Harriet

First Hit: Definitely an Oscar-contending performance by Cynthia Erivo as Harriet Tubman.

Before she took the name Harriet, she was called Minty. The film opens with Minty as a married slave working for the Brodess family. Her husband, John Tubman (Zachary Momoh), is a free man working for another landowner. She sees him infrequently, and they steal hugs and kisses on rare occasions.

Minty’s mother works for the Brodess family as well as does her sister and other members of her family. Her father works for another family, just like John works for another family.

After the patriarch Edward Brodess dies, the son, Gideon (Joe Alwyn), takes over and ensures that he makes Minty’s life harder.

Minty and her husband had a lawyer to get a judge to write a document allowing her to be free and to leave the Brodess farm and start a family with her husband. The Brodess family rips up the letter and forbids John from coming around to see Minty ever again.

Minty cannot stand it and tells John to meet her by a fence gate, and they’ll run away together. However, she’s afraid that it will hurt John’s freedom, so she heads out alone to find freedom in Philadelphia, PA, and leaving him behind.

Her journey is horrendous, but she trusts in her faith in God and the visions that overwhelm her along the way. In the visions she sees the dangers that are coming her way and makes decisions about what to do next. The images are presented as flashes and in a dream-like sequence and sometimes I didn’t interpret or understand them like Minty did, but her actions gave the audience a clear understanding of her visions.

She gets to Philadelphia and finds her way to William Sill’s (Leslie Odom Jr.) printing business. Sill leads an organization that helps people escape slavery through the underground railroad. Sill is also documenting each slave’s story by interviewing them. One of the things Sill does when he talks with the slaves is to allow them to select a name for themselves, which he documents. This allows the new arrivals to be rid of their slave names. Minty decides on “Harriet” in honor of her mother and “Tubman” because that is her husband’s name.

Harriet is barely five-feet tall, but she becomes a giant in the underground railroad because, against all the odds, she goes back to Maryland multiple times and frees more slaves on each trip. She leads them through the wilderness and to Philadelphia.

Not only is she the most prolific of the conductors of the underground railroad, but she also becomes a leader of soldiers for the Union Army and frees over 190 more slaves in battles against the Confederate Army.

Not only did I learn a lot more about Harriet in this film, I left the film amazed that she didn’t get more print space in my middle and high school history books.

The film felt very formulaic, and some of the early scenes felt very staged. This is where the film struggles. However, once I let go of these staged scenes, and just rode within Harriet’s story through Harriet, it worked very well.

When it comes to putting her picture on the new upcoming $20 bill, she deserves it, and it can’t come soon enough. She’s a hero of the people.

Erivio was absolutely sublime as Harriet. This performance is of Academy Award caliber, as is the story. Odom Jr. is excellent as one of the leaders who coordinates the underground railroad. Alwyn is strong in this unenviable role as slave owner. Momoh was very good as Harriet’s husband, and the scene when she comes back for him is devastating for both. Janelle Monae, as boarding house proprietor Marie Buchanon was terrific. Her support of Harriet was unending and undying. Kasi Lemmons wrote a strong screenplay. Gregory Allen Howard directed this film. There were times the scenes were strong, but there were also scenes that felt too staged.

Overall: Despite the film’s unevenness, Harriet’s life as developed here was one of embodied strength. 

Boy Erased

First Hit: Outstanding cast delivers sublime performances in a powerful story about LGBT conversion programs.

Gay and lesbian conversion programs exist, and the number shown at the end of the film, astounded me. In this day in age, church supported Christian conversion programs believe they can change someone’s sexual preference by indoctrinating people in the “way of the lord.”

Here, we have Jared Eamons (Lucas Hedges) heading off to college with the support of his homemaker mother Nancy (Nicole Kidman) and his father Marshall (Russell Crowe), a local church pastor and car dealership owner. With Marshall being a Baptist pastor he firmly believes that LGBT people are an abomination of the bible and his beliefs.

During high school Jared has a girlfriend Chole (Madelyn Cline) who would like Jared to be more sexually adventurous, but he is hesitant. This is the only indication that the audience really has that Jared is gay. During college he meets Henry (Joe Alwyn) who lives in the same dorm building as him. They become running buddies until one evening after playing video games, Henry tries to rape and sodomize Jared. It gets interrupted by a neighbor pounding on the shared wall, and Henry breaks down and pleads with Jared to not tell anyone about this event.

When the school calls home and tells Nancy and Marshall about this event at school, Jared, at first, says it’s not true. Marshall calls in his preacher friends and they decide as a group to send Jared to a bible-based conversion program to help Jared get the devil out of him and straighten him out. Going to the program the audience immediately sees how horrible it is.

The rules, the belief that bible loving men with no real training in psychology, can fix the gay problem with moral inventories, confessions, and intimidation is astoundingly ignorant of the truth. As Jared begins his moral inventory, he writes down the name Henry, crosses it out and writes down Xavier (Theodore Pellerin). The film wonderfully shows how Jared and Xavier met and what it meant to Jared.

When the pressure to state that Jared hates his father in front of the others gets to be too much, Jared gets up and leaves the room. He knows about the mistreatment of the others in the program. Stating he’s going to leave the program, the team running the program try to stop him. I loved how Cameron (Britton Sear), one of the other boys trying to be converted, stands up for Jared and helps him escape.

The scenes when Nancy decides and states she can no longer support Jared’s conversion program with Jared and Marshall were brilliantly presented.

Hedges was extraordinary in this role. His ability to create depth of character and keep the audience wondering what he’s thinking was amazing. Kidman was perfect. She was a follower until, it came down to the survival and happiness of her child. You believed her when she states her total support for Jared. Crowe was excellent as the preacher father who realizes in the end, it’s him that must change. Joel Edgerton (playing Victor Sykes) the chief therapist at the conversion center was excellent. He effectively gives the audience a taste of misguided beliefs. Flea does a great job playing Brandon, a converted and sober co-therapist. Alwyn was dynamite as the gay college student that couldn't stop himself. Pellerin is excellent as the sensitive man who holds Jared’s hand all night. Sear was amazing as the young high school football player who is severely punished in-front of the other attendees. Jesse LaTourette as one of the girls in the program was stunning in a mostly non-verbal role. Joel Edgerton did a wonderful job with both script and direction. Granted he has amazing actors at his mercy but it takes a great story and direction to make it work this well.

Overall: I left the theater saddened to know that so many of the conversion centers still exist because it is a reminder of religious ignorance.

The Sense of an Ending

First Hit:  Somewhat slow, subtle, and insightful film about someone coming to grips with things as they are and not what he thought they were.

I didn’t mind that this British film plodded along because its plodding was even and unfolded the character and the past of Tony Webster (Jim Broadbent) in a thoughtful and realistic way.

Tony is a quiet grumpy (“curmudgeon” according to his daughter) retired old man. His best friend is his divorced wife Margaret (Harriet Walter). He’s a retired professor, but owns and works at a very small antique camera business. He receives a registered letter one day that tells him that his first college girlfriend Veronica’s (Freya Mavor as young Veronica and Charlotte Rampling as the older Veronica) mother, Sarah (Emily Mortimer), left him a diary by his old college friend Adrian Finn (Joe Alwyn).

Curious, he goes to the solicitor’s (lawyer) office to collect the diary, however he’s told that Veronica still has it and isn’t giving it up to Tony. This prompts him to discuss his university story to his former wife, who sees through the surface representation and tells him, come back and tell me the real and in-depth story.

The film is about this slow unfolding of his reconciliation of his actions as a student. To assist the story, his daughter Susie (Michelle Dockery) is pregnant and having a baby, which is used to enhance Tony’s inability to connect at an emotional empathetic level to the possibilities of what happened a long time ago.

To tell the story the film goes back and forth in time often to explore his relationship with Veronica, her mom, Adrian, and his other close friends. It takes a bit of getting use to because the segues between the two time periods are not always matched.

Broadbent was perfect for this role. He’s got the look and the acting ability to make me believe he was learning about his whole life through the story of the film. Being an occasional curmudgeon myself, I got why he asked the questions he did and the way he isolated himself. Walter was wonderful as his understanding and caring ex-wife. Mavor was interesting as young Veronica but it was Rampling as the older Veronica who really put the right flavor on his growing up, so-of-speak. Mortimer was really strong in her brief but impactful role. Alwyn was OK as Tony’s friend. Dockery was wonderful as Tony’s daughter. I liked their interaction and was touched by his being with her during the birth of her baby. Nick Payne did a wonderful job of creating a script that unfolded slowly. Ritesh Batra did a good job of letting the dialog unfold the scenes.

Overall:  This was enjoyable to me, but I can see why it may not be enjoyable to others.

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

First Hit:  A bittersweet story about war hero Billy Lynn figuring out who he is, what's important to him, and where he belongs.

In the context of being a soldier, doing what he was taught to do and being part of a team of men whom he cares about; he ends up with a Silver Star and Billy Lynn (Joe Alwyn) is surprised by the attention of all this.

Billy has been a screw-up most of his life and while protecting the honor of his sister Katheryn (Kristen Stewart), he gets caught by the police. As done in many places in the USA, courts often let convicted criminals choose to join the military instead of jail time in hopes that the structure teaches young men responsibility. The structure helps him to be more responsible as does the close camaraderie between the diverse backgrounds of the men in his squad. He’s particularly taken by Squad leader "Shroom" (Vin Diesel) who pontificates about spirit and the spirituality behind all things.

The film begins with Billy coming home and getting ready to be honored for bravery with a victory tour and a half-time celebration at a Dallas Cowboys football game. Director Ang Lee uses flashbacks to give the audience the harrowing story of “Bravo” squad, as they engage in an intense fire fight in Iraq.

The best thing about the film is the juxtaposition between the fans, workers, cheerleaders, and football team owner Norm’s (Steve Martin) attitude and perception of the war and the men who fight it and what it means to be a hero. The film does this really well by cutting back and forth between the gun battle and the half-time celebration.

I related to the nervousness of the squad as loud noise and fireworks had them, in a nervous reflex, ducking for cover. I remember coming home from Vietnam and ducking and covering at every backfire from a car or startling loud noise.

Along with the celebration, all through the film there is a promoter Albert (Chris Tucker) who is attempting to get a deal for a film about the bravery of the squad. He makes it urgent because he can only get them big money while they are “hot” property. When Norm states that he's willing to fund their film, but only offers the men $5,500 each, Billy and Dime (Garrett Hedlund) take a firm stand. The story is not America’s but theirs and it cannot be bought for this very low price.

A film like this would need a love interest and here Billy runs into a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader Faison (Makenzie Leigh) who admires the hero in Billy but does she even really see him? The idea of being close to a hero is effectively shared in their brief encounters and belies a real relationship.

Alwyn is very good in this role of naïve, yet worldly in the ways of life and death, young man. Martin is very effective as “America’s Football Team” owner. He is the personification of someone looking for an edge, notoriety, while taking advantage of situations for his own benefit. Diesel is strong as the philosophy spouting leader. Nice to see Diesel in a softer role. Hedlund is perfect as the toe the line new squad leader keeping his team together. Stewart is wonderful as the caring sister who feels responsible for her brother’s predicament. Leigh is great as the cheerleader who is more in love with a hero than the hero himself. Tucker is very believable as a promoter. Jean-Chrisophe Castelli wrote an interesting screenplay which takes on the challenge of showing the public's disconnect from the realities of war and yet wanting to own the heroes for their work. Lee effectively shows half-time pageantry, the behind the scenes of how the pageantry gets put together, and the battle scenes. His use of color is exquisite. This isn’t an easy story to tell but in Lee’s hands it works very well.

Overall:  I was surprised by how much I ended up liking the film because the title actually put me off.