MOVIE - First Reformed

R (1:48)

Limited release May 18, 2018

Viewed Thursday evening, June 21, 2018 with Sandy at Carlisle Theater
IMBd:  7.7/10

RT Critic: 96   Audience:  70
Critic's Consensus:  Brought to life by delicate work from writer-director Paul Schrader and elevated by a standout performance by Ethan Hawke, First Reformed takes a sensitive and suspenseful look at weighty themes.

Cag:  How do you rate a movie like this?  Yes, I liked it....

Directed by  Paul Schrader

Studio A24

Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, 

My comments:  Holy shit, what did I just watch  What happens when you combine loneliness, despair, environmental issues, alcohol and religion? (and barbed wire, Drano, magical mystery tours, and holy roller, born again music...)  Well, watch this movie and you'll find out!  AND, what an ending!

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Reverend Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke) is a solitary, middle-aged parish pastor at a small Dutch Reform church in upstate New York on the cusp of celebrating its 250th anniversary. Once a stop on the Underground Railroad, the church is now a tourist attraction catering to a dwindling congregation, eclipsed by its nearby parent church, Abundant Life, with its state-of-the-art facilities and 5,000-strong flock. When a pregnant parishioner (Amanda Seyfried) asks Reverend Toller to counsel her husband, a radical environmentalist, the clergyman finds himself plunged into his own tormented past, and equally despairing future, until he finds redemption in an act of grandiose violence. From writer-director Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver; American Gigolo; Affliction) comes a gripping thriller about a crisis of faith that is at once personal, political, and planetary.

MOVIE - Maudie

PG-13 (1:55)

Limited release June 16, 2017

Viewed date at Carlisle Theater (downtown) onFirday, July 21, 2017
IMBd: 7.7/10

RT Critic: 90   Audience:  93
Critic's Consensus:  Maudie's talented cast -- particularly Sally Hawkins in the title role -- breathe much-needed depth into a story that only skims the surface of a fascinating life and talent.

Cag:  5.5.Loved it

Directed by Aisling Walsh

Sony Pictures Classics

Sally Hawkins, Ethan Hawke

My comments:  About halfway through the movie I realized that it had to be a biopic, based on a true story.  Had to be.  Maudie Lewis was Canada's Grandma Moses, born in 1903, died in 1970.  Sally Hawkins was amazing as a arthritically crippled painter, aging, becoming more bent and stooped while looking for the good in her curmudgeonly husband, played by Ethan Hawke.  He was pretty decent, too (but MUCH better looking than the real guy probably was), but Sally Hawkins stole the show completely.  Their actual life was lived in Nova Scotia, but the movie was filmed in Newfoundland and was just gorgeous.  The credits at the end of the film were interspersed with some of Maud Lewis's real paintings.  Superb movie, easily a five.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  MAUDIE, based on a true story, is an unlikely romance in which the reclusive Everett Lewis (Ethan Hawke) hires a fragile yet determined woman named Maudie (Sally Hawkins) to be his housekeeper. Maudie, bright-eyed but hunched with crippled hands, yearns to be independent, to live away from her protective family and she also yearns, passionately, to create art. Unexpectedly, Everett finds himself falling in love. MAUDIE charts Everett's efforts to protect himself from being hurt, Maudie's deep and abiding love for this difficult man and her surprising rise to fame as a folk painter.

MOVIE - The Magnificent Seven

PG-13 (2:12)

Wide release 9/23/16

Viewed 11/6/16 at Century Park Place
IMBd:  7/10

RT Critic: 63   Audience:  75
Critic's Consensus:  The Magnificent Seven never really lives up to the superlative in its title -- or the classics from which it draws inspiration -- but remains a moderately diverting action thriller on its own merits.

Cag:  4, Liked it more than I should have...

Directed by Antoine Fuqua

Sony Pictures

Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Peter Sarsgaard, Matt Bomer

My comments:  The old west.  Lots of gunfights, as expected, but entertaining story.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  With the town of Rose Creek under the deadly control of industrialist Bartholomew Bogue, the desperate townspeople employ protection from seven outlaws, bounty hunters, gamblers and hired guns - Sam Chisolm, Josh Farraday, Goodnight Robicheaux, Jack Horne, Billy Rocks, Vasquez, and Red Harvest. As they prepare the town for the violent showdown that they know is coming, these seven mercenaries find themselves fighting for more than money.

Movie - Before Midnight

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RT Critic:  Audience:

Cag:  6Awesome 5 Loved it 4 Liked it a lot 3 liked it 2 it was okay 1 nope

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My thoughts:  Well.....I loved some of the dialogue, for sure.  I guess this is a good thing, since the movie is all dialogue.  Celine and ............ driving and talking, walking and talking, sitting at a meal and talking, siting in a hotel room and talking.  Celine is extremely self-centered and .............. loves her completely despite this.  He is adorable. She is, mostly, a pain-in-the-ass.  A smart, funny pain-in-the ass, but a pain-in-the-ass nontheless.