Eva's 2012 Movie List

Eva's 2012 Movies Most Worthy of Mention, in no special order * means Herman saw it too.

1. 12 Angry Men ©1957, Dir Sidney Lumet, with Henry Fonda as Juror #8. Anyone can lead, not just the foreman. Homework for a Google class on leadership. The discussion enhanced the movie, much like the book group gives me new insights into a book.

2. *The Iron Lady ©2011, Dir. Phyllida Lloyd, with Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, and Jim Broadbent as Denis Thatcher. Streep won Best Actress for this role. Herman did not like all the time spent on dementia. I figure The Phoenix was lukewarm (**) because, naturally, conservative principles are articulated in speeches here and there.

3. *Double Happiness ©1995 (Canada), library DVD, 87 min. Written and directed by Mina Shum. Sandra Oh plays the lead, Jade, who’s about 22, an aspiring actress still living at home. Her little sister, Pearl, is about 14. The sisters have a great relationship. Their parents and other relatives are forever fixing Jade up with Chinese dates. One, who communicates to her that he is gay by taking her to a gay bar, becomes a friend. There’s a quirky budding romance with a Caucasian. Jade moves out.

4. *Albert Nobbs ©2011, Dir. Rodrigo Garcia. Set in 19^th century Ireland, with Glenn Close and Janet McTeer as two women passing as men. Albert Nobbs is lonely and tense. Hubert Page is comfortable with himself and happily married to Cathleen. By the end Albert and Cathleen are dead, and Hubert is poised to marry a single mother. A little long but both our thumbs are up.

5. First Grader (A joint BBC/Nat’l Geographic film) © 2010 Dir Justin Chadwick. Dramatization of a true story about Maruge (Oliver Litando),an illiterate 84 yr. old Kenyan who heard on the radio that education was free for all, so he showed up at the new one-room school. M’s a veteran of the British internment camps in the Mau Mau years. Naomie Harris plays the teacher, Jane Obinchu. Library DVD

6. *Finding a Family (Canada), library DVD. Based on a true story. Alex Chivescu dreams of attending Harvard. His single mother (Kim Delaney) became unable to care for him when he was 10. He’s placed in a string of foster homes. In his junior year of high school he lucks into a great high school. He thrives, even makes friends. But then, because its hard to find foster homes for kids over 16, he gets sent to a county home in anther district. He’s on a mission to find his own foster family.

7. *Downton Abbey (UK. Masterpiece Theater). In the finale Lady Mary and Matthew get engaged after she throws over the newspaper mogul. Bates gets his death sentence commuted to life with the chance to appeal. My book group is all watching.

8. In Darkness ©2011, (Canada, Germany, Poland). Dir Agnieszka Holland, with Robert Wieckiewicz, Benno Furman, Agnieszka Grochowska, Maria Schrader and Herbert Knaak. I don’t agree with Roger Ebert that Schindler’s List already covered this ground better. I do agree with Ebert that no good movie is depressing. Based on a memoir and at the end we learn (in pretty general terms, unfortunately) what happened to everyone later. I liked Poldek’s relationship with his wife Wanda (Kinga Preis).

9. A Separation (Iran), Dir Asghar Farhadi. Winner of the Best Foreign Film Oscar. A middle class couple in Teheran with an 11 yr. old daughter have just separated. She teaches in a university, he works in a bank. The wife wants to emigrate, and finally the paperwork came through but it expires in 40 days. He won’t leave his father, who suffers from Altzheimers. A pregnant religious woman in a Burkah is hired to help with the father. A quality drama about universal human issues.

10. *Monsieur Lazhar (Canada). Although it’s unusual for an elementary teacher to hang herself in the classroom before the children arrive, everhything else in the movie was normal, but interesting in the way that ordinary people’s lives can be fascinating if presented by a talented novelist or film maker or artist. Monsier Lazhar, the teacher who is hired to take over the traumatized class, is an asylum-seeker in Quebec from Algeria. We get interested in his personal story. The children were attractive but not “cute.”

11. I Wish, ©2011, (Japan) Dir. Hirokazu Korreda, 128 min. Quality film about two pre-adolescent brothers whose parents separated six months earlier. It just covers a few days of their lives, eventful only on the scale of childhood. It was a window into contemporary Japan. The younger brother lives with their father, who is a sometime-employed rock musician. The older boy lives in a different town with their mother and her parents. Both parents are presented as loving but flawed human beings. In just one flashback scene we get a feel for why they separated. I was impressed by the group of friends the boys have, and their schools.

12. First Position, 95 min. documentary about contestants at a couple of ballet competitions. Better than the spelling bee documentary I listed a few years ago (which I liked ) because this is art, and also a potential career. But the same genre.

13. The Queen of Versailles., Dir. Lauren Greenfield’s documentary about real estate mogul David Siegel and his trophy wife Jackie, and their eight children. They were building the biggest private home in America, modeled on Versailles, when David’s business got caught in the mortgage market collapse, so the house stands unfinished. It’s a look at materialism, but Jackie holds the screen.

14. Moonrise Kingdom, ©2012. Wes Anderson directed this period piece set in 1965 on an island off New England. Jared Gilman plays 12 year old orphan Sam Shakusky who runs off with Suzy Bishop, played by Kara Hayward. Frances McDormand and Bill Murray play Suzy’s parents. Tilda Swinton represents Social Service, and Bob Balaban is the elfin narrator. The movie is a gentle send up of scouting. There are vignettes from a children’s performance of a Benjamin Britten opera about Noah’s Ark. Bruce Willis is good as the police captain, as is Edward Norton as the scout leader. It’s an utterly charming movie.

16. Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel, ©2012. Dir. Lisa Immordino Vreeland, a daughter-in-law Diana (1903-1989) never met. Throughout this movie I was reminded of Herman’s sister Peggy (1929-2012, RIP). Talking heads, but I was interested in what each had to say, and they were people I was interested in seeing-–Richard Avedon, Penelope Tree... I’m interested in graphic arts, fashion as design, and women’s careers. Vreeland edited Harper’s Basaaar & Vogue, and then, starting at age 70, curated the Met’s Costume Collection. The many film clips of her on talk shows were never boring.

17. The Sessions, ©2012, Dir. Ben Lewin, w/ John Hawkes as journalist Mark O’Brien, who spends part of every day in an iron lung, Helen Hunt as his sex therapist, and Wim. H. Macy as an over the top priest. Based on autobiographical writings.