SING STREET--For those who loved Irish director John Carney's last two musical efforts ONCE (2007) and BEGIN AGAIN (2013), then his newest SING STREET will be very satisfying indeed. Set in Ireland in the 1980's, this low budget, realistic film has the young high school kid trying to impress the beautiful mysterious girl loitering outside his school by claiming he needs her for the making of a video to accompany the music his band is recording. Trouble is, he doesn't have a band, YET. The film is musical and dramatic and very funny, and captures the teen age milieu with great sensitivity and humor. (His parents are splitting and his older brother wants to live vicariously through his musical efforts.) The ending, though a bit fantastic, is very moving, and the screening I saw had prolonged, warm applause. I enjoyed this comedy drama even more than ONCE and BEGIN AGAIN, which both had authentic and sincere musical and romantic moments. GRADE-------A-
HOLOGRAM FOR A KING--German director Tom Tykwer (RUN LOLA RUN, "3", CLOUD ATLAS, PERFUME: STORY OF A MURDERER) came into my radar in 1997 at a late 930pm SIFF screening when I was very tired and wanted to just go home to sleep, but that film WINTER SLEEPERS grabbed my attention like a potent cup of espresso. His international hit RUN LOLA RUN (1998) electrified audiences a year later, and every film since has had his creative stamp and energy to recommend it. He also creates most of the music score, giving even his oddest films a hypnotic tension. In HOLOGRAM, Tom Hanks plays a sales man in Saudi Arabia--a fish out of water, and most of the film is about his attempt to acclimate to this strange society. There's not a lot of plot, but the undercurrent of anticipation, his emotional upheavals, and his transformation makes for another hypnotic, satisfying experience. GRADE-------B+
EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!!--New film from Richard Linklater (last year's BOYHOOD director) comes "a spiritual sequel to (his) DAZED AND CONFUSED (1993)" reads the poster--and I wasn't so sure that was a recommendation for me, nor were the trailers. For the first 15 minutes I regretted watching what starts off as a stoner/drunken/sexist comedy drama about a group of college guys sharing a house because they are all jocks of the school's baseball team. But suddenly I got it!! Linklater directs with a light as a feather touch, as the guys interact, connect with each other, party, philosophize, play jokes, swear, try to out macho each other, and drink and smoke weed for the weekend before classes begin, and I began to laugh and connect with each character. I'm not sure each character can really be so eloquent in their speech as Linklater writes, but there was a certain brilliance in the effort that cannot be ignored. GRADE-----------B+
THE BOSS----The new gross out comedy with Melissa McCarthy just proves that she is the queen of mean if she wants to be, and still be pretty funny. Unlike some R rated comedies of late, at least McCarthy nails the laugh or joke, and in spite of a script that falls apart by the end (co-written and directed by her husband Ben Falcone) THE BOSS is mildly entertaining if you can stomach the vulgarities. GRADE------B-
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The following films were viewed on DVD
DOLORES CLAIBORNE 1995------One of my favorite guilty pleasures of the 1990's, this film holds up remarkably well as a classic melodrama mystery. with a sterling cast including Kathy Bates at her peak, Jennifer Jason Leigh at her peak, and director Taylor Hackford matching his fine efforts of OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN (1982), AGAINST ALL ODDS (1984) and RAY (2004). The photography is especially fine, including a sequence of startling beauty and terror as the film recreates a total eclipse of the sun in a memorable climactic scene. Based on a story by Stephen King, DOLORES CLAIBORNE is especially memorable for the sharp and sarcastic dialogue that the main characters spit out with humorous venom. One of my favorites: Dolores is being released from jail after an interrogation for murder in a small town, when two kids on bikes ride by taunting "Hey Miss Claiborne, kill anybody else today?" She snaps back "Not yet but if I change my mind I know exactly where I'm going to start...." Another favorite is repeated a couple times by different female characters: "Sometimes being a bitch is the only thing a woman has to hold on to." The plot may be an old chestnut of an abusive husband and his long suffering family, but the film is lucidly compelling entertainment. GRADE----A
MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS 1974----A classy film adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel, this smart mystery earned 6 Oscar nominations, winning one for the memorably mousy characterization achieved by Ingrid Bergman. I clearly remember the "who did it", but it's always a pleasure to see it all spelled out in it's twisted, complicated manner. Featuring an unrecognizable Albert Finney as detective Poirot, the talented cast includes Sean Connery, Vanessa Redgrave, John Gielgud, Lauren Bacall, Wendy Hiller and others. It may not have any suspenseful chills, but sometimes professionalism goes a long way. GRADE----B
HEAVEN KNOWS, MR ALLISON 1957--A tough marine (Robert Mitchum) and a Catholic Nun (Deborah Kerr) find themselves stranded on a deserted island in the south Pacific during WWII in this charming, intense character study directed by John Huston. Like Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart in THE AFRICAN QUEEN, this film contrasts the temperments of each character, but in this case the division between them is vocational, with Mitchum falling in love, and Kerr staying true to her "marriage" to Jesus Christ. It may be light weight comparatively, but the film has plenty of action, suspense, humor and tragedy. GRADE-------B
PAUL 2011----This cheerful, wacky comedy about an alien traveling with two sci-fi geeks on a road trip has enough nasty gags and pratfalls to satisfy most viewers, British actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost have come from England to Arizona for a convention, and end up meeting alien played with sarcastic humor by Seth Rogan. Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig and Sigourney Weaver are also delightfully included in the cast. GRADE--------B
LINCOLN LAWYER 2011---This role and his next in MUD (2012) led to an Oscar for Mathew McConaughey in THE DALLAS BUYERS CLUB (2013). It's a twisty, clever courtroom thriller, although we may have seen it all before. The fine cast includes Marisa Tomei, Ryan Phillippe and William H. Macy and others. GRADE-----------B
OLD ACQUAINTANCE 1943--This potboiler is not one of Bette's best, but she and Miriam Hopkins manage to hold our attention in this drama of best friend's torn apart when both become successful writers. The Hopkins character is played so broadly as to be unbelievable, while the Davis character is played with restraint and logic--two vastly different acting styles. Makes me wonder why these two are/were friends in the first place. GRADE----B-
JAMAICA INN 1939--I'd never seen this Alfred Hitchcock film, generally considered one of his least successful, but last month I saw a BBC version, which I thought very little of, so I was curious. This version changes the story considerably--at the time it was threatened with censorship if the clergy was involved with murder and other crimes, so Hitchcock changed the villain to the police captain. Charles Laughton was fascinating to watch--he often is, and Maureen O'Hara in her first American lead (she came from Ireland) was also beguiling. The story, based on a novel by Daphne DuMaurier, is obviously a tough one to visualize--the characters kill and rob ships that they have lured onto the beach to be wrecked, and the aunt and uncle of the girl are so evil and unpleasant that there is little to sympathize with. Still, this Hitchcock version has some visual thrills. GRADE-----B-
BONNEVILLE 2006--Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates and Joan Allen play Mormon woman on a road trip to deliver the ashes of Lange's recently deceased husband to her step daughter. Unfortunately the story is slim and predictable, and moves at a snail's pace. The charms of the three women can't quite compensate for slack direction. GRADE------C+
ALEX CROSS 2012--Tyler Perry is a detective/psychologist (!) tracking down a sadistic serial killer (an effective Matthew Fox) in this brutal, creepy film. GRADE------C+
THE BLACK TOWER 1985--This BBC mini series of the P.D.James mystery novel is straight forward stuff, and although it was more coherent than some mysteries I've seen, there was very little thrill to it. In a rare plot conclusion, Detective Dalgliesh DOES NOT solve the mystery, and seems shocked when the killer suddenly confesses!!! GRADE------C+
MURDER ON THE HOME FRONT 2013---Another British PBS mystery that I watched for nearly an hour before realizing we'd seen it before--apparently nothing was too memorable about it the first time, although set in London during the blitz, this mystery thriller features some grotesque shots of naked cadavers during autopsies. GRADE------C+
DOUBLE 2014--Jesse Eisenberg works in a grim, depressing job, and wants to meet up with co worker Mia Wasikowska. One day his doppelganger joins the firm--they look alike but this version is lively and animated--his exact opposite. The slow film is strong on gloomy, quirky set design--it felt like a protracted combination of a Twilight Zone episode with a little BRAZIL style thrown in--and an update of the Bartleby story. Would I watch it again? I would prefer not to. GRADE-------C+
TEN LITTLE INDIANS 1965---An awkward attempt to make this Agatha Christie novel AND THEN THERE WERE NONE fit into the swinging 60's, with jazzy music, and a jazzed pop song sung by actor/singer FABIAN who stars as one of the guests murdered one by one. Fortunately his death comes very early!!!!! The film is competent, but hardly thrilling or unique. GRADE-----C
I AM CURIOUS (YELLOW) 1967---Lots and lots of talk talk talk about (Swedish) politics, social politics, Martin Luther King, philosophy and sex. One of the early films to feature scenes of full frontal nudity by both male and female protagonists, but hardly deserving of the scandal that the film generated in the late 1960's. Yawn. GRADE-------C-
ONE FOR THE MONEY 2012--Katherine Heigl's talents are wasted in this predictable, by the numbers thriller that has her improbably getting a job as a recovery agent for a bail bonding company. It was also confusing and illogical. GRADE-----D+
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The original title of TEN LITTLE INDIAN was not AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, but something far more offensive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Then_There_Were_None
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