Put These Films on Your “To See” List

25 Sunday Nov 2018

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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", "A Private War", "A Star Is Born", "Capernaum", "Everybody Knows", "Free Solo", "Green Book", "Meru", "Monrovia, "Roma", "The Mother of the Maid", "The Wife", Alex Honnold, Ann Hornaday/Washington Post, Ben Is Back, Bjorn Runge, Bradley Cooper, DC Cinema Club, El Capitan Wall, Elizabeth Chai Vasanhelyi, Indiana", Jimmy Chin, Lady Gaga, Nadine Lebak, National Geographic, The Public Theater, Yosemite National Park

by Ellen Miller

If you’re looking for some films to see over the next month or two, here are a few we can highly recommend. All those reviewed here, except for the first one, are in theaters now. And below these reviews are others that we have previously reviewed and are well worth an evening (late afternoon noon!) at the movies.

CAPERNAUM (Chaos): Ellen ***** Richard *****

Director, Nadine Labak

The first thing I knew about this film, which we recently previewed at our DC Cinema Club, was that it was the winner of the Grand Jury Award at the Cannes Film Festival. I suspected I was bound to be disappointed.

But this film is one of the most stirring, mournful, gritty, and gripping films I have ever seen. It is also heartbreaking, even though it has an uplifting ending. The entire audience was glued to their seats, wondering at the marvel of what they watching, described by long time film critic Bob Mondello in a dialogue with the audience at the end, as a film that could have come from a Charles Dickens’ script.

It is an epic story of a street-smart 12-year-old Lebanese boy who, after being worked hard, beaten, and denigrated by struggling parents and the society around him, leaves home, survives by his street smarts, and then tries to sue his parents for neglect. Along the way the boy becomes the caretaker of a toddler, the son of an illegal immigrant (an Ethiopian woman is arrested for lack of papers). For me, this was the most searing part of the film.

But it’s not just the story of the film that is moving; it was also how it was made. There were no professional actors in any of the leading roles, and each person ‘played’ a personality somewhat like themselves, someone who had a similar life story. There was at times no fixed script -– characters were simply given the outlines of a scene and asked to speak and act as they would if they were in a similar situation. And with one exception, it was shot chronologically and over a period of six months. The poise and presence of each of the ‘actors’ (from the 15 month old to the parents of the boy) was incredible. Five hundred hours of film was shot and then edited into this exquisite work.

We haven’t seen anything this powerful or this amazing in a long time.

Capernaum will be a nominee for Best Foreign Language Film. It has not yet opened in theaters in DC. Watch for it.

(Ed. Note: Capernaum will be in theaters starting Dec. 14. Put it on your calendar. Now.)

THE WIFE: Ellen **** Richard ****

Directed by Björn Runge

We were actually late in seeing this film, but we were anxious to do so after seeing Glenn Close in New York, starring in The Mother of the Maid, now playing at The Public Theater. (That production was staged in a theater in the round venue, and we sat no more than 10 feet from Close at any time during two spellbinding hours. The play itself wasn’t remarkable, but she was. We felt it a privilege to witness her work.)

And she’s remarkable in this film too. We found the story a bit hard to believe. A writer is soon to be awarded the Nobel Prize. He (Jonathan Pryce) is the husband of the character played by Glenn Close and is being recognized for the entire body of his literature. His wife has long hidden her role in his writing and has tolerated his arrogance and infidelities of her husband out of overpowering love. When she decides she cannot suffer the indignities any longer, the film takes a sharp turn. The build up to claiming her own place in the long fraught relationship with her husband is what is most intriguing about this film. It’s a timely film and a timely message. While my overall rating is a 4 stars, Glenn Close would get 10 stars if I could give that many.

A STAR IS BORN: Ellen ***** Richard *****

Director, Bradley Cooper

We were also late in seeing this film, and if friends hadn’t given it such sterling ratings, we might have skipped it, as film with big stars like Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, are not usually our thing. But we both were captured by the story and Lady Gaga’s performance.

It’s a big film: big stars, big production, big story (singer on her way up; singer on his way down with compromises all around) set in the contemporary music world. The relationship between the two of them feels real. Each is drawn to the other for their own needs, but they stick together as their careers careen in different directions. The music is wonderful, and it was a pleasure to watch La Gaga perform up close and personal.

All in all, this was a particularly pleasurable “big film.”

FREE SOLO: Ellen ***** Richard *****

Directors, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin

With a couple of hours to spare in New York a few weeks ago, we dashed to a movie theater to see this remarkable documentary. We highly recommend it. Richard’s review from an earlier post:

“This National Geographic documentary is an account of Alex Honnold’s (age 33) attempts to free solo climb (i.e., no ropes) the 3,000 foot high El Capitan Wall in Yosemite Park, arguably the most difficult solo climb in the world.

“Free Solo is directed and filmed by the award winning duo of Jimmy Chinn, photographer and mountaineer, and Elizabeth Chai Vasashelyi, documentarian. Their previous film, Meru, told the story of three climbers attempting to scale Mt. Meru in the Himalayas. It won the Sundance Audience Award in 2015.

“You don’t have to care about or have particular interest in rock climbing to be mesmerized by this film. It is both an intimate portrait of the climber and of the film making of this adventure. And it’s a thriller told cinemagraphically. For all these reasons the film will stay with you long after you leave the theater.”

Free Solo is in the theaters in the DC metro area now and in other theaters around the country. See it while it’s available on the big screen. I suspect, unfortunately, it will not be around very long.

** ** ** ** **

And if you can find any of the following films, you’re in for a treat. Click on the film to see my earlier review from our weekend at the recent Philadelphia Film Festival:

Green Book, in theaters now.

A Private War, in theaters now.

Roma, in theaters now.

Ben Is Back, due in theaters Dec. 7.

Everybody Knows, due in theaters Feb. 8

The Guilty, released Oct. 19 but doesn’t seem to be in the theaters yet.

And

Monrovia, Indiana, not reviewed previously on MillersTime but worth your consideration. See Ann Hornaday’s review in the Washington Post. This film about a small, rural mid-western town is now in theaters though not easy to find.

Favorite Reads So Far This Year (2017)

20 Saturday May 2017

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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Tags

", "A Gentleman in Moscow", "A Horse Walks into a Bar", "A Piece of the World", "Alexa and Eliza", "All the River", "American Lion", "Between Them: Remembering My Parents", "Born a Crime", "Can Heaven Be Void", "Consequences: A Memoir", "Days Without End", "Do Not Say We Have Nothing", "Eveningland", "Evicted", "Homegoing", "Homesick forAnother World", "In the Darkroom", "Insomniac", "Killers of the Flower Moon", "Not My Father's Son", "Spoils", "Stranger in the Woods", "The Blood of Emmett Till", "The Lost City of the Monkey God", "The Man Who Never Stopped Sleeping", "The New Odyssey", "The North Water", "The Return: Fathers, "The Spy", "The Twelves Lives of Samuel Hawley", "Things We Lost in the Fire", "Ties", "Waking Lions", Ellen Miller, Favorite Reads, MillersTime Readers Favorites in 2017 (so far), Sons and the Land in Between"

“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read”- A. Lincoln

Several years ago I decided waiting until December each year was too long a time between posts that share favorite reads among MillersTime readers. So I started asking in May/June for books you’ve read so far in the year that have particularly resonated with you. And since some of our memories are not quite as sharp as they once were, the idea of having a midyear call for your favorites and a midyear post, I hope, will be useful to all and will continue to be a regular feature here.

I ask that you send me a few that have stood out for you so far, along with a sentence or two of what was particularly appealing. Send them to my email (Samesty84@gmail.com), and when I get at least a dozen or so responses, I’ll post them for other readers to see. I’ll also do a second summer post for those of you who may be too busy to respond in the next couple of weeks (but know you can expect a couple of reminders if you don’t respond to this first appeal).

To start everyone off, both Ellen and I have listed books that we’ve particularly enjoyed since Jan.1, 2017, along with a few sentences about each. (We may have overdone our list here a bit, but remember we are retired, don’t watch TV, and our grand kinder go to bed early.)

“There’s No Such Thing as a Protest Vote”

08 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by Richard in Articles & Books of Interest, The Outer Loop

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

", "Here Comes Everybody", "Medium", 2016 Elections, Biz Stone, Clay Shirky, Ev Williams, Protest Votes, Refusing to Vote, Third Parties, Twitter, Voting, Write-in Votes

As I occasionally do, I am posting a link to an article that I found of value. It’s not arguing for any particular candidate, but it’s author, Clay Shirky, believes “There’s No Such Thing as Protest Vote,” and he explains why.

If you read the article, scroll to the very bottom and click on “Show All Responses.” Unlike many Comment sections following an article that may be controversial, some of these responses are quite good and many take exception to what Shirky writes, but they do so respectfully.

I’m pasteing in the first few paragraphs so you can see if it is something you want to spend the six minutes it will take to read the article:

There’s No Such Thing As A Protest Vote

We’re in the season of protest vote advocacy, with writers of all political stripes making arguments for third-party candidates (Jill Stein, Gary Johnson), write-in votes (Bernie Sanders, Rod Silva), or refusing to vote altogether (#NeverTrump, #BernieOrBust.) For all the eloquence and passion and rage in these arguments, however, they suffer from a common flaw: there is no such thing as a protest vote.

The authors of these pieces rarely line up their preferred Presidential voting strategies — third-party, write-in, refusal — with the electoral system as it actually exists. In 2016, that system will offer 130 million or so voters just three options:

A. I prefer Donald Trump be President, rather than Hillary Clinton.
B. I prefer Hillary Clinton be President, rather than Donald Trump.
C. Whatever everybody else decides is OK with me.

That’s it. Those are the choices. All strategies other than a preference for Trump over Clinton or vice-versa reduce to Option C.

You can link to the article Here and get to the Comments Here.

Clay Shirky is someone I respect and follow. He wrote an important book — Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations (2008) — and is one of the more informed and thoughtful individuals on the emerging role of the Internet and on Internet technology. Among the many other things in which he’s involved, he teaches at NYU and his writings and thoughts are usually at the forefront of what is happening in this new world of the Internet.

Medium, the site on which Shirky published this article is a somewhat new ‘publishing platform’ founded by Ev Williams and Biz Stone, who among other things were founders of Twitter. This endeavor is to give writers a longer space (longer than 140 characters) to post articles. They also have writers of their own, and I think Shirky might be writing for them. Their website explains, “Medium is a community of readers and writers offering unique perspectives on ideas large and small.” If you’re interested in learning more about Medium, you can check out the site here.

Finally, as always, I encourage MillersTime readers to comment, respectfully, on these linked articles directly on my site. Please consider doing so and let others know what you think about Shirky’s view that “There Is No Such Thing as a Protest Vote.”