It is hard to think of a form of communication more contrary to the internal stillness and oneness of meditation than a movie. Meditation seeks to remove our minds and spirits from the distractions of the outside world to free us from the non-essential. And movies are noisy, with images that are never still and scenes that stop and then start up again in another place and time, while meditation transcends time and place.
And yet the documentary Gurukulam, directed by Jillian Elizabeth and Neil Dalal is so gentle a window into the world of a traditional Advaita Vedanta ashram in Tamil Nadu, India that it is itself a kind of meditation.
The film is reminiscent of 2007’s Into Great Silence, where Philip Gröning lived in a monastery for six months in near-complete silence, filming the monks’ daily prayers, cores, and rituals. As in that film, the inherent contradiction of making a film about a secluded community to share their world with outsiders is overcome at least in part by the quiet, unassuming, open=hearted approach of the filmmakers.
And it is, of course, fascinating to get a glimpse of this secluded world. We see members of the community perform various everyday tasks and the movie trusts us enough to expect that we will not find it boring, at least not for long, because the rhythms of the film illuminate the essential oneness — there is no separation between chores and worship. We meet people coming to the ashram and learn a little bit about what brought them at this moment and what they are looking for. And we hear some of Swami Dayananda’s lessons. One of the pleasant surprises of the film is how much laughter there is. There is seriousness of purpose, but the members of this community feel and convey a constant sense of joy that is as important a lesson for us as the commentary on the nature of reality.
Peril, issues of parental death and abandonment, mean adults
Diversity Issues:
None
Date Released to Theaters:
August 14, 2015
Copyright ARC Entertainment 2015“Molly Moon and the Incredible Book of Hypnotism” is a cute family fantasy, based on the series of books about a spunky orphan by Georgia Byng. Raffey Cassidy, the enchanting young star who was the highlight of “Tomorrowland,” is perfectly cast as the determined Molly Moon, who learns from an old book how to use hypnotism to get people to do what she wants. Cassidy’s clear blue eyes are so mesmerizing that it is easy to believe they can bewitch anyone.
Molly lives in a Little Orphan Annie/Oliver Twist-style terrible orphanage, presided over by mean Mrs. Adderstone (Lesley Manville), with the disgusting food prepared by a cook named Edna (Celia Imrie). In this brutal environment, Molly’s only friend is Rocky (Jadon Carnelly Morris), a gifted singer. Molly promises to be there for his performance but lets him down twice because she is so captivated by an old book about hypnotism she found in the library. She tries out what she learned first on Mrs. Adderstone’s fierce dog Petula, who becomes friendly and devoted. And then she goes to work on Edna, who suddenly starts preparing delicious, wholesome meals for the children. She tries to work out some adoptions that would keep her with Rocky, but, angry and hurt because she broke her promise, he goes off with the wealthy Mr. and Mrs. Alabaster. Molly decides that what she needs is stardom. If she is rich and famous like pop star Davina (Tallulah Evans), she thinks she will be happy. She cannot sing or dance, but she does have the crucial skill — her ability to hypnotize extends not only to a television producer and a talk show host, but by the clever use of magnification, to almost everyone in the audience, not just in the theater where she is performing but those watching on television as well.
Meanwhile, someone else is trying to get the hypnotism book: a crook named Nockman (“Lord of the Rings'” Dominic Monaghan), spurred on by his crime queenpin mother (Joan Collins, as always, at her best playing bad). They want to use hypnotism for a big robbery. And if they can’t get there before a rival gang, maybe they can let them do the robbery and then rob them.
All of the performers, young and grown-up, are clearly enjoying themselves. Cassidy is one of the most appealing young actors in film, Emily Watson is very touching in a brief role as a sympathetic adult supervising the orphans, and Evans is excellent as a pint-sized diva. Director Christopher N. Rowley and director of photography Remi Adefarasin (“Match Point,” “Elizabeth”) keep the tone light and playful, enjoying the heightened fantasy elements of the story. It comes across like a fairy tale, with transformations and enchantments. And it is exceptionally understanding of the story’s villains. In order to hypnotize someone, Molly has to understand something about them. Even pretending to listen to them teaches her something about why acts that are inconsiderate or selfish are often based in hurt and fear. Molly herself is thoughtless and unfair at times. Like Spider-Man she has to learn that with great power comes great responsibility, and like Dorothy, she learns that there’s no place like home.
Parents should know that the film deals with parental loss and abandonment and with adults being cruel to children. They should also know that the film perpetuates inaccurate stereotypes of adoption, including the idea that prospective parents go to orphanages to pick out children as though they are buying groceries. There is some mild peril and brief language and crude humor.
Family discussion: Who would you like to hypnotize? Why didn’t Molly like being a pop star?
Once upon a time, network television news was dignified, objective, and delivered in stentorian, voice-of-God tones by white, vaguely Protestant men, in half-hour increments at the dinner hour. And then, in 1968, third-ranked network ABC, unable to compete with CBS and NBC in gavel-to-gavel coverage of the political conventions delivered by universally respected news teams, decided to try something new. For $10,000 each, they hired extreme right-wing author/journalist William F. Buckley and extreme left-wing novelist/journalist Gore Vidal to discuss and debate each day’s events at the conventions which would end up nominating Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey.
Buckley and Vidal had a great deal in common. They were both combative, rapier-witted, hyper-verbal men from upper-class families, probably the last generation to be able to refer to themselves as “one” unironically. Both ran for office, perhaps more as theater than as real-life politics. When asked what his first act would be if he was elected mayor of New York City, Buckley famously quipped, “Demand a recount.”
And both men had in common a deep, visceral, loathing for one another that even exceeded their disdain of each other’s politics. Buckley was Catholic and a social as well as political conservative. Vidal was a proud libertine, whose most recent book at the time, Myra Breckinridge, was about a transgender woman, played by Raquel Welch in the movie version.
Their debates were unprecedented in the staid world of television news. So were their ratings. “Best of Enemies” is a new documentary about the Buckley-Vidal convention commentary. It is fascinating as theater to see two classically educated, combative, passionately partisan, men who so seldom met their matches square off against one another. Mere mortals who suffer from l’esprit d’escalier (the spirit of the staircase — the witty riposte not thought of until leaving the party on the stairs) can only envy these rapier-witted combatants try to use the upheavals of one of the most tumultuous and politically charged years in American history to score personal and political points. By the end, they were more interested in hurting each other than helping their causes. Buckley famously lost his temper and used a homophobic slur that was shocking in those days when everything on television was bland and family-friendly.
It is more than entertaining. It illuminates a significant moment in a time of enormous change. And the filmmakers are persuasive that it was a turning point that led directly to contemporary “news” that, as anchorman Howard K. Smith said to Buckley and Vidal at the end of their final segment, shed more heat than light.
Rated PG-13 for some language, drinking, sexuality and partial nudity -- all involving teens
Profanity:
Some strong and crude language
Alcohol/ Drugs:
Teen drinking
Violence/ Scariness:
Dead body, references to suicide, some bullying and peril
Diversity Issues:
None
Date Released to Theaters:
July 25, 2015
Everyone has one. That unobtainable dream we longed for when we were first learning what it felt like to be in love. For most of us, these impossible-to-attain objects of our desire are like training wheels to keep us from wobbling as we begin to understand our feelings. Like the Garth Brooks song, “Unanswered Prayers,” we end up grateful to apply the lessons we learned in our wiser choices. But movies often grant us the magical chance to make our fantasies a little more real by showing us characters who do find a way to love with the ones they adored from afar.
So we have certain expectations when Quentin (Nat Wolff) tells us in the beginning of “Paper Towns” that (1) everyone is entitled to one miracle and (2) that he has been deeply in love with his next door neighbor Margo since she moved in when they were kids. And those expectations are confirmed when he tells us what good friends they were as kids and how, now that they are about to graduate from high school, they barely speak. She has passed out of his league. “Her life had become a series of unbelievably epic adventures.”
Think of all the high school movies where this led to an ending that surprises everyone on the screen and absolutely no one in the audience and yet leaves us all warm and happy. But John Green (“The Fault in Our Stars”) is not about delivering warm and happy. He is about wise and illuminating and human and heartfelt, and this film is all of that.
Margo (supermodel Cara Delevingne) appears in Quentin’s bedroom window one night, as she used to when they were kids. She invites him on an adventure. “I have nine tasks to accomplish and more than half of them require a getaway car.” It turns out that her handsome athletic star of a boyfriend was cheating on her with one of her best friends and she wants revenge. “We are righting wrongs and then we are going to wrong some rights,” she promises. “Basically, it’s going to be the best night of your life.”
She soon has him feeling like a knight or a ninja as they carry out her plans, which are well thought out and involve only minor mayhem and semi-major embarrassment for the transgressors. He finally gets to bed, happy and looking forward to seeing her in school the next day.
But she has disappeared. She has run away before and her parents are ready to give up. But Quentin is not. He is certain she has left clues behind and with the help of his friends Radar (Justice Smith) and Ben (Austin Abrams) and Margo’s friend Lacey (Halston Sage), they try to figure out where she is. When Quentin thinks he knows, they all decide to drive there together and find her, and Radar’s girlfriend (Jaz Sinclair), even though it is 1200 miles away and everyone but Quentin really wants to make it back in time for the prom.
It turns out that this trip is the best part of the film, and it turns out there’s a reason for that. Each of the characters is real and interesting and appealing. Each has some self-awareness and each approaches the lessons along with road with grace. The guys have an easy chemistry, the kind people have when the most important thing they have in common is their history, and they know, in their hearts, that once they leave for college that won’t be enough to hold them together the same way again. That poignance turns out to be essential in setting the stage for what Quentin will find at the end of his journey. The best thing about giving up those early romantic dreams, whether about people or about love or about getting what we deserve, is that it opens up our hearts for something even better, and it is good for people of any age to see how that story is told.
Parents should know that this film includes teen drinking and drunkenness, crude sexual humor and other sexual references and non-explicit situations, some nudity, strong language, suicide, gun, and some pranks and law-breaking.
Family discussion: How big is your comfort zone? What is your miracle?
If you like this, try: the book by John Green and “The Fault in Our Stars” and find out what DFTBA means
Rated PG-13 for some language and suggestive comments
Profanity:
A few bad words
Alcohol/ Drugs:
Drinking, including drinking to deal with stress and alcohol humor
Violence/ Scariness:
Sci-fi action-style violence, no one permanently injured
Diversity Issues:
Some sexist and homophobic "humor"
Date Released to Theaters:
July 24, 2015
Date Released to DVD:
October 26, 2015
Copyright Sony 2015
I never thought I’d see Max Headroom or “Fantasy Island” again, much less have to explain them to someone sitting next to me who was a toddler when they were on television, but Adam Sandler is still relentlessly working his slacker way through every pop culture meme of the decade where he spent his late teens and early 20’s, and apparently the last decade he was willing to pay attention to. He’s used up most of the good ones. That means that this is another film that was pieced together from the cutting room floors of his previous movies plus VH1’s “I Love the 80’s” series. Yes, I know that it is impossible to believe that there was anything worth remembering that happened in the 80’s that they did not cover. And yet, here we are, with a movie about 1980’s arcade games that have become real-life alien invaders. If you remember and retain some affection for games like Frogger, Pac-Man, Tetris, and Q*bert, or if you like Sandler and are relieved he is not making “Grown-Ups 3,” then you might get a few smiles out of “Pixels.”
Grading on a curve, it is tempting to provide some positive reinforcement for Sandler, who in the hands of director Chris Columbus, is better than some of his recent films. But just because it is safe to say he probably will not be a winner at the Razzies this year does not merit him an endorsement. This movie is less predictable and less entertaining than the charmingly retro 8 bit games to which it pays tribute. And unfortunately, one more element carried over from the 80’s is the idea that homophobic and sexist jokes are funny and permissible. Having a female character be a capable military officer does not mean that it is okay to have the other female characters be one-dimensional (literally, one one case).
Sandler, looking puffy and bored, plays Sam, a Geek Squad-style technician who installs fancy television and gaming equipment in people’s homes. In a flashback, we see that as a kid, he had a natural facility to recognize the patterns in arcade games and made it to second in a national competition. The winner was Eddie (Peter Dinklage from “Game of Thrones”), a mullet-coiffed braggart who triumphed over him in the final round. Another competitor was a whiz kid named Ludlow (Josh Gad, “Frozen’s” Olaf) with poor social skills, conspiracy theories, and a pretty pervy obsession with a video game avatar. And Sam’s loyal friend and supporter was Cooper (Kevin James).
Footage of the competition was sent into space to introduce the galactic community to life on Earth. But it was misinterpreted as a declaration of war, and now the aliens have arrived. Just as in the era of arcade games, they wreak destruction by dissolving everything around them into pixels, according to the same rules and patterns of the original games. Fortunately, if improbably, Cooper is now the President of the United States. So he is able to call on Sam, Eddie (who has to be sprung from prison), and Ludlow to save the day. Helping to coordinate the defense is Violet (Michelle Monaghan), first met by Sam when he is installing a television/game system in her home and finds her sobbing in the closet over her husband leaving her for a Pilates instructor named Sinnamon (with an S) and he comforts and then hits on her. But it turns out that she is actually a top military officer who can muster whole new categories of weapons, train the SEALS, and engage in sizzle-free romantic banter at the same time.
The effects in the battle scenes are fun, turning these very rudimentary characters into real space invaders without losing their iconic 8 bit design. Centipede in particular is impressive, glowing like a Chinese New Year Parade dragon made from Lite-Brite as he slithers through the mushrooms. Like some of the other arcade characters, he is far more vivid and has more personality than the humans in the story.
Parents should know that this film has a handful of bad words, potty humor, sci-fi/action violence with peril and apparent injuries, brief comic view of a portion of a bare butt, and comic but crude sexual references including a threesome. There are alcohol jokes and alcohol is used to deal with stress.
Family discussion: Why did coming in second change Sam’s life? Is Violet a snob? How could the skills you have help save the planet?
If you like this, try: “The King of Kong,” “Wreck-It Ralph,” and “Galaxy Quest”
. Raffey Cassidy, the enchanting young star who was the highlight of “Tomorrowland,” is perfectly cast as the determined Molly Moon, who learns from an old book how to use hypnotism to get people to do what she wants. Cassidy’s clear blue eyes are so mesmerizing that it is easy to believe they can bewitch anyone.
