20 Feet from Stardom [2013]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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Blue Jasmine [2013]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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2 Guns [2013]

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

IMDb listing
Allocine.fr* listing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

IMDb listing
Allociné.fr* listing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HONESTLY WHAT A GREAT STORY! ;-)


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

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The To Do List [2013]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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The Wolverine [2013]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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