History
Munich – The Edge of War
MUNICH – THE EDGE OF WAR Munich – The Edge of War filming occurred at the end of 2020. The film is a historical drama centered around the 1938 meeting in Munich. England’s Neville Chamberlain (Jeromy Irons) and the French prime minister attempt to appease Hitler by “giving him” Czechoslovakia. However, the main story is…
The Dig
THE DIG You must genuinely enjoy sad, slow, and quiet English dramas to enjoy The Dig, where happiness is rare, but unrequited love and lack of respect are flourishing. However, The Dig is an interesting story – based upon an event that happened in England just before the start of WWII – and The Dig…
Saving Private Ryan
SAVING PRIVATE RYAN Every once and a while, you should watch the epic war movie Saving Private Ryan. I grew up with a dad who glamorized war movies. He and I watched those old black and white patriotic WWII movies. My dad served his WWII duty in North Carolina, not to his fault. My dad…
Mank
MANK You open the Netflix app, and most movies are not made for someone like me, a fully developed and functioning, cynical adult who watches films. Netflix caters to teenagers through thirty-somethings. Content contains loads of coming-of-age, young romance, teenage angst, and British films. I watch a lot of it, enjoy it, but it doesn’t…
Radioactive
RADIOACTIVE Radioactive is a biopic drama about Madame Skłodowska Curie. The film begins in 1895 when she meets her future husband, Pierre Curie, and ends in 1934. Radioactive takes a broad sweep at almost every significant event in Madame Curie’s adult life. It shows some of the science where she discovers two new elements (radium…
The Irishman
THE IRISHMAN The Irishman is a very long film about crime, assassinations, and the Mafia. It stars the only Irish guy in the Mafia as the hitman Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro). On his deathbed, the real Frank Sheeran told a reporter “stories” about his work for the Mafia in Philadelphia during the 1950s. Those…
Ford v Ferrari
FORD v FERRARI In the race to the 2020 Oscar award season, Christian Bale may edge out Matt Damon in this semi-historical Ford v Ferrari car racing drama showing the years leading up to the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans (The Grand Prix). The Grand Prix auto race in France had always been won…
Harriet
HARRIET Harriet Tubman before this movie. The updated view of Harriet Tubman. Harriet is a frank (good word), straightforward biopic movie, slightly entertaining but worth seeing mainly to view the historic update of Harriet Tubman. Araminta “Minty” Ross (Cynthia Erivo) – is 27 years old and a slave on a Maryland plantation in 1849. “Minty”…
First Man
FIRST MAN With all the craziness in the 1960’s – the Vietnam War & the protests, the Pill, the Cold War, Civil Rights Act & riots, the assassinations, and the music – it is pretty amazing that the US orbits, then walks on the moon flying in analog space capsules filled with buttons, switches and…
Mary Queen of Scots
Mary Queen of Scots A beautifully, well crafted, but historically inaccurate drama about the tense relationship between Queen Elizabeth I of England (Margo Robbie, I, Tonya) and Mary Stewart, Queen of Scotland (Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird, The Lovely Bones). Both women vie for the right to rule both England and Scotland. Both women have a…
Outlaw King
OUTLAW KING FREEEEDOM!!! Screamed William Wallace (Mel Gibson) before he was drawn & quartered by the English in the 1995 Oscar-winning movie Braveheart (do not google drawn & quartered you don’t need to be horrified just yet, but you will learn about hanged and drawn later in Outlaw King). Outlaw King begins a couple of years before…
Toast
TOAST Nigel Slater the food writer is a big thing in Britain. He is “a most highly regarded and best loved food writer and television personality.” He’s a nobody in the US. Most movies are only 90 minutes, so while the wife was out shopping for Thanksgiving (I offered to go) I watched this random…
Hostiles
HOSTILES Hostiles is a dramatic and sometimes violent road trip movie set in the American West in 1892 when a dying Cheyenne War Chief and his family are released from prison and sent home to their tribal lands. U.S. Cavalry Captain Joseph Blocker (Christian Bale), who has spent the last part of his career ridding…
Even the Rain
EVEN THE RAIN On Columbus Day 2017, scratch that, on Indigenous People’s Day, I watched the news as Native Americans were getting arrested for a pipeline/sacred grave protest, 28 arrested. In their honor, I watched Even The Rain, a Spanish protest film about the realization of past and current atrocities. This fictional film is about…
Padmaavat
PADMAAVAT I was very excited about Padmaavat the grand big screen epic Indian drama. Heard about it since 2016 since it was starring my favorite Indian actress, Deepika Padukone, although at this point I am only aware of two Indian actresses. Set in the 13th Century Afghanistan/Western India. Alauddin Khilji (Ranveer Singh), the Sultan of…