Directed by Alexis Michalik, Cyrano, My Love is a French film in English subtitles. The story begins in December 1897, Paris. Edmond Rostand, played by Thomas Solivérès, is not yet thirty but already has two children and too much anxiety.
He has not written anything for two years. In desperation, he offers the great Constant Coquelin, played by Olivier Gourmet, a new play, a heroic comedy, in verse, for the holidays.
One thing though, a problem: it is not written yet. Ignoring the whims of actresses, the demands of his producers, the jealousy of his wife, the stories of his best friend’s heart and the lack of enthusiasm of all those around him, Edmond must focus and put to pen to paper. For now, he has only the title: “Cyrano de Bergerac.”
The movie looks and sounds a lot like 1998 Oscar winner Shakespeare in Lovedirected by John Madden, starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, and Geoffrey Rush. Shakespeare writes Romeo & Juliet while handling the demands of the theater owner and falling in love with Viola, who becomes his muse.
Directed by Tom Harper, The Aeronauts takes place in 1862 and originates from actual events in history. Harper wrote the story with Jack Thorne, and Thorne penned the screenplay from their collaboration. The word “aeronauts” is a dated word meaning “a traveler in a hot-air balloon, airship, or other flying craft.”
In this case, the movie follows the fictional character, daredevil balloon pilot Amelia Wren, played by Felicity Jones. She teams up with real-life pioneering meteorologist James Glaisher, played by Eddie Redmayne, to advance human knowledge of the weather and fly higher than anyone in history.
The story comes from Henry Coxwell and James Glaisher September 5, 1862, hot air balloon flight of the British aeronauts where they broke the world flight altitude record at the time, reaching about 11,887.
Wren replaces Coxwell, and she is a combination of Coxwell and real-life women who were aeronauts, including Sophie Blanchard, Margaret Graham, and Amelia Earhart. Jones told Walter Scott during an interview for Parade that Sophie Blanchard, an extraordinary aeronaut, inspire the character. She was one of the first women to fly solo in a balloon. Blanchard was a fantastic character who set fireworks off from the basket. She’s an inspiration for Amelia Wren, the role she plays.
While breaking records and advancing scientific discovery, their voyage to the very edge of existence helps the unlikely pair find their place in the world they have left far below them. But they face physical and emotional challenges in the thin air, as the ascent becomes a fight for survival.
The second trailer tells of the mystical adventure of two people climbing higher and higher into thin air.
The next two clips so how the production creates an intensity in the story. I am not sure about this movie yet, but happy to see it will be on Amazon Prime.
Written and directed by Scott Z. Burns, The Report story played out on the headlines and newscasters had a field day with the conspiracy behind the expose of the evil, brutality at CIA’s Detention Center and Interrogation Program. The movie is a far cry from A Few Good Men.
The Report is a gripping thriller based on actual events. Naive and unrealistic staffer Daniel J. Jones, played by Adam Driver, is tasked by his boss Senator Dianne Feinstein, played by Annette Bening, to lead an investigation of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program, which developed from the aftermath of 9/11.
Jones’ unremitting pursuit of the truth leads to dangerous findings that uncover the lengths to which the nation’s top intelligence agency went to suppress evidence, subvert the law, and hide a brutal secret from the American public.
The next trailer shows a pretty hard subject to explain in a matter of two hours.
The next six clips show what this man went through to get to the truth of what happened during the CIA’s interrogations of potential terrorists. Driver is so good at conveying the feeling that maybe all his work will be for not.
Directed by Andrew and Jon Erwin, I Still Believe, a faith-based movie follows the true-life story of Christian music star Jeremy Camp.
The tearjerker story follows Camp’s journey of love and loss that looks to prove there is always hope as long as you still believe in God.
Erwin brothers’ last Christian movieI Can Only Imaginedid well at the box office for a faith-based film winning the 2018 GMA Dove Award for Inspirational Film of the Year.
The movie clip is simple but shows the love and support Camp received from his family.
Directed by Jay Roach, Bombshell focuses on the stories of multiple female Fox News employees. If you like following the headlines, then you should know about this story.
The movie follows three females, Megyn Kelly, Gretchen Carlson, and Kayla Pospisil, played by Charlize Theron, Nichole Kidman, and Margot Robbie, respectively. The movie focuses on their altercations with founder Roger Ailes, played by John Lithgow
The Blu-ray and DVD are available on Amazon, or you can stream it on your device as well.
Kate McKinnon, Malcolm McDowell, and Allison Janney also star in the movie written by Charles Randolph.
The casting is explosive, and the movie explains what the headlines failed to tell us correctly.
The next three movie clips are entertaining and heartfelt with a bit of wit and sarcasm.
The next clip is Lithgow as Roger Ailes, and he resonates as the news mogul.
Co-written and directed by Joon Ho Bong, Parasite won the Palme d’Or of the Canne Film Festival 2019, with Jin Won Han credited co-writer.
Ho Bong’s screenwriting and directing credits include 14 movies and some shorts, such as Okja, Snowpiercer, and The Host.
The movie follows the unemployed Ki-taek’s family. The family takes an uncommon interest in the wealthy and glamorous Parks family for their livelihood until they get entangled in an unexpected incident.
The young man of the family, played by Kang-ho Song, is tutoring a young boy who is part of the Parks family. Watching the trailer, I sense something peculiar is happening between him and the family.
The cast includes Hye-jin Jang, Sun-Kyun Lee, and Yeo-Jeong Jo.
Written and directed by Greta Gerwig, Little Women comes to the movie screen once again with a stellar cast of women and a couple of men. Many renditions of the classic book have come to us over more than 100 years of moviemaking.
The first adaption of Little Women was a British silent film in 1917 starring Gaiety Girl Ruby Miller. In 1918, U.S. silent film starred Dorothy Bernard. The first talking movie starred Katherine Hepburn and directed by George Cukor in 1933. The second movie starred June Alyson and Elizabeth Taylor with Mervyn LeRoy directing in 1949. The third starring Wyona Ryder in 1998. Then, a modernized version in 2018 starring Melanie Stone.
Gerwig, who directed the sleeper hit Lady Bird, crafted Little Women in a way the draws both the classic novel and the writings of Louisa May Alcott. The movie unfolds as the author’s alter ego, Jo March, reflects back and forth on her fictional life.
In Gerwig’s take, the beloved story of the March sisters – four young women each determined to live life on her terms — is both timeless and timely.
Portraying Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth March, the film stars Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, with Timothée Chalamet as their neighbor Laurie, Laura Dern as Marmee, and Meryl Streep as Aunt March.
Gerwig’s signature filmmaking shines through with stunning backdrops and charming costumes.
Rightfully written and directed by Terence Malick, The Hidden Life follows the life of Franz Jägerstätter, which the Catholic church beautified in 2007, as a conscientious objector to World War II and Hilter.
Winner of Cannes 2019 François Chalais Award, Terrence Malick, masterfully guides August Diehl, who plays Jägerstätter, an Austrian. Known as a rambunctious young man and womanizer, Franz leaves the small town where he grew up to work in the salt mines.
He returns three years later, riding a motorcycle and a devout Catholic. He marries Franziska, played by Valerie Pachner, whose religious faith is almost as powerful as Franz.
Franz denounces Hilter and WW II, resulting in the small town cauterizing him. He continues tending farm alongside his wife and children.
Eventually, the Nazis sent him to prison for his religious faith and denouncing Hilter and the war, saying he could not be both Catholic and Nazi. They executed him in 1943, and Franz becomes a martyr and beatified by the Catholic church.
I invite you to take a look at Malick’s movie, The Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt, Sean Pen, and Jessica Chastain. He uses similar angles and tender moments to tell the story of a young boy growing up with an angelic mother and a spiteful father.
The trailer shows Malick’s talent for serene and pastoral countrysides of quiet long and buoyant moments of love and joy. Only Malick can tell the story of Jägerstätter’s tragic end to a blissful life taken by a strong belief and devotion to God.
The red carpet interviews at TIFF discuss Malick’s direction and the area where they filmed the farmhouse. The Jägerstätters lived in St. Radegund, a small village of 500 people in Upper Austria, near Salzburg and the German border. In the same province, where Hitler was born and spent his early youth–not far from Berchtesgaden, his mountain retreat during his years as head of the German state.
The video captures them sharing their experiences working with Malick.
He arrives home, but the consequences of him being a conscientious objector will be a sad and frightful ending. The camera work and acting drive the scene forward with Malick’s direction.
The next two clips are Malick’s signature work, narrative with telling their story through his wife’s letters.
My interest in this movie started when I first saw the trailer on Facebook. I watched it muted because I didn’t want to be rude, playing the sound in public.
I saw a movie that I wanted to see.
The situation in the story is interesting because we appear to see a perfect student named Luce, played by Kelvin Harrison Jr. His teacher, Harriet Wilson, played by Octavia Spencer, suspects him to be violent.
Julius Onah co-wrote and directed Luce, a smart psychological thriller adapted from JC Lee’s play of the same name. Lee also co-wrote the screenplay with Onah.
Onah talked about collaborating with Lee on the screenplay, “Despite how different we are on some levels, we have a similar sensibility when it comes to storytelling and the way we want to explore ideas and issues. Neither of us want to tell stories that are prescriptive or didactic in how they explore complex social issues. We both want to ask people to consider their blind spots, and to recognize their experience of the world will never be identical with anyone else’s.”
An all-star high school athlete and accomplished debater, Luce is a poster boy for the new American Dream. As are his parents, played by Naomi Watts and Tim Roth, adopted him from a war-torn country a decade earlier.
When Luce’s teacher, Ms. Wilson, makes a shocking discovery in his locker, Luce’s stellar reputation comes into question. But is he really at fault, or is Ms. Wilson preying on dangerous stereotypes?
Watching the trailer, Onah creates an intense, multi-layered, and entertaining look at identity in today’s America.
Written and directed by one of Spain’s most successful filmmakers, Pedro Almodovar, Pain and Glory follows a film director played by Antonio Banderas. Banderas won Cannes Film Festival 2019 Best Actor for his role and New York Film Critics Circle, Best Actor.
The director reflects on the choices he’s made in life as past and present come crashing down around him.
Watch the trailer, and you get a feel for what happens in the movie. The movie is in Spanish with English subtitles. The film also stars Penelope Cruz, who is Almodovar’s muse. His movies launched her career.
The director reflects on the choices he’s made in life as past and present come crashing down around him.
The director reflects on the choices he’s made in life as past and present come crashing down around him.
I love the colors in this movie, so vibrant.
The movie clip shows the reason Banderas won Best Actor at the Cannes Festival.
Cruz looks good in this clip. I suspect the scene is a flashback when the brothers are with their mother.
