Grandma

First Hit:  Most of the time it was creatively funny and interesting while being topical.

Lily Tomlin (Plays Elle Reid – the grandmother) is in one of her finest moments as an actress. It allows both her acerbic and humorous qualities to exist in the same person while making sense.

Her granddaughter Sage (Julia Garner) arrives at her home looking for help. She’s young, pregnant and without the money she needs to have an abortion scheduled for later that day. Elle doesn’t have the money either and although Elle’s daughter and Sage’s mother Judy (Marcia Gay Harden) has money, neither want to ask her.

The story aims to help bridge this gap between grandmother, mother and daughter. Elle is also a lesbian and her live-in lover Olivia (Judy Greer) who is getting the boot early on in the film, provides another side of the story and the complexity of Elle’s life is slowly revealed as the movie unfolds.

Although complex, the story is also simple and gives the audience enough to think about as the story unfolds. This is one of the strong points of the film. Additionally, many of the shots of Sage and Elle driving in the vintage car are precious as was the interaction between Elle and her former husband Karl (Sam Elliot).

Tomlin is fantastic and makes the emotional wise role work well. Garner is a star in this film. She’s both angelic and vulnerable. Harden is strong in her small role. Greer’s perfect in her small and pivotal role. Elliot is absolutely divine as the former husband. Paul Weitz wrote and directed this insightful, funny, poignant film.

Overall:  This film has staying power after watching it.

Mistress America

First Hit:  At times this film was really funny, however the point and feeling weren't lasting or memorable.

This is one of those films that can be entertaining and funny while watching it and it soon fades from memory. Tracy (Lola Kirke) is in college. She’s timid in the world.

She’s a writer and has little confidence in her writing, her ability to attract men, and has few friends. Her soon to be sister by marriage, Brooke (Greta Gerwig), lives in NYC and Tracy meets her for the first time. Immediately she discovers that Brooke is almost the opposite of her. Outgoing, confident, and connected with lots of people.

The humor is the way Brooke operates in the world and how Tracy reacts. Brooke spends most of the film trying to open a restaurant, meeting with people for its financing, spends time with friends where she is life of the party. She also has 100 new ideas a minute and one gets the sense she has a difficult time implementing the ideas.

The developing relationship between the two women helps Tracy gain confidence in herself and allows her to assert herself in the world and in her life. Some of the scenes, like when Brooke meets with investors, were effectively staged and well done.  

When Brooke and Tracy meet Brooke’s former lover, now married to Brooks former friend, was a little pushed at times and I’m not sure having the pregnant lady hanging around added anything except an occasional laugh. Some of the dialog was excellent and was both spiritual and anxiously shallow at the same time.

Kirke was good and very engaging at times. Gerwig was almost too aloof but created a strong character. Michael Chernus (as Dylan) and Heather Lind (as Mamie-Claire) were strong in their parts as former friends and lover. Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig wrote, at times, an insightful and funny script. However, it did get a little convoluted the rest of the time. Noah Baumbach did a good job keeping the odd story interesting and aimed to a conclusion.

Overall: This was an Interesting and forgetful film.

No Escape

First Hit:  It was an OK story with better than average acting.

The Dwyer family moves to a country bordering Vietnam (could have been Cambodia or Laos). Jack (Owen Wilson) is moving his wife Annie (Lake Bell) and two girls Lucy (Sterling Jerins) and Beeze (Claire Geare) to their new home because it is the only job he can get. The job, he believes, is helping the country’s water purification system and so he believes he's doing good for others.

On the first night, a coup breaks out killing the country’s Prime Minister. The ensuing chaos has the rebel citizens killing foreigners, especially anyone who is associated with the water company Jack works for. The rebels attack the hotel, killing almost everyone and now Jack and his family are in danger of being killed.

The rest of the film has the Dwyer family running for their lives and being assisted by Hammond (Pierce Brosnan) who is an English intelligence agent. The scenes of the streets and alleyways in this unnamed city are perfect. All of them had the right feel. Having spent a lot of time in Asia, I was happy to not see manufactured vistas or an inaccurate beautified view.

I thought the plot needed a little working, by providing a little more background of the coup as well as the Jack’s previous work. I did think the director created the right amount of intensity in this full movie chase. The most insightful scene to mark Jack and Annie’s relationship was when Annie, being sad and unhappy, tells Jack that she cannot help him feel better about their being away from their Austin home.

Wilson was good, although there were a couple of moments, I sensed his laissez faire persona creep through. Bell was superb. I thought she held the film together. Jerins and Geare were really good and realistic in their roles. Brosnan was amusing in his role and it worked. John Erick and Drew Dowdle wrote the script. As previously mentioned, I thought there were strong points and some missing background. John Erick Dowdle directed this films and given the probable limited budget did a great job of creating intensity.

Overall:  The film was entertaining and Bell was the strongest of the characters.

Meru

First Hit:  Extraordinary film about an amazing, heartfelt adventure of perseverance, courage, and fortitude.

Conrad Aker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk share their amazing story of how they came together to tackle, twice, the famed shark finned peak called Meru in North India.

The film effectively documents, each of their separate paths to work through their fears while challenging their physical abilities to tackle the steep ice covered path they created leading to the final shear smooth granite face, edge to the summit.

You will be entranced when you see the avalanche that challenges Chin, or the fall that tests Renan’s ability to rehab back into shape. Their friendship and trust permeates this film just as their trek will transfix you.

The photography, mostly by Chin, is absolutely superlative. Knowing that he and Ozturk filmed this adventure while attempting to complete a climb that has never been done before is truly outer worldly.

Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi did an astonishing job of directing and editing this historical footage.

Overall:  What a story.

The Diary of a Teenage Girl

First Hit:  Great view of the 70’s and how one young girl grows through her budding sexuality.

The late 1960’ through the mid-late 1970’s were ripe with open sexuality and drug use. This film captures the mood and feeling of this era with some spot on dialogue, scenes and cinema-graphic feel.

The story is about a young girl, Minnie (Bel Powley), who wants to be touched, love and be loved. Her father Pascal (Christopher Meloni) is long out of the picture and his former wife Charlotte (Kristen Wiig) lives the life of partying with drugs and drink. Minnie’s younger sister Gretel (Abby Watt) and she lead their own lives although they are just teenagers.

Charlotte's boyfriend, joining her in this chosen lifestyle, is a vitamin pill producer named Monroe (Alexander Skarsgard). When Monroe makes slight advances towards Minnie, she responds with enthusiasm and their affair starts. Minnie likes her budding sexuality and her sex with Monroe becomes her life's focus. Monroe just cannot seem to help himself around Minnie.

She documents this new adventure and change in her life by drawing cartoons in her notebook and recording her thoughts on cassette tapes. When her mom finds out what has happened, the expected blowup transpired and then takes some odd turns. Minnie works through her pain in her own way. What struck me about the film was the way it was shot.

The director and cinematographer, really captured the way films looked back in the 1970’s. The strengths of the performances effectively carried the theme and attitudes of the era.

Powley was fantastic as the girl looking for love and affection. She created a strong feeling of young angst while also displaying the ability to grow into a new level of maturity. Wiig was strong as a mother of the 70’s. She was able to exemplify the sense of the era. I know because I was a young father in the 70’s as well. Skarsgard was very good as the guy who couldn’t help himself around the young sexually charged Minnie. Watt was perfect as the annoying, yet loving, sister. Meloni was effective as the guilt-ridden intellectual absent father. Marielle Heller wrote a strong script displaying a great feel for the era as well as Minnie’s view of the world. In her direction, Heller did a great job of creating a perfect sense and feel of the times.

Overall:  Although a difficult film to watch, the strong story makes up for it.