Breaking In

First Hit: The best part of the film was that the mother won.

As a suspense film it wasn’t great, however it definitely kept my interest and despite knowing the ending, Shaun Russell (Gabrielle Union) as the main character, gave the audience great intensity.

Shaun’s father Issac (Damien Leake), is a wealthy man who was being indicted in federal court for theft. Out for a run before going to court, he is killed by a truck driven by Sam (Levi Meaden).

Shaun, with her children Jasmine and Glover (Ajiona Alexus and Seth Carr respectively) go out to Issac’s country mansion to clean it up and removed things she may want before she sells it. This house is huge, far from the city and neighbors, and very high-tech.

However, upon reaching the house she suspects that something is wrong and soon finds out that four men are in the house looking for a safe. The killing of Issac, we learn, was planned so that Eddie (Billy Burke), Duncan (Richard Cabral), Peter (Mark Furze), and Sam could rob the home.

To leverage their power over Shaun, the leader Eddie, has the other 3 capture and hold her two children as hostages. The thieves’ hope is to leverage holding her children hostage for knowledge about the location of the safe.

There are several scenes where Shaun gets the better of her children’s’ captors. What didn’t work very well was Sam. In his role, although he tried to sound in control and menacing to both his work team and Shaun, there was a lack of strength and surety of his character. In other words he wasn't quite believable.

I think the house could have been used more as a character than it was. The amount of high-tech in the house and using it to trick or thwart the robbers could have made it more interesting, especially if the kids took control. They did a couple of times, but not enough to make it really stand out.

Union was strong as the mother you didn’t want to cross. She showed athleticism as well and intuitive intelligence in this role. Meaden was very good as the semi-reluctant thief although the idea to rob this home was originally his. Alexus and Carr were excellent as the children. They both created age appropriate interests and actions and the right amount of duress. Burke was good but there was one point in the film, I wondered why the other thieves didn’t just kill him and take over the robbery. Cabral was the best of the thieves. He show immense intimidating intensity. Furze had the smallest robber role and it was OK. Ryan Engle wrote a good script but, as I said, I would have like a better group of thieves and the house could have used more. James McTeigue did a good job of directing the actors in this script. It lacked a certain creativeness, but the film worked.

Overall: I like when the main character is rightfully and clearly driven to save the day, that it was a woman, a mother, made it better.

Tully

First Hit: I was genuinely surprised by the ending of this powerful film about motherhood.

Marlo (Charlize Theron) is 9 months pregnant, mother of two other children Emmy (Maddie Dixon-Poirer) and Jonah (Asher Miles Fallica), and wife to Craig (Mark Duplass). The family home is rather chaotic and stems, in-part, because of Jonah’s “quirky” presence and because motherhood has wiped her out and taken her spirit.

Craig is a good husband, it is apparent that he loves his wife and does support the family process by doing their children’s homework with them and helping Marlo to make the children’s lunches. There is a scene towards the end of the film that shows this sweetness and togetherness.

Marlo’s brother Drew (Ron Livingston) has made it financially and as his new baby gift to his sister offers to pay for a night nanny to assist his worn-out sister.

She resists because she perceives that this will show weakness and a lack of ability. After the new baby arrives, her worn out life gets worse and there is little she can do given the pressure of Jonah’s school is asking her to remove Jonah because of his “quirky” behavior, along with trying to meet the new baby’s needs.

She resigns herself to making the call to a night nanny. Tully (Mackenzie Davis) arrives one evening with a bright open smile, lots of empathy, and skills far beyond her age of 26. Each evening Tully arrives and takes over the care of the new baby Mia. She brings Mia up to Marlo for the night feedings, sits and watches until the feeding is complete, and takes Mia back downstairs.

Tully, also cleans the house, bakes cupcakes and does lots of other things that release Marlo from the heaviness of raising a newborn at night. Because she’s now getting sleep, Marlo becomes more present and active with her children and starts to make elaborate meals for her family instead of the “frozen pizza” dinner she often throws down.

Tully and Marlo become friends and what they share together slowly reveals who Marlo is, who Tully is, and Marlo's love for Craig.

This film speaks directly and pointedly to the difficulties many women have being a mother. For this alone, many men need to see this film.

Theron is dynamic in this role. Not only did she put on about fifty pounds to make the role feel real for her and the audience, her embodiment of the frustration of raising children was spot on. Davis as Tully was amazing. I loved her joyful embrace of being an empathetic, smart, supportive nanny. Duplass was very good as the caring loving husband who needed to learn more about helping his wife. Dixon-Poirer was wonderful as the daughter. Her slow emerging as part of the family was great. Fallica was excellent as the quirky young boy. His ability to slowly evolve as Marlo evolves was perfect. Diablo Cody wrote an excellent script and the film’s direction by Jason Reitman made this story come alive through great acting.

Overall: I was truly moved by the representation of motherhood, family, and life as this film unfolded.

Disobedience

First Hit: Extremely well-acted film about how antiquated thinking can split families and a loving relationship.

Ronit Krushka (Rachel Weisz) is a photographer in New York City. As we meet her, she's photographing a tattooed man.

She suddenly has to leave New York and we see her as deeply anxious. She arrives in a small town Orthodox Jewish community in England because her father, Rabbi Rav Krushka (Anton Lesser) has died suddenly. She did not know he was ill with pneumonia. The mystery is set with this scene; as she enters Dovid and Esti Kuperman’s (Alessandro Nivola and Rachel McAdams respectively) home where they are honoring Rav’s death, there is a strong silent judgmental air as she enters the house and each room.

The way this movie is filmed, we see her both as slightly detached from the people around her and intensely engaged. There is a depth of sadness in her character.

There is an especially strong sense of a subject not discussed when Ronit and Esti are together. Dovid was Rav’s specially selected heir apparent to be head rabbi of the local temple. The audience slowly learns that Ronit’s absence and rejection by the community is partially due to a lesbian romance with Esti when they were very young.

Scene after scene the community rejects Ronit because of her past and their passive aggressive closed-minded behavior is a key subject of the film.

The stark, clean way this film is shot adds to its intense beauty. The slow building of the way we learn about their previous relationship, how the community saw this forbidden relationship, and how the love still burns for each of them is outstanding.

Although their hotel lovemaking scene is what is advertised, it’s the entire story around it that makes this scene and this film work.

This film also exposes the lack of acceptance of human love by her family and friends and the Orthodox Jewish community.

Weisz is amazing in this film. She is an incredibly strong actress and she puts herself into roles that challenge her and the role of women (think My Cousin Rachel and this film to name two) in their communities. McAdams is a revelation in this role. Her subtly in revealing her love in this film was fantastic. I loved how she fiddled with her wig as it showed a level of unsurity. Nivola was wonderful as the conflicted rabbi who loved his wife Esti, Ronit, and his Jewish faith. Sebastian Lelio and Rebecca Lenkiewicz wrote an detailed and effective screenplay that got to the spirit and heart of the matter is a wonderful way. Lelio had a clear vision in his direction of this story and cast. It was clean and was based on characters that had depth.

Overall: This is one of the best films this year.

Avengers: Infinity War

First Hit: Poorly conceived film because someone thought that putting every conceivable character under the sun into a single film was a good idea for a story.

Action for action’s sake is a waste of time because after a few minutes there’s no story to engage with and all the audience is doing is watching visual tricks on a screen. And, although I enjoyed the quips shared and pointed towards particular characters, in the end, it isn’t enough to make me want to recommend anything about this film.

I couldn't get into the plot of this film because there were so many small subplots and sidebars that I the real story became distractingly meaningless. However, my guess at the plot is: Thanos (Josh Brolin) was seeing his world fall apart because there were too many people, therefore by killing half the population in the universe, things will be peaceful and life would be able to support itself. The Avengers don't want this to happen.

To have the power to make this desire come true, Thanos needs six stones that are being held somewhere in the universe, a few of them are in possession of superheroes. So he goes about finding the stones and doing anything to get them.

To stop his quest, all the Avenger superheroes loosely come together to fight the good fight to defeat Thanos. Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Hulk/Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Captain America/Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), War Machine/James Rhodes (Don Cheadle), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Spider-Man/Peter Parker (Tom Holland), Black Panther/T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Nebula (Karen Gillan), and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) just to name some.

You can see from the above listing, along with another ten superheros, having this many characters makes for a confusing mess because each has to have their day in the story. This is exactly what we get - confusion.

Most all of the actors do their superhero thing and do it well enough. However, with everyone one splitting screen time and with minimal roles, it was difficult for anyone except Chris Pratt (As Star-Lord/Peter Quill), Downey, Hemsworth, and Cumberbatch to standout.  Ruffalo was also funny trying to turn into the Hulk. The rest was more like having them do cameos of their characters to show that everyone was onboard to fight Thanos. Brolin as Thanos was strong but it is hard to show the depth of character he was attempting give the audience through the heavy makeup. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeeely wrote an over ambitious screenplay that melted under the number of characters they had to bring in. Anthony and Joe Russo co-directed this mess and it showed. The use of effects was good, but effects to no make a film, characters do and shortchanging so many of them was its downfall.

Overall: I only went to this film because of the strong audience attendance and I cannot believe that the millions walked away satisfied.

Finding Your Feet

First Hit: A very inspirational, delightful and fun film.

Sandra (Imelda Staunton) is married to Mike (John Sessions) who has just received his MBE from the British Crown. They live in a big house and Sandra is a dutiful wife giving everything of herself to support her husband.

During a party she walks in on Mike making-out with their mutual friend Pamela (Josie Lawrence) and Mike tells her that they've had the affair going on for five years. Mike has no intention of stopping the affair.

Sandra walks out of the house and goes to her sister Bif's (Celia Imrie) flat which is in a very crowded common person's neighborhood. Bif is an adventurer. At about age 70, she takes dancing classes with others her age, rides a bike and goes swimming in a outdoor pond facility. Her flat is messy. Her life has been and is lived as fully as she can make it.

Sandra and Bif have not been in contact with each other for years and their two juxtaposed lifestyles make it difficult for them to live together, but gentle nudging from Bif and her friends, Charlie (Timothy Spall), Ted (David Hayman), and Jackie (Joanna Lumley), she begins to realize she's suppressed her life for Mike and slowly becomes more joyous and carefree.

At their mutual dance class, they learn new steps and put on a spontaneous mashup performance that gets filmed and goes viral. They get invited to Rome to perform.

After Bif passes away, Mike and Pamela break up and Mike realizes he misses what he had. He asks Sandra to come back into their home. She gives it a try, but the lessons she's learned about herself from her newfound friends require her step into her life and find her own feet.

Staunton is fantastic as a once brave woman re-finding her source of inspiration for living her life. Sessions is excellent as the stuffy brit who took advantage of his wife's loyalty and lived only for himself. Imrie was amazing as Sandra's sister Bif. Her edge was perfectly appropriate for the part. I loved her story about having only one love while they were in Rome.  Spall was sublime as the loyal husband who has a wife with alzheimer's. I loved how he got his van back when it was confiscated. Hayman was wonderful as one of the dance team and a close friend of Charlie. Lumley was great as one of the dance team and inspirational friend. Meg Leonard and Nick Moorcroft wrote and wonderfully touching script. Richard Loncraine did an excellent job of directing this ensemble of performers to deliver a wonderfully inspiring film.

Overall: This film was filled with emotion through endearing characters that most everyone could relate to.