SKYFALL--Best Bond Ever!, THE SESSIONS, LINCOLN, plus Best Thanksgiving Movies APRIL&ALICE's

There are a lot of great James Bond films, but  SKYFALL has to counted as possibly the best of that list.  Of course, Daniel Craig is on most people's short list of great Bonds. but add an engrossing and (somewhat) logical plot, sharp and mature direction by Sam Mendes (AMERICAN BEAUTY 1999), expanded involvement of "M" portrayed by the esteemable Judy Dench, a great respect for the past history of Bond on films (including cars and gadgets) and the intelligent and entertaining introduction of some great Bond co-horts, and then mix in a great villain and a super knock out introductory scene, and what more can I say................GRADE----A

A forthright film about a mostly paralyzed polio-poetry spouting man (who spends much of his time in an iron lung,) yet he tries to loose his virginity with the help of a sensitive sex therapist.  It works very well as comedy/drama with some fascinating information about the challenges of the physically challenged.  The actors--especially John Hawkes and Helen Hunt-- are quite good and THE SESSIONS (of sex) moved me in ways that surprised me.           GRADE-----A-

History gets personal and intimate and clearly literate in Steven Spielberg's new film LINCOLN, a fascinating film about the last year of LINCOLN's life when he worked so hard to past the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery AND try to end the Civil War AND attempt to unite a very divided United States.  Politics hasn't changed so very much since then.  I had some very minor quibbles with a few technical glitches and that very sentimental style that serves Spielberg well most of the time, but overall, this is a very ambitious, entertaining and clearheaded film, and the actors including Daniel Day Lewis as Lincoln, Sally Fields as the Mrs, and Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens are masterful.     GRADE-------B+

The French documentary BESTIAIRE which profiles animals in long, intimate takes with out moving the camera remined me of Chantal Akerman's classic profile of a bored housewife who cleans the house, cooks food, and turns the occasional trick, and not much else in long, long takes, in JEANNE DIELMAN, 23QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUSSELLES (1975)  but BESTIARE is only 72 minutes and seemed longer, while JEANNE was 201 minutes, and seems just long.  Both films have their fascination.      GRADE-------B-



DVD CHOICES------------------

It's a clever, tricky film--not his most classic, but Alfred Hitchcock's nifty STAGE FRIGHT (1949) features star performances by Jane Wyman, Marlene Dietrich, Michael Wilding, Richard Todd, Alistair Sim and Dame Sybil Thorndike, plus some splendid character actors, and it becomes very engrossing in spite of a rocky 30 minute start that has many viewers wondering how a man could become so stupidly blinded by  such an evil woman so as to  be willing to take a murder rap for her, but Hitchcock has some turns and surprises up his sleeve, and the film is successfully engrossing up to the twisted end.        GRADE------B+

Never saw the classic film BEDAZZLED (1967) when it opened, but I can certainly appreciate the cult status of this film with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and Raquel Welch and Eleanor Bron and other great British actors and comedians, and at times I marveled more at the clever lines than laughed at them.  Cook plays the devil who buys the soul of Moore and then introduces him to the 7 deadly sins. (Guess which one is portrayed by Welch!?!)  I might  laugh more at the film on a second or third viewing.  Still, it is clever.    GRADE------B

It won the Best Supporting Male Actor award at last year's Oscar show, but  BEGINNERS (2010) may have been more effective had Christopher Plummer been the focal point of the plot of an elderly man who comes out as gay after his wife of many years has died, much to the confusion of his adult son Ewan McGregor.  Instead the film starts after the death of Plummer's character and has McGregor trying to start an awkward romance with a French speaking Melanie Laurent, with whom he seems to have ZERO chemistry.  The subplot of telling Plummer's story is pushed into the background as an annoying flashback, when really, that story was  much more interesting.          GRADE------C 


FAVORITE THANKSGIVING THEMED MOVIES---------

I haven't seen ALICE'S RESTAURANT (1969) for over 30 years, but this Arthur (BONNIE AND CLYDE) Penn film retains it's charm and surprising melancholic power in telling the based on fact story of a young Arlo Guthrie's struggle to make it as a singer (following his dying father Woody's illustrious career) in the mid-1960's amid the lure of the counter culture (hippie) life style.  The film features the hit song Alice's Restaurant ("You can get any thing you want at Alice's restaurant....") and features the long subplot about the misadventures of trying to dump a van load of garbage on Thanksgiving day, when the city dump is closed, and the funny, serious consequences of that adventure when he is drafted into service during the height of the Vietnam War.  Especially fine are the married duo portrayed by James Broderick and Pat Quinn--they provide a strong paternal center as they try to keep their "broad" of counter culture misfits alive and happy during trying times.    GRADE--------A

Before she married Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes had a successful little career playing counter culture types in GO (1999) and ICE STORM (1997) and in this lovely little film PIECES OF APRIL (2004).  April is an independent young adult with a troubled childhood--the rest of her family is quite traditional, but she cut them off and moved to Manhattan.  Now her mother is quite ill with cancer, and she wants to plan a Thanksgiving meal to make peace with her estranged family.  That morning, however she realizes her oven doesn't work, so the film inter cuts the trepidation that her family has with her history, and her struggles with trying to cook the tradition meal (while not really knowing what she is doing.)  She gets some unexpected help from some untraditional neighbors, and this charming but edgy film packs a big emotional wallop by the end.  It's a real gem.       GRADE----A-