Animal Crackers

Animal Crackers (1930) starring Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo Marx, Margaret Dumont, Lillian Roth. Groucho plays Captain Spaulding, an African explorer just returned from the Dark Continent. Chico plays the piano, Harpo plays the harp, and Groucho shoots an elephant in his pajamas. There's a stolen painting in the mix, but it only serves as a convenient plot device. The Marx Brothers are given plenty of latitude to practice their patented brand of insanity, and many of the jokes will be familiar to fans of the comedians. This was only the Marx Brothers second movie, and there are plenty of rough spots and wasted moments, but it still manages to get enough jokes in to be worth watching. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B   

Angel Face

Angel Face (1952) starring Robert Mitchum, Jean Simmons. Directed by Otto Preminger. An ambulance driver named Frank (Mitchum) is called to the scene of a near-asphyxiation, where he meets Diane (Simmons), the beautiful but hate-filled stepdaughter of the woman who almost died. Diane turns out to be a manipulative witch, and she gets Frank to quit his ambulance-driving job and come to work as a chauffeur for her father and stepmother. Diane tries to get Frank to fall in love with her, but he's not having it, sensing there is something a bit off with her. Then, when her father and stepmother die in a car crash, Diane and Frank are arrested and charged together with murder. I found the premise and the resolution of this movie to be outlandish, and I was not satisfied with it. However, it did keep my interest, and I think it will stick with me as a memorable film. (English subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B-  

Don Jon

Don Jon (2013) starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore. Gordon-Levitt, who also wrote and directed, stars as a playa named Jon who can get women any time he wants but still prefers Internet porn. He gets involved with Barbara (Johansson), who catches him watching porn and makes him promise to quit watching it. Meanwhile, Barbara pushes him to take an evening class to improve himself, and there he meets Esther (Moore), an older woman who is more understanding of his porn habit. The movie gets a lot of its laughs from Jon's weekly attendance at church and his visits to the confessional booth. This is a movie aimed more at younger viewers, and I found that I had a little trouble relating to it. Nevertheless, it provided for a satisfactory evening's entertainment. (Subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available.) Grade: B   

Short Term 12

Short Term 12 (2013) starring Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr., Kaitlyn Dever, Rami Malek. Grace (Larson) and her boyfriend Mason (Gallagher) are counselors at a home for unwanted children, where the residents "age out" at 18, and where all the kids are troubled to some degree. Of particular notice is Jayden (Dever), a girl who comes to the home but doesn't expect to stay long because "I'm going to my father's house." For a low-budget film, this one is particularly well done, and I was moved by the plight of these poor homeless kids. Complications set in when Grace learns that she is pregnant, and when she learns that her abusive father is about to be released from jail. (Subtitles in English are not offered on the disc, but closed captions are available.) Grade: A- 

Angel Eyes

Angel Eyes (2001) starring Jennifer Lopez, Jim Caviezel, Terrence Howard, Sonia Braga, Jeremy Sisto. A female cop who is estranged from her family (Lopez) runs into a lost soul (Caviezel) who is trying to recover from his own tragedy. They make an odd couple, but eventually it is revealed that they have a connection that brings them together. There's not much original or new in this movie, which has the feel of a TV movie of the week. There are a few nice scenes, and no really big blunders in the story-telling, so it makes a pretty watchable evening of entertainment. Lopez looks a little strange with blond hair, but Caviezel fits comfortably into his part and the viewer can't help but root for them to work things out. (The subtitles are very good, with both English and French available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B 

An Angel at My Table

An Angel at My Table (1990) starring Kerry Fox. Directed by Jane Campion. The life of New Zealand's most celebrated and prolific author, Janet Frame, is told in this biopic based on her autobiography. Frame, who appears to have suffered from social anxiety disorder, was falsely diagnosed as schizophrenic as a young woman; she was confined to a lunatic asylum for eight years and subjected to 200 electroshock treatments during this time. She also lost two sisters to drowning in separate incidents and had a brother who was epileptic. Somehow, through all this, she managed to write a book of short stories which was published while she was in the asylum, and which saved her from undergoing a lobotomy. After her book was published, she traveled to London, Paris and Spain, all the while continuing to write. In Spain she at last fell in love -- with an American who left her at the end of the summer to return to his teaching job. The movie, though a bit long at two and a half hours, tells her story with sympathy and not too much pity. Frame's stature as an author, especially in her native New Zealand, can scarcely be exaggerated. She became a towering literary figure, despite the hardships she endured. This is an amazing story about triumph over adversity. (Subtitles in English are available, although they are a bit hard to find.) Grade: B+   

In a World...

In a World...  (2013) starring Lake Bell, Fred Melamed, Michaela Watkins, Ken Marino. Written and directed by Lake Bell. Set in the world of voice-overs, this is a quirky movie which has as its central conflict a competition for the job of voicing the trailer for a new series of four movies about Amazon women. Bell stars as Carol Solomon, a woman who is in competition with her father (Melamed) for the job. She gets into various romantic complications along the way, and the film is filled with interesting characters. I found it mildly amusing. (The subtitles for the hearing impaired are very legible, almost to the point of being intrusive.) Grade: B

Blue Jasmine

Blue Jasmine (2013) starring Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Sally Hawkins, Bobby Cannavale, Louis C.K., Andrew Dice Clay, Peter Sarsgaard. Written and directed by Woody Allen. Blanchett is devastatingly good in the title role as a Blanche DuBois type of character whose world is crumbling around her. The script and direction by Allen is pretty near flawless, and he paints a picture of a woman (Blanchett) who, through careless and greedy living, has brought about her own downfall. This is definitely not a comedy, which we've come to expect from Allen, but a heart-breaking drama. Blanchett's character calls herself Jasmine, and she arrives from New York to San Francisco, where she hopes to start over again, beginning with moving in with her adopted sister, Ginger (Hawkins). The problems that brought Jasmine to this pass soon crop up again, however, and she seems to end up homeless. This is a movie which would reward multiple viewings, and I recommend it highly. (The subtitles for the hearing-impaired are highly legible.) Grade: A 

Captain Phillips

Captain Phillips (2013) starring Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi. Since this movie is based on true, recent events, most viewers will know going in how it ends. But that doesn't detract from the drama and the suspense as Phillips' (Hanks) ship is taken over by Somali pirates and Phillips fights to maintain control without getting anyone killed. The movie is quite skillfully made, and you can't help a surge of emotion as the U.S. Navy comes steaming over the horizon to the rescue. Hanks is excellent in the title role, and Abdi is very convincing as the leader of the pirates. The only thing that was slightly disappointing was the moment when the Navy SEALS took out the pirates, which happened so quickly that it was hard to tell what had just happened. A very good film. (The English subtitles, for the hearing-impaired, are very legible.) Grade: A-  

Prisoners

Prisoners (2013) starring Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, Melissa Leo, Paul Dano. Two little girls, two six-year-olds, are abducted, and their parents begin a frantic search for them. On father (Jackman) abducts a suspect and tortures him horribly to try to get him to tell where the children are. Meanwhile, a detective (Gyllenhaal) methodically pursues the case, making progress even though the case is murky and strange. The ending is a bona fide surprise, and I give the movie marks for this. The tangled plot works out pretty neatly, and it made for a fascinating, if sometimes gruesome, watch. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc.) Grade: B+  

Fruitvale Station

Fruitvale Station (2013) starring Michael B. Jordan, Melonie Diaz, Octavia Spencer. True story of Oscar Grant (Jordan), a young man who was shot in the back and killed by transit police in Oakland, California, in 2009. The movie traces Grant's last day of life, New Year's Eve, 2008. At 22 years of age, he was something of a loser. He had already served time in prison for drug-dealing, and was recently fired from his job for chronic tardiness. But even though he wasn't an upstanding citizen, the film asks, did he deserve to die? The answer, clearly, is no. He wasn't doing anything wrong when the transit police singled him out for attention, and his shooting, as shown in the movie, was unprovoked. This film succeeds in making you feel sympathy for Grant and for his family, and you feel his death as a terrible injustice. For this reason, the film is a success. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available.) Grade: B    

Lee Daniels' The Butler

Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013) starring Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, and a cast too large to enumerate. Whitaker plays Cecil Gaines, a fictional White House butler of 34 years' service. Loosely based on the real life of Eugene Allen, the film spans history from the administration of Eisenhower to the advent of Obama. Gaines actually served Eisenhower through Reagan, but the film continues after he retires. Some of the portrayals of presidents by familiar actors are jarring, but in general the film works. The main  problem is that it tries to do too much, and ends up short-changing many of the eras in history which it limns. I wanted to see more of Gaines work in the White House, but we catch only occasional glimpses of what goes on there. The film spends a lot of time on the civil rights movement, which was proceeding at the same time as Gaines' service in the White House. Gaines' son, Louis, becomes a civil rights activist, much to Gaines' displeasure, but they later reconcile. Overall, this is a good movie and Whitaker delivers an excellent performance as the title character. (English subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B   

The Buddy Holly Story

The Buddy Holly Story (1978) starring Gary Busey, Charles Martin Smith, Don Stroud, Maria Richwine. Starting in Lubbock, Texas in 1956, this movie tells the story of the meteoric rise and brief career of rock 'n' roll legend Buddy Holly (Busey). Busey, Smith and Stroud perform the songs of Buddy Holly and the Crickets, and those performances are the high point of the movie. It's great fun, for the most part, and Busey was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in the role of Holly. Not a typical Hollywood biopic, this film captures the excitement of the early days of rock 'n' roll, and any viewer who grew up with this music will find much to like. (Subtitles for the hearing-impaired are included on the disc.) Grade: A-  

Blackboard Jungle

Blackboard Jungle (1955) starring Glenn Ford, Anne Francis, Vic Morrow, Louis Calhern, Sidney Poitier. Juvenile delinquency is the theme of this movie, and Ford plays an idealistic teacher who believes that if he can just find the right formula, he can get through to these kids. This was the first film to use rock 'n' roll, as Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" plays over the opening and ending credits. The school seems kind of weird. The students are all male, and it is never explained why there are no girls going to this high school (although some of the teachers and staff are women). Altogether, it's a pretty strong movie, fairly believable and with impact. Poitier shines as one of the delinquents. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B  

Angel and the Badman

Angel and the Badman (1947) starring John Wayne, Gail Russell. This Western has three flaws: The subtitles on the DVD don't work, the sound quality is poor, and the disc is not indexed, so you can't stop the playback to take a break without losing your place. One of the worst packages I have seen. Grade: F

Bus Stop

Bus Stop (1956) starring Marilyn Monroe, Don Murray, Arthur O'Connell, Betty Field, Eileen Heckart, Hope Lange. A young cowboy named Bo (Murray) decides it's time to find himself a gal, and he falls immediately in love with Cherie (Monroe), a saloon singer. This is the film in which Monroe proved that she really could act, and she's very good. The plot flows as it should, with Bo proclaiming that he and Cherie (he calls her Cherry) are going to be married, while she insists that she is not going to marry him. He "kidnaps" her, and they end up stranded together at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere. That's where the drama plays itself out. I found this to be a very satisfying movie. Although not a great work of art, it was enjoyable to watch and the ending was a happy one. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B

Love, Marilyn

Love, Marilyn (2012), Documentary. Using a newly discovered cache of writings by Marilyn Monroe, this movie uses various celebrity presenters, who read Monroe's words for the camera. Also seen: loads and loads of footage of Monroe, either in acting assignments or being interviewed by the press. What emerges is a new portrait of Marilyn, seen from a slightly different angle than ever before, and thus, in my opinion, worth seeing. This is not great art, but it is great pop culture, and I found it thoroughly absorbing. (Subtitles are not offered on the disc, but closed captions are available.) Grade: B 

Analyze This

Analyze This (1999) starring Robert De Niro, Billy Crystal, Lisa Kudrow. So-so comedy features De Niro as a mob boss who starts having panic attacks, decides he needs to see a psychiatrist (Crystal). Although the actors apparently had a lot of fun filming this movie, I did not have much fun watching it. There's nothing clever about the script, and De Niro is miscast as a Mafioso who occasionally has to cry on camera. The same concept was used in The Sopranos TV series, and with greater skill and success. Coincidentally, The Sopranos debuted in 1999, the same year that Analyze This was released. That said, this movie did well enough at the box office that a sequel, Analyze That, was released in 2002. (English subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: C  

Duck Soup

Duck Soup (1933) starring Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx, Margaret Dumont, Louis Calhern, Raquel Torres. In the tiny country of Freedonia, Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho) is appointed leader because Mrs. Teasdale (Dumont) says so, and she is lending a large sum of money to the government. Firefly declares war on neighboring Sylvania just because he feels like it. The movie is one long sustained bit of zaniness, with the Marx Brothers in fine form, pulling all of their favorite jokes and a few more. A favorite scene of many (and my own) is the mirror scene, which the first time you see it is hilarious. There are many other inspired bits of madness in this film, which is considered by many to be the Marx Brothers best. It certainly gave me a few good laughs. (Subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: A