Hope and Glory (1987) - Boorman's fond WWII childhood memory picture

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A boy in shorts runs joyously through a street with blimps in the sky above him on this bright poster for John Boorman's Hope and Glory

An English family during World War II have to learn to get used to the rationing, the bombings and the widespread uncertainty, but for the children it is a most thrilling time!

 

Hope and Glory is written, co-produced and directed by great English filmmaker John Boorman (Having a Wild Weekend (1965)). It is based on his own childhood memories.

The film gives a highly unconventional, positive angle to wartime England, and Hope and Glory is outstandingly picturesque, (with cinematography by Philippe Rousselot (Beast (2022))), definitely encouraging and life-affirming. It has infectious performances and fun moments. In fact as a war picture, Hope and Glory is sometimes too jocular for my taste, but its charms makes it a winner nonetheless. 

 

Related post:

 

John Boorman: Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) - Boorman stuns with truly abysmal sequel

Hell in the Pacific (1968) - Boorman's boring two-man turkey 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 9.3 mil. $

Box office: In excess of 11.57 mil. $ (only North America, the UK and Denmark)

= Uncertain, but likely a big flop (projected return of 1.61 times its cost)

[Hope and Glory premiered 21 August (Montréal World Film Festival) and runs 113 minutes. Reportedly the street set constructed for the filming was the biggest built in the UK in 25 years. Shooting took place from August - October 1986 in England, including in London. The film grossed 10 mil. $ in North America and approximately 1.5 mil. $ in the UK (845k £). It made around 70k $ in Denmark, where it was not a major film. If the final world gross was 15 mil. $, the film would rank as a big flop. It was nominated for 5 Oscars: It lost Best Art Direction/Set Decoration to The Last Emperor, Cinematography to Vittorio Storaro for The Last Emperor, Director to Bernardo Bertolucci for The Last Emperor, Picture to The Last Emperor and Original Screenplay to John Patrick Shanley for Moonstruck. It won 1/13 BAFTA nominations, 1/3 Golden Globes and a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Boorman followed the film up with a sequel many years later, Queen & Country (2014), his last film. Boorman first returned with Where the Heart Is (1990). Sebastian Rice-Edwards, who plays the protagonist Billy, never returned to the screen. Hope and Glory is fresh at 96 % with an 8.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hope and Glory?

Lymelife (2008) - The Martini brothers' coming-of-age indie fails to connect

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Fenced in domesticity with secrets and characters that are far apart are some of the messages from this cold poster for Derick Martini's Lymelife

We follow teenage boy Scott in Long Island in the 1970s during a period where fear for Lyme disease sweeps the suburban setting, Scott's father's infidelity uproots their family, and Scott loses his virginity.

Lymelife is written by brothers Steven Martini (Louis (2010)) and debuting co-writer/director/co-editor Derick Martini (The Curse of Downers Grove (2015)), based on their own experiences growing up.
I know the kind of film the Martinis were going for with Lymelife here; I know it down to the straw. - Unfortunately Lymelife never achieves being a good exponent for this type of indie coming-of-age drama. The expletive-stuffed dialog is wearying, and so is the youth violence and attempts at being raunchy by adding some blasphemy.
Teenage leads Rory Culkin (Gabriel (2014)) and Emma Roberts (The Blackcoat's Daughter (2015)) spent a good portion of the film half-naked, which feels gratuitous here, so it is up to the individual viewer whether to embrace or reject this. Alec Baldwin (It's Complicated (2009)) is engaged and identifies with his part as embattled family man and he is good here, but it can't save this youth movie, which doesn't feel very young, and which has a downbeat core which just doesn't provoke the desired reaction.

Culkin and Roberts give an interview about their work on the film here

Cost: Estimated 1.5 mil. $
Box office: 540k $
= Mega-flop (returned 0.36 times the cost)
[Lymelife premiered 8 September (Toronto International Film Festival, Canada) and runs 94 minutes. Shooting took place in New Jersey from March - April 2008. The film opened #54 to a 27k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked #43 and in 35 theaters, grossing 421k $ (78 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Russia with 71k $ (13.1 %) and South Korea with 32k $ (5.9 %). A few markets have undisclosed gross figures. The film won a critics' prize in Toronto. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to three notches higher than this one. Martini returned with The Proposal (2009, short) and theatrically with Hick (2011). Culkin returned in Twelve (2010), Roberts with a voice performance in The Flight Before Christmas (2008) and physically in Hotel for Dogs (2009), Baldwin in My Best Friend's Girl (2008). Lymelife is fresh at 63 % with a 6.1/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Lymelife?

The Class/Entre les Murs (2008) - Intense, grueling French film sets the teacher's role up for debate

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+ Best French Movie of the Year

Eclectic poster for Laurent Cantet's The Class

QUICK REVIEW:

In The Class, we follow a well-meaning, yielding teacher in a Parisian suburban school, who tries to teach a class of teenagers but encounters opposition.

This is a deeply engaging film, which clearly wants to inspire debate and doesn't draw its own conclusions for the audience. 
It is a very personal work for co-writer/lead actor François Bégaudeau (Jacques (2008), writer-actor), as the film is based on his semi-autobiographical novel. He co-wrote the script with Robin Campillo (Eastern Boys (2013) writer-director) and director Laurent Cantet (Human Ressources/Ressources Humaine (1999), writer-director).
The film contains some laudably achieved situations that ring 100 % true. The Class is also a very French, cerebral film without music or any relationships outside of its school setting, [in line with its original title, which translates to Within the Walls.] It is an intense investigation of the teacher role and the challenges that a teacher faces in a multi-cultural classroom.
The frustrating elements of The Class will probably make some viewers leave it prematurely. It is dispiriting and could be described as a quasi 'teacher's horror' film, as the protagonist teacher only SPOILER gets into deeper and deeper trouble with his class as the film progresses.

Related posts:

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]   

2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess

Watch the trailer with English subtitles here

Cost: 2.5 mil. €
Box office: 13.2 mil. €
= Big hit
[The Class was the first French film since Maurice Pialat's Under the Sun of Satan/Sous le Soleil de Satan (1987) to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, the most prestigious film festival in the world and the most important film prize around besides the Oscars. The film was also Oscar-nominated as Best Foreign Film but lost to the Japanese Departures/Okuribito (2008). The Class enjoyed a very impressive US run (considering that the film is very serious, very French, without stars, sex or violence), which earned it 3.7 mil. $ (28 % of the total gross.)]

What do you think of The Class?

My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) - A sincere romcom favorite with infectious gusto

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+ Best Dollar Return of the Year: 73.74 Times + Best Romcom of the Year + Best Shooting Star Actress of the Year: Nia Vardalos

The inspired poster for Joel Zwick's My Big Fat Greek Wedding

My Big Fat Greek Wedding is the romcom sensation of 2002. Its Oscar-nominated script by star Nia Vardalos (I Hate Valentine's Day (2009), writer-director-star) was based on her one-woman Los Angeles play about her own Greek family and marriage to a non-Greek, which inspired producer-couple Rita Wilson and Tom Hanks (with their company Playtone) to make a movie out of it. - It turned out Vardalos already had a script!

Our heroine Toula is the depressed, still unmarried daughter of age 30, who hides around the family restaurant, as she meets a charming man, and they immediately fall in love. The only problem: He's not Greek!

Some have termed Greek Wedding a feel-GREAT movie, and it's not far from the truth: Its plot is rather breezy, and you're never in doubt that the two lovers will eventually have each other and that everything will work out. - Which is nice for a change, especially in such an engaging, lively and funny dish as this.
The production is immaculate, and the direction, (although one early meeting-scene should have had more of a context), is solid. The director is TV-specialist Joel Zwick (Full House (1987-95)).
Some critics have complained that the film is predictable and sitcom-ish, both of which are labels I didn't find really apply to the film, which is inspired, boisterous and up-beat, in its conclusion both a celebration of love, traditions and, not least, family.

The details:

What perhaps distinguishes Greek Wedding more than anything else, is that the sincerity behind it can be felt: Sure some elements are exaggerated for comic effect, but its core is real and personal, and that comes across and connects us to the story and its characters.
What also solidifies the film is its several auspicious and game cast members: Vardalos is great as her own alter ego, and she can really deliver lines and give a resonating performance; Michael Constantine (The Hustler (1961)) and Lainie Kazan (Bigfoot and the Hendersons (1987)) as her parents are indispensable; Andrea Martin (Wag the Dog (1997)) is fun as her aunt, and Louis Mandylor (The Set Up (1995)) is sincere and good as her brother. John Corbett (The Burning Plain (2008)) as the lover-husband feels a bit slight, probably because the character is a bit slim. But his parents, played by Bruce Gray (Water for Elephants (2011)) and Fiona Reid  (The Time Traveler's Wife (2009)) are fun as his stiff WASP parents.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a happy time you shouldn't deprive yourself of. It has a sequel in development, also spearheaded by Vardalos.

 

Related post:

 

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

A still of Michael Constantine, Lainie Kazan and the unknown actress that plays the grandmother from Joel Zwick's My Big Fat Greek Wedding

Watch the trailer here

Cost: 5 mil. $
Box office: 368.7 mil. $
= Huge hit
[The film was a highly surprising sleeper hit, as it has no real stars and might be expected to mostly play to Greeks: It spent 17 weeks in top 10 in America and racked up 241.1 mil. $ (65 % of the total gross) in North America, making it the 5th highest grossing film of the year there and one of the most profitable romcoms ever made. - And the highest grossing film ever in North America to never make the # 1 spot. It was also a big hit abroad, especially in Europe.]

What do you think of My Big Fat Greek Wedding?
Are any of Nia Vardalos' other works worth checking out?

A World Not Ours (2012) or, Palestinians Struggle

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A fine poster for Mahdi Fleifel's A World Not Ours

QUICK REVIEW:

The story of a Palestine refugee camp in Lebanon, Ein el-Helweh, told through the documentarian's personal perspective as an expatiate Palestinian, who has spend holidays his whole life in the camp visiting his trapped family there.

The documentarian Mahdi Fleifel's father points down to the small refugee camp Ein el-Helweh, where about 60-70,000 Palestinians have lived for decades and still live

Documentarian Mahdi Fleifel (Xenos (2014) short doc.) shows great handling of his sizable material, gathered through decades, of both personal family history, camp history and Israel-Palestine history in general. The film offers great insight into the Palestinian struggle and its development in the several decades since the country's overtake by the Jews following WWII.
Especially in the beginning, Not Ours is quite humorous, but soon its incredible sadness (which seems inherent in the telling of the Palestinian story) breaks through. The modern story of Palestine is very, very sad.

My favorite person in A World Not Ours, the documentarian Mahdi Fleifel's grandfather

A World Not Ours is a great documentary and a fine and touching human portrayal, especially of the desperate men that make up so much of the Palestinian people. Their profound disappointments and aggressions as refugee camp people for most if not all of their lives, is indeed a scary picture of despair.
A World Not Ours is a deeply personal cry for the Palestinian cause, which, unfortunately, doesn't point to any solutions for the future of the people.
That would be my only critique of it.

2012 in films - according to Film Excess 

Watch the film's fine trailer here

Budget: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown

What do you think of A World Not Ours?
Is there a solution to the Palestinians' struggle?
Where should this people live?

Born on the Fourth of July (1989) or, Beautiful Struggle

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Tom Cruise in one of his career's best parts, as Ron Kovic in Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July

QUICK REVIEW:

Ron Kovic's story about blind faith in his Marine Corps, through murder and massacre and paralysis in the Vietnam war, - to a new identity as anti-war protest-leader, - hits its audience right in the pelvis.
The storytelling and visual style is highly American, as writer-director Oliver Stone, - who won his third Oscar for his direction, - leads us with the lead character from home to overseas, to home again, - with a new recognition. The historical account is magnificent, and Stone mixes grand emotions and music (by John Williams (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982))) with great talent.

Tom Cruise and Willem Dafoe as two opposing, handicapped war-veterans in Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July

Tom Cruise (Top Gun (1986)) is simply phenomenal, - and was Oscar-nominated for his work, - as Ron Kovic, on whose autobiography the film is based. - Kovic even co-scripted the film with Stone.
Born on the Fourth of July is a triumph for everyone involved, a great American movie and a real classic. It is an exceptional movie of the American experience of Vietnam.

So starts an American classic; Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July

Watch the film's trailer here

Budget: 14 mil. $
Box office: 161 mil. $
= Huge hit

What do you think of Born on the Fourth of July?
Do you agree that it is a true, American classic?
Is it Oliver Stone and/or Tom Cruise's best film, or if not, which are?

50/50 (2011) or, Dude's Got the Big C

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A poster for Jonathan Levine's 50/50, featuring a still from the film's one-take head-shaving scene

A young man is diagnosed with spinal cancer and prepares to die. The chemo is tough, the girlfriend cheats, his best friend is infantile, his mother fusses over him, and his shrink is an amateur. But a sweet amateur. - Will he kick it?

After it's over, 50/50 feels like it should have been something more, but it does accomplish a realistic feel. Screenwriter Will Reiser (Brooklyn Castle (announced)) wrote it based on personal experiences with the subject matter, himself having survived cancer. Ironically, Seth Rogen (Neighbors (2014)), who plays the Reiser-based protagonist's best friend, (who was also Rogen in Reiser's own real-life experience), just works better in more straight comedies, I find, but both Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Manic (2001)) and Angelica Huston (Seraphim Falls (2006)) as the fussy mother are good here.
But 50/50 does become touching, and it has an especially fine hospital scene. Considering its pedigree, it is a hard little movie directed by Jonathan Levine (The Night Before (2015)).

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 8 mil. $
Box office: 41.1 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 5.13 times the cost)
[50/50 premiered 12 September (Toronto International Film Festival, Ontario) and runs 100 minutes. James McAvoy was supposed to play the protagonist but bowed out due to his becoming a father at the time of shooting. Filming took place in Washington and British Columbia, Canada from February - March 2010. The film opened #5, behind Dolphin Tale, Moneyball, The Lion King (re-release) and Courageous, to an 8.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed #5 for a second week before leaving the top 5, grossing 35 mil. $ (85.2 % of the total gross). Its 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 2.3 mil. $ (5.6 %) and South Korea with 0.8 mil. $ (1.9 %). The film was nominated for 2 Golden Globes. Levine returned with Warm Bodies (2013). Gordon-Levitt returned in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Rogen in For a Good Time, Call... (2012), Anna Kendrick (Elsewhere (2009)) in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (2011). 50/50 is certified fresh at 94 % with a 7.7 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of 50/50?