Lee (2024)

Former model Lee is working as a photographer for British Vogue during World War II when she decides to go to the action as a war correspondent. It takes some creative thinking to even get there and then some thick skin and balls to actually get the job done, but Lee is up to the task. Her sense of duty to make sure those "back home" understood the gravity of the sacrifice being made is something to be lauded and, in my opinion, her gender only aided her in seeking out some private moments that could've been overlooked otherwise.

Despite the interesting woman and subject, the film just felt like homework -- like I could've easily been reading this in a book as the drama never quite came alive onscreen. The bookending device of Lee, now elderly, recounting her story in an interview also didn't work. Though I now understand why that device was employed, during the watch I was annoyed as it seemed to add nothing.

C+

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Kamikaze pilot Shikishima chickens out on his mission at the end of WWII and lands on an island filled with Japanese army mechanics. When Godzilla shows up, Shikishima again succumbs to cowardice rather than shooting the monster from his plane as directed and winds up being one of only two survivors. Things don't get much better when he gets back to his hometown to find it devastated and his parents killed. He lives with the guilt, which prevents him from opening himself up to the little family that fate hands him. Can yet another threat from Godzilla offer him redemption? 

The effects work quite well despite their obvious humble roots. The movie only really stumbles in its writing of our "hero" Shikishima, who came off as a woe-is-me child intent on cultivating misery.

C+

7th Heaven (1928)

A poor woman is rescued from a beating by a sewer worker. When the police want to take her away for being destitute, the two pretend to be married and then have to keep up the pretense until the authorities conduct a visit to confirm they're living together. But, by then, they've become contented roommates and have maybe even fallen in love.

That's cute and I wish the story had stopped there. But nope -- he has to go to war and get injured, she has to work in a munitions factory and fight off advances, then he has to come home after being reported dead, which is happy! But, dangit, he's blind now. It's too long by at least 30 minutes and has enough story for two movies.

C

Allied (2016)

Allied spy Max pulls an undercover assignment in Casablanca playing husband to Marianne, a French resistance fighter, during World War II. They fall in love, then move back to England where they marry and start a family. But is Marianne on the up-and-up?

This should've been romantic and thrilling, but it was just basic. Marianne's character in the Casablanca scenes serves as a "how to spy" tutor, which was not only annoying but also quite weird seeing as Max shouldn't need the help. And, somehow, none of the action scenes felt in any way dangerous. It was just so very meh.

C

The Zone of Interest (2023)

A well-to-do German family enjoys the good life in their house full of servants. Their grounds are large with a pool, a greenhouse, and a garden full of both vegetables and beautiful flowers. Dad's work is right next door, so he's able to be present for the family. He often takes the kids out for days on the river, which is within walking distance of the house. Mom regularly receives high-value items her husband is able to score during his workdays (e.g. a fur coat). That the job next door is Auschwitz doesn't hamper their enjoyment in the least. What a powerful juxtaposition. What terrible people. This movie basically sells itself based on the description alone. 

The problem is that the director is in love with affectation and deliberate obfuscation. For example, I had to look up what was going on with the sequences of a girl going out at night to stuff items into dirt; though the explanation was amazing, the film itself didn't bother to enlighten me or to even make it clear what the items were. Also, the movie begins with several minutes of black screen -- I wonder how many people left the theater to complain that there was no picture, because I stopped and restarted the recording in my living room and then had to research whether my stream was defective. The soundtrack is often just loud mechanical groaning that I'm sure was meant to evoke something other than the irritation I felt whenever it'd ramp up. 

In all, it felt like the director didn't want the material to speak for itself. This is like the Mona Lisa being put in a neon orange plastic frame decorated with glow-in-the-dark lightning bolt stickers. The delivery distracted from the compelling subject: the inhabitants of a smug little oasis made possible by their banal inhumanity.

C

Summerland (2020)

Alice, whom the area children believe to be a witch due to her loner lifestyle and perma-scowl, has to take in London evacuee Frank during World War II. Frank manages to keep his spirits up despite Alice's frostiness, which begins to melt a bit as their time together wears on. Flashbacks inform us about the source of Alice's heartbreak years before, which helps us root for them both.

A really lovely story, simply told.

B

The Windermere Children (2020)

Thousands of Jewish minors were relocated to England after the liberation of concentration camps. About 300 were taken to the Windermere Estate, which was set up kind of like a boarding school, to help integrate them into British culture. They were taught English and customs while staff also worked hard to convey the fact that they were no longer in any real danger.

The movie conveys just how difficult the transition was for the kids. The trauma was, of course, deep. Most of them were their family's sole survivor and they were being taught to forget the old and remake themselves from the ground up. The message was strong and affecting, but the film felt watered-down like a made-for-television movie. It's more that I inferred how difficult it was rather than being effectively shown it.

B-

Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020)

Aida is working as a translator when the Bosnian war forces the evacuation of the "safe haven" city of Srebenica, where she, her husband, and her two children live. Aida has some pull and works frantically to get her family inside a UN facility, even though it's over capacity and thousands of desperate and frightened people are stuck outside. But it's soon clear that "inside" isn't enough and that Aida will have to repeatedly craft new ways to keep her husband and two adult sons safe.

It's incredible that I knew nothing about this true-life atrocity (though this is a fictional account). We see humanity at is worst, personified not only by the callous invaders, but by the UN personnel who were unwilling to stand up to the oppressors. It's very hard to watch: devastating, brutal and exhausting.

B

All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

Fresh-faced excited German students enlist and head to the front and quickly discover war is not in any way romantic. Though it does a good job of showing the banality and brutality of being a soldier in wartime, it doesn't do a better job than dozens of films that have gone before.

Also, the soundtrack was ridiculously distracting.

C

Operation Mincemeat (2022)

British Intelligence come up with a mission utilizing a corpse and false papers to mislead the Nazis about their plans. And it's pretty much exactly what you'd expect. It's interesting enough, but also pretty dry.

C+

A Guy Named Joe (1944)

Hot shot bomber pilot is always pissing off his commanding officer and disappointing the woman who's desperately in love with him. He does what he wants without much regard for anyone else. Once he's killed in combat, he still has a chance to redeem himself as an angelic guide for other pilots.

I'm not really sure what to think of this movie. It wasn't until the very end -- like the last 10 minutes or so -- that I started to like Spencer Tracy's character. And, since he's in every single scene, that's a long time to wait. Good idea and sweet resolution, but too much annoyance in between. One scene, however, was such a beautiful standalone example of everything that's good in humans that I will likely remember it for the rest of my life...

C+

The Great Escape (1963)

During WWII, the Germans decide to build an escape-proof camp and move all of the frequent-escapers to it. Since the Allied forces are duty-bound to do their best to escape if captured, the prisoners work together to execute the most elaborate and, hopefully, resource-diverting breakout possible.

This is a fascinating film made all the more incredible by the fact that it's a true story. Though long, we were never bored. 

B+

How I Live Now (2013)

American teen is sent to stay with her British cousins after her father remarries. She's not happy to be there and keeps the family at arm's length, even though they clearly want to bring her into the fold. The story was shaping up to be a quiet "coming of age" story with romance and healing and the whole nine yards. But then the story suddenly takes a shocking hard turn. The family is torn apart: girls to a foster situation where they work in fields all day and the boys somewhere else. But they're all determined to find their way back to the family home as soon as possible. 

I was totally invested. Even the whiff of incest didn't really bother me because it truly made sense in the context of their story. But things fell a little bit apart in the denouement, unfortunately. It was a strong movie with a dissatisfactory ending.

B

The Wolf's Call (2019)

Chanteraide is part of a French submarine crew and he has a "golden ear." He can decipher underwater acoustics better than anyone: even distinguishing identical submarines from each other. After he makes an error during a mission, he cannot stop himself from further researching what he heard. His findings play right into the hands of jihadists.

This was a thrilling film. Extremely well-done to the point that everything felt inevitable. Beautifully, tragically inevitable.

B+

Khartoum (1966)

British General Gordon leads an Egyptian army in the defense of Sudanese Khartoum against "Mahdi" a Muslim leader. They both believe they are doing the will of God and have mutual respect for the other, but stand in stark opposition.

There's drama with the British government wanting to pull Gordon out without looking weak and Gordon refusing to leave though even Mahdi wants him out before he attacks. But it doesn't really matter because this movie was just so repetitively boring. 

D+

Hamilton (2020)

I am still, four years after first listening to the soundtrack, mindlessly singing "Helpless" and "One Last Time" to myself while washing dishes. It's just become part of the music in my soul -- like The Sound of Music and West Side Story -- and I will always be a fan.

Though Gary and I were lucky enough to see this in front-row balcony seats in Chicago -- what we both remember most vividly about that show is, unfortunately, the punishingly small amount of legroom for the seats. The show was fantastic, but out pain was real and intrusive. Another issue I experienced at the live show was that there was, at times, so much happening on stage that it was impossible to know what to focus on. So seeing the show again, with the original cast, in our much more comfortable living room, with a director pointing our eyes at the most important action was perfection. Sure, there's nothing like being alongside other spectators, feeling the life-force of the performers in the same room, but I really hope that this is the future. We don't all live in New York, so getting to see an original cast production without any "Hollywoodizing" is a service for which I -- and I'm sure many others in the midwest -- are starving.

One complaint: the Maria Reynolds storyline. Miranda seems to want to have it both ways: that Hamilton was a womanizer who had a feral tomcat named after him by Martha Washington ("that's true!") AND that this affair was one he fought and, seemingly, the only one in which he engaged. It's far more likely that he had several affairs but he got blackmailed for this one, which made it become THE one. It just really bothered me that we weren't trusted to understand that humans are capable of both greatness and egregiousness -- that we could admire a man who was both a product of his time AND who pushed the country forward in positive ways.

A

Il Generale Della Rovere (1961)

During World War II, an Italian con man going by the name Grimaldi exploits the families of those arrested by assuring them he can help, if they'll give him money to bribe the German officers. Eventually, one of his victims turns him in.

Meanwhile, an important figure in the Italian resistance has been killed though the intent was to capture and use him as a bargaining chip. Grimaldi is promised release if he will pose as this man (General della Rovere) while in detention,  in order to expose his conspirators and their plans. Neither he nor the German Colonel who devised the scheme thought his conscience or sense of duty would be a factor in carrying out this assignment.

Though slightly overlong, this story really works. The growth is extremely believable and I was moved.

B+

The Exception (2017)

Because the Nazis know there is a British spy nearby, their Captain Brandt is put in charge of the security for the abdicated Kaiser Wilhelm II. Though he no longer holds power, he is considered an assassination target. Brandt immediately starts a sexual affair with Meike, the newest maid in the household, to whom the Kaiser has also taken a liking.

It's a competent romance and "will they be OK"-type of story, but nothing that will remain in memory for long. The title "The Exception" refers to Brandt himself: he's not like other Nazi soldiers. He has a heart.

B-

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)

In the aftermath of World War II, young author Juliet receives a letter from someone who has come into possession of a book that used to be her own. Soon she's traveling to attend a meeting of the "Society," of which he's a member.

Though there's nothing new or surprising here, it's brimming with kindheartedness and worked its magic on me.

B+

Jojo Rabbit (2019)

Writer-Director Waititi walks a tightrope of humor and stark reality and does it masterfully. For example, I giggled so much at the ridiculous descriptions of Jews,  but was never in danger of forgetting the very real ramifications of such propaganda.

The story is told from the point of view of a fervent little German, a 10-year-old whose imaginary friend just happens to be a very insecure Adolf Hitler. Though his best friend keeps him grounded in Aryan dogma, his home life starts to make him question his beliefs.

It's hilarious and terribly sad at the same time. A truly lovely film.

A