Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast
New Release For the Week of 1/06/17

Hidden Figures(PG-13)
Starring: Viola Davis, Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monae, Kevin Costner, JimParsons, Kirsten Dunst
Director: Theodore Melfi
With Astronauts gracing the covers of LIFE and Look and other weekly magazines, the American space program was big news in the 60’s. These men were presented as the epitome of American maleness, and the only females we saw who were part of the space program were the women who quilted the multiple layers of fabric for each custom-fitted space suit! 50 years later, Theodore Melfi’s perfectly named film Hidden Figures brings the unsung heroes of the space program out from the shadows—and we finally discover that several of the mathematical geniuses who made the program a success were female African Americans! In this retelling of the quintessential American fable, those dashing spacemen are little more than passengers aboard the heaving, clunking, fuel-spewing hunk of hardware that broke gravity’s inexorable hold of we frail human beings. It’s nice to have a film where the audience cheers for the underlying decency and determined humanity epitomized by the three women combating the solidly built wall of racism, sexism and chauvinism that were signatures for that time and place.
4 pieces of “that was the way it was” toast

A Monster Calls (PG-13)
Starring: Louis MacDougall, Liam Neeson, Felicity Jones, Sigourney Weaver, Toby Kebbell
Director: J.A. Bayona
Being a teen-ager whose mother is dying of cancer is bad enough, but stranding him in the cold dankness of Northern England where his only friend is the gnarled yew tree looming over the churchyard is literally the stuff of nightmares. Beset with travail at every turn (school bullies, a taciturn grandmother and recurring bad dreams), the lad answers when the tree (sounding exactly like Liam Neeson) becomes alive and promises to return three times with an animated tale to tell. “Then,” the tree proclaims, “You will tell me a fourth—and it will be the truth. Your truth.” NOTE: This film is NOT for kids who have nightmares!
3 pieces of Yggradsil alive! toast

Sing (PG)
Starring the voices of: Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, Scarlett Johansson, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Hudson
Director: Garth Jennings
For some reason (probably the low box office numbers), the studio behind the animated feature film Sing, shelved it the week after it was released and has once again let it loose in theaters. I’d like to say they used the time
to polish the end result—but they didn’t. Sing still has only one gag—used over, and over and over… In a singing contest, a cartoon animal lip synchs a popular song in a manner which goes against the audience’s first impressions (i.e. a German-accented fat pig dancing, an iguana playing the piano, a gangland gorilla who hopes singing will allow him to escape from the family business, an elephant with stage-fright, etc. To get a handle on how unimaginative this is, 85 songs are used.
1 piece of these guys made Minions so we know than can do better toast

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