Joy (2015)

Amy, Jack, and I liked this story of a woman believing in herself despite crazy relatives and a society that kept women down. Loosely based on the life of inventor Joy Mangano, who came to prominence in 1990, its script veered so far away from Mangano's experience that director/writer David O. Russell (last blogged for American Hustle, as was star Jennifer Lawrence) said he didn't want to meet Mangano until he was finished. Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper, who worked with Russell and Lawrence on The Silver Linings Playbook and were most recently in these pages for The Family and Burnt, respectively, join the cast as Joy's father and a businessman--one angry and the other ebullient. On the distaff side, Diane Ladd (she was Oscar-nominated for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Wild at Heart (1990), and Rambling Rose (1991); she was good in, among others, the TV series Alice 1980-81, Black Widow (1987), Primary Colors (1998), 28 Days (2000), and all 18 episodes of Enlightened (2011-13) playing her real-life daughter Laura Dern's mother, as she did in Wild at Heart and Rambling Rose) narrates the movie as Joy's loving grandmother, and hottie Virginia Madsen (sister of Michael, she was Oscar-nominated for Sideways (2004) and I liked her in Slam Dance (1987), The Hot Spot (1990), and The Rainmaker (1997), to name a few) is nearly unrecognizable in oversize glasses and neuroses as Joy's mother.

It was unclear to me where it was supposed to take place. Joy Mangano was from Smithtown on the north shore of Long Island, and shooting locations were in Boston and environs.

Credited composers are David Campbell (father of Beck, whose real name is Bek David Campbell) and West Dylan Thordson. Here's a link with four songs of original music and a cover of Something Stupid, made famous by Nancy and Frank Sinatra (here's the earlier version). But what you will come away with are the songs, listed here, especially I Feel Free, from the 1967 debut album of "super group" Cream. For the drive home, we found that video on the phone and streamed it via the car's bluetooth speakers. I love technology.

Before we saw the movie on Christmas day, Amy and her friends, all the same age as Lawrence, commented that it would be weird to see her playing a 35-year-old, and that did make me notice her flawless, dewy skin, even in the later scenes. And there are a few unnecessary moments. But 57 and 58% from critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes is too harsh.

The Danish Girl (2015)

We loved this fictionalized story of an actual transgender woman in 1920s Copenhagen. Transcendent (sorry!) performances and stunning pictures all contribute to a glorious two hours. Fresh off winning the Oscar for another transformation (they just keep coming) in The Theory of Everything, Eddie Redmayne completely inhabits his character of Einar/Lili and Alicia Vikander (last blogged in Burnt) portrays his/her wife Gerda Gottlieb Wegener with fortitude belying her age (26 during filming, now 27). Strong supporting actors include Amber Heard (after writing about her in The Rum Diary, I saw her in Magic Mike XXL) as a lovely dancer, Ben Whishaw (most recently in Skyfall) as a gay suitor, and Matthias Schoenaerts (last in Far from the Madding Crowd) as a childhood friend, all remarkably tolerant of gender fluidity considering the movie is set 90 years ago.

Director Tom Hooper (most recently in these pages for Les Misérables) brings back some key visual crew in cinematographer Danny Cohen (after I wrote about him in The King's Speech, he shot Les Misérables and Room) for the dazzling photography, costume designer Paco Delgado (not yet blogged, but Oscar-nominated for Les Misérables, also did wardrobe for Bad Education (2004), Biutiful, and The Skin I Live In) for the magnificent silks, and production designer Eve Stewart (Oscar-nominated for Topsy Turvy (1999), The King's Speech, (profiled in that post), and Les Misérables) for the wonderful rooms.  I'll be very interested to see if any score nominations from the American Society of Cinematographers, Costume Designers Guild, and the Art Directors Guild in a couple of weeks. Lucinda Coxon writes her third adaptation (the first I've seen), this time from the 2000 novel by David Ebershoff, fictionalized, as I said above.

The real Gerda was actually bisexual, a working woman in a time when that wasn't all so common, and famous for her lesbian erotic paintings. Stewart and Hooper worked with a British artist to adapt Gerda's portraits to fit the movie. Here's a little more detail.

In one of my favorite radio podcasts, The Dinner Party Download (I listen to it on bluetooth while driving around town), the interviewer says the movie's press kit included a glossary with the term cisgender, meaning one who is comfortable with one's biological gender, and Vikander tells us she attended an event called Champions of Change at the White House about three weeks ago, which inspired and touched her, not only because our current president is the first ever to utter the word "transgender" in public in office.

Seeing this today was timely for Jack and me, because we sat with Amy during her visit while she binge-watched the first season and half of the second of the marvelous Amazon series Transparent, which we had already seen but was even better the second time.

Once again Alexandre Desplat (last blogged for Suffragette) gives us lovely music to match the images and you can stream the whole soundtrack and more from this link, pausing occasionally to skip an ad.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are averaging only 71 and 74%. They were not paying attention. See this on your local big screen, away from the philistines' (start the video clip at 1:08) lit phone screens.

Sisters (2015)

Amy's, Jack's, and my high expectations were met in this farce about 40-something sisters reliving their youth in a last party before their parents sell their childhood home. Tina Fey's and Amy Poehler's parts were written just for them by veteran Saturday Night Live writer Paula Pell (Fey and Poehler were last blogged for Monkey Kingdom and Inside Out, respectively). Over 100 actors are listed on imdb and I don't feel like going through them all, but have three comments. 1. It seems like an SNL reunion (many others have said that). 2. Dianne Wiest (most recently in Darling Companion) and James Brolin (among his many credits I remember liking him in Marcus Welby M.D. (1969-76) (though I didn't see all 170 episodes); Gas, Food Lodging (1992); Traffic (2000), Catch Me If You Can (2002); and Last Chance Harvey) play the parents in both this and the new TV series Life in Pieces. 3. I saw Brian D'Arcy James (Spotlight) in the party scene. But did he have any lines? I don't remember them.

This is director Jason Moore's second feature after Pitch Perfect and we thought he did just fine with Pell's sixteen years of SNL writing experience backing him up.

A few days before seeing this last week, Jack and I watched an episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers where Fey, Poehler, and Pell were joined by cast members Ike Barinholtz (has been in a lot of things I haven't seen), Rachel Dratch (137 episodes of SNL, 16 of 30 Rock, and three of Inside Amy Schumer, among her many credits), and Maya Rudolph (last blogged for Inherent Vice). Pell read some excerpts from her own teenage diary, some of which are quoted verbatim in the movie. Watch the clip here.

You probably won't notice too much the background music by Christophe Beck (last blogged for Ant-Man) because of the kick-ass list of songs spanning the decades of the sisters' lives.

Critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes aren't as enthusiastic as we are, averaging 60 and 63%. The DVD release is estimated for March 2016. Do not bring the children to the theatre or into the room. This is full of nasty words, dirty jokes, and people behaving badly. We had a great time.

Heart of a Dog (2015)

This non-linear piece directed and written by performance artist/musician Laurie Anderson is a dreamy homage to her beloved canine. As my friend Sally might say, I could listen to her (Anderson) read the phone book. The movie was shot on Anderson's iPhone and "other small digital devices."

From this amazon link you can stream samples of the 27 tracks on the album, which may be the only release, i.e. no DVD planned, from the movie. Then you can see if you agree with me about her voice. She appeared at our university last year with the Kronos Quartet and I was lucky enough to meet her afterwards. Here's a biography.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics' rhapsodic 98% is part of what drove me to choose this one two weeks ago, their 67% from audiences notwithstanding. Maybe one day you can stream it if you're not lucky enough to find it at one of these places.

Black or White (2014)

Definitely not high art, this story of a suddenly widowed white man being sued by a black woman for custody of their mutual granddaughter, raised by him and his wife, is entertaining enough, with star Kevin Costner and director/writer Mike Binder having done much better work in The Upside of Anger (2005) (Binder also did good work starring in the TV series he created, The Mind of the Married Man). In fact, Costner (last blogged in McFarland USA) personally financed this one because he believed so much in the previous one. Octavia Spencer (most recently in Get On Up) does a great job, as usual, rolling those big eyes as grandma Wee-Wee (short for Rowena). Supporting cast includes André Holland (last in Selma as Andrew Young) as the crackhead deadbeat dad, Anthony Mackie (most recently in Our Brand Is Crisis) as Wee-Wee's lawyer, and young Jillian Estell (her second feature) as Eloise.

Shot almost entirely in New Orleans, this has a soundtrack by Terence Blanchard, about whom I just wrote in Chi-Raq. I streamed this one two weeks ago because I saw it on Blanchard's resumé and thought I had seen it but forgotten to write it up. Jack and I must have seen the trailer a dozen times but never followed up. Jack's favorite lines from the trailer are as follows. Mackie: Do you hate black people? Costner: Not all of 'em.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics didn't like it one bit, averaging 40% to audiences' 66. Die-hard Costner fans have already seen it. The rest of you can pass.

Chi-Raq (2015)

Jack and I thoroughly enjoyed Spike Lee's modern retelling of Aristophanes' 2400+ year-old comedy Lysistrata, in which women of Chicago's south side go on a sex strike to end gang violence. Told in verse, both rhymed and free, it boasts lots of humor, a high body count, colorful wardrobe, creative choreography, and the inimitable Samuel L. Jackson (last blogged in Kingsman: The Secret Service) as a one man Greek chorus/narrator named Dolmedes, whose performance alone is worth the price of admission. The luscious leader of the women, Lysistrata herself, is played to perfection by Teyonah Parris (first covered in these pages for Dear White People), driving mad her partner named Chi-Raq (a mash-up of Chicago and Iraq, because of violence and warfare) who is leader of the purple-wearing Spartans and played by Nick Cannon (his work includes Drumline (2002), Shall We Dance (2004), Bobby (2006), and six episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and here he's a believable rapper). The rival orange gang is, you guessed it, the Trojans, led by Cyclops, played by a simpering Wesley Snipes (I didn't see the Blade series, but I did like Mo' Better Blues (1990) and Jungle Fever (1991) (both Spike Lee joints), White Men Can't Jump (1992), To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995), One Night Stand (1997), and Down in the Delta (1998)) in an eye patch.

Even before the feminists start chanting "No peace, no pussy!" (on the poster it says NO PEACE NO PIECE) some characters are also trying to stop the violence, including Angela Bassett (Oscar-nominated for playing Tina Turner in What's Love Got to Do with It (1993), I also loved Malcolm X (1992), Strange Days (1995), Waiting to Exhale (1995), Contact (1997), How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998), Music of the Heart (1999), Sunshine State (2002), Akeelah and the Bee (2006), and Notorious), Jennifer Hudson (won an Oscar and more for Dreamgirls (2007) and shone in The Secret Life of Bees), and John Cusack (last blogged for Love & Mercy), all with American names. Dave Chappelle also joins the cast after a thirteen year break from acting.

Director/co-writer Spike Lee (profiled in Miracle at St. Anna) calls all his movies "Spike Lee Joints," and I've seen and liked most of them. He wrote this time with Kevin Willmott, who is new to me. Cinematographer Matthew Libatique (most recently shot Cowboys & Aliens) and costume designer Ruth E. Carter (Oscar-nominated for Malcolm X (1992) and Amistad (1997), also did a bunch of other Lee joints and Selma) contribute mightily to the look of the picture.

When Lee began his feature career with She's Gotta Have It (1986), his father Bill Lee composed his jazz soundtracks. Bill handed over the baton to Terence Blanchard for Jungle Fever (1991), who has been providing new jazz tracks for Spike's joints ever since. Some of Blanchard's notable and recognized work from that oeuvre not mentioned above includes 25th Hour (2002), She Hate Me (2004), and Inside Man (2006). You're more likely, however, to remember from this movie the rap and pop singles in the soundtrack, available to stream on Amazon Prime from this link, including a single by Hudson, who doesn't sing on camera.

Our local paper ran two-week-old article from the Washington Post a few days ago, naming this movie as one of the ten best of the year. Rotten Tomatoes' critics are averaging 81% but its audiences only 61. I guess joints aren't for everyone.

Room (2015)

Jack and I really liked this story of a five-year-old boy, also named Jack, born in captivity to the man who abducted and raped his mother and have kept them locked in a shed ever since (I take issue with "the boy's father"). Young Jacob Tremblay is tremendous as Jack. He's now nine and no newcomer to cameras, though new to me, and Brie Larson (last blogged in Trainwreck) is magnificent as his "Ma."

Screenwriter Emma Donoghue, an Irishwoman living in Canada, adapted her own 2010 best-selling novel of the same name in her feature debut for the project directed by fellow Irishman Lenny Abrahamson. Donoghue was inspired to write the book by the 2008 case of Elisabeth Fritzl, who was held captive and raped by her own father in Austria.

It's no spoiler to say that they get out and that it's all pretty harrowing to watch. In the second act, outside the Room, we have Joan Allen (some of my favorites of her work are Nixon (1995) where she played Pat, The Ice Storm (1997), Pleasantville (1998), The Contender (2000), Off the Map (2003), and The Upside of Anger (2005)--she was Oscar-nominated for Nixon, The Crucible (1996), and The Contender) and William H. Macy (most recently in The Wind Rises) as Ma's parents.

The soundtrack by Stephen Rennicks is lovely and some of it can be previewed here. Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are agreeing with us this time, averaging 97% and 95, respectively.

The movie is racking up awards and nominations. See my running list for this year.

Brooklyn (2015)

Jack, Sally, Mike, and I loved this story of a girl who leaves 1950s Ireland to start a new life in New York, boasting fine acting, beautiful images, wonderful period details, great art direction and costumes, and lovely music. The porcelain skinned Saoirse (pronounced SEER-sha) Ronan (last blogged in The Grand Budapest Hotel) stars as Eilis (pronounced AY-lish) and she's quite the talent, using her native Irish accent for the first time in 21 roles in 21 years of life. A day or two ago she won the New York Film Critics Best Actress award for this one. The reliable Jim Broadbent (most recently in Le Week-End) and Julie Walters (two Oscar nominations--Best Actress for Educating Rita (1983) and Supporting for Billy Elliot (2000)--also wonderful in Calendar Girls (2003), Wah-Wah (2005), Driving Lessons (2006), voice of the witch in Brave, and Cynthia the hotel owner in Masterpiece Theatre/Indian Summers, among others; she also played Molly Weasley in a bunch of Harry Potters) are soothing as adults who help Eilis adjust to her new life. I did not recognize Emory Cohen, who is sweet as the Italian boy who's sweet on Eilis, but I've seen him in Afterschool, The Place Beyond the Pines, and he played Leo, the sullen son of Debra Messing in 15 episodes of Smash. Back home in Ireland, two notable cast members are Fiona Glascott (I know her for her work with Walters, playing the frustrated wife of a preacher, in Indian Summers and as Matt LeBlanc's ex-wife in Episodes) as Eilis' sister Rose and Domhnall (pronounced DOE-nal--he says "the M is just there to confuse Americans") Gleeson (last in Ex Machina) as an Irish suitor.

Director John Crowley (I've seen two of his four previous works, Intermission (2003) and Is Anybody There? and liked them both) does a nice job from a script by Nick Hornby (most recently adapted the memoir for Wild), who adapted the novel Brooklyn by Colm Toibin (pronounced column toe-BEEN) (my Irish cousins would laugh at my pronunciation obsession--a few years ago I google-chatted with Dara and he said their dog is named Siomha. I had to ask how to say it. Shee-va. Go figure--another M, and more, just to confuse Americans). Anyway, the aforementioned beautiful images, many on location in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, Ireland as well as Montreal, are courtesy of cinematographer Yves Bélanger, who shot Wild. Want to know? It's Eve bay-law-zhay, but say the "law" with an N sound stuck in your nose.

Michael Brook's (scored The Perks of Being a Wallflower) pretty tracks can be previewed here and are supplemented by plenty of songs but no published list is readily available.

We're on the same page with Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences, averaging 98% and 93% respectively. See it now.

Dough (2015)

Another packed room roared with laughter at this story of an elderly Jewish baker in London who takes on a young Muslim apprentice whose help, both intentional and not, causes the struggling business to boom. The closing feature at our local Jewish Film Festival, it has a twist that surprised me, even though it's on the poster and every synopsis I've read of the movie. I'll leave it out, because that's how I roll.

It stars Jonathan Pryce (profiled in Hysteria) as the baker, Jerome Holder (new to me) as the apprentice, and Ian Hart (some of the movies he's been in that I loved were Backbeat (1994) in which he played John Lennon, The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain (1995), Michael Collins (1996), The Butcher Boy (1997), Monument Ave. (1998), Enemy of the State (1998), The End of the Affair (1999), Liam (2000), Finding Neverland (2004), twenty episodes of Dirt, and four of Boardwalk Empire--he was also in one Harry Potter movie as Quirinus Quirrel) as a bad guy), and Pauline Collins (last blogged in Quartet) as a saucy widow.

Directed by John Goldschmidt (new to me but no novice) from a script by Jonathan Benson (yes, a novice--it's his first) and Jez Freedman (his first feature after one short), the movie has music that I liked but cannot find online, composed by Lorne Balfe. On his website, however, you can find many other tracks he has written,

We had such a good time that I wrote to distributor Menemsha Films to ask how my friends and readers could see it. I was told "the film will begin its theatrical release this spring, starting in Florida and then going wide in April!" So, I hope, there is a DVD in its future.

I hit a milestone on Sunday, having seen 800 movies since the first one in the blog on September 3, 2008 (Brideshead Revisited). And now that I'm all caught up on the writing, I can put that number on the index, with the other number, 821, of movies summarized in these pages.

UPDATE: Yes, it's true. Dough's release date is April 29, 2016 probably on the coasts, and will reach the rest of the country soon.

Look At Us Now, Mother! (2015)

Ann and I, along with a packed house, thoroughly enjoyed this documentary of a grown woman making peace with her vain mom through humor and honesty. One of the features of the local Jewish Film Festival, it was followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker Gayle Kirschenbaum, 61, whose mother is still alive and living in Boca (Raton, Florida).

Kirschenbaum's first doc was A Dog's Life: A Dogumentary (2004) and then she made a documentary short called My Nose (2007), which she fleshed out (ha!) into this feature length doc. She made My Nose because her mother had been hounding her for decades to get a nose job, and Gayle finally agreed to seek medical advice only if her mother would permit her to film it. She's an attractive woman and still has her original schnozz. We also learned at the Q&A that she had to edit the film herself to lessen the abuse and keep it light.

According to the filmmaker's website, you can now pre-order the DVD. I highly recommend it. And on DVD you won't suffer from motion-picture-motion-sickness (MPMS--see my running list here) as I did in the theatre.