Drama

Teen Spirit

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  • Title: Teen Spirit
  • IMDb: link

Teen Spirit movie posterWith Teen Spirit writer/director Max Minghella offers an indie feel to a well-mined Hollywood tale of burgeoning stardom. Elle Fanning stars as a teenager on the Isle of Wight who, despite her mother’s (Agnieszka Grochowska) disapproval, signs up for open auditions for a reality-TV series offering a record contract to the winner of the singing competition. Needing an adult to act as her guardian, and later manager, Violet taps the the old drunk Russian (Zlatko Buric) who enjoys her karaoke at the local dive bar. And, of course, it doesn’t hurt when the film reveals that Vlad was once a well-respected opera singer.

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The Aftermath

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  • Title: The Aftermath
  • IMDb: link

The Aftermath movie review

Set in post-WWII Germany where Allied Forces are attempting to restore order, The Aftermath is half a good movie punctuated by the performance of Keira Knightley as a military wife who is uprooted from London to Hamburg where her husband (Jason Clarke) is stationed. While many Germans are homeless and sheltered into camps, the Morgans find themselves housed in the lush estate of a German architect (Alexander Skarsgård) who moves into the attic with his teenage daughter (Flora Thiemann).

As a period drama much of The Aftermath works well. There’s an interesting story to tell here about the role of the winners asserting control over the locals, hunting out Nazi sympathizers, and working to try and help rebuild the broken city. Sadly, much of the story instead is focused on the couple’s troubled marriage and her growing involvement with their host. The film was adapted from Rhidian Brook‘s novel of the same name. I wonder if the affair comes off as tawdry on the printed page. That’s not to say this storyline doesn’t offer moments, such as a terrific scene involving Knightley breaking down while discussing the loss of their child during the war.

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Sobibor

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  • Title: Sobibor
  • IMDb: link

Sobibor movie reviewBased on true events, the Russian film Sobibor tells the story of a revolt and mass escape from the Nazi concentration camp of Sobibor led by Alexander Pechersky (played by director Konstantin Khabenskiy) in Poland during WWII. The film could use a little more nuance from the Nazis (led by Christopher Lambert) and a little less Russian nationalism (constantly playing up the importance of Russian Jews) for a more compelling story. Based on gripping subject matter, the film doesn’t do much in the way to add artistry or historical context to the proceedings. The truth behind the film kept me more interested than the depiction of events. Honestly, I would have been far more interested in seeing a documentary of the Sobibor revolt rather than this dramatization.

Focused more on Nazi brutality towards the Jews than their escape for three-fourths of the film, Sobibor is at times hard to watch. The script also ignores historical context when it may get in the way of the story (such as somewhat fudging the number of escapees, and ignoring the large percentage who were either killed or recaptured by the Nazis).

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Fighting with My Family

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Fighting with My Family
  • IMDb: link

Fighting with My Family movie reviewFlorence Pugh stars as the unconventional Saraya-Jade Bevis in this biopic of a real-life underdog making good. At the time when the WWE was stocking its women’s division with models, the goth indie wrestler from an oddball wrestling family in Norwich, England would seem like a long shot to not only make the WWE roster but excel.

Knowing and trusting his source material, and putting his faith in his young stars, Stephen Merchant allows the stories of both Saraya and her brother Zak (Jack Lowden), who is passed over by the WWE, to unfold. For Zak it’s the struggle of watching his dreams turn to ash while his sister is handed the golden opportunity he’s sought his entire life. And for Saraya it’s struggling to find her place in a larger ring, the one place she has always felt at home but is now full of more obstacles than she ever imagined.

Fighting with My Family is a crowd-pleaser featuring some great supporting performances from the likes of Nick Frost and Lena Headey as Sayara’s parents and Vince Vaughn as the trainer who offers Sayara her chance and pushes her to succeed.

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The Great Films – Unbreakable

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Unbreakable
  • IMDb: link

“They say this one has a surprise ending.”

Unbreakable movie reviewToday’s Throwback Thursday post takes us back to one of my favorite super-hero movies. Overshadowed by writer/director M. Night Shyamalan‘s far more commercially successful first film and his subsequent slide into mediocrity, Unbreakable stands alone as the one film from his catalog that gets better with each subsequent viewing. A perfect origin story, Unbreakable is a super-hero film without any of the trappings of super-hero films. A low-key, slow-paced drama, the story slowly unfolds while staying true to the basic truths of comic book storytelling. If there’s an anti-Batman and Robin, it’s Unbreakable.

The film has everything going for it including a writer who understood his subject manner, stars perfectly cast as real-life comic book characters, a terrific humor, and some of the best shot scenes of any film from this decade by Eduardo Serra whose framing choices help mold and develop each character climaxing in the traditional birth of a hero that remains grounded in reality more than any super-hero movie before or since. It’s a perfect storm that results in an amazing film that holds up as well today as when it was released more than 18 years ago.

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