I did not write any of these reviews. These are mostly from Rotten Tomatoes.
BABETTE'S FEAST (1987)
(Subtitles or dubbed, can't remember, it is very different, but we enjoyed it))
The Danish/French Babette's Feast is based on a story by Isak Dinesen, also the source of the very different Out of Africa (1985). Stephane Audran plays Babette, a 19th century Parisian political refugee who seeks shelter in a rough Danish coastal town. Philippa (Bodil Kjer) and Martina (Birgitte Federspiel), the elderly daughters of the town's long-dead minister, take Babette in. As revealed in flashback, Philippa and Martina were once beautiful young women (played by Hanne Stensgaard and Vibeke Hastrup), who'd forsaken their chances at romance and fame, taking hollow refuge in religion. Babette holds a secret that may very well allow the older ladies to have a second chance at life. This is one of the great movies about food, but there are way too many surprises in Babette's Feast to allow us to reveal anything else at this point (except that Ingmar Bergman "regulars" Bibi Andersson and Jarl Kulle have significant cameo roles).. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
BELLE (2013)
(Fabulous movie)
BELLE is inspired by the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the illegitimate mixed race daughter of Admiral Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode). Raised by her aristocratic great-uncle Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson) and his wife (Emily Watson), Belle's lineage affords her certain privileges, yet her status prevents her from the traditions of noble social standing. While her cousin Elizabeth (Sarah Gadon) chases suitors for marriage, Belle is left on the sidelines wondering if she will ever find love. After meeting an idealistic young vicar's son bent on changing society, he and Belle help shape Lord Mansfield's role as Lord Chief Justice to end slavery in England. (c) Fox Searchlight
BIG NIGHT (1996)
(Off beat, but we enjoyed it)
In this witty drama, a pair of brothers debate integrity versus compromise as they try to succeed in the restaurant business. Primo (Tony Shalhoub) and Secondo (Stanley Tucci) have journeyed from Italy to New Jersey in the mid-1950s, determined to make a killing with an authentic Italian restaurant, The Paradise. But their food is a bit too authentic; Primo may prepare a superb risotto, but most of his customers are wondering why they can't get a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs. Secondo tries to convince his brother not to berate the customers for requesting more "American" dishes, but Primo stands firm. Meanwhile, Pascal (Ian Holm), another local restaurateur, is doing great business with "Italian style" food the brothers wouldn't bother to spit on. Despite Primo's refusal to change his recipes to cater to lowbrow tastes, Secondo goes to Pascal begging for advice. With The Paradise on its last legs, Pascal offers to help -- Louis Prima, the famous Italian-American bandleader, is coming to town, and Pascal is to arrange a banquet in his honor. He'll stage the banquet at The Paradise in the hopes that Prima and his entourage (and hopefully the accompanying press) will fall in love with the authentic food and sing the praises of the foundering restaurant as he tours the country. The preparations for the big night and the behind-the-scenes family drama that ensues is highlighted by a strong supporting cast of Minnie Driver, Isabella Rossellini, and Allison Janney. Stanley Tucci, who plays Secondo, co-directed with Campbell Scott, who has a small but memorable role as a car salesman. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
BOYHOOD (2014)
(One of our all time favorite movies)
Filmed over 12 years with the same cast, Richard Linklater's BOYHOOD is a groundbreaking story of growing up as seen through the eyes of a child named Mason (a breakthrough performance by Ellar Coltrane), who literally grows up on screen before our eyes. Starring Ethan Hawke and Patricia
Arquette as Mason's parents and newcomer Lorelei Linklater as his sister Samantha, BOYHOOD charts the rocky terrain of childhood like no other film has before. Snapshots of adolescence from road trips and family dinners to birthdays and graduations and all the moments in between become transcendent, set to a soundtrack spanning the years from Coldplay's Yellow to Arcade Fire's Deep Blue. BOYHOOD is both a nostalgic time capsule of the recent past and an ode to growing up and parenting. It's impossible to watch Mason and his family without thinking about our own journey. (c) Sundance Film Fest
CHEF (2014)
(Again a different kind of movie but we really loved it, my husband was hungry for Cuban sandwiches for many months after this film)
Chef Carl Casper (Jon Favreau) suddenly quits his job at a prominent Los Angeles restaurant after refusing to compromise his creative integrity for its controlling owner (Dustin Hoffman), he is left to figure out what's next. Finding himself in Miami, he teams up with his ex-wife (Sofia Vergara), his friend (John Leguizamo) and his son to launch a food truck. Taking to the road, Chef Carl goes back to his roots to reignite his passion for the kitchen -- and zest for life and love. (c) Open Road
COHERENCE (2014)
(At our house we call this the Schrödinger's cat movie, very good)
On the night of an astronomical anomaly, eight friends at a dinner party experience a troubling chain of reality bending events. Part cerebral sci-fi and part relationship drama, COHERENCE is a tightly focused, intimately shot film whose tension intensely ratchets up as its numerous complex mysteries unfold. (c) Oscilloscope
DELICATESSEN (1991)
(Very strange movie, but we enjoyed it)
A post-apocalyptic future becomes the setting for pitch black humor in this visually intricate French comedy. The action takes place within a single apartment complex, which is owned by the same man that operates the downstairs butcher shop. It's a particularly popular place to live, thanks to the butcher's uncanny ability to find excellent cuts of meat despite the horrible living conditions outside. The newest building superintendent, a former circus clown, thinks he has found an ideal living situation. All that changes, however, when he discovers the true source of the butcher's meat, and that he may be the next main course. This dark tale is played out in a brilliantly designed, glorious surreal alternate world reminiscent of the works of director Terry Gilliam, who co-presented the film's American release. Like Gilliam, co-directors Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro hail from an animation background, and have a fondness for extravagant visuals, absurdist plot twists, and a sense of humor that combines sharp satire with broad slapstick and gross-out imagery. This mixture may displease the weak of stomach, but those attuned to the film's sensibility will be delighted by the obvious technical virtuosity and wicked sense of humor. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN (1994)
(Might be subtitles or dubbed, very different but we really liked it)
Director Ang Lee's follow-up to his surprise box-office hit The Wedding Banquet is another look at ethnic and sexual conflicts in a Chinese family, with meals as a centerpiece of the film. Master chef Chu (Sihung Lung) is a long-time widower who lovingly cooks large Sunday dinners for his three daughters, who view the meals as too traditional. Secretly, however, successful airline executive Jia-Chien (Chien-Lien Wu) loves traditional cooking and would like to be a chef like her father, if women were permitted to do so. Her older sister Jia-Jen (Kuei-Mei Yang) is unmarried and cynical about men, but she becomes attracted to a volleyball coach and eventually pursues him vigorously. The youngest daughter, Jia-Ning (Yu-Wen Wang), is a college student who becomes pregnant from her frequent sexual escapades. As the film progresses, the personal relationships between the daughters and their significant others change unexpectedly. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi
FINDING VIVIAN MAIER (2013)
(Might bother you, untreated mental illness, but I really enjoyed it)
Who is Vivian Maier? Now considered one of the 20th century's greatest street photographers, Vivian Maier was a mysterious nanny who secretly took over 100,000 photographs that went unseen during her lifetime. Since buying her work by chance at auction, amateur historian John Maloof has crusaded to put this prolific photographer in the history books. Maier's strange and riveting life and art are revealed through never-before-seen photographs, films, and interviews with dozens who thought they knew her. (c) IFC
GOD HELP THE GIRL(2014)
(Middle loved this. Her boy was just glad she liked it. My husband said it was better then he thought it was going to be. I enjoyed it, but it did drag in a couple spots. Emily Browning is a GREAT SINGER, we all agreed.)
In God Help the Girl, writer/director Stuart Murdoch creates a poignant coming-of-age story that doubles as a sublime indie-pop musical from one of indie pop's biggest songwriters. The project began as a suite of songs, written while Murdoch was between records and tours as lead singer of Belle & Sebastian. He nurtured it for nearly a decade into a fully formed film, set in the bohemian fantasia of Glasgow's West End, which is populated by mods, rockers, and emo kids who have no qualms about breaking into song and dance. (c) Amplify
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (2014)
(Funky little film, we loved it)
Recounts the adventures of Gustave H, a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting and the battle for an enormous family fortune -- all against the back-drop ofa suddenly and dramatically changing Continent. (c) Fox Searchlight
A HAPPY EVENT (2011)
(Might be subtitles, it might bother some, topic is post partum, we loved it, look for the Star Trek reference).
Having kids is not quite A Happy Event (Un heureux evenement) for one French mother in Remi Bezancon’s amusing, feel-good portrayal of the modern day baby blues. Starring the gorgeous and charismatic Louise Bourgoin (The Girl from Monaco), this polished, well-performed dramedy also seems a tad too slick and cute – newborns notwithstanding – to provide a convincing account of what can go wrong both before and after the bunny leaves the oven. Strong local returns should outweigh overseas action, though Hollywood could seek adoption rights. Adapted from bestselling author Eliette Abecassis’ 2005 autobiographical novel, this third feature from writer-director Bezancon (The First Day of the Rest of Your Life) is a highly stylized affair backed by an attractive cast (including six credited babies) and plenty of tongue-in-cheek narration, yet never feels believable enough in its depiction of a young couple’s unraveling following the birth of their first child. When PhD candidate Barbara (Bourgoin) meets the handsome and juvenile Nicolas (Pio Marmai) at the video store where he works, their romance ignites with an exchange of DVD boxes – In the Mood for Love, Catch Me if You Can – cleverly transformed into pickup lines. Things move quickly enough that they decide, more for the worse than for the better (as the flashback structure portends) to have a child, and what once seemed like the perfect little love story begins to fall apart as the due date nears.
A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (1964)
Original Beatles movie
IDA (2013)
(Middle and I loved it, might be subtitles or dubbed)
From acclaimed director Pawel Pawlikowski (Last Resort, My Summer of Love) comes IDA, a moving and intimate drama about a young novitiate nun in 1960s Poland who, on the verge of taking her vows, discovers a dark family secret dating from the terrible years of the Nazi occupation. 18-year old Anna (stunning newcomer Agata Trzebuchowska), a sheltered orphan raised in a convent, is preparing to become a nun when the Mother Superior insists she first visit her sole living relative. Naïve, innocent Anna soon finds herself in the presence of her aunt Wanda (Agata Kulesza), a worldly and cynical Communist Party insider, who shocks her with the declaration that her real name is Ida and her Jewish parents were murdered during the Nazi occupation. This revelation triggers a heart-wrenching journey into the countryside, to the family house and into the secrets of the repressed past, evoking the haunting legacy of the Holocaust and the realities of postwar Communism. In this beautifully directed film, Pawlikowski returns to his native Poland for the first time in his career to confront some of the more contentious issues in the history of his birthplace. Powerfully written and eloquently shot, IDA is a masterly evocation of a time, a dilemma, and a defining historical moment; IDA is also personal, intimate, and human. The weight of history is everywhere, but the scale falls within the scope of a young woman learning about the secrets of her own past. This intersection of the personal with momentous historic events makes for what is surely one of the most powerful and affecting films of the year.
LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE (1992)
(Weird, weird, weird one, subtitles or dubbed)
Based on the best-selling novel by Laura Esquival, this internationally popular romantic fable from Mexico centers on a young woman who discovers that her cooking has magical effects. The tale's heroine, Tita, is the youngest of three daughters in a traditional Mexican family. Bound by tradition to remain unmarried while caring for her aging mother, Tita nevertheless falls in love with a handsome young man named Pedro. Pedro returns her affection, but he cannot overcome her family's disapproval, and he instead marries Tita's elder sister. The lovestruck young woman is brutally disappointed, and her sadness has such force that it infects her cooking: all who eat it her feel her heartbreak with the same intensity. This newly discovered power continues to manifest itself after the wedding, as Tita and Pedro, overcome by their denied love, embark on a secret affair. Director Alfonso Arau, Esquival's husband at the time, presents the acts of love and cooking with the same glossy, sensual sheen. Indeed, despite occasional digressions into a magical realist tone, the film often takes on the gloss of Hollywood romance. This combination of traditional melodrama and exotic fairy tale proved extremely popular with audiences, particularly in the United States, where it became one of the highest grossing foreign language films at the time. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
LOVESHIP HATESHIP (2013)
(Unusual movie, middle and I loved it)
Johanna Parry (Kristen Wiig) is a profoundly shy, unadorned woman who is hired by Mr. McCauley (Nick Nolte) as a housekeeper and a primary caregiver to his granddaughter Sabitha (Hailee Steinfeld). Despite her outgoing nature, Sabitha carries wounds from the death of her mother years before, complicated by the circumstances of that death for which her grandfather still blames her father, Ken (Guy Pearce), a hapless recovering drug addict with a certain ragged charm. In an act of mean-spirited rebellion, Sabitha uses technology to foster a pseudo-relationship between Johanna and her father, never dreaming of the potential harm to either party. Sabitha doesn't understand that Johanna is not a demure cut-out, but rather a woman for whom the phrase "still waters run deep" could have been coined. The young girl's interference provokes Johanna to indulge in something long missing from her life: the dream of a future and a home of her own. (c) IFC
MOOD INDIGO (2013)
(My husband said it is like Monty Python remade LOVE STORY, so yes, quite a strange little movie, subtitles I think)
Eminently inventive Michel Gondry finds inspiration from French novelist Boris Vian's cult novel to provide the foundation for this visionary and romantic love story starring Audrey Tautou (Amélie, Coco Before Chanel) and Romain Duris (The Beat My Heart Skipped). Set in a charmingly surreal Paris, Duris plays wealthy bachelor Colin, whose hobbies include developing his pianocktail (a cocktail-making piano) and devouring otherworldly dishes prepared by his trusty chef Nicolas (Omar Sy, The Untouchables). When Colin learns that his best friend Chick (Gad Elmaleh, The Valet), a fellow acolyte of the philosopher Jean-Sol Partre, has a new American girlfriend, our lonely hero attends a friend's party in hopes of falling in love himself. He soon meets Chloé (Audrey Tautou) and, before they know it, they're dancing to Duke Ellington and plunging headfirst into a romance that Gondry rapturously depicts as only he can. Their whirlwind courtship is tested when an unusual illness plagues Chloe; a flower begins to grow in her lungs. To save her, Colin discovers the only cure is to surround Chloe with a never-ending supply of fresh flowers. MOOD INDIGO was nominated for three 2014 César Awards: Étienne Charry (Best Original Music), Florence Fontaine (Best Costume) and Stéphane Rozenbaum (Best Production Design). --(c) Drafthouse
WHAT'S COOKING (2000)
(This is one of those compilation movies, following several story lines, we liked it)
Kenyan-born, London-educated Indian filmmaker Gurinder Chadha follows up on her debut hit Bhaji on the Beach (1994) with this gentle look at multiculturalism in Los Angeles. The film details the lives of four ethnically diverse families -- black, Latino, Jewish, and Asian -- during one frantic Thanksgiving. The film opens with Ronald (Dennis Haysbert), an African-American who works as a spin doctor for the Republican politico; he and his wife Audrey (Alfre Woodard) are in the midst of preparing for their white dinner guests. Meanwhile, at the Latino household, young Anthony Avila (Douglas Spain) invites his womanizing father for Thanksgiving dinner, unbeknownst to his schoolteacher mother Elisabeth (Mercedes Ruehl). At the same time, the Seeling family is confronted with their daughter Rachel's (Kyra Sedwick) lesbianism, when she brings home her lover Carla (Julianna Margulies). Finally, Vietnamese immigrant Trinh Nguyen (Joan Chen) struggles to understand her Americanized children after she discovers condoms in her eldest daughter's jacket and a gun in her son's room. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
