A GREAT Independent Movie: TABLE 19

We just finished watching a great, quirky small independent film titled, Table 19.  It has a great cast (Lisa Kudrow, Anna Kendrick, Craig Robinson, among others).

Years ago in my 20's, 30's and 40's I relished indie films.  And they were prolific compared to 2017.  Most movies are made for young men.  They have recently been the drivers for the billions of dollars generated by testosterone-geared movies.  I was very happy to see that Wonder Woman which is from that genre, defeat and make huge amounts of money.  I'm thrilled.  But I doubt I'll watch the movie.

Table 19 is a film about a handful of odd characters who find themselves seated at the last table of a wedding dinner.  They are individually eccentric, to say the least.  I really enjoyed this film.  I wish more indie films were made.  I'm so old that maybe I'm just clueless.  But I would recommend Table 19!  If you don't like it then go watch the latest $300 M Mavil comic book which will premiered next Friday.

Great cast.  Good script.  Good production values.  And not about comic book characters.  I doubt they even spent more than $20-$30M to make it.

GREAT MOVIE: A Hundred-Foot Journey

Watched this fantastic movie last night and rewatched again twice today.  This film is utterly charming.  

The film stars Helen Mirren, the owner of a Michelin-starred restaurant in France.  A family from Mumbai buys the property across the street and opens up an Indian food restaurant.  The younger son, a food/cooking prodigy since a young age learns the fine art of French cuisine in the process of becoming a famous chef primarily by infusing his Indian roots into French classical cooking.  Two romances, wonderful food, spectacular setting make this one of my favorite films ever.

Also, the male lead, Manish Dayal (Hassan) is utterly gorgeous.   

And Dame Mirren is ever the perfect actor especially paired with Om Puri, who plays the father of Hassan.

Don't miss this.  It's out in DVD and cable.

Produced by Oprah and Steven Spielberg, the results are a magical wonderful film.  Direction Lasse Hallstrom.

Once you've watched the movie check out this interesting article on how they created, digitally, the village of St. Antonin-Noble-Val in France and the two restaurants in the movie.  Click here to read:
http://www.fxguide.com/featured/journey-to-the-hundred-foot-journey/

HENRY CAVILL: Sexiest Man Alive.....undoubtedly. The perfect male form!

I just saw Man of Steel, the new Superman movie that debuted today starring the most perfect man alive, British actor Henry Cavill.   He is utterly, drop-dead gorgeous in this movie.   Sort of makes JFK Jr (R.I.P.) look a little less god-like????? No?

 

His full name is Henry William Dalgliesh Cavill.  He's 30 years old and hails from Jersey, United Kingdom.


I became aware of the beauty and the talent of this actor from the HBO series, The Tudors, which was about King Henry VIII.  Cavill appeared in the series as one of the principal characters, Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, who was King Henry VIII's best friend. (For many years, which is remarkable for anyone who lived around the King didn't really have longevity being a friend Henry's or alive for that matter).

Cavill was astonishingly beautiful in the most manly sort of way in The Tudors. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tudors)   He had a wonderful hairy chest and a sexy full beard.  He was perfect in the role, in a very good television show.

He makes a spectacular Superman in this new reboot of the much-franchised film series.  I was thrilled to see that Henry wasn't waxed/shaved in the Superman film, as is all the fashion these days for men (and so unappealing).   And, he was quite buff.  Although my friend Zack said he thought he was so because of Steroids?  I'm not usually attracted to pumped up men, but Zack is my trainer and I will trust his word. Fortunately, this latest Superman character is buff, but not bizarre looking, which one sees in any gym in your neighborhood.  No Hulks!

At the same time, Cavill's amazing, beautiful, handsome, masculine, virile face in the movie is gaunt. It somehow diminished the steroid-looking body that he displayed.    

He really does fill out the Superman outfit (sans the red speedos which a wardrobe change in this film).

This dude is hot.  Channing Tatum is homely next to this dude.  Voila! 

Henry Cavill is a very talented actor.   The film, although not my usual cup o' tea, was great.

Go see it!  To enjoy two and a half hours of eye candy.....and a compelling and entertaining film and not just because of the eye candy. 

I really think that we'll be seeing a lot more of Henry Cavill in the future.  He is too talented, and like Bradley Cooper, very handsome.  A double threat?   A triple threat?

EWAN McGregor!

This is one beautiful man.

And really a brilliant actor.  He is performing an amazing range of roles and in many ways outperforming (IMHO) his contemporaries.

One of my very favorite films from last year, and for all time, is Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, starring two genius actors:   Ewan McGregor and the goddess, Emily Blunt.  Not to mention the brilliant Kristin Scott Thomas.

I've watched this film maybe twenty times since it was released.  I watched it again the other day a couple of times.   Ewan is so fucking charming.   But I was utterly enchanted when he used the word "doolally" in his sexy Scottish accent (everything about this dude is sexy).

I LOVE this word, "doolally", that his character uses.    It describes the world in which we live.  This is the definition I found from http://thefreedictionary.com/p/doolally:

doolally [duːˈlælɪ]

adj

Slang out of one's mind; crazy In full doolally tap

[originally military slang, from Deolali, a town near Bombay, the location of a military sanatorium + Hindustani tap fever]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/doolally

Great word to use for out time.   Especially for the insane "Tea" and Republican Party. Not to mention the religions (especially Christian) around the world:   "Fucking" Doolally.

You should see the brilliant movie, Salmon Fishing In the Yemen!

A MUST see movie: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

I recently saw this amazing brilliant, heartbreaking and yet uplifting film. This is truly a must see.

Starring Logan Lerman (The Three Musketeers 2011), Emma Watson (of Harry Potter fame playing the Hermoine Granger character from 2001-2011) and Ezra Miller (We Need to Talk About Kevin-2011, these three actors truly propel this film to a higher level of excellence.

The film is essentially about being an outsider in high school. And about bullying. It's also about some kids who embrace their differences and find camaraderie of fellow wallflowers.

The hero of the film is Charlie (Logan Lerman) who is a 15 year old freshman who is entering high school for the first time. Charlie has had more than his share of tragedies. I won't spoil anything but to say that Charlie has been recently hospitalized for a mental issue.

As he suffers the indignities and horrors of high school that are inflicted by the idiot popular people he eventually meets and is befriended by seniors Sam (Watson) and Patrick (Miller) who make being a "wallflower" cool.

This movie is rather amazing in many ways. But perhaps the most significant ways are the intuitive script/story and the three main leads. Watson shines in her performance, showing that she has graduated to her master's in acting after her 10 year stint in the Harry Potter series. She is truly luminescent at times. A beautiful muse who casts a spell on Charlie (Lerman).

Her step-brother, Patrick, are sophisticated wallflowers. They immediately befriend him but after learning some of his story they truly take him in under their wings.

Lerman and Watson are absolutely the soul of this movie as is Miller. They are the perfect realization of these characters and the director has made a movie that Stephen Chobsky (novel, screenplay, directing) makes transcendent. The film encompasses so many contemporary issues: bullying, homosexuality, first love, alienation. But it does so in such a compassionate and thoughtful way that I was literally sobbing out loud in the theater at both the uplifting and sad parts, equally.

In addition this film has an ensemble cast which is absolutely wonderful including: Paul Rudd, Joan Cusack, Dylan McDermott (among many others).

Perhaps the most powerful aspect of the script and the movie is the astonishing ending. I'm not sure that everyone will catch to what the story is going to tell a few minutes before the end, but it's startling either way. I started having a suspicion but I was still astonished at the end.

This film should be nominated for Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor (Lerman), Best Actor (Watson....because she has fucking earned a nomination) and Miller as Best Supporting Actor (although his screen time is about equal to Emma's but Lerman truly carries the movie).

Take a box of Kleenex. I was in "floods" as the Mitford Sisters used to say.

Bravo. I'm going to re-see this film this week.

PRECIOUS a phenomonal film OSCAR countdown

The Bug and I went Wednesday to see Precious. Which means that we've now seen all of the films that include Best Actress nominations and all Best Picture nominees, except for two.

This movie , like another nominated Best Picture, The Hurt Locker, is utterly unrelenting and unflinching in its depiction of shocking and horrifying circumstances. In this case, it is the physical and sexual abuse of its heroine (and in every sense of the word), Precious, a teenage girl who lives a living nightmare in her apartment with her monstrous mother, played by Mo'Nique.

Hand Mo'Nique the award for everything because that is the most electrifying, perfectly realized performance in the history of film making. There is nothing likable about this character. And yet Mo'Nique delivers a performance that is so tragic, so frightening, and heartbreaking.

I must say as fair warning: this movie deals blatantly and candidly with incest/rape/physical abuse. It is not an easy movie to watch in this respect. And yet the movie is a work of intense dark beauty.

Precious, played brilliantly by Gibourey Sidabay (such a beautiful name), is the most abused person I think that has ever been depicted on the screen and yet somehow this character finds a way to move forward, and is certainly the most unlikely candidate. Precious is an obese teenager, who with a push of good intention from her High School principal is sent to a school which is designed to educate students with the same challenges as Precious. It is through this school that Precious, in spite of horrific acts of abuse, learns that she is a precious one of god's creatures and after having given birth to her second child (Precious' father was the father of her two babies) finds the courage and strength to walk away from her mother.

This movie is still resonating in my mind. I literally at moments during the film screamed or cried "NO!" it was that astonishing and unrelenting.

So, for my Oscar predictions/preferences. I ultimately think, having seen all of the Best Actress nominees' performances, that the race is down to Sandra Bullock and Helen Mirren (Carey Mulligan maybe). Ms. Sidabay gives a landmark performance, yes. But compared with MoNique's interpretation it isn't landmark enough, IMHO, to rate as Best Actress. I'm rooting for Sandra at this point!

See this movie. Lee Daniels also certainly deserves to win Best Director. But I think that honor will end up going to the director of The Hurt Locker.

What are your thoughts/predictions?

Tomorrow morning I'll go to see the last film I'll be able to view before the award ceremony Sunday evening. That's A Single Man.

The LAST STATION Another fabulous movie

Boy, what can I say but 2009 was truly a distinguished year, IMHO, for movies. At least the movies that are up for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The problem is, while this select few represent a really interesting spectrum of subjects/topics, there is really a dearth of quality movies made these days.

In fact, there is a dearth of films made these days, period.

Anyway, the Bug and I toddled on over to the Cinema Palme d'Or yesterday to catch The Last Station which is one of the last Best Picture candidates that we hadn't seen. Neither of us had a clue about what the movie was about. We knew only this: it was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Best Actress and its cast included the goddess Helen Mirren and that hottie James McAvoy.

I seldom read film reviews because I couldn't care less what a critic thinks of a movie. If I wish to see a movie, then I'll see the movie, critically drubbed or not. I don't watch tv. So I learn about new films and their subject matter by trailers or online or occasionally the Sunday newspaper.

But I somehow knew nothing about The Last Station (actually the same was true for An Education....I only knew vaguely that it took place in the 60s). How fun is that? What a wonderful surprise we had.

The Last Station is about the final months in the life of Leo Tolstoy, in early 1900's. Christopher Plummer, nominee for Best Supporting Actor, portrays the master writer and his wife, Countess Sofya Tolstoy, is played in usually brilliant fashion by La Mirren (who is nominated for Best Actress).

And then there is that remarkably fetching and talented James McAvoy. What a wonderful string of films he has made (my favorite film last year, Atonement, before that, The Last King of Scotland. Oh, and one of my other favorite movies, Becoming Jane). He brings an earnestness to the character of Valentin Bulgakov, who is Tolstoy's secretary (everytime he sneezes my heart breaks). This is an interesting character and I can't think of any other actor who could have brought a better interpretation than McAvoy. Valentin is an idealistic Tolstoyan, a practicing virginal celibate, who passionately believes in the tenets of the Tolstoyan Movement: brotherly love and world peace through pacifism, and a denouncement of material wealth and physical love.


Paul Giamatti is brilliant as the Movement's villainous leader, Vladimir Chertkov.

But this move is absolutely astonishing because of the dueling tour de force performances of Plummer and La Mirren.

I have to say that Mirren, in my opinion, is the only other Best Actress nominee, besides Sandra Bullock, who should win the award based upon performance. I haven't seen Precious yet, will see it this afternoon. So I may have to revise my opinion. But I still think Bullock will win. Mirren already has a Best Actress and I think Bullock will win because this is her one true shot at the award and she also set such a huge example for female stars with The Blind Side, which is the highest grossing film starring a major female actress, currently at $250million (domestic).

I haven't seen Jeff Bridges performance yet. He's my sentimental favorite. But Plummer should win Supporting actor........talk about a career! Father Von Trapp needs and Academy Award.

GO see The Last Station. A beautiful, magnificent film.

One observation for those more well-versed on Tolstoy or Russian History. After seeing this movie, I'm wondering if the Tolstoyan Movement didn't pave the way for the Russian Revolution? Anyone have anything to add. It seemed that, as depicted in The Last Station, that the Movement was anti-religion, anti-Tzar. Given that Tolstoy was so beloved by the people, he was even considered Saint-like, that kind of power and influence would have been the only thing capable of undermining the monarchy and the Russian orthodox church.

Tell me if I'm right/wrong.......Interesting thought though.

JULIE & JULIA -- it was one of my favorite books and now is one of my favorite movies

The Bug lady and I went to see JULIE & JULIA a couple of weeks ago. Another perfect example of a perfect book and a perfect movie. The book was one of my top 3 favorite books in 2007. I absolutely relished its humor (Also the fact that the heroine, Julie, says the word "fuck" a lot. I know that some might blanch at this word but it is one of my favorite words).

I was very eager to see the movie particularly of the goddess, la Streep! And the movie was just AS GOOD as the book I think because of the two actresses.

There were slight differences......I don't think that "Julie" in the movie was nearly as funny as in the book. I've even seen a few reviews that called her character "whiny". But I think Amy Adams is brilliant in the film. And the other GREAT thing about the movie are the two "J's" spouses. The actor who plays Julie's husband is a total hottie (Chris Messina). And Julia's husband, played by Stanley Tucci, is equally as appealing.

The film is just a wonderful confection and most notably Streep's version of Julia Child. This actress just never does anything but brilliant and this role illustrates this. She captures the essence of Julia Child without become a caricature, a very difficult mission because Julia Child was really WAS a caricature in real life.

I'm going to go see this movie again this weekend. It is, like Cheri (see my previous post about the movie Cheri starring another godesss Michelle Pfeiffer), just so nuanced and such a work of art that multiple viewings is essential.

But I'd suggest reading the book first. It will make the film a little more interesting, I think. The book has a lot of biographical material about Julie Childs but I think they incorporate much more in the movie.

Go see this film! and READ this book. You can order it at my website: www.jmvintage.com.

Here's the movie's trailer (see how totally cute and adorable Chris Messina is!)

A MAN NAMED PEARL--Beautiful documentary film--another example of why I LOVE pearls

I love pearls as a mentioned a couple of postings back. They are so beautiful. But here is a unique, but equally beautiful, Pearl. We watched this documentary (thank you again to NetFlix) titled A Man Named Pearl the other night and we were just so moved and astounded at this man's talents.

A quote from the film's website: "A Man Named Pearl tells the inspiring story of self-taught topiary artist Pearl Fryar who has created the most magical topiary garden in his backyard. It is a subtle and intriguing film that is certain to open hearts and minds. It offers an upbeat message that speaks to respect for both self and others, and shows what one person can achieve when he allows himself to share the full expression of his humanity."



Here's the movie's trailer (short clip):


Part Edward Scissorhands (another one of my favorite films with one of my favorite actors, Johnny Depp) but all inspirational you'll want to see this film. This is such a wonderful story. Narrated by Forrest Sawyer. Here's another video clip



For more information on A Man Named Pearl visit the film's website at http://www.amannamedpearl.com/

To find out how to visit the Pearl Fryar garden visit this website at:
gardensite

See pearls are beautiful in every way:




Pearl Fryar in photo below

Check out this short video on how pearls are harvested: