Secret Agent Gal Movie Reviews

Melancholia: Kirsten Dunst dances with doom - 5 stars

Lars von Trier casts a spell over you in Melancholia, a visual masterpiece about apocalypse and humanity. Kirsten Dunst stars as a Justine, a runaway bride.

After the film’s enigmatic prologue, Justine and her groom Michael (Alexander Skarsgard) arrive hours late for the wedding reception. Their white limo gets stuck on the trail leading to the secluded estate of her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and brother-in-law John (Kiefer Sutherland).

The well-to-do murmur as the couple arrives. Servants bustle. A wedding planner (Udo Kier) frets. Petulant guests fight private little wars. Upstairs, a little boy sleeps.

Depression sinks Justine as the night drags on. All is not well and she knows it. The wedding seems little more than an exercise. She struggles with the niceties. What’s the point?

Claire and John want Justine to be happy. Her illness becomes rude, an inconvenience. “Sometimes I hate you so much,” Claire tells her.

Assembling under the night sky, the merrymakers launch hot air balloons scrawled with best wishes and messages of love.

Justine lashes out, confronting her man-hating mother (Charlotte Rampling) and pound-of-flesh boss (Stellan Skarsgard). A co-worker (Brady Corbet) assails her. Justine tries to shield her unsteady father (John Hurt) from her mother. When Michael mentions having a family someday, she balks.

Fleeing her wedding bed, Justine rides off on a golf cart, gown trailing. Alone she finds peace, watching the stars.

Melancholia joins a flurry of “end times” films. The end of civilization as we know it seems etched in our collective unconscious. Change is in the air. The Occupy Wall Street movement and increasing awareness about economic and environmental issues are dawning.

While The Tree of Life is hopeful and redemptive, Melancholia focuses on approaching devastation. Terrence Malick sees humanity as a grand experiment, a wondrous part of the universe. Von Trier examines our shortcomings and how we face death.

You might view von Trier as a cynic. We’re simply not worth redeeming, he suggests. Let’s start over.

This is a masterful interpretation of the writer-director’s own battle with depression. The illness takes on universal significance.

Dunst boldly conveys the female archetype. In one of Melancholia’s most striking moments, she skinny dips in the night, bathed in the blue light of the looming planet. In a black pastoral scene, the bride runs in slow motion. Brown goo pulls at her hem, trapping her.

Humanity is plagued not by locusts, but by mental illness. Claire suffers bouts of anxiety. She too feels death approaching. Just in case, she keeps a bottle of pills locked away in a drawer.

Claire nurtures her son Leo (Cameron Spurr). Justine dotes on her nephew too. Only with the boy does she show any real warmth.  

If Dunst portrays The Female, then Sutherland plays The Male. John is the rock of the family, the sensible breadwinner. Yet by the end of the film, his actions take a bizarre turn.

The planet Melancholia will be a “fly-by,” John declares. That’s what the scientists say. Childlike, he tracks the spectacle by telescope. Leo shares his fascination.

Horses stir in the stables. Abusing nature is one of our sins. Justine beats her horse Constantine when he stops moving. He is trying to tell her something. Finally she stops and looks skyward.

Melancholia unfolds like a dirge to the strains of Wagner. Cinematographer Manuel Alberto Claro achieves a visual hypnosis that is exhilarating. Cosmos, eros and anguish hum.

The bride is considered a symbol of life and fertility. Justine longs for the relief of death.

Dunst won the Best Actress award at Cannes for this role. Melancholia is winning numerous prizes, including Best Film at the European Film Awards.

You can fear death. You can try to escape it. You can die a hero, returning home.

If you like Melancholia, you might also enjoy: Take Shelter; Another Earth; 2012: Time for Change; The Tree of Life.

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Melancholia   2011  /  R  /  2 hours, 15 min

Cast Overview: Kirsen Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alexander Skarsgard, Kiefer Sutherland, Stellan Skarsgard, Jesper Christensen, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Udo Kier, Brady Corbet

Director:  Lars von Trier

Genre:  Drama, Sci-Fi 

 

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

Take Shelter: Michael Shannon digs deep to save family - 5 stars

Take Shelter is a fever dream of a thriller. It plunges you into anxiety and hope, victory and defeat. With humanity in trouble, sensitive everyman Curtis LaForche (brilliantly played by Michael Shannon) is plagued by hallucinations and nightmares.

Director Jeff Nichols lets you decide what this film is about. In an age of uncertainty, Curtis’ dark night of the soul feels universal.

Suspenseful and exciting from start to finish, Take Shelter portends the end. Depending on how you see, it will sweep you away with dread or faith. References to “the economy” and “fresh motor oil” lend timely foreboding.

A construction foreman in northern Ohio, tormented Curtis hides his condition from his wife Samantha (Jessica Chastain). He seeks help from a doctor and a counselor, trying to quash his visions.

Shannon (Revolutionary Road; Bug) surrenders onscreen. Gangly, enigmatic and tortured, he remains a loving husband and devoted father to a hearing impaired child Hannah (Tova Stewart, sweetly perceptive).

Curtis wants to save his family at any cost. After visiting his mother (Kathy Baker), who’s institutionalized with paranoid schizophrenia, the quiet man understands that his curse is a gift.

March in step, Curtis’ best friend Dewart (Shea Whigham) and his brother Kyle (Ray McKinnon) tell him. Instead, he secures a home improvement loan to build an elaborate storm shelter. Curtis risks everything – home, family, and the health insurance needed for Hannah’s cochlear implant surgery.

Samantha (Jessica Chastain) takes refuge in family, friends and community. Love grounds and guides her. She sells her embroidery at tag sales to finance the family’s annual vacation.

Prolific Chastain (The Debt; The Tree of Life; The Help) creates yet another excellent character here in a spree of recent big screen roles. Samantha struggles to understand and stay with Curtis.

Natural disaster never looked so breathtaking. Adam Stone uses widescreen photography to see beauty in menace. Flocks of starlings, clouds and twin tornadoes loom. Real and impending catastrophes are colored by mystery and mental illness.

Nichols (Shotgun Stories) captures inner and outer worlds with authority and immediacy. His work is reminiscent of M. Night Shyamalan’s, but with more ambiguity. It’s impressive that this is only Nichols’ second feature.

Tight, flawless editing by Parke Gregg enhances drama. David Wingo contrasts darkness and normalcy with his music.

End or beginning? The perspective of nature as a benevolent force ready to help humanity is missing here. It’s a worthy premise for another film.

If you like Take Shelter, you might enjoy:  The Tree of Life; Insidious; The Debt.

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Take Shelter    2011  /  R  /  2 hours

Cast Overview: Michael Shannon, Jessica Chastain, Shea Whigham, Katy Mixon, Ray McKinnon, LisaGay Hamilton, Rogert Longstreet, Kathy Baker, Tova Stewart

Director:  Jeff Nichols

Genre:  Drama, Thriller, Suspense, Horror

 

The Way: Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez heal heartbreak - 5 stars

Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez heal a father’s heart and find wholeness in the sensitive drama The Way. Set along the Way of St. James (Camino de Santiago) from France to Spain, the film is directed by Sheen’s son Estevez, who appears as a ghostly muse.

The most powerful movie is sometimes the simplest. Sheen’s deep, rousing performance and Estevez’s minimalist, mood-centered direction fill The Way with meaning. Cinematographer Juanmi Azpiroz captures action along the breathtaking pilgrimage route.

Daniel (Estevez) has died in a freak accident in the Pyrenees, known for unpredictable weather. He was nearly 40 when he decided to postpone doctoral studies and walk the 500-mile-long trek.

Tom Avery (Sheen) just lost his wife a year ago, so losing his son is devastating. The conservative ophthalmologist travels from Ventura, California to identify Daniel and have him cremated.

The Way is the best father-son drama I've seen in years. It's nothing less than a healing for the male heart.

With Daniel’s backpack and provisions, Tom decides to complete his son’s journey. He will walk to the cathedral where the Apostle James is said to be buried. Local police warn him about the dangers. Tom is stoic. He has nothing to lose.

Sheen’s intensity and talent are mesmerizing. A winner of Emmy and Golden Globe awards, he’s played presidents and generals, fathers and coaches. Sheen evokes manhood with strength and sensitivity.

Tom scatters Daniel’s ashes at especially beautiful vistas. He remembers how his son pissed him off. “You don’t choose a life, Dad. You live one,” Daniel once told him. Tom speaks little, but you can feel his brokenness.

Tom sees Daniel wherever he goes. The son becomes father to the man. Tom appreciates the wordless visits. Still peace eludes him.

Empty but determined, Tom surrenders. Three travelers gravitate around the angry American. Numbness gives way to fury for the grieving dad.

Deborah Kara Unger plays Sarah, a sharp-tongued Canadian who wants to quit smoking. Yorick von Wageningen plays Joost, a friendly Dutchman who’s desperate to lose weight but loves regional cuisine. James Nesbitt is engaging as Jack, a bombastic Irishman with writer’s block who begins to chronicle Tom’s story.

His companions irk him, but Tom discovers himself by being around the others. Each traveler has wounds to heal. Finally Tom empathizes. He begins to understand why the journey was so important to Daniel.

Each must resolve personal issues and find truth. Gently insistent spiritual undertones never become overbearing. An encounter with a young gypsy thief (Omar Munoz) and his father (Antonio Gil) is especially moving.

A sense of community grows among the four and extends to others who walk. With references to cell phones, The Way also meditates on how disconnected we have become in the information age.

The Way allowed Sheen and Estevez to explore their Spanish culture and Catholic religion together. Charlie Sheen, the star’s other son, battled publicly with drug addiction as this film was made. The mystical bond between fathers and sons is tempered by real life frustration in this vision quest. 

Estevez has directed a dozen television shows and films. He starred in The Breakfast Club and Young Guns. Estevez and Sheen have made other movies together, including The War at Home and Bobby. 

The Way is a memorable exploration of manhood, heart and healing. Nature’s fearsome beauty unleashes a majestic resolution.

If you like The Way, you might enjoy:  The Music Never Stopped; In a Better World; Beginners; Thor.

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The Way    2010  /  NR  /  1 hour, 55 min

Cast Overview: Emilio Estevez, Martin Sheen, Deborah Kara Unger, Yorick van Wageningen, James Nesbitt

Director:  Emilio Estevez

Genre:  Drama, Independent

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

Terri: John C. Reilly feeds teen's big, hungry heart ****

 

Terri stands apart from The Art of Getting By and Submarine for one reason: John C. Reilly. The coming-of-age dramedy hinges on Reilly’s Mr. Fitzgerald, a vice principal who cares about kids in trouble. Jacob Wysocki stars as Terri, a huge oddball with a confused, hungry heart.

Reilly’s straightforward, unforgettable character walks his talk. He owns his own disappointments and shortcomings. Mr. Fitzgerald doesn’t pretend to have it all together, but he knows enough to share his homespun philosophy. When obese Terri lands in his office for daily tardiness, he sets up a weekly meeting to mentor the pajama-clad, good-hearted teen.

Terri’s inner monster is big, odd and misunderstood. He lives in a messy old house with Uncle James (The Office’s Creed Bratton, very good here) who’s in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Terri takes care of his uncle tenderly.

Trapping mice in the attic is necessary and gives Terri something to do. Glum and bored, he loiters in the woods each morning, watching his offering of dead mice on a log. When a raptor arrives, Terri yelps with excitement. It’s the first revelation of the big boy’s spirit.

An encounter with the bird of prey also sets this movie apart. The raptor is said to symbolize vision, power and guardianship. Connecting with nature is another way the boy heals. Mr. Fitzgerald suggests a new life perspective: “I like this person. I look forward to these days.”

Wysocki is extraordinary, an actor of imagination and warmth. Terri makes slow and painful progress. He aches, stumbles and has wise insights. He wants to fit in as he struggles to be himself. Patrick Dewitt’s understated dialogue rings perfectly. “The feeling is no feeling,” Terri tells his mentor.

 

Terri hangs out with two other outcasts, publicly shamed Heather (Olivia Crocicchia) and hair-pulling misanthrope Chad (Bridger Zadina). The trio reveals risky delight, a weird foray into friendship and experimentation. All three succeed with plain-spoken honesty. Director Azazel Jacobs captures odd beauty in this and other scenes.

Mr. Fitzgerald talks about life and possibilities from his heart and his gut. Reilly makes the character unique as a caring, competent man who admits his own shortcomings. The unapologetically odd vice principal grows on us throughout the film.

Terri finds Mr. Fitzgerald passed out in his car one Sunday morning in the school parking lot. He’s had another fight with his wife. The two share quality time, raiding aspirin from the nurse’s office and shooting hoops. The school’s motto towers above them in the gym: Pride. Tradition. Excellence.

In The Art of Getting By and Submarine, mentors are marginal and never fully developed. Here youth and age are both honored. Mr. Fitzgerald throws Terri a lifeline, and the teen gives him the opportunity to practice his life’s calling. There’s a boy within the man, and a man within the boy.

When Fitzgerald betrays the boy’s trust it’s devastating. He transforms the moment by apologizing. “Life’s a mess, dude, but we’re all just doing the best we can.”

In an imperfect world, Terri ends with a quiet, transcendent moment. This is not a feel-good movie, but one that celebrates flawed humanity and hope.

If you like Terri, you might enjoy:  The Art of Getting By; Submarine; Cedar Rapids.

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Terri     2011  /  R  /  1 hour, 27 min

Cast Overview:  Jacob Wysocki, Creed Bratton, Olivia Crocicchia, Bridger Zadina, John C. Reilly

Director:  Azazel Jacobs

Genre:  Drama, Dramedy

 

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

The Beautiful Truth *****

 

An Alaskan teen journeys cross country with his filmmaker dad to investigate a natural diet therapy for cancer in the eye-opening documentary The Beautiful Truth.

After his mother dies in an accident, 15-year-old Garrett Kroschel nearly flunks out of school.  His dad Steve begins to home school him.  Garrett becomes interested in cancer, diet and health after reading Dr. Max Gerson’s book A Cancer Therapy: Results of 50 Cases and The Cure of Advanced Cancer.

Garrett first meets with Gerson’s daughter, Dr. Charlotte Gerson, and his grandson, Howard Straus. He visits a Gerson treatment center.  According to Dr. Gerson, the therapy stimulates the body’s natural ability to heal itself and includes organic foods, juicing, supplements and the use of coffee enemas. 

Garrett speaks with scientists, researchers and survivors who confirm that cancer and other illnesses have been reversed as a result of The Gerson Therapy. He also meets with opponents of nutritional therapy.

The teen interviews Dr. Hal Huggins, an authority on toxic dental materials; Dr. Roger Eichmann, a chemist and practicing dentist who lectures on the hazards of mercury fillings; Dr. John Olney, a neuroscientist who has researched aspartame and MSG and their connection to brain lesions; and Jay Kordich who is a bladder cancer survivor. Kordich is also Dr. Gerson’s patient and a New York Times bestselling author known as The Juiceman.

 

Cancer treatment in the United States is a multi-billion dollar industry, according to sources.  Reports of suppression of natural cures have been made.

Inspired after his meetings with survivors, Garrett shares his findings with neighbors back home.  The Beautiful Truth presents natural alternatives for health conscious viewers and patients who have received “incurable” diagnoses.

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

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The Beautiful Truth   2008  /  NR  /  1 hr, 32 min

Cast Overview:  Garrett Kroschel, Steve Kroschel, Charlotte Gerson, Howard Straus

Director:  Steve Kroschel

Genre:  Documentary, Science and Nature, Health, Mind and Body

 

The Tree of Life *****

 

A family drama interpreted spiritually and artistically, The Tree of Life is a sweeping tale from the beginning to the end of time. Terrence Malick’s epic masterpiece won the Palme d’Or, top prize at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly,” wrote Antoine de Saint-Exupery. To fully appreciate Malick’s fifth feature, we must experience it with the heart.

A mother asks why her son is dead, who God is, and why we are here at all. Set in 1950's Texas, the film is all yearning, exploring, imploring. It’s a stark contrast to the loud, violent fare filling modern multiplexes.

After Mrs. O’Brien (Jessica Chastain) receives news of her 19-year-old son’s death, Malick returns us to our cosmic origins. Galaxies form. Earth develops. A couple meets. A child is born. Hundreds of beautifully composed images shape a quiet, elegant whole. Upheavals, universal and personal, take on a stately grace. The soundscape is lyrical. Even protozoa and dinosaurs demonstrate gentle intelligence.

Malick's sparse dialogue and interior monologues accompany these scenes like poetry. Lush cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki and the orchestral score by Alexandre Desplat are a revelation.

 

Mrs. O’Brien teaches her sons two ways through life. The way of grace accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked, insulted or injured. The way of nature (i.e., the way of the ego) dominates others, pleases itself and dwells in unhappiness. “Love is smiling through all things,” she says.

The Tree of Life shows the relationship of young Jack (Hunter McCracken in a stirring debut) and his strict, sometimes unhinged father (Brad Pitt in an Oscar-worthy dramatic performance). 

Pitt reveals a complex go-getter in the aerospace industry, a stern father who is an avid fan of Brahms. Yet O’Brien can’t reconcile the strains of a concerto with his family assembled around the dinner table. His sons never show him enough respect or measure up to his machismo.

Young Jack has begun breaking windows, stealing and tormenting small animals. “I’m as bad as you are,” Jack tells his father. Grace touches him one day and he experiences a change of heart. Jack apologizes to the brother (Laramie Eppler) he has hurt. He is kind to a neighborhood boy scarred in a house fire.

“The only way to be happy is to love. Unless you love, your life will flash by.” As Jack’s mother, Chastain is grace personified. She evokes a woman so gentle that a butterfly lands on her outstretched hand. When she disinfects a child’s cut and blows on it, we can feel her cool breath.  

 

Childhood innocence is gradually worn by the rules of society. “It takes fierce will to get ahead in this world,” Jack’s father tells him. The boy is forbidden to cross the invisible property line of a neighbor’s yard.

Sean Penn plays Jack as an angry, disillusioned man still grappling with his difficult father. Every year he lights a candle to commemorate his “true, kind” brother. Best Actor Penn delivers strong supporting work as he looks to the celestial skyscrapers of Houston for solace. They are a kind of postmodern church for Jack.

An asteroid strikes, causing massive tsunamis. Jack wanders a beach afterwards, filled with awe and wonder. It is a new beginning.

If we are open to it, The Tree of Life imparts a direct, mystical encounter between God and humans. Malick uses Christian references as the family attends church in Waco, Texas. The tree of life is an ancient symbol of heaven and earth in many religions.

The director continues his fascination with nature and the manmade world. The fields and forests of Jack’s childhood are a respite from searing inner conflicts. A universal perspective helps Jack heal years later. 

Douglas Trumbull’s special effects are natural and imaginative, resonant with the film’s ordered harmony. Superb editing is accomplished by Hank Corwin, Jay Rabinowitz, Daniel Rezende, Billy Weber and Mark Yoshikawa. 

Malick makes films with great care and thought. After studying philosophy at Harvard, he directed four films over four decades, The New World, The Thin Red Line, Days of Heaven and Badlands.

"He is working within a Hollywood system, but in a unique and personal way, much the same as Kubrick did," according to Hannah Patterson, author of The Cinema of Terrence Malick: Poetic Visions of America. "There is that level of mystery that comes from not doing interviews and not being in the public eye,” she said. Malick allows his films to speak for themselves.

Three years in the making, The Tree of Life is the director’s most epic and spiritual film to date. It reveals civilization as an experiment, a tiny shard of all that is.

Malick’s newest project stars Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem and Rachel Weisz. It is scheduled for release in 2012.

 If you like The Tree of Life, you might enjoy: Of Gods and Men; I Am; 127 Hours.

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The Tree of Life     2011  /  PG-13  /  2 hours, 18 min

Cast Overview:  Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Fiona Shaw, Irene Bedard, Jessica Fuselier, Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler, Tye Sheridan 

Director:  Terrence Malick

Genre:  Drama, Indie, Period Piece

 
 

Trollhunter *****

 

Troll!  When tourists disappear and trees topple, a feisty band of film students seeks the facts. Legend has it that trolls rule the northern wilds of Norway. Those stories can’t be anything more than just fairy tales – right? André Øvredal’s send-up of the crusty creatures Trollhunter delivers giddy thrills.

Much like The Blair Witch Project with the scope of Jurassic Park, the folklore-inspired expose stars solitary trollhunter Hans (comedian Otto Jespersen) and the cheeky students who follow him. With an enigmatic slash across his face, intense Hans lives in a smelly trailer festooned with furry tails. Deep gashes pierce his SUV, which has been retrofitted with metal teeth and huge spotlights.

The trollhunter speeds off each night without warning. He must know something about the disappearances, the Volda College students believe. “Get lost!” he warns Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud).

The gang persists. “Do you think Michael Moore gave up after the first try?” Thomas asks. People have the right to know what’s behind the accidents, insists soundwoman Johanna (Johanna Morck). Cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) appears late during a critical moment. Blaming bears and tornadoes, the government and mainstream media seem clueless.

A government conspiracy is uncovered. The Wildlife Board has known about trolls all along, but denies their existence. The head of the ultra-secret Troll Security Service Finn Haugen (Hans Morten Hansen) hires a crew of Polish painters (led by Robert Stoltenberg) to plant false evidence at accident scenes.

Comedians Jespersen, Tosterud, Hansen and Stoltenberg elevate Trollhunter's dark comedy and interesting character development. Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg appears in a cameo at the film’s conclusion.

With deadpan sincerity, Jespersen portrays a man attuned to freaky nature who strives to do right. Hans walks a fine line between protecting citizens and treating the mammals humanely. He confesses that he once led a murderous government mission against the trolls. Now he’s relieved that someone will document their existence.

Hans has one major weapon to combat rampaging trolls. Bright UV light makes them calcify, causing them to explode or turn to stone. “I’m not brave,” he tells Thomas. “This is dirty work.”

The lively, low budget adventure was featured at Sundance 2011. Writer-director Øvredal told Io9 that Hans’ character was partly inspired by Robert Shaw’s Quint in Jaws. 

Tall as trees, trolls can live for over a thousand years. Not too bright, they eat rocks and smell like troll stench. They’re a far cry from the homely-cute trinkets with orange or green hair. Tosserlad can sprout up to nine heads to lure lady trolls. A three-headed giant sends the hunter and initially skeptical trio scrambling.

Trolls turn furious when they smell the blood of a Christian. For this reason Hans insists that only non-believers can tag along. This detail has some historical basis. When Christianity took hold in Norway during the 13th century, people stopped believing in and worshipping trolls.

 

A rabid Ringlefinch takes the bait on a bridge, flinging Hans aloft like a plaything. Luckily the group comes to his rescue. A veterinarian later confirms that the troll was diseased. Hans fills out the government requisite Slayed Troll Form.

When power lines are ripped down around Mountain King territory, Hans and the gang travel far north to investigate. A massive, renegade Jotnar stalks them. Supersized like the Abominable Snow Monster from TV’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, this troll may be the most ferocious of all. Just then the Wildlife Board shows up.

Deliciously suspenseful, Trollhunter features production design by Martin Gant and sound design by Baard Haugan Ingebretsen. Impressive CGI and seamless visual effects are supervised by Øystein Larsen. Big set pieces and fearsome sound evoke the best of the Hollywood creature features.

Cinematographer Hallvard Braein achieves relatively steady handheld camerawork amidst beautiful valleys, forests, mountains and fjords. Film locations included Vaatedalen, Juten Heiman, and Sogn og Fjordane. 

Menace or national treasure? It seems trolls want to eat, reproduce and roam in peace. The pathos of the trolls will impress animal lovers even while mock bear carcasses and live goat bait may disturb some.

If you like Trollhunter, you might enjoy:  Insidious; Apollo 18; Splice.

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Trollhunter     2010  /  NR  /    1 hour, 33 min

Cast Overview:  Otto Jespersen, Glenn Erland Tosterud, Hans Morten Hansen, Johanna Morck, Tomas Alf Larsen, Knut Naerum, Robert Stoltenberg, Torunn Lodemel Stokkeland, Marte Brauteset

Director:  André Øvredal

Genre:  Mockumentary, Horror, Foreign Film

Language: Norwegian with English subtitles