First Position

First Hit:  If you’re young and want to be a ballerina or if you are a dance enthusiast, watch this film.

All really great dancers pay a huge price for their craft.

The price is both physical, because of the pain their bodies’ go through while learning their craft, and the amount of time they must devote to their abilities. When Miko’s (one 12 year-old dancer's) dad said that she spends more time dancing the he does in his full time job – the point was made very clearly.

These kids go to school, or get home schooled and then spend hour upon hours, seven days a week, learning how to become better dancers. At one point the film shows you their feet wrapped in their beautiful slippers, then when the slippers come off you see the scars, open sores, and dead toenails on multiple dancers’ feet.

Aran is a Navy brat and their family lives apart and overseas so that Aran can continue his art by following his heart. He’s very young and he’s always wanted to be a dancer. His Israeli friend Gaya is amazing with her genuine gift of expression with her face. Watching the segments where these two are just hanging out, I could help but think they will spend their lives together either a deep life long friends or as a couple. As dancers they are both extraordinarily talented. 

Michaela comes from the Sudan, her biological parents were killed in front of her as were others, yet in dance, she feels freedom to express. She is all heart – beautiful heart. Rebecca has lived a good life, in contrast to Michaela, but her wish to dance is no less powerful. We see her make mistakes and come back, we see someone who despite having the body, look, and feel for this career, has to work as hard or harder than the others.

Then there is Miko who can only think of dance and she is very focused and wise, wiser than her mother. Miko's expression of her dances on stage are particularly beautiful. Joan is from Columbia and he misses his family. His parents continue to support his passion in the United States because at home, he has a grim future. All of these kids are amazing and it was a joy to watch them.

All the children and parents are to be commended to allow themselves to be seen as they are in all their humanness. Bess Kargman did a wonderful job of piecing this together and creating suspense and sharing the dedication these kids have to make it in the dance world.

Overall: This is a wonderful documentary about young people living their dreams.

Bully

First Hit:  Punches you right in the heart – this was a powerful film.

I remember quite clearly when I first saw the promo for this film, I slipped into thinking about the guy who use to punch me in the stomach when I would ride my bike home from the Alta Dena Dairy with a half-gallon of milk in my basket.

He’d threaten to break the bottle of milk I was bringing home to my mom, but instead would punch me in the stomach. It was, in my mind, as if he spent his whole life sitting in wait for me to go to the dairy for milk, because whenever I was riding back, he would run out from behind a tree or maybe a clump of bushes or the side of a house and grab the seat of my bike to stop me.

Then, walking around to the front of the bike, threaten to break my precious cargo. While pleading with him to stop and let me go, he would haul off and punch me in the stomach and run off. I hated that guy. In Bully you see real bullies picking on innocent kids. It is about power, being dominant over someone else, and being seen as powerful.

The film focuses on a few select kids who are taunted, hit or pushed around. The filmmakers speak with the kids and their parents and the story is real and very sad. We follow them through school or view (in the case of Ja’Maya) a video of horrific moments in their lives.

I cried often for these kids during this film and my heart sank over and over again. Kids can be cruel, I recalled times when I was cruel to other kids in school and although I wasn’t cruel to these extremes I also knew I did it to feel empowered, just like the guy who use to hit me when I was 8 and 9 years old.

This film is a start at bringing awareness to a serious subject. I suspect what we witness are symptoms of our society. As a country and a people we need to better understand our country’s behavior and how we act and are perceived in the world. How can we stop bullying in our schools if we continue to bully nations? Under the guise of being benevolent and right, we threaten other countries with sanctions and what not, while carrying around an arsenal of nuclear bombs large enough to blow up our planet or any other country many times over.

We are a bully country and it is no wonder to me that we breed bullies.

To Alex, Ja’Maya, Kelby, David and Tina Long, and Kirk Smalley, thank you for letting a camera bring this to a wider light. Lee Hirsch directed this film and did a wonderful job of letting the camera roll.

Overall: This film is definitely worth seeing if you are interested in something that is taking place in our schools.

Pina - 3D

First Hit:  Extraordinary film about an amazing dance company and their founder Pina Bausch.

This version of 3D by Dolby systems uses slightly red and green lenses which I didn’t like as much as the “Real 3D” glasses.

However, once I got use to the glasses I easily fell into an amazing film about this dancer and her choreography. Although it appears that the focus of her dance is with arm movement and torso gyrations how they get there is through their legs and they are good.

This group of dancers is truly unique in their admiration of Pina and what she guides them to do. They are all sizes and ages and give who they are in honor of the dance. There is one sequence where they dance on a stage loaded with chairs, amazing how this dance has so many different segments and pieces.

Then there is the “Full Moon” dance which was a large rock on a dark stage, amazing movement by men and women, and water. Then there was the dancer who had dirt thrown on herself. And there was this dancer on point in an industrial yard - great. But it all starts with dancers on a stage of dirt, a red dress, and a ton of emoting.

I can’t list every dancer in the film and needless to say there wasn’t one weak link - everyone was amazing. Win Wenders, who is Pina’s friend, wrote and directed this wonderful film.

Overall: This was an amazing film and every dancer would enjoy seeing this film.

The OSCARS and Other Notes

It is that time of season again and although this year wasn't an especially great year for films, a couple of interesting and outstanding "out of the box films" caught my eye: "The Artist", The Tree of Life" and "Melancholia".

On the other side of the coin, I'm grateful that the Harry Potter series has ended as they became painful to watch. And the Sherlock Holmes film was also very bad.

Some performances I would have like to have been honored but weren't would include: Michael Fassbender in "Shame", Kirsten Dunst in "Melancholia", Charlize Theron in "Young Adult", Carey Mulligan  in "Shame" (cannot give enough credit for her singing "New York, New York" as though she was standing on the edge of a cliff ready to fall at any moment), Christoph Waltz in "Carnage", and Albert Brooks in "Drive". 

Given the selected honorees by the academy, here are my picks for some of the categories:

• Best Picture: "The Artist"

• Actor in a Leading Role: Jean Dujardin in "The Artist"

• Actor in a Supporting Role: Christopher Plummer in "The Beginners"

• Actress in a Leading Role: Michelle Williams in "My Week with Marilyn"

• Actress in a Supporting Role: Octavia Spencer in "The Help"

• Cinematography: "The Tree of Life" Emmanuel Lubezki

• Directing: Michel Hazanavicius for "The Artist"

• Film Editing: "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall

• Adapted Screenplay: "The Descendants" Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash

• Original Screenplay: "Margin Call" J.C. Chandor

To all of you: Thank you for coming to my site and reading my reviews. The number of views has grown tremendously over this past year. There are now over 550 reviewed films and it is fun for me to post and read your comments.

May this new year bring on better films with new ideas tested and old ones enhanced. I know I'll be there in the 5th or 6th row center ready to suspend belief into someone else's story.

May you

Be Well...

Michael

Into The Abyss

First Hit: Very strong and powerful documentary about a murder, families, and the death penalty.

This is an extremely well-constructed story by director Werner Herzog who uses archive interviews and police footage along with current interviews to create a complete story about a murder, incarceration and the actual putting one of the convicted to death.

Herzog speaks with the daughter of the murdered woman who confesses that she lost all her direct family members (outside of her children) within a couple of years of each other. One of the more interesting aspects of her interview is that she had her phone removed because only bad news comes over the phone.

Interviews with the two convicted men, Jason Burkett and Michael Perry, are very telling. Michael has been convicted of the actual killing and the interview takes place less than a week from his date with the death chamber. Michael is childlike in his actions and his look.

Jason has a 40 year sentence before he is up for parole. He’s darker and oddly detached. Burkett’s dad blames himself for his son’s troubles because he’s a lifelong prisoner and was never around. When he recounts his past sentences, one realizes that he’s spent his entire life in prison and this will probably be the way of his two sons as well.

Herzog is clear that he is against the death penalty and the interview with Dale Adams the former death penalty execution team is perfect about a man who learns taking another’s life, regardless of the law, is not right. Regardless of Herzog’s personal feelings about the death penalty, this is a strong open film.

Overall: You can’t miss with this film if you’re interested into going into an abyss.