Just Mercy: Bring a hanky for this gripping torn-from-the-headlines story about a young Black lawyer (Jordan) leaving Harvard to fight wrongful convictions in Alabama. He meets a prisoner who has been framed (Foxx) for the murder of a young white woman and is now sitting on death row. The Black community understands, as one character says, that in the eyes of the criminal “justice” system, they are “Guilty from the moment you born.”
How can the Academy include a lightweight “Marriage Story,” and snub “Just Mercy” for Best Picture? Foul!
This South Korean film won the Golden Globe’s Best Film in a “foreign” language. The director Bong Joon Ho gave such a cool 1 minute acceptance speech that I’ve linked to the clip below. Parasite is all about class war and the unbridgeable divide between employer and employee. It highlights how poor people end up screwing each other over crumbs, while the rich are blind to their lives, even when their workers are quite literally up to their ears in sewage. The one burst of violence didn’t put me off. The painful upstairs / way, way downstairs visuals are muscular.
Greta Gerwig's enthralling Little Women is a creative retelling of Louisa May Alcott’s book, incorporating a ton of flashbacks and hugs. I welcomed the emphasis on Jo March as a writer trying to sell her work: her doubts, her process, her setbacks, the moment she holds her first book in her hands. Other than Laura Dern as the mother, the acting is strong. Gerwig has given the sisters a decidedly 20th C consciousness about the role of women, but when Jo sells her hair for money for the family, their shock is every dyke’s delight. Highly recommended, but bring tissues.
I needed that. Lightweight, witty, ornate – and everyone seems poised to live happily ever after. There’s romance, intrigue, royals, and delicious snark between Violet Crawley (Maggie Smith) and Isobel Merton (Penelope Wilton). Lucy’s entry (Tuppence Middleton) – with kisses for Tom (Allen Leech) – hints of a welcome sequel on the horizon.
Now here’s a documentary to see, indeed. Molly Ivins started her life of raising hell by resisting her rich authoritarian father. ‘I remember my dad and his friends sitting around fixing the price of oil.’ Later she said, “My teenage rebellion lasted 35 years.” Six feet tall and a devoted intellectual, her young years reading in her bedroom well prepared her to be a rebellious journalist who splintered glass ceilings and spoke truth to power. Her hilarious wit – unfortunately fueled by heavy drinking – and the confidence privileged kids inherit, combined to make her a sterling, popular syndicated journalist and author.
Combine Toni Morrison’s fascinating life and fulsome talent with an elegant documentarian, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, and you get that rare film that is both comely and edifying. Add in talking heads who love Morrison – from Angela Davis to Oprah to Walter Mosley to Fran Lebowitz – and you have a wondrous film. The racism and sexism she faced in her eventual journey to the Nobel Prize were countered by the 48 black writers who signed a statement deploring the lack of establishment recognition for her. Greenfield-Sanders showcases not only Morrison’s personal beauty, but also the soothing Hudson River view from her home.
Do you want to take a break? Do you want music that lifts you up, talent that brings tears, and comfort all around.
Go see the movie of Aretha Franklin: Amazing Grace, made in 1972 when she was already a massive star. I fell in love with her brilliant, warm mentor James Cleveland and was moved by his Southern California Community Choir. Most of all, I was transfixed by Aretha Franklin's transcendent voice, which is a crucial part of the soundtrack of my life – and that of several generations.
The film was shot during the making of "Amazing Grace, which was both Aretha’s biggest selling album and – to this day – the best-selling live gospel album ever. Sydney Pollack, who was directing for Warner Brothers, made a terrible technical error, which left the audio out of sync. Producer Alan Elliott devoted decades to saving the film, but faced a lot of resistance, including from Aretha herself. A new technical fix and Aretha’s death allowed him to bring it to us now.
It is raw and real and sweaty and full of bloopers, such as the film crew stepping in front of the camera by accident or turning up behind Aretha messing with wires. Interesting guests dot the audience – from her father (oddly invited last minute) to Mick Jagger, hanging out in the back of the room. The vast majority of the audience is members of a Los Angeles Baptist church where they filmed over two nights.
It's simply wonderful. “Don’t bother with tissues. Bring a towel,” said The New York Times.
Well god-damn: Melissa McCarthy’s acting chops are something to behold in Can You Ever Forgive Me? For writers and readers, this film will charm the pants off of you. Based on the memoir of Lee Israel, a biographer of celebrities, we meet the exasperated agent (played by Jane Curtin, once of SNL fame), the publishing world that thrives on showy white men, and Lee’s one human friend, Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant at his best), an aging gay man who joins her in her desperation. Add two facts: one, she is a lesbian whose ex (played by Anna Deavere Smith of West Wing, The Practice, and Nurse Jackie fame) is sick and tired of her bullshit, and two, her best friend is the obligatory ill cat. Lee turns to crime and booze when her literary career is as moribund as the job she is fired from when she tells her boss to fuck off. Follow her life of forgery and fall in love.
A parody period piece in which two women court attendants (Emma Stone & Rachel Weisz) vie for the sexual and political favor of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman). Lots of giggles. Lots of girl-on-girl rumpy pumpy, but a very bewildering ending.
Bohemian Rhapsody
Those who didn’t know Freddy Mercury and the music of Queen may find this illuminating. I totally “get” the criticisms of the gay press on how nastily the gay male party days are portrayed. I couldn’t stand the teeth prosthesis they used; Rami Malek seemed so slight, unlike Freddy. The only part that moved me was the Live Aid concert at the end – very powerful.
Roma
A slow-moving, intriguing film that gives insight –on the visual and narrative levels – into Mexican life of both the bourgeois and the poor. The lives of women of different classes intersect in this Black & White nominee for Best Foreign Film. Gorgeous cinematography and strong acting.
When I saw charming, smart Amandla Stenberg interviewed on a talk show, I knew I wanted to see her moving, powerful film, The Hate U Give. Stenberg plays Starr Carter, a teenager who lives a life of code-switching. Home is an impoverished Black community suffering the violence of the police and the violence of the drug dealers. School is in a posh white neighborhood where, to counteract her isolation, she must adapt her speech, behavior, and most of all her reactions.
Her lifelong friend Khalil (Algee Smith) is murdered by a white cop for no reason at all during a traffic stop, and she is the only witness. One male authority figure after another – her powerful, devoted, ex-prisoner father (Russell Hornsby); her loving uncle, a cop (Common); the local drug lord – tells her what to do about testifying or not at the upcoming grand jury. The advice from the two adult women – her mother (Regina Hall) and the community organizer (Issa Rae) – is given less emotional weight, although in the end, it is the community activist who most impacts Starr’s direction.
The cast is simply sterling – one fabulous performance after another. The action and the emotional punches are non-stop. I cried many times. Apparently meant as a Young Adult film, I recommend it to everyone.
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