Moonlight

Last Wednesday I spent the day at the Tower theater, a small art house theater in the ninth and ninth district of SLC, for another double-feature of films garnering Oscar buzz.  I began with Moonlight, an achingly beautiful coming of age film about a boy searching for his identity in modern-day Miami.  The film explores three pivotal moments in the life of Chiron, beginning when he is a shy and withdrawn child (Alex Hibbert) known as "Little."  His mother (the brilliant Naomie Harris) is a crack addict and he is bullied at school when he is befriended by Juan (Mahershala Ali) who tells him that he gets to decide what kind of life he will have.  Little spends more and more time with Juan, viewing him as a mentor, until he learns that Juan is a drug dealer who supplies his mother.  Next, we see the teenage Chiron (Ashton Sanders) who is the target of a particularly cruel bully at school and an increasingly abusive mother.  He becomes friends with Kevin (Jharrel Jerome) and they become intimate.  Kevin betrays Chiron when he is forced to beat him in a hazing incident.  Finally, the adult Chiron (Trevante Rhodes), now known as "Black," is a tough, hardened, and disillusioned drug-dealer.  In an incredibly poignant scene, he makes peace with his mother who is in rehab and reunites with Kevin (Andre Holland).  It is a difficult film to watch but it does end with hope for Chiron.  I was particularly struck by Hibbert's portrayal of Little Chiron, especially the scene where he boils water by himself to take a bath.  It was heartbreaking for me to watch Little Chiron because he reminded me so much of Sean when he was little.  I loved this beautiful film and I highly recommend it.  However, the subject matter might be difficult for some.

Lion

Another film that is getting a lot of Oscar buzz is Lion so I saw it after the screening of Jackie in a double-feature (I love spending the day at the Broadway).  This film tells the incredible true story of one boy's journey to find his home.  Five year old Saroo (Sunny Pawar) accompanies his older brother to look for work but falls asleep on a bench in a train station.  His brother leaves him there telling him that he will be back for him soon.  Saroo gets on a train hoping for a more comfortable place to sleep but the train begins moving with him trapped inside.  The train stops in Calcutta, thousands of miles from home, where Saroo wanders the streets for months before being adopted by an affluent Australian couple (David Wenham and Nicole Kidman).  Twenty years later Saroo (Dev Patel) embarks on a course in restaurant management and meets a group of Indian students who spark his meager childhood memories.  He becomes obsessed with finding his family by using Google Earth.  I love the scene where he finally finds his village and, as he uses the satellite to view the streets, there are flashbacks of him as a child running along those same streets.  I also love the very poignant scene between Patel and Kidman when Saroo tells his adopted mother that he has been searching for his birth mother (made even more affecting by the fact that Kidman is an adoptive mother herself).  I did find Rooney Mara's role as Saroo's girlfriend to be rather superfluous.  She breaks up with him when his search becomes obsessive and has a tearful moment with him when he finds his family but she doesn't do much else to advance the plot.  There is the predictable reunion scene between Saroo and his mother followed by actual footage of the real-life Saroo with both his mothers but I found these moments to be very well done and incredibly heart-warming.  I really enjoyed this film and I highly recommend it.

Note:  Throughout the entire film, I kept wondering why it was called Lion.  When the reason was explained in the epilogue, it brought spontaneous tears to my eyes.

Jackie

I love this time of year because this is the time when the Broadway screens all of the films generating Oscar buzz.  No one is getting more buzz than Natalie Portman for her performance in Jackie so this film was high on my list to see over winter break.  It follows Jackie Kennedy (Portman) in the days after her husband's assassination through flashbacks during an interview given to Theodore White (Billy Crudup) for Life magazine.  We see Jackie during the immediate aftermath of the shooting in Dallas, witnessing the oath of office administered to Lyndon Johnson (John Carroll Lynch) aboard Air Force One, telling the children about their father's death, making preparations for the funeral, and leaving the White House after her efforts to restore it.  Through it all, Jackie expresses her profound grief and demands that JFK's legacy be protected.  Portman gives the performance of her career and I literally could not take my eyes off her. She physically resembles Jackie Kennedy but it is the voice which sells the performance, particularly during the filming of the White House tour.  I was also struck by the scene between Jackie and a priest (John Hurt) where she discusses JFK's infidelities and the scene where she drunkenly relives her shining moments in the White House by going to each room in the clothing she wore for those occasions.  The score by Mica Levi is incredibly stirring but it is the use of the music from the Broadway musical Camelot that is especially dramatic.  I highly recommend this film for Portman's brilliant portrayal of the enigmatic former First Lady.

La La Land

Last night I was, once again, at the Broadway Theater downtown.  This time I saw a film that I have been looking forward to for months and it was as good as I was hoping it would be!  La La Land is an homage to the classic old Hollywood musical (director Damien Chazelle was inspired by Singin' in the Rain and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) but it is set in modern-day Los Angeles and it tells a very contemporary story.  Mia (Emma Stone) is an aspiring actress and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) is a jazz musician who dreams of owning his own club.  They meet and spend an idyllic summer together full of singing, dancing, and old-fashioned romance.  They both struggle to achieve their dreams but will they choose success or love?  After they make their choice, we get to see what their lives are like five years later but, in an incredibly clever sequence, we also get to see what their lives would have been like had they made a different choice.  Oh, how I loved this movie!  It is charming, delightful, and magical with wonderfully engaging performances by both Gosling and Stone, made even more impressive by the fact that neither of them are known for singing and dancing (Gosling learned to tap and play piano for the role).  The choreography is spectacular (it was choreographed by Mandy Moore, who is most noted for her work on So You Think You Can Dance), especially in "A Lovely Night" shot in the Hollywood Hills at sunset, and I loved the music so much I downloaded "City of Stars" before the final credits ended.  I cannot recommend this movie enough!  It put a smile on my face at I time when I have become a bit jaded about life.

Manchester by the Sea

I live equidistant from a large and state-of-the-art multiplex, where I go to see the latest blockbusters, and a quaint and charming art house theater downtown, where I go to see independent films and documentaries.  I spend an equal amount of time at both:  Thursday night I was at the multiplex and last night found me at the Broadway for a screening of Manchester by the Sea.  This film was easily my favorite at the Sundance Film Festival last year and I was quite eager to see it again now that it is in wide release.  Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) is a janitor working in Boston with a habit of getting written up at work and getting into fights at the local bar.  He is clearly troubled but there are flashbacks to happier times with his brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) and young nephew on their boat in Manchester.  When his brother dies, Lee learns that, unbeknownst to him, he has been made guardian to his nephew Patrick (Lucas Hedges), now sixteen years old.  Patrick does not want to leave his life (and multiple girlfriends) in Manchester to move to Boston but Lee doesn't want to move back to Manchester because he is haunted by the memory of a tragic accident for which he, his ex-wife Randi (Michelle Williams), and most of the town hold him responsible.  Lee attempts to make it work but finally realizes that he cannot live with his demons and makes other arrangements for Patrick, although the film ends beautifully with Lee and Patrick on the boat trying to forge a relationship.  This movie is brilliant!  It is getting quite a bit of Oscar buzz (it has been nominated for multiple Golden Globe awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Affleck, and Best Supporting Actress for Williams) and, should the Academy request my opinion, it definitely has my vote for Best Picture!  The flashbacks of the accident with Albinoni's Adagio for Strings, one of the most mournful pieces in the classical repertoire, underneath it is absolutely gut-wrenching as is the scene where Randi tells Lee that she still loves him.  Affleck gives the performance of his career and, upon a second viewing, I was even more impressed with his portrayal of a man so consumed by past grief that he cannot face the future.  I highly recommend this film, although some might find the excessive profanity to be offensive.

Note:  At Sundance it received one of the biggest distribution deals in festival history, second only to The Birth of a Nation.  Good stuff!

Denial

Sunday found me, for the second night in a row, at my favorite art house theater to see Denial.  This movie features a compelling story, based on actual events, about a libel case brought by an attention-seeking historian, who denies that the Holocaust happened, against a university professor claiming that her book, Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth and Memory, damaged his reputation.  This movie also features an incredible cast, including Rachel Weisz as Deborah Lipstadt, the professor forced to prove the Holocaust happened, Timothy Spall as David Irving, her accuser, Tom Wilkinson, as Richard Rampton, her barrister, and Andrew Scott (who will always and forever be Moriarty from the PBS series Sherlock in my mind), as Anthony Julius, her solicitor who is famous for representing Princess Diana in her divorce from Prince Charles.  Each give riveting performances, especially during a heated exchange while visiting Auschwitz.  Finally, this movie has a certain timely relevance in its portrayal of a man who clearly makes outrageous and provocative statements for attention and the argument about how much attention to give such a person. I do think that the action bogs down at times, rather like the sedate British legal system with all of its pomp and circumstance (Irving brought the suit in the UK because the burden of proof is on the accused).  There are no courtroom theatrics and the verdict is almost anticlimactic because everyone received the verdict before it was read in court.  However, the story, the performances, and the disturbing present-day resonance make this film worthy of a recommendation.

A Man Called Ove

I often decide to see a movie based on the previews (I hate reading reviews before I see a movie because I like to decide for myself whether or not I will like something) and this practice usually yields positive results.  There was the time when I reversed my ban on all Judd Apatow films to see Funny People because the previews looked hilarious but I try not to dwell on that unfortunate decision.  Luckily, my experience with A Man Called Ove was much better.  For the past few weeks I've been seeing previews of this film at my favorite art house theater and it looked incredibly charming so I decided to see it Saturday night. Ove (Rolf Lassgard) is a curmudgeonly old man who makes his rounds every morning enforcing his neighborhood association's strict rules.  Throughout the movie he tries various ways to commit suicide to be with his recently deceased wife, but his attempts fail, and we see flashbacks to his life for insight as to why he has become such a miserable and lonely man.  A new neighbor from Iran and her boisterous family, a stray cat, a young man who comes out as gay, and his former best friend who is about to be institutionalized give him a reason to come back to life in some hilarious and heartwarming situations.  I loved this movie so much!  Even though Ove is not a very nice person he is so endearing!  Don't let the fact that this movie is in Swedish with English subtitles stop you from seeing it because it is truly funny with many laugh out loud moments.  I especially loved it when the two best friends fall out over a disagreement over which car is better: Saab or Volvo!  It is a lovely feel-good movie and I highly recommend it!

The Birth of a Nation

Nate Parker's The Birth of a Nation was the talk of the Sundance Film Festival last year and it was one of the most coveted tickets.  I tried to get one, to no avail, but I knew that the Salt Lake Film Society would eventually screen it and, sure enough, it is now showing at the Broadway Theatre.  I had the chance to see it Sunday afternoon and all of the hype surrounding the film at Sundance (it garnered the biggest deal for worldwide distribution in festival history and won both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize) was definitely warranted!  The subject of this film is controversial and it is sometimes very difficult to watch but it is powerful, brilliant, and strangely beautiful.  I don't think I will be able to stop thinking about it for days.  It tells the true story of Nat Turner (Nate Parker), who as a child is taught to read but is only allowed to read the Bible.  He becomes a preacher to his fellow slaves on the plantation owned by Samuel Turner (Armie Hammer), who is near bankruptcy.  Many plantations are suffering economic difficulties and owners fear slave uprisings.  Nat is taken to these neighboring plantations to preach to the slaves about submitting to their masters in order to quell the rebellions (and make money for Samuel).  Nat begins to see, by incremental degrees, the evils of slavery, particularly the brutal beating of his wife and the rape of a slave by a guest on the plantation.  As he searches the Bible for justification for slavery, Nat finds more justification for rising up against the chains that bind him.  He eventually foments a dramatic rebellion against his master and those of neighboring plantations (in some incredibly greusome scenes) before being suppressed by the Virginia militia.  Nat is eventually captured and hanged but the film ends with a close-up of a face of a young slave watching the hanging and that same man as a soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War showing Turner's legacy.  Parker gives an absolutely riveting performance as Turner and the scenes where he preaches gave me goosebumps.  The beautiful widescreen shots of antebellum Virginia are juxtaposed with nightmarish close-up shots of brutality (some I had to look away from) very effectively and the stirring soundtrack by Henry Jackman adds to the tension.  I walked out of the theater in tears, as did many others in my screening, but I think this is a film that everyone should see.

The Dressmaker

The movie The Dressmaker had already been released in Australia when I was there.  In fact, the woman sitting next to me on the plane watched it during the flight from Auckland to San Francisco.  I kept sneaking peaks at her screen and was very intrigued.  When I saw that it was going to be released at my favorite art house theater I got really excited and I ended up seeing it Sunday afternoon.  I loved this movie so much!  Tilly Dunnage (Kate Winslet) returns to the Australian outback town of Dungatar 25 years after being sent away hoping to remember the events surrounding the death of a boy which prompted her exile and vowing revenge of those in the town who mistreated her.  Having worked in a salon in Paris, she is now an accomplished dressmaker and, while the townspeople initially shun her, they all request her services after a dress made for Gertrude (Sarah Snook), the town ugly duckling, is a great success.  There are some absolutely hilarious situations with the eccentric characters in the town, especially when Tilly's crazy mother (Judy Davis) refuses to take a bath, when the cross dressing police chief (Hugo Weaving) gives up a confidential police statement when tempted by a feather boa, and when Gertrude tries on her wedding dress (created by the rival seamstress in town) and literally escapes out the window and runs down the street to hire Tilly.  Eventually, Tilly learns the truth about what happened that fateful day and gets her revenge on the townspeople in a great scene.  Kate Winslet is brilliant in this role and the clothes she wears are to die for!  My favorite scene is when she literally brings a football game to a standstill by wearing a bright red couture gown.  Judy Davis had me laughing every time she opened her mouth in a hilarious performance.  I loved the Australian scenery and I found the flashback scenes, filmed in an almost sepia tone, to be incredibly effective at conveying a mood.  It has won just about every film award there is to win in Australia and I highly recommend it!

Note:  Did I mention that Liam Hemsworth plays Tilly's love interest?  He takes off his shirt several times!

Eight Days a Week

Because of Homecoming and parent teacher conferences, I had to wait until last night to see Ron Howard's wonderful documentary about the Beatles, Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years.  Those of you who know how much I love the Beatles will understand how hard that was for me!  I love the Beatles and I really loved this film.  It spans the years between 1962-1966 and showcases some of their earliest performances at the Cavern Club in Liverpool up to their final concert at Candlestick Park.  As I've mentioned, I am obsessed with the Beatles which means I've seen just about everything ever released about the fab four (I own The Beatles Anthology) and there were a lot of photos and footage included that I had never seen before.  I really enjoyed seeing early concerts in the UK and  concerts during their first world tour (especially in Australia) juxtaposed with the iconic Ed Sullivan Show performance and the epic concert in Shea Stadium.  The documentary does a great job chronicling the excitement  and mayhem of Beatlemania in the early years and then the growing discontent with touring when audiences seemed more interested in the spectacle rather than the music.  It includes contemporary interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr as well as archival interviews with John Lennon and George Harrison and it also includes interviews with people (famous and not so famous) who were their earliest fans.  Both of my favorite quotes come from Elvis Costello.  He points out how in tune they sound during their performances, which he considers to be remarkable considering the fact that they couldn't hear themselves with all of the screaming.  He also talks about his reaction to the album Rubber Soul (my favorite album in which the Beatles begin experimenting with sounds which couldn't be replicated on stage).  He didn't know if he liked it when he heard it for the first time and then he couldn't imagine his life without it a few weeks later!  As ever, the best part of any film about the Beatles is the music and I really appreciate the fact that Howard shows most songs in their entirety instead of just snippets.  It is almost like being at a Beatles concert and I highly recommend this film to all Beatles fans!

Note:  As I walked out of the theater a woman standing near the exit took my arm and whispered, "Wasn't that fun?"  Yes.  Yes it was!

The Lobster

No other film that I saw at Sundance this year generated more conversations than The Lobster.  Most people that I talked to didn't quite know what to make of it and that is probably how I would sum up my feelings about it as well.  I knew that I definitely wanted to see it again and I had the opportunity Thursday night.  Hmmm.  In a dystopian future everyone must have a mate and anyone who is single must report to a hotel to find one within 45 days or be turned into an animal of their choice. A recently divorced man, David (Colin Farrell), reports to the hotel and attempts to find a mate, preferably someone who shares his defining characteristic which is shortsightedness.  There are many rules and rituals involved in finding a mate (I especially enjoyed the fact that everyone is required to dress exactly alike). Periodically the guests at the hotel are sent into the woods to capture loners who are hiding.  They can receive an extra day to find a mate for every loner that they catch.  Eventually David decides to escape into the woods and join the loners where, ironically, there are even more rules to follow.  They are punished if they attempt to form attachments with other loners.  Of course, David finds his soulmate (Rachel Weisz), who shares his defining characteristic, but they are soon discovered and punished.  There are many funny moments in this film, such as the propaganda plays put on by the hotel staff advocating the benefits of being a couple and the electronic music played by the loners to encourage people to dance alone.  However, underneath all of the humor lies a scathing indictment of social norms.  It is weird and sometimes disturbing but it is entertaining and I recommend it with that in mind.

Note:  Even after seeing it a second time I'm still not sure about the ending...

Our Kind of Traitor

As a huge fan of John Le Carre (I've read all of his books), I have been looking forward to the movie adaptation of Our Kind of Traitor for weeks.  I saw it Friday afternoon and it is pretty good with only a few minor deviations from the book.  Perry Makepeace (Ewan McGregor) and his wife Gail (Naomie Harris) are on vacation in Marrakesh trying to salvage their marriage when they cross paths with Dima (Stellan Skarsgard) who purports to be a money launderer with the Russian mafia.  He has sensitive information about British nationals who have ties to the Russian mafia and asks Perry to give this information to MI6 because he fears for his life.  Perry agrees and eventually meets with an agent named Hector (Damian Lewis) in London.  Hector has bad blood with an MP who is one of the British nationals implicated by Dima's information.  Hoping to get revenge, Hector sends Perry and Gail on an unsanctioned mission to get proof from Dima who will only cooperate if his family is granted asylum in England.  The tension mounts as Perry and Gail race from Paris, to Switzerland, and the French Alps as they try to protect Dima and his family.  I thought it was incredibly suspenseful and much of the suspense comes from the fact that you don't really know who you can trust.  Both Skarsgard and Lewis (I like him in just about everything he does) give great performances as the larger than life mobster and the devious agent, respectively.  When I first saw the previews for this movie, I thought that Ewan McGregor was entirely miscast as an academic who is bullied into a situation for which he is ill-equipped (I always think of him as the cocky, devil-may-care Alex from Shallow Grave).  But he almost seems diminished in his portrayal of a man caught up in events beyond his control (I had to look up how tall he is because I thought he looked so small and vulnerable on screen).  His characterization is spot-on and I found him to be very compelling as Perry.  This movie felt very Hitchcockian (including a very interesting McGuffin) which is always a good thing in my opinion.   I love spy movies (cliches and all) and I recommend this movie to other fans of the genre.

Genius

Yesterday I saw the movie Genius and it seems as if I am the only person who liked it (aside from a few employees at the Broadway who gushed about it with me afterwards).  I guess you have to be an English teacher to enjoy this movie and, since I am one, I loved it.  It begins in 1929 when Max Perkins (Colin Firth), a long-time editor at Charles Scribner's Sons responsible for editing the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald (Guy Pearce) and Ernest Hemingway (Dominic West), receives a giant manuscript and begins reading what will become Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe (Jude Law).  Thus begins a tumultuous relationship between the taciturn Perkins and the effervescent Wolfe, to the detriment of their other relationships, namely with Perkins' wife (Laura Linney) and children and Wolfe's patron and lover (Nicole Kidman).  The narrative focuses on their attempt to edit what would become Of Time and the River from an unwieldy 1,000 page manuscript in crates to an eventual best-seller.  This movie is probably a hard sell to most people but I thoroughly enjoyed the scenes where they walked through the city editing the book line by line.  I always tell my students that word choice is so important!  One of my favorite scenes is when Perkins takes a red pencil to the manuscript of A Farewell to Arms!  Can you imagine!  Hemingway uses so few adjectives that it is remarkable that someone could find something to remove!  Yes, I know that I am a nerd.  No one else in the theater drew in a breath at that moment.  Firth, Law, and Kidman give marvelous performances, especially Kidman as Wolfe's over the top and jealous lover.  (For some reason Linney just doesn't do it for me and she seemed rather bland).  I loved this movie, but at the end of the day, it is a movie about editing so take my recommendation with that in mind; however, if you enjoy movies about complicated relationships between interesting people you might like it.

Note:  My only criticism of this movie is that these bastions of American literature are all played by British and Australian actors.

Dark Horse

Dark Horse is another little gem that I missed at Sundance this year.  Luckily the Broadway, my favorite art house theater in downtown SLC, screens most of the Sundance selections so I can eventually see all of the movies that I missed.  I saw Dark Horse last night and I loved this inspirational documentary of how a group of working-class people from a poor mining community in Wales bred a champion racehorse.  Jan Vokes, a barmaid at a local pub, decided that she wanted to breed a racehorse and enlisted the help of the pub's patrons to create a syndicate.  Every member contributed £10 a week and eventually 23 people owned a share in the horse.  Jan bought a mare that came in last in every race she ran and had a bad temperament then found a stallion with a stud fee of £3000.  She took a second job as a cleaner at a grocery store to pay the stud fee.  They raised the foal, which they named Dream Alliance, on an allotment in their village and then, when he was old enough, found the best trainer that they could afford.   Philip Hobbs agreed to train Dream Alliance because he was "street smart and scrappy" but ultimately didn't think he could win.  At Dream Alliance's first race, the syndicate only hoped that he would finish the race but were elated when he came in fourth place.  As he began winning, he started to garner national attention and became a symbol of hope for the entire village.  The members of the syndicate are absolutely endearing and often reduced me to tears in their interviews.  My favorite scene in the documentary is when the whole syndicate, including members with tattoos, piercings, missing teeth, and sandwiches wrapped in tin foil, went to the racetrack to see Dream Alliance in his first race and, wearing badges signifying that they were owners of a horse, mingled with the aristocracy.  This is a stand-up-and-cheer movie about achieving a goal that everyone says can't be accomplished and I highly recommend it.

Note:  Dark Horse won the 2016 Documentary Audience Award at Sundance.  Good stuff!

Maggie's Plan

Another favorite from the Sundance Film Festival that I wanted to see again is Maggie's Plan.  It is a typical offbeat Greta Gerwig comedy (I was talking about this film with someone I met in line at another screening at Sundance and he called it very "Gerwig-y") and it is hilarious.  Maggie (Gerwig) is in her mid-thirties and wants to have a baby on her own because she is tired of waiting for the right relationship to happen so she comes up with an elaborate plan.  She picks a friend from college (a hilarious Travis Fimmel) as a sperm donor and even plans the exact date to inseminate herself.  Then she meets John (Ethan Hawke), an angst-ridden anthropology professor who is trying to write a novel and is trapped in a combative marriage to Georgette (Julianne Moore), another eccentric anthropologist, and he disrupts her plan.  Three years later, after marrying John and having a baby, she realizes that she doesn't love him any more and comes up with yet another elaborate plan to reunite him with Georgette.  Of course, things go awry, with a funny twist at the end, and Maggie learns that you can't plan love.  Gerwig has brilliant comedic timing but she also plays Maggie with a sensitivity that makes us truly care about and empathize with her.  Hawke is getting typecast as a clueless and absentee father lately (see here and here) but he is just so great at it and his portrayal of John is highly amusing, especially when he tries to find a place to spend the night.  Moore is absolutely hilarious as Georgette with her Danish accent, tight bun, and ethnic clothing.  I laughed out loud just about every time she was on the screen.  Add Maya Rudolph and Bill Hader as Maggie's best friends and you have a comedy filled with zany characters that is perfect for a night out with friends.

Weiner

I tend to favor narrative films over documentaries but this year at the Sundance Film Festival I saw quite a few documentaries.  Without question, the best one was Weiner.  It was so compelling that I decided to see it again Thursday night and I found it to be just as entertaining, and disturbing, as I did upon the first viewing.  In 2013 disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner made a bid for the Democratic nomination in the New York mayoral race.  He allowed filmmakers Josh Kriegman, a former staffer, and Elyse Steinberg unprecedented access to his campaign which, in the beginning, was incredibly successful.  He was leading in the polls and drawing huge crowds to his events when another sexting scandal, similar to the one which forced his resignation from Congress, erupted.  The cameras kept rolling as the campaign imploded and it became clear to everyone, except Weiner himself, that the nomination was lost.  It is fascinating to watch the spin where every move is carefully choregraphed, especially when Weiner practices different inflections for the line, "...and for that I am profoundly sorry" and, when asked for a comment by his communications officer, he struggles to remember what he said in another interview.  There are also some disturbing elements (where you simply can't look away), particularly with regard to Weiner's wife Huma Abedin, one of Hillary Clinton's top aides.  When the scandal first breaks there is a scene where Huma is visibly shaken and then Weiner asks the cameras to leave the room.  In the next scene she is standing at his side and speaking out in support of his campaign at a press conference.  It made me wonder what went on behind those closed doors.  In another scene, he is bullying her into accompanying him on election day and in the next scene he and his staff members are coming up with reasons why she is not with him.  One of the most interesting scenes is when Weiner watches a replay of his shouting match with political pundit Lawrence O'Donnell over and over while laughing hysterically and Huma leaves the room in tears.  It is a fascinating anatomy of a political scandal involving a a charismatic but deeply flawed individual and, I hate to admit it, but I certainly enjoyed watching it play out on the big screen.

Note:  Weiner won the 2016 Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.  Good stuff.

Sing Street

For some reason the film Sing Street was never on my radar during Sundance this year but several of my friends have recently recommended it to me so I went to see it last night.  I absolutely loved it (and I can't believe that I didn't try to get a ticket at Sundance).  It is 1985 in Dublin and Conor Lalor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) has troubles at home because his parents are fighting and troubles at his new school because of a bully and a ruthless headmaster.  When he meets Raphina (Lucy Boynton), an aspiring model, he tries to impress her by asking her to be in a music video for his (non-existent) band.  When she accepts, he gathers together a group of misfits, forms a band, begins writing songs for her, and gets a gig playing at his school, thus changing his life forever.  It is definitely your basic feel-good movie about overcoming the odds but it is just so much fun!  The boys in the band are so endearing and I absolutely loved all of their video shoots, especially their costumes.  Conor takes inspiration for his personal style from John Taylor of Duran Duran, then Robert Smith of The Cure (my favorite look), and finally Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet and it is hilarious when he shows up at school all decked out after watching a particular music video (remember when MTV actually showed music videos?).  I laughed out loud when the members of band walked up to school in a line in slow-motion (a la Reservoir Dogs).  In fact, I laughed out loud many times.  I loved all of the 80s music and I also really loved the original music played by the band, especially "To Find You" and "Drive It Like You Stole It."  I loved this film (I may need to see it again) and I highly recommend it, especially to my Gen-Xers out there!

Note:  When I was in high school it seemed like everyone my parents' age was really nostalgic for music from the 60s.  I wondered, then, if my generation would be nostalgic for 80s music.  The answer, at least for me, is yes! 

I Saw the Light

I have definitely heard my fair share of country music lately!  While I am not usually a fan of the genre, I have been looking forward to I Saw the Light, a new biopic about country music legend Hank Williams, because I always enjoy stories about interesting people and I was hoping that it would be as entertaining as Walk the Line, a biopic about another country music icon, Johnny Cash, which I really enjoyed.  Hank Williams lived a life that was every bit as compelling as Johnny Cash did but, unfortunately, this movie certainly does not live up to Walk the Line.  I saw the film last night and it chronicles Williams' (Tom Hiddleston) first marriage to Audrey Sheppard (Elizabeth Olsen), his early days as a radio performer, his first recording contract in Nashville, his heyday on the Grand Ole Opry, his descent into alcohol and drug abuse, his second marriage to Billie Jean Jones (Maddie Hasson), and his untimely death at the age of 29.  In my opinion, the narrative lacks cohesion.  Events seem very random and there were many times when I wondered what was going on.  This is particularly true when Williams is in a sanatorium trying to get sober.  Out of nowhere we see Williams writhing on a bed and then, in the next scene, we see him signing himself out as an attendant tells him he looks better than when he came in and Williams vows that he won't be back.  We see many early scenes of Williams behaving badly, before becoming famous, but we never really know the cause of his ennui.  The script briefly touches on his mother's possessiveness, his absent father, and his not-even-remotely-talented and self-serving wife's attempts to use him to further her own career, but these themes are abandoned quickly and I wish that they had been explored with more depth.  What redeems this film, somewhat, is Hiddleston's amazing portrayal of Williams.  Like Joaquin Phoenix in Walk the Line, Hiddleston physically inhabits the role while performing all of Williams' songs himself and, while he doesn't sound exactly like him, he does a convincing job of capturing all of his idiosyncrasies.  I will admit that there were times when I lost interest in what was happening on screen but my attention never wavered when Hiddleston was performing, especially when he sings "Lovesick Blues" during his first appearance at the Grand Ole Opry.  I had goosebumps!  Such a brilliant performance deserves a better script!  I would recommend that you give it a miss.

Eye in the Sky

It has been quite a while since I've been to the Broadway, my favorite art house theater, so last night I decided to see Eye in the Sky, a film I have been anticipating since it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last year. To say that it is intense would be an understatement.  Usually when I say that I was on the edge of my seat it is a metaphor but, during this film, I literally moved to the edge of my seat, balled my hands into fists, and held my breath during a particularly suspenseful scene.  I  may have even yelled, "Hurry!" at the top of my lungs!  Luckily, everyone else in the audience was in a similar state of agitation!  Katharine Powell (the always brilliant Helen Mirren), a general in the British army, has been tracking a British national involved in a terrorist cell for six years.  She receives intelligence about her location, along with two other high profile terrorists including an American, in a safe house in Nairobi and plans a joint operation to arrest her and the other terrorists with the USAF using drones for surveillance.  When the subjects move to a Somali occupied area in Nairobi, the rules of engagement change from a pick up order to a kill order prompting much debate among COBRA, a British intelligence agency comprised of military and political leaders (most notably, Alan Rickman in one of his final roles, and Jeremy Northam, one of my favorite actors).  Using an agent on the ground (with some really cool, yet scary, technology), the team discovers that the terrorists are planning two imminent suicide bombing missions.  This convinces COBRA to authorize dropping the Hellfire missiles on the terrorists.  However, the pilots of the drone discover a little girl who will most certainly be killed as collateral damage prompting more debate.  The film ends during the aftermath of their decision leaving the viewer to  wonder if they made the right one.  This film is highly charged, to say the least, as the various participants try to justify losing one life versus losing many lives as a result of a suicide bomb and multiple perspectives are explored so you are not sure what to think by the time they take action.  The tension builds and builds with incredibly affecting performances, especially Mirren because her character is motivated by personal reasons and she chafes at the inability of the committee to make a decision.  It is a film that will leave you thinking long after you leave the theater and I highly recommend it.

The Lady in the Van

Last night I went to see the charming film The Lady in the Van at the Broadway.  It tells the (mostly) true story of how a homeless woman named Mary Shepherd (Maggie Smith) came to park her van in the driveway of playwright Alan Bennett (Alex Jennings) for fifteen years and the development of their unlikely friendship.  It is a slow moving film filled with lots of dialogue but, as I said, I found it to be charming, mostly on the strength of Maggie Smith's wonderful performance.  She excels at playing irascible old women!  My favorite device is depicting Alan Bennett as two separate characters: the one who lives life and the one who writes about it.  Alan Bennett, the participant, slowly discovers that Miss Shepherd has had a fascinating life as a world-renowned musician, a nun, and an ambulance driver during the war.  He also discovers the events which drove her to her lowly condition.  Alan Bennett, the writer, makes critical comments about the passivity which has allowed Miss Shepherd to take up residence while simultaneously wishing that he could write about her.  When the two characters, both played by Alex Jennings, argue with each other it is quite amusing.  To be sure, this is a comedy with lots of funny contributions from the ensemble cast playing Bennett's eccentric neighbors and, of course, Maggie Smith doing what she does best, but there is an incredibly poignant moment near the end of the film which had me in tears.  Ultimately, Miss Shepherd helps Bennett figure out who he really is.  The ending is a bit hokey (Bennett, the participant, frequently points out the events which didn't happen to Bennett, the writer) but, overall, I really enjoyed the film.  Fans of Maggie Smith are sure to enjoy it, as well.