Dogs Bark

Casadh An tSúgáin - - Brooklyn (2015, Ireland/UK/Canada, Color, 111 min) - - 27 March 2016

Strongly recommended.  Screw diversity of color, what about diversity of voice? The Oscars gave only three nods to John Crowley’s (Boy A) near-perfect film, Brooklyn, written by Nick Hornsby (An Education) . . . and no wins. While I’ll stick to Cate Blanchett for an Oscar in Carol, Saoirse Ronan (Atonement) - - an actress I’ve never before praised - - runs Blanchett a close second. The Bronx-born, Ms. Ronan has matured considerably over the last seven years and her effort serves her well herein. But she’s greatly helped by an excellent cast, led by Jim Broadbent (Iris), as a sympathetic priest, and Julie Walters (Educating Rita), as her landlady. Some of the camera set-ups are quite astonishing. In one scene, Crowley dollies the lens past a dockside of Irish folk seeing off America-bound relatives. The expressions are heart-breaking. In this age of easy opinions, the terrible pain of immigration is often mislaid. Not by Brooklyn.  

Barely There - - Everest (2015, UK/USA/Iceland, Color, 121 min) - - 3 March 2016

Not recommended. In the annals of climbing disasters, few events compete with May 10th -11th,1996 on Mount Everest. Although other days were deadlier, the numerous Western proto-authors among the survivors assures that all the mountain’s other corpses (mostly Sherpas) remain anonymous. I’m a fan of Jon Krakauer’s book ‘Into Thin Air’ but the movie Everest departs from that interpretation to make Krakauer (Michael Kelly, House of Cards) a bit of a coward, Scott Fischer (Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler), a complete fool, and Beck Weathers (Josh Brolin, Hail, Caesar!) just as tough as nails. Only the last is deserved. But whatever . . . Everest is an unambiguously terrible movie. Great actors abound; however, they rarely get a chance to distinguish themselves in the morass of howling snow. Even before the storm, the action is muddled and intention is snow-blinded. If you want a better version, sit on a block of ice and read Krakauer.