The Brothers Bloom

The Brothers Bloom (2009) starring Rachel Weisz, Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Rinko Kikuchi, Robbie Coltrane, Maximilian Schell.

Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump (1994) starring Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Sally Field. Directed by Robert Zemeckis. Forrest Gump (Hanks) is a simple-minded man with an IQ of 75. In this movie, we see him grow up from boyhood to adulthood. He becomes a college football player, war hero, owner of a gigantic corporation, and fathers a child by his lifelong love, Jenny (Wright). I found the film to be utterly charming and very likeable, both funny and romantic. It won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor. (The English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are highly legible.) Grade: A-   

The Apartment

The Apartment (1960) starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray. Directed by Billy Wilder. C.C. Baxter (Lemmon) has a problem with his apartment. To further his ambitions at the insurance company where he works, he has allowed executives there to borrow his apartment for their illicit romantic trysts. The trouble really starts when he lends his apartment out to the head of personnel (MacMurray), and falls for the head of personnel's girlfriend (MacLaine). Part comedy, part drama, this is a movie that manages to be both touching and funny. Lemmon and MacLaine are superb. Lemmon has never been more appealing, and MacLaine has never been more lovely. The film won five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. It's a joy to watch, and I highly recommend it. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are very legible.) Grade: A  

The Wolf of Wall Street

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner. DiCaprio plays Jordan Belfort, a real-life Wall Street honcho who made a fortune in the stock market and then ended up serving time in prison for his shenanigans. The movie is very heavy on "colorful" language, drugs, nudity and simulated sex. The movie is also three hours long, and every other word is fuck. I found it distasteful for the most part, and I can't recommend it. Some parts of the film were funny, so you might classify it as a black comedy, but I don't think the funny outweighs the ugly. (English subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B- 

Wonder Boys

Wonder Boys (2000) starring Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand, Robert Downey, Jr., Katie Holmes. Professor Grady Tripp (Douglas) is 50 years old and stands at a crossroads of his life. His young, beautiful wife has left him, and he's struggling to write his second novel, seven years after the first novel was a big hit. Plus, his girlfriend Sara (McDormand) announces that she is pregnant. The movie follows Tripp through a picaresque weekend in which he blunders around town in a marijuana haze, trying to figure out what to do and specifically what he wants. In the process, he gets involved in the life of a morose student (Maguire) and fends off the advances of an attractive female student (Holmes). I found the film to be fairly entertaining, though there were some bits that didn't work. The Extras on the disc are mostly of the self-congratulatory type. English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are provided and are highly legible. Plus, the songs are subtitled! Grade: B

Friendly Persuasion

Friendly Persuasion (1956) starring Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, Anthony Perkins. A pacifist Quaker family, living in southern Indiana during the Civil War, struggles to maintain ideals while under threat of attack by Rebel raiders. Surprisingly, the war section of the movie occupies only a fraction of the screen time; much of the rest of the film is filled with comic vignettes from the lives of the main characters. Cooper stars as Jess Birdwell, the patriarch of the family, and McGuire plays his minister wife, who tries to restrain her son Josh (Perkins) from going off to fight the Rebels. The film starts slowly but builds momentum until the final action scenes put an exclamation point on the story. Very entertaining, well acted, and ultimately moving. (English subtitles are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B+

Antonia's Line

Antonia's Line (1995) starring Willeke van Ammelrooy, Els Dottermans. Following World War II, in Holland, the widow Antonia (Ammelrooy) and her daughter Danielle (Dottermans) return to Antonia's home town, where Antonia's mother lies dying. The pair settle in to make a life for themselves, and Antonia establishes a matriarchal line of women passing down through her daughter Danielle to Danielle's daughter Therese, to Therese's daughter Sarah. The movie won the 1995 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, and the award was richly deserved. Always unpredictable, always interesting, this is a film worth seeking out. It's in Dutch, with English subtitles that are very legible. Grade: A 

Lovers and Other Strangers

Lovers and Other Strangers (1970) starring Gig Young, Bea Arthur, Bonnie Bedelia, Anne Jackson, Harry Guardino, Anne Meara, Michael Brandon, Richard Castellano, Diane Keaton. The plot of this delightful comedy revolves around the impending marriage of Mike (Brandon) and Susan (Bedelia), and encompasses the relationships of several of their friends and relatives. Why should a marriage work, and what goes wrong when a marriage doesn't work? This is the theme of the  movie, and it is explored through the marriages and infidelities of the characters who revolve around Mike and Susan. Highlight of the film is Oscar-winning song, "For All We Know," which is sung during Mike and Susan's wedding. A very entertaining and funny movie. (English subtitles are available, as well as closed captions.) Grade: A-    

Nebraska

Nebraska (2013) starring Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, Bob Odenkirk, Stacy Keach. A delightful mix of drama and comedy in which the elderly Woody Grant (Dern) starts walking to Lincoln, Nebraska after he receives a letter telling him he has won a million dollars. The letter is a scam, of course, but Woody is convinced that he has won. Eventually, his son David (Forte) agrees to drive him to Nebraska, and they set off on a road trip together. They stop off in the town of Hawthorne, Nebraska, where Woody grew up, and word gets around that Woody has won a million dollars. Old friends and relatives come out of the woodwork wanting their "share" of Woody's winnings. The film has many amusing and engaging details, and scarcely takes a wrong step. It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Dern. I enjoyed it immensely. (Subtitles in English are available for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: A     

Saving Mr. Banks

Saving Mr. Banks (2013) starring Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks. Walt Disney (Hanks) attempts to convince P.L. Travers (Thompson) to sell him the rights to her book "Mary Poppins" so he can make it into a movie. She resists fiercely, because she is afraid he'll try to make it into a cartoon, which she detests. Travers, however, needs the money and her resistance slowly crumbles. This is a fun movie which suffers slightly from the continuous flipping back and forth between flashbacks to Travers' childhood in 1901 Australia and the time of the negotiations, 1961. Hanks makes a pretty good Walt Disney, but you never forget that he is Tom Hanks, not Walt Disney. Thompson steals the show as Travers -- she is very convincing in the role, and expresses a wide range of emotions very well. (The disc provides English subtitles for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B+ 

August: Osage County

August: Osage County (2013) starring Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Ewan McGregor, Chris Cooper, Abigail Breslin, Benedict Cumberbatch, Juliette Lewis, Margo Martindale, Dermot Mulroney, Julianne Nicholson, Sam Shepard. The all-star cast is almost reason enough to see this movie about a dysfunctional family in Oklahoma. When the patriarch of the family (Shepard) kills himself, all the daughters (Roberts, Lewis and Nicholson) return home to be with their mother (Streep). The mother, who has mouth cancer, proceeds to rip everyone in the extended family with vicious criticisms under the guise of "telling the truth." Streep and Roberts are excellent as the mother and daughter who practically can't stand the sight of each other. The rest of the cast is close behind, with every performance clearly delineating one of the characters in the extended family. This film is well written, with dialogue that regularly cuts to the quick. Sometimes it's not pleasant to watch, but it ultimately rewards the viewer with deep insights into what makes a family so dysfunctional. I liked it. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc.) Grade: A-  

American Hustle

American Hustle (2013) starring Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence. Directed by David O. Russell. The acting is excellent in this retelling (with variations) of the Abscam scandal of the late '70s and early '80s. Of course the film's producers have gone to town with the period detail, period music and late-'70s-early-'80s fashions in clothes. That's half the fun of the movie. Bale and Adams play a con-man and -woman who team up to rip off clients, then get busted by FBI agent Cooper, who co-opts them into helping him in a sting operation, in which several high-ranking politicians are induced into taking bribes and then arrested. The movie is based on fact, but there is a lot of wiggle room allowed by the script, with several important departures from real people and events. It's a very entertaining movie that got Oscar nominations in all four major acting categories. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available, and are highly legible.) Grade: B+   

Inside Llewyn Davis

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) starring Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, John Goodman, Garrett Hedlund, Justin Timberlake, F. Murray Abraham. This is a rather depressing movie about a week in the life of Llewyn Davis, a folk singer in New York in 1961. The film has an interesting structure, as it loops back on itself and the opening is repeated at the end, a very unique approach. But in between, it is all about how Davis can't get it together, and how he is forced to sleep on friends' couches every night because he can't afford a place of his own to live. There is a lighthearted bit about a cat, which comes into Davis' possession after he accidentally lets it out of a friend's apartment. But mostly the film just seems downbeat to me, and Davis is not a very appealing protagonist. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available on the disc.) 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

An American Werewolf in London

An American Werewolf in London (1981) starring David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne. Written and directed by John Landis. While backpacking through England, an American named David (Naughton) is bitten by a werewolf, while his friend Jack (Dunne) is killed. As it turns out, David becomes a werewolf himself, and Jack returns to haunt him, insisting that David must die to free Jack from limbo. The special effects by Rick Baker  won an Oscar, and the movie displays a wicked sense of humor, even while remaining a full-blown horror picture. For this type of film, it's really quite good. Many scenes are memorable. (English subtitles for the hearing-impaired are supplied on the disc.) Grade: B+  

American Beauty

American Beauty (1999) starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari, Chris Cooper, Peter Gallagher, Allison Janney. Directed by Sam Mendes. Surprisingly good look at two families in suburbia who just happen to live next door to each other. The key character is Lester Burnham (Spacey), who narrates  throughout the movie about his pathetic little life. The main nuclear family is made up of Lester and his wife Carolyn (Bening) and their daughter Jane (Birch). Their next-door-neighbor Ricky (Bentley) has the at-first-creepy habit of videotaping everything he sees, especially Jane. Ricky's father (Cooper) is a retired Marine who is fanatical about his son's behavior. The movie really comes alive when Lester goes to see Jane's performance in a pep rally and falls instantly in love with Jane's friend Angela (Suvari). The film is a true original, with unexpected events at every turn. The movie won Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Screenwriter, Actor (Spacey), and Cinematography. It really is surprisingly excellent. (Subtitles in English are available on the disc.) Grade: A-  

Almost Famous

Almost Famous (2000) starring Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson, Jason Lee, Patrick Fugit, Philip Seymour Hoffman. Directed by Cameron Crowe. In 1973, a 15-year-old writer (Fugit) gets a dream assignment: to write an article for Rolling Stone about a mid-level rock band, and to travel with the band for  part of their tour. Based on director Crowe's real-life experiences as a young writer for Rolling Stone, the movie gets behind the façade of the rock band's public face, and reveals things that they would rather not have the public know. The name of the fictional band is Stillwater (I've never heard of them, anyway), and they are led by the charismatic Crudup. McDormand plays the writer's mother, and Hudson plays a groupie whom he falls in love with. It's a better movie than you might expect, very well made and capturing a quintessential time in American pop culture. (Subtitles are provided for the hearing-impaired.) Grade: B+   

The Way Way Back

The Way Way Back (2013) starring Liam James, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Allison Janney, AnnaSophia Robb, Sam Rockwell, Maya Rudolph. Young Duncan (James) finds himself trapped on a family vacation with his mother Pam (Collette) and her jerk of a boyfriend Trent (Carell). Duncan finds his redemption in a water park run by Owen (Rockwell), where he gets initiated and learns to find friendship. He also meets a girl (Robb), who follows him and (eventually) kisses him. This is a pretty good movie, though James's silent brooding in the beginning is a little hard to enjoy. It gets better as it goes along. (Subtitles in English are provided, as well as closed captions.) Grade: B  

All Night Long

All Night Long (1981) starring Gene Hackman, Barbra Streisand, Diane Ladd, Dennis Quaid. Hackman stars as George Dupler, a mid-level executive at a drug-store company who begins the movie by throwing a chair out through a window and punching his boss. In the process of restructuring his life, he meets and falls for a woman (Streisand) who is gradually won over to his crazy new way of life. Dupler's son (Quaid) is already having an affair with the woman, which makes things kind of awkward between them. This is an oddball little movie which offers its own rewards and has an upbeat ending. (Subtitles for the hearing-impaired are available.) Grade: B 

All About My Mother

All About My Mother (1999) starring Cecelia Roth, Marisa Paredes, Penelope Cruz. Directed by Pedro Almodovar. When a woman loses her son, she returns to Barcelona and reconnects with her earlier life there. This Almodovar's tribute to women, and one can only imagine that his own mother may have born some resemblance to the women in this movie. It's an intensely interesting movie, with lots of transsexuals and pregnant nuns. It also pays tribute to All About Eve and A Streetcar Named Desire. It's in Spanish, with English subtitles. Grade: A-