Gifted

First Hit:  Well-acted story about love and doing the best for the ones you love. This film is about how one raises a child that is not your own, a genius,  while having a conflict with the biological family. It is also about ego and family.

Frank Adler (Chris Evans) is raising his sister’s daughter Mary (McKenna Grace). His sister committed suicide and as we learn later in the film, she may have run out of a purpose for living. Her purpose was solving a specific math theorem. How Frank ends up with Mary is slightly shrouded in mystery and begs the question; where's the biological father in all this?

Their mother Evelyn (Lindsay Duncan) is wealthy, smart on her own accord, and suddenly becomes interested in Mary, when it’s discovered that the young girl is also a genius.

Frank has help raising his niece. Roberta (Octavia Spencer) is a neighbor and loves Mary as her own. Mary spends Saturday nights with Roberta allowing Frank some space and relaxation from being a sudden father figure. Roberta also gives Frank child rearing guidance as well as an undying trusted friendship.

Frank’s history with his family comes to play when his mother attempts to take Mary away from him because she wants Mary to be schooled privately and then pushed into doing theoretical mathematics at MIT. However, Frank wants to fight to keep Mary because that is what his sister wanted. She wanted Mary to have a more normal life, not the kind of life she had and he agrees.

Helping both Frank and Mary is Mary’s school teacher Bonnie (Jenny Slate). Bonnie identified Mary’s potential and also saw the kindness in her heart. She helps Frank find a way to do what he needs to do.

Evans was excellent. To see him in this type of serious role showed me (and the audience) he’s more than Captain America. Grace was sublime. I loved watching her be both a fun-loving kid, as expressed when she lipped synced with Roberta, and as a smart kid who knows how compute complex mathematical formulas. Duncan was perfect as the wealthy overbearing controlling mother. Spencer was divine as Frank's close friend and part time baby sitter. Slate was very good and I really liked how she took it upon herself to help Frank find a way to make Mary’s transition work. Tom Flynn wrote a very strong script that reflected the different sides and issues well. Marc Webb did a nice job of staging the scenes and story.

Overall:  This was an engaging picture and I ended up liking the story.

Kedi

Overall:  I was very engaged for the first 45 minutes, but more of the same until the end made it less interesting. Cats rule the roost in Istanbul. This film documents these felines and how they do not belong to anyone. They choose their life and who they allow in it. We’ve got the loner who doesn’t like to be petted or go inside any place. To get food he scratches the window of the restaurant where he hangs out. Funny though the restaurant is one of the nicer, upper level restaurants; smart cat. There is the cat that is extremely tough and pounces on any cat that does something in its territory that it doesn’t like. We also follow the film's first cat who makes his way around town, getting food and attention and then ends up visiting a young woman's home.

Then there are the people of Istanbul who care about the cats. We’ve got the guy who had a debilitating stroke and medication wasn’t helping, but his attention to a group of cats has healed him from his blood pressure and finding his life is much more relaxed now that he’s taking care of a group of cats.

There is the woman and her mother who make twenty pounds of cut chicken every day to feed a group of cats that gather inside and outside her home. There is also the young woman who begins the film talking about the cat who makes her a semi-home way station. The cat comes into her home, gets a scratch or two, some loving, food and then heads back out into the streets.

No one really knows how the cats started ruling Istanbul, but it seems to touch men more profoundly than women but that could have just been the filmmakers point of view. I really liked the downlow cat height shots as the cats made their way through the city streets, alleys, rooftops, and the docks near the water. The shots of Istanbul were interesting and I would have liked a better orientation of this exotic ancient city.

Ceyda Torun did a very good job on many of the cinemograph shots of these cats and how they roam the city. However, after the first forty-five minutes, it felt like it was more of the same and the point seemed to be getting lost.

Overall:  It was interesting but more context would have helped.

Going in Style

Overall:  This film was enjoyable and its nice to see acting veterans ply their trade. Willie (Morgan Freeman), Joe (Michael Caine) and Albert (Alan Arkin) are three buddies who spent a lifetime working together in a manufacturing factory and live across the street from each other in Queens. They’ve all retired and are collecting their pensions.

However, the money flow has stopped and the bank wants to foreclose on Joe’s home. At the time, Joe’s daughter and granddaughter Brooklyn (Joey King) are living with him and he’s afraid to let them down as well as himself.

Albert and Willie are living together and have an interesting and supportive relationship. However Willie has a kidney problem that he’s not told his buddies’ about and he finds out that if he doesn’t get a transplant soon, he’s going to die soon.

They are all going broke so they decide to rob the very bank that has Joe’s mortgage and is managing the refinancing the sale and closure of the factory. They practice by robbing a local grocery store and it is hilarious. The stuffing of food in their jackets and pants followed by the getaway Joe and Willie make in an electric scooter and Al trying to out run a younger man lasting about 100 feet and gives up is very funny.

Donning Rat Pack masks they rob the bank of enough money to cover their pensions. Pursing them is FBI Special Agent Hammer (Matt Dillon) who suspects the three men and builds up a solid case. However, the guys have done their homework and have their stories and alibies down pat. The clincher comes during a line up when a little girl, who recognizes Willie, decides to protect him.

This film is about loyalty, connection, and family. To this end, it is very good as it has small side stories that make it work. There’s the story about how Willie gets his kidney, how the grumpy Albert gets involved with an admirer named Annie (Ann Margaret). The lodge buddy’s, Milton (Christopher Lloyd), odd view of the world. And finally, Jesus (John Ortiz) who shows these old guys the ropes to rob the bank.

Caine was wonderful, and my favorite scene was when he got angry and gave Jesus a piece of his mind. I could see the how Caine’s real and documented difficult scrappy upbringing was used to make this scene effective. I wouldn't want to mess with him. Freeman was gracefully effective as the selfless friend. He supports and takes care of Albert and doesn’t bother anyone with his critical kidney issue. He effectively portrayed his longing to see more of his daughter and granddaughter. Arkin is perfectly cast as the grumpy curmudgeon of the three. He’s the downer guy and doesn’t want his world mussed up much, however, when he’s in, he’s a force and gives it his all. Loved his interactions with Annie his admirer. King was fantastic as Joe’s granddaughter by being interesting, loving, and engaged making her grandfather proud. Margret was amazing as the woman who sees past Albert’s gruff exterior and wants to create something more. Ortiz was strong as the guy who teaches the “rat pack” how to rob the bank. Dillon was very good as the agent who knows who the robbers were and tries to build a case against them. Siobhan Fallon Hogan as Mitzi their favorite waitress was superb. She embodied the part perfectly. Theodore Melfi wrote a really good script and screenplay. Zach Braff had a great handle on the actors and screenplay. I think he knew exactly what he wanted and got everyone engaged to his vision.

Overall:  Although I think there could have been more laughs, this film was lighthearted and very enjoyable.

Song to Song

First Hit:  Although I’m generally a fan of Director Terrence Malik’s work, especially the visualizations, this film felt lifeless and unmoving all the way through. A Malik film like Knight of Cups, touched me deeply and at that moment, I think I’m aligned with Malik’s vision. However, other films he does I might end up liking the pictures and the theme is lost on me.

In this film, few of the pictures were good and I wondered what the point was. Could it have been that if one takes a bite of the apple (signed to a music record deal) then the world opens up. However it only seemed to opened up with increased opportunities for sexual encounters? If so, then I was left thinking; so what. If the point of the film was viewing how the music life in Austin (Malik went to school in Austin) exists and the people in it are just intimately experimenting with others, and they seem to live in a Song to Song way, then so what. I didn't get the point of the film.

Ryan Gosling plays BV who is a musician who gets signed to a record label run by Cook (Michael Fassbender) who is living the big life, filled with things, women, and connections with bands and rock stars. He's pulling the strings, at least around Austin. One of the women he’s linked with is Faye (Rooney Mara).

Faye meets BV at one of Cook’s parties and they begin to have a relationship. However, because they don’t tell each other the truth and they mostly live through their sexuality and what they can feel, the relationship gets convoluted. Faye still has sex with Cook and BV spends time with his old girlfriends Lykke (Lykke Li) and Amanda (Cate Blanchett).

Cook marries Rhonda (Natalie Portman) but has sex with Faye and Faye has sex with Zoey (Berenice Marlohe). There is a lot more of this that goes on in the film, but because it is a Malik film, it is very stylized, virtually no conversational dialogue, and it jumps from place and scene to a different place and scene frequently.

The pictures around Austin were nice and, to me, better than the actual place as I found it more Texan than shown here.

Gosling was good in many sections but the lack of story direction seemed to make him more lost than usual. Mara was one the better parts of this film. Her face and looks are so filled with questions, depth, and searching energy that it fit well in this film. Fassbender was good as the guy who liked money, power, and the things it allowed him to do. Portman was interesting as her intelligence and darkness shined through her scenes. Marlohe was OK as the attractive woman who seduced Faye. Blanchett was OK as this role didn’t really take advantage of her conversational abilities. Holly Hunter as Rhonda’s mom was intense. Malik did the screenplay and it would be interesting to see what it was and how he scripted the scenes. His direction was muddied if what he wanted was the audience to feel something.

Overall:  This film just didn’t work well for me and I found myself sitting there wondering when it would be over.

The Zookeeper's Wife

First Hit:  Very well made and crafted film that tells a compelling story. This story is impactful because of its significance in WWII. As Warsaw falls to Nazi Germany the Warsaw Zoo, being managed by Antonina and Jan Zabinski (Jessica Chastain and Johan Heldenbergh respectively) comes under the control of Lutz Heck (Daniel Bruhl) who was head of Berlin’s Zoo. However, now he’s under Hitler’s spell of supremacy.

The early scenes are set up to show just how much Antonina loves her animals. Later on we learn why she’s drawn to the animals and it solidifies the early part of the film. This is great direction of a strong script. The reaffirming of the story as it moves along.

Another time I thought this film did this well was when Jan and Antonina were lying in bed, and he subtly indicates that Antonina must really work her friendship with Heck to make their lives and the lives they want to save, easier. What is interesting is that I interpreted this to mean that she was given a level of freedom to use her sexuality. Antonina hears this as well, but when Heck washes her hands and Jan sees this, he gets really angry and she doesn’t understand why, she thought she was supposed to do this. This is great and interesting filmmaking.

The story is that after the Germans took and killed all their zoo animals for meat, Jan and Antonina started hiding young Jewish children and some adults in the basement area (some cages) below their home. They would then connect these people with others who were getting them out of the country or into other safe houses.

Jan would pick them up in trucks collecting food garbage from the ghetto Jewish area of the city, tuck people under the garbage and bring them into their home, feed them, supply them with legal paper forgeries and send them on their way. One day Jan sees two German soldiers sexually attack a young girl named Urszula (Shira Haas), so he gathers her up and takes her back to his house. She is in shock and with gentle kindness is slowly brought out of her shock by a rabbit, painting and other young children who are hiding out.

The story evolves to shortly after the war and with this ending, there is some happiness and of course sadness. The amazing thing is that they saved over 300 Jews from being shipped  to a concentration camp and their probable death.

Chastain was superb. She captured vulnerability, strength, and persistence. Her ability to hold and be Antonina’ heart was wonderful. Heldenbergh was amazing. His ability to be tough, yet have the kind of compassion he shows in this role is amazing. Bruhl was very strong in an unenviable role. He clearly carried the appropriate level of following orders. Haas was sublime. She was so strong and believable in this role that I couldn’t image it being done any better. Her evolution from shock to engaged with others was perfect. Val Maloku as Jan and Antonina’s son was excellent. The scene when Heck questions him in the kitchen was amazing. Angela Workman wrote an incredible screenplay from the true story by Diane Ackerman. Niki Caro did an amazing job of directing this film and telling this story.

Overall:  Seeing the trailers, I didn’t really expect to like this film, however, I was deeply touched by the story and the way it was delivered.