Krigen (A War) comes out of Denmark, from director Tobias Lindholm. It stars Pilou Asbaek (Euron Greyjoy of Game of Thrones fame) as Claus, a commander of a group of soldiers hunting Taliban in Afghanistan. His troop loses one man when he steps on an IED, and it has shaken unit’s core. Shortly after, they are pinned down in a compound while on a patrol, taking heavy fire, when another member is critically wounded. The medevac can’t come in, so Claus orders an airstrike of the vicinity where he believes the enemy fire is coming from. It works, and the wounded soldier is rescued out, saving his life. Unfortunately for Claus, there were woman and children in that compound, and he is brought up on charges that he called the attack without having confirmation of an enemy presence there. The final section of the film shifts from the war zone to the court room. The movie is critically acclaimed, but I wasn’t moved. For one, I don’t think Asbaek is that great of an actor (wasn’t in Game of Thrones, and this film hasn’t changed my mind). Secondly, while Claus was obviously in a no-win situation, it’s still awfully egotistical to think the life of one soldier is more important than a house full of innocents. Very average film for me. ★★½
Theeb is much better. A joint production from a few countries including Jordan, UAE, and the UK, and from director Naji Abu Nowar, it takes place in the desert during World War I. Young Theeb (a name that means wolf) and his older brother Hussein are hired to guide an English soldier and his Arab companion Marji through the desert to a railway. The Englishmen’s orders are to get there fast, so they take a shortcut through the canyon, despite local warnings that the path has more bandits than pilgrims these days. The warnings prove prophetic, as they are waylaid at a well halfway through. Several bandits are killed and one badly injured before the soldier, Marji, and Hussein are all killed, leaving Theeb alone. After waiting at the well a couple days, the initially wounded bandit returns, having been abandoned by his thieving “friends.” Theeb is too small and not physically strong enough to get the bandit’s camel to follow orders, so he nurses the bandit well enough to take them out of there. This uneasy alliance is the focalpoint of the final third of the film. Fantastic, suspenseful film, and a bit of a coming-of-age in a world very different from the one we live here in the USA. The end will leave you thinking. ★★★½
Monos hails from Colombia, directed by Alejandro Landes. This is a powerful film about a group of teenagers, really not much more than boys and girls, who have been recruited into a guerrilla war. The commander looking over their regiment, a militant and abusive man known as “the messenger,” has charged them with watching over an American hostage whom they call the doctor. The kids all go by nicknames, or call-signs, themselves, including Dog, Rambo, Bigfoot, Wolf, Lady, Smurf, and others. They though are obviously “bad guys,” they really are just children playing at being grownups, and their play in the beginning of the film drives this home. However, as the film goes along, they become more violent, and the movie takes on an almost Lord of the Flies-esque feel, with one boy starting to call all the shots and punish those who go against him. The imagery and music in this film are incredible. It’s impossible to explain, but the jungle feels alive through the screen, and you feel like you are there with them. An incredibly touching and emotional film, with mostly an unknown cast, with only two recognizable faces if you watch a lot of films, and otherwise newcomers, all of whom are up to the task for the nuanced and difficult roles. ★★★★
Mustang is a powerful film, the debut of director Deniz Gamze Erguven, and a coproduction of France and Turkey. Drawing a lot of parallels to Sofia Coppola’s famous The Virgin Suicides, it is about five sisters growing up together in Turkey. Their parents are dead, and they’ve been raised by their grandmother and uncle. Seeing them as getting too wild in their strict conservative society, grandmother decides it is finally time to start marrying them off, though all are just teenagers, and still engage in childish games with each other. Worse yet, in their culture, they rarely get to pick the lucky husband. Not to mention, we see more is going on behind closed doors than we are aware of in the beginning, when we see that after the two oldest daughters are married out, the uncle secrets into the third daughter’s bedroom one night. Told from the perspective of the youngest sister, Lale, who sees and notices all, it is a compassionate film about the perseverance and bond of sisters’ love. Though the film received criticism in Turkey for not accurately depicting the culture towards women there, I’m sure there are still plenty of places in the world where they are treated as such, and it is an eye-opening film for the age we live in. ★★★★
First Love is a Japanese film, highly entertaining, which almost defies characterization. It is billed as a crime thriller, but I think it had more laugh-out-loud moments that suspenseful ones, and the fight scenes have so much gratuitous gore that it is beyond ridiculous. Many times in the film, you can’t help but chuckle and shake your head at the purposeful outlandishness of it all. Leo is a boxer who is told he has a huge inoperable brain tumor, on the same day that he crosses paths with Monica, a prostitute and drug addict who has been set up to take the fall in an inside drug deal that is supposed to go bad. Chased by the “good” bad guys, the “bad” bad guys, a corrupt cop, and a vengeful girl bent on getting revenge for her killed boyfriend, Leo and Monica spend a night just trying to survive. Thankfully for them, the pursuers are as inept as they come. I’m unfamiliar with director Takashi Miike’s work, but if they are all like this, they are probably all a wild ride. ★★★½
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. That’s the gist of Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (The Ladies of the Park). Helene is a rich single woman who’s been in an open relationship with Jean for two years, but she loves him enough to finally get married. Unfortunately he doesn’t feel the same way, so when he calls it off to be “just friends,” Helene sets out to get her cold-hearted revenge. She knows of a single mother who has fallen on hard times. The adult daughter, Agnes, once dreamed of being a ballerina, but has resorted to being a cabaret dancer and prostitute to support herself and her mom. Helene rescues the family from their debts and puts them in a new apartment, and slyly introduces them to Jean, knowing that Agnes’ good looks will entice him. Helene is right, and Jean falls head over heals. Agnes rightly guesses that Helene has an ulterior motive, but her mom refuses to listen, feeling indebted to Helene. Agnes resists for awhile, shameful of her past, and even tries to tell Jean, but he dismisses her protestations, going on Helene’s word that Agnes’s is a fine upstanding family which has just been going through a difficult situation. Agnes and Jean get married without him knowing of her past, and only then is it revealed to him, with Helene having invited many of her former lovers to the wedding. It’s a delightful perverse film, but also has a message of redemption, and not just for Agnes. 
Diary of a Country Priest is a low-key film about a man who takes on his first parish in a rural community, and he’s probably unprepared for what he finds there. Our unnamed priest is a young man, just out of seminary, who is quiet and contemplative, pious yet unsure of himself. He is prone to arguing with his parishioners when they don’t see things the way he thinks they should, which doesn’t exactly make him any friends in the small community. To make matters worse, he is sickly for an unknown reason, able to only eat and drink break and diluted wine. The constant wine drinking spreads rumors that he is a drunk, and a lying young girl makes up more lies about him which makes matters worse. In the end, as his illness progresses, he finds solace not in any of his community, but in a fallen priest who attended school with him, who left the church and is now living unmarried with a woman. Though he struggles with his faith through most of the film, with his friend at his side, our priest seems to find himself at the end. I liked this film, and I think I would have really liked it more if I hadn’t been interrupted while watching it. I hate to start a movie if I don’t have time to get through it in one sitting, and unfortunately I was pulled away a few times, once for an extended time, and this is the kind of character film that you just can’t do that on. It pulls you in with all of the emotion of the priest, his fear of not living up to his calling. If I watch this one again, I’d make sure to do in one sitting, and would probably rate it higher. 
Pickpocket is widely heralded, but I just didn’t get the hype. It is about a man, Michel, who is forced to turn to thievery to survive. Already living in a rundown building (he leaves his apartment door wide open when he isn’t home, the lock is broken), and trying also to support his ailing mother, Michel has been out of work for a long time. His first stealing attempt, at the racetrack, ends up with him getting caught, but the police are unable to prove he is the thief, and he is let go. He is caught again a short time later, but the victim simply demands his money back without calling the cops. After these early run-ins, Michel is able to latch on to a group of professional thieves who take him under their wing, teaching him techniques and honing his “craft.” In the meantime, Michel begins to fall for the young neighbor of his mom’s. Bresson was famous for wanting his actors to display as little emotion as possible, preferring to let the story speak for itself, but that becomes the detriment in a film like Pickpocket. Even as Michel narrates to the viewer that he is under extreme stress from fear of getting caught, we certainly can’t tell by watching his face. Call me old fashioned, but I like to immerse myself in the film and get to a place where I am swept up in events the characters are going through, and it’s hard to do that when they are all stone-faced all the time. 
Unfortunately I didn’t really enjoy The Trial of Joan of Arc either. Bresson did a lot of research to make this film, a portrayal of Joan’s trial and eventual death by being burned at the stake, but to get that true story across, the whole picture is just spoken dialogue. In fact, it could take place in one long scene had Bresson not attempted to break up the monotony of it by showing the priests walking around. And by walking around, I mean out of the “room,” since it is was obviously filmed on a shoestring budget on tiny lots. It happens so often, it almost became comical to see the judges ask Joan a few questions, then get up and walk out the back. And unfortunately Bresson’s reliance on nonprofessional actors really shows in all the dialogue. It literally looks like they are reciting lines, unemotionally and with little rehearsing. The final scene of Joan’s death is powerful, but you’d expect that for such a climactic and historical scene. The rest of the movie bored me to sleep. 
We go from 2 movies with little emotion, to one that is full of it. Au Hasard Balthazar is a monumentous film; at its root, it is the life and death of Balthazar the donkey, but it is so much more. Balthazar is born into what appears to be a good life. He is loved as a young donkey by Marie, a little girl, and Marie’s playmate/early “boyfriend,” Jacques. However, when Jacques’s sister dies, the family moves away, and Marie isn’t so happy anymore, and Balthazar’s own life of joy ends, never to return. He spends the next 15 years floating from owner to owner, all within the same tiny town, and each seemingly more cruel than the previous one. None really care for Balthazar, other than his use as a pack animal, and he is beaten and mistreated continuously. Even an older Marie, who has fallen in with a bad crowd, shows mostly apathy towards Balthazar when she sees him. In the end, Balthazar dies alone, surrounded by sheep on a hillside. The obvious metaphor to Balthazar’s life is that of Jesus (Bresson was a Catholic and did not shy away from religious material in many of his films, as noted above). Balthazar is treated roughly during his time on this earth, used as a tool by the cruel and loved by few, yet he carries on as a noble animal without ever quitting. I think the selection of a donkey, besides its obvious biblical link, works perfectly: we associate it as a burden animal, and one that doesn’t fight back and which can’t escape its life. 
Mickey and the Bear is, I think, falsely called a coming-of-age tale, because the girl in it was forced to grow up a long time ago. Mickey is on the cusp of graduating high school, and lives with her single father, a marine veteran who clearly suffers from PTSD. He uses oxy and alcohol to get through his day, and Mickey has been playing the roles of student, breadwinner, and caregiver for a long time. As she’s trying to navigate her own issues with a juvenile boyfriend, and tamp down dreams of leaving Montana for bigger and better places, she has to come to terms with the fact that her father may never be what she wants and needs. He’s a drunk and abusive, and he’s never going to get better. It might be an unpopular opinion, but I’m not a fan of making excuses for people, no matter what they may have gone through. Mickey’s dad’s bad life doesn’t give him a pass to be an asshole to his daughter. She loves and wants to help her dad, but he seems unwilling or incapable of helping himself, yet she continually sticks by his side. It’s a very good film. The dad is played by James Badge Dale, who you’d recognize for all his roles in military and action films, and Camila Morrone, who I’d not seen before, is fantastic as Mickey. This is the type of film that critics love, but it’s good for average moviegoers too. 
Midway is one of those films where you better hope the action scenes make up for the rest of it, and for the most part, it is passable. Telling the historical lead-up and eventual battle of the one of the turning points in World War II in the fight for the Pacific, it features some amazing actions sequences, offset by some cringe-worthy dialogue and a serious case of over-acting by everyone on screen, even by well-known actors I like, which I can only attribute to bad directing. There’s a huge cast on both the American and Japanese side of the conflict. After a short prelude showing a meeting between the countries in 1937, the film fasts forward to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the USA’s response in the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, and finally the epic battle around the tiny island of Midway. Director Roland Emmerich’s movies tend to make a lot of money, but these days his pieces are more about explosions than story, and he hasn’t made a really great picture in 20 years. Despite all that, the action moments, those referenced battle scenes, are so incredibly good, that they nearly make up for everything bad. I found myself cheering aloud when an enemy plane was shot down. Fans of the genre should find enough to like. 
Horse Girl stars Alison Brie as Sarah, a shy and lonely young woman whose only real contact with the world is a kind coworker (Joan, played by Molly Shannon) and a roommate (Nikki, Debby Ryan). She regularly visits a horse she used to own, Willow, but its new owners don’t appreciate her coming around. She’s also haunted by the accident of her friend Heather, who suffered a brain injury after falling from a horse years earlier, and the recent death of her mother. Sarah begins suffering from nosebleeds, and at the same time, starts zoning out while awake, coming to in odd places and not remembering how she got there. As Sarah starts to give in to some crazy paranoid delusions about alien abductions and cloning, she really starts to spiral out of control. The film begins as sort of an off-beat, quirky drama, typical for what you’d expect from an indie flick, but as Sarah starts losing time, it takes an unexpected, dark turn, and takes the viewer with it. Towards the end, I had less of an idea of what was going on than Sarah. There are parts that are really good, and Brie tries her best to sell it, but man, what a weird film. 
Impractical Jokers: the Movie is really just for die-hard fans of the long-running tv show, fans like me and my wife. We’ve been watching since shortly after it debuted and I don’t think we’ve ever missed an episode. Recent seasons seem to have lost the luster a bit, so I did have a little trepidation in going to see the four comedians ribbing each other on the big screen, but the film is whole lot of fun. Based around a very loose plot about the four men getting dissed by Paula Abdul in high school, and 20 years later making the cross-country drive to see her in Miami, the movie is mostly just more skits that you’d normally see on the show. But for the most part, they are really good skits. There are lots of subtle jokes and easter eggs for longtime fans, so I’m not sure that someone new to the Tenderloins will laugh as hard as I did, but I thought it was great. No spoilers here, but know that if you like the show, but didn’t know how it would translate to the big screen, my advice is to just go see it. 
Knives Out is a terrific film from director Rian Johnson. Even if you weren’t a fan of The Last Jedi (I was!), you have to admit Brick and Looper were pretty amazing. He continues to make strides with Knives Out, a modern day murder-mystery. The film revolves around the wealthy Thrombey family, all of whom trace their money to patriarch Harlan (Christopher Plummer), an established writer. When Harlan is found dead one day though, of an apparent suicide, the family can’t wait to divy up his wealth. The kink in the works though is a private investigator, Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) thinks that, just perhaps, it was murder and not suicide. Each family member and caregiver is examined and interviewed, and all of the dirty laundry is aired. The cast is great, with members of the family including Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette, Don Johnson, Ana de Armas, and even Frank Oz showing up as a lawyer. Though the mystery isn’t as good as maybe it could have been, as I had it all figured well before the end, the reveal is no less fun for it. A tremendously exciting, well acted, and well told story. 
McCabe & Mrs Miller is a revisionist western film released in 1971, with an all-star cast lead by two of the biggest stars at the time, Warren Beatty (coming off Bonnie and Clyde) and Julie Christie (recently from Doctor Zhivago). Altman called it an “anti-western.” The heroes (or anti-heroes, as the case may be) are likeable, but they certainly aren’t role models. John McCabe is a gambler, newly arrived in the tiny northwest town of Presbyterian Church. He sees potential in the little town with its nearby rich mine and large male population, and opens up a whorehouse. He’s just getting started when Constance Miller comes to town and wants to become his partner. She wants to take his trashy prostitutes and classy them up a bit, charging more money for a high-class establishment. As the town continues to grow, business is good, and the duo start making a ton of money. This catches the attention of some businessmen in a nearby city, who come to Presbyterian Church to make McCabe and offer he can’t refuse. Unfortunately for him, he does refuse it, leading to some good old fashioned gun fights. I didn’t know what to think about this film for the first half or so. It took awhile to get going and the narrative is hard to follow, but by the end, I was hooked. It is one of the most “real” westerns I can remember seeing in some time. Everything from the sounds of the town, to the unfinished sets in it (purposefully done so by Altman, to give the impression of a growing town), to the flaws of its citizens, to even the grainy subdued picture (again, on purpose) really places the viewer inside the action. Great film, with lots of recognizable faces in the cast (Shelley Duvall, the late, great Rene Auberjonois, etc). 
Altman followed up with Images, and at first, I couldn’t decide if this film is really good or really bad. It is a psychological thriller starring Susannah York (who won a best actress at Cannes for the role in 1972). At first Cathryn is just hearing things: an unknown woman keeps calling to tell her her husband Hugh (Star Trek’s favorite future shapechanging Odo, Rene Auberjonois again) is cheating on her. It isn’t long before she starts seeing things too though. She keeps seeing visions of a dead former lover, and when a man she once had an affair with stops in to visit Cathryn and her husband at a weekend getaway, she starts seeing all three men interchangeably. Cathryn will be kissing a man she thinks is her husband, see in a flash that it is actually the family friend, and then think it is her dead former lover, all in the span of seconds. She also intermittently sees herself in out-of-body experiences, walking across the gardens from the window, or overlooking the house from nearby cliffs. Her deteriorating condition worsens as the film goes along. Altman puts amazing camerawork to use, swapping out actors in the same take to disturbing effect for the viewer. The beginning felt a little gimmicky, but after awhile, even the viewer starts to feel Cathryn’s insanity, like something is slipping. It really pulls you in. At the end of the day, it is a solid film worthy of a single viewing, though I’m not sure I’d watch it again. 
In 1975, Altman had his biggest critical success since MASH, with his film Nashville, which still holds the record for most Golden Globe nominations at 11. The backstory of the film is about a politician (who is never shown on screen), running for President on an independent ticket, who is putting together music talent for a fundraiser and rally in Nashville. While that is the overarching idea, most of the film is light on actual plot, following the lives of a multitude of eclectic characters over the course of a few days. The first 20-ish minutes go by at a frantic pace. The large cast isn’t given given true introductions in the traditional movie sense, we just see them on camera doing their normal things, and not even one at a time. It goes by so fast that we don’t know who to focus on, and the various characters aren’t fleshed out until later. Characters are always talking over each other, with multiple on-camera conversations going on at the same time, something Altman would become famous for in his pictures. It works in real life, but does make it difficult to follow in a motion picture. The film ends up playing out as satire, portraying our culture as one obsessed more with the performer as a celebrity and less about the music they are creating. As I mentioned, it has a huge cast; I think I read somewhere it has 24 main characters. Many are future all-stars before they were big. The list includes Ned Beatty, Keith Carradine, Scott Glenn, Shelly Duvall, Jeff Goldblum, and Lily Tomlin (in her first role). While the movie is critically acclaimed, it was a it too aimless for me. There are some quirky, funny moments, and it features a fantastic soundtrack (Altman once noted there was an hour of music throughout the 2 ½ hour+ film), but I think this is one of those films that was much more important in its time, especially its political aspects, than what it is today. 
If you want to see a case study in strong women actors, look no further than Altman’s masterpiece 3 Women, released in 1977. The 2 obvious women are Millie and Pinky, introduced early in the film. Millie (Shelley Duvall) is an outgoing yet lonely woman, whose forceful personality turns just about everyone off. Yet she is an instant attraction for the shy and introverted Pinky (Sissy Spacek), who is new to the area. Whereas Millie keeps people away with her attitude, Pinky does so with her awkward and clumsy speech. Pinky does latch on to Millie though and it isn’t long before they are roommates, where they come into contact with the third woman, Willie (Janice Rule). Willie is an artist, painting murals around the area, and she doesn’t say much to anyone, even her husband, the womanizing Edgar. As these three females hang around each other, their personalities blur, until an amazing final scene which makes you want to stop and rewatch the whole thing again. Altman has stated that Bergman’s Persona was a big influence for this film, and having seen it recently, I can definitely see why. The film is engaging from the start, gripping throughout, and downright chilling at times too. Truly amazing acting from Duvall and Spacek, who were still relatively early in their careers. Duvall was still 3 years away from her biggest known role in The Shining, and Spacek was a year removed from Carrie. 
Going to skip ahead a few years, to arguably Altman’s next biggest hit, in 1992. The Player features a huge cast and an even larger list of A-list cameos of the era, a reported 65 people, many in short scenes just playing themselves around the Hollywood lots and restaurants. At the start, I thought maybe it was a comedy, because the opening scene shows Buck Henry pitching “The Graduate 2” to a film exec. While it continues to have hilarious moments throughout, the film gets dark too. The movie follows a Hollywood exec named Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) who starts to receive anonymous death threats. Mill thinks he knows who’s been sending them, a disgruntled writer he rejected recently named David Kahane (a young Vincent D’Onofrio), and Mill goes to meet him to try to make amends. At the same time, Mill feels threatened from a new hotshot executive at the studio, Larry Levy (Peter Gallagher), who seems to have risen through the ranks quickly by rubbing the right elbows. The rest of the film plays out in thrilling fashion, much like one of the classic Hollywood pieces discussed on screen. Murder, sex, a police investigation, a run from the cops, and the supreme ego of the film execs all come together for as complete a film as you will find. It’s also a movie-lovers wet dream, full of visual and spoken references (some subtle, some not so much) to the history of film. I loved every minute of it. 
I’m a big fan of The Shining (the film, and admittedly maybe because I’m a huge Kubrick fan), but ashamedly I’ve never read the book, much to my son’s consternation (one of his favorite books, and he dogs me about it because he hates the film). I’ve been excited to see Doctor Sleep, the sequel to that long-ago book and film. Danny Torrance (portrayed wonderfully by Ewan McGregor) is all grown up. He’s kept his “shine” skill locked up inside himself all these years, which probably, unknowingly, saved his life. There’s a group of evil beings that have been hunting people with the shine for hundreds of years, feeding on them to extend their own lives. While feeding on one such young boy in Iowa, the violence grabs the attention of a teenage girl, Abra, living in New Hampshire. Abra is very powerful in the shine, and while she is feeling the death of the boy, her power is felt by the evil cult. Knowing they will come for her, Abra reaches out to Danny for help. This film is tremendous. Not overly scary but definitely creepy, it is more of a thriller in the vein of Carrie or some of those kinds of Stephen King’s stories. I’m not a big fan of the very ending of the film, the last 15-20 minutes of this 2 ½ hour picture, but the rest of the film is so great, I still highly recommend it. As a huge fan of King’s Dark Tower series, I also appreciated the whole lot of references to other works of King throughout the film, including the Dark Tower. 
I wanted to watch Honey Boy because of its sterling reviews, but had a certain, subdued expectation going in as well. The film is a fictionalized biography written by Shia LaBeouf, about his childhood with her abusive father. It is based on a screenplay LaBeouf wrote while in rehab, as a form of therapy. LaBeouf is a fantastic actor, but let’s be honest, he can be a piece of shit sometimes. I expected this film to be a pat-on-the-back, “this is why I’m effed up” excuse for his behaviors. It isn’t. The film is a frank, open, honest, and vulnerable depiction of LaBeouf’s complicated relationship with his father. LaBeouf plays his own dad, with Lucas Hodges and Noah Jupe playing a fictionalized version of himself named Otis. Otis is a 12-year-old child actor living with his dad in a longterm motel. Dad is a former rodeo clown, a Vietnam vet, and an alcoholic, who, as a convicted felon, can’t hold a job. He’s awful to Otis, but it is obvious that his behavior masks his contempt for himself and the way his life has turned out, the failure as a man and father that he sees in himself. LaBeouf’s screenplay and the direction by Alma Har’el are perfect. This is a hard film to do well. Make it too sappy, and it would come off as contrived or preachy. Make it too documentorial, and it would be what I first expected, an excuse for LaBeouf’s problems. Instead, it really is perfect as it sits. The three main actors are all great (close your eyes, and Hodges sounds just like LaBeouf). 
Ford v Ferrari details the historical period when Henry Ford’s car company’s sales were down, losing business to rival Chevy and prestige to European speedsters like Ferrari. Up-and-comer Lee Iacocca convinces Henry Ford II to go after the latter to beat the former. Lee promotes getting more heavily involved in the racing format, with the goal to win the Le Mans 24 hour race, to show the world that Ford can build cars that can compete with anyone. To meet this end, they reach out to Caroll Shelby to help design Ford’s newest racing machine, and Shelby then approaches longtime friend and fellow racer, Ken Miles, to drive it. The film showcases these people’s attempt to beat Ferrari and his racing car, both through innovation in the garage and by getting the best driver on the course. The film does an excellent job of balancing the heart-pounding action of the races with the drama (and personality clashes) behind the scenes. Though a film like this doesn’t always rely heavily on acting chops, everyone turns in a good performance, from Matt Damon as Shelby to Christian Bale as Miles, and supported by Josh Lucas, Jon Bernthal, and a host of others. Very good film. As a racing picture, I think I dug Rush from a few years ago a bit more, but this film feels more balanced. 
If you are looking for a feel-good picture, it doesn’t get any better than The Peanut Butter Falcon. It takes a classic innocent boy running away to fulfill a dream kind of story, and swaps the young boy with a man with down syndrome instead. You don’t see many films with such a person in the main, leading role, and newcomer Zack Gottsagen is up to the task. In the film, Zack is a young man forced to live at a retirement community, because he has no family to do the things he cannot do for himself. However, he feels trapped, and while he has friends there, he’s also about 50 years younger than everyone else. Eleanor (Dakota Johnson) is a kind nurse/caregiver, but she doesn’t fully understand Zack’s predicament. One night, Zack successfully breaks out, and finds himself the unlikely companion of a local roughneck, Tyler (Shia LeBeouf again!). Tyler is on the run himself, and decides to lead Zack to a wrestling school a few miles away, where Zack hopes to meet his personal hero, a wrestler named The Salt Water Redneck. With Eleanor on their tail, as well as a couple hoodlums chasing Tyler, a bond forms between our duo on their multiple adventures. It’s heartwarming, thoughtful, eye-opening, and above all else, beautiful. 
Can a man learn from his mistakes, and the mistakes of his father? That’s the big question in James Gray’s Ad Astra, a deep and contemplative film, as was Gray’s last one, 
Farhadi’s recent Oscar came in 2016 for The Salesman. It follows a married couple, Emad and Rana, who are actors in a new showing of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Emad’s day job is a teacher at the local school, but the couple is struggling. Their current apartment was found to be structurally unsafe, so they are forced to move into a rough neighborhood. On their first night there, while Emad is late returning home, Rana is attacked in her home when she mistakenly lets a stranger into the building through its intercom. Emad finds out the person who rented the apartment before them was a promiscuous woman, and he believes a former “client” of hers is the attacker. Rana is obviously shaken up and doesn’t want to go to the cops, so Emad makes it is business to hunt down the attacker himself. Despite what you might think, it isn’t a thriller. It is a deep and heartfelt drama, taking the viewer through all of the emotions from both the husband and the wife. I was reminded of a great film I saw a few years ago with a similar premise, The Light of the Moon. Check out that one if you don’t like subtitles, but this one is even better. 
Farhadi’s preceding film was The Past, released in 2013. This one is about an Iranian man, Ahmad, returning to France to finalize his divorce to Marie, his estranged wife whom he left 4 years previously. Ahmad was husband # 2, and has a good relationship with Marie’s kids from her first marriage, especially teenage daughter Lucie. But he was not a great husband; they fought a lot and he was constantly absent. Her new guy, Samir, isn’t much better, and he and his son Fouad are dealing with their own problems, namely the suicide attempt of Samir’s wife. Samir and Marie had been having an affair, but he now feels conflicted since his wife lies in a vegetative state. All of these dynamics from this mixed family come to bear throughout the film. It is a deeply emotional, quietly contemplative movie, and while I felt it started to come off its rails for a few minutes in the latter half, it all comes together nicely in the end. Every character is this film is real: they each are flawed humans who at various times know and do not know what they want in this life. I ended up liking it even more than The Salesman. 
There’s a scene in the iconic Fiddler on the Roof where one character is right, and the opposing argument is also right, and a bystander quips, “They can’t both be right.” In A Separation, the opposite holds true: no one is right. Yielding Farhadi’s first Oscar win in 2011 (it was the first film from Iran to win), this film shows the classic example of pride and honor getting in the way of truth. Nader and Simin are getting a divorce (Simin wants to move to a country where their daughter Termeh will have more rights as a woman), but Nader doesn’t want to leave his father, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s. Simin moves in with her parents in the meantime, and Nader hires a woman, Razieh, to look after his father. Just a couple days into the new arrangement, Nader comes home to discover Razieh not there, and she has tied Nader’s father to the bed to keep him from moving about in his condition. When Razieh does show up, Nader is so upset that he shoves her out of the apartment. She falls down the steps, causing a miscarriage. Razieh’s husband sues Nader, but Nader claims he did not know she was pregnant. Everyone gets wrapped in the case, including neighbors, teachers, friends, and not the least of whom, Termeh, who sees her dad Nader in a whole new light. Don’t expect a happy ending for anyone. If you are only used to life in the USA and not familiar with other cultures, especially in the middle east, this film is eye opening. The court system in particular is frenetic, with fast-paced calls for witnesses, quick judgments, and the inclusion of religious beliefs into decisions. It’s a very emotional piece. 
The greatness continues in 2009’s About Elly, maybe the most human of these films so far. A group of young adults, life-long friends, have rented a villa by the sea for a weekend. The group consists of married couples and a few young kids, and sole single man Ahmad, but Sepideh has plans to change that. She’s invited her kids’ teacher Elly to come as well, and hopes to make a match. From the get-go however, the shy (or traditional) Elly seems uncomfortable around the partying antics in the group. After just one night, Elly talks to Sepideh about returning home early, but Sepideh begs her to stay. Elly is left to watch the kids while some of the women go into town, and the men play volleyball nearby. When one of the children runs to the men screaming that another child is drowning in the sea, everyone runs in to save him. Only afterwards do they realize Elly too is missing. Did she drown trying to save the boy, or did she return to town without telling anyone? The human need to protect yourself comes out, as these friends blame each other for faults that led to this event, and then lie to save face. It’s a raw and emotional film, as I’ve come to expect from this director by now, and another excellent picture. 
Fireworks Wednesday was the director’s third film, released in 2006. You can tell he’s still a young director learning his craft. It is a fine film, but lacks the subtlety and humanism of his later pictures. The film follows a young betrothed woman, Rouhi, who goes to work for a married couple. The picture is a single day, her first (and maybe only) day on the job. She’s been hired to help clean Mozhdeh’s and Morteza’s apartment before they go on vacation, but she enters a household in flux. Mozhdeh is convinced that Morteza is cheating on her with a neighbor, Simin, who runs a salon out of her place. Mozhdeh clandestinely sends Rouhi over to Simin’s to get her eyebrows done for her upcoming wedding, for some reconnaissance. When he finds out about Mozhdeh’s worries, Morteza vehemently denies it. This picture from a story standpoint is the weakest of the set, but Farhadi does manage to pull fine performances from his actors, and there are glimpses here and there of the greater things to come. 
Jons Movie Takes 