Dogs Bark

Naima - - Ida (2013, Poland, B/W, 82 min) - - 21 September 2015

Strongly recommended. The adjective ‘lyric’ isn’t often seen in reference to movies. I wonder why. Perhaps because such movies require rapt attention to beauty and we don’t trade much in such as that. Maybe because lyric poetry is often best savored in memory.  A film can’t always be reread and poignant loveliness often  fades. Ida is a lyric movie, concerning itself with a novice nun, turning the world over before her vows. Ida, played to international acclaim by newcomer Agata Trzebuchowska, seems deep in thought . . . even while definitive acting. She eloquently opposes her older, cynical aunt (Agata Kulesza).  Director/writer Pawel Pawlikowski (My Summer of Love) has been here before, lovingly opening the mind of a conflicted - - but not confused - - young person. Ida won the foreign language Oscar and the photography (Ryszard Lenczewski & Lukasz Zal) has also been deservedly praised. You can also savor one of Coltrane’s greatest compositions.

Little Nays - - Big Eyes (2014, USA, Color, 106 min) - - 9 September 2015

Not recommended.  I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t usually get Tim Burton's (Frankenweenie) unique vision . . . especially his films based on ‘real events.’ I loved Beetlejuice but many of his films, similar to Big Eyes, seem so trivial in ambition, so mannered in execution, that I feel like I’m intruding on a fever dream. Amy Adams (American Hustle) plays schlock artist Margaret Keane and Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds), her plagiarizing husband, Walter.  Both seem to perform self-parody, with Waltz channeling Taren Killam’s (Lincoln) SNL impressions.  I’m really starting to wonder how Waltz ever won two Oscars.  Herein, his version of Walter Keane is so crazy and unsympathetic that he makes Margaret seem like a mental defective.  This devalues her abuse at his hands and makes the entire story rather pointless.  Add to this the repetitive idiocy of Keane’s paintings and there’s really nothing to see here.  Move along.

We Still Like You - - Norma Rae (1979, USA, Color, 114 min) - - 6 September 2015

An essential.  A great movie for Labor Day, reminding us of the crucial role labor unions had in bringing working-poor families into the middle class. Also reminding us of the blue-collar feminism - - single moms mostly - - still answering Joe Hill’s dying words, “Don’t mourn. Organize!”  Sally Field (Mrs. Doubtfire) organized her spectacular talents into an actress of the heart and re-started her career . . . along the way expectorating the dust of Burt Reynolds and re-inventing the classic, set-upon, Southern woman. Although her accent seems a tad insincere here, she ran the table from Mrs. Gump to Mrs. Lincoln, embracing one more Oscar and nine Golden Globe nominations.  Norma Rae began it, with Martin Ritt’s (Hud) sensitive direction and a great cast . . . Beau Bridges (Jerry Maguire), Pat Hingle (Splendor in the Grass), Ron Liebman (Slaughterhouse-Five) and Barbara Baxley (Nashville).  Credit cameraman John Alonzo (Chinatown) for the well-used handheld cameras and documentary production styling.