Song of Bernadette (1943)

Song of Bernadette (1943) goes beyond recent professionally produced hagiographies such as Pope John Paul II (2005) and The Letters (2014), where the saint's life proceeds according to a known script, almost as if it had a checklist of challenges and victories. In this film, made back in the day when Hollywood made movies about simple saints like Francis and Juan Diego because it was mainstream, the story is more straightforward and connected: We see all the panoply of human responses to Bernadette's vision -- from faith to concern to doubt to suspicion to scorn to threats and more. Through it all, Bernadette's simple faith carries her through the opposition, which may in time be won over precisely because the girl's faith is utterly pure, and she is not smart enough to produce a ruse. One final discovery by her lifelong detractor, an elderly nun who is a kind of Salieri to Bernadette's Mozart, reveals the true depth of Bernadette's faith, and made this a most moving film for me. I believe Jennifer Jones at age 25, winning the Oscar as Bernadette, may have had something to do with it. Enjoy! 4.5 stars. (5-27-2016)

Being Julia (2004)

Annette Bening does more than just shine in Being Julia; she is the glimmering celestial firmament.  Guided on by her cajoling thespian mentor (God rest his soul), played by Michael Gambon, she has learned how to command an audience's attention and how to fill a room (even while speaking sotto voce). Standing ovations are a nightly encore to her long-running London West End show. Much to the chagrin of her retinue and manager/husband, however, the drama queen is clamoring to close the show and go on a long vacation. After she takes solace in the vigors of a callow young man, her performances become sublimely captivating. After the appearance of a young blonde actress who will (OK, does) bed anyone to star in the next show, we see how devious and inspired Julia can truly be. This movie has so much to love. Enjoy! 5 stars. (5-27-2016)

Spring (2015)

A sci-fi-loving friend turned me onto Spring and am I glad! Spring is Before Midnight meets Species, set in Italy. It is a poignant romance with horror/sci-fi elements. It reminds me of Warm Bodies and several foreign films. Its chief appeal is the open, direct relationship that the lovers establish in the here and now: He is not into her merely to satisfy his needs (though she is, initially, for hers). In fact, once he discovers her true (and eons-long) back story, his devotion to her endures. It's a theme that could easily arise out of any number of "monster/alien/other stories" (The Elephant Man, Mask, A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story, Alien Nation, and so on), which is: Could you look someone in the eyes who might cause most people to look (or run) away? Could you look that someone in the eyes, with compassion, understanding, and even love? Could you kiss that someone? Could you be intimate with that someone? Could you commit to remain a partner with that someone? The human/alien interface opens a raft of questions and possibilities beyond merely racial boundaries -- and, I suspect, requires new depths of courage and insight into what it means to share the human spirit. Enjoy! 5 stars. (5-26-2016)

For A Few Dollars More (1965)

The first and the last movies in the Dollars trilogy are my favorites but this middle entry is a good watch too. Clint Eastwood as the Man With No Name strikes a wary partnership with Lee Van Cleef as Colonel Mortimer, a renowned officer and marksman from North Carolina who has fallen into work as a “bounty killer” like Manco. (Eastwood’s character actually does have a name – Spanish for “one-armed” because he does everything except shooting with his left hand.) The two men discover they are both tracking the same quarry: the ruthless El Indio and his gang. After a terse negotiation, the Colonel calls dibs on El Indio while Manco claims Indio’s gang of a dozen or so ruffians. Their plan proceeds well, though not without setbacks and danger for all. The ending is good. The soundtrack by Ennio Morricone is excellent. Enjoy! 4 stars. (5-24-2016)

NewsRadio: Seasons 1-5 (1995)

NewsRadio is a gem from the 1990s and one of the best situation comedy TV series ever, topped only by SportsNight, MASH, Cheers, The Office, and a few others. The ensemble cast shows great chemistry and timing -- most of all Dave Foley, Stephen Root, and of course the masterful Phil Hartman. I even liked Andy Dick well enough in the first disc of episodes, did not see enough of the ever-alluring Khandi Alexander, but was always left wanting more of Maura Tierney and Vicki Lewis. Joe Rogan's character was cool, when he got a line or two. Do not miss this show, esp. if you like journalism-as-workplace situation and dramatic comedies. Enjoy! 5 stars. (5-14-2016)

Do Not Adjust Your Set (1967)

I'm glad to have seen this two-disc series as a Python completist, even though one-third is not funny and one-third is terminally silly (mugging to the camera and juvenile prop comedy). Seeing everyone in their native habitat (even the silly bits and the dangly bits) shows you the diamond in the rough that became Monty Python in all its awesome lunacy. Your favorite parts may not be my favorite parts, but you will have favorite parts. Speaking for myself, I had never heard of The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band (which appears in every show) and did not know they recorded the song Death Cab for Cutie (which appears here and for which the contemporary band took its name). Captain Fantastic (no relation to Elton John) is a silly melodrama that also appears in every show. Now I'd like to learn the words for "Never Complain About British Nosh" so I can sing it in public (only when certain I won't be drummed out of the room). I also need to get my hands on this troupe's And Now the 1948 News. Enjoy! 3.5 stars. (5-14-2016)

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) (2000)

I first saw this show produced by a Houston community theater company. The script and staging are wild and goofy, but sitting in the audience really pushes the silliness and belly laughs over the top. I was pleased to learn that this acting trio, as the Reduced Shakespeare Company, wrote the script and performs it all over the English-speaking world. (Yes, “even Vancouver,” as with this live filmed performance.) These guys are better than your average community theater – think of taking the best thespian from 3 different community theater or improvisational comedy troupes and throwing them in with each other. Give them the ugliest wigs and the biggest fake bazoombas you can find, shove them out on stage to gabble and babble so loud and fast that you can barely understand them, knowing that their spills and pratfalls are more Keystone Cops than Cirque du Soleil (but the funniest bit is when a tossed wig lands on the right head, capping a rapid-fire change of characters). No, this is not your father’s Shakespeare, but neither is it your children’s. It is juvenile, with adult humor insinuations. It is full of physical humor and machine-gun soliloquys. It does cover all of Shakespeare’s works (though the sonnets are boiled down to one line, and a number of plays appear only in one long compound title). Most ribald – and Shakespeare was ribald, just highbrow in retrospect – are the kingly plays told as if by a football game announcer, Titus Andronicus as a cooking show, and the half-hour spent on his most famous play wraps up with “Hamlet in 30 seconds,” “Hamlet in 6 seconds,” and then “Hamlet, capsulized and in reverse”! I enjoyed the show, loosey-goosey as it was. Family members of all ages can watch it; care is taken not to scorch the little darlings’ ears. Enjoy! 3 stars. (5-19-2016)

Gary Gulman: In This Economy? (2012)

This is the second Gary Gulman special I have seen, and the comedian had me going for the first 10 minutes as he hammered on Blockbuster and lavished love on Netflix. (Just the streaming though: DVDs are too much work nowadays.) Late in the show, he spent 15 minutes comparing Donald Trump’s paltry $2.9 billion net worth with Bill Gates’ $59 billion, and ended with a segment commending some of the good things brought to you by the Jewish people. Gulman has an easygoing demeanor, squeaky clean appearance, and an everyman perspective, but I really enjoy his excellent vocabulary and use of grammar. This guy is an essayist in stand-up, an editorialist who is funny. Someone compared him to George Carlin and I think that is fair. I like intelligent comedy and I like Gary Gulman. Enjoy! 4 stars. (5-12-2016)

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine (2015)

Alex Gibney does his typical bang-on job with this documentary on Steve Jobs. As a lifelong Apple follower and consultant who has pretty much read and seen every biography of Jobs and Apple (and Gates and Microsoft), I think Gibney covered the panorama of Jobs' life and sins in a balanced fashion, all while working to answer the question: Why was there such an outpouring of emotion at Jobs' passing? Personally, I learned some new things, I heard from several persons in their own words for the first time (like Lisa's mother Chrisann), and I feel Gibney omitted hackneyed stories like the "reality distortion field" while maintaining a serpentine bead on the target question. My own feeling is that Jobs was an Edison for our age, as well as a trendsetter and an iconoclast. He deeply believed in the empowerment of the individual and, despite his tactical and sometimes strategic ruthlessness, it was always about delivering the purest version of each product that he envisioned. Gibney was right to cite Sherry Turkle, because the Macintosh, and then later the iPhone and iPad, proved to be intuitive mirrors for our minds. Apple's interfaces by design work as one would expect them to, often with no need to read a manual; and they work elegantly. No one loves an Android like an iPhone because technology that gets out of the way and lets you do what you want to do is what people will love. Apple products let you feel close and intimate to your writing, your music, your reading, and so on. Remember, Apple invented (was first to the consumer market with) the mouse-and-icon interface (Macintosh), professional typography and the laser printer (LaserWriter), handwriting recognition (MessagePad), Napster in your palm (iPod), Napster and Web and apps and camera and touch-screen interface and voice-command interface in your phone (iPhone), Napster and Web and apps and camera and touch-screen interface and voice-command interface and books and magazines and music composition in your hands (iPad), and more. Apple, not Google, first delivered a boatload of innovative technology in a beautiful, accessible, and addictively sized design. Google had, what--Sergei? Bill Gates was the only industry leader who was arguably more famous and influential than Jobs -- until Gates turned to his philanthropy and Apple became the highest-valued company in America. Jobs was always a bit of Rasputin and, in his pre-Pixar days, a bit of a sociopath. Yet where Gates commanded engineers, Jobs commanded engineers who were also artists. He believed that Zen simplicity and beauty were good in themselves but could also transform technology and how people use it. Gibney ably portrayed the complexities of Jobs. Would you expect Jobs to be anything else? 5 stars. (5-9-2016)

Gary Gulman: It's About Time (2016)

Gulman is intelligent, florid, and funny. His vocabulary and timing are impeccable. He makes his points and zings them home like a carpenter framing a house nail by nail. Gulman has entered my top 5 comedian list. What a discovery! Incidentally, he spends one-third of this show on Trader Joe's and (I've only been there a few times but) he is so on the money. Enjoy! 5 stars. (5-9-2016)

A Good Year (2006)

A Good Year is a smartly done, French-spirited romantic comedy that stays tart on the tongue. The comedy is subtle but crisp, with an air redolent of romance, and Russell Crowe ultimately wins the blossoming romance that pushed the movie over for me from 4.5 to 5 stars. (A man winning a woman with elegant poetry gets me every time.) Freddie Sizemore is Russell Crowe as a boy, visiting his vintner uncle and absorbing the sights and smells of that life through all his faculties (that later resonate as he inspects the estate he has inherited and plans to sell). Whimsically comedic complications ensue as the heir reconsiders giving up the legacy and life that his uncle willed him to have. Each character has his and her moments to express their personalities and a bit of their past; each is charming in their own ways. There is an irrepressibility to every character that is attractive in this film. You will almost certainly enjoy it unless you are a true curmudgeon or sneered at Under the Tuscan Sun. The soundtrack is memorable too. 5 stars. (5-8-2016)

You Stupid Man (2002)

I should have known You Stupid Man was tainted because it stars Denise Richards (not nearly a sign of Oscar material). What I didn’t know is that it was doomed because of every actor and writer involved. For romantic comedy, it is hard to go lower in my book than The Forty Year Old Virgin (where a pack of boors tries to lower nice-guy Andy to their level). You Stupid Man goes there, in spades. I had higher hopes for this movie but absolutely everything David Krumholtz’s character says and does is the absolute wrong, boorish thing. Fine, if the goal is to witness a must-see train wreck in motion, but the story takes his character seriously and he wants to find true love. Milla’s character is his gal-pal who lends a continually sympathetic ear and shoulder (and, ultimately, more), but he is so smitten with Denise’s character’s self-absorbed and pathetic excuse for a personality that it’s a puzzle how the final ten minutes of this film morph into a happy ending. For him, maybe, but not for me. My rating would have been a very rare 1 star (I hate it) but the happy ending redeems it a bit to 2 stars (I don’t like it). Granted, I do not enjoy men who are cardboard cutouts or obnoxious boors with women, but your mileage may vary and you might like it. Do you feel lucky? (5-5-2016)

The Darjeeling Limited (2007)

I am a big fan of Wes Anderson for his quirky stories and characters as much as for his meticulously designed scenes and camera shots. That, and he is from Houston. As I finally sat down to see The Darjeeling Limited, I was able to take in the authentic sights and sounds of the open-air markets and temples of India. In the wake of their father’s funeral, three estranged brothers have agreed to make a joint pilgrimage by train (and many other modes of travel) and maybe find spiritual enlightenment. (Good luck with that, when Owen Wilson is your itinerary planner.) They also choose to drop in on their mother, who ran off to join a convent and does not want to see them; seeing in her the mother hen qualities we previously noted in Owen’s eldest brother character is interesting. The three men’s journey is wild and episodic, forming a travelog for us, as spectators, too. This movie exemplifies the saying “The journey is its own reward.” Like Owen’s character (who wouldn’t know a chakra from a chicken), I couldn’t say if it is Zen or what in virtue, but The Darjeeling Limited has virtue and character in full. Join the brothers on their sojourn towards maturity. Come for the vista, stay for the angst. Enjoy! 5 stars. (5-3-2016)