Lackawanna Blues (2005)

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Every Community
Has a Nanny

Rachel "Nanny" Crosby (S. Epatha Merkerson) takes in every stray human she finds and puts them up in her boarding house, feeds them, and helps them make their way. Into her life comes the baby Ruben Santiago, Jr. when his addict mother Alean (Carmen Ejogo) abandons him and his father (Jimmy Smits) can't raise the boy alone.

Ruben grows into a fine young boy (Marcus Franklin) influenced by the diversity of this community, its cultural life and music. Nanny, whose husband Bill (Terrence Dashon Howard) years her junior, loves this little boy as her own whilst she goes about the business of being the Nanny to many adults, too.

Other characters in this wonderfully music driven film include
Mos Def as the jivin' singer/bandleader; Louis Gossett Jr. as
Ol'lem Taylor; Macy Gray as argumentative Pauline; Ernie Hudson as the dreamy Dick Barrymore, Rosie Perez as the hairdresser Bertha' Liev Schreiber as the social worker; Patricia Wettig as the wealthy mother of Laura (Julie Benz) who Nanny saved from an abusive husband (Henry Simmons); Charlayne Woodard and Byanca Godwin as Bill's girlfriends; Jeffrey Wright as Mr. Paul, the mysterious murderer; Barry Shabaka Henley as Shakey Winfield; Lou Myers as the insane Ol' Po Carl; Adina Porter as the stylish lesbian Ricky. Hill Harper plays Ruben, Jr. as an adult.

The real Ruben Santiago, Jr. actually wrote this as an autobiographical play which was a big hit on Broadway. He also wrote the screenplay for this film, a loving tribute to his Nanny.

Directed for HBO by George C. Wolfe.

My personal rating: A-

The Jane Austen Book Club (2007)

What Would Jane Do?

When Sylvia's (Amy Brenneman) marriage breaks apart, her friends Jocelyn (Maria Bello) and Bernadette (Kathy Baker) organize a Jane Austen book club to distract her. Sylvia's young adult daughter Allegra (Maggie Grace) joins as do two strangers: Prudie (Emily Blunt) who is feed up with her selfish husband and contemplating an affair with one of her high school students (Kevin Zegers) and Grigg (Hugh Dancy), who is smitten with Jocelyn.

Each member is assigned a book they will all read and discuss at their montly meetings and in so doing, each members' foibles are exposed in Jane Austen's six novels.

Prudie's hippie mother, Mama Sky (Lynn Redgrave) and husband Dean (Marc Blucas), and Sylvia's philandering husband Daniel (Jimmy Smits) weave throughout the film.

One doesn't need to know the Jane Austen novels to appreciate this fine ensemble film -- but it might inspire some to read them.

Screenplay and directed by Robin Swicord; based on a novel by Karen Joy Fowler.

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material, sexual content, brief strong language and some drug use.

My personal rating: B