The Letters [2014]

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

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
ChicagoTribune () review
RogerEbert.com (G. Cheshire) review
AVClub (N. Murray) review  

The Letters [2014] (screenplay and directed by William Riead) tells the story of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the beginnings of her work with "the poorest of the poor" in India (just as India was gaining its independence) and then the current status of her canonization process.

It's an excellent film that portrays Mother Teresa (played in the film by Juliet Stevenson) in remarkably human light (and in an unexpected AND THOROUGHLY CHALLENGING WAY): She's portrayed as someone who PERHAPS "had some issues" when she was younger (PERHAPS a "touch of ASPERGER SYNDROME") and this BOTH MAKES SENSE and OPENS THE DOOR TO THE POSSIBILITY OF ACCEPTING THE CONTRIBUTIONS / POTENTIAL CONTRIBUTIONS of "people with issues" who, let's face it, are OFTEN ROUTINELY DISMISSED as having LITTLE / NOTHING (positive) TO OFFER to (otherwise) "Normal People."

It makes sense BECAUSE it took A REMARKABLE STUBBORNNESS / SINGLEMINDEDNESS TO BEGIN WHAT SHE DID THERE IN CALCUTTA.  Her Mother Superior (played in the film by Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal) just wanted her to "stay in the convent" AND (perhaps...) PRAY (for the poor), WHILE _a lot of the Hindu poor_ who first encountered her SAW HER _INITIALLY_ WITH A LOT OF SUSPICION AS "A POSSIBLE BACKDOOR AGENT OF PROSELYTIZATION even NEO-COLONIZATION." Instead IN SPITE THE OPPOSITION / SUSPICION, she just started TEACHING STREET KIDS HOW TO READ (no matter what their parents initially thought) and TAKING PEOPLE LEFT DYING IN THE STREETS TO DIE WITH HER (and her growing community of sisters) SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT _DIE ALONE_

A "NORMAL PERSON" would not do this ... (!!).

I don't necessarily BUY this portrayal of Mother Teresa, BECAUSE I MET HER and spent an afternoon with her along with 20-30 young religious in Rome when I was studying there, and she seemed far livelier / happier than portrayed in the film.  But I APPRECIATE THE POINT, because I'VE LONG BELIEVED that people with at least "mild/moderate issues" (mild/moderate depressives, mild/moderate manic-depressives, even folks with milder forms of Aspergers/Autism Spectrum Disorder) ARE _NEEDED_ IN A HEALTHY SOCIETY.  OTHERWISE WE CREATE A SOCIETY OF "WELL-ADJUSTED" _YES MEN_, who CAN'T SEE what the mild / moderate depressive or the person with mild / moderate A.D.D. CAN SEE ("It'll never work ..." or "Folks, before you decide to do this, you have to look at this problem from _multiple_ angles..."), OR WON'T HAVE _THE COMMITMENT_ that someone with mild-moderate Aspergers would _naturally have_.

We're so worried about Bio-Diversity, WHAT ABOUT "PSYCHOLOGICAL DIVERSITY"?

So I found this film absolutely fascinating!  And while I don't necessarily buy completely that Mother Teresa had mild Aspergers, I'M FASCINATED AND SURPRISINGLY EDIFIED (!) BY THE PROSPECT THAT SHE MAY HAVE HAD THAT CONDITION.

Anyway, the larger society of "perfect people" (or "perfect wannabes") may not understand this film at all.  But this is a very NICE, GENTLE portrayal of a remarkably SINGLE-MINDED (arguably stubborn ! ;-) "little woman" who eventually melted hearts and (arguably) changed the world.  Great job!


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Chi-Raq [2015]

MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB ()  ChicagoTribune (2 1/2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (4 Stars)  AVClub (C)  Fr. Dennis (4 Stars)

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

BET coverage
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TheSource.com coverage 

Chi-Raq [2015] (directed and screenplay cowritten by Spike Lee, along with Kevin Willmott, based on the classical Greek play Lysistrata [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Aristophenes [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb]), while CERTAINLY "Adult Oriented" is also CERTAINLY one of the most clever / intelligent American films made in the past decade or even generation.  Again, it's not for kids.  But every College (or even 10th grade) educated adult in the U.S. should at least rent the film.  It's a reminder of why we have English / "Lit" classes in Junior High / High School.  And it's a reminder of _what is possible_ in cinema (or contemporary theater for that matter) once we get past "comic books" and cookie cutter "rom-coms" / shoot 'em up "crime dramas."

Honestly, imagine a white director taking an anti-war story from Classical Greece (!), from the time of the _then_ pointless Pelopennesian War, turn it INTO AN APPROPRIATELY SARCASTIC "MUSICAL COMEDY" and APPLY IT TO THE CURRENT DAY and THEN (again SUPREMELY APPROPRIATELY) apply it, NOT in any "BIG" STUPID WAR WAY (Afghanistan / Iraq) but RATHER TO THE TOTALLY MINDLESS SLAUGHTER happening HERE IN CHICAGO (though it could be set IN ANY NUMBER OF OTHER AMERICAN CITIES).

The ONLY well-known white American director doing _even remotely similar stuff today_ would be Woody Allen.

For its humor / intelligent audacity, this film deserves consideration come "Awards Season" for Best Picture (!), Best Direction, Best (Adapted!) Screenplay (!), and honestly John Cusack for his SUPREMELY SUPPORTING ROLE as the Fr. Pfleger-like fictionalized Fr. Mike Corrigan.

Further, in a year where Spotlight [2015] about the Catholic Clergy sex scandals in Boston is destined to reign large at the Academy Awards this year, SPIKE LEE (!) reminds us (1) that CATHOLIC PRIESTHOOD CAN MATTER (and POSITIVELY), and even (2) POWERFUL ACTION / PREACHING is not (or NEED NOT) be the province of simply African American preachers.  Underlined here is the example of THE VERY REAL Fr. Michael Pfleger (who's CERTAINLY REGULARLY IN THE NEWS HERE IN CHICAGO [1] [2]) to remind us that such Preaching Power / Conscience in(to) the world is not / NEED NOT be simply "a Black thing."

So thank you Mr. Lee for this unexpected / certainly WELCOME "shot in the arm" for the Catholic / Church-going community and in particular for raising Fr. Pfleger and his remarkable community at St. Sabina's to a national stage.  Both he and his Church deserve a (positive !) look.

To the movie ...

The movie begins with a stunningly shameful statistic:

Since 9/11 more Americans have died of GUN VIOLENCE (mostly as a result of pointless, largely black-on-black, street gang fighting) IN CHICAGO ALONE than have died in the Afghan and Iraq conflicts COMBINED.

How could THAT be?  And why doesn't (NEXT TO) ANYBODY CARE?  And then of course, we've spent TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS "nation building" in both Afghanistan and Iraq.  Why don't we seem to be willing to something like FOR OUR OWN PEOPLE IN OUR OWN CITIES?

That said -- THE SITUATION "IS WHAT IT IS" -- THE REST OF THE MOVIE is about a CLEVER APPROACH that a LOCAL URBAN / CRIME RIDDEN COMMUNITY could choose to take TO HELP CALM STREETS:  Have the women unite and go on a "sex strike" (first proposed by Aristophenes' play WAY, WAY "back in the day" of the Pelopennesian War) until the men stop shooting _each other_ and then INNOCENTS all around them.

In the current story, Lysistrata [wikip] [IMDb] (played in the film by Teyonah Parris) the girlfriend of a rapper (and head of a street-gang named "The Spartans") named Demitrius / nicknamed "Chi-Raq" (played by Nick Cannon) is challenged by Miss Helen (played by Angela Bassett) a 30-40 something NEIGHBOR of hers TO USE HER POWER / INFLUENCE TO DO _SOMETHING_ to stop the senseless shooting / killing between her boyfriend's "Spartans", and their rivals "The Trojans" headed by similarly aged 20-something "popular" / "ultra-cool" gangster nicknamed "Cyclops" (played by Wesley Snipes).  (Why Cyclops?  Because he lost an eye in some fight and now wears an eyepatch. ;-) / :-/  

What can Lysistrata do?  Well, Miss Helen asks Lysistrata google "Liberia civil war" and finds that the women there ENDED a CIVIL WAR by refusing to sleep with their warring men until they came to their senses.  Lysistrata talks to both her "Spartan" girlfriends AND those of the "Trojans" and soon they're on their way.

And certainly, the actions of the young women of the neighborhood couldn't come any faster.  A nine-year old girl was killed by a stray bullet in the neighborhood.  Her mother, Irene (played by Jennifer Hudson) was all but inconsolable.  The funeral for the nine year old girl, staged in St. Sabina's Catholic Church where Fr. Pfleger is actually stationed, gives the screenwriters, Kevin Willmott and Spike Lee, the opportunity to showcase Fr. Pfleger's Congregation and his Preaching: the Homily that John Cusack's Fr. Corrigan gives down to the gestures is classic Fr. Pfleger.  He both challenges the larger society TO DO SOMETHING FOR THE NEIGHBORHOOD so that its young people have hope AND CHALLENGES THE SAME YOUNG PEOPLE to come out and, yes, _snitch_ ON YOUNG GIRL's MURDERER: "Some here KNOW who killed this little girl, and while there's a murderer loose in our Community NO ONE is safe." He then offers from the Church's treasury $5000 for information leading to the conviction of the girl's killer. 


YES, FOLKS, THIS IS LIFE AND DEATH _NO BULL SH._ STUFF.

John Cusack's Fr. Corrigan then hears about Lysistrata and her young women's "sex strike initiative." After meeting with them (and telling them "YOU KNOW I'VE TAKEN A VOW OF CELIBACY, SO I KNOW A BIT OF WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT ...") he sees that they're serious and he then puts the weight of his parish in support of them.

Much then ensues ... the young women take over a nearby National Guard Armory (in the original play by Aristophanes, the women take over the Parthenon ;-).  And, of course, the whole story "goes viral" ... ;-)  Do they succeed?? -- GO SEE THE FILM ;-)

Again, folks THIS IS NOT A STORY FOR CHILDREN.  But it is an EXCELLENT STORY FOR ADULTS, and it is CERTAINLY the MOST CREATIVE AMERICAN FILM TO COME OUT THIS YEAR.

AN ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC JOB! 


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Trumbo [2015]

MPAA (R)  ChicagoTribune (2 1/2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (2 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (B-)  Fr. Dennis (4 Stars)

IMDb listing
ChicagoTribune (R. Keegan) review
RogerEbert.com (G. Cheshire) review
AVClub (T. Robinson) review  

Trumbo [2015] (directed by Jay Roach, screenplay by John McNamara based on the book [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Bruce Cook [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb]) tells the story of American novelist / Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo [wikip] [IMDb] (played in the film by Bryan Cranston) during his "blacklisted years" in the 1950s for having been a member of the Communist Party in the 1940s.

To be honest, as a son of Czech immigrants who fled Communist Czechoslovakia and even named Zdeněk after an uncle of mine who was jailed by the Communists in the 1950s this was not a particularly easy film for to watch or write about as I am quite well versed in the fates of democrats / priests / artists / intellectuals who were jailed or even executed as "class enemies" during the 1950s in then quite Stalinist Communist Czechoslovakia.  The Evil of the Communists was real ...

And yet I do understand AND EMPATHIZE WITH Dalton Trumbo's story HERE as well.  There's the lovely and indeed THE GOSPEL idealism of _theoretical_ "let's share and share alike" Communism and then there's the "for God's sake BE SURE TO APPLAUD LONG AND LOUD ENOUGH the 'Great Leader' (who can KILL YOU if you don't)" of de facto MAFIA Communism of actual Soviet bloc history.  Trumbo never experienced actual, incarnate, (Soviet bloc) Communism.  I giggle with amusement at the thought of him trying to plug THOROUGHLY "petite bourgeois" silliness of the Audrey Hepburn / Gregory Peck staring Roman Holiday [1953] to a committee of apparatchiks at the Soviet Film Bureau of the time.  Perhaps he could have pulled it off.  There is certainly "class consciousness" in the film.  But he would have almost certainly been "steered in a different direction" (OR ELSE ...) to write about "the joys of collective farm life ..." instead.

What he did, of course, experience is the "free market" mafia style bullying of the right wing / Fascist sort:  "We Americans had no gulags, we just destroyed people's careers through gossip, boycotts and other intimidation (and with that thoroughly destroyed their marriages, families and lives)."

SO IT WAS AN ABSOLUTE JOY TO WATCH Trumbo THOROUGHLY UNDERMINING THE HOLLYWOOD BLACKLIST by simply writing _under pseudonyms_ (though being paid MUCH LESS ... as a result).  THE GUY WON TWO ACADEMY AWARDS (!) FOR SCREENWRITING WHILE _NOMINALLY_ BEING "BLACKLISTED."  ANYONE who has a _sense of humor_ and LOVES A GOOD STORY / "UNDERDOG" HAS TO LOVE THAT ;-) ;-)

But the film ALSO shows VERY WELL the personal suffering that both HE and HIS FAMILY went through during the Blacklist years, when all kinds of people (business associates, neighbors, random passersbys) _hated him_ (and his family) for his "being a Communist."  Diane Lane who plays Trumbo's WIFE Cleo in the film honestly deserves special mention (and possibly an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress) here.  It's honestly remarkable that their marriage survived those years of humiliation / _downward_ mobility (from a Hollywood style mansion to a random nondescript little house in the suburbs).

Anyway, a remarkable story, and I would note that Trumbo's speech to the Hollywood Screen Writers Guild in 1970 presented at the end of the film was echoed later by former playwright post-Communist Czech President Vaclav Havel after HIS DECADES of ignonymity / "black listing" and "toilet washing in the Prague subway" were over:

Both Trumbo and Havel were magnanimous after their overcoming of their respective suffering noting that the Evil that they did suffer WHILE REAL WAS ALSO SYSTEMIC.  There were no "good people" or particularly "evil people" about, ONLY VICTIMS who largely said / did what the circumstances compelled them to do.  BOTH NOTED THAT PRETTY MUCH EVERYBODY BENEFITED (at least partly) NAVIGATING THESE SYSTEMS WHICH ALSO OPPRESSED THEM ... 

Anyway Trumbo's is a great story ... and one which anyone who's had to "weave and duck" in life to survive would certainly appreciate.  Good job!


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Victor Frankenstein [2015]

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

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
ChicagoTribune (R. Rodriguez) review
RogerEbert.com (G. Krenny) review
AVClub (M. D'Angelo) review 

Victor Frankenstein [2015] (directed by Paul Mc Guigan, screenplay and screen-story by Max Landis inspired-by / playing-on the truly ENORMOUS "canon" of Frankenstein films / stories that have been written / made in the 200 or so years since the publication of Mary Shelley's [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [IMDb] classic novel Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus (1818) [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn])

The current story, set largely around London of the mid-1800s, is told from the point-of-view of  "Igor" [wikip] [IMDb] (played in the current film by Daniel Radcliffe of "Harry Potter" fame), the hunchbacked assistant to the budding mad-scientist Victor Frankenstein's [wikip] [IMDb] (played in the film by James McAvoy). 

Note that the character of "Igor" did not appear in Mary Shelley's original novel [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] but appeared (though named "Fritz") in the first "modern" Frankenstein [1931] movie and became a regular fixture (as "Igor") in Frankenstein films/stories ever since.

Radcliffe's Igor is introduced to us in the current story as growing-up as a hunch-backed "circus freak" who since he was more than simply a deformed person turned out to have interests, notably in animal anatomy, that the young Victor Frankenstein found interesting / useful.  The two meet after a young trapeze artist, here named Lorelei (played by Jessica Brown Findlay) falls.  Both run out to try help revive her after her fall.  Though Victor was nominally studying medicine, it was Igor who actually saves her life. 

Well, Victor finds Igor's homespun anatomical knowledge (from cutting up dead circus animals) fascinating  He convinces Igor to escape the circus with him and ... much of the rest of the story ensues ...

It turns out that Victor Frankenstein (as actually in the original novel) is rather bored with the education that he's getting at the University, finding it quite pedestrian.  Instead, he really wants to "play God" convinced, among other things, that "electricity," properly applied, can give "life" to previously "lifeless flesh." 

Together with Igor, he first stitches-together a thoroughly unholy-looking beast out of seemingly random animal parts, the collection of which arouses the attention of a particularly ardent (and Christian) agent of Scotland Yard (played by Andrew Scott).  Then animating his monstrous construct at some semi-secret society student forum, Victor catches the attention of a deep-pocketed fellow student named Rafferty (played by Bronson Webb) who decides to use his father's money to underwrite Victor / Igor's "next project" to reanimate a human corpse.  [It turns out that Victor pines to reanimate his dead older brother Henry for whose death he feels responsible (there's also a Henry, related to Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley's original novel who also had died a tragic death)]. 

As Victor and Igor stitch together a new and monstrously large body (8ft tall with two hearts) to ultimately attach Henry's head to (not unlike Steve Jobs / Steve Wozniak initially soldered together the first clumsy looking circuit boards for their Apple-2 computer), Victor's disapproving father (played by Charles Dance) passes through for a visit.  In CERTAINLY THE MOST AMUSING SCENE in the entire film, Victor's father _sternly_ warns his son to "just go back to his normal studies" (the studies that Victor's father WAS PAYING FOR) and ABOVE ALL  to "NOT SULLY THE GOOD NAME of FRANKENSTEIN."  Well ... ;-) ;-)

With Henry's head stitched to still perhaps a "beta form" body, Victor and Igor transport it/him to Rafferty's family's appropriately creepy castle "by the sea" (In Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein's final experiments take place on the far flung Orkney Islands).  An electrical storm comes, and ...

It's NOT a bad story ... it certainly has it's moments.  And I've recommended the film to our Servite Seminarians here in Chicago who're currently studying a "bio-ethics" class ;-).  For in this film, Victor Frankenstein certainly (and imaginatively) "pushes the envelope" of what conceivably will become possible in the future: hybrid creatures "spliced together" in all sorts of shocking / ghastly ways ...


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Creed [2015]

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

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

"For most of us life is in some way a fight" -- Jim Lampley, HBO Sports (cf. Genesis 32:23ff)


Creed [2015] (directed and story by / screenplay co-written by Ryan Coogler along with Aaron Covington based on the characters [wikip] [IMDb] by Silvester Stallone [wikip] [IMDb]) continues, arguably even reboots (if in a somewhat different way) the wildly successful / legendary Rocky franchise [wikip] with which Silvester Stallone [wikip] [IMDb] famously made his mark the Hollywood scene:

Plugging the first Rocky movie, which he himself wrote, Stallone told the producers that he would not sell them the rights to the script unless he was allowed to play the lead role.  A gutsy move, the producers conceded though Stallone was initially paid LESS than he would have been if he had just sold them the script.  HOWEVER, the film won three Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director, and was nominated for seven others including two for Stallone himself, for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor in a Leading Role.  The rest is, of course, screen / Hollywood history ;-).

The current film concerns Adonis Johnson [IMDb-Ch] (played by Michael B. Jordan) an illegitimate son of (fictionalized) boxer Apollo Creed [IMDb-Ch] / first opponent then friend to Rocky Balboa [IMDb-Ch] (played in this film as always by Silvester Stallone) in the early Rocky films [wikip].  Apollo was killed (in Rocky IV [1985]) before Adonis (or Donny) was born.  Thus Donny never knew his dad, though he spent his early years in Los Angeles (where Apollo and _his wife_ had lived) both angry and fighting. 

In an early scene in the film, set in 1992, Apollo's widow Mary Anne Creed [IMDb-Ch] (played by Phylicia Rashad) searches out Adonis / Donny in a L.A. Juvenile Detention Center and adopts him, raising him as her own (apparently because boy's mother had died as well).  

Flashing forward to the present day, despite being given all the possibilities of growing-up in the mansion, neighborhood and going to the schools / colleges afforded by his boxing legend father's, that is Apollo Creed's, money, he still leaves everything behind to seek his destiny by following in his father's footsteps ... as a boxer.

So ... after breaking his adoptive mother's heart, he packs up his bags and heads to Philadelphia, to look-up the legendary Rocky Balboa (again, played by Silvester Stallone) his legendary dad's former rival then best friend, to ask him to train him.  The rest of the film ensues ... ;-)

Of course, initially Rocky doesn't want to do this.  After all, he's "retired" from fighting, runs a lovely restaurant named Adrian's after his beloved wife [IMDb-ch], who had died of cancer sometime between Rocky V [1990] and Rocky Balboa [2006].  But, for his long-deceased friend Apollo he decides to do so anyway.

There are other fairly predictable yet crowd-pleasing characters / plot-twists in the story.  Notably there's a young, still not-yet-famous urban-contemporary singer named Bianca (played by Tessa Thompson) who lives in the same building as Adonis while he's training in Philly.  The two "become close" as the story progresses.  She also "has a story" ... Though a talented singer, like a surprising number of talented musicians, she's also suffering from Progressive Hearing Loss, which will of course effect and perhaps even end her music career at some future date.  That, of course, is being saved for development in a future episode in the story ...

Of course, much still happens.  And of course, it all ends (more or less) well and ... in a way that leaves the story open for future installments ;-)

SOOO ... Why do we like films _like this one_ that are, after all, quite predictable / formulaic?

My sense is because of the quote by sportscaster Jim Lampley with which I began this review -- Life is often a struggle, a fight.  Hence, despite the objective (concussion) dangers of boxing, the figure of the Fighter / Boxer is a Jungian Archetype, a figure that we can understand, empathize / identify with.  Thus we watch boxing matches (and movies about boxers) as if we ourselves were the boxers / fighters in the fight. 

Indeed, that life is often a struggle, is symbolized in the Bible in the character of Jacob in the Book of Genesis: After many years of struggle, Jacob spends a night wrestling with an Angel and at the end of the Night he receives a particular blessing: He's renamed Isra-el, meaning "One Who Wrestles with God" (Genesis 32:23ff).  Of course, the whole people of Israel come to take on that name, and it's really a name intended for all.  Why?  Because we all wrestle with / struggle in life.

And IMHO, that's why we enjoy movies like this.  And indeed, it's always a joy to watch film that, even as it acknowledges the struggles of life, lifts us up as well ;-)

Great job!


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What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy [2015]

MPAA (UR would be PG-13)  RogerEbert.com (3 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (C+)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing

ChiTribune/Variety (J. Chang) review
RogerEbert.com (N. Allen) review
AVClub (N. Murray) review  

Times of Israel (U. Heilmann) review

Eye For Film (O. Van Spall) review
Slant Magazine (C. Dillard) review

What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy [2015] (directed by David Evans, written by Phillipe Sands) a documentary that recently at the Gene Siskel Film Center here in Chicago is one honestly disturbed me more than I expected and then on more than one level.

The initial premise of the film was simple enough: Phillipe Sands, a human rights lawyer and son of Holocaust survivors, decided to do a documentary about two men -- Niklas Frank and Horst von Wächter -- who were children of "upper management" though to some extent still second tier Nazis, Hans Frank and Otto von Wächter:

Hans Frank was "Governor General" of the "General Government" portion of Nazi Occupied Poland (which included the parts of Poland that were occupied by Nazi Germany after its 1939 invasion of the country that were NOT directly annexed into the German Reich.  After the Nazi 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union this region expanded to include the parts of Poland that were annexed in 1939 by the Soviet Union, which entered WW II as arguably AN ALLY of Nazi Germany, and after the War became part of Soviet Ukraine). 

Otto von Wächter became Governor of Galicia a section of the Ukrainian portion of the above "General Government" which he came to rule, briefly, from 1942-1944, as something of a personal SS fiefdom.

It becomes clear fairly early in the documentary, which first presents Sands meeting the two sons of these two Nazi war criminals and then through old family photographs / b&w home movies gives viewers a sense of their rather unusual childhood circumstances, that the two had very different opinions of their notorious / infamous dads: Niklas Frank had long accepted the reality that his father was largely responsible for the the deaths of millions (most if not all of the Nazi extermination camps were constructed and operated in the above mentioned General Government" portion of Nazi Occupied Poland of which the older Frank was "Governor"), while Horst von Wächter HAD NOT come to terms with the mass murdering legacy of his dad.

So MUCH OF THE FILM involves Sands, a human rights lawyer today but ALSO the CHILD OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVERS trying _increasingly hard_ TO CONVINCE Horst von Wächter of the guilt of his dad.  This proved to be increasingly difficult to watch, EVEN THOUGH SANDS WAS RIGHT.  Yes Horst's father was guilty of participating in ORGANIZED even INDUSTRIALIZED Mass Murder, but he was also Horst's father.  So not entirely surprisingly, the son was trying, even now 70 years after the fact, to find excuses for him.  And yet, Sands' own family was largely murdered by men answering, in good part, to Horst's father.

What becomes EVEN MORE DISTURBING IS THAT _AT LEAST IN PART_ Horst was NOT _completely_ wrong about his dad:  His dad ran that part of Western Ukraine, Galicia, largely _as his own SS fiefdom_  during the Nazi occupation.

Today this Galicia is certainly the most "west oriented" part of the Ukraine (it would have almost certainly seceded from Ukraine if its central government in Kiev had not more-or-less decisively oriented itself toward the EU / West in 2014 (at the subsequent loss of ethnic-Russian dominated Crimea and then some of the more ethnic-Russian dominated provinces Eastern Ukraine...).

And the legacy of Otto von Wächter's "War Time Governate" of Galicia IS COMPLICATED.  AS THE DOCUMENTARY SHOWS, HE is ACTUALLY QUITE FONDLY REMEMBERED IN SOME QUARTERS in WESTERN UKRAINE as one who _defended_ / PROMOTED Ukrainian identity (against others ... notably Jews / Poles and eventually as the Soviet Army approached the Russians).   His most notorious legacy was in his championing of the formation of an SS Division "Galicia" which though still directed by Germans, was composed LARGELY of  _UKRAINIANS_ that is SLAVS.  This unit, though remembered all over central Europe as having been quite Evil -- it was deployed, for instance, to help crush the anti-Nazi 1944 Slovakian National Uprising -- is, again remembered quite fondly in certain quarters in Western Ukraine as a symbol of Ukrainian nationalism (some of the most disturbing moments of this documentary featured a group of young Ukrainians smiling ear-to-ear dressed in Nazi-era SS garb...).

This legacy then actually PLAYS INTO THE HANDS of the Putin Government back in Russia WHOSE PROPAGANDA DISMISSES THE WHOLE UKRAINIAN NATIONALIST PROJECT TODAY as being largely FASCIST / NAZI in orientation ... 

And yet if we've fled here from the deeply personal of the past to the larger geo-political of even today, we're brought back down to earth with a truly wrenching scene filmed somewhere in the countryside outside of Lviv, Ukraine (Lemberg during Otto von Wächter's "governate" of the region) in which Sands and Horst von Wächter STAND ON TOP OF THE MASS GRAVE where most of Sand's murdered Jewish relatives were buried after being shot (by men answering at least in part to Horst's father Otto von Wächter) and _even there_ Sands can not get Horst to admit that his dad was _at least partly responsible_ for that.

To the last, Horst von Wächter kept maintaining that his father's focus was not on _killing Jews_ but on "lifting-up Ukrainians" ...

Ah the "burdens" of "serving" as a random Imperial Satrap:  You randomly curse one people to death and randomly bless another ... and then go play soccer with your kid ...

One tough film to watch ... 


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Brooklyn [2015]

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

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. McCarthy) review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (G. Kenny) review
AVClub (Noel Murray) review  

Brooklyn [2015] (directed by John Crowley, screenplay by Nick Hornby based on the novel [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb] by Colm Tóibín [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb]) is an excellent, well crafted (Irish/Italian/American 1950s-era) immigrant story that certainly deserves Oscar consideration (best picture, best adapted screenplay, even best actress in a leading role) and it's one of those stories that would fit well at an inter-generational family gathering.

Nice, soft-spoken, late-teen / early-20-something Eilis (played wonderfully by Saoirse Ronan) probably destined grow-up and live-out her life pretty much invisibly in rural County Wexford in Ireland, is offered a break conceived by her older sister Rose (played by Fiona Gascott) that, one guesses, she probably would not have come-up-with on her own: Recognizing that one of them is probably going to have to take care of their widowed mother and as the older sister, that would perhaps be best done by herself, Rose writes a priest friend, Fr. Flood (played again wonderfully by Jim Broadbent) in Brooklyn, New York, to sponsor Eilis, give her a chance to emigrate to the United States and thus "make something of her life."  It's an act of self-sacrifice that many of us today would perhaps not completely understand.  It was Rose who came up with the idea, so why didn't Rose herself ask to be sponsored / "jump on the boat" to flee in hopes of a better life?  Well, that's _how people were_ "back in the day" and _perhaps_ we express self-sacrifice in analogous ways today.

So Eilis leaves Ireland to live, to a certain extent, Rose's dream.  This means, of course, that at least initially, Eilis is not necessarily ready for the whole big, wide world that awaited her as she stepped on the ship that took her across the ocean to the United States and then especially when she arrived in New York.  Yes the kindly, indeed, honestly angelic Fr. Flood, helps her, setting her up with a job in a department store and with a place to stay at a 50s-era young single women's boarding house (the boarding house scenes are _priceless_) run by a no-nonsense church-going matron Mrs. Konoe (played again magnificently by Julie Walters) who's not about to let the young women staying in her house "go bad" due to "giddiness" / temptation under her watch ;-).  Today, a good deal of younger viewers would perhaps "roll their eyes" as they listened to some of Mrs. Kehoe's advice to the 50s-era young women, all basically in their early to mid-20s staying in her house.  On the other hand, today's young people might also note (and with some jealousy) that Mrs. Kehoe _cared_ about "her girls" while today the "landlord / tenant relationship" generally ends (after the background check and deposits have been made...) at simply the question of the rent being paid.

So after some six months of some fairly desperate homesickness (and the passing of her first winter in New York ;-), Eilis finds herself "quite on her feet."  Part of what makes her time more pleasant is that she "finds a guy" AT A CHURCH DANCE ... who, despite it being AN IRISH CHURCH DANCE, turns out to be ITALIAN ;-) ... "AMERICA" ;-) ;-).

Her surprising, Italian beau, Tony (played again magnificently by Emory Cohen) is a soft-spoken, similarly early 20-something plumber, who came to the dance, because ... he simply "liked Irish girls," and it turns out that Eilis, kinda liked him ;-).  Tony had a whole family (parents, brothers and sisters) living in another section of Brooklyn and soon enough she gets to meet them.  Another priceless scene in the film is when Tony's precocious 10-12 year old brother proudly proclaims to Eilis that "We here, in this family, DON'T like 'the Irish'" whereupon rest of the aghast family quickly/loudly tells him to "SHUT UP" ;-), but SMILING, he stands his ground: "NO, IT'S A WELL KNOWN FACT, WE'VE NEVER LIKED THE IRISH ..." well UNTIL NOW ... Eilis' mere gentle smiling presence (at the invitation of now smiling-from-ear-to-ear Tony) "changed things" now and forevermore in that household and TRULY, NOW, THE PROMISED NEW LIFE OPENED UP FOR EILIS...

... 'Cept (this _is_ at least in part "an Irish story" ;-) ... just as Eilis is becoming happy in New York, word comes that older sister Rose ... died, quite suddenly, back in Ireland.

The rest of the movie follows, as much now still has to ensue ... ;-)

Folks, this is honestly a great and largely gentle 1950s-era immigrant story. 


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