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First Man is a magic rocket ride

As Neil Armstrong, the First Man to set foot on the moon, Ryan Gosling has the challenging task of playing a character whose life depends upon staying focused and unemotional. He is like Keir Dullea calmly repeating “open the pod bay doors” to HAL the rebellious computer in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001. The word “wooden” springs to mind—but but Kubrick picked his star for that calmness and certainty, and director Damien Chazelle chose Gosling for the same reason. We first meet Armstrong as a test pilot whose X-15 jet gets in serious trouble. “You’re bouncing off the atmosphere,” ground control explains. The pilot doesn’t even break a sweat. What makes this film special, is getting to meet Armstrong as a family man and father concerned with the fate of his cancer-stricken daughter. We also catch glimpses of the media strings being pulled and the back-up plans for probable failure from the Nixon White House. In today’s climate of toxicity, the film has been crucified for not taking time to show Armstrong planting the American Flag in the lunar landscape. Phwwtttt. Why not talk about the bravery the filmmaker displays in the final images they selected to show the audience? Now that is something.

By | October 12th, 2018|0 Comments

Catch Keira Knightley as Colette 

After marrying an older, semi-successful Parisian publisher, a creative and talented provincial woman named Colette is convinced to move to the big city and ghost-write novels for her spouse under his name (because “female writers don’t sell”). When her books become successful, Colette begins to chafe at her husband’s patriarchal assumptions and decides to “wear the pants in her family.” Keira Knightly is great as the sensual, proto-feminist,  sexually fluid writer who turns literary and social conventions on their head, and the film joyously breaks the Masterpiece Theater conventions for turn-of-the century storylines. Colette is best known for her novella Gigi which spawned the stage play and movie about a young girl being trained to be a courtesan to wealthy older men, and the Claudine quartet telling the tale of a naive French country girl’s experiences in a boarding school run by seductive female teachers.

By | October 5th, 2018|0 Comments

Bisbee ’17 Doc Is a Must-See 

Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast New Releases For the Week of  9/28/18 Bisbee ’17 (PG) Starring: Fernando Serrano, Mike Anderson, Charles Bethea Directed By: Robert Greene Flash back to 1917 for a moment. Woodrow Wilson is President, the Zimmerman Telegram was recently uncovered outlining a military alliance between Germany and Mexico [...]

By | September 28th, 2018|0 Comments

Four “3-pieces of Toast” films this week

After Stephanie (Anna Kendrick), is widowed by her husband’s death in an auto accident, the suburban mother’s “friends” turn their backs on her and her son. So she seeks out the town’s patrician mystery woman, Emily (Blake Lively), to set up a play date with each others’ sons. Married to a handsome novelist (Henry Golding), the martini-sipping Emily appears to be everything that Stephanie is not until the fateful day when asks for A Simple Favor, she leaves her son at Stephanie’s house, then doesn’t return to pick him up. Within a short time, Stephanie becomes a grown up Nancy Drew sleuthing her way around local cul-de-sacs and traffic circles to discover what happened to her friend.

By | September 14th, 2018|0 Comments

Glenn Close shine shines as The Wife

Because of the time difference from Sweden, North American winners of Nobel Prizes receive their phone call just before dawn. So when the phone rings at 5 a.m. on a particular morning, the novelist and his wife may act surprised about him winning the Nobel Literature Prize, but in reality, they expected it. He has always been the one in the spotlight, and the Prize’s effect on his ego is all-encompassing. In contrast, her talents and identity have been overshadowed by her husband’s successes. A biographer follows the couple to Sweden, and his questions prompt flashbacks that reveal how the relationship began, how secrets were developed, and how the Nobel Ceremony will bring simmering feelings front and center. Glenn Close’s masterful performance in Bjorn Runge's The Wife makes everything work as conflicting emotions roil through her body and are reflected in her face and voice. 

By | September 7th, 2018|0 Comments

British rom-com Juliet, Naked is sweet, low-key

In Jesse Peretz's Juliet, Naked, Annie’s film professor husband is obsessed with the online blog he writes about an American singer/songwriter who disappeared after the release of his 1993 album, Juliet. When a bootleg tape of the musician’s concert appears, Annie writes a very critical review of the singer. Her husband is not amused, and things come to a head when the singer visits his pregnant daughter in Annie’s coastal English village. It seems he wasn’t missing—just living in his ex wife’s garage. Everything is low key in this British rom-com, which is just the way it should be.

By | August 31st, 2018|0 Comments

No new movies worth paying to see this week

Director Peter Berg and actor/producer Mark Wahlberg have teamed up again for another heroic “based-on-a-true-story” tale of survival against impossible odds. Only this time, there is no “true-story” to confine them, so Mile 22 can be quick and easy with minor things like the laws of motion and other pesky facts. The film makers overuse choreographed POV shots, surveillance footage and drone camera perspectives which gets in the way of telling the basic story about: “driving someone to the airport.” The “someone” supposedly knows the location of a stash of highly radioactive explosive labelled “fear-powder,” and since the actor playing this guy (Iko Uwais) is a master of the deadly Indonesian martial art called “silat,” you kind of know what will happen next. Having Uwais perform his moves while handcuffed, just adds to the “Gee Whiz” feel. 

By | August 24th, 2018|0 Comments

Crazy Rich Asians is a “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” Rom-Com

Gil Mansergh’s Cinema Toast New Releases For the Week of  8/17/18 Crazy Rich Asians (R) Starring: Constance Wu, Michelle Yeoh, Henry Golding, Awkwafina, Ken Jeong, Chris Pang, Gemma Chan Directed by: Jon M. Chu At its core, Crazy Rich Asians is a rom-com with the classic pairing of a beautiful [...]

By | August 17th, 2018|0 Comments

Spike Lee’s BlackkKlansman  is a must-see

Spike Lee opens and closes BlackkKlansman with brilliant set pieces. The first involves screening the famous camera-crane, dolly-shot from Gone With the Wind where the screen ends up being filled with thousands of dead and dying Confederate soldiers. Then the clip stops, and a white supremacist (Alec Baldwin)  steps to the podium with a diatribe about miscegenation and mongrelization. The final scene involves the reminiscences of a Civil Rights leader (Harry Belafonte) about the Klan showing D.W. Griffith’s silent film, Birth of a Nation (aka The Clansman), and juxtaposed images of anti-racism activist Heather Heyer being run over and killed by a driver at the Charlottesville white supremacist rally. In between, the movie  is ostensibly the “based on a true story” of Ron Stallworth, Colorado’s first African American policeman and how he ended up infiltrating the local branch of the Ku Klux Klan. The whole thing is punctuated by Terrance Blanchard’s music which adds a Mod Squad vibe to the 1970‘s-era scenes. Lee’s tendency to “soap-box” issues through a megaphone gets in the way on occasion, but I have to remember that most of the viewing audience isn’t old enough to remember the 1970’s, and may need this grab-you-by-the shirt perspective. 

By | August 10th, 2018|0 Comments

Elsie Fisher in Eight Grade is a “take your kids with you” must-see

Writer/director Bo Burnham shoots his movie, Eighth Grade, from the POV of a student named Kayla (Elsie Fisher), and creates a “must-see” film in the process. Kayla and her junior high classmates are trying to find their way through the last week of being “kids” before the unavoidable transition to the  “Young Adult” status of High School. Like many youngsters, Kayla chronicles her thoughts, realities and aspirations via YouTube and reveals a cute, wannabe older and wiser individual who would somehow be better able coping with the realities of living day-to-day. This coping includes the garbled attempts at “communication,” with her single dad, trying not to giggle or cry during “active shooter drills” at school, trying to disappear in her auditorium seat when she garners the “Most Quiet” award from her classmates, and displaying her less-than-perfect body at an end of the year pool party. We grown up’s immediately see that every kid at the party is “less-than-perfect,” but we are supposedly adult enough to not consider ourself “unworthy” in comparison. This brilliant, slice-of-life uncovers the fact that although Kayla may not appreciate it right now, most of the people she encounters have her best interests in mind, and many of these people display genuine kindness. Wow! What a concept! Note: Because of  “coarse language and some sexual material,” the powers that be have arbitrarily given this film an “R” rating which theoretically removes it from being seen by middle schoolers. Ignore this, take your kids, and if it makes them feel more comfortable, sit in different parts of the theater. 

By | August 3rd, 2018|0 Comments