"Hateship Loveship" Movie Review

My review of "Hateship Loveship" starring Kristen Wiig, Guy Pearce, Hailee Steinfeld.

"Hateship Loveship"

Published on April 25, 2014 on CWAtlanta.cbslocal.com

Wayback Machine Archive Post

Photo courtesy of IFC Films

“Hateship Loveship” (2014)

When we first meet Johanna (Kristen Wiig) is seems she is living in the 1950’s.  She wears old fashioned lace up shoes, dress that seem to be bought at a 5 & 10 store and when she does housework, an apron so old fashioned that you might have seen on “Leave it to Beaver.”  She works as a caretaker for an elderly woman who suddenly, though not unexpectedly, dies.  As Johanna quietly goes about fulfilling the woman’s last request of wanting to wear her blue dress, we learn that she is loyal, hardworking and determined.  We also learn, as the oxygen supply picks up the old tanks, that she has a new job in a new city set up by her clergy.

Johanna arrives by bus to her new city to work for Mr. McCauley (Nick Nolte) as a live-in maid/nanny.  McCauley lives with his teenage granddaughter Sabitha (Hailee Steinfeld), who is estranged from her recovering addict, ex-con of a father, Ken (Guy Pearce).  We soon learn that Sabitha’s mother (McCauley’s daughter) was killed in a car accident caused by Ken.

Sabitha is a little out of control, especially when around her best friend, Edith (Sami Gayle), who encourages her to drink and act up.  Sabitha, while adoring her father, seems to have never recovered from her mother’s death and Ken, makes things worse by living in another town, only seeing his daughter when he wants something from McCauley.  Now Johanna is thrown into a family at the brink of a breakdown, and we get the feeling that no matter what Johanna does Sabitha isn’t going to allow her to become any sort of a mother figure.

After a chance encounter with Ken in a bathroom as he was stealing McCauley’s drugs, Joanna visibly reacts with a blush and a tiny smile when Ken calls her “gorgeous.”  When Ken sends Joanna a short thank you note for taking care of Sabitha, Joanna responds as if it is from “Romeo” himself, and immediately responds.  Edith and Sabitha intercept the return note from Joanna and then launch an elaborate scheme to interact with Joanna, posing as Ken.

Wiig gives the performance of her career, creating a character that in any other actress’s hands would come off strange and unsympathetic.  But we slowly fall in love with Joanna, understanding that this is a woman who at her core just wants to care for someone and have them care back. Wiig, using just little tells, gives us insight into the simple on the outside but emotionally complex Joanna, so that in every scene, if we watch carefully we will discover more about her character.

Guy Pearce plays Ken as a man who cares about his daughter but can’t overcome the demons of this past enough to change for her.  He is a man that seems to be filled with quilt, but keeps making the same mistakes, whether it’s with drugs or his relationships.  Ken is a man that isn’t going to change unless something drastic happens, and Pearce lets us see this through his reactions with the people that he cares about.

Hailee Steinfeld is very moving in her performance of Sabitha, a girl who is desperate for attention, even if it comes from the wrong places. Steinfeld plays the character as someone who is constantly observing people, seeing how they will react to her interactions before she proceeds.  The rest of the cast is outstanding, with Nick Nolte, in a very restrained performance, leading the way.  Instead of chewing up scenery and dominating the screen, he is quiet and thoughtful, letting the scenes play out without overreaction.  Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Ken’s addict girlfriend and Christine Lahti plays a love interest for Nolte’s character.

Director Liza Johnson does a phenomenal job of getting great performances out of her cast. She lets us sit back and slowly discover new things about the characters, never quite knowing which direction the film will take. The film has an incredible soundtrack by Dickon Hinchliffe, with most of the music in the film is provided by songs played on radios that perfectly match the moods and emotions of the scenes they are in. The screenplay, written by Mark Poirier, never gives us too much at one time and lets the characters speak through their actions more than their words. It’s a film where the audience hopes that each character in the film can find love and peace, and maybe with Wiig’s Johanna  at the center of the action, they will find it.   My Rating: Full Price

My movie rating system from Best to Worst:  1). I Would Pay to See it Again  2). Full Price  3). Bargain Matinee  4). Cable  5). You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again

“Hateship Loveship” is playing exclusively at the Plaza Theatre

“Hatehip Loveship” Website

"The Railway Man" Movie Review

My review of "The Railway Man" starring Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Stellan Skarsgård. 

"The Railway Man"

Published on April 18, 2014 on CWAtlanta.cbslocal.com

Wayback Machine Archive Post

Photo courtesy of The Weinstein Company 

“The Railway Man” (2013)

Eric Lomax (Colin Firth) has a chance encounter with a beautiful woman, Patti (Nicole Kidman), on a train traveling across the English countryside. As they converse about the history of the towns they are passing, a spark is ignited between the two.  Eric reluctantly leaves the Patti when the train arrives at his destination. Meeting his fellow war veterans at a bar, he gets their advice and decides to track down Patti, knowing that she will be arriving back in town by train later in the week.  They meet at the station and both know this is too big a thing to pass up.  And so starts the film “The Railway Man.”

Lomax has a very painful past, one that he isn’t willing or able to share with Patti. During World War II, he was a prisoner of war, held captive by the Japanese in a labor camp. Their job, to build the Thai/Burma railroad (the same railroad depicted in the 1957 Academy Award winning film “The Bridge on the River Kwai).  The Japanese want to build a railroad deemed by the British a few years earlier, too costly in men’s lives to try. Lomax is so scared by the memories and experiences as a POW that it affects not only his everyday life but also his relationship with Patti.

The film is based on the bestselling autobiography by Eric Lomax and moves back and forth from his relationship with Patti in 1980 to flashbacks of his life in the labor camp. Colin Firth gives a moving performance of a man who can’t escape his past. Firth is able to work with silence so well, letting his face and his body language gives us all the information we need to know that Eric is a troubled soul.  Nicole Kidman is sensational as the put upon Patti, who struggles to deal with Eric’s Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Even though she was a nurse for 20 years, Patti doesn’t know how to support or reach Eric. Kidman allows us to sympathize with Patti, investing us in their relationship and making us want for it to work out.

While Kidman and Firth give excellent performances, the performance to watch is the one that Jeremy Irvine gives as the younger Eric. Irvine is one of those actors who when he appears on the screen, you instantly like him. Irvine gives us an Eric that is far braver than his young appearance and seemingly easy going manner projects. His scenes in the labor camp, especially ones where he is being beaten by his Japanese captors are intense and amazing to watch, making those scenes the best part of the film.  Irvine also makes us believe that he is a younger version of Firth.

As fine as the acting is “The Railway Man” they can’t overcome a script, written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and Andy Paterson, that has a rather jarring timeline, switching at a moment’s notice from 1980 to the POW labor camp. I think I would have enjoyed the film more if it hadn’t gone back and forth so much. It made the scenes between Kidman and Firth seem far less important than they really were, mostly because they were far less intense than the POW scenes.

The cinematography by Garry Phillips does an excellent job contrasting the rainy, haunting gray English coast with the sticky, hot jungles of Thailand, making the POW scenes seem very real and stark. Director Jonathan Teplitzky gets all he can from the weak script but the film ultimately isn’t as touching and moving as you want it to be. Overall, it’s a good film, with a great performance by Jeremy Irving, that shows love and compassion can overcome just about everything, including man’s inhumanity to man. It’s just not the great film that it’s subject matter deserved.    My Rating:  Bargain Matinee

My movie rating system from Best to Worst:  1). I Would Pay to See it Again  2). Full Price  3). Bargain Matinee  4). Cable  5). You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again

“The Railway Man” is currently playing in select theatres in Atlanta.

“The Railway Man” Website

"The Unknown Known" Movie Review

I review the documentary "The Unknown Known"

"The Unknown Known"

Published on April 11, 2014 on CWAtlanta.cbslocal.com

Wayback Machine Archive Post

Photo courtesy of RADiUS-TWC

“The Unknown Known” (2014)

Donald Rumsfeld is one of the most fascinating political figures of the last 50 years. Besides serving four terms in Congress, Rumsfeld was the youngest person to serve as the Secretary of Defense (1975-1977 under President Gerald Ford) and the oldest (2001-2006 under President George W. Bush). Academy Awarding winning documentary filmmaker Errol Morris points his camera at Rumsfeld in this portrait of a man who was in government when so many important events happened.

Using Rumsfeld’s own memo’s (Rumsfeld estimates he wrote over 20,000 of them in the years under President Bush) as starting material for each subject, it gives us an inside look on how he sees the world and the United States place in it. The film starts out with one of Rumsfeld’s memos dealing with “the unknown known,” which he defines as “The Unknown Known are thing you know which turns out you do not.”

The film centers on the two tours that he did as Secretary of Defense, especially his time serving under Bush. Morris shoots Rumsfeld strait on, almost always in close-up with very dramatic lighting. It almost makes Rumsfeld appear as a college professor in for a talk with a favorite student. Morris (always off camera) asks Rumsfeld a number of questions but rarely follows up on the questions when Rumsfeld evades or doesn’t really answer the question that was asked.

A number of subjects in the film are covered, such as Watergate (Rumsfeld didn’t fit in with the Nixon staff and was shipped off to be an ambassador to NATO), the Ford administration, and the big elephant in the room, 9/11 and the Iraqi war. The film intersperses shots of Rumsfeld with news footage, to give each subject some historical context. Rumsfeld does talk at length about each subject but sometimes you feel as though you are not getting the whole story and, unfortunately, Morris never really goes after Rumsfeld to expound on his answers.

There are some startling claims made by Rumsfeld during the film. One is on the subject of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Rumsfeld makes it seem like that notorious prison was the best run prison in the whole system and that not one person was water boarded by the military. He does admit that the CIA may have water-boarded three people and that other means were used to make prisoners give up information.

Rumsfeld talks about 9/11 which seems to be a subject close to his heart (he was in the Pentagon when the airliner hit it). He talks about how the military and the intelligence communities were taken by surprise by the attacks, calling it a “failure in imagination.” He also covers the subjects of the hunt for both Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

The Unknown Known is an interesting film about a very sure and dynamic personality. I just wish that it had been more hard hitting and that Errol Morris had questioned Rumsfeld to give us more detailed and precise answers. Its a film that you leaving thinking, I didn’t get the whole story but only the story the subject wanted me to get.   My Rating: Bargain Matinee

My movie rating system from Best to Worst:  1). I Would Pay to See it Again  2). Full Price  3). Bargain Matinee  4). Cable  5). You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again

The film is playing in Atlanta exclusively at Lefont Sandy Springs

"Anita" Movie Review

My review of the documentary "Anita"

"Anita: Speaking Truth to Power"

Posted on April 4, 2014 on CWAtlanta.cbslocal.com

Wayback Machine Archive Post

Photo courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films

“Anita” (2014)

In 1991, the country was glued to their TV’s watching the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings where a young, African-American woman law professor out of the University of Oklahoma, Anita Hill, was testifying. She had brought forth claims of sexual harassment against President George H. W. Bush’s nominee for the United States Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas.

Academy Award winning filmmaker Frieda Lee Mock has made a documentary on Anita Hill, a woman that to this day is still feeling the repercussions of her testimony. Anita Hill speaks for the first time at length, in this documentary, about her experiences before, during, and after the hearing. It’s an inside look at one of the most infamous incidents in Washington politics.

Photo courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Pictures

Hill served under Thomas at the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), an agency that enforces laws against workplace discrimination. While there, she claimed to experience numerous incidents of sexual harassment by Thomas. She never filed charges, but she did tell a number of co-workers and friends about the incidents. When Thomas was nominated for the Supreme Court, Hill was interviewed by Democrats, looking into Thomas’s past. She sent the Senate committee a statement detailing her claims of harassment, thinking that would be the extent of her involvement in the process. Little did she know that very soon she would be called to testify about the claims of sexual harassment by Thomas in front of not just the Senate Committee but also the nation itself.

Mock uses Hill’s own words to narrate the film, giving us an insight to a woman that became of symbol of strength and power to many women across America that had suffered sexual harassment in the workplace. Mock also uses extensive footage from the nine hours of testimony that Hill gave that day.

Photo courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Pictures

We first meet Hill as she is walking into her office at Brandeis University, while an old voice-mail message is played from Ginni Thomas, the wife of Clarence Thomas. The message is asking for Hill to apologize to the nominee and suggests that Hill as alternative motives in bringing the charges to light. We go from that scene to a video clip of Hill testifying in front of the senate, giving them details in very graphic detail.

The film interviews a number of people about Hill’s testimony, including friends, co-workers, family and lawyers brought in to help her get through the testimony. One of the films faults is that it’s a one-sided look. No one is interviewed on camera that defends Thomas’s testimony that he did not do these things, nor are any of the senators that served on the committee. It makes the film seem a little bit of an “attack film” on Thomas and the Republicans in the Senate.

The film does do a good job of capturing what it was like to have a big press event (people watched all nine hours of her testimony on TV) in a time before Twitter, TMZ and cell phone cameras. One of the most amazing things that’s revealed in the film, is how little Hill was prepared for her testimony. She thought she was going to a hearing that would only contain Senators for the Democratic party. What she got instead was a grilling for 9 hours that questioned not only her honesty but her character as well.

Photo courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Pictures

The film also does a marvelous job of showing the effects of the testimony of Hill’s life. That she had to leave the state and the University that she loved due to all the publicity and the pressure. In the film she shows 25 file cabinets of mail she has received over the years due to the hearings, some of it good but most are of the death threat variety. We also see that Hill has moved on, becoming a champion of woman’s rights in the workplace and that she is looked on as a role model for young females.

This is an interesting film, but it seems to reflect it’s subject. Like Hill, the film is a little reserved and somewhat hard to know what is happening under the surface, but the film does do a good job showing how much Anita Hill had to go through and also how far we have come as a country in dealing with sexual harassment.  My Rating: Bargain Matinee

My movie rating system from Best to Worst:  1). I Would Pay to See it Again  2). Full Price  3). Bargain Matinee  4). Cable  5). You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again

“Anita” is playing exclusively at the UA Tara Cinema 4.

"The Lunchbox" Movie Review

My review of the Indian film "The Lunchbox"

"The Lunchbox"

Posted on March 28, 2014 on CWAtlanta.cbslocal.com

Wayback Machine Archive Post

Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

“The Lunchbox” (2013)

In India, it is not uncommon for housewife’s to send their husbands lunches by way of an elaborate delivery system called the Dabbawalas. The Dabbawalas, even though some of the delivery men are illiterate, have an almost perfect record for delivering these lunches to their proper destinations. The system is complicated and sometimes the lunches, packed in elaborate stacking metal bins, travel by train and bicycle, but it is so successful in its correct deliveries that Harvard University studied it’s methods.

Ila (Nimrat Kaur) is an unhappy housewife, who feels more and more alone each day. Her husband barely acknowledges her when he comes home from work, coming through the door more concerned about his phone than his wife and child. Besides her controlling mother (Lillete Dubey) and her husband, Ila’s only source of human contact is her young daughter and her Auntie (Sharati Achrekar) who lives upstairs. Auntie is a sounding board for Ila as they communicate through yelling through their kitchen windows. Her Auntie tells her that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach and Ila decides to create lunch meals that her husband won’t soon forget.

Saajan (Irrfan Kahn) is a widower who after working for 35 years at a company is contemplating retirement. A solitary man who likes his routines, he spends his nights watching old VHS tapes of classic Indian television and movies. His life becomes slightly complicated when an eager young man (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) shows up at his desk ready to be trained by Saajan, a task that irritates him to no end.

The impossible happens and a lunch that was destined for Ila’s husband, instead finds its way to Saajan’s desk. Saajan, who has his lunches delivered from a local restaurant, is delighted in the improvement of his meal and even goes by the restaurant on his way home to compliment them. Meanwhile, Ila is delighted when the lunch containers come back, her husband has eaten every bite (something that he is not known for doing). But when her husband comes home and barely mentions the meal, complimenting her on an item she didn’t pack, she figures out that her meals are being delivered to the wrong place. Curious on who might be getting her lunches, she includes a note in the next meal, Saajan responds and a relationship through notes begins between the two strangers, one that may change their lives.

Much like the lunches that Ila makes, this movie slowly reveals itself to the viewers, as the containers of the lunches and the layers of the characters are revealed. It’s a film about loneliness; of a man who hasn’t been able to get over the death of his wife, and a housewife that feels neglected, taken for granted and maybe even cheated on. But it’s also about the human connection that we desperately need. The bonding and love between two people who express their feelings through notes and their actions.

Irrfan Kahn, as the sad and set in his ways Saajan, is perfect in this role. He has a screen presence that makes you take note of him, even though his character is very reserve and quiet. Nimrat Kaur, as the housewife Ila, is delightful, especially in her conversations she has through the window with her auntie. We instantly like Ila, wanting her to find happiness and the love she deserves.

The director, Ritesh Batra, is a first time feature director, who initially wanted to do a documentary about the delivery system, but we are rewarded with a much warmer and subtle film than a documentary could deliver. It’s a film with a love story between two lonely people that hits the mark without being conventional. Batra captures what it must be like to live in one of the busiest cities in the world, where it’s a miracle that people can not only find each other but can fall in love. Much like Ila’s lunches, it’s a film rich with colors, taste and subtle nuances that are deeply satisfying and rewarding.
My Rating: I Would Pay to See it Again

My movie rating system from Best to Worst:  1). I Would Pay to See it Again  2). Full Price  3). Bargain Matinee  4). Cable  5). You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again

“The Lunchbox” is playing exclusively at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema.

“The Lunchbox” Website

"Bad Words" Movie Real

My review of "Bad Words" starring Jason Bateman, Kathryn Hahn, Allison Janney.

"Bad Words"

Published on March 21, 2014 on CWAtlanta.cbslocal.com

Wayback Machine Archive Post

Photo courtesy of Focus Features 

“Bad Words” (2014)

We first meet Guy Trilby (Jason Bateman) as he enters a school auditorium that is getting ready for a spelling bee.  A nearby parent sees Guy and tries to start up a conversation with him, which Guy very quickly and with the use of profanity, shoots down. We learn very quickly that Guy isn’t here to watch his kid in the competition, he is here to compete in it. Guy has found and is exploiting a loophole in the spelling bee’s rules that say that a competitor cannot enter if he has passed the 8th grade. Apparently Guy dropout out of school before completing it; therefore, he meets all the requirements to compete. And compete he does as Guy as a photographic brain, having memorized every word in the competition. We also soon learn that he isn’t above using every trick in the book to psych out his competitors. When a rather large kid next to him asks him what he is doing up on stage, Guy tells the kid “Your chair called me for help.  Help me, he’s so heavy.”

And so begins our adventures into the world of the Golden Quill Spelling Bee competition with the 40 year old copy editor Guy who is determined to win the national competition and he doesn’t care who he steps on to get there. Guy isn’t a likable man, but he treats everyone he meets equally, with disdain and disinterest.  Even the reporter (Kathryn Hahn) that is sponsoring him so that he can get into the competition is treated by Guy with contempt. She and everyone else in the spelling bee have no idea why Guy is competing.

This is a raunchy, R rated film in the style of “Bad Santa” (2003) and “Bad Teacher” (2011), especially in the language department as the Bateman character continually spews out profanity laced putdowns, aimed at both the parents and their kids when they get in his way of winning. But Guy may have met his match in Chaitanya (Rohan Chand), an adorable 10 year old boy who is determined to make Guy his friend. No matter what Guy says or does, he can’t shake Chaitanya’s optimism and very soon, Guy starts hanging out with the kid. He becomes sort of a mentor to the kid, showing him how to eat chili cheese fries and play practical jokes. Guy sees a little of himself in Chaitanya and makes it his mission to show the kid that there is more to life than school work and spelling competitions.

First time director Bateman has done a great job casting this film filling it with actors who can make even the smallest scene memorable. Indie vet Rachel Harris is hysterical as a mom of one of the competitors who falls victim to Guy’s many schemes. Allison Janney plays the put upon director of the spelling bee who is determined to defeat Guy’s mission by any means she can.  Kathryn Hahn is perfect as the reporter who is determined to breakdown Guy’s resolve and get her story. She plays Kathryn as a woman, who has problems of her own and sees that there is something behind the facade that Guy is putting up to the world.

It’s the chemistry between Bateman and Chand, who plays Chaitanya that makes this film work. They play off each other so well, and Chand is incredibly likable in the role. We instantly see a connection between the two characters and its if they have been friends for years instead of days. Chand holds his own in the comedic scenes with Bateman, showing as good a comedy timing as the vet actor Bateman. Even though Bateman’s character isn’t a great guy, to his credit, he still makes us root for him

The script by Andrew Dodge moves at a quick pace, has some very funny dialogue and is never predictable. Bateman does an admirable job keeping the storyline moving, though I didn’t like how he framed a lot of the film with an overabundance of close ups. But Bateman gets great performances out his cast, especially from Chand. He’s brought us a film that, although it’s quite a down and dirty ride, it’s extremely fun one.    My Rating: Full Price

My movie rating system from Best to Worst:  1). I Would Pay to See it Again  2). Full Price  3). Bargain Matinee  4). Cable  5). You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again

“Bad Words” Website

The film is playing in Atlanta at AMC Phipps Plaza 14 and Regal Atlantic Station 18

"Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me" Movie Review

My review of the documentary "Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me"

"Elaine Strich: Shoot Me"

Published on March 14,2014 on CWAtlanta.cbslocal.com

Wayback Machine Archive Post

Photo courtesy of Sundance Selects

“Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me” (2014)

Elaine Stritch is a Tony and Emmy winning actress who has appeared on Broadway since 1946. She has appeared in movies such as “A Farewell to Arms” (1957), Woody Allen’s “September (1987) and “Monster in Law” (2005). Stritch has also had a long career in television, winning 3 Emmy awards, most recently for her role as Colleen, the mother of Alec Baldwin’s character, Jack Dounaghy, on the NBC program “30 Rock.”

Chiemi Karasawa’s documentary is centered around her attempting to do a cabaret show called “Elaine Stritch Singin’ Sondheim…One Song at a Time” at age 87. We see her, warts and all as she struggles performing a demanding one woman show while dealing with old age, diabetes and alcoholism. As Stritch says in the film “Getting old is not for sissies.”

The is a fascinating look at a woman who is truly is a force of nature. Stritch has always been known as an outspoken woman who isn’t afraid to tell anyone just what she thinks of them. Her romances in the 40’s and 50’s were legendary, including encounters with John F. Kennedy, Marlon Brando, Gig Young and Ben Gazzara. In the film she talks about breaking up with Gazzara because Rock Hudson wanted to date her, “And we all know what a bum decision that turned out to be.” The late James Gandolfini, talks on screen that if she had been younger when he first met her, they would have had a torrid affair “that would have ended very badly.” She finally met her match in stage actor John Bay, whon she married in 1972. Bay’s family owned Bays English Muffins, and Stritch to this day, still gives muffins to family and friends during Christmas. Her husband died in 1982 due to cancer, and she never really fully recovered from his death.

The documentary will delight Broadway, and musical fans as the film gives us a glance at the talent of Stritch, showing appearances of hers both on TV and the stage, including many songs from her Tony award winning one-woman show “Elaine Stritch at Liberty.” Scenes are shown also from her appearances on the stage in “Bus Stop” (1956), “Sail Away” (1962), which was written for Stritch by the legendary Noel Coward, and her highly praised performance of Joanne in the Broadway musical “Company” (1971).

The movie gives us a look at a woman who while in rehearsal, struggles with remembering the lyrics to songs and gets frustrated when she can’t perform up to her high standards. We also get to see up close and personal her daily battles with diabetes, which rears up several times during the film, causing her to be hospitalized. Her struggles with alcoholism, something that she has battled most of her life is dealt with in the film. Stritch starting drinking at a very early age to help her deal with “stage fright.” When her husband died, she got even more dependent on alcohol, and it nearly killed her. At times, Stritch tries to justify her drinking by saying that it’s only one drink a day, but after a health setback, she attempts to get back on the wagon, even attending AA meetings. What makes this documentary so compelling is that we get to see her deal with these problems, giving us insight to what makes Stritch tick.

Photo courtesy of IFC

She is a woman that at times looks frail and close to death. At other times, especially when she is on stage, she is a performer that is determined and full of life. It’s remarkable how, in rehearsals, she is so full of doubt that you wonder why she thinks she can go up and perform. Then you see her enter from the wings and get up on that stage in front of an audience becoming transformed into someone who is full of confidence and bravado. She may not have the voice or the moves that she had 30 years ago, but she still knows how to work a room. Stritch is one of those performers who can almost instantly get the audience to love her.

The film allows you to see a person who is fully ready to admit to her flaws. Stritch is a someone who is at a time in her life that knows her days are numbered. She continues to deal with her fears, all the while saying “there’s something exciting about being afraid.” It’s a compelling look at a woman who lives to perform. As Stritch says in the film “What I needed was the people looking up at me,” and it’s a joy to do so.  My Rating: Full Price

My movie rating system from Best to Worst:  1). I Would Pay to See it Again  2). Full Price  3). Bargain Matinee  4). Cable  5). You Would Have to Pay Me to See it Again

The film is playing in Atlanta exclusively at Landmark Midtown Art Cinema

“Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me” Info