In the Family

If you missed the stellar film In the Family earlier this year when it played at the Gene Siskel Film Center, you can catch it in a handful of shows at Facets Cinematheque in September.

This drama is about a gay man fighting to understand the prejudice of people he trusted once his partner dies, leaving behind their son in his care. Joey Williams (Patrick Wang, who also wrote and directed), is a southern gay designer/renovator, currently living with his partner Cody and their son Chip, who is Cody’s biological son. One morning Joey gets the dreaded phone call that Cody has been in some kind of accident, and rushes to the hospital with Chip. They are greeted by Cody’s worried family—sister Eileen and brother-in-law (Kelly McAndrew, Peter Hermann) and mother (Park Overall). After a time the family is allowed to visit Cody, but not Joey, since he is not “family.” But Joey takes this in stride and takes a moment to calm the anxious Chip and encourage him to visit with his unconscious “Pa.”

Joey continues his work, helping an affluent southern couple renovate their home’s library, even offering to rebind some old leather books for the husband, a former lawyer (Brian Murray). But after the funeral, Cody’s family, namely Eileen, keeps Chip away from Joey and severs contact between them with no explanation. Understandably Joey is perplexed, and we see in a few flashbacks how the two men met and became a couple, with some complex aspects of their relationship that might explain Eileen’s attitude. Joey’s friends console and offer help, and his client ends up representing him in a legal fight. Through a very honest and forthright deposition, Joey hopes to explain to Cody’s family that being a parent and a loving person has nothing to do with his race or his sexual identity, and that people not related by blood can be just as important and loving as role models and parents.

Past seven days

I'm getting into this newish BBC series of Sherlock Holmes. Otherwise, movies and other shows below:!

Celeste & Jesse Forever
Dust
Hammett
Intimate Grammar
Mr. Palfrey of Westminster
Neverland
Premium Rush
Singin' in the Rain
Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil
Won't Back Down

Lockout

Lockout is an uninspired action movie with a sci-i framing device (that is not very strongly developed).

Guy Pearce stars as the anti-hero, Snow, a sassy spy recently caught for supposedly killing another spy for his secrets. Concurrently, the President's daughter Emilie (Maggie Grace) is working on her pet project--investigating the maltreatment of hardened criminals in the space station maximum security prison, where inmates are kept in suspended animation (although I don't know what kind of punishment that is supposed to be other than separating these criminals from whatever loving families they may have). This stasis is suspected to be damaging to the inmates once they are reanimated; Emilie also suspects the government of using the inmates as guinea pigs for scientific experiments. She travels to this prison but unfortunately due to some dumb things some supposedly smart people do, she and others are kept as hostages once the entire prison's population is reanimated, due to some plotting by one of the criminals.

Desperate, Secret Service agents (Peter Stormare, Lennie James) coerce Snow to be a one man rescue team to retrieve the President's daughter. At first the prisoners do not know who they have captive, but once they do, the stakes go higher. The revolt is led by Alex (Vincent Regan) and his sadistic brother (Joseph Gilgun).

Northanger Abbey (1987)

It seems like in recent years it’s been pretty hard to ruin any Jane Austen adaptation. Most likely, truncating the length of the novel to fit the length of a feature film or the right casting might be the hardest thing to do. In earlier years many of these adaptations were shown in America on PBS, including this one of Northanger Abbey. I remember seeing it there years ago (this one is from the 1980s), but I haven’t read the book nor know much about it. The plot concerns a young woman who reads gothic novels and fantasizes about them. If this script were to be transported to a modern day setting, it would unfortunately show how weakly developed the characters are and how poor a script this is, pushing forward romantic elements instead of character and relationship development. From what I have read about it, the Austen book was supposed to make fun of the gothic novels of the day. This tv movie though, gives no indication that we are sharing an inside joke.  It's the oddest adaptation I've seen.

Sparkle (2012)

This remake of Sparkle is going to go down in history as being the last film which co-starred Whitney Houston. It follows the same general plotline as the original, keeping to its 1960s/70s timeline, with a story about sisters growing up as they find fame as a singing group.

There are three sisters--Sister (Carmen Ejogo) the eldest (real name Tammy) who had a failed affair and had to return home; Sparkle (Jordin Sparks), the middle sibling who writes songs but has little ambition; and Dee (Dorothy) who is expected to go to college and become a doctor, something pretty unheard of for a black woman living in this era--the late 1960s and Detroit. Sparkle convinces Sister to perform one of her songs at a club because she is not the performing type, or so she says. They are noticed by two men--Stix, a young manager, and Levi, who eyes the sexy Sister.

Past seven days

Watching movies I guess, and too busy to make a post!

Black, Brown, White
The Bourne Legacy
Half Broken Things
Humpday
I Will Follow
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
Northanger Abbey (1986)
ParaNorman
Passion and Power
Sparkle
Total Recall (2012)

Past seven days

The weather here has been a little cool so it got me in the feeling that Fall is right around the corner.  Sigh.  But--that means what I consider as film festival season is right around the corner!

The Adjustment Bureau
Case Histories
Hit & Run
Hobo with a Shotgun
In a Glass Cage
The Mortician
Sherlock Holmes:  Game of Shadows

The Losers

This is the type of movie often called a "popcorn" movie--not very deep, lots of action, perhaps cheeky dialogue.  Five special ops-type soldiers--Clay, Roque, Pooch, Jensen and Cougar--are betrayed by an unseen handler Max during a mission, compromising them so they have to go into hiding. They want revenge for this and other reasons, which is the setup for the story.

Now that they're considered dead, they go rogue. They can't return to the U.S. but are convinced by femme fatale Aisha that they can help each other. She too wants revenge on Max for some reason and can bankroll the type of weaponry and material they need. Clay, the colonel of the group, decides yes, and the men, who are loyal to him--and what other choice do they have now they are persona non grata--decide yes too.

Wilby Wonderful

Canada has such quirky comedy movies.  Other than sketch comedy I don't find them as broad as some of the stuff I see coming out of America.  They're certainly more about quirky characters than grossout humor.

With an ensemble of Canadian actors, this movie is about a day in the life of island town Wilby.

There's the local cop (Paul Gross) who's having an affair with a single mom (Rebecca Jenkins) whose daughter (Ellen Page) has a clingy boyfriend (I don't see what she sees in him, he seems immature and only interested in sex). The cop's wife (Sandra Oh) is trying to promote the town as a tourist attraction and is more concerned with her work than with her husband (hence his infidelity I guess).  She's been trying to sell a home to the mayor (Maury Chaykin) and the stress of trying to do everything is getting to her. The laid back but dyslexic handyman (Callum Keith Rennie, he ruins a banner by painting "Wilby Wonderful" instead of "Wonderful Wilby") makes a friend by saving a suicide (James Allodi) getting over a marriage breakup, and they become more than friends, if you know what I mean.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

This documentary is about a sushi maker and restaurateur, who was made even more famous once Michelin guide rated him 3 stars (the highest rating they give).

85-year old Jiro Ono has a tiny and modest sushi restaurant (only something like ten seats), on an upper level of a pretty non-descript business building in Japan, yet his restaurant has wait lists of several months. Jiro has been working since he was about nine, and much of that life was in learning to make sushi and later owning his own sushi restaurant. Due to Japanese culture, he was sent out of the home when he was a child to make his own way, and through discipline and hard work, attributes he doesn't see very much in today's youth, he was able to survive a harsh youth and the troubles of World War 2. He has two sons who are also sushi makers, the elder son who is expected to inherit the duties at and ownership of the restaurant, and the younger who opened up his own restaurant.

Past seven days

The Olympics are winding down.  I just posted on my last Olympic Dreams movie, Geordie (or Wee Geordie for American fans), a film thact actually goes to the Olympics!

The Accountant
Bollywood Calling
Geordie
The Lovers Exile
This American Life
Murder at Harvard

Olympic Dreams--Geordie

This is an old film I remember watching on tv many times when I was a kid, and was broadcast in the U.S. under the title "Wee Geordie."  Then when cable got started these old films were never shown anymore and unavailable on VHS/DVD. If made nowadays, it would probably be considered "twee."

The story takes place in Scotland beginning in the 1940s, when Geordie MacTaggart is a little boy. His father is the gameskeeper for the laird or lord of the manor he works at (Alistair Sim). Geordie is small for his age and is picked upon for this reason, despite the support of his friend Jean, a girl who has a secret crush. One day Geordie sees an ad in the newspaper advertising a Charles Atlas kind of bodybuilding program. He sends away for the booklets and for several years, until he is 21, he builds up his body (at this point he is played by the tall strapping actor who played Li'l Abner, Bill Travers). He has also formed a mentor/student relationship with the man whose books he has studied, the muscly Samson (Francis de Wolff).

In the mid-50s, Geordie's father dies and he takes over his job. The laird suggests Geordie not just exercise for health, but pursue something more noble, such as the Scottish sport of throwing things like the caber or the hammer. Geordie reluctantly enters the Highland Games and does poorly at first, but with Jean's romantic support (now played by Norah Gorsen), he wins. The laird and others convince some people from the British Olympic committee to come take a look at him (I guess Scotland was not broken out from Britain back then). Geordie enters the Olympics, is befriended by a Swedish female shotputter who gives him too much attention, and wears a kilt to the opening ceremony.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days

As many kids movies are these days, this one is based on a series of books as well as the third of a series of films.  The main character is a put-upon boy comically fighting the growing pains of, well, growing up.

In this installment, the main set of characters are still being played by the same actors, giving continuity to the series. Pre-teen Greg (Zachary Gordon) is now looking forward to summer break between 7th and 8th grades, where he plans to zone out by playing video games all summer. His dad (Steve Zahn) though wants him doing something more constructive, such as joining the local scouting troup, or doing some reading of classic novels as his mother (Rachael Harris) suggests. Dad even thinks a new dog might help get Greg to doing outdoor things instead of vegetating indoors.

When Greg sees that his secret crush Holly (Peyton List) belongs to the country club, he enlists his best friend, the goofy and conservative Rowley (Robert Capron) to bring him as his +1 guest, and lies to his dad that he has a job there, to prevent his dad from bothering him further about getting a summer job (as well as avoid military school). Complicating his lie is that his older bullying brother Rodrick (Devon Bostick) lusts after Holly's vain sister and threatens in his big brother way to expose Greg's lie if he doesn't help him get near her.

Blind Date

Stanely Tucci directed and co-wrote this film. It is a remake of a Dutch film (whose director Theo van Gogh, a relation to the famous artist, was killed but had planned on English language remakes of several of his films).

The story takes place in a European style cabaret (with a scene in an attached ballroom and two in the cabaret's bathroom). Don (Tucci) is trying to repair his marriage after he and his wife Janna (Patricia Clarkson) have been unable to move past the grief of the death of their little daughter, which they probably blame themselves for (due to a car accident).

Don and Janna pretend to play new personas as strangers as they take out personal ads for each other, working out their grief with sadness, anger, confusion, blame.

Past seven days

Ooh, a really slow week for me!  Was away this weekend and only managed to squeeze in two films during the week.  Also have been watching some TV shows, Star Trek: Enterprise among them.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Step Up Revolution

This is part of a group of movies called Step Up which has dancing as part of its plot; this is the fourth one and I have not seen any of the others.  The movies often follow a basic formula: the dancers come from urban backgrounds, there is a romantic couple that is divided by the plot of the story, there is some other urban issue, but there is always a happy ending.  And of course, lots of dancing!

In Revolution, the most central character is Sean (Ryan Guzman) whose dayjob is as a waiter at an upscale Miami hotel owned by real estate mogul Bill Anderson (Peter Gallagher). Sean and his friends, which include a few who work with him at the hotel, have an underground flash mob dance group called The Mob. They currently remain anonymous and are trying to win an internet contest by getting the most viewer hits on their videos.

Sean sees a pretty girl at the beach, Emily Anderson (Kathryn McCormick), neither at first knowing their respective connections to Bill Anderson. When Sean learns who her father is, he keeps that fact from his friends, especially when Anderson fires Sean's friend Eddie for being late and Eddie becomes resentful and in a dance segment attacks Anderson as being a fatcat.

Later the friends learn that Anderson is buying up riverside property to develop more hotels, which currently house small businesses by local citizens. The Mob decides to move their target from winning a contest to making a statement, and try to draw attention to the needs of the small business owners and local residents, and sabotage Anderson's meetings about his real estate development.