In Which They Serve (1942)

It would be too easy to call this one propaganda, even if it was used to help bolster British pride during WWII.  This is a well-crafted story about the British Navy and the men who protect an island.  Noel Coward's artistic tribute to the Navy is told in flash backs from different point of views.  In the beginning the HMS Torrin is hit and then we are invited to meet those of the crew that will die and those that will live.  Wives and children of the crew are introduced and family's forever changed.  It's a beautiful and moving film and while a tad bit sentimental you can't help but understand why.  I can only hope someday someone will properly restore this film and return it to his glory for unfortunately the version I saw was worn and washed-out.  Regardless I'm glad I was able to see it not matter the quality.  Grade: A 

Bed and Board (1970)

The fourth film in the Antoine Doinel Cycle directed by Francois Truffaut is a delightful continuation as well as a beautiful story about marriage.  Antoine and Christine are married yet both are about to be confronted by a series of challenges to test their relationship, one of which will make you smile and another that will break your heart.   With clever writing and pitch-perfect characterizations this might be my favorite.  It's amazing to think how simple these movies feel and yet there's a lot of wonderful aspects of it that keep it from being farce or over-the-top drama.  This treasure is a real work of storytelling goodness; no one should skip this one.   Grade: A  

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)

Sydney Pollack would earn his first Oscar nomination in directing for this bleak adaptation of Horace McCoy's novel about various strangers who join up for a dance marathon contest during the Great Depression.  Jane Fonda stars as Gloria who teams up with a young man played by Michael Sarrazin.  As this grueling contest goes on, seeming forever, it's clear that those running the spectacle don't really care about the contestants and that what the dancers are supposedly striving for isn't worth all the pain and humiliation.  I didn't think I'd like this one, being it's such a downer, but it really does dig under your skin and stay with you like thought provoking art should. Grade: A-

And another thing, two Red Button performances in a row.  I didn't plan it, really.  Yet I will say I think his work in this one is much more surprising. 

Sayonara (1957)

Marlon Brando and Miiko Taka star in an interracial love story between a white Air Force pilot and a Japanese dancer.  Based on James Michener's novel and directed by Joshua Logan (who would go on to make another Michener-inspired film a year later with the musical South Pacific), this is typical '50s melodrama with Brando giving it a splash of merit.   While there's still a lot of racism in our world, this one is pretty out-of-date, only a few idiots out there still think it taboo for different races to marry but you can bet when this film came out there were many people uncomfortable with the subject.  In historical context one can appreciate it as a film of its time.  Red Buttons costars as Brando's friend who gets married to a Japanese women too.  His performance won him an Oscar and while it's a decent and memorable character I'd have given the award to Sessue Hayakawa for The Bridge On The River Kwai.  Grade: A- 

Angel's Share (2013)

Ken Loach's surprise feel-good movie of the year might not seem like it in the first ten minutes but trust me when I say it slowly ups the comedy and the suspense to become the Ocean's Eleven of  whiskey-tasting capers.  To avoid jail Robbie, a young father in love with a woman who might as well be named Juliet to his Romeo, must volunteer for community service where he is introduced by the man running the program to the art of whiskey.  Soon he realizes he has a knack for tasting and that's when what might seem like a Scottish version of Sideways goes Mission Impossible.  This really is an impressive film with brilliant performances.  There's one particular scene where Robbie must confront a young man he beat up so bad he almost killed.  It's gut-wrenching and impressive for a film maker to so easily go from great drama to comedy.  So far this is the best film of the year.  A

Monsieur Verdoux (1947)

If anyone still needs proof that Charlie Chaplin was a great film maker and storyteller then here you go, another example of this artist's genius.   Gone is the lovable Little Tramp and instead we're treated to the strange but likable wife killer Verdoux.  Inspired by a real case, Chaplin is able to take what is a sinister story of a man marrying multiple wives and killing them for their money and make a darkly funny experience.  Sixty years before Dexter Morgan, Chaplin makes serial killing fun.  My favorite scene in the movie is the part where he's about to kill the girl he met on the street, in order to test out his latest poison, only to change his mind after hearing her story.  There's also a fantastic series of gags where he tries to kill his obnoxious wife Annabelle played hilariously by Martha Raye, only to constantly be thwarted.  Don't miss what is probably, in my view, one of Chaplin's best if most inventive work.   Grade: A  

Shadows in Paradise (1986)

This love story from Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki really surprised me.  It's a perfect little film about a garbage man and a shy young woman with strict parents.  This is the first of a thematic trilogy and I must say if the others are as good as this one, I'm in for a treat.  Probably the aspect I loved the most about this film was how the actors look like your average low-income worker instead of some uber attractive model.  There's no attempt to wow the audience with stylish lighting or distracting camera tricks.  It's just good honest storytelling about two unique people.  This is one of those films that will stay with you for years to come. Grade: A 

Heat and Dust (1983)

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala adapts her own Booker Prize novel for director James Ivory in a Merchant Ivory production that really will stand the test of time.  It tells the story of an English woman named Anne investigating her Great Aunt Olivia's scandalous life in India.  It's a mystery, a love story, a look at opposing cultures and a drama about finding ones self in a foreign land.  Both Julie Christie and Greta Scacchi hold the movie together with fine performances.  If you love Merchant Ivory films and you haven't seen this one yet, do.  It's wonderful.  Grade: A

Breaking Bad (Season 5)

There's no way I can stop watching this show after the last season.  This show is a lot like the drug it dissects.   Like meth it makes you really high and makes you want more, while at the same time it destroys your moral understanding of the world.  Is Walter White a villain or just a guy trying to survive?   Is Jesse Pinkman a good guy too or a bad guy unwilling to see his destiny?   This short half season will leave you breathless, gasping for more even know you'll have to wait until August to see how it ends.   How else can this story end but in a tragic climax where Walter White loses everything he loves?   Something tells me the writers have a lot up their sleeves and I can't wait to find out what they have in store for us.  Best show on TV land, or at least of those shows I'm watching.  Grade: A

The Marriage of Maria Braun (1975)

Rainer Werner Fassbinder's first in a trilogy dealing with women after WWII.  This is Hanna Schygulla most cherished role, that of the lead character Maria.  What Maria will do for her husband has less to do about love and more about self-empowerment.  Even against her own feelings, she will conquer the new Germany using her brains and her sexuality.  Layered with metaphors and sexual politics and shocking turns of fate, this is probably Fassbinder's most welcoming of films.  It challenges every aspect of story and character making for a work of art that will leave you with a knot in your throat and an emptiness in the gut.   More intellectual than emotional, it's hard to really become attached to these cold and distant characters, but they will engage you with ideas, which was always Fassbinder's first goal.  Grade: B+

Seven Beauties (1975)

Giancarlo Giannini plays Pasqualino, a comic Italian anti-hero who has one talent and that's to seduce women, or so he believes being he's the only son of a family of eight.  He certainly isn't very good at being a murderer or a soldier, but it's as a seducer of women, and the seducing of one peculiar ugly female guard of a concentration camp, that might just save his life.   Lina Wertmuller writes and directs a film that stands out for telling a morbid tale in the most ironic and sardonic manner.  The main character is so despicable that on paper you'd think a horrible hero except for Giannini's portrayal and Wertmuller's odd yet insightful sensibilities.  Highly recommended. Grade: A-

Sahara (1943)

Humphrey Bogart commands a group of soldiers who must hold off an entire division of German troops in the African desert.  This is one of those classic WWII thrillers where a rag-tag group must come together and perform an impossible task.  The film still holds up as one of the best of its kind.  It's brilliant in its way of letting you care about each of the characters and in upping their stakes with each stage, whether it be the lack of water, the scorching heat or an approaching enemy.  Grade: A-

A Canterbury Tale (1944)

Famous cinematic masters Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger present a film about life in a small village near Canterbury, England during WWII.  The central mystery is who is the Glue Man, a creep who  likes to put glue in girls' hair.  The latest victim, a young British girl come to work the land while the men are away to fight, joins up with two soldiers, an American and a Brit, to find out the Glue Man's identity as well as his motive.   It's not one of the due's best works, although it's still quite good.  The leads are very likable and the plot, while pedestrian, still is able to keep one entertained.  Grade: B+ 

Breaking Bad (Season 4)

Easily one of the best shows on television, Vince Gilligan and company take the epic story of Walter White (AKA Heisenberg) to new and brilliant heights with this their fourth season.  If this season had a subtitle it would be the Showdown between White and Fring or maybe The Chicken Man Rises.  The writing for this show is so good and the drama so intense I can't imagine being able to watch one of these episodes on AMC with commercials.  I'd wear out my floor from pacing as I waited.  Thank god I stream this show, which is the only real way to be able to withstand all of these characters' entanglements.   If you have not started watching this show, you need to start, from season one and catch up.  Something tells me that this one's going to go down in history as one of the best shows of all time.  Grade A. 

The Twilight Zone (Season 2)

I just finished another brilliant season from this classic Rod Sterling landmark television program.  I would have to say overall this one is on par with the last season, proving how great writing is enjoyable and inspiring no matter when it was made.   The best episodes are "The Eye of the Beholder" (A woman awaiting for the results of her plastic surgery", "Nick of Time", (a man obsessed over little fortune-telling machine), "The Trouble With Templeton"(an aging actor goes back in time to the good old days), "Dust" (a western), "Back There" (a man goes back in times to save Lincoln), "Hundred Yards Over the Rim" (a western pioneer jumps to the future) and "The Silence" (a bet between two gentlemen).   The only bad ones are    "The Thing About Machines" and "The Night of the Meek".   What a great show.  I can't wait to start watching the third season.  Grade: A-

Sons of Anarchy (Season 3)

The motorcycle club bad guys everyone loves to watch continues to roll in this enjoyable third season. Kurt Sutter, creator, now takes us across the Atlantic and into the heart of the IRA.  Desperate to reunite with his family, Jax will have to learn more about his father's Belfast roots while Tara must debate if she should continue to be mixed up with Jax at all.   Meanwhile Gemma is on the run for a double murder frame job.  There are some plot holes and obvious set ups that quality shows avoid but this is still a good show with a wonderful ensemble cast.  Grade: B+   

Secret Honor (1984)

One man shows rarely work as cinematic experiences.  Who wants to watch an actor talk to himself for ninety minutes?  This one works because of three factors: the actor, Philip Baker Hall, is amazing, Robert Altman directs (creating a visually textured piece) and the character is of President Nixon.  I'd recommend knowing your history a little bit in order to enjoy this one but it's a pretty intense rambling of ideas about power, politics and memory.  Based on the play by Donald Freed and Arnold M. Stone, it take acts as a confessional for the late President as he paces back and forth in his office dictating in a microphone and in a few cameras for the purpose of his memoir.  Grade: B+ 

Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V. S. Redick (Novel)

Mr. Reddick's sea-faring fantasy is about a tarboy named Pazel Pathkendel on board the massive ship the Chathrand .  While serving on a voyage to prevent a war through a royal marriage, he befriends the very princess being married named Thrash.  With an ability to understand any language, he along with others must uncover the true reason for their voyage.  I really enjoyed the first half of this book but as it progressed I felt like the story rushed through things and became over stuffed with subplots.  It felt like Mr. Reddick threw everything including the kitchen sink at me.  Instead of keeping the story focused and the number of character threads at a decent amount he kept inventing and spinning stuff until it became almost impossible to make all the story lines come together naturally.  The climax is a fast-paced blitz of the unraveling of loose ends.  It's not a bad book and I must admit to maybe (and that's a big maybe) wanting to read the next book in the series, but it's frustrating.  It's as if JK Rowlings combined the first four Harry Potter books into one book.   Or if Star Wars had a dozen more characters to keep track off.   This is a fantastic world and I would have loved to have savored it instead of feeling like it was crammed into my brain.  Because of this compressed feeling the writing suffers too, mostly in the second half.   I'd only recommend this one if you enjoy fantasy books and you feel more is always better than not enough.  Grade: B 

Downton Abbey (Season 1)

Julian Fellowes, the writer behind the fantastic period mystery Gosford Park, a film I love for it's inside look of early 1900s British class system, creates this BBC series that deals with the same subject, the rich and the servants who serve them.  The cast of the well-to-do arrange from Robert Crawley the Earl of Grantham, his American wife Cora, his three daughters Mary, Edith and Sybil, his blunt and snobbish mother Violet (played by Maggie Smith), Matthew Crawley (Robert's cousin) and next in line to inherit the estate and his mother Isobel.   From those that serve the cast includes  the house butler Charles Carson, the main housekeeper Elsie, a war vet valet Mr. Bates, two footmen and three house maids as well as the cook and the cook's assistant.  Set just before WWI a lot of wonderful drama can be developed between these groups.  The dialogue is sharp and witty with a style perfect for that time period.  It's like a soup opera but with class and high production values.  Once you start watching you will not want to stop, it's a grand accomplishment and deserving of its popularity.  It is easily one of the best TV shows on right now and I hope it has a long run. Grade: A        

My Own Private Idaho (1991)

River Phoenix gives a memorable performance as a young male prostitute slacker named Mike who suffers from narcolepsy.  Mike is in search for his mother.  He befriends another male prostitute named Scott played by Keanu Reeves who is revolting against his rich family.   Gus Van Sant, the writer and director, combines elements of Shakespeare's Henry IV and inspirations from real street kids living in Portland.  I enjoyed many aspects of this film but ultimately felt detached from it.  I didn't find Mike's journey that rewarding and Keanu Reeves's story, while more interesting, never made much sense to me.  Reeves isn't strong enough of an actor to make me understand his inner conflict.  That's not to say it's a bad film, Van Sant proves how talented he is in so many ways, and you have to applaud the risk of even making such a daring film.  Grade: B    

American Horror Story (Season 1)

TV producing mavericks Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk spin a tale combining every horror film trope they could think of into a messy glob of a television program that starts off well but ends horribly (and not in an good way).  It's Amityville meets Beetlejuice meets Rosemary's Baby.  I really wanted to like this one; there are some fantastic parts: a maid who is hot for the sex-addict husband but an old one-eyed woman by everyone else, Jessica Lang's over the top but perfectly evil neighbor and the mysterious rubber suited man.  Sadly, for me, the rest of it is an unsatisfying soup of style over context.  The potential scares are diminished by over explanation and the characters we care for are tossed about like insignificant leaves.  What's interesting is that every season of this show is supposed to be a new story.  That gives me some hope but ultimately I'm going to be cautious and probably skip the next one. Grade: C

Blithe Spirit (1945)

Noel Coward's famous play is adapted for the screen by the great David Lean.  Starring Rex Harrison and Constance Cummings as husband and dead ex-wife reunited after a séance, this comedy fantasy is a bit dated (green makeup, really?) yet it's still an enjoyable yarn.  Yet the actor that really steals the show is Margaret Rutherford as the Madame Arcati; wow, what a great a performance.  She's a riot well worth checking out.  Like all Coward's work, there's a lot of witty exchanges and commentary on the norms of English life.  Grade: B+

The Lady Vanishes (1938)

Watch almost any Hitchcock film and tell me the man wasn't a genius.  This is one of his more light thrillers, a fun adventure about an English tourist played by Margret Lockwood and musician played by Michael Redgrave who are thrust into a mystery when an older lady staying in the same inn disappears.  Soon the mystery spins into a complex European conspiracy on a train.  Along for the ride are cricket enthusiasts Caldicott and Charters, two proper English men played by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat who I first enjoyed in the film Night Train to Munich.  This was the popular comic duo's first film appearance and you can see why they became recurring characters.  There's a lot to enjoy about this one.  It's technically a marvel with memorable performances from an outstanding cast.  This was the film that spurred Hitchcock's career toward Hollywood where he'd soon become a legend.  Grade: A.

Suzanne's Career (1963)

The second film in Eric Rohmer's Six Morale Tales Series, this almost-hour long story is of a college student's judgmental relationship with a friend's on-and-off again girl friend.  Suzanne is more of a free-spirit; an opinionated young woman that rubs Bertrand the wrong way even as he refuses to accept that he's attracted to her all the same.   There is even a feeling that if Bertrand was more accepting he'd fall for her.  As I write this I'm trying to pin-point the reason I enjoyed it so much.  It's funny how such a simple plot can really inspire a memorable little story.  I think what worked for me was that these characters were so real.  I've known people like them.  It might as well have happen in a city in the United States with young people today using cell phones and Facebook.  Such a wonderful universal quality makes it a timeless work.  The next film in the series is La Collectionneuse  and I'm looking forward to it because so far I'm loving what Rohmer is doing.  Grade: B+ 

Farewell, Mr. Ebert

Rest in peace, Mr. Ebert.  While there are a lot of movie critics out there, too many maybe, none of them will be able to fill your shoes.  You wrote reviews as someone who really loved movies.  Sure you were an expert, an intelligent and thoughtful writer with years of knowledge, but you didn't write about movies to impress us or to invent some unnecessary theory of being you wrote them to celebrate and give guidance.  Reading a review from you was like having a conversation with a good friend, a fellow movie nerd who I mostly agreed with.  And when I didn't agree with you, I didn't feel insulted, I could still see your point of view.  You prove that not everyone can be a critic, that some opinions are unique enough and pure enough to be heard and honored.  Thank you for your dedication and know that you've made an impacts.      

The Story of Qiu Ju (1992)

After her husband is kicked in the groin by the village leader, pleasant woman Qiu Ju sets out to find justice.  She doesn't want money or sympathy from the government.  She wants what in many ways she can't have and yet she will travel as far as it takes, even pregnant, to get what she wants.  Zhang Yimou directs what really is a minor masterpiece.  Gong Li plays the stubborn Qiu Ju and it's impossible to take your eyes off her, her character is so enduring that it's easy to get caught up in her obsessive quest.   These kind of tales about China and the workings of Communism are so fascinating.  I can't recommend this one enough.  Grade: A

The Man Who Came To Dinner (1941)

The rude guest that just won't go away makes up the plot for this hilarious and witty comedy starring Monty Woolley as the formidable Sheridan Whiteside, a radio host that becomes a couple's live-in nightmare after hurting his back slipping on their front stairs. Bette Davis is his assistant who falls in love with the local newspaper reporter but Whiteside would rather not lose her so begins to conspire ways spoil the love affair.  There's much to enjoy about this film, especially Whiteside's sharp tongue insulting those he considers his inferiors (meaning everyone).  Grade: B+

Glee (Season 3)

The popular high school musical show about the unpopular kids of Glee Club continues its third season and is able to keep from becoming stale.   The love story between Rachel and Finn continues to entice and the ongoing quest for a National Title remains as exciting as ever.  It does seem at times that the magic that made this show so amazing during the first two seasons is running low but there are still some moments.  I also think the producers are making a mistake not introducing more students to replace the Seniors graduating.   Even if we continue to follow the senior class after graduation this is a show about a high school Glee club so it needs to spend most of the time in high school.   Grade: A.