Philomena

 

Directed by Stephen Frears

Written by Martin Sixsmith and Steve Coogan

With Judi Dench and Steve Coogan

 

Philomena affords the pleasures of a good old fashioned film with an absorbing story that has no steamy sex, noisy car chases, or nerve wracking hijackings.  The film is based on the true story of Philomena Lee(Judi Dench), an 70 ish Irish woman who was forced to give up her illegitimate son in 1952 while she was in a convent.  For fifty years she has been trying to find him.  Finally, she enlists the help of Martin Sixsmith(Steve Coogan), an out of work journalist for the BBC.   He volunteers to help Philomena locate her son if he can write about it.  It would be an appealing human interest story which would surely revive his career. He wasn’t wrong. The book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee was widely popular.

 

As a teenager, Philomena worked tirelessly in the convent where she had the baby.  She was allowed to see him but one hour a day.  At age three, he was sold to an American family, and that’s the last she saw of him.

The story becomes a touching and hilarious road trip film which takes Philomena and Sixsmith from Ireland to the United States in search of the son.

 Philomena is a simple, dumpy, unsophisticated woman who reads Romance novels.  She chats up the servers in restaurants, exclaims on the robes and slippers provided by hotels, as well as the free chocolates on the pillows.  She is delighted by everything and everybody.  Martin Sixsmith, on the other hand, is a sarcastic and condescending intellectual.  However, they gradually develop a respect and a genuine fondness for each other.

 

Sixsmith is horrified when he discovers that the Catholic nuns sold her three year old son.  He questions her religious beliefs, but she remains true to her church, forgiving that she was mistreated by the nuns and showing a  tenacity of  faith in the face of cruelty.  He is outraged and wants to reveal the Church’s secrets about the children ‘sold.’  She will have none of that.

 

Philomena could easily been a mushy tear jerker.  Instead, those tear jerking moments are heart rending but very real. Director Stephen Frears includes flashbacks to Philomena’s earlier life and how she imagines her son.  They serve to round out who she is.

The chemistry between Dench and Coogan couldn’t be better, and that is why Philomena should be on everyone’s ‘Must See” list.  Dench, who has played everything from royalty to James Bond’s tightly coiled boss, is an unprepossessing and soft spoken woman.  Steve Coogan is her sophisticated counterpart.  He has just the right amount of acerbity and tenderness.  Coogan  co wrote the script with the real Martin Sixsmith.

There are some revelations in the film which I am not sharing here.

Just know that Philomena tells a tragic story of human love and loss with intense humanity.  It is also has just the right amount of ‘odd couple’ comedy that will  have you smiling throughout.

All is Lost

 

Directed and written by J.C. Chandor

With Robert Redford

 

A lone sailor adrift in the Indian Ocean utters the few words

spoken in ALL Is Lost.  The words are in voiceover
of a farewell letter he is writing to someone(wife, child,
business partner, parent?) as he clings to a shattered
raft.  He is identified only as Our Man in the credits.  He is played by Robert Redford, giving the performance of his life.

All is Lost is a most mesmerizing and terrifying of stories

as Our Man withstands eight days of a cavalcade of misfortunes.
We never know who he is, but we see someone who embodies
patience, heroism and grace under pressure.  Director JC Chandor has created a miracle of a film which can be called a metaphor of someone attempting
to survive the storms of life.  It is a simple story, a harrowing
tale of survival.

On Day One Our Man is jolted awake in the cabin of his 29 foot handsomely outfitted yacht.  Water begins to pour in, flooding the vessel.  A container

jammed full of sneakers has fallen off a freighter and collided with his boat. 

This is only the beginning of the relentless hardships that befall Our Man.

There are storms, sharks, leaks, malfunctioning of electrical equipment.  Soaring shots that show the vastness of water highlight how totally alone he is.    The tribulations of Job come to mind as he experiences one after another in the chain of disasters.  As a viewer, you are alongside him and you experience the mounting dread.

The only sounds are those of the creaking and grinding of Our Man’s boat, the tumult of thunder, the smashing of the waves, the crunching of metal, an occasional grunt as he makes efforts at repair.

Robert Redford conveys his thought and emotion on screen without words..  His determination is palpable as he patiently perseveres to try to win his losing battle with the Sea.  He is the American hero incarnate.

Director J.C. Chandor is a master of visual detail.  There are gorgeous underwater shots in addition to attention to the minutiae of the boat.

In the middle of a desperate situation, he has Redford shave as if to say
everything is normal.  There are no clichéd moments in flashback.  Everything
takes place in the present.  It is all very real and a thriller at its core.  It is a monumental achievement for the Director and the Actor.   And it is a hair raising experience for you, the viewer.

Captain Phillips

 

Directed by Paul Greengrass

Written by Billy Ray, Based on the book” A Captain’s Duty:

Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea”

With:  Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Barhad Ahdirahman, Michael Chernus, Corey Johnson, Max Martini, and Catherine Keener

 

Captain Phillips delivers a nail-biting true tale of terror on the high seas.

In 2009, the container ship, Maersk Alabama, was hijacked by a group of ragtag Somali pirates off the coast of Africa. They held the captain hostage for five days. The event was a global headliner story. In the end, the U.S. Navy SEALS saved the day and Captain Phillips.

Director Peter Greengrass knows how a biopic should be done. The result is a taut, intelligent film as intense as any action film you’ve ever seen.

Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) is hauling tons of stuff, including World Food items to Africa. Meanwhile, in a dusty poverty-stricken Somali village, men are instructed by their warlords to hijack a ship. Director Greengrass has chosen to show the desperate conditions of their lives. They target Captain Phillips’ unarmed vessel.

The tension builds as a tiny boat with four heavily armed men approaches the Maersk Alabama, whose only protection is fire hoses. The four men scramble onto the ship. Their leader is the English speaking Muse (Barkhad Abdi). The focus now is the relationship between him and Phillips. 

Phillips’ demeanor is calm as he does everything he can to protect the crew hiding elsewhere on the ship. Things don’t go well and the pirates threaten to kill the crew one by one unless Captain Phillips comes up with an enormous sum of money.

The $30,000 in the ship’s safe doesn’t cut it. The four Somalis take Captain Phillips hostage in a tiny lifeboat. Demands are made for ransom. What happens in the tiny claustrophobic lifeboat is guaranteed to jangle your nerves. 

The tension builds and the Navy SEALS prepare to do their work. The Somalis continue to nervously jerk their weapons every which way.

Tom Hanks portrays a solid, principled man whose world has been turned upside down. He does this with total authenticity. Barkhad Abdi ( Muse) is an untrained Somali actor and he couldn’t be more believable as he faces off with Hanks.

Peter Greengrass has mastered the art of docudrama here. How the story ends is a foregone conclusion, but he puts you in the shoes of the characters.

Watching Captain Phillips is a harrowing experience. You are in for a ride aboard a roller coaster of emotion. It is immensely satisfying. Patriotism wells up in your gut as the SEALS arrive like the cavalry does in an old Western.

“Prisoners”

 

Director: Denis Villeneuves

Writer:  Aaron Guzikowski

With Jake Gyllenhaal, Hugh Jackman, Paul Dano, Maria Bello,

Viola Davis, and Terrence Howard

 

It is guaranteed that you will find “Prisoners” the most intense and haunting thriller to hit the screen in ages.  This chilling story centers around every parent’s worst nightmare: the kidnapping of a child, and the lengths that a parent may go to find that child.

It is Thanksgiving in a small, working class Pennsylvania town and two families have gathered for dinner. Anna and Joy, their 6-year-old daughters, go outside to play. They never come home.

The calm, collected, but tormented Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal), promises the hysterical parents that he will find their daughters. An emotionally disturbed and creepy man, Alex Jones (Paul Dano), was seen nearby in his ramshackle white trailer about the time of the girls’ disappearance and is taken in for questioning.

In despair, the survivalist Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) , Amy’s impulsive, avenging father, takes matters into his own hands. In denial, his wife, Grace (Maria Bello) escapes to her bed with a profusion of medications. Joy’s parents, Franklin Birch (Terrence Howard) and Nancy (Viola Davis) are also paralyzed by their grief.

Dover, a honorable man, becomes a savage and vicious vigilante not above brutalizing and torturing the man he thinks has kidnapped his daughter. The Birches, horrified at what he does, still go along with him because they are desperate to find their daughter, Joy.

“Prisoners” takes place in the period of one week. Detective Loki methodically follows every clue while also trying to get Dover to keep out of the business of finding the kidnapper. There are twists and turns in the investigation, many surprising leads.

This is Canadian director Denis Villenueves first English language film. He slowly builds character in each of his actors. Hugh Jackman’s Keller reaches his boiling point; Jake Gyllenhaal’s tattooed Detective Lodi is imprisoned in his own emotional turmoil. All actors give top-notch performances.

The cinematography by Roger Deakins creates a cold and barren tone throughout. The wet chill of winter enhances the gloomy feel of the film.

“Prisoners” has a relentless and startling impact. Every moment absorbs the viewer’s attention, and most will be drained by the end of its two-and-a-half hour duration. This is an edge-of-the-seat entertainment. More than a thriller, “Prisoners” is also a voyage into the nature of evil. It is well worth the trip.

 

 Fruitvale Station

 

Directed and written by Ryan Coogler

With Michael Jordan, Octavia Spencer, Melanie Diaz, and Ariana Neal

 Every now and then a film comes along that reassures your faith in the cinema's

ability to really move you, to tell a story in a truly honest way with no Hollywood embellishments, to put you in touch with gut wrenching humanity.  The Fruitvale Station is this film.  It is based on events that happened on January 1, 2009 when a 22 year old unarmed black man, Oscar Grant, was infamously killed by a transit officer on the BART transit system in San Francisco. This harrowing film tells the story of what happened in the last day in Oscar’s Grant’s life. 

 The film begins with actual footage taken on the cellphones of horrified witnesses

that night.   Then, in flashback,  Oscar(Michael Jordan) is shown wearing a prison uniform as his mother(Octavia Spencer) visits him.

Fast-forward to December 31, 2007.  Oscar is  home with his girlfriend, Sophina(Melonie Diaz), the mother of his four year old daughter Tatiana(Ariana Neal) upon whom he dotes.  He has vowed to get his life together after being imprisoned for dealing marijuana.  He has since gotten a job in a butcher shop which he loses for being late.  It is clear he really wants to go straight but he hasn’t gotten it right yet.

 Fruitvale Station chronicles that last day of his life, an ordinary day. as he takes his daughter to school, gets a birthday card and a carrot cake for his mother’s birthday.  He throws away the pot.  In a prophetic scene, he comes across a dying stray dog who has been hit by a car.  He cuddles the animal’s head and speaks softly to it as he lays it alongside the road.

He attends a birthday party for his mother that evening where a huge extended family has gathered.  The warmth of the family and friends’ relationships is obvious.   Oscar and Sophina take the fated BART train into San Francisco to continue the New Years Revelries.  I promise you that the last few minutes of Fruitvale Station are as disturbing as any you’ve ever seen.

  There is clearly a sweetness to Oscar, a kind and decent young man who is also prone to instant rages, telling white lies to Sophina. But he is anything but a stereotype.  Michael Jordan(from TV’s Friday Night Lights) plays this role with extraordinary passion and pathos.  His Oscar is a flawed character and Jordan exhibits

 the despair that rules his life.

This is the debut feature of Ryan Coogler, a 27 year old graduate of USC film School.  This is his debut feature.  He is able to put the audience in touch with moral outrage as he immerses us in Oscar’s life and its end.   He had dreams, feelings, and cared for many people, and it’s all here in Fruitvale Station.

Director Coogler doesn’t preach about Ghetto boys having limited opportunities, getting a raw deal.  His strategy is to dramatize a young black man’s daily routines and pressures.  He is a normal Dad, worried about paying the rent, his daughter’s schooling, just paying the bills.  Coogler tells a compassionate true

story.  It all feels so real, shot with hand held cameras.

 Of course, the George Zimmerman acquittal has helped this film get the attention it deserves.   It won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance film festival.  It is Academy Award material, if the Academy has any sense.

I will say this about  Director Ryan Coogler : A star is born.

The Bling Ring

 

Directed by Sofia Coppola

With Katie Chang, Israel Boussard, Clarie Jullen, Taissa Famiga and

Emma Watson

 

A most timely crime drama, “The Bling Ring” tells the story of celebrity-obsessed teens in the Hollywood hills who go on shopping sprees by burglarizing the homes of celebrities. 

You probably read about or have seen news coverage about the thefts that took place in 2008-2009. It’s all true.

The group of five wayward 16-year-olds included Marc (Isreal Boussard), Chloe, (Claire Jullen), Nik i(Emma Watson), Sam (Taissa Farminga) and ringleader Rebecca (Kathe Chang). 

They followed the social/celebrity media on the Internet and knew when their victims would be out of town. Believe it or not, some of the celebrities, which included Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Orlando Bloom, and Megan Fox, left their keys under the front doormat.

Once inside the homes, the gang would stuff clothing, jewelry and shoes into duffle bags, often spending time marveling at the lavishness of their victims’ homes. For example, Paris Hilton had giant silk cushions emblazoned with her photos in her ‘nightclub room.’ Actual footage of the inside of Ms. Hilton’s house is used in “The Bling Ring,” and the characters are shown going through her real closet.

The teens would post photos of each other wearing the loot on the Internet. They spent most of the money they pilfered in L.A. Clubs or on drugs. They amassed $3,000,000 worth of plunder.

“The Bling Ring” is Sofia Coppola’s critique of materialism, teen amorality, weak parenting and the celebrity culture. The kids lead unmotivated lives, devoid of financial hardship. Without moral compasses, they feel they can get away with anything.  

And no matter how much they get, they want more. They spend their days watching TV reality shows (keeping up with the Kardashains!), looking at slick fashion magazines, and browsing gossip websites. The nights were for clubs and drugs. The robberies were “shopping expeditions” to them.

Unfortunately, these teens became outlaw heroes to many. Their admirers want to somehow be connected to the rich and famous.

Ms. Coppola does not analyze, explain or excuse her subjects’ behavior. Her approach is impartial. The parents are mostly absent in the film. The parents you do see are intimidated by their kids and do not question their behaviors.

The acting is right on target. There is not much depth to the teens: they are shown to be shallow, fame obsessed teens gorging themselves on other peoples’ possessions. They are not happy just being wealthy. They envy the super rich,

Finally, they do get arrested. They do a little time and pay some restitution to their victims. And now they have the celebrity they were seeking.

“The Bling Ring” is a disturbing chronicle of materialism gone berserk.

Sofia Coppola has nailed it.

 

FRANCES HA

 

Directed by Noah Baumbach

Written by Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig

With Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Adam Driver, and Grace Gummer

 

Greta Gerwig, who stars in “Frances Ha,” is like the puppy you always wanted to adopt. This beguiling film tells the story about a 27-year-old woman who is not quite ready for adulthood but too old for college.

Frances (Greta Gerwig) lives in New York with her best friend Sophie (Mickey Sumner). The film begins with a montage of the two of them doing laundry, fake fighting, watching movies in bed, smoking cigarettes on the fire escape, knitting and, mainly, laughing. This is female bonding at its best.

The sweet and rather clueless Frances dreams of being a dancer in spite of her questionable talent. She works as an apprentice for a small dance company. Frances never gives up chasing her dreams. It never occurs to her that she may fail. 

She is crushed when Sylvia announces that she is moving to a better apartment. Next Greta is cut out of the dance group. But, never bitter, she moves on with a childlike optimism.

She lives in a series of apartments, always with friends, never with her name on the lease. She is always agreeable, helpful, never a pessimistic note, but she messes things up for herself. After charging plane fare she cannot afford to her maxed credit card, she flies to Paris for a weekend. Because of her jet lag she takes a sleeping pill. And sleeps though the weekend.

“Frances Ha” feels like Woody Allen’s earlier films. It is shot in crisp black and white in locations throughout the city. And like so many of Allen’s characters, Frances is on a crusade to find herself.

 

Director Noah Baumbach is known for his indie films (“The Squid and the Whale,” “Greenberg”). Greta Gerwig is his girlfriend and this film mightily showcases her appeal. Her character is effervescent, always honest and hopeful, often very funny, always appealing. 

There is a lot of cigarette smoking in “Frances Ha,” which viewers might find disturbing. It would be unfortunate if this is a trend among the 20 somethings.

The film is really about a moment in life, a timeless tale about the joys and sadness of youth. “Frances Ha” is a delight that makes you feel hopeful about life (except for the smoking!). The meaning of “Ha” is revealed in the very last moment of the film. Only a scrooge could watch it without a feeling of delight.

The Great Gatsby

 Directed by Baz Luhrman

Based on the novel by F Scott Fitzgerald

 

With Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton, Carey Mulligan,
Isla Fisher, and Jason Clarke

Discard any literary pretensions you may have regarding F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel

about the decadence of the 1920’s jazz age in New York.  Baz Lurhman’s film The Great Gatsby is a simply spectacular piece of razzle dazzle sight and sound filmmaking that stands mightily on its own.

Most of you have read the novel about Jay Gatsby, enigmatic rags to riches millionaire

who throws ultra lavish parties which he never attends at his grandiose mansion in East Egg Long Island.  His entertainments with legions of glitzy flapper girls, dozens of tuxedoed help and gallons of bootleg booze are the talk of New York.

Jay Gatsby(Leonardo DiCaprio)  has built his manor smack across the Long Island Sound from blueblood Tom(Joel Edgerton) Buchanan and his wife Daisy’s(Carey Mulligan) own mansion.  Gatsby is obsessed with Daisy, with whom he had a fling before she and Tom married.

Gatsby recruits his neighbor Nick Carraway(Tobey Maguire) to help him win back Daisy’s affections..  It is Nick who narrates the story.  Nick is also pursuing the American Dream.

 

There have been six film versions of The Great Gatsby.  Luhrman’s film is a glittery showcase of the early 1920’s with its bootleg behaviors, frantic flappers, and the frenzied search for more thrills.
The theme is nothing new: a girl is attracted to a boy from the wrong side of the tracks, but she marries the one with the money.  The poor boy makes good and tries to woo her back.  It doesn’t always work.

Leonardo DiCaprio embraces the complexity and mystery of Jay Gatsby.  His handsome

good looks got gasps from the audience with whom I viewed the film. Including me.

Carry Mulligan is perfect as the insubstantial, listless, pampered Daisy who wants it both ways.
Joel Edgerton is superb as the philandering, buffoonish Tom.  Tobey Maguire is excellent as the wide eyed innocent foil to DiCaprio’s sophistication.

Baz Luhrman’s Gatsby is homage as well as a blistering critique of the excesses of

Materialism.  The shimmering gowns and jewels, the high kicking sequined flappers,
the flowers by the truckload, the perfectly cut suits, the garish settings, the gleaming
vehicles are a resplendent, but also vulgar  feast for the eyes.  This Flashy Gatsby
captures the shallowness of that milieu.  It’s a delicious bon bon, not much substance, but oh so tasty.

Disconnected

 

Written by Andrew Storm
Directed by Harry Alex Rubin

With Jason Bateman, Alexander Skarsgard, Paula Patton, Andrea Riseborough,

Colin Ford, Frank Grillo, Hope Davis, Jonah Bobo, Max Thrieriot

 

“Disconnected” thrills with a timely and riveting story about the perils of an Internet-oriented society. Writer Andrew Storm and director Harry Alex Rubin have expertly woven three loosely related storylines that illustrate how seeking social connection on the Internet can lead to devastating consequences.

In one story, a couple, Cindy (Paula Patton) and Derek (Alexander Skarsgard), are grieving over the death of their toddler. It is too painful for them to share their grief with each other. So Cindy clicks on to a grief sharing Web site. Derek deals with his grief though online gambling, creating huge debt.

Their information is hacked and they become victims of enormous identity theft. They are now bankrupt, and hire a private detective, Mike (Frank Grillo) to help track down the perpetrator. It may take months to rectify the situation, so they take matters into their own hands.

Another story involves Mike, the private detective , who is a widower and is trying to connect with his teenage son, Jason (Colin Ford). Jason is friends with Frye (Avrad Bernstein). Both are smartass teens, constantly playing pranks. They target a lonely classmate, Ben (Jason Bobo) by creating a fictional girl online who elicits personal information from Ben. The information is posted online with a disastrous aftermath. Ben’s distracted parents (Jason Bateman and Hope Davis) don’t have a clue as to their bullied son’s silent suffering.

Another narrative involves an ambitious TV reporter, Nina (Andrea Riseborough) who does an exposé of teens being exploited for online sex. She goes online with an engaging Kyle (Max Theirot),an underage sex performer. She then exposes the operation, but there are fateful consequences.

All actors in “Disconnect” give fine and sensitive performances. The film is handsomely shot, with many in- your -face closeups. There is an intimate and real tone to the film. That you really “feel” for the actors is a testament to their acting.

All of the incidents in “Disconnected” are initiated either through iPhones, iPads,

or laptops. In each case there are severe consequences for sharing confidences
online. Not only is “Disconnect” a cautionary tale of living online, but
 it is a timely and moving meditation of the modern family. And it’s not “Leave It to Beaver.”

“SPRING BREAKERS”

 

Directed by Harmony Korine

With James Franco, Selena Gomez, Ashley Benson, Vanessa Hudgens,

and Rachel Korine

 

If you think “Spring Breakers” is an empty headed “Beach Blanket Bingo,” you couldn’t be more mistaken.  This film is about audacious as any you have ever seen.  It is a brilliant social commentary about what happens when teens and college kids have too much. 

They are bored with everything, always needing more—including booze, drugs, sex. The counter culture director Harmony Korine shows what happens when having a good time becomes very dangerous.

“Spring Breakers” begins with a sunlit hazy feeling. Four very pretty coeds, Faith (Slenena Gomez), Brit (Ashley Benson), Candy (Vanessa Hudgens) and Cotty (Rachel Korine) have been best friends since grade school. They are making plans to get away from their boring college campus and go to St Petersburg Florida for “Spring Break.”

The girls realize they don’t have enough money to make the trip. They come up with a plan to rob a local diner. They will “pretend it is a video game.” They don black hoods, and screaming, use water pistols and sledge hammers to terrorize the diner’s patrons and grab the money from the register. It was so easy.

Next they arrive in St Petersburg along with thousands of other spring breakers. For the remainder of the movie, all girls are bikini clad, although occasionally some wear no bikinis. Gallons and gallons of booze are drunk, many times through hoses. The drugs and the sex escalate. The music is deafening. The four girls get into trouble and are put in jail (wearing those bikinis). They have no money for bail and think their fun is over.  

But they are observed by Alien (James Franco), a local rapper/drug dealer who bails them out. He is a scary enough looking guy, with dreadlocks, tattoos and silver teeth. He charms them, and asks them to stay with him. Alien offers them the excitement they seek, which includes more drugs, booze, and much more dangerous stuff.

“Spring Breakers” is a hypnotic, sensory experience. Harmony Korman has filmed it in short sequences interspersed with brief flashbacks. It feels like a dream, or perhaps a pastel-colored nightmare. At times music is relentless. You can’t take your eyes of the perfect bodies, the excesses, the mayhem. The tone becomes increasingly ominous as the film progresses.

Mr. Korman’s film both celebrates and mocks the “Spring Break” experience. It is a vivid caricature of a youth culture in which it is cool to be audacious and arrogant, not caring about consequences. The girls throw caution to the wind with chilling results. “Spring Breakers” is a crazy quilt of unabridged hedonism, all in Day Glo colors. Social commentary can be very disturbing, but in this film it is also dazzling.

“Amour”

 

Directed by Michael Haneke

With Jean Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Rivas and Isabelle Huppert

 

“Amour,” directed by Michael Henecke, is not an easy film to watch. It graphically deals with mortality: the indignities and decline of aging. But this unsettling film will affect you emotionally long after you have left the theater. “Amour” has won the Palme d’Or for best picture and at least a dozen more awards, including the Golden Globes.

Anne (Emanuelle Riva) and Georges (Jean Louis Trintignant) are a cultivated octogenarian couple who live in a fine Paris apartment. When the film opens, they are enjoying a concert. They go home, chatting amicably. At breakfast the next morning Anne goes blank for a few minutes. 

Georges doesn’t know what to do, but she soon regains consciousness. They see a doctor. Apparently she suffered a stroke. She then has surgery that leaves her right side paralyzed.

She returns to the apartment in a wheelchair and forcefully demands that George promise he will never ever take her to a hospital again. “Amour” examines the bonds of love between the couple as Anne begins her downward slide.

Georges becomes her caretaker, lovingly helping her to her wheelchair, cooking and cutting her food for her. He is determined to keep his promise to her. Their daughter, Eva ( Isabelle Huppert), a self-absorbed woman, insists he put her in  a “home.” He won’t hear of it. He has no time for his daughter. He is alone in his grief and can only watch as Anne descends to helplessness.

Soon Anne goes from a manual wheelchair to an electric one. Initially there is physical therapy, then nurses, sponge baths, bed sores, and finally diapers. Anne cannot move or speak. She is confined to her bed, undergoing the indecencies that accompany it.

Nearly all of “Amour” is filmed inside the apartment. Mr. Haneke wants us to feel how totally confined Anne and Georges are. The camera lingers on them as they eat, sleep, and bathe. He wants us to feel how onerous everything is to Anne.

Emmanuelle Riva is magnificent as she shows Anne’s initial shame at being helpless to how she struggles to emit sounds to communicate at the very end. She is transformed from an elegant woman to an angry invalid. It is truly remarkable how Ms. Riva captures this decline. 

Jean Louis Trintignant, who is a French film icon, quietly shows Georges’ concern, his frustrations, his bewilderment. He dutifully responds to Anne’s each and every need. There is never a false note in his towering performance.

Director Haneke does not include the background music that might tell the audience how it should feel. The filming is restrained and at times “Amour” feels like a documentary. It makes the viewer regard his or her own humanity. It can be agonizing to watch, but it is a realistic look at what may lie ahead. Things happen to secure people like Georges and Anne and everything changes.

Is it better to die young and quickly or to live a long life then slowly lose your abilities one by one? “Amour” is potent filmmaking about the hardships and often horrors of aging, something usually not addressed in the cinema. This honest and totally unflinching film will make you think.

“Quartet”

 

Directed by Dustin Hoffman

With Maggie Smith, Pauline Collins, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connelly, and Michael Gambon.

 

“Quartet” may deal with the struggles of aging, but it actually turns out to be a celebration of life. This touching and fun film looks at a group of elderly musicians who live in the elegant, but slightly decaying Beecham House situated in the pastoral English countryside. Dustin Hoffman makes his directorial debut with this film, which shows it is never to late to begin a new chapter in life…. for him at age 75 or for his characters.

The storyline is simple. The residents of Beecham House are trying to put a show together, a fund raiser to save their beloved residence, which has fallen on hard times. They are to put on a concert to honor the birthday of Giuseppe Verdi.

Wilfred Bond (Billy Connelly) is an outspoken wit, a flirt, a man who never fails to inject sexual innuendo at any opportunity. Reference is made to a stroke he has suffered. Reginald (Tom Courtenay, his old friend) is a reserved and proper gentleman. The ever-kind and energetic Cecily Robeson (Pauline Collins) loves life, but is beginning to suffer dementia. All three were famed opera singers, but those days are over long ago.

The Beecham house residents are all atwitter because a new resident is arriving. Jean Horton (Maggie Smith), a diva extraordinaire, is surely the most renowned of all of them. A feisty woman of huge ego and an aura of superiority, she refuses to take part in the planned gala performance. Her voice isn’t what it used to be and she has a bad hip. She and the courtly Reginald were once married until she was unfaithful to him. He has never forgiven her. This is the main conflict of “Quartet.” He refuses to acknowledge her and she snubs him.

“Quartet” examines life for the retired Beecham residents years after the applause has ended. The film deals with the unhappy challenges of aging. It seems as if every one of them has an ailment to overcome. Dustin Hoffman makes it all work. Far from being depressing, “Quartet” is fresh and vital. Most characters in the film are, in reality, one-time musicians or singers. They do a terrific job.

Like the “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” “Quartet” is a film that includes senior actors at the top of their game. It is a satisfying and sweet fairytale for seniors. However, younger viewers will also relate to it: They have aging parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles. And the show must go on for all of us. I suppose some viewers may find “Quartet” predictable and the ending too Hollywood. Who cares? I didn’t.

Django Unchained

 

Directed and written by Quentin Tarantino

With Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L Jackson, Kerry

Washington, Don Johnson, Jonah Hill and Quentin Tarantino

 There appear to be two kinds of filmgoers: those who embrace Quentin Tarantino’s

bold and bloody films (as  in Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Inglorious Basterds) and those who simply refuse to watch his films.  For the former, Django Unchained is a Quentin Tartantino entertainment extravaganza, an action /revenge flick par excellence.  Mr Tarantino is a noted aficionado of B movies and spaghetti westerns, and this film pays lavish  tribute to those genres wherein the heros are anti heroes with little respect for social order.   He also has something to say about slavery.

  It is two years before the Civil War, and Dr King Schultz(Christoph Waltz) is a German bounty hunter looking for some stagecoach robber killers.  Django is a slave who happens to know where they are.  He is filthy, in chains, wearing rags.  Dr Shultz buys his freedom and they join forces to find(kill) the bounty hunter’s quarry.  In payment, Dr Shultz Offers to help Django find his wife, Broomhilda, a slave who has learned to speak German—thus the name Broomhilda.  Shultz is a businessman, but he also has a sense of humanity, unlike most of the other players in this film.  He has a distaste for slavery but thinks nothing of cold-bloodedly killing the bad guys for whom he receives bounty.

The film is a simple narrative of Django and Shultz’s bounty hunter partnership and revenge on those who enslaved Django and  Broomhilda.  Because this is a Tarantino film, the violence is over the top as the two ruthlessly kill the ‘bad guys.’  The viewer doesn’t feel bad because ‘they had it coming.’  Geysers of blood abound throughout Django, almost as in a comic strip.  Also, the ‘N’ word is heard constantly, over 100 times.  Remember it was in the 1850’s and that word was in constant use.

It is good versus evil, and the evil is really evil.  You see the relentless brutality used towards the slaves.  So when revenge is exacted, you want to cheer.   You have witnessed what it is like to be somebody’s property, not protected by the law.  One particularly violent Southerner is Calvin Candie(Leonardo DiCaprio) a wealthy plantation owner who watches his slaves fight to the death or perhaps thrown to his dogs to tear apart.

Django is not just an action entertainment.  It is a complex film with a message.  The performances are excellent.  Christoph Waltz is a sublime Dr.Schultz, often subtly moved by emotion.  Jamie Foxx is great as the single minded freed slave who will liberate Broomhilda, no matter what the obstacles which include dozens of Calvin Candie’s henchmen and the formidiable Uncle Tom, Samuel L Jackson, who is the House Slave, for Mr Candie.  Baby faced Leonardo DiCaprio is the quintessential Southern Gentleman, polite and sadistic all at once.

Django has plenty of cruelty, violence, vengeance.  After all, Quentin Tarantino is the unchallanged expert of brazen bloodshed.  There is also a lot of silliness, as when the hooded Klu Klux Klaners can’t get their hoods on straight.  The point to the film is ethically on target.   Slavery was an arrangement full of pain for the servants.  The standoff at the conclusion is astoundingly bloody.  But, remember they had it coming.