The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat

Posted on August 22, 2024 at 6:01 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for adult themes, as well as strong language including racial slurs
Profanity:	Strong and bigoted language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking and acoholism
Violence/ Scariness:	Peril and violence, characters murdered including a child, very sad deaths, domestic abuse
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters:	August 23, 2024

Melodrama gets a bad rap. It is often associated with exaggerated characters and situations. But life has a tendency to be melodramatic, and a story like “The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can Eat” told in an unabashedly heartfelt fashion with a screenplay by (under a pseudonym) Gina Prince-Bythewood and director Tina Mabry, putting the melodrama in the context of enduring, unconditional friendship over the decades. When the character are played by superb performers, seeing how they respond to the direst challenges life can present makes us feel that we are a part of that friendship, at least until the movie ends.

Based on the book by Edward Kelsey Moore, the story goes back and forth in time between the late 1960s and the present. Odette ( Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor of “King Richard” and “The Clark Sisters”) tells us that one connection with her two friends is their unusual origins. Odette was literally born in a sycamore tree. Her mother, past her due date, was told by a woman said to have mystical powers to sit on the branch of a sycamore tree and sing a hymn, and Odette arrived too fast for her to climb back down. She says she was “born off the ground and cursed with a life of fearlessness.” She grew up to be a caretaker who put others’ needs before her own.

Clarice (Uzo Aduba of “Orange is the New Black”) rebelled against her mother, who cared only what other people thought and wanted her to “put on a face and play perfect. She grew up to be a talented pianist with a fierce sense of justice. Barbara Jean (Sanaa Lathan of “Love and Basketball’ and “The Family that Preys”) was born into chaos and abuse, her mother a careless party girl, her father one of many possibles. When teenage Clarice (Abigail Achiri) and Odette (Kyanna Simone) rescue Barbara Jean (Tati Gabrielle) from her abusive stepfather, the three girls form an unbreakable bond. Big Earl (Tony Winters), the wise and generous owner of the diner where the whole community hangs out, says they are as sparkly as The Supremes, and the nickname sticks.

As in films like “Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood” and “Now and Then,” and “Steel Magnolias,” it is the enduring friendship (with a few bumps along the way) that is the focus. The three women have to deal with some of the most devastating setbacks and losses imaginable. Through it all, they rely on the endless, unquestioning support of their friendship (with a few hard truths). Gorgeous performances from the three stars, strong support from Winters, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Russell Hornsby, and Mekhi Phifer as the men in their lives, and thoughtful, sincere work from Mabry and Prince-Bythewood never let the movie get soapy or overdone.

Parents should know that this film includes sad deaths, including murder of a child and an adult, serious illness, alcoholism, adultery, domestic abuse, and violent racism. Characters use some strong language and there are sexual references and situations.

Family discussion: Which friend is most like you and why? Which is your favorite? How was each one’s childhood reflected in their adult lives?

If you like this, try: the 2012 remake of “Steel Magnolias” and “The Color Purple”

Sing Sing

Posted on August 1, 2024 at 6:20 pm

A-

Lowest Recommended Age:	High School
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for language
Profanity:	Very strong language, n-word
Alcohol/ Drugs:	References to drug dealing
Violence/ Scariness:	References to armed robbery and murder, fights, sad deaths of human and pet
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters:	August 2, 2024

Actors playing kings are wearing robes of velvet, encrusted with jewels. They take their bows to enthusiastic applause. Then they go back to the dressing room, remove their costumes, and put on the clothes they wear all day, every day, their prison uniforms. These men are incarcerated in the famously bleak maximum security prison in New York, the one with the deceptively upbeat name Sing Sing (derived from the name of the Indian tribe that once occupied the land).

The RTA (Rehabilitation Through Art) program at Sing Sing was created by the men who are incarcerated. Esquire wrote an article about it called “The Sing Sing Follies (A Maximum Security Comedy),” and that inspired Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar, the co-screenwriters of the indie gem “Jockey” to start from scratch with their own research, interviewing the participants in the RTA program. Colman Domingo came on as star and co-producer. Most of the cast are formerly incarcerated men cast as characters based on their own experiences. Unusually, and crucially, the producers of the film put their money where their mouths were, and everyone, including the crew and the first-time screen actors, had equal pay and has an equal participation in the film’s profits. At a screening held at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, co-star Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin told said in a post-screening Q&A that the recidivism rate of participants in RTA is 3 percent, as compared to over 60 percent for the rest of the prison population.

Domingo gives what is clearly one of the best performances of the year as Divine G, a founder of the theater program. Divine G is an author and playwright. His tiny cell includes a typewriter and stacks of books. He helps other incarcerated men prepare for their parole hearings and is seeking clemency for himself, based on a taped confession that has been discovered since his trial and appeals. He feels a genuine brotherhood with the others, but he still has a sense of pride in his education and accomplishments. We get glimpses of his sense of superiority. (Note: the character we see briefly, asking Divine G to sign a copy of one of his books, is the real Divine G.)

“The Sound of Metal’s” Paul Raci plays Brent, a patient and sympathetic outside facilitator of the small theater group, who gives them exercises (“Now walk like you just won the lottery! Now like a zombie!” “Now close your eyes and imagine a place where you feel happy and peaceful”) and guides them through the stages of production. Divine G offers them a play he wrote about corruption in the recording industry, but the men want a story about cowboys, ancient Egypt, Robin Hood, time travel, and Hamlet, and Brent agrees to write the script for them.

The RTA participants realize quickly that there is a freedom within the walls of their rehearsals that they do not have anywhere else. They realize more slowly that participation unwinds tightly coiled emotions they hid from others and did not not even acknowledge to themselves. The protective wall they have used all their lives, the one they may think keeps them alive and not obsessed with the absence of hope, the one that communicates confidence, power, and hostility — that has to be abandoned if they want to be a part of RTA. By trying on the characters they play, they explore feelings they would not let themselves acknowledge. They make themselves vulnerable to being known, by their casemates, by their audiences, by themselves. They go from being afraid of being seen to inviting others to see them.

One detail that audiences may find heartbreaking comes when Brent asks the men to close their eyes and imagine a place where they feel at peace. Some of the men cannot put themselves in a place outside the walls of the prison, even in their imagination. One they may find touching is when Divine G points to a small open square, smaller than a postcard, in the metal screen on the window. He likes to look at that square. It makes him feel in touch with the outside. Another is when a formerly incarcerated man returns to encourage the men and tell them what his experience has been like on the outside.

And one they might find jarring, at least at first, is the way the men in RTA address each other as “Beloved.” The real-life Divine G, a producer and writer on the film, told me that they chose that word to replace the n-word, which the men were using as a kind of semi-hostile, semi-insulting term of affection. His co-founder, Sean Dino Johnson, who appears as a character inspired by his own life, told me the first play the group put on was about the history and import of the n-word.

Domingo is extraordinary here, conveying his character’s struggles with the subtlest details of expression and posture. He is matched along the way with the RTA alumni, especially Clarence Maclin as a character with his name and some of his history. Two men begin to trust one another and then, unabashedly, proudly, call each other “beloved,” setting up the story for an ending of enormous power and meaning.

Parents should know that this story takes place in a maximum security prison and some characters are there because they were drug dealers, armed robbers, or murderers. They take responsibility for their choices but the focus of the film is on the human capacity to learn and get better. Characters use very strong language, including the n-word. There are sad deaths of a human and a beloved pet.

Family discussion: What is your most perfect spot? Why is laughter so important in the rehearsal room? What play would you like to be in?

If you like this, try: “The Quilters,” a short documentary about a program that teachers men in prison to make quilts for foster children, “Greenfingers,” with Clive Owen, based on a program in the UK where men in prison create gardens.

Widow Clicquot

Posted on July 18, 2024 at 5:48 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	High School
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for strong bloody violence, language, sexual content, nudity, and some drug use
Profanity:	Strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking, drugs
Violence/ Scariness:	Very sad death, reference to war
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters:	July 19, 2024

I never knew that the legendary Veuve Cliquot champagne was named for the woman who created it in the late 18th century. Veuve means widow.

Haley Bennett, who also produced, plays Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot, devastated by the death of the husband she adored when she was still in her 20s. In flashbacks (too many) throughout the film, we see that her relationship with Francois (Tom Sturridge) was deep, intimate, and meaningful. They were both committed to full partnership in the family wine business and he had complete faith in her judgment and taste. That is why, almost unheard of in that era, he made it clear in his will that he was leaving her the vineyards and the business. Throughout the film, she faces one crisis after another as her father-in-law, Philippe (Ben Miles), tries to seize control of the company, her less hierarchical and more inclusive relationship with her workers is challenged, and production and logistics problems make it impossible for her to sell her wine. She gets support (and more) from a man who was her husband’s close friend (perhaps more) and the sales and distribution partner of the business, (Sam Riley).

Trailer for Widow Clicquot

Cinematographer Caroline Champetier, production designer Stéphane Sartorius and the sound team have created an immersive world that makes us feel like we’re inside a Napoleonic era oil painting. The creaking floorboards, high ceilings, and flickering candlelight are in sharp contrast to the natural world of the vineyard, where Barbe-Nicole is happiest and most at home. Bennett has a quiet, almost serene, quality but seems to glow from within. Her scenes with Sturridge in the blissful early days and then as he became more unstable (there is an implication that he may have committed suicide) and when she makes the decision to send their daughter away to protect her from her father’s deterioration, are subtle but effective, as is Barbe-Nicole’s passion for the vineyard and for making the most delicious champagne ever created. As she talks about the flavors and the size of the bubbles, as she talks about evading Napoleon’s restrictions on international sales, she is quiet, but sure. A defining moment is when she explains that she wants to rotate the crops because the vines need to struggle. That moment and her literal final word tell us that one of the world’s most delicate and cherished drinks is the result of struggle, one that all who embraced considered worth it.

Parents should know that this film includes a mental breakdown and a possible (offscreen) suicide, grief, some sexual situations with nudity, and the misogyny of the era.

Family discussion: Why was Madame Clicquot so confident and determined? What was unusual about the way she treated her employees? Was she right to try to evade the trade restrictions?

If you like this, try: The book by Tilar J. Mazzeo, and Bennett’s film, “Cyrano.” And, if you’re old enough, try some champagne.

Twisters

Posted on July 17, 2024 at 1:33 pm

B +

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for intense action and peril, some language and injury images
Profanity:	Some strong la

24 years ago, a cow flew across the screen and “Twister” became an instant summer movie classic. “Twister” had the magical combination of romance and action with then-state-of-the-art special effects, a human storyline just hefty enough to add urgency without disrupting the real reason we’re there (see above: flying cows), and two future Oscar-winners, Helen Hunt and Philip Seymour Hoffman, along with Bill Paxton, Carey Elwes, and Lois Smith, who adeptly set the tone at the sweet spot between drama and melodrama.

The ingredients that made that storyline work were the ideal recipe: take one pair of parted lovers (the about to divorce storm chasers), some human conflict to unite them (Elwes’ arrogant rich guy), and some beyond-human conflict to unite them even more (see: the title, reference to the ). Add in one newbie to be the receptacle for exposition dumps and for us to look down to even though in real life we would be even more terrified (Jami Gertz, rising above a thankless role). Result: almost half a billion dollars in worldwide box office. Also result: a somewhat sequel, trying to rekindle the magic.

It begins with a nod to the original, which ended (spoiler alert) with the Hunt and Paxton characters successfully launching “Dorothy” (yes, a reference to the Kansas girl who was whisked to Oz via twister). Dorothy was dozens of little data-collecting chrome balls that provided previously unavailable information about the structure of these terrifying, vastly destructive storms. Tornadoes, for those who did not pay attention during the exposition part of the first film, are violently rotating columns of air that reach both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They look like a stormy vortex in the distance, they travel very fast, and they cause hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to property and crops every year. As briefly acknowledged in this new film without any suggestion of climate change as the precipitating (in both senses of the word) factor, the number of storms is increasing.

The opening of “Twisters” takes place five years ago, when a much-too-cheerful and therefore much-too-risk-taking group of students is still working with the Dorothy machine. It is led by Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones), who is a scientist but also has something of a second sense about storms and the direction they will take. She is hoping to get a grant to help her not just understand twisters but to extinguish them, using the same ultra-absorbent material found in disposable diapers. The group is much too adorable and foolhardy to be there for any purpose but to teach our heroine a very painful lesson. The only survivors are Kate and Javi (Broadway’s Anthony Ramos of “Dumb Money” and “In the Heights”).

In the present day, Kate lives in New York, with businesslike clothes and hair. Her only connection to twisters is safely via computer screens. Javi shows up with some new technology developed by the military. He wants her to come with him to get the first 3D mapping of what goes on inside the twister vortex. At first she says no, but when he reminds her of how many lives can be saved, she agrees to join him in Oklahoma for a week.

There they run into hotshot YouTube stars and self-proclaimed “tornado wrangler” Tyler Owens (Glen Powell) and his ragtag gang, who seem to be out there for thrills and likes. Poncho-wearing fans happily buy their merch and track them as they track the storms with go-pros, a drone, and fireworks they shoot up inside the vortex for fun.

“Twisters” gently updates the technology to the era of cell phones and MRIs, noting that these days “anyone with a $10 weather app” can be a storm chaser. The insertion of a class developer villain making “all-cash offers” to the locals is clumsier. Should they have the option to go somewhere else? And what is he going to do with land that has driven long-time residents out due to extreme weather hazards? While we’re on the subject, shouldn’t there be more storm shelters in these communities?

Like the original, this film lightly sprinkles the emotions of the characters just enough to keep us going between the special effects. The role of exposition dump character this time is played by Ben (Harry Hadden-Paton), a British journalist who is writing about Tyler’s group. Instead of former spouses, Kate and Javi are former colleagues sharing some survivor guilt and Kate and Tyler are in the classic Pride and Prejudice dynamic as they discover their first impressions (BTW the original title of P&P) are not accurate. Oh, if only we had super-powerful military-grade diagnostic machines to examine each other.

We also have a wise and kindly older family member to visit for some moments of respite, in this case, replacing the wonderful Lois Smith in the original, and here the also wonderful Maura Tierney as Kate’s mother.

So, let’s get to what really matters: how about the special effects? They are excellent. Cows do not fly, but a lot does, including large vehicles and roofs. A wind farm is an especially good spot to let us see the impact of up to 360 miles per hour. If there is less excitement on screen, it is due to CGI fatigue in the audience, not the believability of what we see. (Steven Spielberg is one of the producers.)

“Twisters” will not rise to the level of its predecessor, but it is an entertaining summer popcorn pleasure that will continue to build Powell’s stature as one of Hollywood’s most appealing young stars.

Parents should know that this movie has extended and sometimes very scary action sequences of the most severe weather. Characters are injured and killed and there are some graphic images.

Family discussion: What was your first thought when you saw Tyler and his crew? What’s the difference between a tamer and a rustler? How do you know when fear should push you forward?

If you like this, try: “Twister” and documentaries like “Stormchasers” and the Nova episodes “Oklahoma’s Deadliest Tornadoes” and “Deadliest Tornadoes”

Fly Me to the Moon

Posted on July 11, 2024 at 12:12 pm

A-

Lowest Recommended Age:	Middle School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for some strong language and smoking
Profanity:	Some strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Alcohol and smoking
Diversity Issues:	Issues of perception, expectations, and treatment of women
Date Released to Theaters:	July 12, 2024

Unless you care more about historical accuracy than a rollicking good story, I think you will really enjoy this movie, one of the most purely entertaining films of the year. And some of it is even true.

There are many places to get the real story of the moon landing. This has some of the story right, and some enhanced for dramatic, comedic, and romantic purposes, all of which are very well served.

Scarlett Johansson, who also produced, plays Kelly, an advertising executive who has the right combination for success in that field: she always understands her market/target/audience and she will say or do whatever it takes on its behalf. She can spin anything and that includes selling her own services.

She is approached by a mysterious man who says his name is Moe Berkus ( Woody Harrelson) and that he works for President Richard Nixon. John F. Kennedy promised an American man on the moon by the end of the decade and the end of the 60s is approaching. For the politicians, this is an essential achievement for the Cold War battle for supremacy of capitalism and democracy. If that sounds more like branding than public policy, you understand why, in the midst of some of the most divisive and troubled years of the 20th century, someone might decide that what NASA needed was an expert in marketing. After all, selling a product, whether breakfast cereal, car, or the space program, is about making the product real, immediate, personal, and aspirational. Kelly and her assistant arrive in Cocoa Beach, ready to sell the moon.

You could say the people in NASA were not happy about this, but perhaps a better term would be horrified. Their culture is about secrecy (national security), science, and control. The person in charge is Cole Davis (Channing Tatum) and he does his best to discourage Kelly. In other words, the ideal set-up for romantic sparks, and when it’s Tatum and Johansson, it’s more like fireworks. They are wonderful together.

The sharp, witty, and wise screenplay is by third-generation Hollywood writer Rose Gilroy (her grandfather was “The Subject Was Roses” screenwriter Frank Gilroy and her parents are Dan Gilroy of “Real Steel,” “Kong: Skull Island,” and “Nightcrawler” and Rene Russo). It skillfully balances the romantic comedy with the dramatic themes and the inherent tension in the goal everyone is working toward. Even if we know that indeed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin will indeed walk on the moon the question of public support, we get caught up in the surprising challenges along the way. Who could guess that having astronauts sell watches, cars, and underwear — and, of course, Tang — would make them so relatable Americans would start to root for them? What will they have do and which Senators will they have to persuade to get the funding they need? Is there a way to sell space not as a distraction but as an unassailable story of American heroes and know-how?

Cole and Kelly have real differences that give this film a welcome depth. Both on the personal and professional level, the issue of what the truth is and how and when to tell it is presented thoughtfully and with the complexity it deserves, but it is never pedantic or preachy. Jim Rash plays a temperamental commercial director Moe insists join the team to make a back-up for the broadcast. The stunning technological innovations from a group of engineers with an average age of 26, working to solve the biggest jigsaw puzzle in the history of the world, in a building tall enough to enclose four Statues of Liberty on each other’s shoulders.

And there is a wonderful black cat. Plus Johansson’s husband, Colin Jost, in a brief, funny cameo. This movie is romantic, funny, exciting, and meaningful, filled with joy, honoring the heroes of the voyage to the moon for their dedication, innovation, and courage. And it has heartwarming compassion for the vulnerability of its characters that resonates with us long after the movie is over.

Parents should know that this film has some strong language, references to criminal behavior and a shooting in self-defense. For historical accuracy, there is a lot of smoking and a character talks about the impact on his health.

Family discussion: Who changes more, Cole or Kelly? Who is currently in the International Space Station today? Would you like to go to the moon? Visit the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum, where you can touch a real moon rock and see the NASA capsules.

If you like this, try: Other films about the Apollo 11 program, including “The Dish,” “Hidden Figures,” “First Man,” Tom Hanks’ excellent miniseries, “From the Earth to the Moon,” and the documentaries “Earthrise” and “Apollo 11”