The Exterminating Angels (Les Anges Exterminateurs)

I did not know what I was going to see from the description of the French film The Exterminating Angels, based on a true story, on Amazon Prime. I was surprised to see a movie that some would call soft porn because many such movies would not be shown in the Puritanical USA. After seeing this movie I am still clueless as to why this movie was given the name The Exterminating Angels. So what is the storyline?

The Exterminating Angels follows a middle-aged filmmaker, Francois (Frédéric van den Driessche), who auditions a few young women for a movie that explores female masturbation. During the interview he invites them to pleasure themselves in front of him. He observes them first individually, then in pairs, and eventually three entwined together. Among his earnest goals is to capture "the grace of the pleasure on their faces and bodies." He does not participate other than to observe.

After rejections from several nonplussed actors, and one auditionee who eventually accuses him of traumatizing her, he ends up doing innumerable test runs with the volatile Charlotte (Maroussia Dubreuil) and the more docile Julie (Lise Bellynck). A waitress, Stéphanie (Marie Allan), signs up after witnessing the other women pleasuring each other on a table in one of the more public experiments.

What makes this movie puzzling is its mystical aspects--a strange nocturnal visit from his dead grandmother, strange radio messages floating around the ether, and two invisible fallen angels who have a hand in directing events, pushing in the director’s direction evildoing women who are out to destroy him.

If you are openminded, and enjoy a sexy, thinking-person film, then I recommend this movie.

Adrift in Manhattan

Last night I was in the mood for an urban drama. I found it in Adrift in Manhattan. It is an interesting film that will make you think. It stars Heather Graham, Victor Rasuk, and Dominic Chianese.

Adrift in Manhattan is a character-driven drama about three people whose lives intersect. The first is an older Italian gentleman, Tomasso (Chianese), who runs a company mailroom by day, but is an artist by night. He learns from the second character, Rose, an ophthalmologist (Graham), that he is going blind. Rose is completely emotionally withdrawn. She separated from her husband after the death of their two-year old child. The third character is a 20-year old Puerto Rican man who lives with his dominating mother, and works in a camera store. His passion is photography. By chance he encounters Rose, and is inspired to shoot photos of her obsessively.  Heather and the young man are destined to meet and become intimate.

There is much more to this movie that make you think life and relationships. I recommend this movie.

Love And Honor

I watched this movie while flying up to Baltimore. I selected this movie because it takes place during the war in Vietnam. I was in the mood for a movie that brought this terrible time back to me. I knew that Love and Honor was not a great movie, but I thought I would enjoy the story and the associated rock music.

After receiving a “Dear John” letter, Dalton (Austin Stowell) opts to spend his week of military leave flying home to win over his dear Jane. At the risk of also being reported AWOL, impulsive pal Mickey (Liam Hemsworth) accompanies him back to Ann Arbor, MI, where Jane (Aimee Teegarden) now goes by Juniper and runs with the war protest crowd, much to Dalton’s surprise. In an effort to get his friend back into Juniper’s good graces, Mickey proudly claims that they’ve deserted, a noble lie which reignites her affections and deflects the skepticism of most others — save for Juniper’s friend, Candace (Teresa Palmer), and crush-happy colleague Peter (Chris Lowell).

While Love and Honor is entertaining, it is very predictable. It is one of those that can be classified as neither good nor bad.

The Sessions

Wow, what a great movie! I watched The Sessions while cruising at 32,000 ft. above the southeastern part of the US while flying from Baltimore to Tampa. I already knew this because my daughter recommend that I see this first-rate movie. The Sessions stars  John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, and William H. Macy. After watching this movie you will see that your problems are insignificant compared to the main character, Mark O'Brien (Hawkes) who is confined to an iron lung as a result of having polio.

The Sessions focuses on the period of O'Brien's life where, at the age of 38, he decided to seek the help of Cheryl Cohen Greene (Helen Hunt), a professional sex surrogate, in order to lose his virginity. In the process, O'Brien develops a friendship with Greene that is all too easily blurred by their professional involvement, and is forced to confront his own attitudes towards sex, and how they were in turn shaped by his past, his parents, his Catholic faith, and the accompanying guilt arising from all of the above.

I recommend that you place The Sessions at the top of your list of movies to see.

Cruel Intentions

Last night I watch Cruel Intentions (1999). I have no idea why I decided to watch this silly adolescent film. I guess I can blame it on Amazon Prime--it was free!

Cruel Intentions follows Sebastian (Ryan Phillippe) who is the sexual terror of his prep school.  He can have any girl he wants at will. Anyone except his stepsister, Katherine (Sarah Michelle Gellar), that is. Bored with so many easy conquests, he sets a challenge for himself--Annette Hargrove (Reese Witherspoon) who has vowed to remain a virgin until she finds true love. Sebastian makes a bet with Katherine that he can seduce Annette. If he fails, Katherine gets his sports car. If he succeeds, he gets a night with her. At first, Sebastian seems to have no chance, but, through a series of lies and manipulations, he softens Annette's reserve. Meanwhile, to help Katherine gain revenge on an ex-boyfriend, he agrees to bed the object of that boy's affection - a socially-inept and sexually naïve girl named Cecile (Selma Blair).

I do not recommend this movie unless you are looking for mindless entertainment.

What a Girl Wants

I decided that I wanted to see a comedic movie that takes place in London. I selected What a Girl Wants staring Amanda Bynes, Colin Firth, and Kelly Preston. After watching it for a few minutes I realized that I had seen this movie when it was released about 10 years ago. Normally I would stop watching but I decided to continue and see the entire movie. What a Girl Wants is an entertaining and totally predictable.

Daphne Reynolds (Bynes) has lived contentedly with her single mother, Libby (Preston), for all of her 17 years, but hasn't been able to shake the missing hole in her life where her father is supposed to be. The story goes that Libby fell in love with Henry Dashwood (Firth) while vacationing in Morocco. They were married, but when Henry returned to his royal home in England, his stuck-up friends and advisors sent Libby packing. Out of their brief relationship, Libby gave birth to Daphne. With summer break coming up, Daphne buys a plane ticket and books it to England, determined to make up for lost time with Henry, who doesn't even know he has a daughter. 

Henry, who is running for a seat in the House of Commons, welcomes Daphne into his mansion, much to the haughty chagrin of his power-hungry fiancee, Glynnis (Anna Chancellor), and soon-to-be stepdaughter, Clarissa (Christina Cole). In her effortless, free-spirited way, Daphne shakes up all of their lives and her father's candidacy to Parliament. 

This is a mindless film that is fun to watch. I recommend this movie.

Silver Linings Playbook

Wow, what a great movie!!! Just about everything in this movie is superior. Silver Linings Playbook is a screwball romantic comedy steeped in a drama based on bipolar disorder, depression, OCD, Philadelphia Eagles fanatics, a ballroom dancing contest, adultery, Hemingway, and a lead character who jogs while wearing a trash bag. Can a movie be bad if it stars Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, and Robert De Niro?

Silver Linings Playbook follows Tiffany (Lawrence) and Pat (Cooper), both damaged human beings. Pat is a bipolar teacher just out of eight months in a state psychiatric institution. Tiffany is a young widow, over compensating for the death of her cop husband by having sex with all of her coworkers. They're manic energy is unleashed when they come together. This is what drives this movie.

The soundtrack is exceptional. It is unique and varied, with each song serving an exact purpose. Especially keen are Stevie Wonder's My Cherie Amour, Led Zeppelin's What is and What Should Be, and The Girl from the North Country a Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash duet. When the music strikes a harmony with the scene, the movie is all the stronger. Rarely do we get to see the perfect storm of script, direction, acting, music and relevance.

I highly recommend this movie.

Purple Sea (Viola di mare)

The Purple Sea is the first Italian film that I have seen in a long time. I very much enjoyed seeing Purple Sea which explores the relationship of two ladies, Angela and Sara, in 19th Sicily. 

Angela (Valeria Solarino) has trouble fitting into the cast of village woman very early on. When Angela discovers a growing attraction to her childhood best friend, Sara (Isabella Ragonese), she cannot help but act on it. Her love is returned but the two get caught by Angela’s father (Ennio Fantastichini) whose only solution is to lock Angela in a basement until he can figure out what to do with her.

Angela’s mother overhears Salvatore, Angela’s father, complain that if Angela had only been a boy, they would not be in this mess right now. She realizes there is a solution here and Angela, because she wants to be with Sara, agrees to it; to cross dress as a man for the rest of her life. The rest of the movie explores Angela’s life as Angelo and the difficulties she and Sara face as a couple who have to hide their true nature. 

I recommend Purple Sea.

Page Eight

I was in the mood for a spy thriller. I selected Page Eight, a BBC TV movie with a really great cast. It stars Bill Nighy, Rachel Weisz, and Tom Hughes. Page Eight is an excellent movie that develops slowly and maintains this slow pace throughout, but I seem to like such dramas. So, what is the story?

Long-time military intelligence analyst Johnny Worricker (Nighy) is a passionate man, about his art collection, jazz records and the many women he has wooed—some of whom he’s married, though none for very long. His boss, the Director General of MI5 (Gambon) is married to one of Johnny’s ex-wives, but as his best friend, the director general is the longest sustained relationship he’s ever had. In fact, Johnny’s made an art out of steering clear of true intimacy with anybody—including his former wives and daughter—and never discussing matters involving faith or politics. He may be alone, but he sleeps through the night.

After an explosive report containing damming implications involving higher-ups within the UK administration makes its way to his department it, ironically, falls on Johnny’s shoulders to either make a stand and do the right thing or play it safe and do nothing. Nothing is what he would normally do. To make matters more complicated his neighbor (Weisz), a mysterious young woman, suddenly reaches out to him. His spy instincts tingle with suspicion: is she who she says she is or is she there to trap him?

If you like a good British spy thriller, than I recommend Page Eight.

The Flat

I was in the mood to see something different, and I decided to watch a documentary, the Israeli film The Flat. I selected an exceptional film that I would recommend to anyone. I could see why The Flat won a couple of Israeli film awards. What is the topic of this documentary? 

Imagine that your grandmother has just died and your family is cleaning out her apartment. Amidst all the stuff your grandmother has collected, you find a tantalizing and shocking newspaper article involving your grandparents that you never heard about before from any other family member including your mother. This is essentially the set-up for The Flat. It was produced by the Israeli filmmaker Arnon Goldfinger.

Goldfinger's grandparents, Gerda and Kurt Tuchler, were German Jews who emigrated to Palestine (now Israel) in 1936 after the Nazis forced them out. The article was from a virulent Nazi newspaper, Der Angriff, from 1934, which chronicles a trip made by a high Nazi official, Leopold von Mildenstein, to Palestine. The article features photos of Mildenstein traveling to Palestine with Goldfinger's grandparents.

The mystery is not only why this SS man would go to Palestine with two Jews but why Goldfinger's grandparents would accompany him. Furthermore, Goldfinger discovers that his grandparents visited Mildenstein in Germany after World War II numerous times and kept up a friendship with him and his wife.