American Violet

Posted on October 13, 2009 at 8:00 am

Meet two extraordinary women — Dee Roberts, based on a real-life single mother who took on corrupt and racist law enforcement officials in Texas and Nicole Beharie, the woman who plays her, who makes one of the most thrilling feature film debuts in years.

Dee is a single mother who lives in the projects. She works as a waitress and cares for her four daughters with the help of her mother (Alfre Woodard), a hairdresser. Her community is constantly being caught up in violent law enforcement sweeps that result in widespread arrests of people too poor, uninformed, and desperate to go to court. The county and state get federal funds based on conviction rates so they push hard, often without any real evidence. And the people who have been arrested, all black and all poor, have no resources to defend themselves and settle for plea bargains, not realizing that the admission of guilt will cut off their welfare payments and right to vote.

An ACLU lawyer (Tim Blake Nelson) arrives in town willing to challenge the district attorney (Michael O’Keefe), but he needs local counsel and he needs a plaintiff — someone who has been abused by the process to file the lawsuit. Only Dee has the courage and passion for justice to challenge the established power in her city.

Thankfully, the film avoids the too-frequent failure of making the white characters the heroes of a civil rights story. In this case, it is in part due to a skillful screenplay by Bill Haney and to Beharie’s star power in a performance of extraordinary sensitivity and fire. She has a mesmerizing ability to convey the mingled emotions of fear and resolve while maintaining sweetness and dignity. Her interactions with the four real-life sisters who play her young daughters feels completely authentic and as she thinks through her choices we feel we can see her weigh every option. The story is a classic American triumph of the oppressed through the court system but Dee is more than a client and a figurehead; she is an essential strategist, coming up with a crucial change of plans at the case’s turning point, and a constant source of inspiration. “After what they done to me, they made it my business,” she tells her mother.

It hits a little heavily on the implications of the 2000 election but wisely puts the story in context so that it is clear that the problem is systemic and not the result of one official or one town. Even more wisely, it keeps the focus on Dee, who as portrayed by Beharie is truly mesmerizing.

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If the World Were a Village

Posted on September 8, 2009 at 7:31 am

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	All Ages
MPAA Rating:	NR
Profanity:	None
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Very mild references to poverty
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters:	2009
Date Released to DVD:	September 8, 2009
Amazon.com ASIN:	1604800828

Based on David J. Smith’s best-selling and award-winning book If the World Were a Village: A Book about the World’s People, this is an animated story about global culture that helps families understand our differences, our commonality, and our connections.

It asks us to imagine that the whole world had just 100 people. And then it tells us how many of that 100 would speak English, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, and Bengali, how many would have running water, how many would be children and how many would be elderly, how many would have enough money for toys or food, how many would be able to read, and how many would be Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, or Animist.

It may be difficult for young children to process all of the information, but this film is an excellent way to begin important discussions with children about how we fit into the world and how our lives compare with others. It is available in English, Spanish, and French, and now, because I have watched the film, I know which five other languages it would have to come in to be able to be understood by half the world.

The Soloist

Posted on August 4, 2009 at 8:00 am

All around Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez (Robert Downey, Jr.), everything seems to be broken or breaking. The newspaper is losing readers and laying off staff. His marriage to editor Mary Weston (Catherine Keener) is over. He is estranged from their son and lived amidst unpacked boxes. His eye is swollen shut and his face scraped raw from a bicycle accident. And he lives in a city with the highest homeless population in the country. When he meets a homeless man named Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx) on the street, playing a violin with only two strings, Lopez sees him as material for the column, and then as a problem — unlike so many others — he could solve.

The real-life story of Lopez and Ayers, as documented in Lopez’s book
and on “60 Minutes,” has now become a feature film written by one of Hollywood’s most established screenwriters, Susannah Grant (“Erin Brockovich,” “In Her Shoes,” “Catch and Release”), directed by one of today’s most gifted directors, Joe Wright (the Kiera Knightly “Pride and Prejudice” and “Atonement”), and starring two of the biggest stars. Everyone is diligent and sincere but it never really decides what it wants to be. It is part social commentary, part personal growth, and large part one of those “I learned so much more from you than you did from me”/”none so blind as those who will not see” stories, making it seem that the agony of mental illness is all about helping the rest of us feel better about our lives. Both men are soloists in their own way, and both do learn that relationships can affect brain chemistry.

The detours into Ayers’ life before he became mentally ill are distracting rather than illuminating and the efforts to portray his distorted perceptions are superficial and unpersuasive. It never comes anywhere close to films like A Beautiful Mind in conveying mental disturbance. Foxx struggles but never makes us feel that his portrayal is more than a collection of tics and twitches. The far better chemistry and more interesting relationship is between Lopez and a sympathetic social worker, beautifully played by Nelsan Ellis. Wright’s striking visuals are arresting and Downey’s performance is always enthralling, fascinating, and utterly present. The inconsistency of the rest of the film, however, makes him more of a soloist than intended.

From the Earth to the Moon

Posted on July 20, 2009 at 8:00 am

A+

Lowest Recommended Age:	All Ages
MPAA Rating:	NR
Profanity:	Some strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Smoking, drinking, substance abuse
Violence/ Scariness:	Characters in peril, tense confrontations
Diversity Issues:	Traditional depiction of race and gender per the conventions of the era
Date Released to Theaters:	1998
Date Released to DVD:	1998
Amazon.com ASIN:	B000A0GYD2

The very best American miniseries I have ever seen is the HBO production from Tom Hanks, From the Earth to the Moon. Instead of a chronological run-down, each episode takes on the space race from a different angle. One gives us the perspective of the wives, another tells us the challenges faced by the contractors, and another is from the perspective of the press. One tells us about the experience of turning astronauts into geologists so that they could be as effective as possible in bringing home the rocks that would help scientists the most. The last episode focuses in part on a man whose only connection to the moon landing was that he made a fanciful silent film (and invented special effects) in France decades earlier. Brilliantly written, acted, and directed, this is outstanding viewing for ages 10 and up, for space nuts and for those who don’t know their Apollos from their Geminis.

The Rookie

Posted on July 6, 2009 at 8:00 am

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	Kindergarten - 3rd Grade
Profanity:	Brief swear words
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Mild tension
Diversity Issues:	Diverse team members work well together
Date Released to Theaters:	2002
Date Released to DVD:	2002
Amazon.com ASIN:	B000068DBE

If this hadn’t really happened, Disney would have had to make it up. But a high school science teacher did tell the baseball team he coached that if they won the division title he would try out for the major leagues. And they did and he did and Jim Morris did become the oldest rookie in 40 years. And then, when he went in as relief pitcher in his first major league game, he struck out the first player at bat. Sometimes, life just is a Disney movie.

And this story turns out to make a very nice movie indeed, thanks to not one but two irresistible underdog-with-a-dream stories, dignified-but-heartwarming direction by John Lee Hancock, and a hit-it-out-of-the-ballpark performance by Dennis Quaid.

A leisurely prologue sets the scene. After a mystical fairy tale about some nuns and wishing and rose petals, we meet a boy who lives for baseball. It is the one constant in his life as his family moves from one Army base to another around the country. When they finally find a place to stay, it is Texas, where the only game anyone cares about is football.

Fade into the present, when Morris (Quaid) is happily married, with deep roots in that same dusty Texas town. He had his shot at the big leagues, but didn’t make it. We don’t learn the specifics, but we see a big scar twisting around his shoulder. And as he tells his son, “It’s never one thing” that derails you.

Morris is the high school baseball coach. But it is still a football town, and no one pays much attention to the team. One day, Morris throws a few balls to the catcher and the team is impressed with the power of his arm. When he challenges them to try harder, they challenge him back. If he wants them to dream big, he will have to show them the way. So he promises that if they win the division title, he will try out for the major leagues.

He never expects it to work. But the boys turn into a team and they start winning games. And so Morris ends up going to the try-outs, though he has to take his kids along. It turns out that despite what had always been thought to be the incontrovertible rule that pitches slow down as pitchers get older, Morris is throwing faster than ever, up to 98 miles an hour.

But dreams ask a lot of us. The success of the team has brought a coaching offer from a bigger school. Morris can take it and give his family a more comfortable life. Or he can accept the offer to play on a minor league team, with the slim hope that he might get picked up by the major leagues.

His dream asks a lot of him, but it asks a lot from his family, too, perhaps more than is fair to expect.

Well, we know what happens next. We probably even predict that at some point Morris will think about quitting but will rediscover the simple joys of baseball by watching some kids play. And we might not care too much about some dramatic embellishments, like the awkwardly inserted reconciliation with his father and the way the minor league coach tells Morris the big news, which would be unforgivably torturous if it happened in real life. But the dream is so pure and Quaid is so good that most audiences will be happy to go along.

Parents should know that although the movie is rated G, it will not be of much interest to younger kids. And some children might be upset by the scenes of Morris with his father, who is cold and unsympathetic, or by the financial problems faced by the family. There are references to divorce and remarriage.

Families who see this movie should talk about our responsibility to help those we care about try to make their dreams come true and to share the dreams of those we love. It was the way Morris believed in his team and the way they believed in him that made both their dreams come true. Morris’s father tells him that it is “okay to think about what you want to do until it is time to do what you were meant to do.” How do you know when it is time to put a dream aside?

For some reason, there are more great movies about baseball than about any other sport. Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy The Sandlot, Rookie of the Year, It Happens Every Spring, and “Angels in the Outfield,” either the 1951 or 1994 versions. Older teens and adults will also enjoy Field of Dreams.