2015 Denny Awards - Part 1 (Best Films)

Part 1/3 of my Annual "Denny Awards" ;-)
(Other Years' Awards)

Part I - Best Films of 2015
Part II - Most Compelling Performances / Character Roles (Male)
Part III - Most Compelling Performances / Character Roles  (Female)


FOR FAMILIES WITH YOUNG CHILDREN -
       Best -  
           Inside Out [2015] - PG / A-II - 3 1/2 Stars
       Honorable Mentions -
          The Peanuts Movie [2015] - G / A-I - 3 Stars
          Hotel Transylvania II [2015] - PG / A-II - 3 1/2 Stars
           White Water [2015] - UR would be PG - 4 stars
          
          
FOR FAMILY ORIENTED FILMS FOR FAMILIES WITH TEENS -
        Best -
                Star Wars: The Force Awakens [2015] - PG-13 / A-II - 3 Stars
       Honorable Mentions - 
                Maggie [2015] - PG-13 - 4 Stars
                McFarland, USA [2015] - PG / A-II - 4 Stars
                Inside Out [2015] - PG / A-II - 3 1/2 Stars
                A Light Beneath Their Feet [2015] - UR (would be PG-13) - 3 1/2 Stars
                Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 [2015] - PG / A-I - 4 Stars  
                Vacation [2015] - R / O (Parents note rating) - 3 1/2 Stars 


BEST INTERGENERATIONAL FILMS (Best Family Centered Films for Adults) -
         Best -
                 Mr. Holmes [2015] - PG - 3 1/2 Stars 
           Honorable Mentions -     
                 Time Suspended (orig. Tiempo Suspendido) [2015] - UR (would be PG-13) - Argentina / Mexico (subtitled) - 4 Stars
                 One for the Road (orig. En el Último Trago) [2014] - UR would be R - Mexico (subtitled)- 4+ Stars
                 Joy [2015] - PG-13 / A-III - 4+ Stars
                 White Water [2015] - UR would be PG - 4 stars 
                 Digging for Fire [2015] - R - 3 Stars  
                 Trainwreck [2015] - R / O - 3 1/2 Stars
                 Meet the Patels [2015] - UR would be PG-13 - 4 Stars
                 Ari: My Life with a King [2015] - UR would be PG - Philippines (subtitled) - 3 1/2 Stars
                 Casa Grande [2014] - UR (would be R) - Brazil (subtitled) -  3 1/2 Stars 
                 Labyrinth of Lies (orig. Im Labyrinth des Schweigens) [2014] - UR (would be R) - Germany (subtitled) - 4+ Stars
                 Orphans of Eldorado (orig. Órfãos do Eldorado) [2015] - UR (would be R) - Brazil (subtitled) - 4+ Stars  
                 The Hope Factory (orig. Комбинат «Надежда» / Kombinat "Nadezhda") [2014] - UR (would be R) - - Russia (subtitled) - 4 Stars
                 Sparrows [2015] - UR (would be R) - Iceland (subtitled) - 4 Stars
                 After the Tone [2014] - UR would be PG-13 - Netherlands (subtitled) - 3 1/2 Stars
                 While We're Young [2015] - R  - 3 1/2 Stars
                 Love the Coopers [2015] - PG-13 / L - 4 Stars
                 The Intern [2015] - PG-13 / A-III - 3 Stars 
 
 
BEST GENERAL CHILDREN'S ORIENTED FILM
         Best -
                Inside Out [2015] - PG / A-II - 3 1/2 Stars       
       Honorable Mentions - 
                Shaun the Sheep Movie [2015] - PG / A-II - 3 1/2 Stars
                Tomorrowland [2015] - PG / A-II - 4 Stars
                The Peanuts Movie [2015] - G / A-I - 3 Stars  
                Cantinflas [2014] - PG - 4 Stars 
                  White Water [2015] - UR would be PG - 4 stars
                Minions [2015] - PG / A-I - 3 1/2 Stars
                Antman [2015] - PG-13 / A-II -  3 Stars
                Hotel Transylvania II [2015] - PG / A-II - 3 1/2 Stars


 
BEST TEEN ORIENTED FILM (for boys) -
         Best - 
                Star Wars: The Force Awakens [2015] - PG-13 / A-II - 3 Stars
         Honorable Mentions -
                Bajirao Mastani [2015] - UR (would be PG-13) -India (subtitled) - 4+ Stars
                Paper Towns [2015] - PG-13 / A-III - 4 Stars 
                 McFarland, USA [2015] - PG / A-II - 4 Stars
                  Ex Machina [2015] - R / O - 3 1/2 Stars
                The Martian [2015] - PG-13 / A-III - 2 Stars
                Me and Earl and the Dying Girl [2014] - PG-13 / A-III - 3 Stars 
                Tomorrowland [2015] - PG / A-II - 4 Stars
                The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials [2015] - PG-13 / A-III - 3 Stars   
                The Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part 2 [2015] - PG-13 / A-III - 3 1/2 Stars
                Insurgent [2015] - PG-13 / A-III - 3 Stars


BEST TEEN ORIENTED FILM (for girls) -
         Best -
                 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part 2 [2015] - PG-13 / A-III - 3 1/2 Stars         
         Honorable Mentions -
                  Star Wars: The Force Awakens [2015] - PG-13 / A-II - 3 Stars
                  A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night [2014] - R - Iran-Exiles (subtitled) - 4 Stars
                  Mustang [2015] - PG-13 - France / Turkey (subtitled) - 3 1/2 Stars
                  Girlhood (orig. Bande de Filles) [2014] - UR (would be R) - France (subtitled) - 3 1/2 Stars
                  Breathe (orig. Respire) [2014] - UR (would be PG-13) - France (subtitled) - 3 1/2 Stars
                  Maggie [2015] - PG-13 - 4 Stars
                  A Girl Like Her [2015] - PG-13 - 3 1/2 Stars
                  A Light Beneath Their Feet [2015] - UR (would be PG-13) - 3 1/2 Stars
                  Bajirao Mastani [2015] - UR (would be PG-13) -India (subtitled) - 4+ Stars
                  Insurgent [2015] - PG-13 / A-III - 3 Stars
                  Suffragette [2015] - PG-13 / A-III - 3 1/2 Stars
                  Far from the Madding Crowd [2015] - PG-13 - 3 Stars
                  Queen [2014] - UR (would be R, Parents note rating) - India (subtitled) - 3 Stars

                 

BEST FILM THAT WILL HELP YOU WITH YOUR SCHOOL WORK -
        Best -
                  Far from the Madding Crowd [2015] - PG-13 - 3 Stars               
        Honorable Mentions -     
                  Suffragette [2015] - PG-13 / A-III - 3 1/2 Stars
                  In the Heart of the Sea [2015] - PG-13 / A-III - 3 Stars  
                  Bajirao Mastani [2015] - UR (would be PG-13) -India (subtitled) - 4+ Stars
                    Ex Machina [2015] - R / O (note rating) - 3 1/2 Stars
                  The Martian [2015] - PG-13 / A-III - 2 Stars
                  Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine [2015] - R - 3 1/2 Stars
 

BEST FILM THAT ASKS THE BIG QUESTIONS -
         Best - 
                  Tomorrowland [2015] - PG / A-II - 4 Stars  
                  Son of Saul (orig. Saul Fia) [2015] - R- Hungary (subtitled) - 4+ Stars  


         Honorable Mentions -
                  Star Wars: The Force Awakens [2015] - PG-13 / A-II - 3 Stars
                  Forgotten (orig. Olvidados) [2014] - Bolivia (subtitled) - 4+ Stars 
                    Ex Machina [2015] - R / O - 3 1/2 Stars
                  Road to La Paz (orig. Camino a La Paz) [2015] - UR (would be PG-13) - Argentina (subtitled) 4 Stars
                  Suffragette [2015] - PG-13 / A-III - 3 1/2 Stars
                  Mustang [2015] - PG-13 - France / Turkey (subtitled) - 3 1/2 Stars
                  Daughter (orig. Dukhtar) [2014] - UR (would be PG-13) - Pakistan (subtitled) - 4 Stars
                  Nahid [2015] - UR would be PG-13 - Iran (subtitled) - 4 Stars  
                 The Hope Factory (orig. Комбинат «Надежда» / Kombinat "Nadezhda") [2014] - UR (would be R) - - Russia (subtitled) - 4 Stars
                  Blue Desert (orig. Deserto Azul) [2014] - UR would be PG-13 - Brazil (subtitled) - 3 Stars
                  Spotlight [2015] - R / A-III - 3 1/2 Stars 
                  Labyrinth of Lies (orig. Im Labyrinth des Schweigens) [2014] - UR (would be R) - Germany (subtitled) - 4+ Stars
                  Chi-Raq [2015] - R - 4 Stars
                  Ari: My Life with a King [2015] - UR would be PG - Philippines (subtitled) - 3 1/2 Stars 
                  The Big Short [2015] - R / A-III - 3 1/2 Stars
                  99 Homes [2015] - R / A-III - 4 Stars
                  The Martian [2015] - PG-13 / A-III - 2 Stars
                  You Can't Save Yourself Alone (orig. Nessuno si salva da solo) [2015] - UR (would be R) - Italy (subtitled) - 3 1/2 Stars


BEST "SMALL" FILM -
            Best -
                 A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night [2014] - R - Iran-Exiles (subtitled) - 4 Stars            Honorable Mentions 
                 After the Tone [2014] - UR would be PG-13 - Netherlands (subtitled) - 3 1/2 Stars
                 Taxi Tehran [2015] - UR (would be PG-13) - Iran (subtitled) - 4+ Stars
                 The Hope Factory (orig. Комбинат «Надежда» / Kombinat "Nadezhda") [2014] - UR (would be R) - - Russia (subtitled) - 4 Stars
                 Unfriended [2015] - R / O - 4 Stars
                 Maggie [2015] - PG-13 - 4 Stars
                 White Water [2015] - UR would be PG - 4 stars                  
                 Little Voices from Fukushima (orig: Chiisaki koe no kanon: sentakusuru hitobito) [2015]  - UR - Japan (subtitled) - 4 Stars
                 A Town Called Brzotek [2014] - UR (would be PG-13) - Poland / U.K. / USA (at times subtitled) - 3 1/2 Stars
                 Ari: My Life with a King [2015] - UR would be PG - Philippines (subtitled) - 3 1/2 Stars
                 You Can't Save Yourself Alone (orig. Nessuno si salva da solo) [2015] - UR (would be R) - Italy (subtitled) - 3 1/2 Stars

 
BEST RELIGIOUSLY THEMED FILM -
              Best - 
                   The Letters [2015] - PG / A-II - 4 Stars
                   Son of Saul (orig. Saul Fia) [2015] - R- Hungary (subtitled) - 4+ Stars  

              Honorable Mentions -  
                   Road to La Paz (orig. Camino a La Paz) [2015] - UR (would be PG-13) - Argentina (subtitled) 4 Stars
                  Chi-Raq [2015] - R - 4 Stars
                  A Town Called Brzotek [2014] - UR (would be PG-13) - Poland / U.K. / USA (at times subtitled) - 3 1/2 Stars 
                  Spotlight [2015] - R / A-III - 3 1/2 Stars 
                  A Grain of Truth (orig. Ziarno prawdy) [2015] - UR (would be R) -  Poland (subtitled) - 3 Stars


BEST (YOUNG ADULT) RELATIONSHIP FILM -
            Best -
                     Love the Coopers [2015] - PG-13 / L - 4 Stars
             Honorable Mentions - 
                     Meet the Patels [2015] - UR would be PG-13 - 4 Stars
                     Orphans of Eldorado (orig. Órfãos do Eldorado) [2015] - UR (would be R) - Brazil (subtitled) - 4+ Stars
                     A la Mala [2015] - PG-13 - 3 1/2 Stars
                     The Longest Ride [2015] - PG-13 / A-III - 3 Stars
                     Carol [2015] - R - 4 Stars (with Parental advisement / warning)
                     My Boyfriend's an Angel (orig. Мой парень - ангел / Moy Paren Angel) [2012] - UR (would be PG-13) - Russian (subtitled) - 3 1/2 Stars
                    Trainwreck [2015] - R / O - 3 1/2 Stars 


BEST FILM FOR FILM LOVERS -
            For the Cinematography -
                     Best -
                           Bajirao Mastani [2015] - UR (would be PG-13) -India (subtitled) - 4+ Stars 
                      Honorable Mentions -
                           A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night [2014] - R - Iran-Exiles (subtitled) - 4 Stars
                           Orphans of Eldorado (orig. Órfãos do Eldorado) [2015] - UR (would be R) - Brazil (subtitled) - 4+ Stars
                           How Strange to be Named Federico: Scola narrates Fellini (orig. Che Strano Chiamarsi Federico: Scola Racconta Fellini) [2013] - Italy (subtitled) - 4+ Stars
                           The Dark Valley (orig. Das Finstere Tal) [2014] - UR would be R - Austria / Germany (subtitled) 4+ Stars
                           Son of Saul (orig. Saul Fia) [2015] - R- Hungary (subtitled) - 4+ Stars 
                           Unfriended [2015] - R / O - 4 Stars 
                           Meru [2015] - R - 4 Stars
                           Hany [2014] - UR would be R - Czech Rep (subtitled) - 3 1/2 Stars
                           Star Wars: The Force Awakens [2015] - PG-13 / A-II - 3 Stars
                           In the Heart of the Sea [2015] - PG-13 / A-III - 3 Stars  
                           The Hateful Eight [2015] - R / L - 3 Stars
                          The Revenant [2015] - R / L - 3 Stars

            For Originality / Tightness of Story - 
                      Best - 
                           A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night [2014] - R - Iran-Exiles (subtitled) - 4 Stars       
                     Honorable Mentions - 
                            Chi-Raq [2015] - R - 4 Stars
                            Unfriended [2015] - R / O - 4 Stars 
                            After the Tone [2014] - UR would be PG-13 - Netherlands (subtitled) - 3 1/2 Stars
                            Son of Saul (orig. Saul Fia) [2015] - R- Hungary (subtitled) - 4+ Stars  

                            The Dark Valley (orig. Das Finstere Tal) [2014] - UR would be R - Austria / Germany (subtitled) 4+ Stars 
                            Taxi Tehran [2015] - UR (would be PG-13) - Iran (subtitled) - 4+ Stars
                            Carol [2015] - R - 4 Stars (with Parental advisement / warning) 


BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM -
            Best -
                     Meet the Patels [2015] - UR would be PG-13 - 4 Stars
            Honorable Mentions -
                     Meru [2015] - R - 4 Stars
                     How Strange to be Named Federico: Scola narrates Fellini (orig. Che Strano Chiamarsi Federico: Scola Racconta Fellini) [2013] - Italy (subtitled) - 4+ Stars
                     A Town Called Brzotek [2014] - UR (would be PG-13) - 3 1/2 Stars
                     Little Voices from Fukushima (orig: Chiisaki koe no kanon: sentakusuru hitobito) [2015]  - UR - Japan (subtitled) - 4 Stars  
                     Time Suspended (orig. Tiempo Suspendido) [2015] - UR (would be PG-13) - Argentina / Mexico (subtitled) - 4 Stars
                     Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine [2015] - R - 3 1/2 Stars


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The 5th Wave [2016]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (A-II)  ChicagoTribune (2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (1 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (C)  Fr. Dennis (2 3/4 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. McCarthy) review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (S. O'Malley) review
AVClub (I. Vishnevetsky) review  

The 5th Wave [2016] (directed by J Blakeson, screenplay by Susannah Grant, Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Pinkner based on the novel [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Rick Yancey [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb]) is film that will almost certainly irritate
"Teen Apocalypse" purists while "rolling the eyes" of Others just hoping for "The End" of this rather extended Wave of such films.  Yet "Don't lose Heart, ye who are hoping that teen pop culture will move on to something else, for The End (or at least A Respite) is Nigh," when it comes to this genre of tales ;-).

For this film is already something of a comedy / spoof of the genre ... blending the quite Solemn and _very sequential_ Ordering (of various Divinely Ordered Punishments / Tribulations) present in "The Original Apocalypse" of the Book of Revelation with a more contemporary (and yes, at times campy) "Alien Invasion" scenario of the 1950s style teen oriented Sci-Fi / Horror flicks like the (original) Blob [1958].

A hint that the film makers did not intend their movie to be taken with the solemn seriousness of say The Hunger Games [2012-15] or the Divergent [2014-16] series or even the more Biblically inspired The Remaining [2014] can be found in an early voice-over.  There the current story's heroine, Cassie Sullivan (actually played quite amusingly by Chloë Grace Moretz), clues Viewers in on all that had transpired to cause her, a once-soccer-playing teenager from random-town-in-Ohio still quite smartly dressed and STILL WITH PERFECT HAIR to -- M-16 assault rifle in-hand -- raid an abandoned gas-station / convenience-mart for, well, ... tampons ;-) saying: "Let's face it, to a teenager in high school, EVERY DAY can seem like 'the end of the world'..." ;-)

Cassie continues, explaining that one day a huge, inscrutable extraterrestrial object ominously / quite silently entered into earth's orbit (think of the scenario from Independence Day [1996] or of the one outlined in the Science Channel's Alien Encounters [2012-] docudrama series) refusing apparently all communication with us (humanity) below.  Then after 10 days of this (teenagerly "arrogant" / "we won't talk to you" ;-) silence, an alien invasion ensued, rolling out in Waves:  First there was an Electromagnetic Pulse that knocked out all electronic equipment on earth.  Then, some days / weeks later came SUDDEN / ENORMOUS tidal surges (perhaps from the alien object's "bombing of the oceans") THAT REACHED ALL THE WAY TO OHIO hundreds of miles inland (Cassie explained: "If the waves reached us, you can imagine what they did to the coasts.  Every coastal city in the world was certainly destroyed.").  Then came a viral plague that wiped out most of the rest of humanity.

And in the Fourth Wave, it became apparent that the invading Aliens were somehow COMING TO INHABIT the bodies of some of the Survivors of the first Three Waves.  These Aliens, which had been come to be known by the Survivors as simply "The Others" LOOKED THEREFORE _JUST LIKE_ "regular human beings."

And this then was The Terror in which 16 year old, once soccer-playing now M-16 toting Cassie (always with Perfect Hair) was living-in: The world had been invaded by Aliens, who had already Destroyed most of "the world" as it had existed before.  But these Aliens were all but indistinguishable from the (human) Survivors.  

What to do?  The rest of the story ensues ... ;-)

It's not an altogether dumb scenario and, again, it's clear that it's intended at least in part to be funny.  And yes, there is a lot of teen-oriented camp.  Cassie is at one point "saved" by a ridiculously good-looking, six-pack ab-ed teenage hunk named Evan Walker (played wonderfully by Alex Roe).  Who was he?  Why did he save her?  Why was he even nice to her (or anybody) after all that had happened (to everybody else)?  There's also "an army" that _somehow_ springs up to fight said "Others," led by a quite confidence producing / "leader-ly" Colonel Vosch (played quite well for the role by Liev Shrieber).  But then, who were they / where did they come from / WHERE WERE "THEY" before?   And why do THEIR TRUCKS / COMPUTERS / ETC (quite suddenly) work?

As one watches the film, one sees seemingly glaring inconsistencies, and yet, amusingly they're not, or at least not all of them anyway.

So actually it becomes an amusing (if somewhat paranoid, though again "in a fun sort of way" ;-) movie to watch -- What's real? What's not? Is everything going to come together in the end? Do the film makers care?

All in all, this is perhaps an inevitable movie ... portending perhaps "The End" of this genre.  But at least it's coming to an End "with a wink and a smile" ;-) 



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The Hope Factory (orig. Комбинат «Надежда» / Kombinat "Nadezhda") [2014]

MPAA (UR would be R)  Fr. Dennis (4+ Stars)

IMDb listing
KinoNews.ru listing*
KinoPoisk.ru listing*
Kino-teatr.ru listing*
Megacritic.ru listing*
Kritikanstvo.ru listing*

Voice of America (O. Sulkin) interview with director*
Interfax.ru article on film's controversy regarding profanity*

Argumenti i Fakty (N. Grigoryeva) review*
Gazeta.ru (V. Lyashchenko) review*
Kinomovi.tv (A. Savenkov) review*
Komsomolskaya Pravda (D. Korsakov) review*
Novye Izvestia (V. Matizen) review*
Ridus.ru (M, Markov) review*
Seance.ru (G. Rymbu) review*
Seance.ru (O. Kasyanova) review*
TheHollywoodReporter.ru (I. Miller) review*
Tribuna.ru (A. Kryukova) review*


The Hope Factory (orig. Комбинат «Надежда» / Kombinat "Nadezhda") [2014] [IMDb] [KN.ru]*[KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* (directed and cowritten by Natalya Meshchaninova [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* along with Lyubov Mulmenko [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* and Ivan Ugarov [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*) is a  remarkable "small RUSSIAN 'INDIE' FILM" that has pushed the bounds of contemporary Russian film making on MULTIPLE levels ;-).  As such I viewed / reviewed the film as part of my 2015 Russian Film Tour in which I sought to present / explore the _diversity_ of contemporary Russian film making a diversity that may annoy some within contemporary Russian officialdom and would probably surprise may Westerners used to traditional (and IMHO often quite bombastic) neo-Communist Russian fare that makes it to "art cinemas" here.

So why did this Russian "small indie film" attract such (sometimes unwelcome) attention?  Made (1) using NO PUBLIC MONEY, (2) on a shoe-string budget, (3) using local, generally not well known / amateur actors and (4) in a way at minimum suggesting the use of off-the-shelf consumer video/electronic equipment in its production (hence about as "SELF MADE" / "INDIE" as a film project, made anywhere in the world, could be), the film at least in its original form has gone largely unscreened in Russia (even at film festivals).  This is due to a recent (passed by the Russian Duma in 2014) Russian law that denies public screening licenses to films with "foul language" [Interfax.ru].*  That the film hasn't played even at film festivals in Russia has come as something of a surprise because even a few months before the law's implementation, the Russian Minister of Culture, Vladimir Medina, had assured the nation's artistic / performing community that the new Russian anti-profanity law was intended for "mass screenings only" while film festivals were considered to be "areas of creative experimentation"  [Interfax.ru]*

Yet a law is a law, and can be invoked by authorities perhaps annoyed "by other things" (including here, that this film was made largely outside of their orbit / control). And indeed there is a lot in this film that at least _some sectors_ of contemporary Russian officialdom "could be annoyed with" ;-)

Indeed, despite the official controversy over "foul language" (and while the young Krasnoyarsk born/raised director _stridently defended_ her choice to have her youthful characters use offending language "to set the film's mood" [Interfax.ru]*, she had the foresight of preparing two versions of the film, one with the foul language and one without ;-), one gets definitely the sense that "foul language" was beside the point:

For the film (1) is set in the still quite isolated and quite notorious north Siberian industrial city of Norilsk (a city first built by Stalin's GULAG, was the site of the Soviet Era's largest and most extended prison revolts, and was the birthplace of Nadezhda Tokolonnikova one of the founding / once jailed members of the notorious Russian punk band Pussy Riot) and (2) is about a young woman named Sveta (played wonderfully throughout by Darya Saveleva [IMDb] [KT.ru]*), whose name, short for Svetlana (or Lucy), means "Light", who is about to reach maturity (turn 18) and who JUST WANTS TO LEAVE.

The whole film is one of obvious if gut-wrenchingly sincere youthful protest, and for its part, Russian civil society, notably in the form of the Russian Guild of Film Critics* has largely rallied behind it, giving it two awards last year: Best Debut Film of the Year and perhaps more poignantly, its Young People's Voice award [Interfax.ru]*[IMDb].

So this is one heck of a film, and though not particularly easy see, legally anyway, back in Russia (except perhaps in a sanitized version) thanks to wonders of the internet, gleefully rife with fans, hackers and no doubt a "helpful" Western intelligence service or two ... , it's not particularly hard to find (with English subtitles and all) online ... Just Bing or Google it ;-)

Excellent job!


ADENDA:

Some notes about the north Siberian mining city of Norilsk where the film was set:

(1) Norilsk is the most northern city in the world with a population of over 100,000 and the second largest city, after Murmansk, north of the Arctic Circle.

(2) The city and the mines/factories that support it were built by Stalin-era GULAG concentration camps in the area.

(3) Among the inmates at said Norilsk GULAG (Norillag) was American born Polish descended Jesuit Missionary Fr. Walter Ciszek, SJ [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] in whose memoir With God in Russia [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] he actually describes the building of the copper smelting plant Kombinat "Nadezhda" after which the film was named. (He was there, he was one of the inmates who built the plant).

(4) The camps of the Norilsk GULAG (Norillag) became the site of a major uprising in the spring-summer of 1953 following the death of Stalin.  The uprising is also described at length in gripping first person detail by Fr. Ciszek, SJ [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] his memoir With God in Russia [GR] [WCat] [Amzn].

(5) Today Norilsk is one of the most pollution producing cities in the world, perhaps responsible for 1% of the world's sulfur dioxide emisions alone, and in 2010 was listed by the Russian Federal Statistics Service as the most polluted city in Russia producing six times more pollutants than Cherepovets which came in second place.

(6) In 2001, Norilsk returned to being a "closed city" (!) [BBC] to all foreigners (except for apparently Belorussians) nominally for "strategic mineral reasons." Given its past notorious history and present pollution issues, however, there's almost certainly more behind the Russian government's decision.

FINALLY (7) after such a surprisingly lengthy list of troubled "distinctions", would it really surprise anyone that Norilsk turn-outs to be the birthplace/hometown of Nadezhda Tokolonnikova, one of the members of the Russian punk rock group PUSSY RIOT who was jailed (for "hooliganism inspired by religious hatred") after the group's IMHO perhaps misguided but certainly effective / attention-grabbing guerrilla staging (inside the Moscow's Cathedral of the Divine Savior) of its "Punk Prayer: Holy Mary, Mother of God, put Putin out ..." [YouTube] 

So Norilsk is clearly a tough town, with a troubled past, with much to still resolve / come to terms with / be angry about ...


* Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser. 

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Ride Along 2 [2016]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (A-III)  ChicagoTribune (2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (1 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (C)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing

CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) reviewChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (S. Wloszczyna) review
AVClub (J. Hassenger) review  

BET coverage
Ebony coverage
Essence.com coverage
JetMag.com coverage
TheSource.com articles 

Ride Along 2 [2016] (directed by Tim Story, screenplay by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, characters by Greg Coolidge) is an authentically fun movie that could actually be _exactly_ what the U.S.A. needs today. 

After all, this is an "odd couple" ("the brothers in law" ;-) / "cop movie" focused on two AFRICAN AMERICAN (Atlanta P.D.) COPS of quite different personalities.  There's the grizzled tough guy vet James Payton (played superbly by Ice Cube) and the "got his first taste of 'law enforcement' playing VIDEO GAMES ;-)" newbie (but also with some new ideas about doing things) Ben Barber (played again spot-on by Kevin Hart).  Yes, both characters are exaggerated but both characters exist. 

And in case ANYBODY would have trouble imagining an African American police officer like the no nonsense, tough, "by the book" James Payton, I'd like to dispel any doubts.  I'm in a parish of yes, CHICAGO POLICE OFFICERS, over 100 of them (!!), EASILY HALF OF THEM NOT WHITE, in my parish's case Hispanic.  I've ALSO KNOWN a heck of a lot of VETS from the Armed Services (here OF ALL RACES).   So I've known _many_ JAMES PAYTONS and CHILDREN raised in Police / Military family homes of POLICE OFFICERS / ARMY VETS like JAMES PAYTON. 

So IMMEDIATELY and honestly THANKS BE TO GOD, this film REMINDS ALL VIEWERS that A TRULY SUBSTANTIAL PERCENTAGE OF POLICE OFFICERS in the major police departments of this country (Chicago, Atlanta, New York, Miami, L.A., Houston, etc) ARE NOT / NO LONGER WHITE.

This is _so obvious_ to someone in my position (again working in a Parish like mine chock full of Police officers and all kinds of other city workers).  BUT IT IS GOOD TO SEE THIS ON SCREEN.

I'd also add that it would perhaps shock many Readers here that Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel's opponent in last year's run-off election was Jesús "Chuy" Garcia (Hispanic, obviously) and that he ran PRINCIPALLY on a platform OF INCREASING THE NUMBER OF CHICAGO POLICE OFFICERS BY AT LEAST 1000.  And NO ONE argued about the need / benefits of increasing the Police force by at least that number.  THE ONLY ISSUE was the rather obvious one -- where would the city get the money to do so?  Further Chuy's _perhaps_ unrealistic proposal was certainly borne out of listening to the residents of the poorer sections of the city (I've heard EXACTLY THE SAME from parishioners from some of the poorer parishes north of us - in South Chicago) where MOST OF THESE POORER RESIDENTS DON'T WANT "LESS POLICE OFFICERS" IN THEIR NEIGHBORHOODS BUT _MORE OF THEM_.

So it was good to see a police story featuring REALITY -- NON WHITE COPS doing their jobs WELL in TODAY'S (diverse, hence by definition largely no-longer simply white) AMERICAN CITIES.

In this regard, the film's plot -- though both interesting / fun (the two set out from Atlanta to Miami to better understand how a particular drug smuggling operation is bringing drugs from Miami to their city) -- is largely beside the point.  In Miami, of course, the two come into contact with Miami P.D. hence come to collaborate with a tough / smart Hispanic M.P.D. partner named Maya (played by Olivia Munn) as well as a hacker / flipped to become informant named A.J. (played by Ken Jeong).  Much often fun (this is a comedy after all) ensues ...

So folks leave the racist reporting to both Fox and CNN.  This is honestly is reality: Yes NO ONE wants their people to be shot, but EVERYBODY wants their streets POLICED by PEOPLE LIKE THEM and THANKS BE TO GOD, FOR THE MOST PART THIS IS ALREADY TAKING PLACE ... and IF ANYTHING, we need MORE POLICE OFFICERS (yes certainly well trained) but certainly NOT LESS.  But we certainly need to continue to work toward building police forces that _look like the communities that they police_ and hence _are trusted by the communities they police_.  For the most part, the departments in the major cities in this country have been doing this.  The only question is giving them the funds to do right.

In any case, this is a fun / positive movie and it's great that it came out now.  We need films like this that remind us that we're not nearly as divided as we may sometimes think we are.


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Norm of the North [2016]

MPAA (PG)  CNS/USCCB (A-I)  ChicagoTribune (1 1/2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (1 Star)  AVClub (D)  Fr. Dennis (0 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. McAleer) review
ChicagoTribune (K. Walsh) review
RogerEbert.com (M. Dujsik) review
AVClub (K. Rife) review  

Given the cost of movies these days, Norm of the North [2016] (directed by Trevor Wall, screenplay by Daniel Altiere, Steven Altiere and Malcolm T. Goldman) is really difficult (no really impossible) to recommend to families, even if it is clearly intended for kids. 

Go skating, go sledding, play some video games with your kids at home.  You really wouldn't have missed much by missing this NORDIC ... (in all the senses of the word ...) Happy Feet [2006, 2011] (with a dash of Lion King [1994, 1998] /  Dispicable Me [2010, 2013] thown in) knock-off, except perhaps a broken blood vessel or two in your brains, when you realized what the film was trying to do ...

For this is actually a Hollywood sponsored anti-Semitic production: The villain is a NEW YORK based, GOLD-LOVING, very STRANGE NOSED, pony-tailed "environmental-ish" REAL ESTATE developer with a name -- Mr. Greene (voiced by Ken Jeong) -- TRUNCATED _just enough_ so that one _can claim_ that he's not outright Jewish.  Sieg Heil...

 Good ole Mr. Greene is out to destroy the Environment "up north" NOT by drilling... that presumably would be good ("Drill baby drill ..." as Sarah Palin would say).  Instead, he's out to destroy the Environment "up there" with more generic real estate development, that is, putting up "Green(e) Homes," as if there'd be a huge market for "beach front property" in Arctic.

Anyway, said "Greene Homes" do have enough of an impact that Norm (voiced by Rob Schneider), a "good natured if somewhat loser..." of a polar bear (but with a rare gift of being able to "talk human"), sets-out with his three brown shirted, er brown furred (I'm not making it up ...), lemming friends to New York to "set things right." ... Not much of a spoiler alert -- he does.

... Enough so that at the end he's crowned "King of the North" or "King of the Animals of the North" (I don't remember any more ...)

Sigh ... just an awful and profoundly lazy film.


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The Revenant [2015]

MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB (L)  ChicagoTribune (2 1/2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (3 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (B)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. McAleer) review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (B. Tallerico) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review  

The Revenant [2015] (directed and screenplay cowritten by Alejandro González Iñárritu [wikip] [IMDb] along with Mark L. Smith [IMDb] based on the novel The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge (2002) [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Michael Punke [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb]) is a stark (and IMHO needlessly long) if often beautifully shot film that tells the story of American mountain man Hugh Glass [wikip] [WCat] [IMDb] (played in the film by Leonardo Di Caprio) who in 1823, while leading a band of fur trappers working for the Rocky Mountain Fur Company "back to civilization" at the end of an already ill fated hunting expedition, was mauled by a grizzly bear near the Yellowstone River that he happened-upon and then was left for dead by his colleagues.

'Cept he did not die ...

... instead, despite terrible wounds -- including deep gashes in his back and then others across his ribs and throat -- he used his wilderness skills to progressively patch himself together and travel, often by foot, often BY CRAWLING, HUNDREDS OF MILES back to Ft. Kiowa, then the nearest American settlement located in present day South Dakota on the Missouri River TO FIND THE MEN -- Bridger (played by Will Poulter), John Fitzgerald (played by Tom Hardy) and Capt. Andrew Henry (played by Domhnahl Gleeson) -- who had abandoned him and (at least in the movie) killed his son (played in the film by Forrest Goodluck).

The story becomes a meditation on justice / revenge.  While struggling back to camp / back to civilization, Glass must figure out -- Readers remember that he was unconscious or at best semi-conscious at the time of his abandonment / apparent murder of his son -- WHO was guilty, TO WHAT EXTENT guilty, and then WHAT WOULD CONSTITUTE JUSTICE, for him, in his circumstances.  And at least in the film, he is warned by a Native American who he encounters on his way back to civilization that "Justice belongs to the Creator" (not unlike St. Paul's admonition that vengeance belongs not to us but to God [cf. Rm 12:19]).

What does Glass in the film do?  What did he actually do (look it up, you have the tools, above)?  What would you do?

Not a bad film, but honestly, probably a bit longer than it needed to be, though the scenery in the film was often spectacular, if also very, very cold.


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The Forest [2016]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (A-III)  ChicagoTribune (2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (1 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (C-)  Fr. Dennis (2 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (K. Jensen) review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (M. Dujsik) review
AVClub (J. Hassenger) review  

The Forest [2016] (directed by Jason Zada, screenplay by Nick Antosca, Sara Cornwell and Ben Ketai) is rather straight-forward "scary movie" if set largely in a somewhat exotic (for a North American) locale - the Aokigahara Forest at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan. 

The denseness of the often misty Pacific Northwest (think "Twilight")-like rain-forest has made it the locale for "scary story" (tormented / evil spirit ...) type folklore, for ages, in Japan.  More recently, it has gained the reputation in Japan as a common place for suicides.

SOOO ... 20-something, with a fiancé / a good job, super-responsible Sara (played by Natalie Dormer) gets word that her mirror-opposite, far more adventurous / far less responsible twin sister Jess (ALSO played by Natalie Dormer) studying in Japan has become very depressed.  Sensing that "she needs to go ..." ("It's a twins thing ...", she tells her fiancé), Sara drops everything and flies out to Japan to save her sister "before it's too late."

When Sara arrives, she's told that Jess had packed-up her bags in Tokyo a few days earlier and headed over to said Aokigahara Forest which, "could not be good..." So she heads out there as well to "try to find her," again "before it's too ..."

Arriving at the edge of said forest at nightfall, Sara spends the night in a somewhat dour-looking hostel just outside its perimeter (I suppose, the hostel _can't_ look "too cheerful," as most of its clientele would presumably spend the night there before "going out to the forest to ..."  There Sara meets a strapping / smiling 20-something American "adventurous type" named Aiden (played by Taylor Kinney) who tells her he's there "to write a story" about said dour "Forest of Dreadful Things."  He offers to help her find her sister.  He also enlists a local, similarly good looking / smartly dressed, 20-something Japanese guide named Michi (played quite well by Yukuyoshi Ozawa) who IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS _warns them_ "When you go into the forest STAY ON THE PATH or else YOU'LL GET LOST" ...

The three enter the forest.  Sara DOESN'T "stay on the path."  THEY "GET LOST" ... much dour, misty, mystical, and at times "jumpy / scary" ensues ...

ASIDE from the _obvious_ "suicide theme" ... it makes for a "not particularly terrible" teenage angst / "I just want to be there for my friends" jumpy / scary film.  Arguably it's a (small) step up from the typical teenage "troubled mad slasher" fare.

But there is that suicide theme that will trouble quite a few ...


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Taxi Tehran [2014]

MPAA (UR would be PG-13)  Chicago Tribune (4 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (2 1/2 Stars)  AVClub  (B+)  Fr. Dennis (4+ Stars)

IMDb listing
Cinando.com listing
Sourehcinema.com listing*

Iranian Film Daily (A. Naderzad) review

AVClub.com (A.A. Dowd) review
Chicago Tribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (G. Kenny) review 

APUM.com (J.J. Ontiveros) review*
FilmPress.sk (V. Langerová) review*
KunstUndFilm.de (R. De Righi) review*
Sight & Sound (T. Johnson) review

Slant Magazine (J. Cole) review
Variety (S. Foundas) review


Taxi Tehran [2015] [IMDb] [Cin] [SC]* (written and directed by Jafar Panahi [wikip] [IMDb] [Cin] [SC]* [Amzn]) is a _necessarily_ very simple, _necessarily_ "indie" [TM] film that won critical acclaim (and awards) the world-over.  [In Chicago, the film played recently at the Gene Siskel Film Center]. This is because the director, officially banned from making films in Iran for 20 years (talk about "a blacklist" ... ;-) has had to "improvise."

Since being "banned" from film-making, he's made three ;-) -- one made, in part, using an iPhone, entitled This is Not a Film (orig. In Film Nist) [2011] [wikip] [IMDb] [Amzn] at his home in Tehran, another entitled Closed Curtain (orig. Pardé) [2013] [wikip] [IMDb] [Amzn-IV] at his vacation home by the Caspian Sea, and this one, made with a couple of strategically placed dashcams and a pretty good microphone, while driving around a taxicab in Tehran ;-).

The film involves basically video-taping a number of (generally staged) "conversations" that the ever smiling driver / director "has" while driving around his taxi on a random day.  None of the other participants / actors in the film are credited (for more-or-less obvious reasons...).

Can one create a compelling story in this way??  SURE ... The first passenger Panahi picks-up is a generally good-natured Tehrani 30-something "good old boy" who just complains that there's "too much crime in Tehran" these days (and one gets the sense would actually_like_ "someone like Panahi" being banned from making films these days ;-).

Then Panahi picks-up a couple of 40-50 year old women in orange if Islamic garb who are "on a mision":  They're trying to rapidly bring a couple of gold fish -- they have them "packaged" in nice water-laden plastic bags -- over to "Ali's Spring" at the edge of Tehran because it will "bring them good luck" if they do so on that particular day.

He's called then by his sister to pick-up his precocious 10-y/o niece at the end of the school day.  Of course, he's late ... She then, with her $100-little "Fuji style" digital camera in hand, is busily trying to "make her own film" and peppers her uncle with all sorts of questions about Iran's current regulations regarding what would make a "screenable film."  For instance, would filming a boy, basically her age, stealing something (small) at a market or from an unsuspecting passerby be considered "too sordid realism" for a "screen-able movie"?  (Basically, she had caught someone with her camera stealing something ;-). 

He also picks up a somewhat physically challenged person who makes a living selling "bootleg films" including _some of his own_ ;-).  That person is the only non-family/non-friend who actually recognizes him during the whole film ;-).  On one hand, this physically challenged person congratulates Panahi on his work.  On the other hand, he's making a living selling, illegally, said work ;-).  A little awkward, but they part "as friends" ;-).

Soooo ... What a cute little movie, huh? ;-) ... The true sadness, of course, is that Panahi is certainly capable of making _much greater things_.

Still, a story NEED NOT BE "GRAND" to MAKE A POINT.  And certainly in the "making a point" department THIS IS PROBABLY THE MOST FASCINATING MOVIE OF THE YEAR ;-).

A very, very good AND VERY FUNNY JOB ;-)


* Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser. 

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Anomalisa [2015]

MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB ()  ChicagoTribune (4 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (3 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (A-)  Fr. Dennis (1 Star)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB () review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (M. Zoller Seitz) review
AVClub (M. D'Angelo) review  

I found Anomalisa [2015] (written and co-directed by Charlie Kaufman [wikip] [IMDb] along with Duke Johnson [IMDb] based on Charlie Kaufman's [wikip] [IMDb] own stage play by the same name) to be very, very, indeed relentlessly, flat / boring.  'Course that was a good part of the point ;-) or :-/.

This (I kid Readers not) appropriately R-rated movie that uses _clay puppets_ to tell its tale, presents then the story of a short (less than 24 hour) "business trip" of Michael Stone (voiced by David Thewlis) to Cincinnati, Ohio.  Now why was he going to this moderately sized if quite random American city?  Well, Stone was something of a "guru" in the field of "customer service."  He's hailed in the story as the author of a seminal book on the matter entitled: "How may I help you help them?" ;-).  And he was scheduled to give a talk at a trade conference assembling there.

The film begins with Stone arriving the evening before said conference at Cincinnati's airport after a thoroughly uneventful commercial flight.  He hails down a taxi to take him to an upscale hotel -- "The Fregoli" -- in the center of town.

The "chit-chat" of the conversation that takes place between the taxi driver and Stone as they travel between the airport and hotel is one that most American adults would have heard before: Here are two people who've never seen each other before and 10-15-20 minutes from now will never see each other again.  Stone has arrived in this random American city (the "third largest in the state of Ohio") that he's apparently "visited once before" (a fair number of years ago) and will probably not visit again for quite some time afterwards.  On the other hand, it's the taxi driver's city, a city that he's proud of.  So in those 10-15-20 minutes he tries to tell Stone "what to see / do" while in this "Great City of Cincinnati" -- "You must go to the Zoo" / "You must try our Chili" ;-).  And indeed through-out the rest of the film, there are references to Cincinnati's "great zoo" / "delicious chili" ;-)

Stone arrives at the hotel, pays the driver, goes over to  the guy the front desk, gets a room, is assigned a bell-hop (to help him with his one small carry-on bag ;-) to get to his room, arrives at said room, orders room service (and is reminded to "try our great chili" ;-).

EVERYTHING / EVERYBODY seems to be so much _the same_ and quite surprisingly / quite unsettlingly IT ALL IS / THEY ALL ARE ...  very much "THE SAME":  (1) All the people (including Stone) are CLAY PUPPETS who are _given the appearance of movement_ through stop motion animation (where between each frame, the clay puppets -- their appendages, eyes, facial expressions -- are moved / changed _ever so slightly_ so as to GIVE THE APPEARANCE of motion when viewed afterwards at a fairly rapid rate - 10 frames, 20 frames / second ;-).  Then (2) EVERYBODY who Stone meets even seems to SOUND THE SAME.  And they do, because _except for Stone himself_, THEY ARE ALL (male / female, young / old) VOICED BY THE SAME PERSON (Tom Noonan ;-).

What's going on here? ;-)

Well Chicago Tribune movie critic Michael Phillips notes in his review (above) that the name of the Hotel "The Fregoli" gives Viewers a big clue.  This is because there is a psychological condition called the Fregoli Delusion [wikip] in which a person comes to hold the "delusional belief that different people are in fact a single person who changes appearance or is in disguise."   So the (fictionalized) "customer service guru" Michael Stone finds himself in a world where EVERYBODY seems to be basically the same person.

What does he do?  Well this is IMHO the problematic aspect of the film: He chooses to "act out."

That is, Stone spends much of the film trying "desperately" to find SOME WOMAN who is "different" from everybody else TO SLEEP WITH HER.  Now, we're shown that he's married and even with a kid.  And he talks to them both on the phone after he arrives at the hotel (with both his wife and kid voiced again by the same Tom Noonan ;-) or ;-/ ).  He even looks up an old flame, who apparently lives in Cincinnati (and who he had probably bedded the last time (the only time...) that he had passed through the city).  She's again voiced by Tom Noonan.  And this time, she doesn't want to go to bed with him. 

Finally, by sheer accident, he finds ONE PERSON, a soft spoken Lisa Hesselmann (voiced by Jennifer Jason Leigh), a customer service rep from Akron, OH (basically just like Cincinnati only smaller, and _perhaps_ "sadder") who's come to Cincinnati with a coworker (voiced again by Tom Noonan) to hear Stone speak at the convention.  And LISA's "somewhat different" ... Indeed, she confesses to Stone that she's always thought of herself as "an anomaly" -- from which the name of the story derives: Anoma(Li)sa ;-)

BUT, (1) how "different" is Lisa really?  After all, she's a well-trained, professional(ized) "customer service rep" from anywhere-ville (Akron, OH) ...  and (2) even if Lisa really is "at least a little different (from the others)" IS "DIFFERENCE" ACTUALLY WHAT STONE "IS LOOKING FOR" ANYWAY?  After all, "difference" can be charming, but it can also be(come) annoying.

In any case, the two -- Stone and Anoma(Li)sa -- share probably the _saddest_ / most pathetic (adulterous) "sex scene" (after all, they are two "clay puppets" ...) in the history of movies.

Honestly, it was awful.  And it makes for a very interesting if very, very sad perspective on adultery.  One at least expects (hopes (!)) adultery to be "Exciting" [TM] ... Here it's presented as a really really sad, even desperate act between _two clay puppets_ filmed in stop-motion-animation _quite literally_ "just going through the motions" ;-) or :-(.

And this feeling of sad emptiness pervades the whole film: Stone seemed to believe that the whole world was filled with people who were pretty much all the same, YET (1) he worked in a field, INDEED WAS AN EXPERT IN A FIELD that HELPS MAKE THEM THAT WAY and (2) he wasn't really sure if he liked "difference" much anyway when he finally seemed to find it.

It becomes rather pathetic / sad ... Yet the film clearly seemed "to speak to" a good part of the rather young, (one guesses) probably "quite liberal" / "hipsterish" audience viewing the film when I saw it recently.  Sigh, again HOW SAD ...

I honestly left QUITE HAPPY that _my world_ "at the Parish" has _never_ been so flat ... If anything, we have "more characters" -- from young to old, from athletic, to "smart", to artistic (and everything in between) of truly a multitude of ethnicities / backgrounds -- than we can handle ;-).   But at least it's NEVER, EVER "BORING."

Sigh, the tragedy of being "too smart" / too jaded for one's own good ...


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Queen [2014]

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

IMDb listing
Bollywood.com listing
FilmBeat.com listing

Hindustan Times (S. Kaushal) review
India Today (S. Dwivedi) review
Indian Express (K. Gupta) review
Times of India () review

Variety (D. Chute) review

Queen [2014] [IMDb] [BW] [FBt] (directed and screenplay cowritten by Vikas Bahl [IMDb] [BW] [FBt] along with Chaitally Parmar [IMDb] and Parveez Sheikh [IMDb] dialogue by Anvita Dutt [IMDb] [BW] [FBt] and Kangana Ranaut [IMDb]) is a highly acclaimed six 2015 Indian Filmfare Award winning film (the Filmfare Awards being widely regarded as India's version of the Oscars) which playfully turns a common Bollywood story-line on it head ;-).

The film (English subtitled) is available for streaming for a very reasonable price at Amazon Instant Video.

The story begins with 20-something Dehli girl, Rani (in Hindi meaning "Queen", played wonderfully in the film by Kangana Ranuat [IMDb] [BW] [FBt]) about to get married.  The whole extended family is coming into town for the big day.  All the dancing that one would expect to come _at the end_ of a Bollywood movie is taking place at the beginning, AND ... (really not much of a spoiler here, because there wouldn't be much of a film otherwise ;-) ... JUST AT THE LAST MOMENT, her fiance Vijay (played again impressively with appropriate "nose up, still young / doesn't really know yet what he's doing, arrogance" by Rajkummar Rao [IMDb] [FBt]) BREAKS OFF THE ENGAGEMENT.  Why??  Well, it's unclear, but mostly, apparently, because he's young / stupid / arrogant / spoiled ... basically because "he can" and still _honestly_ "doesn't understand" what this kind of a decision, this late in the preparations was going to do to his fiancee / her family. 

So there's young 20-something Rani, sitting in lovely, red hued, gold embroidered wedding sari amidst all those flower petals ... quietly weeping ... her own family not really knowing what to say or do ... And after several days of this, she decides ... TO GET UP, AND GO ON HER ALREADY PAID FOR HONEYMOON (to Paris / Europe) ON HER OWN ... (and of course, we cheer) and of course the rest of the movie follows ;-)

Of course many adventures await her, out there, "all on her own" for the first time:

Among the people she meets is Vijayalakshmi (played by Lisa Haydon [IMDb] [BW] [FBt]) a 1/2 Indian single mom, never married, her age in Paris, who Rani initially doesn't know how to understand.  And she is, of course, somewhat challenging, even to the film's Viewers, as Vijayalakshmi, even from her very conception (1/2 Indian / 1/2 European after all) seemed to violate "all the rules" that Rani had grown-up with.  And yet, Vijayalakshmi, despite pushing Rani (and the film's Viewers) at times a bit too much (there are a couple of scenes, not involving nudity -- there is none as this is an Indian film -- that are still needlessly, even stupidly, trashy) proves to be a pretty good guide for someone like Rany who's found herself "thrown 'by events' into the world."

And among the others that Rany meets is an Italian cook / restauranteur named Marcello (played by Marco Canadea [IMDb]) a few years older than she, so perhaps in his late 20s-early 30s, with whom she has comes to have some fairly lively discussions about ... food ;-) ... as both Indians and Italians are, how shall one say this, "quite proud" of their cuisines ;-).

All in all, it's a very nice story, about a young Rani / Queen, who perhaps initially had "different plans" for life, but like the "Mary" of the American Mary Tyler Moore Show [1970-77] [wikip] [IMDb], finds that she _can_ "make it on her own."

Very good job! ;-)


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The Assassin (orig. Nie yin niang) [2015]

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

IMDb listing
AsianWiki listing*

Film Comment (R. Liang) interview director / the film's two key stars 

APUM.com (A. Saéz) review*
aVoir-aLire.com (G. Crespo) review*
RogerEbert.com (J. Monji) review
Sight & Sound (G. Andrew) review
Slant Magazine (J. Catalgo) review
South China Morning Post (E. Lee) review

The Assassin (orig. Nie yin niang) [2015] [IMDb] [AW] (directed and cowritten by Hsiao-Hsien Hou [IMDb] [AW] along with Cheng Ah [IMDb] and Hai-Meng Hsieh [IMDb] based on the short story by Yuan Xingpei [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb]) is a top-quality Chinese / Taiwanese "period piece" / "martial arts film" if perhaps with (at least in English) a needlessly / quite unfortunately reductive title.  The film played recently at the 2015 (51st Annual) Chicago International Film Festival and has subsequently returned to Chicago to play week-long runs at the Music Box Theater and the Gene Siskel Film Center.

Set in the closing stages of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 C.E.) in/around the rebellious / already (then) de facto independent Weibo Province [en.wikip] [zh.wikip]* (_perhaps_ "kinda like Taiwan" today ...) the story centers on a 20-something woman named Nie Yianning (played quite excellently by Shu Qi [IMDb] [AW]) -- after whom the film, in Chinese, was named.  As per RogerEbert.com's reviewer Jana Monji (link above), Nie Yianning's name is indeed quite evocative - Yianning means "Secret Daughter" and Nie the surname means "Said in Whispers."

So... Nie Yianning was born and spent much of her early childhood in a tiny, thoroughly inconsequential village in rural Weibo Province and yet had been betrothed (as a child) to a distant (and richer) cousin of a similar age named Tian Ji'an (played by Chang Chen [IMDb] [AW]) back when the Tian family was _merely_ "quite rich."

However, when the Weibo Province made its play to break away from the rest of China, the Tian family became the breakaway Province's  de facto rulers and it became important for young Ji'an to marry someone "appropriate to [his family's] _new_ station."  So poor Yianning was left in the village while Ji'an married and had children with a "better-born" Lady (played by Zhou Yun [IMDb] [AW]) and began to live as "a little Emperor" (of the breakaway Province).

So what happens to girl like Nie Yianning, who was betrothed by her family to someone in childhood, who when the time came, chose to marry someone "richer"?  Well her family handed her over to a strange "princess turned wandering warrior nun" (IMHO played magnificently by Sheu Fang-yi [IMDb]) whose backstory would certainly justify its own film.  Well this "princess turned wandering warrior nun" trains Nie Yianning to be an exceptionally lethal assassin, wreaking "black clothed" (of course...) "dropping in out of the blue" vengeance on all sort of powerful (usually male) potentates in the region.   Nie Yianning silently "drops in" ("like the wind..."), slits the powerful evil man's throat, slips out ... and is done.  Another powerful "Evil Doer" meets his (one hopes ...) "just deserts."

And Nie Yianning is certainly "good" at what she does.  We watch her deflecting swords and arrows launched at her by terrified / awestruck guards of said powerful "Evil doers" as if they were mosquitoes or butterflies.

Well, after a short 5 min, b&w introduction introducing us to the awesomely well-trained / supremely "good at what she does" Nie Yianning, she's given by her "former princess turned wandering warrior nun" mentor her next mission.  Guess who she's asked to kill? ;-) ...

Can she do it?  From a purely "skills" POV, certainly _yes_.  There's NO place that the 20-something, "hurt as a little girl," "secret daughter, spoken of in whispers..." Nie Yianning can not penetrate.  BUT _can_ she do _this_ "job" (even if her assigned target _certainly_ "kinda deserved it")?

The rest of the story follows ... ;-)

 It makes for a quite compelling story, and the cinematography, both indoors and out, is once again simply exquisite.  Anyone who's ever enjoyed traditional chinese paintings with their impossibly steep fog strewn cliffs or beautiful silky interiors will certainly appreciate this film.

So good job folks, very good job.  I just wish that the film's English title didn't simply reduce Nie Yianning to "The Assassin."  Her name was far more evocative than that ...


* Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser. 

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The Hateful Eight [2015]

MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB (L)  ChicagoTribune (2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (2 Stars)  AVClub (A-)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (M. Zoller Seitz) review
AVClub (I. Vishnevetsky) review  

The Hateful Eight [2015] (written and directed by Quentin Tarantino) is, for better / worse, "a Quentin Tarantino movie" ;-).

Hence it is _needlessly long_ and is punctuated with brief moments of QT's signature (but still needlessly) extreme violence.  Seriously, it's obvious that Tarrentino thinks very highly of himself in forcing his viewers here to sit through this 2hr 45min movie that could have easily been an hour shorter and better for it.  As it is, the only humane way to watch this movie is on a widescreen TV at home.

YET, the characters, dialogues and even outdoor cinematography in this "Agatha Christie meets The Western" mash-up are often exceptional, outstanding even spectacular.  Again, seriously, by the end of the film Jennifer Jason Leigh's Daisy Domerge is _utterly unforgettable_, and Samuel Jackson's former Union soldier turned black bounty hunter Major Marquis Warren, Kurt Russell's more conventional "John Wayne-like" white bounty hunter named "John Ruth" and Walton Goggin's Chris Mannix a former "Confederate Marauder" turned future Sheriff of a "hole in the wall" Wyoming hamlet called "Red Rock", together comprising the first four characters introduced to us in the film, are all extremely well (and with very broad strokes quite amusingly) drawn. 

And the story, which by the end (not much of a spoiler alert here ...) doesn't exactly "leave a lot of people still standing" takes place in the context of a spectacular "Big Sky Wyoming winter blizzard" and then largely at a circa-1880s "Stage Coach Inn" in the middle of nowhere.

To say more would start to spoil the film.  My only advice is wait for it to come out on DVD / Blue Ray, because it's really too long to watch in a theater.


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Daddy's Home [2015]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (L)  ChicagoTribune (3 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (2 Stars)  AVClub (C+)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (K. Jensen) review
ChicagoTribune (K. Walsh) review
RogerEbert.com (G. Kenny) review
AVClub (J. Hassenger) review  


Daddy's Home [2015] (directed by Sean Anders, story by Brian Burns screenplay by Sean Anders, Brian Burns and John Morris) is not exactly a kids movie (though _very_ strictly speaking there's little that would particularly disturb or offend most kids).  However, it seems clear to me that the film's intended audience are the adults perhaps particularly those who find themselves in "blended family situations."

I write this because the film is actually about the insecurities of a step-parent, in the case at hand of Brad Whitaker (played actually quite well by Will Farrell).  He is the super-responsible if inevitably nerdy (seriously, he works for "Radio Panda - Satellite Radio's 24 hour continuous slow jazz" ;-) second husband of Sara (played by Linda Cardellini).  Her _really cool_ if truly never-at-home, doing truly "only God knows what" (again seriously, he seems to have been some sort of a gun-running 'copter pilot for the CIA/DEA) Harley-riding first husband was Dusty Mayron (played by Mark Wahlberg) who had proven, at least as a husband / father, truly _irresponsible_.

And Sara then had two precocious little kids, Dylan (played by Owen Vaccaro) and Megan (played by Scarlett Estevez), with said super-cool if never-ever-around first husband, who in as much as 6 or 4 year olds could "hate" a step-parent (because, well, Brad's not dad ...) ... do.

So ... six months after Sara and Brad got married  ... and after a two year period of having been totally "out of the picture," Dusty, first dad, real / biological dad, rides back into town ... and the rest of the movie ensues ;-).

Again, the film is more far more for adults than for kids and actually treats both Farrell's Brad and Wahlberg's Dusty as well as Sara (Cardellini's character) quite well.  And the film could give both college aged young adults and young married's much to talk about: Do you marry for dependability or for cool?  And yes, there's a choice being made there, and all choices do have consequences (their pluses and minuses).


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