Colette

First Hit: With the empowerment of women being in the forefront, it was great to watch Colette take charge of her life.

Colette (Keira Knightly) becomes enamored by Willy (Dominic West) who is somewhat of a blowhard male chauvinist who disrespects everyone except anyone who has more money or prestige than him.

He contracts with people to write stories, books, and plays for him and because of his spending and gambling habits, he's always in debt. After their marriage he continues to have affairs with scores of women in Paris, which infuriates Colette but more for the lying than the affairs themselves. Because they are pressed for money, he locks Colette into a room to make her write for him.

She writes books that become the talk of Paris. Everyone loves the books and Willy, the supposed author, becomes the talk of the town. Setting social and artistic trends, Willy and Colette become enamored with their life. But, tension begins to percolate because Colette is the real author of the books and no one knows.

What I really liked about this movie is that Knightly, as Colette, is definitely in her element. Her natural wit and intelligence was never a match for Willy or Georgie Raoul-Duval (Eleanor Tomlinson), Collette’s first lesbian relationship.

Knightly was superb. Her airiness and ease of sharing a strong Colette was sublime. West was excellent as the overbearing chauvinistic husband and ego driven writer. Fiona Shaw was perfect as Colette’s mother supporting Collette’s independence. Denise Gough playing Missy, Colette’s supporter and romantic lover. Tomlinson was wonderful as Colette’s first lesbian lover who was also Willy’s lover. Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland wrote a pointed and well-defined screenplay. Westmoreland did a good job of setting up wonderful scenes and sets that exemplified the era of the late 1800’s.

Overall: Using Knightly was inspired casting choice as she brought a lot of life and intelligence to this role.

Money Monster

First Hit:  This film does not disappoint as it pointedly and powerfully touches on the themes of the day:  The struggle of the middle class, media’s (and social media) power to influence, the police’s response to a situation, and the rich manipulating the system for self-benefit.

Lee Gates (George Clooney) is an over amplified version of Jim Cramer’s afternoon program called “Mad Money” on CNBC.

In Gates’ daily program called “Money Monster” he uses sometimes crude, always flamboyant, and other over the top ways to share what he thinks is going on in the stock market. He’s got a huge following. His director is Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts).

The live show’s success is the combination of his unpredictability, verbal acuity, smarts, and unbridled flair as directed and in concert with her ability to know where he’s going with any particular point allowing the screen graphics to match Gate’s thoughts thereby maximizing the impact for the viewers.

Does Gates go overboard? Yes, and based on statements he made on an earlier show’s prediction for IBIS (an automated trading company), Kyle Budwell (Jack O’Connell) loses all his money. In fact, just about everyone who invested in IBIS loses their money.

Kyle is beyond angry, he wants answers and makes his way onto the set of Gates’ live show with a gun and a vest bomb which he forces Gates to wear.

This film is about: How Kyle comes to this breaking point. How Gates responds to this life threatening intrusion. How some people manipulate money for their own greedy purpose. How the public responds to this live, on air, real-time drama. How the police respond to Budwell’s dilemma. And about Kyle’s pregnant girlfriend Molly (Emily Meade); how does she respond to this event?

I won’t tell you how the film deals with all these questions except to comment on one: How the police respond. Waking up this morning after seeing the film last night, I’m still saddened by the reflective shoot first mentality of the police. We are bombarded these days with the police shooting people as a solution to many situations. There seems to be little room in their mantra to learn more about the situation and the people involved before shooting them.

In this film, from the get go, they (particularly one cop) had one focus which was to kill (“take him out”) Kyle. It isn’t that I didn’t understand their position, guy with gun sometimes aiming it at law enforcement officers, but their actions were heavy handed and reflected the large number of police shootings that cross our headlines every day.

Clooney is perfect as the narcissistic TV personality that masks a lonely life. His portrayal of Gates is wonderful because his caring true self wins in the end. Roberts was beyond fantastic. I thought she caught all the nuances of a TV director and someone who was willing to risk her life to do the right thing for all. O’Connell was amazingly strong as the semi-unhinged guy who just wanted to not be ripped off any longer. His life as a $14.00 an hour guy, who had just lost his mother, his strong willed girlfriend being pregnant, and his concern for how his baby would survive in this world was palpable in all his actions. His moments of confusion, reflection, humiliation, and clear path to wanting to get answers were spot on. Caitriona Balfe as Diane Lester the girlfriend of IBIS CEO and Chief Publicity Officer for IBIS was very good as her subtle shift of consciousness from stonewalling the public to leading the charge and find out what happened was well portrayed. Dominic West as IBIS CEO Walt Camby was well done. His manipulative version of, I’m lying through my teeth about our company being transparent, ran true. Meade as the fed-up girlfriend was powerful as her character pulled no punches. Lastly, Lenny Venito as Lenny the cameraman was perfect. Jamie Linden and Alan DiFiore wrote a wonderfully taut and biting screenplay that covered a lot of bases. Jodie Foster did an excellent job of directing this film. There were some outstanding moments and cuts that were really strong and moved this film along at the perfect clip while covering a lot of ground.

Overall:  This real-time film was perfectly acted, had a strong script and was elegantly directed by Jodie Foster - kudos.

Testament of Youth

First Hit:  This beautifully acted film, especially Alicia Vikander, is a powerful story of how WWI affected a woman, family, friends and a country.

It isn’t often that I’m transfixed by an actor in a role, however Vikander as Vera Brittain, did just this. As Vera, a young woman who wants to be a writer and go to Oxford, she is independent, willful and driven. She spurns her brother Edward’s (Taron Egerton) friend Victor (Colin Morgan) as a suitor for her hand because she doesn’t have any intention of getting married.

However, when Victor and Edward’s mutual friend Roland (Kit Harrington) comes into the scene, things change, she is emotionally moved. Yet, despite her budding feelings, her primary focus is her career and she does find a way to get into Oxford. Soon after, her brother, Victor, and Roland are drawn into the war so she decides that she must do her part and becomes a nurse’s volunteer.

Through this experience she sees and experiences the travesty of war on human lives. The scenes, the pacing of the film, and the eloquence by which this story is told was deeply felt, moving, and sincerely touching.

Vikander was first rate and amazing. She was excellent in Ex Machina and again here. This actress is someone who will continue to grow and amaze on the screen. Egerton is wonderful and endearing as Vera’s brother. Harrington is strong as the shell-shocked lover. Morgan is endearing and wonderful as the heartbroken friend. Dominic West and Emily Watson were perfect as Vera’s parents. Juliette Towhidi wrote a wonderful screen play based on Vera’s own book of the same title. James Kent did an outstanding job in directing by showing the depths of WWI on a personal, family, friends, and country level.

Overall:  I was deeply moved by the film and this stemmed from Vikander’s performance.

Johnny English: Reborn

First Hit:  This film will make you laugh at some point or another during it's 101 minutes and it stays entertaining through the outtake during the credits.

Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson) is an ostracized MI-6 agent who messed up an assignment in another country. He was excused from the agency because he was lured away from protecting the President of Mozambique by a beautiful woman, which led to the assassination of said leader.

At the beginning of the film we find Johnny in an Asian monastery learning meditation and martial arts from Ting Wang (played by Togo Igawa). There are riffs in these segments on the Kung Fu television series which most people won’t remember, but nonetheless, are funny.

Another agent is in trouble and trusts only English to help him, so Johnny is inducted back into the agency. English works for Pamela (played by Gillian Anderson) who is tough on him. His perceived agent friend Ambrose (played by Dominic West) turns out to not be a friend but the audience knows this early on.

Johnny gets assigned a new agent (Agent Tucker played by Daniel Kaluuya) to assist him in figuring out the next assassination plot. Through trial and error Agent English bluffs, fights, cajoles and uncovers the plot, but not without a lot of goofball mistakes along the way.

I particularly enjoyed the chair scene in the meeting with the Prime Minister. The cat scene was also precious. While English works his particular magic to figure out the plot, the Agency tries to see if he is simply a ditz by using a psychologist agent named Kate (Rosamund Pike) to monitor his actions through facial expressions.

Atkinson is wonderful as a smart, yet sometimes idiotic, agent. Igawa is funny and good as his Asian master. Anderson is adequate at the head of MI-6. Pike is very good as the psychologist that actually sees the brilliance and stupidity of English. Kaluuya is charming as English’s supportive agent in the field. West is perfect as the charming egocentric agent that is looking for more. William Davies and Hamish McColl wrote a funny and nicely sequenced script. Oliver Parker directed English in a way that gave him the freedom to be both brilliant in character and amusing to watch.

Overall:  This is an entertaining film and is easy to watch.