The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014)

Family migrates to France from India after the tragic loss of their matriarch and family restaurant. They set up shop right across from a very fancy French restaurant and set off a culinary war with its owner.

This was all broad strokes and shortcuts without subtlety or subtext. Proper frenchwoman is incensed! But then she melts when she tastes the spices! Pretty mademoiselle falls for chef! But then gets petulant when he’s more successful than she! Indian patriarch is a cheapskate! Let's just order something else, because there's no way this is going to satisfy.

D+

The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young (2015)

An obscure race that, if I were a runner (and I am SOOO not), would certainly be my holy grail. Only 40 people are accepted each year and, in its 31-race history, only 14 people have finished. But to even get the opportunity to try it would be incredible.

This is definitely not my world, but I respect the hell out of it & appreciated that it was conceived and continues to be run with a spirit of mischievous fun that infects all participants and onlookers.

A-

Maidentrip (2014)

Laura Dekker had to fight for the right to be the youngest person ever to sail around the world alone. Once she won that right, she set off from her Holland home with the goal of returning within two years.

I’m not interested in boating and I’m not much of an outdoorsy girl at all, but this was fascinating. It’s all shot by Laura herself and it’s crazy just how young she is: 14 when she sets out and 16 when she returns. She’s capable and self-possessed and really knows who she is. Impressive in every respect.

B

Love is Strange (2014)

When a longtime gay couple finally get married in New York, one of them is promptly dismissed from his job teaching at a Catholic high school because of it. Since the two are not wealthy, the job loss forces them to sell their apartment and stay with friends and family. But, unfortunately, no one in the city has room for them both, so they have to live separately until an affordable option can be found. 

This reminded me heavily of “Make Way for Tomorrow,” a movie I love. The friends are well-meaning, but the living situations aren’t smooth and tensions manifest. My heart just broke apart for these two as they longed for each other while still having to be grateful for what they were being given. It never beats you over the head with the message -- it’s just beautifully handled.

B+

The Naked Kiss (1964)

Kelly the hooker runs from her abusive pimp and eventually winds up in quaint Grantville where, after bedding the police captain, she decides to go straight. The cop wants her out of town, but can’t deny the positive effect she’s having in her new gig at the pediatric hospital. But then the town’s most eligible bachelor returns home from abroad and upsets the status quo by wooing Kelly who’s working overtime at sainthood.

This is a pretty odd movie. It’s a bad-girl-makes-good tale with an undercurrent of sordidness, some weird fantasy sequences, and some truly bizarre details like the fact that she starts off the movie bald. I just don’t know exactly why anyone wanted to tell this story.

C

Body Double (1984)

An out-of-work actor sublets a house from a new friend and, boy, what a view the place has. At midnight, the woman across the way does a masturbatory dance “like clockwork” and the actor is happy to serve as her faithful audience. He sees her being slapped around and robbed and gets protective, but things don’t go well and he wonders if there’s something more going on.

There could be a solid thriller here, but it’s buried in softcore porn, a ridiculously annoying main character, and general ‘80s-ness which basically turns it into laughable trash.

D+

Human Capital (2015)

The movie begins with a cyclist being bumped off of the road by an SUV. We then flash back to months before the accident to view the time period leading up to it through the eyes of one character, then back again to see it through the eyes of a second, then from the perspective of a third. All three are connected, so some bits overlap.

Although lower, middle, and elite classes are all featured, it was striking to see the manipulative shits in each strata. Despite level of privilege, there are jerks and gems everywhere.

B+

Two Lives (2014)

When a lawyer starts exploring human rights violations regarding half-German children removed from their mothers during the second world war, one of those former children has her life upended. I’m pretty sure I knew what was going on before I was meant to and the whole thing felt a little light; the heaviest thing about it was its basis in fact. Although it was competent, it was also a bit too low-key.

Possibly due to the fact that I’ve been bingeing The Americans -- a similarly themed show -- with my husband, this film didn’t have quite the impact for me that it could have.

B

The Book Thief (2013)

This could've been something great -- the story's definitely there -- but it just didn't come together. The acting (except for the very strong "core" group) was amateurish and the score just set the wrong tone. Every moment that deserved a strong hand came off as weak instead.

I have, however, put this on my list of books to read. I liked that Death was the narrator, though I thought the device was underutilized. Hopefully he gets more dialogue on the page.

C

It Follows (2015)

Girl sleeps with boy and then is informed that, until she has sex with someone in order to pass it along, she’s cursed. The curse comes in the form of an identity-shifting and silent “person” who simply trudges determinedly toward her. Should the walker get to her, it will kill her.

And that’s pretty much all there is to this, but it really works. No need to fancy up such a simple and terrifying concept.

B

The Dark Matter of Love (2012)

Interesting doc following a late-forties couple and their teenage daughter’s transition as they adopt a pre-teen daughter and young twin boys from Russia. It was excruciating to watch them struggle through the first several months -- I found myself angry at them for their obvious lack of preparation. I mean, they didn’t learn a lick of Russian and they changed their new kids' names without, apparently, informing or asking them. One of the boys wound up with the name "Cole" which apparently is the Russian word for a shot in the rump. The parents seem nice enough, but they're also over-privileged Americans who are, quite literally, Disneyfied in their view of the world.

But still. They somehow get through that very hard first year and form a family. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to do it all at once, but I couldn’t help but be inspired regardless.

B

Gattaca (1997)

In the not-too-distant future, parents no longer have to risk that their kids will be born with defects, the possibility of genetic disease, or even chubbiness. A child is still a product of the parents, but their fertilized embryos are screened for potential problems before being implanted. However, some children are still conceived naturally and aren't quite so flawless. With all that perfection at the ready, an employment caste system evolves. I mean, it just makes sense: why hire someone with a heart condition or the possibility of a nervous breakdown for a prestigious position? Our hero Vincent is one of the natural guys, but he has aspirations far beyond his genetics... and that's where a recently paralyzed but otherwise genetically superior Jerome comes in.

The world is believable: e.g. instead of Googling a love interest, you can just run a DNA profile. It also looks great and is beautifully acted -- especially Jude Law as a bitter Jerome. But I do think that Vincent's voice-over is just a little too mannered. The future seems like a pretty joyless place and I get that a blasé attitude is necessary for his ruse to work, but why would it carry over into the narration? At least in that aspect of the film, Vincent should've been able to convey the enthusiasm he was being forced to hide. The sterility of the film becomes overwhelming without any break from the control.

B

Take Me Home (2012)

I generally trust Netflix's rating predictions for me. They've got 3000+ titles worth of data on me at this point and get darn close -- within half a star of my thoughts -- 90% of the time. So when this popped up as a 4-star recommendation and I saw it starred Sam Jaeger from Parenthood (a show I still miss more than a year after it left the air), I was on-board. Well, Jaeger not only stars, he wrote, produced, directed, and cast his wife as his co-star. And though I readily admit that I have very little to judge him on, my impression is that he's only got a talent for one of those five jobs.

The set-up: Thom is a struggling photographer in NYC who can't land a job and is getting evicted from his apartment. He owns a unregistered cab which he uses to grab some illegal fares when he's short, which is what he's doing when Claire flags him down. Claire has just walked in on her husband having a conversation with a woman in their home, which upsets her and lands her in Thom's taxi demanding that he just shut up and drive her wherever... which eventually turns into driving her to California where her estranged father has just had a heart-attack.

This was obviously shot on a shoestring budget, but that's not the problem. The problem is that these two are written as, basically, garbage people. She's the type that screams at a cab driver (before she has real cause to do so) and doesn't let her husband know where she is for several days. He's the type that thinks it's fine to indulge in a little upskirt voyeurism, liberate the continental breakfast food from hotels he's not staying in, and steal cash from his midwestern parents. Each takes their turn falling asleep at the wheel, endangering a highway's worth of travelers. So of course they're meant to be in love, right?

I was not amused nor was my heart warmed. Stick to acting, Jaeger.

D