Posted on October 1, 2015 at 12:57 pm
We are honored to present this exclusive trailer for “Full of Grace,” the story of the Gospel from a mother’s point of view. Mary (Bahia Haifi) and Peter “The Rock” (Noam Jenkins) prepare to embark on a divine mission to help Christ’s early followers re-discover their faith in the Lord.
Posted on October 1, 2015 at 12:17 pm
If you have vertigo or acrophobia, you will have trouble with “The Walk,” the story of Frenchman Philippe Petit’s tightrope walk between the towers of the World Trade Center. If you don’t have vertigo or acrophobia, you might have after you watch the movie, with the most stunningly realistic 3D effects ever put on screen. At least I think they’re still just on the screen. It sure feels like it goes on way, way behind it.
“Man on Wire,” a documentary about Petit’s 1974 stunt, or, as he might prefer to say, coup, won an Oscar in 2008. In this film, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, with an accent that just manages to avoid Pepe LePew dimensions, plays Petit, a street performer who saw a photograph of the World Trade Center in the waiting room of his dentist and was instantly consumed with the dream of a walk in the sky, more than 1300 feet above the sidewalk, between the towers. Like Petit himself, the movie does not bother with the question of why this might be a good thing to do. If pressed, he might just say, like Mallory, “Because it’s there.” The problem is that he doesn’t have an answer but still keeps talking and talking. For no reason we keep going back to Petit narrating the story from the torch of the Statue of Liberty. It is distracting and dull.
Petit could not or would not articulate it, but I think I know why. When huge institutions get together to create a world-record setting edifice — taller than the Eiffel Tower, the Frenchman notes — there is something irresistibly enticing about coming back as a lone soul and literally topping it. Director Robert Zemeckis, who can get more excited about the technology than the story in his films, may identify with that challenge. Petit wanted to walk across the sky, with an audience to appreciate it. And Zemeckis wants to recreate that experience for us, taking us to the roof of the Towers, and inviting us to look down.
Still, while we love movies about dreamers of impossible dreams who make them come true, we do like to have a reason, and Petit edges over the line from audacious dreamer to inconsiderate narcissist, despite Gordon-Levitt’s considerable appeal. This lends a hollow quality, overcome less from the story of the film to what is in our own hearts as we watch, knowing what the tragedy that lies ahead for the World Trade Center.
What works well in the first part of the film is Petit’s tutorials with a tightrope master played by Sir Ben Kingsley and the procedural elements once Petit and his team get to New York and start preparing as though they are getting ready to rob a bank. Indeed, it becomes a heist film of a sort because they have to find different ways to sneak into a building that is still under construction and gather the information they need to figure out how to install the cable and keep it from swaying or buckling. And then to install it. There are a lot of problems along the way, including Petit stepping on a nail and injuring his foot and dropping his black turtleneck from the roof when he is trying to assume his performer persona. They omit, however, my favorite detail from the documentary: Petit explains that in America, if there’s pencil in your pocket everyone assumes you are part of the construction team and are entitled to be there. Like the loss of the buildings themselves, Petit’s ability to exploit lax security is a poignant reminder of what we no longer have.
The last half hour or so of the film is breathtaking and well worth the price of admission in IMAX 3D. You will feel that you are on the tightrope with Petit. As the crowd gathers below and the police arrive (who thought a police helicopter would be a good idea?), Petit is suspended in the clouds, mentally, emotionally, and physically. For just a moment, Zemeckis and Gordon-Levitt bring us up there with him, and his dream, however frivolous and ephemeral, becomes ours.
Parents should know that this film has very risky and dangerous behavior, vertiginous 3D effects, brief nudity, some strong language, and smoking and drinking.
Family discussion: What big dream would you like to make come true? Who would you want to be your team?
If you like this, try: the documentary “Man on Wire”
Posted on September 28, 2015 at 1:08 pm
I have FREE tickets for tonight’s 8:00 pm showing of “Just Let Go” at both the AMC Hoffman Theater in Alexandria, Virginia and the AMC Tyson’s Corner, also in Virginia. To get your free tickets, send me an email ASAP at moviemom@moviemom.com with your “Forgive” in the subject line and your full name. We’ll email you the tickets.
On a cold February night in 2007, a devoted father of four and a seventeen-year-old drunk driver both receive life sentences. In one violent, devastating instant, each faces a drastically different and uncertain future. But as Chris Williams sits in his demolished vehicle staring at the car that had just caused the death of his wife, his unborn baby, and his nine- year-old daughter and his eleven-year-old son, he commits to doing something extraordinary: to forgive. Chris’ story is the cinematic tale of how a person can forgive despite the retaliatory tendencies that surface within the darks corners of the human heart showing the world that hope, love and forgiveness can overcome all when you make the decision to just let it go.
Posted on September 27, 2015 at 8:00 am
One night only in theaters: Just Let Go.
Fathom Events, in partnership with Delilah Radio, Excel Entertainment and Propel Pictures, invites you to experience the inspirational true story of Chris Williams when Just Let Go comes to cinemas nationwide for special a one-night event on Monday, September 28, 2015.
On a cold February night in 2007, a devoted father of four and a seventeen-year-old drunk driver both received life sentences. In one violent, devastating instant, each faced a drastically different and uncertain future. But as Chris Williams sat in his demolished vehicle, staring at the car that had just caused the death of his wife, his unborn baby, his nine-year-old daughter, and his eleven-year-old son, he committed to do something extraordinary: he would forgive.
Chris Williams’ story is the cinematic tale of how a person can forgive despite the retaliatory tendencies that surface within the dark corners of the human heart, showing the world that hope, love and forgiveness can overcome all when you let it go. In addition to the inspirational presentation of Just Let Go, audiences will be treated to an exclusive introduction from radio personality Delilah.
Posted on September 25, 2015 at 8:00 am
D| Lowest Recommended Age: | Mature High Schooler |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated R for sexual content, language throughout, some violence and drug use |
| Profanity: | Very strong and crude language |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking, smoking, drugs |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Police brutality, riots, reference to murders |
| Diversity Issues: | A theme of the movie |
| Date Released to Theaters: | September 25, 2015 |
In 1969, when the federal government prohibited the firing of gays and lesbians, when it was illegal for them to congregate in a bar or even to have consensual sex, when police harassment and brutality was not only permitted but expected, a man threw a brick, shattered a window, and began four days of riots that galvanized the fight for GLBTQ equality. The window was in a bar called Stonewall, and its name lives on as the symbol of the moment that ignited a revolution.
The movie “Stonewall,” intended as history and tribute, instead throws a brick through the meaning and the moment, shattering both. This movie is more than bad and worse than disappointing. It is a tragic distortion of a vitally important story that insults the people it tries to honor and insults its audience as well. Director Roland Emmerich (known for movies with a lot of big explosions and stunts) and screenwriter Jon Robin Baitz so vastly underestimate their audience that they apparently believe cannot understand a movie about the GLBTQ community unless we have an all-American-style high school football hero from the heartland to identify with. How do you make a movie about the Stonewall uprising and so completely miss the point?
Our point of entry is handsome but bland Danny (Jeremy Irvine), a Hoosier who has a crush on the quarterback. He is Goldilocks to the three bears of his family, spread out to represent all points on the gay-friendliness spectrum: a taciturn father (also his football coach), a passive mother, and a devoted and free-thinking younger sister (Joey King). When his assignations with the quarterback are discovered, “faggot” is scrawled on his locker and he is shunned by everyone. He refuses to tell his father that it was a one-time thing and leaves for New York.
And so we shift from tone-deaf cliches about the Midwest to tone-deaf cliches about Christopher Street, with a group of adorably scruffy and flamboyant runaway Lost Boys who spend their time tricking and clubbing. Their leader is an Artful Dodger type known as Ray (Jonny Beauchamp). They sit on the stoop and talk about Judy Garland, alternately enjoying shocking decadence and longing for home. Around the edges of the story are the real-life characters who are far more interesting, or at least who were in real life.
This is a bad movie, purely from the standpoint of drama. It is poorly constructed, with cardboard characters and worst-of-the-year category clangers in dialog, provoking snicker and then outright snorts from the audience. “I’m too angry to love.” “These kids have nothing to lose.” But the monumental failure here is the disrespect for the real-life courageous souls who fought back nearly half a century ago and for the audience, who would relish a film that does them justice.
Parents should know that this film has explicit sexual references and situations, including predatory behavior, abuse, and prostitution, homophobic and bigoted insults, police brutality, and riots. Characters use very strong language, drink and smoke, and use drugs.
Family discussion: How was the gay rights movie like and not like other civil rights movements of the 20th century?
If you like this, try: “Longtime Companion.” “Pride,” and “Milk”
