The Last Word (2017)

Jack and I liked very much this terrific story of an octogenarian control freak who decides she must approve her obituary while she's alive, and, after proof that pretty much no one likes her, makes an effort to make her obit more interesting (not necessarily to win friends). Shirley MacLaine (last blogged for Bernie) is wonderful as the prickly Harriet, with the body language of someone who clearly doesn't like the word no. She's ably supported by Amanda Seyfried (most recently in these pages for While We're Young) as the millennial obit writer Anne. My favorite line from the trailer is when Anne's boss, played by Tom Everett Scott (last in Parental Guidance) calls her to his office to meet Harriet. She says, "Am I being fired?" and he replies, "You should be so lucky." Young AnnJewel Lee Dixon makes a promising debut as 9 year old Brenda.

We also liked the character of the radio station manager Robin, played by Thomas Sadoski (after writing about him in Wild, we enjoy him and everyone in the series Life in Pieces). Philip Baker Hall (last blogged for 50/50) and Anne Heche (profiled in Cedar Rapids) each have good scenes, too. Shot in various places in the greater Los Angeles area, its setting is the fictitious Bristol CA.

Director Mark Pellington (I saw the thriller Arlington Road (1999) but none of his others) does a good job working from the first produced script by Stuart Ross Fink.

You probably will not remember the musical compositions by Nathan Matthew David, who has scored dozens of projects that I missed, but you can listen to a sample on his website. What will stay with you are the songs played at the radio station, many of which are listed and can be sampled here.

The critics have not been kind to this, averaging 34% and audiences 59 on Rotten Tomatoes. We disagree. Go see it.

The Sense of an Ending (2017)

Jack and I quite liked this story of a 60-something Englishman whose past and present reveal a mystery that's not explained until the very end. The reliable Jim Broadbent (last blogged for The Lady in the Van) is the present day Tony, comfortably divorced from Margaret, played by the drily wonderful Harriet Walter (some of my favorites are Sense and Sensibility (1995), Babel (2006), Atonement, The Young Victoria, four episodes of Downton Abbey as Lady Shackleton, Denial, and seven episodes of The Crown as Mrs. Churchill). Their pregnant, single, gay daughter is a nice chance to see Michelle Dockery, best known as Lady Mary in 52 episodes of Downton Abbey, in an oh-so-modern role. Charlotte Rampling (most recently in these pages for 45 Years) appears in the third act in the present day as someone from Tony's past.

In the 1960s bits, Billy Howle and Freya Mavor (both new to me) give us the arrogance of high school as young Tony and Veronica, aided by Joe Alwyn (the reason he looked familiar is that I'd seen his face many times in the trailer for Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, though we didn't see the movie) as Tony's classmate Adrian. Hard to believe that Emily Mortimer (last blogged for Hysteria) is old enough to play someone's mum, but she is almost 22 years older than Mavor. Matthew Goode (most recently in The Imitation Game) doesn't deserve such high billing, but he does have a nice scene or two as the boys' teacher.

This is the second feature for Mumbai-born director Ritesh Batra, after The Lunchbox, and it is packed with plot from the screenplay by Nick Payne, a playwright making his feature debut, adapted from the 2011 novel by Julian Barnes. Kudos to both writers for giving us a deeply complex protagonist, not easily summed up in a few words and to Batra for winning one of ten Directors to Watch awards at the Palm Springs Film Festival earlier this year (also honored were the directors of Moonlight, The Eagle Huntress, and Toni Erdmann).

I don't think I've seen anything else shot by cinematographer Christopher Ross, but this has a lovely, distinct look, with lots of wide shots.

Once again, the pretty soundtrack by Max Richter (last scored The Congress) isn't available online. As soon as we left the theatre, though, Jack started looking up the cover of Time Is on My Side that we heard in one of the 1960s parts. We thought the song was a Rolling Stones original, but, in fact, it was written by Norman Meade (a pseudonym for Jerry Ragavoy), first recorded in 1963 by Kai Winding and His Orchestra in 1963 (here's that one), and covered by both the Stones and Irma Thomas the following year. Her version is in the movie and here it is.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are not so fond of this one, averaging 74 and 55% respectively. Still, we recommend it.

KEDi (2016)

Jack and I liked very much this beautiful documentary about the thousands of street cats who have roamed Istanbul since before it was Istanbul. With glorious cinematography and wonderful music, it gives us a feel for the city and I, for one, was discouraged from spending time there (perhaps I'm a clean freak--the felines jump onto everything, eat what they can get when they can get it, and though some loving residents provide veterinary care, I couldn't help thinking about shots and flea treatments). The audience today loved it, laughing out loud in many places. Kedi means cat in Turkish, but when I told the ticket taker "Kitties," she knew what I meant.

Director Ceyda Torun has made one short before this, shot by Charlie Wupperman, who collaborated here as cinematographer with Alp Korfali, both of whom are not novices but new to me as well.

Kira Fontana, an American, wrote the original soundtrack, but it is not available to buy, much less stream, in this country. I counted nine songs in the closing credits. The credits, by the way, are in English, even though the movie is in Turkish with English subtitles.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics love it, too, averaging 96% to its audiences' 86. The official website says the DVD won't come out until November, so I suggest you see it on the big screen while you can.

Get Out (2017)

Horror movies are low on Jack's and my priorities so we were pleasantly surprised by how much we liked this story of an African-American meeting his white girlfriend's rich parents and realizing his problems only start with racism. Jordan Peele (co-wrote Keanu) is the first African-American director to make over $100 million with his feature debut ($110m and counting in week three with a budget of about $4.5m). Peele also wrote the tight script--plenty of laughs--and does not appear on the screen, though his former comedy partner Keegan-Michael Key is on a laptop screen in a Bing search near the end (I blinked, I missed it).

Daniel Kaluuya (apparently he was in Sicario, but I don't remember) is terrific as the lead, Chris. I never would have guessed he's British and thus not African-American. This is the first movie for Allison Williams (best known for 56 episodes of Girls and the title role in the highly disappointing Peter Pan Live! TV movie) who is the sweet girlfriend Rose. Peele couldn't have cast better parents than Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener (last blogged for Other People and Begin Again, respectively).

Plenty of support is evident from Lakeith Stanfield (most recently in these pages for Snowden) who appears as a victim in the very first scene (I don't want to give anything away), Betty Gabriel (eight episodes of Good Girls Revolt, among other things) as Georgina, Stephen Root (last in Hello, My Name Is Doris) as the art dealer, and comedian LilRel Howery AKA Lil Rel (new to me) as Chris' best friend Rod.

Another feature debut is made by composer Michael Abels and you can stream his appropriately creepy soundtrack here. The wonderful opening track, which also plays over the end credits, is called Sikiliza Kwa Wahenga, a Swahili phrase that translates to “listen to (your) ancestors” and the song’s lyrics loosely mean “something bad is coming. Run.” Listen to it here. Childish Gambino, the band headed up by Donald Glover, also supplies some of the songs. Stanfield is one of the stars of Glover's series Atlanta.

Critics are falling over themselves in praise of this, averaging 99% on Rotten Tomatoes to audiences' 89. It's still raking in box office receipts but is estimated to have a DVD release in May. We think it's terrific and will be fine on big screen or small.

Logan (2017)

Those who can stomach on-screen bloodshed will enjoy this X-Men installment in which Wolverine/Logan wants to retire but a terminally ill Professor Charles Xavier introduces him to a young mutant with the same powers. Hugh Jackman as Logan and Patrick Stewart as Xavier (last blogged in Chappie and X-Men: Days of Future Past, respectively), who have said they will not return for any sequels, turn in surprisingly good performances, as does Stephen Merchant (new to these pages, he's a co-creator of (and infrequent actor in) the original British The Office, and has done good work acting in the comedy series Extras (directed and wrote all 13 episodes) and Hello Ladies, to name a few) as Caliban. Stewart lost 21 pounds to play the frail professor, Jackman looks pretty beat up as the title character, though less so in the scenes where he (uncredited) plays Logan's clone, and Merchant, already tall and skinny, stoops over as the vulnerable albino.

Young Dafne Keen, in her screen debut, does quite well as mutant Laura and looks so much like Rooney Mara that casting agents should take note for future work. Boyd Holbrook (after I wrote about him in Higher Ground he was the leading good guy in Narcos) is scary bad guy Pierce and Richard E. Grant (after Filth & Wisdom he's done a lot of work, including series arcs on Girls and Downton Abbey) as a rational scientist (also a bad guy). Watch for the cameo by Elizabeth Rodriguez, whose 53 episodes of Orange Is the New Black (playing Aleida Diaz, Dayanara's mother) are all that I've noticed of her dozens of credits. 94 actors are listed on imdb.

Director/co-writer James Mangold directed and co-wrote Girl, Interrupted (1999) and Walk the Line (2005) and directed 3:10 to Yuma (2007). Co-writer Scott Frank co-wrote Little Man Tate (1991), Get Shorty (1995), Minority Report (2002), and The Lookout (2007), among others, as well as The Wolverine (2013) , which we didn't see. Fellow co-writer Michael Green wrote a bunch of TV shows and has two big sci-fi projects coming up: the sequels to Blade Runner and Alien.

Marco Beltrami's (most recently scored The Homesman) soundtrack can be streamed from this link. The score includes music played by on an instrument called the armonica (correctly spelled without an H) by Rutgers grad student Jake Schlaerth (watch the video here) and plenty of songs, listed here.

We were terribly disappointed not to see the usual Stan Lee cameo in a Marvel movie. Research after the fact shows that Lee is supposed to appear in the Deadpool 2 preview before the movie begins. However, the preview we saw on Friday was Lee-less, with Deadpool listening to Angel of the Morning on his headphones (here is the opening credit sequence--one of the best ever--for the first Deadpool (and here's my post on it)). I found Stan, though, in a longer Deadpool preview, entitled No Good Deed, but without the Angel. And the movie Logan has no post-credit bonus, either. What a world.

Among the 92 trivia items on imdb is the fact that this movie had the broadest release, at 4071 screens, for any R-rated movie in history. And lots of people liked it a lot, averaging 92% from critics and 94 from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Plenty of gore and plenty of entertainment.

A United Kingdom (2016)

This story of the future President of Botswana, his white English wife, and their social and political struggles is a very good one, told well, featuring the considerable talents of David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike as Seretse Khama and Ruth Williams Khama (last blogged in Queen of Katwe and Gone Girl, respectively).

Supporting help is provided by Laura Carmichael (Lady Edith in Downton Abbey) as Ruth's sister, Jack Davenport (most recently in Kingsman: The Secret Service) as British bureaucrat Sir Canning, Jessica Oyelowo (David's real wife, she has some credits but I didn't know her face) as Lady Canning, Terry Pheto (was in the Oscar-winning Tsotsi (2005) and a L'Oréal model) as Khama's sister Naledi, and Tom Felton (last blogged for Rise of the Planet of the Apes) as another bureaucrat.

Director Amma Asante's last picture Belle was another historical drama on themes of race. The screenplay by Guy Hibbert (new to me but with plenty of credits) is based on the 2006 book Colour Bar: The Triumph of Seretse Khama and His Nation by Susan Williams (no relation to Ruth as far as I can tell, although the writer did grow up in Zambia and now is based in London).

The beautiful cinematography by Sam McCurdy (I'm not familiar with his work) elicits foggy London, some magnificent interiors, and sunny southern Africa in the 1940s and 50s. And Jack and I always like seeing the old cars. I liked the dresses, too, from costume design by Jenny Beavan (Oscar winner for Mad Max: Fury Road and nominatee for The King's Speech) and Anushia Nieradzik (Belle). Two notes about the dresses: 1. in a scene where Ruth was supposed to be pregnant, she wore a dress that had appeared in an early scene and her defined (un-pregnant) waist peeked out by her elbow (I submitted this item to imdb's goofs and it was accepted) and 2. I just loved Lady Canning's dress in one of the last scenes on a patio. It had thin stripes. I can't find a photo.

As I write I am streaming the entire soundtrack by Patrick Doyle (last in these pages for Cinderella). As Ruth and Seretse met listening to jazz, there are a lot of big band songs, some of which are listed here. And watch for the village women singing about halfway through. Apparently the extras broke into song spontaneously and it's marvelous.

Definitely playing in these parts for another week, this movie's averages are 84 critics and 82 audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Take the time to see it on the big screen.

The Salesman (Forushande - 2016)

We did not love this Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film, a story of an Iranian married couple who are in a stage production of Death of a Salesman and go through various situations in their personal lives. Director/writer Asghar Farhadi's A Separation won Best Foreign Film in 2012 (also nominated for Best Original Screenplay that year) and Shahab Hosseini was the leading man in both movies. Hosseini certainly gives his all, as does Taraneh Alidoosti who plays his wife as well as everyone else in the cast.

Jack and I found it overly long at 2:02, with unanswered questions and two great big plot holes on which the climax depends (ask me to tell you if you want). We have now seen three of the five nominated foreign films and liked the lighter ones (Toni Erdmann and A Man Called Ove) much better. We may skip the one about land mines but Tanna, the one about the island tribal couple running away from their arranged marriage, is on our Amazon watchlist.

Farhadi declined to attend the Oscars in protest of the president's travel ban. He sent a statement that said, in part, "My absence is out of respect for the people of my country and those of the other six nations who have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the US." We suspect the movie may have been favored because of the racial profiling of that ban.

Or perhaps it won because critics and audiences have been much more generous than we, averaging 97 and 86% respectively on Rotten Tomatoes. It has left big screens in these parts as of yesterday but you can pre-order it on Amazon.

Temple Grandin (2010)

Heart-warming and inspiring, this award-winning biopic starring Claire Danes as the real autistic woman who has become a successful livestock handling scientist brought me to tears of joy. Danes' (covered in my post on Me and Orson Welles) masterful performance earned her a SAG award, a Golden Globe, and an Emmy, just to name a few of the accolades heaped on the TV-movie. Also starring the formidable talents of David Strathairn (last blogged for Howl) as her favorite teacher, Catherine O'Hara (after I covered her in Where the Wild Things Are I've loved her in the every one of the 36 episodes of Schitt's Creek I've seen so far) as Grandin's aunt, and Julia Ormond (some of my favorites of her work are Sabrina (1995), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and My Week with Marilyn), Emmy winner for playing Grandin's mother.

I've been fascinated by Ms. Grandin since I first heard her on NPR years ago. I meant to watch the HBO movie when it was released but never got around to it. Then, the other day, after riding my stationary bike while watching the latest episode of Homeland (this season is pretty great so far), I turned the TV to HBO and this movie was on--Claire Danes squared. I was captivated and Jack and I streamed it from the beginning later that night on Amazon Prime. I distinctly remember the real Grandin's appearance at one of the award shows, making a number of unprompted and overly long but warmly received speeches as the movie won.

Director Mick Jackson (most recently in these pages for Denial) works from a screenplay by Christopher Monger (directed/wrote The Englishman Who Went up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain (1995) and more) and Merritt Johnson (eight episodes of In Treatment which I didn't see), based on two books by Grandin, Emergence and Thinking in Pictures (the latter book co-written by Margaret Scariano).

Composer Alex Wurman (scored Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001); Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002); Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004); Run, Fatboy, Run (2007); Four Christmases; The Switch; and nine episodes of The Newsroom, to name a few) also won an Emmy for the music on this project. I liked the music but it's not available online.

In case you need further encouragement, this is rated 100% by critics and 95 by audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. 'Nuff said.

Morris from America (2016)

Jack and I loved this story of an African-American 13 year old and his widowed father struggling in their new life in Germany. The fish-out-of-water and familial push-pull themes ground its clever concept. Essential humor is added by Craig Robinson (last blogged for This Is the End) as the father Curtis. Young Markees Christmas, in his feature debut, is also quite good as the title character.

The Independent Spirit Awards are the day before the Oscars and the trailer shown on that program, as well as the movie's important nominations and wins (none from Oscar), inspired us to stream this on Netflix a few days ago.

Director/writer Chad Hartigan, a white man, was born in Cyprus but went to high school and college in the US. The soundtrack by Keegan DeWitt, a combination of Morris and Curtis' hip-hop and the German teenagers' techno, can be streamed from this link.

I can't imagine why Rotten Tomatoes' audiences are so cool on this, averaging 61%. Its critics come in at 89. Repeat: we loved it.