one man on earth could solve the problem, and that it was necessary to kidnap him, drug him, and send him into space against his will. Did I tell you I trained NASA Astronauts for 3 years early in my career? Also, knowing how there's no air in space, but evidently, there's a lot of air resistance in space in Act 3, and catching the germ antidote on the end of a long chain and catching device, dragging through the ether, was so S T U P I D and void of A N Y science. The Dolby sound effects were cool, but my wife slept through most of the 2 hr 35 min dull story. I think 30 minutes were spent trying to learn how to communicate with a rock with no human emotions except by contrivance. There is NO plot to this movie. Absolutely none, and no structure to compare to any classic narrative. I was disappointed that we paid extra for the LASER screening, which looked (on the very big screen) like a degraded 2K projection.
SUPER 8 (2011) J.J. ABRAMS (Dir.) Spielberg (Prod.)
STARRING: Elle Fanning, AJ Michalka, Kyle Chandler
GENRE: Conspiracy Thriller, Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller, Young Romance
HOW SCREENED: Streaming home theater
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: This is our second screening of this fun movie. You just cannot beat J.S. Abrams and Steven Spielberg as storytellers. The casting, the shots, the lighting, the special effects, the interwoven story, the acting, the camera work are all A+. The kids casting is wonderful, and Elle Fanning is so underrated as a young actress. Easily watchable multiple times. It is also autobiographical of how Spielberg (and perhaps Abrams) grew up as kids making movies in their backyards.
THE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY (2015) Matt Brown (Dir.)
STARRING: Dev Patel, Jeremy Irons, Malcolm Sinclair
GENRE: Drama, Biography
HOW SCREENED: Streaming home theater
RECOMMENDED: This is our second screening of this good story. Both Patel and Irons deliver engaging, emotional performances. It's a true story that is both amazing and sad. The portrayal of Cambridge and India is great. Leave it to the BBC.
WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND (1961) Bryan Forbes
STARRING: Alan Bates, Bernard Lee, Hayley Mills
GENRE: Psychological-Period Drama, Crime
HOW SCREENED: Streaming home theater
MILDLY RECOMMENDED: We watched the original movie set in the early 1960s in rural Lancashire, England. The movie feels much older than it is. Hayle Mills plays a naive 14-year-old in an amazing performance. The premise is a little odd, but perhaps people were that dumb in England in 1960.
Take the Lead (2006) Liz Friedlander
STARRING: Antonio Banderas, Rob Brown, Yaya DaCosta, Alfre Woodward
GENRE: Coming of Age, Clash of Cultures, Romance, DANCE
HOW SCREENED: Streaming home theater
RECOMMENDED: There's nothing surprising plot-wise, except it's based on the life of Pierre Dulaine, his Dulaine method of teaching dance, and his Dancing Classrooms. It's a formulaic story about down-and-out NYC high school kids living a punk life and being trapped in Detention, they learn respect, dignity, and hope. Pam and I have taken several years of ballroom instruction and found the teaching and demonstration sequences authentic. Act 3 introduces some inventive elements of the genre ("give me the same but different"), and the ending is very inspiring. 30M budget, 66M WW BO.
Touch of Evil (1958) Orson Welles
STARRING: Orson Welles, Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh
GENRE: Film Noir, Crime, Drama, Thriller
HOW SCREENED: Streaming home theater
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: A great Film Noir classic, with a few plot holes that are forgiven. A tour de force, especially the opening one-shot sequence. The story is a tragedy, but nonetheless imbues a true moral premise. Deserves multiple screenings. The shot selection, action, and lighting are magnificent.
Mildred Pierce (1945) Michael Curtiz
STARRING: Joan Crawford, Jack Carson, Eve Arden, Ann Blyth Zachary Scott
GENRE: Film Noir, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Romance
HOW SCREENED: Streaming home theater
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Another great Film Noir, crime, and mystery classic, with no plot holes. Crawford won the Best Actress Oscar; Eve Arden won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar; the movie was nominated for Best Writing and Best Picture; and Ann Blyth was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. A very true moral premise about how greed and a fixation on material wealth lead not to happiness, but to death and dysfunction. It was this script and Eve Arden's personality that originated her wisecracking, moral-anchor persona, made popular by her radio and TV series Our Miss Brooks. It was wonderful to see in the young Eve Arden that trope that never left her on-screen persona. One of the story elements that made this a Best Picture was the many, many reversals, especially toward the end.
Singin' in the Rain (1952) Stanley Doner, Gene Kelly
STARRING: Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds
GENRE: Dark, Jewish, Comedy with a message
HOW SCREENED: Streaming home theater
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Pam loved it. So did I. Rated "G" with some of the best vaudeville and dance numbers ever recorded, with a lot of comedy and a bit of sexuality c/o all the dancing girls and Cyd Charisse. The subplot involving Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) is hilarious and gives good reason for ADR and overdubs.
Anastasia (1956) Anatole Livak
STARRING: Ingrid Bergman, You Brynner, Helen Hayes
GENRE: Drama, History, Romance
HOW SCREENED: Streaming home theater
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Ingrid Bergman earned one of her three Oscars for this film. Interestingly, she did not win or even get nominated for her role in Casablanca (1942), in which she is best known. Her other Oscar wins were for Murder on the Orient Express (1974), and Gaslight (1944), which we need to screen. The costumes and sets are marvelous, although the acting at times is melodramatic.
A Serious Man (2009) Ethan and Joel Coen
STARRING: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Sari Lennick
GENRE: Dark, Jewish, Comedy with a message
HOW SCREENED: Streaming home theater
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: I loved this movie and the subtle message. Pam hated it. The opening on-screen quote says and foreshadows it all: "Accept with simplicity everything that happens to you." This is the opening epigraph of the movie, the message we should come away with at the end, famously traced back to the 11th century French rabbi Rashi. As a Christian, Rashi's quote channels St. Paul: "All things work for the good of those who love him..." (Romans 8:28). In other words, we don't know why things happen, and figuring out why they happen doesn't change the fact that they happened. For the 11th-century Jew, and those who have such a worldview, all you can do is accept the things in life that especially happen badly to you, and plenty of bad things happen to mathematician Larry Gopnik (Stuhlbarg) that make no sense. One of the recurring gags in the on-screen portrayals is all the people (including 3 Rabies of various ages) who, in attempts to explain to Larry why bad things are happening to him, end up delivering word salads. NO ONE KNOWS FOR SURE why things happen, and perhaps there isn't a reason—Judeo-Christian worldviews reject Karma. If you watch the movie, even the Korean student Clive does not, will not, understand why he receives the grade he finally gets. He will think he does, but since we can't read Larry's mind, we DON'T KNOW either. Aside from all that, it's a very funny movie with great casting and characters. Oh, one more thing. There's a wonderful hint at the beginning of the movie about what it's about. The most rational person in society (Larry's a crack mathematics professor at a university) delivers a lecture on Schrödinger's uncertainty principle, using complicated equations on a blackboard. There's a wonderfully visual payoff at the end... but the irony is this: Math solutions are supposed to deliver an empirical answer, or a certainty. But in the case of quantum theory, all the math in the world only proves our uncertainty.
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