September 2023
Oppenheimer (2 of 2)
The newly released film, Oppenheimer, will undoubtedly be seen by large audiences. I saw it the first week of release, the first in-house film I have seen since KOVID. It was marvelous in many ways, and difficult in others.
For one thing, it was more than three hours long (without intermission), which is difficult for elderly audiences. It was also very accurate, but very complex, and I cannot imagine young people understanding the whole story. For this reason, I recommend the Ne more...
For one thing, it was more than three hours long (without intermission), which is difficult for elderly audiences. It was also very accurate, but very complex, and I cannot imagine young people understanding the whole story. For this reason, I recommend the Ne more...
November 2016
Laina with October Movies
Deepwater Horizon
Catastrophes test human character, ingenuity, and endurance. Nature provides plenty of tests with weather, fire, floods, and earthquakes, all considered by insurance companies as "acts of God." But the most fascinating catastrophes are those arising from the very technologies that demonstrate the brilliance of human ingenuity. We are smart creatures, but we do worry about getting too smug about how smart we are. The earliest warning about this smugness is more...
November 2015
Laina At the Movies
Mockingjay 3
This film was part 3 of the Hunger Games series, a dystopian country in the future that distracts the hungry and miserable population with Roman-like gladiator games, something like our own "survivor" program. One young archer, Katniss, is a survivor of several games and has become a national heroine, and, in Part 3, a leader of a revolution against the evil government.
To make more money, the producer divided part 3 into two films, the next one to come next ye more...
This film was part 3 of the Hunger Games series, a dystopian country in the future that distracts the hungry and miserable population with Roman-like gladiator games, something like our own "survivor" program. One young archer, Katniss, is a survivor of several games and has become a national heroine, and, in Part 3, a leader of a revolution against the evil government.
To make more money, the producer divided part 3 into two films, the next one to come next ye more...
April 2015
Laina with April Movies
Laina At the Movies
By Laina Farhat-Holzman
April 2015
Effie Gray
If even at the beginning of Downton Abby, during the Edwardian era, when sexuality was something done behind closed doors and, as one spicy lady said: "Do what you like, but don't do it in the street and frighten the horses," the sex in Effie Gray was not just hidden, it was smothered.
Emma Thompson is not only a marvelous actress, but also wrote a sensitive screenplay ba more...
By Laina Farhat-Holzman
April 2015
Effie Gray
If even at the beginning of Downton Abby, during the Edwardian era, when sexuality was something done behind closed doors and, as one spicy lady said: "Do what you like, but don't do it in the street and frighten the horses," the sex in Effie Gray was not just hidden, it was smothered.
Emma Thompson is not only a marvelous actress, but also wrote a sensitive screenplay ba more...
December 2014
Laina At the Movies
Mockingjay 3
This film was part 3 of the Hunger Games series, a dystopian country in the future that distracts the hungry and miserable population with Roman-like gladiator games, something like our own "survivor" program. One young archer, Katniss, is a survivor of several games and has become a national heroine, and, in Part 3, a leader of a revolution against the evil government.
To make more money, the producer divided part 3 into two films, the next one to come next ye more...
This film was part 3 of the Hunger Games series, a dystopian country in the future that distracts the hungry and miserable population with Roman-like gladiator games, something like our own "survivor" program. One young archer, Katniss, is a survivor of several games and has become a national heroine, and, in Part 3, a leader of a revolution against the evil government.
To make more money, the producer divided part 3 into two films, the next one to come next ye more...
July 2014
Laina with July Movies
Netflix
Dresden
Dresden is a two-part 2006 German TV film set during three days before and during the horrendous British bombing raid on Dresden (13-15 February 1945). This film is particularly significant now to reconsider how little we remember history in the face of current issues, such as the clamor about the disproportionate war being fought between Israel and Hamas. War is not cricket, and throughout 10,000 years of the history of civilization, wars were never propor more...
Dresden
Dresden is a two-part 2006 German TV film set during three days before and during the horrendous British bombing raid on Dresden (13-15 February 1945). This film is particularly significant now to reconsider how little we remember history in the face of current issues, such as the clamor about the disproportionate war being fought between Israel and Hamas. War is not cricket, and throughout 10,000 years of the history of civilization, wars were never propor more...
Laina with Late April Movies
Laina At the Movies
By Laina Farhat-Holzman
Late April 2014
Draft Day
I have to admit that in all my years of schooling, I never went to a single football game. This amazed my husband, a one-time Stanford coach who watches football with an expert’s eye. He loves me anyway.
I do get a football (and other sports) fix in movie-going. I love the drama much better than the games themselves. The latest is Draft Day, which covers the events more...
By Laina Farhat-Holzman
Late April 2014
Draft Day
I have to admit that in all my years of schooling, I never went to a single football game. This amazed my husband, a one-time Stanford coach who watches football with an expert’s eye. He loves me anyway.
I do get a football (and other sports) fix in movie-going. I love the drama much better than the games themselves. The latest is Draft Day, which covers the events more...
Laina with Early April Movies
Laina At the Movies
By Laina Farhat-Holzman
April 2014
The Muppets
I couldn’t resist seeing this, the latest Muppet movie particularly since the villain is an identical Kermit look-alike, except that he has a mole on his lip and a Russian accent. Shades of my children’s childhood with cartoons featuring a Bullwinkle J. Moose and his pal, a Rocky the Squirrel, with Russian spy villains: Boris Badenough and Natasha. These delicious cartoons amused more...
By Laina Farhat-Holzman
April 2014
The Muppets
I couldn’t resist seeing this, the latest Muppet movie particularly since the villain is an identical Kermit look-alike, except that he has a mole on his lip and a Russian accent. Shades of my children’s childhood with cartoons featuring a Bullwinkle J. Moose and his pal, a Rocky the Squirrel, with Russian spy villains: Boris Badenough and Natasha. These delicious cartoons amused more...
September 2012
Laina at the Movies
Farewell, My Queen
I remember the first time I visited Versailles, the royal palace compound, during a trip to France. This home of the last of France’s royalty is one of the historic treasures of France, and it gives modern visitors an opportunity to see how the French kings lived. Of course what we see today is much cleaned up. In its time, which ended with the French Revolution, there was not a single privy or toilet in sight (dark corners and stairwells served that purpose) more...
I remember the first time I visited Versailles, the royal palace compound, during a trip to France. This home of the last of France’s royalty is one of the historic treasures of France, and it gives modern visitors an opportunity to see how the French kings lived. Of course what we see today is much cleaned up. In its time, which ended with the French Revolution, there was not a single privy or toilet in sight (dark corners and stairwells served that purpose) more...
Laina with August Movies
Spiderman
It is summer in America, and we movie buffs either see the films made for mass (young) audiences or have little but some very depressing art movies. I watch these films with a different eye than the thrill-seeking young. I am interested in the recurring themes that the American public relish: primarily a paranoia that society is sick, and the theme that has dogged us for two centuries now: the dangers of science, including the theme of the mad scientist. more...
Laina with May Movies
The Footnote
When this little Israeli film was first shown, the producers expected a half-dozen people in the audience. This should not have been a popular film, but to everyone’s surprise, audiences loved it and it was Israel’s nomination for the Best Foreign Film at the 84th Academy Awards celebration.
The story follows the intense and painful competition between two scholars, father and son, who both teach in the Talmud Department of Hebrew University more...
Laina March 2012 Movies
ACT OF VALOR
Many movie critics prefer “edgy” films to one like Act of Valor, which is a film that follows the actions of a group of Navy Seals. It is not very chic to admire the military nowadays, except for the wonderful exercise that rid the world of Osama Bin Laden last year. After two presidents, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush tried but failed to find and kill this Public Enemy No. 1, Barak Obama succeeded-by boldly using a crack team of Navy SEALs to carry out t more...