Beauty and the Beast (2017)

 Disney continues to have a stranglehold on a number of aspects of G-Rated entertainment.  They know how to milk a good story and get the most of it.  The movie that mother saw as a child is familiar to my children.  So all but inevitable that a property as adored as 1991’s "Beauty and the Beast," the first animated film to not just compete in Oscar’s Best Picture category but also top the $100 million box-office mark, would receive a 21st-century makeover.   I thought that I would not like this real life version of the Disney animated film that took home lots of awards years ago, but I was wrong about this. The film is nominated in the realm of costume and design, which are both good categories for it.  This is a gloriously old-fashioned musical with dazzling beauty to behold (with enough Rococo gold decor to gild any 17th century French castle) and is anything but a beastly re-interpretation of a fairy tale as old as time. It can be framed as a more inclusive display of love in its various forms, which goes beyond the sweetly awkward courtship between brainy, brave and independent-minded bookworm Belle (played by Emma Watson of Harry Potter films) and the cursed prince in the ill-tempered guise of a ram-horned bison-faced creature (Dan Stevens of “Downton Abbey,” whose eyes show him to be a man worthy of falling for).  In the end, I found it both charming and enjoyable. 

On Body and Soul (2017)

I really loved this Hungarian movie that is nominated for Best Foreign Language film.  I haven't seen a Hungarian film since I saw The Turin Horse, but if films demarcate a people and a culture, Hungary has a lot going on if you scratch the surface.
In this movie that is the dream world and the actual world.  It opens with a drop-dead gorgeous sequence superbly shot by cinematographer Máté Herbai. A magnificent stag and a self-possessed doe, alone in a stunning winter landscape of bare trees and snowy ground, stand together, their bodies touching in a palpable connection.

When we get to the real world, the film's main setting, a big-city slaughterhouse, looks mundane by comparison (although beautifully shot.  The cinematography is stunning throughout). And the cows, whose brutal end we are soon to witness, look at us with wary, pleading eyes, as if almost suspecting what is to come.

Looking over this with a dispassionate eye from his second-floor window is Endre (Géza Morcsányi), a lean, bearded individual with a withered arm. He is the slaughterhouse's director, the man in charge of the organized carnage.  Mária (Borbély) is the new government quality inspector, a preternaturally precise woman who turns out to have a fiendishly exact eye for both beef and the details of everyday life.  She has an autism spectrum disorder that makes her stand out in a way she would rather not.

There is a certain amount of attraction between these two, but both are introverted, even formal. Without any skill in small talk or socialization, nothing comes of this, with both Mária and Endre retreating to their individual dissociated lives. Until fate takes a hand.
The two are brought together by an investigating psychologist who routinely asks them about their dreams.  Which is how Mária and Endre discover that they are both having the identical dream every night, both sharing the exact same images of stag and doe that began the film and that recur periodically from here on in.The cadence and story are so unusual, and lovely in a way.

Mudbound (2017)

Get Out confronts racism in a sideways manner.  Not so with Mudbound.  This is just flat out painful to watch.  Life in the American South after World War II (and before) was not good for poor whites and they felt entitled to treat African Americans like their property.  This is almost one hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and just twenty years before the Civil Rights Act and all of it feels very real and believable.  And it also seems inevitable to all but the men who fought in the war.  They came home, damaged by trauma but entirely clear on the fact that only monsters treated other humans the way whites treated blacks int he South.  Such a realization was not welcome, and this movie takes us through just exactly how badly things can go when you try to introduce change to a system completely uninterested in it.
Beautifully filmed (the cinematographer is the first woman ever to be nominated in that category), believably acted, and yet, it is a relief to have it finish, with an ending that is forseeable, and yet not. 

Breadwinner (2017)

This is an adapted story from a young adult novel, and as another review noted, it would be unbearable to watch if it were not animated.  The treatment of the citizenry in general and women especially by the Taliban is so brutal as to be sadistic in the name of religion.  The desire to control is intoxicating, as does violence breed violence and so on.
The heroine is Parvana, an 11 year old girl who transforms herself into a boy in order to save her family after her father is arrested.  Women without men are literally hostages in their homes and would starve to death without desperate measures.  Life as a boy holds tremendous freedom compared to that of a girl.  Parvana can sell her literacy as a boy, whereas she would be stoned to death for such as a girl. 
Before his arrest Parvana's father teaches her the value of story telling and when the going gets rough, she uses stories to both give herself courage and to comfort others.  The ending is ambiguous, but the message that being educated can raise you up even in oppression is the only hope that is offered in this otherwise gruesome movie that is beautifully animated.

The Square (2017)

This is a movie that I found to be disturbing on a number of levels.  It demonstrates the value of seeking out the Best Foreign Language Oscar nominees, or finding the international film winners that never really get a staging in the United States.
The writer and director of this film,  Ruben Östlund seems fascinated by the life cycle of a bad decision. A well-to-do museum curator Christian (Claes Bang) who is handsome, successful, and likable is at the center of this movie, and the bad decision is his to make.  His cell phone is stolen and he takes it upon himself to get restitution.  He knows the building it is in, so he writes a threatening letter, and stuffs every mailbox in the building, thereby setting a ball of consequences in motion.
Then there is the question of what is art.  The “square” of the film’s title is a new art installation, a simple physical border (four meters by four meters) that’s etched in front of the museum and proclaimed to be “a sanctuary of trust and caring ... within it we all share equal rights and obligations.”  The ramifications of Christian's distraction with his escalating mistake is to allow a number of future mistakes to occur, Why do people get away with behavior if it is thought to be art?  Why does no one act?  The movie is a bit of performance art itself, raising more questions than it answers.

The Silent Child (2017)

This film is nominated in the Live Action Shorts category, which is one of my absolute favorite categories, that if you don't pay attention to finding these films you would almost never see otherwise.  They have the advantage of being able to tell the story that they want with actors, rather than being constrained by the actual people involved, as happens in a documentary.
This one may be a tad heavy handed, but I think it rings true.  A family has a deaf child, one who has gradually lost her hearing and it seems that no one really noticed until she did not comply with them.  The fact that she never talked seems to have eluded them, and continues to elude at least the mother.  She so desires a normal child that she is willing to let her deaf child be miserable.  And alone, completely alone.  It is so sad and so believable that this is my choice to win in this category.

Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (2017)

This Academy Award nominee is streaming on Netflix and is a really interesting story about the case of Abacus Federal Savings, a bank catering to New York’s Chinese immigrant community that became the only U.S. lender to face criminal charges stemming from the 2008 financial crisis. Large-scale institutions like Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase escaped criminal prosecution for their role in the nationwide mortgage meltdown, but with comparatively tiny Abacus it was another matter. Prosecutors, the film argues, unfairly chose to make an example out of it.
The film’s protagonists are Thomas Sung, his wife Hwei Lin and their four daughters—Vera, Jill, Chanterelle and Heather—owners of Abacus. Thomas, a Chinese immigrant himself, founded the bank in the 1980s to provide credit to fellow community members who struggled to obtain loans from traditional lenders.  It was a practice that made them vulnerable, but that also served their community in a way that traditional banks could not.
However, in 2009, by which time daughter Jill had taken over running Abacus from her father, the bank discovered one of its loan officers had been forging information on mortgage applications and sought kickbacks from a borrower. Instead of burying the misconduct, they brought it to the attention of regulators.  That was an error that came back to bite them.  Their culture dictated that when wronged, you fight for your honor, and so they spent a small fortune fighting the government.
 The film explores the why of it, as well as raising frank questions about fairness, and the prejudices that might have driven the prosecution.

Loveless (2017)

Let me start off by saying that this is an excellent movie that has so many great things to say about what happens when you do not put your children first in your life.  The cinematography is fantastic, and the state of modernity mixed with decay s so beautifully portrayed as to not be off putting.
However, if there was an award for the bleakest family depicted in an Oscar nominated movie, this would win.  That is saying something, because the competition in that category is remarkably stiff, what with I, Tonya and The Florida Project in the mix.  Frankly, Frances McDormand's character in Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri, who says angrily to her daughter "I hope you get raped" in response to her daughter saying that would happen to her if she could not get the car, and then it does actually happen isn't even in contention this year.  This is the worst.
It was nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category, and it comes to us from Russia.  The reviews that I read ahead of time take a 10,000 foot view on how it reflects on the state of the modern Russian state and the culture therein.  That may well be the case, but for me it was hard to focus on that because of how completely horrible the two parents of this shy and awkward preteen.  What unfolds after they fight over who will take him in the divorce is both shocking and believable. 

Internment of Japanese Americans, 1942

In an era where we have a president and a controlling party that are eager to take away our civil liberties, I want to reflect on the fact that we have not always done the right thing.  Do not reassure yourself with those thoughts.  This is such a horrible chapter in our history, and one to remember because amongst other things, the rights and privileges of people who have immigrated to this country are being called into question.  So best that we remember past mistakes in order to prevent them in the future.




The internment of Japanese Americans was one of the most blatant restrictions on civil liberties in our history.  Two months after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 ordering all Japanese-Americans to evacuate the West Coast. This resulted in the relocation of approximately 120,000 people, many of whom were American citizens, to one of 10 internment camps located across the country. Traditional family structure was upended within the camp, as American-born children were solely allowed to hold positions of authority. Some Japanese-American citizens of were allowed to return to the West Coast beginning in 1945, and the last camp closed in March 1946.  Ansel Adams, a Western photographer best known for his photos of national parks, provided some of the best lasting images of this time.

Washington's First Inaugural Address (1789)

This President's Day holiday falls exactly on George Washington's actual birthday, and I am going to take a page out of history in order to better reflect on the decay of a mission set by the Founding Fathers in our most modern age.  When a President has voiced the words of an oligarch to state that to disagree with him is treason.  They are largely all a disgrace to the men who set forth our fragile democracy.
From his first inaugural address:
By the article establishing the executive department it is made the duty of the President "to recommend to your consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." The circumstances under which I now meet you will acquit me from entering into that subject further than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you are assembled, and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects to which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with those circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate me, to substitute, in place of a recommendation of particular measures, the tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. In these honorable qualifications I behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests, so, on another, that the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world. I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.

The Garden Party (2017)

I really loved this nominee for Best Short Animated film.  One of my sons thought it was just too crass, but I disagree completely.  Here is the scoop.
Frogs and toads abound in this remarkable short by six talented French artists,  all of whom are in touch with their playful side if the trailer is any indication. The film uses the amphibians as narrative devices for exploring a scene and creating a puzzle that hooks the viewer with a slowly unfolding story.  Impressive work has been dedicated to creating the external pool and shrubbery and the internal dining room and study. The quality of CG work is outstanding, including attention to materials, photorealism, lighting and physics simulations. Aesthetics and composition are a pleasure to watch.  The story is told wordlessly, as the toads and frogs hop through the indoors and outdoors.
What makes the film work so well? The unfolding surprises of the background story help create suspense, hooking the viewer and slowly changing the tone and theme of the film to a genre movie. They also create a contrast with the animal kingdom, which is completely oblivious to it, and continues on its own parallel narrative lines. An emphasis on irreverent humor and creativity adds a lot of spice to the short.

The Post (2017)

This is specifically about the publication of information that was at the heart of the Pentagon Papers, the classified documents that were stolen and then published first by the New York Times, and then by a number of publications nationwide, including the Washington Post.
 The movie tells the story of the Pentagon Papers, choosing to focus on two key players in the unfolding battle between the free press and a White House that struggled to keep the secrets of how our government handled the Vietnam War under wraps.  The two central figures of this story are Kay Graham (Meryl Streep in a beautifully nuanced and decidedly unsexy performance.  She is breathtaking), the beleaguered publisher of the Post, doing a good job that too many men around her consider her incapable of doing, and Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks), the editor of the Post, and the man who never questions whether of not they should publish. The courts are used by the Nixon White House in an effort to shut down a press that is free and open.
Sound familiar?  The story is at once of a challenge to the free press in 1971 but also reflects on what is going on in 2017. As the President of the United States challenges different journalistic institutions, mostly through his Twitter feed, but also in speeches, and “truth” seems to have become a looser term than ever before, “The Post” is designed to be viewed as a commentary on today as much as yesterday, maybe even more. It’s fascinating to consider a film this well-constructed and packed with talented performers that would have played completely differently just two years ago.

DeKalb Elementary (2017)

If there is anything that can influence on public opinion about the need for a more rational approach to gun laws, I do not know what it is.  The number of children shot this year, 2018, across the country is staggering.  As of February 5th, when we were only 36 days into the new year, there have been 94 children shot in 57 separate incidents, and 30 children are dead.  Almost one a day.  Then there are those who do not get shot or killed, but watch someone shoot and kill people around them.  They fear for their lives, they question what they could have done, some will have survivor guilt, some will have lost friends or classmates.  The violence just ripples out across a school and a community.  But as far as I can tell, nothing changes that.  The singularly incorrect interpretation of what the 2nd amendment means just keeps on wrecking loss across our country and absolutely nothing changes that.  We as citizens do not demand a change, and our bought and paid for by special interest elected officials will certainly do nothing until their very jobs are at stake.  So we live with this as our unique reality in an otherwise first world country.
This film, nominated in the Short Action film category, is a reenactment of an averted school shooting.  It will not likely change any minds, but it is a powerful statement none-the-less.

Coco (2017)

Oh my goodness, this is maybe the best movie I have seen during this wild and wonderful season of watching all the Oscar nominated films.  I just loved it, and even though I have only seen one of the other nominees in the category of Best Animated film, it will be hard for something else to knock it off my choice it the category.  The story is that Miguel is growing up with his extended family in Santa Cecilia, Mexico.  His family us pathologically anti-music because Miguel's great great grandfather was a musician who went of to pursue his dreams with a band and never returned.  Miguel has inherited his passion for guitar, and he has been secretly practicing and plans to compete in a local contest on the eve of the Day of the Dead.  One thing leads to another, a little magic sweeps him up, and he finds himself on the other side, in the land of the dead, and has to work to get himself back to the land of the living.  There is a plot twist or two, nothing too outrageous, and the whole package is charming, uplifting, and will make you want to plan your next trip to Mexico as soon as possible in order to immerse yourself in it's rich culture.

Edith + Eddie (2017)

This is a story that starts with a relationship but ends with guardianship.  So it is Valentine's day when you are in your nineties.  The question at the heart of this Oscar nominated short documentary is what should be a guardian, what to do when siblings disagree, and what about the money.  Who should do it?  How should they be paid?  And how do they reach the decisions that they do?  Having recently read a New Yorker length article on a very corrupt guardian who skimmed thousands of dollars out of her wards, all the while making decisions for them that were not in their best interest, coupled with seeing some bad outcomes in my professional life, my advise is to name your own guardian before it is too late.  That is your best bet (although not a slam dunk.  And failing that, try to work it out amongst the family because it will be unlikely to work out well otherwise.  This is a sad and charming story well told, although not my pick to win, it may take home the prize.

Negative Space (2017)

I really loved this movie, and it is my choice to win the Academy Award in the Best Short Animated category.  And I would say that there are some aspects of a love letter to a departed parent in this, so as we circle between my anniversary and Valentine's Day, this seems to fit within that them, of loving, and losing, and remembering.
The animation is spectacular stop motion.  I would recommend watching the trailer about the making of the movie, which while twise as long as the movie itself, gives a real sense of the creative process that goes into making something like this. 
And then there is the inspiration for it all.
The poem it is based on is by Ron Koertge:

My dad taught me to pack: lay out everything. Put back half. Roll things
that roll. Wrinkle-prone things on top of cotton things. Then pants, waist-
to-hem. Nooks and crannies for socks. Belts around the sides like snakes.
Plastic over that. Add shoes. Wear heavy stuff on the plane.
      We started when I was little. I’d roll up socks. Then he’d pretend to put me
in the suitcase, and we’d laugh. Some guys bond with their dads shooting
hoops or talking about Chevrolets. We did it over luggage.
      By the time I was twelve, if he was busy, I’d pack for him. Mom tried
but didn’t have the knack. He’d get somewhere, open his suitcase and text
me—”Perfect.” That one word from him meant a lot.
      The funeral was terrible—him laid out in that big carton and me crying
and thinking, Look at all that wasted space.

Get Out (2017)

Oh my lordy, this is just the sort of movie that I could never watch in a movie theater because I absolutely have to get up in the middle of it and walk around.  Some people love to be scared.  Not me.  I feel the same way about surprises.  This is just simply brilliant as a film and I can't say enough about it.  Most astounding is how the structure of a horror movie that is superimposed on a story about racism somehow becomes memorable and more powerful for all the scaring that takes place.
The director, Jason Peele, has really made a mark with this movie, which is somewhere between Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and Rosemary's Baby.  His film is essentially about that unsettled feeling you get when you know you don’t belong somewhere; when you know you’re unwanted or perhaps even wanted too much but you don't know why. Peele infuses the age-old genre foundation of knowing something is wrong behind the closed doors around you with a racial, satirical edge. What if going home to meet your girlfriend’s white parents wasn’t just uncomfortable but downright life-threatening?  There are so many times that I just kept shouting "Get Out!".  Engaging, surprising, spectacularly pulled off, unsettling, and like nothing you have ever seen before.

Wonder (2017)

This movie was nominated in the category of Make Up and Hairstyling, which is such an obscure corner of a movie that it only has three nominees rather than the usual five, and it is relatively new on the scene.  Rumor has it that The Darkest Hour is the likely winner, because it was the make up that made Gary Oldman into the much older Winston Churchill.  This movie is about Auggie Pullman, who has mandibulofacial dysostosis, which is more commonly known as Treacher Collins Syndrome.
It affects the development of bones and other facial tissues.  Hallmarks of this syndrome are underdeveloped cheek bones, a small jaw and chin, a cleft palate, and eyes that slant downward.
 Underdeveloped facial bones may restrict an infant's airway, resulting in respiratory problems. Some of the eye abnormalities can lead to vision loss, and unusual ear formation may result in hearing loss. Auggie experiences tall of these problems and has undergone surgeries to correct what can be corrected, but they leave him quite noticeably disfigured.  This is the story of the effect of such a thing on the child, the sibling, the family, and those around them.  It is quite optimistic in the outcomes, but level in the distribution of the trauma, especially where it affects his sister, who is robbed of her role as an older sibling, as well as the parenting she would have otherwise gotten.  Well worth watching if a bit Pollyanna in the end.

Dear Basketball (2017)

Let me straight out say that I am not a fan of Kobe Bryant.  I was at one time a Laker fan, going back to the Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain, and Happy Harrison days of the Lakers.  I thought he was a wonder to watch on the court, but off the court he gave off an unpleasant vibe, and then there is the whole issue of how many #MeToo can be laid at his door step. 
That said, this is a fluid and believable love letter to the game and what it meant to him, and the animation is both playful and masterful.

Dear Basketball,

From the moment
I started rolling my dad’s tube socks
And shooting imaginary
Game-winning shots
In the Great Western Forum
I knew one thing was real:

I fell in love with you.
A love so deep I gave you my all —
From my mind & body
To my spirit & soul.

As a six-year-old boy
Deeply in love with you
I never saw the end of the tunnel.
I only saw myself
Running out of one.
And so I ran.
I ran up and down every court
After every loose ball for you.
You asked for my hustle
I gave you my heart
Because it came with so much more.

I played through the sweat and hurt
Not because challenge called me
But because YOU called me.
I did everything for YOU
Because that’s what you do
When someone makes you feel as
Alive as you’ve made me feel.
You gave a six-year-old boy his Laker dream
And I’ll always love you for it.
But I can’t love you obsessively for much longer.
This season is all I have left to give.
My heart can take the pounding
My mind can handle the grind
But my body knows it’s time to say goodbye.
And that’s OK.
I’m ready to let you go.
I want you to know now
So we both can savor every moment we have left together.
The good and the bad.
We have given each other
All that we have. 
And we both know, no matter what I do next
I’ll always be that kid
With the rolled up socks
Garbage can in the corner
:05 seconds on the clock
Ball in my hands.
5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1
Love you always,
Kobe

A Toast

As years go, this was an incredible one for both food and travel with my spouse.  Here we are in a two Michelin star restaurant in Chicago recently doing exactly what we love best.  A bit of travel, great friendships, wonderful imaginative food, a bit of wine to add to what the food, interspersed with a bit of walking, and a charming museum.  We did not plan it to celebrate our anniversary, but it was better than anything we would have purposely put together, I can assure you.
It's been a year of running scared, for me at least.  I finished chemotherapy almost a year ago, and since then, I have felt a little bit like a sitting duck, waiting for the other foot to fall.  I do very much hope for the best, but it is really tough to ignore the odds, and so I have been doing a bit of hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.  That can be a very hard kind of partner to live with, I fear.  So hoping to calm down a bit in the next year, and to continue to zealously pursue the things that are fun in life, and am thankful to have such a wonderful spouse to share it all with.

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 (2017)

I am watching all the nominated films for the Oscars, and this is one of them (nominated in the category with other CGI single category nominees, largely).  I am nothing if not thorough.  A less kind person would call it an obsession.  This is pretty much what you would expect from a misfit super hero movie.  Lots of dysfunctional family stuff superimposed on a little bit of wrong doing that leads to a full scale revenge plan.  Groot is still the cutest amongst them.  Drax is still relatively clueless.  The two sisters have a death feud going on, and Peter meets his father.  As you might predict, that is a bit touch and go, and in the end it is all go.  The special effects are really spectacular, and that is the only reason to watch this too long, over two hours, movie.

Phantom Thread (2017)

This is reportedly Daniel Day Lewis' last movie and he is nominated for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, the film for Best Movie, and the director as well.  It got some unexpected traction, in that it is about a fussy creative artist and the women who make it happen for him.  The premise I suppose is that creativity requires a level of obsession in order to achieve greatness, and that those who have it need to be supported by others who give up their own autonomy in a way in order for the magic to happen.
The one actress who is not nominated is in fact at the center of it all.   Reynolds Woodcock, oddly aptly named on a number of levels, seduces Alma (Vicky Krieps) early on, and the movie centers on their very unconventional relationship.  Reynolds is used to having his sister facilitate his life, arranging for what he likes and discarding what he grows tired of.  Alma speaks with a slight accent, maybe the actress' native Luxembourg accent, but her origins and her motivations and attractions are vague, beyond the obvious allure of being transformed into a beauty by the clothing her lover creates for her.
But this is not a film that has a conventional story line nor does the ending follow a clear and easy line; the war of wills between the two characters does not have a tidy resolution. We don’t even know just what it is that Alma wants, let alone what she gets.
The film itself is beautifully made, or maybe constructed is a better word. Director Paul Anderson’s visual style is remarkable. Shooting much of the picture himself, he frames in a Kubrick-inflected style but cuts with an air of suspense. This gives the movie a sense of momentum that’s supported by the score and the other music (mostly classical) alternating with it. This is very much a movie with a score; very little of it is without music, and there are very deliberate shifts in instrumentation and orchestration throughout that are subtle but create the mood.  Well crafted, uptight and ultimately a little mysterious.

Call Me By Your Name (2017)

 This film is nominated in the category of Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor.  It is the story of on an affair between Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet), a coltish 17-year-old boy on the verge of manhood and Oliver (Armie Hammer), an American in his 20s (it is possible that in the book the age range is a bit closer, but here Chalamet looks every inch a teenager, whereas Oliver is very much a mature and experienced man). Elio lives with his father (a tremendous Michael Stuhlbarg) and mother (Amira Casar) in a villa in northern Italy. Each summer the father, a professor of Greco-Roman culture, invites a student to work with him and stay with his family; this year it’s Oliver who moves in.  Nobody seems to work except for the hired help.  There are long languid summer days, with lots of lying about and swimming and taking your time, intermixed with sensuous food, all of which lends a seductive air to both the characters and the overall movie.  Elio initiates the affair, the parents consent to it, and while Elio is experimenting with a man, he is also having an age appropriate affair with a local woman.  It is beautifully told, redolent of Italy, and sweetly portrayed.  Probably not the winner takes all film, but if that happened, I would be absolutely happy about it.

Revolting Rhymes

This is a BBC production which is nominated in the Best Short Animated film category and it is really pretty terrific.  It is based on six retelling of traditional fairy tales that Roald Dahl wrote that I somehow missed, despite having four children, an affection for the story teller, and reading quite a lot to the kids.
Revolting Rhymes is obviously aimed at those who know the original tales and likely wouldn't have as much impact upon children who haven't been introduced to Snow White or The Three Little Pigs, otherwise why put them together?
The start is absolutely perfect, telling the leading events to Snow White's attempted murder by the Queen's Huntsman, and in a wonderful Roald Dahl restatement of a passage included in the Brothers' Grimm original but often forgotten by more sanitized versions, includes the Queen eating the heart which she believes to be Snow White’s with the line:
"and now here's the disgusting part, the queen sat down and ate the heart. I only hope she cooked it well, boiled heart can be as tough as hell".
Instead of meeting the traditional dwarves, Snow White runs into 7 ex-racing jockeys who lose all their money betting on horses, which she goes about finding a solution for.  There are a number of twists and turns, Snow White and Red Riding Hood becoming and remaining fast friends, and a cliff hanger of an ending. 

Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

I realize that there is a lot of controversy around this film, most of which I cannot discuss without giving an awful lot of it away, so I will not, but suffice it to say that I don't agree.
The acting in this is exceptional.  All three main characters are nominated for Academy Awards, so that tell you something.  The story is that a woman's daughter was found raped and murdered in the small town of Ebbing, Missouri.  There was DNA evidence, but it matched no one and the police essentially stopped looking and are waiting to catch a break down the road.  The most likely suspect is someone passing through and the nature of the crime is such that this is likely not his first time.  The mother can't accept that.  She of course had a fight with her teenage daughter,  both because she is not mother of the year and the daughter was what you would expect from someone her age, and then of course, that is the last time they spoke.  So she is looking for redemption, and she finds it in buying space on three billboards on a road with spotty traffic asking why, what are the police doing?  Which stirs up quite a fuss.  Well worth watching, and for sure it will win something I suspect.

I, Tonya (2017)

This is a tough one, and it certainly has raised some eyebrows in its admittedly one sided telling of the Tonya Harding story.  The one persuasive moment in it all is at the end where there are out takes of interviews with the actual players, and darned if they don't sound spot on for the portrayals in the movie.
Allison Janney is flat out amazing as Tonya's mother.  Her non-stop spewing of verbal abuse interspersed with chain smoking and the occasional throwing of an object or two that are easily dodged but malevolent none-the-less is awe-inspiring in its sheer awfulness.  That is a mother that would make you more sympathetic to a mass murderer.  It doesn't excuse the crime, but you can see how damaging it would be to grow up with that.
Margot Robbie has a lot of the real Tonya's mannerisms down, and the depiction of the figure skating community as classist and emphasizing beauty and grace over athleticism is dead on.  Does that excuse the crime?  Absolutely not, but it does go a ways to seeing why it might have happened.  There are Academy Award nominations in here, and we will see how that plays out.

The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson

I have enjoyed this author's books in the past, and when I was waiting for my plane to take me home from my walking tour in the Cotswolds last summer, a fellow lounge mate recommended this.  I live in the age of almost universal Internet access (which may end soon thanks to the spinelessness of our elected officials and the very low price that their votes can be bought for), so I bought it on the spot.  Despite the glow of a wondering trip rambling through private lands on public paths in one of the most bucolic places on earth that also hosts a startlingly large number of cozy inns and purveyors of delicious food, I just couldn't get into it.
Now, almost a full year after starting it, I am done with it.  In so many ways.  The author has become bitter and cruel in his assessment of almost everything except himself, and the beauty of the land.  Not the people who inhabit it, for whom he has almost nothing good to say.  He is so scathing and seemingly unjust in his depiction of the most minor of infractions that it is painful to turn the pages, wondering what he will next find so unpleasant as to try to ruin it for the rest of us.  If that sort of thing is your cup of tea, this is a book that represents an extra strong brew.

Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405 (2017)

This  is a short documentary on the artist Mindy Alpers, who has a significant history of mental illness and childhood trauma.  Her story unfolds through interviews with herself and her mother, but is largely told in the drawings that she did while a child and then as an inpatient on a mental health unit. 
Her father was both abusive and ashamed of her.  He most likely sexually abused her, and then took out his rage about that on her.  When she was sixteen, her mother asked her to leave because she could no longer tolerate the chaos of the family home.  Her mother chose her husband over her child.  So plenty of trauma, interspersed with some obsessive compulsive traits at the very least.  So it is not a happy story at baseline, but Mindy found an expression of her intense feelings through art, both with drawing and with paper mache.  I am a mental health professional and it is an excellent movie for the depiction of intense emotions in a graphic form.  The sculpture that she does, which is larger than life, has real spirit and life, and on the whole the film is very moving.