Surviving 6 More Weeks of Winter
The seasonal turn we reckon by poking half-hibernating rodents to wakefulness has roots deeper than the groundhog’s burrow.
In the midst of winter, February 2 marks the season’s turning point. Light is advancing at dawn and dusk.
Life is stirring down in earth’s depths, where the groundhogs sleep.
But in this clime, the liveliest we’ll get for the next six weeks — when spring makes it official — is in the movies.
Thus, Bay Weekly continues its own tradition, bringing you The Groundhog’s Movie Guide to Surviving Six More Weeks of Winter.
–Sandra Olivetti Martin
The Future Is Now
Mastery of time is an age-old desire. Movies make it happen. But even in the movies, intrusions in the great flow have consequences, as we see in these four time-traveling cinemas.
Blade Runner
Director: Ridley Scott
1982 • 116 mins. • R
What appeared in Blade Runner, set in 2019, that has come to pass? Maybe some communications and graphics technology. And perhaps in a lab somewhere, a devious corporation is sprinting to genetically engineer humans (replicants) for the dangerous task of building off-world colonies even as our planet — starting with large cities like L.A. — suffers such pollution that rain never stops. For former blade runner Deckard (Harrison Ford), who’s called out of retirement to retire replicants, the job gets complex when he meets Rachael (Sean Young), a prototype replicant. Their relationship develops as Deckard moves in on his targets. Most interesting are the interactions between Nexus 6 replicant Roy (Rutger Hauer) and Tyrell Corp. head and replicant creator Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel) and later, Deckard.
Each time you watch this film, you’ll pick up something new, but it always leaves you questioning what it means to be human.
–Leigh Glenn
Back to the Future II
Director: Robert Zemeckis
1989 • 108 mins. • PG
On their second adventure in the time-traveling DeLorean, Doc (Christopher Lloyd) tells his assistant Marty (Michael J. Fox) that they must travel to the future to help his children and keep his future family from falling apart. They leave 1985 and travel to the far-off future of … 2015.
That’s right. We’re officially in the future.
Director Zemeckis’ vision of the future was a mishmash of 1980s’ and ’50s’ aesthetics. Movies advertise themselves with giant holograms, cars fly and Nikes lace themselves. Zemeckis did predict some of the technology common in 2015. Our televisions are flat, we have drones (though they’re not used as dog walkers yet), video chatting is common, 3D entertainment has made a resurgence and fingerprint scans have become a common way to lock or unlock our technology.
Maybe more of Zemeckis’ predictions will come true. Marty and Doc didn’t make the journey until October, so there’s still time for the Cubs to win the World Series!
See this sci-fi classic and find out what other inventions are just months away. I would like my hover board now.
–Diana Beechener
Gattaca
Director: Andrew Niccol
1997 • 106 mins. • PG-13
In the near future, an advance in genetics allows parents to design their children. These perfect lab-created children, called valids, are given the best jobs and societal perks. Children born without genetic screening or intervention are labeled in-valids. These inferiors are forced into poor-paying demeaning work.
Vincent (Ethan Hawke), an in-valid with genetic markers for a heart condition, dreamed as a child of going to space. His in-valid status means he’ll never be anything more than a janitor at the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation. Desperate for a better future, Vincent borrows another life. Using DNA and genetic material from a valid, he cons his way into Gattaca’s space program. His dream is making it to the stars; his danger, being found out.
Every day brings us news of breakthroughs in genome mapping and genetic testing. Eliminating diseases is admirable, but how far should we take this technology? What makes people great — the DNA looping through their cells or something more intangible?
–Diana Beechener
Frequency
Director: Gregory Hoblit
2000 • 119 mins. • PG -13
It’s 1999. John Sullivan (Jim Caviezel) is a homicide detective haunted by the death of his father (Dennis Quaid) in a fire 30 years before.
Living in the house where he grew up, John discovers his dad’s old ham radio. An anomaly in the aurora borealis enables John to transmit and pick up signals across time on the eve of the fatal warehouse blaze.
He warns his father not to follow his firefighter instincts, and dad survives. But the new timeline wreaks havoc. Sullivan’s girlfriend doesn’t know him, his father has died of cancer and his mother (Elizabeth Mitchell) is dead, the sixth of 10 nurses murdered by a serial killer.
Working across the years, father and son try to identify and stop the murderer.
Full of plot twists and turns, Frequency has suspense, mystery and Andre Braugher to boot.
–Marilyn Recknor
In Memory Of
Great talents lost in 2015
To Have and Have Not
Lauren Bacall: Sept. 16, 1924–Aug. 12, 2014
Director: Howard Hawks
1944 • 100 mins. • NR
If you don’t know how to whistle, Lauren Bacall is an excellent teacher.
Barely 19 when she made her screen debut, Bacall was an icon the moment she walked into frame. Stunning, stylish and impossibly cool, she stared down Humphrey Bogart as if she’d been doing it for years.
The movie, based on a novel by Ernest Hemingway, tells the story of charter boat captain Harry Morgan (Bogart), who sells fishing trips to tourists in 1940s’ Martinique. When the Vichy government takes over the island, Harry is asked to smuggle resistance members. Though he has vowed to stay out of the conflict, Harry finds himself pulled into the political upheaval. With the help of sexy chanteuse Slim (Bacall), Harry considers whether to fight for right or go with the tides.
To Have and Have Not marked the start of Bacall’s 70-year career. It also ignited one of Hollywood’s most famous romances.
–Diana Beechener
The Great Escape
Richard Attenborough: Aug. 29, 1923–Aug. 24, 2014
James Garner: April 7, 1928–July 19, 2014
Director: John Sturge
1963 • 165 mins. • NR
After numerous escape attempts, the Nazis send the most incorrigible Allied POWs to a new high-security camp.
SS and Gestapo agents warn the Kommandant to isolate RAF Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett (Richard Attenborough) from other prisoners. Resenting the intrusion, the Kommandant ignores the suggestion.
Bartlett immediately masterminds an exodus for 250 men. He assigns jobs to the prisoners: digging tunnels, scavenging for needed items, forging documents, manufacturing tools, creating suits to help evade capture.
Seventy-six men escape through a tunnel before the guards catch on and shut down the operation. After an intense manhunt, 50 are captured and shot or returned to the camp. Only three make it to freedom.
Steve McQueen is memorable as the Cooler King, whose frequent runs for freedom land him in the brig and distract guards from discovering the impending massive breakout. The all-star cast includes James Garner, Donald Pleasance, Charles Bronson, James Coburn and David McCallum — all in their prime.
Based on an actual event that took place in 1943, the movie is a testament to the ingenuity of the soldiers and to the indomitable human spirit.
–Marilyn Recknor
The Fisher King
Robin Williams: July 21, 1951–Aug. 11, 2014
Director: Terry Gilliam
1991 • 137 minutes • R
Abrasive radio jock Jack Lucas (Jeff Bridges) tells a lonely caller that privileged yuppies “must be killed,” but is horrified when the deranged man walks into an upscale bar and opens fire.
Years later, depressed, suicidal Lucas is about to jump in a river when two men who have been attacking homeless people douse him in gasoline.
Parry (Robin Williams), a psychotic street person, saves him and tells Lucas about his quest for the Holy Grail, showing him a photograph of a silver cup in the castle-like mansion of a local billionaire.
Parry, once a professor, lost touch with reality after his wife was killed in the bar shooting. Feeling responsible for Parry’s delusion, Lucas tries to help by arranging a meeting with the odd young woman (Amanda Plummer) Parry idolizes.
But tormented by visions of a fiery Red Knight, Parry runs into the hoodlums who attacked Lucas. They beat him into a catatonic state, where he remains until Lucas steals the Holy Grail.
Robin Williams is at his manic best as Parry, and Mercedes Ruehl won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress as Lucas’ girlfriend Ann in this comedy/drama of redemption, forgiveness and love.
–Marilyn Recknor
Poetic Justice
Maya Angelou: April 4, 1928–May 28, 2014
Director: John Singleton
1993 • 109 mins. • R
Sage, poet and wonder of the world, Maya Angelou bewitched us with her words. The poet laureate not only achieved star status in literary circles but also made a handful of film appearances. Her most significant is in John Singleton’s romance Poetic Justice.
Hairdresser Justice (Janet Jackson) is an amateur poet who lost her beloved to gang violence in South Central Los Angeles. To get to a hair show in Oakland, Justice agrees to accompany her friend Iesha (Regina King) and her boyfriend on a road trip. Scheming to get Justice out of her funk, the couple have invited Lucky (Tupac Shakur), a mailman and an aspiring rapper. Though Lucky and Justice initially bump heads, they bond during their odyssey.
Angelou’s screen time boils down to a few minutes, but her presence is felt throughout the film. Justice’s poetry was written by Angelou, and Singleton uses it to create a portrait of a phenomenal woman, phenomenally.
–Diana Beechener
Working Girl
Director Mike Nichols: Nov. 6, 1931–Nov. 19, 2014
Director: Mike Nichols
1998 • 113 mins. • R
The financial and emotional stakes are high in this charming tale of a young and enterprising administrative assistant, Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith), who attempts to reclaim rightful ownership of her ingenious business proposal for which her unscrupulous boss, Katharine Parker (Sigourney Weaver) takes credit.
Sparks fly as Tess poses as Katharine while she is away to complete the deal and set the record straight with the unsuspecting Jack Trainer (Harrison Ford), Katharine’s lover. The late Mike Nichols directed this thoughtful and romantic, comedy/drama nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress in a Leading Role and a Supporting Role, and winner of Best Song.
–Karen Lambert
The Savages
Philip Seymour Hoffman: July 23, 1967–Feb. 2, 2014
Director: Tamara Jenkins
2007 • 114 mins. • R
Perhaps Americans are coming off a long run with woundology, including a recognition that most parents just do the best they can. But The Savages is still relevant for its portrayal of how not dealing with parent-child demons manifests differently in siblings. The consequences get amped up as the kids care for their ailing, long-absent father. Older brother Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman) plays the subtler of the two, escaping into his head (he’s writing a book on Bertolt Brecht).
Sister/screw-up Wendy (Laura Linney) reverts to a younger self, trying quickly to create the ideal relationship with their father, Lenny Savage (Philip Bosco), a crank who’s having none of it. Both Hoffman and Linney add levity to an icky situation and turn in nuanced performances. You can’t help but love these two.
–Leigh Glenn
Je Suis Charlie
In memory of the assassinated cartoonists of France’s satiric magazine Charlie Hebdo, we gather movies that celebrate freedom of expression. This foursome invites you to invoke your freedom to decide whether to watch these movies — some of which are sure to offend.
Richard Pryor Live in Concert
Director: Jeff Margolis
1979 • 78 mins. • NR
From 1960 through the 1980s, Richard Pryor showed America our backside — and made us laugh while looking.
That conversation on race we’ve been postponing? Pryor was having it, whitey. George Carlin’s seven forbidden words? Pryor was saying them — plus the N-word — usually three or four to a sentence. Sex and self-image, childhood and child abuse, innards and outers, disease and death, those were his subjects. Even animals, which he loved, got no breaks.
Watch this mid-career classic, if you’re bold enough, and you’ll see this supremely physical comic take on every taboo and shake it till the laughs roll out.
See this filmed concert (or any Pryor role) and you’ll glimpse the work comedy does for us. Court jesters, Charlie Hebdo or Richard Pryor, comics let us look at what we’re scared of by making fun of it.
–Sandra Olivetti Martin
The Lives of Others
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
2006 • 137 mins. • R
Stasi agent Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) is committed to keeping East Germany safe from agitators. Assigned to bug the apartment of playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), Wiesler becomes enthralled with the writer and his girlfriend.
To protest the corruption of the East German government, Dreyman writes propaganda for the agitators. Wiesler watches but can’t bring himself to turn them in for anti-government activities.
A meditation on oppression, voyeurism and corruption, The Lives of Others considers what happens when we think no one is looking. Wiesler becomes a metaphor for the viewers, forming emotional attachments to people he doesn’t know simply because he watches them.
Von Donnersmarck’s portrayal of East Berlin in the 1980s focuses on oppression and the struggle of people who seek to voice their opposition.
–Diana Beechener
This Film Is Not Yet Rated
Director: Kirby Dick
2006 • 98 mins. • NC-17
What’s the difference between R and PG-13? Director Kirby Dick examines the standards and inner workings of the Motion Picture Association of America, which determines the ratings system.
Interviewing filmmakers, actors and writers, Dick discovers that the ratings system in America is arbitrary. Too many curse words can push your film to an R rating, as was the case for the English drama Philomena. But the board apparently doesn’t mind the killing of children, as it gave The Hunger Games a PG-13 rating.
To illustrate his point, Dick shows unedited films next to their MPAA-censored versions. His juxtaposition earned the documentary a verboten NC-17.
If you focus on breasts and blood, as the MPAA does, you’re missing the point. This Film Is Not Yet Rated is a damning look at the censorship of the American film industry, which is often guided by outdated moral codes and outright corruption. Watch this film and you’ll never look at a rating again.
–Diana Beechener
Moonrise Kingdom
Director: Wes Anderson
2012 • 94 min. • PG-13
This quirky fable, set in 1965, stars 12-year-old nonconformists Sam (Jared Gilman) and Suzy (Kara Hayward), who immediately bond, convinced no one else understands them. Sam, an orphan wise beyond his years, can’t quite fit socially as a Khaki Scout, despite his camping prowess, while Goth-girl Suzy is torn by pre-teen angst.
Pubescent pheromones are flying as the young puppy-lovers run away together — or as far as one can get on New Penzance, a scenic island off New England’s coast. A search party and a posse of Sam’s fellow Khakis try to hunt them down as an ominous hurricane approaches the island. Think Lord of the Flies meets The Perfect Storm.
This whimsical tale of magical realism seen through Sam and Suzy’s eyes was a Golden Globe nominee for Best Motion Picture. It is not without its dark side (spoiler alert: Don’t get too attached to the dog). Quirky ensemble cast includes Frances McDormand, Bruce Willis, Bill Murray and Ed Norton. Rotten Tomatoes’ score: 94 percent.
–Thomas C. Hall
Play It Again
These gems just keep getting better the second, third or fourth time around
Night of the Hunter
Director: Charles Laughton
1955 • 92 mins. • NR
“Would you like me to tell you the little story of right-hand/left-hand? The story of good and evil?”
So begins the sermon of psychotic preacher Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), as he clasps his tattooed hands together. Powell uses God’s wrath to explain away his tendencies to murder and steal. After he spends a few nights in jail with a convicted murderer and bank robber, Powell thinks nothing of hunting down the robber’s family so that he can take the stolen loot. In short order, Powell marries the robber’s widow, kills her and chases her two children across the countryside.
A fairy tale nightmare set in Depression-era America, Night of the Hunter was the first and only film directed by actor Charles Laughton. Savaged by critics of its day, the film is now regarded as a minor masterpiece of expressionist cinema.
The real reason the film remains a classic is Mitchum’s unhinged performance. He froths. He screams. He spouts scripture like a man possessed. As he chases the children through the Gothic landscapes, his menace is a palpable presence on the screen.
–Diana Beechener
The Nights of Cabiria
Director: Federico Fellini
1957 • 110 mins. • NR
Fellini makes a fun film.
If this Federico Fellini film reminds you of Charlie Chaplin, that’s no coincidence. Fellini cited City Lights as an influence, and it shows in the boundlessly optimistic, ever-disappointed naïve prostitute Cabiria, played by Fellini’s wife and muse, Giulieta Masina. Set in post-war Rome and subtitled in English, this classic won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film as well as Best Actress at Cannes.
Cabiria needn’t say anything for you to know exactly how she’s feeling through her expressions, her dancing or her carriage. Despite myriad foibles — including the way she growls at those who want to help her — despite her losses in love and mistreatment by men she believes will come through for her, she never gives up, even when she desperately wants to.
–Leigh Glenn
The Godfather Trilogy
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
1972, 1974, 1990 • 8 hours, 57 mins total • R
Every villain has a story that could break your heart, and the Corleone mafia dons are no exception. In Mario Puzo’s saga of criminal intrigue and family drama, the cycle of innocence corrupted is as crushing as love, captivating as terror and eternal as death.
These mobsters are chilling in their duality as ruthless murderers and devoted fathers. From Marlon Brando’s mumbled double-speak as the aging patriarch, Vito … to the imperceptible nods of his reluctant heir, Michael (Al Pacino) … to the heavy hand of Vince (Andy Garcia) in the third generation, these businessmen command control and adoration with style.
Robert DeNiro as young Vito in Part II is wily and smooth, cold-blooded and caring in raising his quiver of cobras: Sonny (James Caan) the pugilistic hothead; Fredo (John Cazale) the loser; Connie (Talia Shire) the pampered victim turned Machiavellian apprentice; and respectable Michael. Adoptive son Tom (Robert Duvall) guards their power and reputation as legal counsel. Their tragic wives suffer extremes of passion and abuse. Only Kay (Diane Keaton) disentangles herself with dignity, and that of one child, intact.
From Sicily to New York, Cuba to Vegas, Lake Tahoe to The Vatican, this tale of operatic proportions and soundtrack fascinates.
If you’re short on time, though, skip Part III.
–Jane Elkin
Life Is Beautiful
Director: Roberto Benigni
1997 • 116 mins. • PG-13
Winner of Academy Awards for Best Actor, Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Foreign Language Film, this inspiring and acclaimed Italian film tells the story of Guido Orefice (Roberto Benigni), a romantic, upbeat Jew who embraces life with his whole heart through the best and worst of circumstances.
The first half is charming love stories. So is the next, but in very different ways.
After a series of life-changing events, Guido and his young son, Joshua (Giorgio Cantarini) are snatched away from the people and the life they love. In a Nazi concentration camp during World War II, Guido maintains his optimism, resourcefulness and humor as he struggles to keep both his son and himself alive.
–Karen Lambert
Sleepers
Movies better than you bargained for
Little Miss Sunshine
Directors: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris
2006 • 101 mins. • R
Who’d watch — let alone make — a movie about a beauty pageant for seven-year-olds?
Yet this absurd and delightful comedy won Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Screenplay.
Sure to put a smile on your face, Little Miss Sunshine will have you rooting for the quirky Hoover family of misfits traveling from Albuquerque to California in their Volkswagen bus so the seven-year-old daughter can participate in the finals of a children’s beauty pageant. Unwavering in their commitment, family members work together to overcome a seemingly endless path of wacky obstacles.
An ensemble cast of notable actors — including Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell and Alan Arkin — gives memorable performances.
–Karen Lambert
Only Lovers Left Alive
Director: Jim Jarmusch
2013 • 123 mins. • R
Musician Adam (Tom Hiddleston) is tired of life. A vampire living in a dilapidated house in Detroit, he’s grown weary of humanity after hundreds of years. Adam’s only loves are classic rock and his vampire bride, who now lives half a world away. Sensing something amiss with her husband, Eve (Tilda Swinton) leaves her home in Tangier and rushes to Adam’s side.
Together, the couple drink blood, dance to records and discuss life. Think of it as Before Sunrise with fangs.
Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, Only Lovers Left Alive is an inventive take on the vampire tale. Adam and Eve are the coffee and cigarettes type; they’d rather listen to some vinyl and talk about love than stalk prey through the night.
Swinton and Hiddleston dance, swoon and occasionally stalk their prey in this cool movie with bite.
–Diana Beechener
Rush
Director: Ron Howard
2013 • 123 mins. • R
This paean to the world of Formula 1 racing beautifully captures one of the most dramatic seasons in the long tradition of European road racing, the mano-a-mano competition between James Hunt of Great Britain and Niki Lauda of Austrialia for the 1976 World Championship. There has never been anything like it since.
Hunt, a hedonistic and reckless sportsman of endless courage and talent, faced a consumate technician and equally talented tactician in Lauda. Chris Hemsworth, a dead ringer for Hunt in personality as well as appearance, transforms effortlessly into his role — as does Daniel Bruhl who just as closely resembles Lauda.
Add into the mix the Italian Ferraris driven by Lauda and the American Maclarens piloted by Hunt plus the supermodels and beautiful high-society pit girls who haunted the circuit, and you’ve got a gear-head’s fantasy on steroids.
Hunt died at 46, worn out by his lifestyle. Lauda lived on to capture two more world championship and to pronounce the 2014 movie totally representative and realistic. His only regret: that his friend Hunt did not live to see it.
–Dennis Doyle
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Director: Lasse Hallstrom
2012 • 112 min. • PG-13
A wealthy Arab sheik (Amr Waked) who loves fly-fishing is determined to bring salmon and the sport to his desert kingdom. To attempt this swimming-upstream challenge, he persuades Britain’s leading fisheries expert (Ewan McGregor) and a lissome financing consultant (Emily Blunt) to kick-start the venture.
The story weaves wide-eyed optimism, romance and geopolitics. Kirstin Scott Thomas shines in a cameo role as a pushy aide to Britain’s prime minister, who hopes the Quixotic project will spawn better relations with the Middle East. But Islamic fundamentalists resist any Western influence being brought into their country. They violently threaten to scuttle the sheik’s salmon-transplant project, which would divert much of Yemen’s scarce water resources.
Romance swirls between the fly-fishing professor (McGregor) and the businesswoman (Blunt), who unite to try to pull off a miracle.
Lasse Hallstrom also directed Chocolat and was the Oscar-winning screenwriter for Slumdog Millionaire. Beautifully shot, cinematographer Terry Stacey brings a bit of the Scottish highlands to Yemen in his beautiful shots for this sweeping comedy/drama.
–Thomas C. Hall
Stranger than Fiction
Life itself offers the richest plots, though it often takes a good storyteller to make the most of them. These directors show how to do it.
Lone Survivor
Directors: Peter Berg, Mark Wahlberg and Taylor Kitch
2013 • 121 mins. • R
Based on a true story, a U.S. Seal Team has been tasked with the capture of a Taliban commander, dispatched to the mountainous Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan to provide intel.
On-site they discover that, while their target is indeed present, his Taliban force is far larger than originally believed. As they withdraw to inform headquarters, they are discovered by and an elderly shepherd and his two young assistants.
Unwilling to kill the non-combatants, the team aborts the mission and tries to extract. But the terrain foils their attempts at communicating with their support base, and they are soon attacked by insurgents alerted by one of the released youngsters.
In a dynamic and brutal one-sided firefight down the side of a mountain, the team fights for its very life. The last man standing, Marcus Luttrell — played by Mark Wahlberg — is rescued by a local and protected by the village. But they can’t hold out forever.
–Dennis Doyle
Get On Up
Director: Tate Taylor
2014 • 139 mins. • R
Get On Up is an enthusiastic and well-rendered biography of American icon James Brown, the Godfather of Soul and the Hardest Working Man in Show Business. Born in poverty in Barnwell, South Carolina, and raised in Georgia by an abusive father and later by an aunt who ran a brothel, Brown is introduced to music while in prison for stealing a suit.
Chadwick Boseman inhabits Brown’s personality like it was his own. It is a joyous musical celebration of a life that spanned 60 years of constant performances. At the showing I attended, the audience could not keep their feet still; neither could I.
Rolling Stone Magazine rates James Brown sixth of the top 100 performers of all times. See this movie and you will understand why.
–Dennis Doyle
Lumumba
Director: Raoul Peck
2000 • 115 mins. • NR
Don’t expect a tedious history lesson about Belgian-Congolese-U.N.-U.S.-British politics. That’s not what director Raoul Peck is up to in this fast-paced bio about the short life of Patrice Lumumba (Eric Ebouaney), proponent of Congolese sovereignty, pan-African nationalist and the nation’s first democratically elected prime minister.
This is a riveting film that’s hard to watch, given that the end lies in the beginning as “our man in Congo,” Joseph Mobutu (Alex Descas), ushers Lumumba to his torture and death.
Ebouaney portrays Lumumba as abrasive, but with the interests of his people at heart, unlike most higher-ups in this drama. In Congo’s case, to paraphrase Edmund Burke, all it takes for evil to triumph is for people to succumb to divisions within and among themselves.
Recent State Department papers have confirmed U.S. involvement in Lumumba’s death, and Haitian-born Peck weaves these revalations into the narrative. Peck, who made a documentary about Lumumba in 1992, departed Francois Duvalier’s regime when he was eight, joining his family in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, where they resided for years. Peck hopes that viewers will go beyond this film and seek to understand what’s happened and what continues in Africa, Congo in particular, as multinationals exploit the continent’s wealth.
–Leigh Glenn
Life Itself
Director: Steve James
2014 • 120 mins. • R
With a few strokes of the keys, Roger Ebert could make a movie famous or doomed. His Pulitzer-winning reviews helped fuel the careers of Martin Scorsese, Werner Herzog, Errol Morris and Ava DuVernay. The Thumbs Up system he developed with partner Gene Siskel is still regarded as one of the highest honors a movie can get.
Filmed during the last days of Ebert’s life, Life Itself is a documentary that offers unprecedented access to the man behind the thumb. It examines his career and influence, but more importantly gives you a look at the man. James visits Ebert in his hospital room during his final days, intercutting the footage with moments from his early reviewing days.
A moving, unflinching portrait, Life Itself explores Ebert’s private life, his struggles with alcoholism, his love affair with the silver screen and his fraught relationship with Gene Siskel. It’s a surprisingly intimate glimpse at the life of one of Hollywood’s tastemakers.
–Diana Beechener
Wild Tales
Movies take on the animal kingdom
Ring of Bright Water
Director: Jack Couffer
1969 • 107 mins. • G
A London pet store otter catches the eye of bored office worker Graham Merrill, launching the pair into a devoted friendship that lands them in a remote coastal Scottish cottage. As mischievous Mij explores the waterways, Merrill combines house repairs and writing with beach frolicking with the frisky otter. When Graham meets the town doctor, Mary MacKenzie, and her spaniel, Jonnie, the ensuing companionship transforms all of their lives.
Mij meets a shocking end, and I for one was glad to know this before I watched. But the film’s sense of fun and wonder so entranced me, I wanted to don my Wellies and head to the Hebrides. I settled for reading Gavin Maxwell’s autobiography by the same name, upon which this movie is based.
Actors Bill Travers (Merrill) and Virginia McKenna (MacKenzie), real-life husband and wife, may be recognized from their roles as George and Joy Adamson in the 1966 film Born Free. Moved by their experiences in Kenya, Travers and McKenna spent the rest of their lives as animal activists and conservationists and were inspired to make several films on the issue, including Ring of Bright Water.
–Dotty Holcomb Doherty
Winged Migration
Directors: Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud and
Michel Debats
2001 • 98 mins. • G
A French film four years in the making, Winged Migration helps us appreciate how birds must travel with the seasons in search of food. Narration (in English) is minimal, as birds are photographed foraging, nesting, fighting, raising chicks and confronting dangers on their lengthy journeys. The Arctic tern’s flight is longest: 12,500 miles from pole to pole.
No special effects were used, but filmmakers raised several kinds of birds that imprinted on staff members and were taught to fly alongside planes with film crews. Hot air balloons, gliders, boats as well as a French Naval battleship helped in the filming.
Mellifluous music, breathtaking scenery and millions of birds in flight earned the movie an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary in 2002.
–Marilyn Recknor
White Lion
Director: Michael Swan
2010 • 88 mins. • PG
Fine family fare. Not merely another cutesy critters-for-kiddies film, the White Lion brings great photography of the African savannah and noble environmental messages: Save Our Wildlife, Save Our Planet.
Most interesting is to first watch the how-the-film-was-made portion to learn about the animals, those working with them and the challenges of shooting a film whose actors don’t always follow a script.
White lions are the gods’ messengers, says Shangaan legend. None, however, have been spotted for years. Finally one is born in the wild. Banished from its pack, the white lion teams up with an older lion, only to become the target of an American trophy hunter.
A Shangaan tracker, Gisani, is hired to help the hunter but faces the dilemma of how to save the rare white lion he feels destined to protect.
–Elisavietta Ritchie
Virunga
Director: Orlando von Einsiedel
2014 • 90 mins. • NR
In the mountain forests of Congo, there is a war going on. Park rangers at Virunga National Park risk their lives every day to protect the last of the mountain gorillas from extinction.
That’s not hyperbole.
These rangers put their lives on the line fighting armed poachers, a government more interested in profiting off of oil reserves than preserving endangered habitat and a war that is coming closer to the mountains each day.
A powerful documentary, Virunga is most poignant when it shows the deep love the rangers have for their charges. Whether bonding with injured gorillas or chasing down poachers, these men are bravely fighting a losing battle. Watch this Oscar-nominated Netflix original documentary to learn about their plight and how you can help the gorillas and the park.
–Diana Beechener