Why Him?

I watched Why Him? yesterday. It’s the story of a mid-west family who are surprised to learn that their daughter is dating an eccentric billionaire. When the father, Ned, played by Brian Cranston, learns that Larid, played by James Franco, wants to marry his daughter, he isn’t too happy about it and plots to end the relationship.

I liked the Brian Cranston and James Franco partnership, they played off of each other pretty well. I thought that the plot was fun and even though this is my type of comedy - raunchy with a touch of heart, there were parts that were pretty ridiculous. I’m glad I didn’t see this one in theaters, but if you are looking for something that doesn’t require much thought and mostly funny check it out.

Allied

 It’s hard for me to finish movies, during the week, after work. I tend to fall asleep on them and it takes a few cracks before I can watch it all the way through. Allied was not one of those movies. 

This is the story of two Allied spies, French-Canadian Max Vatan; played by Brad Pitt, and French Marianne Beausejour; played by Marion Cotillard. They are paired together for a mission during WWII, they fall in love and get married. Later, it comes to the attention of Max that Marianne might be a Nazi double agent, so he takes it upon himself to see if it’s true. 

All the way up until the end you aren’t really sure what's going to happen next or if the accusations against Marianne are true or not. The level of suspense kept me engaged throughout and the acting from Marion Cotillard was pretty great. I wouldn’t buy this movie but it’s a pretty good one to check out once.

Loving

There were so many great movies that came out late last year. Movies that were based on the true life stories of Americans that made huge strides in changing history. Loving was one of those great movies.

Loving is the true American story of Mildred and Richard Loving, an interracial married couple, whose Civil Rights Supreme Court Case, Loving vs the state of Virginia, forever altered the Constitution by overturning the laws that prohibited interracial marriage.

The story of this couple, their undying love for each other and their perseverance against all odds was so incredibly inspirational.

The acting was so poignant that I was surprised that they didn’t get more recognition during the awards season.

This was a wonderful American history drama that I would definitely recommend that everyone check out.

The Birth of a Nation

I watched The Birth of a Nation over the weekend. I remember after it’s Sundance premier, before it was shown nationwide, that there was a lot of Oscar buzz surrounding it so I knew I wanted to eventually try to see this movie. 

This film is the true account of the life of Nat Turner. A preacher who was a slave that lead a revolt against slave owners in the Antebellum South. The imagery was so powerful that every so often it was hard to watch. Sometimes reading this history in a book isn’t as emotionally connecting as it is to see on screen. The visions of how horribly slaves were treated and how those people fought and persevered though the most difficult and terrifying of odds is something that can’t be put into words. 

The cast at times delivered gripping performances and the script was well written. Even through the movie was overall a compelling piece of American historical work, it did feel like it was missing something to really bring it home.

In the end, what I took from this film is that this piece of American History needs to continue to be shown onscreen because these stories aren’t told often enough. There are so many stories like this one that have never seen the inside of a high school history book, let alone a tv or movie theater screen. Especially in the current time, we need to look back more to see how not to treat others. Even though I don’t necessarily think that this was an Oscar worthy film, I do think that it was still well done and served a greater, deeper purpose that everyone should experience.