The Artist

The Artist

Directed by Machel Hazanavicius

With Jean DuJardin, Berenice Bejo, John Goodman, and

John Cromwell

“The Artist,” an all new silent film in black and white, is as much fun as any ‘talkie.’ This utterly delightful film doesn’t need words to tell its story. French Director and writer Michel Hazanavicius  has composed a love letter to the past. The time is 1927 and we find matinee idol George Valentin (Jean DuJardin) on top of the world. He is a silent film star with a thousand-watt smile, starring in everything from adventure films to romances. His loyal Jack Russell terrier (Uggi) accompanies him wherever he goes. One day he literally bumps into Peppy (Berenice Bejo), a walk-on extra. The sparks fly. And he takes her under his wing, getting her successively larger parts in his films.  

But then it is 1929. Not only is the stock market about to crash, but so is Valentin. The studio Boss (John Goodman) has noticed Peppy and has also decided that the future of film is in the “talkies.” Peppy gets the starring roles, but Valentin wants nothing to do with these new kind of movies.

He finances his own silent film, which is a colossal flop. His fortunes crumble.

Valentin is now a “has been,”  and quickly discovers his own insignificance. Peppy is the exciting new star du jour. The scenes of Valentin losing his self esteem and his fortunes are cleverly realized and acted with a poignancy that will surely tug at your heartstrings. As much as Valentin suffers, Peppy’s stardom accelerates. Nonetheless, he longs for her and she has never forgotten his kindnesses to her. 

“The Artist” is not a totally silent film. Aside from some printed subtitles, there is a musical score as well as several spoken words. But dialogue is irrelevant because the silence speaks volumes.  Both Jean DuJardin and Bernice Bejo give flawless performances, never overacting. A film such as “The Artist” could have been done in a campy manner, but the lead performances are just right.

For people who are familiar with silent film, “The Artist” serves up a nostalgia that is nearly painful. There is a sense of a longing for the innocence and simplicity reflected in that medium: free of the murmur of voices, the clinking of glassware , the blaring of horns, the racket of car chases, the cacophony of life. That “The Artist” is in black and white makes it all the more reminiscent of that bygone era. It seems we have lost much with the technology and sophistication of modern filmmaking.

Director Michel Hazanavicius has made it possible for us to take a joyous and fun-filled journey to the past. You will surely embrace the experience as also the most delightful and exciting film to come our way in a long time. This charming film gives us a joyous journey to the past.

The Descendents

The Descendents

Directed by Alexander Payne

With George Clooney, Amara Miller, Alex Woodley. Beau Bridges, Robert Forster, Matthew Lillard, and Judy Greer

A drama about a family grieving over the loss of a mother might not sound like cinema amusement. But “The Descendents,” directed by Alexander Payne, is exactly that. This heartfelt film is both tragic and humorous at the same time.

The drama unfolds in Hawaii. Matt King (George Clooney) has buried himself in a real estate deal involving 25,000 unspoiled acres of Hawaiian paradise that have been owned by his extended family for generations. This land is about to be sold to a land developer. He is the trustee and must sign for the deal to go through. Meanwhile, he has also been a remote husband and father.

However, Matt is distracted. His wife, Elizabeth, has had a boating accident and lies in a coma from which the doctors say she will not recover. He now must break the news to his daughters, 10-year-old Scotty (Amara Miller), and a troublesome teenage Alexandra (Shailene Woodley). As he is reeling from this tragedy, his surly and resentful daughter Alexandra informs him that Elizabeth was cheating on him with a local real estate guy.  

Matt struggles with becoming both mother and father to his daughters as he confronts his rage towards his comatose wife. He is furious with her, but has no way to reach her, since she lies in a coma.  

In the meantime, Alexandra is accompanied by Sid (Nick Krause), a sweet but baffled looking boy, who adds comic perspective to what is going on in the family drama. Complicating Matt’s life is Elizabeth’s father (Robert Forster), who blames Matt for Elizabeth’s accident and thinks his daughter was a saint. Alexandra remains contemptuous of her father. Scotty is lost in grief.

Matt contemplates the meaning of his family heritage as he ponders whether to sign off on the sale of the family ‘Eden” on Kuai. His extended clan fully expects him to sign. He also must create a future for his own family.

George Clooney’s performance is nuanced and honest, and surely he will receive an Oscar nod. His Matt is a study of mixed emotions. Shailene Woodley is right on as the sullen daughter. Robert Forster is excellent as the father who has no where to displace his hostility except towards his son-in-law . 

Alexander Payne, whose last film was ‘Sideways,’ is a director who is a keen and tender observer of people in crisis and who understands human foibles. He seems to be saying: In life you certainly will make mistakes, but don’t let that keep you from going forward. His characters are remarkably human and real. And he is able to make us laugh throughout this beautiful, emotionally complex film that deals with tragic loss. In addition, the setting in lush Eden- like Hawaii is pure pleasure to experience on the big screen.

J Edgar

Directed by Clint Eastwood; written by Dustin Lance Black

With Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, Naomi Watts, and Judi Dench

Film director Clint Eastwood has succeeded once again in proving he really knows how to tell a story.  This time his subject is J. Edgar Hoover.

“J. Edgar” spans five decades of FBI Director Hoover’s life spanning seven presidential terms. Because Hoover’s personal files were shredded at the time of his death, there is much we will never know about most of his FBI activities.  Instead, this film is a fascinating character study of the mind of the repressed, rigid and paranoid Hoover, who saw threats to America wherever he looked. 

Tons of history are packed into the film, including the “Crime of the Century”: The kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh’s baby and Hoover’s capture of the kidnapper.

Hoover, who never married, was a Mama’s boy whose mother (Judi Dench), both smothered and made him feel inadequate. Their relationship illustrates a Freudian bond if ever there was one. It is no surprise that Hoover was reputed to be a homosexual and a cross dresser. He also was obsessed with homosexuals, communists, civil rights workers, or anyone else he felt trampled his nation’s moral fiber. To uncover these “enemies,” he implemented forensics such as wiretaps, crime labs and bugs to collect his information. He devised America’s first criminal database and insisted the country needed an armed national police force.

“J. Edgar” is shown mostly in flashbacks as he tells his story to a biographer.

He ages from a slender, handsome, 24 year old in 1919 to a paunchy old man whose suits are too tight. He was someone desperate for companionship, but unwilling to allow the vulnerability that a relationship requires, except with one man: Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer), with whom he works at the Bureau. Clyde can get through to him as no one else can. The two had a life-long companionship.

Material covered in “J. Edgar” includes his bugging of Eleanor Roosevelt’s hotel room in which she allegedly had a liaison with another woman, as well as his bugging Martin Luther King’s hotel room to record a sexual encounter. He also had “proof” of JFK’s sexual liaisons, which he attempted to use to blackmail the president. He had confidential files on dozens of the rich and powerful.

Leonardo DiCaprio gives a towering performance as Hoover. He captures the enthusiasm of the 24-year-man all the way to the guardedness and paranoia that drives his character as the years pass. The prosthetic make up works to age him effectively. He never once caricatures J. Edgar.

Armie Hammer gives a sympathetic performance as Clyde Tolson, whose gentleness is a foil for Hoover’s rage and stubbornness. Unfortunately, his prosthetic make up as an old man is off, even somewhat grotesque and thus distracting.

Judi Dench does well as the overpowering mother. However, a younger woman would have been more suitable to play that part, particularly in the

early scenes of J. Edgar’s youth.

The only other woman in Hoover’s life was his secretary Helen Gandy, played Naomi Watts. Her acting is understated, and she ages realistically. She often exhibits her distaste for his methods with a subtle facial expression, but she is loyal to him until the end.

Eastwood’s film is character study at its best. It packs an abundance of history into its 135 minutes. The enigmatic and powerful Hoover shaped our FBI, but he was also responsible for dirty tricks, wiretaps, and extending the reach of the law. He was a tortured and repressed soul who wielded tremendous influence. Someone might be watching you. You never know.

Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene

 Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene

Directed and written by Scott Durkin

With Elizabeth Olsen, John Hawkes, Sarah Paulson, and Hugh Dancy

In the riveting “Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene” two stars are born. Sean Durkin makes his debut as writer and film director and Elizabeth Olsen gives her first performance in a feature film.  

Durkin has crafted a potent psychological thriller about a young woman cult member who is unwinding as she tries to reclaim her previous life. Elizabeth Olsen, the younger sister of the Olsen twins, is that young woman. Both are extraordinary.

Nothing could be more serene than the pastoral calm at a Catskill’s farm where the film begins. What goes on there is initially not clear, but is slowly revealed throughout “Martha, Mary, May, Marlene.” In the beginning scenes, Martha slips away from the farm into the woods and makes a plaintive phone call to her estranged sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson), who she has not seen in two years. Lucy lives with her husband Ted (Hugh Dancy), in gracious yuppie comfort at a spacious weekend  home on a lake. Lucy

takes Martha to their home. Martha, guarded and remote, never reveals what has happened to her. 

The narrative switches back and forth between Patrick’s farm and Lucy and Ted’s very comfortable life. The flashbacks reveal how Martha becomes indoctrinated into the cult. There are 10 women and five men overseen by Patrick (John Hawks), who is both charismatic and sinister.

The men eat before the women do. The women sleep together on mattresses strewn on the floor; they share the same clothes. And Patrick rapes all of them. He even changes their names. Martha becomes Marcy May. The women collectively are Marlene and are totally dominated and controlled by Patrick. They are supposedly “cleansed” by giving up their freedom to be part of his utopian farm.

Martha’s behavior at Lucy’s house is bizarre.. She skinny dips in the daylight, she crawls into Lucy and Ted’s bed while they are making love, she breaks items, she laughs at the wrong things, she disdains her sister’s possessions. She asks Lucy to justify her spacious home. The farm flashbacks illustrate why she is so disturbed.  

“Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene” is really a horror film, It’s very real and you can’t help but think about Charles Manson, David Koresh, Jim Jones, cult leaders who have been able to manipulate and dominate their followers.

Elizabeth Olsen gives an incredible performance. Initially she is a wide eyed innocent, but eventually she becomes paranoid and someone whose inner life is totally out of reach. The film is a psychological case study of her character. She will get an Academy Award nomination.

As Patrick, John Hawks is all sinew and charming when he needs to be. He is unnerving, sometimes appealing, seemingly sincere, but definitely the scariest of villains.

The script, style, and performances make “Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene” an engrossing film going experience. This is director/writer Sean Durkin’s debut film. The film is unsettling and unforgettable

50/50

50/50

Directed by Jonathan Levine

Written by Will Reiser

With Joseph Gordon- Levitt, Seth Rogan, Anjelica Huston, and Anna Kendrick

“50/50,” a jewel of a film, is good news for people who are dealing with cancer. Writer Will Reiser based its script on his own experiences with the disease. The film shows how illness can provide a transformative journey for the afflicted as well as those around them. What makes this film so special is that it is also a comedy that finds humor in the most uncomfortable of places. And 50/50 delivers.

Adam Lerner(Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a 27-year-old Seattle radio producer who finds out that he has a massive tumor growing on his spine. He lives with his vain and beautiful artist girlfriend, Rachel (Bryce Dallas Howard), and is pals with Kyle (Seth Rogan), a big-hearted and foul-mouthed doofus of a guy. 

He has an overprotective worry-wart mother (Angelica Huston), whose nervous Nelly phone calls he declines to answer. Adam is a quiet, agreeable sort who underplays his illness but now must deal with the biggest issue in life: his mortality. And he is a man so cautious that he does not have a driver’s license because of the chance he might be involved in an automobile accident.

Meanwhile, Rachel, who is in denial about Adam’s illness, is cheating on him. He has shaved his head and is undergoing the chemo that renders him nauseated and weak. Exuberant Kyle , the most faithful of friends, drives him to the hospital for his chemo and takes him to bars to pick up women in Adam has no interest. He is too ill, and his life is now all about his cancer. But Seth is always there for him.

At the hospital Adam bonds with two older men, Alan  (Philip Baker Hall) and Mitch (Matt Frewer)who are also getting chemo. They convince straight-laced Adam to try marijuana laced cookies to lessen his discomfort. He has psychotherapy sessions with 24-year-old Catherine (Anna Kendrick), an untested but well intended psychotherapist. His ordered life is crumbling, and he is at a loss as to how to deal with it.

All of this could be a big downer for the audience, but Adam’s friend Kyle creates an escape by telling crude jokes and creating funny distractions. But “50/50” never sinks to TV Sit Com shenanigans.. It is too thoughtful and intelligent for that.

The acting couldn’t be better. Joseph Gordon- Levitt  holds back as the reserved and agreeable Adam. Seth Rogan was born for his role as the big-hearted often bumbling clod of a guy. Anjelica Huston is every bit the hysterical, ever annoying and anxious Mother. Anna Kendrick is perfect as the insecure starting-out psychotherapist stumbling along as she tries to get Adam in touch with his feelings.

“50/50” could have been a much darker film, but director Jonathan Levine and writer Will Reiser have kept the tone light and upbeat although there are moments when your eyes will well over. 

Dealing with death before the age of 30 is a pretty heavy topic. “50/50” keeps it light. And in the end we understand that all that really matters is being true to oneself and to the others in our lives. Not a bad thing to learn.

Contagion

Contagion’

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

With Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Marion Cttillard,

Kate Winslet, Jennifer Ehle and Elliot Gould

The terror resulting from seeing the brilliant and gripping Steven Soderburgh film, “Contagion,” comes not from terrorists; but from a virus. The content of this unnerving story about a worldwide pandemic was carefully researched and fact checked by epidemiologists. It is very, very real.

“Contagion” unfolds in countdown style beginning on “Day 2” of the epidemic. A businesswoman, Beth Emhoff (Gwenth Paltrow), is returning from Hong Kong and is on a layover in Chicago en route to her family in Minneapolis. She coughs. She has just been on a long flight from Hong Kong. She uses her credit card, she nibbles from a bowl of peanuts, she touches door handles, her face, stair rails, napkins. In the meantime, a waiter in Hong Kong sneezes all over the people and the food he is serving and returns to his teeming apartment complex. A Tokyo businessman home from a meeting in Hong Kong collapses on a very crowded train. And so it begins.

The film jumps all over the world showing everything happening at once. Places and dates and numbers of those infected are shown. The virus has spread lickity-split.

The Center for Disease Control headed by Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne) is mobilized into action to try to track and fight the spread of the disease. Dr. Orantes (Marion Cotillard) is in Geneva mobilizing the forces of the World Health Organization. Erin Meers (Kate Winslet), a scrupulous medical intelligence specialist, goes to Minneapolis to convert huge sports stadiums into makeshift hospitals. Soon there will be no medical personnel left to treat the sick and dying.

Charts show how far the virus has spread, how many thousands, then millions, have died. Clearly the Internet and the media play crucial roles in information and misinformation. A self-serving blogger, Alan Krumwiede (Jude Law), posts incorrect information on the Web, also stating he has found a homeopathic cure called Forsythia. He meets with hedge fund guys who back the pseudo cure. Panicked people line up at pharmacies, there are riots, supermarkets are looted, whole cities are quarantined. The social fabric has been disrupted and a sense of helplessness prevails. There is a frantic race to develop a vaccine.

“Contagion” is full of human touches. Beth Emhoff’s husband, Mitch (Matt Damon), frantically tries to protect his family from the virus. Amidst all the chaos, Dr Cheever is desperately trying to convince his wife to go to a safe area.

Director Soderburgh could have ratcheted up the horror by showing the agonies of death, bodies putrifying and the like. But he tells the story straight. The human dimension is explored by introducing specific people and their personal  involvement with the epidemic. Mentions are made of AIDS, SARS, SWINE FLU, H1N1, the Ebola Virus, the Spanish Flu of 1918. It is all very real. And you don’t find out the source of the virus until the very last moments of the film. We really should be scared.

Sarah's Key

Sarah’s Key

Directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner

With Kristin Scott Thomas, Melusine Mayance, Aiden Quinn, Frederic

Pierrt and Niels Arestrup

In July 1942, the  French police rounded up thousands of Jews, warehousing them for days in absolutely horrific conditions in the Vel d hiv bicycle stadium..  There were no toilets, no water, no food, no ventilation.  They were then herded into trains and trucks and sent to Auschwitz.    The French inflicted these horrors on their own people.

Sarah’s Key, a serious and handsomely produced film, directed by  Gilles Paquet –Brenner, examines this infamous incident and the aftershocks which continue to the present.    The movie tells parallel stories of a present day American journalist Julia Jarmond(Kristin Scott Thomas) and  a victim of the round up, Sarah Starzynski(Melusine Mayance). 

Julia stumbles upon the history of Sarah when she and her French husband                     (Frederic Pierrot) begin to renovate the Paris apartment that has been owned by her husband’s family for years.   It is the very apartment from which Sarah’s family was seized 60 years before.   Julia is writing about the Vel d hiv incident for a French Magazine and becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to the Jewish family snatched from the apartment.  In doing so, she uncovers her husband’s family secret.

On the day of the round up, 8 year old Sarah hides her younger brother in a closet.  Her family is sent to the nightmarish fetid and filthy transit

camp and finally is trucked to a concentration camp, separated forever.  Sarah is determined to somehow get back to her brother who she locked in a closet. 

Through assiduous research and travels to Italy and New York City,

Julia pieces together Sarah’s story.   Her findings cause problems in her own relationship with her husband and his family. 

The time shifting narrative shows what becomes of Sarah who eventually has her own family.  But the horrors are etched on her soul and she cannot get beyond her pain.

Overhead shots pan the transit camp; there are close-up hand held camera shots that capture the terror, desperation, exhaustion on the faces of the prisoners.   A sense of doom is pervasive.

Kristin Scott Thomas is absolutely radiant throughout Sarah’s Key.

Melusine Mayance as the poignant young Sarah is perfect as a child determined to protect her sibling and then to somehow survive.

There are scores of Holocaust dramas.  However, audiences want happy endings,so many of these stories end on an ‘up’ note.  Sarah’s Key refuses

to make the audience feel good and to show a bright side.   What happened then is beyond horrific; the film expresses an important truth.

Crazy Stupid Love

Crazy Stupid Love

Directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa; written by Dan Fogelman

With Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Analeigh Tipton, Jonah Bobo, Kevin Bacon, Josh Groban and Marisa Tomei

Tis the season of big noisy, expensive ‘blockbuster’ films. How refreshing to have a summertime film that is both sweet and smart and also studded with dynamite performances. The romantic comedy “Crazy Stupid Love” does not follow the usual formula for that genre. Instead the viewer encounters lots of surprises and satisfactions.

Cal Weaver (Steve Carrel) and his wife Emily (Julianne Moore) are 40 something childhood sweethearts who are living the American dream, including a beautiful home, good careers and two children, Robbie (Jonah Bobo) and Molly (Joey King). As “Crazy Stupid Love” opens, they are about to order dessert at a restaurant. After Cal orders crème brulee, Emily announces that she wants a divorce. She has been having an affair with David Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon), a co worker.

Shell shocked Cal, a nebbish of a fellow, drowns his sorrows with cranberry juice and vodka at upscale singles bars loaded with beautiful women.. He hasn’t a clue of how to meet any of them until a very suave lothario, Jacob (Ryan Gosling), decides to do a physical and mental makeover on him. Cal becomes a ladies man, but all he really wants is to reunite with Emily.

But there are other threads of plot in this engaging film. Cal’s 14-year-old son, Robbie, is in love with his 17-year-old babysitter, Jessica (Analeigh Tipton). Jessica has a massive crush on Cal. Hannah (Emma Stone), a recent law school graduate, is  pursued by the casanova Jacob, but she has eyes only for Richard (Josh Groban), a self-involved lawyer at the firm for which she works. The script is very busy. And very funny.

The screenwriter Dan Fogelman and directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa have balanced both comedy and drama in these pairings. Everyone is looking for love, and the course of true love does not run smoothly. 

The performances in “Crazy Stupid Love” couldn’t be better. Steve Carrel is poignant as the somewhat clumsy cuckolded Cal. Ryan Gosling adds sensitivity and decency to the lothario stereotype Jacob. Jonah Bobo is simply wonderful as the adolescent Bobbie, who refuses to take no for an answer from his bewildered babysitter, Jessica. Analeigh Tipton as Jessica is captivating with her huge eyes and  gawky innocence. Emma Stone is terrific as the straightforward Hannah, who sees through Jacob’s smooth operator persona.

With its plot digressions and one large surprise, “Crazy Stupid Love” defies the conventions of the romantic film formula. It will have you laughing from beginning to end. But most of all it is a touching look at love, its complications and how it maddens us and satisfies us all at the same time.

A Better Life

A Better Life

Directed by Chris Weitz

With Damien Bichir, Jose Julien, and Eddie Sotelo

The deeply compassionate and absorbing film, “A Better Life,” deals with those untold numbers of people who are mostly invisible to us. This simple and understated story is about an illegal Mexican alien, Carlos (Damien Bichir), and his U.S. born 14-year-old son, Luis (Jose Julien), who live in borderline poverty in  the barrios of  East Los Angeles. Luis rejects his Dad’s Mexican ways. These two  males seem worlds apart.

Carlos is a hardworking gardener who spends exhausting hours working to keep the wealthy Los Angeles residents’ yards looking impeccable. He sleeps on the couch of his little apartment so his son Luis can sleep in the bedroom to be rested for school. Luis skips school and aspires to becoming a member of one of the barrio gangs. His father is too exhausted to do anything about it. All Carlos wants to do is to work hard so Luis can get a good education and a better life, but all Luis wants to do is to hang out with his buddies.

Carlos finally gets an opportunity to improve their lives. He borrows money from his sister and is able to buy a truck and equipment so he can have his own landscaping business. Of course, he has no driver’s license, and a simple traffic misstep could lead to his deportation. Carlos has learned to keep his head down and not to draw attention to himself.

Carlos’s happiness at owning his own truck is shattered when his truck is stolen. He can’t report the incident to the police because he is an illegal with no driver’s license. Luis and he set out together to find the stolen vehicle. “A Better Life” then takes the viewer on an odyssey of the streets of East Los Angeles, including its street people, its gangs, political rallies, people waiting for buses, laborers looking for work, and the omnipresent police helicopters flying overhead. The tension mounts as the search continues.

“A Better Life” is two stories. One is the plight of the illegal alien and the other a story of father and son. You can feel Carlos’ powerlessness and anxiety and a sense of what it feels like to be an undocumented alien. Our political rhetoric clouds the plight of these usually hardworking, law-abiding people living on the edge of poverty. 

Luis begins to see that his father is not a wimp, but a strong individual outraged at the theft of his truck who will stop at nothing to retrieve the stolen property. The father and son soon begin to see eye to eye.

“A Better Life” puts a human face on illegal aliens, each of whom has his or her own story to tell. 

Damien Bichir is magnificent in this film. With tiny changes in expression, he projects the fears and anxieties bottled up in his character. You get a feeling of what it must be like to be an illegal, constantly aware of the possibility of being rounded up and deported. These are ordinary people with families, hopes, and dreams who live under the radar. Maybe the next time you look at a busboy, a housekeeper or the person who cuts your grass, you will see them as a whole person.  “A Better Life” will tweak your own compassion and heighten your awareness. And that’s not a bad thing.

BUCK

BUCK

Directed by Cindy Meehl; directors of photography, Guy Mussman and Luke Geissbuhler; edited by Julie Goldman

It seems that whenever we pick up a newspaper or click on the TV, we hear about climate crises, war, overthrow of governments, terrorist attacks of some sort and political maliciousness..  What a total pleasure and relief to learn about Buck Brannamen, a real life Wyoming cowboy, the central figure in the documentary BUCK.  The film The Horse Whisperer was inspired by Buck and his approach to horses. You don't need to be a horse lover to enjoy this beautiful film.

  The film covers Buck’s childhood horrors to his adulthood fame and success with horses.  Buck and his brother were trained by their brutal father to do rope tricks in rodeos.  They even appeared on TV in the 60’s.. Their loving mother was a line of protection against the sadistic father.  She died when Buck was young so he was at the mercy of this cruel and often drunk man.  When a gym teacher discovered angry welts and scars on Buck's and his brother's backs, they were placed by court order in the foster care of the Shirleys, a loving and gentle couple who enabled Buck to overcome his terrors and shyness..  Thank heavens for this. 

Having suffered terrible cruelty and pain from his father, Buck empathizes with the horses.  He does not believe they need to be 'broken' by abusive methods.  He is legend in the horse world.  He travels 40 weeks of the year to hold 4 day clinics in which horses are trained not by a whip, but by him waving a flag.  There exists a communion between horse and man when Buck is in charge.

  Although Robert Redford speaks in several clips, the real star here is the totally engaging and soft spoken Buck.  As he waves the flags in the various clinics, he explains his philosophy.  He says that his job is to' help horses with people problems' not’ people with horse problems.'  He explains that 'everything is a dance:' meaning he and his horse in synch together..  You want to hear more of his folksy wisdom.

The film is not all warm and fuzzy.  There is a violent and very sad interlude in which a teary woman brings her 3 year old stallion to Buck to train.  The horse suffered a birth defect and as a result is a dangerous creature, at times biting and trampling his human keepers.  Buck handles this horse with respect and calming words. He patiently eases the wild horse back into its trailer which will transport the animal to its euthanization..  He never blames the animal.  Instead he believes the fault lies with the owner. 

  The director, Cindy Meehl , is a fashion designer turned artist.  This is her first film, and it won Best Documentary at Cannes.   She trails Buck to many of his 4 day clinics and includes historical shots of young Buck and his brother doing rope tricks as well as footage of horses being broken by cruel methods.  Then there is gentle Buck, hypnotically waving his flag to soothe and calm the animals, training them without the use of harsh methods.

The understated Buck never dwells on the childhood mistreatment which would have destroyed most people.  Somehow this wise man was able to transcend that past and turn it to uncanny understanding, compassion and success with horses.  We could all learn a lot from Buck’s life lessons.  You will remember Buck Brannamen for a long time after you leave the theater.

Tree of Life

Tree of Life

Written and directed by Terrence Malick

With:  Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Fiona Shaw, Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler and Tye Sheridan

     Not since 2001 Space Odyssey, has a film so powerfully and beautifully dealt with the Big Picture until now, with the release of Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life.  This very challenging film tackles not only the mysteries of life, death and eternity, but also the awe of the creation of Earth and the universe, indeed, the meaning of our existence.  The scope of this film is so vast that   that director Malick seems to have performed a miracle in putting it all into one magnificent 2 ½ hour film.  The Tree of Life won the top prize, the Palme d’ Or at Cannes this Spring.

     It is the 1950’s in Waco Texas and a young couple, the O’Briens, is starting their family which will eventually be three sons.   The neat lawns, crew cuts, vintage automobiles, women in aprons recall that bygone era with scrupulous detail.

Mrs. O’Brien (Jessica Chastain) gives birth to her first son, Jack.  Later on we see Jack (Sean Penn) as a middle aged man, in a gleaming  Houston high rise.  He is a lost soul searching for the meaning of  life  as he reflects on his childhood.    Whispered narrations lead us from scene to scene.  When, as a child, Jack’s brother is killed by some unnamed force, the film’s tone takes a tragic turn.  Jack asks God “Where are you?”

     Tree of Life then turns to the maelstrom of creation.  There are exploding galaxies, pulsing nebulae, rivers of molten eruptions, cells dividing, jellyfish forming, hammerhead sharks circling, deafening thunderstorms, dinosaur appearing.   Finally we see young Jack emerging from the water, when finally he is an infant in his mother’s arms.   Every child’s story is a story of all creation, Malick seems to say.

     Jack’s father (Brad Pitt) is a square- jawed, often abusive disciplinarian, who demands hugs from his sons as instruments of control.  He is a frustrated inventor who also plays classical music on the family piano.  His son Jack (Hunter McCracken) is too often the recipient of his father’s rage. Mr. OBrien’s wife is a warm and kind woman who delights in cavorting with her sons, dancing in the rain, serving three squares a day.  She is as close to an angel as one can get.

     Jack’s loss of innocence is chronicled as he runs with a gang of youngsters, breaking some windows, torturing a frog and injuring a dog.  It is disturbing to watch, but a metaphor for his fall from grace.   Tree of Life is replete with allusions to brute nature (Jack’s father) and spiritual grace (his mother).

     God has a leading role in Tree of Life.   Questions that are whispered to Him by Jack are answered in the form of a rustle of a curtain, shadows on the wall, the gurgling of a stream.  Those answers are necessarily oblique.  Because there are no answers.

     Beautiful orchestral and choral music by Brahms, Berlioz and other classical composers accompany many scenes of the film.  The score turns ominous at times such as when Jack is being unreasonably punished by his father. The cinematography captures not only the violence of creation but also the tidy Eisenhower Era  streets of Waco Texas.  There are exquisite panoramas over rustling fields, rolling rivers, and quiet views of the spotless interiors of the O’Brien house.

    Tree of Life is not a mainstream film, and undoubtedly it will frustrate many viewers.  A film that is elliptical, allegorical and, at times, surreal demands patience and reflection.  For example, towards the end, adult Jack, in his business suit, walks on the  endless bleached sands of eternity, encountering  long deceased friends and family members.  The presence of God is a constant in this film.  Aside from the cosmic concerns of the film, the scenes of the O’ Brien family demonstrate Malick’s deep understanding of family dynamics: the tenderness, the sadness, the tensions.  Indeed, there is enough material about this family for a separate movie.  Hunter McCracken who plays the young hurt, fearful and angry Jack, delivers a spectacular performance of depth. And watching the gorgeous Jessica Chastian is one of the films many pleasures.

     Very rarely does a film come along that is as provocative, powerful, and groundbreaking as Tree of Life.   It inspires us to think in ways we rarely do.  This film is simply a great work of Art.  Seeing it is an extraordinary experience.

Midnight in Paris

Midnight in Paris

Written and directed by Woody Allen

With: Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody, Carla Bruni, Marion Cotillard, Rachel McAdams,

Michael Sheen, Owen Wilson, Tom Hiddelston, Alison Pill, Corey Stoll, Kurt Fuller,

Mimi Kennedy, and Lea Seydoux

If you love Paris when it sizzles, you will love Woody Allen’s captivating and smart “Midnight in Paris.” The film is packaged throughout with exquisite daytime Paris scenes bathed in golden light as well as nighttime scenes shrouded in mists and cobbled streets wet with rain. This film is another of Allen’s valentines to Paris. Air France must be delighted with the release of this film.

Gil Pender (Owen Wilson) is the quintessential American in Paris. He and his fiancée, Ines, are accompanying her parents on one of her father’s business trips. Gil is a successful but frustrated hack Hollywood screen writer who hates what he does. He is working on a novel about nostalgia. Spoiled Ines’s only goal is to live in Malibu on Gil’s residuals while he would be delighted to live in an artist’s garret in Paris. Unfortunately for Gil, they run into Paul, a smug and pedantic professor friend of Ines, and have to spend time with him. Ines thinks Paul is great; Gil thinks he is pompous and pretentious. Gil and Ines seem ill suited for each other.

But Gil lucks out as “Midnight in Paris” takes an unexpected turn. Escaping from Ines’

boring friends, Gil wanders the streets of Paris. At the stroke of midnight, an

ancient Rolls Royce pulls up and its occupants, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, urge Gil to come to a soiree with them. He finds himself at a lost generation party alongside Cole Porter, Ernest Hemmingway, Salvador Dali and others. Since Gil’s specialty is nostalgia, this is right up his alley. He is understandably awestruck, enchanted and almost speechless—but not totally speechless because he asks both Hemingway and Gertrude Stein to read his manuscript. 

Nothing lasts forever, however,and  Gil has to come back to present time and spend time with temperamental Ines and her grouchy Tea Party member parents, whose main interests seem to be shopping and eating in expensive restaurants.  

This is Woody Allen at his best. Nostalgia has repeatedly been a theme for him. The story is loaded with stars and a celebrity or two. Even Carla Bruni, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s wife has a part in this oh so Francophile film. “Midnight in Paris” is filmed exquisitely with tantalizing views of the Eiffel tower, Monmartre, the flea markets, the Seine and, of course, the cafes and bistros.

Each cast member shines. They obviously love the film and the chance to impersonate literary giants and artists of the 1920s. Owen Wilson could not be better. He embodies the Woody Allen persona, a man full of self-doubt, dissatisfied with many things. Mostly he longs to inhabit a bygone era and to be able to have the challenging and intellectual conversations absent from his present life with Ines.

Time travel may be a wacky concept but it seamlessly works in “Midnight and Paris,” something not easy to pull off. But Allen succeeds. All of this is silly and fun. And, of course, it is always entertaining to see how many stars Allen can squeeze into a film. And did I mention how very romantic it is?

Last Night

Last Night

Directed by Massy Tadjadin

With Keira Knightly, Sam Worthington, Eva Mendes and Guillaume Cadet

A photogenic young married couple lives in a super chic Manhattan loft. Joanna (Keira Knightly) and Michael(Sam Worthington), ex pats from London, have been married three years. They both have exciting jobs and stylish wardrobes. Everything looks pretty as they dress to go to a party as “Last Night” begins. But there is an awkwardness between them. What’s going on? Marital distrust and communication breakdown are not unique to this married couple, but these issues are compassionately observed in “Last Night.”

It all happens in one day. At the party, Joanna warily observes Michael as he interacts with his gorgeous coworker, Laura (Eva Mendes). Laura can hardly keep her hands or her eyes off of him. At home after the party, Joanna accuses Michael of being interested in Laura. She finally wears him down, and he admits that he does find Laura attractive. Joanna’s hidden tensions and doubts intensify.

The next morning Michael leaves on a business trip with—guess who—Laura. Coincidentally, on that very same morning, Joanna happens upon an old boyfriend, a young Frenchman named Alex (Guillaume Caudet). Their rapport is instantaneously rekindled and they make plans to have dinner together that evening while Michael is away.

The remainder of “Last Night” crosscuts between Joanna/Alex and Michael/Laura. Sparks fly as each couple spends their respective evenings together. Will Joanna and Michael cheat on each other?

It is a simple plot, done before. Marriages are destroyed by jealousy and insecurity. How can a married couple resist being unfaithful when faced with very appealing temptation? Joanna and Michael struggle with this dilemma in their own ways as the night progresses and the alcohol flows.

“Last Night” asks you to decide what comprises “cheating.” Is it merely a kiss or an embrace? Or does it need to go further to be infidelity? Is it harmful to a marriage?

Keira Knightly is perfect as a woman plagued by a jealous heart. Sam Worthington struggles with his own demons in a more inward way. Long, provocative silences between the couples speak volumes. However, one wonders why two British actors were asked to play the leads in this New York/American film. The same goes for Joanna’s ex, Alex, who is French. Also, I can't for the life of me figure out why Lucy, a placid Labrador retriever, is inserted into “Last Night” for much of the film for no apparent reason.

It’s always fun to observe New York’s sparkling night life, scenes of parties, restaurants and beautiful vistas of TriBeca streets slick with rain. “Last Night” is atmospheric and beautifully filmed.

Director Massy Tadjedin has a firm grasp of how couples interact by what they say and don’t say. Her film keenly observes the dangers and pleasures of crossing the line in marriage. Both Joanna and Michael know they are treading in treacherous waters. Was it worth it for them?

I am not sure.

African Cats

Directed by Keith Scholey and Alastair Fothergill

With: Lionesses and cubs, Lions, a cheetah and her cubs, hippos, hyenas, wildebeest, giraffe, zebras, gazelle, water buffalo, crocodile, aardvarks at al.

What could be more captivating than wee fuzzy lion cubs? Wee fuzzy cheetah cubs! The new Disney film, “African Cats,” provides plenty of both.

This stunning film opened on Earth Day, an appropriate choice as the numbers of lions on earth continue to decrease every year.

The film follows two families of African cats and their quest for survival in the Masai Mara in Tanzania. The savannahs are filled with danger as you will see.

Little Maya is the endearing cub of Layla, a lioness who is getting on in life.

She wants to insure that Maya will be accepted by the rest of the pride after she is gone. Cubs cannot care for themselves and make tasty meals for viscous hyenas and other predators. Fang is the male lion who protects his pride of several females and their cubs. He is recognizable by a fang that protrudes from his mouth. Not far away are five male lions who want the pride for themselves. They would kill the cubs so the lionesses will produce their own offspring.

The other “African Cat” family is that of Sita, a cheetah who lives across the river from the lions. Fearless Sita has five cubs and is a “single mom.” Sita continually needs to leave her hungry cubs alone so she can hunt for their food. While she is off hunting, her cubs are in mortal danger. Unlike the lionesses who hunt in packs, Sita has to go it alone. It is not easy.

“African Cats” is called a “true life adventure,” not a documentary. It is difficult to imagine any life more threatening that that of these cats. It is eat or be eaten, kill or be killed.

The theme of  motherless offspring has been done many times by Disney(Bambi, Dumbo, Snow White and others). The animals are given human emotions and the viewer relates to these feelings. Samuel L. Jackson narrates the often heart-pounding story with just the right ominous tone.

The cinematography in “African Cats” is ravishing from sunset panoramas, aerial shots of the savannahs, to the inner family circles of these majestic felines. You see close ups of the animals’ huge furry paws, their quivering flanks, their powerful shoulders, the insides of their cubs’ yawning mouths. You hear the mewling of a stricken Sita when she can’t locate her cubs as you hear their cries for their mother.

There are those who will criticize the anthropomorphism in “African Cats.” But who is to say that these animals do not have “courage,” “hope,” “grudges,” “confidence,” or experience “love.” And that a mother cat’s loss of her cub is not her worst nightmare? I, for one, can tell if my dog or cat is content, depressed, or anxious, all “human” emotions.

Directors Keith Scholey and Alastair Fothergill have put together a remarkable entertainment that should be seen on the big screen. You will wonder how they were able to get so intimately close to the animals.

They show lions tackling their prey but wisely have not shown them tearing into their kill. And stay for the credits when the lions and the supporting cast get their “credits.” “African Cats” provides a perfect family outing. But it is not only for kids: It is a breathtaking and stirring safari for all of us. I, for one, loved the gamboling aardvarks.

In a Better World

 In a Better World

Directed by Susan Bier

Written by Anders Thomas Jensen

With Mikael Persbrandt, Markus Rygaard, Trine Dyrholm, Milliam Johnk

Neilson

When this year’s academy awards ceremony gave the Danish film IN A BETTER WORLD  the Best Foreign Film oscar, most people had never heard of it.  A pity.  But at long last this brilliant, compassionate, totally unique and poignant film about moral issues is being shown here.  Do not miss it.

In an unnamed Danish town two families intersect.  Both are outsiders; one from London and the other from Sweden.   In a Better World follows the tragic and literally explosive

events that befall the two families.  Violence and its aftereffects are the themes explored in this gripping film.

The story begins in an impoverished African refugee camp where the Swedish pacifist doctor Anton(Mikeal Persbrandt) runs a makeshift hospital deaing not only with malaria and parasites, but also the ravages of violence.  A local Warlord, Big Man, and his henchmen capture local pregnant women and bet on their unborn babies’ sexes.  To see who wins, they rip open the woman’s bellies to find out.  Anton, a kind and hardworking doctor, has to deal with the aftermath of this savagery.

 While Anton is away, his estranged wife Marriane(Trine Dyrholm), a doctor herself, and their docile son  Elias(Markus Rygaard) suffer in his absence.  12 year old Elias is relentlessly bullied at school because he is Swedish and has buck teeth and braces.  Elias accepts the sadistic bullying in a passive way.  In his mind, courageous people don’t fight back.

Sullen twelve year old Christian(William Johnk Nielsen) and his businessman father Claus(Ulrich Thomsen) have just moved to grandmother’s house  from London after the death of Christian’s mother.  Christian intercedes when Elias is being bullied and gets beaten up himself.  However he has a short fuse and savagely wreaks revenge on the bully.

Elias carries the same passive convictions as does his humanitarian father. But his new friend and ally Christian thinks that passivity is weak and unmanly.  He manages to get Elias to agree to his way of thinking.  Treat violence with violence.

There is so much more to this intelligent film. All characters are complex people,

and director Bier plumbs these complexities as we get to know each of them.  Issues of guilt, grief, love and hate are all a part of the story.

In A Better World deals with timely moral issues.  Is harsh, often violent, behavior the way to deal with savagery?  Or does it just feed the vicious cycle of brutality?  Both parents and children in In a Better World are involved in explosive crises.  Each has his own methods of reckoning with upheaval.

The acting in the film could not be better.   There is a startling intensity throughout, and all characters work together to make it all raw and believable.  ,

You will leave the theater wondering how to make sense of cruelty.  And there is enough  cruelty to go around in our world.  If a very evil person is in trouble, do you help him out

or do you let him suffer?  Do you punish violence with reprisals?  How can you depend on peaceful reasoning in an unreasonable world?   Clearly Bier is drawing parallels between violence in third world countries and our own ‘civilized’ societies. She ratchets up the tension and you are drawn into the tempest.  Revenge or Forgiveness? You decide.

 

Jane Eyre

Directed by Cary Fukunga

Written by Charlotte Bronte and Moira Buffina

With Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Judi Dench, Sally Hawkins and Jamie Bell

From the very start of the latest film version of Charlotte Bronte’s 1847 “Jane Eyre,” you almost physically feel the foreboding misty moors of the Derbyshire Hills. This is a Jane Eyre unlike any other, and there have been as  been many as 30 earlier film versions.

Director Cary Fukunga and screenwriter Moira Buffina have fooled with the chronology of the novel, and their Jane Eyre begins in the middle. The past is seen as flashbacks. Purists might not appreciate this conceit but it works perfectly well in this “Jane.”

Jane (Mia Wasikowska) is a plain and polite orphan who has lived a life of deprivation and loss. After her parents’ deaths she is sent to live with her wealthy but cold-blooded aunt, Miss Reed (Sally Hawkins). Miss Reed wants only to get Jane out of her sight. So off she is sent to the sadistic Lowood School for Girls where corporal punishment is the norm. Of course, Jane is treated cruelly and unfairly, but she does learn to be a teacher.

Finally a bit of luck comes Jane’s way. She is hired to be the governess for the French-speaking daughter of the wealthy Mr. Rochester (Michael Fassbender).

Her residence is now a massive and elegantly furnished medieval estate of countless rooms. The housekeeper, Mrs. Fairfax (Judi Dench), keeps everything in order. She is a kindly sort, always rushing here and there. Jane is treated well in her new situation and her darling charge is very attached to her.

After awhile the stylish, surly, and somewhat spooky, Mr. Rochester comes home for one of his infrequent visits. The house has been elegantly decked out for opulent soirees to entertain a group of his moneyed houseguest  friends. But he has eyes only for the plain, forthright and reserved Jane. However,  he has some skeletons in his closet.  ou probably know the rest if you have read the novel; If you haven’t then, the film will inform you. 

Jane Eyre is about as atmospheric as a film can get. Cinematographer Adriano Goldman gives you a strong sense of place throughout. Gorgeous scenes of Derbyshire’s moors are usually shrouded in fog. It seems to be cold and rainy much of the time. It is an unforgiving land, bleak but beautiful.

Cary Fukunga has been able to capture the spookiness of the story without dwelling on it. There are strange sounds emanating from who knows what; there are loud poundings on doors; the mists conceal approaching figures. But the focus is kept on Jane’s quiet strength, her innocence, her perceptiveness. She is ‘character’ personified..

Aussie Mia Wasikowski demonstrates Jane’s depth with few words. She glows in this role of a woman who has to hide her inner life. At times you feel like you are inside her head. She very quietly bristles with courage.

Michael Fassbender as the handsome rogue, Mr. Rochester, has just the right amount of creepiness combined with an almost carnal sexiness. His passion is not far from the surface. Judi Dench as Mrs. Fairfax, the goodhearted but crotchety housekeeper, adds the right amount of humor to this splendid film.

This thoughtful and elegant “Jane Eyre” offers superb performances, glorious cinematography, and a very compelling story—there is a reason there have been so many remakes of it. And you see that no matter how plain and lacking in funds a woman may be, she can get a guy: and a wealthy, handsome one at that!

Unknown

Unknown

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra

With Liam Neeson, January Jones, Diane Kruger, Bruno Ganz,

Aiden Quinn, and Frank Langella

“Unknown” begins as an exceptionally good looking American couple arrives in Berlin. They check into their high-end hotel. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) is there to attend an important biotechnology conference, but he has left his briefcase at the airport. He leaves his lovely blond wife Elizabeth (January Jones)at the hotel and grabs a cab to the airport to retrieve the missing case.

There is an accident en route and the cab dramatically careens off a bridge into a river. The female, illegal alien, Bosnian cab driver Gina (Diane Kruger) heroically pulls him out of the rapidly sinking taxicab—then things begin to go terribly wrong.

Harris’s heart stops for a few minutes. He is resuscitated and awakens from a four-day coma in a Berlin hospital. He has no identifying documents; they are inside that briefcase. He rather quickly figures out who he is and goes to the hotel where a fancy reception for the conference is taking place. He approaches Elizabeth, but she does not know him. And there is a man with her who claims he is Martin Harris. 

Not only that, but nobody believes he is who he says he is. The baffled and bedraggled Dr. Harris is forced to roam Berlin, with no ID or passport, trying to figure out  the truth of what has happened. He enlists the help of Gina, the Bosnian cab driver, and Ernst Jurgen, a former STASI agent for the East Berlin Communist government to help him find the pieces to his identity puzzle. You, the viewer, are left to figure out if Harris is who he thinks he is or if he indeed has amnesia.

   From then on, the plot couldn’t be more twisted or convoluted. It would spoil the fun to reveal any of those twists. “Unknown” is entertaining if you do not focus on the implausibilities, of which there are many.

                The film has expertly choreographed car chases aplenty. See the wheelies, cars turning in perfect synchronization, even cars chasing in reverse! Sinister figures with guns drawn are in pursuit on foot! Innocent people are killed! There is even a self-inflicted cyanide poisoning.

                Liam Neeson plays the role of the bewildered, innocent man very capably and very seriously. Bruno Ganz is excellent as the retired STASI agent. January Jones is a little flat in her role; however, once you know the plot twists, you may understand why she is so one dimensional. The other performances are fine, it is just that the actors are asked to perform in a film that lacks any logic or credibility. You can’t take this film seriously.

                That said, director Collet Serra’s film is very slick and watchable, dealing with high-stakes terrorism. You wonder if Martin Harris is nuts or if the world is nuts and you are kept guessing until everything is explained in the final scenes. “Unknown” is handsomely filmed and loaded with action. I call it farfetched fun.

Another Year

 Another Year

 Directed and written by Mike Leigh

With James Broadbent, Ruth Sheen, Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton, David Bradley and Oliver Mattman

No filmmaker probes and understands the everyday conflicts of ordinary people as does British filmmaker Mike Leigh. “Another Year” takes place in London where a 60-something long-married couple, Tom(Jim Broadbent) and Gerri(Ruth Sheen), seem to have achieved a kind of marital bliss in their golden years. They tend their exuberant garden, cook dinners for their friends and family, and are happy in their careers. Tom is a geologist and Gerri is a NHS counselor. This intelligent and moving film explores them and the complex relationships of their passel of assorted friends and family who are not so fortunate in life and love. Gerri and Tom’s house is the gathering place for these people.

“Another Year” unfolds over one year, divided into four seasons, beginning with Spring. Janet (Imelda Stanton) is referred to Gerri, a counselor at a clinic, because of her chronic insomnia. Her face closed and tight lipped, she is a picture of misery. However, she does not want therapy. She wants a “new life.” The same can be said for the others who surround Geri and Tom, a group who have made missteps in the past. For them there may be such a thing as too late. Some problems cannot be solved. That is life.

Mary (Lesley Manville) works with Jerri. She’s a single, 50ish woman who exudes insecurity with nonstop chatter and worries. She is lonely, obviously desperate to find a man and drinks way too much, grabbing cigarettes when she can. She seems to have no defenses to life’s travails. Gerri and Tom welcome her to dinners at their very homey home. She is unsuited to being single, but her poignant need for affection scares men away. She buys a little red used car, she can’t really afford, much less drive very well, thinking it will change her life. The car brings her nothing but problems.

Ken (Peter Wright) an old friend of Tom’s, is also a frequent dinner guest at Tom and Gerri’s. He is an overweight boozer who drinks to anesthetize himself from his loneliness. He is sweet and kind enough, but also desperate for some kind of connection. He would welcome a “new life,” but it is obvious he will never find what he needs.

Tom and Gerri’s son, 30-year-old Joe (Oliver Maltman), is a cheery and happy-go-lucky guy, probably because he is the product of a stable and happy marriage. He visits his parents, bringing them cheer and gifts, also a girlfriend, Katie. These two are obviously happy and in love.

However, not all is perfect in Tom and Gerri’s life. Their nephew, Carl, is an angry, menacing ne’er-do-well. His father, Tom’s brother Ronnie (David Bradley), is a very troubled man, inscrutable and devoid of affect. Tom and Gerri have to deal with this dysfunctional duo after Ronnie’s wife dies.

Mike Leigh’s films are legendary for their intimate ensemble work. His characters are ordinary people dealing with everyday human sadness. Most of the actors’ work is improvised during the filming. Sometimes the dialog meanders as it does in real life, but throughout it all runs a passionate concern for character.

The actors in “Another Year” work in sync, giving tender and honest performances about the calamities of relationships. Leslie Manville as Mary is outstanding in her portrayal of someone who tries to escape depression with constant chit chat. Her desperation is palpable and heart breaking. Her life is the biggest tragedy in “Another Year.”

Tom and Gerri are the anchor for this collection of people. Their kindness and stability are balm for people who are alone and left out. They can’t resolve their friends’ problems, but they provide a respite of concern and compassion. Throughout each season in “Another Year” they are seen working in their garden together. The garden is abundant, thriving, and healthy in every season—as is their relationship.

Company Men

Company Men

Written and directed by John Wells

With Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper, Maria Bello, Kevin Costner, Craig T Nelson and Maggie Walker

Times are very tough for the executives in “Company Men,” an angry film about the devastating effects of corporate downsizing. This topical drama, directed and written by John Wells, probes what happens when people lose their jobs. We define ourselves through our work, so without our work, who are we?

Bobby Walker (Ben Affleck) is a hot shot super sales person at GTX Transportation Services. The film opens with a shot of his several-story colonial house with his Porsche in the driveway. James Salinger (Craig T. Nelson), the CEO, is downsizing GTX, cutting out the division that deals with shipbuilding. Bobby, along with hundreds of other long time employees, are let go. The mortgage on that big colonial house, Bobby’s exclusive golf membership, the Porsche and other expensive accoutrements become history.

“Company Men” focuses on Bobby, Gene McClary (Tommy Lee Jones) and Phil Woodward (Chris Cooper), who are mid- to-high-level employees at GTX. They are victims of downsizing, and they deal with their job losses in very different ways. James Salinger, the boss, cares only about shareholders and the bottom line. His long-time business partner and friend, Gene, is the moral compass of the film. A man of conscience, he is deeply troubled by loyal employees getting the hatchet job. Salinger’s cold-eyed response to Gene’s pleas to curb the downsizing is, “My job is to run a business not a charity.” Then Salinger fires Gene. Salinger takes home $22,000,000 a year. He has no worries.

The fired employees are given office space at an outplacement firm from which to perform their job searches. They place calls that are not returned. They go to interviews where they are kept waiting or are part of cattle call of dozens of applicants. Things don’t look good at all. Sixtyish Phil, when let go, is told to dye his hair and to expunge any job history prior to 1990 on his resume, because it will make him appear old—and no one hires an old person. His wife makes him leave the house every morning with his briefcase and come home after 6 p.m. to keep up appearances. He thought he was important, but learns he is a nobody without the position at GTX. His is the most poignant story in the film.

But the main focus is Bobby and how he copes. He is not even 40 years old, has an MBA, but there are qualified younger men out there who will accept less salary. In the beginning he has little humility. He refuses to give up the golf membership, the house, the Porsche. That changes after months of joblessness when he realizes he can’t afford his life. His wife, Maggie, is more clearheaded and pragmatic, ready to make  financial sacrifices.

Director John Wells, who created ER for television, has created a perceptive and absorbing film. You empathize with the men, one day successful and respected, who the next day can’t get people to return their phone calls. Without their work they are “nothing,” to themselves or anybody else. “Company Men” is a film for the recession era.

Gene muses about the days when people actually built or made things for a living. People made an honest wage by actually creating or building something. Those days are long gone.