A Complete Unknown (in theater): Bob Dylan in the early 1960s. I enjoyed it, and thought all the performances were good, but Edward Norton as Pete Seeger was fantastic.
Race (2016, Netflix): about Jesse Owens's college career. As I began watching it, I realized I knew nothing about him other than his 1936 Olympics performance; now I know something more. I enjoyed it.
The Founder (2016, Netflix): about Ray Kroc and the origin of McDonalds. Michael Keaton as Kroc (I'm a MK fan). I enjoyed it; reminded me of being taken to McDonalds occasionally by my parents in the late 1960s (a treat then). (You can get the gist of the story in five minutes by listening to Mark Knopfler's "Boom, Like That")
Forgotten Love (2023, Netflix): visually lush, engaging story about a Polish surgeon in the 1920s who suffers amnesia after a mugging and becomes a village healer. I enjoyed it.
Freud's Last Session (2023, Netflix): Freud (Anthony Hopkins), having moved from Vienna to London to escape the Nazis, spends a day debating the existence of God and much else with a young Oxford don (C.S. Lewis) as the Blitz begins outside their door. I enjoyed it. A scene very of the moment, for me, midway through: Freud leaves Vienna with his family after Gestapo agents come to his home, arrest his daughter, then unaccountably release her. He tells Lewis "I awoke when I suddenly recognized the face of the beast."
The Jungle Book (2016, Prime Video): a live-action (with CGI) remake of Disney's 1967 animated version, produced by the Walt Disney studio.
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018, Netflix): a live-action (with CGI) version, directed by Andy Serkis (Gollum!) and produced by Warner Brothers.
Oddly, both these films began life in the early 2010s; they were completed around the same time, but Warner Brothers delayed the release of Mowgli in part to avoid going head to head with the Walt Disney remake. Critics (and audiences) generally preferred the Disney remake; I enjoyed both, but thought Mowgli was the better film, perhaps because I watched it first, but also I preferred the portrayal of Mowgli in that film.
Fly Away Home (1996, Amazon Prime): a family adventure film in which an eccentric inventor bonds with his young daughter over saving a brood of geese. Watched with three generations (pre-teens, their parents and grandparents); I think all enjoyed it.
Sin (2019, Kanopy): a Russian-Italian bio-pic of Michelangelo; imagine Michelangelo, a 15th-century artist and religious obsessive, seen through the Russian lens on religion (Russian Orthodoxy) (I see that the subtitle of Variety's review of this film was "the madness and melancholy of Michelangelo"). Beautiful film; I enjoyed it. Worth watching just for the scenes of the stonecutters at work in the Carrera marble quarry.
Race (2016, Netflix): about Jesse Owens's college career. As I began watching it, I realized I knew nothing about him other than his 1936 Olympics performance; now I know something more. I enjoyed it.
The Founder (2016, Netflix): about Ray Kroc and the origin of McDonalds. Michael Keaton as Kroc (I'm a MK fan). I enjoyed it; reminded me of being taken to McDonalds occasionally by my parents in the late 1960s (a treat then). (You can get the gist of the story in five minutes by listening to Mark Knopfler's "Boom, Like That")
Forgotten Love (2023, Netflix): visually lush, engaging story about a Polish surgeon in the 1920s who suffers amnesia after a mugging and becomes a village healer. I enjoyed it.
Freud's Last Session (2023, Netflix): Freud (Anthony Hopkins), having moved from Vienna to London to escape the Nazis, spends a day debating the existence of God and much else with a young Oxford don (C.S. Lewis) as the Blitz begins outside their door. I enjoyed it. A scene very of the moment, for me, midway through: Freud leaves Vienna with his family after Gestapo agents come to his home, arrest his daughter, then unaccountably release her. He tells Lewis "I awoke when I suddenly recognized the face of the beast."
The Jungle Book (2016, Prime Video): a live-action (with CGI) remake of Disney's 1967 animated version, produced by the Walt Disney studio.
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018, Netflix): a live-action (with CGI) version, directed by Andy Serkis (Gollum!) and produced by Warner Brothers.
Oddly, both these films began life in the early 2010s; they were completed around the same time, but Warner Brothers delayed the release of Mowgli in part to avoid going head to head with the Walt Disney remake. Critics (and audiences) generally preferred the Disney remake; I enjoyed both, but thought Mowgli was the better film, perhaps because I watched it first, but also I preferred the portrayal of Mowgli in that film.
Fly Away Home (1996, Amazon Prime): a family adventure film in which an eccentric inventor bonds with his young daughter over saving a brood of geese. Watched with three generations (pre-teens, their parents and grandparents); I think all enjoyed it.
Sin (2019, Kanopy): a Russian-Italian bio-pic of Michelangelo; imagine Michelangelo, a 15th-century artist and religious obsessive, seen through the Russian lens on religion (Russian Orthodoxy) (I see that the subtitle of Variety's review of this film was "the madness and melancholy of Michelangelo"). Beautiful film; I enjoyed it. Worth watching just for the scenes of the stonecutters at work in the Carrera marble quarry.
Statistics: Posted by black jack — Mon Feb 24, 2025 12:59 am — Replies 13002 — Views 2512549