Paul: Apostle of Christ [2018]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (A-II)  RogerEbert.com ()  AVClub (C)  Fr. Dennis (4 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
Los Angeles Times (R. Abele) review
RogerEbert.com () review
AVClub (M. D'Angelo) review

America Magazine interview with writer/director


Paul: Apostle of Christ [2018] (directed and screenplay cowritten by Andrew Hyatt along with Terence Berden) is in my opinion the best Christian religious based movie to be released in cinemas in the United States since Son of God [2014].  Why?  Because it tells the compelling story of the last days of the Apostle St. Paul, who was beheaded in Rome during the first great persecution of Christians there under the Emperor Nero, without feeling any need to "jazz things up."  And why would there be a need?  Here was an authentic Christian hero, still leading / inspiring a community of authentic Christian heroes.  There was no need to turn the film into a "First Century CSI" or to have a contemporary writer "re-imagine" the childhood years of "The Young Messiah." 

Indeed, as I was watching the film, I thought immediately of several other stories of early Christian saints that could easily be make into compelling dramas -- those of (1) St. Justin Martyr another early Christian saint from Rome who was martyred a few centuries after St. Paul during the actual height of the Christian persecutions there, (2) St. Felicitas and Perpetua, two women Christian martyrs, friends, one was actually a recent convert, who were among those literally fed to the lions at a sporting event at roughly the same time as St. Justin was martyred, (3) St. Callixtus, who even though he led the Church of Rome still during times of enormous persecution and eventually died for the Faith, became the first Pope who was not universally recognized as the Pope by the Christian community there (apparently some Christians of the time simply _refused_ to follow a leader who had once been a slave.  He did in fact create the first Christian "credit union" which he created to help Rome's slaves buy their freedom, and became the first Christian leader to be "investigated" for possible "financial irregularities" by ... his aghast more "conservative / traditionalist" Christian opponents).  His primary Christian opponent at the time St. Hippolytus ended up being martyred at the same time as he (the Pagans not drawing distinctions between Christians of one stripe or another ... ;-); (4) St. Lawrence, a Deacon in the 200s, who when the Pope Sixtus II was arrested while saying Mass in one of the Catacombs in Rome, was asked by Rome's authorities to deliver-up "all the riches of the Christian Community of Rome" (again, they had that Credit Union by then ...) to pay as ransom.  Instead,  St. Lawrence  gathered together all the Christian community's elderly and orphans and presented them to Rome's authorities as the "Community's True Riches."  Needless to say, St. Lawrence was taken-away and martyred in a particularly brutal way -- roasted on a grill.  The Saint, remembered to the day as the Patron Saint of Comedians, is said to have told the Romans roasting him: "I think you can flip me over, I think I'm done on that side" ;-). 

So, if the makers of the current film were up to it, they could really do an excellent job in bringing a good deal of these stories of the early Christian Saints to the screen as well!

To the current film ... the story plays out in Rome under the Emperor Nero during the first great persecution of Christians in Rome.  About half the city had burned down due to a fire that many have suggested was set on orders of Nero himself (to make way for his own building projects).  To deflect attention, he blamed the Christians, then a new religious sect arriving in Rome only a decade or two earlier.  As a result Christians were arrested, crucified, killed by wild animals in sports arenas for sport and covered in pitch and set on fire to provide lighting. 

Among those Christians martyred were St. Peter who apparently was crucified in the middle of the Circus Vaticanus (the obelisk in the center of today's St. Peter's Square, while apparently moved a few hundred feet to its present location, had served as one of the end posts on on the Circus Vaticanus race track at the time) and, of course, St. Paul.  Note here that since St. Paul had Roman citizenship, he could not be crucified in the way that foreigners and slaves were.  He ultimately was beheaded near what is today the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

In the film here, St. Paul (played in the film by James Faulkner) had already been arrested and was held in a prison somewhere by the Roman Forum.  St. Luke (played in the film by Jim Caviezel) who had been a missionary companion of St. Paul, and later the writer of both the Gospel According to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, managed to get into Rome with help of Priscilla and Aquila (a Roman Christian couple mentioned repeatedly in Paul's letters and played in the film by Joanne Whalley and John Lynch respectively) with the purpose of getting one last opportunity to talk to his mentor and to get his facts straight while St. Paul was still alive prior to setting the Acts of the Apostles to paper.  The rest of the story unspools from there...

Contemporary Viewers are invited to reflect on an ancient aspect of Christianity often utterly forgotten in the current day -- that Christians in the first centuries were _pacifists_.  Viewers in the current film are invited to hear some frustrations of the younger of the Christians of the time, personified most strongly in the character of a certain young "Cassius" (played by Alessandro Sperduti), who wished to FIGHT BACK against the Romans who were beating and arresting so many good Christians and sending them to their deaths, often for sport. 

Yet the Christian leadership from Priscilla and Aquila to Paul already in Prison was unwavering: DON'T RESIST EVIL WITH EVIL even if it results in one's own death.  There's a scene in the film when arrested Christians presumably facing the lions only a few moments hence were assured by their leaders: "Don't worry, it will hurt, but only for a moment, soon you'll be in the presence of God."

And, minor spoiler alert, St. Paul, goes to his death with the same conviction and in a similar way.

Dear Readers, consider now that a few years ago, American Sniper [2014] was released ON CHRISTMAS DAY without a hardly peep of protest from the Christian / Catholic Community in the United States.  How times have changed!  And honestly, Christians / Catholics should ask themselves if this change has been a particularly "good" one?  Is it really Christian / Catholic to dehumanize "the Enemy"?  Or are we all supposed to be ultimately children of the same God?

So here is a truly excellent and thought provoking CHRISTIAN and CATHOLIC film (the writer / director is Catholic), challenging us to take seriously our faith and to be brave in our challenge to contemporary society.  If we are to be "pro-Life" we need to be so consistently. 


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Death of Stalin [2017]

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

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB () review
Los Angeles Times (K. Turan) review
RogerEbert.com (G. Kenny) review
AVClub (I. Vishnevetsky) review


Death of Stalin [2017] (directed and screenplay cowritten by Armando Iannucci along with David Schneider and Ian Martin with additional material by Peter Fellows, based on the comic book [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin, original screenplay by Fabien Nury) presents A FITTINGLY _INGLORIOUS_ COMEDIC "TRIBUTE" to the end of the life of one of the most brutal people of the 20th Century, Joseph Stalin [wikip] [IMDb] (played in the film by Adrian McLoughlin).

Indeed while certainly Stalin, MURDERER of tens of millions of Ukrainians during the imposed Terror Famine of the 1920s, murderer of tens to hundreds of thousands of Christian Orthodox priests and religious (there was "no room for Christ" when Stalin was busy building a Cult to himself), as well as tens to hundreds of thousands of his own Communist Party Members (again, they started to "get in the way"), DEPORTER of _entire nations_ to Siberia -- the Tatars of Crimea are _still_ largely there in an artificial "Republic of Tatarstan", the Chechens managed to return -- and large portions of others, including Poles, Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians, certainly deserves all the scorn that could possibly be heaped upon him, one still kinda felt "sorry for him" and his hapless sycophant "advisers" on HIS Politiburo (in the same way that one's "sorry for" Hitler in the Downfall Parodies).

And so it was, what _should have been_ "just another late night of drinking, watching "American Westerns" / signing death-lists for the NKVD (each night they were tasked to kick down doors and arrest potential enemies of his dragging them away to never be seen by their loved ones again) and smiling, no LAUGHING, at Stalin's jokes ... THIS NIGHT proved "different" ... After his Politiburo "guests" were finally allowed to go home, Stalin had a stroke, and since his guards were too afraid to check on him after they heard a "thump" ... he DIED.

What to do?  Well, the rest of the story unfolds, LARGELY based on the historical record.  And as is often the case with dictators such as Stalin, ONE COULDN'T INVENT THE CHARACTERS HERE EVEN IF ONE TRIED ;-).

Field Marshall Zhukov (played in the film by Jacob Isaacs) who comes into the story near its end to finally knock heads and get things moving (including getting rid of the smarmy and terror-master-in-chief Ministry of the Interior head Lavrenti Beria played in the film by Simon Russell Beale) is simply hilarious.  He comes into the Kremlin buff, decked with all his medals, and basically with the attitude: "Look I took down Hitler, survived (repeatedly) the insanity of Stalin's purges and there's simply NO WAY that I'm going to let MY LIFE or the lives of MY OFFICERS to _continue_ to be at the mercy of this charisma-less and now Stalin-less band of stooges." (Fellow WW II vet...) Khrushchev (played in the film by Steve Buscemi) "stepped up," which was helpful, but there was simply NO WAY that Zhukov was going to leave Stalin's Funeral without _some things_ definitely (and definitively...) resolved ;-).

Again, it's a fitting "tribute" to the end of a Monster that a great uncle of mine, just like a pianist in this film (played by Ukrainian born actress Olga Kurylenko), had actually cursed to death for the crimes that he perpetuated both directly against loved ones (an uncle of mine, after whom I was later named was jailed by the Communists at the time) and against entire peoples including my parents' own, and humanity in general.

Yes, the film makes the Russians (or at least its leadership) look like idiots, but with Putin trying to "Make Russia great again" in good part by trying to Resurrect (!) the "Glories of Stalin," THIS FILM DESERVED TO BE MADE.  NO we shouldn't want to bring _that_ era back again.


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Ready Player One [2018]

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

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. McAleer) review
Los Angeles Times (K. Turan) review
RogerEbert.com (C. Lemire) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review


Ready Player One [2018] (directed by Steven Spielberg, screenplay by Zak Penn and Ernest Cline based on the novel [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Ernest Cline [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb]) is a visually spectacular movie of our time that IMHO definitely deserves though probably will not receive Oscar consideration beyond the most obvious categories (cinematography, set design, film editing, etc).

Set in 2045, in a world of quite radical decline as the film's late-teen / early-20 something main protagonist Wade Watts (played by Tye Sharidan) declares, "After people gave up on trying to solve the world's problems and just focused on surviving them," it's not a pretty sight:  Most people in Wade's home town of Columbus, Ohio of the future just live "in stacks" ... high rises reduced to _truly_ their bare essentials -- steel beam erector-set-like exteriors that look like giant "shelves" built for an enormous machine shop, with prefabricated (once) "mobile" homes just hoisted (presumably by crane), "stacked" and fitted into the high-rise-erector-set-shelving-space-like "floors."  Talk about simply "warehousing people" ...

But .... (1) that's all that most people can afford with many / most of them finding themselves in incredible debt, mostly as a result of buying (in the real world) useless "stuff" to better-play their video games, and dreading the coming of debt collectors to their homes to take them away to "loyalty centers" (a truly inspired "Orwellian term" for 2045-era debtor prisons) where they'd be forced pay off their debts doing whatever menial jobs would make sense in an economy at least as large in the "virtual world" as in the real one.

And ... (2) if the real world looked increasingly ghastly, the Virtual World was becoming one whose limits were set only by one's imagination.  For in the Virtual World, one could become anyone (or anything) one wanted to be.  One could fly "a space ship" to a space casino (and, there's just a reference to it, an extraterrestrial brothel) the size of a planet.  One could (virtually) climb "Mount Everest ... with ... Batman" if one desired ;-).  One could join one's friends to fight armies of space-dragons and their orc / alien-like minions on planets called Doom.  One could be "a pole dancer," without being thin, but dressed instead in sweats and smoking a cigarette while waiting for the laundry to get done :-).  One could be "a world-class athlete in the Olympics" without working out...

While many of us, and certainly many more in our younger generation, already know a good deal of the beginnings of this virtual world, we're told that sometime in the 2020s a Bill Gates / Steve Jobs / Mark Zuckerberg-like Creator named James Donovan Halliday (played by Mark Rylance) along with a co-Creator and one-time, since sidelined (as appears often the case in stories like these), childhood (!) friend named Ogden Murrow (played by Simon Pegg) created "Gregarious Games" that brought all these disparate virtual realities into one grand universal Platform called "The Oasis."  And it was such a hit that from then on most people just preferred living most of their waking lives there. 
Well, James Donovan Halliday, eventually died.  But upon his death, it was announced, _he_ announced, through a video testament that he left behind that the left an "Easter Egg" accessible by the one (or ones) who'd find "three keys" in this vast virtual universe that he had created to which he would leave Title to the whole Oasis that he created, and ... the Race to find said "Keys" and therefore the said "Easter Egg" was on ...

Among those "Gunters" ("Egg Hunters" in "nerd-short" ;-) was, of course, Wade Watts, along with "his crew" that he had never met except "in the Oasis" who were looking for the Egg (now 5 years on...) simply "for the love of the game" (and because it was SOOOO cooool" ;-).

But there was also an Evil magnate named Sorrento (played by Ben Mendelsohn at his swarmiest), whose company Innovative Online Industries, or IOI for short, had already made a fortune selling the various technologies that would "enhance" the experience in the Oasis -- hap-suits that would translate sensations induced remotely to one's body as if one were "really there" (like, as if one was punched in the arm by a friend, or given a bear hug...).  Sorrento hired "an army" of Halliday geeks (people who knew EVERYTHING that there was to know about Halliday) as well as video-game players to get to that "Easter Egg" first.

So much then ensues ...

Now many Viewers will no doubt find themselves positively mesmerized or more negatively angrily "lost" in the film's virtual reality to appreciate the reflection on the Nature (and even the Value) of Reality.  And there are certainly plenty of more generally "set in their ways" Viewers who will find the whole story of "The Oasis" disconcerting / frightening.

But positive aspects of the Virtual Reality world are also shown: One of the characters Art3mis / Samantha (played by Olivia Cooke) is shown to have have a rather large / unsightly birthmark in the real world, which she doesn't have to worry about in the Virtual One.  And one of the funnier characters in the story is Sho (played by Philip Zhao) who, at age 11, is not taken seriously, yet, "in the real world" but in the Virtual one, he's _already_ a fun "bad-a" Ninja warrior to be reckoned with ;-).

I've also been amused by people in positions of power who resent and often fear the inherently decentralizing / democratizing tendencies of social media platforms.  In The Social Network [2010] (the very first film I reviewed on my blog), Jesse Eisenberg, playing the Harvard-attending but never quite Harvard-milieu accepted Mark Zuckerberg, talked about Facebook allowing every person (with his / her "friends list") to become "their own gate-keeper of their own exclusive club."  In the Virtual world, one's control over one's own world becomes even greater with one really becoming able to become truly anyone (or anything...) that one desires.  And for folks who like "order" (or Order [TM]) and therefore like or have a need to keep other people in boxes (and those one doesn't like ... in prisons), the Virtual world can therefore be quite disconcerting (and even threatening).  For what's a Führer without a people willing to be "Führered..."

Still, Reality is reality.  And as much as one could empathize with the people of Wade's "stack-living" people of 2045 Columbus, OH, and understand why they would enjoy the Virtual Realtiy of the Oasis so much, we are reminded that there are Real Consequences in the Real World and our neglect of the Real World can and inevitably will intrude even into the Virtual World of our dreams. 

So I just plain loved this movie.

I even made peace with my only question / complaint coming to see the film: Why was it being released on Easter weekend?  Sure, by the week of the movie, it became clear that the movie was about "virtual Easter Eggs" (special gifts left by programmers in their video games for their fans).  But I believe it was even more than that: In the world of the film (as in fact already in good part in ours), Halliday (or in ours Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg) was being treated as virtually a God, and EVERY UTTERANCE THAT HE / THEY SAID "STORED" / "REMEMBERED" AS IF IT WERE "SCRIPTURE."

I found this aspect of the story _fascinating_ and fascinatingly at least in part _true_.  There are folks who consider Bill Gates,  Steve Jobs / Mark Zuckerberg (or Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick and Stephen King...) as practically GODS and search for all kinds of hidden meaning in films like The Shining ;-).

I'm not threatened by the treatment of these people and all their works and all their utterances in this film, as none of these people are indeed God.  Still, the need for people to latch onto these Giants (and often, generally _good_ / responsible ones...) of our time is indicative of our need for meaning, that perhaps _can't_ be found in the often dry / empty and at times even threatening world of Reality.  There does seem to be a need in all of us to search for something that can Transcend it.

So overall, not only is this movie "a great ride," it's also a quite thought provoking one as well.  Excellent job!


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25th Annual San Diego Latino Film Festival [2018] - Pt 2

Of the films that recently played at the 25th Annual San Diego Latino Film Festival [2018], I was able to view and review also the following:

Zama ]2017] [IMDb] [FA.es]*[AC.br]*(directed and screenplay by Lucrecia Martel [IMDb] [FA.es]*[AC.br]* based on the celebrated novel [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Antonio di Benedetto [es.wikip]*[GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb]) is a Joseph Conrad "Heart of Darkness" [GR] [wikip] story crossed with Waiting for Godot [GR] [wikip] / Franz Kafka [GR] [GR2] [wikip] about a random mid-level late 18th-century "Official of the (Spanish) Crown" Don Diego de Zama (played in the film by Daniel Giménez Cacho [IMDb] [FA.es]*[AC.br]*) stationed up the Rio de la Plata somewhere near today's Asunción, Paraguay, so basically "At the Edge of the World," WAITING with INCREASING FRUSTRATION for the letter "From the King" to let him return back home.

To get approval for his request, he needs the help of a random "higher up" the local Governor (played by Daniel Veronese [IMDb] [FA.es]* [AC.br]*), who while proving perfectly (and repeatedly) able to make sure that his own (often petty) requests and needs are met, seems NEVER to have the time to first WRITE THE LETTER and then TO SEND IT so that Zama could FINALLY LEAVE AND GO HOME.

So while Zama WAITS, and WAITS, FOR YEARS, he becomes progressively more and more agitated as between the local indigenous people from a totally different culture / tradition than his own (what the heck is HE / THE SPANIARDS doing there at all??), the African slaves (brought there, in chains, by the Spaniards / Portuguese from "down river" to "serve" them) again from a completely different part of the world than that in which he had grown up in (back in Spain) and then an assortment of  increasingly crazy white desperadoes, perhaps epitomized by a notorious but slippery bandit named Vicuña Porto (played by Matheus Nachtergaele [IMDb] [FA.es]*[AC.br]*) he slowly goes crazy.

Will he ever get out of this place?  Should he even keep trying? One feels his pain: Colonialism has its effects even on the Colonizers... -- 3 1/2 Stars

El Condorito [2017] [IMDb] [FA.es]*(directed by Alex Orrelle [IMDb] [FA.es]* and Eduardo Schuldt [IMDb] [FA.es]*, cowritten by Rodrigo Moraes [IMDb], Martín Piroyansky [IMDb] and Ishai Ravid [IMDb]) is a CHILDREN'S ANIMATED FILM, produced in PERU based on the beloved comic [en.wikip] [es.wikip]*[Web.es]*[WebUSA.es]*  by CHILEAN CARTOONIST René Ríos Boettiger or Pepo [es.wikip]*).  At the center of the story is Condorito (voiced by Omar Chaparo [IMDb]) an anthropomorphic condor (who, of course, doesn't realize that he's a condor) living in a random provincial town somewhere in Chile.  He's not a particularly ambitious condor, has a home, takes care of a nephew Coné, but when it comes to work, well, let's just say that he prefers spending his afternoons playing soccer on the local pitch for the local team and then hanging out with his buddies at the typical local southern South American bar afterwards (complete with plastic chairs, and an espresso machine along with with assortment of spirits behind the bar).

It wouldn't be a bad life, 'cept that he does have a love interest, the beautiful and with a heart of gold Yayita (voided by Jessica Cediel), who'd like him, of course, to be more serious / responsible.  More to the point, she has a mother, the not rich but certainly imposing Doña Tremebunda (voiced by Coco Legrand), who if all went well would become his future suegra / mother-in-law.  However, she, of course, believes that her lovely, talented and kind daughter could do SO MUCH BETTER than a shifty, not particularly bright, lackadaisical _condor_ ;-).

Well all this makes for a fun / intriguing set-up for a story already, BUT ... this is a cartoon!  SOO ... while poor Condorito is trying, for the sake of his novia (girlfriend), to impress his perhaps one day future mother-in-law on her (future-mother-in-law's) birthday -- honestly, if you've ever been there, and most of us have, it's hard buying a perfect gift / planning a perfect evening for someone who doesn't particularly like you... -- She, the imposing Doña Tremebunda, gets abducted by random octupus-looking space aliens (!) ;-), led by a would-be megalomaniacal leader called Molusco (yes Mollusk) (voiced by Jey Mammon), who ... see in her imposing stature someone to be reckoned with (a worthy hostage perhaps even Earthling leader), while "poor Condorito" (the evening hadn't been going well ...) would AT LEAST IN PART, honestly, be happy "to have gotten rid of her ..." ;-).

But, well, his love interest Yayita, really would like her mother back ... ;-) ... SO ... Condorito along with his nephew Coné set out to fight these space aliens, bring back Doña Tremebunda and arguably save the world in the process ... Much ... ensues ;-)

Among that which ensues, evokes ALL KINDS of popular films from Indiana Jones, to Star Wars, to Despicable Me.

Yes, I do believe that a fair number of North American viewers would not particularly appreciate the rather sexist portrayal of the women in the story, from the "heart of gold" Yayita to her quite imposing mother.  Yet, especially when it comes to the mother-in-law, these are fundamental relationships -- where a mother _is_ generally going to defend the perceived interests of her adult children.  That's what mothers do ;-).  And yet, on the other side of the stick, the mother-in-law can be perceived as an annoying / fearsome / imposing figure.   Anyway, it makes for a fun story -- 3 1/2 Stars


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25th Annual San Diego Latino Film Festival [2018] - Pt 1

Of the films that recently played at the 25th Annual San Diego Latino Film Festival [2018], I was able to view and review the following:

Humboldt en México. La mirada del explorador [2018] (directed by Ana Cruz) is a documentary about Alexander von Humboldt [en.wikip] [es.wikip]*[de.wikip]* a late 18th-early 19th century German (Prussian) naturalist / ethnographer / explorer traveled extensively in Latin America including spending two years 1803-04 in Mexico (then New Spain), writing about it, its landscape and its people for the first time in a scientific manner -- in a style that would remind Viewers of the writing and illustrative style (now photographic style) of the articles of National Geographic Magazine.  So impressed were subsequent government officials of Mexico, that when Mexico won its independence, they gave Humboldt honorary Mexican citizenship, even though later in the aftermath of the Mexican American War, he was accused of having been a Gringo spy.  That rather odd accusation -- said war took place 45 years after Humboldt's time in Mexico -- was born of the fact that his writings were considered so good / accurate, that the U.S. Army used them as background information (notably his maps ...) to plan the invasion of Mexico during the War! ;-).  However, beside the reminder that all sorts of writings could end up being used in all sorts of unexpected ways, the film gently presents a beautiful report of how Humboldt saw the people of Mexico (then still New Spain) across the whole spectrum of its classes and ethnicities, and it reminds us of the perennial value of such "snap-shots" of cultures in time, helping us all to appreciate who we are and where we came from -- 3 1/2 Stars

Broche de Oro: Comienzos [2017] (written and directed by Rául Marchand Sánchez) is a LOVELY second volume (a prequel) to the (already largely) DELIGHTFUL Puertorican family comedy Broche de Oro [2012].  I saw the original at the 29th Chicago Latino Film Festival [2013], when I was still stationed in Chicago, and have to say though I already largely liked the first one, I liked this second film even better.

Now why have I liked these films?  And why did I like this film even better than the first?

Well, as I mentioned, these films are family comedies, and interestingly enough FOCUSED HERE PRIMARILY ON THE GRANDPARENTS.  The films take place in the context of a Senior living community / nursing home operated, since the series takes place in Puerto Rico, by a local congregation of Catholic Religious Sisters.  In the first film, the Religious Sisters were portrayed perhaps a bit too harshly / stereotypically.  In the current film, their portrayal has been softened and even deepened significantly resulting in a much more recommendable film on my part.

Then, the initial relationship focused on in the series has been that between a grandfather named Rafael (and played wonderfully by Jacobo Morales) and his quite guapo/surfing but still learning his way through life grandson Carlos (played by Luis Omar O'Farrill).  The value of grandparents is shown beautifully in this film.  Then in the current film, many of the _other_ characters at the senior living community / nursing home are much more developed.  What's presented in this film is a _lovely community of life_ present _even in_ "a senior living community / nursing home" AND ONE CAN NOT BUT APPLAUD THIS!   Viewers may be reminded of the even then highly successful American-TV series The Golden Girls [1985-1992] but even in a more serious (yet FUN) / realistic way.

There will be some Catholic Viewers who may find problems with ONE (or possibly two) scenes in the film, both of which come near its end (and for this reason, I'm not giving this film a flat-out 4+ Star rating (yes, the film is THAT GOOD AND THAT SIMULTANEOUSLY POIGNANT / FUNNY).  But as I wrote in reviews before, in a Free Country, Artists have the right to use their Art to express the opinions that they hold.  We may not like them, and may respond accordingly, but they certainly have the right to express them.  Further, GENERALLY SPEAKING (as is _certainly_ the case here), noting that many Catholics / Christians would have some problems with some of the film's resolutions, there is SO MUCH ELSE THAT IS EXCELLENT IN THIS FILM that it'd simply be unfair to judge the film on its few problems.

So overall, A SIMPLY EXCELLENT PORTRAYAL OF "LIFE AMONG SENIORS" and I wish the director and the cast all the best in the world.  This was a story / film WORTHY OF BEING MADE, and I hope that there will be more like this in the future -- despite aforementioned reservations (but mentioned in a vague / non-spoiler alerty way ;-) ... 4 Stars.

Road to Mars (orig. Camino a Marte) [2017] (directed and cowritten by Humberto Hinojosa Ozcariz along with Anton Goenechea) is a simple/low budget Mexican young adult oriented sci-fi film of the Twilight Zone [wikip] [IMDb] tradition -- I've seen several similar films of this style coming out of Mexico in recent years, including The Incident (orig. El Incidente) [2014], and The Similars (orig. Los Parecideos) [2015]) -- though a film that does "move the ball" a bit.

For one, this is a film where the main protagonists are two young 20-something women Violeta (played by Camila Soli) and Emilia (played by Tessa Ia).  With one, Violeta, dying of cancer, after escaping the hospital, the two go on a Themla & Louise [1991] like road-trip down the Baja California coast.  Along the way they encounter a young man (played by Luis Gerardo Méndez) who appeared to really need some help.  Apparently unable to speak, and wearing what appeared to be a beat-up motor-cycle helmet, it initially seemed to them that he had had some sort of a terrible motorcycle accident resulting in him having amnesia.  HOWEVER ... (not much of a spoiler alert) he turns out to be an extra-terrestrial and one on a very specific and quite somber mission.  All this takes place in the context of a massive hurricane, named Mark, approaching the coast from the Pacific Ocean (Note that the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere was Hurricane Patricia which barreled down on the Mexican coast from the Pacific Ocean in 2015).

Well much of course ensues.  I did find the film fascinating for being simultaneously a sci-fi themed film and one oriented above all to young women.  There are some aspects of this film, notably involving sexuality, that would certainly make the film unsuitable for minors, and more generally put-off many/most adult Catholics.  Still, bearing these criticisms in mind, for the college-aged / 20-something crowd, this would make for a thought provoking film, and one that brings to mind some of the themes of the pre-flood chapters of the Book of Genesis. -- 3 Stars


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Gringo [2018]

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


IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (K. Jensen) review
Los Angeles Times (K. Walsh) review
RogerEbert.com (G. Kenny) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review

Gringo [2018] (directed by Nash Edgerton, story and screenplay cowritten by Matthew Stone along with Anthony Tambakis) is an odd mix -- arguably the story of Job re-imagined as the principal protagonist in a dark yet by the end almost Shakespearean tragicomedy.

Poor Harold Soyinka (played by David Oyelowo) a hard-working educated Nigerian-born immigrant in his late thirties, who begins the story working as an accountant for a vaguely-shady certainly b-tier Chicago-based pharmaceutical company and with, at minimum, a spendthrift wife (played by Thandie Newton).

Early in the film, Harold is warned by his own accountant, a friend, that the company he's working for is being setup for a merger and when that comes along, he could be out of a job.  So when Harold comes to work, he asks his boss, if "all is okay with the company," and assured by his ever smiling, but take one look at him and you'd be insane to trust him boss Richard Rusk (played wonderfully by Joel Edgerton) "of course it is, and besides I look after my friends."  That's not exactly an answer...

Well, assured that all is fine, Harold is nevertheless sent down to Mexico to "clean up" some accounting "problems" with a medical marijuana pill that that the company had been developing there -- apparently "some of the product" was "going missing" and while one _could_ have considered that "the cost of doing business" especially with THAT particular "product" ... IF ONE'S COMPANY IS GOING TO BE BOUGHT BY ANOTHER, these kind of "discrepancies" would have to be explained / covered over.

So poor Harold, a Nigerian immigrant, but to absolutely EVERYONE down in Mexico he's "the Gringo" or "the black (somewhat exotic) Gringo" is sent there to "fix" something that's not exactly easily "fixable."  His Mexican counterpart, a lovely Mexican accountant, who's adopted a soccer team sized number of orphan-kids on his salary gets one of big toes clamped-off by the local drug lord who ... unsurprisingly, would like the previously "negotiated arrangement" between "his organization" and "the gringo medical marijuana" er "pharmaceutical company" to ... "continue."

And it just gets worse.  Soon there's a hit man, actually even a series of hit men, representing all kinds of "interests" big and small, originating from across both sides of the Border, who'd just prefer Harold, the little Nigerian-born "Gringo" account to be ... dead.

The key scene in the film is when facing one of these hit men, one actually sent by his slimy boss (remember "his friend" back in Chicago), poor Harold drops to his knees and begins to pray: "O God, save me in this my hour of distress!"

The hit man, asks incredulously: "O come on, you don't believe in God do you?"  To which Harold, remember a GOOD MAN from Nigeria, answers with similar incredulity: "What kind of man does not believe in God?"  to which the hit man, taken aback, answers: "Well, I guess, I kinda do..." and ... quite soon, quite randomly another gang of two bit thugs, ALSO looking for Harold, run the hit man over saving his life ... for the moment.

And so it is.  I suppose the "redeeming value" of the film is perhaps that in Shakespearean fashion pretty much ALL the bad people GET THEIRS while the good people ... Harold, his heart-of-gold Mexican counterpart, and one other sweet young American lady named Sunny (played by Amanda Seyfried) turn out okay.

But did this movie _really_ have to be made?  Well, I'll leave that question up to you ;-)


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Thoroughbreds [2017]

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


IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB () review
Los Angeles Times (J. Chang) review
RogerEbert.com (C. Lemire) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review

Thoroughbreds [2017] (written and directed by Cory Finley) is an extremely simple if also extremely deadpan / dark "comedy" about two super-rich teenage girls, Amanda and Lily (played superbly by Olivia Cooke and Anya Taylor-Joy respectively), awash apparently in ritalin, from the "horse country" of upper suburban Connecticut (where even cross border Westchester County, NY appears to be considered for the non-super-rich hence unwashed/unfortunate masses) who ... come to plot the murder of one-of-the-two's creepy (if still chiseled) lawyer step-father named ... Mark (played by Paul Sparks).

To do so, they enlist a local same-age-as-they amiable loser named ... Tim (played in joyfully / "without a clue" fashion by Anton Yelchin, the poor actor, most famous for playing the amiable Chekov in the rebooted Star Trek films, himself, died tragically in a freak auto accident outside his Hollywood Hills home shortly after finishing shooting for this film).  Tim's the guy who they'd _never_ invite to their parties if not for him supplying them with their drugs.  If stupidly, then certainly sincerely Tim believed himself to be "an entrepreneur" and kept telling _everyone_ who'd listen (not many, as most would just roll their eyes and leave ... after buying their drugs ... from him...) that "in a few years," he'd be "sitting pretty," living just as they were ;-).  Yes, Lennie, everybody deserves to dream...

Well ... much happens, though ... not particularly quickly ;-) but then ... they're all on ritalin, right?, holding back filled-to-the-brim oceans of resentments.  SOOO, this can't possibly end well ... right ...?  And ...

It all makes one recall the great opening line to Tolstoy's Anna Karenina: "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way" ;-)

An awesome if very, very dark film ;-)


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