I spent last weekend in bed with a cold and was immensely comforted by lots of chicken soup and binge-watching the British Bake-Off (called The British Baking Show on PBS), which I first heard about on the Slate Culture Gabfest. I happily went through the entire Season 5 on Netflix. On PBS, they’re showing Season 2.
It is great fun because no one is there to become rich and famous, there is no tiresome product placement, and no one is a drama diva, not even the celebrity judges, cookbook author Mary Berry and artisan baker Paul Hollywood. The contestants are amateurs, all endearingly earnest and immensely talented. Their love for what they do shines through every task put to them. And the tasks are very daunting, involving all kinds of exotic techniques and ingredients and design challenges. Everyone is there for the love of baking, and the competition never gets in the way. For those who want to learn more, YouTube has the masterclasses available, with Berry and Hollywood taking you through some of the series’ best recipes.
I’m pleased that Mary Berry is bringing the show to the US for a limited-series American version. But it will never match the simple bliss of the original.
Coming to Theaters: Women of Faith — An Amazing Joyful Journey
Posted on November 13, 2015 at 10:47 am
Women of Faith, the world’s largest producer of inspirational events for Christian women, announces the organization’s first-ever event for cinemas, Women of Faith: An Amazing Joyful Journey with screenings starting February 18, 2016. BY Experience, pioneers of live cinema events, in association with Fathom Events in the U.S. and Cineplex Entertainment in Canada, are distributing the event to cinemas throughout North America. Tickets are on sale now online, Fathom events, and at participating theatre box offices.
The cinematic event takes audiences on the historic journey of the Women of Faith movement through the years—on stage and off—and along their travels with World Vision, sharing how Women of Faith has been an influence in the lives of more than 5 million women.
With lots of laughter and storytelling, this part documentary/part live stage event includes never-before-seen interviews, hilarious outtakes and behind-the-scenes footage that will feature some of the most beloved and popular speakers including Patsy Clairmont, Mary Graham, Jen Hatmaker, Nicole Johnson, Marilyn Meberg, Sandi Patty, Luci Swindoll, Sheila Walsh, and Thelma Wells, as well as music and performances from Christian contemporary artists who have appeared on the tour over the two decades.
Moviegoers will experience firsthand the history and the impact that the Women of Faith events have had on women through exhilarating worship, powerful testimonies, and personal stories shared by incredible communicators since the live events began in 1996.
“Since the beginning, the heart of Women of Faith has been to share real-life stories filled with humor in the midst of the heartache we all experience at times,” says Amy Chandy, who leads Programming for Women of Faith, where she has served for 17 years. “The transparency and authenticity of the women on our stage offer hope that has changed lives across North America and around the world. We’re so excited to share this journey with a new audience through this movie experience.”
Showings:
U.S. Thursday, February 18, 2016 at 7:00pm, with matinee showings on Saturday, February 20; March 3 at 7pm and March 5 for an additional matinee showings.
Canada – Thursday, February 18, 2016 at 7:00pm with an encore presentation Sunday, February 21, 2016 at 1pm. Canada will be on sale on November 20 and guests can go to www.Cineplex.com/Events for more information.
Nick DeMaio, (Michael Rispoli) is an aspiring actor who is perpetually typecast as “Gangster # 3” in films about the Mob. In an attempt to be taken seriously, he and his Staten Island buddies decide to stage a play—and not just any play, but Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”–with Nick as the star. Gathering at odd hours to rehearse, they attract the attention of the Feds, who mistake these good guys for “goodfellas,” and assume the play is a cover for criminal activity. Once again typecast as a gangster– this time in real life–Nick has to prove his mettle, both onstage and off.
Copyright 2015 Warner BrothersThere are other numbers they could have used in the title. 121 — that is how old the Chilean Copiapó mine was when it collapsed in 2010. 2300 — that is how many feet underground the men were when it collapsed. 12,000 — the number of miners who die in accidents around the world, we are told as this movie begins. 69 — that is the number of days before they were rescued. Or just 3 — the number of international drilling teams that came to help, along with more than a dozen corporations. And there is some unknown but surely astronomical number that calculates the cost of the rescue, I am sure. But the movie is called “The 33” because it is less the story of the rescue than it is of the survival, the triumph, of the miners who were trapped, who stayed alive by sharing the woefully inadequate scraps of food left for them, along with the even worse facilities for escape in the case of an accident. In one of the movie’s most searing scenes, they learn that the ladders they had been assured could allow them to exit safely in the event of a collapse were never finished. The intercom for emergencies is not connected.
Director Patricia Riggen brings the skill at visual storytelling and tender-hearted but resilient optimism she showed in “Under the Same Moon” to this story. She insisted on filming underground, and the beams of light from the miners’ helmets, so small against the immense darkness of the caverns, are a powerful symbol of the fragility of the miners’ situation. And she opens up the setting just as it becomes unbearable with a poignant fantasy sequence as the starving miners imagine a glorious feast.
We meet the miners at a party and get a sense of who they are — the one who is about to retire, the one who has moved in with his mistress, to the fury of his wife, the one who likes to sing Elvis Presley songs. And we see them go to work, the long, perilous ride, the ominous response of the manager to the complaints of the safety officer. The shards of mirror they lodge in the walls of the mine are shattering, showing that the ground is shifting. “It’s my job to keep them safe,” the supervisor (Lou Diamond Phillips) tells the manager. “It’s your job to keep them pulling out 250 tons a day,” is the reply. “It’s good for another 20 years.” It would not be good for another 20 hours.
Once it has collapsed, the manager refuses to take any action. Either the miners are dead or they will soon be, and there is no way to get them out. The government takes over the mine and sets up operations, with facilities for the families. Soon an entire village is operating outside the mine, including one miner’s pregnant wife, another’s estranged sister (Juliette Binoche), and the feuding wife and mistress. There is a school for the children, a commissary for supplies, a medical facility. They call it Camp Hope.
The first issue is finding out whether there are any survivors. The moment when the note is retrieved, “We are well in the shelter, the 33 of us,” is jubilant. Then there is the challenge of keeping them alive. Food and sleeping bags (and iPods) are sent down and Skype communications are established. But the greatest engineers in the world cannot figure out how to drill down enough of a hole for a rescue without endangering them further. International press has cameras everywhere.
Meanwhile, the stress on the 33 is severe. Who will be their leader? What if they do not agree?
This is a story that was made for the movies and Riggen tells it well. We join the vigil with the families, and the scene of the real miners at the end shows us why the number that really matters is the one that defines them as a group forever.
Parents should know that this film includes dire extended peril and near-starvation, some strong language, and sexual references, some crude, and alcohol abuse.
Family discussion: Was that the best way for the trapped miners to pick a leader? Who should make sure that corporate facilities are safe and what should the penalties be if they are not? Read about the current trial of the former Massey Energy CEO in the US, following a mining accident that killed 29 mine workers.
If you like this, try: the NOVA documentary shown on PBS about the rescue, focusing on the NASA scientists and engineers, and the documentary “Buried Alive”
If I wrote this review the way writer-director Angelo Pizzo wrote the script for “My All American,” it would be something like this: I saw a movie. It was about football. Freddie Steinmark worked hard and inspired his team, but then got sick. It was sad. Copyright 2015 Clarius Entertainment
Pizzo wrote two of the best sports films of all time, “Rudy” and “Hoosiers,” but here, in another real-life sports story, he has decided that the audience needs a kind of running commentary from every character to explain — instead of show — the audience what is going on. In an early scene, Steinmark’s mother (Robin Tunney) tells him that because he is smaller than his friends, he will have to work harder. Later, other characters tell us repeatedly what we should be able to see: that he works harder than everyone else, that he is religious, even that he is handsome. This is a movie where a coach actually says that Steinmark has courage and guts. The dialogue is so exposition-heavy that it is like sawing lumber.
It is good to see a biopic that does not rely on the usual scenes of the girlfriend complaining that the lead character does not spend enough time with her. But Steinmark is portrayed as such an all-around saint that he is bland, without any character beyond niceness and determination. All of the characterizations are paper-thin. It is as though everyone on the screen is just another color commentator, not a character.
Steinmark (Finn Wittrock of “The Big Short”) is the son of hard-working Catholics. His father has two jobs, security guard by day, cop at night, but is so dedicated to his son’s athletics that he never misses a practice or a game. When a teammate suggests that perhaps Steinmark’s father is living his own dreams of an athletic career through his son, Freddie says no and the subject never comes up again. Freddie wants to play for Notre Dame and then the Chicago Bears. But college coaches think he is too small — except for Darrell Royal (Aaron Eckhart) at the University of Texas, who recruits Steinmark and his best friend. Steinmark’s devoted girlfriend, Linda (Sarah Bolger, one of the adorable Irish girls from “In America”), is accepted to UT as well.
Steinmark is so remarkable (as everyone keeps telling us and telling us and telling us) that he is made first-string in his sophomore year. He leads the defense so successfully that the championship is within reach. And then he begins to have a problem with his leg.
There are very clumsy attempts to do what “Rudy” and “Hoosiers” did in creating a sense of time and place. Here, the references to the war in Vietnam (and the protests), the moon landing, long hair, and 60’s songs are jarring and haphazard. The absence of any person of color may be authentic as regards the team, but on the campus? In the hospital? It is so strange that it becomes a distraction. The framing story of an interview decades later with Royal adds nothing. The football scenes are capably staged, but do not move the story forward.
There are references to Steinmark’s faith — he goes to mass every day and we see him pray and encourage his friend to pray. But we never get a sense of what the faith means to him or how it helps him understand his illness. There is more drama and more character in a throwaway scene involving another player who loses his position than there is in the portrayal of Steinmark’s story.
And there is only the slightest reference to one of the most interesting parts of the story; the lack of treatment options for someone with cancer in 1969. Steinmark’s diagnosis came just before the United States made its first major commitment to a “war on cancer,” with federal funds being used for research. This is the kind of context that could have provided the story with the impact it fails to muster.
Parents should know that there is brief strong language and a brief view of a bare tush, as well as discussions of serious illness and a sad death.
Family discussion: Were you surprised by Bill’s reaction to being replaced? What was it about Steinmark that made him so important to his coach?
If you like this, try: “Rudy,” “Hoosiers,” and “The Express”
