I’ve been watching the Marvel movies in this series since the beginning, a big die-hard fan, and this is the first time in awhile that I’ve felt a bit let down. Black Widow takes place before after Captain America: Civil War, when Natasha Romanov is in hiding due the Sokovia Accords. She receives a package from her long-lost “sister” (fellow spy, long story), Yelena Belova, with a serum which negates the mind controlling effects of the program that trained both Natasha and Yelena as children. Natasha thought the kingpin of the program, Dreykov, has been long dead, but learns that he survived her attack on him many years ago. With help from former Soviet spies Alexei Shostakov (Russia’s super soldier to counter the USA’s Captain America) and Melina Vostokoff, who raised Natasha and Yelena when they were a fake family in America in the 90s, the team goes after Dreykov to stop his awful experiments on girls and finally end his program. Lots of action, which doesn’t disappoint, but there are some gaping holes in the plot, and I couldn’t get away from some really terrible deus ex machina events. Still, it’s good that Scarlett Johansson finally got her movie (all the other boys did long ago), and with her character dead in the current timeline, I think the Black Widow character is in good hands should Marvel have Yelena (the fantastic Florence Pugh, from Fighting with My Family and Midsommar) carry it forward. ★★★½
Moffie is about a young man, Nicholas, who has to join the army in compulsory service in the early 1980s in South Africa. The nation, under apartheid segregation and going into a war with the neighboring communist country of Angola, is having all men 16 and older serve 2 years in the military. Nicholas is of English descent, but that doesn’t make him exempt. As an added complication, Nicholas is gay, a fact he guards from even his family, as homosexually is illegal in South Africa. Most of the movie is about Nicholas’s experiences in boot camp, training for battle. The new recruits are demeaned and treated horribly by their superiors, in acts I consider far over the line of “toughening them up.” Hard to watch, but that’s really all this film brings to the table. Outside of a secret kiss Nicholas shares with a fellow soldier one night, and a flashback to when he was caught peaking at other boys in the showers of a public pool when he was a teen, the movie doesn’t delve at all into the inner turmoil Nicholas is going through. As such, the movie is more a war of attrition for the viewer to get through, than any kind of enjoyable experience. ★★
I used to make jokes about comedic films geared towards grandparents, but having recently become a grandpa myself, I guess I need to think of a new analogy. Whatever it will be, The Paper Tigers is one of those movies. Full of lame humor that only my grandma would laugh at, it is about 3 friends who studied kung fu as kids and teens, under the tutelage of a master who was strict yet loving with them. The trio were the shit in their neighborhood as kids, but gave up kung fu years ago and now, 30 years later, both their bodies and their minds have gotten soft. However, they come together again to investigate the murder of their former master. There’s a few chuckles to be had as they pull muscles and try to hold onto their toupees against younger, fitter opponents, but on a whole, the movie is only mildly entertaining. I watched it through just to see how it ended. ★★
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is a wonderful family movie based on the book of the same name, a semi-autobiographical children’s book, by Judith Kerr. In the movie, the Kempers are a non-practicing Jewish family living in Berlin in the early 1930s. The father, Arthur, is a journalist and theater critic, and he’s been very outspoken against Hitler and his rise to power. With elections approaching where it is looking increasingly like Hitler’s party will gain control of the government, Arthur and wis wife Dorothea decide it is time to leave Germany. They take their kids, Anna and Max, and flee to Switzerland. Unfortunately once there, Arthur is unable to get work, as the country is hesitant to support a man who has been so vocal against Hitler, since they wish to remain neutral. After a short time there, the Kemper family settles in Paris. Anna and Max do not speak the language, and money continues to get more and more tight. Through all of their struggles though, Arthur and Dorothea try to keep the kids’ spirits high. They know they are poor now, but Anna tries to treat the whole thing as an adventure. The book was groundbreaking in its depiction of emigrants/refugees fleeing Germany before World War II, all from a child’s (Anna’s) viewpoint, and has been a huge success since first published in 1971. The movie is moving in its childlike view of the wide world during a harsh period, and you can’t help but root for the delightful Anna and her family. Very lovely family film (if your kids can handle reading the German subtitles). ★★★½
Sublet is about an American journalist, Michael, who is visiting Tel Aviv to write a story for the New York Times. He sublets an apartment there for his 5 day trip, and meets Tomer, a student who is renting out the apartment because he needs the money. Michael is an older gay man, in a longterm relationship back home, but you get the impression that his relationship is on the rocks (the cause of which is explained later). Tomer is also gay, but much younger, and the gap in years leads to a much different outlook on life. For example, when Tomer’s friend talks about moving to Berlin, Michael scoffs, wondering how they could live in country where so many atrocities happened to their people (Jews). Tomer laughs that off as ancient history, and says Berlin is the happening place for the young generation. Tomer also teases Michael for being in a committed relationship when there are so many other partners and experiences out there to enjoy. The movie isn’t just a big condescension on older people though; by the end Tomer can learn a two or thing from a man who’s already lived through the ups and downs of life. Nice enough movie, even if it’s been done before. This movie doesn’t break any new ground, but it’s a good reminder to enjoy life as it comes. ★★★
Jons Movie Takes 