Two Movies

I saw The Lion King the other day. The story remained the same as what I remember from all the other versions I've enjoyed, but this time it was the animation that wowed me. This movie has the best animation I've seen in a long time. I am always amazed by what humans can create with technology. I actually got a little stressed when Scar went after Mufasa. Poor little Simba! It is still too scary for my three-year-old grandson, but older kids will love it.

The second half of my movie-double-feature afternoon was Yesterday. This movie was very enjoyable; not because I was a "Beatlemaniac" as a girl, but because I realized again that the Beatles' music is timeless. I put The Beatles channel on SiriusXM to enjoy on the drive home from the theater.

The premise of this movie is that a school teacher played by Himesh Patel wants to be a rock star. His manager played by Lily James is a childhood friend (also a teacher) who has loved him all her life. He sees her as a sister. Who has not been there!

While frustrated by his latest flopped gig, he rides his bicycle home as lights all over the world go out for twelve seconds. The movie does not explain this phenomenon, but when the lights come back on, society has no memory of a few things: The Beatles, cigarettes, Coke and Harry Potter. These little twists that get discovered over the course of the movie are hilarious.

Ed Sheeran has a pretty significant role in this file, and makes the movie even more enjoyable. I highly recommend you see this little-known (as far as I can tell) film. I haven't seen a lot of advertising for it, and I was one of four in the theater. I loved it, and I think you will have fun reliving The Beatles' music, and the entertaining love story surrounding it.

Ricki And The Flash

I know I've said this before, but, is there anything Meryl Streep can't do? She is my age, and is still challenging herself. I love this woman! She is an inspiration. I read that Neil Young taught her to play guitar for this movie, and his name was first on the special credit list. She made playing look easy! Sometimes her voice sounded pure, and at other times raw. I think her voice was stronger in Mama Mia. But she was great in this movie of an aged rock star who left Indiana for Los Angeles; abandoned her husband, played by the so good Kevin Kline, and their three children to pursue her dream of becoming that rock star. "I'm a musician. That's what I am," Ricki declared at her son's wedding to the audience as part of her toast.

This movie touched me in several ways. Ricki declares to the bar audience where her band plays regularly (in a weak moment) that men can follow their dream, screw anybody they want, leave their children, do drugs, and they still sell hit songs. If a woman does that, she's a monster. I agree! There is a double standard. Do I agree that women should abandon their families? No. But this movie also made a good point. What does a woman do? Ricki's husband married Maureen, played by the beautiful and ever understated, Audra McDonald. I loved her in Private Practice. I would also like to see her play a gutsier role sometime. She is so talented. The other thing I was impressed with is that Meryl doesn't seem to get "work" done on herself. Her face showed the wrinkles of a woman in her middle-sixties, and so did her legs. Her legs were big and I noticed what looked like a vericose vein on the shin of one of them. She wore a knee-length dress bought at Goodwill for the wedding. I loved that!

My favorite character of this movie was the bartender. I think he was secretly in love with Ricki, very young, and had a wonderfully infectious personality. The soundtrack is really good and fun. I rocked in my seat much of the movie. The story is touching, disturbing, raw, and provides redemption. It made me feel like no matter what mistakes I made as a mother, my son will still love me. Ricki's children held no punches when they got their chance, but in the end all may not have been forgiven, but the path was certainly laid for forgiveness to grow.

I loved the chemistry between Ricki and her boyfriend, Greg, played by the still gorgeous Rick Springfield. What a face! I don't remember seeing him in a lot of roles, but he was good in this. I also loved watching Meryl's real-life daughter, Mamie Gummer, act with her mother. Their chemistry was fabulous. I bet they worked out of lot of crap in this movie too. I also loved that the suicidal (after her husband of less than a year dumped her for another woman) Julie looked like crap for much of the first part of the movie! I just loved that! It was so real.

I enjoyed this movie very much. I left the theater smiling. I encourage you to go see it...for so many reasons. I admit the flow of the entire story wasn't as clean as I've seen, but I didn't care. I liked it, and I think you will two.

Calling All Dreamers!

Dreamers haven't given up yet. Everyone else has given in to the idea that the world is going to end. Herein lies the premise of this very entertaining movie of hope and promise, Tomorrowland. My "inner child" lives and used to be more optimistic than it has become. This fun movie rebirthed the Dreamer in me; just a little.

Frank Walker, played by the wonderful George Clooney, used to be a Dreamer. In his current state of mind, he has become a paranoid, angry recluse. Casey Newton is a beautiful, young Dreamer, who believes in a promising future. Her father, Eddie Newton, played by the ever-surprising Tim McGraw (who is developing a very nice acting career as well as a successful, on-going singing career), is a NASA engineer on his way out. The father has become discouraged; his daughter has become a bit of an anarchist. As a result, she is arrested for getting caught, once again, sabotaging the dismantling of the space rocket launching site in Cape Canaveral. She has been observed by a mysterious female who leaves an old pin in her motorcycle helmet.

Eddie bails out his daughter, but when she collects her belongings upon release, she claims the pin included there is not hers. When she touches the pin, she is instantly transported to a wonderful place. Hilariously, she continues walking into walls while in this place, because really she is still in her reality. When she is observed doing this, people either laugh or get angry with her. Consequently, she rides her bike, after her motorcycle is taken away, to a huge field to continue her explorations with the pin. But, she turns it over to notice a digital clock counting down. Eventually, the clock runs out, and her adventure begins.

I found this movie fun and very entertaining. There is adventure, action and humor. The special effects are very good, and it is a fun ride. It felt just a little long in the middle, though. I'm not sure what could have been done to change this feeling, but overall, I really enjoyed it. It is a refreshing change from the doom and gloom futuristic movies of late. Oh, by the way, Hugh Laurie of TV's "House" fame is the villain, Nix. An apropos name for a villain, no?

The Age of Adeline

Larry declared this a "chick flick" with a good story. I agree the story is engaging, romantic, improbable, but entertaining. It left me feeling good, and feeling satisfied. Is it perfect? Not really. There are choppy rhythms in the flow of the movie, but overall, I liked it.

Blake Lively is just stunning. Not only does she carry her character, Adeline Bowman, with grace and regality, her performance is elegantly reigned in. Playing a subdued character cannot be easy. But, Blake does it beautifully. I believed her as the Mom of seventy plus-year-old Flemming, played by the wonderful, Ellen Burstyn. Adeline was loving, patient and wise. And, Adeline was tormented by the fate that caused her curious condition of agelessness. I felt her pain.

Flemming convinces her mother to stop running when she meets a perfect love interest, Ellis Jones, played by the gorgeous Michiel Huisman (most recently seen as a warrior on Game of Thrones), her pain was real. Michiel's father played by Harrison Ford was her first love. She ran from him, and now she finds herself coming full circle. No longer haunted by her past where she is an enigma, hunted by the government for study (because as Flemming said, "They're all dead now."), her daughter convinces her there is no need to keep running away. But, Adeline's life has only been about escaping, and she doesn't know how to stay put.

I will warn viewers, who are dog lovers, that there is a scene that will tear your heart out. I sobbed, and so did Larry. But the movie has a happy ending that is satisfying and will make you smile.

"Remember us"

is the only thing Maria Bloch-Bauer Altmann's father asked of her on the last day she hugged them goodbye before leaving Vienna forever for Cologne on her way to a forced new life in America with her young husband, Fredrick "Fritz" Altmann at the beginning of the Nazi occupation of that city. I was so touched by that scene in the movie, I cried right along with Maria, excellently played by the great Helen Mirren. She was held by her attorney nephew, Randol Schoenberg, played very well by Ryan Reynolds, after he won their case against the Austrian government to regain ownership of the famous Klimt portraits of her aunt, Adele Bloch Bauer. This movie is a powerful portrait of love, loss and remembrance.

The Bloch-Bauer family were well-to-do aristocrats living in a beautiful home in Vienna. They supported and entertained many famous artists, including Gustav Klimt. After a modest beginning there and working hard, they amassed a small fortune in beautiful things. When the Nazis occupied Vienna and began persecuting the Jews there, Maria's father, Gustav, an accomplished cellist, tried to pretend life remained normal. He soon regretted ignoring the warning of his brother, Ferdinand, who fled Vienna with his wife, Adele, a week after Maria's wedding to Fritz seeing the figurative writing on the wall of impending Nazi occupation. Denial is truly a powerful thing. The two brothers and their families shared the home in Vienna until that time. Aunt Adele was like a second mother to Maria, who was a timid child that Aunt Adele tried to encourage to be more assertive. "I wonder what being a woman will be like when you are older," she said. "Will you also be required to entertain yourself with trivialities?" (I am paraphrasing this last line.) In the movie, we are led to believe Aunt Adele was not a happy woman even with all her wealth.

Maria, now living in a small apartment in Los Angeles and running a small clothing shop of her own, inherits letters from her sister, Adele, along with the remainder of her belongings. "I must keep the memories alive," she said. These letters led her to believe that she could once again reclaim the Klimt portraits hanging in the Austrian State Gallery (Bellevue Museum in the movie) in Vienna. In fact, we were told that "Woman In Gold" was the Mona Lisa of Austria, and authorities would never give it back. But, in 1998, the Austrian Green Party passed a law for art restitution of works taken from Jewish families by the Nazis. Holding the government to the word of law proved daunting, however, as Maria and Randol discovered.

This movie touched me at a time when I am spending many hours researching my family's history; that of my husband and my son on Ancestry.com. I have been living in the past all week, and then the line was spoken by Gustav Bloch-Bauer to his daughter on the day of her departure from his life, "Remember us." In that moment, I realized I have been wrestling with this idea of living in the past versus the present. So many of us are driven by our past. I have avoided this dilemma because I became "enlightened" and strive to live in "the Now". The past is the past, right?

Back in the last 1970s, I attended the University of New Mexico. In my freshman year, I took a class in Philosophy 101. In it, we learned that the Yoruba tribe of Nigeria believes that nobody dies until the last person who remembers them dies. I'm sure there are many cultural philosophies that believe in this prospect. "Remember us" reminded me that in exploring the history of my family, I am remembering those who came before. Those who came before share genes with me, my husband and my son, and contribute to who we are today. I am remembering them by learning about them, even if it is for the first time. In so doing, I am also honoring them and their memory because my research is causing me to explore facts about events and fashion of each era I discover. And, I think about my own sixty-five years of history.

When Maria Altmann chose to stand toe-to-toe with her ghosts living in Vienna by agreeing to return with Randol to meet with those in charge of her portraits, she was in some way speaking to me to face my own ghosts. I have begun my memoir a hundred times over the past four decades, and each time I face such pain, I quit. This move made me cry partly because maybe it is time for me to stand firm in the face of my own painful memories and put them to rest once and for all.

This move is a must see for everyone. It is a period of WWII, like the movie, The Monuments Men, that introduced me to events I was ignorant about. Instead of all the art and precious memories stolen from all the Jews by Adolph Hitler and his army, this movie focuses on one family's losses and the pain of their personal experience during the war. There was a victory won in this story, that helps heal a small bit of that horrendous time in our human history.

But in my mind, any victory; any justice received is a step towards healing the pain inflicted on us all through the atrocities inflicted on one particular group of our human family. This movie takes one more step towards personalizing one family's painful experience, so that we all can experience a sense of justice and healing at some level. At least, that's what this person took away from this powerful movie.

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

This bittersweet sequel tells as charming a story as the first movie. All the characters returned with the addition of Guy Chambers, played by Richard Gere. He plays a character with a mysterious reason for coming to the hotel. Sonny, played by Dev Patel, claims to have "a nose that knows". His intuition is telling him that Guy is "the guy" being sent by the San Diego-based company Sonny and Muriel (Maggie Smith) solicited for funding to expand their business with a second hotel. Their partnership is much more than a business relationship. They genuinely care for one another, and the chemistry between them is very sweet.

Sonny has big dreams of success, but continues to be threatened by his perceived nemisis, Kushal (Shazad Latif). He sees the ever-charming Kushal as much more charismatic and successful, and when Kushal tries to interject himself into Sonny's dreams and plans, Sonny becomes threatened. He also sees Kushal as someone who can threaten his impending marriage to Sunaina (Tina Desai).

Evelyn (Judi Dench) continues to grow and thrive in Jaipur as the temporary buyer for a fabric company. She is so successful at it, in fact, that she is offered a permanent job with the company, which includes travel. "But I'm seventy-nine years old", she exclaims when offered the position. "We don't care if you don't", is the employer's reply. Not something we would hear in America I think. Her continuing (non)relationship with Douglas (Bill Nighy) is comfortable as is for her, but Douglas has a different perception of it. He sees them as a couple, and genuinely wants their relationship to move forward. He wants her to meet his daughter, for example, but she always finds reasons to avoid commitment with him.

Guy becomes interested in Sonny's mother (Lillete Dubey), and thereby creates a different threat to Sonny's comfort zone of family. He claims to be at the hotel because his wife left him and he decided to write a book about an aging man heading towards the abyss of old age and loneliness. His interest in Mrs. Kapoor also sparks the strong matriarch to question her own life plan, and softens her heart to new possibilities never before considered.

One thing this movie does, as does its predecessor, is demonstrate that getting older provides opportunities for new chapters and beginnings, not endings and the inevitable finale. Getting older breathes new life into lives that if they had not chosen an adventure in India, would certainly have ended in loneliness and misery before death took its grip on each one. It is a sweet story, with rich characters, wonderful acting, and great music. It is not a fast-paced adventure, but a slow and steady portrait of living live to the fullest at any age.

Larry and I gave it "two thumbs up". I hope you see it and enjoy it as much as we did.

Are you coming to the tree?

This movie is Part 1 of the last book in the trilogy. It is the best, according to Larry. He liked it better than the second movie: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire. I liked all three Hunger Games movies, but I agree with Larry: this one has something special. The emotion portrayed is phenomenal. Jennifer Lawrence proves her acting prowess here for sure. In my mind, this series is where her career began. She has done other wonderful characters like Tiffany in Silver Linings Playbook, but Katniss Everdeen is by far the character she will become most famous for. She was wonderful in this movie.

It has been some time since I read all the books, so I didn't remember much of the story. I'm sure the Director, Francis Lawrence (I am Legend and Constantine), took some artistic license with the story, because I don't remember several of the scenes portrayed in the movie as being in the book. That fact didn't matter to me. I said to Larry as we were walking out of the theater, "I think that anyone, even if they haven't read the books or seen the other movies, could appreciate this movie in and of itself." It was that good. It was emotional, as I said, but also exciting, and suspenseful. It had great special effects and scenery. The devastation in District 12, for example, was amazing. Jennifer's acting really carried it.

Now, that said, I am not demeaning the subtle portrayal by Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne, who was both believable and relatable. Of course, Peeta Mellark played by Josh Hutcherson was also very good. I love an actor who can cry what looks like real tears. Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy and Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket were also very good. Julianne Moore as President Alma Coin of District 13 was also good. Philip Seymour Hoffman was his usual great character as Plutarch Heavensbee. There was a special memorial tribute to him in the credits, so I am assuming this was one if not the last role of his career. The acting throughout the movie was great. It is a VERY entertaining movie, and its two hours flew by. It ended in a very good place and set us up nicely for Part 2. I cannot wait for the last movie of the series. I know what happens, but that doesn't matter. I love seeing what Hollywood does with a story.

Ah, by far the biggest surprise of this movie was discovering that Jennifer Lawrence can SING! She sang "The Hanging Tree" anthem, and did a wonderful job of it. Her voice is a bit gritty, but right on note. I was very impressed. And, the movie's theme song by Lorde, Yellow Flicker Beat, was really, really good.

By all means, go see this movie! You will want to go read the books or see the other movies if you haven't imbibed in the series yet. It's not just for tweens. The premise insights my rebel self. I love that.

Oh, before I forget (and last but not by any means least), Donald Sutherland plays a great evil dictator as President Snow. Love the white rose motif. He has come so far from the movie, Mash, as Hawkeye Pearce. My oh my.

"The Hanging Tree"

This song was taught to Katniss Everdeen by her father, Mr. Everdeen, when she was young. Her mother, Mrs. Everdeen heard her singing the song and watched Prim making necklaces of rope to go with it with Katniss. Fearful, Mrs. Everdeen yelled at Mr. Everdeen, who told Katniss to forget the song lyrics. This caused Katniss to run into the meadow under a tree crying, and of course remembered every word of the song. After Mr. Everdeen's death, the song played itself over and over in Katniss's head. When she was younger she didn't know what it meant, but eventually she understood that the person singing the song was a dead man calling for his lover to come join him in death. Before her mother banned it, Katniss and Prim made rope necklaces like in the song. It meant that a life of torture must have not been worth living. At one point in revelation, Katniss really understands what this means, because she knows that being tortured by the Capitol is a much worse fate than death. Katniss sings this to Pollux after she plays with the mockingjays, which brought him to tears. This song is mentioned many times throughout Mockingjay. An official version has been recorded for Mockingjay Part 1.
Are you, Are you
Coming to the tree
Where they strung up a man they say murdered three
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree
Are you, Are you
Coming to the tree
Where the dead man called out for his love to flee
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree
Are you, Are you
Coming to the tree
Where I told you to run, so we'd both be free
Strange things did happen here
No stranger would it be
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree.
Are you, Are you
Coming to the tree
Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me.
Strange things did happen here,
No stranger would it be,
If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree.

"It's the best job I ever had."

If you want to see how gritty, dirty and painful war is, Fury is the movie to see. It is the most realistic war movie since Saving Private Ryan, and is the first movie I've seen that portrays tank warfare. It did not glorify or romanticize war, but in a way the latter was depicted through soldier comradery. The quote I used as my title was said by each soldier in turn with a sweet smile of contentment. It is a deeply disturbing movie. The acting is impeccable. Is there any part Brad Pitt cannot nail?

Portraying a tough, seasoned Sargent and leader of the tank named, Fury, who began WWII in Africa, "Wardaddy" Collier snuck off regularly to feel the pain war brought to his heart and mind. He only took a minute or so each time, but I was impressed that Director, David Ayer (Training Day and Fast and Furious), brought this painful reflection to his character. Sargent Collier was a proven leader, who was tough as nails and a survivor.

Everybody got a "war name". The youngest recruit to join Fury's team, Norman played by Logan Lerman, was "trained to type 60wpm", not mow down Nazis. He was thrown from the frying pan into the fire, as the young kid only in the Army eight weeks before finding himself replacing a killed Fury gunner. He finally got his war name after we watched him transform from that sweet, idyllic kid into a killing "Machine". He could have been anybody's son nowadays. His transformation was so painful to witness.

Shia LaBeouf played "Bible" Swan. He was a southern boy who was raised with his Bible. He quoted from it often, and prayed with dying soldiers on the field. God was on his side and protected them all. He was the proverbial "Soldier for God". He did a great job with this role. I read in People magazine recently that Mr. LaBeouf has been experiencing emotional and psychological problems of late, so this very emotional role seemed perfect. Either that or it threw him over the edge.

I thought of men I knew who experienced war while watching this film: my father, my grandfather, my son's father and friends, and realized why those men rarely talked about their experiences. I met returning Vietnam solders who were purported to wear necklaces of enemy ears over there, and this movie helped show me how that happens to a person. A seemingly normal person enters the military, and war brings out the animal that lies within. I somehow understood their need to damage nice things; steal, victimize weaker personalities, abuse one another and yell a lot. That animal can get out of control in an environment without any controls. There are regulations, but in this movie everybody was always on their own.

This is a very well acted movie that I am having a hard time shaking off. Nobody needs to become the war machine we call "soldier", but in this movie, soldiers create a bond with one another that is almost enviable. I just wish that bond could once and for all be created around some activity that did not involve killing.

This is definitely a big screen movie. It is intense and fast paced from the get go. One saving grace is the mild interlude in the middle. You'll just have to see it to find out what I'm talking about.

Unbroken

On Christmas Day, Unbroken will be released. It is a new movie, directed by Angelina Jolie, about the book of the same title authored by Laura Hillenbrand. Larry and I listened to the audio book on our most recent trip down to SC. We often listen to audio books on our long road trips now. These books turn the mundane driving into something else entirely. Unbroken is a true, but heart-wrenching story of Louis Zamparini, an Olympic runner turned POW.

It is a story of survival and resilience. It will make a great movie. I think with Angelina Jolie directing it, she will likely graphically depict the truth of what happened to Zamparini. It will be as difficult to watch as it was to hear, I am sure. But, it is a story well worth telling, and we can't wait to go see it.

The Hundred Foot Journey

My mouth is still watering a day after viewing this lovely film. I felt like I was insulting the gift of food with the dinner Larry and I ate out last night after this movie. The cinematography was just beautiful, as were the people in it. I want to go to France and visit this restaurant in the beautiful village of Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val, Tarn-et-Garonne, France. Realistically, Larry and I couldn't figure out how a restaurant so far outside the village could be such a success, but that's what going to the movies is all about: leaving reality. I'd love to know if the property depicted in the film really exists.

After leaving their beloved India, the Kadam family find themselves outside a lovely village in France. They luckily avoid a potentially fatal car accident after brakes in the family car fail, and Papa (lovingly played by Om Puri) swerves to avoid hitting a large tractor on a one-lane dirt road. The road lay above the picturesque village in a valley nestled in the Pyrenees mountains of southern France. As the family engages with people they meet there, words of Papa's deceased wife come back, "Brakes break for a reason." Destiny, and Mama, brought them to this village.

As they are being towed into the village, Papa spies a run-down property for sale. At dawn the next morning, he walks back to look at the property with his now grown son stalking behind him. This son is "just a cook", according to his own definition of himself. He learned flavors from his Mama, who was the cook in the family's restaurant in Mumbai, India. One of my favorite opening scenes, is Mama pulling her young son along a very crowded market street chasing a man carrying a basket of sea urchins on his head. She, along with many other people, are shoving money in the man's face to buy his entire supply of urchins. While they are all yelling in his face, the scene quiets down as he watches the young boy pick one up, smell it lovingly, then tastes the fruit of the urchin like it was manna from Heaven. The boy's face is so at peace with his eyes closed and his mouth savoring the delicacy before him. The man yells for everyone to be quiet and says, "For the boy who has it." He meant "it" to be the gift of food appreciation. And so, our cook in time becomes a chef.

The property he insists he will buy when his children think he's crazy (because it is his and Mama's money; not the childrens') , sits across the road from a very upscale restaurant run by the widowed Madame Mallory, played by none other than Helen Mirren. Who doesn't love her? The previous property owners, who also ran a restaurant, left town because they were intimidated by Madame Mallory's single Michelin Star rating. "A single star means you are good. Two stars means you are excellent. But attaining three stars means you are one with the gods."(I am paraphrasing a line from the movie here.) The goal of every French restaurant is to receive at least two stars. Madame Mallory's restaurant serves fine French traditional cuisine.

The Kadam family opens an Indian restaurant across the road, but finds it difficult to bring in customers. Papa's children are always embarrassed at his behavior. "This is not India. You can't stand out front and coax people in!" they yell at him. But, Papa, knows theatrics help with marketing, so after creating a wooden entrance feature that looks like a palace in India, he decides to dress in traditional golden clothes, complete with turbin, and captures his first customers by scooping up their little dog, talking sweetly, and acting like he was bringing them into his home. This tactic became successful, and in a short time, the restaurant was getting customers. His success was much to the dismay of Madame Mallory, who made it her mission to find every ordinance violation he was making and filing formal complaints against him and the restaurant.

Meanwhile, her head chef was getting more and more angry at "the curry smell everywhere. It is an insult to the senses!" he yells as he slams the kitchen window. Madame Mallory called her chef a soldier, and I think he took this as a "hint" to take matters into his own hands to get those rabble out of town. She finds out what he has instigated and fires him on the spot. Her heart softens towards the Indians across the road, and in the rain walks over to wash off the graffiti painted on their stone wall. Papa comes out and sees her. Their eyes meet, and he hands her an umbrella. Thus begins a most unlikely friendship.

Love and compatibility of cultures, food and personalities is what this movie depicts in a gorgeous setting. The young son, Hassan (played by the incredibly handsome, Manish Dayal. His eyes just kill me. What a face!), befriends Madame Mallory's Sous-Chef, the beautiful Marguerite, played by Charlotte Le Bon. He asks her advice about softening hard corn, and how she became professionally trained as a chef. He asks her if there is a book he can read, and she gifts him some, which he studies every night. Cooking is his passion, and eventually his true gift is revealed. But, "be careful what you wish for" is another theme of the movie. There is loneliness at the top, as Hassan discovers. Being the best is not enough in life if you have no one to share it with.

We loved this movie. It was a sweet love story, that was beautifully shot. The food introduced made my mouth water, and also made me want to follow a recipe once in a while, just to shake things up.
I think it is the perfect date move. This was also the first collaboration between Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey. They should do more of this. Great job.

Gravity

Opening scene: beautiful view of earth from space and....silence. Slowly, from the side you think you hear something, then it gets louder and a littler louder and...

This is a wild ride of a movie. It is chock full of excitement, suspense and beauty. IMAX makes you feel like you are floating outside the Hubble Space Telescope while Dr. Ryan Stone, played by Sandra Bullock tries to figure out why NASA isn't receiving her data downloads. Matt Kowalski (the ever-cool George Clooney) is on his last mission and is trying to beat the space walk record using a new jet pack and shows how fun it would be to fly around in space with the Earth as his backdrop. Soon, all hell breaks looks and off we go!

Larry had fun picking on the technical impossibilities or improbabilities, but we quickly decided picking it apart isn't worth it because the experience is so well done anyway. I could feel the desperation in Dr. Stone's voice as she tumbles helplessly ass over tea kettle off towards the stars. The umpf's heard as she hits and misses grabbing onto something to attach to space vehicles and keeping from reaching for that bar myself with 3D believability was great. I particularly loved watching tear drops float off her face toward mine and flames floating inside the Soyuz space shuttle as wiring catches fire. This film has humor, fear, sadness and acceptance of one's doomed fate all wrapped up in a beautiful package that leaves me wondering how they did that.

One thing I could have done without are the crotch shots of Ms. Bullock. Really? She's skinny, but we didn't need those...at all.

It is so fun, you just have to go see it. Don't miss the opportunity to watch in 3D IMAX either. You'll be glad you did.

Elysium

Before I say anything about this action-packed futurama portraying the seeming inevitable human destruction of planet earth, once again, I have to state, "I am getting sick of these stories!" Human beings have been fighting for centuries to make this planet a better place to live, right? Tree huggers of every generation have fought our most greedy selves to keep forests green and the oceans blue-green. Haven't we? New age gurus keep proselytizing about "living our best lives" and "being our highest selves", but film makers and television producers keep making films and programs about earth's destruction and the human will to survive it. I guess "peace, love and joy" don't sell tickets. That's our fault. 'Nuf said.

Elysium is just that: action packed, and portrays humans at their most selfish and most courageous. Matt Damon plays Max, a "bad boy" with a reputation in 2154 Los Angeles, trying to go straight and make a better life for himself. He grew up in an orphanage run by nuns, and was told by one nun that he was born for something very special. There he meets Frey, played by Alice Braga, and the two become fast friends and life-long "soul mates". Frey draws M+F with a circle over it on Max's hand before she leaves the orphanage. Max, we find out, has that drawing tatooed on his arm to remind him of his only love for the rest of his life. The best part of this movie for me was Matt Damon's abs and the tattoos all over his buff body. Sweat is forming on my top lip just thinking about it.

Jodi Foster plays Delacourt, head of security on the space station, Elysium, that sits majestically over Los Angeles as a symbol of the rich and privileged. On Elysium, the future 1% live in complete luxury with every disease easily curable. Ms. Foster is ruthless and lusts for power to control the station, like a mother wolf protects her young: with stealth and viciousness. She shoots down any shuttle from earth trying to invade Elysium's air space without blinking an eye, while kissing babies and "holding court". The President is just in her way, and after being threatened and shown her "place", she aptly shows him his.

But, Delacourt cavorts with depravity as a means to her greedy and powerful end by purchasing the services of Kruger, a sick and dangerous man, who will kill anything for a buck. Kruger is not stupid, and he is very powerful. He is a match for both the have's and have-not characters in this dark film.

But, the light comes in Max, who ultimately sacrifices himself for love, and brings about a happy ending. I love happy endings, but this movie left me wanting. It was a disappointment, and unless you have to see fights and on the big screen, I'd wait to see it free in the comfort of your living room.

"The room should feel empty when you're in it."

This line proved to be a great lesson for Cecil Gaines, impressively portrayed by Forest Whitaker, when he became a "house niggah" for the first time in Macon, Georgia. Cecil was raised in a cotton field and witnessed his mother's rape and the white son who raped her shoot his father in the head when the boy Cecil yelled to his father, "Daddy, what you gonna do?" His father turned to the white master as he was pulling up his suspenders and yelled, "Hey!" The white man turned, pulled his pistol and shot him right in the head. The white rapist's mother, played by Vanessa Redgrave told Cecil as he crouched over his dead father's body, "Stop crying. I'm gonna make you a house niggah." Turns out this was the greatest career training she could have provided the boy. The title line was years later told to him as instruction for being a butler in the White House. Lee Daniels' The Butler is a wonderful work.

Cecil was butler to eight presidents and is based on a true story. The makeup work in this movie to not only age Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey, but to make great stars resemble the presidents they portrayed from Robin Williams as Dwight D. Eisenhower to Alan Rickman as Ronald Reagan was impeccable and deserves an Oscar nod as well. Personalities of presidents were subtly presented in the form of how they gave campaign buttons to the help. Nixon threw his buttons on the pastry board  as the butler staff were making dough, asking them to have their people vote for him. Lyndon Johson personally presented his tie clasp to Cecil saying he and his wife thought it matched the color of his eyes. I always wonder how much fact is in a movie like this versus fiction to create the story. This story is very powerful.

Not only did the movie hit on all the major events of the civil rights movement: college students eating in a white only section of the lunch counter and "Bloody Sunday", it mirrored events happening in America with more intimate discrimination in the White House itself. Every president was portrayed to abhor the violence being perpetrated against blacks in America, yet the black staff in our most famous house were payed less than white staff and not allowed to promote. In the scene with Nixon in the pantry kitchen, then Vice President running for election to be President,  the inequities were reluctantly raised by one butler played by Lenny Kravitz, but ignored once Nixon got into office. Cecil ultimately took up this gauntlet through the years he worked there, but was ignored until he dared raise it with President Reagan directly, which got the White House Engineer fired. The satisfaction of Cecil's victory by the smile on Cecil's face as he personally informed the Engineer was priceless.

Cecil's oldest son was embarrassed by his father's occupation because he became a life-long protestor, who hung around with Martin Luther King and became a Black Panther. He went to college in Tennessee and met his first love who brought him to his first protest meeting where they joined others to sit at the lunch counter and get beaten and arrested for the first time. His father grew more angry with time at his son's insurrections and seeming disrespect, and it wasn't until long after his youngest son was killed in Vietnam and protests began against Apartheid, that Cecil realized his son was not a trouble-maker but a hero, who was "creating the soul of the country". Both father and son learned powerful lessons about what it meant to be a black American: one who conforms to make life better, and one who fights for the same goal.

If Oprah Winfrey doesn't get an Oscar for her performance as Cecil's wife, Gloria, I will be very surprised. Both Mr. Whitaker and Ms. Winfrey's performances were perfect. Gloria began as the proud wife turned frustrated, lonely adulterer as Cecil's White House duties kept him away from home most of the time. Gloria learned to hate the White House, and resented that Cecil never made good on his promise to take her there to visit. She ultimately got there when Nancy Reagan chose to honor Cecil for his years of service by inviting him with his wife to a State Dinner as guests. This evening proved to become a turning point for Cecil. He had always been proud and happy to be of service, but in his old age and after that dinner, he didn't know his place anymore, and it confused him. I remember working with a black woman in a day care center in Shreveport, Louisiana in 1978 and having my first racial discussion with a black from the south. She said to me, "You Yankees think we're so discriminated against and abused here in the South, but look at what's happening in Boston with that busing business. Y'all just don't know your place. If you knew your place, you'd get along just fine." I didn't know what to say to this, but Cecil echoed the sentiment in this movie.

I was moved to tears by this film. It is powerful and beautifully acted. The politics are poignant and "spot on", but portrayed in a slightly different way than other films about the fight for civil rights in America. My heart ached to know I lived through those times, and once again made me wonder: What would I fight and die for? You'll be disappointed on Oscar night if you didn't see this film, so you can root for it to win Best Picture.

The Sapphires

A friend who had been reading my reviews suggested I see this film and tell everyone what I thought. It's not a film that's out in theaters, and is not easy to find. I couldn't find it. Then, as I relaxed on this quiet Sunday afternoon while channel-surfing, there it was! The theme is reminiscent of The Commitments, except it highlights aboriginal politics instead of Ireland. I traveled to Australia in 2001 and while in "The Center", my then fiance and I visited the Aboriginal Cultural Center. We  read about the heartbreaking story of a race of people purported to be the lowest form of black person. It's hard to believe, but in The Sapphires, a cousin is called "a black dog" by a dying soldier hell bent on keeping her filthy hands off his bleeding-out body in 1968 Vietnam. This was the most heart-wrenching scene of the movie in my opinion.

The story begins in Australia at a remote mission where aborigines are forced to live. Four young girls sing for their family and friends with dreams of making it big someday. Their mother has the voice of an angel, and there is one special hymn she enjoys hearing them sing often. The older girls enter a town talent contest, while the youngest goes against her mother and sings with her sisters. The contest is run by whites, and when the aboriginal girls are the clear winner, the prize is given to a no-talent white girl instead. The host of the contest, Dave Lovelace, played by Chris O'Dowd is wowed by the girls' talent. They sang a song by Merl Haggard, and he just can't see black girls singing Country and Western. "You should be singing Soul," he screams as he breaks out into a rendition of a song by The Supremes. Not really. I just couldn't remember the song he sang. But, Dave was a self-subscribed soul music afficionado. And he knew talent when he saw it.

He was fired by the white woman in charge, who he obviously had a fling with (he made her feel like a teenager again), and became the manager for The Sapphires after securing them an audition to perform for the troops in Saigon and elsewhere in Vietnam. Dave is a drunk and a loser, but he threw himself into the role of manager. I love Chris O'Dowd. Have you seen Family Tree on HBO yet? Chris is fabulous. In Sapphires, he hones the girls into a great act and they become the talk of the Vietnam entertainment circuit.

The girls learn about love and forgiveness along the way. The music is very good (not quite of the caliber of Commitments in that I wouldn't buy the soundtrack), but the singing was excellent and the girls were really good. A cousin, Kay, who was taken from her people because she looked more white than black was strongly resented by the eldest of the group, Gail. Dave told her she was always angry because she was the "Mama Bird". We discover it was Gail's job to protect Kay, and when she was taken and lived the white ways, Gail hated her. But, after their tour abroad, Kay went back to the mission and was blessed back into the tribe by the elder grandmother, and Gail was the only sister present for this special cleansing ceremony. It was a very touching moment and I found it extremely emotionally moving.

As the credits rolled, I was smiling and felt uplifted. It's worth watching

P.S. I woke up this morning with this movie still in my head. I realized I didn't even acknowledge the aboriginal actors, especially Deborah Mailman who played Gail. Did I subconsciously adopt the attitude that these actors weren't worth acknowledging because of who they are and who cares anyway because nobody's ever heard of them? I certainly hope not. At any rate, Ms. Mailman's face stayed with me this morning. She has an unforgettable face and her acting in this film was perfect. She had grit, as in John Wayne's "Grit". She was tough with a gooey inside; wrapped in pain but healed by Love. Actually, she reminds me of the actress on Hawthorne (Jada Pinkett Smith's nurse show), Suleka Mathew. By the way, this film was based on a true story. Another important fact I left out. Geez, what kind of a reviewer am I really? Anyway, watch it and enjoy. Thanks for reading.