Author: stumberry

Genre: Film

Grade: A

Notable People: Cate Blanchet, Rooney Mara, Directed by Todd Haynes

Title: Carol

Review: This a wonderful film about two women in love I the forbidden 50s. Blanchet and Mara sparkle together- incredible chemistry. Mara is luminous as the young, naive woman who can’t say no. Blanchet is haunted as a repressed lesbian trying to maintain a foothold in the traditional world of the era. Magnificently shot, with enormous attention to detail of the times. The first half of the movie dragged a bit, but once it captured you, it did not let go. I really loved this film.

Genre: Film

Grade: A

Notable People: Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Jim Broadbent. Directed by: John Crowley

Title: Brooklyn

Review: This is an absolutely beautiful movie in every way conceivable. In early 1950’s young Irish girl, sponsored by the far away benevolent priest, comes to America form Ireland to find a better life, settling in the large Irish community in Brooklyn. This is the story of her transition, of grief and endings and beginnings, and falling in love..…filled with poignant moments that are so clearly life defining for those in them. I just loved this movie. Ronan is stunning in the lead role, Cohen is just right and Broadbent is a throwback to the priests of 1940s Hollywood. Beautifully shot, both in Brooklyn and Ireland, attention to all the details of 1952 life. Wonderful!

Genre: Film

Grade: A-
Notable People: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason-Leigh, Walton Goggins, Directed by: Quentin Tarentino
Title: The Hateful Eight

Review: My, my , my…it’s the new Tarantino. The man is utterly outrageous- a non-stop ride for almost three hours. This nod to classic westerns takes place for a bit inside a stagecoach and then the rest is all in a one room cabin (Minnie’s’ Haberdashery!) with 8-9 people inside in a blizzard (listen to that wind blow throughout the film). You get the usual flashback stuff, vice-overs, hidden surprises, and philosophical rambling psychopaths. There are also the great long narrative- monologue stories- in this case presented by Jackson. Russell does a pretty good job channeling John Wayne and Jackson is in his element. Leigh gives a great portrayal of a crazy woman going to get hung and defying everything with a snarl and a snicker. I cannot but like every film this man puts out (this is his eigth)- but I did not think this ranked with one of his best- I got a little fidgety in the middle parts…but it typically ended with bang. You know you’re going to see this- so got out and do it.

Genre: Film

Grade: B
Notable People: Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, Directed by Adam McKay
Title: The Big Short

Review: Illuminating film about the bust of the housing bubble and the subsequent financial collapse of 2008. Fascinating look at the people who predicted this would happen and how they profited from it…and pretty damning about the big banks and government having their heads up their arses and/or powder up their noses. I found the film very disturbingly informative but VERY dry- almost like a funny documentary with a lot of weird artistic flourishes. The ensemble cast is good, but I was not moved in any way by it. I’d wait to see on Netflix or such.

Genre: Film

Grade: B+
Notable People: Directed by and starring Russell Crowe, Olga Kurylenko, many Turkish actors
Title: The Water Diviner

Review: This was second movie we watched on all day flight to Hawaii and a surprisingly good one. I am not a big Crowe fan but he is undeniably good in this film about a grieving father in Australia trying to bring back his lost three sons’ bodies from the Battle of Gallipoli. Great cinematography, wonderful period costumes and flourishes and an intriguing story. Kurylenko is a ravishing Turkish beauty and her interactions with Crowe are riveting. The story is a bit of a tear- jerker, but well done nonetheless. A good one to rent.

Genre: Film

Grade: A-/B+

Notable People: Tom Hanks, Alan Alda, Amy Ryan, Mark Rylance, Directed by Steven Spielberg

Title: Bridge of Spies

Review: This is real biography and one of three films we watched on our exhaustive flight to Hawaii. Not only directed by Spielberg, but produced and co-written by the Coen brothers, it is bit of a surprise for their resumes. Still, a well done film about late 50’s cold war antics between Russia and the U.S. with the closing down of Berlin and the erecting of The Wall as a backdrop. Hanks is his usual steady but magnificent self and Ryan is really understated as the committed Eisenhower era American housewife. Rylance is a revelation as the Soviet spy- very coyly played and a lot more subtly complicated than he might have been . The simmering tensions underlying the time are well done….see the scene with Hanks son filling up the bathtub to deal with the potential nuclear attack he hears about in school each day. This was a very good in-flight movie and worth seeing at the cinema.