Harmony Center for the Joyful Spirit » Movies

Mother

Daniel Neumayer — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 17:57:08 +0000

A unique, atmospheric murder mystery/crime thriller, this Korean film won awards around the world. When a mother works to convince the authorities that her mentally challenged son’s murder conviction is a mistake. The film explores the lengths to which a mother will go to protect her son, as she enters the dark, chaotic world of Korea’s cities.

A Single Man

Daniel Neumayer — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 17:30:27 +0000

One of the best films of 2009. Colin Firth turns in an amazing, Oscar nominated performance as George Falconer, a middle-aged man who seems to have lost everything – his partner, his purpose in life. We follow George through a single day as he turns to his closet friend, Charley (Julianne Moore), and a young student, deciding if life is worthwhile. Rated R for some disturbing images and nudity/sexual content.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips:

Some films aren’t revelations, exactly, but they burrow so deeply into old truths about love and loss and the mess and thrill of life, they seem new anyway. A Single Man is one such film, one of the best of 2009.

Blazing Saddles

Daniel Neumayer — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:01:02 +0000

This classic Mel Brooks comedy tackles race relations head-on, no holds barred, no taboo left unchallenged, no line not crossed. The mayhem begins when the redneck citizens of a small town in the old west (who else would occupy the old west in a Mel Brooks film?) bizarrely elect a black man a sheriff. It’s all down hill from there in one of Brooks’ funniest films. With Brooks, Gene Wilder.

4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days

Daniel Neumayer — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:53:54 +0000

This amazing drama from Romania won the Golden Palm at Cannes.

Synopis from MetaCritic: During the final days of communism in Romania, two college roommates Otilia and Gabita are busy preparing for a night away. But rather than planning for a holiday, they are making arrangements forGabita’s illegal abortion and unwittingly, both find themselves burrowing deep down a rabbit hole of unexpected revelations. Not Rated, has been described as “brutal but brilliant”.

Each of these critics, and many more gave their highest rating.

Time Richard Corliss

One of the strongest movies in recent years.

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Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

This is a film with a commitment to reality unlike any we’re used to seeing.

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Variety Jay Weissberg

Pitch perfect and brilliantly acted, 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days is a stunning achievement, helmed with a purity and honesty that captures not just the illegal abortion story at its core but the constant, unremarked negotiations necessary for survival in the final days of the Soviet bloc.

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LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Though the frighteningly late-term abortion at its center hints at larger sins in the last gasp of Nicolae Ceausescu’s iron-fisted regime, it’s no metaphor, but a sordidly visceral transaction conducted in the next best thing to a back alley.

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Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Nothing good happens in 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, the riveting, horrifying chronicle of an illegal abortion performed in 1987 when Ceauescu’s dictatorial hand still gripped Romania’s throat. And yet no lover of greatness in filmmaking will want to look away from one of the very best movies of 2007.

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The New York Times Manohla Dargis

It’s a pitiless, violent story that in its telling becomes a haunting and haunted intellectual and aesthetic achievement.

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Premiere Glenn Kenny

A remarkably engrossing and thoughtful picture, beautifully rendered in an artful mode of realism.

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Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Elegantly crafted, brilliantly acted film.

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New York Daily News Jack Mathews

This year’s foreign language Oscar scandal – there is always at least one – is the snub of director Cristian Mungiu’s disturbing, masterful realist drama following two college roommates as they carry out plans for one’s black market abortion in Communist Romania.

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Salon.com Andrew O’Hehir

Despite their terrible ordeal these women are heroes, not victims. As Mungiu makes clear in the casual, brilliant final scene of this amazing movie, heroes persevere.

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San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

First, this movie should be enjoyed. Later, marveled at. And then, once the excitement has faded, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days really should be studied, because director Cristian Mungiu creates scenes unlike any ever filmed.

Shirley Valentine

Daniel Neumayer — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 01:15:42 +0000

Shirley, a middle-aged Liverpool housewife, spends her life taking care of her husband while talking to the wall, wondering what became of her life. An unexpected trip to Greece with a friend changes Shirley’s view of the world and herself. Pauline Collins was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar.

Rabbit-Proof Fence

Daniel Neumayer — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 01:06:23 +0000

An amazing, true, story of children overcoming staggering odds. Until the 1970s, Australian law call for young girls of mixed aboriginal and European blood to be forcibly removed from their homes and placed in an internment camp to be trained as domestic servants. This true story follows three young girls as the escape and set out on a 1500 mile trek to their home. Swept the Australian “Oscars” and won dozens of international awards.

In the words of one critic, “The result is a film that outrages and fills the viewer with poetry that’s at once epic and intimate, scandalizing and life-affirming — a real work of art.”

Wings of Desire

Daniel Neumayer — Wed, 05 May 2010 03:51:30 +0000

The 1988 clasic is one of Roger Ebert’s Great Films, and certainly on of Wim Wenders’ best, this romantic fantasy tells the story of a Guardian Angel (Bruno Ganz) who falls in love with a beautiful woman and decides he wants to become human. Peter Falk also stars as himself, and aids the angel in making his choices. A fantasy with a lot to say about life.

I found this film thought provoking, inspiring, and a little bewildering. Roger Ebert, who lists Wings of Desire among the “Great Films”, has this to say:

“The film evokes a mood of reverie, elegy and meditation. It doesn’t rush headlong into plot, but has the patience of its angels. It suggests what it would be like to see everything but not participate in it. We follow two angels: Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel (Otto Sander). They listen to the thoughts of an old Holocaust victim, and of parents worried about their son, and of the passengers on trams and the people in the streets; it’s like turning the dial and hearing snatches of many radio programs. They make notes about the hooker who hopes to earn enough money to go south, and the circus aerialist who fears that she will fall, because it is the night of the full moon.” Roger Ebert’s full review

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Crazy Heart

Daniel Neumayer — Tue, 04 May 2010 17:14:13 +0000

Jeff Bridges won Best Actor in this audience favorite story of Bad Blake, a washed-up country music star struggling to recover his life. Down to playing bowing alleys, Blake is interviewed by a young reporter (Maggie Gyllenhaal, nominated for Best Supporting Actress) and is set on a new trajectory. No Hollywood ending here, rather a bitter-sweet lesson of what is possible in life. Crazy Heart also won the Oscar for Best Song.

The Blind Side

Daniel Neumayer — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 05:26:48 +0000

Nominated Best Picture; Sandra Bullock won for Best Actress. One act of kindness leads to another, and the next thing you know an affluent white Memphis couple has taken in a homeless black high school student. Thus begins the improbable tale of a poor young man with ambitions to play for the NFL. Based on a true story.

Precious

Daniel Neumayer — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 05:24:23 +0000

Nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture, Won for Writing and Supporting Actress. How could Precious, or anyone, survive being a sixteen-year-old African-American, trapped in Harlem, pregnant, subjected to the whims of her abusive mother? But Precious has learned to appear passive, while all the time watching for her chance – which comes when she transfers to a new school. Rated R Child abuse including sexual assault. Rated R for child abuse including sexual assault.

This story of triumph over evil, is inspiring and also difficult to watch. A good choice to see in a friendly, supportive group.