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Dallas Movie Screenings started out as a mailing list on Yahoo Groups to facilitate finding free screening passes in the DFW area. When Yahoo Groups shut down, we are now posting screenings on our Facebook page at http://www..facebook.com/groups/dallasmoviescreenings
Earlier Reesa's Reviews can also be found at:http://www.moviegeekfeed.com
You know that it's gonna be a crazy crowded screening for Thor. Please be mindful and cooperative. Passes became available and were quickly redeemed. If you can't use your pass, please offer it to someone in the group, but y'all will have to respond directly to the person offering.
It's chilly out there. Dress warm, drive carefully and go get your flu shots.
Not too many movie for November so far. I'll be offline for a couple days while my internet provider is being switched out. So I would appreciate it if you would all keep an eye out for screenings and post them to the group, to Facebook/Twitter sites.
Of course, we all know That Scene in Psycho. The apparent protagonist of the 1960 film, played by Janet Leigh, is stabbed to death in the shower seemingly minutes before achieving peaceful freedom. 78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene breaks down the sequence in a startlingly intimate fashion, then examines the influences that led to it and the influence it had on other films in what would become the slasher genre. Director Alexandre O. Philippe’s film does all this by way of talking head interviews, and the thought process here comes, almost subconsciously, in three waves.
First there is the sequence itself, and the discussion of the mechanics that Alfred Hitchcock, whose career of being fascinated by such mechanics and the setting of a place of privacy (the bathroom, featured in many of his early works, particularly 1927’s The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog) used to achieve it is fascinating. Leigh’s body double, Marli Renfro, discusses the watered-down chocolate syrup poured onto her body, the shots spliced and the images in black-and-white cinematography partly to conceal the limited budget with which Hitchcock was working. There’s the act of splicing itself, a montage approach directly inspired by the innovations of filmmakers like Sergei Eisenstein, that would heighten the unreality of the sequence as it played out.
Hitchcock was working with all of the elements that contemporary filmmakers were avoiding. Shot continuity was intentionally staggered, again to heighten the sense of terror in the sequence as the stand-in for Anthony Perkins, as the main antagonist, approaches the shower curtain behind which Leigh and/or her own stand-in awaits. Violence in movies until this point was often obscured or dumbed down by over-acting, and sexual perversion, which pervaded the narrative (both of Hitchcock’s film and the novel by Robert Bloch on which it was based), had not been handled with such forthrightness since the pre-Code era in Hollywood.
Psycho, the film and its interview subjects suggest, signaled a change in all of that, which brings us to the second wave of thought in Philippe’s documentary. If it wasn’t the first film in the so-called “slasher” subgenre of horror, it certainly and immediately popularized the trend: Within twenty years, the Halloween franchise, jumpstarting the career of Leigh’s daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, as a “scream queen” herself, would take Hollywood by storm, and later, franchises like Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street and filmmakers like John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper, and Wes Craven would owe their careers to the influence of the “Master of Suspense.” Even Martin Scorsese would go on to emulate the shower scene’s technical details in the infamous boxing match in 1980’s Raging Bull.
The talk is fascinating, though the final wave of thought might be its biggest stretch. Philippe and a handful of his subjects for interview go further than tracking its influences to hypothesize that, by virtue of being released in the first year of a tumultuous decade that would see the Civil Rights Era and the sexual revolution, helped to clear the logjam in the path toward that progress. It’s a neat idea, but Philippe doesn’t fully explore it (In any case, it covers a lot of ground in ninety minutes). Still, 78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene is a neat little peek into a slice of film history, and there’s always worth in such a thing.
(Review by Joel Copling)
The Killing of all your Visual and Auditory Senses…in a Good Way
Title: The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Rating: R for Disturbing Violent and Sexual Content, Some Graphic Nudity and Language
Run Time: 2hr & 1min
Joel’s Review
*** (out of ****)
One regards The Killing of a Sacred Deer with befuddled bemusement. That shouldn’t be a huge surprise, though, because this is the latest film from Yorgos Lanthimos, a director whose interests are firmly in placing a work of macabre awkwardness in front of an unwitting audience. The central plot seems to exist in the film’s world, which seems to be but a facsimile of our own. That closed world impacts the interaction between the people, who are caught within it like rats in a maze: Their speech is strangely formal, and their inflection is just as oddly mannered.
The intention is to shock, but there’s a flat, morbid irony to the method. The opening sequence rather literalizes this concept: The first shot is of the open-heart surgery of a patient. We get an extreme close-up of the organ as it pumps blood to the proper places and as those performing the operation begin to close. Then we cut to a banal conversation between the doctors who just performed it. Matthew (Bill Camp), the anesthesiologist, has just gotten a new watch. Steven (Colin Farrell), the surgeon, has been wanting a new watch for a while.
The two discuss the depths at which the watches will stay underwater, compare the practicalities of leather vs. metal in the watch bands, and agree to set up a meeting between Steven and the man who sold Matthew his watch. The conversation isn’t all that engaging, to be frank, but it’s the way in which Lanthimos and cinematographer Thimios Bakatakis capture the conversation as a lengthy one-take backward through the hallway of the hospital that ends up symbolizing a greater deal about the movie that one might anticipate, especially since the close-up of the surgery includes a slow pull-back on the camera’s part.
There are very few instances in which the camera doesn’t pull back in Lanthimos’ film, which is as difficult pin down as an experience as it is to summarize on a narrative level without making it sound more impenetrable than it actually is. The relevant details reveal themselves slowly in the screenplay by Lanthimos and co-screenwriter Efthymis Filippou: Two relationships are central here. One is between Steven and his family. Anna (Nicole Kidman), his wife, is a clinician, currently renovating her office. Their children are Kim (Raffey Cassidy), an aspiring singer, and Bob (Sunny Suljic), a budding pianist. They feel like a unit through a quartet of strong performances (particularly from Kidman as the character begins to unravel), although they have their quirks, including an openness in intimate behavior and conversations that could be called unseemly.
The other relationship is between Steven and 16-year-old Martin (Barry Keoghan, eerie in a cautiously modulated performance that uses the actor’s gaunt features very well), who is the son of a former patient of Steven’s who died on the operating table. The nature of this relationship, at the beginning, is complicated by an insistence, on Martin’s part, on regular meetings between the two. Those meetings become more and more intrusive, as Martin shows up at Steven’s work uninvited, invites him to dinner (where Martin’s mother, played by Alicia Silverstone, takes too kindly to Steven’s presence), and demands the sort of intimacy that Steven shares only with his family (This includes an exchange of gifts and a punctuality, which, if he does not meet it, indicates a kind of betrayal).
We think we know where this is going, but we do not. Even after the plot shifts inexorably toward a situation laden with doom, it isn’t quite clear what Martin’s role is here. Admittedly, as the film’s final movements are completed, ending in a perverse kind of sacrifice, the opacity of the film’s treatment of the climax is frustrating. It elicits yet more of that befuddled bemusement and certainly presents a twist on expectations, even those that one might have formulated as the event draws nearer. Frustration and bemusement are just two of the emotions elicited here, though: The Killing of a Sacred Deer also inspires intrigue, confusion, the inability to deny its impact, and, above all, appreciation of its craft.
(Review by Joel Copling)
It all Boils Down to Liking the Main Characters. By the Way, They’re Two Serial Killer High School Seniors with a Splash of Narcissism
Title: Tragedy Girls
Rating: R for Strong Bloody Horror Violence, and Language including Some Sexual References
Run Time: Ihr & 38min
Joel’s Review
*½ (out of ****)
One’s enjoyment of Tragedy Girls will measure in direct proportion to one’s ability to tolerate its pair of protagonists. They are two girls who would be the villains of any other piece but who, according to screenwriters Tyler MacIntyre (who also directed the film) and Chris Lee Hill, adapting an original screenplay of the same name by Justin Olson, are deserving of sympathy as antiheroines here. The set-up to the joke at the center of that screenplay is that McKayla (Alexandra Shipp) and Sadie (Brianna Hildebrand) are fascinated by all things serial killers.
There is, of course, nothing wrong with this particular shared interest. This writer admits to a similar fascination, particularly as it pertains to children even younger than these two committing such atrocities, although he certainly wouldn’t channel that interest in a way that reflects the actions of these young women. That leads us to the punch line of the central joke: The girls have been killing people around town, then using the mysterious disappearances as fodder for their video blog, which shares the name of the movie. It isn’t much of a joke, obviously.
The film opens with their first of such killings, in which some poor high-schooler, who has a crush on one of them, discovers the dangers of having that crush in the form of a machete to the face. Yes, the killings here are, in theory, brutal, though really, they’re just grotesque: The school bully (played by Savannah Jayde) has her head sliced open with a table saw in the school’s craft room and then is dismembered, the pieces of her body placed as a showcase for a traumatized schoolgirl to find the next morning (There is an admittedly amusing moment when the school janitor intrudes upon the dismemberment process, only to pay no mind to anything but his whistling and his work).
The plot, whatever that may be, regards the girls’ activity as their involvement gets closer and closer to public knowledge. That involves the kidnapping and imprisonment of the town’s actual serial killer (played by Kevin Durand), to whom they show affection even while applying a Taser to his neck and torturing him for the fun of it. The wrench in the works is Sadie’s developing crush on Jordan (Jack Quaid), the son of the town sheriff (played by Timothy V. Murphy), whose tragic past unexpectedly ties in the current goings-on. A rift between McKayla and Sadie settles in when the latter saves someone’s life and turns the tide of their video blog away from sadism and death.
The film’s emotional core, if it even has one, is twisted further into something repellant by a sudden turn toward demented moralizing in the final twenty minutes. The girls certainly achieve the fame for which they created their video blog, but they’ve forfeited their soul in the process (The bit of context we gain into a past that informs this present only makes it worse, given the acts of cruelty that follow and undermine it). Tragedy Girls is an ugly movie, featuring performances from Shipp and Hildebrand that certainly commit the characters’ depravity. That we catch a glimpse of Edmund Kemper among the collage of admired serial killers says everything we need to know, really.
(Review by Joel Copling)
The 2013 nonfiction book by David Finkel, follows several members of the 2-16 Infantry Battalion after they return home from Baghdad in 2008 is the basis of the directorial debut of Jason Hall who also wrote the screenplay. Hall, who wrote the screenplay for Clint Eastwood's American Sniper, explores from the soldiers perspective as try to fit into their old lives and families after everything they experienced. Many films have been made about the traumatized veterans, but this film really gets the different levels of PTSD and how the people at home react to it.
Miles Teller plays Sergeant Adam Schumann who after three tours is coming home for good to his wife Saskia (Haley Bennett) and his two small children. Adam is traveling with his two squad members, Tausolo Aieti (Beulah Koale), and Will Waller (Joe Cole). Amanda Doster (Amy Schumer) confronts Adam at the airport wanting to know how her husband James (Brad Beyer) was killed. Adam says he wasn't there, but he's clearly avoiding her question. Adam is tightly controlled. He was considered to be the best at finding at finding bombs and always rode lead shotgun on their missions. The last two events in Iraq really shook him up, but he bottles it inside, leaving him with nightmares and hallucinations. His wife sincerely tries to get him to talk about it, but he won't.
Waller returns home to his fiance and child and finds his apartment is cleared out. His girlfriend won't answer her phone. The only thing he could talk about in Iraq was coming home and getting married But now she is gone without a word. When he confronts her at her work place, she refuses to talk to him about it, just saying he was gone to long. Waller's mother at Will's funeral gives Adam the name of a facility in California that treats returning soldiers for PTSD where she was going to send Will.
Meanwhile "Solo", an American Samoa who says the Army saved his life, finds out he's suffering from a severe concussion syndrome that will prevent him from going back for another tour. He is having trouble remember things. On top of that his wife Alea (Keisha Castle-Hughes) is pregnant. One night while Adam and Solo go hunting, they realize that they are hanging by a thread and they need help. Adam and Solo decide to go to the Department of Veterans Affairs to finally get help. The bureaucracy of the VA is backed up for months leaving vets that are really in dire needs to their own devices. Filling out the questionnaire about their experiences terrifies them with the memories. They both start making bad decisions.
Koale is a stand out as Solo. His haunted eyes reflect the tenuous hold on his reality. Teller, who has been impressing the world with roles in Whiplash and Bleed For This, does an excellent dramatic turn as Adam. You can see the torment in his eyes and just as quickly he slips into a stoic countenance. Their brotherhood had been forged in the fire of battle, the death of their friends, and the guilt that only each other can comprehend.
During the Vietnam war the country was united in protesting sending their reluctant draftee young men to fight in the horrible conflict.
Returning soldiers, then as in now, are faced with the misunderstanding of their family and neighbors, a mental health care system that is overwhelmed with the number of cases and no career track when they come home. This country has been in war so long, that our daily American lives seem isolated and unaffected by the sacrifices made by the men and women in our all volunteer armed services. We see a person in uniform we automatically thank them for their service. This movie shows that we have to do better by them after all they gave it all for us.
(Review by reesa)
Director Todd Haynes' dovetailing story of two twelve year olds who exist fifty years apart is sometimes hard to grasp what they have to do with each other. But as the movie progresses, you can't help feel caught up in their stories and ultimately feel satisfied as they gel together in the end. Based on the 2011 juvenile graphic novel Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick who also adapted the novel into a screenplay. Todd Haynes who did the Oscar nominated Carol, has created what may be the most mainstream movie of his work.
Oakes Fegley plays Ben who in 1977 lives in Gunflint Lake, Minnesota. The son of a single mother (Michelle Williams), the town librarian, he often asked about this father. She never gets around to telling him when she dies in a car accident. He's now living with his Aunt and her family. One night, going through his mother's stuff, he finds a bookmark in a special book called Wonderstruck which is about being a museum curator. The bookmark is a message to his mom, from whom he presumes to be his father asking her to meet him at a bookstore in New York called Kincaid's. When he attempts to call the bookstore, the phone line is hit by lightening and he loses his hearing. Obviously freaked out, Ben is spurred to head to New York to find the bookstore.
In 1927 New Jersey, Rose (Millicent Simmonds, who is actually deaf) lives with her businessman father who throws her book on lip reading. He doesn't have to time and patience to communicate with his daughter. He plans to bring in a special tutor for her. Rose is a fan girl of Lillian Mayhew (Julianne Moore), a stage and silent screen actress. Rose is mesmerized by her, enraptured by her performance which in it's over done pantomime of the medium speaks volumes to her. Rose who fills her room with pictures of Lillian, and paper folded cityscapes, discovers Lillian will be on the stage in New York. She decides to venture to the big city to see her in person.
Each timeline is gorgeously dressed to reflect the style and feeling of their eras. The past is shot in black and white, and 1977 is in disco colored city streets. Their stories intersect as the two go seeking their desires. Rose finally meets Lillian who turns out to be her mother. Lillian locks her in her dressing room so she can send her back to New Jersey. So she escapes out the window and searches for her brother Walter who works at the Museum of Natural History. Meanwhile, Ben, who had his wallet stolen, finds the bookstore that is now closed. He can't hear when a young kid tell him that the store has moved. So he follows him to the museum where his father works. Jamie (Jaden Michael) shows Ben his secret closet where he hangs out. There are meaningful coincidences that happen as each child explores the museum culminating in the discovery of the Wonderstuck cabinet of collections.
The last chapter resolves those coincidences and if you haven't figured everything out by then, it spells it out. It's a movie for kids afterall so they need to make it clear. The Wonderstruck cabinet doesn't really figure in the story except being a clue to bring the characters together. The performances are all wonderful, and the movie is a visual delight. The children despite their hearing deficits are not limited in their experiences. But the real star is the museum. And if nothing else it will encourage people to explore the beauty and knowledge offered by these informative institutions.
(Review by reesa)
After the plethora of movies last week, there's not much happening and it's not even a holiday! The State Fair of Texas is over now, hope y'all went and had a good time. At least the weather is getting nice again.
It's gonna be nuts trying to get those Thor passes. As soon as they are announced, they are gone. You may want to actually shell out for this one and avoid the line. So folks keep your begging to a minimum.
October 22 - October 28
Mon - Oct 23
Suburbicon - 7:30 pm - AMC Northpark
Tue - Oct 24
Suburbicon - 7:30 pm - Cinemark 17
Thank You For Your Service - 7:30 pm - Angelika Dallas
TAKE EVERY WAVE: THE LIFE OF LAIRD HAMILTON
*** (out of ****)
As far back as he can remember, Laird Hamilton always wanted to be a surfer. For him, there was something spiritual that drew him to the water – something elemental. Perhaps it was the cleansing effect of the water, or perhaps it wasn’t as complicated as that. Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton, director Rory Kennedy’s surprisingly comprehensive documentary, takes us from the pro surfer’s introduction to the sport at a young age to where he is now, resting amid fame and notoriety as a giant in the sport he loves. Some opening audio clips, broken and strung together at lightning speed, present a litany of descriptions of the man. Sticking out among a lot of positivity: “incorrigible.”
Kennedy, wisely, does not approach her subject with empty hagiography. This is not a PowerPoint slideshow of Hamilton’s career to this point, nor is it a study in the man’s greatness that shies away from his ego. We get a sense of Hamilton’s entire personality, which has, fortunately, been directed toward a positive energy until now. He reminisces a lot to Kennedy’s camera here, and the conversation is surprisingly engaging. Hamilton makes for a willing witness to his own life, and that’s really the best way to put it: He’s been a witness as much as anyone.
Much of his success, for instance, is either by accident or by a natural disposition toward the sport of surfing, in which he never intended to go professional. A mentor from his childhood noticed something in him and offered to give him lessons one day. That would be the kernel of a motivation that got him in the water, and his eventual career would be spotted with attempts to ride the really tough waves – the ones that no one else would dare to attempt. One such attempt goes horribly wrong when the skin on a fellow surfer’s legs is chafed right off during the wane of one, particularly strong wave.
In other words, Hamilton’s ambition could easily have been confused for obsession. His reaction to failure regularly ended up actualizing itself in his behavior, which alienated him from his first wife and, after one such failure, threatened the stability of his second marriage almost to the point of divorce. The man fully accepts this about himself, and most importantly, so does the film. One does get the feeling with Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton that Kennedy is honey-glazing the surf culture in which her subject grew up. Where it counts, though, the film understands that subject.
(Review by Joel Copling)
Reel Time with Joel and Chase
A Wonderful View from a Child’s Eyes and the Harsh Reality Through an Adults. Also, It Just Happens to Have One of the Best Child Performances. Period.
Title: The Florida Project
Rating: R for Language Throughout, Disturbing Behavior, Sexual References and Some Drug Material
Run Time: Ihr & 55min
Joel’s Review
**** (out of ****)
It would be going the easy route for The Florida Project to wallow in the despair that exists at the edges of the frame, but co-writer/director Sean Baker is smarter than that. This is a film about childhood that happens to have a backdrop of deepest poverty. The residents of the “purple place,” as it is known to the children, have made the hotel (which is actually called the Magic Castle and rests roughly a hundred meters from a certain entertainment complex in Orlando) a kind of settlement. It’s a den for the underprivileged, but this is all our young heroine knows in life. The “purple place” might as well be her entire world. What does it matter that this is no place for her to grow up?
Bobby (Willem Dafoe), the manager, is a kind man with a specific set of rules that he enforces with a firm grip on the shoulder while escorting you off the premises, if necessary. The rate per night becomes weekly rent for those who take up residence in his rooms, and he isn’t afraid to “evict” those whom he does not trust to pay their share. His bond with customers is almost always strictly businesslike, but he has developed, perhaps unbeknownst even to him, a fatherly affection for the children of his customers: His ejection in one, particularly tense scene of a potential sex offender preying on the children is as much a decision for the safety of his residence as it is a movement to protect the kids.
The story, such as it is, follows the adventures had by Moonee (Brooklynn Kimberly Prince) and her friends Scooty (Christopher Rivera), Dicky (Aiden Malik), and, after a game of spitting on her mother’s car, Jancey (Valeria Cotto), who resides in a neighboring hotel. One of the other three eventually moves out, leaving the other two to accompany Moonee through a tour of poverty in the miniaturized bubble of the hotel itself. Moonee’s mother Halley (Bria Vinaite) loses her job as an exotic dancer and enters a life of hustling for the cash that can keep a roof over her head. Eventually, she must bed men to make the cash.
In an astonishing coup, Baker and co-screenwriter Chris Bergoch manage to find the joy in this setting. Perhaps the reason is tied to the film’s perspective, which is that of young Moonee. Everything receives the gloss of a childlike innocence, yet the gravity of these kids’ situation, confronted directly by a climax that also confronts the end of such innocence, is never ignored or evaded. Prince, in her film debut, is a magnificent presence in the kind of turn that should be undone by precociousness but is instead remarkably natural, and Vinaite finds the grey morality in a mother that toes the line between negligence and unconditional love.
Baker, as in his previous film (2015’s endlessly sympathetic and similarly joyous-when-it-could-be-despairing Tangerine), casts familiar faces, like Dafoe (marvelously cast against-type as a man in control of unpredictable elements), Caleb Landry Jones (who appears in a pair of scenes as Bobby’s son), and Macon Blair (as a man from whom Halley steals, then sells, some valuables out of desperation), against the likes of newcomers and, in at least two cases, adult film performers to create a stylized facsimile of reality. The tone is still primarily naturalistic, especially the performances, but Baker’s camera, with the aid of cinematographer Alexis Zabe, takes on a voyeuristic quality. The Florida Project, as a result, moves with the unpredictability of real life.
Reel Time with Joel and Chase
The Snow Melted as Soon as the Movie Began.
Title: The Snowman
Rating: R for Grisly Images, Violence, Some Language, Sexuality and Brief Nudity
Run Time: Ihr & 59min
Joel’s Review
½* (out of ****)
The Snowman is a hollow mystery – pointless and cruel. It begins with the pieces of the central puzzle, and though it ends with the completion of that puzzle, there is a sense of anticlimax. It is as if director Tomas Alfredson and screenwriters Peter Straughan, Hossein Amini, and Søren Sveistrup (adapting the novel by Jo Nesbø) want to convey a sense that the film’s puzzle is less important than what the film is attempting to say about its characters. That, though, can only work if the film seems to be saying anything about its characters.
Here, the characters, including the protagonist, are pawns in the game of a serial killer who seems to be targeting women of whom he disapproves. The method is uselessly brutal: He injects them with a sedative, then removes their head while they are alive (the better to capture the look of fatal surprise on their faces, one guesses). He also builds a snowman somewhere near the site, attacking only when the precipitation is falling in deep winter. He then builds another snowman, this time without its head, onsite, and you can guess what replaces the fake head (He also reverses this action for the missing heads of the victims).
The case falls into the laps of Inspectors Katrine Brett (Rebecca Ferguson), a recent hire onto the investigative team in wintry Oslo, Norway, who answers the call of a missing-persons report that will eventually spiral into this case, and Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender), whose unfortunate pun of a name is said just enough to be absurd but not quite enough to be amusing. Katrine is also cultivating a case involving a city official (played by J.K. Simmons) preparing the city for the upcoming World Cup. She suspects him of something-or-other that is definitely illegal. Whatever it is involves the objectification of young women, though the screenplay doesn’t focus enough on it to clarify anything (a common problem, believe you me).
Harry is simply happy to receive the distraction from his hellish home life, which includes the estrangement of the son (played by Michael Yates) whom his wife (played by Charlotte Gainsbourg) had in a previous relationship with a man whose identity, much to the inconsequential importance of the narrative, is never known. She’s now dating a hormone specialist (played by Jonas Karlsson). Anyway, the case consists of red herring after red herring, from the rambling uselessness of the stuff with the city official to a handful of flashback sequences involving the first investigator (played by Val Kilmer, whose recent health troubles have rendered the actor unable to speak, resulting in an awkward and obvious dubbing of another actor’s voice in the place of his own while he mouths dialogue) to look into the gruesome crimes.
Most of this plot means nothing when the identity of the killer, which is blatantly obvious based on his unassuming nature and the way Alfredson and cinematographer Dion Beebe (unable to breathe much life into the setting beyond a few attractive establishing shots) constantly frame his profile to be the definition of sinister, is revealed. The motivation is a mostly generic kind of madness, and Thelma Schoonmaker’s jigsaw editing and the imprecise performances, all of which are by actors who seem to be half-awake, don’t help matters. The Snowman is barely watchable – a disaster from the ground up.
(Review by Joel Copling)
The Florida Project is an astounding film that captures the life of little Moonee as she runs around her motel home with her other little friends. The story goes through a summer for the young girl and captures her experiences of having fun. There is also a spotlight on the struggles for her mother, Halley, as she tries to navigate raising her child in low-income circumstances. Halley, although having never-ending love for her child, is a wild one who doesn’t really have a fantastic character or ethics.
Bobby, the manager of The Magic Castle, which is the motel home of the family, is a hard-working man who has an abundance of patience for his residents and especially Moonee. Willem Dafoe gives a performance as Bobby that is comprehensively impeccable and truly impactful. This, by far, is the best performance that I have ever seen from the actor. He truly communicates the patience, compassion, stress, and resilience that Bobby deals with every day in the story.
I am completely thankful for this film in how it examined the lives of people who struggle to make it and do not have the most resources. The centering attention on people who work the low-wage jobs and live in circumstances like these is completely essential to cinema. I say this because it represents real life for so many Americans. Moonee is just a young girl who has a lot of rambunctious energy and she also has to understand her mother’s struggles with life.
Her character lights up the story and is ubiquitous throughout the entire film. She’s out there sharing sloppy ice cream with her friends, climbing up hills, and going into abandoned areas. Her character reminds us all of the children who we once were. Brooklynn Prince gives Moonee an astonishing soul that is enviable in her performance.
There is a scene when Halley takes Moonee through the back way to a buffet at a good hotel and they both have a blast. I sat there thinking about the different social reality that Halley has in comparison to the other families who were actually staying in the hotel. The differentiation between Halley’s constrained financial life and the family vacations of these other individuals was profound. That is something that this film did very well in its illumination of the way people live just on the outside of Disney World. This is an all-around wonderful movie that is sure going to entertain and stimulate some thought.
(Review by Wyatt Head)
This intense and extremely gripping film tells the story of three girls who get abducted and thrown into the horrifying world of sex slavery. The film didn’t hold back any realism from what it was depicting as its subject. Sara, an 18 year old that has just aged out of foster care, is taken to what she thinks will be a new job. Instead, she is betrayed by a woman she trusted and is taken to a sex house in Texas to be a slave of human trafficking. Amba, an Indian young woman about to go to MIT, is out at a party and is then kidnapped to be put in the trade. Mali, a Nigerian young woman who was separated from her family, has gone all over the world for her body to be used.
This was a phenomenal masterpiece that portrayed the real horrors that the women who are trapped in this world have to experience every day. There was no pull back in the depiction of the rape of these women and the violence that they are subjected to. There were multiple scenes where the men who ran the house punched, beat, and chocked them on screen to further communicate the criminal gravity of the acts. Just to think that these girls were going into the next phase of their lives and that they had great plans for themselves was unsettling to think about. The idea of the ease of being kidnapped and just falling into this system was extremely frightening to recognize.
There is a beginning scene of the film where men are pushing women along in a line. We, as an audience, get to comprehend the disregard for the women that exists in this world and these men’s minds. This film did a great job in having the audience realize the severity of this organized criminal activity. There’s another scene where a girl runs away because she can’t bear to realize what is going on and gets shot in the back. This was a chilling portrayal that forced the audience to realize that this actually does exist.
With the story of the girls being in the Texas sex house, there was also a wonderful story about the friendship that Sara, Amba, and Mali make. They are each other’s source of strength and hope. They experience this sadistic violation of human rights together with the only light being there in each of them. This project is a highly impactful story that makes a thorough footprint and that convinces the public to take immense action.
(Review by Wyatt Head)
Don't you love this time of year? The temps are doable, the Texas State Fair is running, there are more movies screening and Halloween is right around the corner.
Just a reminder folks, that some of these movies this week may be screenings for the Dallas Film Society and/or the USA Film Festival. That means us poor line people will be competing for seats in the front sections. Please do not grouse, or put the reps in an awkward position. This is the price we pay for free movies.
Also, when there are signs on the seats that say "Reserved for studio reps" Please don't sit in them. Nor should you sit in any seat that says reserved for VIP's, press, or handicapped. And stop hovering by the press seats. The reps will just tell you to go find a seat.
If you are Foreign to Jackie Chan as an Actor, this isn’t a Bad One to Start With.
Title: The Foreigner
Rating: R for Violence, Language and Some Sexual Material
Run Time: Ihr & 54min
Joel’s Review
*** (out of ****)
The Foreigner is an action-thriller about a man desperate for answers and driven to use his particular set of skills to find them. The title, by the by, is suggestive in two ways. One of those is more obvious: The plot of the film regards the actions of the Irish Republican Army, and our protagonist is Chinese. So, indeed, he is literally a “foreigner,” at least by birth (The man mentions early on that he is a naturalized British citizen). The other meaning is sort of a joke and sort of insidious to the men who cross his path: He is the unknown variable in their midst.
In other words, this is a reliably efficient action-thriller, and casting Jackie Chan in the part of the protagonist doesn’t hurt at all. He plays Quan, the deceptively unassuming owner of a Chinese restaurant in London, whose daughter Fan (Katie Leung) is among the dozen killed in a brutal terrorist attack just as she’s shopping for a dress to the school dance. She was the only family left for Quan, who lost the rest of it years ago. Needless to say, the man launches his own investigation.
It was the work of the “Authentic IRA,” possibly a rogue cell in the official IRA and a thorn in the side of Liam Hennessy (Pierce Brosnan, really digging into his natural Irish accent), a former member who denounced its violence in the past and who is now the Deputy Minister of Northern Ireland. Political infighting has left the possibility of peace in question (The film is certainly of its time, given the subject and the themes related to globalism), but that is the least interesting part of David Marconi’s screenplay (based on the novel The Chinaman by Stephen Leather), which is at its best when designing comeuppances on the part of Quan, whose determination matches only his meticulousness.
Chan’s performance is key here, and it’s quite good, convincing in the wake of sudden tragedy and as an aging man pushed to the limits of his physicality. Merely the task of carrying heavy gym bags, filled with chemicals to create explosives, up the stairs of a hotel causes panting, sweating, and the brief need to sit and catch his breath. He manages to keep up with his attackers in the sequences of hand-to-hand combat (breathlessly staged and executed by director Martin Campbell), but it’s not without a staggered leap between staircases or a slower response in the beats between blows. This is not Chan as a comically invincible hero, clearly, but a man as vulnerable – both physically and emotionally – as anyone else.
The actor’s presence is remarkably potent in such a role, even as the story shifts in favor of some wheel-spinning regarding Hennessy’s place in all of this, which involves the usual behind-closed-doors backstabbing and discreet motives. It’s a bit predictable, not only because Brosnan’s performance isn’t exactly hiding much about the character’s nature, but also because we’ve seen this sort of thing before. The wrench in the works, in many ways, is the presence of Chan. He’s the grounding element in The Foreigner, sleek pulp whose tension outweighs formula.
There is a whole generation of people who are totally unaware of the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon. It also relates to what is relevant today concerning the 45th and the Russian involvement with our elections. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) does not take orders from the President, yet then as in now, the White House put pressure to stop an investigation. Director/writer Peter Landesman, based this feature on the 2006 autobiography of FBI agent Mark Felt, written with John O'Connor. Mark Felt (Liam Neeson) was the whistle blower that informed investigative reporters Woodward and Bernstein of the Washington Post to keep digging to unearth the truth and corruption.
Mark Felt, a 30 year career FBI man, was n associate director under Herbert Hoover and considered to be in the next in line for the job. The story begins with the death of Hoover who started the agency and ran it for 50 years. Hoover kept lots of files and notes over the years, so Felt moved quickly to destroy all of Hoover's personal records. Just as quickly, the White House comes in asking for the "secret files". But was really cutting was when Attorney General L. Patrick Gray (Marton Csokas) was placed as temporary director of the FBI. Felt sees him conferring with John Dean (Michael C. Hall). Suddenly Gray, the obvious White House mole, orders Felt to tie up Watergate break-in case in a couple of weeks. Felt begins to leak information to Sandy Smith (Bruce Greenwood) of the Times magazine to keep the story from being buried. He also becomes the notorious "Deep Throat" informant to the Washington Post which his identity was not revealed for years.
Diane Lane is Felt's brilliant, beautiful and troubled wife Audrey. She has endured 30 years and 30 transfers as his supporting spouse during his career. They have a daughter, Joan (Maika Monroe) who had disappeared in the counterculture and Felt fears it's with the Weather Underground which has been terrorizing in bombing incidents. He orders that suspected Underground members to be under illegal tape and surveillance, which later in life he pays the price, only to be pardoned by President Reagan. Considering this is supposed to be about the man who brought down the White House, the movie should have spent more time telling that story and less on the search for his daughter.
Unless one is familiar with the history and the players, it's hard to understand what is going on. The film has that 70's feel in costumes, sets and colors. The able supporting cast of Tony Goldwyn, Kate Walsh, Tom Sizemore, and Josh Lucas keep it serious and on track. Apparently most Diane Lane's scenes were cut due to time constraints. Which is unfortunate because what we see is magnificent, but you feel something is missing. The movie is a good nudge to today's political climate. It also will probably want to see All The President's Men for a better perspective.
(Review by reesa)
Chadwick Boseman has played some real life heavy weights like baseball legend Jackie Robinson and the infamous James Brown. This time he takes on Thurgood Marshall as a young lawyer with the NAACP fighting cases of racial injustice. This is long before Marshall becomes the first African-American Supreme Court Justice. Directed by Reginald Hudlin and written by Jacob Koskoff, a veteran civil rights lawyer with no previous film credits, and his screenwriter son Jacob, this movie focuses on one of an early case of his career.
Boseman plays Marshall as an idealistic young trial lawyer from Baltimore who in the 1940 is sent to Connecticut to defend Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown) a black chauffeur who stands accused of the rape and attempted murder of his white employer Eleanor Strubing (Kate Hudson). As an attorney with an out of state license he must find a local lawyer who will sponsor his standings. Enter Sam Friedman (Josh Gad), a Jewish insurance lawyer who was recommended by his brother. The Judge (James Cromwell), doesn't appreciate some young upstart to politicize his court. He orders Sam to be the lawyer of record, and Marshall can sit at the table and not say a word. Sam does not specialize in criminal cases and fights back at every turn as Marshall schools him on what to say and how to proceed. Not much is told about Marshall, whose self righteous hubris is declaring he only defends innocent people. He's cocky and confident while reining the reluctant Sam to maneuver and question the jury selection. Trying to find a fair minded all white jury in Connecticut is the least of his worries. What is more challenging is the victim and accused may not be telling the whole truth.
The story follows a small part of Marshall's life with his suffering wife who suffers a miscarriage without her husband around due to his constant traveling. Marshall also pals with Langston Hughes. As for Sam, he and his wife worry about the relatives back in Germany with the rise of Hitler and his extermination of the Jews. Their similar racial struggles ultimately unite them and opens Sam to defending more civil rights issues. Had this been a movie about anyone else, it would have fared like any other mystery of the week as the truth of the case is revealed. But because it's Thurgood Marshall, it gives it some credibility, but doesn't really tell much of who he was or who he was to become.
(Review by reesa)
Why do they also put movies on the same nights? There's the whole week to fill up, but there's only 2 days for 4 movies. Oh well. Chose wisely and hope you see something that you enjoy.
A reminder folks, if you want to add friends to our Facebook page, please make sure they live in the DFW area. If it doesn't say they live around here, then they will not be added. https://www.facebook.com/groups/dallasmoviescreenings/
October 8 - October 14
Tue - Oct 10
Professor Marston and the Wonder Women - 7:00 pm - Angelika Dallas
Happy Death Day - 7:30 pm - AMC Northpark
Wed - Oct 11
Three Billboards Outside Ebbings, Missouri - 7:00 pm - AMC Northpark
The Foreigner - 7:30 pm - Angelika Dallas
Dallas VideoFest 30 presents DocuFest, featuring dozens of documentary features and also shorts, during four days, Oct. 5-8, 2017, on one screen at one theater, Studio Movie Grill on Northwest Hwy. in Dallas.
videofest.org/DocuFest/
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5
Official Opening Night Film
EXTRAORDINARY ORDINARY PEOPLE (USA)
Director: Alan Govenar
EXTRAORDINARY ORDINARY PEOPLE, a sweeping celebration of the cultures of the world living and thriving in the United States.
EXTRAORDINARY ORDINARY PEOPLE
**½ (out of ****)
A sense of accidental profundity peeks through the rudimentary style and noncommittal structure of Extraordinary Ordinary People, a documentary that seems to be summed up entirely by its title. That title, oddly, comes from one of those moments of profundity, in which one of its interview subjects states that the subjects of the documentary’s focus are “extraordinary, ordinary people.” It’s not that the moment feels scripted – indeed, only the narration does – but that co-writer/director Alan Govenar felt compelled to keep it in the film that gives his documentary the feeling that something is off.
It’s not a dull subject, which in this case is the National Endowment of Arts as it pertains to the world of folk arts and music. We see a lot of archival footage of artists both current, which are too many to name, and former, such as the likes of the late B.B. King and Alex Moore, both of whom share views on the genre of blues in music that could be enough to redefine for those who are unsure of its charms: King describes it as a state of mind, in that whatever he is singing, it is the blues because that’s what he makes it. Moore believes that it’s the best way to learn about someone. Both men died leaving legacies to carry on to those that came after them. They wouldn’t have it any other way.
Similarly, Sheila Kay Adams (who provides part of the narration, co-written by Jason Johnson-Spinos, in addition to being a talking head) believes that the endowment is powered by its cultural diversity, shrugging off the nationalist views of others who question why those who cannot speak English would be able to be involved in the National Heritage Fellowship. For her, it’s in the name: Her own heritage led her here, and so did theirs. It’s a moving moment, and so is the one in which one of the overseers of the Fellowship must announce its dissolution.
The documentary loses much of its focus on and potency from these moments when it zigzags randomly through history as thoroughly as it shifts between specific subjects, such as the segment involve blues or another involving the similarly legacy-adopted voices of bluegrass or yet more involving international music from below the border between Mexico and the South. We see performances from modern legends in their genres, and the artistic barriers are crossed into the likes of crafting lace, pottery, and other totems of tangible expression.
We don’t receive much in the way of insight across its scant 78 minutes (minus end credits), though. We are provided with merely a glimpse at these subjects before Govenar moves on to another one. Extraordinary Ordinary People nearly gets by on the people of the title. It’s fascinating to listen, but we deserved more time with them.
(Review by Joel Copling)
The Netflix original film The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) will launch on Friday, October 13 at The Magnolia location and globally on Netflix.
I was a little tyke when the original “Blade Runner” came out in 1982. Even though I was young, I got into it because of supporting turns s played by Rutger Hauer and Daryl Hannah. To me, they were the real reason to see this adaptation of a story based on the writings of Philip K. Dick. Harrison Ford’s persona of Rick Deckard was just sheer window dressing to me.
In this new “Blade Runner 2049,” Ford returns as Deckard, albeit it in a smaller supporting role. This one is Ryan Gosling vehicle.
He is on the screen for a majority of the flick. Ford’s Deckard does not even show up until an hour in. Gosling’s K persona occupies the majority of the movie.
Quirky performances abound in this flick, especially Jared Leto as Niander Wallace a creator of sorts, who claims to be the maker of replicants, part of the reference point of the title. He nonchalantly guts and kills his creation like it was a spoiled fish.
Also important is Robin Wright’s turn as Lieutenant Joshi, who is for all intents and purposes, K’s boss. She fears for K, who is essentially flying blind in their search for Deckard, who has been absent from today’s America for many a year.
Also returning for a cameo appearance is Edward James Olmos as Gaff, who fashions minute origami’s of various creatures and the like.
Directing “Blade Runner 2049” is Denis Villanueve, who scored major points with me for helming the amazing “Arrival” (2016) as well as “Sicarrio” in 2015. He knows where to point the camera in every single solitary frame. Ridley Scott returns to the “Blade Runner” universe, this time just as an executive producer.
I have a feeling this one will be a front-runner at this year’s Oscar race, kind of like what happened a couple of years back when the well-received “Mad Max: Fury Road” in 2015 received a deluge of the shiny gold statues.
What is really cool is the vibrant color palette in sections of the movie. Like the original “Blade Runner,” it makes references to now defunct companies such as Atari, which has not been a part of the American landscape since the mid-1980s.
What is also cool is the Roger Deakins cinematography that glistens on the screen. He even brings a presence to snow that is falling to the ground.
I saw this at a screening at the AMC Northpark, and this is important because I did not get the goosebumps I’m always looking for, but sheer smiles whenever I heard events unfolding on the screen.
The seats literally rumbled adding to the atmosphere as well by making it a full-on immersive experience.
I know a lot of people dread science-fiction tales, my mom is one of the naysayers who does not really like the genre, but this flick is just awesome.
I highly recommend “Blade Runner 2049” because it does everything t’s supposed to do, even with a conclusion that is thoroughly dynamic.
Dallas VideoFest 30 presents DocuFest, featuring dozens of documentary features and also shorts, during four days, Oct. 5-8, 2017, on one screen at one theater, Studio Movie Grill on Northwest Hwy. in Dallas. videofest.org/DocuFest/
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 8
Escapes
DIRECTOR Michael Almereyda
PRODUCER Wes Anderson
Escapes blazes a wild path through mid-20th-century Hollywood via the experiences of Hampton Fancher – flamenco dancer, actor, and the unlikely producer and screenwriter of the landmark sci-fi classic Blade Runner.
ESCAPES
** (out of ****)
Hampton Fancher has had a life worth talking about. The man talks and talks in director Michael Almereyda’s documentary, and when he’s done talking, he talks a bit more. He certainly addresses a rich life of accidental successes and close calls with failure, but the specifics of a life are less important than the anecdotal evidence of one in Escapes, a mostly autobiographical account of Fancher’s life, from his unlikely early career as a flamenco dancer to his current fame as the screenwriter of 1982’s Blade Runner and the co-screenwriter of the film’s upcoming sequel/spin-off Blade Runner 2049. We get a glimpse at the method Almereyda will use in the prologue of the film.
Fancher, narrating most of the points of his life, begins with a rambling story involving himself, a girl, a sum of money, and some sort of hotheaded bigshot who wants it. Words are exchanged, violence is threatened, and there’s some business involving a planned duel between them. The point is lost in the story’s rambling nature. Fancher simply wants to tell the story, and that seems to be the director’s modus operandi for the duration of the documentary. Almereyda lets the man talk for a good eighty minutes of the film’s 89. The specific points of his life are kept to intertitles consisting of broken grammar and sentence fragments.
The simplest explanation is that the director has no patience for biographizing Fancher’s life, and the more complex one is that Fancher doesn’t want us to dwell. That’s clear during the telling of one story, whose point, again, is lost in the rambling nature of it, that ends with a whimper when it reflects poorly upon the man, who refuses to conclude it. It’s a specific type of evasive maneuvering that’s being done in the structure of the documentary, which pairs Fancher’s words with film clips from his early days of being an actor with some degree of popularity. That was mostly because he’d appear in anything and everything during the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Almereyda shows us very few of the film titles in question. That it would take a bit of research to learn about Fancher’s involvement with the films and television series in which he appeared is another kind of problem tied to the film’s lack of biographical insight. Instead, we get a long-winded reminiscence about Brian Kelly, star of the classic TV show “Flipper,” whose later paralysis in his leg and arm led to some guilt within Fancher: It was his motorcycle on which Kelly was riding, after all. The anecdote means well, but the point of it is elusive.
We’re getting the sense of a man here without the context of his shortcomings as a person. We hear details of two marriages – the second one to Sue Lyon, star of Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita – ending in divorce but gain little or no information regarding what went wrong in both cases. His friendship with Barbara Hershey, which was always on the verge of something more, leads to his motivation when approached to adapt Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? for Robert Mulligan and, later, Ridley Scott. The film picks up a bit when discussing the hardships of that adaptation, which was quite liberal in comparison to the novel on which it was based. By then, though, Escapes only really makes the point that Hampton Fancher is an interesting guy. If one doubts this, one must only ask the man himself.
(Review by Joel Copling)
Dallas VideoFest 30 presents DocuFest, featuring dozens of documentary features and also shorts, during four days, Oct. 5-8, 2017, on one screen at one theater, Studio Movie Grill on Northwest Hwy. in Dallas. videofest.org/DocuFest/
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6
BOMBSHELL: THE HEDY LAMARR STORY (USA)
Director: Alexandra Dean
Texas Premiere
The world's most beautiful woman was also the secret inventor of secure wifi, bluetooth and GPS communications, but her arresting looks stood in the way of her being given the credit she deserved... until now.
Filmmaker in Attendance
Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler was born in Vienna in 1914. Her mother wanted a son, but her father, a bank director, would often take out his bright young daughter on walks and explain to her curious mind how things like electricity and engineering work. Her parents were assimilated Jews who were well to do and send Hedy to private schools, and exposed her to the theater and operas. She went to Berlin to do stage work, then later returning to Vienna to work in movies where she earned a notoriety in Gustav Machatý's film, Ecstasy (Ekstase in German, Extase in Czech). It was considered an art film in Europe, but in the U.S. it was considered basically soft porn. The reputation of this movie followed her in her later career.
Hedy's first marriage was to a munitions tycoon who started to do business with the Nazi's. She was a trophy wife who had beautiful clothes, jewelry, and mansions. At one point they entertained Mussolini. She managed to escape the marriage by using a maid to double for her, while she dressed as a maid with her jewels sewn in her coat, bicycled away from that life, making her way to Paris. There she met Louis B. Mayer who was scouting for talent in Europe. He had her change her name to Hedy Lamarr in 1938 bringing her to Hollywood as the most beautiful woman in the world. She gained fame in Algiers (1938), opposite Charles Boyer. Soon every starlet was mimicking her hairstyle and makeup.
Marriages, affairs and children followed her uneven career, but no one knew the real Hedy Lamarr whose passion was inventing things. She had an affair with Howard Hughes who encouraged her "tinkering", even giving her access to his science engineers. Hedy contributed the wing design to Howard Hughes aircraft that he was trying to make faster. During the war, Hedy wanted to contribute something besides selling war bonds. With the help of composer George Antheil, who used his expertise of player pianos to develop a way of radio controlling torpedoes for better accuracy.
The tech was called frequency hopping. They got a patent, and tried to pass it to the Navy, which didn't understand it and filed it away as top secret. It wasn't until the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the tech was finally used. After the patent expiration date, so Lamarr received any financial gain. Today her idea is the basis for Wifi and Bluetooth, and used in rocket ships.
After the 40's, Hedy's film career was less prolific. Being considered the most beautiful woman in the world, getting older was taking it's toll. She resorted to plastic surgery to keep herself looking young. A process she contributed to by suggesting making the surgery scars in areas that would not show which doctors continue to this day. Except she went too far in her constant surgeries and the result was not complimentary. She became a recluse, even to her children.
Hedy really never told her story. She discredited the supposed autobiography, Ecstasy and Me, which she claims was not written by her. It wasn't until, documentary director Alexandra Dean contacted Fleming Meeks who had an audio interview he had done for Forbes in the 1990's. Hedy is candid and humorous in recalling the events of her life. She was so beyond the cultural limitations of her time. It was a man's world, and she was too smart for them. The film opens with her quote: "Any girl can look glamorous, all she has to do is stand still and look stupid." Thankfully she didn't just stand still
(Review by reesa)
For many women getting stranded in the mountains with Idris Elba doesn't seem like a bad thing. This romantic disaster movie directed by Hany Abu-Assad and written by Chris Weitz and J. Mills Goodloe was adapted from the 2011 novel of the same name by Charles Martin. At one time Michael Fassbender was set to play Dr. Bass, then Charlie Hunnman with Margot Robbie as Alex, but she dropped out and then it was Rosamund Pike. Hard to imagine any of these pairings because Idris Elba and Kate Winslet really elevate this tale of love and survival from just being another Hallmark movie of the week.
Dr. Ben Bass was at a medical conference in Idaho but an impending storm has cancelled all flights going out. He has an important surgery to perform in the morning. Photojournalist Alex Martin is also desperate to leave as her wedding is the next day. Overhearing his blight, Alex suggests they hire a private plane. Walter (Beau Bridges) is the pilot of the charter plane says he doesn't have to file a flight plan and he can out run the storm. The pile on board with Walter's dog flying over the snow covered mountains of the High Uintas Wilderness. Unfortunately the storm seems to have taken a turn and is now catching up and Walter is having a stroke. They crash land and Walter does not survive, Alex's leg is fractured, Ben has broken ribs, and of course the dog seems to be OK. No flight plan means that no one knows they are there. Neither one had time to call anyone before they left. The tail section of the plane blew off before crashing so the beacon is missing. Dr. Bass is resourceful and applies first aid to Alex's leg although she is still unconscious. If one crashes, it's good to have a doctor on board. He buries Walter under the wing of the plane. Makes a fire with the chair stuffing. When Alex wakes, she is of the mind to go somewhere that has phone access and maybe civilization. More pragmatic Ben thinks they should stay and wait for help. In the end, they end up getting off the top of the mountain heading for the treeline.
Enduring freezing cold weather, injured leg, deep snow and endless walking, they learn to trust each other despite they very divergent personalities. Alex talks about her fiance and wonders why Ben doesn't talk of his wife. Alex stole a look in Ben's wallet and listened to his voice recorder that had a cryptic message from his wife. After about 3 weeks they find a deserted cabin with a couple cans of soup. Alex had fallen into a pond when the ice broke and Ben nurses her from hypothermia. It's there they give into the chemistry, but they realize they still have to find a way out. Fortunately they eventually find a logging camp and after recovering they go back to their lives. And Ben, who didn't like the dog to begin with, ends up with him. Once they are back they realize that their survival time has forever marked them. The movie can only end with a big heart mending reunion. How can you not like getting back with Idriss? And the dog is cute too.
(Review by reesa)
Long before technology had taken over the world, people would often pass down stories verbally, as in talking to each other. At the turn of the century Mary Francis Thompson clung to the stories told by her father of her Chickasaw people. Director Nathan Frankowski and writers
Jeannie Barbour and Esther Luttrell follow the formative years of this real life storyteller who is considered an Oklahoma treasure.
Q'orianka Kilcher plays Mary Francis as a young adult. She is set on going to Oklahoma College of Women, but her father is J.B. Thompson (Gil Birmingham) is afraid of how the white people will treat her. He would like her to stay home and live a normal life. Her mother Bertie(Brigid Brannagh) and her uncle, Douglas Johnston(Graham Greene), the Governor of the Chickasaw Nation, encourage her as she has a gift of communication. At school she gets the attention of the drama teacher Miss Davis (Cindy Pickett) who helps her develop her ability to perform her native stories. After she graduates, Miss Davis recommends her to Carnegie Institute. In the meantime she travels on tent show circuit that travels around the states while she hones her skills. She meets with other tribes who give her their stories so she can share with the world. Carnegie rejects her application, but Mary, who has changed her name to a stage name of Te Ata (bearer of the morning) travels over 1000 miles demanding an audition. Which of course, she wins. To help support herself, she auditions for other productions, but is often competing with blonde actresses. The constant rejections almost sends her back home. Miss Davis helps out by setting up private performances one of which is in front of Eleanor Roosevelt when her husband was governor of New York. Te Ata, finally makes it to Broadway, but despite the good reviews, she feels there is something missing. Her boyfriend Dr. Clyde Fisher(Mackenzie Astin), a professor of astronomy helps her realize that she is happiest when she is telling the stories of her people.
The laws of the land at the time made it illegal for Native Americans to sell their art and dance in their ceremonies in order for them to assimilate into white culture. Most of the white characters in this story are accepting of Native Americans, but there are some smarmy supremacist types twirling their mustaches. Still a reminder on how this country treated people of color that seems to be relevant today. Returning home, Te Ata finds her father is ill after government agents raided his store of all the native goods. The crafts the local families need to sell to support themselves. When Te Ate receives an invitation to perform at the White House, she tells her father she will stay home if he will not die on her. Finally realizing that Te Ate has a gift to share and being an unofficial spokesperson for all aboriginal people. Her legacy has been honored by the State of Oklahoma, by the Chickasaw Nation, and many book, plays and movies. She performed all over the world, including the Queen of England. As part of the history of this country it's a worthwhile subject to cover. The movie itself has that Hallmark/Lifetime movie of the week feeling to it's production. Very pastoral and sincere feelings, but lacks any potential dangers. Good for the whole family.
(Review by reesa)
Opening 10/6 at
Firewheel Town Center 18
Grapevine Mills 30
Parks @Arlington 18
Stonebriar Mall 24
