Suffragette

First Hit:  Just before the final credits roll, the audience gets a strong message about just how difficult it has been for women to have a voice in the country they live.

This story takes place in Britain, but when the end of the film comes, it is a testament to every woman in every country in the world.

In the US women didn’t get to vote until 1920. In Switzerland 1971. And there are many countries that women do not have the right to vote. It is one of the primary downsides of Muslim countries and some interpretations of Islamic law – women who make half the world’s population had little say in the way the world is run. It makes me incredibly sad, filled with disappointment and to me shocking that although we can make huge forward leaps in the world technology, we have silenced so many people by not giving them a voice in how the world is run.

The Suffragette movement in Britain was an underground affair where women would meet, with the support of a few men, in clandestine ways to organize marches and protests against the English government. Leading this movement is Emmeline Pankhurst (Meryl Streep) who in a couple of scenes sets the tone for the real foot soldiers, Edith Ellyn (Helena Bonham Carter), Violet Miller (Anne-Marie Duff), and Maud Watts (Carrie Mulligan). Watts has a young boy and she’s worked at a laundry company her whole life. She tries to stay out of trouble, but as her bravery begins to grow with the injustice she sees around her, she ends up being one of the stronger voices and leaders of this group of women trying to make a change.

The cost is high. Men run the country and families and she loses her son to her husband who then sends the boy off with another family. She’s living in the street, family gone, but sees that this is the only path for her – getting the vote, and getting more say in her life and country.

The dialogue is very strong and many of the scenes/sets are perfectly attuned to the time and feeling of this darkness coming to light.

Mulligan is terrific. She is believable and carries the inner strength needed to make her choices congruent with the part through and through. This is a wonderful role for her. Duff is equally strong as a woman having to also make hard choices, especially when she becomes pregnant again. Carter is very strong as a medical practitioner, who uses her connections and supportive husband to keep the movement going. Finbar Lynch as Carter’s husband Hugh is incredibly wonderful in his very subdued background supportive role. Abi Morgan wrote a great script which evoked strength and fear in strong reflective ways. Sarah Gavron had excellent control of the script and subject. She made this come alive in an intelligent manner.

Overall:  The film was very good, but when the list of countries appeared on the screen listing the years they gave women the vote, it put a very loud and strong exclamation point on the subject.

Room

First Hit:  A dark dialogue rich film with outstanding acting that portrays the inside horror of being held captive.

Ma (Brie Larson) is living in a soundproof shed and is being held captive there by “Old Nick” (Sean Bridgers).

She’s been held there for 7 years and has a 5 year old boy, fathered by Nick, named Jack (Jacob Tremblay). He has lived his whole life in the “Room” with Ma who has done her best to raise Jack. He knows little of the outside world but after turning 5, Ma begins to tell him what the world is really like outside the Room.

Jack is upset and wants to believe the stories Ma had previously told him about outside the Room. As Ma becomes more determined to find a way get Jack out of the room she comes up with a risky plan to fake Jack's death.

The remaining part of the film is about their adjustments to the real world. The inquisitive press, Ma’s rejection by her father, and Jack’s struggle to engage with all that the world outside the Room offers. The questions by the press push Ma into a deep depression because they intimate that she kept Jack as a way to save herself by not thinking of Jack’s well-being.

This is complex film and the acting by Tremblay is amazing and superb. The filmmaker did a great job of creating a sense of wonder through Jack as he sees the world outside the room for the first time.

Larson is very, very strong and deserves a lot of credit for making this film work. Tremblay is sublime. His slow transition from captive boy with a limited view of the world to engaged boy with an understanding of the world around him is fantastic. His ability to say goodbye to the “Room” was extraordinary. Joan Allen (as Ma’s mother Nancy) was very good. Emma Donoghue wrote a very strong script that felt very realistic. Lenny Abrahamson did an excellent job of directing the actors and creating scenes that felt true – especially the scene where Jack escapes in front of the man with the dog – the confusion, fear and concern were perfectly executed.

Overall:  This is a dark film and afterward I couldn’t help but think about the captured and imprisoned women we’ve read about in the last few years.

The Peanuts Movie - 3D

First Hit:  Uninspired and the saving grace is Snoopy and the scenes of his saving Fifi and fighting the Red Baron.

I’m not sure if it is my age or if this story is simply uninspired. Gaging by the young children around me in the theater, and the lack of excited engaged noise from them, I may not have been the only one who found this unimaginative.

The fun and amusing parts were Snoopy and his bird buddies because their scenes became the only laugh-out-loud segments. Yes the moral of Charlie Brown’s story was to speak up and talk to the Red Haired girl, but this story has been told before and lacked engagement.

Bryan Schulz wrote this script from Charles Schulz’ comic strips. Steve Martino directed this somewhat tired story which we know all too well.

Overall:  This felt like a upgraded retread of the same old story.

Spectre

First Hit:  Liked the opening scenes, absolutely cringed at the overblown banal opening credits and, while this film was generally more serious and less tongue-in-cheek as the original Bond films, it works well enough.

Bond (Daniel Craig) is working on his own. He’s working from a brief video clip clue from his now deceased boss “M” (Judi Dench). With this clue he’s off to find and eliminate the core of the problem that is haunting the MI-6 team while his current boss “M” (Ralph Fiennes) is not supporting him – officially.

The double “0” form of fighting crime is being phased out according to “C” (Andrew Scott) with new technology which is being created and financed by the guy Bond is after; the wickedly sarcastic and masochistic Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz). Supporting Bond in is mission are “Q” (Ben Whishaw), Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and a reluctant Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux).

The film is a travelogue, going to many different countries and climates with Bond nattily dress for each place and occasion. The beauty and intensity of the various venues were expertly caught and this really adds to the film. However, one of the hallmark behaviors of the early bond films was an underlying level of tongue-in-cheek comments by Bond and the other characters that kept the audience bemused while watching violent struggles, things being blown up, and people being shot; were few and far between.

Craig is great as Bond mainly because he carries intensity, physicality, and intelligence, all wrapped up in one package. Waltz is playing the same type of character he’s played in other films. He does this role well but it doesn’t bode well when the audience isn’t surprised by the villain. Whishaw is really wonderful in his smallish role as "Q" (Quartermaster). It is nice to see his role expanded even as the technology he presents becomes more interesting. Harris is very cool and centering as Moneypenny. Fiennes role grows as the film reaches its conclusion and it helps the film. Seydoux is very good as someone who reluctantly ends up being protected by Bond and as a love interest. Scott is strong as the arrogant young tech savvy guy that lacks experience. John Logan and Neil Purvis wrote this slightly over complicated script. Sam Mendes did a wonderful job of putting Bond in great scenes and venues and making the script work.

Overall:  This film, although good, seems to stray from past unconvincingly.

Taxi

First Hit:  Interestingly odd film by a filmmaker who is not allowed to make films in his country.

Jafar Panahi is an Iranian filmmaker who is banned from making films by his government. What the audience sees is film about the people who come into his taxi.

These people bring different social situations into the cab, share them and either get dropped off or transferred to another taxi. Part of the film is genius in showing how life is in Iran and also the repression of his art.

His passengers include a thief and an intelligent woman discussing a subject, a man who deals in bootlegged DVDs, a couple where the husband is hurt and the woman will lose everything to his family if he dies so she wants a testament that she gets everything, superstitious women carrying live fish to a sacred stream, his niece who wants to make a film but cannot show the one she’s made because a boy did not follow the religious laws of the country, and so on.

Although at times the voices and their intensity were grating (except his) at other times we are treated to interesting dialogue all while driving through the streets of Tehran.

Jafar Panahi is the only credit on the film and he’s interesting and very centered despite the chaos around him.

Overall:  The pros definitely outweigh the cons.