Toast

Posted on October 6, 2011 at 5:59 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	Not rated
Profanity:	Some strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking, smoking
Violence/ Scariness:	Sad death of parent
Diversity Issues:	Diverse characters,
Date Released to Theaters:	October 7, 2011
Amazon.com ASIN:	B004UFA0RE

“Being normal is overrated,” a young boy’s friend assures him. “You’ll probably turn out to be very interesting.”

He was right. British chef and food writer Nigel Slater tells his own story in “Toast”. His mother was a terrible cook. When he suggested they try fresh produce, she explained that they were better off with canned food because you don’t know where the fresh vegetables had been. She would boil the food in the can and if it came out especially badly they would have toast for dinner. She loved Nigel with all her heart and he adored her. But he never felt close to his gruff father (Ken Stott). And then his mother died. Nigel correctly discerned that the cleaning woman his father hired (Helena Bonham Carter) was determined to be promoted to lady of the house. She and Nigel were engaged in an all-out war that was tragic but darkly comic because the battlefield was the kitchen.

This film was produced for BBC television and it assumes a familiarity with British dialect and culture that may be confusing for American audiences, even the Masterpiece Theatre-loving Anglophiles. And some family members have disputed the accuracy of Slater’s portrayal. It spends too much time on the early part of Slater’s life (played as a child by Oscar Kennedy) and not enough on his teen years (played by Freddie Highmore). The tone keeps it engaging, though, because Slater’s point of view does not get maudlin. When his stepmother is portrayed as a grasping shrew we understand that it is through his eyes as an unforgiving teenager and, as the last scene makes clear, that he recognizes that living well is the best revenge. Except for maybe being the one to tell the story.

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Mao’s Last Dancer

Posted on May 7, 2011 at 5:45 pm

Director Bruce Beresford, best known for “Driving Miss Daisy,” returns to the themes of cross-cultural connections in this film based on the memoir of Chinese ballet star Li Cunxin.

Li (Chinese surnames appear first) was taken from his poor, rural family at age 11 to study ballet. Madame Mao had declared the arts to be a priority and officials were sent to the furthest reaches of the country to find children who could be trained. Li succeeds more through determination than passion or natural ability, and despite Madame Mao’s insistence on ballet performances based more on political messages than on art. His family (with the radiant Joan Chen as his mother) is very proud of his contribution to China.In 1979, in the early, fragile days of US-China diplomatic relations, Li is sent to spend some time as a guest trainee with the Houston ballet, led by Ben Stevenson (the always-superb Bruce Greenwood).

His English is poor. His understanding of anything other than what he has been told by the Chinese authorities is non-existent. The Americans’ ability to understand him is not much better. But there is the common language of dance. And there Li is so dazzling he is quickly given an opportunity to perform in a key role on stage. The audience loves him.Li does not want to go home. He becomes romantically involved with a tender-hearted young dancer. He appreciates the opportunity to perform without regard to the political content of the ballet. He consults a lawyer (a crafty Kyle MacLachlan). He takes a very big risk for himself and also for those who have befriended him.The film feels episodic and oddly understated and remote. That may be in part because the key role of Li is divided between three actors, Wen Bin Huang as a child, Chengwu Guo as a teenager, and Chi Cao as an adult. Or, it may be because Li the character is reserved by nature and training and something of a cipher. But like its title character, the movie comes alive in the ballet performances, which are well-staged and convey not only the creative energy of their own story-telling but the ultimate expression of the performers’ passion for their art.
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The King’s Speech

Posted on April 18, 2011 at 8:00 am

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Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for language
Profanity:	One brief scene with profanity used as a vocal exercise
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Social drinking, smoking
Violence/ Scariness:	None
Diversity Issues:	Class difference
Date Released to Theaters:	December 17, 2010

One of the best movies of the year makes a king look like an underdog in the true story of a man who had to literally and metaphorically find his voice, with in a very real sense the fate of the world depending on it.
It wasn’t because she didn’t love him, she explains, when she turned down his proposal of marriage twice. It was because he was a prince, a member of the British royal family, and she did not want to live a public life. And then she remembered that she did love him. And that he had a stammer, so she concluded that would keep him on the sidelines. And then she married him, and they had two children. And then he became king.
The Duke of York (Colin Firth), known as Bertie to his family, was an almost-ideal second son in the royal family. He served honorably in the military and took his public duties seriously. He had no interest his brother David’s position as the heir to the throne. But then three things happened. First, radio was invented, and all of a sudden a dignified wave was not enough. For the first time, all of Great Britain (encompassing, at that time, one quarter of the developed world) could hear the voice of their leaders. Second, Hitler’s aggression was making war inevitable.
And third, Bertie’s brother David, by then King Edward VIII, would shatter precedent and become the first ruler in British history to resign, in royal terms, to abdicate, so that he would be free to marry an American divorcee named Wallis Simpson. Just at the moment when the British people most needed to hear their king, they had a king who could not TIFF-Kings-Speech-colin_firth_helena_bonham_carter_kings_speech4.jpg speak.
The best doctors had been consulted, and Bertie had been subjected to treatment that literally went back to Demosthenes. And then the Duchess brought him to Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush), an Australian actor who had worked with the shell-shocked veterans of WWI. As an actor, he knew breathing techniques and other exercises to help make the spoken word smooth and compelling. And his work with the veterans showed him that the relationship between the therapist and the stutterer — and sometimes the opportunity to talk about the stutterer’s experiences and fears — could be very important.
And so Bertie has, for the first time ever, conversations with someone outside his family. He desperately wants to maintain his dignity, but he even more desperately wants to be able to play this increasingly more crucial role.
The movie may be sepia tones and British accents but it is not at all stuffy thanks to Firth, Rush and Helena Bonham Carter as his wife. Firth shows us Bertie’s struggles to locate his voice and define his role. In one scene, when he tells his little girls (including the current Queen Elizabeth) a bedtime story, it is almost unbearably touching because it means so much to him and the story is so self-deprecatory and loving. People who have trouble speaking spend a lot of time listening and observing. Bertie watches his father and brother with deference, a need for approval, and also a thoughtful evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses as though he is measuring them as a way of creating himself.
The heart of the film is Bertie’s meetings with Lionel, and they are a marvel. Screenwriter David Seidler, himself a one-time stutterer whose uncle was treated by Lionel, worked on the screenplay for decades (the Queen Mother asked that it not be produced until after her death), and it is a masterwork that merits all that went into it. At age 72, Seidler knows what it is to find one’s voice.

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List: Movies for Women’s History Month

Posted on March 7, 2011 at 3:59 pm

For Women’s History Month, try some of these feature films about women of extraordinary courage, intelligence, determination, and achievement.

1. Erin Brockovich Julia Roberts won an Oscar for this story about a clerk in a law firm who helped win the largest toxic tort settlement in U.S. history for the people who had been damaged by inappropriately and illegally disposed chemicals.

2. Norma Rae Sally Field won an Oscar for this story based on union organizer Chrystal Lee Jordan.

3. The Miracle Worker Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke both won Oscars for this story of two extraordinary women, teacher Annie Sullivan and her deaf and blind student Helen Keller.

4. A League of Their Own While the men were at war for a brief time in the 1940’s there was a women’s professional baseball league and this is their story.

5. Funny Girl Barbra Streisand won an Oscar for playing Fanny Brice, one of the most popular performing artists of the early 20th century.

6. The Rosa Parks Story Angela Bassett stars as the woman whose refusal to give up her seat on the bus began the Civil Rights movement.

And try these documentaries, too:

1. Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Stanton & Anthony The lives of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony and their fight for women’s right to vote is much more accurately depicted in this documentary than in the fictionalized “Iron-Jawed Angels.”

2. Life of Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I a Woman? Has there ever been a better name for someone who fought for justice? Sojourner Truth was a slave who became an activist for the rights of African-Americans and women.

3. The Spirit of Sacajawea Native American Sacajawea and her infant son guided Lewis and Clark in their expedition through the western United States.

4. American Experience – Eleanor Roosevelt The niece and wife of Presidents, Eleanor Roosevelt was a shy, bookish girl who became a world-traveling advocate for peace and for human rights.

5. Following Amelia Earhart: Heroines of the Sky Pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart was the first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded by Congress.

Great Figures in African-American History

Posted on February 21, 2011 at 8:00 am

Lowest Recommended Age:	All Ages
MPAA Rating:	NR
Profanity:	None
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Family-friendly historical issues about racisim and loss
Diversity Issues:	The theme of the series
Date Released to Theaters:	2011
Date Released to DVD:	February 1, 2011
Amazon.com ASIN:	B0042EJDKI

Another one from my favorite series that arrives in time for Black History Month — Duke Ellington… and more stories to celebrate great figures in African American history from Scholastic Storybook Treasures.

The DVD includes gently animated and beautifully narrated versions of four books about important figures in black history.

Duke Ellington Forest Whitaker reads this tribute to one of the 20th century’s most celebrated and influential musicians.

Ellington Was Not a Street Phylicia Rashad reads Ntozake Shange’s story about growing up amidst many of the great figures of African-American history.

Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuosa She had an exquisite voice and unsurpassed musicianship to use it like a jazz instrument. Billy Dee Williams tells the story of how she got her sound.

John Henry Samuel L. Jackson reads the story based on the famous legend and folk ballad about the hammer-driving man who could beat anyone, even the machine.