Secret Agent Gal Movie Reviews

2012: Time for Change advocates "evolve to solve" strategies

Evolve to solve. Daniel Pinchbeck investigates how to survive and thrive during changing times in the wide-ranging documentary 2012: Time for Change.

Thoughtful and visionary, director Joao Amorim’s film transcends apocalypse hype by advocating action. It’s now screening nationwide and streaming via Netflix.

Pinchbeck walks his talk as he shares common sense ways to live consciously so that all can thrive on earth. The founder of the Evolver social movement and editorial director of Reality Sandwich interviews scholars and leaders around the world.

Animation is also used to investigate spiritual practices, sacred activism and new technologies to help us survive change with grace and ease.

Functional design, habitat restoration, ecological detoxification, intentional community, aquaponic agriculture, wind power, open source currency and diverse currency tools are among the ideas examined. The film is similar to the documentary Thrive and surpasses Armageddon dramas like Battle Los Angeles.

“Apocalypse” means “uncovering,” and doesn’t necessarily signal doom, according to Pinchbeck. “Focusing on what will happen in 2012 may just be the wrong question,” Pinchbeck told a meeting of the Left Forum in New York City. “We should just be really asking . . . . ‘What type of change can we bring about?’ It’s going to be up to individuals and then communities to make a profound shift.”

Archival footage of the “Leonardo da Vinci of the 20^th century,” design scientist R. Buckminster Fuller, is shown. Groundbreaking technologies for sustainable energy, health and farming have already been developed, says Pinchbeck. These advances have been suppressed by powerful special interests time and again, he maintains.

Futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard cites Fuller. “We now have the resources, technology and knowhow to make the world a 100% physical success for everyone without taking it away or destroying our environment,” she says.

Many cultural creatives have planted “seed ideas” to help humanity, Hubbard says. These are quietly growing and taking root. “The only way to get to the future [Fuller] was seeing was about completely transforming your consciousness, loving one another as yourself,” she says.

Hot button issues like water scarcity and depleted soil are reviewed. Michael Dorsey, Ph.D. of Dartmouth College notes that current economic and social systems do not deliver justice, environmental protection and human rights. “The system is broken,” he believes.

 “Water’s the next oil,” warns Maude Barlow, Senior Advisor on Water Issues to the United Nations. “Water scarcity has already reached a dire limit for two billion people in the world,” she says.

“As water becomes more corporately controlled, as water becomes more expensive because it’s controlled for profit, it’s going to be denied to people who can’t afford it. It’s already happening now in communities in the global south where water metering is going on,” according to Barlow.

The “Green Revolution” has led us to “an incredible amount of dependency on corporations to supply seed, to supply chemicals,” says Penny Livingstone-Stark, a permaculture designer. Monoculture farming, she says, serves to “disconnect people from their land, pollute water systems, deforest the earth.” Livingstone-Stark explains how using soil biology sustainably perpetuates living systems and increases crop yields.

Reclaiming our lost connection to nature is the key to healing individuals, societies and the planet, Pinchbeck concludes.

Policarpo Chaj, activist and executive director of Maya Vision, explains how past and future are cyclical in Mayan thought. The 2012 prophecy of earth changes and economic downturns is already happening, Chaj and other scholars say.

Filmmaker David Lynch, who has practiced Transcendental Meditation for almost 35 years, tells Pinchbeck that he overcame anger shortly after he began meditating. Looking within helped him “find infinite intelligence, creativity, bliss, energy, love, power,” he adds.

A weak link here is Pinchbeck’s use of a psychoactive root bark to jump start his self-discovery. Using a drug for self-empowerment seems counterintuitive and harmful.

British rock singer Sting, who co-founded the Rainforest Foundation and practiced Ashtanga yoga, notes that he also took the drug. Fasting and meditation are just as effective ways to connect with the Divine, Sting adds.

Pinchbeck sees an empowered “global tribe” replacing poor, suffering masses. His essay collection Notes from the Edge Times has just been published.   (4.5 out of 5 stars)

If you like 2012: Time for Change, you might enjoy:  I Am; Happy; Waste Land; 2012; Thrive.

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2012: Time for Change    2010  /  NR  /  1 hour, 40 min

Cast Overview:  Mitch Horowitz, Michael Dorsey, Ph.D., Gaspar P. Gonzalez, Penny Livingston, Maude Barlow, Bernard Lietaer, Joel Kovel, Michael D. Coe, Ph.D., Policarpo Chaj, Tiokasin Ghosthorse, Terence McKena, Steven Colbert, Sting, Dennis McKenna, Barbara Marx Hubbard, R. Buckminster Fuller

Director:  Joao Amorim

Genre:  Documentary, Spirituality, Science & Nature, Current Affairs, Animation

Hoop Dreams: classic follows two young basketball players - 5 stars

Sport is not always a ticket out of the inner city in Hoop Dreams (1994), a tale of two Chicago boys chasing their basketball dreams. Arthur Agee and William Gates star in the moving documentary written and directed by Steve James.

Hoop Dreams documents the American dream and its long shadow. It’s a heart-rending look at two 14-year-olds who persevere, succeed, fail, and keep hope alive. Richly woven, this documentary conveys a vivid sense of Arthur’s life in Chicago’s South Side, and William’s days in the Cabrini Green neighborhood.

James, writer/editor Frederick Marx and cinematographer Peter Gilbert follow Arthur, William and their families over four and a half years as the players emerge.

The two are recruited by mostly white St. Joseph’s High School, even though each reads at a fourth grade level. The story begins as Arthur and William enter the school with partial scholarships, and ends as the two begin college.

Highs and lows fill the boys’ lives. As Arthur visits St. Joseph’s for the first time, he meets and plays one-on-one with his idol, N.B.A. star Isiah Thomas of the Chicago Bulls. The joy on his face is unforgettable.

Just over a year later, Arthur is expelled because his family is $1500 behind in tuition payments. Arthur’s parents separate after domestic violence. Sheila Agee has lost her job due to a back injury. She was dropped from welfare for a time. Arthur’s father Bo recovers from a crack cocaine addiction as he serves prison time.

Luther Bedford, who later coached Arthur at Marshall Metro High School, believes that St. Joseph’s “would have found a way” to help the boy if he were performing well on the court. The film makes clear why at-risk youth need extra help in order to succeed.

William does well on St. Joseph’s varsity team, and manages to raise his school performance. His scholarship is supplemented by benefactor Patricia Wier, president of Encyclopedia Britannica. Wier also helps William secure a summer job at her firm.

William’s life changes when he becomes a father. When he tears knee cartilage, doctors tell him he may miss a year of his basketball career.

William reveres his older brother Curtis, once a rising basketball star who becomes a security guard. Deemed “uncoachable,” Curtis battled drug addiction. William wants to make his family proud and forge his own identity too.

At Marshall Metro, Arthur still does not like school but he makes friends and improves his game. In one of the film’s sweetest triumphs, Arthur helps his team win a championship.

At an All-America basketball camp, William hears director Spike Lee share his honest perspective with the players. "This whole thing is about money,” he says. “The only reason you are here is because you can make their schools win and they can make a lot of money."

Hoop Dreams is filled with crucial game moments for Arthur and William. As crowds cheer, adulation washes over them. They began playing at outdoor neighborhood courts where illegal drugs are traded. Now they are part of a school team. People pay to see them. From the bleachers, their families shout.

William graduated from Marquette University and enjoys a business career. Since graduating from Arkansas Sate, Arthur teaches and speaks to inner city youth. Both have their own families and say this film helped change their lives.

Hoop Dreams won the Audience Award at Sundance 1994. It was recently named the top film in Morgan Spurlock’s Current TV series 50 Documentaries to See Before You Die.

The passion of high school and college sports, less evident in the pros, is alive here. Team spirit and high hopes rule. What Hoop Dreams adds is a call to compassion and inclusion.

If you like Hoop Dreams, you might enjoy:  Hoosiers; The Mighty Macs.

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Hoop Dreams    1994  /  PG-13  /  2 hours, 51 min

Cast Overview: Steve James, William Gates, Arthur Agee, Emma Gates, Sheila Agee and Gene Pingatore

Director:  Steve James

Genre:  Documentary

The Big Year: Steve Martin & friends hunt birder bliss - 3 stars

Three birders chase their heart’s desire in The Big Year, a quirky comedy about true success. Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson star as three oddballs who follow bliss, value freedom and appreciate nature. The film is reflective and gently funny.

The competitive birders postpone their everyday lives to chase birds and status. Nature and animal lovers will enjoy dozens of “aha!” moments in this film from David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada). Seen for a just a few seconds each, dozens of birds – many rare and unusual – make cameo appearances.

In one stunningly beautiful scene, a pair of American Eagles plummets in a sky-high, dramatic mating ritual. Birders nationwide are hailing this film for featuring the quietly thrilling sport and pastime.

You could say that Stu Preissler (Martin), Brad Harris (Black) and Kenny Bostick (Wilson) are embracing their gentle, feminine sides. Each yearns to fill a deep need within that goes beyond family and material success. They long to be fully human. For Kenny in particular, birding becomes a spiritual path.

Successful CEO Stu longs to retire and do what he loves. Birding and spending time with his expected first grandchild top the list. Martin develops real depth and interest in his character despite brief screen time.

Software tech Brad lives with his mom and dad after a divorce. He’s the oddly beautiful soul personified. Brad maxes out credit cards to finance his participation in the contest. His mom (Dianne Wiest) pledges her support, while his dad (Brian Dennehy) tells him to get a real life. Brad falls for another birder Ellie (Rashida Jones) who’s already spoken for.

World record holder Kenny, who spotted 732 birds last year, is intent on staying number one. As the admired and resented champion, he plays some dirty tricks to mislead his competitors. Kenny’s wife (Rosamund Pike) yearns to start a family. He keeps promising her that each Big Year will be his last.   

Doing a “big year” can be exhausting, uncomfortable, expensive and even dangerous. Competitive birders travel at a moment’s notice, just one step ahead of the violent weather that will drive the birds’ migration. The movie swings between different locations, bird sightings, and scenes from the birders’ lives.

The contest helps and hurts The Big Year. The initial excitement fades as the birders race to spot the most wild birds in North America within one year. The movie doesn’t focus enough on its three gifted comic actors. I wanted to spend more time with these characters.

The film captures a sense of community with nods to renowned, real-life birders. Anjelica Huston’s Annie Auklet is modeled on the pelagic guide Debi Shearwater. Kenny visits Phoebe’s Diner, a reference to the late Phoebe Snetsinger, who recorded over 8,000 lifetime sightings.

CGI effects jarred my attention away from the narrative, especially in a strangely funny scene out of Hitchcock’s The Birds. CGI is used to show details such as the Xantus’ Hummingbird’s gorget, and the Great Gray Owl’s “bow tie.”

The three main characters seem to star in their own separate movies. Only frenzied jaunts to spot wild birds connect them. Stu and Brad join forces to defeat Kenny, but their friendship doesn’t feel fully developed.

Howard Franklin’s screenplay is based on Mark Obmascik’s book The Big Year. A similar contest between three men really did happen in 1998.

After a heart attack, Brad’s dad begins to appreciate his son’s ambition. As the two trudge over a hilly trail to find an owl, Brad has an epiphany of his own.

The Big Year is less than successful, but its aim is true.

If you like The Big Year, you might enjoy:  Shopgirl; It’s Complicated; Midnight in Paris.

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The Big Year    2011  /  PG  /  1 hour, 40 min

Cast Overview:  Steve Martin, Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Brian Dennehy, Anjelica Huston, Rashida Jones, Tim Blake Nelson, Rosamund Pike, Dianne Wiest, JoBeth Williams

Director:  David Frankel

Genre:  Comedy, Dramedy

Our Idiot Brother: Paul Rudd loves mayhem in smart comedy 4/5 stars

 

Ned (Paul Rudd) tells the whole truth and nothing but the truth in Jesse Peretz’s sweet comedy Our Idiot Brother. Rudd’s good-hearted, biodynamic farmer is beset by bad luck in this warm, funny film.

Ned loves others to a fault. Is he really an idiot? Yes and no.

Rudd plays a genial hippie lacking in social judgment. He’s so naïve that he sells pot to a uniformed police officer at the Farmer’s Market one day.

After he is thrown out by his girlfriend Janet (Kathryn Hahn), Ned travels to Brooklyn to crash with each of his three sisters.

Elizabeth Banks (Avery Jessup in 30 Rock) plays Miranda, an ambitious reporter at Vanity Fair. Miranda insists that being an adult means lying and taking advantage of others. The innocent brother can’t relate.

 

Liz (Emily Mortimer) is a mousy, tired wife and mom. She’s unaware of the shenanigans of her film director husband Dylan (Steve Coogan). Ned puts two and two together and spills the beans.

Natalie (Zooey Deschanel) is a club performer who reaches a turning point. Natalie withholds information from her lover Cindy (pep-talking Rashida Jones), and this threatens their relationship. Meanwhile Cindy, who’s a lawyer, helps Ned with his legal problems.

Ned drives his sisters nuts by spilling their personal secrets. This turns their lives upside down. It’s not that he wants to hurt anyone. He just can’t conceive of a world where people hide things from one another.

 

Unfortunately, neither Peretz nor the script coax much depth from the sisters. Pushy Miranda, overwhelmed Liz and flighty Natalie remain one-dimensional.

Finally, Ned’s mom (Shirley Knight, wonderful here) is the one who opens her home to him unconditionally. Mournfully, he accepts.  

Janet’s breakup with Ned is tough love. Living a back-to-the-land lifestyle, she’s a sermonizing spitfire. Ned is heart-broken when she insists on keeping Willie Nelson, his golden retriever and best friend.

The born-again optimist is unable to match any cynical, mean vibes. Ned loses it during a game of charades with his disillusioned siblings. The scene shows how hard it is for him to be in the world.

Trying a new age solution, Ned meets a know-it-all teacher and passes out in a sweat lodge called “The Win Tent.” Although he often seems to fail, the idiot brother occasionally enchants those he meets.

Ned is happiest playing with his 7-year-old nephew River (Matthew Mindler). Liz and Dylan enroll River in dance classes, hell-bent on grooming him for admission to an elite school. What the boy really loves is learning Tae Kwon Do from his uncle and watching Pink Panther past his bed time.

Like Ed Helms in Cedar Rapids, Rudd gives a standout performance as an oddball character for our time. What would the world look like if more people were like Ned? As he shakes things up, lives are transformed and healed.  

Rudd’s raunchiest moment is when Ned tentatively accepts a three-way with an amorous couple. He can’t go through with it. British comedian Coogan is brilliant as Liz’s wayward hubby. His arse-backwards nude scene is terrific.

The smart, funny script was written by Evgenia Peretz (the director’s sister) and her partner Anthony Bregman. Do you like happy endings? Dog lovers will appreciate this silly but positive conclusion.

If you like Our Idiot Brother, you might enjoy: The Trip; Barney’s Version; Cedar Rapids.

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Our Idiot Brother     2011  /  R  /  1 hour, 30 min

Cast Overview:  Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer, Steve Coogan, Hugh Dancy, Kathryn Hahn, Rashida Jones, Shirley Knight, T.J. Miller, Matthew Mindler

Director: Jesse Peretz

Genre:  Comedy

 

 

Snow Flower never blooms in women's friendship tale 2.5/5

 

A woman’s bound foot is a knarled mass of black and blue. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan reveals this metaphor for women’s suffering. Bound feet were called “golden lilies” in ancient China. The soft bones of young feet were broken, making girls highly prized as wives. “Only through pain will you find beauty,” Snow Flower is told. Misery is just beginning for two pairs of friends in this uneven drama.

Snow Flower reveals Chinese tradition and modernity with respect. It’s filled with beautiful scenery and costuming. Still it never captures the depth that women’s friendships must have had then and now. The laotong – “old sames” who enter an arranged friendship and vow eternal devotion – hobble on impossibly tiny, misshapen feet. They communicate in a secret language called nu shu, writing messages in the folds of silk fans.

Unnecessarily complicating Amy See’s novel of the same name, director Wayne Wang (Chan Is Missing; The Joy Luck Club; Maid in Manhattan) adds a second set of friends in modern day Shanghai. He then forces a comparison between modern and ancient friends. Attempting to cover too much ground, the movie jumps back and forth in time. Finally the historic tale is more developed and intriguing.

 

Bingbing Li plays Lily, a bank executive. Gianna Jun stars as Sophia, a writer. As soon as we meet the two best friends forever, we are transported to 19^th century Hunan province. There, Li and Jun play Nina and Snow Flower respectively. The film cuts quickly back and forth to various points in the parallel stories.

Nina and Snow Flower enter arranged marriages and have children. Snow Flower’s husband (Jiang Wu) beats her, but she will not leave him. Typhus wipes out family members. Bands of rebels invade villages.

Under Shanghai’s modern, dim cityscape, Sophia rides her bike in traffic. She collides with a taxi. As Sophia clings to life in a hospital bed, Lily investigates her friend, hoping to find why they have drifted apart. Lily visits a modern art exhibit about foot binding. Images of disfigured feet line a wall. A pop art sign declares: (N)EVER BIND.

When Wang experiments with different cameras for the two eras, this adds to the unevenness. The comparison between past and present is strained.

Good acting by all cannot overcome the film’s awkward structure. In a distracting thread, Hugh Jackman appears briefly as Arthur, Sophia’s Australian lover and club owner. It isn’t the best role for talented Jackman, although he does sing in Mandarin.  

The eroticism of two women deeply devoted to each other is only hinted at in long looks and a near-kiss. Perhaps Wang believed it was not necessary to include lesbian love here. Acknowledging the characters’ desires more openly would have helped illumine these relationships.

Snow Flower ends too neatly with a message that misses the point. These suffering women don’t yet love themselves. True empowerment comes from within.

If you like Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, you might enjoy:  Queen to Play; Incendies; Mother and Child.

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Snow Flower and the Secret Fan     2011  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 40 min

Cast Overview:  Gianna Jun, Bingbing Li, Vivian Wu, Jiang Wu, Russell Wong, Archie Kao and Hugh Jackman

Director:  Wayne Wang

Genre:  Drama, Foreign Film, Movies Based on the Book

Languages:  Chinese and English with English subtitles

 

 

Queen to Play *****

 

A sensual encounter over a chessboard inspires a hotel chambermaid to shine in Queen to Play, a soulful dramedy where a working class woman transcends personal and social limits.

When Helene (Sandrine Bonnaire) spies a couple (Jennifer Beals and Dominic Gould) playing chess on the balcony of a room she is cleaning, she cannot look away. Their connection is intimate and playful. Obviously in love, they match wits hungrily. Playing chess is a continuation of their lovemaking. Helene is hooked.

As travelers with fascinating lives visit the lovely island of Corsica, Helene has watched them. Can the quiet, modest wife and mother conjure adventures of her own? She begins to explore chess. The beauty of the carved wooden pieces, the strategy behind the moves and the power of the Queen fascinate her. Chess becomes Helene’s inspiration and path to empowerment in Caroline Bottaro’s impressive feature film debut.

Resolved to embrace more of life, Helene buys her husband Ange (Francis Renaud) an electronic chess board for his birthday. The problem is he doesn’t play. “Maybe you will learn,” she suggests. Hard-working Ange is too tired to listen to his wife. When Helene wears a silk negligee to bed, he doesn’t even notice.

Sleepless Helene plays chess in the middle of the night. As she plans her moves, she sees new possibilities in life. Then she reaches a plateau. She now needs a coach to help her master the game.

People talk. When reclusive American widower Dr. Kroger (Kevin Kline) agrees to teach chess to his part-time house cleaner, Helene spends more and more time at his home. She returns home late, leaving Ange and her 15-year-old Lisa (Alexandra Gentil) to prepare their own dinner.

Neighborhood gossip reaches Ange. Suspecting the worst, he follows Helene to Kroger’s home.  What he spies through the window stuns him.

Helene is not having an affair, but she is sharing her mind and spirit. Ange reels with resentment. Life imitates chess as Helene and Ange begin to redefine their relationship. They think, consider and move differently, especially in an encounter at the kitchen table.

Bottaro’s chess-like plot and character growth fascinate. In an emblematic scene, Helene comes to life as she mops the hotel floor, becoming the Queen on a huge chessboard. The film observes class and feminism delicately, never losing personal relevance and vibrancy. Watching her mother take risks, Lisa finds new respect for her.

 

Bonnaire (Vagabond) achieves sensitive ardor in an exquisite performance. She plays perfectly off Oscar winner Kevin Kline in his first French-speaking role. As Kroger becomes Helene’s mentor and friend, Kline bristles with wry humor, masculinity and unpredictability. Chess, like anything else, reveals insight into self and others.

Telepathy grows between teacher and student. In an intriguing scene, Kroger and Helene play a sly, verbal game of chess. With just the hint of a caress, the two appreciate each other as man and woman.

Helene wins game after game, so Kroger encourages her to enter a local amateur tournament. The professor remains involved and irascible. “When you take a risk you may lose,” he tells her. “When you don’t take a risk you always lose.”

With undertones of feminism, Queen to Play never preaches. Bottaro keeps it real and honest. The filmmaker co-wrote the script with Caroline May.

As Helene learns to believe in herself, she finds her true voice. Queen to Play is based on Bertina Henrichs’ novel La Joueuse d’echec (The Chess Player).

If you like Queen to Play, you might enjoy: An Education; Shopgirl; Mademoiselle Chambon.

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Queen to Play    2009  /  NR  /  1 hour, 36 min

Cast Overview:  Sandrine Bonnaire, Kevin Kline, Francis Renaud, Jennifer Beals, Dominic Gould, Valerie Lagrange, Alexandra Gentil

Director:  Caroline Bottaro

Genre:  Drama, Dramedy, Foreign Film

Language: French with English subtitles

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 *****

 

Harry Potter draws on personal power, courage and love in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2. Action, adventure and fantasy triumph in the epic finale based on J. K. Rowling’s novels. Harry proves his manhood amidst pain and loss, splendor and mystery.

Harry discovers a terrifying secret about his connection to Lord Voldemort, the most evil and powerful wizard of all. Dangerous adventures await him, and the stakes have never been higher.

The hero uses his personal power with wisdom and heart. Beyond spells, potions and wand skills, Harry and his friends have learned to use their wizardry for good. Here he shows mercy to those who have hurt him.

Harry’s homecoming at the Hogwarts School reveals that he is an inspiration for a new generation of wizards. Harry and friends have become way showers both on and off screen for millions. The films are part of a pop phenomenon and stunning commercial success based on character and bravery.

 
 

Brilliant! Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) first appeared together in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001). In HP7, Part 2 Radcliffe gives a solid performance as mayhem unfolds. Grint and Watson reveal deeper dimensions within Ron and Hermione.

Chris Columbus directed the first two movies in the series with a tenderness that honored childhood. Now director David Yates integrates grim realities and dangers into many dark scenes. The frontier between life and death is crossed again and again. Steve Kloves wrote most of the screenplays, including this one.

Awesome British talents help make the Harry Potter films rich and memorable, ensuring their place in movie history. Ralph Fiennes plays fearsome, evil Lord Voldemort. Alan Rickman is never better as enigmatic Professor Severus Snape. Professor Albus Dumbledore is resurrected by Michael Gambon, while his brother Aberforth is played by Ciaran Hinds. Helena Bonham Carter lends cackling menace to Bellatrix Lestrange. Maggie Smith saves the day as Professor Minerva McGonagall. John Hurt plays Ollivander. Evanna Lynch returns as Luna Lovegood. Tom Felton portrays dark mischief as Draco Malfoy. The impressive list goes on.

 

Powerful cinematography by Eduardo Serra, magnificent production design by Stuart Craig, Alexandre Desplat’s original music, and many visual effects, costume and makeup artists enhance the glory of this finale.

Scenes from past Harry Potter films add grace and power to this ultimate chapter. Life. Death. Love. Family. Immortality. These characters share a history together, and so do we.

Radcliffe will star in the horror thriller The Woman in Black (2012). Grint will star in another horror thriller Cross Country (2011), and next year in the dramas Wartime Wanderers and Comrade. Watson will star in the BBC drama My Week with Marilyn (2011) and a romantic drama, The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012).

If you like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2, you might enjoy: Avatar; X-Men: First Class; Super 8.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2    2011  /  PG-13  /  2 hours, 10 min

Cast Overview:  Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Warwick Davis, Tom Felton, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon, Ciaran Hinds, John Hurt, Jim Broadbent, Emma Thompson, Jason Isaacs, Matthew Lewis, Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, David Thewlis, Julie Walters, Bonnie Wright, David Bradley, Warwick Davis, Tom Felton, Gemma Jones, Dave Legeno, Miriam Margolyes, Helen McCrory, Nick Moran, James Phelps, Oliver Phelps, Clemence Poesy, Timothy Spall, Natalia Tena, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, Mark Williams

Director:  David Yates

Genre:  Fantasy, Adventure

 

Beginners *****

 

He may be late for the party, but Hal celebrates like it’s 1955. Smart and bittersweet, Beginners stars Christopher Plummer as a 75-year-old gay man who has just come out to his son Oliver (Ewan McGregor). Two parallel love stories are told. 

Beginners is masterfully directed and written by Mike Mills, whose own father came out late in life. Explored are the connections between father and son, father and new friends, son and father’s boyfriend, and son and girlfriend. This is a film of visual grace with a sensitive, vulnerable and thoughtful quality.

Plummer gives a vintage performance as Hal, a man who married for love in the hope that he could smother other desires within him. Fun-loving yet dignified, he’s diagnosed with cancer. The last few months of Hal’s life are reenacted with whimsy and directness, accompanied by Vaudeville tunes. “I don’t want to just be theoretically gay. I want to do something about it,” Hal says. As friends visit his sunny sickroom, he claims he’s getting better.

 

Patterns, shapes and forms represent life and love. After Hal’s death, Oliver adopts Arthur, a Jack Russell terrier who is more philosophical than most people. As Oliver talks with the dog, Arthur replies in subtitles. Their true friendship weaves low-key humor throughout the film.

Sex. Nature. Images of the sun, the sky and presidents past and present fill the screen. Oliver sketches faces of old girlfriends with captions. When he creates a sketch book for a rock band The Sads, they’re not taken with his images. All they wanted was an album cover. Sadness is unique for everyone. Oliver needs to savor and learn from it.

As Oliver begins seeing French actress Anna (Melanie Laurent, the theater owner in Inglourious Basterds), McGregor reveals insecurity and wisdom. The two meet at a costume party not long after Hal’s death. He’s Sigmund Freud. She’s Charlie Chaplin. He’s depressed. She has laryngitis. Playful and tentative, they explore each other and the world. He tells her about his father. “For the first time I saw him really in love.” 

Goran Visnjic is dark, intense and boyish as Hal’s young lover Andy. Hal must learn some new customs when Andy goes out on a date. “At least I’m the Number One boyfriend,” Hal tells his son wistfully. A scene between Oliver and Andy after Hal’s death is particularly moving.

Simple yet deep, Beginners discovers despair, emptiness and happiness. Deep, reflective characters live in a sweet, sincere film that will merit attention during Oscar season.

If you like Beginners, you might enjoy:  Barney’s Version; The Kids Are All Right.

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Beginners     2011  /  R  /  1 hour, 44 min

Cast Overview:  Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Melanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic, Kai Lennox, Mary Page Keller

Director:  Mike Mills

Genre:  Drama, Indie, Romance

 

Larry Crowne ***

 

Tom Hanks reveals his inner Lance Corona in the light summer romcom Larry Crowne. Julia Roberts co-stars in the prickly-sweet journey to reinvent yourself and claim your dream.

Hanks plays Larry, an Employee of the Month at UMart who tidies the megastore’s parking lot too. Suddenly he’s laid off on the pretense of not having a college degree. A good guy who served as a Navy cook for 20 years, Larry is stunned.

Larry responds to a heartless economy by living from his heart. Larry Crowne is amiable, funny and encouraging, a tribute to middle class Americans. Hanks and Roberts are fine in this upbeat, redemptive tale. Hanks also directs here and co-wrote the script with Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding).

About to lose his home, Larry takes some risks. He enrolls in a few classes at a community college, including Speech 217: The Art of Informal Remarks. To economize, he buys a scooter from his tag sale-savvy neighbor Lamar (Cedric the Entertainer) and his enterprising wife B’Ella (Taraji P. Henson).

On the first day of class, Larry meets free spirit Talia (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). “You are way cooler than you appear” she says, dubbing him “Lance Corona.” Talia invites Larry to join her “scooter posse.” Soon she gets him a new haircut, a fashion makeover and some feng shui for his cluttered living room.

Larry is instantly captivated by a grumpy, leggy and brilliant speech teacher. Julia Roberts plays pissed off Professor Mercedes Tainot. “I wonder if I make a dollop of difference to anyone sitting in my classroom,” she carps. 

The hung over teacher with a marriage on the skids slowly inspires her students to speak with pizzazz. Doling out sardonic critiques after pop topics and fake debates, Mercy is finally moved to smile by finals, especially at her A+ student Larry.

 

George Takei (Star Trek’s Lieutenant Sulu) achieves great comedic moments as Dr. Ed Matsutani, an economics guru who can rouse his class into a laughter yoga moment. Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) is appropriately lost as Mercy’s husband, an author turned internet-surfer with a fondness for “big knockers.”

Mbatha-Raw is a bright light in her feature film debut. Talia eventually seeks her fortune by opening a trendy café. Wilmer Valderrama plays her insecure but soulful boyfriend.

In an interview with Collider.com, Valderrama spoke about his family’s struggles after emigrating from Venezuela.  Larry Crowne “reminds us that no matter what our situation is, there’s always a way to celebrate life and there’s always a way to start again,” he said.

The upbeat soundtrack includes Tom Petty’s Runnin’ Down a Dream and Electric Light Orchestra’s Calling America.

Legendary Hanks and Roberts, who also co-starred in Charlie Wilson’s War, have both been producing films lately.  Hanks has two films in production, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Cloud Atlas.  Roberts will play the Evil Queen in The Brothers Grimm: Snow White.

If you like Larry Crowne, you might enjoy:  Eat Pray Love; Just Go With It; Up in the Air.

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Larry Crowne     2011  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 39 min

Cast Overview:  Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Bryan Cranston, Cedric the Entertainer, Taraji P. Henson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wilmer Valderrama, Pam Grier, George Takei

Director:  Tom Hanks

Genre:  Romantic Comedy, Comedy

 

Forks Over Knives ****

 

More energy, weight loss, longer lifespan and lower risk factors for heart attack, stroke and cancer are the benefits of a vegetarian diet according to Forks Over Knives.

Lee Fulkerson writes and directs the film which advocates empowering ourselves by taking a preventative dietary approach to health.  Skyrocketing rates of obesity, diabetes, heart attack, stroke and cancer in the U.S., despite a huge investment in healthcare, point to the effectiveness of dietary change.

Nutritional scientist and former dairy farmer T. Colin Campbell believes that health care costs in the United States could be cut by billions if Americans switched to a whole foods, plant-based diet.

 

Campbell authored The China Study, where comprehensive research reveals that “degenerative diseases like heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and even several forms of cancer, could almost always be prevented — and in many cases reversed — by adopting a whole foods, plant-based diet.”

A renowned surgeon who heads the Breast Cancer Task Force at the Cleveland Clinic, Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., found that “many of the diseases he routinely treated were virtually unknown in parts of the world where animal-based foods were rarely consumed.”

Fulkerson plays guinea pig as he consults the team of Matthew Ledderman M.D. and Alona Pulde M.D.  After just a few months on their whole foods, plant-based diet, Fulkerson saw tremendous improvement in his test measures of good and bad cholesterol, blood vessel inflammation (associated with heart attack and stroke risk), and blood pressure.

Several inspiring case studies are featured. Ruth Heidrich (then in her 40’s) successfully reversed her breast cancer (which had metastasized) by joining John McDougall, M.D.’s clinical study and going on a low-fat vegan diet.  She continued aerobic and weight-bearing exercise. Today the 70-something athlete competes, writes and teaches.

San’Dera Brantley-Nation, a mother diagnosed with diabetes, works with Esselstyn and his wife to change her diet. Keeping a journal, Nation achieves impressive weight loss and reverses her diabetes.  Ironically, she works in an endocrinology office and faces the skepticism of her own medication-centered physician.

Processed foods, touted in the U.S. since the 1950’s, act as a “pleasure trap” that only partly fills one’s stomach. Triggering the body’s sensors with natural and artificial stimulants, they induce a low-grade addiction, according to Terry Mason M.D., a Chicago urologist and, until recently, Chief Medical Officer of the Cook County Health and Hospital System. Eating natural foods which are much higher in bulk would alleviate these effects, he added.

An added benefit of the vegetarian way is a significantly lighter footprint on the earth’s environment.  The clearing of much of the Amazon forest to make way for cattle grazing is shown as a case in point.

While some criticize such plant-based diets as too extreme, Forks Over Knives can be seen as too conservative.  For instance, the differences between organic and conventional food supplies are not detailed. If one is eating pesticide-treated vegetables in abundance, wouldn’t that increase one’s risk for cancer?

The widely reported tainting of U.S. wheat, corn, soybeans and canola with pesticides and genetic modification are not mentioned at all here. One eye-opening claim that is offered: erectile dysfunction signals the “first early warning sign” of vascular disease.

Future films in this genre could address the social pressures facing healthy eaters. How does one gracefully bow out while most indulge in the pizzas, birthday cakes and drinks after work that are so integral to our social traditions?

First Lady Michelle Obama is shown speaking about the childhood obesity epidemic. More of a “wow” factor could have been achieved by including cameos of the many movie stars who espouse vegetarian, vegan and/or whole foods diets. For instance, Russell Brand, President Bill Clinton, Steve-O and Anne Hathaway are now finalists for  PETA’s Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrities List of 2011. Demi Moore, Madonna, Clint Eastwood and The Beach Boys all drink an organic apple cider vinegar (ACV) drink, according to the website of author and educator Patricia Bragg, N.D., Ph.D.

Forks Over Knives can inspire viewers to renew their commitment to a healthy diet, and even begin the shift to vegetarianism. This documentary joins a number of recent films on whole foods and diet, including Food, Inc.; Food Matters and The Beautiful Truth.

If you like Forks Over Knives, you might enjoy:  The Beautiful Truth; Happy; I Am.

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Forks Over Knives     2011  /  PG  /  1 hour, 30 min

Cast Overview:  Lee Fulkerson, T. Colin Campbell, Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr.

Director:  Lee Fulkerson

Genre:  Documentary, Health, Mind and Body