Nr 24

Set during the Nazi occupation of Norway, this is the story of Gunnar Sønsteby, a Norwegian resistance fighter/leader. The plot mechanism is Gunnar as an old man giving a lecture / telling his history to a room full of school children. As he tells his story, 80% of the film is flashback to the events of the 1940's. With the telling, most of it is straight forward resistance warfare (sabotage, who do you trust, etc.). But what makes this film outstanding is the interactions in the present, as Gunnar reflects on his history, what he is willing to talk about, and the questions that the students ask. When is it appropriate to be violent? What is different about "war time"? Did you ever consider nonviolent resistance, like Ghandi? Gunnar's response that Ghandi never faced the Nazis is not sufficient for one particularly interested kid. When the kid says something to the effect of  "it seems like nonviolent resistance is more important in that situation", the filmmakers give us time to think. Wait, is it? Or is that just naiveté? It also struck me how daily and personal that threat was for Norwegians, and a that a real resistance grew in opposition. Gunnar telling his story to modern kids (2 or 3 generations removed) is an important part of a society struggling with threat, violence, resistance and freedom. Collectively in the US we haven't experienced a daily and personal threat since the 1800's, too many generations removed to have a connection to the moral dilemmas and trauma, to be able to have an experience informed discussion of what resistance really requires. 

5 stars (out of 5)

Saturday Night

A historical reenactment of sorts of the first night that SNL went live. Basically the behind the scenes leadup to "Live... from NY... it's Saturday Night". Lorne Michaels is the star of this telling as he works to put all the pieces together for something that no-one thought could happen and was improbable at best. Great characterizations of Belushi, Chase, Crystal, and a bunch of comics I should know but don't. This was fun and funny. 

4 stars (out of 5)

The Six Triple Eight

Historical fiction telling of the WWII unit of soldiers who were sent to England to fix the army's mail problem. Mail was deprioritized by the leadership, with the result being a massive backlog of deliveries (17 million pieces) and the associated low moral that comes with being cut off from communicating with family. The 6888 delivered all of this mail, while simultaneously fighting sexism and racism since they were an all black, all women company. I am sure that this telling glorifies the work and overlooks the awfulness of war. But it is a feel good, crowd pleaser in the end. 

4 stars (out of 5)

Gran Turismo

Historical fiction story of the Nissan sponsored contest to find e-sports drivers who could make the jump to real-world racing. All the tropes show up, but it is still a fun watch. 

3 stars (out of 5)

My All-American

Historical fiction story of Freddy Steinmark, an undersized underdog who played safety for a couple years for Texas in the late 60's. He was the heart and soul of a national championship team and played through tremendous physical adversity. Classic feel-good sports bio. 

4 stars (out of 5)

Bank of Dave

An car salesman in rural England (meaning non-London) has been making small private loans to those in his community, functioning as a micro-lender/micro-bank. In order to be legal, he applies to the banking regulators to be approved as a small bank. They don't want it (it could break capitalism) but his Ted Lasso level of optimism pushes forward. Every character is charming (except the bankers of course) and we get a big concert fundraiser at the end. 

3 stars (out of 5)

The Hill

For a feel good, underdog sports story, this was one of the most slow developing plots I have seen in awhile. And even so, not a surprise was in sight. Ricky Hill has always dreamed of being in the majors, but his degenerative bone disease was an obvious impediment. We get to follow his fight to the top, overcoming all the sports naysayers as well as his own southern, itinerate pastor father. Guess what, in the end he makes it. So surprises, and pretty OK.

3 stars (out of 5)

Greater

The story of Brandon Burlsworth, a walk-on turned all american for Arkansas football. Told in real-time at his funeral alternating with flashbacks of his razorback career. Heartfelt. Inspirational. Heartbreaking. 

4 stars (out of 5)

Tetris

The 'based on a true story' telling of how the rights to the tetris game were sought after. Tetris was created by a Russian programmer and sold licensing to a western game developer. But the western companies were unethical, creating and distributing the game without actual regard for the licensing rights. When a small developer gets into the mix to bring it to Nintendo for their new GameBoy handheld, he ends up having to travel to Moscow to negotiate new rights. Interesting, but the first 2/3 was really necessary but to much setup. The final 1/3 actually gets interesting and pulls you in. 

3 stars (out of 5)

Peace by Chocolate

A Syrian family emigrates to Nova Scotia by way of the Lebanese refugee camps. The father was the premier chocolatier in Syria before his factory was bombed. Now in a small village in Nova Scotia, he encounters Canadian hospitality and family strife as he chances on an opportunity to begin making chocolate again. A good anecdotal bio-pic, with the biggest takeaway probably the difference between how the opposition panned out compared to if this was set in any U.S. town. 

3 stars (out of 5)

Air

Historical fiction telling of the signing of Michael Jordan by Nike. Clearly they had fun with setting the scene of 80's pop culture (Phil Knight in day-glo aerobics wear). And everybody comes up smelling like roses. Fun, and maybe just because that was my sports history they were telling.

4 stars (out of 5)

Operation Mincemeat

Colin Firth stars in the historical fiction version of a World War 2 subterfuge mission. The allies want to invade Sicily, but want the Nazi's to think they are invading somewhere else. So Firth's team comes up with an elaborate plan to leak believable false intel to the Nazis. Quite involved at times, but the fact that this is historical fiction makes it fantastic rather than farcical. Firth is always good. 

4 stars (out of 5)

Female Agents

The historical fiction telling of 5 women who are recruited to parachute into France a week before the Normandie allied beach landing. Their task is to rescue a geologist who was captured in Normandie and who would give up the entire invasion plan. A cat and mouse war film that is a fascinating and thrilling story, but also horrific as it reminds us of the brutality of people (both individuals and systems). The film captures well a lot of the nuance of gender bias, personal motivations of the characters, and just the machine of war.

4 stars (out of 5)

The Trial of the Chicago 7

A historical fiction telling of the 1969 trial of 8 "conspirators" who led marches to the democratic national convention in Chicago to protest the war in Vietnam. It is a courtroom drama that reveals the events of the case through flashback, testimony and speeches by Abbie Hoffman. It seems like an accurate portrayal of the emotions surrounding the war protests of the time, as well as the strength of the political machinery, the bias and massive power differential between the ruling class and the average citizen. Enlightening, and timely, and infuriating.

5 stars (out of 5)

Radioactive

A biopic of Marie Curie and her path to achieving respect as a scientist. This is basically a straight forward historical telling of Curie's path from meeting Pierre and agreeing to collaborate in the lab to her work in developing mobile x-ray machines for WWI soldiers. The common theme throughout was the lack of acceptance in the local scientific community of her expertise and brilliance. Every single idea, and subsequent request for resources, was an uphill battle. She was never able to leverage her status as a preeminent scientist to take the next step without fighting for it. The culmination of this mentality was her basically needing to pawn her two Nobel gold medals to pursue the mobile x-ray project. Since it was a pretty well worn story, the filmmaker interspersed "flash-forwards" that were pseudo-documentary segments of future applications of Curie's research. Overall, I found myself kinda bored, with the flash-forward concept not enough to keep me engaged.

2 stars (out of 5)

Midway

I suppose I am on a mini WWII air battle movie kick (The Red Tails - The Tuskegee Airmen) this weekend. This story follows a group of carrier based pilots in the Pacific and the task set to them after the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. Taking place over the course of about six months, we lead up to the Midway battle, where 4 Japanese aircraft carriers are in place to deal a devastating blow to U.S. forces. The Navy sets up its own ambush and all 4 carriers are destroyed. The writing here feels like it is trying to cover 6 months worth of facts, details and intrigue in a 2 hour film. So we jump all around with IMO unnecessary details. Yes, the motivation for Japanese action at Midway was based on the recent bombing of Tokyo. But that could have a been a line, not a 10 minute segment. Overall, the film was jilted and covered so much that it never really let me in. I was also surprised by/interested in some of the technical details. The planes rear gunner was shooting over his own tail, so what was the lockout mechanism? The fighters carried only one bomb and the torpedoes never worked. The bombing tactics effectively worked out to line up all your planes to dive at a carrier and hope some get through. It felt like WWI trench warfare or Civil War lines soldiers shooting at each other across a field. But in the air. So I suppose I learned some facts. I guess I wanted more.

3 stars (out of 5)

The Tuskegee Airmen

The 1995 historical fiction offering telling the story of the Tuskegee flight training school the U.S. Air Corp set up as an experiment to see if Black pilots could be successful in combat. This film portrays snapshots of interactions that were most likely typical, from racist verbal abuse, self doubt, self confidence, fear, pride, etc. The graduating class in this film (the 99th air group) is sent to North Africa and given effectively non-combat flying duty. Then they are transferred to Italy, join with other wings of the Tuskegee flyers, and form the 332nd. This group is given escort duty for bombers, win them over with their skill (no bombers lost) and become accepted. Not quite as glossy (or glossed over) as the Disney version (see The Red Tails), but important as the first Hollywood telling of this story. What is particularly disturbing to me is the fact that we are measuring time in decades and seeing very little change in core cultural norms.

4 stars (out of 5)

The Red Tails

A very Disney 2012 historical fiction telling part of the story of the 332nd U.S. Air Corp, aka the Tuskegee Airmen. Very Disney meaning that this is the story of racism and the brutality of war, and the total number of physical altercations is 1 and deaths is 2. I feel like I saw the words of the story, but not the emotion or even the facts. The words of this story follow a few airmen as they are stationed in Italy, and the missions they are given to fly are shooting down trains and trucks, but kept out of air battle. When they are given the opportunity fly fighter support for a bombing run, they are extremely successful and welcomed into the club. This narrative reinforces the idea of meritocracy, your value is based on your work and performance, which is a particularly insidious fallacy in this country. Overall, this was exactly what was expected and significantly lacking at the same time. Further disappointing in that it was released 16 years after another version The Tuskegee Airmen without adding anything.

3 stars (out of 5)

The Mighty Macs

The based on a true story of the first year that collegiate women were allowed to play 5 on 5 basketball. Cathy Rush (new wife of famous NBA ref Ed Rush) takes a job at a small catholic college as the basketball coach. In classic sports film fantasy, she cobbles together a group of players, some reluctant and with families that don't support them, into a team that plays together beyond their skill level. The school eventually gets behind them and they become a local sensation. Threaded throughout the film are the gender bias/discrimination struggles that were par for the course in the early 70's. While sports films can't really be any more formulaic than this, there is a reason that the formula works. This was predictably entertaining.

3 stars (out of 5)

Sergio

A historical fiction biopic focused on Sergio De Mello, the Brazilian UN diplomat who led the mission in East Timor and negotiated their independence from Indonesia, and then was charged with leading the UN mission to Iraq in 2003 as the US invaded. The story of these two events is told simultaneously in real-time/flashback as a way to tell the story of Sergio's life and evolution as a person. Very well done.
4 stars (out of 5)