Dogs Bark

Kubrick’s Rube - - Barry Lyndon (1975, UK/USA, Color, 184 min) - - 25 September 2018

Recommended. Having recently watched 2001: A Space Odyssey on the big screen, I wish I could have seen Barry Lyndon in 70 mm, too. Because this is a movie to be seen, one of the most visual films ever created . . . each frame being an old-world masterwork. Stanley Kubrick (The Shining) only occasionally needed a good story. Ryan O’Neal (Love Story) and Marisa Berenson (Cabaret) were as pretty as the English countryside - -  with only a little more dialogue - - as Barry goes from rags to riches to rags. Having said all that, Barry Lyndon isn’t for everyone. Some might find it uneventful and, well, slow. But this is the real deal for movie geeks. It gathered seven Oscar nominations and won four for the score (Leonard Rosenman, East of Eden), cinematography (John Alcott, The Shining), costumes (Milena Canonero, The Grand Budapest Hotel) and art direction (Ken Adam, Goldfinger). Now, that’s a line-up!

Solidarity Right Now - - Bisbee ‘17 - - (2018, US, Color, 112 min) - - 15 September 2018

Strongly recommended. Bisbee ’17 is a remarkable documentary about a remarkable event . . . the mass kidnapping and deportation from Bisbee, Arizona of about 1200 striking miners by Phelps Dodge Mining in 1917. The strikers were mostly Latino and other non-Anglo immigrants and the resonance to recent events is self-evident. One remarkable thing about the film is its refusal to beat that obvious horse. Another is that the film’s centerpiece is not the 1917 event but the reenactment of the event in 2017. Current townsfolk of varied sympathy play the original combatants.  This includes a young Latino (Fernando Serrano) and a pair of brothers (Mel and Steve Ray), playing their grandfather and the brother he deported. Director/writer Robert Greene (Kate Plays Christine) masterfully captures the complexity of the event . . . as the participants evolve in their emotions. Just a reenactment of brutality can emotionally brutalize the observers. And a hopeful thanks for that.

He’s Gotta Get It - - BlacKkKlansman (2018, US, Color, 135 min) - - 3 September 2018

Strongly recommended. After almost thirty years of creativity, isn’t it time for Spike Lee (Do the Right Thing) to finally win an Oscar? This is his best film since Inside Man. The brilliance of BlacKkKlansman is in Lee’s ability to take a very old story and turn it upon a theme he’s been riffing on for his entire career. The old story is the constant rebirth of the Klan with each advance of African American culture, from Reconstruction to the Obama Admistation. The riff is a very realistic romance between a black cop and a black activist in the 70’s. The chemistry between Denzel’s son, John David Washington (Ballers) and Laura Harrier (One Life to Live) is delectable.  Amused kudos also for Topher Grace (That 70’s Show) as David Duke and Adam Driver (Silence) as an undercover cop. Another great Terence Blanchard (Inside Man) score contributes to the story's weight.

Two Trains Running - - Dabba [The Lunchbox] (2014, India, Color, 104 min) - - 1 September 2018

Recommended. Mumbai’s lunch delivery system, the dabbawala, operates at an astonishing efficiency rate of 1.9 errors per billion meals handled. Eat your stuffed crust out, Domino! With similarly monotonous effectiveness, Saajan Fernandes (the wonderful Irrfan Khan, Slumdog Millionaire), a somber, Mumbai widower, slides into retirement from his accounting job. This, until the billionth delivery goes awry and he is intersected with Ila (Nimrat Kaur, Homeland), a neglected young housewife unsuccessfully attempting to use her excellent paneer to spice up her marriage. This charming romance slides between questions of age, love, and ambition among the three principal characters . . . all with a wry sense of humor. The harried work-world of the city provide useful context. It is testimony to director/screenwriter Ritesh Batra’s (The Sense of an Ending) creativity that Khan and Kaur never actually meet, their chemistry expressed in their reactions to notes transferred by way of the eponymous - - and amorous - - receptacle.