Holly V., IL

Last night I watched Lee on Hulu. It is about Lee Miller a photographer in World War II.  I really liked it.  Kate Winslet gave an excellent performance. Rotten Tomatoes didn’t give it a very high score but felt that Kate Winslet made it worth seeing.

 

Denny G., FL

​Want to say Thank You for continuing your wonderful website all these years - you've done a beautiful job, and it's fun looking forward to the issues/reviews!  We all have our own opinions, but I enjoy your Readers' perspectives as well as yours - Kudos!​

               HARD TRUTHS: - 2024 (steamed/rented on Prime):    Marianne Jean-Baptiste does an incredible job of portraying a miserable woman - this is not a happy movie to watch.  Pansy (Jean-Baptiste) is a depressed middle-aged wife and mother who can't seem to find even the slightest joy in life - a stark contrast to her younger sister, Chantelle (Michele Austin), who does her best to be positive and supportive, as well as trying to convince Pansy that she is indeed loved by her family.  You want to care, but you want her to find help!  I felt so badly for Pansy's husband, Curtley and son, Moses continually taking the brunt of her anger.  Although the last few minutes of the movie were heartbreaking, there was one scene at the end that gave us a glimmer of hope for Moses, who suffered not only from his mother's wrath, but from social anxiety.  Excellent cast.

            SECRETS AND LIES: - 1996 (streamed on Max):  After watching Hard Truths, I just had to revisit Secrets and Lies - my favorite Mike Leigh movie - I love this.  The story centers around a young (but grown), well-educated black woman (Hortense, who is played by Marianne Jean-Baptiste) who decides to find her birth mother after her adoptive mother passes away.  She is surprised to find out that her mother is white, but she is not as surprised as her birth mother, Cynthia (played by Brenda Blethyn), a "struggling to make ends meet" mother of an almost 21-year old daughter (a street sweeper, with whom her relationship is strained) is after receiving a call from Hortense!  Cynthia can't imagine for the life of her that this could be possible - she then remembers she bore a child as a teenager.  Reluctant at first, she agrees to meet Hortense, and the two bond which is lovely.  After a few get-togethers, she invites Hortense (who is hesitant at first) to a family barbeque to celebrate her daughter's (Roxanne) 21st.  Cynthia initially introduces Hortense as a friend from work (I read that the director and the actors improvised most of the screenplay during many rehearsals - incredible). Prior to all this, we know that Cynthia's brother, Maurice (Timothy Spall) is a successful portrait photographer who is married to a woman, Monica (Phyllis Logan) who enjoys the good life and likes to impress.  The fact that Cynthia and Monica can't stand each other partly explains why Maurice and Cynthia hardly ever see each other.  There also seems to be tension between Maurice and his wife - Monica is unable to conceive a child.  In this family scenario, everyone has secrets and everyone lies which are gradually revealed at the barbeque.  The result is compassion, understanding and a willingness to come together as a family, Hortense included.  

                A REAL PAIN: - 2024 (streamed on Hulu):  Good movie!  This comedy/drama about Jewish cousins, David and Benji (Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin) who reunite to travel through Poland on a small Holocaust group tour in honor of their grandmother, was written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg.  These two young men with their own idiosyncrasies couldn't be more different in personality, and it's interesting to witness their varied reactions during the tour.  It was funny and touching - thought the actors were terrific!

                Whew - that's it from Florida! 

 

Judy J., CA

Erin Brokovich lived in the our school district and sent her three children to our schools with no problems.

​

Art S., IN -- Reviews

                 Five of us went to see the new movie, Nickel Boys, at the Art Cinema this afternoon. It was a good thing that I and several in the group had read the novel by the same name, written by Colson Whitehead, and winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, even though it is based on true events about a reform school in Florida. One of the two boys in lead roles, who is arrested and sent to the school unjustly, since he was picked up on the highway by a guy who had stolen the car, but he had no knowledge of that, and the state police just assumed he had been in on the stealing of the vehicle , as well. The school is segregated, of course, and abuse is rampant. It is later revealed that there are many graves of former inmates that are unmarked on the campus. The school said those boys had run away from the school and had never been heard from since. From the outside the school looks like a private boarding school but it is full of corruption. Two of the boys become friends for life--one who is more practical and knows how to get around some of the rules and the other, someone who thinks, at least initially that his name will be cleared and justice served. The first person cinematography--like looking thru the eyes of the narrator or the person talking and telling what is going on--is difficult to follow until you get used to it. The screen is smaller than the usual wide screen used in theaters currently and the time sequence, from the 1960s up to the present jumps around quite a bit, but you can tell the times from clips of old newsreels of events, the hairstyles and clothes, etc. roughly when a scene is taking place. The acting was good but a few characters could have used more background. At first I thought that the movie was released too late in the season to be nominated for many Academy Awards, but I don't think releasing it earlier would have helped much. It jumped around too much and if I hadn't read the book, I'm not sure I would have understood the ending. Some in our group liked it and maybe thought it was a worthwhile movie to see and at least one said that if she hadn't been with the group, she would have walked out long before the ending. Maybe watch it on Netflix --no need to see it in a big theater.

                   Here's my take on this excellent movie:  Six of us went to see I'm Still Here yesterday and while I was expecting to see a great performance by Fernanda Torres, I was surprised to see that all the actors, including the five children, gave excellent performances. I wasn't familiar with Torres or the other Torres who played the same character in old age and with dementia in the last few scenes. They both gave powerful performances. The film is based on a true story of a family in Brazil in the 1970s, when the husband is arrested and taken away "for questioning" and never seen again. His wife and the mother of the five children tries to cope by hiding what she is so apprehensive about--what is happening to her husband and will he ever come back. The family's life is told in photographs of their lives throughtout the film. In one of the group photos, the government and the press want to broadcast the family's circumstances, but the wife isn't buying it. They want her to appear somber and sad, but she refuses and has everyone smile. She later becomes an advocate for those who disappeared during the dictatorship and even later a consultant to the United Nations and for other groups, even obtaining a law degree at age 48. Torres will be up against another powerful performance by Demi Moore, but this film is so much better than the film Moore is in, and the role Moore plays isn't so far from some aspects of her real life story. Fernanda Torres deserves to win the Oscar this year for her often understated but just right understanding of the film's main character.