Year: 2014

“In a Better World”—Or Is It?

Written by diana on October 7, 2014. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound. No Comments on “In a Better World”—Or Is It?

“In a Better World” (winner of the 2011 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film) takes place in a beautiful village in Denmark where Anton is a doctor who travels between his home and a Sudanese refugee camp where he performs surgery for the most heinous of crimes in a bloody civil war. He and his family are faced with conflicts of their own: his son, Elias, who is angry at his parents’ pending divorce and at being bullied at school; and Marianne, who cannot forgive Anton’s affair. Christian, a quiet and sullen ten-year old and Elias quickly become friends when Christian...

“Words and Pictures”–Graphic Dullness

Written by diana on September 29, 2014. Posted in movie reviews. 3 Comments on “Words and Pictures”–Graphic Dullness

This movie’s central theme asks the question: “Is a picture worth a thousand words?” In a contest between art and literature, a high school teacher of English literature and a teacher of painting are determined to prove that their specialty depicts the reality of experience more effectively than the other. English teacher Jack Marcus (Clive Owen) is barely making it to his classes on time, drinking from a flask in his car during recess. In the past he was a gifted poet but no longer. Then the renowned artist Dina Delsanto (Juliette Binoche) is hired to teach gifted aspiring...

“Incendies”–Scorched and Fiery

Written by diana on September 24, 2014. Posted in movie reviews, Unhealed Wound. 2 Comments on “Incendies”–Scorched and Fiery

Incendies “Incendies” was nominated for a 2011 Best Foreign Film Academy Award and also named by the New York Times as one of the 10 best films of 2011. A French-Canadian drama adapted from Wajdi Mouawad’s play of the same name, “Incendies” tells the family saga of twenty-something twins, — brother (Simon) and sister (Jean)– who are determined to know the mystery of their reserved mother’s life even though they have not had a warm, affectionate relationship with her. In their mother’s will she has left two letters. One is to be delivered...

The Book Thief–Not to be Shelved

Written by diana on September 16, 2014. Posted in movie reviews. 3 Comments on The Book Thief–Not to be Shelved

A pre-teen girl, Liesel Menninger (the extraordinary Sophie Nelisse) is handed off by her mother, who no longer can care for her , to a middle-aged couple. The time is pre-Kristallnacht Germany, 1938. Her foster home is simple and impoverished. Her foreboding foster mother, Rosa Hubermann (the extraordinary Emily Watson) shows little affection, at first, for the frightened girl. But the irascible father Hans (the endearing Geoffrey Rush) comforts the shy twelve-year old with magical and fanciful allusions to literature and music, playing his accordion and composing songs just for her. Liesel...

“Happy Valley”-No One’s Idea of Happiness

Written by diana on September 10, 2014. Posted in Television reviews. 4 Comments on “Happy Valley”-No One’s Idea of Happiness

This compelling and addictive police drama stars Sarah Lancashire as the middle-aged Yorkshire police sergeant Catherine Cawood, who struggles daily between remembering the suicide of her teenage daughter and developing love for the young boy her daughter left behind. Divorced and estranged from her son partly because of that tragic death, Catherine is determined to capture her daughter’s lover/killer/rapist, but the search almost spirals out of control when the perpetrator, Tommy Lee Royce (played by James Norton) is released from prison. Her pursuit of Tommy Lee Royce becomes...

“Boyhood”–Childhood is Never Easy

Written by diana on August 30, 2014. Posted in movie reviews. 3 Comments on “Boyhood”–Childhood is Never Easy

Filmed over 12 years with the same cast, “Boyhood” is like no other movie made in Hollywood. This groundbreaking story feels like a documentary, not a scripted narrative written and directed by Richard Linklater (of “Slacker” fame), who films intermittently for five days each year over an eleven-year period (from 2002 to 2013). The decade-long time-span for shooting the story is in itself pioneering, but “Boyhood” is so much more. This coming-of-age story is about all families, families we know and families we grew up in. It is not exclusively...