Drama

• Title: The Personal History of David Copperfield
• IMDb: link

Director Armando Iannucci‘s The Personal History of David Copperfield is a light and breezy affair filled with familiar faces like Peter Capaldi, Gwendoline Christie. and Hugh Laurie. The film takes a more theatrical stage view than Hollywood approach to casting the project, ignoring any racial overtones and simply casting the best actor available for any particular role (such as throwing together Benedict Wong and Rosalind Eleazar as father and daughter). While initially appearing odd on-screen, the color-blind approach turns out to be quite freeing to both the film and its actors.

Dev Patel stars as Charles Dickens‘s David Copperfield (from the novel of the same name). We’re introduced to young David (Jairaj Varsani) who is yanked from his idyllic childhood to London after his widowed mother (Morfydd Clark) marries the villainous Murdstone (Darren Boyd). The dastardly devil is only missing a moustache to twirl to make his effect complete. Putting David to work in one of his factories, that is where he remains until his mother’s death when he escapes and strives to find a new life for himself as a gentleman.

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• Title: The Trial of the Chicago 7
• IMDb: link

In a year which has seen both a rise of public protest and attempts by both state and federal to squelch freedom of assembly comes a timely film from writer/director Aaron Sorkin looking back at the anti–Vietnam War protesters known as the Chicago Seven. While jumping over large parts of the trial, and using flashbacks to reveal events out of order, The Trial of the Chicago 7 certainly takes dramatic license. As a result, it’s not a great trial movie, but is still an engaging and moving film.

Leading the protest of the 1968 Democratic National Convention which ended in police violence, Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen), Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong), Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne), Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp), David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch), Lee Weiner (Noah Robbins), and John Froines (Danny Flaherty) were all charged with crossing state lines with the intention of inciting a riot. Also on trial was Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), who despite not being present at the riots (or connected to the other defendants), found himself guilty by association for the inflammatory speech he gave that day.

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