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Tag Archives: Documentaries

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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Five Good Films, Two Not So Good

15 Sunday Nov 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

"Bridge of Spies", "Brooklyn", "Flowers", "Labyrinth of Lies", "Meet the Patels", "Room", "Suffragette", 24th Philadelphia Film Festival, Documentaries, Films, Foreign Language Oscar Submissions, Movies

Four of the five good films mini-reviewed below are in theaters now, and one of the two not so good ones is also widely available around the country.

Labyrinth of Lies ****1/2

labyrinth-of-lies.2

The time is 1958 and a low level young public prosecutor stumbles onto and pursues a story most of post WWII Germans want left alone — the participation and guilt of many Germans who were part of the Auschwitz holocaust.

Labyrinth of Lies is based on true events, but here it is a fictionalized account of what occurred. As Johann Radman (Alexander Feeling) proceeds on a lonely effort to expose war criminals, he meets stiff resistance from virtually everyone in Germany. They just want all of these issue left behind. Yet he perseveres.

Germany’s official entry into the foreign film category of the Oscars, Labyrinth of Lies tells the story of what one person can do, did do, and at what costs and with what results.

(More than 97 per cent of our Sunday Cinema Club rated this film either excellent or good.)

Bridge of Spies ****1/2

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Films vs Books…Documentaries vs Memoirs

03 Sunday Aug 2014

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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Tags

Books, Documentaries, Films, Memoirs

Thank you to friend and MillersTime reader Elliott Trommald for his Comment (which I only just saw this morning) on my post on the film Life Itself. He wrote:

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Favorite Films from First Half of 2014

31 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

"MillersTime" Film Reviews, 2014 Film Reviews, Best Films in 2014, Documentaries, Films, Foreign Films, Movies

Compiled below is the list of films I saw between Jan. 1, 2014 and July 31, 2014 that I rated from three and a half to five stars.

These 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 worth checking out.

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

The ones listed below I recommend for your consideration.

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Seven More Films: Mini-Reviews

20 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

" "Detropia", "A Late Quartet", "A Royal Affair", "Burn", "Central Park Five", "Chasing Ice", "Quartet", "Sky Fall", "The Fitzgerald Family Christmas", "The Life of Pi", "West of Memphis, Documentaries, Films, Movies, Searching for Sugarman

Mini-reviews here of seven films I’ve seen over the last month or so (it’s great to be retired and also to belong to the DC Sunday morning Cinema Club).

And these don’t include Flight, Zero Dark Thirty, Jack Reacher, Les Miserables, and The Waiting Room (any other suggestions?), all of which I plan to see in the next ten days. Nor do they include recently reviewed movies on MillersTime: West of Memphis, Silver Linings Playsbook, A Late Quartet, Lincoln, and Argo.

Once I see the five listed above, I’ll have a post listing the movies this year that I’ve give ratings of four, four and a half, and five stars.

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Film: “Five Broken Cameras”

20 Friday Jul 2012

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Documentaries, Films, Five Broken Cameras

Bill Plitt, a long time friend, told me about this film, but I was leaving DC before I had a chance to see it. I hope it is still showing when I return next week.

Bill is a returned Peace Corps volunteer and has spent much of his life working with children and families in education. Most recently, among other activities, he has been director of community outreach for Friends of Tent of Nations North America, which supports cross-cultural understanding and the peaceful resolution of conflicts.

 

Movie: Five Broken Cameras, Review by Bill Plitt

Last Friday, my wife and I, along with some friends went to see the documentary, Five Broken Cameras at “E” Street Theatre in Washington D.C where it was showing in a limited engagement of two weeks- pity.   We read the review in The Post, nudged by our friends of Jewish Voices for Peace, and went to see it for ourselves.  We knew it had won the Sundance Film Festival Award in January for World Cinema Documentary Director Award.  It was worth the venture we thought.  So we went.

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