Beautiful languid follow-up to Moonlight by Barry Jenkins. Lots of powerful moments by this most poetic director but I am not sure that it quite reaches the level of his previous work. Nonetheless, that Jenkins is fast becoming an auteur cannot be doubted. Adapted from a successful novel on black life in New York by James Baldwin and set in the 1970´s, it is basically the story of a romance between Tish (Kiki Layne)
and her childhood friend Fonny (Stephan James) 
navigating the joys of her family
and the contras of most of his and trying to make a life together.
Fonny wants to be a sculptor but runs into the obstacles typical of young black men at the time (and maybe still). And worse still he is framed by a white policeman
for the rape of a hispanic woman,
who “recognizes” him in a police line-up when Fonny was clearly elsewhere at the time. He is detained, no bail mentioned and Tish has to visit him, breaking the news on one visit that she is pregnant with his child. Tish and her family are trying to get him out of jail and that includes a visit to Puerto Rico by her mother (excellent Regina King) 
to try to find the rape victim.
So, lots of the subject matter resonates with racial and to a lesser degree sexist issues today.
It is also another depiction of the shadow side of US life which it seems Hollywood can’t get enough of.
As a film it is almost a moodpiece
and at times drags somewhat though the beauty and directness of the scenes do reach you if you are willing to invest some attention. Great music from Nicholas Britell.
♦♦♦♦+
He hires an Italian wideboy to be his driver and security guard. Tony is pretty ignorant about black people more through lack of contact than any bad intention and the pair get off to a rocky start.
As the tour progresses both men have to learn to adjust to each other’s styles but as always in these cases it is not smooth sailing.
And of course they end up being life-long friends.
He is an outsider among the blacks there and Tony doesn’t understand the whites.
and street-smart guy and Mahershala Ali gives his particular presence to the role of Don Shirley.
Ali is a subtle actor who shows us how he can play very different characters and make them believable. Watchable and enlightening with a good portrayal of the period.
The Wife is made by a largely Swedish team and focuses on the wife of a newly announced literature laureate. Joseph Castleman (Jonathan Pryce, very credible)
is off to Sweden to receive the award accompanied by his wife. They have a secret; she is the ghost writer of his books. 
They also have a son who is an aspiring writer accompanying them (Max Irons) and a daughter about to give birth in the US. In the spotlight of these award affairs, the pressure starts to mount
and it is clear that something is about to snap in Joan, who is portrayed as the pillar on which her husband relies to do his work.
Glenn Close shows all her experience and talent to convey the conflicting emotions in this movie which should be given credit for exploring the contradictions of the situation and not just gloss over the surface.
Because apart from professional pride, love is involved too. Good to see Christian Slater back in a smallish but important role.
Yes, definitely one of the best performances of the year acting wise by Close
and a nice adult topic well depicted on screen with good music and photography.
They share life together like a buddy movie and Hank works through some of his issues like the meaning of his life and romance with Manny.
There are several amusing moments here,
plenty of farting and boners and some surreal occurences which are partly writer´s licence
and partly explained later in the film.
Paul Dano is suitably off-beat in the lead role and Daniel Radcliffe makes the most of being a cooperative corpse.
But in the end, this film by newcomers Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert didn’t reach me despite spending most of its length really trying.
and took more unpopular and dubious decisions than any other in history too (much of the ramping up of the Iraq war was thanks to him). And yet he is also one of the biggest blobs character-wise.
A personality free Yes man that said little and created an image of a deep thinker when deep plotter was probably more accurate. With his Lady Macbeth style wife Lynne, they came out of Wyoming and literally took Washington, all on dubious intellect but high on political skills and patience.
So, not elevating people at all. This film is openly critical of Cheney and his public popularity when he left office was one of the lowest ever. So, how do you make all this into a watchable film? You try to jazz it up with fishing metaphors, surreal Shakespearean quotation sessions between husband and wife, you spend a lot of time on Cheney’s old overburdened heart and the new one he receives (and we even get the donor doing turns on the narration
) and you flash back and forward which is not so easy for most audiences without a good grip on past US political history. I found it didn’t add up and all I wanted was to leave the company of this unpleasant man, which is perhaps Hollywood showing us the American shadow side again.
Compared with Gary Oldman who had much more material to work on with Churchill last year, Bale manages to construct a lot out of this really rather empty and obsessive man. Amy Adams does a good job too as Lynne which is what you would expect of an actress of her caliber.
Sam Rockwell makes a fair enough show at George W Bush but doesn’t quite pull it off.
These features compensate for a rather bitty screenplay and direction which doesn’t always make the right choices (and no, I did not find the restaurant scene funny).
will 3-D print you a new liver or laser out shrapnel and bullet wounds no questions asked. She has been funded into the clinic by a mobster (Jeff Goldblum) who figures that it is a good place to have. On the night we witness, the guests
are all nervous because of the riots and rules begin to get broken. There is a lot in this film and while the set up in the first half is intriguing (who is the French contract killer who looks like a supermodel? – Sofia Boutella)
and what is she here for? Why does the Nurse treat a cop? The second half, while watchable is less convincing
and descends into the usual gore
and the film ends mercifully quickly with the sense that many opportunities were lost.
aged up and dressed down in her first film in 5 years. Maybe it is no classic, but as a change of role, it is a great effort.
Worth watching mainly for her.
Her friend was arrested and has to be released, the court system has her cellphone. She gets to bed down for a few days with an aunt
who has a shop nearby and she tries to reactivate her work without a place to go to and with other prostitutes protecting their own patches fiercely on the street.
Will she try to leave this work and become a cleaner? Or will the lure of this profession become too strong?
There are some harrowing scenes here and a very poignant look at society and its inability to decide how prostitution can fit somehow naturally and accepted into society.
Sofia Gala
is the rock on which the movie is made, convincing at all moments and almost never giving anything away. Her own son features as the boy in the movie.
Not a movie I’d especially want to see again but sensitively and authentically made which is a credit to director Anahí Berneri
is the new king of Wakanda, an African state that looks on the surface to be a poor agricultural nation
but actually possesses vibranium, a super metal that has allowed them to develop incredible weapons and sophisticated transport systems. The plot begins with a challenge to T’Challa’s possible kingship,
all permitted within the tribal rules and at the same time, the theft
of some vibranium from a British museum. Wakanda does not want any of this precious metal floating around but equally does not use it to intervene on the side of justice for black people in the world. The story develops these scenes interspersing fights and car chases
in different parts of the world with scenes of life in the mysterious but credible (in sci-fi terms) world of Wakanda. By the middle of the film the conflict becomes clear: keep vibranium for themselves to protect Wakanda
or use it for the good (or bad) of the world.
charismatic as one of the bad guys, Danai Gurira, Daniel Kaluuya and Letitia Wright
as a scene-stealing baby sister. Forest Whitaker has an important minor role as well, as does veteran John Kanu. Great photography from Rachel Morrison and the special effects are a strong feature.
But even more than the fact that black actors are the protagonists in a type of movie that would normally be white, the plethora of women in leading roles is notable. The King’s guard is a regiment of warrior women!
is a ground-breaker and thought-provoker and that definitely adds a whole new aspect to film-making in the US. Highly recommended for that even though perhaps the basics are typical of any similar film.
who were treated in Cuba in huge numbers. Malin (Rodrigo Santoro, earnest)
is assigned to the children’s ward and finds the responsibility of his job too much to take.
His relationships with his wife and child start to fall apart and this coincides with the beginning of the special period in Cuba when after the Berlin Wall fell, the country lost much of its imports and both food and petrol were lacking.
there are a number of technical faults and a lack of real drama and oomph. The story seems to drag on as I imagine many do in Cuba. The setting seems to be well reconstructed and the subject matter is interesting and moving but overall there is nothing much new here. Maricel Alvarez
as an Argentine nurse adds some spice.
What she ends up doing is forging letters of famous people for whom there was a big market in the US in the nineties. She has one friend, a gay conman played enthusiastically by Richard E Grant.
At times he helps, at times he is far more of a hindrance. Lee is a very difficult type, egoistic, dirty and given to bad moods – her only real companion is her cat. The manager of a secnd hand book shop who writes, Anne (Dolly Lewis)
tries to make friends with her but Lee is really just interested in herself. This film by Marielle Heller tells this true story and Melissa McCarthy
brings it to life in a very convincing performance that has earned her an Oscar nomination.
Good it may be but the story is rather pathetic and you can’t help feeling little sorrow for her. I just found I didn’t really care even though Lee is one of life’s losers.
passionfilm 