The Night Before [2015]

MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB ()  ChicagoTribune (2 1/2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (2 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (B)  Fr. Dennis (0 Stars)

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


The Night Before [2015] (directed by screenplay cowritten by Jonathan Levine along with Kyle Hunter, Ariel Shaffir and Evan Goldberg) features a stoned Seth Rogan playing a Jewish character named "Isaac" going to the Christmas Midnight Mass after dropping LSD with his Catholic girlfriend and throwing up in the main aisle during the Mass.  Perhaps in the sequel, he can come stoned and vomit during a nephew / niece's Bar/Bat Mitzvah as well ... or perhaps at a cousin's graduation or at a beloved grandma's 80th birthday.  The possibilities for an attention craving narcissist really are quite endless ...  Zero stars.


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The 33 [2015]

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

IMDb listing

ChileVision.cl (I. Passalacqua) review*
Clarin.com (H. Bilbao) review*
ElMostrador.cl (J. Parra) review*
LaNacion.com (W. Venagas) review*
LaTribuna.cl (L.A. Ramiro-Reyes) review*

Univision.com review* coverage*
Telemundo.com coverage*

CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (G. Kenny) review
AVClub (B. Mercer) review 

The 33 [2015] (directed by Patricia Riggen, screenplay by Mikko Alanne, Craig Borten and Michael Thomas, screenstory by José Rivera, based on the book [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Héctor Tobar [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb]) tells the story of the 2010 mining accident at the San José Mine out in the Altacama Desert near Copiapó, Chile.

On Aug 5, 2010, the 120 year old mine, perhaps weakened by a earthquake in the region some months back, suffered a major collapse with a rock twice the size of the Empire State Building crashing through its center trapping 33 miners in "a safety room" 2300 ft below the surface but now with communications severed and no way out.

What to do?   Well the clearly previously not particularly "safety concerned" (only ONE exit out of the mine???) / financially strapped company running the mine had no serious resources for mounting a serious rescue attempt.  It would have probably settled for feeling TERRIBLY EMBARRASSED and POSSIBLY ASHAMED over the loss of the miners, but ... "mining's a dangerous occupation, right?"

What happened IMHO recalls Jesus' saying about our responsibility to "the least among us" in  Matthew 25 "when did we see you ...?" That is, the young Chilean Mining Minister Lawrence Golborne (played in the film by Rodrigo Santoro) decided to go the mine a few days after the accident.  Then _having seen_ the families, notably María Segovia (played in the film by Juliette Binoche) one of the miners' wives, he _simply couldn't bring himself_ to just "walk away" and let their loved ones die.  He calls the Chilean President Piñera (played in the film by Bob Gunton) who perhaps with initial reluctance (perhaps _nothing_ really could be done) _decides to risk_ a good portion of his political capital to make it A CHILEAN NATIONAL PRIORITY to get to the miners.

President Piñera then recruits André Sougarret (played in the film by Gabriel Byrne) Chile's foremost drilling expert and gives him essentially carte blanche, ANYTHING HE NEEDS, to reach the miners, who, despite everything now beginning to happen above, _could have been dead_ anyway.   Soon there were nine drills boring down from the surface toward the "safety room" where the hope was that the miners, if they were still alive, would have congregated.  It took 16 days, from the mine's initial collapse for a drill to reach said room ... and ... the rest of the movie follows.

Obviously, since the story was an international phenomenon when it happened, it's not too much of a SPOILER to note that the 33 did, in fact, survive.  HOW, I'd rather not get into here (go see the movie...).  But it is certainly a remarkable story of both ENDURANCE and COOPERATION.  Those 33 MINERS HAD TO SHARE RATIONS THAT ASSUMED A RESCUE IN 3 DAYS, and they were down in that mine for 16 days before anybody knew that they were even still alive.  Even afterwards it still took much longer to get them out (though supplies could start to be sent down to them).       

Of course, among those 33 there were plenty of stories.   One of the miners had been about to retire.  In fact, the film begins a few days before the mining disaster at this miner's retirement party.  At the other end of the experience spectrum is a recently hired "Bolivian" whose initially picked-on (mostly out of jest) because, well, he's ... Bolivian (working in "more developed", "whiter...." Chile).  There was another miner who prior to finding himself trapped underground in the mine had been juggling a double-life between his wife and a mistress (and with him becoming an object of international attention had to start to come to grips with the reality that now truly "THE WHOLE WORLD" knew of his rather embarrassing "story" ...).  There was the charismatic leader of the group, "super" Mario Sepúlveda (played by Antonio Banderas) who did hold the "33 together" during those 16 days when honestly none of them could know (but everybody still hoped) that first a rescue was going to be mounted and then reach them.  Finally there are other colorful goofballs among the miners including one who, yes, was something of a Chilean "Elvis impersonator" ;-).

Some of the (North American) reviewers above complained that the cast of characters, was well, "too big."  BUT THEN THERE WERE THIRTY THREE MINERS in this story (plus their families above ground, and then various important figures in the rescue operation).  So, clearly ... this was not a "Lone Ranger" kind of tale ...

And yet it was a good one ... and, in fact, a celebration of the reality that everyone of those 33 who were saved (and their loved ones) had their stories too and not just "the important people."

So great job folks!  Great job!


* Reasonably good (sense) translations of non-English webpages can be found by viewing them through Google's Chrome browser.

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A Town Called Brzostek [2014]

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

IMDb listing
Official website

About the Town of Brzostek
Sztetl.org.pl article about the town [EN] [PL]*
Wikipedia article about the town [EN] [PL]*

Related Articles on the Rededication of Brzostek's Jewish Cemetery
Times of Israel (C. Webber) article
New Jersey Jewish News (J. Ginsberg) article
Dziennik Polski (P. Franczak) article*


A Town Called Brzostek [2014] (written and directed by Simon Target) is a truly lovely English Language / Polish subtitled documentary that played recently at the 2015 (27th annual) Polish Film Festival in America here in Chicago.

The film's about the recent rededication of the Jewish cemetery in the town of Brzostek in south-eastern Poland largely on initiative of former Oxford University professor Jonathan Webber whose family, Jewish, had roots in the region.  Indeed, one of the main points of the film was that 85% of the world's Jewish families have roots in Poland and yet almost universally those roots are remembered very negatively.

Yet all three of the families, one from Australia, one from Paris, France and one from the States who came back to Brzostek found themselves surprised at the welcome that they received.  Some 80% of the town, since WW II, entirely Polish, came to the Jewish cemetery's rededication, including the town's parish priest, who participated in the ceremony.  

Prior to World War II, 1/3 of the town's residents were Jewish.  Jonathan Webber noted that when the town responded to an initiative of the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw to celebrate the United States 150th Birthday, the giant "birthday card," signed by all the town's school children clearly indicated that the town's school was integrated with children with traditionally Polish and Jewish names thoroughly / randomly dispersed throughout the card.   The town at that time was thoroughly Polish / Jewish.

Irving Wallach who came to the re-dedication ceremony from Australia met Taddeusz (a now man in his late 70s) who was the grandson of Maria Jałowiec who hid Wallach's mother (then a teenager) for 18 months in her barn after the SS, in 1942, came into town, called the town's Jewish community to assemble in the town's square and then led the all to a forest outside of town where they were all shot. (Wallach's mother had been able to break away from the group and run for her life away from where it was being led).  Taddeusz, who was only 8 at the time, knew that his grandmother was hiding her as well as another young Jewish woman (who had also managed to run away from her death) in their barn, and yet _kept the secret for the entire time that they were there_, this despite their own house having been used by the SS as a command center for several weeks at some point during the course of the war.

The French family was surprised to find the mill that their family how owned just outside of town, though no longer operating, still in good condition, one of the family members saying somewhat sadly, "I wish this place was closer to Paris" (where they now lived).

The re-dedication ceremonies did include a visit to the mass grave where the vast majority of the town's Jewish community had been murdered, the commemoration there attended again by the town's Catholic priest as well as another priest from a neighboring village.  The ceremonies concluded with a town potluck where the town's mothers basically cooked every single dish that was present in a recently published regional Jewish cookbook and the town's school kids (now all Catholic or at least non Jewish) put on a concert for the attendees playing Jewish regional folksongs including, of course, Hava Nagila.

This was a surprising (and honestly _very nice_) film.  The screening at the PFFA here in Chicago, attended by the film's director Simon Target, was again very well attended and was certainly one of the most interesting / compelling of this year's offerings at the ever excellent (and honestly ever surprising) Polish Film Festival of America.

Great job / congratulations to all! 


* Reasonably good (sense) translations of non-English webpages can be found by viewing them through Google's Chrome browser.

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Karbala [2015]

MPAA (UR would be R)

IMDb listing
FP.pl listing*
FW.pl listing*

DziennikLodzki (D. Pawłowski) review*
Filmoznawcy.pl (S. Płatek) review*
GlosWielkopolski.pl (C. Łakomy) review*
Nieobiektiwny.pl review*
Wyborcza.pl (J. Szczerba) review*

Karbala [2015] [IMDb] [FW.pl]* (written and co-directed by Krzysztof Łukaszewicz [IMDb] [FP.pl]*[FW.pl]* along with Justyna Kapuścińska [IMDb] [FP.pl]* and Marcin Łomnicki [IMDb] [FP.pl]* accompanied by the recent memoirs Karbala [GR]* by Piotr Głuchowski [GR]* / Marcin Górka [GR]* and Karbala: Raport z Obrony City Hall [GR] by Grzegorz Kaliciak [GR]) is probably the most compelling film that played at the recent 2015 (27th annual) Polish Film Festival in America here in Chicago that I WAS UNABLE TO SEE.  Both screenings of the film rapidly sold-out and an added third screening proved to fall on an evening that I could not attend (sigh ... but that's life, one can't see _everything_ ;-).  Perhaps I'll see it sometime in the coming months  as the more popular films from the festival often replay during the year.  However, since the subject matter of the film is quite compelling (and one that most Readers here would probably not know about), I thought to write about the film here anyway.

My all accounts a Polish "Hollywood-esque" recent "war film," it's about a small detachment of about 80 Polish-Bulgarian soldiers assigned by the US/Coalition Forces after the 2003 Iraq War to the Shiite holy city of Karbala.  In April, 2004, this Polish-Bulgarian detachment successfully fended-off a three day attack / siege of Karbala's city hall* by some 5,000 Sadr's Mahdi Army militia fighters without losing a single anyone of its own.  Officially assigned to the city to "help train" its police officers, the actual circumstances of the battle that the soldiers of this detachment found themselves fighting was kept under wraps on official order of secrecy for ten years.  Only after the publication of the above mentioned memoirs has the story of this battle, the largest that Poland's army has participated in since World War II, become progressively known.

From technical and story-points of view, the film hasn't received universal acclaim from the Polish critics given above (as war films often suffer from a lack of development of characters, etc) but the consensus opinion is that the film was of a reasonably high quality "Not Riddley Scott's Black Hawk Down [2001], but then its budget was also not comparable," summarized one of the reviewers, "but certainly not to be ashamed of either.... and the tattered flag flying still over city hall at the end of the film was a Polish one, not an American one.  Something to be proud of."  Something to be proud of, indeed ;-).

Anyway, sounds like a very interesting film.


* Reasonably good (sense) translations of non-English webpages can be found by viewing them through Google's Chrome browser.

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Call Me Marianna (orig. Mów mi Marianna) [2015]

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

IMDb listing
FP.pl listing*
FW.pl listing*

PolishDocs.pl interview w. director*
oNet.pl [M. Steciak] interview w. director*

Culture.pl [B. Staszczyszyn] review
Krakow Movie [Franek] review*
StopKlatka.pl [D. Romanowska] review*

Call Me Mirianna (orig. Mów mi Marianna) [2015] [IMDb] [FP.pl]* [FW.pl]* (written and directed by Karolina Bielawska [IMDb] [FW.pl]*) is a moving Polish documentary about Marianna Klapczyńska who began life as Wojtek Klapczyński, was married, had children, and at 47 after many, many painful years of reflection underwent a sex-change / gender reassignment surgery (in Poland) to become Marianna.  The film screened recently at both the recent 51st Chicago International Film Festival and 27th Polish Film Festival in America held subsequently in Chicago (with the director attending both screenings at the latter festival and being able to talk about the experience of making the film and taking Q/A afterwards)

Mariana's story WAS NOT EASY, neither before nor AFTER the surgery.  Polish law requires that a person requesting gender reassignment surgery SUE ONE'S OWN PARENTS for "bad upbringing" apparently so that fault could be assigned in _some way_ to _someone_.   While the documentary did not dwell on the trial, it was clear that it proved to be a nightmare to Marianna, as even after her surgery her mother kept calling her Wojtek.   Marianna's daughters rejected her as well.  The only one in the family who seemed understand (with understandable inner conflict / difficulty) was Wojtek's / Marianna's former spouse, WHO ACTUALLY HELPED MARIANNA and the film maker MAKE THE DOCUMENTARY.

Then honestly, the "big twist" (it is a SPOILER of sorts, BUT IT CERTAINLY ADDS A WHOLE NEW DIMENSION TO THE STORY) is that TWO MONTHS AFTER THE SURGERY, Marianna HAD A STROKE (in good part because of all the hormones she was taking to make the gender reassignment possible).

FORTUNATELY, in those two months, Marianna did actually FIND A BOYFRIEND who since the stroke has _continued to take care of her_.

It's truly a remarkable story and like THE OTHER FILM on transgenderism that I've reviewed here, the recent Finnish film Open Up to Me (orig. Kerron sinulle kaiken) [2014]  that played at this year's 18th Annual Chicago European Union Film Festival, this film reminds ALL VIEWERS that gender reassignment is NOT in ANY WAY a "light matter" (most of all for the person asking for it) and that it is full of ALL KINDS OF CONSEQUENCES that are ALL DIFFICULT and EMOTIONALLY WRENCHING.  And yet there are people who after _many years_ of reflecting on the matter / those consequences, _still_ choose gender reassignment as the _better_ of the available options.  Wow.

Those of us looking and all necessarily judging from outside, are reminded here (and in the case of the Finnish film as well) that we need to take the person's inner struggle to get to the point of requesting such reassignment into our own reflecting on the matter as well.  Again, NO ONE requests this kind of surgery without a great deal of reflection / struggle.

In any case, AN EXCELLENT and very thought provoking film.


* Reasonably good (sense) translations of non-English webpages can be found by viewing them through Google's Chrome browser.

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Spotlight [2015]

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

IMDb listing

NCROnline.org (Sr. R. Pacatte) review

CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (S. O'Malley) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review  

Spotlight [2015] (directed and screenplay cowritten by Tom McCarthy along with Josh Singer) is a testament to the value of "Checks and Balances" and then specifically of a Free / Independent Press.

Writing out of Chicago, with its decades-long history of corruption scandals big and small, I've long valued the scrappy reputation of Chicago's "second paper" The Chicago SunTimes.  Obviously, it's not as if corruption has come to an end in my fair city as a result of the SunTimes' screaming tabloid- format front page, but I can't help but feel that it has had at least SOME deterrent value: "NO ONE wants to be pictured on the front page of the Sun Times," I've joked over the years to friends.

In this regard, the Catholic Church in the U.S. has had a similar paper, a well-written if ever screaming _independent weekly_ called the National Catholic Reporter, which the U.S. Bishops have chosen to try to ignore for the last 20-30 years rather than recognize it for what it's always been: A PAPER WRITTEN BY / OF THE LOYAL and STILL BELIEVING "Church-going opposition/dissent."   AND WE HAVE CERTAINLY PAID FOR THIS WITH THE SEXUAL ABUSE SCANDALS which were being ROUTINELY REPORTED THERE _FOR YEARS_ prior (!!!) to the Boston Globe's exposes celebrated in this film.

The NCR has _also been SCREAMING FOR YEARS_ for the Catholic Church to RE-EVALUATE its teaching on Women's Ordination as well as on Homosexuality.  WHY?  BECAUSE IT'S STILL WRITTEN BY _BELIEVERS_ WHO DON'T WANT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH TO BE RUN-INTO-THE-GROUND BY A _COMFORTABLE_ / INTELLECTUALLY-LAZY CLUB OF YES-MEN.

We may be at a time (with a definitely DIFFERENT THINKING POPE and EVEN WITH THE RELEASE OF THIS FILM) WHEN THINGS COULD ACTUALLY CHANGE.

Yes, there are things to criticize in the film.  Its own statistics -- 50% of priests supposedly violating their vows or even 6% of priests being pedophiles (presumably defined in the more general sense of being attracted to minors rather than more strictly to prepubescent children) -- actually make the Catholic priesthood sound very much like a "cross-section of society" -- After all, we live in a society where over half of marriages end in divorce USUALLY BECAUSE OF INFIDELITY and half of all children molested appear to have been molested by their own parents (and this actually fits my own pastoral experience: In each of the three parishes where I've served since my diaconate, I've known at least one adult woman who had been molested as a minor by her own biological father).  A fairly extensive survey of statistics on the matter of child molestation has been collected here.

Still, the film BEAUTIFULLY PRESENTS HOW "SOFT POWER" within _A CLOSED SYSTEM_ works to suppress (and frustrate action on...) embarrassing / "inconvenient" information EVEN TO THE POINT OF DAMAGING / DESTROYING LIVES ... But WHAT LIVES?  Well those "outside the loop ..."

Anyway, it took an "outsider," a Jewish editor named Marty Baron (played by Liev Schrieber), coming to the Boston Globe from Miami to shake things up in largely Catholic Boston enough to break the story open.

Can we listen to our still loyal opposition now as well?


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Love the Coopers [2015]

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

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

Love the Coopers [2015] (directed by Jessie Nelson, screenplay by Steven Rogers) is truly a "different kind" of "family Holiday movie" that I'm not surprised irritated a fair number of the critics above.  Why?  Well, it's IMHO _not intended to be cheerful_.  Instead, again, IMHO, it's intended to be a reality check and then on _multiple levels_.

For while this is a movie nominally about Christmas:

(1) GOD / CHRISTIANITY IS NOT MENTIONED AT ALL, NOT ONCE, IN THE FILM (Honestly, on the surface "What else is new?"  This would seem like "standard Hollywood fare" of the past generation or two).  Instead, the story is about a fairly large (by Anglo/US standards of today) multi-generational family (starring a remarkable all star cast) many of whose members are really focused primarily on their particular hurts, slights and issues.

Yet (2) IN THE BACKGROUND of this multidimensional story in which A LOT of the characters are trying to get their lives together (if only for the day) and "to have a decent enough holiday this time around," PLAYS A RELENTLESS (and GENTLE) SOUND TRACK THAT HAS MORE RELIGIOUS CHRISTMAS CAROLS IN IT THAN I'VE HEARD (in an American movie) IN MY 52 YEAR LIFETIME -- Silent Night, Angels We Have Heard on High, We Three Kings, Good King Wenceslas, Little Drummer Boy.  (What's going on? ...)

AND (3) the story is largely set up / told THROUGH A KINDLY, EVER-PRESENT NARRATOR FIGURE WHO SEEMS TO KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT ALL THE CHARACTERS (including ALL THEIR PAST FAILINGS, HURTS and DISAPPOINTMENTS) and when AT THE END OF THE FILM it's revealed WHO that NARRATOR is, I certainly chuckled, smiling-from-ear-to-ear in recognition.  Very, very clever ;-)

Yes, this is NOT a movie to play on Christmas Day (or even Thanksgiving Day).  BUT IT'S NOT A BAD MOVIE TO WATCH IN THE LEAD-UP TO THESE GREAT LARGELY FAMILY HOLIDAYS:  What are we doing?  Why?  And can we at least open ourselves TO THE POSSIBILITY that "Someone out there" (call it "The Force" if you have to ...) wants us / ALL OF US to be happy.

Excellent and surprisingly good / thoughtful film!


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