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Two people in Death Valley because their dead son (AIDS) has told them he will meet them there on a certain date.

Valley of Love (2016)

This is a two character play set in the beauty of Death Valley.

Talk, talk, talk.

Michael left two letters, named these dates. What's up?

It is nice to watch two superb actors work with this strange material. It is also a treat to see Death Valley in wide screen.

Beyond that? French angst in the usual heavy portions. Followed by an inconclusive shrug.

C'est La Vie.

A lot of photography here and on location at the same place we stayed when we visited.

Just like old home week.

We see a lot of the designated "sights". They skipped the sliding stones which are pushed by the wind and leave tracks. A quarter inch a decade. Or something.

The stones move a little more quickly than this film.

It isn't much to watch but it is nice to see these troupers doing their best to breathe life into a saggy premise.

I won't tell you whether the son appears or not.

Labels: films

The past can kick your ass.

As we find in this film

45 Years (2015)

Tom Courtney and Charlotte Rampling experience that the scars show after all the time they were together.

An old flame of his is found preserved in ice in Switzerland. Lost while the hiking with the husband.

This news strike home just as a big anniversary is coming up and, and and.

There is a lot of drama here that is unspoken. A lot depends on two fine actors to show that all this time together has led to some shallow living. Or something.

I don't want to analyze this much. The viewer is left with their own conclusions.

My conclusion is that this is a pretty good film and I am glad I saw it and it will get a 3 out of Netflix5 from me.

Labels: films

All writer/directors must tell their coming of age story.

My Golden Days (2016)

is one of the latest,

Arnaud Desplechin tells a great tale of a young man's obsession with a girl named Esther.

At one level it is a conventional story telling. But in the hands of Desplechin this film has a style that is irresistible to me.

Thanks to its young cast who are more an ensemble than individual stars there is great appeal here.

The inevitable sex is beautiful to watch.

I would not mind seeing this again sometime.

What a contrast with American films on the same theme (which would be about half of them?)

A NYTimes Critics' Pick.

Labels: films

Today's film was so beautiful to look at.

But it was way overstuffed for the story which is not very original.

A town needs a doctor to get a factory to come build there and so they con a new medical graduate doing public service for drug possession to come be their doctor.

Deep breath after that longish sentence.

You can guess where this is going.

The Grand Seduction (2013)

Too bad because with a skillful hand on the FF, I did a pretty good job of editing it down so that at its predictable end I had a case of the sniffles.

The film company should have hired me to do the edit.

But there is Brendan Gleeson and Taylor Kitsch to look at in the process and that was a good thing.

The wilds of Newfoundland are also gorgeous and they have scenes all over.

There is a great deal of room here for character actors. The time provided is good for them.

I will give it a 3 out of Netflix5 just because I wanted it to be so much better. Or, rather, shorter.

Labels: films

Today's film is another of those "first films" for the writer/director

And, as is often the case, if it is not autobiographical it feels that way. Totally.

Spa Night (2016)

A young Chinese American boy gets a job in an all male spa.

Surprised to see all those men who came to make out with one another, he identifies and starts to be a patron as well as an employee.

Yes the baths are still an option for some gay men. Anonymous and usually safe. Even when they are straight they are gay.

This is one of those films where nothing happens but everything happens for the boy who does find himself.

There s some adult child of an alcoholic things here. Not very well done but clear enough. There are the usual difficulties with culture clash. Immigrants assimilating. In this case Korean.

Good job. A 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films, gay films

This Mel Brooks film was not received well.

Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)

but I received it very well and laughed a lot again. Same old jokes though.

I suppose that it is obvious but I dare anyone to try to put this kind of thing on and do it better.

I am a die-hard Mel Brooks fan and so even at his "worst", in the opinion of some, he is in the best films column for me.

Perhaps the trouble here is that there is more slapstick than any of his other films. Even a reference, funny, to Abbot and Costello who I loved. So.

A 5 out of Netflix5 because I have seen it three times at least. On the other hand, as a first time it would be a 3.

Labels: films

The space program is a thing of the past.

At least the lunar part. It got cancelled before the total missions were completed.

Today's film is a nostalgia trip but also a real view into the life of a hero.

Gene Cernan was

The Last Man on the Moon (2016)

and this is a documentary about that man's life as an astronaut.

There is more humanity than heroics in this great little film. All the tech stuff has been gone over and over. A lot of astronaut movies have been done and done again.

But this is the real deal including the divorces. the disappointment and the sorrows within the highly touted space program.

But it is not an exposé either. It is just a gentle story about a sturdy (and studly) man who has had a life that very few others can have.

Humble and yet proud.

Very nice. A great guy to spend some time with on a cool afternoon indoors.

This is a big festival award winner.

Labels: documentary, films

This is the first film I have seen about the addiction to hormones.

The main character has to have testosterone because he cannot produce it naturally.

How he came to be that way and what happens when he becomes addicted to the essential drug is the theme of

Bullhead (2011)

I got to this film because I am trying to see all of the work of Matthias Schoenaerts, who bulked up for this role naturally without the steroids that his character has to have.

There is a lot of violence in this film and a few distractions in the plot which make it a bit hard to watch.

When on the screen, Schoenaerts is a force of nature. A beauty trapped in a beast's body. When he is off stage, things lag.

This is a classic plot, one of the thirteen universal stories. The tragic hero.

I liked this film a lot but had to look away a few times. There are animals involved and while there is a scene where they have to take a calf not one of them is hurt.

Not so much can be said of the guys who get pummeled and beaten up along the way.

One more thing. It was a nominee for best foreign film in the Academy Awards.

This film is a 3 out of Netflix5. Not for everybody and almost not for me but when I was done I watched the "making of" bits to come down from my own adrenaline high. I usually do not do that. I let the film stand on its own.

But t his time I needed to detach and the little short helped.

Today's film is a Danish entry into the war chronicles.

By that, I mean that it tells a conventional story set in modern warring times but with a Danish perspective.

Krigen / A War (2016)

A battle decision is made, civilians are killed, the officer who gives the command is held responsible and court-martialled for his decision.

What is different here is the close proximity to the "dogma" style of film making.

One feels right in the middle as no other battle film I have seen. Heads down goddamit incoming! Bang. I ducked.

Despite the conventionality of much of the film it is still good to watch if you like that kind of thing. There are some gruesome scenes but nothing you have not witnessed in a film before. Although the "reality" bites.

I give it a 3 out of Netflix5. Not going to see it again but I am glad I saw it this time around. I was due a blood and guts war film. This is it. There will be another one next year. The same drum keeps beating. Wars, Films.

One last thing. Do not miss the Nordisk Film polar bear sitting on the top of their logo. A Scandinavian equivalent to the MGM lion as an opener.

Labels: films

Today's film has gotten a big play on the Festival circuit.

So I figured I would see for myself, an eye witness, eyeball the film and eye-dentify what is going on.

Lazy Eye (2015)

It is a reunion picture. Two ex-lovers meet in Joshua Tree National Park, in an isolated cabin, after 15 years with a lot of life in between.

There is a lot of talk. And when they are done talking about the past they talk about the near present and then they talk about the past again.

They are good looking, healthy gay males of the latest, I believe jaded, generation.

No gay lib wounds or other interesting side effects.

I found the whole enterprise boring and would not want to spend another minute with them.

They do deserve each other.

One is in a long time relationship but obviously the husband, they are married, is not there.

OK. It is filmed in Joshua Tree National Forest, quite nearby. We have been to a lot of the locations that are used. There is a lot of amusement in that. But not enough.

I bought the film sight unseen. And I figure that for me it will remain that way from here on out.

Did I say that I hope they stay together because they deserve one another?

In all fairness, I should mention that the last 20 minutes of the DVD were screwed up. They deserve a re-hearing with the new disc I am getting.

Labels: films, gay films

Today's film is about a couple who cannot get together no matter how strong their attraction.

Gegen die Wand / Head-on (2004)

I have seen this film a couple of times. Fatih Akin, Turkish director working in Germany.

A roughneck is asked to marry a young woman to seal her citizenship. It turns out that the vows while dishonest turn out to be more than a ruse for the authorities. The two fall in love.

Some of the action here is fierce. Brutal. And that is just in the bedroom. Not really. But there is a lot of violence in this film. I only say that as a warning to those who shy away from that kind of thing.

The sweetness of the relationship balances this out. This is a movie of extremes.

Since I have seen it more than once it has to be a 5 out of Netflix5 but it is really a 4. Not everyone would want to see it twice. I only did because of the director whose work I really admire.

Labels: films

Today's movie is a very good depiction of a gay relationship in trouble.

Like You Mean It (2015)

There are no shouting matches, no histrionics. Just a quiet landslide ending in separation.

That is not a spoiler, nor is it the whole story.

We are led through the steps of this dissolution and allowed to draw our own conclusions about the situation.

Both men are a bit rootless. One is a singer, the other an actor. Already in a slippery place professionally. Perhaps they are depending too much on each other to provide the stability they are not getting anywhere else.

We get to see a bit into one man's past and his relationship with his father and sister.

I liked this film very much and probably would not want to see it again although the sex scenes are very good. A lot of body exploration, very close up. Male beauty. They are both stunners. And we see all of them. Almost.

So a 3 out of Netflix 5 unless a late night conversion drives to me to buy the DVD. Or if my husband likes it a lot more than I did.

Labels: films, gay films

Today, the second half of

The Fall (2006)

which is a mostly dream world concocted by a stunt man recovering from a broken back in a 1920's chronic hospital.

A little girl meets the stuntman in his ward and he tells her this story to keep them both entertained.

Now that doesn't sound like a promising film does it?

But it is a wonderful trip through lands of imagination.

Magical realism.

I love this movie.

I want to see it again. It is a 5 out of Netflix5 for sure.

I did it in two sittings in the same way that one would carefully ration a great dessert or a wonderful trip.

Labels: films

I finished The Departed today. Scorcese's take on Boston gang life. Two imbedded FBI informers.

This is such a shitty movie that I do not want to write about it.

Relentlessly violent and not a single character we can admire let alone like.

The entire thing, however, is filmed in Boston very much in our old neighborhood so there is redemption among the corrupt cops and FBI people as they do their thing around Beacon Hill and South Boston.

Jack Nicholson is a Whitey Bulger type character. It was done much better in a couple of other films.

I would not want to see this movie again, surely, and I did FF to get it over with. After all it is almost three hours long.

So it is a 1 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

Here we are again.

The crime scene in Boston.

This time with Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCapprio, Jack Fucking Nicholson and many others who will be familiar crime figures from the movies.

Directed by Martin Scorsese, filmdom's organized crime king.

I watched the first half.

It is long.

And I enjoyed it. Many familiar Bosotn places, a lot of story tension. Very good.

I will finish it tomorrow.

Labels: films

Today, the second half of Martin Scorsese"

The Aviator (2004)

I really liked this movie a lot.

First of all it has airplanes and it includes technical information. It does not talk down. You have to pay attention.

Second it has Leonardo DiCapprio in what at times seems to be miscasting but then, finally, is not. He is superb. So are all the other big time actors who fill out the cast.

I grew up with a Dad who adored airplanes. Built models, Went to airports to gawk. Would take a ride at any opportunity. These were mostly bi-planes.

Then a long gap for me. I didn't pay a lot of attention to it all.

This film brings it all back. The excitement of the times.

And then there is Howard Hughes. A phobic recluse at the end whose long brilliant career as an entrepreneur and flier were forgotten in scandals and misguided Congressional hearings.

He was a ladies man. Kate Hepburn. Ava Gardner. So the women in this film are called upon to do a very difficult task. To play iconic actresses. Kate Blanchett is great.

This is also a movie movie. Hughes produced a bunch of hits like Hells Angels, Scarface and The Front Page.

A forgotten time brought to life.

I would not mind seeing it again for all its long three hours.

Labels: films

I watched the first half of The Aviator today.

The Howard Hughes inspired Martin Scorcese film.

Stars Leonard DiCapprio.

So far so good.

Labels: films

Today, an elegiac film about the late life of a couple in China.

My Love Don't Cross That River (2016)

Very moving. As a certified member of the geezer club I can relate to what these folks are going through. It is nice and sweet but also a bit tough to take at times. Like life.

I am glad that I saw it. As a member of a long term couple I know that one of us will go through this someday. A good tutorial.

But if you are young you might like it too. What is in store.

A 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

Today's movie is a bit Hitchcockian.

Life was not good in New York so the young couple moves to the heartland, his home town.

Big frogs, small puddle. Wife gets restless. Shit happens. Wife disappears leaving clues behind that perhaps he killed her.

What a stew.

Gone Girl (2014)

I think that this is one of those movies that one loves or hates. I actually liked most of it and felt it was a little too long. But that is the trend today. When I was a kid every film was 90 minutes and nothing over.

Like a lot of other things, that went down the stream a long time ago. This one weighs in at 2.5 hours. And here is a real test. I tried but could not actually FF to get the thing moving. Just when I thought this could go to the next scene, something grabbed me. Often at the throat.

Very skillful that David Fincher, the auteur of this piece.

And hence the suspense, I believe.

A bit of a warning. Things get very bloody at times. Grand Guignol bloody. And here is a bit of a clue not a spoiler. Wooden puppets in the GG style play a small role in the series of games the villain lays out for the victim. Aha!

The film stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike. Also features Neil Patrick Harris. Good to see him.

I liked it and would actually be willing to see it again just to watch the little games being played. A 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films

Today's film is about a family who basically isolated completely from the rest of the world.

In the middle of Manhattan.

The father is a frightened guy, an immigrant, who worries about how his kids will make it on the outside so he keeps then inside, homeschooling and all.

The Wolf Pack (2015)

A NYTimes Critics' Pick.

When he is fifteen, one of the boys leaves the apartment for the first time. His father is not around.

This is the break that had the whole family begin to move out, first in secret, and then with the parents.

This is a beautifully done documentary. How much is re-enacted and how much "real time" is hard to tell.

No matter.

Such a weird setup to see progress to a final resolution. A bus ride for all into the country around the city.

This is not a spoiler because it is the process of how this came about that is the point of the film. Very good. A 3 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films