Home Care (Domácí Péče) [2015]

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

IMDb listing
CinEuropa.org listing 
CSFD.cz listing*
FDB.cz listing*

Aktualne.cz (J. Gregor) review*
Aktualne.sk (B. Ondrášková) review*
CervenyKoberec.cz (K. Benešová) review*
iDnes.cz (M. Spáčilová) review*
FilmPress.sk (E. Ťapajová) review*

APUM.com (E. Luna) review*
CinEuropa.org (M. Kudláč) review
Eye4Film.co.uk (J. Kermode) review
Variety (A. Simon) review


Home Care (Domácí Péče) [2015] [IMDb] [CSFD]* [FDB]* [CEu] (written / directed by Slávek Horák [IMDb] [CSFD]* [FDB]* [CEu]) is a four Czech Lion (the C.R.'s equivalent of the Oscars) winning Czech / Slovak co-production that played recently at Chicago's Gene Siskel Film Center as part of the 2016 Czech That Film Tour organized annually by the Czech Ministry of Culture and the Czech Diplomatic Mission to the United States.  A few months previous, the film played here as part of 2016 Chicago European Film Festival held also at the Gene Siskel Film Center.

The film, set presumably in the Moravian country-side is about a country nurse in her late-40s-50s named Vlasta (played by Alena Mihulová [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*).  Her age is important here because it means that she would have received her training still basically during the Communist Era which came to an end with the Velvet Revolution in 1989 (25-26 years ago). 

As such, each day, if _not necessarily cheerfully_ then _certainly selflessly_, she would pin her hair back into a functional characteristically Communist-Era bun, pick-up her two rather sizable though not impossibly heavy bags filled with standard issue / practical medical gear and medicines, and set-off by foot / by bus to do her rounds through the various towns and villages that were in the district where she lived, dispensing _largely soulless_ if certainly _practical / efficient_ medical care to the various elderly / shut-ins that she had been assigned to.   She did this without complaining, sincerely believing that even if her patients were generally somewhere between depressed and cranky and rarely particularly grateful, that her service was still important.  Why?  Not because she expected any particular recompense for it (be it in this world or the next) but because it was simply the right thing to do / her job. 

At home, she was in what most of us Viewers would call a largely loveless (but _not_ hostile) marriage to Lad'a (played by Boleslav Polívka [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDb]*).  Neither of them "stewed" with any kind of great resentment, they didn't argue, they - he, already retired, she approaching it someday - just "didn't have a whole lot to say."

Together they had a grown daughter Marcela (played by Sára Venclovská [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDb]*) who had moved out some time ago "for the city" and who "didn't come around much ..."  Again, both Vlasta and Lad'a had did their duty to society by having gotten married, creating and raising reasonably well a reasonably good daughter and (all of them) having stayed all their lives basically out of trouble.

HONESTLY FOLKS, they (all) lived basically what would have been the PAST-COMMUNIST ERA socialist ideal.  And none of them were in any way "bad people" ... just kinda ... well ... soulless ... could one say? ... "walking dead" ... _not_ EVIL "walking dead" ... just "kinda nothing going on walking dead" ... until one finally ... hopefully, eventually ... died."

Into this "every day is really like every other day" existence, (NEW) LIFE does (slowly) (re-)enter.

It first comes into the story fairly early.  Vlasta is surprised that after successfully (again, she's done this many times before) fooling the dog in the front yard of a random shut-in that she would visit on her rounds (she diverted the dog apparently with a small piece of sausage...) there was another person the house there with said shut-in, some sort of a massage therapist or perhaps more precisely some sort of a new age-y "healer" named Hanáčková (played wonderfully by Tatiana Vilhelmová [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDb]*) who was "warming" the back of said shut-in with her hands, giving him some sort of an "aura rubdown" transferring "heat" from her hands to his back without even actually touching him.

Vlasta kinda rolls her eyes, responding cheerfully: "O Mr [Slezák, or otherwise random Czech/Slovak name] if your back was cold, you could have just used the electric blanket that I left you," to which the healer responded: "Oh yes the one that put a burn on his back ..." showing him a fairly large rectangular burn on his back, which he had received from said electric blanket a day or two earlier when he apparently fell asleep on the electric blanket and then could not get off of it quickly enough when it began to burn him. "Well how much 'energy' can you transfer to him with your hands anyway?" Vlasta asks as she diligently sets-up the shut-in's various medicines, lined up in an array shot glasses, for the coming days.  The healer, now irritated, tosses a bent metal fork toward her, "Try doing that yourself dear."  Vlasta tries bending the fork back into its regular shape finds, wow, that's pretty impressive.

Okay, that was an odd encounter.  But any rural area in the world has its "kooks."  When her job is done, Vlasta picks up her rather but not impossibly heavy bags and heads out the door (past the dog who was apparently diverted by something else by this point) and to her next shut in ...

A couple of days later ... Vlasta finds her rather stable, not much happening world, ruffled a little more ... by the bus that she was taking having to wait on some random country road while workmen suspended their work to get out of the way to let it pass.  What were they working on?  Putting in an "underpass" FOR FROGS.  "For frogs?" Vlasta asks. "Yes m'am, the EU gave our district x-amount of Euros to put in an underpass for frogs," the forman responds."Here?" "Yes m'am, here."  "Why?"  "I have no idea m'am, but they say that frogs pass over this road at night and it's not good for the frogs and not good for the motorists.  So the EU gave us money for an 'underpass' -- a pipe -- for the frogs."  "Will it work?" "Will the frogs actually use such an underpass" "Don't know, don't care m'am ... besides your bus is about to leave."

A few days later, she finds that the underpass for the frogs was not a bad idea as after hitching a ride on a motor-scooter (she missed the last bus because a particularly cranky shut-in that afternoon, her now holding her two rather but not impossibly heavy bags in her hands while sitting on said motorscotter) the motorcyclist crashes as a result of slipping on one of those frogs crossing the road at night ...

She wakes up in the hospital later that evening, fortunately her accident was not too bad, BUT the MRI that they took at the hospital revealed something else ... she had cancer in her abdomen.  She didn't know, how could she not know, she was even a nurse after all?  Apparently she didn't.  And more to the point, the doctor tells her that there really isn't all that much that they could do for with regard to the cancer ...

The rest of the movie follows ;-)

Now to the film-makers' credit (and as a Czech, I do believe that this was _typically_ Czech) the film:

(1) doesn't make "alternative medicine" as something of a "miracle cure for her" and

(2) Vlasta doesn't _simply_ go to the New Agey healer and later to an old "neo-pagan" Slovakian bába (witch ;-) played wonderfully by Zuzana Kronerová [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDb]*)  who serves as the healer's "mentor."  SHE ALSO TALKS (with new eyes / ears) with another Slovakian -- a Catholic Priest (played by František Harnúšek [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDb]*).  The film-makers wanted to underline that when one starts talking of "alternative medicine," to be fair, one has to talk about everything _including_ traditional Catholic / Christian prayer.

And yes ... somewhat of a spoiler alert ... NONE OF THIS REALLY MAKES HER (PHYSICALLY) BETTER ... BUT ... by the end of the film, she's ... CLEARLY a HAPPIER / MORE ALIVE PERSON _even though_ SHE'S DYING ;-)

Great story / film, giving one much to think about.  Indeed, "One does not live by bread alone" (Matt 4:4 ;-)


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

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3 Idiots [2009]

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

IMDb listing
FilmiBeat.com listing**

FilmiBeat.com (T. Adarsh) review**
IndiaGlitz.com review**

Hindustan Times (M. Shekhar) review**
Times of India (G. Malani) review**

AccessBollywood.com (K. Gibson) review
The Hollywood Reporter (L. Tsering) review
The Village Voice (D. Chute) review
Variety (D. Elley) review


3 Idiots [2009] [IMDb] [FiBt] (directed and story/screenplay cowritten by Rajkumar Hirani [IMDb] [FiBt] along with Abhijat Joshi [IMDb], produced / screenplay assistance by Vidhu Vinod Chopra [IMDb] [FiBt] based on the novel Five Point Someone: What not to do at IIT (2004) [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Chetan Bhagat [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn]) a WILDLY POPULAR (in India and clearly / especially among India's student population), critically acclaimed (above), multiple award winning (including three 2010 FilmFare awards, India's closest equivalent to the Oscars, for "Best Film," "Best Actor in a Leading Role" and "Best Director") "COMING OF AGE" DRAMEDY serves as the 6th stop of my 2016 Indian Film Tour.

Recommended by an Indian Reader of my blog _as soon as_ I began my "film tour" and certainly with a compelling title ;-), having seen the film now, I would suggest that THIS FILM SHOULD BE REQUIRED VIEWING FOR ANY AMERICAN / WESTERNER WITH AN INDIAN FRIEND OR TWO ;-)  The film is available in the U.S. on DVD / for Streaming via various services for a reasonable price.

The film tells the story of three engineering students -- Farhan Quereshi (played by Madhavan [IMDb] [FiBt]), Raju Rastogi (played by Sharman Joshi [IMDb] [FiBt]) and Rancho Shamaldas Chanchad (played by Aamir Khan  [IMDb] [FiBt]) -- who had studied at a fictionalized IIT (called here the Imperial College of Engineering or ICE ;-).  Actually, the film begins 10 years later, after all three had long passed through its halls, on an "agreed-upon date" (sort of... ;-) when they and another student Chatur Ramaningam (played by Omi Vaidya [IMDb] [FiBt]) were to meet and compare how they "actually did in life"  But as they meet on that day "10 years later" ... the rest of the story is told in extended flash-backs recalling their lives as students at the venerable I.C.E. ...

Farhan was from a middle class family, studying engineering only because his dad absolutely insisted on it.  He would have much preferred being a wildlife photographer (something _totally_ "impractical").

Raju came from _a really poor family_ introduced to us Viewers by Farhan's voice-over as having been "lifted straight out of a 1950s-era Indian tragedy" and thus is _always portrayed_ onscreen with the film switching from color to high contrast black and white for the duration of their presence in the scene ;-).   His dad, a former postal-worker, is always shown in an all-but-catatonic state lying in bed _awaiting death_ from one or another (often new) unspecified illness.  His mother would then complain about the high cost of absolutely everything, even the most basic of commodities, to whoever would listen to her (including initially to Raju's friends who honestly had not spent much time previously thinking about the just price for such things as butter or shoelaces...)  And every home visit by Raju would end with his mother reminding him that the family's fortune _absolutely depended_ on his finishing his engineering degree so that his older sister, ever shown weeping quietly in a corner, could _finally_ have a dowry and thus be able to be married(off) ;-).  No pressure at all ;-)

'Rancho' seemed to be a prodigy of sorts from the countryside who learned his science / engineering skills by simply taking apart and tinkering with absolutely everything.

Finally Chatur was a Ugandan-born (of Indian immigrants) student, whose Hindi thus was not necessarily as good as the others' but who made up for it through sheer rote effort / determination - reading about and memorizing just about everything that needed to be known about any subject at hand.  


A few days after the three arrived to begin their freshman year at the ICE, they along with their classmates were assembled by the head of the school, a Professor Viru (nicknamed "Virus") Shahastrabuddhe (played by Boman Irani [IMDb] [FiBt]).  Holding a stuffed koel bird (an type of cuckoo bird) in his hands as a prop, the Profesor recounted to his incoming students the story of this type of bird:  It turns out that the koel bird would put its eggs into other birds' nests, these eggs would hatch first and then the koel hatchlings would push all the other eggs out of the nest, breaking them, and thus fully taking their place.  The point?   Pointing to a large / imposing pile of cardboard boxes behind him _filled_ with completed applications to the engineering school, he reminded them: "Each year this school gets 400,000 applications and we only accept 200 students.  YOU ARE STANDING ON A LOT OF BROKEN EGGS."  And over the subsequent years, he _repeatedly_ drilled the students with similar stories: "In life you have to run fast or else you're going to be trampled,"  "Who was the first man to walk on the moon?  Neil Armstrong, of course.  Who was the second?  (Buzz Aldrin, but...) no one cares.  In life, you must be first or it does not matter."

So one gets the sense that the fictionalized "ICE" was A REAL PRESSURE COOKER and almost like a cross between Marvel Comics' X-men-like School for TRULY EXCEPTIONAL (200 out of 400,000...) STUDENTS and "Trump University" where the ONLY POSSIBLE THING THAT MATTERED was BEING #1 AT THE END.  

But then what were the "superpowers" of the students lucky enough to have made it to this _truly_ elite school:

Fernan was there only because his dad really, really wanted him be there (his superpower being exceptional FOCUS / OBEDIENCE to be able to HEROICALLY REDIRECT his fundamental passion / talents (for "photographing wildlife" ;-) into _studying engineering_.

Raju's "superpower" was EXCEPTIONAL LOYALTY and RESPONSE TO DUTY TO FAMILY regardless of what he might have wanted (did he even know?  Did anyone, even he himself, even ask?).

Rancho's "superpower" was perhaps the most fitting to that actually needed to succeed in an Engineering school, an EXCEPTIONAL INTEREST IN UNDERSTANDING HOW THINGS WORK and HOW TO MAKE THEM WORK BETTER ... an EXCEPTIONAL TINKERER ;-).  

And Chatur's "superpower" was to lookup, read and MEMORIZE EVERYTHING KNOWN about any given subject, hence beome a _walking encyclopedia_ of  (already...) "received knowledge."  He also proved to be remarkably adept at "internal shapeshifting" ... BECOMING ANYTHING REQUIRED by "the Boss" AT HAND.  Hence, he proved to be a remarkably good "test taker" in school, and quintessential "Yes Man" afterwards.  But as for independent thought ...?  Well?
 

So then out of this brew of exceptional "survivors" and occasional _truly adept_ students came the central drama of the story as they all struggled with the questions: What's actually success?  What actually matters?

Is it being #1 in the class, landing a good job, marrying a "good spouse" (what actually makes for "a good spouse" ... Prof. Virus' daughter Pia (played by Kareena Kapoor [IMDb] [FiBt]) struggled concurrently with that question and its attendant pressures), or simply FINDING A WAY TO BE HAPPY ...?

This becomes A LOVELY STORY "OF NERDS, BY NERDS and FOR NERDS" (and I _do_ count myself as one of them ... as I _too_ was an (chemical) engineering student as well, before I entered into the Seminary ;-).

It's a MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE asking young people: "What difference does it make if you even become #1 but ARE NOT HAPPY?" (cf. in the Christian tradition: Matt 16,26)

And yet, in a country WITH A BILLION PEOPLE like _INDIA_ there are A LOT OF PEOPLE RIGHT BEHIND YOU READY TO CLAW THEIR WAY INTO YOUR PLACE if you hesitate.

So this becomes a _brilliant story / film_ FOR ALL YOUNGER PEOPLE trying to discern their direction in life and then for ANYONE who's ever had an Indian friend of T.A. in school.  Chances are that the drama that plays out in this film was part of their lives as well.

Excellent, simply excellent film / story!


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Chasing Fifty (orig. Padesátka) [2015]

MPAA (R)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
CSFD.cz listing*
FDB.cz listing*

CervenyKoberec.cz (V. Staňková) review*
iDnes.cz (M. Spáčilová) review*

Chasing Fifty (orig. Padesátka) [2015] [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]* (directed by Vojtěch Kotek [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*, screenplay by Petr Kolečko [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]*, story by Vojtěch Kotek [IMDb] [CSFD]*[FDB]* and Jakub Prachař [IMDb] [FDB]*) is a technically excellent (if by nature of its genre, necessarily morally dubious ... :-) or :-/ ) almost "Seth Rogan"-like Czech "slacker comedy" that OPENED the 2016 Czech That Film Tour playing this month at Chicago's Gene Siskel Film Center.

The film takes place in the context of a fictionalized annual "Three Kings / Epiphany" 50K Cross Country Ski Race held at the quite famous (in the C.R.) Czech ski resort town of Špindlerův Mlýn on the Czech side of the Krkonoše Mountains [en.wikip] [cs.wikip]* separating Czech Bohemia from modern Polish Silesia.  (I say fictionalized because the actual race takes place in the Jizerské Mts [en.wikip] [cs.wikip]* 50-75 miles to the West, but Špindlerův Mlýn has similar races / activities during the whole winter season and is certainly the more famous resort town).

Now Readers note that prior to WW II the region on both sides of the Czech and now Polish border was inhabited primarily by ethnic Germans who were expelled from their lands (again on both sides of the border) after WW II.  Note also though that both Bohemia and Silesia were once (and during the Middle Ages for centuries) under the Czech Crown.  Further, the Krkonoše Mountains [en.wikip] [cs.wikip]* have had a special place in Czech consciousness as basically _its_ "true mountains" and  _its_ "true wilderness" that long predated WW II.

Indeed, the tale of the tragic deaths of two famous Czech cross-country skiers Bohumil Hanč [cs.wikip]* and Václav Vrbata [cs.wikip]* (in a late winter storm back in 1913 (! ;-) in the Krkonoše Mountains [en.wikip] [cs.wikip]* is recalled to this day with the same (perhaps even hokey) reverence by Czechs as the "Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald [YouTube]"[wikip] is recalled in the United States.  It was a tragedy, but ... (Indeed, there appears even a shot of the memorial [wikip] to these two fallen skiers up there in the mountains near the end of this film ... ;-)

And the Krkonoše Mountains [en.wikip] [cs.wikip]* were the site of the probably all but impregnable fortess that (half-by-legend) was going to be the site of the Czechs "Alamo-like" last stand if the 1938 Sudeten Crisis had indeed led to war.  It would have probably been pointless as the rest of the country probably would have been overrun, but THERE in those mountains they (WE) probably would have held out for a long time -- a Czech Masada.  I'm not kidding ...

ALL THIS IS TO SAY THAT the Krkonoše Mountains [en.wikip] [cs.wikip]* MEAN A HECK OF A LOT TO THE CZECHS ;-)

BUT ... the significance of the Krkonoše [en.wikip] [cs.wikip]* was _not_ simply one of Tortured Defense / Tragedy.

Especially during the Communist Era when Czechs (behind the Iron Curtain) couldn't really go anywhere else anyway THESE mountains (and then "ski resort towns" like Špindlerův Mlýn in particular) became places for young people to go "on break" (if not really on "Spring Break" then on "Winter Break") -- YES, ALMOST EXACTLY IN THE SAME SPIRIT as American students would go to Ft. Lauderdale or more recently to Cancún "on spring break" today (And it is different for Czech young people today as well.  Most of my younger Czech relatives now "save up" to go to Northern Italy to ski in the winter and/or to Croatia, Italy again or Egypt to go to the beach in the summer).  But the Krkonoše Mountains [en.wikip] [cs.wikip]* and then specifically Špindlerův Mlýn remain good local alternatives to Czechs (like perhaps Lake Placid in the Adirondacks or "Vermont" in general would be to New Yorkers today) for winter fun.

SO THIS IS THEN, FINALLY, WHAT THIS FILM IS ABOUT -- It's largely about Czechs "on both sides of 50" who've come to Špindlerův Mlýn to participate in (or now watch...) an annual 50K Cross Country Skiing Race around "Epiphany Time" (at the tail end of Winter / Christmas Break) and then to recall what it was like "back in the day" when they were young, perhaps skiing that race (with better times) and then focusing on "all the hormone driven action" that inevitably followed. 

That's how this film becomes "a well made Czech 'Seth Rogan'-like 'slacker' movie."  And really the film is quite good, for what it is.  AND MANY, MANY AMERICAN VIEWERS would actually be quite surprised to see just how "American" ("just like us...") the CZECH characters in this film are.

And that's not a bad thing to remember ... as we are all after all people, "created by the same God."


Anyway, while certainly _not_ an "instruction manual" on good moral living.  But it does offer a rather fun, indeed effervescent way to start this year's Czech That Film Tour ;-)

(More or less... ;-) good job!


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

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Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping [2016]

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

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

I have to confess that I spent much of the film Pop Star: Never Stop Stopping [2016] (co-directed and screenplay cowritten by Akiva Shaffer and Jorma Taccone along with Adam Samberg) _happily_ "communing" with my memory of my past 20 year-old-self, recalling how much I had loved This Is Spinal Tap [1984] and wondering honestly if I was even "worthy" (as a Catholic Priest, hence of some _clear responsibility_ now) of writing a review of the current film.  But obviously, I knew when I started my blog that films like this would come and so I'm going to give it my best shot.

First, PARENTS, PLEASE NOTE that this film definitely earns (if often hilariously) its R-Rating -- mostly due to INTENTIONALLY "over the top" LANGUAGE and seemingly RANDOM (but again almost certainly INTENTIONALLY INCLUDED) shots of RANDOM PEOPLE'S (usually overly enthusiastic fans') PRIVATE PARTS (a _lot of people_ apparently want to have _all kinds of things_ "signed" ...) 

As such, this film is CERTAINLY NOT "for the little ones" (pre-teens).  HOWEVER, since both the language and the random bits of _intentionally stupidly added_ nudity are SO OBVIOUSLY OVER THE TOP, this could honestly be a quite good "parent / late-teen child" film to see, especially if the parents LIKED Spinal Tap [1984] of yore.

The film, a "mockumentary" about a fictitious three person contemporary "boys band" is obviously inspired by Spinal Tap [1984] yet updating it for the Justin Bieber / hip-hop generation:

Three childhood friends Conner (played by Adam Samberg), Owen (played by Jorma Taccome) and Lawrence (played by Akiva Schaffer) had grown-up to take the hip-hop world by storm with hits like "Karate Boy" (the opening lyrics: "I like to kick it ...  <kick>, <kick>" ;-) and a party dance number called "Donkey Roll."  Yet, as their fame / influence grew -- cameos of pop-stars / rappers / hip hop artists from Carrie Underwood (!? ;-) to 50 Cent to Mariah Carey to RINGO STARR (again, !? ;-) pop-up repeatedly to give ridiculously over the top testimonials to The Style Boyz influence on their lives / music -- so did lead man Conner (or as Conner4Real as he's come to call himself)'s ego.  And so early on in the story, he ditches the other two to pursue a solo career.

Lawrence decides to give-up on hip-hop to become "a farmer" -- in some super-desolate part of "eastern Colorado" where the 1930s Dust Bowl appears to have never really ended.  Owen, actually _doesn't retire_ but Conner relegates him to being the DJ for his act where despite thousands upon thousands of dollars of gear is set all around him, his only job is to simply hit "Play" on his iPhone to get Conner's preloaded set rolling ;-).

Conner's first solo album "Thriller, Also" had been a hit, but his new album "ConnQuest" ... eh, maybe ... not.  Perhaps it was his songs -- a very _late_ "song of support" for gay rights (where he spends half the song still explaining that he's _not gay_ ... but "if [he] was, it'd be okay..." ;-).  Then there's a rousing heavily choreographed number with his then girlfriend Ashley (played by Imogen Poots) dancing all around him on stage entitled: "F-me like we F-ed Bin Laden..."  'Course his publicist (played by Sarah Silverman)'s scoring of a "media tie-in" with "America's largest appliance manufacturer" did not help: Imagine how it would go over if "F-me like we F-ed Bin Laden..." suddenly started blaring out of every toaster / blender and washing machine in America ;-).  Would that be considered a "media coup" or ... some kind of _really odd_ (if actually "kinda hip"...) "terrorist attack" ;-)

Anyway, much ensues ... and my long buried 20-year-old self was smiling ... even as I was wondering how my current self could "write this one up" ;-)

Yes, this film "rocked-on" ... "to eleven" ;-)


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Me Before You [2016]

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

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. McAleer) review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (S. Wloszczyna) review
AVClub (J. Hassenger) review  


Readers here should know that Me Before You [2016] (directed by Thea Sharrock, screenplay by Jojo Moyes [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb] based on her novel [GR] [WCat] [Amzn]) is in the first place _about_ Assisted Suicide / Euthanasia.  (As such, though nominally rated PG-13 it probably should be R...  It's not a "light story").

In the opening minutes of the film, we are introduced to Will Traynor (played by Sam Claflin) a dashing (and super-rich) young man, a stock broker / investment banker of some sort (with a family that _literally_ "owns the castle" in the middle of their town somewhere in provincial England) and ... we watch him about to get hit by a motor scooter in a rain storm as he's crossing the street in front of his London place of business.  We hear the screech, we hear the bang ...

... The next sequence set some two years later, introduces us to Luisa ("Lou") Clark (played by Amelia Clarke) a cheerful / bubbly early-20-something y.o. woman about to lose her job (through no fault of her own, the business was simply closing) at a bakery/pastry shop in the "tourist section" of the lovely/picturesque provincial town from which Will had hailed (and, again, whose castle in the center of town Will's family literally owned).

It would seem therefore that Will's family had been "rich" for generations, since at least the middle ages and arguably since the beginning of recorded history ... In contrast, Lou, we find out as she's walking home (after having lost her job of 6 years...) lives with her parents (played by Samantha Spiro and Brendan Coyle), her sister Katrina ("Treena") (played by Jenna Coleman) and grandad (played by Alan Breck) in a blue collar "row house" section of town more toward its edge.  (One family seemed to have had it made, for generations, while the other had struggled, seemingly for ever ...).

With few jobs available and not a heck of a lot of skills, the jobs counselor at the local (gov't run?) employment agency suggests she take a stab at a "care taker" opening advertised it turns out by Will's parents (played by Janet McTeer and Charles Dance) to help take care of ... Will (who's become a paraplegic - confined to a bed / motorized wheelchair, unable to walk, indeed unable to use even his hands since his accident).

She interviews and despite being intimidated at first by Will's mom who did the interviewing (and let's face it, not a lot of experience in the matter of care taking) she gets the job.  Why?  Well, the "heavy lifting" (literally) was being done by an amiable physical therapist named Nathan (played by Stephen Peacocke).  Lou's job was to basically make sure that Will took his various meds and, well, to lift his spirits / give him someone to talk to.  Here Lou's cheerful disposition was in fact a useful indeed necessary qualification for the job (and cheerfulness / optimism has never been determined by one's socioeconomic class ...).

Much often predictable ensues...

Obviously, Will is quite depressed even if he had learned to fake a smile in his parents' presence as necessary.  He's also angry, angry among other things _at God_.

Will's anger at God / Religion  is made clear by a really quite awful (and seemingly off-hand)  comment about a recent French film Of Men and Gods (orig. Des Hommes et des Dieux) [2010] which in my review, I had called possibly _the best_ film about contemporary Catholic Religious Life _ever made_ (and I'm _not_ alone in that characterization, priests / religious across the U.S. have _loved_ the film and have used even it in vocation promotion ;-), which Will instead dismissively introduced to Lou as "French gay porn." There is NO SEX or even HINT OF SEX in that film ... Instead the film is about a community of French Benedictine monks in Algeria that despite increasing risk to their lives, decided to continue in their 100 year old mission there of both _praying for_ and _serving_ the people (mostly Muslim) of their town up onto _their martyrdom_.

Indeed, in that simple offhand / dismissive comment about "Of Men and Gods" is in fact "the true Crux" of the current one:  In that film, a community of Benedictine monks had rededicated themselves TO GOD / EACH OTHER and TO THE SERVICE OF OTHERS ... ONTO DEATH.  Yet in the current story, we had an angry rich young man (certainly angry with _some_ reason) who was REPEATEDLY CHOOSING to put HIMSELF ("Me") BEFORE OTHERS (his parents and ultimately in front of Lou, "You") in deciding to do with the future of his life.

IT IS FOR THIS REASON THAT I'VE CHOSEN ABOVE TO CHARACTERIZE THE FILM AS _ABOUT_ Assisted Suicide / Euthanasia (that's what Will, despite the love of his parents and later of Lou ... pursues) and NOT "A CASE _FOR_ ASSISTED SUICIDE / EUTHANASIA."

The film is sympathetic to Will's plight.  As a quadriplegic, he found himself unable to do MUCH of what he had LOVED TO DO prior to his accident (and there was _little prospect_ that this was going to change in his lifetime).  He was one who LOVED "doing things" ALL KINDS OF THINGS before his accident.  Now he could not _do_ most of them.

Yet the film is at least as sympathetic and arguably pleads the case of those around Will.  His parents and especially his mother LOVED HIM.  Lou also came to LOVE HIM and would have done basically anything (even SACRIFICE HER OWN DESIRES / FUTURE) to HELP MAKE HIM HAPPY.

But the film is about "Me" and "You" and who do WE _choose_ to put first.  And WILL (!) seemed dead set on focusing _on himself_ ... 

So this is a very intelligent story that does remind us that though we are always (and perhaps always have the right to be) "the Masters of our Lives" WE _ARE_ ALSO ALWAYS _MORE_ THAN WHAT WE "DO" (and that the Others around us ... Count as well).

Good / excellent job!


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The Knife (orig. Kaththi) [2014]

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

IMDb listing
FilmiBeat.com listing**

New India Express coverage**

FilmiBeat.com (B. Bhat) review**
iFlickz.com (Sai Shyam G) review**
IndiaGlitz review**
KollyTalk.com review**
OnlyKollywood.com review**

Hindustan Times (H. Pudipeddi) review**
The Hindu (B. Rangan) review**
Times of India (M. Suganth) review**

The Knife (orig. Kaththi [2014]) [IMDb] [FiBt] (screenplay and directed by A.R. Murugadoss [IMDb] [FiBt]) is the fifth stop on my 2016 Indian Film Tour.   In the U.S., the film is available on a number of mainstream streaming platforms including Google Play and YouTube for a reasonable price.

Staring Vijay [wikip] [IMDb] a famous Tamil actor and pop-singer, the film was released in autumn 2014 in time for India's annual Diwali Holiday amidst a good deal of multilevel controversy due to:

(1) alleged links of the film's production company Lyca to Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa (hated by many in Tamil Nadu for presiding over the brutal crushing of a Tamil insurgency in his neighboring island nation), with Lyca in turn accusing its accusers of forging the photographs allegedly linking them to Rajapaksa and his family [1]** [2]**

(2) specific accusations made in the film of high level corruption in India (in it's giving out of 2G spectrum cell-phone contracts)**

and even (3) accusations of plagiarism [1]** [2]**

The film became the highest grossing Tamil language film of 2014 and subsequently won three 2015 FilmFare (South) awards (India's closest equivalent of the Oscars) for Best (Tamil Language) Film, Best Director (of a Tamil Language Film) and Best Choreography (in a South Indian Film).  A Hindi language remake** of the film is scheduled to be made as well.

So what then is this film about?  Well, the film could be called "a typical Bollywood / Kollywood film" but with a social conscience.   Indeed, it's _almost two films_.

We're introduced to the main character Kathiresan (played by Vijay [wikip] [IMDb] [FiBt]) in jail with a reputation of being both a con-artist (that's why he's in jail) and an escape-artist (why we find him initially locked-up way up by Kolkata (in West Bengal) as opposed to his hometown of Chennai (Tamil Nadu).  As luck would have it, the film begins with another prisoner attempting to escape the (apparently somewhat more imposing prison by Kolkata than closer to home).  The guards, knowing that Kathiresan (or Kaththy, "Knife" for short) ask him (as one who's tried to escape many times before) for help in apprehending him, and ... Kaththy uses the opportunity to escape himself ;-)

The next scene has him back in Chennai, showing-up at his brother Dannu (played by Sathish [IMDb] [FiBt]) also a criminal though more of a small-time if more focused/disciplined pick-pocket.  Indeed, after Kaththy first asks him for money to "take the next plane out to Bangkok" and _then_
 because he falls in ... desire (big Bollywood Dance number there ;-) ... for a sweet young woman named Ankitha (played by Samantha Ruth Prabhu [IMDb] [FiBt]) that he mets at the airport TEARS UP HIS TICKET AND STAYS in Chennai, Dannu complains: "Kaththi, you simply don't know the value of money.  DO YOU KNOW how many OLD LADIES' PURSES I HAVE TO STEAL to pay for that ticket to Bangkok?  I'm NOT getting you another one." ;-)

Well, as they're going back home across some random overpass in Chennai, they spot some kind of  "a hit" take place below them.  Running then to the scene (to see if there'd be anything to take ... ;-) Kaththi is SHOCKED to see that the person who was shot _looked just like him_.

The two take the wounded man to the hospital and Kaththi uses the opportunity to change identities, taking the wounded man's papers as his own and asking his brother to fill out the hospital admission papers as if the wounded man were him.  He figures that whether the wounded man lives or dies, by the time the authorities figure out who he is, he'll be long out of the country (in Bangkok...) anyway.

Well the next day, as he's walking the street there in Chennai, he's picked-up by someone who knows, well, the wounded man.  Who was he?   A man named Jeevanantham, who turns out to have been an activist in the countryside _outside of Chennai_ defending the water rights of a small rural village named Thanoothu from a predatory multinational corporation that wanted to use the region's scarce water resources to feed a cola (soft-drink) plant.

Initially, both he / his brother could care less.  Indeed, they're even quite excited when a local government official appeared offering him an absurdly high sum of money (2 million rupees) to just "go away" which he had no problem doing because ... initially he had NO IDEA AT ALL what all the fuss was about.

But as he learns what's going on, Kaththi increasingly gets a conscience.  Taken "out there" (to the boonies) by someone, perhaps that government official promising him the money, he finds out that 6 men from the local "old folks home" (run by Mother Theresa's congregation) had actually committed suicide (slit their own throats) in a feed reservoir to the Cola bottling plant telling the guards, "Now you'll have to drink our blood mixed with the soft drink water if you proceed."  

And so Kaththi started to understand that even the money he was being offered "to just go away" was essentially "blood money" as well.  And so, he decides to help these poor villagers (whose Elders were in that "old folks home") defend their water, ... using the "skill-set" that he had ;-)

Now mind you, Kaththi, like almost all Indians, "knew something about Gandhi," but he ALSO knew a "heck of a lot about (petty) crime" ;-) ... So let's just say that his defense of the village and its rights was "a rather interesting mix" -- call it "Gandhi meets Jackie Chan [IMDb]" ;-)

Of course somewhere in the story, the young woman that he met at the airport becomes involved (Dear Readers, I'm not going to tell you how ;-).  And of course, "the good side" wins in the end.

What perhaps will interest Readers here (and _should_ indeed interest them) is that the battle over water rights in rural India (especially in the South, like in Tamil Nadu) is REAL.

Yes this movie has a generally quite flippant tone.  Yet, in a speech that Kaththi gives to the media (who all believe that he's still the social activist Jeevanantham) he actually articulates the problems of Rural India:

(1) In the last 30 years across India 12,456 lakes, 27,000 ponds, 7 rivers have been dried to support non agricultural uses;

(2) Nine elderly Indian activists actually did commit suicide to protest the destruction of their rural way of life;

(3) Indeed, for the last 10 years every 30 minutes a farmer in India commits suicide because he can no longer support his family, while more than 1 million farmers have abandoned their generations old livelihood in search of better paying (but often backbreaking) work in the cities, this in a country where

(4) 5,000 children die each day of malnutrition;

(5) Indeed, as in other parts of the world, what food is produced is often not used to feed people, but rather to make soaps (out of milk), "whitening creams" (from eggs, fish and carrots) and cosmetics (out of tomatoes, oranges and almonds).

Anyway, it all made for a very interesting twist to a film that at least initially seemed to be largely a "song and dance puff piece."  And perhaps this is _why_ all the various accusations (unfounded) were made against it in the months leading up to its release and why it ended up winning all the awards (back in India) that it.
 
A very interesting film indeed, and one that deserves to be more widely known about.  Good job! ;-)


** To load Websites from South and East Asia in a timely fashion, installation of ad-blocking software is often required.

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A Bigger Splash [2015]

MPAA (R)  ChicagoTribune (3 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (3 Stars)  AVClub (B-)  Fr. Dennis (3 Stars)

IMDb listing
ChicagoTribune (J. Chang) review
RogerEbert.com (C. Lemire) review
AVClub (J. Hassenger) review  

A Bigger Splash [2015] (directed by Luca Guadagnino, screenplay by David Kajganich story by Alain Page [wikip-fr]*[IMDb] is essentially an updated remake of the classic French / Italian 1960s erotic thriller La Piscine [1969] (directed and screenplay cowritten then by Jacques Deray along with Jean-Claude Carrière, story by Alain Page [wikip-fr]*[IMDb]).

In the current film, Janis Joplin-esque euro-rock star diva Marianne Lane (played by Tilda Swinton) and her perhaps a few years younger photographer-turned-lover of six years Paul de Smedt (played by Matthias Schoenaerts) have successfully ditched the paparazzi to "hole themselves up" _in a drop-dead gorgeous_ "up in the hills" multi-acred / multi-leveled / terraced villa in the Sicilian countryside with, of course, an ocean view worthy of the Gods and a mosaic-tiled pool worthy of an Emperor.  Oh how they suffered so ... They were there in good part so that Marianne could rest her voice, which 15-20-25 years into her career was clearly wearing.

While out there in this Elysian retreat in Paradise, they're visited by (perhaps) a Snake / perhaps two (actually quite a few, the presence of _actual snakes_ seem to be a day-to-day nuisance there ;-) in the form of a record producer named Henry Hawkes (played devilishly annoyingly well by Ralph Fiennes) and his bored but gorgeous young adult (late teen - early 20s) daughter Penelope (played with _quiet_ "yes, I'm hot, but you're all old, so I'll take my time to mess with all of you as I wish and on my own timetable ;-)" perfection by Dakota Johnson).

Henry had been a former lover of Marianne's and past more business acquaintance than friend but also sort-of friend to Paul.  Indeed some 6-7 years previous, Henry had "bequeathed" Marianne to him (usually not a particularly good idea but he had been getting tired of Marianne and Paul, perhaps at least at the time, hadn't seemed that much of a threat to him...).  No one had really known of Penelope (not even Henry until a few years back).  But a few years after her mother had reconnected with Henry (perhaps _just_ to inform him that he had a daughter by her ... and ask for some money) they came to this (rather odd / awkward...) arrangement that during this particular summer, he'd "take her around with him" while he was traveling in Europe.

So there they were Henry and Penelope ... visiting (or perhaps "crashing in on") Henry's old friends Marianne and Paul, both of whom probably would not have wanted to see him.  (Honestly as I write this, I find myself having more sympathy for Henry that I thought I'd ever have...).

And while Henry was perhaps arriving with all kinds of regrets, there was also Penelope, bored, left to ... just look _great_ in a bikini, listening to "stuff" on her ipod, flipping through "stuff" in a bunch of glossy (Italian?) magazines, _perhaps_ journaling "more stuff" in her notebook as she sunned herself by the pool, while her "dad" (again, she met him a few years ago...) met up with people who didn't really want to see him.

So this couldn't possibly go well ... and ... you could probably guess ...

It makes for an interesting "coming-up to summer" movie and reminds me to perhaps start making a list of "summer vacations from hell" films ;-)

But teens, above all, _please_ be nice.  Try to remember that ONE DAY you'll be "like the old folks" too ... ;-)


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

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