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Tag Archives: “About Elly”

Fall Movie ‘Reviews’ – 15 Films

02 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

"A Man Calleld Ove", "A Separation", "About Elly", "Do Not Resist", "Fire at Sea", "Graduation", "I, "I Am Not Your Negro", "La La Land", "Moonlight", "OJ: Made in America", "Queen of Katwe", "The Oath", "The Past", "The Unknown Girl", "Things to Come", 25th Film Festival, Adrian Titieni, Andre Holland, Asghar Farhadi, Barry Jenkins, Best Documentary - Tribeca Film Festival, Craig Atkinson, Cristian Mungiu, Daniel Blake", Dardenne brothers, Dave Johns, David Oyelowo, Emma Stone, Ezra Edelman, Gianfranco Rosi, Hannes Holm, Haylet Squires, Iceland, Isabelle Huppert, James Baldwin, Janielle Monae, Ken Loach, Lupita Nyong'o, Madine Nalwanga, Mahershala Ali, Malcolm X. Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers, Mia Hansen-Love, Mira Nair, Modern Musical, Naomie Harris, PFF, Philadelphia Film Festival, psychological thriller, Rolf Lassgard, Ryan Gosling, Samuel L. Jackson, Shahab Hosseini, Taraneh Alidoorti, Tarell McCraney, Trevante Rhodes

For this post, you’re gonna need a pencil and piece of paper (or whatever you use these days to jot things down, i.e., movie titles that you want to remember or want to add to your ‘to see list.’)

Of the 15 films mini-reviewed below, almost half of them are now out in the theaters or will be out within the next month or two. Most of these we saw recently at a film festival in Philadelphia.

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Favorite Films of 2015

27 Sunday Dec 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

"A Brilliant Young Mind", "About Elly", "Bridge of Spies", "Brooklyn", "Cargel Land", "Clouds of Silas Maria", "Cut Snake", "GHETT", "Ixanul Volcano", "Labrynth of Lies", "Love and Mercy", "Meru", "RAMS", "Selma", "Seymour", "The Fool", "The White Knights, Documentaries, Favorite Movies of 2015, Films, Foreign Films, Movies

Favorite Movies

Most of the end-of-the year lists of “Best” Films, “Best” Books, etc. come from critics who review films/books for a living.

I don’t claim any special film knowledge and just tend to write about how much I liked various films for whatever reasons. Here is a list of many (tho not all) of the films Ellen and I saw in 2015, largely ones that I rated four stars or higher (out of a system of 1-5 stars).

As I was posting this list, I thought of adjusting a few of the ratings (up or down) but decided to leave the ratings the way I made them a day or two after seeing each film.

Ellen’s ratings are in parentheses, some made at the time of seeing it, some as I’m constructing this post. Some she cannot remember. (I have the same memory problems on some of them, but I can refer to the mini-reviews I wrote.)

These starred categories are somewhat arbitrary, but generally the five and four and a half star films are pretty close, and I enjoyed those tremendously. The four star ones were all good, but I had some (minor) reservations. The three and half star ones were more problematical films but still may be worth checking out. Three starred ones were even more problematic.

If a film did not make it into one of these categories, I did not write a review.

A significant number, but certainly not all, of these films are either documentary, foreign, or small films, often only in the theaters for a few weeks, usually in one of the independent theaters in the DC area or in our DC Film Club. We did attend two film festivals in 2015 — one in Miami and one in Philly — where we saw a number of the films listed below. Note that some of the films mentioned are currently in the theaters.

If you click on any of the linked titles below, you will get to my mini-review of that film on MillersTime.

As always, I welcome your Comments about any of these or any others you saw this year which you particularly enjoyed.

Five Stars  *****

  • A Brilliant Young Mind (Ellen rated it a 4)
  • GETT (Ellen – 5)
  • Ixanul Volcano (Ellen rated it 4)
  • Love and Mercy
  • Selma (Ellen – 4)
  • Seymour (Ellen – 5)
  • Spotlight (Ellen – 5)
  • Testament of Youth
  • The White Knights (Ellen – 5)
  • The Fool

Four and Half Stars  ****1/2

  • About Elly
  • Bridge of Spies (Ellen – 4)
  • Brooklyn (Ellen – 4)
  • Cartel Land
  • Clouds of Silas Maria
  • Cut Snake
  • Labrynth of Lies (Ellen – 4)
  • Meru
  • RAMS (Ellen – 4)

Four Stars ****

  • Dheepan (Ellen – 4)
  • Gemma Bovery
  • Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
  • Meet the Patels
  • Mission Impossible Rogue Nation
  • Mr. Holmes (Ellen – 4)
  • Mustang (Ellen rated it 5)
  • Phoenix
  • Remember (Ellen – 5)
  • Room (Ellen – 3 1/2)
  • Rosenwald (Ellen – 5)
  • Spy (Ellen – 3)
  • The Big Short (Not Reviewed, But Rated) (Ellen -5 )
  • The Club (Ellen – 5)
  • The Farewell Party
  • The Salt of the Earth (Ellen – 4)
  • Set Fire to the Stars
  • Warsaw 44
  • When Marnie Was There
  • Wild Tales (Ellen – 5)
  • Woman in Gold (Ellen – 4)

Three and a Half Stars ***1/2

  • Carol (Not Reviewed but rated) (Ellen – 4)
  • 45 Years (Not Reviewed, But Rated) (Ellen – 4)
  • Our Brand Is Crisis (Ellen – 3)
  • Soy Cuba (I Am Cuba)
  • (T)error (Ellen – 4)
  • Trumbo (Not Reviewed, But Rated) (Ellen – 3 1/2)

Three Stars ***

  • American Sniper (and a review by a friend – 5 stars)
  • Anomalisa (Ellen 3; then a 4)
  • End of the Tour
  • Flowers (Ellen – 4)
  • Paco de Lucia
  • Suffragette (Ellen – 3)
  • Where to Invade Next (Ellen – 2)
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Movies Movies Movies

17 Wednesday Jun 2015

Tags

"About Elly", "Clouds of Silas Maria", "Gemma Bovery", "Love & Mercy", "Spy", "Testament of Youth", "The Farewell Party", "When Marnie Was There", "Wild Tales", "Woman in Gold", Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, Melissa McCarthy, Paul Fieg

Here are mini-reviews of four recent movies we found enjoyable, plus links to some we saw over the past six to nine months that are now available in some theaters.

Spy****

spy-1_wide-9e203ea0d67427c4ecbb72b7bf85ac7266609092-s1600-c85

This one surprised and delighted me.

A mainstream movie, it stars Melissa McCarthy in a ‘take down’ of virtually every spy movie you’ve ever seen, especially the 007 ones. It’s a laugh out loud film about a woman who emerges from the basement of ‘Agency’ headquarters to track down and beat the bad guys.

McCarthy is terrific in her role and somehow walks the line between being funny and absurd. She’s helped by a good supporting cast (Miriam Hart, Jude Law, Rose Byrnem, and Jason Statham) and a script and direction by Paul Ferg that kept me laughing (despite myself).

*                    *                    *                    *                    *

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Posted by Richard | Filed under Escapes and Pleasures

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Films, Films, Films

21 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

"A Brilliant Young Mind", "About Elly", "Clouds of Silas Maria", "Gemma Bovery", "GETT: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem", "Seymour: An Introduction", "The Curious Incident of the Dog at Midnight", "The Farewell Party", "The Kugelmass Episode", "The Salt of the Earth", "While We Were Young", "Wild Tales", Films, Movies

Ten films for you to keep in mind. Six of these are in the theaters now.

Five of the ten get my highest ratings — four and a half or five stars.

A Brilliant Young Mind *****

x-plus-y06

You’ll have to wait for the summer for this one — Samuel Goldwyn Films just purchased the US distribution rights — but mark it down. It’s a very good one.

A Brilliant Young Mind is Morgan Matthews’ drama about a 16 year old autistic math prodigy; it was inspired by Matthews’ own 2007 documentary, Beautiful Young Minds. That documentary followed the young British International Mathematical Olympiad team through their selection process, their training, and the actual contest itself in 2006.

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