Movies – Full Listing
The Cranes Are Flying
THE CRANES ARE FLYING The Cranes Are Flying is an obscure but incredible Soviet/Russian film from 1957. This film won the Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) which was the highest prize awarded at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival. Stealing a phrase from a YouTube commenter where the trailer for this film can be found, “This is…
Hustlers
HUSTLERS Jennifer Lopez – her first scene in Hustlers – is an amazing scene to behold. J.Lo is the main reason to see this movie. Hustlers is a comedy crime drama movie about strippers; strippers that never strip but make “more money than a brain surgeon.” Dorothy (Constance Wu), aka Destiny, a new dancer, is…
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…
A Private War
A PRIVATE WAR A Private War is a dramatization of the American journalist Marie Colvin’s life from 2001 to 2012 while she was working for the British national newspaper, The Sunday Times. Rosamund Pike (Hostiles, Gone Girl, Hector and the Search for Happiness) is superb as the war time journalist Marie Colvin. This film is…
Us
US I usually do not enjoy horror movies. I dislike seeing people dehumanized, treated like meat, slashed, sawed, and physically tortured. However, Us is different and worth watching. Us is shot in Southern California. The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is prominent in several scenes. Us is more than just a scary movie with an appropriate…
Rocketman
ROCKETMAN Rocketman is an excellent biopic of Elton John’s life during the 1970’s & 80’s – not a linear story – instead, it is a musical. This musical shows the most significant events in Elton’s life during that time – not just what happened – but how he felt and how he survived those crazy…
Always Be My Maybe
ALWAYS BE MY MAYBE An adorable rom-com, with two charming people + Keanu Reeves. Does anything more really need to be said? The charming people are the two leading roles – Ali Wong & Randall Park. How charming is Ali Wong? Even almost eight months pregnant in both of her comedy specials (Baby Cobra in…
The Mustang
THE MUSTANG Wild Mustangs are rounded up each year to control the almost 100,000 feral Mustang population in the western United States. A small number of these Mustangs are given to prisons for the inmates to tame, and auction off. Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, French actress, producer, writer, and director, learned about this program – studied…
- 2019
- Drama
Life Itself
LIFE ITSELF If you ever feel like reading a long epic novel but don’t have the right book at hand. Watch this Amazon Studios produced – and a bit sappy drama – Life Itself. Five Chapters tell the story of Life Itself. Each chapter has different characters and a different feel. Chapter 1 is the…
Welcome to Marwen
WELCOME TO MARWEN Welcome to Marwen is the animated/live action dramatization of the 2010 documentary Marwencol. The documentary Marwencol received mostly positive reviews. Welcome to Marwen is not received as well; in fact it is one of the biggest money losers in 2018. Director: Robert Zemeckis directed Welcome to Marwen and it seemed to be…
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…
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN The Anomaly: An anomaly is defined as a departure from the normal order, something that is peculiar, irregular or difficult to explain. Discoveries in science, for instance, are sometimes pushed forward by anomalies since anomalies can give you a fresh perspective on something. An anomaly must be what happened…
Cold War
COLD WAR Cold War’s beginning sets an interesting premise for this black & white Polish art-house drama set in the political upheaval period after WWII (1949 to 1964). The interesting part has Wiktor Warski (Tomas Kot), Irena Bielecka (Agata Kulesza), and the Manager Lech Kaczmarek (Borys Szyc) traveling through Poland. Traveling to find young adults…
Clara
CLARA Clara is a small film by a 22-year old first time director Akash Sherman, that tackles a huge subject – searching for intelligent life in the universe. The film attains it’s objective by inserting a slightly mystical romance in the middle. A Canadian romantic sci-fi film shot in and around Toronto. A data driven…
- 2018
- Science Fiction
Alpha
ALPHA I’m a sucker for films set in the Stone Age, and Alpha is a very good coming of age action/adventure movie during the last Ice Age. This film is similar to 10,000 Years BC, Quest for Fire, or The Clan of the Cave Bear all films set in the paleolithic age (500,000 years ago…