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Movie review: Loving, directed by Jeff Nichols

“On January 6, 1959, the Lovings pled guilty to ‘cohabiting as man and wife, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth.'”

Part of the general complaints from the 11% of the critics who did not like the new movie Loving was that it wasn’t exciting enough. The Wife and I saw it at the Spectrum in Albany, and we thought it was wonderfully understated.

This is based on a true story of a couple, a white man named Richard Loving (Joel Edgerton) and a black woman named Mildred Jeter (Ruth Negga) who had the audacity to fall in love in late 1950s Virginia. Mildred gets pregnant, so Richard does the honorable thing and proposes marriage.

But that wasn’t an option in the Dominion State in 1958, which had passed the Racial Integrity Act of 1924, making marriage between whites and non-whites a crime, so they go to Washington, DC to get hitched. They settle back in the small town of Central Point, VA. Based on an anonymous tip, the local police break into their domicile – a terrifying moment in the film – and find the Lovings sleeping in their bed. Mildred pointed out the framed marriage certificate on the bedroom wall, but they were told the certificate was not valid in the Commonwealth.

“On January 6, 1959, the Lovings pled guilty to ‘cohabiting as man and wife, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth.’ They were sentenced to one year in prison, with the sentence suspended on condition that the couple leaves Virginia and not return together for at least 25 years,” an apparently generous offer worked out by a local attorney. “After their conviction, the couple moved to the District of Columbia.”

Frustrated by being away from their extended families, and not happy with urban life, Mildred Loving wrote a letter to US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. RFK referred her letter to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and young, inexperienced attorney Bernard S. Cohen, who, eventually, with fellow lawyer Philip J. Hirschkop, filed a motion on behalf of the Lovings in the Virginia trial court to “vacate the criminal judgments and set aside the Lovings’ sentences on the grounds that the Virginia miscegenation statutes ran counter to the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.”

This is a slow legal process, and the taciturn Richard is uncomfortable with the need to get publicity for the case, while Mildred appreciated its strategic importance. The tension might have split up a lesser couple. When the case was to be argued before the Supreme Court, the lawyers asked Richard what he’d want to say to the justices. Richard: “Tell them I love my wife.”

I had written about this case here, specifically Loving Day, on June 12, 1967, the date Loving v. Virginia overturned the laws not only in their case but in 14 other states.

Unfortunately, “Richard Loving died aged 41 in 1975 when a drunk driver struck his car in Caroline County, Virginia. Mildred Loving lost her right eye in the same accident. She died of pneumonia on May 2, 2008, in Milford, Virginia, aged 68. The couple had three children: Donald, Peggy, and Sidney.” Peggy was involved in the making of the movie.

As I suggested, there is tension in this film, but it’s subtle, such a brick around the LIFE magazine article they appear in. This was a mostly quiet, but extremely effective film for which Edgerton and Negga rightly received Golden Globe nominations.

Movie Review: Arrival

When the movie was over, I got into some banter with two total strangers about its meaning and message.

I went to see the movie Arrival at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany alone; I’ve discovered that there are lots of people who won’t do that. A few days later, the Wife did the same thing.

Going in, I knew it was some sort of science fiction drama. Odd-looking spacecraft show up at 12 different locations around the globe, including in, or more correctly, over Montana. The military guy (Forest Whitaker) calls on an expert linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) to try to figure out what they want. Louise works with theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) and their teams to try to communicate with these alien beings.

But this takes time. People around the world are nervous. In a nod to the know-nothing media, we see some yahoo on the TV bashing the “do-nothing” government for failing to act promptly against this potential threat, yammering, though he has no idea what he’s talking about.

I liked this film enough to try to be relatively vague about it, lest I spoil it. Interesting that on Rotten Tomatoes, the critics like it a bit more (93%) than the fans (83%). It is generally a cerebral film. And when the movie was over, I got into some banter with two total strangers about its meaning and message, and whether the Louise character should have taken a certain actions, a conversation that I really enjoyed.

As a teacher of English as a New Language, the Wife really enjoyed the struggle to try to understand the language – if it IS a language – of the visitors. I was disappointed in not hearing why Portuguese is so different from other Romance languages.

The director of the film is Denis Villeneuve, who has a well-regarded body of work, but this the first film of his I have seen. I suspect Amy Adams will be nominated for an Oscar this season, if not for Arrival, then for the gritty-looking Nocturnal Animals.

MOVIE REVIEW: Sully

I got a great deal of enjoyment about the memes on Facebook about Tom Hanks in movies, that you wouldn’t want to travel with him.

The movie Sully should not have worked. There’s a major event, which you almost certainly know about because they wouldn’t have made the film otherwise. You KNOW it has a positive outcome. The picture shows the event TWICE. And yet the audience is on pins and needles, both times, including me.

This is fine film making by director Clint Eastwood about airline pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) and his co-pilot Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart), where experience outweighs the machines. It is what happens when one man simply does his job every day in a professional manner. The one odd thing – and maybe this really happened – is that Sully’s dealing with his wife Lorrie are all on the phone, so one doesn’t get a real strong feel for her character.

The Wife and I saw Sully at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany last month and were happy to spend the 90 minutes. And I LOVED seeing the real people at the end, including many of the passengers.

Unfortunately, I read a lot of reviews before I saw the film. A few of those folks thought that the National Transportation Safety Board members were somehow persecuting Sully for his arguably risky maneuver. Whether it actually happened that way – movies based on real life are not supposed to be documentaries – I thought the questions from the NTSB folks were quite reasonable, in an attempt to learn for future situations. If they were a little too “villainous”, it served the story.

I got a great deal of enjoyment about the memes on Facebook about Tom Hanks in movies, that you wouldn’t want to travel with him, lest one be captured by Somali pirates (Captain Phillips), get stuck talking with a volleyball (Cast Away), get stuck in an airport (The Terminal), or get stuck in space (Apollo 13).

Actress Sally Field turns 70

She played the matriarch on the TV series Brothers & Sisters.

I’ve watched Sally Field in more projects than almost anyone. I could quote her famous line – no, just imagine that I did.

Gidget, (TV, 1965-66) – I’m sure I watched her as a surfing teen in at least some episodes. Yikes, 50 years ago.

Hey, Landlord (1967) – in the latter stages, she played the visiting sister of a guy who inherits his uncle’s apartment building.

The Flying Nun (TV, 1967-1970) – I watched, fairly religiously, the antics of the nun wearing an improbably aerodynamic habit. Sister Bertrille was an innocent but always wanted to do the right thing. She had to keep her special abilities hidden from her Mother Superior. The ability to fly, which I dreamed about even before watching this, may be a core fantasy.

The Girl with Something Extra (1973-1974)- you know you’ve made it on when the character has your real first name. I only vaguely recall watching this one about newlyweds (the groom was John Davidson), but she had ESP. Shades, sort of, of Bewitched.

Sybil (1976) – no one, certainly not I was ready for her in this two-part miniseries playing a woman with multiple personalities. Our Gidget? I haven’t seen it since it first aired, and I’d be curious how it holds up. She won her first Emmy for this.

Smokey and the Bandit (1977), The End (1978), Hooper (1978), Smokey and the Bandit II (1980) – I had a girlfriend at the time, Susan, who was smart and sophisticated, and LOVED Burt Reynolds. Sally Field was dating Burt and showed up in his films. I recall particularly enjoying The End, which was a comedy about someone trying to commit suicide after a bad diagnosis.

Norma Rae (1979) – she won her first Oscar for playing “a textile worker who agrees to help unionize her mill despite the problems and dangers involved”

Absence of Malice (1981) – she was nominated for a Golden Globe for this movie starring Paul Newman.

Places in the Heart (1984) – Sally wins her second Oscar, for playing a woman trying to hold on to a cotton field in the 1930s South, and gives her immortal quote at the ceremonies.

Murphy’s Romance (1985) – a May/October romance, with James Garner; pleasant, as I recall

Punchline (1988) – Sally and Tom Hanks are allies, then rivals, in the cutthroat world of stand-up comedy. I remember this as a bitter film with an uneven tone.

Steel Magnolias (1989) – the bond of women working in a hair salon. Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Daryl Hannah, Olympia Dukakis, Julia Roberts, and the colorful Shirley MacLaine.

Soapdish (1991) – the cutthroat world of TV soap operas. I recall liking it.

Mrs. Doubtfire (1993) – I bought the contrivance that the ex-wife (Sally) doesn’t recognize her ex-husband (Robin Williams), and really liked this film

Forrest Gump (1994) – this movie made me cranky for a number of reasons, only one of which is Sally playing Tom Hanks’ mother when she’s only 10 years older than he is

The Court (TV, 2002) – it lasted a handful of episodes

ER (TV)- she won an Emmy in 2001 and was nominated in 2003 for guest appearances on the medical show. I didn’t always watch the series but I did when she was on.

Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde (2003) – The first one was OK, but this is NOT a good movie. Sally plays a Congresswoman

Brothers & Sisters (TV, 2006–2011) – she played the matriarch. Her adult children (Dave Annable, Calista Flockhart, Rachel Griffiths, Matthew Rhys, Balthazar Getty) all have complicated lives. I was a sucker for this show and watched almost every episode.

I wrote in this blog that it was the family-owned business, and the dysfunction that it brings, that intrigued me. It’s about a guy who owns a produce business; he dies in the first episode, and the succession plan doesn’t always go as he planned, with his elder daughter in charge, much to the resentment of at least one of his sons. And it’s the sibling dynamic that fueled the show.

Sally Field won an Emmy in 2007 and was nominated in 2008 and 2009. By the last season, she was executive director of the show.

Lincoln (2012) – she was rightly nominated for an Oscar for playing Mary Todd Lincoln, Abe’s wife

Hello, My Name Is Doris (2015) – I enjoyed this

And she’s made countless guest appearances, many I’ve seen.

In February 2017, she will be appearing in The Glass Menagerie on Broadway.

One of those bits in her IMBD page– Quote: My agent said, “You aren’t good enough for movies”. I said, “You’re fired.”

Evidently, I’m very fond of Sally Field.

MOVIE REVIEW: Queen of Katwe

Quuen of Katwe was directed by Mira Nair, who piloted Monsoon Wedding and Mississippi Masala.

Way back in early October, the family went to see the movie Queen of Katwe.

There are poor people in Uganda, but some are worse off than others. The family of Phiona Mutesi (newcomer Madina Nalwanga) is particularly destitute since her father died, with her mother Nakku Harriet (Lupita Nyong’o) trying to hold the family together. School is out of the question, as everyone tries to work on the streets, selling produce or washing car windows.

By chance, Phiona comes across a group of children learning this odd board game called chess from a teacher, Robert Katende (David Oyelowo). The other kids were not happy to be around the poor, smelly girl, but she came back and showed promise in the game.

This film is based on a real person. At its heart, it is a sports movie, so it has a lot of that drama/disappointment/triumph that you’ve come to expect. Still, it works, and maintains the viewers’ interest, in part because it showed the stratification of life in the country.

There was also drama between the mother and both of her daughters. One does not have to care about chess to cheer for Fiona and her family surviving their disenfranchisement, and becoming empowered, and not just on the chessboard.

The film was directed by Mira Nair, who piloted Monsoon Wedding and Mississippi Masala, and filmed in Uganda. The acting is solid. The authentic local color added to the enjoyment. It was really wonderful to see the real people come out at the end with actors, with Oyelowo and Katende practically twins. And there is a fun coda one ought not to miss.

Unfortunately, despite being a Disney/ESPN movie, despite very positive reviews (93% with critics, 88% with audiences at this writing), Queen of Katwe had a very disappointing box office, not even making back its $15 million costs. Perhaps it will do better on the home market.