Deadpool 2 [2018]

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

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
Los Angeles Times (J. Yamato) review
RogerEbert.com (M. Zoller Seitz) review
AVClub (I. Vishnevetsky) review


Deadpool 2 [2018] (directed by David Leitch, screenplay by Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick and Ryan Reynolds, characters by Fabian Nicieza [wikip] [MC] [GR] [Amzn] [IMDb] and Rob Liefeld [wikip] [MC] [GR] [Amzn] [IMDb]) continues the saga of "redeemable bad guy" Wade Wilson / Deadpool (played by Ryan Reynolds) one time lowlife/dirtbag hit-man (a "merc"), now since he's proven to be immortal (thanks to undergoing a crazy experimental toxic chemical bath to "cure" his one time cancer -- gotta see the first movie to "understand" ;-) -- and more importantly because he's found a quite mortal if _kind_ girlfriend, a former stripper named Vanessa (played by Morena Baccarin), he's set out to kill only "the bad people."

Well in both Grand Opera / Comic Book fashion, "tragedy" strikes and ... the rest of the story follows.  As in the case of the first film, the story is violent, the language is R-rated (though more descriptive / evocative hence surprisingly _intelligent_ than it would initially seem ;-).  And judging from the smiling-from-ear-to-ear and often laughing-out-loud 18+ thoroughly mixed (yes, the Dead Pool movies _are_ actually "date movies" ;-) audience the film's clearly fun and arguably to many AWESOME.

To say more would ultimately take away from the film, though I suppose to some it'd be important to remind people here that the Deadpool character falls into Marvel's X-Men storyline rather than the Avengers' or ... the DC Comics universe and in characteristic Deadpool fashion the main character often amusingly skewers those other story lines.

Overall, I enjoyed the film, though I do believe that the R-rating is deserved.  So parents, the film is definitely _not_ "for the little ones.   Still older teens / the 20-something crowd would probably enjoy the film very, very much.  Good job! ;-)


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Pope Francis: A Man of His Word [2018]

MPAA (PG)  CNS/USCCB (A-II)  Fr. Dennis (4 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
National Catholic Register (S.D. Greydanus) review
National Catholic Reporter (M. Pattison) article about film


Pope Francis: A Man of His Word [2018] (directed and cowritten by Wim Wenders along with David Rosier) is IMHO exactly what one would hope for in a documentary about one of most consequential people living in our world today.  Composed of both footage from interviews of Pope Francis by Wenders' crew made for this documentary as well as of footage of this Pope making some of his most consequential statements (that word again ... consequential) that he's made during his Pontificate AS HE MADE THEM, it's a documentary that does what every good documentary should do: it "moves the ball." Most of us will understand the Pope better as a result of this film.

So we get to see Pope Francis make his celebrated and/or controversial responses to questions about how the Church should look toward gays in society today ("We should seek to integrate [homosexuals] into society rather than marginalize them"), on "the Wall" ("We should build bridges rather than walls"), on his giving up a lot of the perks usually associated with being a Pope ("We should all be willing to live with a little less for the sake of those who have next to nothing").  And there's a quote that I haven't heard before that he told a large group of Brazilian faithful at an audience at the outskirts of a Favela in Rio de Janeiro: "How good it is to share!  And as we all of us 'bean eaters' know well, when someone else comes to the door, YOU CAN ALWAYS ADD A LITTLE WATER TO THE BEANS TO MAKE IT WORK [FOR ALL]" ;-)

The film does not skirt the legacies of the Holocaust -- Pope Francis' words about God's gift to us Free Will at Yad Vashem are shown, with Francis asking aloud if God himself knew the risk, "of the depth of the abyss that we would be capable of throwing ourselves into" -- as well as the Pope's words with regard to the Clergy sexual abuse scandals: "The Church's position has to be of zero tolerance, of punishing priests afflicted with pedophilia, removing them from the priesthood and, yes, accepting the punishments of civil authorities."   There is also a scene in which Pope Francis contemplates both the current Security Wall placed in recent years between Israel and the Palestinian Territories by the Israeli authorities and then the Wailing Wall into which as per age-old Jewish Tradition, after saying his prayers, the Pope dutifully placed an envelope (of petitions) into one of its cracks.

Of all the statements we hear the Pope make, his response on the clergy sexual abuse scandals, is certainly the most political (or simply tricky) as there has always been an aspect of Mercy in Christian Doctrine.  However, even there, the Pope could be proclaiming a consistent Christian position: One can be MERCIFUL to the sinner (even to a jailed pedophile ex-priest) _after_ he's turned himself in and accepted / is fulfilling his punishment (and _without_ reducing his punishment).

Expressing my own opinion here: I always found it both remarkable and GOOD that mass-murderer John Wayne Gacy, went to his execution, but before doing so, had received Communion:  Justice was done, but Mercy at least in the after-life acknowledged as well.  Quoting Article 982 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "There is no offense, however serious, that the Church cannot forgive. "There is no one, however wicked and guilty, who may not confidently hope for forgiveness, provided his repentance is honest.527 Christ who died for all men desires that in his Church the gates of forgiveness should always be open to anyone who turns away from sin.528".

In any case, this is a remarkable thought-provoking / challenging film and one which helps all to better understand one of the most consequential people of our time.  Excellent job!


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Life of the Party [2018]

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

IMDb listing

CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review

Los Angeles Times (G. Whipp) review

RogerEbert.com (M. Zoller-Seitz) review

AVClub (J. Hassenger) review 

I'd like to begin my review of  Life of the Party [2018] (directed and screenplay cowritten by Ben Falcone along with Melissa McCarthy) by declaring that I simply love Melissa McCarthy.  Her career could have gone in any number of directions, but at least as of now, she's chosen to defend the value / dignity of regular people ... like you and me.

In this film, she plays Deanna a happy sacrificing 40-something woman, wife / mother who gets dumped by her cheap-skate husband Dan (played by Matt Walsh) even as they drop-off their only daughter Maddie (played by Molly Gordon) at college for her senior year.  He honestly believes that he's "trading up," by dumping Deanna for same age as they, living in the same suburb as they, real estate agent named Maddie (played by Julie Bowen).  Why?  Yes, it kinda matters but it also doesn't.  He's simply decided to go, and ... Deanna's left on her own.

It turns out that Deanna never completed college, having left it, her senior year, to have Maddie with Dan and to marry him.  She decides to go back, twenty three years on, to finish her (archaeology!) degree.  A kinder, gentler version of Rodney Dangerfield's Back to School [1986] follows with shades of Kevin Spacey's American Beauty [1999] and even Harrison Ford's Raiders of the Lost Ark [1981].  Honestly, imagine Indiana Jones as a forty-five year old mother who yes, dreams (among other things) of going to Budapest to look for the long lost tomb of Attila the Hun (why not? ;-) but ALSO loves her early 20-something daughter and all her friends to pieces.  I JUST LOVE THIS FILM! ;-).

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2018 Southeast European Film Festival - Los Angeles

Of the films that recently played at the 2018 Southeast European Film Festival - Los Angeles, I was able to view and review the following:

Men Don't Cry (orig. Muškarci ne plaču) [IMDb] [CEu] [CSFD] (directed and cowritten by Alen Drljević [IMDb] [CEu] [CSFD] along with Zoran Solomun [IMDb] [CEu] [CSFD]), is a BOSNIAN, SLOVENIAN, CROATIAN and GERMAN fictionalized psychodrama, set in a hotel by a (former?) ski resort outside of Sarajevo, telling the story of a group of veterans from all sides of the 1990s Bosnian Conflict [wikip] who twenty years after war's end entered (or were entered...) into a therapy program to finally confront the psychological scars that the war had left on each of them.

And yes, all "tough" men, all from a part of the world that values "toughness," and then certainly further _hardened by life_ and especially said War many initially question their being there, and one even leaves.  Yet the Slovenian psychologist (played by Sebastian Cavazza [IMDb] [CEu] [CSFD]) tells the men: "You are here because as awful as the War that you experienced twenty years ago, that was indeed _twenty years ago_, and you haven't been able to truly return from the war.  Your loved ones would like you to finally come home again."  

The rest of the story follows, with some truly heartrending stories being told, stories that really do not flinch from the horror that the War, one which included of course, Massacres / "Ethnic Cleansing," and told from the perspectives of victims, perpetrators and even simple (if-not-for-would-otherwise-be) bystanders.

Any veteran of any war would completely understand this film.  Further, I may in fact use this film in the future as part of a Men's Retreat on Reconciliation, because no matter what demons we may carry, the folks in this film carried ones big enough to open-up just about any heart.  A simply outstanding if at times hair-raising film -- 4+ Stars

The Miner (orig. Rudar) [2017] [IMDb] [CEu] [CSFD] (written and directed by Hanna Antonina Wojcik Slak [IMDb] [CEu] [CSFD]) is a SLOVENIAN / GERMAN historical drama tells the story of Alija a random Bosnian-born (Muslim...) Slovenian miner (played by Leon Lućev [IMDb] [CEu] [CSFD]) who just as the world was focused on excavations of the mass graves of Bosnian Muslims shot (by Serbs) outside of Srebrenica during the Bosnian War of the 1990s, was sent by his boss to investigate a long closed mine-shaft at the outskirts of the mine -- somewhere near the Italian, Austrian, Slovenian, Croatian border (Slovenia is small...) -- at which he worked, and discovers ... a mass grave there from the 1940s.  Who were the victims?  And did anybody want to know?   Indeed, it becomes pretty clear that _everybody_ from his boss, to the (Slovenian) authorities, to his own wife wanted him to just shut-up / keep quiet about what he had found.  "Based on true events" ... based on true events indeed (the 20th century history of former Yugoslavia runs like an almost unending horror).  Excellent / very sad film - 4 Stars.

Comic Sans [2018] [IMDb] [CEu] (directed and cowritten by Nevio Marasović [IMDb] [CEu] along with Rakan Rushaidat [IMDb] and Janko Popović Volarić [IMDb]) is a CROATIAN (romantic?) comedy of sorts about Alan (played by Janko Popović Volarić [IMDb] [CEu]), a late 30-something / 40-something Zagreb-based commercial artist (a Croatian Ad-man) who having lived a hard-drinking / cocaine infused "dulce vita" for ... way, way too long ... was discovering that pretty much every woman that he ever was interested in (or had been interested in him) had, well, ... "moved on" ;-). 

So what we witness is a veritable _parade_ of often quite funny / painful "definitely approaching middle age" rejections at the hands of exasperated women who in different ways but repeatedly tell him: "Look you never wanted to grow up, well ... what did you really expect?"  Even his mother tells him essentially: "I told you so" ;-).  But at least he comes to understand his more "traditionally bohemian" artist dad Bruno (played by Zlatko Burić [IMDb]) who he had previously looked-down-upon as a loser / neerdowell.  Okay, at least Alan had a (high paying) job, but ... there appears to be more than one dimension to ... "being responsible" ;-) -- 3 1/2 Stars


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Overboard [2018]

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

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. McAleer) review
Los Angeles Times (K. Walsh) review
RogerEbert.com (S. Wloszczyna) review
AVClub (K. Rife) review


Overboard [2018] (directed and screenplay cowritten by Rob Greenberg along with Bob Fisher, story by Leslie Dixon) is a fun remake of the Kurt Russell / Goldie Hawn starring 1987 film, IMHO _better_ / more credible than the original.

Kate Sullivan (played by Anna Faris), a harried 30-something widow from a rural coastal Oregon hamlet named Elk Cove with three cute-as-a-button daughters, and working two jobs and even as she's oh so close to graduating from nursing school is insulted / dissed by a super-rich late-30 to early 40-something, "never grewup 'cause he never had to," Mexican playboy named Leonardo Montenegro (played by Eugenio Derbez), the pampered only son of the 3rd richest man in the world. She had been sent by the cleaning service that she worked for to clean one of the carpets in Leo's yacht's carpet after "an accident" at the end of a debauched party he had been hosting.  After cleaning his carpet, Leo decides that he's not going to pay her (because she wouldn't bring him a drink, even though she wasn't a waitress, but rather there to clean his stupid  carpet).  When she refuses to get off the boat until he pays her, he throws her as well as her (service's) $3000 carpet cleaner into the water and ... has his crew sail the boat away.

Well, poetic justice comes when that night, drunk (from drinking too much champagne) he falls off his yacht and washs up, with amnesia, on-shore.  Soon he's on the local television news "Does anyone know this man?"

Kate's BFF Theresa (played by Eva Longoria) comes us up with a plan for payback -- have Kate arrive at the hospital to reclaim "her husband."  Theresa's husband (played by Mel Rodriguez), a local construction contractor would give him a manual labor construction job and Kate would be able to take the month off from her two jobs to study for her nursing exam. ;-)

And so Kate Sullivan arrives at the hospital with "documents" and photo-shopped photos "proving" that that Leo(nardo) was her husband.  But wait how could such a Mexican-looking man speaking with a Mexican accent possibly have the name Sullivan?  Well ... she explains to him / his doctors that his great grandfather had been one of the Irish immigrants who escaping poverty / the potato famine had emigrated to Mexico and as a member of the (in Mexico famed) San Patricio Battalion had fought for Mexico (and against the United States) during the 1846-48 Mexican-American War.

When she brings Leo to her home, she also explains to him that the three daughters they have (who look a lot like her but not at all like him) were "his" as well, even though because he "was sterile" _they had to use a sprem donor to create them_ :-).  "Don't worry honey, they're just as much yours as they are mine because _you've_ been helping to raise them."  And, though he had previously never worked a day of his life, she enjoys sending him to work as part of Theresa's husband's heavily Mexican immigrant construction crew.  And ... the rest of the story follows ... ;-)

Leo actually _adapts_ quite well to his role of being a responsible working class husband / father.  Of course, the lie can not be maintained indefinitely and Kate has to come clean, but by then Leo has fallen for both Kate and especially the kids and so he does face a legitimate dilemma of which life to embrace or return to. 

All in all it was a fun film and the repeated "turnabout" theme with the Rich Person being Mexican and the struggling one being (North) American was also honestly fun as well.  And the film's overall message -- that work and responsible living is good for us -- would certainly make both Saint Joseph and St. John Paul II proud.  So overall Good Job!


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Tully [2018]

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

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


Tully [2018] (directed by Jason Reitman, screenplay by Diablo Cody) is a contemporary (and somewhat / rather God-less...) motherhood drama starring Charlize Theron playing Margo a late 30-something married mother of two (the second, already somewhat special needs) who at the beginning of the film is about to give birth to a third child.

Needless to say, she has _a lot_ on her plate.  Hubby, Drew (played by Ron Livingston), himself is tired, probably from work, and certainly uncomprehending, playing "Call of Duty" like first-person shooter video-games from their bed as he waits for her to make it there (after finishing the last chores of her daily routine and bedding down everybody else) at night.

Older (and wealthier) brother Craig (played by Mark Duplass) suggests to Margo that she get a "night nanny" after the third one is born, and offers to pay to the expense if only she'd call the service he suggests.  Initially, Margo responds with eye-rolling disdain: "I love MY kids.  I'm not going to let some stranger do my work for me / bond with my kids in a way that I should."  But a month and half after giving birth, and remember she's in her late 30s, hence no longer a spring chicken, Margo decides, "why not?" and 26 year old "night nanny" Tully (played by Mackenzie Davis) comes on the scene and ... much in an updated (And R-rated..) Mary Poppins [1964] / Maria of Sound of Music [1965] sort of way ensues.

The 26 year old is "wise" but above all reminds Margo of herself when she was 26 and her life was still just endless possibility.  For her part, Tully tries to remind Margo: "Despite what you may think sometimes, you've SUCCEEDED.  You've succeeded in creating a stable 'boring life' for yourself with people who depend on you. YOU SHOULD BE PROUD."  (In this regard, one could ask oneself if Tully is "real" or simply a voice inside Margo which tries to encourage her in a rather challenging time in her life).

However, there are people missing in this narrative.  There are no (grand)parents, no in-laws, no church.   Hence it all does seem rather lonely / overwhelming.

But perhaps with th(os)e others it need not be...

A thought provoking but certainly not end-all film on the subject.


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Avengers: Infinity War [2018]

MPAA (PG-13)  CNS/USCCB (A-III)  RogerEbert.com (2 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (C+)  Fr. Dennis (0 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
Los Angeles Times (J. Chang) review
RogerEbert.com (M. Zoller Seitz) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review


Avengers: Infinity War [2018] (codirected by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, screenplay cowritten by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely based on Marvel Comics by Stan Lee [IMDb] and Jack Kirby [IMDb]) sigh ... I guess it was inevitable:

Almost exactly in the middle of the film, as two groups of the story-line's protagonists meet for the first time-- to eventually become essentially the Super Avengers, made-up of the Avengers already introduced to us in previous films plus the heroes of the Guardians of the Galaxy whom the other Avengers do not yet know -- eastern mystic inspired Dr. Strange (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) sternly asks the famously slacker-anti hero Guardian of the Galaxy Peter Quill / "Star Lord" (played by Chris Pratt) "What MASTER do you serve" to which, confused by the question, Peter Quill aka "Star Lord" responds in his characteristically flustered "amiable slacker" sort of way: "Do... you ... want me to say ... Jesus?"

Haha ... there were _some_ (stiff) laughs in the mostly teenage / young adult audience.  But I was basically done.  Ten minutes later, already rather frustrated by the film's overly ponderous story-line, certainly the most convoluted in the franchise thus far -- though in the film's defense, one could say that the Avengers were trying to save THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE -- I left.

The throw-away Christian mocking line reminds me of when I, as still a teenager / young adult was visiting then still Communist Czechoslovakia and with a few Czech relatives of mine was visiting one of the many lovely medieval castles in the country.  In the castle's chapel, the tour guide, certainly a Soudruška (Czech for "Comrade") mindful that most of the group that she was leading was actually a school group of 10-12 year olds on a field trip, stopped in front of a lovely statue of a young Blessed Virgin Mary and told the kids, "Now kids ... in the olden days, the big strong, handsome young knights of this castle would put themselves on their knees before this lovely young maiden, who by the way her name was Mary, to 'worship her' ... Yes, it's kind of childish and _even somewhat obsene_  for us today, but that's what pervy young men, often still not married, would do in those backward days." 

And again the message was clear, an atheist in a position of power, was telling her _captive audience_ of young people that's perfectly okay to mock the Christian faith that some of them certainly still held (among those kids were certainly Catholics / Christians, though they _definitely knew_ to keep their mouths shut under Communism) and certainly held by many more of their parents and grandparents...

Perhaps though the Christian mocking throw-away scene in this latest Avenger's movie was inevitable.  After all:

(1) One of Marvel Comic's most famous heroes is a kindlier, rehabililitated nordic god based Thor (the Wagner-loving Nazis had a more _racially based_ take on him a few decades before ...), and

(2) the Catholic Church / Christian Community in the United States is certainly _not_ entirely without blame: the more conservative elements of the Christian community have _chosen_ to take a needlessly hard (and truly next to impossible to try to dialogue with) line on homosexuality in recent decades, and the ARTISTIC community, which has _always_ been something of a haven for homosexuals (Michelangelo was probably gay ...) has with again SOME DEFINITE JUSTIFICATION taken offense.

As I've written before [1] [2] [3] IN A FREE SOCIETY, the artistic community ultimately can produce WHATEVER ART (films) IT WANTS.  So ... if the Catholic Church / Christian community _chooses_ to pick a fight with the significantly homosexual artistic community, it can expect _exactly_ what it has received: a parade of poignant / heart-rending films each underlying, and in an inevitably nearly infinite number of ways, _the fundamental dignity_ of homosexuals as _persons_ AND eventually a similar parade of films hostile-to and even mocking of Christianity.

To expect otherwise is honestly to "not think things through ..."

But to me it's sad here ... because in the case of this stupid throw-away line here, no one's dignity was being defended.  Instead, Christians / Christianity were simply being mocked.

And yes, obviously, I'm a follower of Jesus ... Zero stars.


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