This week Morgan Freeman, Alan Arkin, and Michael Caine star in the remake of the 1979 comedy heist film, “Going in Style,” starring George Burns, Art Carney, and legendary acting teacher Lee Strasberg (Hyman Roth in “The Godfather 2.”)
In the original film, three men in their 70’s decide to rob a bank mostly because they are bored. This new version, with a script by “St. Vincent” and “Hidden Figures” writer/director Theodore Melfi, is a bit more of a reflect of the times, giving the trio a reason to feel that the money they steal is rightfully theirs. The original version is worth a look, with three of the all-time pros clearly having a great time. Probably the biggest surprise today was how little they stole: just $35,000.
Happy April! Wishing you all a minimum of showers and a maximum of flowers. Here’s what I’m especially looking forward to in theaters this month.
April 7
Smurfs: The Lost Village
The smurfs are back where they belong — in a fully-animated feature set in their own magical world. Smurfette who was created by the evil wizard Gargamel but became a part of the otherwise all-male and all-named after one characteristic smurf community, wants to know who she is. And she discovers a whole village of female smurfs. It features the voices of Rainn Wilson, Jack McBrayer, Joe Manganiello, Demi Lovato, and Julia Roberts.
Going in Style
Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, and Alan Arkin star in a remake of the George Burns film about a retirees who rob a bank. Ann-Margret and Kenan Thompson also appear, and it was directed by Zach Braff (“Scrubs,” “Garden State”).
April 12
Gifted
Chris Evans and Jenny Slate star in the story of a man who cares for his intellectually advanced young niece, despite those who think she needs a different kind of environment.
April 14
The Fate of the Furious
Those Fast and Furious rascals are back, still fast, still furious. This time it appears Dom has become a bad guy, but don’t you believe it. We know he’d never turn on his family.
The Lost City of Z
Charlie Hunnam and Robert Pattinson star in the real-life story of Englishman who explored South America, the man who inspired dozens of adventure sagas, including the Indiana Jones films.
April 21
Born in China
DisneyNature releases a nature film every year in honor of Earth Day. This one is sure to elicit “awwws.” It’s about pandas.
Free Fire
Martin Scorsese produced this stylish and very violent story about illegal arms dealers, starring Oscar winner Brie Larson, Sharlto Copley, Jack Reynor, and Armie Hammer.
The Promise
It was 100 years ago, but it is more relevant than ever. The story of the Armenian genocide (the event that gave rise to that term and the need to have such a term) provides the background for a story of love and loss starring Christian Bale, Oscar Isaac, and Charlotte LeBon, directed by “Hotel Rwanda’s” Terry George.
April 28
The Circle
Tom Hanks, Emma Watson, and John Boyega star in a story that could not be more timely — about a company that knows everything about you and just wants to help…or does it?
“The Zookeeper’s Wife,” starring Jessica Chastain, is based on the nonfiction book by Diane Ackerman, the story of Jan and Antonina Zabinski, Warsaw zookeepers who helped Jews hide from and escape the Nazis during the Holocaust.
Copyright Zabinski 1939
Yad Vashem, the world’s most comprehensive resource on the Holocaust, paid tribute to the Zabinskis and Dr. Zabinski planted a tree on the Mount of Remembrance there.
Dr. Jan Zabinski was the director of the zoo. He was the author of many popular-knowledge books about biology and the psychology of animals, as well as the producer of a number of very popular radio-shows. Despite the enormous problems he faced as the director of a zoo during wartime, he was not blind to the suffering of the Jews. When the Warsaw ghetto was established Jan and his wife, Antonina, began helping their Jewish friends. As an employee of the Warsaw municipality he was allowed to enter the ghetto. Under the pretext of supervising the trees and small public garden within the ghetto area, he visited his Jewish acquaintances and helped them as best as he could. As the situation in the ghetto deteriorated, he offered them shelter.
“Dr. Zabinski, with exceptional modesty and without any self-interest, occupied himself with the fates of his prewar Jewish suppliers… different acquaintances as well as strangers,” wrote Irena Meizel. She added: “He helped them get over to Aryan side, provided them with indispensable personal documents, looked for accommodations, and when necessary hid them at his villa or on the zoo’s grounds.” Regina Koenigstein described Zabinski’s home as a modern “Noah’s ark”. According to the testimonies, many Jews found temporary shelter in the zoo’s abandoned animal cells, until they were able to relocate to permanent places of refuge elsewhere. In addition, close to a dozen Jews were sheltered in Zabinski’s two-story private home on the zoo’s grounds. In this dangerous undertaking he was helped by his wife, Antonina, a recognized author, and their young son, Ryszard, who supplied food and looked after the needs of the many distraught Jews in their care.
Here is an interview with one of the “guests” who hid at the zoo.
Critics Pay Tribute to a Guilty Pleasure: Ice Castles
Posted on March 29, 2017 at 7:47 pm
As part of rogerebert.com’s annual Women’s Week, three critics got together to pay tribute to one of their favorite films, the ice skating classic, Ice Castles.
Christy Lemire, Sheila O’Malley, and Susan Wloszczyna shared their memories of first seeing the film and acknowledged that despite its cheesiness and some uncomfortable elements, they can’t help loving it.
Released in 1978, it has disco-era signposts aplenty: Melissa Manchester’s unbridled rendition of Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager’s magical Oscar-nominated theme song, “Through the Eyes of Love,” then-It Boy Robby Benson as the hockey hotshot romantic interest and Dorothy Hamill-inspired wedge haircuts galore….
CHRISTY LEMIRE: “Ice Castles” has a really great, gritty sense of place that also keeps it from being teenage nonsense. That town feels so real and so insular. Are there actual bowling alley/ice rink combos in the world?
SHEILA O’MALLEY: I was going to mention that! I totally agree. She really comes from somewhere. It’s very real. The snow, the bowling alley, the frozen pond. A boyfriend who plays hockey. I really hope there are such combos. I’d love to visit. Especially if Colleen Dewhurst is running the show, sipping whiskey from a flask.
CHRISTY LEMIRE: She gives this film so much weight, so much emotional heft.
SHEILA O’MALLEY: She is acting her ASS off, if you’ll pardon the expression. She’s ferocious and filled with emotion and personal regrets and smoking butts and sneaking sips of whiskey at the hockey game. She’s awesome.
Many thanks to Expressive Mom and Miriam Slozberg for interviewing me about the three questions I get asked most often: Why do most movies about children have one or both parents dead or otherwise out of the picture? What do I do when they say, “everyone else at school got to see it?” And what do I do when my child/teen wants to watch the same movie over and over (and over and over)? Check out the interview for my answers.
