Philomena

First Hit:  Outstanding in every sense of the word.

Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) has lost his job with the government because of an incorrect story attributed to him.

Being a former BBC journalist, he’s going to go back to writing. He’s got an air of arrogance of self-importance because of his previous positions with the government and the BBC. While at a party an editor asks if he’s interested in writing a human interest story and if so please contact her. He scoffs at this. A server from the same party speaks with him about writing about her mom Philomena (Judi Dench) as a way to find out the truth about the child that was taken from her at an early age by Catholic nuns.

He decides to meet Philomena. She tells Martin the story of how she lost her child, Antony, while at a convent in England. As he listens to the story you can see him slowly become engaged. I won’t give the story away here because the film does a superb job of sharing this information, but it is enough to say the nuns aren’t necessarily Jesus like in their actions.

The film has multiple levels: There are the differences between Philomena and Martin in their beliefs in God and religion. There is the difference between the importance of a human interest story and its impact on things. Martin was use to big and important stories.

There is the difference around what is private and public. In all cases Martin and Philomena both learned a lot about each other, life and the truth. Lastly, there is the bigger picture of will this human interest film be as interesting as a bigger, action based, blockbuster film? 

The writing in this film is phenomenal while the acting razor sharp, on target and terrific. Pulling this all together was director Stephen Frears who knew how to tell this story.

Dench is spot on perfect and amazing. Coogan, likewise was incredible as the world-weary writer finding new life in human interest narratives. Coogan and Jeff Pope wrote an elegant story with great characters. And as previously mentioned Frears directed this story and cast with elegance.

Overall: Oscar worthy on all accounts.

The Armstrong Lie

First Hit:  The longer I sat there, the more flabbergasted I became at the total arrogance and lack of forthcoming honesty by Armstrong.

It isn’t often that I want someone to suffer for their arrogance, Lance Armstrong is someone that I hope, loses every penny he made from cycling. I mean every penny.

He worked hard at fooling his friends, family and us, the public. I would find it difficult to ever believe anything that comes out of his mouth. His responses are always calculated, measured and for his best interest. He is a serial liar.

This film uses his comeback ride (2009) in the Tour as a basis for viewing his past history of doping and the impact he had on doping and cycling. I really feel for the teammates he hurt and chastised.

Alex Gibney wrote and directed this film and for him it was a way to exercise some anger and sadness towards Lance.

Overall:  This is a hard film to watch because it shows how many bike riding athletes will cheat and will lie about their performance. Most all of the Tour podium standers in the 2000’s got there by cheating.

The Book Thief

  First Hit:  Extremely well-acted film about the effects of Nazi Germany in small neighborhood.

I cannot remember when a film about WWII Nazi Germany shows Germans being unhappy about and not fully behind their Fuhrer. This dislike isn’t pronounced at first but it builds as neighbors are being removed from their home and businesses.

In this story Liesel (Sophie Nelisse) is abandoned by her mom shortly after her brother dies. The grave digger drops a book and she picks it up and holds it as a treasure. Her adoptive parents Hans (Geoffery Rush) and Rosa (Emily Watson) are somewhat hardened by their life. His sign painting business is non-existent she brings in laundry to make ends meet. Rosa is gruff but there are moments when her heart just soars and Hans, on the other hand, is a warm hearted man whose strength is compassion.

Liesel is picked on by other kids in the school because she cannot read. However she finds ways to obtain books, read them and write words on the wall that she is learning. Rudy (Nico Liersch), the neighbor boy, likes and befriends her. Rosa, Hans and Liesel hide Max (Ben Schnetzer) a Jewish man trying to keep from being killed by the Germans.

The story revolves around how this neighborhood is effected by the war the Nazi’s are aimed at waging against the world. In the end, her reading and the diary Max insisted she keep turned her into an author. However, it is death, the narrator of this film, that pulls it all together with his voice over.

Nelisse is phenomenal as the young abandoned girl who learned to love and trust. Rush is sublime as the kind man who can see the beauty in most things and openly shares his love towards Liesel. Watson is amazing and clearly perfect for the role as hardened, yet heartfelt wife. Liersch was great as Rudy, the neighbor boy who loved Liesel from the moment he saw her. Schnetzer was really good as Max. Roger Allam was perfect as death’s voice and film narrator. Michael Petroni wrote a very strong script. Brian Percival directed these actors with amazing aplomb.

Overall:  This film is a wonderful view of German life during WWII.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

  First Hit:  Longer than it needed to be and despite some good acting it certainly didn’t catch fire.

I enjoyed the first of film of this series and was hoping that this middle film in the series would hold up.

Unfortunately it didn’t mostly because Francis Lawrence didn’t keep the film crisp, moving along, and with a clear end in sight. From an acting point of view Jennifer Lawrence was strong as Katniss Everdeen and it was obvious that she was hampered by the script.

The basic story is that Katniss and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), winners of the 74th Hunger Games, are moving public opinion against the government. Therefore President Snow (Donald Sutherland) wants these two to go on tour to each of the districts and soothe the citizens. However, it doesn’t happen and the government, under the guidance of Plutarch Heavensbee (William Seymour Hoffman) – chief game engineer, decides to pit a selection of the surviving Hunger Games winners against each other. By doing this Katniss will probably die and hope could be extinguished.

Many of the faces in the previous film are part of this film like Cinna (Lenny Kravitz) who is Katniss’ dress designer, Cesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci) as MC of the Hunger Games television program, Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) as stager of Katniss and Peeta, and Haymitch Abernathy (Woody Harrelson) as a Hunger Games winner and coach.

Jennifer Lawrence was very good as Katniss although, she seemed to be constrained by the script. Hutcherson was strong as the guy who loves Katniss but she doesn't return it. Sutherland seemed totally un-leader like and un-presidential in his role. I don’t think it was his fault but the issue resides in a week script. Tucci does the most with his role and, as before, was outstanding. Kravitz role is minor, yet his makes his presence known. Banks was OK as the stager, and Harrelson was strong as the coach. Lastly, Hoffman was good, but the telegraphed way the script had him show that he was part of the resistance, was poor. Simon Beaufoy and Michael Arndt wrote a lazy, long and uninteresting script. Francis Lawrence had some nice staging but overall the week script kept this film long and not very interesting.

Overall:  A mediocre middle film in this series.

Blue Is the Warmest Color

First Hit:  A deep dive into a woman discovering herself through her sexuality.

The opening classroom scene has the instructor talking about a book and its author who’s written about the moment people see each other, having no verbal communication, and the sense or feeling between the two people.

Adele (Adele Exarchopoulos) doesn’t like over explanation of books she’s reading. While walking to meet a boy she's been pressured into meeting, she sees Emma (Lea Seydoux) for the first time and the previous classroom discussion is not lost on her or the audience. The interchange with him, after a couple of meetings, leaves her very dissatisfied physically and emotionally.

One day she is kissed by one of her girl school friends and she experiences feelings she’s not had before. The questions are in constant battle within her and Adele shows all these feelings subtly and obviously with her facial expressions, body movements and tears. She finally meets up with Emma and begins to explore her emotions, feelings and sexuality.

The sexuality is both graphically and beautifully shared on the screen and it must have been difficult to share that much intimacy with a stranger on film. Outside of the sexuality, the film is a study on the evolution of a young woman towards her self-discovery. The parts that didn’t work for me was the passage of time, I don’t think it was done well because I had to figure out how much time had gone by with each major scene change. Sometimes it was weeks, other times it was months and then years. 

There were a couple of scenes where I wondered what happened to Adele’s parents, did they now know she was a lesbian?

Exarchopoulos was amazingly transparent and open in this role. Having a camera so close to her throughout this film must have been difficult. She was extraordinary. Seydoux was a great in her role as foil and lover. She was sure and strong in expressing what she wanted while providing glimpse of soft vulnerability. Abdellatif Kechiche and Ghalia Lacroix wrote a great screenplay and Kechiche directed the actors, scenes and situations with sublime exquisiteness.

Overall:  Although long, this film was an amazing study of discovery.