Dec 26, 2021
In this charmingly authentic, and working-class film about a teenage daughter of deaf parents, young Ruby (Emilia Jones) is torn between family obligation and dreams.
Not since The Perfect Storm has their been a story set in Gloucester about the hard life of fishermen. Ruby’s parents (Troy Kotsur and Marlee Matlin) are deaf…they depend on Ruby to operate the family fishing business and dodge the Coast Guard’s demands (and horns) that they cannot hear. But Ruby’s also dodging the bullies and pranksters of her local high school who find her smelling like today’s fresh catch. And from a family that’s just weird.
That is until Ruby’s music teacher (Eugenio Debez) sees a professional future in Ruby’s angelic singing voice. The irony is that Ruby’s spent her entire life ‘signing’ with her family so they can’t even hear their daughter’s singing voice. But sometimes words can be spoken through the heart, eye contact and expression of the soul. A push and pull, darling little film that elevates high up to class consciousness, winning both the Audience award and the Grand Jury prize at Sundance film festival.
Dec 11, 2021
Buddy (Jude Hill) is just an ordinary boy growing up in Belfast, playing stickball in the street, his mother, calling him in for ‘tea’ or supper. But his life is juxtaposed by the tumultuous times; the surrounding rallies, bombings and beatings in 1969, when Protestants want Catholics out of their neighborhoods. Poor, little, Buddy seems to be drowning daily in religion.Thank God he’s Protestant, though he’s still caught in the constant cross hairs of fear and anger. And we can feel his frustration and his troubled mind trying to understand what’s happening and relying on his family to help him to learn.
Buddy’s father, Pa (Jamie Dornan) works construction in London, so for most of the time Buddy’s left at home with his brother Will (Lewis McAskie) and his Ma (Caitriona Balfe, Outlander.) Though when his father is around, he’s eloquent and gentle. Buddy’s Granny (Judi Dench) is always within range as is his Pop (Ciaran Hinds.)
But it’s the mere mention of the cinema that lights up Buddy’s usually unsettled face. John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Hollywood become his saviors set against a backdrop of political turmoil.
And so goes this delightful gem of a poignant semi-autobiographical love letter that mirrors the life of its writer/director Kenneth Branagh, who grew up in Belfast and went on to be Knighted, and the winner of three BAFTAs, two Emmys and several nominations for Academy Awards and Golden Globes.
Worthy of another Oscar and BAFTA nomination, Branagh shouldn’t do anything else in life but direct. This is his Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma. Nostalgic and complex, the cinematography is brilliant – a tight eye on everything so that we experience – the streets, the mobs, the minister, the movies – and even the casket larger than life through the eyes of Buddy.
The choice to shoot the film in black and white adds a rainy, grainy and gritty texture to the hopelessness of childhood in Belfast. Only when Buddy has a family outing to the cinema to see Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang does the technicolor bring him to life; albeit the artistry was always there…
Despite his parents drowning in debt, back taxes and broken windows, they’re talented, cultured…keeping Buddy buoyant. Books, movies, dancing, singing, they instill the hope of what could be if only they’d move to England to begin a new life. Of course, Buddy can’t imagine such a transition. He’d have no friends, no cousins and no Catherine the Catholic girl schoolmate he’s in love with.
But, the last lines of the movie say it all: For the ones who stayed. For the ones who left. And for all the ones who were lost.
Truly a small audience darling of a film wrapped with a giant heart of possibility when love and hope prevail. And, your son grows up to be a Kenneth Branagh .
Jul 7, 2021
In real life he was an incredible chef, a soul-seeker, hungry for truth and hungry for life…which is why we beg the question “Why did he do it?” In this poignant documentary directed by Morgan Neville about the life and sadly, the death, of Anthony Bourdain we begin to understand that answer.
In hindsight, one can’t help but think of the number of times Bourdain verbal suicide thoughts were drop-hinted into his ongoing and successful TV series Parts Unknown. It’s made apparent early-on that he traded in his younger days of heroin for a new addiction: Travel. He couldn’t stop. He couldn’t face who he really was because apparently, he didn’t like who he really was. He hid behind tattoos and droll comic dialog. He hid behind his wonderment for a life he really wasn’t certain how to obtain. As is typical in these unfulfilled humans…’too much is never enough’ even though he displayed his demons publicly.
Bourdain sounded happiest and grounded when in the company of his daughter, Ariane, from his second wife, Ottavia Busa. Yet, he barely stayed home, traveling some 350 days a year, circling the globe, twice. Travel was his band-aid, but the emotional wounds ran too deep.
In his own words he kept seeking: “Had I not become a dishwasher I would never have become a cook, had I not become a cook, I never would have become a chef, and then a writer, and so on.
Yet, it’s not the food and the travel but the author bit that sparks the most interest, lending us emotional insight. Unlike chefs who thinks of themselves as authors (they’re not, they write recipes for their cookbooks) Bourdain could really write. Writers do nothing but write. They suffer. They have angst. Bourdain really was a writer. His diaries were literary. His life’s portrait so intimate. His observations, childlike. His words both playful and inquisitive. His NYT best-selling memoir, KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL, an instant classic.
And that’s why his loss is felt so dearly. And eerily. Bourdain brought us into his soul.
This documentary really is a pep-talk-walk. It beats constant movement like a ‘beeping’ roadrunner, thus it’s title. His energy like that of a man who wants to run away from himself. And it reminds us that when a person so much bigger than life, dies of suicide, he’s both the victim and the perpetrator.
Despite the films brilliant take on the brilliant Bourdain, one can’t help thinking that it’s missing a chip. And it is…Anthony Bourdain. He’s dead and he can’t answer the haunting question we most still want to understand as the story wraps. Why? Damn it, why? And the regrets delivered by loved ones, like chef colleague, David Chang, or his agent, Kim Witherspoon, if only they knew… there’s a lot of should’ve, could’ve, would’ve felt for those left behind. And that’s a lot of us.
Apr 2, 2021
(Reviewed by our guest critic, The Movie Knight)
Godzilla is on the attack! The King of the Monsters once thought to be our savior is now attacking places like Apex Cybernetics for no apparent reason. Who can save us?
Meanwhile, King Kong is still living on Skull Island. He has aged since we last saw him but is still as tough as they come. What will happen when these two behemoths finally face off one-on-one?
Extended universes are trending in Hollywood. Marvel has done it to perfection and DC is trying to catch up. Universal failed miserably! Legendary Pictures snuck it in when they gave us Kong: Skull Island where a post credit scene linked it to the latest Godzilla reboot. Since 1962, when they rumbled last, fans have been waiting for the two classic monsters to engage once more.
The chief complaint about the past of Godzilla movies is how poorly the human characters are written. Sadly, that trend continues here. There are some “good guys” and “bad guys” represented, but you don’t care much about their fates. That’s not to suggest anyone gave a bad performance. It’s just that none of the actors are given much to work with from this script. The best standout comes from Millie Bobby Brown, best known from the Netflix series Stranger Things. Of all the human stories going , hers is the most interesting.
Then again, most folks probably are not tuning into this picture to see a deep human story. No, they are here to see the two most popular movie monsters get down and dirty and, on that front, it delivers! The key difference between the Godzilla reboots of 1998 and 2014 is the latter featured the star fighting other monsters. Almost all the stories in the past have him battling an adversary and its what the audience has come to expect. This outing features some of the best brawling yet and even some Easter egg nods to the original. Fans should not be disappointed from this perspective.
The film can be seen both in theaters and on HBO MAX for the month of April. Sure, it was meant to be seen on the big screen, but if you are not ready to venture out to the theater just yet, it’s worth bringing up for home viewing.
2 Tiaras
Mar 1, 2021
Chance meetings are everything. When three struggling singers accidentally (or is it fated?) meet, they have a chance to rekindle their fading dreams of making it in the music business. And isn’t there a little bit of faded dream in all of us?
Rich (Rich Price) is an English teacher by day and a guitar strummer by night. Just ask the old lady living upstairs who bangs on his ceiling. Greg (Greg Naughton) is a tree surgeon with a broken hear, just longing to star in a band. And then there’s Brian (Brian Chartrand) a hitchhiker who is part of the karma in the three connecting. Soon a band is formed and they’re off on a road trip to get to an LA gig on time. Think elements of the ‘Wizard of Oz’ with a musical agent, Granny (Richard Kind) at the end of the yellow brick road.
In real life Greg Naughton is not only an American actor, and writer & director of this film, but he’s a singer-songwriter and founding member of band ‘The Sweet Remains.’ This is a somewhat true story of their Burlington Vermont journey. How much fame they ever accomplished in real life isn’t clear, even in web searches, but if this turns out to be a film about a band who ‘makes it’ in real life for not making it in the film, then all the better.
It’s time for folk singers to make a comeback.
For fans British Steve Coogan’s road trip films or the tiny Irish hit called Once a decade back about a singer/songwriter love story, this is just the ticket, with a little Woodstock vibe in the mix. Dialog in the film take us back to simpler times. “Remember when you escaped to our car to listen to cassettes? Where nobody could call you on your cell phone?” Amen.
