Category Archives: Escapes and Pleasures

The Books Most Enjoyed by MillersTime Readers Mid-Year 2018

30 Saturday Jun 2018

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“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read.” – A. Lincoln

This post, one of my favorites, is only possible because so many of you have taken the time to share with me and others titles and comments about what you are reading and enjoying. What you will see below is truly the result of cooperation between a community of readers and friends, even if many of you do not know each other.

The 2018 mid-year list is comprised of the favorite reads of 63 adults and 2 children. Fiction leads the nonfiction 57% to 43%, similar to last year, and there are titles for readers with wide ranges of interests. Our youngest participant is now 11 month’s old; the oldest is 96+. The rest of you are mostly between the ages of 35- 75. Sixty percent of you are women, 40% are men.

While I don’t expect everyone will read all the way through this list (anyone who does and likes it can claim it as a favorite book for next year), know there is a tremendous amount of information here. I’ve organized it in several ways, hopefully to make it more user friendly:

I. The most frequently cited titles (three or more times) are listed first.

II. Next the contributors are listed alphabetically — to make it easy if you are looking for the favorites of someone you know — with the titles and authors next and then any comments made about those books.

III. Finally, there are also two spread sheet links included as easy, searchable references for you to see the titles, authors, and MillersTime contributors in summary form:

List # 1 – Organized alphabetically by book title, fiction precedes nonfiction 

List #2 – Organized alphabetically by reader/contributor’s name, fiction again precedes nonfiction

Enjoy.

I. Titles that appear on the Favorites’ List three times or more

Fiction (F):

  •      Beartown, Fredrik Backman
  •      Beneath a Scarlet Sky, Mark Sullivan
  •      Manhattan Beach, Jennifer Egan
  •      Sing, Unburied, Sing, Jesmyn Ward
  •      The Great Alone, Kristin Hannah

Nonfiction (NF):

  •      Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders & the Birth of the FBI, David Grann
  •      Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder & One Man’s Fight for Justice, Bill Browder

For me, as always, the strengths and value of this mid-year’s list have more to do with what contributors say about a book than the number of times a book may be listed. Often, a book listed only once or twice is one I most want to read in the next six months or coming year.

A reminder: this list is not meant to be the best books published in 2018, but rather what the title of this posting states — The Books Most Enjoyed by MillersTime Readers Mid-Year 2018.

And, of course, I take responsibility for any inaccuracies or mistakes in the posting of your names, the titles, the authors, and your comments. Please do let me know about errors so I can correct them quickly and easily (especially if I have not listed you and any books/titles you have  sent to me.)

Feel free to share this post with others — family, friends, book clubs, etc., and start now with keeping a list for the second half of 2018.

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Calling for Midyear Favorite Reads – 2018

26 Saturday May 2018

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“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read”- A. Lincoln

Several years ago I decided waiting until December each year was too long a time between posts that share favorite reads among MillersTime readers. So I started asking in May/June for books you’ve read so far in the year that have particularly resonated with you. And since some of our memories are not quite as sharp as they once were, the idea of having a midyear call for your favorites and a midyear post, I hope, will be useful to all and will continue to be a regular feature here.

Unlike in previous years, I plan to only have one midyear post and will do that in the beginning of July. So you have over the next month to get me your favorites so far this year. I will send a couple of reminders, but I don’t want to nag or plead. So even if you just want to give the titles and wait until December for your longer contributions and explanations, at least send me a list before the end of June. That way, others will have some reading options for the second half of 2018.

I ask that you send me a few that have stood out for you so far, and if you have the time, add a sentence or two of what was particularly appealing. Send them to my email (Samesty84@gmail.com).

Thanx in advance.

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Report from the Washington Jewish Film Festival: Five Reviews

16 Wednesday May 2018

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Reviews by Ellen Miller:

The Last Suit:

Ellen ***** Richard *****

If we used a 10 point scale on which to rate films, this one would get 15. It won the audience award at the Miami Film Festival (we missed it there), and it’s easy to see why.

This movie tells the story of an 88-year-old Polish Jewish man who escaped, barely alive, from a Nazi labor camp, and after being nurtured back to life by a childhood Christian friend, immigrates to Argentina where he marries, raises three daughters and lives to old age. As he is losing his health and his daughters are about to move him into a nursing home, he leaves his home — alone — to make his way back to Poland to try – improbable as it sounds – to reunite with the friend that he hasn’t seen in 70 years. The trip in an on-going saga and is full of lovely, caring people (including one estranged daughter) who help him make his way “home.” It’s a beautiful story.

This is a film of extraordinary exploration of character. The main character,
Abraham Bursztein, is exquisitely acted by Miguel Ángel Solá. He is a man of no
compromise, sternness, manners, practicality, and humor. Each of the characters (his daughters, the people he meets on his journey) are very well drawn and well acted. It is filled with flashbacks of both the good times of his youth and the indescribable horrors he experienced under Nazi occupation of Poland. Powered by wonderfully composed klezmer music, the film is moving and comes to a satisfying end.

The old adage ”first you laugh, then you cry” is apt. This is one of the most
enjoyable films we have seen in a long time. It’s a must-see.

(Ed. Note 5/17/18: The Last Suit just received the Audience Award for Best Narrative.)

Israel: Stories of Modern Days:

Ellen ***** Richard *****

The first thing I said  at the end of this documentary was “I wish had a transcript.”

This film consists of interviews of 10 prominent contemporary Israel authors,
including two I have read extensively over the years – Amos Oz and David
Grossman. It was produced in celebration of the celebration of Israel’s 70th
Anniversary and is brilliantly edited to discuss many topics, including the authors’
thoughts on contemporary Israeli politics, the power of literature, the connections between the historical and contemporary Hebrew language, and religion.

That makes it sound dull and dry but it was anything but.

I doubt this film will be widely shown, and that’s too bad. I would definitely
recommend finding a way to listen to the incredibly articulate and thoughtful voices of the literary giants interviewed.

Longing:

Ellen *** Richard ***

This film was billed as having been nominated for 13 Israeli Academy Awards,
including Best Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay etc., and it played to nearly a sold out audience in one of the larger venues during the Jewish Film
Festival.

Described as tragicomedy in which a confirmed bachelor — Ariel — learns he long ago, had a son –a 19-year-old who recently had a fatal accident. He tries to connect to the world of this unknown son by visiting his school, meeting some of his friends, and developing a friendship with teacher that the son adored. It had some moments of laughter at the silliness of some of those efforts, and there was a tug at your heartstrings occasionally as he groped his way. But for me it was boring, disjointed, and ridiculous at times. (And besides the subtitles were very difficult to read.)

When I returned from the theater I checked to see if the film indeed had won any of the Oscar Awards for which it had been nominated. Not a one. Needless to say I was not surprised. One reviewer remarked that the multiple nominations was “… simply a case of an established director being rewarded by his cronies.” Sounds right to me.

Skip it.

The Hero:

Ellen **** Richard ****

A beautifully filmed (think of almost every scene as looking like a Vermeer painting — this is a Dutch film) post Holocaust mystery about the lies a father told his family about how he lived through the Holocaust. It’s a complex story, sometimes hard to follow, but in the end, most of the pieces fit together splendidly.

The film begins with the prodigal daughter returning to visit her ageing father and mother in Holland. As soon as she arrives, early memories of her childhood in the home begin to haunt her, followed soon by real attacks on her and her family by a person unknown. The film delves deeply into each character, and all are well-acted. While there are a few pieces of the puzzle that we had trouble figuring out, in the end the detective work is worth it. This is an engaging and thoughtful movie.

The Hero takes the viewer through on a complicated and tightly-woven story that comes together to a explosive ending.

We saw this film with friends, and we discussed whether it fits into the category of the morally ambiguous realm of whether the end was justified. That question makes the entire film even more interesting. I won’t spoil either the end of the story or our opinions about that in this review.

The film was written and directed by an Oscar nominated filmmaker Menno Meyjes who was the co-writer for The Color Purple, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.)

Heading Home – The Tale of Team Israel:

Ellen ***** Richard ***** (no claim of objectivity here)

Who knew that Israel had a baseball team…much less one that defied all odds to become one of the great underdog stories of the 2017 World Baseball Classic?

If you’re Jewish, and love baseball, this film is an absolute must-see. (Though I suspect it will be difficult to find in any local theater.)

This is a documentary about the process and the success of putting together of a team for Israel’s participation in the 2017 World Baseball Classic, the impact it had on its players, and the highs and lows of winning, and losing. There’s even a role for the “Mensch on the Bench”, the team mascot.

Since Israel did not have an indigenous team, they were able to select players who had a Jewish background (players whose mother or father or grandparents were Jewish) to play for the team. They discovered a number of former U.S. Major League players and recruited them, including Ike Davis, Ryan Lavanway, Josh Zeidi, and Cory Decker. The entire team was invited to Israel to learn more about their past, drum up support for their efforts with local people, and to practice for the Baseball Classic. As the story unfolds, this film becomes both a sports drama and an exploration of Jewish identity.

We took our nine year old grandson to this documentary, and he loved it too, telling us “That was amazing, I’ve never see anything like this.”

(Ed. Note 5/17/18: Heading Home just received the Audience Award for Best Documentary.)

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Seven More Films to Consider

02 Wednesday May 2018

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from Ellen Miller:

Richard and I find that we are spending less time seeing “mainstream”(i.e., big production films from major studios) and more time focusing on independent films. While we appreciate some of those big films, with big stars and huge production values, there seems to be increasingly fewer of those types of films that we want to see. And besides, the independent film scene just seems to get richer and richer. There is more diversity in stories being told, new directors, young actors, and inventive production.

It is also possible that our increasing focus on independent films has to do with new viewing opportunities: low key film festivals in Philadelphia and Miami, the DC Film Fest, the Jewish Film Festival, and the DC Cinema Club. (This ‘club’ now operates in eight cities around the country – Atlanta, Boca Raton, Boston, Greater New Haven, Milwaukee, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Washington, DC). The curators of the films shown in these venues know more than we will ever know about what makes a movie worth seeing. The twice monthly 10:30 AM (surprise) screenings on Sunday mornings make it novel too.

In the last month or so we’ve seen a number of diverse presentations, at least one of which is now out in the theaters. In no particular order, here are my thoughts on these films.

Borg vs. McEnroe:

Ellen ***** Richard *****

You don’t have to be a sports fan, or a tennis fan, to enjoy this movie (but if you are either, it’s a must-see).

As you probably guessed, this film is about one of the all-time great rivalries in tennis – Bjorn Borg (the Swedish master of concentration and cool) versus John McEnroe (the unruly American).

The time is the summer of 1980 when these two tennis greats faced each other for the Wimbledon championship. And even though you (may) know the outcome of this particular match, this is a taut film, well (re)enacted, and well produced. It also offers in-depth psychological profiles of both players, focusing on what made them the competitors they were. The stories of their lives, their training, their discipline (or lack there of) is legendary.

Perhaps because it is a Swedish film, the emphasis is more on Borg than McEnroe. But you will come away from the film knowing them both, understanding their rivalry, and what drove each of them to the heights they attained. And you’ll probably be cheering the director of the film too.

The Rider:

Ellen **** Richard ****

This film takes place on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation (the Oglala Lakota Native American reservation) in South Dakota where a young cowboy is a rising star on the rodeo circuit, until he is seriously injured.

After this accident, he struggles with who he is and how he relates to the world and to his friends without being able to participate in his life’s calling or his opportunity for gainful remuneration. He is despondent as a new reality unfolds around him — the only work he can find to do is to train others’ horses. His father struggles to keep their life together. A younger sister who is disabled becomes his most faithful companion.

Impressively, all of the actors are nonprofessional — Lakota Native Americans — whose own lives are not very different from the people they portray in the film. The setting of the film is their home — beautiful and haunting South Dakota and the reservation on which they live. Based on a true story, this is a touching and tender film, panoramic, slow-paced, and straightforward.

The director of this film is a Chinese filmmaker Chloe Zhao who is currently based in the US. She has received much attention for her earlier films.

Lean On Pete:

Ellen **** Richard ****

This is a bittersweet coming of age story of a boy and his horse (and his father) that offers a glimpse into the kind of lives we rarely see or know.The acting is superb, the production well done, and it tells a story of poverty, perseverance, and persistence.

The film is based on Willy Vlautin’s 2010 novel of the same title. Charley, a 15-year old, is being taken care of by his single father, but essentially he is left to fend for himself. He meets a horse trainer who begrudgingly hires him for odd jobs. Charley enjoys the work and “befriends” a quarter horse named Lean on Pete. The horse fast becomes the best friend of this lonely teen.

Things happen (no spoilers here), and the film becomes a saga of a boy and his horse, traveling alone together.

While a bit sentimental for my own taste, it is a fine film, exquisitely acted (the lead is played by the teen actor Charlie Pummer) and most definitely worth seeing.

Bolshoi:

Ellen ***** Richard *****

We saw four films in three days during the recent DC Film Festival. We  were going to skip this venue this year, but one of our film buddies emailed to say that we simply had to see this movie. So we fit it in last week — along with a few others — and were very glad we did.

This is a superb Russian-directed film about what it takes to become a ballerina, made only as the Russians could. It’s a precise, caring, heart-rending story. It has a grand scope and a big story to tell. It centers on two young girls who compete from their earliest pre-teen years in the ballet academy to become the prima ballerina of the world’s most famous ballet – the Bolshoi. Their backgrounds are very different and that’s key to the story.

No real surprises here, except in the impact of this narrative. While it is a coming of age story, there is so much depth to the characters (superbly acted by the two stars), that the film offers real insight, revealing what it takes to make two ballerinas who are the very “stuff’’ of legends.

This is a film of pure enjoyment. Really a must see.

Playing God:

Ellen ***** Richard ****

Also seen at the DC Film Festival (90 films from 60 d ifferent countries), where it was a perfect choice for the audience, this is a documentary about Kenneth R. Feinberg, the man brought in by the federal government and private companies to handle “disaster” relief funds in the wake of 9/11, the BP oil spill, Agent Orange, the Central States Pension plan battle, and other similar circumstances.

While an homage to the extraordinary work of Feinberg, and largely consisting of a series of interviews with him, it teaches you things you didn’t know about how these enormous funds are handled, who benefits and who loses, and how “justice” is often done only in the eyes of the beholder. It also contains very interesting interviews with a number of the victims of these tragedies that add real life complexity to the film.  These interviews raise questions about the fairness of the process itself (including an examination of current law), and to some extent, it makes you wonder how even handedly Feinberg has been in dispensing funds, particularly in the case of the BP oil spill. (He was hired by the company in that case to adjudicate distribution of the money the company provided to those who were injured.)

Both Feinberg and the film’s director were in the audience the night we saw it and responded to questions from the audience.

I’d highly recommend the film if it comes to a theater, or festival, near you. It both teaches and makes you think..

No Date, No Signature:

Ellen ***** Richard *****

What’s up with Iranian films these days? They are definitely coming of age! {See this NY Times commentary.) This film is a contemporary one — a story of a doctor who sideswipes a motorcycle late at night. He stops to investigate and examines the entire family that was riding on it (mother, father, a small girl, and a boy of eight) to make sure that no one was hurt. He offers them financial restitution to repair the modest damage to the bike. He is a responsible man and believes that he has taken the right steps following the incident.

Days later the eight-year old boy dies in the hospital where the doctor works. The mystery begins: did he die of accident-related trauma or did something else cause his death?  If the latter, who was responsible? If the former, then clearly the doctor was responsible, and the doctor becomes tortured by this possibility. As the mystery and investigation unfolds, this becomes a film about who takes responsibility for what, the moral and ethical choices that are faced every day, who tells the truth and why.

The acting in this film is brilliant, particularly the portrayal of the lead doctor by Navid Mohammadzaden, a multiple award winner.)

Maze:

Ellen **** Richard ***

We ended our DC Flim Festival viewing with this political thriller from Ireland. This is a prison break film, and it takes place entirely within the walls of what has been generally regarded as the world’s most secure prison. The time period is of the “troubles” –the nearly three-decade conflict in Northern Ireland.

Based on a true story, the film charts how one inmate, an IRA compatriot, orchestrated the world’s largest prison break since World War II. The character development of all the major actors was terrific, and the film offers a unique insight into the human character.

Prepare yourself to be challenged by the accents, but that’s less off-putting than it may seem as the films grainy visuals and strong acting counterbalance the spoken words.

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Four Recommended Books

18 Wednesday Apr 2018

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Rather than wait until I do a mid-year round up of readers’ favorite reads for the first half of 2018, I thought I’d mention four books that I’ve recently read and thoroughly enjoyed and might have interest for others.

All four are from suggestions by MillersTime readers, and all four are non-fiction, generally my reading of preference.

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren (NF) – Recommended by Ellen Hoff & Suzanne Stier.

Ellen H. wrote: “ A pure research scientist who writes well about her own adventures in science, her life, and, fascinating to me, bits of botany. If you are interested in botany, skip her struggle with mental disorders. If you are not interested in botany, some fascinating bits on her curiosity and fascination with pure research and asking new questions, and the struggles facing research scientists in finding funding and developing a lab.”

Suzanne S. wrote: “This book goes at the top of my list. It is a combination of science about trees and plants and a memoir by Hope about her journey as a scientist and her relationship with a man named Bill…who is her soul mate/twin/co-conspirator…The book is serious and funny and well written. A must read for all.”

Me: I listened to Hope Jahren’s narration of her book and that added immeasurably to my enjoyment as I felt she was basically talking directly to me. Certainly the best memoir I have ‘read’ in years. If you read and enjoyed H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, one of my favorites from last year, you’ll certainly enjoy Lab Girl. If you didn’t read Macdonald’s book, you now have two wonderful books in store for you.

Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan’s Disaster Zone by Richard Lloyd Parry (NF) – Recommended by Ellen Miller.

Ellen M.: “This is the story of the Tsunami that on March 11, 2011 hit the northwest coast of Japan, killing more than 18,500 people. It focuses particularly on the personal stories of several families and one community focusing on accountability for deaths in one school. It is heartbreaking.”

Me: I ‘resisted’ reading this exploration of the consequences of the Tsunami, doubting it would be of interest to me. How wrong I was. The author does a brilliant job of not just describing what happened but also of going inside the Japanese culture to give insights and understandings into a world that is often closed to outsiders.

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tiva Bailey (NF) – Recommended by Melanie Landau.

Melanie: “Fascinating, meditative. Account of minutely observing a tiny snail while bed ridden and ill.”

Me: Snails? Another account of something I never thought I’d have interest in. Wrong again. A wonderful story/memoir and most enlightening both about the author and about these little creatures.

Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer (NF) – Recommended by Abigail Wiebenson.

Abigail wrote: “A totally fascinating story of saving thousands of ancient manuscripts in Mali which becomes entangled in the jihadi movement all of which the author describes with spell-binding dexterity.”

Me: Despite a totally misleading title, I found myself immersed in a true tale about so much I never knew, not only about manuscripts and the written word but also about the jihadi incursions and exploits outside of the middle east.

**                   **                   **                   **                   **

If you are not already keeping track of books you’ve enjoyed/are enjoying, please consider doing so. In June, I will ask for books readers have most enjoyed over the first half of 2018, which I will then post in July.

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Report from the Miami Film Festival – March 9-18

18 Sunday Mar 2018

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Ellen Miller, MillersTime Movie Reviewer:

Attending the Miami Film Festival is always a treat for us. We’re now in the third or fourth year of making this a “spring break” activity. The weather is always (at least) 30 degrees warmer than Washington and good friends host us. We see movies, we dissect them, we eat, we laugh, we sleep, and the next day we do it all over again, for three or four days. I should also note that we even “train” for our typical three films a day: long morning walks on Miami Beach or through beautiful residential neighborhoods. Sustenance involves everything from the best ice cream in Miami, the unbelievably delicious frita cubana to be had in Little Havana, a return visit to our most favorite Miami restaurant (River Seafood Oyster Bar), and our first but not last visit to Michael Schwartz’s new, wonderful Amara at Paraiso.

The Miami Film Festival (#MiamiFF) focuses on offering a great array of Latin American and Miami-made movies, and this year they clearly have made an effort to increase diversity in film directors and to expand to films that would appeal to a younger audience. There are over 150 (168 or 195, depending upon which of our memories is more accurate) screenings shown over 10 days, and choosing the films is not easy.

This year we found more of a variation in the films we saw than in previous years. (In total we saw nine films in three and a half days.) A few I will rate with five stars — by my standards a ‘you must see this one.’ Others, including some that were widely heralded, just didn’t work for us. And of course, there were a number in between those poles: films that were great (generally because of the subject) but fundamentally flawed in the execution.

The views in these reviews are my own. (Note that Richard and I do not always agree in our ratings.)

I’ll start with the best of what we saw.

Gladesman: The Last of the Sawgrass Cowboys (Director: American David Abel, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and film maker)

Ellen *****   Richard ****

This film is a superb documentary that tells the story of Florida’s Everglades airboaters –- the men and women who for generations have lived, fished and hunted freely in one of the most environmentally threatened – and beautiful — areas of the US. The film is populated with these wonderful characters (a number of whom were in the audience) along with environmentalists and water engineers who also make their case eloquently. It presents both sides of the contentious issues that arise in trying to find the right balance in the area to protect it as a water source for millions of Floridians and preserve a way of life for a small group of people.

The filming is elegant, the scenery magnificent, and the complex story simply told. I wound up cheering for everyone.

(Ed. Note: Gladesmen won the Knight Foundation award for the Best Film Made in Miami.)

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Monarchs & Mexico: Thru Ellen’s Lens

04 Sunday Mar 2018

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Can you remember the first time you experienced the joy of having bubbles blown at you from a wand dipped into a little plastic bottle?

Did it seem like magic?

Pure joy?

Even when the bubbles burst?

Did you ask for more and more?

Imagine that instead of bubbles, these were orange and black butterflies. Monarch butterflies. Ones you could almost touch. Or ones that landed on you and remained for many minutes.

Now, multiply the number of bubbles/butterflies and that sense of wonder and delight by many hundreds or thousands, and you get just a sense of what Ellen and I experienced on a recent trip to Mexico to see where the Monarch butterflies migrate and winter.

As you may know, many of the beautiful Monarchs travel south to winter in Mexico where they live for five or six months. Then, in the early spring they mate, go north from Mexico, lay their eggs on milkweed plants, and then die. This process repeats itself as three generations of Monarchs work their way north, often as far as the Great Lakes or Canada. Each of these generations lasts about two months.

Then the great migration begins again. Despite never having been to the mountains in Mexico, these now fourth generation Monarchs set out on a mass migration of two to three thousand miles to a place they’ve never been and arrive at the exact locations and specific trees where their ancestors wintered the previous year.

There are 14 Monarch sanctuaries, protected areas, in Mexico, and you can go to a number of them to experience what it is like for several million Monarchs to gather in one place. Under the auspices of Natural Habitat Adventures and the World Wildlife Fund, we joined with ten others and two wonderful guides to spend five days in mid-February chasing butterflies.

We flew to Mexico City, went four hours due west by bus to the town of Angangueo where we stayed for three days. We went by open flat bed truck another 45 minutes where we then went by horseback another 45 minutes up into the mountains. Finally, we hiked for another 45 minutes or so to one of the Monarch sanctuaries, El Rosario.

As we didn’t arrive until late afternoon the first day, most of the thousands and thousands (millions?) of Monarchs were huddled together on a few dozen trees, giving and getting warmth from each other. But there were some brave butterflies who left their perches and came near, some landing on us or simply hanging out on the ground or bushes nearby. The only noise we heard were our cameras taking hundreds and hundreds of photos, ‘up close and personal’ (and often just inches away). The most stunning aspect, for me, of this first encounter, however, was to see the trees laden with these marvelous butterflies.

The next day we set out early to a second reserve, this one at Chincua. Again we went by truck, horseback, and hiking, and what a reward. As we were the first to arrive and because the day warmed and the sun came out, we were able to virtually be in the midst of the Monarchs flying about. When a cloud would pass, the Monarchs would rush to find a place to retreat from the ‘cold,’ and we were then in the midst of thousands and thousands of butterflies (or as Ellen said, “It was as if we were inside a snow globe of butterflies”).

On our third day, we returned to El Rosario, and for some reason the butterflies had moved from what just a day or two previously had been their ‘trees of choice’ to different trees, new micro climates. And most exciting, these trees were next to the path where we were able to look with wonder at how they clustered together, hanging on the pine or fir trees, waiting for the sun. As the sun came from behind the clouds, they began to open their wings and the trees seemed to magically transform in color. As long as the sun stayed out, the Monarchs left their trees and flew in front of us (to search for nectar?). Then, during a passing cloud, there would be a ‘mad scramble’ as they flew about, trying to decide where to go to sit out through the modest change in temperature.

We couldn’t get enough of them.

When our three days of ‘chasing’ the Monarchs concluded, I was left with three images and one question. First, even one Monarch resting on a bush, the ground, or on one of us, just inches way was thrilling. Second, an entire tree covered with thousands and thousands and thousands of Monarchs ‘hanging out’ and occasionally spreading their wings and, as a result, changing the color of the tree was mesmerizing. And particularly exciting was seeing a burst or flurry of uncountable numbers flying around, either enjoying the warmth or looking for a place to land.

The one question, yet to be answered for me, is how do these Monarchs know where exactly to go on their great migration, given that they are at least four generations removed from having been to a specific area two or three thousand miles away?

Below are a dozen of Ellen’s most favorite shots of the butterflies. Then, if you want to see more of her photos of our Mexico trip, there is a slide show which includes more pictures from our butterfly adventure and photos from our four days in Mexico City.

If you would like to see more photos, click on this link: Monarchs & Mexico: Thru Ellen’s Lens. Then, for the best viewing, click on the tiny, tiny arrow in the very small rectangular box at the top right of the opening page of the link to start the slide show.

I’d highly recommend that you view all the photos in the largest size possible (full screen format) on a laptop or desktop computer.

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New Zealand: Thru Ellen’s Lens

07 Wednesday Feb 2018

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Here are a dozen of Ellen’s photos from our recent trip to New Zealand.

If you want to see more, there’s a slide show too, which I highly recommend as they far surpass this presentation. See below for details.

Auckland Harbor

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January in New Zealand

07 Wednesday Feb 2018

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In the last couple of years Ellen and I have taken to the idea of traveling to warm places in the months of January and February, largely to escape cold winter months and more recently to begin the new year away from the events that are hard to escape in the nation’s capital.

This year that took the form of a 17-day trip to New Zealand, a place that had long been on our list visit but had never been practical because of the time needed to explore such a far away place. It had long been recommended by a number of friends and our daughter Annie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We roughly divided our time between the North and South Island, combining driving and flying. Before you to turn New Zealand: Thru Ellen’s Lens, here’s a brief overview of the trip (with some of my own iPhone photos), starting and ending in Auckland.

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Three New Films. One Is A Must See.

05 Monday Feb 2018

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Film reviews by Ellen Miller.

The Shape of Water – Ellen ***** (Richard Didn’t See it)

Wonderful. Engrossing. Clever. Satisfying.

Take a deep sigh, hold your breath, and submerge yourself into a theater playing this film. Just sink into the world created by the Mexican director Guillermo del Toro. This fantasy — which I had been putting off seeing because those sorts of movies are just not my thing — is thoroughly moving and enjoyable. It’s also very creative and clever with superb acting. It well-deserves its Best Picture (and 12 other Oscar nominations) for which it is nominated.

When summarized, the story seems odd and off-putting, but as it unfolds on the screen, it’s not: a young, mute lonely woman, Elisa (Sally Hawkins), is a building cleaner at a super secretive government laboratory when she discovers a captive Amazonian human-like sea creature that is being held for unknown, but presumably experimental purposes. She extends herself to it, and it responds to her. The time is 1962 and the Russians want to steal it from the US who has it locked in a top secret laboratory. She needs to save the creature from both of them. She has two friends who will help. One small warning: there are a few gruesome scenes, but they only add to the surrealism of the film. Don’t be turned off by the plot.

The film is filled with fascinating characters and wonderful acting, from Hawkins herself to Octavia Spence, Doug Jones, and Michael Shannon. The staging is so richly detailed you want to disappear into it. My advice is just to given into it and cheer for our heroine. Let the film wash over you. You won’t regret it.

(Sorry about the play on words but I couldn’t resist…)

A Fantastic Woman – Ellen **** Richard ****

What I love about the DC Cinema Club is that we see films we might not otherwise left to our own choosing. That’s definitely the case with A Fantastic Woman. What you see is not what you get in this film.

It is a very sympathetic and sometimes heart-wrenching portrayal of a trans woman and the struggles she faces to become the woman she is as well as how she moves forward after losing her lover. There are wonderful cinematic moments to illustrate her struggles and terrific acting throughout. Daniela Vega (Marina) has been nominated for an academy award for her performance and the film has been nominated in the Best Foreign Film Category.

Marina is a singer and a waitress in a coffee shop and she is in a relationship with Orlando (Francisco Reyes), a man two decades her senior. One evening he falls ill and dies and the drama begins, unfolding slowly with considerable melodrama. His family forbids her from attending his funeral. But she insists on paying tribute to her lover.

The film is a tender love story and a story about the struggle to be true to who you are. It is a tense, well-filmed and emotional drama. It’s worth a see.

Phantom Thread – Ellen **** Richard ****

Another non-mainstream film and even though nominated for a Best Picture Award, I recommend it somewhat cautiously.

But….

If you like/love looking at Daniel Day Lewis (count me in) it’s a must-see. If you like a story where two unlikable characters clash and the woman “wins” (my view), then this is the picture for you. If you love a film where the actions of the women characters are more manipulative than those of the men, go see this movie. (In this latter style, it reminded me of the 2017 film Lady Macbeth. See my review of that film).

But not a lot happens in this taut psychological drama. Lewis plays a perfection-obsessed famous London-based courtier — Reynolds Woodcock — in the 1950’s. His latest muse is Alma (well-played by Vicky Krieps), a former waitress in a country inn where he had dinner one evening. He dresses her gloriously (though the costuming was less inspiring than I expected). They marry, and his self-centered life is disrupted. When he appears to begin to tire of her, she sets about to prove just how much he needs her.

The film is lit throughout in undertones of beige, rose, and violet, which is very appealing and adds to the overall somber tone of the film and to the relationship between the two protagonists.

Although this film received six various Academy Award Nominations, I’d see this film for Daniel Day Lewis’ performance alone.

**          **          **          **          **          **          **

Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool was rated Excellent or Good by 90+ per cent of our Sunday Cinema Club. We both saw it, but didn’t have time to review it. We both would have rated it four stars.

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The Books Most Enjoyed by MillersTime Readers in 2017

29 Friday Dec 2017

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“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read.” – A. Lincoln

Once again the MillersTime “best books roundup” is my favorite post of the year. It’s a labor of love and is only possible because so many of you take the time to send in what books you have enjoyed over the last 12 months. I’m indeed indebted to each of you and offer my heartfelt thanks to all of you.

The 2017 list is comprised of the favorite reads of 82 adults and 10 children. Fiction leads the nonfiction 56% to 44%, similar to last year. Our youngest participant is almost five month’s old; the oldest is 96. The rest of you are mostly between the ages of 35- 75. Fifty-eight percent of you are women, 42% are men.

While I don’t expect everyone of you will read all the way through this list (anyone who does can claim it as a favorite book for next year), know there is a tremendous amount of information here. I’ve organized it in several ways, hopefully to make it more user friendly:

I. The most frequently cited titles (three or more times) are listed first.

II. Next the contributors are listed alphabetically — to make it easy if you are looking for the favorites of someone you know — with the titles and authors next and then any comments made about those books.

III. Finally, there are also two spread sheet links included as easy, searchable references for you to see the titles, authors, and MillersTime contributors in summary form:

List # 1 – Organized by book titles 

List #2 –  Organized by reader/contributor’s name.

I. Titles that appear on the Favorites’ List three times or more:

Fiction (F):

  •      A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles
  •      America’s First Daughter, Stephanie Dray
  •      Days Without End, Sebastian Barry
  •      House of Names, Colm Toibin
  •      Manhattan Beach, Jennifer Egan
  •      Salvage the Bones, Jesymn Ward
  •      Sing, Unburied, Sing, Jesymn Ward
  •      Small Great Things, Jody Picoult
  •      The North Water, Ian McQuire

Nonfiction (NF):

  •      Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, Neil deGrasse Tyson
  •      Born a Crime, Trevor Noah
  •      Evicted, Mathew Desmond
  •      Grant, Ron Chernow
  •      Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance
  •      Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann

For me, as is true every year, the strengths and value of this year’s list have more to do with what contributors say about a book than the number of times a book may be listed. Often, a book listed only once is one I most want to read in the coming year.

A reminder: this list is not meant to be the best books published in 2017, but rather what the title of this posting states — The Books Most Enjoyed by MillersTime Readers in 2017.

Please forgive my endless prompting for your submissions, though the results, I hope, may have been worth the reminders. (Late additions — please feel free to send them — will be posted as they arrive, without any snarky comments from the editor.)

And, of course, I take responsibility for any inaccuracies or mistakes in the posting of your names, the titles, the authors, and your comments. Please do let me know about errors so I can correct them quickly and easily.

Feel free to share this post with others — family, friends, book clubs, etc.

Enjoy.

II. The 2017 List of Favorites:  

(alphabetical by reader’s first name):

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Why We Love Movies and the Movies We Loved This Year

24 Sunday Dec 2017

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From Ellen & Richard:

People often say the reason they love the movies is because they offer an escape. But that’s not why we enjoy them. We love movies because they tell stories, show us worlds and places we will never know first hand, teach us lessons about life, breathe life into historical or political moments, and/or make us question what we think we already understand.

Come to think of it, we love movies for the very same reasons we love books and love to travel.

For us, a “great movie” has to have a good story; strong, believable, and well acted characters; great directing; with cinematography, music, and production that adds to the whole. We’re not fans of comedy, satire, or overly intellectual films, where nothing much happens for two hours. And while we can appreciate a “critic’s film” (i.e., a film that critics love but audiences don’t), only sometimes do they rise to the top of both our lists.

We’ve averaged about a movie a week this year (actually a bit more since we rarely review the movies we don’t really like, ones that are already super popular, or the “big theater” shows). That’s not a bad record considering the time we travel, how much we read, how much time one of us spends watching baseball in the summer, and missing this year’s Philadelphia Film Festival which we so enjoy.

Also, we love going out to the movies. Seeing a film in a theater somehow seems more special than watching one at home, which we rarely do. (We did recently watch one at home, our first Netflix movie – Mudbound – thanks to the technical assistance of daughter Annie, as some aspects of the modern TV are still a mystery to us.)

Below is a listing — recap list — of the films this year which have received a top rating from at least one of us. We are not going to pull out our top ten for you, even if we could decide on a ten best. Just browse the list and link to our earlier reviews to see if certain ones might appeal. You can also save this list by printing out this post.

(Note: We ran out of time to review the last four films we’ve seen (Darkest Hour, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, Mudbound, and The Post), but we’ve included them on this list because we give all of them a top rating. So for sure, check them out in your theaters.)

And let us know what you’re planning to see over the holidays or what you’ve seen this year that we should try to see too.

Films Either One or Both of Us Rated Four or Five Stars

(Click on a film to see our review)
1945
A City of Ghosts
A Quiet Passion
AfterImage
Call Me By Your Name
Cloudy Sunday
Columbus
Darkest Hour (not reviewed)
Death in Sarajevo
Detroit
Dina
Dunkirk
Faces Places
Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool (not reviwed)
Frantz
Goldstone
I, Tonya
Jane
Lady Bird
Lady Macbeth
Loving Vincent
Lucky
Marshall
Maudi
Menashe
Mudbound (not reviewed)
Murder in Polna
Norman: The Moderate Rise…
Past Life
Sami Blood
Searchers (Maliglutit)
Solitaire
Step
The African Doctor
The Bar
The Bloom of Yesterday
The Exception
The Florida Project
The History of Love
The Lost City of Z
The Post (not reviewed)
The Women’s Balcony
Their Finest
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Vincent Van Gogh: A New Way of Seeing
Voices Beyond the Wall
Walk With Me: The Trials of Damon J. Keith
Wind River
Wonder
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Six More Movies to Consider

09 Saturday Dec 2017

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Six mini-reviews: three by Ellen and three by Richard

Ellen:

Good movies transport you…. back into history, to stories of unimaginable horrors, or into the every day lives of famous people. This ‘suspend-my-real-life-and take-me-on-a-trip’ quality is why I so enjoy them. Each of these three movies Richard and I have seen in the last couple of weeks all contain the elements most important for my enjoyment — strong narratives, first-class acting (and great characters), and strong screenplays.

Marshall – Ellen **** Richard ****

Marshall is the simple, straightforward retelling of a 1940’s criminal trial in Connecticut early in the career of Thurgood Marshall (Chadwich Boseman). Marshall is representing the NAACP in defending a Black man charged with rape and attempted murder of a white society woman. No local counsel would take the case, so the NAACP stepped in to help, but the Judge outrageously barred Marshall from actually handling the case. So Marshall bullied, cajoled and “stage managed” a local insurance lawyer to be the lead counsel. The hostile environment and characters – and the eventual friendship between the key lawyers, play out along expected lines yet this is a deeply satisfying story of good vs. evil. (No spoiler alert. You’ve got to see it to see who wins the case.)

The story is the strength of this film and the portrayal of Marshall and the local lawyer, the tension of the trial itself make for a compelling drama. (It is based on an actual case in the 1940’s in Bridgeport, Connecticut.) The lawyers’ instinct in understanding how cultural attitudes shape jury selection and their sympathies to their client, and the racial, religious and gender discrimination undertones of the times — add immensely to story of the legal maneuverings.

Note that this is not bio epic of Thurgood Marshall but offers a glimpse into the beginnings of his historic career. This movie isn’t a 5 star, but it’s more than worth seeing!

 

I, Tonya – Ellen *****  Richard ****1/2

This film headlined the Philadelphia Film Festival (which we missed), and now I understand why. It’s horrifying and satisfying, breathtaking and sad. The acting, filming, and direction are superb and there’s not a moment of boredom in it. It should be opening soon near you. Go see it.

The film explores the full story of Tonya Harding (figure skating star in the 1990’s) — her highs and her lows — along with accusations of her attacking and disabling a rival skater.

Production and direction is key to this film’s success. In the preparation of the screenplay, the directors (Steven Rogers and Craig Gillespie) interviewed all the major players: Harding herself (Margot Robbie) ; Tonya’s mother (played exquisitely by Allison Janney); Jeff Gillooly (Sebastian Stan) and his sidekick Shawn Eckhart (Paul Walter Hauser). The actors act out portions of those interviews throughout the film, and the film cuts back and forth between them and the exposition of Harding’s life, her skating achievements and disappointments, her lifelong abuse from her mother and her husband and her inability to step away from any of it, and her dreams. It also delves deeply into the classism of the figure skating world.

This is a difficult movie to watch at times, but it is a must-see.

 

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – Ellen ***** Richard*****

Another must-see film. I think it’s one of the best-acted, directed and written films we have seen all year. Ahem. Think best actress for the star (Frances McDormand) and best screen play for the writer/director Martin McDonagh.

The script is both clever, tough, and yes, even funny.

The story unfolds nine months after the murder and rape of Mildred’s Hayes’ (McDormand) daughter. The police are not trying hard enough – the murder or a teenager has no priority for them she claims – and so she takes unusual actions to drive their attention to the case. This small town in rural Missouri is filled with as many interesting characters (the Sherriff is played by Woody Harrelson and one of his deputies is played by Sam Rockwell) as it is by its multiple prejudices. The acting is near perfection.

Three Billboards is not an easy movie to watch. The anger which drives the film is palpable long after the film is over. Don’t miss this one either.

**               **               **               **               **               **

And three more mini-reviews, ones I saw while Ellen was out of town.

Richard:

I’m a sucker for a good story, well told, and for me that usually takes precedence over all the other reasons for enjoying and loving a particular movie. Only one of the three below makes it to my top category.

Wonder – Richard*****

On the recommendation of three MillersTime readers, I read this novel several years ago, and it became one of my favorite reads that year. Authored by R.J. Palacio, pen name for Raquel Jaramillo, it’s the story of a young boy, severely facially dis-formed at birth, and his ensuing struggle to attend school, which he enters in the fifth grade. Although I generally will choose a nonfiction over a fiction treatment of these type of stories (Ghost Boy, for instance), there is something quite appealing about Wonder. It not only tells the story Auggie, the boy struggling with his physical deformity but also delves into what those around him, his parents, his sister, a number of other fifth graders, their parents, and the school authorities see, experience, and do.

It is rare, I believe, for a film to be equal to or better than a book. However, Wonder, as a film, captured me and despite its ‘tidiness’ (SPOILER: everything eventually works out well, too well?), the screenplay had me choked up at least a dozen times and brought tears a number of times also, not only because of the boy’s struggles but also because of how well it told not only his story but also his sister’s and his parents’ struggles too. The performances, particularly Jacob Tremblay as the boy Auggie, Izabel Vidovic as his sister Via, Julie Roberts as his mother, and Owen Wilson as his father, are just right.

Take your upper primary or middle school child, or, if you’re a grandparent, your grandchild to see it. We did. I saw it a second time with Ellen yesterday and our third and first grade grandchildren. Their ratings – Abby *****, Eli ****, Ellen *****

 

Roman J Israel, Esq. – Richard ***1/2

Despite mixed reviews and a good deal of critical reporting about an unfocused story, I went to see Roman J Israel, Esq., largely because the story still sounded promising, and Denzel Washington, a favorite of mine, played the lead character.

It’s not the Denzel you know from his other performances. In fact, he’s almost not recognizable (which is a positive if you sometimes get distracted watching a familiar actor/actress).

Somehow he inhabits the lead character, and you can’t help but cheer for that character who struggles to maintain his values and his outrage with a world that is often hostile and generally unforgiving to a person with values

If you can put up with a story that doesn’t quite work (though it doesn’t miss by a lot), then Denzel’s performance is worth your time and money.

 

Murder on the Orient Express. Richard ***

I must admit I had never read this wonderful Agatha Christie thriller, nor had I seen the highly praised 1974 Sidney Lumet film. But before seeing this new version by Director Kenneth Branagh, I listened to the audible reading of the mystery by Branagh — a murder on a train and detective Hercule Poirot’s investigation to determine the killer. I was enthralled.

However, in this instance, the film fails to match the book/audiobook. Despite some lovely scenery, both on and from the train, and a cast that includes Penelope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Daisy Ridley, and Josh Gad, the story is not well told. It’s choppy, hard to follow, and too dominated by Branagh himself who in addition to directing the film, overplays the character of Poirot.

Save your time and money.  It’s just not very good.

In fact, take that time and money and either read the original story, listen to it on tape, or find the 1974 film version starring Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, Ingrid Bergman, John Gielgud, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, etc.

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Calling for Favorite Reads in 2017

30 Thursday Nov 2017

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“A Best Friend Is Someone Who Gives Me a Book I’ve Never Read”- A. Lincoln

It’s that time of year again — when I request you share with other readers of MillersTime your most favorite books read over the past 12 months.

Here are a few guidelines that may help in drawing your list and in making my compilation easier:

*When I ask for your Most Favorite Reads of 2017, I’m seeking fiction and/or nonfiction books that stood out for you above all you’ve read in the past year. What have been the most enjoyable, the most important, the most thought provoking, the best written, the ones you may go back and read again, the ones you reread this year, and/or the ones you have suggested others read?

* You are welcome to send just one title or as many as are truly favorite reads.

* In order to make my work less cumbersome, please do the following:

* List the title, the author, and indicate whether it is fiction (F) or nonfiction (NF).

* I, and most MillersTime readers, seem particularly interested in why a particular book made it to your list this year. Please write a sentence or two, or more, about why each particular book was a favorite for you this year.

* Don’t be concerned about whether others will have the same book(s) on their lists. If we get a number of similar titles, that’s just an indication of the power of a particular book/author.

* Your books do not have to be ones that were written and/or published in 2017, just ones that you read over the past year. If you participated this year in sending titles of books you enjoyed in the first half of 2017, feel free to include one or more of those if they make it to your list of most favorites in 2017.

*If you have listened to a book(s) in one of the various audio formats, Books on Tape, CDs, Audible, etc., and if they meet your definition of books “you’ve enjoyed the most in 2017,” please include those on your list also, This is in addition to the ones you (may) have listed. Be sure to identify which ‘books’ on your list were ones you enjoyed audibly.

* Send me your list in an email (Samesty84@gmail.com) by Dec. 17th  so I will be able to post the entire list at the end of the year. (If you send me your list sooner, you may be able to avoid my constant email reminders to do so.)

To see previous years’ lists, click on any of these links: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015. 2016.

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Seven New Films

25 Saturday Nov 2017

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Reviews by Ellen Miler

Given the fact that we traveled for two plus weeks in China this month, we managed to see some very excellent films since our return. All of these are very much worth seeing, with a few caveats included in the reviews. Read carefully!

Call Me by Your Name:  Ellen *****  Richard ****

This is a remarkable two-hour plus drama, set “somewhere” in northern Italy in the long hot summer of 1983. The main character of this story is the precocious 17-year old son of a professor of ancient Greco-Roman culture and his wife. The film focuses on Elio’s (Timothee Chalamet) late adolescence and his experimentation with his sexuality.

What is unusual about the film is the astonishing sensitivity with which it deals with the issues. The relationships between father and son, the mother and son, Elio and his first girlfriend, and ultimately between Elio and his love — the handsome, debonair graduate student (Armie Hammer) who is studying with the professor (Michael Stuhlbarg) -– are tender, emotional, delightful, and fraught with tension. The story is well-told. With perfect pace, you sympathetically watching Elio fall deeply in love with Oliver and watch him suffer the consequences of the affair’s predictable end.

But there is no tragedy here. This is a deeply satisfying film of love and life, which is exquisitely acted by all the main characters, exquisitely paced, filmed, and produced. The film was much heralded at the Toronto Film Festival. Roger Ebert has said that this film is “far and away the best movie of the year.” It’s a must see.

Lady Bird: Ellen *****  Richard ****

Lady Bird is another a coming-of-age story which focuses on the relationship and the natures of the two lead characters. Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan), as she likes to be known, is a high school senior not of the mainstream. She is independent, unpredictable, and thinks she knows ‘it’ all. Her mother Marion (Laurie Metcalf), a nurse, knows that her daughter doesn’t. Lady Bird wants to leave her home in Sacramento after she graduates, and her mother – who is responsible for the family’s financial wherewithal (the father has ‘been retired’ by his previous job.) – consistently discourages her ambitions. Their relationship is filled with tension throughout the film. Additionally, there are also several interesting side stories of teenage angst as Lady Bird becomes sexually active.

For me the highlights of this film are the scenes between the mother and daughter (all superbly acted) that are the most instructive. Sometimes you identify with the daughter, sometimes with the mother – and when you do the later, you will cringe about how their relationship and conversations might have at time been similar to ones with your own children. This is a film with finely tuned characters, a terrific screenplay, and pitch perfect acting. It’s a winner on all fronts.

Lady Bird also has been well-heralded nationally, and the audience at our
film club gave it a 96 per cent approval rating.

Faces Places: Ellen ****  Richard ****1/2

This film is a different twist on the coming-of-age story: an 88 year old filmmaker (Agnes Varda) and young photographer JR, known for creating open air photography galleries, come together to document the making of a film. The movie they make is about their road trip throughout southern France as the two of them photograph and display these photographs.

Along the way they meet a variety of people who inspire them and whose stories often develop into individual “projects”. One of my favorite of these is of a woman they meet who is still living in a deserted flat that had once been reserved for miners during a boon time. After hearing this one woman’s story, Agnes and JR find other former residents in the area, and, as a way of celebrating their lives and their dedication to their jobs, they photograph perhaps 50 of these individuals. They then plaster 12-foot high photos (printed out of JR’s truck) on the old flats for everyone to admire.

All of the Agnes’ and JR’s projects involve large-scale photography, which they display in unusual ways — on water towers, sides of buildings, on the sides of huge transportation containers, on rocks, or billboards, etc. — for communities to enjoy.

This is a sweet, quirky little film both about people in local communities and about the relationship between the two artists.

The Square: Ellen ***  Richard **

If you enjoy (and can laugh at cutting edge contemporary art when it is ridiculous),
you will love this film. Otherwise, you might want skip it. I could appreciate it and
dubbed it a “critic’s film” (though it wasn’t universally well-received by the film
elite). But I didn’t really like it. It has its funny moments – even at times LOL funny — but is overdrawn and absurd in others, and because of that it is unsatisfying. (A series of funny gags does not a movie make.) The characters are not likeable; the story line is uneven, but its commentary of the cutting edge of modern art world feels pretty accurate.

Lost somewhere deep in this film are themes raised about modern values which, if explored, could have been a connective theme and perhaps made this movie meaningful. The Swedish writer and director of this film is Ruben Ostlund who also directed Force Majeure that contained many of the same elements and flaws.

Jane: Ellen *****  Richard *****

Over 100 of hours of lost film (tucked apparently away in the files of the National Geographic archives) recording the early work of the then 26 year young Jane Goodall were found and have been crafted to provide a unique insight and overview of her astonishing career.

The photography — most of which was shot in the 1960’s by the man who was to become her husband, Hugo Van Lawick (one of the most renowned photographers of African wildlife)– is captivating, and the first hand views of her initial attempts to study chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park (located in Tanzania) offer unique insights to what she did and how she did it. The film focuses on the early period of her work-life in some detail, including her marriage and the birth and raising of her son.

The film also intersperses the found footage and contemporary interviews with Dr. Goodall and is supported with beautiful music by Philip Glass. The writer and director is the much-acclaimed Brett Morgen from National Geographic Films.

This is a very satisfying and solid documentary. A must see.

Loving Vincent: Ellen ***** – Richard ****1/2

I’ve saved the best for (nearly) last.

Loving Vincent is one of the most creative, fascinating, and mesmerizing films I have
seen in recent times.

Warning: this is an animated film, and thus it may not be for everyone.

It is made up of tens of thousands of carefully painted images that make the animation for the film.

The story is a retelling of Van Gogh’s life and death, using characters from his paintings. The characters and scenes — built off some of his most well-known paintings — are familiar. Think landscapes (The Starry Night, Wheatfield with Crows); the town of Arles (Café Terrance at Night, The Night Cafe); the postman (Postman Joseph Roulin); the doctor (Portrait of Dr. Gachet); Van Gogh’s paint supplier (Portrait of Pere Tanguy); a barmaid (The Barmaid ); along with many others.

The paintings are all brought to life (as is Van Gogh himself –- his self-portraits appear often) as the ‘subjects’ interact with each other. The animation is as fantastical as Van Gogh’s paintings themselves and that is what you come to see. You already know the story and how it ends.

Or, (teaser) maybe you don’t.

Vincent Van Gogh: A New Way of Seeing: Ellen **** – Richard ****1/2

And because we couldn’t get enough, we managed to snag, at special showing (think 10:30 AM! on a Tuesday morning) this wonderful documentary from Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum It was a rich and delicious addition to Living Vincent.

This film also tells the story of his life (and yes, there were some discrepancies between this and Living Vincent) by looking at his paintings and through a series of thoughtful interviews with curators from the museum. The film was workman like, serious, thoughtful, and well-presented, and it further deepened our appreciation of the artist.

Keep your eyes open at your favorite independent theater to see any special
announcements concerning the availability of this film. (Ed. I think the actual public release of Vincent Van Gogh: A New Way of Seeing is currently scheduled for Mrch of 2018.)

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