For the Cause [2013]

MPAA (UR would be PG-13 / R)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing

For the Cause [2013] (written and directed by native Chicagoan Katherine Nero) had its premiere recently at Chicago's 19th Annual Black Harvest Film Festival held at the Gene Siskel Film Center.

Readers of my blog will certainly note that I've come to enjoy the calendar of film festivals held here over the course of the year in our fair city.  After a while, one also gets a sense of the relative sizes of audiences that attend these film festivals.  So here I do wish to note that perhaps since (1) Katherine Nero, the film's director is from Chicago, (2) she filmed the movie during the course of the previous summer on Chicago's South Side and (3) most of the actors/actresses were recruited from Chicago, that though the film's themes are serious and definitely transcend Chicago and I would argue even the United States (see below) the showing of the movie to a packed mostly African American audience at this film festival in Chicago dedicated to African-American Cinema had a cheerful "hometown feel" to it.  Indeed, before the showing of the film, a smiling, cheerfully dressed Ms Nero, happily acknowledged the presence of a good number of similarly cheerful attendees to the screening from her Church as well as others who had been her sorority sisters during her college days. Yet the cheeriness belies the depth and multifaceted challenge of this film...

So what is it about?  It is about a young professional African American woman named Mirai M. Scott (played by Charlette Speigner) a lawyer working for a firm specializing in cases of African-American prisoners who had been incarcerated (either found guilty on bad/tainted evidence or forced to take plea deals) for crimes that they did not commit; her parents Fredi Scott (played by Shariba Rivers) now a university Professor presumably in history or political science and Rolly Spencer (played by Eugene Parker) who jumped bail / fled the country to Canada (Windsor, Ontario) in the early 1970s when Mirai was a young child due to his involvement locally (in Chicago) with the Black Panther Party; and then Mirai's boyfriend Paul Godfrey (played by Jerod Haynes) also a young African American professional (though more of an accountant/businessman) and his parents Harry and Claudia Godfrey (played by Anthony Lemay and Pam Mack respectively).

Present in this mix are two African American families who have largely "made it" in recent decades having achieved upper-middle class / professional status but who arrived at this point by different (if interrelated) means.

It's obvious in the film that Mirai's family was more "politically conscious" than Paul's but it also carries the scars of its past radical political involvement: Rolly had to flee the country (and though he apparently had started a new family out in Windsor he apparently never achieved the status/economic security of any of the others).  Further, the circumstances of Rolly's departure also caused obvious hardship/pain to both Mirai and Fredi.  (He comes back into their lives after being extradited, decades after the fact, to the United States from Canada and asks his daughter to defend him at trial ...).  Indeed throughout much of the film, Fredi seemed more angry at Rolly for abandoning them than at the circumstances that appeared to drive him to do so.

In contrast, the Paul's family appeared to be simply a happy and relatively successful contemporary African American family.  They didn't seem to have been particularly involved in ANYTHING during the Civil Rights Era (or in more radical language, the Black Liberation Era) of the 1950s-70s, even if they certainly benefited from its gains.  On one hand one could certainly be resentful of them: What did they do?  What sacrifices did they make?   BUT THIS IS ONE ASPECT OF THE FILM THAT MAKES IT MORE UNIVERSAL THAN ONE WOULD INITIALLY THINK: Maybe Paul's family was not OUT THERE, MORE COMBATIVE, INDEED MORE MILITANT, but IT WAS ALSO MORE "NORMAL." 

I think of my Slavic background and the famous scene in Dr. Zhivago [1965 IMDb] where the Radical (and still basically good guy) Strelnikov explains to the initially far wealthier/far better connected Dr. Zhivago (and clearly also a good guy, indeed the central protagonist of that story) of all the plans that he and the Party have for Russia and asks him what his (Zhivago's) part will be in these Grand Plans.  Noting the extensive "surgery" that Strelnikov was presenting to him, the Dr. Zhivago answers that he just plans "to live so that the patient (Russia) does not die."

How often across the course of my life have I heard people from often disparate but always ABNORMAL political situations -- folks from my parents' Czechoslovakia during the Communist Era, Catholics from Northern Ireland during "the Troubles," refugees from present day Iran, Coptic Christian refugees from Egypt, Israelis often survivors (often now children of survivors) of the Holocaust tired of living in a constant struggle to simply exist, Palestinian companions of mine in Grad school seething with anger as they recalled what it was like to spend hours passing through 2-3 Israeli checkpoints on a road and in a part of the West Bank that EVERYBODY agrees will one day go back to Palestinian control anyway -- all yearning to "just live a normal life," where one could "just worry" about educating the kids, being both a good spouse and happy in one's marriage, and (for those who are religious) to "live in peace with God the Creator of All." 

But what if one doesn't live in "normal" circumstances?  Be it in Franco's Spain or being African American in the United States.  And SELF-EVIDENTLY from the arrival of the first African slaves (in chains...) on American shores, the experience of African Americans has been marked by Radical Injustice.  And while we may look back today and consider NOW the success of the African American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s-1960s led by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. a foregone conclusion, (1) we also know now that (for instance) then US FBI director J. Edgar Hoover seemed hell-bent on destroying Martin Luther King, Jr and (2) the more radical alternatives offered by the Black Muslims (Nation of Islam) and, yes, the Black Panthers did much to help the white (and arguably WASP) establishment in this country "see the wisdom" of bending to the still peaceful, still praying, movement of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and the SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE.

This is all to say that Paul's happy and quite successful family owed its tranquility and happiness in good part to the sacrifices of Mirai's family.  And to my white readers, who might find terrifying/utterly incomprehensible even the possibility of even partly justifying the actions/existence of the Black Panther Party in the African American neighborhoods of America's cities in the 1960s-70s, I ask you to just take a few steps back.  There isn't that big of a difference between what the Black Panther Party was trying to do in the African American neighborhoods of American cities and what the ANC was actually able to do in the townships of Apartheid era South Africa or the IRA was able to do in Belfast, Northern Ireland.   In each case, peoples who experienced/perceived themselves to be oppressed had been "policed" by police/security forces overwhelmingly composed of their experienced/perceived oppressors: in the case of Apartheid era South Africa by white dominated security forces, in the case of Northern Ireland by an effectively ALL-PROTESTANT regional police force the Royal Ulster Constabulary (R.U.C.) and in American cities in the 1960s by still-overwhelmingly white urban police forces.  It was IMHO an extremely wise decision by America's cities to move to integrate their police forces -- I write this working in a parish with a good deal of police officers, both white and Hispanic, as parishioners -- because police forces that come from the same backgrounds as the people they are policing are instantly more credible to the people they are policing than people who come from elsewhere...

Very good.  So a good part of the story in this film takes place in the context of this backdrop:  Yes, some African American families have in recent decades "made it" into the upper middle / professional class, but ... On the one hand are they appreciative of the sacrifices made by others, "foot soldiers" as it were, to make their success possible?  And on the other hand, what of the lingering wounds often psychological/social of those who did sacrifice themselves so that others could succeed / achieve greater happiness in a more just society?  HOWEVER, this is actually ONLY ASPECT of this very thoughtful film, arguably its backdrop.

The OTHER IMPORTANT PART of the film BECOMES APPARENT as it progressively reveals to us viewers why Mirai's parents had their falling out.  On the surface, it would seem that Mirai's father Rolly really didn't have much of a choice but to jump bail and flee the country after being involved in an incident that ended-up wounding a Chicago Police Officer.  So why was her mother Fredi so upset with him?  This becomes the second half of the movie...

To those who do wish to see the movie, which I imagine will play other African American film festivals across the country in the coming year and will probably become available at some point on iTunes or Amazon Instant Video, I give a BIG SPOILER ALERT NOW.  However, for those who probably won't see the movie but have found its subject matter thusfar interesting, this is what happens:

The reason why Mirai's mother is so upset at Rolly is NOT because he abandoned her / Mirai by fleeing to Canada but rather that he abandoned her EVEN BEFORE by allowing her to be raped by several others belonging to the Black Panther group to which they belonged: "You let them run a train on me!" she yells at him at one point.

THIS IS THE SECOND ASPECT OF THE FILM with a MORE UNIVERSAL DIMENSION to the story than one would initially expect.  In recent years, SEVERAL MOVIES have confronted the topic of the abuse of women in times of conflict often by men who had been trusted/friends before the conflict and/or were often lionized as "heroes" in the initial histories written afterwards.

I'm thinking here of two movies in particular.  The first is Defiance [2008] which was about the otherwise heroic exploits of the Jewish partisans led by the Bielski brothers in Nazi occupied Byelorussia.  Heroes in a sense they were, but both the film and the original book on which it was based (which was written by a Jewish woman historian named Nechama Tec) made it clear that from the perspective of the women in the Bielski brothers' partisan group, they didn't exactly feel "free."  Most of the women had to "cut deals" with men in the band, serving them as "forest wives" in return for protection against other men in the group.   The second film is the one directed recently by Angelina Jolie named In the Land of Blood and Honey [2011]. That film was about the systematic abuse/rape of women during the Bosnian War in former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, a situation that was personalized by a couple, she a Bosnian (Muslim), he a Serb, that knew each other casually before the war but progressively entered into a radically unequal relationship during it.  Yes, he "saved her" (and even arguably liked her and tried to be nice to her) but ...

This film, For the Cause [2013] whose title takes on an ironic quality, is a third film that confronts this subject.  Indeed, after this terribly painful secret is revealed, the whole of Mirai's mother's life begins to make sense.  She remains a radical.  Yet she devotes her life to studying and writing about the abuse of women (both in Bosnia and Rwanda and then across Africa).  One understands her and indeed the message of the film: Justice requires Justice across the board.  And in our day and age this means Justice for Women.  It's becoming increasingly hard to justify lionizing "Freedom Fighters" who end up abusing women.

This is film that truly carries a punch.  Good job!


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The Spectacular Now [2013]

MPAA (R)  Roger Ebert (4 Stars)  AVClub (B)  Fr. Dennis (4 Stars)

IMDb listing
Roger Ebert's review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review

The Spectacular Now [2013] (directed by James Ponsoldt screenplay by Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber based on the novel by Tim Tharp) is a surprising and intelligent coming of age story, which despite its title arguably works to undermine "the Now's" glorification:  For is any "Now," no matter how perfect, capable of standing up against a Sea of Tomorrows?  And yet "the Now," any "Now," has Value, even when "a Now" becomes "part of the Past."  Wow!  Honestly, this is one heck of a story about the central characters' last semester of High School (one of those periods in Life that seems both Awesome / Eternal at the time, but of course is not  ...).

Sutter (played by Miles Teller) is a damn good kid.  Yes, it becomes patently obvious 15 minutes into the film that he's going to have to face a drinking problem.  But he's also a really, really good guy.  He's popular, often "the life of the party" but he uses his popularity to help his friends and classmates who are less (socially) capable than he.  His friend (played by Masam Holden) is less successful than he is with girls, so he sets him up.  He runs into Aimee (played by Shailene Woodley) the other main character in the film, whose name he's embarrassed he does not know/remember at that first encounter, even if she goes to his school.  Yet after a few moments of experiencing her goodness (she finds him passed out on her lawn after a party...) he decides that he's going to be nice to her and make her see her potential even if she's perhaps too shy/insecure to see it herself.

Indeed, Sutter seems to have plans for everybody, except for himself.  He's far smarter than his grades would indicate, but can't seem to focus on writing an effective answer to an essay question on a college entrance application that COULD perhaps do much to explain away those poor grades.  Instead, he drinks, spiking his soft-drinks with alcohol that he's become rather adept in getting a-hold-of despite being clearly underage.  Indeed, he spends his time being "Comfortably Numb" (there's no reference to the famous song by Pink Floyd in the film, but IMHO that's EXACTLY where he keeps himself).

Why?  Well, we learn that he comes from a single parent home.  His mother (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh) is a nurse (again someone who helps people).  His father has been out of his (and his family's) life for at least 10 years.   What Sutter remembers of him was that he too was also "a good guy" / "the life of the party" but he left or was thrown out by his mom for reasons that she adamantly refuses to talk to him about.  His older sister, already married, knows more, but also chooses not to talk much their parents' breakup AND HE IS BOTH TOO NICE AND PROBABLY TOO AFRAID TO ASK.

It is only after Aimee challenges him to be brave (just as he challenged her to be braver in facing her mother) that Sutter finally does not allow his mother / sister to continue to keep the story of his parents' breakup (and his father's whereabouts) a secret anymore.  Of course, what Sutter's told / pieces together on his own is painful, BUT NOT IN ANY CHEAP AND PREDICTABLE WAY.  His mother had told him (repeatedly) that he reminds her of his father ... and ... (well that's the rest of the movie ;-)

Is Sutter really like his dad?  How much is he like his dad?  Was/is his dad all bad?  Of course not, his mother never would have married his dad if he was.  But his dad did have clear flaws/failing.  Can he, Sutter, his dad's son, change?

Can Sutter learn to live in more than a "Comfortable Now" ... especially since the "Now" WON'T LAST FOREVER?  This is a great, great story! ;-)


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Elysium [2013]

MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB (L)  RE.com (3 Stars)  AVClub (C+)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review 
RogerEbert.com (B. Kenigsberg) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review

Elysium [2013] (written and directed by Neill Blomkamp) is a SciFi parable set on earth and its environs in the year 2154 after life on Earth (according to the story) had become so problematic (pollution, crime, overpopulation) that its rich had abandoned it for the ultimate "gated community" a utopian wheel-shaped space colony (a la Gerald K. O'Neill's post-Apollo era book The High Frontier (1975) [wikip]) called Elysium where the air was fresh, the water was clean, the lawns were lush and the medical care so top-notch that all diseases, (most notably skin cancer due to radiation) is cured in real time by means of a MRI like scanning/treatment device.

On Earth, well ... life appears cheap, violent and brutal, yet not without hope.  In probably one of the most interesting portrayals of Catholic nuns by Hollywood in recent decades (let alone the happy surprise of portraying Catholic nuns as relevant even in a vision of a distant future in a science fiction film), the nun (played by Yolanda Abbud L.) running the orphanage where Max (played as a child by Maxwell Perry Cotton and later as an adult by Matt Damon) and Frey (played as a child by Valentina Giron and later as an adult by Alice Braga) grow-up tells Max who dreams of "one day" finding a way of reaching the space-wheel in the sky: "Never forget where you come from and never forget how beautiful it is here" (amidst all of Earth's chaos/problems).

And so it is, Max along with all kinds of others grows-up dreaming of getting out/off the "hell hole" that Earth has become and going to the "perfect gated community in the sky," while the beautiful/carefree inhabitants of said "perfect gated community in the sky" go to all kinds of lengths, including blowing-up "illegal shuttles" trying to evade the "gated community's" / space colony's defenses, to keep "intruders at bay." Writer/director Neill Blomkamp who was born and raised in South Africa knows and works now in Los Angeles, by far the largest American metropolitan area near the border between the United States and Mexico, knows a thing or two about both Apartheid and the current immigration debate in the United States/elsewhere.

And Blomkamp reminds viewers that "post-Apartheid Apartheid" is not about just physical borders, it's really about access.  So the film is not merely about "sneaking across borders" for "a better life" in general.  It's also about access to medical care.  While Max was always resentful of the rich floating above him in their "gated community in the sky," when he finds himself doused with a dose of radiation at work that would kill him in 5 days time (and yet his body would be cured within minutes by the above-mentioned MRI-like reconstruction device floating up there in the sky), getting to the space colony, by hook or crook, becomes a matter of life and death.  And when he finds out that Frey's daughter Matilda (played by Emma Tremblay) needs to get up there for treatment (for leukemia) as well, the quest becomes all the more urgent.

Yet, of course, there are obstacles.  There's a "space cayote" (people smuggler) named Spider (played by Wagner Moura), there's a merciless Earth based deep undercover "border control agent" (played by Jackson Berlin) who gets called upon to "bring down" unauthorized shuttle craft heading toward the space colony with shoulder fired SAM missiles.  Finally there's an "ice"-cold "Defense Secretary" named Delacourt (played by Jodie Foster) bent on defending "what we've built" at the high flying space colony against "all intruders" for the sake of her "children and grandchildren."

Yes, it's a left-wing parable.  But like Upside Down [2012] and In Time [2011] it tells a story about radicially unequal societies with those on top hell-bent on keeping things that way.  Blomkamp's contribution would be that the ideology that justifies such separation between those who have and those who do not is basically that of Apartheid.  It's something to think about ...

But the presence of the Nuns in the story remains a remarkable addition because they remind us that "having" isn't all-important, that there is beauty/value even in the midst of chaos and even where there "isn't much" there can be Relationships and Hope.  And floating in a blissful "space colony in the sky" where every need is met but most of humanity is kept at bay could actually be akin to "floating in a grade-A grave."  Again, something more to contemplate ;-)

Finally, Parents, I would note that the film deserves its R-rating as it is at times IMHO needlessly gory/violent.  Perhaps this is so as to showcase the power of the MRI-like "reconstruction" machine which proves capable of reconstructing even the most mutilated of people (by either the sun's rays/radiation in outer space or by RPG / machine gun blasts below).  However, I do think that the same point could have been made in a less graphic manner.  That said, the film is certainly worth viewing by a young adult and above sci-fi inclined crowd.


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Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters [2013]

MPAA (PG)  CNS/USCCB (A-III)  RE.com (2 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (C+)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
RogerEbert.com (M. McCreadie) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters [2013] (directed by Thor Freudenthal, screenplay by Marc Guggenheim, based on the book series by Rick Riordan [IMDb] entitled Percy Jackson & The Olympians (2005-) [wikip]) is the second installment of a somewhat derivative childrens' book series (a la J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series) about a young, previously listless boy named Percy Jackson (played by Logan Lehrman), who had been diagnosed as being ADHD, and had been growing-up in a single mother household in New York prior to being sent in the series' first installment Percy Jackson: Lightning Thief [2010] to "Camp Half-Blood" on Long Island one summer (CHB becoming the series' Hogwarts...) and only there discovering who he really was and why he didn't seem to "fit in" at home:  He himself was a "half-blood" (a demi-god, with his father having been the Greek God Poseidon).  There he made friends (again a la Harry Potter...) with other "half-bloods" (children of earth women and various generally deadbeat/never-really-around Greco-Roman dieities).  And at least the potential for a really fun series was born ... ;-)

Most of the critics have seemed unimpressed (see above).  I find myself in perhaps the surprising position of being more positive about the film / series than most, perhaps because:

(1) I don't necessarily find Greco-Roman paganism particularly threatening (It's really quite Earth centered ... what happens to Poseidon (a sea God after all...) once one steps off the Earth and goes to the moon or "Alpha Centauri..."?  These were not exactly conceived as "Gods of the Universe ..."), and ...

(2) I've always liked fun/creative takes on a good story:  So I did enjoy that chief Olympian God Zeus had his son Dionysus (known in the film as "Mr. D" and played by Stanley Tucci) as the Master at this "Camp Half Blood" for all the Gods' illegitimate/and often enough otherwise neglected children.  And yet, since Dionysus (the God of Wine after all) did like his vino (and yet was being made responsible for all these young kids...), Zeus put a curse on Dionysus' wine always turning it into water as he poured it into his glass.  Frustrated, Dionysus tells a Centaur: "You know the Christians have a guy who can do this in reverse ;-).  Now THERE's a God!" ;-)

In this story, Percy, Anabeth (daughter of Athena the Greek Goddess of Wisdom and played here by Alexandra Daddario), a young satyr (half-man/half-goat) named Grover (played Brandon T. Jackson) go on a quest to find the Golden Fleece, that was to have the power to heal, and particular heal a friend of theirs named Thalia (a daughter of Zeus), who had died at the end of the first story and had been converted by Zeus into a Tree that now protected the rest of the camp.

On the other side of the coin was Luke Castellan (played by Jake Abel) the rather bitter son of Hermes (played by Nathan Fillion), who as the messenger of the Gods, was truly "never ever there" for Luke when he was growing up.  So Luke was bent on getting a hold of the Golden Fleece as a means of resurrecting the Olympian Gods' great Nemesis, their father and king of the Titans, Chronos who once resurrected would presumably bring an end to the Olympians' rule.   (Amusingly, and a mild "spoiler alert" ... Luke had scoured the Earth and all its caves for the sarcophagus of Chronos and found it ... in a Cleveland museum ;-).  And so as this story proceeds there are some homages and send-ups of both Clash of the Titans [1981] [2010] and Raiders of the Lost Ark [1981]...)

All in all, I found the film quite entertaining, but I wouldn't recommend it anyone who hasn't had at least some exposure to Classical (Greco-Roman) Mythology as without some knowledge of the Greek/Roman Gods, a lot of the story would be missed.  So parents, I wouldn't see much of a point of taking a kid to this film who's below say 6th, 7th or 8th grade.  On the other side of the coin older teens might find the film a bit childish/boring.  Still a lot of the jokes/send-ups are quite funny ;-).


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Blackfish [2013]

MPAA (PG-13)  RE.com (3 Stars)  AVClub (B-)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
RogerEbert.com (M. Zoller Seitz) review
AVClub (M. D'Angelo) review

Blackfish [2013] (directed and cowritten by Gabriela Cowperthwaite along with Eli B. Despress) is a documentary centering on the treatment of Orcas known also as Killer Whales at marine-based amusement parks like "SeaWorld" in the aftermath of the 2010 death/killing of Orlando SeaWorld Trainer Dawn Brancheau by an arguably troubled Orca/Killer Whale named Tilikum who had already been involved in the deaths of two other people previously. 

While it is more or less obvious that Cowperthwaite's sympathies tend to side with Animal Rights proponents who question the morality of keeping of large sea creatures, clearly intelligent (otherwise one wouldn't be able to train them), often playful, in captivity often from childhood for decades at a time, IMHO she does a decent enough job navigating the minefield of ideology (on both sides) and money involved in the controversy.  SeaWorld is a money making enterprise, but it is also presumably capable of funding a lot of research that may be (or become) hard to fund otherwise.

Here I also confess that I've been fascinated by the question of "getting into the minds" of clearly intelligent animal species ranging from dogs to elephants to parrots/crows to chimps/gorillas to octopuses to dolphins and whales to even ants/bees and even vines/plants (whose rhythms and movements become discernible with time-lapse photography).  We have an annual blessing of animals around St. Francis' Feast Day at our parish and the little lawn area by the Church where we do so, has become over the years a surprisingly welcoming area for strays and even rabbits.  Do they "experience" that area as being "somehow special"?  How could one possibly know?  But I've seen over the years both strays (dogs) and even rabbits seemingly contently sitting there during summer evenings, again seemingly "contemplating" the vista of our rather large (and truth be told "needing work" parking lot ;-) and perhaps thinking: "Yeah, this is nice!" / "Life is good" and "I'm the Master of this space" (if for a while ;-).

Study in captivity could help researchers learn how to communicate with the seemingly more capable species with which we share our world and increasingly appreciate better how self aware they are (and then honestly see what they could teach us from their "point of view" / experience).  But I would hope that such study be done with respect toward the well-being of the creatures with which one would hope, over time, to enter into communication with.  In our world of webcams and even drones, all kinds of interesting, increasingly non-intrusive studies could be made.  And I would tend toward those kind of (increasingly non-intrusive) studies.  But I would not want to necessarily "throw away" the positive and potentially positive work that could be funded via for-profit institutions like SeaWorld.  They have a lot of money and certainly can be useful in funding such work.

In any case, this is a good thought provoking film that any dreamer / optimist / animal lover would certainly appreciate ;-)


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Carré Blanc [2010]

MPAA (UR would be R)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
AlloCiné.fr* listing

What would a French Film Festival worth its name be without at least one dark, dystopian piece brooding about the senseless brutality of human existence? ;-).  So it was, can one say "a joy"? ;-), to encounter Carré blanc [2010] [IMDb] [AC.fr]*(written and directed by Jean-Baptiste Léonetti [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) among the films that played at the Chicago's 3rd Annual French Film Festival held recently at the Music Box Theater on Chicago's North Side.  (The Festival was cosponsored by the French Diplomatic Mission in the United States.).

Philippe (played as a youth by Majid Hives [IMDb] [AC.fr]* and as an adult by Sami Bouajila [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) and Marie (played as a youth by Adèle Exarchopoulos [IMDb] [AC.fr]* and as an adult by Julie Gayet [IMDb] [AC.fr]*) grow-up in a perpetually grey and overcast world of concrete, glass and steel (where the sky doesn't have the decency to at least let down rain ;-), making their way through endless labyrinths of drywall/cinderblock lined corridors and spartan classroom/meeting rooms encountering only an occasional cord or baton to either hang oneself or beat the occasional passerby / compatriot with, and yet hearing occasional and not-to-subtle "subliminal messages" broadcast over an ancient public address system encouraging them "to reproduce." ;-)  Regardless of what one may think of this "world view" WHAT AN IMAGE :-)

Lumbering along like the living-dead through the corridors of this heartless world, their teachers seek to present the purpose of life to them as a game.  The point of the game?  To simply "get ahead of the other guy."  Why?  Well, "you don't want to lose."

After Phillip jumps after Marie who throws herself off the balcony of their drab concrete apartment and both are caught by a safety net below, they find that in this cold, heartless world at least they have each other.

To this the Catholic could add: In such "a valley of truly MONUMENTAL TEARS," WE also have God ;-).


* Rough (machine) translations of foreign language websites are generally most easily obtained using the Chrome browser.

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20 Feet from Stardom [2013]

MPAA (PG-13)  Rolling Stone Magazine (3 1/2 Stars)  RE.com (4 Stars)  AVClub (B+)  Fr. Dennis (4 Stars)

Rolling Stone Magazine (P. Travers) review
RogerEbert.com (S. Wloszczyna) review
AVClub (S. Adams) review

20 Feet from Stardom [2013] is a documentary directed by Morgan Neville that a lot of people from many walks of life ought to see and contemplate. 

And among those who ought to see the film are Religionists, People of Faith who may at times believe that the world is going (or has already gone) to "Hell in a hand-basket."  I'm writing this because the film is in so many ways a vindication of many of the more positive professors that I've had in the Seminary both in the United States and in Italy: God may really be (and if we believe IS) smarter, more clever, and certainly more positive than we are.  A SURPRISING yet REPEATED theme in this film is the UNDERCURRENT of the GOSPEL SERVICE present in the contemporary Rock and Roll art form.  Say what? 

Well almost every one of the backup singers interviewed in this documentary about the backup singers to the star acts began ... in church choirs and almost all of them were daughters of African-American preachers.  With that background they all learned that music is about harmony, working together, yes "giving glory" but NOT necessarily about being in the limelight.  And then there's the structure of a rock and roll concert on stage.  As Bruce Springsteen, one of the stars interviewed in this film pointed out (Would there be ANYBODY who knows anything about Bruce Springsteen who'd be surprised that he'd LOVE BEING PART OF A FILM CELEBRATING ROCK & ROLL'S BACKUP SINGERS? ;-) ... at a Rock Concert "There's the 'preacher' giving 'testimony' and then there's 'the choir' behind the preacher 'singing amen.'" 

Now let's face it: the 'testimony' given at a rock concert can go all over the place and even be pretty lousy (Rocker Ozzy Osborne famously bit off the head of a bat at a concert back in the 1980s ...).  BUT isn't it fascinating that a Rock Concert could still be compared to a Gospel Service? 

I smile from ear to ear as I repeat here the words of the Psalmist: "Where can I run from your Spirit?  From your Presence, where can I flee?  If I ascend to the heavens, you are there; if I lie down in Sheol, there you are. If I take the wings of dawn, and dwell beyond the sea, Even there your hand guides me, your right hand holds me fast." (Psalm 138:7-10 best known to us American Catholics through the hymn by Dan Schulte named You Are Near).  We think we can run away from God, but we can't.  He could be smilin' ear to ear even at Rock Concert ;-)

Anyway, if you like music and perhaps if you're somewhat irritated by / skeptical of the pretentions of the Stars (of the "Rock Gods" of the recent past...) this film may be for you ;-) because THIS FILM is a celebration of the voices BEHIND THEM and it helps one realize HOW IMPORTANT THOSE VOICES ARE.  One of the interviewees noted that most of the 'hooks' from the songs that we remember are ACTUALLY THE LINES OF THE BACKUP SINGERS ;-).

A priceless interview in the film is of Merry Clayton and Mick Jagger talking about how she, six-months pregnant and with hair-curlers-on was nonetheless called at 3 AM to a Rolling Stones recording session for Gimme Shelter and with that baby bump and those in hair curlers she absolutely nailed the lyrics to that haunting Rock and Roll anthem.  When you're good, you're good ... ;-) 

Anyway, I found the film to be a joy and a celebration of EVERYONE who's not necessarily "front and center" in life.  We're all Children of the Same God and we're all Part of a Team.  And without ALL OF US, ALL OUR VOICES, this world (God's Creation) remains diminished.


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Blue Jasmine [2013]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (L)  RE.com (3 Stars)  AVClub (B+)  Fr. Dennis (4 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. McAleer) review
RogerEbert.com (S. Wloszczyna) review
AVClub (B. Kenigsberg) review

Blue Jasmine [2013] (written and directed by Woody Allen [IMDb]) is a spectacularly current mash-up of Tennessee William's Streetcar Named Desire [IMDb] and the recent 2008 Financial Crisis / Bernie Madoff scandal. 

The film begins with fallen NY socialite Jasmine (the film's "Blanche" character played here to certain Oscar nomination worthy heights by Kate Blanchett) flying into San Francisco (rather than Streetcar's New Orleans) to move-in with her far more humble / down-to-earth sister Ginger (played again at a level worthy of Oscar consideration by Sally Hawkins).  Both had been adopted and grew-up in Brooklyn before Janette (who subsequently changed her name to Jasmine) was "swept off of her feet" by the good-looking, über-confident and wealthy, soon to be spectacularly wealthy, Hal (played spectacularly again by Alec Baldwin).  But all that was gone.  All that was left of Janette/Jasmine's past gilded life was designer luggage (baggage?) and ... stories, like the story of how Jasmine had met Hal "to the strains of, 'you know the song' (most probably don't, I didn't ...), Blue Moon."

When Jasmine arrives by taxi at Ginger's humble abode, a flat above a nail shop in a nondescript, and certainly non-marquis section of San Fran, Ginger isn't there.  Calling her on her cell-phone, to ask if she even has the place right, Jasmin's told by her apologetic sister to run-over a few blocks to the grocery store where she works to pick-up the keys.  She does.  The taxi driver helps her carry her bags into the flat, Jasmine still tipping him well. "Wow!" he exclaims. "Old habits die hard," she shrugs.  Soon Ginger returns and, since she'd otherwise have to leave her there again..., asks Jasmine if she'd join her as she runs over to her ex-husband Augey (played again remarkably by Andrew Dice Clay)'s place to pick-up their their two kids Matthew and Johnny (played by Daniel Jenks and Max Rutherford).

Ginger and Augey's marriage had collapsed after their entire life-savings, which they had come to only through winning a significant if still relatively minor prize in the California lottery ($200,000), was lost following the Feds' arrest of Jasmine's husband Hal for having effectively run a decades-long pyramid scheme to finance his and Jasmine's previous Manhattan-the Hamptons-San Tropez lifestyle.  "Didn't you know?  How could you not know?" Augey screams at Jasmine when she shows up with Ginger to pick up the kids.  "I did not.  I never concerned myself with numbers.  And besides, I lost everything as well."  Yes, folks, while there are actual laughs present in the spectacularly written and cuttingly delivered lines of this film as well ... the dialogue throughout the film brims with awful betrayal and pain.

Ginger's current beau, an auto-mechanic nicknamed Chili (played again spectacularly by Bobby Canavale), who along with Augey plays the "Kowalski" role in the story, also seethes with resentment toward Jasmine's entry into his and Ginger's lives.  He was to have moved-in with Ginger on a trajectory of getting married.  (Ginger wanted a male in her house for the sake of her boys).  But Jasmine's penniless (except for her expensive baggage) arrival put that on hold.  He also knows from Ginger (after all, they were to get married) that Jasmine paid Ginger no mind while she was still rich back in New York.  But here she was now, in their way, and yet, still, often condescending to them both.  Much, of course, still has to play-out ...

 I realize that this is a film that a large number of my parishioners with probably never see.  Woody Allen [IMDb] is often perceived as part of America's often decadent elite.  And the break-up of his relationship with Mia Farrow years back over the beginning of his relationship with arguably then his 17 year old step-daughter Soon-Li certainly didn't help his reputation.

But here I do believe that holding-fast to this perception is a shame because Woody Allen ALSO grew-up in BROOKLYN.   And I do believe that Allen's portrayal of the palpable anger of his hard-working/honest Augey and Chili characters (who could have been his parents, friends and relatives) toward Jasmine and her husband Hal who RIPPED THEM OFF and DESTROYED THEIR FUTURES to support their high-flying lifestyle is dead-on.  And neither does Woody Allen give himself a break.  To those who do see the film, note the incident that precipitates the collapse of Hal and Jasmine's fortunes (and the destruction of so many others' lives and dreams, including Ginger-Augie's, as well).  Woody certainly doesn't paint himself among the "good guys."

It may all be too little too late ... but this is a film that ought to shake its probable largely upper-class / elite audience and certainly deserves significant consideration for a host of awards come the Oscars this year.  In terms of style, this film is certainly more of the vein of Crimes and Misdemeanors [1989] and Match Point [2005] than Annie Hall [1977] or Midnight in Paris [2011].  Yet Blue Jasmine [2013] is undoubtably one of Woody Allen's [IMDb] best films and quite seriously _may_ be remembered decades from now as his most important.  Approaching 80, and despite everything, Allen may actually be only now reaching his prime ;-)


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2 Guns [2013]

MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB (L)  AVClub (C+)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
AV Club (B. Kenigsberg) review

2 Guns [2013] (directed by Baltasar Kormákur, screenplay by Blake Masters, based on Boom! Studio graphic novels by Steven Grant) is a summer "buddy" flick about two under-cover agents, Robert "Bobby" Trench (played by Denzel Washington) and Michael "Stig" Stigman (played by Mark Wahlberg) SOOO DEEP "under cover" that they don't realize that their partner is _also_ an under-cover agent (if from another agency).

Bobby is working from the DEA.  He's trying to get inside and hurt a cross border Mexican drug cartel headed by "Papi Greco" (played by Edward James Olmos).  Stig, working for U.S. Naval Intelligence, is on a "black op" mission to basically do the same thing.  The two zero in on a small bank in the sleepy little town of "Tres Cruces" Texas where Papi Greco's bagmen have been stashing an estimated $3 million in a large safety deposit box.  Their plan is to walk into the bank and steal the $3 million of ill-gotten money, but until they actually do so (and find that there's a heck of a lot more money stashed there than a measly $3 million, more like $43 million...) each thinks that the other is a low-life con artist just trying to steal stolen money from a drug lord (Actually, a dumb/risky thing to do ... but then both up to this point think that the other is basically a good/fun if not particularly bright guy).

So were both surprised to find that the other was actually a federal agent with Bobby simply targeting "Papi's" drug gang while "Stig" was part of arguably an even more ambitious project (His "undercover-op" was going to use the stolen money to finance a "black-op"/"special forces" operation to take-down all the Mexican drug cartels, one at a time, military style).  But both were expecting to find only $3 million.  Where'd the $43 million come from?  Well ... it turned out to be far more complicated than just that ... much, much ensues ... and each of the two and up asking basic questions about who to trust. 

It's a mad, mad, mad world ...


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You Will be my Son (orig. Tu Seras Mon Fils) [2011]

MPAA (UR would be R)   Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
Allocine.fr* listing

You Will be my Son (orig. Tu Seras Mon Fils) [2011] [IMDb] [AC]* (directed and cowritten by Gilles Legrand [IMDb] [AC]*)  along with Delphin de Vigan [IMDb] [AC]* and Laure Gasparatto [IMDb]) is an excellent well-written / well-acted French language (English subtitled) "power family" family drama set in contemporary French "wine country." The film played recently at Chicago's 3rd Annual French Film Festival held at the Music Box Theater in Chicago and cosponsored by the French Diplomatic Mission in the United States.

The film begins with the somewhat diminutive late-20 / early-30-something Martin de Marseul (played by Lorànt Deutsch [IMDb] [AC]*) picking up the cremains of his father Paul de Marsuel (played by Neils Arestrup [IMDb] [AC]*) following his funeral.  He asks the funeral director if the casket is normally burned along with the deceased's body.  The funeral director responds affirmatively.  Martin then asks if the casket was made from Oak.  Again, the funeral director answers, yes, and adds that his casket was made from the finest quality French oak.  Martin then kinda smiles and tells the funeral director that his father always hated oak and wondered how he would have felt to have his ashes now co-mingled with those of his oak casket.  Catching himself, the funeral director assures him that "both body and oak casket are all carbon now ..."  Martin kinda winces (and smiles) once more, thanks the funeral director for his services and proceeds to take the urn with his father's ashes back to his car to take home...

The movie then flashes back to some months earlier.  Martin, the only son of his father Paul is something of the sales manager for his father's grand winery business.  It becomes clear that he'd really like to get into the wine-making part of the business but his father brushes him aside telling him "all in good time, my son, all in good time."  Besides, there's no need for that.  For 20-30-40 years he's had a master winemaker named François Amelot (played by Patrick Chesnais [IMDb] [AC]*) for that. 

But François is ill... And one day he and his wife Madeleine (played by Valérie Mairesse [IMDb] [AC]*) report to Paul and Martin at their manor home to tell them that he has cancer and that the doctors don't give him much chance to live.  After François and Madeleine leave, Martin takes the opportunity to ask if he could take charge of the vintage this year.  His father, Paul, agrees "for now ..." asking him to still lean on the advice from François, to which Martin replies "bien sûr" (of course) and runs off happily to tell his wife Alice (played by Anne Marvin [IMDb] [AC]*), the two having been trying for a long-while to have a child, the news that at least "for now..." (but as far as he could see, "from now on...") he's going to be in charge of the vintage.  One would imagine that the two celebrated quite well that evening ... ;-)

But, of course, Paul has other plans.  These plans involve Philippe (played by Nicholas Bridet [IMDb] [AC]*) the son of François and Madeleine who's inherited or learned well from François' wine making "gift" and was presently the head wine-maker for (Francis Ford) Copolla's wine-making operation out in California (this would be about as brazen a 'product placement' as I've ever seen.  Yet Francis Ford Coppola [IMDb] has been a famous film maker of course ;-).  Paul has François skype Philippe from Paul's estate to tell him of his illness.  Philippe, of course, leaves everything (even at the cost of his job ... mid-summer, just before the grape harvest) to come to his father's side.

And so the grand manipulating Patriarch Paul soon has Philippe, Martin and François all where he wants them.  The rest of the film ensues ... ;-)

It all makes for a very messy "family drama" (no blood, no jokes, just lots and lots of power-plays and intrigue).  And it's all set against the backdrop of the tranquil, rolling "wine-country" of France ;-)

Finally, for those who might be initially scandalized at the thought of a story involving all kinds of betrayal of family loyalties, the Bible is full of stories of such betrayals "at home." (Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Absalom and David, etc).   It's NOT right, but the Bible certainly attests that since the Fall sometimes the people who hurt you the most ... are those closest to you.


* Rough (machine) translations of foreign language websites are generally most easily obtained using the Chrome browser.

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Fly Me to the Moon (orig. Un Plan Parfait) [2012]

MPAA (UR would be PG-13)  Fr. Dennis (4+ Stars)

IMDb listing
Allociné.fr* listing

Fly Me to the Moon (orig. Un Plan Parfait) [2012] [IMDb]  [AC]* (directed by Pascual Chaumeil [IMDb] [AC]* screenplay by Laurent Zeitoun [IMDb] [AC]* and Yoann Gromb [IMDb] [AC]* with collaboration by Béatrice Fournera [IMDb] [AC]*, story by Philippe Mechelen [IMDb] [AC]*) is a French language (English subtitled) romantic comedy that recently opened Chicago's 3rd Annual French Film Festival held at the Music Box Theater in Chicago and cosponsored by the French Diplomatic Mission in the United States.

The film begins with an upper middle class Parisian family hosting a recently dumped/divorced friend of theirs named Valérie (played by Laure Calarny [IMDb] [AC]*) for Christmas dinner.  After Valérie breaks down weeping at the dinner table, her host/best friend Corinne (played by Alice Pol [IMDb] [AC]*) tries to cheer her up, telling her that in her family "first marriages" were something of a curse going back (remember this is France ... ;-) four generations to her great-grandmother and that almost everyone since has ended-up, for one reason or another divorcing their first spouse.  (Apparently even Corinne was married now, apparently happily now, to her second husband Patrick (played by Jonathan Cohen [IMDb] [AC]*) but had to divorce some poor soul to get there).

"Well that's a terrible curse," Valérie replies.  Corinne agrees that indeed it has been a terrible burden.  She then proceeds to recount to Valérie the story of her own sister Isabelle (played by Diane Kruger [IMDb] [AC]*) and her 10 YEAR struggle to try to get around this terrible curse.  For while in "dental school," Isabelle "tragically" fell in love with the perfect guy, another dentist named Pierre (played by Robert Pagnol [IMDb] [AC]*).  Afraid to get married because then he'd be "the first spouse" and hence their relationship would be "doomed to fail," Isabelle insists that they just live together to keep the curse at bay.  So they settle down and live together for 10 YEARS quite happily settling into a happy if ordinary routine of a couple married in all by name.

However, as the ten year mark approached, not getting younger, Isabelle wanted a child (again, a "modern" couple...).  Here Pierre told her that they can't have a child out of wedlock because his mother would never forgive them.  If they wanted a child, they had to get married.

So they come to an impasse.  What to do?  Well that's then when Corinne and Isabelle come up with the "Perfect Plan" (which is the French title of the film):  What if Isabelle went somewhere (far...) "on vacation," married some random guy that she met there and then quickly divorced him.  Then she'd be free to marry the Perfect Pierre and live happily ever after.   But she'd have to "go far" to so that "no one would know her there" to pull this plan off.

So ... the next scene has Isabelle dressed in a stylish but very heavy white winter coat heading to a place where no Frenchman/woman of any sense would ever go ... to Scandinavia in the Winter ;-).  And on her flight to Copenhagen, she immediately runs into the perfect, "inconsequential schmuck" named Jean-Yves (played by Dany Boon) to make the plan work.  She looks at him as someone who's beneath her.  He looks at her "kinda out of his league" but somewhat surprised (the recent hair implants must have really worked ;-) ... he's JUST ADORABLE ;-) that she's talking to him.  And so he happily chats away on the flight while Isabelle tries, really, really hard not to roll (or even close... ;-) her eyes... but he'd be "perfect" for the plan.

When they get off at the plane at Copenhagen, Isabelle who's endured an hour of chatting with a guy she just wants to marry and dump, is shocked to find that Jean-Yves is NOT going to Scandinavia but is actually on his way to Kenya (WHO IN HIS RIGHT MIND WOULD FLY FROM PARIS NORTH TO COPENHAGEN IN THE WINTER ONLY TO FLY ALL THE WAY TO AFRICA AFTERWARDS?  Well Jean-Yves ;-).  So what to do now?  Isabelle decides that she's gonna get on the flight to Nairobi as well.  So she goes to the ticket counter and finds, of course, that Coach is long filled, but for an OBSCENE AMOUNT OF MONEY she could fly business class.  So what the heck (and remember, this is a romantic comedy ... not necessarily bounded by the limits of common sense), she buys the business class ticket so as to go to Kenya as well (all for the good of her future second marriage to the Perfect Guy Pierre).

She then runs into Jean-Yves at the gate.  "Oh, YOU'RE GOING TO NAIROBI AS WELL!" Jean Yves exclaims.  Going up to the ticket counter, to get his boarding pass, Isabelle acompanies him and asks the attendant if they could sit next to each other.  Rolling her eyes, the attendant tells her that he's (of course) flying coach while Isabelle (the attendant had just sold her the ridiculously expensive business class ticket) is not.  Isabelle then tells the attendant to just randomly bump somebody else up from coach to business class, that she'd really prefer coach.

Well when they randomly "bump someone up" to business class, guess who gets "bumped up"?  Jean-Yves! ;-).  So in the next scene, we see Jean-Yves, smiling from ear to ear playing with his fully reclinable seat control while sipping a tropical drink with a parasol, while we see Isabelle squashed between two really really tall Kenyan guys back in coach ;-).

They arrive in Nairobi.  Happy and clueless Jean-Yves happily hops onto a public transport bus (he's been to Kenya before ...), while Isabelle following him at a discrete but still stalkable distance (still wearing her stylish, but now really out of place heavy white winter coat ;-) hails a taxi which follows Jean-Yves' bus.  Jean Yves gets off said bus by a fairly nice touristy hotel, Isabelle's taxi pulls in soon after.  She enters after he checks in, and gets a room for herself soon afterwards.  Then she discretely "runs into him" again at the hotel.  Only he's acting kinda odd, looking like he's talking to himself.  What's going on?  It turns out that he's talking into a dictaphone, and actually he gets kinda irritated when she suddenly appears talking to him because she broke him in mid-sentence: The reason why he travels the way he does is that he apparently writes tourist guides for people in France.  Well that actually sounds kinda cool.  She asks if she can tag along.  He asks only that she "keep quiet" when he's talking into his little dictaphone... ;-).  Shrugging her shoulders, she does.

This actually becomes kinda interesting because at some point he rents a jeep and they ride-out to Mount Kilimanjaro.  There a number of adventures ensue ... including they nearly get eaten by a lion (a homage to Earnest Hemmingway ;-) and ... get their car stolen.  Walking back ... ;-) ... they come across a Meru village in the midst of a traditional communal marriage ceremony.  Following the procession of young people passing between two lines of solemnly assembled village elders, they find themselves "accidently married'!  Mission accomplished!  And the best part is, nice-guy ever-smiling Jean-Yves doesn't even feel himself particularly married and there appear to be no documents.  So ... she sidestepped "the curse" WITHOUT actually hurting anybody or going through a messy divorce... and after a few days of smiling "PG-rated" fun out there in and around Nairobi, Isabelle and ever-smilin' Jean-Yves part ways ;-)

... 'CEPT (and of course there's a 'cept ;-) when she flies home to Paris and Perfect-guy Pierre proposes to her soon afterwards, when she goes up to the Marriage Court there in Paris, she discovers that SOMEHOW "they" (the Marriage Court officials) KNOW that she was married out there in Kenya.  So now she has to look-up ever-smiling (and ever-traveling) Jean-Yves and get him to sign a divorce.

She catches up to him out in Moscow (the stylish white winter coat ends up being useful after-all ;-) ;-) and he's actually kinda hurt that she wants to divorce him even if he didn't really feel or realize that he was married to her.  So eventually he signs said divorce papers and walks off to a GIGANTIC (and actually LITERALLY "off the wall" monument to Yuri Gagarin ... ;-) to talk to his dictaphone about it ... and ... she kinda feels sorry for him ... and follows him as well.  He tells her that she "can go," that they were never really married and now they were divorced.  But she stays because she starts to realize that as corny as Jean-Yves was, he always actually SHOWED HER A GOOD TIME ;-).  Perfect Pierre did everything "perfectly" but being perfect, he was actually "kinda boring," while she honestly never ever knew what was going to come next with smiling Jean-Yves.

And leaving the GIGANTIC literally "off the wall" Moscow monument and its solemnly assembled wreath carrying soldiers still dressed in Soviet era style uniforms, he tells her that he has one last place to go ... to a nearby airport where the Russians offer moneyed tourists to experience the zero-gravity sensation of free-fall inside the plane JUST LIKE THE ASTRONAUTS/COSMONAUTS used to experience in their training exercises.  WHAT AN UNBELIEVABLE BLAST that was (and probably the inspiration for the English title of the film: "Fly me to the Moon" ;-).

After all this, Isabelle has a dilemma: Who to end-up with?  Perfect Pierre or smilin', somewhat corny but always unpredictable Jean-Yves?  I'm NOT going to say how it ends, but we find that this story serves the purpose of introducing Valérie to "the other guest" that the family was inviting to Christmas Dinner ;-)

HONESTLY WHAT A GREAT STORY! ;-)


* Rough (machine) translations of foreign language websites are generally most easily obtained using the Chrome browser.

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The To Do List [2013]

MPAA (R)  RE.com (2 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (B-)  Fr. Dennis (2 Stars w. Parental Warning)

IMDb listing
Roger Ebert.com (S. Wloszczyna) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review

To begin, The To Do List [2013] (written and directed by Maggie Carey), is not the end of the world, but it is a film that Parents with teenagers ought to know about and recognize as a DEFINITELY appropriately R-rated film (one that does warrant some discussion at home prior to deciding whether or not you'd want your teens to see the film.  And yes parents _at minimum_ read the rest of this review, and then make your teens squirm a bit (or even a lot ;-) prior to letting them see it).

I say this because the film, while in some sense certainly honest (otherwise I wouldn't be reviewing the film at all), is also intended to be provocative.  Set in Boise, Idaho in the early 1990s the film is about a "good girl" named Brandy Klark (played by Aubrey Plaza) apparently from a Mormon (hence tending toward the Conservative...) family who, just having graduated from High School as Valedictorian (1st in her class) had spent her high school years with "her head in her books" and thus was something of a neophyte with regards to "the ways of love." 

Initially, this doesn't bother her.  Even if her inexperience does subject her to some ridicule from her "more worldly" (and  less bookish) older sister named Amber (played by Rachel Bilson) and salt-of-the-earth BFFs Fiona (played by Alia Shawkat) and Wendy (played by Sarah Steele), initially she takes this in stride.  One can't be "an expert" in everything ... HOWEVER, on graduation night she's dragged by her two BFFs to a "real party" and there she encounters a hunky, tanned, long haired, guitar-strumming "college guy" named Rusty Waters (played by Scott Porter) and suddenly her having graduated "with the highest GPA ever" from her high school doesn't seem to matter anymore.  Brandy wants this guy.

But how to get a "guy like that" interested in "a girl like her?"  Well, "ever the student," good ole Brandy puts together a sexual "to do list" that "upon completion" she believes would hurdle her "into the league" of The Hunk.  Okay, who can honestly not relate to Brandy's insecurity / dilemma?  Or remember "back in the day" when THIS kind of problem was paramount in one's life?

Was her sexual "to do list" that made even her older "slut of the family" sister Amber and her more worldly BFF Fiona blush (as it would certainly make most Parents/Authority figures watching this film blush) "the way to go"?   Almost certainly not.  But I'm more or less positive that most of us would understand her insecurity.
 
But let me offer her a more modest and somewhat "shocking" alternative to her sexual "to do list"?  What if good ole Brandy "took up the guitar" instead?  What if she used her "research skills" to find / buy an old beat-up acoustic guitar, no doubt previously owned by a perpetually half-drunk, ever 5 o'clock shadowed, 30 something dude with a heart of gold but now with a wife, kids and "responsibility" (basically a somewhat more mature and _going somewhere_ version of the "pool guy" character played by Bill Hader in this film) who solemnly hands "Mable" over to the spritely Brandy, and wiping away tears, asking her to take "good care of her" ... and Brandy proceeding then to learn on her own "a chord or two" enough to play (poorly) 1-2 bars of some Sarah McGlaughflin song (popular at the time) in front of the hunky, dream-boated Rusty Waters and then _batting her eyes_ saying: "Oh gee, I'd LOOOOOVE to play this thing, but geeeeee... I can't. (Batting eyes again) Can you teach me?"  Honestly what "Rusty" in the world could resist that kind of a come on?  And Brandy would have certainly had Rusty for as long as she wanted without _any_ risk creating a child or contracting some, at minimum, terribly inconvenient STD.  Instead, in this film, Brandy "learns" how to give a hand-job... 

And so there you have it folks.  Parents the film is not the end of the world.  But it is kinda limited/lazy in its approach to resolving Brandy's age-old problem.


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The Wolverine [2013]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (A-III)  RE.com (3 Stars)  AVClub (B)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
RogerEbert.com (Christy Lemire) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review

The Wolverine [2013] (directed by James Mangold, screenplay by Mark Bomback and Scott Frank) continues / elaborates on the saga of currently the most popular of Marvel Comics' X-men characters that of Logan [IMDb] born James Hewlett aka the Wolverine [MC] (played in all six of the films depicting the character by Hugh Jackman).

The X-men series is fundamentally about society's and a gifted individual him/herself's dealing with one's "Individuality" / "Otherness."  Most of the main characters in the series are "mutants," people gifted (or cursed ...) generally from birth with very strange/exceptional abilities that set them apart from most other human beings.  What does one do with one's special gifts/abilities and how does one choose to relate to the rest of society?  And how does society react/relate to them?

So as the preceding film X-Men Origins: Wolverine [2009] explains, Logan aka The Wolverine [MC] born into a relatively wealthy Canadian family living in Alberta in the19th century, discovered as a child that his actual father was not the owner of the farm/estate on which he was born, but rather a stable-hand, part-Native American working on said estate.  From his biological father, he inherited a number of wonderous/strange abilities: (1) even at rest/in a dormant state he could relate exceptionally well with the animals of the wild, (2) in an agitated state he could grow sharp bony "wolverine-like" claws from between the knuckles of his hands with which he could slash enemies who attack him, and (3) he could heal quickly from just about any type of physical wound.  This last ability made him (or rendered him...) virtually immortal while his more animalistic special abilities made him a danger to the "more normal" (mortal) people who surrounded him in life.

So what would you do if you found yourself both for all practical purposes immortal and yet also a danger to those around you?  This then is Logan's / The Wolverine's [MC] great dilemma.

We find Logan at the beginning of this film in literally "holed-up" in a hole (in solitary confinement) in a Japanese Prisoner of War Camp across a bay from Nagasaki just as two American B-29 bombers approach (one of which, of course, carrying the atomic bomb which will destroy the city).  Perhaps sensing impending disaster, he calls over a Japanese guard (one who had previously shown him kindness?) and tells him to "jump in" into the pit with him.  The Japanese soldier initially resists not understanding why.  Logan, with the animal instincts of the Wolverine insists "Trust me on this." As we watch the rather large atomic bomb drop from one of the B-29s and toward the city, he simply pulls the Japanese soldier into the pit and just before the blast wave reaches them, he covers the Japanese soldier with his body (Logan/the Wolverine is capable of quickly recovering from any wound, so why not take-in some blast wave burns and radiation as well? :-).  In doing so of course, he saves the Japanese soldier's life.  Additionally, the Japanese soldier is stunned to see Logan / The Wolverine first horribly burned by the blast wave/radiation and then less than a minute later completely healed.  That's the kind of occurrence/memory that sticks with you ... ;-)

Flash forward to the present day.  Logan, always tormented by both his virtual immortality and hair-trigger/animalistic nature that makes him viciously lash-out (like a wolverine) at perceived enemies, has retired into the wilds of the Yukon territory of Canada where he spends most of his time living as a "half animal" and, more to the point, alone out there in the wilds with perhaps only bears as his friends (who seem to sense that he's "more the average human" and thus respect him ;-). 

After one of said bear friends had been killed by an "unsportsmanlike" sportsman (hunter) with a poisoned arrow, Logan saunters down from the wilds to a Yukon bar to confront the "unsportsmanlike" jerk who poisoned his friend.  (It would seem that for his very, very "gruff" exterior, Logan / the Wolverine has a keen sense of justice/fairness and gets very, very upset (lashes out ...) upon witnessing some injustice).

While meting out his sense of animalistic justice on the above-mentioned human who killed his bear friend, a young Japanese woman named Yukio (played by Rila Fukushima) with a very large / very, very sharp Samurai sword (that she knows how to use...) visits upon the same bar, looking for ... you guessed it ... the man who had saved her adopted grandfather, Yashida (played by Hal Yamanouchi), "back in the day" outside of Nagasaki on the day of the atomic bomb blast so many years ago.  Logan is told by Yukio that Yashida, had become a very rich Japanese industrialist after the War.  But now he was dying of cancer after reaching a ripe old age.  As his dying wish, Yashinda wanted to thank Logan for having saved him on that day and thus given him the opportunity to live such a long and fruitful life.

At first, Logan, ever weary of people didn't want to go with Yukio back to Japan, but "for old time's sake," he decides "why not?"  However, when he arrives back in Japan, quickly realizes that he's been sucked into a set of human intrigues (among them, who was going to succeed the dying patriarch?) that were clearly revolting to his much simpler Right / Wrong more animalistic instincts.  Much, of course, ensues ...

Throughout much of the remaining film, Logan / The Wolverine, seeks at least to protect a young woman  named Mariko (played by Tao Okamoto) who was a somewhat weak/sheltered grand-daughter of Yashida and had been designated by Yashida as his heir.  To his rather simple/animalistic/instinctual sense of right and wrong, this seemed to be the "right thing to do."  But even here things soon get very, very complicated... and very, very dangerous, as all kinds of shadowy forces want to do her (and soon enough Logan) harm.  

Who to trust?  Logan / The Wolverine, mutant, part human/part animal that he is, is almost always more worthy of trust than most human beings and is almost always disappointed by them, and not only by them but also by other mutants who he occasionally comes across.  By the end of the film (and really every story involving him) one understands why Logan / The Wolverine would generally prefer to keep largely to himself out in the wilds with perhaps "only a bear or two" as his friends.  The "simpler" animals seem more trustworthy than people or other (mutant) "intelligent" life forms.


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