2015 Denny Awards - Pt 3 - Most Compelling Performances (Female)

Part 3/3 of my Annual "Denny Awards" ;-)
(Other Years' Awards)
 

Part I - Best Films
Part II - Most Compelling Performances / Character Roles (Male)
Part III - Most Compelling Performances / Character Roles (Female)


CHILD (female)
    Most Compelling:
             Kaitlyn Dias voicing 10-12 yr old Riley a little girl who's "growing up" from was born in Minnesota but recently moved to San Francisco in Inside Out [2015] 
    Honorable Mentions:
             Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi's "niece" in Taxi Tehran [2014] who'd like to be a film-maker when she grows up as well, but has all kinds of questions about what (current Iranian law) would make for a "screenable film."
              Güneş Nezihe Şensoy as Lale (whose name means Tulip), the narrator / youngest of five sisters in the Turkish Repunzel-like horror fairytale Mustang [2015]


TEEN (female)
    Most Compelling: 
                    Raini Rodriguez as Maya, Paul Blart's _ever cheerful_ teenage daughter (even if she could have had any number of reasons to be unhappy if she chose to) in Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 [2015]
     Honorable Mentions:
                    Britt Robertson as Casey Newton, the optimistic teenager in Tomorrowland [2015], who despite dire predictions of climate change / environmental destruction challenges her teachers / adults to "not just give up"
                     Karidja Touré as Marieme, a French 15-16 y/o of West African heritage growing-up with her BFFs in a concrete and not much grass "project" at the outskirts of Paris in Girlhood (orig. Bande de Filles) [2014]
                     Maisie Williams as Abbey, an Irish teenager growing-up at the outskirts of Dublin today, trying _really hard_ (perhaps _too hard_) in difficult circumstances to be a good kid to all in Gold [2014]
                     Daisy Ridley as Rey, a de facto orphaned teenager, in Star Wars: The Force Awakens [2015] who's been waiting for years for her parents to come back for her.  Instead "the Force" / "Universe" gently tells her that her waiting (in the Desert) is over and hurls her off on her own adventure.
                     Madison Davenport as Beth, a random teenager from Evanston, IL who finds herself taking care of / arguably parenting her manic-depressive mother in A Light Beneath Their Feet [2015].
                    Darya Saveleva as Sveta in The Hope Factory (orig. Комбинат «Надежда» / Kombinat "Nadezhda") [2014] who was growing-up in the Russian north-Siberian city of Norisk (originally built by Stalin's GULAG), and just wanted to get out of there. 
                    Hunter King as Avery Keller, the "popular girl" / bully (but also with a story) in A Girl Like Her [2015]
                    Abigail Breslin as the title character in Maggie [2015] a beloved teenage daughter of a Midwestern farmer, who after she was bitten by a Zombie was slowly turning into one herself. 
                    Joséphine Japy as Charlie (Charléne) a random French teenager from a random  provincial town somewhere in Southern France who has her life turned upside down when a new girl Sarah (played by Lou de Laâge), who turns out to be something of a bully, moves into town in Breathe (orig. Respire) [2014]
                    İlayda Akdoğan, Tuğba Sunguroğlu, Elit İşcan and Doğa Zeynep Doğuşlu who play the four older (teenage) sisters of Lale (above) in the Turkish contemporary Repunzel-like teenage fairy-tale / horror tale Mustang [2015].


YOUNG ADULT (female)
     Most Compelling:
                    Shiela Vand as the quiet / demure / chador covered "Girl" that nobody pays much attention to in the Iranian-exile made Vampire destined-to-be classic A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night [2015] ;-).
     Honorable Mentions:
                    Anne Hathaway as Jules, a 20-something entrepreneur in  The Intern [2015] who's worked very hard and succeeded in what she's done, but to take things to the next level, she realizes (and proves open) to taking some sage advice.
                   Saoirse Ronan as Ellis an early 20-something immigrant from Ireland to the United States in the early 1950s in the immigrant drama Brooklyn [2015].  
                   Lesliana Pereira in the title role of Njinga Queen of Angola (orig. Njinga Rainha de Angola) [2013] who, still in late 1500s-early 1600s, taking-over after her father's death (her older brother wasn't of much use ...) using her wits kept the Portuguese and Dutch colonizers (and slave traders...) at bay during her lifetime.
                   Jennifer Lawrence as the heroine Katniss in the final episode of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part 2 [2015], who never signed-up to do any of what she had to do, but kept her integrity through the whole of the extended story.
                    Svetlana Ivanova as Marina a university student in contemporary St. Petersburg, who "never really fit in" (but that's because ...) in an inspired Russian "LOTR meets the Twilight Saga" mash-up called Dark World (orig. Темный мир / Temnyy Mir) [2010].  There's some pretty good fodder for some pretty compelling stories "out there" in the forests of Karelian Tiaga ;-)
                   Deepika Padukone as Mastani in Bajirao Mastani [2015] a 1/2 Muslim warrior princess in 16th century pre-colonial India and the second wife of a general (Bajirao I played in the film by  Ranveer Singh) from a neighboring (Hindu) state.  Despite much prejudice against her because of her heritage she remained nice to everyone even her enemies throughout, and gained respect / love as a result.
                   Shu Qi in the title role in the Chinese/Taiwanese film The Assassin (orig. Nie yin niang) [2015].  Growing-up in late Tang Dynasty China (600-700s AD), she was handed over to a "warrior nun" by her family after boy to whom she was engaged "found a better deal."  Trained then as an assassin by said "nun" she's eventually tasked with killing the boy now man (with a family...) to whom she had been engaged.  Could she do it ...?  
                   Kangana Ranuat as the "always was good girl" Rani in Queen [2014] until she was dumped by her fiance just before their (would have been beautiful) Bollywood-style wedding (the dancing in this film comes at its beginning ;-).  Depressed for a couple of days, she decides to "take her honeymoon" if alone (it's already been paid for ...) anyway.   
                    Aislinn Derbez as Maria Laura (MaLa) in A la Mala [2015] a struggling actress in Mexico City who finds herself with a rather odd / interesting business that pays her bills: She finds herself being hired by young women to "hit on" their boyfriends to see if they would cheat.
                    Amy Schumer as "Amy" in Trainwreck [2015] as a "promiscuous to the point of boredom" no-nonsense blue-collarish 20-30 y/o young adult,, her character proves far kinder and wiser than her "tough exterior" would perhaps suggest.
                    Louisa Krause as "Streak" in The Abandoned [2015] a 20-something single mom who takes an awful job as a night-time security guard at a never-completed "luxury hotel" just so that she could keep her kid.


ADULT (female)
    Most Compelling:
                 Diane Lane as Cleo the wife of blacklisted Academy Award winning screenwriter Dalton Trumbo in Trumbo [2016].  She did not leave him when he was black-listed and even jailed (for Contempt of Congress) during the McCarthy Era even though their standard of living _dropped_ precipitously as a result.
    Honorable Mentions:       
                Jennifer Lawrence as the title character Joy Mongano in Joy [2015] the QVC entrepreneur / inventor of "the miracle mop" who despite modest beginnings and all kinds of reasons to accept failure / quit, nonetheless _succeeded_ AND _REMAINED NICE_ to all her loved ones in the process.  
                Sareh Bayat in the title role of Nahid [2015], a tough, kind and competent divorcing 30-something year old Iranian woman from a mid-sized Iran town on the Caspian Sea with an 8 year old boy who'd just like to be given a chance to "make it own her own."

                Cate Blanchett as the title character in the 1950s era lesbian love-story Carol [2015] as a 40 something divorcing woman who’s sincerely even tried to be(come) straight, but simply could not.

                Juliette Binoche as Maria Elena as an ex-wife of one of The 33 [2015] miners trapped in a Chilean mine back in 2010 who did let the authorities to "just let them die."
                Carey Mulligan as Maud Watts a working class woman in London in turn of the 20th century England in Suffragette [2015] who reluctantly finds herself entering into battle for women's rights. 

                 Elizabeth Banks as Melinda Ledbetter who eventually became often depressed / even troubled Beach Boys songwriter Brian Wilson's second wife in Love & Mercy [2014].  Her performance is wonderful as one can empathize with her situation: "OMG, I could be dating one of the Beach Boys!  OMG, there are some real issues with him / his family..." 
                Sharon Leal as the "still learning" late-20 / early-30 something African American mom raising a precocious 7-8 year old boy (Michael) during the Segregation Era when the boy got it into his head that he'd _really_ like to drink "the white people's water" in White Water [2015[
                Gemma Arterton in the title role as Gemma Bovary [2015], one somewhat bored late-30-something / 40-something woman with a cursed name who proved way too attractive for her own good.
                Essie Davis as Amelia the harried single-mom of a 7-8 year old boy (Samuel) "with some issues" in the children's scary-movie Babadook [2014]


ELDER (female)
    Most Compelling:
               Helen Mirren as Maria Altman in Woman in Gold [2015] who in her 70s decided to take-on the Austrian government for return of a beautiful painting of her aunt that had hung in her home when she was a child.  The painting had been confiscated by the Nazis and was being exhibited, prominently, at a Vienna Museum and had come to be considered "Austria's Mona Lisa."  Yet, that wasn't any "Mona Lisa."  At the end of the day, it was a painting of Altman's aunt ...    
    Honorable Mentions:
                 Laura Bonaparte* as herself in Time Suspended (orig. Tiempo Suspendido) [2015] a documentary about her life.  In the 1970s she was a human rights activist in Argentina and had to flee the country as a result.  Her ex-husband as well as every one of her children died in custody during the Argentina's "Dirty War" at the time.  She survived.  But that was 30-40 years ago.  Now in her last years, she was coming down with Alzheimers...

 
HERO / VILLAIN (female)
    Most Compelling:
                 Daisy Ridley as Rey, a de facto orphaned teenager, in Star Wars: The Force Awakens [2015] who after years of waiting "in the Desert" is hurled off her planet to an adventure / destiny that she does not yet understand. 
    Honorable Mentions:
                 Britt Robertson as Casey Newton, the indomitably optimistic teenager in Tomorrowland [2015]
                 Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss in the final episode of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay -- Part 2 [2015], who never asked / wanted to be a hero, but repeatedly "stepped-up" for the sake of others / justice until she saw the whole revolution against the social structures that she lived in through.
                  Lesliana Pereira in the title role of Njinga Queen of Angola (orig. Njinga Rainha de Angola) [2013] who really was, in her life-time able to keep her people safe.
                  Deepika Padukone as Mastani in Bajirao Mastani [2015] a 1/2 Muslim warrior princess in 16th century India whose bravery and _kindness_ could give a wonderful example to all people, Muslim and non, today.
                 Shiela Vand as the quiet / demure / chador covered (Iranian) "girl" that nobody pays much attention to but has more power than most could ever imagine in A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night [2015] ;-).
                 Kaitlyn Dias voicing 10-12 yr old Riley in Inside Out [2015] about the "whole drama" of "growing up" ;-)
                  Güneş Nezihe Şensoy as Lale (meaning Tulip) who narrates a "different kind of drama" about growing up in a different part of the world in Mustang [2015]
                   Laura Bonaparte* as herself in Time Suspended (orig. Tiempo Suspendido) [2015] an Argentine human rights activist who really gave an enormous amount of her life, and suffered unimaginable losses (not unlike Katniss above ...) in striving to make the world a better more just place.
                  Carey Mulligan as Maud Watts a working class woman in London in turn of the 20th century England in Suffragette [2015] who reluctantly finds herself entering into battle for women's rights.


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

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Zoolander 2 [2016]

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

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


Zoolander 2 [2016] (directed and screenplay cowritten by Ben Stiller along with Justin Theroux, Nicholas Stoller and John Hamburg based on characters by Ben Stiller and Drake Sather) continues the comedic "send-up" of the over the top "arrogance" / narcissism of the "upper reaches" of the high fashion industry of the original Zoolander [2001]

Now it has been 14-15 years since the story's left-off and so early in the film viewers are clued-in to what's happened to the two rather odd, and not exactly super-physically attractive, male supermodels Derek Zoolander (played by Ben Stiller) and his once rival turned BFF Hansel (played by Owen Wilson):  Both had turned into recluses of sorts.  Why?

Well Zoolander's downward spiral began with a terrible accident at the dedication of his "Institute for Very Attractive People so that they Could Learn to Read and do Other Cool / Important Stuff" in which Zoolander's wife Matilda (played as in the original by Ben Stiller's own wife Christine Taylor) was crushed.  Why?  Because Zoolander had insisted that the building be made of the same materials -- paper and popsicle sticks ;-) -- its architectural model.  Then his / Matilda's son, Derek, Jr, was taken from him because Zoolander proved wildly incapable of properly taking care of him.  Seriously, social workers working for DCFS would probably shake their heads laughing (hopefully not with too much recognition ;-) at Zoolander's incompetence here: He didn't even know how to make spaghetti noodles "soft" like mom used to make .. ;-).  So Zoolander, depressed, "left civilization" to hole himself up in a "stylish shack" (not exactly "Unibomber"-style) in the "Extreme (and Snowy) Mountains" of the "outer reaches" of ... New Jersey ;-).

Then, Hansel, "disfigured" as a result of the above mentioned collapse of the above mentioned "Zoolander Institute," retired -- along with his 10-15 member "orgy" (Parents take note...) ensemble which included a cute little gold-helmeted Cherub-like midget, an African American super-model dressed as a Warrior Princess and, for some reason ... Keifer Sutherland ;-) --- to the "Dunes" of an "uncharted Malibu beach" ;-) --

The two are "called back" to "the world" by separate "hologram messages" (a la the message sent by Princess Leia in Star Wars IV: A New Hope [1977]) sent here by a really _ugly_ (err ... "exotic") fashion guru named Alexanya Atoz (played by Kristin Wiig doing a play on her previous SNL "Donatella Versace" impression ;-).  She asks both of them, separately to come, for reasons unspecified but extremely "urgent", to Rome.  For reasons not particularly clear -- both had been recluses for nearly 15 years -- both agree to do so.

That proves to be a good decision as Agent Valentina (played by Penélope Cruz) of Interpol's "Fashion Division" had been looking for at least Zoolander but had not been able to find him -- even though fashion guru Alexanya (and even Netflix ;-) ... have been able to find both ;-).  Agent Valentina, a "former swimsuit model turned police detective" (a little disgruntled because her boobs proved "just too big" for her to "successfully transition to runway modelling" sigh ... "the sufferings" we bear ;-), had been looking for him because of a string of murders of "Pop icons" including, in the film's initial sequence, of Justin Bieber.

All of these Pop Icons had mysteriously "Instagrammed" final pictures of themselves, just before they died, "sporting a trademark look" of Zoolander's.   She thought the look was that of "Cold Steel" but he quickly corrects her when they meet, saying, "Sigh <eyes rolling>, it's actually my look from 'Aqua Vitae.'"

That all these famous "Pop Icons" were dying sporting Zoolander's "Aqua Vitae" look, and ALL the main characters in the story now find themselves IN ROME, sends the story amusingly in a Dan Brown a la Da Vinci Code [2006] / Angels and Demons [2009] direction ;-) ... with also a nod to The Silence of the Lambs [1991] ... in order to get the "Evil Designer" Mogatu (played by Will Farrell) from the first Zoolander film out of "Fashion Prison" ;-).

What ensues is really, really stupid ;-) ... funny, stupid ;-)

Parents, I would certainly say that the film would not be for the littlest of kids.  But there is no nudity, no real violence, just A LOT of high fashion, stupid, sexual innuendo that is _so over the top_ that it's obvious that it's to be taken as a joke (and NOT like anyone would want it to be):

Consider simply that when Hansel and Zoolander find Zoolander's long lost son, now tweenage and "chubby" Derek, Jr (played by Cyrus Arnold, Jr), Hansel _realizes_ that ALL he's ever done with Zoolander before involved one-or-another random / group sexual encounter, and so he _repeatedly_ has to stop himself as he tries to tell Derek, Jr something about his father's and even his mother's past.  At the end, he realizes that he doesn't have anything _appropriate_ to tell Derek, Jr at all ;-).  

HOPEFULLY, we're BETTER THAN THAT ... ;-)

So this is just one "really out there" / "dumb" comedy that probably hits the edges of PG-13 / R. 
It's certainly _not pretty_ (even though it's about "high fashion" ;-) but it certainly is (often) very, very funny ;-)


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Avalanche (orig. Bahman) [2015]

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

IMDb listing
Cinando.com listing
SourehCinema.com listing*

Fars News Agency article*
TasmimNews.com article*

MehrNews.com interview w. director*
TahlilPress.ir interview w. director*

Film-Magazine.com (M. Jfryrad) review*
SalamCinema.ir (R. Farokhi) review*
SalamCinema.ir (S. Mostafaei) review*

SalamCinema.ir listing / viewer comments*

Keeping It Reel (D.J. Fowlie) review


Avalanche (orig. Bahman) [2015] [IMDb] [Cin] [SC]* (written and directed by Morteza Farshbaf [IMDb] [Cin] [SC]*) is a fairly simple yet as always, poignant, at least partly allegorical and for the Westerner, informative, Iranian film that opened the recent 26th Annual Chicago Festival of Films from Iran being held at the Gene Siskel Film Center here in Chicago over the course of February.

The film is about Homa (played in the film by Fatemah Motamed-Aria [IMDb] [Cin] [SC]), a nurse in her mid-50s, who lives in a fairly nice duplex with her husband Ahmad (played by Ahmad Hamed [IMDb] [SC]) in an upper-middle class section / suburb of Tehran.

It's winter.  When Ahmad picks her up at the end of her shift, or perhaps she was shopping, it has already been snowing for some time, AND IT DOES NOT STOP, SNOWING, THROUGH THE ENTIRE FILM.

Ahmad is all smiles at Homa enters the car.  A writer, who hasn't been writing for some time (why, is unclear...), recently he's started writing again.  Further, he's succeeded in unloading (finally selling) a ton of olive oil, which the two had apparently bought as part of some sort of a speculation scheme and had been stuck with, without a buyer (who could pay), for some time.  Readers remember here that Iran's been under fairly severe economic sanctions for some time.  These kind of schemes of buying / stocking-up / selling commodities as hedges against the relative worthlessness / unreliability of currency become reasonable, even common, in such situations.  Stocking-up on olive oil in a culture like Iran's -- people use it for cooking, AND CAN EVEN USE IT FOR LIGHTING (if it came down to it ...) -- would have seemed like "a good bet." 'Cept you still need buyers able ... to pay.

Homa, in contrast, is not ... "all smiles."  She's been asked by her boss, to take take the night shift for the next ten days at a hospital, now really at the outer edges of Tehran, to look after his ill / dying mother (played by Shirri Yazdanbakhsh [IMDb] [Cin] [SC]) who's a patient there while _he_ is out-of-town to deal with another family emergency -- his daughter had apparently been in a severe accident somewhere, "outside," presumably (outside of Iran...) in the West.

Working the night shift is never fun, but now it's snowing.  So each night she has to drive to-and-from work at this hospital "at the edge of town", in awful traffic, slowed-up even more due to the terrible / unrelenting snow.

Now Readers note here that despite Western perceptions, Iran has actually always (even under the current Islamic regime ...) been a relatively "moderate Islamic country."  So women in Iran _can_ drive, get university degrees and hold professional jobs.  Homa does / has all three.  That she was picked-up by her husband at the beginning of the story was _not_ because she wasn't allowed to drive, but rather because SHE had a steady job while HER HUSBAND (until recently) did not, and instead spent much of his time running errands while SHE worked.

Then, besides the awful hours / bad snow, she's dealing with several other irritations at home:

(1) Thanks be to God / Allah, Homa's husband's finally working (writing) again (and sold that "stupid olive oil") ... And remember, this was Iran, an Islamic country, where its relative "moderation" notwithstanding (see immediately above), MEN are supposed to be doing MOST THINGS and women are "oppressed" NOT ALLOWED TO DO MUCH.  Yet SHE'S actually been the one holding down a steady / meaningful job, keeping the family afloat, while her ever smiling, gregarious husband did ... what exactly did he do all those years? Apparently, he pretended that was some sort of a "Sinbad the Sailor" "Merchant" from "Silk Road" days ... "buying and selling" ... "olive oil" ... A TON OF WHICH apparently sat, FOR A LONG TIME, in a barrel in some storage space somewhere ;-/.

(2) She's been left taking care of "the stuff" left by her equally "happy-go-lucky" but _stupid_ / certainly immature, 20-30 something son, notably HIS (once) "beloved" dog named "Bobby."  Where's the son?  Apparently, after years of living in some apartment somewhere "closer to downtown Tehran" with "a friend" (played by Amir Nasiriunique [IMDb] [Cin] [SC]) WHO WAS ARGUABLY _A GAY LOVER_ ;-), he had recently "picked-up sticks" and left Iran for the West.  We see, briefly, Homa's son calling home by means of a skype-call.  And after "talking to mom," he wanted to "talk to his dog ..." ;-/.   Later mom, had to deal with her son's former "friend", who came by (while poor Homa just wanted to sleep ...) to go through / take back some of his "stuff" that her son / his former "friend" had left behind...

Finally (3) as "(bad) luck would have it," a new set of neighbors moved next door, and the wife was "a piano teacher."  So pretty much ALL DAY, EVERYDAY the sounds coming "from next door" were the awful sounds of very average, often quite _lousy_ students taking "piano lessons."

So each morning Homa comes home after working the night shift at a hospital "at the far edge of town" taking care of the quite irritable / ungrateful, elderly / unwell mother of her boss (who's "away"). And after driving through terrible traffic in a snowstorm that _does not seem to end_, she comes home to a house with a barking dog (left there by her son ... who's again "away").  And then ALL DAY she hears ALL the MISSED KEYS of her neighbor's WILL-NEVER-BE-MOZART "piano students." ;-)

It all "kinda feels like an avalanche" waiting to happen ...

When will it end? ;-)

And can one relate?  ... SURE ;-)


This was another quite excellent, if _small_ film coming from Iran, which reminds us in the West of Iran's artistic community's OBVIOUS talents / capabilities.  And one honestly wishes _the best_ for that OBVIOUSLY talented community and it's, again obviously, QUITE CULTURED PEOPLE.

Iran / Persia has at least a 3,000 year cultural history.  And despite everything else that may be happening in the world, films / film festivals like this one held here annually at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago do remind us of this.   Excellent job!


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

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The Choice [2016]

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

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (K. Jensen) review
ChicagoTribune () review
RogerEbert.com (S. Wloszczyna) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review  


The Choice [2016] (directed by Ross Katz, screenplay by Bryan Sipe based on the novel [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Nicholas Sparks [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb]) is a _nice_, very well made, at times even _somewhat_ "thought provoking" (yet in an ever "safe" sort of way) contemporary romantic drama, that _plenty_ of 20-something American couples (looking for something to do / somewhere to go) will definitely appreciate come Valentine's Day.   After all, this is certainly _not_ writer / producer Nicholas Sparks' "first rodeo" [IMDb].  He knows what he's doing, and he does it very, very well.

As such, cinephiles looking for something "new" will probably leave disappointed.  But couples on a first or second date, just looking for something _safe_ to do will probably leave relieved ;-) -- (I was once "there" too ;-).

The story, set in a sea-side town somewhere in North Carolina -- I do like Sparks' setting of many of his romances "in the South" as in a polarized country like the United States is today, he reminds us that we could "get along" (quite nicely, in fact) if we chose to -- is a grand romance between two very attractive if at least initially quite different people:

Travis (played by Benjamin Walker) is a popular (late 20s-something) hometown boy.  Gabrielle "Gabby" (played by Teresa Palmer) is a recently arriving (from a fairly wealthy family in Charleston, SC), again, later-20-something, "Resident" at a local hospital.  She moves in (presumably rents) the sea-side house next to Travis'.  Yet, if at first sight, Travis may seemed like a rather loud local "good ole boy," Gabby (as well as Viewers) soon learn that Travis is no Neanderthal.  It turns out that he's a vet(erinarian) and so ... "a doctor" if perhaps "of another kind."

With this "filling-in" of  Travis' "CV" it's "game on" ... and much, often quite lovely / beautiful ensues.

My ONLY COMPLAINT with the film is that BOTH of the principal protagonists are _so absurdly attractive_ (physically, socially, economically, professionally) that the vast majority of Viewers would realize, if they thought about it at all, that the two protagonists don't really "belong to this world."  And while it could be said that "Travis" and "Gabby" are fictional characters and hence, _by definition_ are "not real" (not "of this world"); there are fictional characters created by other authors in other works that are drawn in ways that more correspond to Readers' / Viewers' realities.  Instead, the two protagonists here are clearly "Ideals" (belonging to some extent to the universe of Archetypes or perhaps even better belonging to the universe of "Platonic Forms").  

Yet, perhaps because they _are_ Ideals / Platonic Forms largely expressing  the _essences_ of "the young, attractive Male and Female" of our time, WE CAN STILL RELATE TO THEM (in our minds / imaginations) and then relate to their various trials / tribulations in the story.

As such, it is truly is "a mind game" that we're asked to play as we watch this film ;-).  It's not necessarily a bad one, indeed, a quite enjoyable one.  And it's not necessarily even a bad one for a couple to play together on a date.  It's just that it isn't real, 'cept in that universe of "Platonic Ideals" as almost NO ONE is that attractive, that socially capable, that happily economically "unworried" as the characters of this story are.

And yet, "Wouldn't it be nice?" ;-)

Again, it's not an altogether bad "date movie" for (fast approaching) Valentine's Day ;-)  Just do realize that "it's not real" ;-).


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Hail, Caesar! [2016]

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

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


Hail, Caesar! [2016] (written and directed by Ethan and Joel Coen [wikip]) is a generally gentle modern-day "screwball comedy" about / send-up of early 1950s era Hollywood:

Good-guy (and Confession-going / rosary-carrying and perhaps rosary-praying Catholic) MGM-like studio exec Eddie Mannix (played quite wonderfully by Josh Brolin) is being tempted to take a much simpler / better paying job for Lockheed, a growing nearby defense contractor.   Shown by Lockheed's recruiter / "headhunter" (played by Ian Blackman) a photograph of one of the ENORMOUS hydrogen bomb explosions conducted at the Bikini Atoll at the time, he's told that he could put aside "circuses" ("childish things" cf. 1 Cor 13:11) and concern himself with "building the future" -- presumably weapons of truly Awesome destruction.

And it was true, Eddie Mannix' current job was managing a "circus" full of odd/difficult people from actors to directors to gossip columnists to clergy.

The latter, the clergy, were actually portrayed quite well.  Sure they were portrayed as being somewhat "provincial" about faith, convinced of course of the fundamental superiority of their faith over others' BUT THEY WEREN'T "MEAN" ABOUT IT.  They were simply who they were, and shrugged, perhaps with some disappointment, that others were not necessarily like them ... America ;-) ... But their lives / presumably their faith(s) went on.  CERTAINLY MANNIX' DID and in the Confessional, which he did frequent quite often, he did come to ask some fairly profound questions about the choices before him.

Further, Mannix received honestly some very good counsel from his sometimes mildly irritated Confessor (played by Robert Pike Daniel).  Among his wise words to Mannix was the reminder that as tempting as "the easy path" could be, it is not necessarily "the best path" (cf. Mt 7:13-14).  The reason for the Confessor's advice is perhaps more Coen Brothers' inspired but nevertheless a very good one: The Confessor reminds both Mannix (and the Audience) that Mannix was a fundamentally GOOD GUY / a DECENT MAN (in all its dimensions) in a business _that needed_ GOOD / DECENT PEOPLE to both _set an example_ and _to help others_ out of the messes perhaps that they found themselves in.  And honestly, MY HAT OFF TO THE COEN BROTHERS HERE !  THIS WAS A _WONDERFUL_ AND _KIND_ INSIGHT.

And there were PLENTY OF OTHERS (insights), BIG and small, OFTEN VERY, VERY FUNNY ;-) throughout the film:

Among the funniest honestly was that regarding "THE MALIBU COMMUNISTS" ;-) ... a "cell" of quite comfortably "Red" Hollywood screen-writers who were ALSO convinced that THEY were "The Future."  They were led by a "very intellectual looking" Econ, History and/or PolySci professor (played by John Bluthal) who'd "drive down from Stanford" to advise them ;-).  They'd meet at an "out of the way" PALATIAL CLIFF-SIDE BEACH HOUSE that honestly could have served as a lair for a Bond and/or Marvel Comics villain ;-) where they'd study, well, Communism, and then support each other in airing their grievances.

What were their grievances?  Well, mostly that they weren't being given enough credit (and money ;-) for their work.  They'd also complain that they were being "manipulated" by "the owners of the means of production" ("Evil" bankers/financiers "back in New York").

And then, as a clique of "the smart kids in the class" they'd "plot" various insidious ways to put _random bits_ of "social awareness arousing material" into their screenplays that would SOMEHOW "undermine the Man."   Yes, sipping cognac, seated in comfortable, "strong lined" / minimalist Scandinavian designed couches / chairs that were becoming "the-rage" at the time, in the "huge-yet-homey" OCEAN-facing / glass-exterior-walled meeting room of this PALATIAL Frank Lloyd Wright styled beach-side MANSION where they met, they waxed WITH PRIDE about the "bits of Communism" that they were able to "sneak into their screenplays" and how ANGRY the red-faced, veins-popping-all-over-their-heads, McCarthyists back in Washington were as they struggled to "expose" them ;-).

As part of a new even more radical "direct action" campaign, these "Malibu Communists" decided to kidnap for ransom one of Mannix' biggest stars -- Baird Whitlock (played magnificently by George Clooney) an impressive-looking if not altogether bright Charlton Heston [IMDb]-like actor who was playing a Roman centurion in a Ben Hur [1959] / Quo Vadis [1951] like production at the time.  

Having received a ransom note from this self-styled / quite comfortable "Communist clique", signed ominously "The Future", Mannix asks, somewhat rhetorically, a happy-go-lucky "singing cowboy" actor named Hobie Doyle (played wonderfully by Alden Ehrenreich), "Who could have done such a thing?"

... Hobie was in his office for another problem: The Studio had wanted to change / deepen his "image" and hence wanted him to move from "b-westerns," where he had been _a natural_ to somehow star in a very elegant Rock Hudson [IMDb] / Tony Curtis [IMDb]-like New York set romantic comedy directed by a very prim-and-proper Laurence Olivier [IMDb]-like auteur named, well, Laurence Laurentz (played again magnificently by Ralph Fiennes ;-).  Readers please understand that Hobie's been born-and-raised "in the sticks" and has been SITTING ON A HORSE pretty much since birth ;-).  So it proves next to IMPOSSIBLE for him to, dressed-to-the-nines, "mosey-on-in" ELEGANTLY, "champagne glass in-hand," into a 1950s-era New York black-tie dinner party ;-) ...

Hobey answers Mannix (quite correctly) off the top of his head: "Look into the extras" (who like the nefarious screenwriters, were also poorly paid, and almost entirely anonymous ;-).

With that insight, Mannix begins to understand what kind of "problem" he's dealing with and the best way to "fix" it.  So he asks the studio's accountant on-hand for $100,000 "from petty cash" ;-), puts it in his brief case and then enlists another not particularly bright but generally reliable actor, here a singing, frolicking, tap-dancing looker, presently playing in a South Pacific [1958]-like "sailor picture" ;-) named Burt Gurney (played by Channing Tatum), to serve as "bagman" to bring the ransom money to the kidnappers.

In the meantime, Mannix has another problem to resolve quietly: His swimming Esther Williams [IMDb]-like actress DeeAnna Moran (played once again to the tee by an ever smiling Scarlett Johansson) finds herself knocked-up and becoming increasingly uncomfortable in her mermaid costume ;-), and yet marriage with the father would prove ... "complicated."  The solution that Mannix (and the Studio's "legal department") first come up with, and how this subplot resolves itself, is 1950s-appropriate and actually _quite kinder_ than today.

In the midst of all of this, snoop twin sisters / rival gossip columnists Thora and Thessaly Thacker (both played by Tilda Swinton) whose "success" seems to depend on digging-up / reporting-on the failures / failings of others.  Hence, like the "head-hunter" from Lockhead or the cognac sipping "oppressed" Communists of Malibu, they are _not_ portrayed well in this film.

Instead, the good-guys are Mannix and then actors / other folks working in the studio, trying to give their Audiences something inspirational (YES OFTEN HOKEY) to aspire to.

Hence, when Baird Whitlock comes back, somewhat "Patty Hearst-like" (after having been "kidnapped" for less than 24 hours ;-), and is actually already spouting some of the Communist rhetoric he heard (again AFTER LESS THAN 24 HOURS OF "CAPTIVITY" -- IN A MALIBU BEACH HOUSE :-), Mannix feels compelled to JUST SLAP HIM out of it, giving him a pep-talk: "Now just SHUT-UP and GO OUT THERE (on Stage) AND BE THE STAR THAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE" (Reminding HIM and VIEWERS/READERS HERE that simply being "a Star" necessarily involves acting as well ;-)

So Whitlock, goes out there on the studio stage for his big scene.  Remember, he's playing a Centurion, THE Centurion in the story of Jesus.  So there, with Jesus nailed to the Cross, he has a speech.  In the Bible he just says: "Truly this man was the Son of God" (Mk 15:39, Mt 27:54) or "Truly this was an innocent man" (Lk 23:47).

But this was 1950s Hollywood ;-).  SO the script EXPANDS the Centurion's speech....

The expansion is NOT ALTOGETHER BAD (theologically or otherwise) and the sincere if not altogether bright Charlton Heston-like Baird Whitlock (played in the film by the ever impressive/imposing George Clooney) hits the notes very, very well ... until ... <sigh>.

... his flubbing-of-the-climax will be, no doubt, "fixed" in a "second take." ;-)

HOW LUCKY WE ARE that we're ALL allowed "SECOND TAKES" in our own lives by our loved ones (and then, certainly / we hope by God).

And HONESTLY, how this world NEEDS GOOD / DECENT PEOPLE like the Eddie Mannix of this film: who seek advice, seek to not to offend, try to keep people on track, and SEARCH FOR THEM / HELP THEM when they fall. 

This is honestly _one heck of a film_, and certainly _a praise of common decency_.  So good job folks!  Very good job!


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Pride and Prejudice and Zombies [2016]

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

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


Pride and Prejudice and Zombies [2016] (directed and screenplay by Burr Steers based the "Quirk Classics" novel [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Jane Austen [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb] and Seth Grahame-Smith [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn]] [IMDb]) will certainly have its fans and it does have its moments.

For many, the story's premise alone -- which mixes the principal preoccupation of the Bennett sisters of Jane Austen's celebrated "regency era" novel Pride and Prejudice [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb] of "finding good husbands" for themselves with a _zombie plague_ -- will be compelling enough to search-out the zombies-added book / see the movie ;-).

Indeed, a good amount of the already quite imaginative / often famously funny "verbal sparring" that takes place between the characters in Jane Austen's original novel is re-imagined here to play-out in the context of _actual sparring_ and/or _combat_ ;-).  For Mr Bennett [wikip] [IMDb] (played in the film by Charles Dance), being the wise / good father that he was, had all five of his daughters trained in the martial arts so that they could defend themselves should they be attacked by zombies ;-).  There's even a particularly biting exchange between the quick witted, never-to-be-taken-for-granted Elizabeth Bennett [wikip] [IMDb] (played in this film by Lily James) and the ever seemingly standoffish Mr Darcy [wikip] [IMDb] (played in this film by Sam Riley) who seemed always to be more focused on his work -- here killing zombies ;-) -- than on people.  The said exchange, of course, takes place in the midst of each hacking-to-pieces a bunch of attacking zombies even as they make the point to each other that they ... well ... don't much like each other ;-).  And so it goes ...

My sadness with this story / film is that it didn't go far enough. The zombies in this story / film always remained outsiders.  I think that the story would have become far more interesting if a number of the major characters turned into zombies themselves.

The story comes close several times:  Elizabeth's ever sweet older sister Jane Bennett [wikip] [IMDb] (played in this film by Bella Heathcote) does have an altercation with zombies in the woods as she heads over to see her beau Mr. Bingley [wikip] [IMDb] (played in the film by Douglas Booth)  When she arrives, she's been wounded / feverish.  BUT ... the story's creators didn't have the courage to make her explicitly into a zombie.   Similarly Mr. Bingley, had an altercation which _could suggest_ that he too _could have been bitten by a zombie_ BUT ... again the story's creators didn't seem to have the courage to make it so.  Finally, there's even a hint that Mrs Bennett [wikip] [IMDb] (played by Sally Phillips) could be turning into a zombie (and those who know something of Jane Austen's original novel, would certainly find it amusing if she did ;-).  BUT again, the creators here didn't have the courage to do so. ;-/

Compare this with the zombie in Warm Bodies [2013] named (all he remembers is) R ... who falls in love with a still human girl named Julie (that film even features a "balcony scene" ;-), or Maggie [2015] the Arnold Schwarzenegger starring tear-jerky father-daughter zombie-Apocalypse drama in which Schwarzenegger's character's beloved "junior in high school aged" daughter, Maggie, was slowly, inexorably turning into a zombie, and there was nothing that anybody could do about it (one reviewer even called that film "The Fault in our Scars" ;-).

Talk about the statement about PRIDE and PREJUDICE that the current story could have made if the beautiful / kind Jane Bennett and perhaps even her really nice guy of a beau Mr. Bingley had become zombies ...

Sigh ... but at least we get to watch _a lot_ of zombies being splattered here ...


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Son of Saul (orig Saul Fia) [2015]

MPAA (R)  Chicago Tribune (4 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (3 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (A-)  Fr. Dennis (4+ Stars)

IMDb listing
CinEuropa.org listing
Port.hu listing*

FilmHu (R. Győr-Nádai) review*
Jewish Journal (N. Pfefferman) review
NY Jewish Week (G. Robinson ) review
CinEuropa.org (D. LaPorta) review

APUM.com (A. Sáez) review*
aVoir-aLire.fr (G. Lauradour) review*

CNS/USCCB () review
Chicago Tribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (C. Lemire) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review

Eye For Film (A. Wilkenson) review
Sight & Sound (N. James) review

Jewish Journal (N. Pfefferman) conversation w. film's makers / Auschwitz survivor


Son of Saul [2015] (orig. Saul Fia) [IMDb] [CEu] [Pt.hu]*(directed and cowritten written by László Nemes [IMDb] [CEu] [Pt.hu]* along with Clara Royer [IMDb] [CEu] [Pt.hu]*) is a Hungarian Holocaust-themed film that's been nominated for and certainly would deserve to win the award for the Best Foreign Language Picture at the Oscars this year.

Evoking the focused / closed even claustrophobic aesthetics of Soviet GULAG survivor Alexander Solzhenitzin's [wikip] A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich [GR] [WCat] [Amzn], the current story focuses on "a day in the life of" a single Hungarian Jewish prisoner, Saul Ausländer (played magnificently by Géza Röhrig [IMDb] [CEu] [Pt.hu]*) at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Camp in late-1944.

Saul is _both_ UTTERLY RANDOM _and_ "RANDOMLY SPECIAL": A big blood red "X" on the back of his black-and-grey prisoner's uniform, marks that he's been "passed over" [cf. Ex 12:7] at least temporarily from immediate death.  Instead along with a squad of other _randomly_ "chosen" Jewish prisoners, he's been given the Mephistophelian "job" of rapidly "processing" (removing) the bodies / belongings of the far-less "lucky" recently arrived / gassed Jewish prisoners, prisoners who were arriving, day-and-night, 24/7, by the train-load, in the last months of the Camp's operation ... OFTEN FROM HUNGARY. 

Now on this random day, "a day like any other day" ... in AUSCHWITZ ..., something happens that's somewhat remarkable.  As Saul and his fellow "X-marked" Sonderncommandos (special unit of prisoners) enter the chamber of recently gassed Jewish arrivals to remove the bodies and hose-down / scrub the walls / floors of the blood / excrement left by the said utterly desperate / terrified arrivals in the last moments of their lives, to their amazement they find among the bodies (who the Nazi overseers simply called "stücke" or "pieces") a boy, perhaps 12-13, still weakly gasping / breathing.

Briefly "lucky", the Nazis quickly dispatch the boy ANYWAY (by suffocating him) BUT order that he be "autopsied" AND Saul gets it in his head that this boy, 12-13 when he died, COULD HAVE BEEN HIS SON.  He runs around trying to grab at the id-papers left among the rapidly being processed / removed / disposed-of belongings of those who had died in the chamber with the boy trying to rapidly ascertain if they had arrived from Hungary.  AND he asks the doctor, also a Jewish prisoner, assigned to do the Nazi autopsy, if he could "hide" the body of the boy, if for a while, because he would like to bury it.

The doctor, perhaps even slightly sympathetic but (like the others) mostly in a depressive / zombie-like "zone", tells Saul that he'd have to replace the boy's body with another boy's body and that it'd almost certainly be "found-out" in some way.  After all, that 12-13 year-old boy had again been "slightly special" in some way ... he survived _at least A LITTLE BIT LONGER_ the effects of the Zyclon-B gas that KILLED the rest, while ANOTHER 12-13 year-old boy who simply died of the gas would NO LONGER be (ever so slightly) "special."

Nevertheless, Saul spends much of the remaining day IN THE MIDST of his "regular work" (helping to remove the bodies / belongings of OTHER recently arrived / gassed Jewish prisoners) to (1) find a Rabbi to perform the Kaddish (the Jewish burial rite) for the boy, THIS BOY and (2) if he got the Rabbi and took him to the boy, presumably to quickly find the body of _some other dead boy_ to replace _this one_ so that he could bury him.

In the midst of Saul's little self-initiated mission (in the midst of the HELL of Auschwitz...), amidst rumors that the Nazis were soon going to "cull" / kill a good number of the current Sonderncommandoes (to replace them with new ones), the current ones were planning a desperate uprising / escape.  Among them, about 70, they were able, in one way other other, to get a hold of seven (!) guns.  But who could shoot them?  Apparently SAUL was one of the better prospects.  But now he's "distracted" by his "little mission" to bury this little 12-13 year-old boy.

And in the midst of trying to get the only rabbi that he knows (one of the other Sonderncommandoes) to the body of the boy, while each is being ordered about, quite randomly but forcefully by ever-about SS guards, while others are trying to mount this desperate uprising / escape against said guards, THE AWFUL BANGING / FIRES / MACHINERY of the INDUSTRIAL OPERATION that AUSCHWITZ was RELENTLESSLY BANGING ON ... and ON ... and ON.

Much of this film -- thankfully only about 90 minutes long -- becomes about Saul (and the other prisoners) trying to make at least SOME KIND OF A STAND against the HORROR _BANGING_ all around them: Does one FIGHT?  Or at least try to "bury the kid"?  DO _EITHER_ MAKE ANY SENSE?

One gets the sense that MANY of these prisoners KNEW that their actions MATTERED but also FEARED (perhaps rightly) that their actions / "options" ALSO _DIDN'T MATTER AT ALL_.

They were both _random_ and at least temporarily "randomly special" and the TRAINS KEPT COMING and the OVENS KEPT BURNING and they had but seven guns and even LESS people who could use them.  DID IT MATTER / WHAT COULD POSSIBLY MATTER in the face of this HORROR?

One heck of a film.


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

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