Eva's 2018 Movies Most Worthy of Mention. Order not significant, but the first nine are documentaries, the next nine are dramas drawn from history or personal experiences, and only the last six are fictional. Compiled Nov. 18, 2018
1. Harold and Lillian, A Hollywood Love Story ©2015. Documentary by Daniel Raim. It’s about the careers and 60-year marriage of two talented people. I loved the fact that Harold knew he wanted Lillian, and he knew he wanted to apply his drawing talent in Hollywood. He was a master story-boarder, advancing to Art Director. Lillian was a renowned Hollywood research librarian from 1961 until her retirement at age 80. Their autistic son turned out fine, as did their other sons. Uplifting about the ups and downs of life and the power of love and work to make it all worthwhile. Both Harold and Lillian are wonderful interviewees. Great DVD extras too.
2. Won’t You Be My Neighbor ©2018. Documentary by Morgan Neville. 94 min. Of course, I knew peripherally about Mr. Rogers, the TV show, which started in 1968, but this movie got me to appreciate it directly. Soft spoken Fred Rogers, who died in 2003, trained as a Presbyterian minister. This movie was better at inspiring its viewers to be better people than any sermon I ever heard in church.
3. Speaking about a media work that was better than a sermon (and entertaining and educational too), I have to thank Ezra for alerting me to https://ww.youtube.com/watch?v=vsMydMDi3rI, Frank Abagnale’s Google talk about the real life behind the subject of Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me if You Can (©2003). I got that DVD from the library. The movie was good, but not as good as Frank’s talk.
4. Far from the Tree ©2018. Documentary by Rachel Dretzin. 93 min. The director was present at the screening I attended. She said after finishing the 700-page book of the same title by Andrew Solomon she immediately wrote to him wanting to make a documentary. He told her she was the 30th director to approach him. But she got the rights. The book has 10 chapters about children who are very different from their parents. Dretzin covers five in the film, usually not using the same case studies as the book uses, because the book took 10 years to write and she wanted to use families where there were still children. She deals with each entire family. She covers dwarfism, Down syndrome, a child who commits a horrific crime, autism, and Andrew Solomon’s own recollections of his gay childhood. In his case we learn how he emerged into a productive career and fulfilling family life.
5. Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405 ©2016. Director Frank Stiefel. Won Best Documentary Short. Yeah! 40 min. 56-year-old artist Mindy Alper has dealt with severe mental health issues her whole life. She went for years without speaking. But she has been able to express herself in her art since early childhood. Now her speech is strange but she is articulate. She phones her mother 3X/day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8IedHc7txs
6. Three Identical Strangers ©2018. Dir. Tim Wardle. 96 min. Bob, Eddie & David are triplets born 1961 and adopted by three families in greater NYC. The adoption agency secretly followed them in a nature/nurture study. When they were 19, they found each other.
7. RBG ©2018. Documentary by Betsy West and Julie Cohen. Seen with Polly. I loved it. It included a mistake Ruth made, stating in public her poor opinion of candidate Donald J. Trump. Thank god for that or the movie would have showcased no flaws. She apologized. Antonin Scalia would occasionally whisper a joke into her ear. Asked what the funniest joke Scalia ever told her was, Ruth said, “I know what it is, but I can’t tell you.” She has a personal trainer and she’s an opera buff. Her first day at Harvard Law she was asked how she could justify taking a seat away from a man. Her granddaughter was in the first H.L class that’s 50% women.
8. Everything is Copy ©2015. Directors Jacob Bernstein and Nick Hooker. 89 min. A documentary about Nora Ephron (1941-2012) by her son. We see Nora at various ages, say in conversation with Dick Cavett. Carl Bernstein, Gay Talese, David Remnick, and Nora’s sisters are interviewed. Nora wrote Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally, Heartburn, and Julie and Julia. Some of these starred Meryl Streep. Some Nora directed. Nora’s parents were Hollywood screenwriters. The movie’s title means if you slip on a banana peel everyone laughs at you. But if you tell people you slipped on a banana peel, they laugh with you. The one thing Nora did not use as copy was what she could not control, her leukemia. Some friends felt betrayed that she had not confided in them.
9. The Keepers ©2017. Miniseries directed by Ryan White. I subscribed to Netflix to binge-watch this with MaryDan when she was here for a few days. It’s not available at either of our library networks. It’s a true crime documentary about the sleuthing of two women who graduated from Keough High School in Baltimore in the early 1970’s. Years after their beloved teacher, Sr. Cathy Cesnik, was murdered in 1969, they began investigating the still unsolved case. They contacted classmates, some of whom were finally ready to talk. The guidance counsellor, Fr. Maskell, had been abusing some vulnerable students. Sr. Cathy, 26, who was a person the girls could talk to, got wind of it and promised to take care of it. Fr. Maskell was chaplain of the police department and had procured sex for police officers with abused Keough girls. The prosecutor at the time, Sharon May, explained that no sex abuse cases were ever brought against Catholic clergy in that era because “there was never enough evidence to convict, in my judgment.” Fr. Maskell had molested a boy prior to being moved to all-girls Keough H.S. The 8th grader’s mother had reported it in person to the Chancery. But there is no abuse allegation in the Diocesan records. That victim is now a lawyer. Later complaints were stymied by no corroboration
10. The Crown ©2016. Created by Peter Morgan. The second thing I viewed on Netflix. I hated to see it end. Claire Foy portrays Elizabeth II from her marriage to Philip (Matt Smith) in 1947 until the birth of their 4th child, in 1963. John Lithgow plays Churchill, Harriet Walter, Clementine. Jared Harris plays King George VI, Eileen Atkins, his mother, Queen Mary. Victoria Hamilton plays the Queen Mother, Alex Jennings & Lia Williams the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Jeremy Northam is Anthony Eden, Anton Lesser, Harold Macmillan. Princess Margaret (Vanessa Kirby) is thwarted from marrying Group Captain Peter Townsend (Ben Miles). She marries Antony Armstrong-Jones (Matthew Goode). I wonder what the Royal Family thinks of it. I did not like the casting of JFK.
11. LBJ ©2017. Director Rob Reiner. 97 min. With Woody Harrelson in the title role and Jennifer Jason Leigh as Lady Bird. Richard Jenkins plays Sen. Richard Russell of Georgia. Michael Stahl-David plays Bobby Kennedy who hated LBJ. LBJ’s ambition, crudeness, effectiveness, and basic decency are all dramatized. Before the JFK assassination LBJ confronted Bobby saying, “I know the South. I know the Congress. I could contribute. Yet you never consult me. Are you keeping me out of sight so I won’t be a viable candidate in 1968 when you plan to run?” Bobby: “You think I’m that calculating?” LBJ: “I would be.”
12. The Post ©2017. Director Steven Spielberg. 116 min. Starring Meryl Streep as Katharine Graham and Tom Hanks as Ben Bradlee. It’s about the Washington Post picking up on publishing the Pentagon Papers after the NY Times was under injunction. Bob Odenkirk (of Better Call Saul) gets the papers from Daniel Ellsberg (Matthew Rhys of The Americans). I thoroughly enjoyed this with Ida.
13. 20th Century Women ©2016. Director and writer Mike Mills. Autobiographical. 118 min. Won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. With Annette Bening, Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup, and Lucas Jade Zumann as Jamie. Set in Santa Barbara in 1979. A 55-year-old single mother running a rooming house enlists the help of Julie, her son’s 17-year-old best friend, and Abbie, her 24-year-old tenant, in helping her 15-year-old son Jamie to grow into a good man.
14. Darkest Hour ©2017. Dir Joe Wright. Seen with Elizabeth in Phoenix. Gary Oldman won Best Actor for his portrayal of Winston Churchill. Kristin Scott Thomas plays Clementine Churchill. Set in May 1940. Dunkirk was in progress. The cabinet was divided about whether to surrender in hopes of getting better terms. To explain how Churchill prevailed, Lord Halifax said, "He mobilized the English language." In the movie, to take the pulse of the people, Churchill ventured onto the London Underground for the first time.
15. Snowdon ©2016. Dir. Oliver Stone. With Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Edward Snowden, Shailene Woodley as his girlfriend Lindsay Mills (who the epilogue informed me has moved to Moscow to join him). Melissa Leo as Laura Poitras, documentary director, Zachary Quinto as Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian, and Nicholas Cage as Hank Forrester, a fellow CIA agent aware of how futile it is to try to report abuses up the chain of command. Snowdon moved the needle, I think in the right direction, on US massive data collection. Snowden is a whistle blower, not a spy. I realize the penalties have to be severe for revealing classified info. But too much is classified. I did not get from this movie some kooky stuff about Glenn Greenwald that I have since read that turns me off.
16. I, Tonya ©2017. Dir. Craig Gillespie. 120 min. Allison Janney won best supporting actress as Tonya Harding’s (Margot Robbie) awful mother. Caitlin Carver plays Nancy Kerrigan. All I knew going into this is that in 1994 Tonya whacked her Olympic skating competition in the knees. I learned (the dir’s interpretation of) the before and after and oh, by the way, Tonya did not do the whacking.
17. A United Kingdom, the true story of a love that shook an empire ©2016. Director Amma Asante. 111 min. Rosamund Pike and David Oyelowo play Ruth Williams and Seretse Khama (heir to the throne of Beucholand). They marry against objections from both their families and the British authorities, who worry that the couple will disturb relations with South Africa. Seretse is exiled for years but in 1966 became the first president of Botswana, the new name for his country. The couple’s oldest son became the 4th president of Botswana in 2008. We see him in the DVD extras along with the director.
18. BlacKkKlansman
©2016.
Dir. Spike Lee. 134 min. Starring John David Washington, Denzel’s son, as
Ron Stallworth the first black police officer in Colorado Springs circa 1971. This
movie is based on a memoir. The ambitious young detective gets a lead on a Ku
Klux Klan cell in town. With the help of his partner, Flip Zimmerman (Adam
Driver), he infiltrates the Klan. Ron does the research and phone work, Flip
the face-to-face. Topher Grace plays David Duke who thinks he can recognize a black
person on the phone.
19. 45 Years ©2015. Dir. Andrew Haigh. 95 min. w/ Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtney as a couple approaching their 45th wedding anniversary. This movie covers the week culminating in their party. We get a pretty good picture of their present relationship and everyday life, which is a pleasure to behold. He gets a letter from Switzerland that the frozen body of his hiking companion, who had fallen into a crevasse 50 years ago, has been found. Kate knew about that tragedy in Geoff’s life, but only now does she learn that Geoff’s relationship to Katya had been deeper than she thought. It throws her for a loop. Geraldine James plays their friend Lina.
20. Still Alice ©2014. 101 min. Directors Richard Glatzen and Wash Westmoreland. Starring Julianne Moore (Best Actress Oscar) and Alec Baldwin. Based on the 2007 novel by Lisa Genova. Opens with Alice’s 50th birthday party. She and her husband are Columbia professors with three grown children. Soon the family has to cope with Alice’s early onset Alzheimer’s. I put this movie right up there with the 2007 movie Away from Her about late-onset Alzheimer’s by director Sarah Polly starring Julie Christie.
21. Leave No Trace ©2018. Dir. Debra Granik. Adaptation of a novel, “My Abandonment,” by Peter Rock. A haunted military veteran, Will (Ben Foster), secretly lives off the grid in Oregon with his 13-year-old daughter Tom (Thomasin McKensie). We see their routine and connection to each other. Will walks into town only for supplies, to visit the VA, and to sell his meds at a camp of fellow veteran misfits. Will and Tom get caught and placed on a Christmas Tree farm by a social worker. They run away. Will has an accident. Tom saves him with the help of an RV community, people pretty much off the grid themselves. Tom likes the community. Will can’t take it. She says “What’s wrong with you isn’t wrong with me,” hugs him, and stays put as he trudges off into the wilderness.
22. I, Daniel Blake ©2016. Dir. Ken Loach. 100 min. (Br) Dave Johns as Daniel Blake, a 59-year-old carpenter who had a heart attack. His cardiologist has forbidden him to go back to work until/if his blood flow improves, but the unemployment office deems him fit for work. He has to provide proof he spends 35 hours/week looking for work. But when he’s offered work he can’t accept because of his heart. He meets Katie (Haylie Squires), a single mother with two kids who is also given the runaround by the bureaucratic Council. This film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. I also saw Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach, a documentary by Louise Osmand, and another documentary by Emmanuel Roy specifically about the making of I, Daniel Blake.
23. Call Me by Your Name ©2017. Dir Luca Guadagnino, with Timothée Chalamet as 17 year old Elio, and Armie Hammer as Elio’s father’s summer graduate research assistant at their idyllic estate in Tuscany. It’s about the buildup of sexual and romantic attraction. Although the exemplar in this movie was homosexual, it happens heterosexually too. It is always hard to depict. So, bravo! It is a slow movie. I got a little impatient towards the end. James Ivory won the Oscar for “Best Adaptation of a Book.”
24. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri ©2017. Directed and written by Martin McDonagh. 115 min. Frances McDormand won Best Actress and Sam Rockwell, the hapless deputy, won Best Supporting Actor. It’s about a woman who is angry and not holding it in. There was violence and foul language, but in service of the drama. OK, the Molotov cocktails were over the top for me.
Last updated Dec.19, 2019