Mustang is one of the latest films from The Arthouse Film Festival. It is a film shot in Turkey, but was a collaborative event with French and German backers. It is France’s submission for Best Foreign Language film for the Academy Awards for 2015.

In an oppressive society, 5 orphaned sisters live with their grandmother. An harmless incident playing with some boys after school leads their Uncle to remove them from society, to stay at home until they can be married off. They are taught cooking and cleaning, and all the necessary skills. They still manage to sneak out and have fun when they can. Lale, the youngest, is a fan of soccer, hears about a soccer match where the crowd is women-only, so she works out getting on a local bus to the game. Their grandmother spots them on TV, and their uncle realizes they escaped, and turns their grandmother’s home into a jail for them. They all dream of escape, but Lale starts making plans…

This was a ‘slice of life’ film. You get some insight on a culture you wouldn’t otherwise see. It was thrilling towards the climax, in a way you would hope for, but not actually expect. There are some very shocking turns in the film, so it’s not all fun and games.

Recommended.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 is the final movie adaptation from The Hunger Games series. Originally written by Suzanne Collins, she contributed to the movie adaptation.

The revolution is in full swing. Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) is holed up in District 13, with many rebel forces, led by President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore). The fight is going well, and they expect to be invading the capital within a few days. The movie starts with Katniss in the hospital, recovering after being injured when her team snuck in to rescue Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) from the clutches of President Snow (Donald Sutherland). President Snow had brainwashed Peeta into believing that Katniss and the people she represents are a danger to the entire country of Panem. President Snow manipulated Peeta into believing that the rebellion was there to destroy everything that the country represents, using Peeta as a pawn to turn popular opinion against the rebellion. Peeta, though recovered, still believes it all, and would kill Katniss if ever given the chance.

Katniss realizes that the only way to stop the fighting is to kill President Snow, but President Coin refuses to put her directly in harm’s way. Instead, she creates a small ‘strike force’, made up of former Hunger Games winners and specialists. They will be deployed behind the front lines, but pretending to be leading a part of the attacking forces. Her team, lead by Captain Boggs (Mahershala Ali) and Lieutenant Jackson (Michelle Forbes), are given a special device that knows of and can scan for all the booby traps that lie in the capital, so that they can be recorded avoiding them, for propaganda purposes. Katniss is definitely a ‘hero of the people’ and needs to be elevated as such. Coin sends Peeta up to go with the group, thinking he’s been deprogrammed enough to be an asset.

The fight goes on, and concludes. Most of the strike force is killed off, though a set of Rube-Goldbergian traps that have been set. The military tactics that the Panem forces use are terrible, and would never be used by a winning army. There is some gross stupidity on display that is probably glossed over for the sake of the story, so they could get to the end. There were several moments where the outcome was telegraphed, but I’ll leave those for you to discover.

This movie drags in several spots. The runtime is 2 hours, 17 minutes. Between the first and second parts, there was perhaps three+ hours of material that was stretched much further than it should have been, but perhaps the film studio only saw dollar signs. There are several ‘endings’, much along the lines the Lord of the Rings endings, but perhaps that was the point. Keep making a movie until they felt it was enough to pad, and then end. I don’t so much find fault with the end as much as I do with the time it took to get there.

Recommended, but for die-hard Hunger Games fans only.

The Intern is a film with modern undertones, touching upon a couple of issues facing both the elderly and the young.

Ben (Robert DeNiro) is a retiree, whose wife has passed away. It’s been several years since then. He’s taken all the trips, and visited his children enough, and he feels there is something more to be done. He stumbles across an ad for active seniors looking for work as interns. One of his neighbors, Patty (Linda Lavin), tells him it’s a waste of time, but she’d rather spend that time with him, instead. Rather than sit by and fade away, he lands a job at an online fashion retailer.

That company is run by Jules (Anne Hathaway). She started the company with the goal of being service-minded. Anyone, she says, can have an online business, but hers would be better than anyone at customer service. She sells clothing that just fits as you would expect, but is involved in all aspects. Her partner Cameron (Andrew Rannells) reminds her of the company’s elderly intern program, and recommends that she take one of the retirees as a direct subordinate, to set the example for the rest of the company. Naturally, she’s reluctant to use Ben, but that transpires, he spends time learning about the company, and assisting people as needed. He is very observant, and is able to guide people into doing what’s right and necessary, both in work, and their outside lives.

Through a series of inconsequential circumstances, she comes to rely on him more than she ever thought she would. Ben becomes Jules’ driver, and manages to insinuate himself into her family. Jules’ husband is a stay-at-home dad, raising their daughter while she runs the company. She’s so irritated by Ben’s attentiveness that she reassigns him, but we come to find he’s more valuable to her than she wants to admit. There’s external pressure from her backers to hire a CEO, who can help shape the company better and take some of the load off of her so she falls apart from the pressure. Jules is putting on a brave face, because she’s baring the success of company on her shoulders alone.

There are comedic elements to this film that play well, but this is first and foremost a drama. The story could have gone in a different direction along those lines, but thanks to a well-written script and good direction, it does not stumble. There are a couple of turning points, and there were scenes that did not play out on screen, and that was the right decision. This is a character driven story, and the focus remains on the characters that matter. The resolution was very satisfying, and well worth the time.

Recommended.

Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie is an anime film, which serves as a prequel to the previous Ghost in the Shell movies and the well known TV series. In the world of anime, that is. The setting is the future, in a post World War III world (without nuclear weapons, fortunately). Many people have cybernetic implants and body prosthesis to enhance their bodies, as well as communication skills. Some even have full body replacement. The ‘Ghost’ essentially refers to someone’s mind, spirit, or soul, if you will, and the Shell implies the artificial body that a Ghost will occupy. There’s a significant amount of hacking done in the background, where the right people can hack into peoples’ brains, if there is a need. The series and movies have taken place in Japan.

The film starts with a hostage situation. The government is intent on disbanding the military, and focusing instead on privatizing that function. The hostage takers are from the 501st division, and they do not want this to happen. The film starts with the prime minister authorizing the funding of a special antiterrorist unit to take care of the situation. This team is led by Major Motoko Kusanangi (dubbed by Elizabeth Maxwell), who has hand-picked her team. As they go on the offensive, the Public Security Section 9, let by Aramaki (voiced by John Swasey) sits by, guarding the facility for any external action. He wants the major’s team to work with him, but they eye him as a rival competing for funding. The major’s team is mostly successful, capturing all but one of the soldiers alive. The other one gets away. Before they can be questioned, someone hacks into some of the hostages’ minds, who are then coerced into killing the soldiers. After the fight is over, the prime minister is assassinated with a bomb while meeting with advisors. Spurred on by the prime minister’s son, the Major and her team try to find out who’s behind it all.

I’ve read that the series has undergone a reboot in recent years called Ghost in the Shell: Arise. I was not aware of that until after I’d some research before I started composing this review. This movie is a continuation of that effort, and is essentially retconning what has come before. In my opinion, it falls very flat. It’s an ‘origin story’ of a sorts, replacing what had been covered in the series. It retells a bit of the original concept, but not in an interesting way.

I was fairly disappointed by this movie. The original movie, the multiple sequels, and the TV series were all very innovative for what they were doing. The first movie went into a discussion of what it means to be a person, and the animation behind it was unbelievably photorealistic at times. The followup films were interesting, as well, and exceptionally stunning for their beauty. The seasons of the TV series delved into filling out the world, and presented some eclectic and appealing music. These stories from the franchise’s universe were unlike anything I’d seen before, and kept me wondering where it would go. However, in this film, the visuals are pedestrian, the music is a bit dull and completely forgettable, and the story is a little confusing. Perhaps this is due to my lack of awareness of the reboot beforehand. Even the film’s title is boring and nondescript. Perhaps now I will go back to the rebooted movies in this franchise, and it may change my opinion of this film, but I doubt it.

I also found it irritating that some of the franchise’s original American voice cast have been replaced. I found it disconcerting that the original voice actress for the Major, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, was is doing a different character in this film. I guess that’s the way it will be for this franchise, now.

Love the Coopers was tonight’s selection at the ArtHouse Film Festival. It’s a holiday film, and could potentially replace Love, Actually as the modern go-to Christmas movie. It’s a chaotic character stew that works, in its own way.

The film opens with a narrator (Steve Martin), who sets the scene. Charlotte (Diane Keaton) and Sam (John Goodman) have been married for 40 years. As usual, they are hosting dinner on Christmas Eve and all the family’s coming. What the rest of the family doesn’t know is that they are getting a divorce, but don’t want to ruin Christmas for everyone else, so they’ve put on their brave faces and will pretend nothing’s wrong. Their son, Hank (Ed Helms), is divorced, and living locally, and they pick up his youngest, while he goes on a job interview and his two sons do some last minute shopping. Meanwhile, their daughter Eleanor (Olivia Wilde) hangs out at the airport, wasting many hours until dinner, so she doesn’t receive the annual look of pity from her parents. She bumps into Joe (Jake Lacy) at an airport bar. He’s stuck at the airport because all flights are grounded.

Furthermore, though I’m probably rearranging the sequence of events, Sam’s father Bucky (Alan Arkin) visits the diner he goes to regularly, because his favorite waitress Ruby (Amanda Seyfried) is there. She informs him that she’s moving away to start a new life, and they argue. Charlotte’s sister, Emma (Marisa Tomei) is arrested for shoplifting at the mall that Hank’s two sons are at. Charlie (Timothée Chalamet) and Bo (Maxwell Simkins) are oblivious to Emma’s plight because Charlie is fawning all over Kendra (Michelle Veintimilla) who works at the mall, and Bo is looking for that “perfect gift” for his brother. Oh, Sam and Charlotte have a large, sweet dog, and they’ve brought home Aunt Fishy (June Squibb) for dinner, too. The narrator fills in missing details throughout.

Got all that? Good, because every one of them has their part to play in this movie. There are some brief flashes of previous events that are touched upon, much like in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (predating Family Guy and Dream On by decades), but are not comedic. Some of the film is comical, some of it sad, and some bits rely on standard holiday tropes, which, for the most part, are not as stale as one would expect. Other tropes play out to their unavoidable and predictable conclusion. Diane Keaton and Marisa Tomei do not really seem like sisters, separately, but together, they do mesh well and you get ‘it’. The ending does seem a bit drawn out, but it does come together in the end.

That said, I still liked this movie. If you’re looking for holiday schmaltz, this is it.

Spectre is the latest film in the James Bond series. This story continues with elements of the plot of Skyfall. In the previous movie, M (Judi Dench) was killed, and was replaced by the new M (Ralph Fiennes), who has decided that James Bond (Daniel Craig) needs to be reassessed.

The film begins with James in Mexico City, where they are celebrating the Day of the Dead. He mingles with the crowd, tailing someone of importance. They break off of the main celebration, where Bond observes his mark negotiating a deal to set off a bomb in a local stadium during the festivities. He manages to dispatch several of the people involved, but his mark manages to escape back into the crowds. Bond chases him and sets off a thrilling chase and fight sequence.

Back at home, M is furious. The loss of the previous M has forced a merger between Mi-5 and the 00 program. Bond meets the leader of Mi-5 and dubs him ‘C’. Bond’s supposed to be on lockdown, and is told to stay in England, but this is the thing that usually forces 007 to step into action, and he goes for it. We find out that the previous M has made a final request. Some evidence from Mexico City leads him to a gathering in Rome, which gets him right in the midst of a worldwide conspiracy that he has to untangle and resolve. That conspiracy has some direct relevance to how Bond’s been handling himself in the recent past.

As with any Bond movie, there are exotic locales that lead him to the heart of the situation. It’s all connected, and there are more direct links between each of the destinations involved. While previous Bond movies have run by a sense of absurd situations and ludicrous stunts, the ones with Daniel Craig have been more down-to-Earth and plausible, if we ignore the action of the last film’s scenes involving the London Underground. Here, everything is thrilling, but also believable in a way not found in previous films. Just remember that this is a James Bond movie, and go with it. The writing is reasonably decent, and women are not the props they’ve been in the past, for the most part. For example, Moneypenny’s role is not restricted to fawning over James, and it’s a welcome change.

I recommend Spectre. It’s thrilling without insulting your intelligence. The climax has a certain finality to it, but not an absolute one. The runtime of the film itself is 148 minutes by itself, so be prepared for a long stay…

Friends and Romans was another film screened for the Arthouse Film Festival. It’s a hilarious farce that’s meant to explode a few stereotypes, and it works.

Nick DeMaio (Michael Rispoli) lives on Staten Island. He sells and delivers fruits and vegetables, but his passion is for acting. Unfortunately for him, he’s been typecast, and his whole film and TV career revolves around being an extra, usually playing mobsters, but rarely in a speaking role. He auditions for a Broadway play, but manages to offend the director. His best friend, Dennis, also an extra, gets him a gig in a car commercial, but manages to mess that up, too.

At home, his daughter Gina (Katie Stevens) is distraught. She wants to be in her high school’s rendition of Guys and Dolls, but feels overshadowed by another girl who is a true drama queen. Nick’s wife, Angela (Annabella Sciorra) is trying to make Gina feel better, but Nick isn’t helping, given that his career is crumbling, too.

Nick comes to realize that the only way he’s going to realize his dream is if he puts on his own play. He walks into a theater in Staten Island, managed by Bobby (Tony Sirico), and rents it for the play. He wants to follow in Marlon Brando’s footsteps, and Angela says the way to do it is to go to Shakespeare, and since Brando played Mark Antony in Julius Ceasar, that’s the play he’s going to do. Unbeknownst to him, the theater is actually owned by Joey ‘Bananas’ Bonano (Anthony DeSando), who’s hiding out after killing someone. The FBI has the place staked out, and are listening in, but they don’t know who Bananas actually is. They decide they should send someone in to audition for the play, and while he may look Italian, he really isn’t. Joey Bananas is, at first, against the play, but we find that he’s quite an accomplished actor, himself, and gets a starring role in it.

This movie is a farce. Much of the acting is totally over the top, and most of the cast is lamenting their status as stereotypes, while playing up to them. Gina gets a part in the high school play because of it. The FBI thinks that Nick might be the murderer, but isn’t sure. Everyone’s struggling to overcome what they are, and it’s all a big mess. I will say that the must go on, but how it unfolds is left for you to discover.

I rather enjoyed this movie and I definitely recommend it. It was hilarious, while at the same time, was on the mark about the stereotypes. Angela could have easily been a confrontational, annoying wife, but she actually encourages Nick and Gina. She’s also an English teacher, so she properly understands Shakespeare and is able to pass that along to Nick, who then teaches his cast. It’s a very entertaining movie, and will begin a limited release this weekend.

Recommended.

This week, the Arthouse Film Festival showed us the documentary My Nazi Legacy: What Our Fathers Did. Philippe Sands, a European Lawyer, became acquainted with a German man, Niklas Frank. Niklas was born in 1939, and was the son of Hans Frank, a lawyer for Nazi Germany during World War II. Niklas, in turn, was also friends with Horst Wächter, also born in 1939, and was the son of Otto Wächter, who was also a lawyer for the Third Reich.

The documentary opens with Horst giving Philippe a tour of the home he grew up in. He talks about his father, who he rarely saw. Horst then shows several photo albums, indicating that Otto was a high ranking member of the Nazi Party, and there are photos of him in uniform with many others. Horst laments that he never really spent time with his father, as he was so young and his father was a busy man.

Meanwhile, Niklas similarly tells of his childhood. His life was different, and quite privileged. Their family moved to Poland after the start of World War II. Hans was given the rank of Governor-General of one of Poland’s territories. Niklas was raised by a nanny and his mother had very little to do with his upbringing. His father wanted to divorce his mother, but she wrote to Hitler, who ordered they stay married.

During the war, Frank was directly involved in the extinction of many Jews and others, as well as keeping the remainder of the Polish population under control. Otto Wächter worked with him as an administrator. He was the governor of Krakow, but then became the governor of Galacia in the Ukraine. It is known that he organized the ghettos where Jews and others were kept. After the war, Frank was captured by the allies, tried at Nuremberg, and executed. Wächter hid in the Salzberg mountains, eventually sought sanctuary in the Catholic church in Rome, where he lived until his passing in 1949.

All of this is known history. Philippe lets on that all of his family, save one person (his grandfather), was killed as a result of the actions of the Nazis in Poland, and specifically, Hans Frank. Niklas freely admits that his father is guilty of crimes against humanity. Horst, on the other hand, does not accept that his father had any direct involvement with the Holocaust. The evidence is all circumstantial, in Horst’s eyes, and there is no specific proof his father was the cause of any atrocities.

The rest of the documentary is spent digging in further into that history. Niklas and Frank are guests at a talk in England, with Philippe acting as host and moderator. Later they visit Poland, and later, the Ukraine. This movie is heartbreaking. Horst steadfastly believes his father is innocent, while Niklas and Philippe present evidence that would suggest otherwise.

This documentary is not something that I can say I liked or disliked. It relived some very ugly truths that many will find distressing. I know it did that, for me. The documentary does attempt to correlate the events of World War II to modern ones. As this film was being made, Russia had already invaded Ukraine, so there is a timeliness to it. I don’t believe that part of this documentary was properly fleshed out, but the connections were made.

Our Brand is Crisis is the latest movie starring Sandra Bullock. She and George Clooney are producers for this movie. I’m told both had been considered for the lead, but Sandra was the one to do it. This is a fictionalized version of the documentary of the same name. It does not resemble the original story, except maybe on a basic level.

Sandra Bullock stars as Jane Bodine, a political strategist who has retired from the ‘game’. When she was ‘on’, she was a miracle worker, able to revive the campaigns of several candidates (in the U.S.) who wouldn’t have stood a chance if not for her skills. Unfortunately, after a string of failed bids for election, she was given the nickname ‘Calamity Jane’, and so she gave up, and went into seclusion.

The film starts with two strategists approaching her to help run the campaign of a presidential candidate in Bolivia. Senator Castillo (Joaquim de Almeida) was previously president, but decided to privatize some of the country’s industry and resources, leaving a bad taste in the country’s mouth. The country’s in turmoil. He’s attempting to regain the position, but his campaign is rather simple and ineffectual. The polls place him at less than 10% approval, with several other candidates polling at much higher numbers.

Jane is a bit unsure about the situation. It hasn’t helped that she’s affected by altitude sickness. Jane is thrown a curve ball, in that the most popular candidate’s campaign is being managed by an old rival, Pat Candy (Billy Bob Thornton), who just so happens to be the one that she lost to, all those previous times. This inspires her to dive in and rediscover her mojo. She realizes that the ‘story’ about Castillo has to change. They need to shift the focus of the campaign to one of declaring the current political atmosphere to be one of ‘crisis’, where the future is uncertain, and a strong hand is what’s needed to get the country back on track. She intends to make Castillo the right person for the job.

Pat has other plans. He and Jane spar verbally, and that gives each other ideas. Jane intends to go negative, but Castillo is against it. She brings in a dirt-digger, and sets her to task. Meanwhile, people are saying that Castillo is disconnected from the common people. Jane realizes that after giving a ride to one of the campaign volunteers, Eddie (Reynaldo Pacheco) and visiting his home. This causes a shift in the strategy that drives them towards the election itself. There is a bit of bickering between Pat and Jane. The election occurs, of course, and the outcome ends with a little epilogue that you wouldn’t necessarily see in such a movie.

I’m on the fence with the film. I enjoyed it, but I’ll have to admit I’m a sucker for anything Sandra Bullock is in. This is best described as a black comedy. There are humorous moments, but this is first and foremost a drama. The story is good, but not great. There were a couple of flaws that I won’t spoil, but they’re not major faults.

I personally liked the film, but I can’t say that everyone will enjoy it.

The Wonders is the latest film from the Arthouse Film Festival. It’s a film with both Italian and German dialogue, with English subtitles, and it’s directed by Alice Rohrwacher.

This is a coming-of-age story. It focuses on Gelsomina, played by newcomer Maria Alexandra Lungu. Her father Wolfgang (Sam Louwyck) and mother Angelica (Alba Rohrwacher) have four daughters, with Gelsomina being the oldest. They have a meager existence in farm country. The family raises sheep, sells honey, and Wolfgang and Gelso are the main beekeepers. They rarely socialize, but they do interact with the nearby farmers, but it seems like an adversarial relationship. Wolfgang is a bit domineering, indicating there’s work to be done and little time for such frivolity. Angelica’s sister Cocó (Sabine Timoteo) is there, and they are living off of some money she’s had, but it’s running out.

Gelso is slowly realizing that there’s more to life than what she knows. At one point, the family is relaxing at a lake, and manage to disturb a tv crew, who is shooting a promo for a reality show that’s essentially a local farm competition. The host, Milly (Monica Belucci), invites Wolfgang and his family to participate. He turns them down, as he considers it frivolous. He’s driven to become self-sufficient, for when it all comes crashing down. Besides, there’s work to be done and they can’t spare the time.

You see a lot of what it takes to succeed at beekeeping. I’m told there were insurance concerns in getting the film made, as they opted for using actual bees instead of some sort of digital trickery. The fact they did made me both fascinated and uncomfortable at the same time.

Gelsomina wants more than the life she has. Secretly, she enters the competition. Meanwhile, the family takes in a boy, Martin (Luis Huilca). He’s a German boy, who’s had a troubled life. He doesn’t say or do much, and Wolfgang sees him as more of a source of income, as the family’s to be given a subsidy to host him. Martin can also be another farmhand, if they can get him to do anything.

It all starts coming to a head when the reality show’s producer arrives to investigate the legitimacy of Gelso’s application for the show.

I’ve got mixed feelings about the film. It’s certainly not for everyone. The movie’s pacing is a slow walk, almost a plod. You get a sense of what Gelsomina’s life would be like. She’s barely a teenager, and is responsible for a lot of things, including minding her sisters, as well as her beekeeping duties. She almost never has time alone, as one would expect. She doesn’t even know what she wants, and is incapable of expressing that. She just knows it’s more, or something else.

The end of the film is intentionally vague, leaving open several possibilities. It’s not clear to me what will happen, but I’m certain that was the point.