Movies I Saw This Year That I Can Recommend

Here are some films that I watched this year and can recommend.

Documentary (from Netflix)

Birders:  The Central Park Effect.  Central Park's bird-watchers and the variety of birds they watch.  I found it all quite charming.

On the Way to School.  An inspiring documentary featuring four groups of school children who have a long walk to school--an older brother and his little sister by horseback in Patagonia; a boy who can't walk who is pushed by his two little brothers in a wheel chair over awkward terrain in South India; three girls in the High Atlas who have 22 km. (which takes 4  hours) to walk over rocky ground; and a brother and sister in Kenya who have 15 km. to go across elephant country.  They all take it very seriously, are amazingly helpful to each other, and consider going to school a real privilege.  One girl goes around to neighboring villages to urge residents to send their children to school.  The too-faint subtitles were hard to read so I had to more or less disregard them except at the end when it described what each child hoped to do when grown.

The Biggest Little Farm.  A young couple move from L.A. and turn unproductive acreage into a beautiful farm filled with fruit trees, animals, and an irrigation pond as they strive for (and achieve) biodiversity as their basic philosophy.  Wonderfully done both as a film and as a farm.

They Came to Play.  The Van Cliburn annual amateur pianists competition held in Texas 2007 with an eye surgeon winning first prize.

Documentary (from Kanopy)

Walking the Camino:  Six Ways to Santiago.  Inspiring, beautifully photographed, focusing on a few people, their pain, tears, and laughter--using walking as a spiritual practice.  I hadn't realized how gorgeous that part of Spain is.

Drama/Comedy (from Netflix)

Can You Ever Forgive Me? A biographical film about author Lee Israel's literary forgeries with Richard E. Grant as her friend.

Miss Austen Regrets.  From a Masterpiece Classic with Olivia Williams--to my mind a much more convincing Jane Austen than Anne Hathaway depicted in her version.

Puzzle.  Kelly McDonald and Irrfan Khan--who starred in the India film, Lunchbox.  A woman whose only activities are for her husband and two sons plus the church.  When she then meets a man who needs a puzzle partner, they fall in love.  Not well lit; hard to see.  Good acting.

Queen of Katwe.  A biodrama about master chess player, Phiona Mutesi, from the slums of Kampala, Uganda, with a supportive mother and chess coach.  Moving.  Directed by Mira Nair.

The Cakemaker.  German baker loves an Israeli man who divides time between Berlin and Jerusalem.  After the man's accidental death, the baker goes to Jerusalem, finds the man's wife, and begins helping her in her cafe, making cookies and cakes but never letting on that he knew her deceased husband.  Slow, engaging.

The Guardians.  France.  Set from 1915-1920 on a farm showing all the chores. Beautiful  photography, each frame like a painting.  Simple story of the women taking care of the farm while the men are at war.  Particularly gorgeous sequence of scenes of harvesting.  Little dialogue, mostly silent communication.  Only one disruptive war scene.  Excellent acting including a mother/daughter who portray a mother/daughter.

The Way.  With Martin Sheen.  Also about the Camino.  Even more moving seeing it a second time.  Glorious photography.  With Martin Sheen as walkers from the U.S., Canada, Ireland, and Holland find their way together.

Woman at War.  Iceland.  A woman carries on environmental awareness via sabotage of the grid.  Quirky, effective.

Drama/Comedy (from Kanopy)

Menashe. A Hasidic widower is told he can't keep his ten-year-old son until  he remarries and  establishes a proper home for him.  In Yiddish and filmed in the Orthodox part of Brooklyn.  Could be tightened up.

Drama/Comedy (from Netflix Streaming)

Fanny's Journey.  Based on the true story of a young Jewish girl in France who, in 1943 along with other Jewish children, was being sheltered by the Oeuvres de Secour aux Enfants for three years.  Then, with no adults they could trust and Fanny leading them, they suddenly had to leave when someone rats on them and they make their way to Switzerland.  The tale describes their escape.  Beautifully done.  Very moving.

Private Life.  Paul Giamatti.  About a couple trying to conceive in the '40s. NYC setting.  Well acted. No punches pulled.

Series (from Netflix Streaming)

Chef's Table.  Excellent.  Stories of individual chefs from around the world and how they became inspired.  From Patagonia and Thailand to Slovenia, Italy, and North America.

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat.  Samin Nosrat, a highly enthusiastic cook at Chez Panisse, says these four make food, flavor, and balance.  Engaging presentation.


(Plus a few on my "don't bother" list.)

Chappaquiddick.  Morose.
King of Thieves.  Boring despite Michael Caine.  Mediocre at best.
Our Souls at Night.  Redford is uncomfortable; Fonda plows ahead.  Not their best.
The Exception.  Hokey.
Tulip Fever.  Interesting setting but poor and contrived plot.



  

Foreign Movies That I Saw in 2018 That I Can Recommend

I have been finding some excellent foreign films on Netflix, often enjoying them more than those made in this country.


1.  Dunkirk.  2017. US, UK, France, Netherlands.  Gritty.  Another historical drama.  Little dialogue.  It's more as if you are part of the scene, present at the time as German troops force the allies onto the beaches at Dunkirk where they are being strafed as the big ships there to take them home are being sunk.  No Americans are present since the U.S. hasn't yet entered the war.

2.  From the Land of the Moon.  2016.  France.  A passionate French woman (Marion Cotillard) must decide between her husband who fought in Spain and a young man wounded in France's Indochina war. Beautiful settings.  An interesting, complex story line.

3.  Goodbye, Christopher Robin.  2017.  UK.  Bio drama about A. A. Milne, creator of Winnie the Pooh.  It concentrates on the family's troubles following WWI all the way up to WWII.

4.  Lemon Tree.  2008.  Israel.  Based on a true story of an Israeli Defense Minister whose department orders the lemon grove next door to be cut down so that it might not harbor terrorists.   Since the orchard is her livelihood and harbors no terrorists, the owner, a Palestinian widow, takes the case to the Israeli supreme court.  Poignant.

5.  The Fencer.  2015.  Estonia and Finland.  Set in the late '40s and early '50s, this is the story of a man who takes a teaching position in a small Estonian village school to hide from the KGB.  He is a fencing champion and starts a sporting club of students who become good enough to go on to a tournament, but by taking them there, he then exposes his identity.  A true story.

6.  The Syrian Bride.  2004.  Israel, France, Germany.  The story is set in a Druze village in the Golan Heights right on the Israeli-Syrian border.  Living there creates untold troubles for the residents ... such as making it seemingly impossible (due to political strictures) for the bride on one side of the border and the groom on the other to physically reach each other.

7.  The Treasure.  2015.  Romania.  A lovely little film.  Two men attempt to find a great grandfather's buried treasure in the family garden.  It's very slow-paced, amusing in its little bits of business, with a very adequate ending (not to be a spoiler and tell all).  In Romanian.

8.  The Wedding Plan.  2016.  Israel.  A moving film.  After a decade of looking for someone to marry (even the matchmakers aren't successful), a young woman decides to trust that God will provide and goes ahead with wedding plans though a groom hasn't yet shown up.  In Hebrew.

9.  The Women's Balcony.  2016.  Israel.  A group of neighborhood women work at patching up a rift in their community with the help of a new charismatic rabbi.  In Hebrew.

10.  Things to Come.  (L'Avenir).  2016.  France and Germany.  Set in Paris and the Grenoble area.  Less plot, more reporting about the daily life of the main character, a fifty-ish philosophy professor who follows a good life--job, husband, children, Parisian apartment--but then finds that everything shifts as she acquires a new freedom that she doesn't realize comes with choices that are up to her to make.  Isabella Huppert.

U.S. Movies That I Saw in 2018 That I Can Recommend

The popcorn aisle

1.  Allied.  2016.  Brad Pitt is a Canadian in World War II who meets and marries a French woman (Marion Cotillard) who is later accused of being a German spy.  Is she?  Isn't she?

2.  Brooklyn.  2015.  From the book by Colm Toibin.  A romance about a young Irish immigrant who lives in 1950's Brooklyn but then has to decide between two different men--one back in Ireland and one in the U.S.  Beautifully done.  Many subtleties plus intelligent acting.

3.  Chef.  2014.  This is the kind of movie I love--fun, nice music (Cuban), good food, no one's hitting anyone, good story line, good actors including Robert Downey Jr. in a playful role.  A chef leaves the restaurant where he works and goes back to basics opening a food truck which proves to be the perfect work for him to get back on his feet and spend time with his 10-year-old son.

4.  Darkest Hour.  2017.  US and UK.  Historical war drama.  How words can inspire--the "we will fight them on the beaches" speech when Churchill, as someone said, "mobilized the English language and sent it into battle."  Through words, spirit, courage, at their darkest hour, the English were able to prevail and Churchill was able to speak for the people and carry out the country's destiny through those words which astonished everyone and brought them to a new place--a place they hadn't really tapped but that he tapped for them.  Gary Oldman is Churchill.  Excellent.  Joe Wright is the director.  Look him up; he's done some beautiful work.

5.  A Dog's Purpose.  2017.  I loved this movie--a comedy-drama directed by Lasse Hallstrom.  Wonderful.  In realizing that he's being re-incarnated, a dog begins to wonder what the purpose of his life is.  "Here we go again," he says to himself at the beginning of each new puppy-hood, " ... but just what is this life stuff all about?"  He decides it all boils down to "Be here now."  A charming film.

6.  Gifted.  2017.  Whether to let a 7-year old girl who is a mathematical genius be a child or send her off into an adult's world to solve some of the Millennium Problems, as they are called.  Her uncle has taken her in on the death of her mother and hopes he is doing the right thing by letting her enjoy her childhood and learning to socialize with others her age.  Her grandmother has a different vision for her.  Mostly set in Florida.

7.  Inside Job.  2010.  Documentary narrated by Matt Damon about the 2008 financial meltdown.  Wonderfully executed.

8.  Mark Felt.  2017.  A biopic that mostly seems to hit the high spots of the Watergate affair.  Liam Neeson plays Mark Felt, aka Deep Throat.  The film is okay but very superficial.  It's also very dark, very hard to see as if the whole thing was taken at night with no extra lights.

9.  The Post.  2017.  Same era.  A well-done rendering of That Time.  But, again, this movie seems to have been filmed at night, everything is dark and hard to see.  Okay for an effect and metaphor but not easy to watch.  Tom Hanks is always good.

A Few Words About Voice Pitch and Speech ... Plus a Gorgeous Reading of Sonnet 130

Lauren Bacall apparently started out with a high nasal speaking voice (and a Brooklyn accent), Richard Burton with a light voice, Kenneth Branagh with his native Irish brogue.  Michael Caine, however, didn't alter his Cockney speech but cashed in on it.  As Sean Connery did with his Scottish.

As for the "perfect" male English-speaking voice, I've read that that would be a combination of Jeremy Irons and the late Alan Rickman.  With Judi Dench being among those with the "perfect" female voice.  Then there are those actors (such as Rupert Penry-Jones, Samuel West, and Jeremy Irons) who also do narration. Really listen to them sometime.  Each syllable is given its due. Their speech is slow, precise, crisp, beautifully articulated.  No slurring rush about any of it.  It's a pleasure to listen to.  The tone color and resonance of a voice is also highly important.  Sorry to say, I hear a lot of too-high, little girl voices by women (Americans, often) who, to my mind, might do well to re-see Singing in the Rain--which was all about using a well-modulated voice (Debbie Reynolds's) to dub over the story-line's leading lady's laughable pitch and pronunciation.

So (getting back to the subject) what did Lauren, Richard, and Kenneth do to deepen their voices or change their regional speech?  Or, what did their directors or voice coaches have them do?  For two--Lauren and Richard--the hills became alive with the sound of Shakespeare as they shouted out verses (it is said) for "hours at a time."  Whereas Kenneth turned to something called Received Pronunciation.  Or RP for short.  He was born Northern Irish but, at age 9, moved with his family to England where he is said to have acquired RP in order to stop being bullied about his accent.

So what is Received Pronunciation?  It's something like a BBC-tinted English-language pronunciation based on educated speech reflecting an upper middle-class status.  It is clear and precise.  Short vowels, not drawn-out drawls.  Enunciation.  Taking time to speak, not rushing it.  It is not "a royal accent" as the royals are said to have their own way of speaking. It is thought of as neutral, not reflecting the speaker's geographical origins. Anthony Hopkins, for instance, is a Welshman (as was Burton) but did not play Lear with a Welsh accent. He and other Shakespearean actors and actresses--unless, say, they were playing Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing--used RP or something akin.  Dame Eileen Aitkens, who spoke with a Cockney accent as a child, switched to RP when beginning her work in the theater.  I read somewhere that she said that one's native regional accent would not do for the theater's great roles.

As for RP, I guess one could conclude by calling it something of an Oxbridge style.  It is also said to be Bond's accent, the 007 guy.

Getting back to the most pleasing English-speaking male voices, those would include Ronald Colman, Jack Hawkins, Pierce Brosnan, Burton, Hopkins, Irons, and Rickman.  Female speaking voices would include the great ladies: Julie, Maggie, Judi, and Helen.

Finally, speaking of Alan Rickman, listen to his reading of Shakespeare's Sonnet 130.  It's amazingly beautiful.  (If for some reason it does not come up here, Google it.)


click here

12 Movies That I Saw in 2017 That I Can Recommend

Once again, it's movies-of-the-year time.  (My source for all the movies I see these days is Netflix.)

1.  A Five Star Life.  2013, Italy.  A woman has the job of checking out the ratings of luxury hotels.  Nice job, fabulous hotels.  Amusing.

2.  Cairo Time.  2009, Canada.  Patricia Clarkson and Alexander Siddig. Hypnotic, as the atmosphere of Cairo gradually enters both the heroine and the viewer.  Fabulous Arabic music.  It's called "a delicate love story."

3.  The Light Between the Oceans.  2016, UK, US, Australia, New Zealand. With Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander (who became a couple after making this film).  From the original book by M. L. Stedman.  Setting:  a lighthouse in far southwestern Australia where it is said the Great Southern Ocean and the Indian Ocean meet.  The story line (set post World War I)  is centered around the moral dilemma of wanting a specific dream to come true.  Alicia Vikander overplays her part, to my mind.  Beautiful photography, wonderful setting.

4.  Sing Street.  2016, Ireland, UK, US.  Set in 1980's Dublin, a young teen, infatuated with an older teen-age girl, starts a band so that she'll have a place to sing and, he hopes, find that she's fallen in love with him.  He and his fellow band members then put their energies into being creative rather than destructive as some of their classmates are.  This is a rather sweet rendering of one boy's life and the initiative he takes in creating a new life for himself (and his friends).

5.  Snowden.  2016, US.  Oliver Stone's "biographical political thriller."  I found it well done.

6.  Strangers in Good Company.  1990, Canadian Film Board.  A busload of 8 older women become isolated in the back reaches of Canada when their bus breaks down and they are left with the need to hone their practical skills.  All they have is a lonely possibly abandoned house by a lake.  No road (they reached the house on foot), no vehicle, phone, or furniture except a few things stuffed in a barn.  And no food other than what they can come up with.  Apparently, much of the script was made up by them as they went along.  But each woman manages to tell her life.  The theme then is that no matter who, each woman has led an interesting life.  And the setting provides a good vehicle for listening to others without distraction or other obligations as well as for ingenuity and for letting time, not activities, dictate.  Very low key, very real, there's nothing phony or contrived.

7.  The Eagle Huntress.  2016, UK, Mongolia, US.  Documentary.  An apple-cheeked girl of 13 wants to be the first female in 12 generations of her Kazakh Mongolian family to become an eagle huntress.  So with the aid of her father, she sets out to compete in the annual eagle festival.  Stark gorgeous photography of the Altai Mountains in the far west of Mongolia.  A fine film.

8. The Kind Words.  2016, Israel.  3 Israeli siblings look for their father when they discover on the death of their mother that the man who raised them was not their biological father.  An important surprise greets them toward the end of their search.

9.  The Man Who Knew Infinity.  2016, UK.  Dev Patel, Jeremy Irons.  A biopic about an Indian mathematical genius and autodidact who was admitted to Cambridge from India during World War I. 

10.  Their Finest.  2016, UK.  This is a war comedy/drama set in 1940 London when propaganda films were being made to boost morale after Dunkirk.  It's taken from the book, Their Finest Hour and a Half.  An amusing film.  There is also a lovely rendering of the song "Wild Mountain Thyme" ("Will ye go, lassie, go") sung by actor Bill Nighy.

11.  They Were Expendable.  1945, US.  Robert Montgomery, John Wayne, Donna Reed.  John Ford started out directing this but broke his leg three weeks into the film, so Robert Montgomery took over.  Montgomery also acted in it as a PT boat commander.  It portrays the true story of the fall of the Philippines and the exit of MacArthur, and the PT boat squadron's early defense of the Philippines.  It's beautifully photographed in black-and-white with understated acting, and a good story line.  I had seen it as a child when it was first released and remembered it as being well done but had forgotten everything else about it.  One of those "best of" old-time black-and-white films.

12.  Unbranded.  2016, US.  Documentary.  4 Texas A&M friends "adopt" wild mustangs to train and ride from the Mexican border to the Canadian, all on public land.  They do this partly to help the horses from being penned up all day and partly to show that there is still enough public land that such a venture is possible.  The adoption program comes from having too many wild horses trying to graze land that will not accommodate that many (including other animals) so a good number of them are corralled until someone comes along who can use them.  Being wild, these were strong horses, used to 20-mile-a-day runs, and they did well on the trip.  Gorgeous photography.

17 Movies That I Saw in 2016 That I Can Recommend

1.  A Year in Burgundy.  2013.  A splendid documentary that follows 7 wine-making families in the Burgundy region of France who continue to make wine as it has been made there for hundreds of years.  These grapes are chardonnay and pinot noir.  Beautifully filmed, wonderful narration, interesting tid-bits about wine making ... such as emphasizing that the grapes and wine are live produce and must be treated with respect.  (One wine-maker turns on classical music in the cellars to benefit the wine--the same cellars that were built by Cistercian monks hundreds of years ago).  From pruning the vines in winter to cutting out hail-damaged grapes when harvesting in late summer.  In French and English.

2.  Ballet 422.  2014.  A documentary about a new work at the New York City Ballet by its young choreographer in residence, Justin Peck.  This is a back stage piece showing how he wrote, directed, and performed the piece as he also put everything together--lighting, costume, hair, music, and ballet rehearsal.

3.  The Big Short.  2015.  A U.S. comedy-drama about high finance and modern banking.  With Bale, Carell, Gosling, Pitt.  I enjoyed it.

4.  Bridge of Spies.  2015.  A rendering of the shooting down of the U-2 spy-plane, piloted by Francis Gary Powers in 1960, and how a New York lawyer (Tom Hanks) negotiated his release.  An intelligent thriller directed by Spielberg.

5.  Brooklyn.  2015.  A British-Canadian-Irish romantic drama based on Colm Toibin's novel.  A young Irish woman who goes off to the U.S. (Brooklyn) but later returns home, needs to decide which of the two countries she will make her permanent home.  Well done.

6.  East Side Sushi.  2014.  Set and filmed in Oakland, this sweet feel-good film tells the story of a Latina who begins working in the kitchen of a sushi restaurant.  She soon aspires to become a full-fledged sushi chef but, as a result, finds herself confronting some major problems.

7.  Far From Men (Loin des Hommes).  2015.  French.  Set it 1954 Algeria at the time of their war for independence, this is based on a story by Camus.  Viggo Mortensen plays a French school teacher in the Atlas Mountains who is given the task of taking a murderer some distance to a trial.  The two men gain a rapport which complicates matters.  It won several awards.  In French and Arabic.

8.  45 Years.  2015.  British.  Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtney are about to celebrate their 45th anniversary when he receives the news that the body of his old lover has been found after 50 years in a Swiss glacier, an event which then opens up that period of his life, not all of it to his wife's liking.  Both leads won awards for their performances.  Intelligent story, well portrayed.

9. The House of Sand.  2005.  Brazil.  Set from 1910-1969, this was filmed in the extraordinary setting of the sand-filled Atlantic coastal Lençóis Maranhenses National Park in northern Brazil.  (Which I'd never heard of or seen pictures of before.)  It's a strong, survival-oriented story though I had difficulty believing anyone could exist in such an uninhabitable environment.  The story centers around two strong women, a mother and daughter--played by real life mother and daughter.  In Portuguese.

10. A Little Chaos.  2014.  British period piece.  Alan Rickman directed this film and also played Louis XIV.  It's a fantasy film of sorts about a garden designer in Versailles with the modern touch of having that be a woman, Kate Winslett.  Lots of conflict/resolution, good people/bad people, plus falling in love, so lots of clichés, but okay.

11.  Live-in Maid.  2004. Argentina.  Set in Buenos Aires during Argentina's economic crisis in the early 2000's.  Poignant story about a live-in maid and her long-term employer, a former well-to-do socialite.  Beautifully acted.  In Spanish.

12. Mustang.  2015.  Turkish-French film set in a town on the Black Sea by a Turkish director who won several awards for her work.  It's about 5 orphaned teen-aged sisters living with their grandmother who curtails their activities in order not to spoil their marriage chances.  In Turkish.

13.  Poetry.  2010.  Korean.  A grandmother signs up for a poetry writing class as different elements of turmoil then enter her life.  Thoughtful, slow-paced.  In Korean.

14.  Queen and Country.  2014.  British drama/biography.  This is John Boorman's sequel to Hope and Glory which was about his boyhood in London during the Blitz.  This isn't quite as charming, but still good acting, funny story, and nice to see a few of the Hope and Glory people here, too.  In this, he's just been recruited into the army at the time of the Korean War and together with his best buddy, engages in plenty of shenanigans as they begin life in training camp.

15.  The Second Mother.  2015.  Brazilian.  A maid's daughter comes to live with her in the house of her employers which creates confusion and class consciousness but is resolved in a loving fashion.  In Portuguese.

16.  Sweet Bean.  2015.  Japanese.  A sweet, lyrical drama about a man who runs a small pancake stall and a much older woman who helps him make the bean paste to spread on the pancakes.  Both have hardships to overcome.  Beautifully filmed.  In Japanese.

17.  Trumbo.  2015.  American biographical drama about screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (Bryan Cranston), jailed and blacklisted for alleged Communist propaganda in Hollywood films.  Well done. 

14 Movies I've Seen This Year That I Recommend

So here's my list of the films I enjoyed the most this year.  Despite the above photo, I saw them all at home; they all came in the mail.

Dramas:

• About Elly.  This is an Iranian film that could well be a play, the script is so good.  Set on Iran's Caspian Sea coast, it involves three young families, a single man in search of a wife, and a young woman, Elly, who have gone together for a weekend's getaway. It might well be called a psychological mystery.  The characters are believable, the story-line tense but surprisingly realistic. Nominated for an Oscar.  In Farsi.
• Belle.  (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Matthew Goode, Emily Watson) (U.K.)  Mixed-race young woman is raised by her aristocratic relative in 18th century England.
• Far From the Madding Crowd.  (Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen)  (U.K.) Adaptation of Thomas Hardy's story of shrewd and clever Bathsheba Everdene in 19th century Dorset.
• Laila's Birthday.  (Palestine.)  The activities and frustrations of a judge--now a taxi driver--in Ramallah on his daughter's birthday.  In Arabic.
• Leviathan.  (Russia.)  Wonderful setting, bleak but beautiful photography of the Barents Sea off the Russian arctic coast.  A fisherman fights to keep his ancestral home on land a corrupt official wants to take over.  Won a Golden Globe; nominated for an Oscar.  In Russian. 
• Mademoiselle Chambon.  (France.)  A refined school teacher and a family-man construction worker become attracted to each other (played by a former husband and wife).  Gentle, slow, precise, very French, contemporary setting, winner of several awards.  In French.
• Pride. (Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton) (U.K.)  Based on a true story of lesbian/gay activists helping raise money for Welsh families affected by a miners' strike in 1984.
• Siddharth.  (Canada, India.)  When his young son is abducted, a zipper-repairer father travels around India looking for him, trying to follow various leads.  Based on the director's hearing an illiterate man in India asking if people knew where a particular city was.
• Tangerines.  (Estonia, Georgia.)  Set in 1992 in Abkazia during the war when it wanted to withdraw from Georgia.  Rather than return to their native Estonia with their families, two Estonian settlers stay on in Abkazia in order to harvest their tangerines but become involved with soldiers on both sides--one fighting with the Georgians, one for Abkazia.  Rather than ending in hatred, it ends with a coming together.  In Russian, Estonian, Georgian.
• The Hundred-Foot Journey. (Helen Mirren, directed by Lasse Hallstrom)  (U.S.)  An Indian lad, who is a talented cook, and his family open an Indian restaurant in a French village to the objection of the proprietress of an acclaimed restaurant immediately across the street.   In English.
• The Other Son.  A French movie about two teen-age sons, an Israeli and a Palestinian, accidentally switched at birth and the trauma that produces for both families.  In several languages.  

Documentaries:

•  GMO OMG.  The title says it all.
• Merchants of Doubt.  An excellent documentary about what they call "the network of scientific 'experts' paid by major corporations to spread disinformation about looming environmental threats including chemical pollution and climate change."  These "experts" don't think anything of lying, making up heart-felt stories, sending death threat emails, and purposefully confusing the public.  Or they might be actors paid to purposefully disrupt a meeting.  Or someone participating in a false flag event where "our side" actually prompts the event that they then blame "the other side" for.  Sound familiar?
• Tim's Vermeer.  An American engineer and inventor totally recreates the complete physical setting of Vermeer's The Music Lesson (now in the Queen's possession), being stunningly faithful to every detail.  Though not an artist himself (and after mixing his own paints from materials available in the 17th century), he then proceeds to paint an exact copy by using what he concludes was Vermeer's technique of employing optical devices (rather than a free-hand style) to achieve what has always been considered Vermeer's extremely photographic-like rendering.  Only an art historian would be able to detect the difference between Tim's copy and the original.  As he paints, he comes across more and more confirmations that Vermeer did use, if not exactly Tim's technique, then something very similar.  (Other artists of that day undoubtedly did as well.)  Because of his attention for exactitude, the whole project takes Tim something like five years.  I found it enthralling.

29 Movies I've Seen This Year That I Recommend

(Next posting will be in two weeks)

I've written it before:  I don't seem to go to movies in theaters anymore, preferring to rent them by mail.  (I used to rent them locally, but over the years, our three video stores closed.)  Anyway, by evening I just like to sit in my chair and be cozy--or even turn the movie off and finish it another time.  In renting them, I put a good number of the 5-star ones in my queue as well as many with 4 stars.  Generally, I don't bother with the less-well-rated.  And regardless of rating, I skip those with violence.


Since I'm always on the look-out for good movies, I thought I'd return the favor and pass along this list which, despite flaws in some, includes a whopping-good batch.

Here, then, is my 2014 list to date--those that I thought were either well acted, well cast, well written, well photographed, or worthy in their particular way.

1.  Several were about World War 2:
The Book Thief (US/Germany).  Perhaps should have been titled The Book Borrower.
War of the Buttons (France).  Boys in neighboring towns during the occupation of France.
Winter in Wartime (The Netherlands).  Bleak but gripping with an especially appealing young actor.
The Monuments Men.  More a docudrama but an interesting topic.  Good cast.

2.  Good foreign:
Barbara (Germany).  The cold war, set in East Germany.  Good story.
The Past (Iran).  Slow.  Intelligent script.
The Well Digger's Daughter (France).  A bit over-the-top acting by the director/actor plus somewhat stereotypical story-line.
Like Father, Like Son (Japan).  Poignant tale of two families discovering that their now-6-year-old sons were switched at birth.
The Lunchbox (India).  A widower mistakenly receives the daily lunchbox of a young wife intended for her husband ... with a growing friendship and correspondence between the two of them.  Set in Bombay.  

Fill the Void (Israel).  A young Israeli woman's wedding plans change when her older sister dies.  Wonderful view of an Orthodox family in Tel Aviv.
Still Mine (Canada).  A splendid (and true) tale and a splendid rendering of it.  An old man battles government bureaucrats for the right to build a new house for himself and his ailing wife when their current house no longer serves them.
Two Lives (Germany, Norway).  The tale of a now-grown child of a Norwegian mother and German soldier is slowly revealed, tangling several happy lives in Norway.

3.  Good U.S. movies:
Nebraska.  Talk about bleak!  But well-done bleak, even amusing in parts.
Dallas Buyers Club.  Well done.  Though there would be no script without the f-word.
American Hustle.  Ditto.  Much more amusing than I'd expected.  Well cast.
All is Lost.  Robert Redford alone and lost on the seas.  Even after just 20 minutes, this was so gripping I didn't know if I could carry on or not.  But I did.
Too Big to Fail.   More a docudrama.  Well cast.
Enough Said.   The lightest of the bunch.
The Yellow Handkerchief.  An indie film, first shown at Sundance.
The Company You Keep.  Intelligent rendering, fabulous cast, good script.  Redford acted and directed. About an anti-Vietnam War militant who's been hiding out for 30 years.

4.  Those already recommended this past spring on the side bar of this blog:
Border Cafe (Iran).  A rather sweet movie about a widow trying to make a life for herself and her children.
The Pool (U.S., in Hindi).  Set in India.
Delicacy (France).  Audrey Tautou in a romantic comedy-drama.
Sarah's Key (France).  One of the most heart-rending films I've ever seen.
Love is All You Need (Denmark).  A love story with Pierce Bosnan.
The Cave of the Yellow Dog (Mongolia).  A dear film about family life in a yurt.
Oranges and Sunshine (UK, Australia).  About the children's replacement program from the U.K. to Australia.
Philomena (US, UK, France).  A woman's attempt to find the child she had to give away.
Made in Dagenham (UK).  The effort of factory women in Dagenham, England, to better equalize their salary with that of the men.

Twenty-eight Minutes into the Program

View out my window

I do a lot of reading.  But every so often I give my eyes a rest and turn on the TV.  Yes, I'm using my eyes, but I can also knit or look out the window ... and I put aside my reading glasses.  Anyway, I had a sweet little movie on recently that also happened to be totally formulaic.  The early-on crisis moment in which the young woman realizes her husband is cheating on her.  The realization moment when she finds she can't stay in her Manhattan penthouse and so moves back to her parental home in New Jersey.  In fact, it was so formulaic I decided it would take just about 28 minutes from the beginning of the movie for the young woman to meet the gorgeous young man she'd end up with. When he then appeared, I looked at the clock.  It was 28 minutes into the program.  Pretty good, eh!

I imagine that screenwriters have a little chart:  Okay, now it's time to put in "screw-ball."  Now, "conflict."  Now, "resolution."  Etc. etc.  Even reality shows are edited to portray the same emotions, complaints, worries show after show.  He wants a house in the country, she in the city.  He wants modern, she traditional. 

It's all Hollywoodized ... one reason I've been watching a lot of foreign movies lately as you may have noticed from my right-hand margin recommendations.  They are much better at portraying life as it really is, whether that's infinitely more nuanced or even slow-paced.  Nor do they so consistently base their drama on formula but, rather, from the situation itself.

I recently rented that movie about the butler and was rather appalled at the liberties taken with something that was supposedly "based on true events."  There was the thing about his father being shot by the white plantation overseer who molested his mother.  Totally made up.  (I found a web-site which listed the real as opposed to the story-line events.)  The thing about him--as a young man seeking work--stealing food because he was hungry.  No.  The thing about his wife being unfaithful to him as well as becoming an alcoholic.  Also false.  The thing about their two sons.  One was involved in high-profile events offering an overview of civil rights reform.  The second was shown to go off to Vietnam where he was killed.  (The real butler had only one son who did go to Vietnam but who also came back again.)  So how many stereotypes and formulas can we count here?  Of course, after seeing it, I realized it's a message movie, not a biography as I'd assumed.

Even dear Downton Abbey can get a bit soap opera-ish.

Some years ago, I read Wallace Stegner's novel, Crossing to Safety, written purposefully, he said, to see if a book could capture a readership by being honest without needing to exaggerate, distort, or sensationalize.  By dwelling on character not stereotype.  By writing simply (or not so simply) about a friendship.  He obviously succeeded.  It's now on lists of the last century's best books.  Of course, to me, Wallace Stegner could do no wrong.  A man of integrity, he incorporated that into his writing as well.  The wisdom of quiet lives ... which does not mean that there is no illness, death, loneliness, despair, ambiguity, caution.

Anyone else tired of the bottom line (and its children, Stereotype and Formula) being so ever-present?

My List of Good (To Date) 21st Century Films

Since many of the films I enjoy are from the UK, I decided to illustrate this posting with this so-English scene of a garden behind York Minster.

After making a listing many postings ago of my all-time favorite movies (up to 1999), I decided to list those I've particularly enjoyed from this century.  I admit to rarely going to a theater any more but receive them through the mail instead.  (So I've not seen some of the later 2012 films.)  Here are the ones I've found memorable.

Foreign:

• Vatel (France/UK/Belgium) '00
• The Color of Paradise (Iran) '00
• The Girl from Paris (Une Hirondelle A Fait le Printemps) (France) '01
• Late Marriage (Israel/France) '01
• Mostly Martha (Bella Martha) (Germany) '01
• Satin Rouge (Tunisia) '02
• Rabbit-Proof Fence (Australia) '02
• Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (China/France) '02
• Travellers and Magicians (Bhutan) '03
• The Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et le Papillon) (France) '03
• Yesterday (South Africa) '04
• Merry Christmas (Joyeux Noël) (France) '05
• Sabah:  A Love Story (Canada) '05
• The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant (Australia) '05
• The Girl in the Cafe (UK) '05
• The World's Fastest Indian (New Zealand) '05
• Pride and Prejudice (UK) '05
• The Painted Veil (China/US) '06
• The Queen (UK) '06
• Amazing Grace (UK/US) '06
• Under the Same Moon (La Misma Luna) (Mexico/US) '07
• Vitus (Switzerland) '07
• Ballet Shoes (UK) '07
• The Grocer's Son (Le Fils de l'epicier) (France) '07
• The Song of Sparrows (Iran) '08
• The Dutchess (UK) '08
• Miss Austen Regrets (UK) '08
• The Last Station (Germany/Russia/UK) '09
• Invictus (South Africa/US) '09
• Queen to Play (Joueuse) (France) '09
• The Young Victoria (UK/US) '09
• I Am Love (Io Sono Amore) (Italy) '09
• Creation (UK) '09
• The King's Speech (UK) '10
• A Separation (Iran) '11
• Mozart's Sister (Nannerl, la Soeur de Mozart) (France) '11
• Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (UK) '11
• The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (UK) '12

U.S.:

• Songcatcher '00
• Something the Lord Made '04
• Duma '05
• Outsourced '06
• Akeelah and the Bee '06
• Marie Antoinette '06
• Julie and Julia '09
• The Way '10
• The Company Men '10
• Fair Game '10
• Hugo '11

TV Series/Mini-Series (almost all UK):

• Love in a Cold Climate '01
• The Cazalets '01
• Victoria and Albert '01
• Random Passage (Canada) '01
• Foyle's War '02
• The Last King '03
• Cambridge Spies '03
• Island at War '04
• North and South (BBC about 19th c. England, not the U.S. Civil War) '04
• Jane Eyre '06
• The Impressionists '06
• Sense and Sensibility '08
• Emma '09
• South Riding '11
• Downton Abbey '10 - ongoing

Documentary (art, finances, elections, food, Zen, the times, etc.):

• The Amish:  A People of Preservation '00
• Rivers and Tides '03
• Howard Zinn:  You Can't be Neutral '04
• March of the Penguins '04
• The Gates '05
• Maxed Out '06
• Hacking Democracy '06
• The One Percent '06
• Cezanne in Provence '06
• Helvetica '07
• Zeitgeist:  The Movie '07
• How to Cook Your Life '07
• Earth '07
• Religulous '08
• Food, Inc. '08
• Between the Folds '08
• Kings of Pastry '09
• Ingredients '09
• Bird by Bird with Annie '09
• Inside Job '10
• Casino Jack and the U.S. of Money '10 (check title)
• Buck '11
• Woody Allen:  A Documentary '11

My Personal List of All-time Favorite Movies

In looking back, I realize it's the movies of the late '30s and '40s that captured my heart.  Perhaps because I was a child and very impressionable.  But all will agree that that era spelled movie magic.  Many from the '50s were also good, but I remember many as either always breaking into song or being too Marlon-Brando-tough.

Not all that long ago, I made a list of my all-time favorites.  Oddly, none from this current century made the cut.  Maybe like a good stew, they just need to perk in their juices awhile.

Though his movies didn't make my list, to have something to illustrate this posting, I'm including this sketch I made of James Dean for my high school art class.

1937          Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
                  Lost Horizon
1939          Wuthering Heights
                  The Wizard of Oz
                  Gone With the Wind
1940          Fantasia
                  Pinocchio
                  Rebecca
1941          How Green Was My Valley
1942          Casablanca
1945          Brief Encounter (UK)
1947          The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
1948          The Red Shoes (UK)
1949          The Heiress
1950          Sunset Blvd.
1951          The African Queen
                  The River (France/India)
1952          High Noon
1953          Stalag 17
                  Shane
                  Singin' in the Rain
                  Roman Holiday
1956          The King and I
1959          The Apu Trilogy (India)
                  Some Like It Hot
1960          The Apartment
1962          Lawrence of Arabia (UK/US)
1963          Tom Jones (UK)
1969          Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
1975          Dersu Uzala (Japan/Russia)
1977          Annie Hall
                  The Goodbye Girl
1979          My Brilliant Career (Australia)
                  Manhattan
1981          The Gods Must Be Crazy (South Africa/Botswana)
                  Chariots of Fire (UK)
1982          The Grey Fox (Canada)
1983          Educating Rita (UK)
                  Local Hero (UK)
1984          Amadeus
1985          Out of Africa
1986          A Room With a View (UK)
                  Hannah and Her Sisters
1987          Babette's Feast (Denmark)
                  Hope and Glory (UK/US)
1988          The Music Teacher (Belgium)
                  Working Girl
1989          When Harry Met Sally
                  Shirley Valentine (UK/US)
1990          My Father's Glory (France)
                  My Mother's Castle (France)
1991          Enchanted April (UK)
1993          The Remains of the Day (UK/US)
                  Dave
1995          Sense and Sensibility

And I don't want to forget these:

The Gold Rush.  Top Hat.  Goodbye, Mr. Chips.  The Philadelphia Story.  Now, Voyager.  Random Harvest.  Jane Eyre (1943).  Laura.  Both Olivier's and Branagh's Hamlet and Henry V.  A Song to Remember.  The Three Godfathers.  Hobson's Choice.  The Bridge on the River Kwai.  Mister Roberts.  The Cranes Are Flying (Russia).  The Sundowners.  Father Goose (one of Cary Grant's most amusing).  Zorba the Greek.  My Fair Lady.  The Graduate.  Barefoot in the Park.  All the President's Men.  The Big Chill.  Murphy's Romance.  Jean de Florette (France).  Manon of the Spring (France).  Big.  Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.  The Russia House.  Mediterraneo (Italy).  Thelma and Louise.  The Lover (France).  Groundhog Day.  Apollo 13.  And, of course, The Court Jester.  Let's see, was that pellet with the poison in the chalice from the palace or the vessel with the pestle ... or maybe it was in the flagon with the dragon .....

Fifty-Seven Years After My Crush on William Holden

My mother, a native Angeleno, the term for those born in Los Angeles, once described herself as "a movie nut."  Using movies as her frame of reference, she'd say that an old boyfriend had the eyes of Victor Mature ... a store clerk's mouth resembled Ann Blyth ... a young family member looked just like Erroll Flynn.  She'd attended a party once where a then-unknown "casual looking" (as my mother called her) Joan Fontaine was introduced as Olivia de Havilland's sister.  Another time she found herself powdering her nose next to Jean Harlow.  When we kids were growing up, she liked to go (and take us) to the movies every week.  (Always a double feature.)  I seem to remember it cost something like 50¢.  Even as a tyke in L.A., I got taken to movies, my very first being the1942 film, Jungle Book, with Sabu.  It was showing at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.  The one with the hand- and foot-prints in cement.

Grauman's Chinese Theater

So it seemed natural that I became something of a movie nut, too.  I could tell you who Archibald Leach was, Spangler Arlington Brugh, Lucille LeSueur, Marion Morrison, Edythe Marrenner.  (Cary Grant, Robert Taylor, Joan Crawford, John Wayne, Susan Hayward.)  And I knew that William Holden's real name was William Beedle.  I had a total crush on him--that smile, those eyes!  Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier were my other favorite actors.  (And Ronald Colman, for his voice.)  As for actresses, I decided the most beautiful were Ava Gardner, Hedy Lamarr, Elizabeth Taylor, and Vivien Leigh.  The most stylish were Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn. Every month, I'd walk to the local drug store for a current issue of Photoplay.  Every year I'd turn on the radio and listen to the Oscars.  The year William Holden won, I wrote in my diary, "'Swonderful." 

These people on screen seemed like part of the family.  So as the years went by and they began leaving us, I always felt a particular sadness.  Even as a favorite aunt or uncle, it did not seem possible that they would no longer be around to let us enjoy their company.

A few of the old crew remain but the list is fast-shortening.  The oldest now is Luise Rainer, born in Germany in 1910, winner of back-to-back best actress Academy Awards in 1936 and 1937.  Then there's Gone With the Wind's Melanie--Olivia de Havilland (1916). 

Others include:
Eli Wallach (1915)
Kirk Douglas (1916)
Joan Fontaine, Celeste Holm, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Ernest Borgnine (1917)
Maureen O'Hara, Mickey Rooney (1920)
Esther Williams (1921)
Eleanor Parker, Lizabeth Scott (1922)
Lauren Bacall, Eva Marie Saint, Doris Day (1924)
Angela Lansbury (1925)
Jerry Lewis (1926)
Gina Lollobrigida, Sidney Poitier (1927)
Shirley Temple, Ann Blyth (1928)
Jane Powell (1929)  

Thank you, each and all!

What Makes March March

Seeing the first crocus and snowdrops appear

Making up house and garden "to do" lists

Thinking about doing a major de-cluttering

Eating asparagus--good for a spring-time cleanse

Realizing that winter is past and the good times can roll 

(Having begun these lists last April, this one now finishes the year.) 

"A Screwy Business, All High Key or Low"

(Note:  Because I'll be away, my next posting will be March 10th.)

With the Oscar nomination of the new silent film, The Artist, plus Hugo which features old silent movie film clips, I'm reminded of hearing tales of the days when the silents were the only game in town.  And we all know which town I'm talking about.  Hollywood.  The same, as it happens, where I was born. We were in Hollywood because some years before, my father had set out one day in his 1919 Model T flivver to drive to California from his native East Coast.  The year was 1923.  A cousin went with him.  The pavement gave out in St. Charles, Missouri.  The route after that was marked but they had to contend with broken springs, flat tires, lost chains, a bent steering wheel, deep mud, and trees across the road.  At one point, they followed what my father called "a course that would have broken a snake's back."

Their final day, as he wrote his family, they "reached civilization and - good roads, and what roads they are.  ... We drove on thru long groves of oranges, walnuts, lemon and grapefruit trees, grape vineyards, - thru shady lines of eucalyptus and pepper trees ... and I know you will think I am exaggerating - but the poinsettias grew from fifteen to twenty feet high.  Gosh!"

He very soon had a job at Famous Players-Lasky (which became Paramount Pictures) first as a grip and then as a second cameraman who helped the first cameraman and sometimes shot the film.  He lived across from the studio lot when it was then on a gravel street lined with pepper trees.  He'd wake at the last minute and dash over through the wardrobe department.

He shot what he called horse operas ... nonsense comedies ... silent films when a small orchestra played "sob stuff" (as he called it) to enhance the on-set mood.  He shot films hanging onto the side of speeding cars.  He shot scenery over Mt. Whitney and Death Valley from a tri-motored Bach Air Yacht plane that barely escaped tangling with a barbed wire fence when landing to refuel.  He picked bread dough out of cameras when an ill-timed explosion sent dough and splinters flying.  It could be dangerous work, he said.

On one Esther Ralston film, he shot from a platform built on the back of a car.  With only a four-inch clearance, the car raced down the road at 55 mph alongside the heroine's high-powered foreign car going at the same speed.  Since she was supposedly waving to her father on a train next to the highway, she'd take both hands off the wheel to wave, swerving the car badly.  It was a wonder, my father said, that she didn't smash into the camera car where he was filming.  Then, when shooting the 1926 classic, Old Ironsides--a ship in full sail with rigging, ropes, and ballast--my father had just come down from the golden ball at the top of the mainmast when a rough swell snapped and toppled it, taking the mizzenmast with it.

My father filming Old Ironsides off Catalina Island in 1926

He called it "a screwy business, all high key or low.  Either abysmally sluggish or fantastically exaggerated.  Likewise, emotions were at a similar pitch and tempermentality rode uninhibited; it was either evanescent or scowlingly subdued.  As went the stars' morale, so followed that of the entire troupe," he once wrote.

There were humorous times as well.  When directing an epic on a spectacular set with hundreds of extras, one "German director of ample paunch but scant hair" (my father forgot his name) took the entire morning to arrange everyone for the climatic battle.  By one o'clock, everyone was hungry.  Oblivious to the crew's appetite, the director seemed satisfied.  Everything was set.  Cameras started to roll.  But, fumbling for the English word, "Charge," he bellowed through his megaphone, "Launch!"  At which the entire cast threw down their weapons and went to lunch.

My father loved the work, the fun of it, the team work, the jokes and gaffs.  He loved setting himself the task of looking through a lens, adjusting exposures, figuring angles.  He played ball with Jack Holt, a Western star he was shooting.  He danced with actress Billie Dove, a former Follies star.  He filmed Boris Karloff as a Saracen sailor.  He worked with Claudette Colbert, Charles Laughton, a young Gary Cooper.  Other names have gone the way--Richard Arlen, ZaSu Pitts, Sally Blaine, Wally Beery.  And many of the films have surely disintegrated in their cans.  The Blind Goddess, The Enchanted Hill, Looie the Fourteenth.  As for California, he loved it, too, and wrote home that first year that he picked a rose blossom as late as December 28th ... unheard of in his native East Coast.  He returned East to visit but never again to live.

And he loved describing those days when he worked on what he called "the flickers--when movies were movies."

What Makes February February

Waiting for March
Purposefully getting a new bouquet each week to brighten things up
Realizing the days are getting lighter
Finishing up this season's Downton Abbey

From Polar Bears to Banking ... with "That Orange Plastic Olivetti Typewriter Feeling" in the Middle: Recent Documentaries

In the right-hand column here, "Good Movies I've Seen Recently," you'll see that a number of them are documentaries.  I've been watching some splendid ones--delivered by the postman in those little red-and-white envelopes.  Thinking you would enjoy them as well, I thought I'd bring them to light.

A particularly excellent one is Earth (2007), narrated by James Earl Jones, and featuring (but not limited to) a polar bear family, a herd of elephants in Namibia, and a humpback whale mother and calf that swim from tropical waters to the Antarctic.  The photography is truly amazing with close-up shots you wouldn't believe.  There is also some splendid time-lapse photography, some laugh-out-loud moments, and an especially gripping shot of flying above what then immediately drops away into Angel Falls, Venezuela--the world's highest.  This is a Disney film, but not gushy.  Wonderful for everyone.

In another vein, I've watched three with an artistic bent.  Kings of Pastry (2009) deals with French pastry chefs who want to win the Meilleur Ouvrier de France that allows them to wear the coveted blue, white, and red striped collar of the country's best pâtissiers.  They are not in competition with each other.  Any number might win.  But in this film sixteen meet in Lyon, France, for three days of highly intense labor as the drama unfolds.  Did you know you could hold your breath watching someone maneuver sugar sculpture?  They rehearse long hours beforehand since the test/competition only occurs once every four years.  You're right there with them, oohing and ahhing, hoping nothing goes awry.

Perfection (and reflection) from our local farmers market pastry maker

Milton Glaser:  To Inform and Delight (2009) is an excellent view of this graphic designer whom few know by name but whose works are totally familiar.  The "I (heart) NY" poster is one.  The Bob Dylan poster another.  Hard to describe; look him up and check out his logos, drawings, ad campaigns.

Helvetica (2007), also excellent, speaks of this font that is now nearly fifty years old.  A sans-serif with a clean, neutral look, it has become something of the default font, especially in signage and advertising.  It's particularly popular in Europe.  You also see it in New York City's subway signs ... and the U.S. income tax forms.  It's neither saucy nor staid, just pleasantly rounded and healthy looking.  When I went grocery shopping the morning after seeing the film, I found that I had to be careful driving because I kept looking for (and finding) Helvetica.  On highway signs, the sides of trucks, buildings I passed.  Here (in Helvetica) is how one man in the film described it--he said the font gave one "that orange plastic Olivetti typewriter Roman Holiday espresso feeling." 

I found a sample on a pay-to-park ticket in my car

Freakonomics is a film based on the book by the same name--about the mix of popular culture, economic theory, and various statistics as it focuses on sumo wrestlers who cheat, the impact of the name one is given at birth, and ninth graders who are given bribes to see whether or not they will pass their courses.  Totally off the wall.

Then there are three excellent documentaries about current corruption.  You know, the power, greed, fraud stuff that's been going on.  Hacking Democracy (2006) deals with the extensive use of voting machines and how they are easily hacked.  (Very gripping.  Will anyone ever trust an election again?)  Casino Jack and the United States of Money (2010) is about lobbyist Abramoff and the fraud, conspiracy, and tax evasion that sent him to prison.  And Inside Job (2010), an Oscar winner narrated by Matt Damon, details the 2008 economic collapse and corrupt banking practices. Good stuff.