Adnerb the Movie Nerd

Movie reviews from a middle school teacher's perspective

Molly’s Game

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Anyone who likes to watch the World Series of Poker on television, has ever played in a live poker game or is curious to learn how the other half lives, will enjoy this movie.  Molly’s Game is based on the true story of Molly Bloom.  Molly, as played by Jessica Chastain, was a world-class skier on the fast track to the Olympics. Sidelined by a freak accident, Molly uses her drive and smarts to turn a secretary jog into an exclusive high stakes poker game.  When one of her players ruins her game in California, she simply moves to New York and re-establishes her very exclusive set up! But…before long, she finds herself under arrest by the FBI on federal charges. Why? It’s complex, you will need to see the movie to understand! The movie doesn’t use any of her customers’ real names, but according to a little  internet research, they included Toby McGuire, Ben Affleck and Leonardo DiCaprio as well as professional poker player Phil Ivy.   Idris Elba plays the lawyer who helps Molly when she is arrested by the F.B.I. (apparently, some of her clients turned out to be members of the Russian mafia).    Kevin Costner, Michael Cera and Graham Greene round out the cast.  I have heard there is some Oscar buzz for Ms. Chastain in this movie,  I am afraid I would not go that far, although she does give a good performance.  However, the movie gives us a fascinating glimpse into the world of high stakes gambling and the kind of people who are involved.

The Lost City of Z

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A movie about British explorer Percy Fawcett sounds like a good idea on paper.  This guy was a geographer, artillery officer, cartographer, archaeologist and explorer.  He distinguished himself in WWI even though he was almost 50 years old and he led an expedition into the heart of the Amazon when he was 56. Wow, what a guy!  Doesn’t this sound like it would make an exciting movie, kind of in the vein of Indiana Jones, perhaps?  Well you would be wrong.  The story is excruciating slow, with little tension or suspense.  The cinematography, scenery, costumes are all first rate, and you do get a sense of what an extraordinary individual Fawcett was.  ******SPOILER ALERT******  I was  not satisfied with the ending.  No one knows how Percy Fawcett dies, and their speculative ending seems contrived.  Why  not just end the movie when he and his son are on the train and tell us in the post script about some of the various theories about what happened to him.  I read about these on line and many of them are more interesting than the ending the writer came up with.    All in all, I wouldn’t advise seeing this one in the theater.  Wait until it is on Netflix and watch it in several sittings.  I think that would be way more satisfying.

The Zookeeper’s Wife

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The year is 1939 and the place is Poland.  Antonina and Jan Zabiniski are the directors of the Warsaw Zoo.  The animals are well-cared for and loved and the Zabiniskis (Jessica Chastain and Johan Heldenbergh) are happy and content.  Unfortunately, their somewhat idyllic life is shattered by the invading German Army at the start of World War Two.  The zoo is bombed and the scenes of animals being bombed, strafed and shot for sport by Nazi soldiers are heart rending. The Germans, led in this case by an SS officer who is a big zoologist in Germany, take all the best animals for redistribution, leaving the zoo virtually empty. This brave couple put themselves, and their son, in danger daily by turning their zoo into a human sanctuary by hiding persecuted Jews from the Ghetto in the deserted animal pens and cages.  Jessica Chastain turns in a good performance as the shy, artsy wife who opens her home to over 300 refugees.  Daniel Bruhl is even better as the Berlin zoologist who, in addition to taking the best of the animals, has a misguided idea to recreate extinct Aurochs by selectively breeding various bulls and bison breeds.  How the Zabiniskis are able to hide people from the Nazi’s is a fascinating story told against the backdrop of the Warsaw Ghetto and its ultimate destruction.  The fact that this is all a true story (and very accurately rendered) makes this movie even more amazing.  I can’t quite give this movie a golden apple because it is a little slow moving in points, but it is definitely worth seeing.

Hidden Figures

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This movie definitely deserves the Oscar buzz it is getting.  Those of you who have been reading this blog know that I love movies based on true stories, and this was no exception.  Did you know that African American women contributed to the NASA space program in the early 1960s?  I sure didn’t!  This movie explores the lives of three ground-breaking women who did just that.  Janelle Monae plays Mary Jackson, who became NASA’s first Black engineer.  Ocatavia Spenser plays Dorothy Vaughn who became the first Black female supervisor and one of the first female supervisors at NASA.  The meat of the story though is Taraji P. Henson’s Katherine Johnson, the mathematician par excellence who calculated trajectories for the Mercury Program, as well as Apollo 11 and Apollo 13. Kevin Costner also gives a  good performance as the director of the Space Task Group.  Jim Parsons appears as an engineer who, like all too many, resented and mistrusted the presence of a woman in the previously male only group of engineers and math whizzes; but comes to value her intelligence and hard work in the end.  This is a moving story about some amazing women who didn’t let anyone stand in their way.  I hope you get a chance to see this spectacular movie!

Lion

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I have enjoyed Dev Patel’s performances ever since seeing him in the Oscar winning “Slum Dog Millionaire.”  “The Most Exotic Marigold Hotel” movies and the HBO series “Newsroom” gave him a chance to show different aspects of his acting skills.  His newest film, “Lion” blows those performances out of the water.  Patel has been deservedly nominated for an Academy Award for playing the grown up Indian boy Saroo.  His character is based on the real story of a young Indian boy who is separated from his family by tragic circumstances and ends up trapped on a train that dumps him 1200 miles away from home and in an area of India where his language, Hindi, is not commonly spoken.  How this little boy survives on his own for months as a street urchin and is finally adopted would be enough for a whole movie, and yet that is only 1/2 the story.  The second half of the movie is where Patel shines as the grown up Saroo who has been lovingly raised by Australian parents.  He longs, though, to be reunited with his birth mother and siblings, if only so they can know he is still alive.  This sweet journey will make anyone with a heart reach for a tissue.   Please go enjoy this wonderful movie as I am sure it won’t be out long and is worth seeing on the big screen.