Far From Heaven (2002)

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"Oh, Raymond, Mrs. Whitaker sounds so formal! Won't you please... ask me to dance?
Cathy (Julianne Moore) and Frank Whitaker (Dennis Quaid) seem to be the ideal prosperous couple in this 1950s Hartford community. He's a successful businessman and she's a social leader. When Cathy discovers her husband is gay, she stands by him hoping that he will be cured by visiting a psychiatrist.

In the midst of this, Cathy has become quite smitten with her new gardener, Raymond Deagan (Dennis Haysbert), a handsome and tender man who is African-American. When Frank confronts Cathy with the gossip he's heard around town, he is enraged about how damaging this could be to his career.

Also appearing are Patricia Clarkson as Cathy's supposedly best friend Eleanor; Celia Weston as the leading town gossip Mona Lauder; Viola Davis as the Whitaker's housekeeper; James Rebhorn as the psychiatrist; Jordan Puryear as Sarah, Raymond's young daughter.

While I appreciated the exquisite attention to detail, the authenticity of costumes and settings, a color pallet that made me feel the 1950s, I just didn't care enough about the nature of either Cathy or Frank.

Written and directed by Todd Haynes.

Run time: 1 hour, 48 minutes

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements, sexual content, brief violence and language.

My personal rating: C+

At Close Range (1986)

Based on a true story

"Most people who drive through here see farms. Houses, and fields, and shit. I see money, I see things, everything got my name writ' on it."

Brad Whitehead, Sr. (Christopher Walken) and his brothers and pals (Tracey Walter, R.D. Call, David Strathairn, J.C. Quinn) are big time thugs in the Philadelphia area in the 1970s, His nearly adult estranged sons Brad (Sean Penn) and Tommy (Chris Penn) and their pals (Kiefer Sutherland, Stephen Geoffreys, Crispin Glover) are small time hoods who want to be in the big time gang.

Brad Jr. eventually learns that blood is not always thicker than water.

Also in the cast are Millie Perkins as the boys' mother, Eileen Ryan (who is the Penn brothers' real mother) plays their Grandmother; Mary Stuart Masterson is Brad Jr.'s girlfriend. Candy Clark is Brad Sr.'s girlfriend.

Sean Penn's amazing talent shone brightly in this, one of his earliest films.

Directed by James Foley.

Run time: 1 hour, 51 minutes

Rated R.

My personal rating: B

Cadillac Records (2008)

Based on a true story

"Now, the first time a gal took off her underwear and threw 'em on stage was on account of guys singin' the blues. Now, when the white girls started doin' it, they called that rock and roll."
Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody), a white boy from Chicago, promised his girlfriend's father that when he married, his wife was going to drive a Cadillac. McKinley "Muddy Waters" Morganfield (Jeffrey Wright), was a sharecropper from Mississippi when Alan Lomax (Tony Bentley) came through making recordings of folk music for the Library of Congress. The year was 1941 and the seeds of rock and roll were planted.

Inspired by hearing himself sing and play guitar on Lomax's recording, Muddy hiked to Chicago and began playing on street corners. Later Chess was approached by a "race" records producer outside Chess' blues club in southside Chicago. She was looking for talent and asked Chess to call her if he heard anything. Muddy met Little Walter (Columbus Short), a 17-year-old harp player extraordinaire, and they formed a perfect duo.By 1947, they added Jimmy Rogers (Kevin Mambo) to become The All-Star Trio and were playing in Chess' Macamba Club.

When Chess asks Muddy to break up the trio so Muddy can record solo, they head to Mississippi in Chess' Caddy to peddle the record to radio deejays, including one (Vincent D'Onofrio) who promotes the heck out of Muddy's new records helping Muddy earn his first Cadillac from Chess.

After the Macamba Club mysteriously burns down, Chess uses the insurance money to build Chess Record Studios and produce Cadillac Record. He reunites Muddy with Little Walter and Jimmy Rogers and makes them all big sensations. Willie Dixon (Cedric the Entertainer) enters the picture with songs he's written specificially for Muddy to sing in the early 1950s, Along comes Howlin' Wolf (Eamonn Walker) to challenge Muddy's place in Chess' studio.

And then comes country singer Chuck Berry (Mos Def) and his "Maybelline." Muddy tries to discourage Chess from recording Berry because he isn't playing the blues but Chess is committed and knows Berry's music is "something else." When Chess and Berry take their recording to Alan Freed (Eric Bogosian), freed declares it to be "rock and roll -- and it's too fun for anyone to sit out on, white or colored" and the airwaves are integrated. "And all it took was one man duck-walking across the stage to bring us together."

With the popularity of television and American Bandstand, rock 'n roll rocked the nation. Chess was hunting for a woman performer and meets up with the outspoken Miss Etta James (Beyonce Knowles). Chess knows how to change Etta's internal anger into great passion in her recordings.

The rest is history -- history that includes Leonard Chess' stable's influence on the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton and many others while Chess was trying to update his own stable of performers to the up and coming style of rock 'n roll.

Also appearing are Emmanuelle Chriqui as Chess' wife Revetta, Gabrielle Union as Muddy's wife Geneva.

Written and directed by Darnell Martin.

Run time: 1 hours, 49 minutes

Rated R for pervasive language and some sexuality.

My personal rating: B+

The Deep End (2001)

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"This is only a business opportunity. That's all."
Margaret Hall (Tilda Swinton) is worried about her teenaged son Beau (Jonathan Tucker). When she finds out that Beau is hanging out with a gay drug dealer Darby Reese (Josh Lucas) she drives to Reno to bribe the dealer to stay away from Beau. Later that night, Darby visits the Hall home and rouses Beau to come out and talk. The two go to the Hall's boathouse where they have a fight.

The next morning whilst on a job, Margaret discovers Darby's body along the shore and, suspecting Beau murdered him, she disposes of the body. Alek Spera (Goran Visnjic) visits Margaret with a damning video and blackmails her into giving him $50K to avoid having the video turned over to the Tahoe City police.

Also appearing are Peter Donat as Margaret's father-in-law who lives with them; Tamara Hope and Jordon Dorrance as Margaret's other children;

Based on the novel The Blank Wall by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding. Screenplay and directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel.

Run time: 1 hour, 41 minutes

Rated R for some violence and language, and for a strong sex scene.

My personal rating: B

Appaloosa (2008)

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"You hired him to be Virgil Cole."
Peacemakers Virgil Cole (Ed Harris) and Everett Hitch (Viggo Mortensen) have been riding the Wild West together for a dozen years doling out justice to the bad guys. They're friends, They've got each others back.

They're called to the tiny town of Appaloosa after Marshall Jack Bell (Bobby Jauregui) and his two deputies disappear while making a call on the notorious rancher Randall Bragg (Jeremy Irons). Bragg and his men have been riding rough shot over the area for some time and Appoloosa's councilmen (James Gammon, Timothy Spall, Tom Bower) hire the two itinerent lawmen to keep the town safe. The councilmen have to agree that it's Cole's way or no way.

When one of Bragg's men, the young Joe Whitfield (Gabriel Marantz) defects and comes to town to tell Cole and Hitch that Bragg himself had murdered the marshall and two deputies, Cole and Hitch set out to take Bragg into custody until the circuit judge comes in.

By this time, a beguiling and flirtatious widow, Allie French (Renee Zellweger), arrives in town and Cole is smitten. It isn't long before they're living together, building a house in town, and Cole is preparing to settle down.

The circuit judge (Bob Harris, who is Ed Harris' real father) arrives and after a brief trial, orders Bragg to the prison some distance away. Cole and Hitch take the train with the prisoner and the law officers who escort the judge to deposit Bragg at the prison, but Bragg's men have hired the Shelton brothers -- Ring (Lance Henriksen) and Mackie (Adam Nelson) -- a pair of gunslingers-for-hire to set Bragg free. The Sheltons kidnap Allie and follow the train, finally persuading Cole to release Bragg.

Cole and Hitch track the fugitives who still have Allie. A skirmish with Indians happens and eventually all end back in Appaloosa for a dramatic shoot out.

Appaloosa now ranks right up there with High Noon, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Shane as my top favorite westerns.

Ed Harris not only stars in this film, he co-wrote the script, directed, and produced the film, plus he wrote and sings the second song that plays during the closing credits -- a funky song worth the listen. It's right after a great song by Tom Petty and performed by Mudcrutch. Overall, the music throughout the film was terrific and so was the cinematography.

Run time: 1 hour, 54 minutes

Rated R for some violence and language.

My personal rating: A-

The Secret Life of Words (2005)

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Before the holocaust, Adolf Hitler called all of his collaborators together and in order to convince them that he could get away with his plan he asked them who remembers the extermination of the Armenians? That's what he said. Thirty years later nobody remembered the million Armenians exterminated in the cruelest possible way.

Bosnian refugee Hanna Amitron (Sarah Polley), a young hearing impaired woman who is emotionally fragile, is encouraged by her boss to take a holiday after several years of perfect attendance, excellent performance at her English factory job, and because she's never taken a holiday before. She reluctantly goes to the Irish coast but she really doesn't want to be there. She overhears a conversation in a cafe and learns of a badly injured man who survived a fire on an oil platform in the north sea. He needs nursing care until he can be safely evacuated, maybe two weeks. Hanna volunteers for the job and is flow by helicopter to the oil rig.

There she finds Josef (Tim Robbins) who sustained burns on his face and back, damaged corneas resulting in temporary blindness, and several major fractures.

Hanna had been abused in Bosnia and escaped to Copenhagen where her case was documented by Inge (Julie Christie) before she went on to England. She suffers from post traumatic shock and is reclusive with compulsive behavior.

In time, Josef begins to realize some aspects of Hanna's story and after he is transferred to hospital, he contacts Inge and learns the extent and nature of PTS and its affect on Hanna.

Eddie Marsan also appears.

A tender stories with some wonderful music. Among my favorite pieces are Tom Waits' "All the World is Green" and David Byrne's "Tiny Apocolypse."

Written and directed by Isabel Coixet.

Run time: 1 hour, 55 minutes

Not rated by MPAA.

My personal rating: B+

Imaginary Crimes (1994)

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"Never has a man less equipped for parenthood tried so hard."
Widower Ray Wiler (Harvey Keitel) is a dreamer, a schemer, and a drinker. He's also a devoted father of two girls, teenager Sonya (Fairuza Balk) and 10-year-old Greta (Elisabeth Moss). He struggles to make a living and also thinks he's got the next best invention to make his millions.

Told from the viewpoint of Sonya who is old enough now to see through her father's self-assuredness and see him as a fragile hustler without a chance of success.

Also appearing are Kelly Lynch in flashback as Ray's wife; Vincent D'Onofrio as Sonya's English teacher; Seymour Cassel as Sonya's uncle Eddie; Diane Baker as the headmistress of the school Sonya attends; Amber Benson as Sonya's best friend Margaret; Melissa Berntsen as Sonya's classmate Gigi; and Annette O'Toole and Bill Geisslinger as Gigi's parents. Chris Penn also has a small role.

Set in Oregon in the late 1950s.

Directed by Anthony Drazan.

Run time: 1 hour, 36 minutes

Rated PG.

My personal rating: B

Instinct (1999)

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"You were right, freedom is not just a dream, it's there, beyond those fences that we build all by ourselves."
After spending years living with gorillas in the African jungle, anthropologist Ethan Powell (Anthony Hopkins) goes on a rampage and murders two poachers. Upon being imprisoned in a mental facility in Florida, the psychotic Powell becomes even more withdrawn, mute and animalistic.

Young psychiatist Theo Calder (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) pleads with the head of psychiatry, Dr. Ben Hillard (Donald Sutherland) to take Powell's case hoping to unlock the secrets that lead to the anthropologist's behavior.

Also appearing ar Maura Tierney as Powell's estranged daughter; George Dzundza as a prison doctor; John Ashton as a brutal guard.

Directed by Jon Turteltaub.

Run time: 2 hours, 6 minutes

Rated R for some intense violent behavior.

My personal rating: B+

Doubt (2008)

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"Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty."
Twelve-year-old Donald Miller (Joseph Foster) breaks the color barrier at the traditional Italian/Irish Catholic school in the Bronx in 1984. Young Sister James (Amy Adams) shares with the domineering head of the school, Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) that perhaps parish priest Father Brendan Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is spending too much private time with young Donald.

Sister Aloysius jumps to the conclusion that something very inappropriate is going on and she goes after Father Flynn with a vengence.

Also appearing is Viola Davis as Donald's mother.

Play, screenplay and directed by John Patrick Shanley.

Run time: 1 hour, 44 minutes

Rated PG-13 for thematic material.

My personal rating: B

Nights in Rodanthe (2008)

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"But there's another kind of love. One that gives you the courage to be better than you are, not less than you are."
As Adrienne Willis (Diane Lane) prepares to send her two children off with he ex-husband (Christopher Meloni) for a holiday in Orlando, he tells her he wants to come back to her and urges her to go to Florida with them. Adrienne is dazed and confused. Her huband had left her for another woman and she was angry. She also had committed to tend a small rather isolated inn on North Carolina's Outer Bank for her friend Jean (Viola Davis) who had to go out of town.

At the same time, a very sad Dr. Paul Flanner (Richard Gere) is leaving his home in Raleigh just as its new owners arrive. He's headed to the inn for a few days to sort things out, try to explain a tragedy that happened in his surgery suite, and then find his estranged son (James Franco) in South America.

With a hurricane coming on, Adrienne and Paul explore their own personal crises with each other and form a bond that will affect them for the rest of their lives.

Scott Glenn also appears.

A wonderful diversity of music including "In Rodanthe" by Emmy Lou Harris.

Based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks. Directed by George C. Wolfe.

Run time: 1 hour, 37 minutes

Rated PG-13 for some sensuality.

My personal rating: B

RocknRolla (2008)

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"People ask the question... what's a RocknRolla? And I tell 'em - it's not about drums, drugs, and hospital drips, oh no. There's more there than that, my friend. We all like a bit of the good life - some the money, some the drugs, other the sex game, the glamour, or the fame. But a RocknRolla, oh, he's different. Why? Because a real RocknRolla wants the ####ing lot."
When a Russian gangster's (Karel Roden) London real estate scam flops, many of London's slimey underworld characters scramble to get rich from the chaos.

A rather frenetic tale with action and humor and a diversity of personalities including the London mobster Lennie (Tom Wilkinson) who had been setting up the original transaction; Lenny's right hand man Archie (Mark Strong); the Russian's shifty accountant (Thandie Newton); Lenny's doped-up rockstar stepson Johnny Quid (Toby Kebbell) who wants to get even with Lenny for childhood abuses; the Russian's right hand man Victor (Dragan Micanovic); Wild Bunch members One Two (Gerard Butler), Mumbles (Idris Elba) and Handsome Bob (Tom Hardy) who are in cahoots with the accountant; and Americans Roman (Jeremy Piven) and Mickey (Ludacris) who also get mixed up in the stew.

Written and directed by Guy Ritchie.

Run time: 1 hour, 55 minutes

Rated R for pervasive language, violence, drug use and brief sexuality.

My personal rating: B

The Commitments (1991)

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"Do you not get it, lads? The Irish are the blacks of Europe. And Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. And the Northside Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin. So say it once, say it loud: I'm black and I'm proud."
Dublin lad Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins) has a dream. He wants to organize "the hardest working band" in Ireland. He gets together some of his Northside pals and auditions others who respond to ads he's run in the paper. He's really not quite sure what kind of band he wants to have but as he thinks on it, he decides he wants it to be a black soul band popularized in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s. This plan solidifies when a man old enough to be Jimmy's father appears on his doorstep to join the band. Trumpet player Joey 'The Lips' Fagan (Johnny Murphy) claims he played with the greats including Wilson Picket.

After many struggles, the band finally starts to get some recognition in Dublin. But can they survive their own in-fighting?

Others in the amazing and mostly unknown cast include: Michael Aherne as the straight-laced piano player Steven Clifford; Dave Finnegan as the brawling drummer Mickah Wallace; Angeline Ball, Maria Kennedy, and Bronagh Gallagher as the backup singers Imelda, Natalie, and Bernie; Félim Gormley as the blossoming sax player Dean Fay; Glen Hansard as the guitarist Outspan Foster; Dick Massey as the original drummer who quit Billy Mooney; Ken McCluskey as the quiet bass player Derek Scully; and Andrew Strong as the superb but cocky pig lead singer Deco Cuffe. Colm Meaney playes Jimmy Rabbitte's father.

Totally fabulous music here!

Directed by Alan Parker.

Run time: 1 hour, 59 minutes

Rated R for language.

My personal rating: B+

The Red Violin (1998)

Le violon rouge
Die Rote Violine
Il Violino Rosso

As the last violin made by Noccolo Bussotti (Carlo Cecchi) goes to auction the epic tale begins of the making and travels of this 1681 red violin which Bussotti claimed was his masterpiece and which inspired unique passion in all who came in contact with it.

Told in a series of stunning flashbacks, this film was a joint Canadian-Italian venture filmed on five countries with an international cast and tells the story covering more than 300 years.

The violin's travels and players take it to a monastic orphanage where many young boys play it for a century. When young Kaspar Weiss (Christoph Koncz) plays the violin, his brilliant talent shows and he is taken to Vienna for lessons with the French master Georges Poussin (Jean-Luc Bideau). But the fragile child dies and is returned to the monks for burial. The monks bury the child's beloved violin with him.

Later, a band of grave-robbing gypsies take possession of the violin and it is played by many generations of gypsies and finally ends up with them in England where it is used as barter for the right to camp on the grounds of a wild-eyed composer, Frederick Pope (Jason Flemyng). His talent at composing relies on his passion for his beloved Victoria (Greta Scacchi), a novelist. When Victoria leaves to do research for a book in Russion, Pope is heartbroken. The only thing that revives him is having an affair, unfortunately right at the time Victoria returns. After Pope's suicide, his Chinese manservent takes possession of the violin and returns to Shanghai where he sells it.

For decades the violin remains in the shop until it is purchased by a violinist who visited the shop with her daughter in the 1930s. More than 30 years later, the violinist's daughter, Xiang Pei (Sylvia Chang), saves the red violin from being destroyed during Mao's Cultural Revolution.

After another 30-some years have passed, the government of China is in possession of the violin and it is sent to Montreal to be appraised and auctioned.

At the auction, several people with some connection to the violin's history have arrived to bid and hopefully win the violin based only on the facts they know about the violin without regard to the rest of its history.

It takes the hard investigative work of appraiser Charles Morritz (Samuel L. Jackson) to unravel the history.

Lovingly and gorgeously filmed. Stunning music.

Co-written by François Girard and Don McKellar and directed by François Girard.

Run time: 2 hours, 11 minutes

Mostly subtitled.

Rated R for some sexuality.

My personal rating: A-

Seven Pounds (2008)

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Exacting a Pound of Flesh x7
A former aeronautical engineer posing as IRS agent Ben Thomas, is in profound pain. Wracked with guilt over the tragic deaths of seven people -- six strangers and his fiancée (Robinne Lee) -- because of his inattentiveness while driving, the man (Will Smith) makes a plan for his own future and for the future of seven other people in the LA area.

The first step of his plan is to save the life of his brother (Michael Ealy) by donating a lobe of his own lung. Later he donates a part of his liver to a social worker (Judyann Elder) he hadn't previously known. Through the social worker, he makes contact with a violently abused woman (Elpidia Carrillo) and her two children and helps them escape the brutality of her husband.

As he hears of other strangers in need, he helps them, too: A kindly youth league hockey coach (Bill Smitrovich) receives one of the faux Ben's kidney's and he donates bone marrow to a dying child (Quintin Kelley).

In the process, the faux Ben meets and falls in love with Emily Posa (Rosario Dawson), a young woman with a deteriorating heart condition and he tests a blind man (Woody Harrelson) to determine if he is a decent person worthy of a donation, too.

Also appearing are Barry Pepper as the man's best friend; Joe Nunez as the owner of the seedy motel where the man is residing, and Connor Cruise (son of Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise) playing the man as a boy.

A touching and bittersweet story about redemption and transformation.

Directed by Gabriele Muccino.

Run time: 2 hours, 3 minutes

Rated PG-13 for thematic material, some disturbing content and a scene of sensuality.

My personal rating: B

In the Electric Mist (2009)

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"...I was about to learn that the dead can hover on the edge of our vision with the density and luminosity of mist. And their claim on the earth can be as legitimate and tenacious as our own."
Lots of substories here and a bit hard to follow but nonetheless, an interesting film with some fine acting.

Detective Dave Robichaux (Tommy Lee Jones) in Louisiana bayou country gets involved with a mystery apparently involving a couple of brutal murders, a local Mafia pin Julie "Baby Feets" Balbonin (John Goodman), the murder of an African-American prisoner in the swamp 40 years before, and some sage advice from the ghost of a Confederate officer (Levon Helm).

Others in the cast include: Mary Steenburgen as Dave's wife Bootsie; Alana Locke as his young daughter; Kelly Macdonald and Peter Sarsgaard as actors in a film being made in that area of Louisiana; John Sayles as the director of the film; Justina Machado as an FBI agent; Buddy Guy as bluesman Hogman Patin. Others appearing are Ned Beatty, James Gammon.

Directed by Bertrand Tavernier.

Run time: 1 hour, 42 minutes

Rated R for violence, language and brief sexuality/nudity.

My personal rating: B

American History X (1998)

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"Has anything you've ever done made your life better?"
Cameron Alexander (Stacy Keach) is a chickhawk. A predator. He hunts down likely teenage boys in the Venice Beach area to incite other young men to the supremacist cause. He finds the potential for a real leader in Derek Vinyard (Edward Norton), a young man whose fireman father had been murdered at the scene of a fire by African-American drug dealer. Derek's rage was palpable immediately and he quickly became a powerful force in the skinhead youth movement. When a gang of black youths break into his car one night, Derek goes after them with a semi-automatic and kills two of them, brutally and maliciously breaking the neck of one.

On the day of Derek's release from prison after three years for voluntary manslaughter, his kid brother Danny (Edward Furlong) is turned into the principal Bob Sweeney's (Avery Brooks) office by his history teacher (Eliot Gould) for writing a paper on Mein Kampf that supports the actions of Hitler. Sweeney, an African-American who has worked closely with gang problems in the past, knows how influential Derek has been in Danny's young life. He tells Danny that he'll be conducting a private class for Danny called American History X and Danny's first assignment is to write a paper about Derek. Derek is clearly Danny's hero and role model. To Danny, Derek made the neighborhood safe from the aggressions of the black boys.

But Derek is a changed man because of the brutality and experiences he had in prison at the hands of other skinheads. He's concerned about Danny's dedication to Cameran Alexander and racist attitude. Derek is done with it, all of it, but can he save his little brother?

Also appearing are Beverly D'Angelo as the Vinyard boys' mother; Jennifer Lien as their sister Davina; Fairuza Balk as Derek's pre-prison girlfriend; and Ethan Suplee as Derek's NeoNazi friend Seth.

This is an incredibly powerful, intense and violent film told largely in a series of flashbacks which were filmed in black and white so as to keep past and current times distinguished from each other.

Edward Norton was rightfully nominated for an Oscar for this performance.

Dorected by Tony Kaye.

Run time: 1 hour, 58 minutes

Rated R for sexuality, nudity, violence, and language.

My personal rating: B+

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

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"A few hours ago, you were giving chai for the phone walahs. And now you're richer than they will ever be. What a player!"
Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) is an uneducated teenage orphan from one of India's most impoverished slums. He's seen the brutality and even the murder of his own mother in this slum. And yet here he is, appearing on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire -- and he's answering all the questions correctly.

When the show breaks for the night, Jamal is arrested and tortured by the police in an effort to discover how he is cheating. But as the story of Jamal's life is revealed in flashback, he also reveals how he came to know the answers to all the questions he's been asked.

The cast also includes Ayush Mahesh Khedekar as the young Jamal; Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail as Jamal's brother; Freida Pinto as Jamal's young girlfriend when they were children; and Irrfan Khan as the police inspector.

Won numerous prestigious awards including the Academy Award for Best Film of 2008.

Directed by Danny Boyle.

Partially subtitled.

Run time: 2 hours

Rated R for some violence, disturbing images and language.

My personal rating: B

Rest in Peace - March 2009

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REST IN PEACE
Mar-29-2009
Maurice Jarre, 84, French film composer (Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago), cancer.

Mar-25-2009
Steven Bach, 70, American film producer (Heaven's Gate) and author, cancer.

Mar-18-2009
Natasha Richardson, 45, British film (Handmaid's Tale, Nell, The Parent Trap, Blow Dry, The White Countess), stage and television actress, epidural hematoma.

Mar-15-2009
Ron Silver, 62, American actor, director, producer (Reversal of Fortune, Silkwood) and political activist, esophageal cancer.

Mar-14-2009
Altovise Davis, 65, American actress(Can't Stop the Music) and dancer, widow of Sammy Davis, Jr., stroke.
Millard Kaufman, 92, American Academy Award-nominated screenwriter (Bad Day at Black Rock), co-creator of Mr. Magoo.

Mar-13-2009
Betsy Blair, 85, American Academy Award-nominated actress (Marty), cancer.

Mar-07-2009
Tullio Pinelli, 100, Italian Academy Award-nominated screenwriter (La strada).

Mar-04-2009
Horton Foote, 92, American Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and Academy Award-winning screenwriter (To Kill a Mockingbird, Tender Mercies, Baby the Rain Must Fall, The Trip to Bountiful, Of Mice and Men) , after short illness.

Mar-03-2009
Sydney Earle Chaplin, 82, American actor (Limelight, The Countess from Hong Kong) , son of Charlie Chaplin.

My March 2009 Viewings

Recommended DVDs are marked with *. Underlined titles are links to reviews.

* I Served the King of England 03/31/09 (A-)
Conversations With Other Women 03/30/09 (B-)
* The Lodger 03/29/09 (B)
* I've Loved You For So Long 03/28/09 (B+)
The I Inside 03/27/09 (C)
* Crazy in Alabama 03/26/09 (B)
A Handful of Dust 03/25/09 (C+)
Indian Runner 03/24/09 (B-)
* W. 03/23/09 (B)
* Shakespeare Retold: Taming of the Shrew 03/22/09 (A-)
Shakespeare Retold: A Midsummer's Night Dream 03/21/09 (B-)
* Why Did I Get Married? 03/20/09 (B)
Mean Streets 03/19/09 (B-)
* Elegy 03/18/09 (B)
* The Missing 03/17/09 (B)
The Wackness 03/16/09 (C)
* The Lucky Ones 03/15/09 (B+)
How to Lose Friends & Alienate People 03/14/09 (B-)
Synecdoche, New York 03/13/09 (C+)
Nobel Son 03/12/09 (C+)
* Rachel Getting Married 03/11/09 (B)
* Milk 03/10/09 (A-)
Blue Sky 03/09/09 (B-)
Dogfight 03/08/09 (B-)
Choke 03/07/09 (C+)
* The Drowning Pool 03/06/09 (B)
* The House of Mirth 03/05/09 (B)
* My Boy Jack 03/04/09 (A-)
Vatel 03/03/09 (B-)
Fingers 03/02/09 (C+)
My Blueberry Nights 03/01/09 (B-)

I Served the King of England (2006)

Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále

This bittersweet reflective Czech comedy covers the years from 1920 to the mid-1960s. As war rages and the political climate changes all around, Jan Dite (Ivan Barnev as Dite in his younger years, Oldrich Kaiser as the mature Dite) works as a waiter always with the goal in mind of becoming a millionaire and owning his own hotel.

Charming spritely music.

This film garnered prestigious awards around the world.

Based on the endearing novel by Bohumil Hrabal. Screenplay written and directed by Jirí Menzel.

Subtitled

Run time: 2 hours

Rated R for sexual content and nudity.

My personal rating: A-

Conversations With Other Women (2005)

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"Time really can move in two directions. It doesn't matter to the universe anyway."
What starts at mad flirtation between two guests at a wedding (Aaron Eckhart, Helene Bonham Carter) swiftly moves to a hotel and mad hot passion -- and remorse as they realize they previously had a relationship.

The story evolves with a split screen technique showing the he said/she said, he thought/she thought, he did/she did circumstances.

Some very witty dialogue here.

Directed by Hans Canosa.

Run time: 1 Hour, 24 minutes

Rated R for language and sexual content.

My personal rating: B-

The Lodger (2009)

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"Dead's a good alibi."

LA Detective Chandler Manning (Alfred Molina) thought he'd solved the multiple cases of murder of prostitutes a la Jack the Ripper several years before, but when new murders begin to surface, it's apparent that perhaps the man who was executed for the previous murders was innocent.

Ellen Bunting (Hope Davis) and her husband (Donal Logue) have a strained marriage. Ellen seems very fragile and needy and her husband keeps secret his own life as a security guard and what other things he does between work and home.

Ellen rents out a large shed-type apartment behind their home to the mysterious Malcolm (Simon Baker) who says he is a writer and needs seclusion and no interruptions.

As the murders continue, Detective Manning and his rookie pertner Wilkenson (Shane West) uncover possible evidence, sometimes illegally, to try to solve the case.

Others in the cast include Philip Baker Hall as Police Captain Smith. Rachael Leigh Cook as Manning's college student daughter Amanda, and Mel Harris as Manning troubled wife Margaret.

Based on a 1913 novel by Marie Belloc Lowndes and also a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1927 film The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog. Screenplay written and directed by David Ondaatje.

Run time: 1 hour, 36 minutes

Rated R for violent content, language and brief nudity.

My personal rating: B

I've Loved You For So Long (2008)

Il y a longtemps que je t'aime
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"The worst prison is the death of one's child. You never get out of it."

Juliette Fontaine (Kristin Scott Thomas) has just been released from prison after serving 15 years for the murder of her son. Her estranged younger sister Léa (Elsa Zylberstein) graciously invites Juliette to her home in a town in France to ease her transition back to a normal life and to help mend their fractured relationship.

People are curious about this mysterious stranger now in their midsts but even Juliette's own sister doesn't probe.

Also appearing are: Serge Hazanavicius as Luc, Léa husband; Laurent Grévill as a man who befriends Juliette, Frédéric Pierrot as the policeman Juliette has to report to regularly, Jean-Claude Arnaud as Luc's father.

Written and directed by Philippe Claudel.

Subtitles.

Run time: 1 hour, 57 minutes

Rated PG-13 for thematic material and smoking.

My personal rating: B+

The I Inside (2003)

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A Puzzlement
When Simon Cable (Ryan Phillippe) awakens in a small hospital, he finds that he's lost the past two years of his life. With the help of Dr. Newman (Stephen Rae) Simon begins the process of putting the puzzle pieces together. In the process he finds that his brother Peter (Robert Sean Leonard) is dead, he's married to Anna (Piper Perabo) who he doesn't even remember, and he's visited by the woman he once loved (Sarah Polley).

But is Simon's amnesia the result of an injury he sustained in an accident or is it some evil plot to manipulate him?

Also appearing are Peter Egan and Stephen Lang.

Directed by Roland Suso Richter.

Run time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Rated R for language and some violence.

My personal rating: C

Crazy in Alabama (1999)

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" I learned a lot of secrets that summer: you can bury freedom but you can't kill it. Taylor Jackson died for freedom. Aunt Lucille had to kill to get it. Life and death are only temporary but freedom goes on forever."
Lucille Vinson (Melanie Griffith) is a stunning woman who has had enough of her abusive husband. So she kills him. She then leaves her six children with her mother in Alabama and heads off to Hollywood to become a star. Since her mother was taking care of Lucille's two nephews, Peejoe (Lucas Black) and Wiley (David Speck), already live with Lucille's mom, the two teenage boys are sent to live with their uncle Dove (David Morse) and his wife Earlene (Cathy Moriarity).

The story flashes back and forth between Lucille's life in California and the boys' lives, particularly Peejoe's, in Alabama. While Lucille's star is rising and she always carries around a mysterious hat box, Peejoy becomes involved with a racially-motivated murder and a corrupt police chief (Meat Loaf Aday) in small Southern town 1960s.

Others in the large cast include: Robert Wagner, Rod Steiger, Noah Emmerich, Elizabeth Perkins, Fannie Flagg, and Paul Mazursky.

Directed by Antonio Banderas.

Run time: 1 hour, 51 minutes

Rated PG-13 for some violence, thematic material, language and a scene of sensuality.

My personal rating: B

A Handful of Dust (1988)

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Brenda and Tony Last (Kristin Scott Thomas, James Wilby) are a well-to-do British couple living on the family estate in 1930s England. Brenda, the social butterfly is often escorted to social functions in London by John Beavers (Rupert Graves) because Tony just doesn't enjoy that kind of socializing. It isn't long before Brenda's friendship with John turns into an affair.

Others in the cast include: Pip Torrens as Jack's best friend Jock; Judy Dench as John Beaver's mother; Stephen Fry as Brenda's brother; Angelica Huston as Jock's girlfriend; and Alec Guinness.

Based on a novel by Evelyn Waugh. Written and directed by Charles Sturridge.

Run time: 1 hours, 58 minutes

Rated PG-13.

My personal rating: C+

Indian Runner (1991)

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The Tale of Two Brothers
Joe (David Morse) and Frank (Viggo Mortensen) Roberts couldn't be two more unlikely brothers. When Frank gets out of prison once again, cop Joe and his wife Maria (Valeria Golino) invite him to come live with them for a while until he can get on track with his life. Along with Frank comes his girlfriend Dorothy (Patricia Arquette).

But Frank's antisocial, violent nature only intensifies when he sees Joe's basic joy with life and ability to find happiness in even small ways.

Also appearing are Charles Bronson and Sandy Dennis as the boys' parents and Dennis Hopper as the neighborhood bar owner.

Based on Bruce Springsteen's song "Highway Patrolman." Written and directed by Sean Penn.

Run time: 2 hours, 7 minutes

Rated R for violence, language, and some drug use.

My personal rating: B-

W. (2008)

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The End of an Error
The story of President George W, Bush (Josh Brolin) from his wild frat days to his war on Iraq.

The huge cast includes: Elizabeth Banks as Laura Bush, James Cromwell as George H. W. Bush, Ellen Burstyn as Barbara Bush, Rob Corddry as Ari Fleischer. Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney, Scott Glenn as Donald Rumsfeld, Toby Jones as Karl Rove, Thandie Newton as Condoleezza Rice, Jason Ritter as Jeb Bush, Colin Hanks as a speechwriter, Stacy Keach as Rev. Earle Hudd, Noah Wyle as Don Evans.

Directed by Oliver Stone.

Run time: 2 hours, 9 minutes

Rated PG-13 for language including sexual references, some alcohol abuse, smoking and brief disturbing war images.

My personal rating: B

Shakespeare Retold: The Taming of the Shrew (TV Series)

A contemporary adaptation

Headstrong, argumentative, bossy Katherine Minola (Shirley Henderson) is a professional politician with an image problem. She's so abrasive that her PR reps try to convince her that getting married would give her constituents a better image of her.

Enter the penniless nobleman Petruchio (Rufus Sewell) who at first is only interested in Katherine's money. But soon the battle of the wills begin and it's man against woman, woman against man. But can she be tamed?

Others in the cast include Jaime Murray, Stephen Tompkinson, Twiggy Lawson and David Mitchell.

This is definitely my favorite of this four-part series.

Aired on BBC on Nov-21-2005.

Screenplay by Sally Wainwright. Directed by David Richards.

Run time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Not MPAA rated.

My personal rating: A-

Shakespeare Retold: A Midsummer's Night Dream (TV Series)

A contemporary adaptation

Hermia (Zoe Tapper) is just engaged to James (William Ash), and her parents, Theo (Bill Paterson) and Polly (Imelda Staunton), throw a celebration party at Dream Park. Xander (Rupert Evans), Hermia's true love, disrupts the party however the fairy rulers of the Dream Park woods -- Titania (Sharon Small) Oberon (Lennie James) -- are determined to ensure a happy ending.

Puck (Dean Lennox Kelly) is assigned to sort out things properly. Nick Bottoms (Johnny Vegas) is a park security guard.

Aired on BBC on Nov-28-2005.

Screenplay by Peter Bawker. Directed by Ed Fraiman.

Run time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Not MPAA rated.

My personal rating: B-

Why Did I Get Married? (2007)

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Will these marriages survive?
Dr. Patricia Agnew (Janet Jackson), a psychologist, has written a bestselling marriage manual based on an annual week-long retreat she and her husband take with three other couples they knew from college days, The purpose of the trip is always to explore the reasons they each got married and to work on issues within each couple.

Patricia and her husband Gavin (Malik Yoba), a successful architect, are trying to work through horrendous grief and what it does to a couple when they lose a child.

Terry (Tyler Perry, who also wrote the original play by this title, wrote this screenplay, and directed the film) has fulfilled his dream of becoming a pediatrician. He and his wife Diane (Sharon Leal), a high-powered attorney, have one young child but he wants another and she doesn't.

Marcus (Michael Jai White) was, at one time, a professional athlete but after he was sidelined permanently by an injury, he ended up working for his aggressive, bossy wife Angela (Tasha Smith) in her wildly popular women's beauty care company. Angela takes every chance she can to emasculate Marcus with her sharp words.

Mike (Richard T. Jones) is a slick-as-snot egotist married to Sheila (Jill Scott) who is beautiful inside and out despite her obesity. Whilst on the way to the retreat site, a mountain cabin in Colorado, Sheila is told she either has to buy an extra seat to accomodate her size or she has to leave the plan. Unsympathetic, Mike tells her she should rent a car and drive the long distance while he flies on ahead with their friend Trina (Denise Boutte) who Mike insisted should come along to the retreat even though she'd be the odd woman out. As expected, Mike and Trina are having an affair and all hell breaks loose when Sheila arrives at the cabin where the other are waiting and she realizes how blind, how deep in denial she'd been.

Also appearing is Lamman Rucker as Sheriff Troy who lives near the cabin and helps the four couples and Kaira Whitehead as Marcus's ex-lover and baby mama who always manages to cause a big scene about Marcus.

Run time: 1 hour, 53 minutes

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material, sexual references and language.

My personal rating: B

Mean Streets (1973)

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"You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets."
Charlie (Harvey Keitel) is just a little guy in the mob world of NYC's Little Italy. He collects protection money for his uncle Giovanni (Cesare Danova). He's not on his uncle's favorite list because Charlie's girlfriend (Amy Robinson) is epileptic. Charlie's friend Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro), who is also his girlfriend's cousin, is a loner, a loose cannon who needs Charlie's protection on the mean streets.

Also in the cast are Robert Carradine and David Carradine.

Written and directed by Martin Scorcese.

Run time: 1 hour, 52 minutes

Rated R.

My presonal rating: B-

Elegy (2008)

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"You ought to stop worrying about growing old. Worry about growing up."
Professor and cultural critic David Kepesh (Ben Kingsley)swiftly becomes enchanted with a recent student -- the beautiful and very sweet young Cuban woman Consuela (Penelope Cruz). He hadn't thought this kind of love possible for a man of his age who had worked hard toward his own personal independence, but there he is. And Consuela responds just as he hoped.

While his friend and colleague, Pulitzer winning poet George O'Hearn (Dennis Hopper) gives Kepesh much advice and many cautions, Kepesh moves toward obsession and possessiveness with the young woman and even stalks her.

Also appearing are Patricia Clarkson as Kepesh's girlfriend; Deborah Harry as O'Hearn's wife; and Peter Sarsgaard as Kepesh's estranged thirty-something son.

Based on a novel by Philip Roth. Directed by Isabel Coixet.

Run time: 1 hour, 53 minutes

Rated R for sexuality, nudity and language.

My personal rating: B

The Missing (2003)

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"There's an Apache story about a man that woke up one morning and saw a hawk on the wind. Walked outside and never returned. After he died he met his wife in the spirit world. She asked him why he never came home, he said 'Well, the hawk kept flying'."
Set in the early days of the New Mexico territory, this is the story of Maggie Gilkeson (Cate Blanchett), a rancher and healer who lives with her two daughters, Lily (Evan Rachel Wood) and Dot (Jenna Boyd). Her lover, Brake Baldwin (Aaron Eckhart), and ranc hhand Emiliano (Sergio Calderón) also live on the isolated land.

When Maggie's father, Samuel Jones (Tommy Lee Jones), suddenly appears on the scene, Maggie is enraged. Samuel had abandoned Maggie and her mother when Maggie was a child and took up the life of an Indian. She sends Samuel packing.

After a raid on the land, Lily is captured by Apaches lead by Pesh-Chidin (Eric Schweig), a particularly violent man who steals young girls to sell into the slave market in Mexico. WHen Brake and Emiliano are killed by Pesh-Chidin's warriors and the nearest town's sheriff refuses to give assistance, Maggie has no one else to turn to except her father. When she finds him and explains what happened, Maggie, Samuel and Dot track the Apaches to save Lily and any other girls they can.

While slow paced, this film has incredibly tense and threatening moments.

Directed by Ron Howard.

Run time: 2 hours, 17 minutes

Rated R for violence.

My personal rating: B

The Wackness (2008)

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"Life is hard and it's full of pain and what-not, but we take it 'cause there's great stuff too."

Teenager Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck) is a troubled young man. He's also a drug dealer -- and proud of it. He freely exchanges drugs with Dr. Jeffrey Squires (Ben Kingsley) for psychotherapy sessions mostly just to have someone to talk with.

Luke is dating the shrink's step-daughter Stephanie (Olivia Thirlby). Together Luke and the doctor explore their depressions and concerns in the hip-hop NYC of 1994.

Others in the cast include Mary-Kate Olsen as one of Luke's customers, Framke Janssen as the doctor's wife, Method Man as Luke's source, Talia Balsam and David Wohl as Luke's parents; Bob Dishy and Joanna Merlin as Luke's grandparents.

Written and directed by Jonathan Levine.

Run time: 1 hour, 39 minutes

Rated R for pervasive drug use, language and some sexuality.

My personal rating: C

The Lucky Ones (2008)

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With a Little Help From My Friends
Three soldiers return from Iraq, each with physical and emotional scars, and find themselves in a rental car together when their plans change due to airline delays whilst they are trying to get to their individual destinations.

Sgt. Fred Cheavers (Tim Robbins), a reservist who sustained a back injury, is headed home with his family for good. Pvt. Colee Dunn (Rachel McAdams), a tough and street-smart but immature chick with a minor leg injury, is on a 30-day leave and plans to visit the parents of Randy, her war boyfriend who died saving her life. Sgt. TK Poole (Michael Peña) took a shrapnel hit to his private part but still has ambitions of becoming an officer, marrying his sweetheart, and eventually becoming a politician to change the world.

Their journey turns into a cross country road trip as they each discover that the world has gone on without them in ways they'd never expected and they must find a way to cope and move on themselves.

Molly Hagan and Mark L. Young appear as Cheaver's wife and college-bound son. Others in the cast include Howard Platt, John Heard, John Diehl, Annie Corley and many others.

Written by Neil Burger and Dirk Wittenborn; directed by Neil Burger.

Run time: 1 hour, 55 minutes

Rated R for language and some sexual content.

My personal rating: B+

How To Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008)

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The British Invasion
Brit Sidney Young (Simon Pegg) is hired away from a London alternative newspaper to become a writer for Sharps, a high-profile, celebrity-gawking, NYC-base slick magazine. While his attitude and previous writing had mocked the world of celebrity, his new editor, Clayton Harding (Jeff Bridges), had been amused by Sidney's antics in trying to crash a post-award show party, But Clayton reminds Sidney right from the start that he's starting at the very bottom and has to prove himself before moving up.

Despite Sidney's awkward social skills, he has a push-me/pull-me relationship with co-worker Alison Olsen (Kirsten Dunst) and becomes a confident of the voluptuous starlet Sophie Maes (Megan Fox). Sidney wants the relationship with Alison to flourish but she's having an affair with an executive at the magazine (Danny Huston).

Others in the cast include Gillian Anderson, Max Minghella, Miriam Margolyes, and brief cameos by Kate Winslet, Daniel Craig, and Thandie Newton.

Based on Toby Young's memoir. Directed by Robert B. Weide.

Run time: 1 hour, 50 minutes

Rated R for language, some graphic nudity and brief drug material.

My personal rating: B-

Synecdoche, New York (2008)

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"Everything is more complicated than you think. You only see a tenth of what is true. There are a million little strings attached to every choice you make; you can destroy your life every time you choose. But maybe you won't know for twenty years. And you'll never ever trace it to its source. And you only get one chance to play it out."
Stage director Caden Catard (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a neurotic hypochondriac. He lives and lives in Schenectady, NY, with dreams of hitting NYC someday. His wife, Adele Lack (Catherine Keener) is a miniatures artist with an upcoming show in Berlin. Just before she is to leave, she tells Caden that she is taking their young daughter Olive (Sadie Goldstein) and Caden is uninvited. Crushed, Caden feels this is just for a time and then they will be back together so he begins work on developing a play because he's been awarded a sizeable grant.

In an effort to stage a play in realism, Caden rents a massive warehouse space and begins to recreate a life-sized section of Manhattan where his actors are asked to live their lives on the set as a celebration of the mundane. The years wear on, the set grows larger, the cast and crew age. Caden developes relationships with other women but one by one ruins them in one way or another. And his health woes continue until he is an old man.

This is a very strange tale of pushing the limits and seeing if there is a meaning of life.

Others in the large cast include: Michelle Williams, Tom Noonan, Samantha Morton, Hope Davis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jerry Adler, Emily Watson, and Dianne Wiest.

Written and directed by Charlie Kaufman.

Run time: 2 hours, 4 minutes

Rated R for language and some sexual content/nudity.

My personal rating: C+

Nobel Son (2007)

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"Crazy's just a choice."
Eli Michaelson (Alan Rickman), an egotistical, obnoxious, uncaring chemistry professor, has just been named a Nobel Prize recipient. Notorious for his sexual activities with attractive undergrads in exchange for good grades, Eli's long-suffering wife Sarah (Mary Steenburgen), a noted forensics psychiatrist, is set to fly off to Sweden with him for the rounds of receptions and award ceremony. Their only child, Barkley (Bryan Greenberg), is set to travel with them but doesn't show up at the appointed time. Eli, disgusted with his son who has chosen to study anthropology much to his father's dismay, scoffs at the phone call demanding a ransom for his son by an apparent kidnapper. The ransom, curiously, is exactly the $2M award Eli is to receive from the Nobel committee.

But it isn't long before both Eli and Sarah know this is a real ransom demand when a thumb, believed to be Barkley's, arrives at the Swedish hotel.

Berkley has been having a flirtation with funky poetess City Hall (Eliza Dushku), and Max Mariner (Bill Pullman), a family friend and crafty detective, tries to find the kidnapper and the details of this incident.

After numerous twists, turns, rounds of jealousy, greed and backstabbing, the story is revealed.

Also appearing are Shawn Hatosy as the kidnapper, Ted Danson as one of Eli's associates, Danny DeVito in a small but pivotal role as a compulsive neighbor, and Ernie Hudson as a cop.

Written and directed by Randall Miller.

Run time: 1 hour, 50 minutes

Rated R for some violent gruesome images, language and sexuality.

My personal rating: C+

Rachel Getting Married (2008)

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"I am Shiva the destroyer, your harbinger of doom this evening."

Kym (Anne Hathaway) is picked up from yet another stay in drug rehab by her doting father (Bill Irwin) and step-mother (Anna Deavere Smith) just in time to go home for her sister Rachel's (Rosemarie DeWitt) wedding to Sidney (Tunde Adebimpe). Kym's depression, guilt, sadness, need to be the center of attention, paranoia, and deceit surface throughout the days leading up to the wedding causing many difficulties among the family members.

Debra Winger appears as Kym and Rachel's mother. Mather Zickel plays Kieran, Sidney's best man who is also a recovering addict.

The film is done almost entirely with hand-held cameras which give a home movie feel. Stunning world music.

Directed by Jonathon Demme.

Run time: 1 hour, 57 minutes

Rated R for language and brief sexuality.

My personal rating: B

Milk (2008)

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His life changed history.
His courage changed lives.
The true story of Harvey Milk (Sean Penn), an activist who became California's first publicly gay elected official -- a San Francisco supervisor. His election in 1977 followed his move to SF from NYC when he turned 40 and decided he didn't want to live the rest of his life in the closet.

Milk's little camera shop in the Castro district quickly became a gathering place for other gays and he began leading the disenchanted minority into political action by mobilizing their spending power and taking on the righteous religious right.

Others in the cast include James Franco, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna, Joseph Cross, Stephen Spinella, Lucas Grabeel, Kelvin Yu, and Brandon Boyce as assorted gay friends and lovers of Milk through the years in SF; Alison Pill as Milk's campaign manager; Victor Garber as SF Mayor George Moscone; Josh Brolin as arch-conservative SF supervisor Dan White who assassinated both Milk and Moscone.

Actual film footage of the era and fabulous '70s music add to the reality of this powerful film.

"I'm Harvy Milk and I'm here to recruit you."

Directed by Gus Van Sant.

Run time: 2 hours, 8 minutes

Rated R for language, some sexual content and brief violence.

My personal rating: A-

Blue Sky (1994)

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"My job, sir, is to evaluate radiation hazards to United States Army personnel. My wife's not enlisted in the Army. Why doesn't the colonel concern himself with the safety of men who are, rather than the mammaries of women who are not!"
Major Henry "Hank" Marshall (Tommy Lee Jones) is in charge of military safety at the nuclear testing range in New Mexico in the late 1950s. He's also crazy beyond reason for his wife Carly (Jessica Lange), an over-sexed, vampy, voluptuous flirt.

When once again Carly's antics stir Hank's superiors, Hank is transfered to a base in Alabama. Off the lovebirds go with their two teen daughters Alexandra (Amy Locane) and Becky (Anna Klemp). The base commander (Powers Boothe) and his wife (Carrie Snodgress) are concerned about the volatile Carly and the fact that their son Glenn (Chris O'Donnell) is apparently dating Hank and Carly's daughter Alexandra.

Plans are afoot to rid the base of the Marshall family but a big military cover-up of an accident on the testing grounds in New Mexico also surface and decisions must be made.

Directed by Tony Richardson.

Run time: 1 hour, 41 minutes

Rated PG-13

My personal rating: B-

Dogfight (1991)

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Rose: Where are you going?
Eddie Birdlace: Okinawa. But I'm aiming for this other place. It's a little country near India called Vietnam.
Rose: Yeah, I think I read about it. Aren't they fighting there or something?
Eddie Birdlace: No, not really. We'll just be there as advisors to teach them how to take care of the Commies.
Rose: That could be dangerous.
Eddie Birdlace: Nah. We'll kick a little ass, take a few names. Be back in a couple of months.

Four gung-ho Marine buddies are shipping out together in 1963 but first they have one big night in San Francisco playing "dogfight." The idea is for them each to find the homeliest, most unappealing girl to bring to a party and when the voting is done, the winner takes the cash prize.

After many attempts, Eddie Birdlace (River Phoenix) finally finds Rose (Lili Taylor), a plain pacifist coffee shop waitress. But when Rose discovers the game, can the two polar opposites reconcie their differences?

Others in the cast include: Richard Panebianco, Anthony Clark and Mitchell Whitfield.

Directed by Nancy Savoca.

Run time: 1 hour, 29 minutes

Rated R.

My personal rating: B-

Choke (2008)

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Dark and Twisted
Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell) is one sick puppy. Not only is he a sex addict, he's also obsessed with finding out who his father is. To this end, he works hard to raise the money to keep his mother (Angelica Huston) alive despite her deteriorating condition and dementia. She lives in a mental facility and to pay the cost, Victor feigns choking in restaurants in hopes of some good Samaritan saving his life and becoming a true savior and helping the lying Victor by giving him money.

Jonah Bobo plays Victor as a child who is easily manipulated by his sometimes present mother. Brad William Henke is Victor's best friend who works with Victor as a re-enactor at a colonial theme park and also attends a sexual addicts therapy group with Victor. Joel Grey has a small role as the leader of the 12-step therapy group. Kelly Macdonald plays Victor's mother's apparent doctor.

Based on a novel by Chuck Palahniuk. Screenplay and directed by Clark Gregg.

Run time: 1 hour, 29 minutes

Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity and language.

My personal rating: C+

The Drowning Pool (1975)

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J.H. Kilbourne: "I ran a check on you, Mr. Harper. You are not stupid."
Lew Harper: "I have my moments."
A sequel to Paul Newman's popular film Harper, this one has LA Private Investigator Lew Harper called to New Orleans by his former lover, now wealthy socialite Iris Devereaux (Joanne Woodward) to find out who is trying to blackmail her.

Also appearing are Melanie Griffith as Iris' over-sexed teenage daughter, Richard Derr as Iris' husband, Coral Browne as Iris' determined mother-in-law, Tony Franciosa and Richard Jaeckel as the cops, Murray Hamilton as the evil oilman and Gail Strickland as the oilman's wife.

Some real nail-biting scenes here.

Based on a novel by Ross Macdonald and directed by Stuart Rosenberg.

Run time: 1 hour, 42 minutes

Rated PG.

My personal rating: B

The House of Mirth (2000)

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"I thought that I could manage my own life, but I have been foolish, foolish to the point of being compromised."
Lily Bart (Gillian Anderson), a turn-of-the-20th-century NYC socialite, finds that her beauty, position, and ego thwart her attempts to find true love and attract unwanted interest and jealousy.

Also starring are Dan Aykroyd, Eleanor Bron, Terry Kinney, Anthony LaPaglia, Laura Linney, Elizabeth McGovern. and Eric Stoltz.

Directed by Terence Davies who adapted the novel by Edith Wharton to screen.

Run time: 2 hours, 20 minutes

Rated PG for thematic material.

My personal rating: B

My Boy Jack (2008)

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“Have you news of my boy Jack?”
Not this tide.
“When d’you think that he’ll come back?”
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

“Has any one else had word of him?”
Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

“Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?”
None this tide,
Nor any tide,
Except he did not shame his kind —
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.

Then hold your head up all the more,
This tide,
And every tide;
Because he was the son you bore,
And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!
In 1915, author Rudyard Kipling's beloved son went missing on his eighteenth birthday. He'd been in the Battle of Loo. Kipling had been a big proponent of all young men signing up to go to war as he saw the huge threat to England. Despite his own son Jack's poor eyesight, both Kipling and Jack fought the military to get Jack commissioned as a lieutenant.

This touching film about the Kipling's search for Jack aired on BBC in April, 2008.

David Haig did a marvelous job as Rudyard Kipling. Haig also wrote the original play of this story and adapted the script for television. Daniel Radcliffe plays Jack, Kim Catrell appears as his mother, and Carey Mulligan plays his sister.

Directed by Brian Kirk.

Run time: 1 hour, 33 minutes

Not rated by MPAA.

My personal rating: A-

Vatel (2000)

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Hoping to be named a general when France goes to war with Belgium in 1671, a hapless prince (Julian Glover) attempts to curry favor by inviting King Louis XIV (Julian Sands) to a chateau in the countryside for three days of extravegance.

The prince's talented and honorable yet lowly-born steward, Vatel (Gérard Depardieu), is in charge of the arrangements and is overloaded with details to produce the opulent event. The prince isn't hesitant to put Vatel to even the most menial of tasks to assure the success of the visit.

Despite his responsibilities, Vatel becomes smitten with the King's new mistress, Anne de Montausier (Uma Thurman). The King's aide (Tim Roth) also covets the lovely Anne and keeps an eye on the situation.

The sets, costuming, music and other production values are extremely high in this film.

Directed by Roland Joffé.

Run time: 1 hour, 43 minutes

Rated PG-13 for sexual content and some violence.

My personal rating: B-

Fingers (1978)

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Jimmy "Fingers" Angelelli (Harvey Keitel) is a man divided. A brilliant classic pianist following in the footsteps of his fragile mother (Marian Seldes), Fingers also works for his father (Michael V. Gazzo), a NYC Mafia loan shark.

Sexually rapacious, Fingers is drawn to both women and men, however a medical condition makes sex painful. Driven by the pressures from his parents and his own suffering, Fingers heads toward insanity.

Others in the cast include Danny Aiello, Tisa Farrow, Jim Brown, Ed Marinaro, and Tanya Roberts.

Written and directed by James Toback.

Run time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Rated R.

My personal rating: C+

My Blueberry Nights (2007)

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"So what's wrong with the blueberry pie?"
"There's nothing wrong with the blueberry pie, just people make other choices. You can't blame the blueberry pie, it's just that no one wants it."

Elizabeth (Norah Jones) has been let down in love once again. She pours out what she can to the owner of a NYC coffeehouse, Jeremy (Jude Law), who has also lost love. In her attempt to find out what it all means, Elizabeth sets off on a cross-country odyssey in which she encounters people who help give her perspective by the lives they lead.

David Strathairn plays an alcoholic Memphis cop and Rachel Weisz is his oversexed estranged wife. Natalie Portman is a gambler who persuades Elizabeth to spot her in Las Vegas.

Directed by Kar Wai Wong who also co-wrote the screenplay with Lawrence Block.

Run time: 1 hour, 33 minutes

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material including violence, drinking and smoking.

My personal rating: B-