Blue Is the Warmest Color

Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013) starring Adele Exarchopoulos, Lea Seydoux. A sort of coming of age story about a high-school girl named Adele (Exarchopoulos) who finds that she is more attracted to girls than to boys. She falls in love with a fourth-year college student with blue hair named Emma (Seydoux), and they enter into an intense relationship which involves showing graphic lesbian sex scenes lasting several minutes. Eventually, though, Adele cheats by sleeping with a man, and Emma throws her out. The emotions shown by both actresses are very strong, and Adele, although she is the cheater, is heartbroken. Emma was The One for her, and Adele has great difficulty moving on. Even at nearly three hours, the movie does not seem too long. In fact, it barely sketches years of their relationship. The only quibble I have is that the actresses don't noticeably age, even with the passage of several years through the film. But this can be forgiven when a movie shows such raw emotion so convincingly, and Blue Is the Warmest Color is a film which  sticks with you long after the closing credits run. It's in French, with English subtitles. Grade: A-   

A Walk in the Clouds

A Walk in the Clouds (1995) starring Keanu Reeves, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, Anthony Quinn, Giancarlo Giannini, Debra Messing. Paul Sutton (Reeves) returns from World War II to find that the wife he has been pining for (Messing) is a bimbo, and that he has a bad case of PTSD. When he goes on the road to "find himself," he meets a young woman (Sanchez-Gijon) on the train, and she proceeds to throw up on him. Naturally, he falls in love with her. This movie is nothing more than a high-grade romance novel brought to the screen -- an art form for which, unfortunately, Reeves is ill-suited. It's a good entertainment, but not great art. (The DVD offers subtitles in English, and also closed captions.) Grade: B-

Up Close and Personal

Up Close and Personal (1996) starring Robert Redford, Michelle Pfeiffer. A young woman named Sally Atwater (Pfeiffer) seeks a career in television news, and an old hand named Warren Justice (Redford) takes on the task of training her up from an assistant to an on-air reporter. Naturally, they fall in love. It's a pet peeve of mine, but Redford was 60 when the film was made, and Pfeiffer was 38. I didn't believe the chemistry between them, although toward the end they almost had me convinced. The script for this movie was awfully hackneyed, and it all seemed like an excuse to get the two stars together on screen. (The film offers English subtitles, as well as closed captions.) Grade: C

Two Lovers

Two Lovers (2009) starring Joaquin Phoenix, Gwyneth Paltrow, Vinessa Shaw. Bipolar schmuck named Leonard (Phoenix) lives with his parents, carries on doomed relationships with two women at the same time. Michelle (Paltrow) is a troubled woman who is dating a married man. Sandra (Shaw) is the sensible choice, the daughter of Leonard's father's business associate, and a lovely young woman. Naturally, Leonard makes plans to run away with Michelle to San Francisco. The movie is anything but boring, and manages to maintain suspense up until the closing scene. I liked it. (English subtitles are not offered, but closed captions save the day.) Grade: B+  

One Day

One Day (2011) starring Anne Hathaway, Jim Sturgess, Patricia Clarkson. Emma (Hathaway) and Dexter (Sturgess) almost, but not quite, have sex on the night of their college graduation on July 15, 1988. They become best friends, and the movie revisits them every year on July 15 to trace the progress of their relationship and their progress in the world. Emma seems to be in love with Dex, who is in love only with himself. She struggles in a job at a Mexican restaurant, while he becomes a semi-famous TV personality. Ultimately, what I felt the movie lacked was chemistry between the stars. Hathaway is appealing, but Sturgess just doesn't succeed in making you care about him. In the end, I did find the film as moving as the book, although of course something is almost always lost in translating from page to screen. The movie has good subtitles, but no closed captions. Grade: B+

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+

Summertime (DVD)

Summertime (1955) starring Katharine Hepburn, Rossano Brazzi. Directed by David Lean. American spinster (Hepburn), vacationing in Venice, falls in love with a married man (Brazzi). The scenery is beautiful, but much was lost to me because the DVD has absolutely no subtitles, no closed captions, nothing. Grade: F+

Cairo Time (DVD)

Cairo Time (2009) starring Patricia Clarkson, Alexander Siddig, Tom McCamus. Magazine editor Juliette (Clarkson) travels to Cairo to be with her husband, Mark (McCamus), but finds him unavoidably detained. Instead, her guide to Cairo becomes Tareq (Siddig), an Egyptian man who formerly worked for Mark. Juliette and Tareq develop feelings for each other, but they never act on them -- except that Juliette goes with Tareq to visit the Pyramids, something she had promised Mark she would save for him. It's a good sort of culture-clash film, although it moves rather slowly. The subtitles are good. Grade: B+

Adam (DVD)

Adam (2009) starring Rose Byrne, Hugh Dancy, Peter Gallagher, Amy Irving. Adam (Dancy), who suffers from Asperger's syndrome, meets Beth (Byrne), a school teacher. While their relationship is slowly building, Adam runs into financial problems in the wake of his father's death and the loss of his job. Meanwhile, Beth's father (Gallagher) is an accountant who has been indicted for some alleged wrongdoing. In the process of working out these kinks in their lives, Adam and Beth work on the kinks in their relationship. The movie doesn't have a Hollywood-happy ending, but that is to its credit. The subtitles are excellent. Grade: B+

(500) Days of Summer (DVD)

(500) Days of Summer (2009) starring Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Directed by Marc Webb. Adorable Summer (Deschanel) is the girl who Tom (Gordon-Levitt) falls in love with -- and the girl who breaks Tom's heart. She tells him she doesn't want a serious relationship, then sleeps with him, which confuses him no end. The story is told in flashback, with their breakup coming in the first five minutes of the film. It is also told in non-linear fashion, with the numbered days of their romance being shown out of chronological order. It all makes sense, though, and the ending seems just about right. The subtitles are great -- even the songs on the soundtrack are captioned. Grade: B+

Titanic (DVD)

Titanic (1997) starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet. The most popular movie of all time (based on box-office receipts) delivers on several different levels, with a sincere love story and absolutely top-notch special effects showing the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. Grade: A

Baby It's You (DVD)

Baby It's You (1983) starring Rosanna Arquette, Vincent Spano. It's 1966 in Newark, New Jersey. Middle-class Jewish high-school girl (Arquette) and blue-collar Italian boy (Spano) get romantically involved. He gets kicked out of school, she goes off to college. Will the star-crossed lovers end up together? See the movie and decide for yourself. Co-written and directed by John Sayles. Extras: None. Grade: B

Out of Africa (DVD)

Out of Africa (1985) starring Meryl Streep, Robert Redford. Streep stars as Danish writer Karen Blixen, and Redford plays the free-spirited English hunter whom she meets after moving to Africa in 1913. The film is epic in scope, and the soundtrack is lush. Streep, as usual, does a wonderful Danish accent, but Redford doesn't even bother to try for an English accent. The DVD is subtitled for the hearing-impaired, but the captions are atrocious. The movie clocks in at two hours, forty minutes, about an hour too long. Multiple Oscar winner. Grade: B+