MOVIE - The Midwife

Not Rated (1:57)

Limited release 7/21/17

Viewed Saturday evening, August 12, 2017 at The Carlisle Cinema (by myself)
IMBd: 7.0/10

RT Critic:  83  Audience:  83
Critic's Consensus:  The Midwifetakes a rewardingly patient approach to potentially melodramatic material, emerging with a well-acted, emotionally resonant character study.

Cag: 4/Liked it quite well

Directed by Martin Provost

Music Box Films

In French, with subtitles

Catherine Deneuve

My comments:  A French film with subtitles and Catherine Deneuve.  Claire is a 48-year old single woman who happens to be a fantastic midwife in a hospital that appears to be in a suburb of Paris.  She lives a simple life:  working the night shift, riding her bicycle back-an-forth to work, climbing four flights to her small apartment because the elevator is frequently broken, and caring for her garden on a small plot of land along the Seine.  Her 20-something son, Simon, is in medical school.  Everything changes, however, when the woman who had been her father's mistress 35 years earlier shows up and forces herself back into Claire's life.  Claire is very reluctant, feeling that Beatrice had abandoned both her and her father all those years before.  Claire meets a man (an interestingly unattractive one at that - hurray for the filmmakers!) loses, her much-loved job because the hospital is taken over by a conglomerate, and even her son't course in life veers off.  This is quite an interesting, captivating tale.

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Two of French cinema's biggest stars shine in this bittersweet drama about the unlikely friendship that develops between Claire (Catherine Frot), a talented but tightly wound midwife, and Béatrice (Catherine Deneuve), the estranged, free-spirited mistress of Claire's late father. Though polar opposites in almost every way, the two come to rely on each other as they cope with the unusual circumstance that brought them together in this sharp character study from the César-award winning director Martin Provost (Séraphine).

MOVIE - The Sense of an Ending

PG-13

Limited release 3/10/17

Viewed Sunday 3/26/17 at The Majestic Theater in Gettysburg
IMBd: 6.8/10

RT Critic:  71  Audience:  55
Critic's Consensus:   Anchored by a strong starring performance by Jim Broadbent, The Sense of an Ending proves consistently gripping even as it skims the narrative surface of its literary source material.

Cag:  4.5  Liked it a whole lot - had to figure out

Directed by Ritesh Batra

CBS Films

James Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling, Matthew Goode, Emily Mortimer

My comments:  This was a good one, a movie that kept you thinking and guessing and wondering what direction you'd be traveling in next.  Tony's story is told through flashbacks and coming-to-terms with current happenings and mysteries. I could relate to the settings...contemporary times when one is in their 60's and late high school year almost 50 years ago.  I felt it.  I liked it....

RT/ IMDb Summary:  Tony Webster leads a reclusive and quiet existence until long buried secrets from his past force him to face the flawed recollections of his younger self, the truth about his first love and the devastating consequences of decisions made a lifetime ago.

MOVIE: Julieta

R (1:36)

Opened 12/21/16 in the US

Viewed Sunday evening, Feb. 12, 2017 at Carlisle Theater, Downtown Carlisle
IMBd: 7.1/10

RT Critic: 84   Audience:  75
Critic's Consensus:  Julieta finds writer-director Pedro Almodóvar revisiting familiar themes -- and doing so with his signature skill.

Cag:  4.5 Liked it a lot, excellent movie

Directed by Pedro Almodovar

El Desio

In Spanish with subtitles

My comments:  What a very sad moivie!  set in Madrid with occasional forays to the countryside/seaside, and ultra-depressed woman in her 50s writes a journal to her estranged daughter, who has been gone from her life for 12 years.  Two different actresses play the 25-year-old and the 55-year-old, and they are both terrific.  I always love getting into reading the subtitles as I try to take in everything that is going on in the scene.  It uses a lot of different parts of my brain, and I'm glad to see I'm stil up to it, ha ha!  This is a really good movie, but the overwhelming sadness/depression (it's everywhere, within every relationship in the story!) takes the rating down just a little bit for me.

RT/ IMDb Summary:   (RT) After a chance meeting, middle-aged Julieta (Emma Suarez) learns that her long-lost daughter has resurfaced in Madrid. This begins a painful reflection by Julieta into her checkered past, flashing back to the moments of pain that defined her current life.  (IMDb) Julieta lives in Madrid with her daughter Antía. They both suffer in silence over the loss of Xoan, Antía's father and Julieta's husband. But at times grief doesn't bring people closer, it drives them apart. When Antía turns eighteen she abandons her mother, without a word of explanation. Julieta looks for her in every possible way, but all she discovers is how little she knows of her daughter.

MOVIE - Mustang

Nominated for Best Foreign Film, 2016 Academy Awards
PG-13

Wide release 11/20/15

Viewed 1/19/16 at the Loft with Sheila

RT Critic: 97   Audience:  89
Critic's Consensus:  Mustang delivers a bracing -- and thoroughly timely -- message whose power is further bolstered by the efforts of a stellar ensemble cast.

Cag:  5/Loved it

Directed by Deniz Gamze Erguven (a female!)

CG Cinema (at the end of the credits it said FRANCE, GERMANY, TURKEY

In Turkish with subtitles

Actors were AMAZING!

My comments:  It took place in Turkey and was in Turkish.  It told a great (though sad) story.  The acting was superb.  Getting a chance to glimpse a little bit Turkey once again was fantastic.  Watching it with a friend: extra special.  Loved this movie!

RT Summary:  Early summer in a village in Northern Turkey. Five free-spirited teenaged sisters splash about on the beach with their male classmates. Though their games are merely innocent fun, a neighbor passes by and reports what she considers to be illicit behavior to the girls' family. The family overreacts, removing all "instruments of corruption," like cell phones and computers, and essentially imprisoning the girls, subjecting them to endless lessons in housework in preparation for them to become brides. As the eldest sisters are married off, the younger ones bond together to avoid the same fate. The fierce love between them empowers them to rebel and chase a future where they can determine their own lives in Deniz Gamze Ergüven's debut, a powerful portrait of female empowerment.

MOVIE - The Attack

R (1:42)

Limited release 6/21/2013

Viewed with Sheila at the Loft on 8/22/2013

RT Critic: 91 Audience:  79

Cag:   2/it was okay 

In Hebrew with subtitles

Based on the book of the same title by Yasmina Khadra

Directed by Zlad Doueiri

Cohen Media Group

Rotten Tomatoes summary:  Amin Jaafari (Ali Suliman, Paradise Now) is an Israeli Palestinian surgeon, fully assimilated into Tel Aviv society. He has a loving wife, an exemplary career, and many Jewish friends. But his picture perfect life is turned upside down after a suicide bombing in a restaurant leaves nineteen dead, and the Israeli police inform him that his wife, Sihem (Reymonde Amsellem, Lebanon) who also died in the explosion, was responsible. Convinced of her innocence, Amin abandons the relative security of his adopted homeland and enters the Palestinian territories in pursuit of the truth. Once there, he finds himself in ever more dangerous places and situations. Determined, he presses on seeking answers to questions he never thought he would be asking.

My comments:  I loved the book - I read it when it first came out.  The movie left me with a totally different feeling.  At the end of the book, I think I understood how Jaafari felt.  Not at the end of the movie.  I can't understand his lack of conscience, it left me feeling empty and bereft.  It was a really tough movie, anyways.  

MOVIE - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

A bit disappointing, left me wanting more...what?
Limited release 10-29-10
R (2:28)
RT 52% cag 69%
2-13-11at Crossroads, alone (saw the first two at the Loft, I waited too long for this one)
Director: Dan Alfredson
in Swedish, with sbutitles
From the book by Sven Larsen

Lisbeth Salander is accused of murdering her father (she did), but it was self-defense, which has to be proved. Usual chip on her shoulder, spiked hair, makeup, and multiple piercings are really dominant. Reaches way down to your gut and helps you realize she's been through some real crapola in her life. Mikael has to work to prove her innocence. It isn't easy. His sister takes on the case as Lisbeth's lawyer. It's so hard to understand....and like....this girl. But you do.

MOVIE- I Am Love (lo sono l'amore)

Some WOW, Some Blech!
Release (in U.S.) 6-18-10
R (2:00)
8/15/10 at Crossroads
RT: 81, cag: I'll go with the same: 81
Director: Luca Guadagnino
In Italian, with subtitles
Tilda Swinton

Set in modern-day Milan, we meed the affluent Recchi family. The grandfather is turning over the reins of his major factory to his son and grandson. The grandson, Eduardo, has different ideas than his father, and is not wholly invested...he is trying to begin a restaurant with his chef friend, Antonio. The protagonist is his mother, Emma, played by Tilda Swinton. There is also a sister. And although the family has a large "staff," there is one in particular that is highlighted more than the others, which adds a nice touch to the story.

Some of the story is predictable, one, late in the movie, is more of a shock. The cinematography was unusual, some of the music was too loud and tacky for me. I loved Tilda Swinton. I don't really want to tell too much of the plot, 'cause part of the enjoyment was watching the story unfold. At first it seemed cold and emotionless, but warmed up...a lot...as it continued. There's a little bit of everything here. Milan in winter. Black and white vs. color. Love. Parent/child. Lovers. Gourmet food. And touches of all sorts of other things.

The subtitles were easy, you didn't even realize you were reading instead of listening to understand the dialogue.