richard-1967

This film has almost everything. A Holocaust story. Identities both hidden and transformed. A question of betrayal. A great signature song for the lead. Uniformly excellent acting.

And one of the very best endings I've ever seen on film.

This film about the true experience of Mauritanian Gitmo prisoner Mohamedou Ould Slahi carries off a painful story that reminds us that Guantanamo is still there, still with prisoners.

Excellently acted by the principals, most especially a wonderful Tahar Rahim, this film is timely - coming years after many of us have almost forgotten about Gitmo. The scenes in the prison are exceptionally well realized.

One flaw is that Shailene Woodley's character, the junior lawyer, is poorly drawn, is present before dropping from sight until the end, and doesn't give Shailene much of a chance to do anything with the role.

Now that I've seen the whole series, I'm revising my review, and upping my rating to a 10. Make no mistake, though. You are in for a very heavy and unrelenting experience from beginning to end. It's well worth it!

David Simon (The Wire, Treme) has never filmed a novel before. But he and his longtime partner Ed Burns (The Wire, Show Me a Hero) have chosen exceptionally well: Philip Roth's prescient novel, set in the 1940s but in some ways feeling a bit like today.

It's top HBO/Simon/Burns stuff. Great production values. A middle-class New Jersey neighborhood that looks just right. Songs that correspond closely to the time. Clothing and cars also.

But again, this is not light TV fare. There's also the trademark Simon-Burns long story arc. So exercise patience as you watch the increasing fear mounting across 1940's Newark and the whole country. Fortunately, we get to watch the wonderful cast: Winona Ryder, Zoe Kazan, John Tuturro and a terrific Morgan Spencer, as they grapple with their lives in crisis. Hold on to your seats.

31-year-old director Trey Edward Shults didn't decide to go modest with his third feature. Waves is a big, broad movie, about many relationships, many deep feelings, many social issues. It doesn't always succeed, but boy, it was worth the effort!

Shults focuses on an upscale African-American family in an affluent suburb in Florida. The son's a HS wrestling star, the daughter is quiet and sweet, the dad's successful but tough on his kids because he knows the cost of success particularly for a black family, and the mom, who's in medicine, is an empathic parent. But this seemingly idyllic set-up is shattered in the first minute by the jumping camera and raucous music. The tension is palpable. Something is going to happen throughout this film, but we don't quite know what. (Fear of the unknown was a hallmark of Shults's other notable film, It Comes at Night.)

So this movie is not for the faint-hearted, but it's got a lot to say. About fathers and sons, parents and children, young love, sharing (or not sharing) secrets, hate, anger, and forgiveness, and the effects that great pain - physical and psychic - have on the soul. Needless to say, with this ambitious an agenda, some things work better than others. Some silly plot errors bugged me, but maybe it just doesn't matter much. Another issue that's been raised: a white director working with a black-centric story; didn't bother me, but it's been talked about. Still, the film is never boring, never static, and never mails it in. Even if 75% of the plot and message works, that was good enough for me. It is NOT easy to watch, but it has a lot to say.

Fasten your seatbelts!

In his second directorial effort, Edward Norton has cast himself as the "motherless" Lionel, a smart-as-a-whip film-noir "gumshoe" with a photographic memory who suffers from Tourette's. No surprise: He's excellent in a difficult role, having carefully studied the ticks and other idiosyncrasies Tourette's causes. Indeed, almost the whole cast is terrific, filled with great character actors -- Willem Dafoe, Michael K. Williams, Robert Wisdom, Cherry Jones, Bobby Cannavale, Leslie Mann. Bruce Willis has a great role as Lionel's friend and mentor. And with many street scenes, Brooklyn ably stars as itself.

Norton spent years working on this film, keeping intact his own character and the gang of detectives led by Willis. But Norton changed almost everything else, setting the film in the late '50s, and focusing it on a character based on NYC power broker extraordinary Robert Moses. It's perfect film noir fodder: power and corruption, progress vs. community, race and a bit of sex, all with a jazz score in the background.

The characters are great, and for the most part, the plot works well. The tight first hour devolves into a more muddled and "fat" second half that could have been cut by 10-15 minutes. And Alec Baldwin as the "bad guy" might have worked better if I hadn't had his SNL Trump riffs in my head. But good character development and a great film-noir "look" makes this film worth seeing.

It would be easy to criticize this first full-feature directorial effort. Not everything in this movie succeeds by a long-shot. The criticism that it's too slow and boring certainly applies to the first 15-20 minutes. It's rare when an 84-minute film should be cut by at least 5-7.

But the criticism that this is a "gay movie" is TOTALLY off-base. What makes this film worth watching is the enigmatic, non-linear story about love, partnership, loneliness, and the passage of time. The fact that the two principals are gay is actually irrelevant to who they are as people, and what "Ocho," the main character, is looking for.

Whether you leave the theater thinking wondering what is the true story (I must say no more), or thinking that it's all just a metaphor, the film is ultimately thought-provoking. After seeing a preview, my wife and I discussed it all through lunch and well beyond.

In this great first movie from this young Danish director, a police officer who faces trial the next day about his malfeasance on the force confronts a kidnapping in his temporary desk duty as a 911 (1-2-2 in Danish) dispatcher. With the camera confined to the emergency call center, with lengthy focuses on the face of our protagonist, this film creates a claustrophobic tension of extraordinary emotion. He's a cop, and he wants to help, but what can he do sitting in a call center? He shows us, but has he got it right, or has he screwed it all up again?

As much as this plot moves along in suspenseful ways, the story is about Asgar, the cop who has inserted himself, for better or worse, into the proceedings happening out there beyond his reach in the highways and towns outside Copenhagen. Plot, acting, editing, music, cinematography were all excellent in this film. Was the plot twist at the end a little two clear too early? Perhaps. But you too will be on the edge of your seat for the whole show.

We saw this surprising and completely successful film at a recent festival. El último traje follows the journey of Holocaust survivor Abraham Bursztein as he drags himself and his bad leg from Argentina to Poland against the strong wishes of his family. Despite his age (late 80's), general grumpiness, and inexperience as a traveler, Abraham finds help from a number of remarkably well-realized characters along the way. The excellent (and quite handsome) actor Miguel Ángel Solá put on 20 years of makeup to look every bit his character's age, and manages to infuse Abraham with human qualities that make him appealing almost despite himself. The one drawback of the film is an unnecessary and distracting King Lear plot contrivance. But overall, this solitary journey to the past - paralleling and contrasting with another recent, similar solitary journey in the excellent film "Remember' - is first-rate. The end had my wife and me bawling. Enjoy it.

When Bobby Selkin, an upper-middle-class, Jewish, white guy, takes on coaching a bunch of mostly black high school students in the south in - of all sports - lacrosse, it's not just about sports but about the lives and future of the kids. The success of the team, filled with players who two years earlier could not have identified a lacrosse stick, is a key part of the story, but not nearly the whole story.

Yes, we have seen several similar movies before, both documentaries (e.g., Hoop Dreams) and fictional features (e.g., Remember the Titans). But rarely have we seen a coach so committed to the success of his students, both on and off the fiel , and students so committed to a coach. Selkin is so dedicated to his students that they hang out at his house, study with him, and in a couple of instances live with him. His complete commitment to his kids - and theirs to him - is genuine, moving, and for some of his players truly transformative. When the words "I love you" are spoken, the speakers really mean it.

This is a feel-good movie with little real internal drama. Unfortunately, there was no mention about Selkin's "other life," which includes his job and his relationship to his own children. We saw it at a film festival where Selkin, his wife (who's also featured) and one of his former students spoke. I won't give away what they said, but suffice it to say that "feel good" can be good enough, particularly in these times, if the story is told honestly.

We saw this documentary at a recent film festival. It's the story of a young woman named Nadia Murad, who became the symbol of the enslaved Yazidi people of northwestern Iraq. Nadia was able to escape her enslavement but then completely dedicated her life to publicize and try to end the catastrophe that had befallen the Yazidi people.

The film is a "9" but Nadia is definitely a "10+). Anyone who sees this film will be impressed and moved by her perseverance in the face of tragedy, her strength and her courage. Also compelling are those who assist her in her efforts.

The film does not entirely succeed in putting that Yazidi tragedy in context, and does little to explain the unusual history and religious background of the Yazidi people. But this movie is about Nadia and those who help her. And to this extent, by choosing an exemplary person to focus on, the filmmakers have made a fine film very much worth seeing.

I liked this film a lot, though I can see how others would find it over-melodramatic, and a few plot points contrived. Let's get the negatives out of the way: Two sisters, one so grumpy, one so sweet? Too much object throwing? A predictable just-in-the-nick-of-time moment? Perhaps. But the heart of the story, a largely true one verified by narrative accounts, is a compelling story not just about the mysteries of the past (yes, the Holocaust, an endlessly rich subject if you're not sick of it as some are), but a relationship between sisters, the ambition of the younger and the angst of the older.

The ambitious sister wants to be a classical composer, which in 1977, when the film is set, is no easy task for a woman. The resulting exceptional score - by three composers including the "real-life" sister - truly carries this film well beyond the commonplace.

Flawed but absolutely worth seeing.

This is the best film I've seen so far this year. Even though the story is widely known - complete with a recent first-rate documentary - this film delivers a tale of understated, quiet, but powerful love. In the process, the Lovings' eventual Supreme Court triumph seems almost incidental. Yet when Mrs. Loving looks out her front porch after hearing the final decision, you can almost touch her sense of pride in knowing that she, her husband, and her kids are a family in the eyes of the law for the first time.

No Oliver Stone drum-banging here. By resisting the temptation to overdramatize the screenplay and allowing his two lead performers (both excellent) to have moments of quiet and simplicity, director Jeff Nichols has increased, not lessened, the story's power. For here was a husband and wife in love who just wanted to be left alone to live their lives. This bricklayer and this homemaker, one the provider, one the keeper of the home fires, are simple people but exceptionally genuine. Nothing in this movie is gussied up for the audience. And that makes this film all the more compelling.

Assisted by lush cinematography and songs that are less familiar (and thus more interesting) than most films set in this period, and aided by being filmed largely in the town where it all happened, Loving has a genuineness and unadorned truth that is rare to find in films today. I loved it.

My wife and I just saw the first two episodes at the SF Jewish Film Festival. Although I didn't see the Israeli "Prisoners of War" before it was adopted in the US as Homeland, I loved Homeland. But the first two episodes of Kfulim, or False Flag, were even better than Homeland, which was great. The subtitles (the show is in Hebrew) don't detract at all from the intense suspense.

This totally engrossing thriller - all without any violence so far - is compelling even in a theater, and I'll watch compulsively streaming or on TV. After two episodes, all we have is mysteries, so the eight-episode season holds great promise.

No wonder they say the Israeli originals are better!

This is a coming-of-age movie about 16-year-old Mark, but it's much different than the usual fare. First, although shot in Toronto with an American director, about 75% of the film is in Russian with sub-titles. Second and more important, the other main character, Natasha, is s 14-year-old recent émigré from Ukraine who has seen way too many "worldly" things at way too young an age.

The unlikely friendship/romance between Mark and Natasha begins when they're thrown together when her mother marries his uncle. Natasha never smiles, says a character. But Mark is assigned by his mother to show her around their suburban town, which he dutifully does. And gradually, she learns to trust him.

There is a sweetness and tenderness that develops between Mark and Natasha, but the causes of her underlying sadness lurk nearby. It would give away too much to provide more detail. So suffice it to say that the movie works well for the most part, portraying two teenagers who both speak Russian but otherwise have very different backgrounds and life experiences, yet come together in a natural and believable way.

The use of Russian with English subtitles is so well integrated into the story that I barely noticed. It looks and feels like an English-speaking film, just one in which the principals speak mostly Rusian.

This film can be - and has been - criticized for being too much of a puff piece, too much "old news," and not sufficiently insightful into the meaning of Norman Lear's life. But for those who know him and his work - both artistic and political - well enough but not intimately, this is a great overview of Lear and his accomplishments.

Still fully intact both physically and mentally at 93, Lear has much to offer through his own interviews, and ANY movie that simply catalogs his career would be worth seeing. From early Martin-Lewis writer through All in the Family and Maude through his Good Times misstep to his "retirement" from TV and creation of People for the American Way, Lear's career was unparalleled. As Jon Stewart and others put it in the film, there was TV Before Norman and After Norman.

But this documentary does more. The skill of the filmmakers is obvious, and they leave their imprint - and Lear's famous and unusual hat - throughout this enjoyable film. While it's respectful and loving, it's not worshipful. There's focus on his absence as a father and husband, his difficult relationship with his own father, and the Good Times cast's serious concerns about racial stereotyping. The directors chose excellent clips from the most important shows, including the Maude abortion episodes and some truly extraordinary acting from Carol O'Connor as Archie Bunker. One Archie scene, Archie talking to "Meathead" about his own father, is particularly poignant, as we watch Lear watching Archie.

A worthwhile hour and a half with an American icon, still going strong.

There have been a lot of movies about the Holocaust in the last couple of years, some very good. But none have had the suspenseful screenplay of Remember. This movie is one of the best efforts from director Atom Egoyan since he showed such promise with The Sweet Hereafter in the late 1990s. Perhaps the secret here was his using someone else's screenplay rather than his own.

Excellently acted (when is Christopher Plummer not excellent?), staged, and filmed, and edited down to a taut 95 minutes, this film succeeds not "merely" as a Holocaust reminder but as a self-contained thriller: an engrossing and ultimately thoroughly satisfying piece of cinema.

The best thing Maggie Smith did for The Lady in the Van was not giving a brilliant acting performance, but agreeing to reprise her stage role as The Lady. Without that, this movie would not have been made.

This is a near-perfect "small" movie, but unlike many such films, this one is neither slow nor boring. The film begins with the sounds of a terrible car crash, and within ten minutes, we have several mysteries to chew on: Who is "the lady" really; why can't she tolerate listening to music; what happened in that car crash? These mysteries keep us engaged while playwright Alan Bennett tells us a story that at its core is more about the relationship between Bennett - or rather Bennett's two selves, the one who writes and the one who lives life - and the lady living in his driveway.

In choosing to portray himself as two characters – also a feature of his play – Bennett has chosen a device that could have been a disaster but in the rendering comes off brilliantly, especially near the end of this highly engaging film. I don't want to give anything away about that, so just watch it for yourself and enjoy.

I had already marked this movie down as a "no" when the cinema preview club we attend showed it this morning. And I'm very glad they did.

Few movies about Alzheimer's show things almost entirely from the perspective of the victim, and even fewer try to grapple with her internal thoughts and feelings as the disease progresses. Still Alice does just that.

Taking an exceptionally verbal and smart person and giving her early onset Alzheimer's and watching how she deals with it and how she feels about it made this an exceptional film. So does the always-excellent Julianne Moore, who outdoes herself in an Oscar-worthy performance.

The movie's full of highlights: the Skypeing between mom and daughter Kristin Stewart, the relatively healthy Julianne leaving a video for her much sicker self to discover; the question only one person asks: "How does it make you feel?" And extra credit for the double use of Lyle Lovett's "If I Had a Boat."

We saw this film today at our movie preview club. Wow! Best film I've seen so far this year (although the big guns have yet to come out). The only problem with it is I can't for the life of me remember the film's name in order to tell my friends to go see it.

It's not easy writing and directing an original movie that has a new slant on a familiar topic - a tragic mass murder at a school in which the main character's son dies. To do it poignantly and lovingly, and add in some really terrific music, is to accomplish a great deal indeed.

There's a lot to like here. Billy Crudup, in virtually every scene, shows his depth as an actor as he tries to come to terms with his cataclysmic loss. The music that Crudup's character discovers is well beyond good, and it's used effectively to move the story along and just plain listen to. The band members who help play the music add exuberance, the anxiety of youth, and humor. One great moment: When the band plays the children's song "The Wheels on the Bus."

Macy proves to be an excellent story-teller. Not much back story about any character, but none is needed, because this film takes place in an ever-evolving present. And - without saying a word about what it is - Macy does the most difficult thing to do in a film: he nails the ending. I'm ready to go see it again.

This is one of the two or three best documentaries I've ever seen. We were so lucky to see an advance screening at our movie preview club.

It's hard to believe that a documentary about particle physics and the Hadron collider could be dramatic, suspenseful, even thrilling. It's just as hard to make the subject matter - the creation and operation of a huge facility in Switzerland for the purpose of colliding sub-atomic particles at great speed to search for clues about the universe - both intelligible and accessible. Yet this film has brilliantly done both.

Accessibility is achieved partly through clear explanations from particle physicist (and co-producer) David Kaplan and other theoretical physicists, and several experimental physicists who work at the collider. Even more compelling are the clear, beautiful, and simple-to-understand graphics that accompany these explanations. Indeed, the great graphics begin right from the opening credits. All this is enhanced by the editing of multi-Oscar-winner Walter Murch.

The drama comes from the efforts of the experimentalists to prove the theorists' ideas true - especially the existence of the "Higgs boson," the crucial particle of modern physics. The drama is enhanced by presenting a pleasant cast of surprisingly normal, friendly (and, of course, super-smart) physicists who have strong rooting interests in the outcome the way some of us might root for a sports team - but with so much more at stake. There's even tension (albeit friendly) between the "multi-universe" and "dual symmetry" camps.

Watch this film and you'll understand these phrases and so much more. I learned more than I ever thought I could. And in the most pleasant, enthusiastic, accessible way possible.

12 Years a Slave is the third and most important of three major films this year about the history of the African American experience. First came 42, a warm, smooth, and compelling story of the great Jackie Robinson's integration of baseball. Next came The Butler, a history of two sides of post-WW2 the civil rights movement wrapped up in about two hours. I also found this movie quite good.

But nothing can compare to the stark, clear-eyed, difficult-to-watch but extremely rewarding film that Steve McQueen has put before us in 12 Years a Slave. And it took 3 Brits - McQueen, Michael Fassbender and the extraordinary Chiwetel Ejiofer - to do it.

12 Years a Slave is not fun to watch. Unlike other movies, even great ones like Schindler's List, it pulls no punches along the way. All the violence done to slaves is here, in graphic form. It's not on screen for just an instant, but lingers as we are forced to watch. It is so well-done that it feels like the truth.

Ejiofer ("Chewy," my wife and I call him) has been one of my favorite actors since Dirty Pretty Things a decade ago. But other than a great star turn as drag queen Lola in Kinky Boots, he hadn't gotten the roles he deserves, playing cops on TV, sidekicks, and the like. No more.

Ejiofer is in virtually every scene. Closeups of his face seem to last minutes at a time. Solomon is a role destined for Oscar consideration, but "Chewy" goes as deep in his performance as McQueen has in his realization.

Great performances, and a great movie. Just make sure you're ready before you see it.

Two friends who know how to make original films. An original story about a young ex-FBI agent doing private spying on an eco-terrorist group and how her attitudes and life change. A beautiful, elegant lead actor, Alexander Skarsgard. The wonderful Ellen Page, completely convincing as a committed terrorist/gamin.

And yet the film has earned less than $2 million since its May 2013 release. A lot of people who would love this movie are missing out.

Brit Marland is an actor of considerable talent, and Zal Batmanglij an able young director of indie films. Together, they've created and co-wrote this tight, suspenseful thriller that follows Marland's character from DC's posh Georgetown district to the wilds of ... well, we really never know. There, on behalf of her private spy firm boss, Patricia Clarkson playing a blond megalomaniac, she's got to discover who this group "The East" is, and what they're up to.

But life, of course, is not as simple as Good Guys vs. Bad Guys.

Marland and Batmanglij do a beautiful job of realizing a story on screen that never over-stretches, remains credible, and hangs together right through the closing credits.

This is a diamond in the rough. Find where it's playing, or rent the DVD when it comes out, and watch it!

What remarkable good fortune that Dustin Hoffman chose this Ronald Harwood play (and screenplay) for his directorial debut at age 75. This is a movie for actors, and there are many terrific performances in this wonderful ensemble piece about the residents of a home for aging musicians, which we saw at our movie preview club.

But the warmth of the story - the vibrancy of the seniors playing string quartets and practicing their cellos and clarinets, their friendships, annoyances, disappointments, and even loves - marks this film as something very special.

Hoffman has taken a beautiful English estate and turned it into a world of music filled with well-drawn and compelling characters: the woman with advancing dementia who relishes the CD of her performing Rigoletto 40 years ago; the flirtatious Wilf, whose "advances" towards the women on staff are never offensive and always charming; the aging diva - the always wonderful Maggie Smith - who is horrified by the thought that by moving in her life is over.

The best drawn (and in my mind, played) character is Wilf's best friend Reggie, who doesn't get Wilf's preferential treatment but has a quiet dignity and love of his life and his art that quietly shines through. His scene teaching students by comparing opera and rap may be this film's best.

Reggie is played by one of the most underrated and powerful British actors of his time, the estimable Tom Courtenay. It's hard to believe it's been 50 years since he starred as a 25-year-old in The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner. In a performance of grace, nuance, and elegance, Courtenay outshines even Maggie Smith. Perhaps he's inspired by working again from a Harwood screenplay; it was Harwood who wrote The Dresser, an excellent 1983 vehicle for Courtenay and Albert Finney.

One more note: Finney was apparently supposed to play the Wilf role, but unfortunately was not up to it health-wise. But comedian Billy Connolly's performance is just splendid.

See this movie!

The unique Zoe Kazan wrote and stars in this quirky, fascinating, and original film about a writer with writer's block (Paul Dano, Kazan's real-life main squeeze) who invents the girl of his dreams, writes about her, and watches her become real.

While this film has been billed by reviewers and marketed by publicists as a "romantic comedy," in many ways it's not. It's both more and less. Less predictable, certainly, as the endings of modern romantic comedies are notoriously pat. More ... what? Strange? Edgy? Depressing even (at times)? Maybe all of the above. But ultimately upbeat.

The gifted Paul Dano has created a character - a young woman - who is exactly who he wants, or at least so he thinks. It's not until he meets his ex at a party 2/3 of the way through the movie that the audience really begins to understand what's going on. And it's not just hearts and flowers. But no spoilers here.

That Kazan pulled off both this original idea AND the ability to end it in a way that made sense yet left unanswered questions that should be unanswered is testimony to her screen-writing talents. Her roots here are strong: both of her screen writing parents and her famed grandfather Elia. But Zoe is also extremely appealing as the film's title character, showing a range of acting skills that could make her a star.

And for fun, we get Bening, Banderas, and Gould, all enlivening the proceedings.

Original movies are hard to find, and when you find them, often hard to watch. This film is both original and very watchable.

What happens when a class of 6th graders loses their beloved teacher to suicide? What happens when an Algerian immigrant applies to be their new teacher in a culture he is just beginning to understand? What is behind the teacher's stillness, his smile and his sad eyes? This film is a beautiful rendering of a stage play about love and loss, but also about hope. In this wonderfully-told story, the hope isn't trite, contrived or artificial. It's something you almost have to feel. It comes from the growing relationship between this strange teacher in a strange land, and his student children, so in need of his help.

The movie's cast is rich with great acting, by the kids of course, but here, if anything, they're outshone by Algerian actor Mohamed Fellag, whose face tells 1000 stories about where he has been and, perhaps, where he hopes to go.

The only things not perfect are the characters, for this writer and director have been too careful to give them - even the "best" of the children - no flaws. They are all more good than bad, but also complex in their own way, suffering the loss of one teacher and the growing pains of learning to learn from another.

This film gets my vote for Best Foreign Language Film, even over the excellent A Separation. Don't miss it!