Beginners

Beginners (2010) starring Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Melanie Laurent. Directed by Mike Mills. Oliver (McGregor) has an affair with Anna (Laurent) in 2003, but is haunted by memories of his recently deceased father, Hal (Plummer). The kicker is that Hal, who was married to Oliver's mother for 44 years, came out as gay five years ago, after the mother's death. The story is told in non-linear form, with the love affair with Anna taking place now, while Oliver's relationships with his father and mother are explored in flashbacks. We see that Oliver, confused by his parents' long and (he thinks) unhappy relationship, has trouble committing to Anna, who is beautiful and loves him. The movie is well crafted and the script is well written. The disc has subtitles for the hearing-impaired, but not closed captions. Grade: A-

Songcatcher

Songcatcher (2001) starring Janet McTeer, Aidan Quinn. Musicologist Lily Penleric (McTeer) visits her sister in Appalachia, discovers a treasure trove of Scots-Irish ballads which have been preserved for hundreds of years by the hill people. The songs she finds are previously unknown to the outside world, and she immediately knows that she wants to collect them and publish them. The road is not smooth, however, as the backward ways of some of the mountain folk get in the way, and Lily's colleagues back in civilization try to steal her discovery. This movie does not have a "happy ending" in the usual sense, but it's still worth seeing, if only for the music. The subtitles are very good -- all the songs are subtitled, which makes it very enjoyable. Grade: B+

Something New

Something New (2006) starring Sanaa Lathan, Simon Baker, Blair Underwood. Young African-American woman Kenya (Lathan) falls reluctantly for white landscaper Brian (Baker). They fall in love, but then decide that their relationship can't work because of the race issue. How they find their way back to one another makes up the plot of this movie. The film pokes fun at both sides of the racial stereotyping question, and eventually transcends it. Lathan and Baker are appealing, but I never quite believed them as a couple. It's a nice fantasy, but seems divorced from reality. The disc has subtitles for the hearing impaired, which is a good thing because it doesn't have closed captions. Grade: B

Somebody Up There Likes Me

Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) starring Paul Newman, Pier Angeli. From common criminal to Army deserter to middleweight champion, Rocky Graziano (Newman) defied the odds. But then, after he settled down and got married to Norma (Angeli), his past came back to haunt him. This movie, based on Graziano's autobiography, is well mounted. Newman delivers a solid performance, and at the end I was really rooting for Graziano to win. The film ends in 1947, when Graziano won the middleweight championship, and his subsequent life (he died in 1990) is left to the viewer to research if he or she wants to know more. This disc has English subtitles, as well as the more extensive closed captions. Grade: A-

Super 8

Super 8 (2011) starring Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning, Joel Courtney, Ron Eldard, Noah Emmerich. Directed by J.J. Abrams. Six youths filming a zombie movie in 1979 accidentally capture footage of a train crash. They later learn that on that train was an alien creature with fantastic powers -- a creature who occupies their home town and turns it into a war zone. But the alien isn't evil, just scared and desperate to reassemble its spaceship and go home. This was a summer movie in the Spielberg mold of the '70s and '80s, with the kids being front and center and the adults existing mostly in the background. It works rather well, and makes for a pleasurable viewing experience. The disc has English subtitles, as well as closed captions. Grade: B+

Sarah's Key

Sarah's Key (2010) starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Melusine Mayance, Niels Arestrup. In the summer of 1942 in France, the authorities carry out a roundup of the Jews. Instinctively trying to save her little brother, Sarah locks him in a closet and keeps the key. Later, held in a detention camp, she is obsessed with the idea of going back and rescuing him from the closet. Meanwhile, in 2009, Julia (Thomas) -- a journalist -- investigates the same roundup and discovers that an apartment she is thinking of buying was once inhabited by a Jewish family. It all leads to a complicated mystery as she tries to track down whatever happened to Sarah. The final reveal is very good, and I found this movie's story quite moving. The disc features excellent subtitles -- English for the deaf and hard of hearing, both for when English is spoken and when French is spoken. Grade: A-

Someone to Watch Over Me

Someone to Watch Over Me (1987) starring Tom Berenger, Mimi Rogers, Lorraine Bracco, Jerry Orbach. Directed by Ridley Scott. Happily married junior detective (Berenger) is assigned to protect a beautiful witness (Rogers) to a murder. Naturally, they fall in love; and the detective's wife (Bracco) is quick to figure out what's going on. But the thriller aspect of this movie soon takes over, and it's non-stop suspense until the very end. This film has many hallmarks of a Ridley Scott movie, up to and including a song on the soundtrack ("Memories of Green") that he used in Blade Runner (1982). That's not a criticism, however. I think this is a pretty good movie, although feminists might howl at Bracco's decision to take Berenger back at the end. The disc features subtitles in several languages, including English; in addition, it has closed captions. Grade: B+

Some Like It Hot

Some Like It Hot (1959) starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe. After witnessing the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, two musicians (Lemmon, Curtis) go on the lam -- disguised as women. They hop a train for Florida as part of a women's band, of which miss Sugar Kane (Monroe) is a member. Naturally, Lemmon and Curtis, while trying to maintain their mascarade as girls, end up competing for Monroe. This movie was pretty hot stuff back in 1959, with lots of making out and sexual innuendo. There are a lot of double entendres, only a few of which I caught. All in all, this qualifies as a comedy classic, especially the last line. The disc features no English subtitles, but does have closed captions. Grade: A-

Some Came Running

Some Came Running (1958) starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine, Arthur Kennedy, Martha Hyer. In 1948, David Hirsh (Sinatra) returns to his Midwestern home town after getting out of the Army. He's followed by a floozie (MacLaine) who's stuck on him, and he fancies himself falling in love with a local teacher (Hyer). Meanwhile, he's stirring up the town, gambling and drinking and getting in fights. This movie was apparently some kind of big deal in 1958, but it's only moderately diverting today. MacLaine surely deserved her Best Actress Oscar nomination, but for me the weak point of this movie is Sinatra. He's just too small and weasely to fill out his role, in my opinion. The film has adequate subtitles for the hearing impaired, but no closed captions. Grade: C

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) animation. Disney's first full-length animated feature holds up remarkably well. The animation is beautiful, the story is compact and well told, the music is pleasant (includes the songs "Someday My Prince Will Come" and "Whistle While You Work"). I can remember as a child seeing this movie and being starkly terrified by the wicked witch, which I later came to believe lived under my bed. The disc features good subtitles, as well as closed captions. Oh, and a happy ending. Grade: A

The Tree of Life

The Tree of Life (2011) starring Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken. Directed by Terrence Malick. Director Malick produces another meditation on Life, the Universe and Everything. Also, at times, various characters in the movie do voice-over work in which they ask questions of God. The film has everything, including dinosaurs. The bulk of the movie, however, is made up of vignettes from the life of the O'Brien family of Waco, Texas. Pitt plays the overbearing father, Chastain the wife, and McCracken gets most of the screen time as the young son Jack. At the end, there's what seems to be a happy ending, with everyone winding up in heaven together -- though I'm none too sure about that. There's just enough good stuff to make the film watchable, but all of the metaphysical hooey is just wasted time. Subtitles are included, as well as closed captions. Grade: B-

Life in a Day

Life in a Day (2011). On July 24, 2010, thousands of people around the world shot home videos at the behest of filmmaker Kevin MacDonald. The result is 4,500 hours of footage, which MacDonald condenses into this 90-minute film. Some of the clips are interesting, but the sound quality of many of them is poor, and the movie is not subtitled -- except for small, hard-to-read subtitles on the foreign-language portions. In addition, the amateur quality of the video is all too apparent. Generally hard to watch. Grade: C-

Bridesmaids

Bridesmaids (2011) starring Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Ellie Kemper, Melissa McCarthy. Annie (Wiig) a down-on-her-luck baker, is asked to be maid of honor at her best friend's (Rudolph) wedding. Wiig in this movie gets the starring role that she has so long deserved, and she really nails it. The supporting cast is all good, and each part is written to be a distinct and interesting individual. And it has a happy ending, more or less, which lets you leave the movie feeling good. The subtitles, included on the disc, are pretty good. Grade: B+

Horrible Bosses

Horrible Bosses (2011) starring Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Charlie Day, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell, Kevin Spacey. Three schmucks (Bateman, Sudeikis and Day) scheme to escape their horrible jobs by eliminating their horrible bosses (Aniston, Farrell and Spacey). Promising premise doesn't really turn out to be very funny, as the chemistry among the three miserable employees falls flat time and again. This problem could be due to a weak script. Also, Charlie Day, who plays one of the schmucks, has a screeching voice that is like fingernails on a blackboard. I really wasn't cheering for him to win. The movie has subtitles in English for the hearing impaired, but no closed captions. Grade: C+

The Sleeping Beauty

The Sleeping Beauty (2010) starring Carla Besnainou, Julia Artamonov, Kerian Mayan. In a modern twist on the old fairy tale, Anastasia (Besnainou) is saved from a curse of death on her sixteenth birthday by three well-meaning witches. Only catch: she must sleep for 100 years instead. While she sleeps, she dreams. The dreams are strange and interesting, but the whole is less than the sum of its parts. This movie didn't do much for me. It was a real chore to watch. It's in French, with English subtitles. The subtitles are hard to read. Grade: C

Snow Cake

Snow Cake (2006) starring Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Carrie-Anne Moss. Alex (Rickman), a solitary middle-aged man, picks up a young hitchhiker while driving across Canada. After the hitchhiker is killed in a crash (not Alex's fault), Alex finds himself torn from his moorings. Guilt-stricken, Alex goes to visit his hitchhiker's mother, Linda (Weaver), who is autistic. From there, the plot takes some unexpected turns, and Alex's dark past is revealed. It's a good little movie, and Weaver does a fine job of playing autistic. The disc comes with English subtitles, but no closed captions. Grade: B+

The Snake Pit

The Snake Pit (1948) starring Olivia de Havilland. Virginia Cunningham (de Havilland), a young married woman, is sent to a mental hospital after suffering a nervous breakdown. The point of the movie seems to be that, in 1948 at least, mental hospitals made you crazy. At least Virginia has a good doctor. De Havilland earned an Oscar nomination for her acting in this film, but the movie seems to me hopelessly dated and unrealistic. It does have good subtitles and closed captions. Grade: B-

Smithereens

Smithereens (1982) starring Susan Berman, Brad Rinn, Richard Hell. New Jersey girl named Wren (Berman) who fancies herself a bidnesswoman hooks up casually with a guy from out of town named Paul (Rinn) who lives in a van. He likes her, but she's only into using people so that she can get the money to go to L.A. Only problem with this movie is, it has no subtitles or closed captions whatsoever, and the soundtrack is really muddled. Grade: F

The Sniper

The Sniper (1952) starring Adolphe Menjou, Arthur Franz, Richard Kiley. Noir thriller in which a man (Franz) with mother issues decides to start killing women who he feels have slighted him. He kills from a distance, using a World War II Army carbine. The case is solved by a police lieutenant named Kafka (Menjou), assisted by a police psychiatrist (Kiley). For today's viewer, this movie has little to offer, except for the authentic San Francisco scenery, which is nice to see. The psychology of the serial killer is just not convincing, and in early '50s fashion, they've got it all wrong. To its credit, the film has both subtitles and closed captions. Grade: C