Oblivion [2013]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (A-III)  I. Vishnevetsky (2 Stars)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
RogerEbert.com (I. Vishnevetsky) review

Oblivion [2013] (directed and cowritten by Joseph Kosinski along with Karl Gajdusek and Michael Arndt based on the graphic novel by Joseph Kosinski and Arvid Nelson) is an ambitious, often visually spectacular, if at times "derivative" Alien invasion / post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi film.  I tend not to punish "derivativeness" as much as others because I do find part of the charm of "genre films" in their homages to previous ones.   And there are certainly plenty of homages present here:  Planet of the Apes [1968] / 2001: A Space Odyssey [1968] / Silent Running [1972], Independence Day [1996] / Transformers [2007], The Day After Tommorrow [2004] / 2012 [2009] to name a few.

With a list of sci-fi themed films this deep, one could ask if there is anything original in Oblivion at all.  My answer would be yes.

The setup of the story is the following:  At the beginning of the film we're told by Jack Harper (played by Tom Cruise) that Space Aliens called "Scavs" (short for scavengers) attack Earth around 2017-18.  Their opening salvo is fascinating: They blowup the moon, the result being that the physical equilibrium of the earth is thrown into total chaos.  Tides suddenly fluctuate wildly, presumably shards of the destroyed moon crash onto earth causing Super Tsunamis, etc.  Yet despite this, humanity is able to repel the invasion, in desperation resorting to nukes, resulting in the planet being rendered largely uninhabitable.  As a result, most of surviving humanity is evacuated from Earth to Saturn's moon Titan. 

Only a few humans remain, Jack (a pilot) being one of them along with his partner Victoria (played by Andrea Riseborough).  Their job is "drone maintenance," the killer drones being used to mop-up (hunt down and kill) the remaining "Scavs" on the planet and protecting a series giant fusion power-plants that extract their fuel from sea-water and help power the new human colonies way-out on Titan.

It's kinda lonely and boring work, this drone maintenance, and Jack says at the beginning of the film that both he and Victoria had been given "a memory wipe" prior to their assignment ostensibly to help them do their work more efficiently (so that they could complete it and then head to Titan to be with the others).  Each morning when the two receive a cheerful wake-up call by Sally (played by Melissa Leo) from "Mission Control," who also checks in on how they are doing, which all does boost their morale. 

Yet something doesn't make sense to Jack (and I would suspect would progressively make less and less sense to viewers).  Repeatedly, he asks himself: "If we won the war, why do we have to leave?"  Victoria keeps telling him "Just get this out of your mind and do your job.  The sooner we get done here, the sooner we can leave to join the others."  But that's it.  Jack doesn't really wanna leave.

Jack also finds himself increasingly tormented by a memory that doesn't seem to fit.  A dark haired woman (played by Olga Kurylenko) keeps showing up in his dreams.

That woman shows-up in reality one late afternoon when a meteor-like object crashes near their base.  Despite being told to just "let the drones take care of it," he decides to go himself.  That's when he discovers that the object that crashed was actually an "ancient looking" / "pre-War" spacecraft and among the wreckage he finds _humans_ in suspended animation capsules.  He also finds to his horror that the drones that come to investigate the crash site don't seem to recognize the humans inside those capsules as humans and proceed to obliterate them, one after another, in hails of Gatling gun bullets, all except for one, that dark haired woman who looks like the woman who appears in Jack dreams, who Jack saves by stepping between her capsule and the drone that would have otherwise obliterated it like the rest, thus causing the drone to turn its attention elsewhere and go away.  Jack attaches her capsule to his vehicle and takes it to his / Victoria's base.  Victoria's taken aback by the unexpected presence of this "other woman."  Sally, back in mission control seems to see the dark haired woman, who when she wakes up calls herself Julia, as someone falling outside the paramenters of Jack/Victoria's mission (but doesn't seem to give clear instructions as to how to proceed).  In anycase, the rest of the movie clearly develops from there...

It all comes together, at times somewhat heavy-handedly, but ends in an IMHO interesting (not altogether predictable) / poignant way.   So between the imagery of the film and way the film wraps itself up, the film does make for decent enough / satisfying sci-fi film.  Bladerunner [1982] or the first Terminator [1984] it is not.  But it's certainly a more thoughtful movie than say Independence Day [1996] to say nothing of Battle Los Angeles [2011].


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The Devil's Hole (orig. El Hoyo del Diablo) [2012]

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

IMDb listing

The Devil's Hole (orig. El Hoyo del Diablo) [2012] (directed and cowritten by Francisco Disla Fierra (El Indio) along with Humberto Espinal) is a well-made and at times good humored/campy horror movie from the Dominican Republic that played recently at the 29th Chicago Latino Film Festival.

In many respects, the film follows the trajectory / conventions of classic (North) American horror films: A group of vivacious (at time obnoxious) college students set off for a weekend / vacation of fun and find themselves in a "cabin in the woods" that's haunted.

To this outline are overlaid various conventions of local traditional story telling.  The story comes from "Santo Domingo" (the Dominican Republic) after all, which borders with Haiti.  So the well of Santeria / Voodoo inspired lore is quite deep ;-).  The effect for this "gringo reviewer" (but who's still had family connections "with village lore" from his family's native Bohemia (today's Czech Rpublic) was fascinating.  And honestly folks, this story was more positive / edifying than most contemporary (North) American horror film as should become clear in the discussion below.

The story involves a group of college students from Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, who head-off to the countryside for vacation as school's out for Holy Week (Spring Break).  On their way to their destination, however, a truck swerves into their lane, forcing their car to plunge down a rather steep ravine.  When they get out of the car, all rather bruised and bloodied, and search for help, they eventually find themselves by an old abandoned country home.  With it getting dark, they decide to spend the night.

Obviously, this was a bad idea ... ;-) Indeed, the circle of apparently dried blood that encircling the place would probably serve as a good indication to not enter.  But most of the college students don't seem to notice the circle.  Besides it's getting dark and where else are they going to stay?

Who does notice the circle of dried blood is a rather tormented young woman named Sofia (played by Marta Gonzales Liliano) who the other friends kinda dismiss as being kinda weird.  But then they felt kinda sorry for her.  So they took her along on this trip.  Besides she was Miriam's cousin (played by Solly Duran) who was cooler/more fun.  Anyway, as Sofia (and remember her name means "wisdom") approaches that left-over barrier of dried blood, a ghost of a snow white-haired girl named Luz (played by Karla Hatton) in a white dress appears and tells her: DON'T CROSS THE LINE.  So Sofia hesitates.  She asks her friend Brian (played by Johnie Mercedes) if he saw the ghost of the lady in white telling her not to cross the line.  He says no.  So after some hesitation, she crosses.  After all, all her other friends had already crossed.

Well of course the house has a tormented history.  It had been a site in which the Dominican Republic's army under the infamous dictator Trujillo had tortured and killed thousands of Haitian migrants in October 1937.

Not happy that Sofia had "crossed the line," the "lady in white" nevertheless tells her that she's now destined to free the souls of the hundreds perhaps even thousands of Haitians who were murdered in this place by a sadistic Dominican Colonel who had become possessed by the demonic spirit Revenant (played by Juan Fernandez).  Indeed, whenever Sofia touches anything in the house, episodes of its sordid play out in stylized black and white fashion around her.

But before Sofia can free all those people, the other friends in her party that need to be "knocked off."  The first to go are the coolest/most popular in the group (though honestly they don't particularly seem like bad people... though certainly the most worldly).  Escarlette (played by Karla Fatule), who was perhaps most bloodied by the accident must goes first.  He confident/athletic looking, and revolver carrying Jhon (played by Fausto Rojas) soon follows (apparently revolvers don't work well in a house cursed by Satan ...;-).  Miriam initially avoids a really large snake, but eventually it gets her.  Finally even Brian succumbs.

So all who's left is Sofia.  And good ole Revenant comes back from apparently a pit that reaches down to Hell to get her.

HOWEVER, in the midst of this, Sofia's MOTHER (played by Carlotta Carretero) back home in Santo Domingo has a premonition that something terrible's about to happen to her daughter.  So she goes to the local Santoria priestess to ask for help.  Well the priestess tells her: "You know what you're supposed to do, do it."

Well Sofia's mother goes to an altar dedicated to the VIRGIN MARY and prays for assistance.  The Virgin then sends SAINT MICHAEL (played on Luis Filguera).  He appears at the tormented house on a nice Big White Horse, enters, saves Sofia from the clutches of the Evil Revenant, dispatches him back down into the pit of Hell where he belongs.  And afterwards one sees a greyish cloud of all those previously trapped soul leaving the house and ascending up to the heavens.

So Sofia with the help of her mother, the Virgin Mary and Saint Michael is able to defeat the Demon Revenant and free all those tormented souls of the Haitians who had been murdered allowing them to go up to Heaven.

I did find the story fascinating.  And obviously there is some Santeria / Voodoo present in the story.  (The most problematic for me being Miriam and the snake...).  On the other hand, when Sofia's mother does pray to the Virgin Mary, the Virgin does send Saint Michael who does save her daughter and all those trapped/tormented Haitian souls (and most of those Haitians would have been Catholic).

In any case, I found the film well constructed, often fun (as far as the horror genre goes) and arguably more edifying than most of these kind of movies in the States.  After all, GOOD WINS and indeed the Virgin Mary / St. Michael come through.

As far as advice would go:  If you're ever asked to make (or cross) a circle of blood or a pentagram, PLEASE DON'T.  And when in trouble, DO pray to the Virgin Mary (the Hail Mary) or indeed, the Prayer to Saint Michael:

Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle;
be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray:
and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits
who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.


ADDENDUM:

Apparently this film, which has been very popular in both the Dominican Republic and in Puerto Rico will play by the end of 2013 on HBO Latino and be released on Netflix ;-).


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Disconnect [2012]

MPAA (R)  RogerEbert.com (4 Stars)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
RogerEbert.com (R. Roeper) review

Disconnect [2012] (directed by Henry Alex Rubin, screenplay by Andrew Stern) is a well structured if rather depressing tale involving three concurrent and (loosely) interrelated stories that, together, help express the complexities and potential pitfalls of the internet culture in which we live.  Viewers may find similarities in the structure/storytelling taking place in this film with that present in a similarly titled film Babel [2006].

In this film, Disconnect [2012], the three concurrent and loosely interrelated stories that play out are:

(1) A local television reporter, Nina Dunham (played by Andrea Riseborough), decides to do an exposé on the exploitation of minors by internet "cam sites."  To do so, she befriends, "Kyle" (played by Max Theriot) an underaged local male "cam model," who when she makes acquaintance with him (over the cam site) initially expects her to want him to "perform" for her but to his surprise finds that she just wants to talk to him.  Eventually, she convinces him to meet off-line and to do an interview (face blacked out, voice altered) for television, about his life and the exploitation of minors such as him by those who operate such "adult cam sites."  In the interview, he tells her that the younger the model looks the more money he/she makes, which is just "golden" for reporter Nina Dunham's exposé. 

But of course, even if Dunham wants to be helpful and arguably even wants to help "Kyle" get out of this way of life before he gets hurt, once Dunham's exposé is picked-up by CNN, making the "big time" ... the FBI comes-in asking questions and the ethics of what Nina Dunham had done to get the interview become murky indeed.  To avoid getting too much into "spoiler territory," consider simply that in order to be able to "make acquaintance" with "Kyle" to begin with, Nina had to PAY (the cam-site) for the opportunity to "chat" with him.  Now of course, she said that this is all that she did ... just talked to him.  BUT how could one possibly know that for sure (except take her word for it ...)?  And Kyle was, of course, a minor. The local TV station's lawyer, Rich Boyd (played by Jason Bateman) sensing potential trouble for the station immediately recommends to the station manager to suspend Nina pending the completion of the FBI's investigation.  For its part, the FBI wasn't going anywhere until Nina gave them information about "Kyle's" whereabouts so that they could try to shut that illegally operating website down... 

(2) Teenager Jason Dixon (played by Colin Ford) along with a skateboarding buddy and with a partly justified (and partly not...) "chip on his shoulder" decides that it'd be fun to create a fake profile (of a girl, of course) on a Facebook-like social media site to pick-on Ben Boyd (played by Jonah Bobo) a quiet, kinda nerdy classmate of theirs.  Ben swallows the bait, hook, line and sinker and Jason and his buddy have oodles of fun until the prank inevitably gets out of hand.  Ben's dad, the lawyer mentioned above, of course had no clue at all what was going on in Ben's life and indeed, had been initially happy that his quiet son was apparently finally "making friends ..."

(3) A still relatively young married couple, Cindy and Derek Hull (played by Paula Patton and Alexander Skarsgard) are grieving (not particularly well...) the tragic loss of their young son.  To cope Cindy had joined an online support group emptying her heart there.  Derek just kinda shuts down and spends at least a portion of his time when he's "out of town on business" (and with his wife not watching ...) playing online video blackjack in his hotel room.  Well, one evening Derek wishes to make an online purchase of $50 more dollars worth of chips and finds that the credit card was maxed-out.  What happened?  He calls his wife.  She didn't spend the money.  And though Derek had something of a gambling addiction (and had taken out, without telling his wife, a second mortgage on the house ...) STILL it didn't add up.  Someone had stolen their identity. 

When the bank proves that it doesn't really care whether or not their identity was stolen but simply interested in Cindy/Derek making their payments, the two call-in a local expert on internet fraud, a former cop, Mike Dixon (played by Frank Grillo) who had left the force after losin his wife, and yes was the father of teenager Jason above.  Mike goes through Cindy and Derek's receipts and internet records and shaking his head, tells them: "Look, I'm not a marriage counselor ..." and proceeds to explain to both of them that anyone of those "nice people" on the internet support group that Cindy participated in, let alone the "nice operators" of the gambling sites that Derek frequented could have pieced together the necessary information to steal their identities...

Anyway, all three of the stories are sad and yet I do believe that there is at least some redemption in a couple of them.  Together the three stories remind us that we do live in a "looking glass" and at least PARTLY FALLEN WORLD, where people are not always what they seem and, yes, fraud/corruption/sin occur.

All in all, this is not a bad film (not by a long shot) just not a particularly happy one, something that viewers should be aware of before seeing it.

So good job folks, even if you've succeeded in depressing me ;-)


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Dust (orig. Polvo) [2012]

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

IMDb listing

Dust (orig. Polvo) [2012] (directed and cowritten by Julio Hernández Cordón along with Mateo Iribarren) is a Guatemalan/German and Chilean (Spanish language, English subtitled) film that played recently at the 29th Chicago Latino Film Festival about the lingering psychological effects on the rural victims of the brutal 30 year Civil War that raged in Guatemala during much of the Cold War. 

The story centers on Juan (played by Agustin Ortíz Pérez) a troubled villager whose father had been murdered along with most of his home village in the aftermath of a Guatemalan military counter-insurgency sweep sometime during the 1960s or 1970s.  The only reason why Juan and his mother Delfina (played by María Telón Soc) had survived was that when she and Juan along with the rest of the villagers were being marched out of town she tripped (and presumably dragging down her son) and was able to be passed-over in the brush by the (para)military detachment that later performed the massacre and leveled the village.  Juan and his mother had resettled in another town some distance away.

What caused particular anguish to Juan was that the man he and other survivors of the massacre were convinced had betrayed their village (and thus was responsible for the murder of his father and most of the villagers) lived then in the same town where they had resettled afterwards.

What to do?  Well as he explained to a German documentary film-maker (played by Eduardo Spiegeler) who had come in to make a documentary about the recovery of the the bones of the victims of the massacre that had occurred decades ago, "What the heck can we do?" Apparently though convinced of the responsibility/guilt of the man in question there never was any solid proof.  Yet the survivors (and certainly Juan) hated the man for it.  Indeed, after film-maker had asked Juan about this intense hatred Juan had for the man, Juan's mother abruptly wanted to end her (and Juan's) cooperation with the film makers, telling them (more or less obviously): "You people just don't understand.  You are asking Juan questions that are very painful to him."

And she spoke with correctly here, because even as the "documentarians" were going about their business of filming what would be their wonderful documentary, viewers of this film were able to follow Juan's troubled behavior:  He tries to kill himself (not particularly effectively) ... again.  He cuts himself and the sits himself down beside Delfina's bed.  When she wakes-up she finds him on the floor unconscious but not dead.  So she puts him into a wheelbarrow and wheels him to a clinic for care...  Soon afterwards, we find him playing a portable battery operated keyboard for a local street corner preacher.  Then we see him interacting first in a seemingly friendly manner and later in a sabotaging manner with the man he's convinced was responsible for killing his father and most of his home village.  And this goes on throughout most of the film... until it reaches a more or less clear breaking point.

I found the film both very, very sad and very honest.  The peasants of rural Guatemala suffered in truly unimaginable ways during the fighting of the Cold War.  Hundreds of thousands of people mostly unarmed villagers had been murdered, entire villages razed/wiped off the face of the earth.  This can not but leave enormous psychic scars.  YET THIS IS (POOR) GUATEMALA.

Honestly folks, imagine the horror of 9/11 repeated continuously for 30 years producing a death toll 30-50 times greater than 9/11 AND NO ONE (OF CONSEQUENCE...) SEEING ANY OF IT.  No headlines from Le Monde  in the massacres' (PLURAL ... CONTINUOUS FOR 30 YEARS) aftermath declaring "Today we're ALL GUATEMALANS."

Imagine the amount of counseling we've been able to give our 9/11 survivors (And I'm writing this review a day after the 4/15 bombings at the Boston Marathon another TERRIBLE life-altering tragedy for so many people/survivors).  Now imagine NONE OF THE SERVICES (or NEXT TO NONE OF THEM) that we provide survivors of terrorism or other horrific tragedies available to all those survivors of all those massacres in Guatemalan countryside.  That's what this film is about ... 

Now honestly, what to do?  After seeing this movie, I did check and there are groups like:  Psychology Beyond Borders and a Psychological division of Doctors Without Borders.  And of course there are continuing efforts of various religious charitable organizations (including, of course, Catholic Relief Services and Food for the Poor that are always stretched and have various competing though always urgent priorities).

But honestly, at least say a prayer for these poor people who've suffered so much and try to understand what they've gone through.   That would be but the very first step to help set things right...


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7 Boxes (orig. 7 Cajas) [2012]

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

IMDb listing

7 Boxes (orig. 7 Cajas) [2012] (screenplay and directed by Juan Carlos Maneglia and Tana Schembori, w. screenplay collaboration by Tito Chamorro) is a critically acclaimed / award winning Paraguayan film (including a nomination for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film at the 27th (2012) Goya awards, Spain's equivalent of the Oscars).  It played (subtitled in English) recently at the 29th (2013) Chicago Latino Film Festival.

The film has also proven to be the most successful movie ever to be made or even shown in Paraguay, attendance having beaten out the previously most popular movie ever to be shown in Paraguay (James Cameron's Titanic [1997]) by nearly 2 to 1, this in a country that's been previously so poor / so marginalized that's made a total of only about 20 movies in its entire history).

My only regret is that the film did was not submitted (representing Paraguay) for consideration for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 85th (2012) Oscars because while it may not have won, IMHO it would have stood a very good chance of making the top five.  (I'm not sure now if it would qualify of this year's (2013) competition.

So what's the film about?  Well it's basically a cross between Slumdog Millionaire [2008] and the Vittorio de Sica classic Bicycle Thieves (orig. Ladri di Biciclette [1948].

The story is about a day in the life of Victor (played Celso Franco) who freelances in the central market in Asunción, Paraguay, transporting goods (for paying patrons) on his wheelbarrow.  The movie begins with Victor's older sister Tamara (played by Nelly Davalos) videocapturing Victor pushing his wheelbarrow using Tamara's coworker Alejandra's (played by Liliana Alvarez) cellphone.  Tamara stops Victor and shows him the phone and the little video that she made of him pushing the wheelbarrow around.  "Isn't this cool?"  she exclaims, showing him then some other features that the phone has.  "Yes, it certainly is.  How much is it?"  "Oh, forget it.  It's my coworker's.  She needs to sell it because she needs the money for when the time comes time for her to deliver.  She's asking 800,000 Guarani (about $120) for it.  Maybe she'd go down to 400,000 Guarani but that's still way beyond our price range."  "Hmm..."

Still the image of the cellphone sticks in Victor's head.  So he goes over to a cell-phone kiosk in the market to price phones.  He knows the attendant Leti (played by Katia Garcia), but the phones she has are all basically of the same price range (300K Guaranis and up) and so out of his reach.  However while he's there, Leti gets a phone call from a friend/relation named Gus (played by Roberto Cardozo) who, among other things, tells her that the guy that he has to deliver his goods didn't show up this time.  So she asks Victor: "Hey do you want a quick delivery job?"  "Sure."  She tells him to go over to Gus' butcher shop and that he'd have a job for him to do.

When Victor comes to Gus' shop, Gus tells him the deal.  He wants him to transport seven boxes from his shop to another at the other end of the market and if he'd do that, he'd receive 600,000 Guarani as payment.  Wow!  (That'd be more than enough for that cellphone).  But Victor is incredulous.  How's he gonna be sure that Gus would really pay him that kind of money.  Gus shows him a $100 bill (which he tells him is worth about 600,000 Guarani).  Then he tears it in two and gives Victor one half.  Gus then tells Victor that when he gets word that Victor's delivered the goods, he could come back for the other half of the $100.  Great!

Victor has Gus' attendants load-up his wheelbarrow with the seven boxes and heads off toward the other end of the vast central market with visions of a nice video capturing cell-phone in his head.  Along the way, Victor meets up with a friend about Victor's age named Liz (played by Lali Gonzalez) telling her of his good fortune. Together they continue then on their mission.

Well about 5 minutes after Victor leaves Gus' butcher shop, the original delivery guy, Luis (played by Nico Garcia) shows-up running with his wheelbarrow.  He's apologetic.  He had been delayed at the pharmacy (and viewers will have seen this).  Luis has an 18 month old son with diabetes.  He had been at the pharmacy to get insulin for the child but didn't have the money.  He had tried to explain to the attendant at the pharmacy that while he didn't have the money today (about 300,000 Guarani) he'd certainly have it the next day (after the delivery of Gus' shipment).  Luis even tried to leave his own cellphone with the Pharmacy attendant as collateral.  But the attendant was adamant.  The owner of the pharmacy had a simple rule: No credit for anybody.  People had to pay upfront for their medications, no exceptions.  "But this is a matter of life and death of child." "It's ALWAYS a matter of 'life and death' ..."  So now Luis was late.  But boy did he need to deliver those boxes (or else his 18 month old WOULD DIE ...).  Gus shakes his head "Sorry, you weren't here.  I gave the job to another guy ..."  So Luis leaves Gus' butcher shop desperate to find "the other guy" with Gus' boxes ...

On the way to deliver those boxes, Victor runs into his sister again.  He tells her, "Hey would you believe it, I got a job that could pay for that cellphone!"  "Don't be ridiculous! Where you gonna get that kind of money that quickly?"  "No seriously, all I have to do is deliver these boxes."  He shows Tamara the half a hundred dollar bill and tears it again in half, telling her to give the now quarter of a $100 to her coworker as a downpayment for the cell phone."

RIGHT AFTER HE DOES THIS, SOMEONE COMES OUT OF NOWHERE AND STEALS / RUNS OFF WITH ONE OF THE BOXES!  Victor tries to give chase to the guy but loses him.  When he comes back to his wheelbarrow and the other six, he and Liz spot the rather muscular 20 something Luis with his wheelbarrow bearing down on them.  "Hey I need those boxes!"  They quickly run off with the wheelbarrow and the six remaining boxes finding a place to ditch Luis in the labyrinth of this large central market.  Much then ensues ...

A question could, of course, be asked "What the heck is in these boxes that makes them so valuable to begin with."  The film does give an answer that I'm not going to reveal here except that it's not necessarily what one would expect and yet does make sense...  Nor will I reveal how the story ends except to say that the story is obviously well structured and that what we learn of pretty much all the characters during the course of the story allows one to have at least some sympathy for most of them.

Honestly, what a well structured story / parable and what a great job!  


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The Gold Brooch (orig. Broche de Oro) [2012]

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

IMDb listing

The Gold Brooch (orig. Broche de Oro) [2012] (screenplay and directed by Raúl Marchand Sánchez) is a lovely Spanish language / English subtitled family-oriented comedy from Puerto Rico that has enjoyed impressive popular success "on the island" (playing in theaters there now for 7 months and counting since its release in Sept 2012).  The film has recently played as part of the 29th Annual Chicago Latino Film Festival.

The story is about the relationships existing in a multi-generational family in Puerto Rico with the middle class, already moderately successful father, Alberto Medina (played by Carlos Esteban Fonseca) wishing to move his family to Orlando, Florida (the Orlando area becoming very much to Puerto Rican immigrants to the mainland what Miami has become to Cuban immigrants) where he had gotten a promotion even at the cost of disrupting the life of his high school aged son Carlos (played by Luis Omar O'Farrill) who unbeknownst to Alberto has become a rather good surfer, and leaving his own aging father Rafael (played by Jacobo Morales) "solito" (alone) in a nice if somewhat regimented "old folks home" run rather amusingly by the (Catholic) "sisters." 

What to do?  Well a little miffed at the insensitivity of his dad who wanted him to stay at home and pack rather than participate in one last surfing tournament on the coast, Carlos conspires with his grandfather Rafael to take his father Alberto's car, pick-up Rafael along with two of Rafael's domino-playing buddies -- still "playboyish" Pablo Díaz (played by Diego de la Texera) and somewhat "hypochondriac" Anselmo Rodríguez (played by Adrian Garcia) -- and go to the surfing tournament anyway, stopping in the countryside along the way to visit the tierra (land) where Rafael grew up and Carlos' abuela (grandmother) was buried.

Much comedy, of course, ensues as not only Alberto but also the "Madre Superiora" (played by Marion Pabon) from the old folks home along with the "security guard" Norberto (played by Luis Raul) give chase after them.  Pablo runs into an old-flame Coco Galore (played by Sara Pastor) who it turns out was now running a beach-side watering-hole.  Anselmo, for his part, finds to his (and really everyone's surprise ;-) that he's evoked some kind of irresistible magnetism in Margarita (played by Carmen Nydia Velásquez) another widowed/alone owner of a small eating establishment near Rafael's hometown.  Finally, since this story is largely built around a "surfing tournament," Carlos finds himself in competition not only for a trophy but also for the affections of a sweet local girl named Sofia (played by Maria Coral Otero Soto) who's been the girlfriend of the previous champ Manolo (played by Willie Carrasco) but Manolo had been becoming something of an overbearing jerk...  Together, the "three old guys" (Rafael, Pablo and Enselmo) who really know next to nothing about surfing, but have lots of experience (and let's face it Pablo has probably far more than he should... ;-) with life,women and relationships become happy as "pie to help" Carlos and Sofia straighten things out in their still young lives.

It all makes for a lovely story.  Yes, it all has to come to a tear-filled (if also realistic) resolution.  And then as any good Puerto Rican family drama (or "dramedy") must do, it all ends "under a Flamboyan tree" ;-).

Good job folks, very good job!


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42 [2013]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (A-III) RogerEbert.com (3 Stars)  AVClub (C+)  Fr. Dennis (4 Stars with Expl)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
RogerEbert.com (R. Roeper) reviewAVClub (S. Tobias) review

42 [2013] (screenplay and directed by Brian Helgeland) runs in good part like an good old-fashioned, supremely family oriented baseball movie.  (Both Jackie Robinson [IMDb] and similarly baseball/cinema legend Lou Gehrig [IMDb] would be proud).  As such, some viewers may initially find the film "kinda hokey."  But then on reflection I do believe that the film was _intended_ to be that way.

I say this because I find the film to be intended to be challenging on multiple levels:

On the most obvious level, the film reminds us of a time when blacks (seriously) could not play professional baseball in the United States SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY WERE BLACK.  Today, this seems so utterly foreign to our common experience. However, up until Brooklyn Dodgers owner Branch Rickey [IMDb] (played superbly in "good ole fashion baseball movie" fashion by Harrison Ford) simply found continuation of that state of affairs to be insane (and FRANKLY AGAINST HIS METHODIST (CHRISTIAN) UPBRINGING) segregation in professional baseball was a reality.  And I know that there will continue to be some white viewers who will resent the film's bringing-up of this rather embarrassing aspect of American history.  After all, the two, Rickey/Robinson, desegregated baseball ONLY AFTER WORLD WAR II.  African American Olympic star Jesse Owens [IMDb] was considered a hero in 1936 for sticking it to the Nazis (and their Aryan race-based delusions) at the Berlin Olympics.  But it took until 3 years after the still SEGREGATED U.S. ARMY along with the Russians on one side and the British on the other CRUSHED NAZI GERMANY in 1945 that an African African baseball player was allowed to swing a bat for an American Major League Baseball team ...

But putting this obvious aspect of the film aside, the film also underlines aspects of 1940s era Baseball that OUGHT TO CHALLENGE and SHAME Professional Sports today as a whole and the individuals (athletes, coaches/managers and owners) as well.  After all, Jackie Robinson [IMDb] (played again superbly for this kind of the film by Chadwick Boseman) was portrayed AS A FAMILY MAN who married his Pasadena, CA hometown sweetheart Rachel (played again superbly for this kind of film by Nicole Beharie).  Imagine a ballplayer TODAY who's portrayed as WITHOUT QUESTION FAITHFUL TO HIS WIFE AND FAMILY.

To underscore this film's challenge to the both on and off-field moral failings of today's professional sports, a side plot in the film involved Branch Rickey having to have to let go of his manager just before the start of the tumultuous 1948 (Jackie Robinson starting) season on account of pressure on Baseball's commissioner BY THE NATIONAL CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) because the Dodger's manager was having an adulterous affair with a Hollywood starlet.  Honestly, could anybody today imagine a coach or manager of a professional sports team being pressured to resign (or as in the case here, take a year's suspension) for simply having "slept around" with a model or actress?  Today, adultery in Professional Sports is taken as "par for the course."  We've all heard media commentators shaking their heads, perhaps with some sympathy but certainly with resignation, saying of cheated-upon athletes' wives: "Well, you know, SHE MARRIED A BALL PLAYER. (What do you expect?)"  Well in the 1940s, it was still largely expected that ball players and all those associated with Professional Sports would "play by the rules" set for everyone and to be faithful to their wives and kids.  (Yes, I know that Babe Ruth [IMDb] was a legendary womanizer but (1) perhaps he was the single exception who could get away with that behavior at the time ("he was Babe Ruth...") and (2) without a doubt, in that regard, he was considered a bum by the American public.  Certainly the celebrated Yankee considered of much higher moral caliber was Lou Gehrig [IMDb]).

So then this film, which chronicles the struggles of Jackie Robinson [IMDb] and Dodgers' owner Branch Rickey [IMDb] to finally break the racial barrier in professional sports in the United States, ALSO offers a challenge to American sports and society today.   For Jackie Robinson [IMDb] was not portrayed here as merely a "great baseball player."  He was also portrayed as a good man.


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