Cars

I saw this film on May 31st, 2006 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Film Festival’s Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

The most famous streak in sports is probably Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak. The most famous hit streak in film entertainment is probably Pixar’s feature film animation streak. With “Cars”, it’s seven in row for outstanding storytelling that is well executed and is (or will be) rewarded with blockbuster box office grosses. “Toy Story”, “Toy Story 2”, “Monsters, Inc.”, “Finding Nemo”, “The Incredibles”, and “A Bug’s Life” are the other six gems.

The story is about Lightning McQueen a rookie NASCAR-type racer. Of course, he is a car and not a human; or, he is a human in the form of the car. Take your pick. Either way, he is not an attractive persona. He is selfish, unappreciative, greedy, two-faced and has no real friends. But, he is a great driver and is tied for The Piston (read Winston) Cup annual championship with two other drivers. On the way to the runoff race in California, he accidentally gets off in a sleepy and forgotten town on Route 66 named Radiator Springs.

In this hillbilly hell of a town, he is punished for speeding and tearing up the road by the sheriff. As he serves his sentence with community work, he discovers the town is inhabited by rejects and misfits, who all have hearts of gold. Can they change Lightning and make him over to have positive traits like honesty, integrity, respect, honor, sacrifice, humility, and compassion? That’s the drama that unfolds. Lightning is a hard case, and the outcome is always in doubt.

The cars/people are incredible. Shortly into the movie you forget that the people are cars or the cars are people, you suspend disbelief, and you just begin to watch an engaging story about real people. The windshields are their eyes, and the grilles are their mouths, and they display emotions as well as any human actor. The story is serious and light-hearted at the same time. The puns are too numerous to catch. And this is a must-see-twice-to-get-it-all movie.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

The Lake House

I saw this film on May 26th, 2006 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Film Festival’s Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

An attractive, educated, professionally fulfilled Doctor (Sandra Bullock) “meets” an attractive, educated, sensitive architect (Keanu Reeves) via letters and a past common residency of a particular lake house. What could be the problem? The problem is that they are currently living two years apart and then again at the exact same time in this romantic, heart-wrenching, dramatic fairy tale.

The Doctor leaves the lake house in rural Illinois in 2006 in order to advance her career and find happiness in Chicago. She leaves a note to an unknown-to-her new tenant, the architect, to forward her mail. They correspond to each other and slowly discover that he is actually living in the house 2 years earlier in 2004. And … they share the same dog. But somehow the viewer can suspend disbelief and get into the story because the two characters are believable and intelligent and are initially just as skeptical of the time riddle as the viewer.

Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock re-unite for the first time since “Speed.” The genre of “The Lake House” is completely different, but the actors are just as complementary and likeable in this fantasy tale. They both display a deep, patient, and profound love for each other. And they do so with grace and charm and a chemistry that can’t be readily explained.

Much of this film plays like a mystery with mothers and fathers, siblings, and boy and girl friends weaving in and out of the story in the present time of 2004 and the present time of 2006. But through it all, the Doctor and the architect ultimately never lose hope that they can solve this time puzzle and can actually be together at the same moment in time.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Saving Shiloh

I saw this film on April 5th, 2006 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Film Festival’s Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

This film is about a 12 year old boy growing up and coming of age in a small, picturesque town in the Midwest. Even though his family is of modest means, he has an ideal life with a loving family consisting of his father, mother, two little sisters, and his beagle dog, Shiloh.

The boy takes on a challenge. He befriends an old, cantankerous man who has no friends or family, and is rumored to be involved in everything from dog beating, to burglary, and even to a current murder investigation. This old man was abused as a child and seems to be a hopeless cause. His cause seems hopeless not only because of his behavior, but also because he is forever the victim of gossip. The boy looks for the good in the old man even though he is not sure if he will succeed or whether the old man is capable of change.

Along the way, the boy confronts other challenges closer to home. He has a senile Grandmother who appears to be an Alzheimer victim and is difficult to love. He also has a rebellious young sister who is a constant pain.

Displaying sacrifice and compassion well beyond his years, the boy learns valuable lessons about life. However, this is not a preachy movie. The morality statements are understated, and the children are surprisingly fine actors who mostly display the fun of being young and open and naïve. The whole family can enjoy this movie, which is part mystery, part adventure and part family drama.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Take The Lead

I saw this film on March 28th, 2006 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Film Festival’s Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

The setting is a rundown high school in a poor minority neighborhood in Manhatten.
The students have a challenging family environment. Their parents are depicted as mostly unemployed and drunks, drug users, prostitutes, and low-lifes. Their children reflect this environment. They hide their low self esteem with bravura, petty crimes, slang, rudeness, indifference and, above all, their love of hip-hop music.

By accident and fate, Pierre Dulaine (Antonio Banderas) walks into the Principal’s (Angela Bassett) office. He is challenged to work with the worst of the students as a volunteer in the detention hall after school. Pierre is an ex-professional ballroom dancer and runs a ballroom dancing school. He decides to get to the kids with ballroom dancing.
His competition is hip-hop music and hip-hop dancing and the ghetto, chip-on-the-shoulder attitudes.

Pierre tackles his assignment with presence. He is impeccably dressed, polite, and exudes intensity and confidence. Over time and with difficulty, he starts to bring the troubled teens up to his level. He never goes down to their level. And then he challenges the teens with a city-wide ballroom dance contest, and the story takes off.

Pierre attempts to give hope to the students by having them make good choices. Pierre’s tools are his own spirit, grace, sacrifice and charm. He wills his way into getting respect from the students.

The movie has the same inspirational feel as “Mad Hot Ballroom” but is much different. This film is fiction and about older students and is much more edgy and brutal.

While the film is occasionally edgy and dark, the music and dance makes this strangely a light and entertaining watch for most of the time. And the music and dance are eclectic – from Gershwin to 50 Cents and from Tango to slow motion Breakdance.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Sophie Scholl

I saw this film on February 14th, 2006 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Film Festival that screens films for their Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

The place and time are Nazi Germany of 1942-43. Germany is starting to have serious war setbacks like their huge loss and immense casualties at Stalingrad, and the allies, consisting of England, the United States, and Russia, are united in the destruction of the Third Reich. Within Germany, the opposition to Hitler, the Gestapo, and fascism is laughably small. Students with mimeograph machines try to educate and motivate other students to rally and protest. These students have to do this clandestinely because their activities are considered high treason and there is no freedom of speech or assembly.

Sophie Scholl and her older brother Hans are caught distributing subversive, anti-Hitler literature. The film focuses on the 21 year old Sophie, and she is NOT the weaker sex. She is interrogated for days and she is a spectrum of people far beyond her years; i.e., young, afraid, conniving, brave, docile, belligerent, religious, tough, tender, mature, etc.

The film is shot in color, but the color is heavily muted and it looks almost black and white. That is appropriate because the film plays as much as a documentary and as it does as a fictional drama. In fact, this story is based on a true story.

We live in a time when the head of Iran thinks the Holocaust didn’t happen. It is moving to see that at least some young people in Germany during World War II were ashamed and disgusted by their country’s murder of Jews, the mentally ill, gypsies, and women and children of occupied countries.

Sophie’s religious beliefs were inspiring. She did not blame her God and she did not feel forsaken. God was simply her strength that she humbly called upon when she needed it most.

This film appears to have been made with a low budget. But, the impact is as powerful as large-budgeted films with similar themes like “Schindler’s List” and “A Man For All Seasons.” It has been nominated for an Oscar as Best Foreign Picture this year. And…it deserves the nomination.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Tsotsi

I saw this film on January 19th, 2006 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Film Festival that screens films for their Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

Tsotsi is a leader of an informal black criminal gang in South Africa. They are simply awful and inhuman and cruel and uncaring. We may understand why they act this way as we see the segregated black slums they live in, and, through flashbacks, their orphan-like upbringing, but you can’t bring yourself to forgive them for what they have become. They are some of the worst thugs of the earth.

And then, a tipping point moment comes to the leader Tsotsi. As he commits a car theft from a wealthy neighborhood, he unknowingly kidnaps a baby. He can’t bring himself to let the baby die.

Tsotsi clumsily attends to the baby in his small, tin can slum house. He becomes a hybrid human; that is, half good and half evil.

The drama of the film is the tension of not knowing how he will turn out. And he surely can go either way. His gang of friends are a noticeable contrast to where Tsotsi’s head and morality is. They are pure evil.

The movie is sub-titled but there is not much dialog among these uneducated almost simpleminded underclass of young men. The powerful impact on the screen is created by the sordid environment and the realism in the facial expressions of the gang. The film is also driven cleverly by the African hip-hop like music.

The film looks at the question whether the worst of our humans on earth can change and tip back into being civilized.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Nanny McPhee

This film was specially shown on January 17, 2006 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Film Festival that screens films for their Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

There are seven rather naughty children who have creatively and gleefullydrove away seventeen nannies who tried to tame them. But they have met their match with the hideous looking Nanny McPhee played by Emma Thompson. Thompson wrote the screenplay and with great make-up plays Nanny McPhee. Thompson is a consummate artist and is the only person ever to have won an Oscar for writing (“Sense and Sensibility”) and also to have won an Oscar for acting (“Howard’s End). Thompson brings class to this Victorian-era, dark, fractured fairy tale.

This is a laugh out loud farce. And young people and old can share in the humor. While the film is designed for kids, the adult accompanying the child will enjoy it almost as much.

There are positive messages, for parent and child, throughout the film. The seven children are taught to listen and to be courteous and to be responsible and to think through things for themselves, and you watch their behavior evolve. In the beginning, goodness looks ugly to the children. But as they learn what goodness truly is, it takes on a beautiful appearance.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

I saw this film on December 22nd 2005 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Film Festival that screens films for their Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

It’s 1965 in Texas, and a new, young, white basketball coach, Don Haskins, gets his first chance to coach a Division I men’s basketball team, Texas Western. There is a lot going against him. His past experience is coaching a women’s basketball team, and the school has a poor basketball tradition, and he cannot recruit good white players. But, he is determined to succeed. And, he doesn’t see color when he evaluates talent.

Forty years ago, there were virtually no black college players in the South. There was even an unwritten rule that you could play 1 black at a time at home, 2 on the road, and 3 if you were losing badly. Don Haskins recruits blacks in Northern cities, and brings them to Texas Western to play basketball and, just as important, to be students..

The road to glory is not easy, and there are many obstacles. The black players have to adjust to a strict coach who wants them to play fundamental basketball and not street basketball. The black players face subtle and overt racial prejudice. And the school administration, alumni, and student body aren’t quite sure their coach is doing the right thing.

The black players, the white players, and Don Haskins display great human traits as they persevere throughout the school year and basketball season. They are courageous and even heroic in meeting great challenges. They sacrifice to achieve their goals. And, they
keep their dignity at all times.

This is a “Hoosiers” with a conscience. The quality of the production and the acting is equal to “Hoosiers.” And like “Hoosiers”, it is based on a true story.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

I saw this film on November 30th 2005 in Indianapolis. I am one of the judges for the Heartland Film Festival that screens films for their Truly Moving Picture Award. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.” Heartland gave that award to this film.

Four young children enter the timeless world of Narnia through the door of a wardrobe
piece of furniture while playing hide-and-seek. And what a world it is. There are talking animals, dwarfs, giants, beasts, centaurs, and indescribable half-human combinations. And, in this world of Narnia there is a titanic struggle between the White Witch and her evil army and the good lion Aslan and his noble army.

Although it doesn’t seem possible, you can suspend disbelief and become engaged in the story because the artistry and technology are so outstanding. The art direction, special effects, cinematography, editing and sound will most likely and should be nominated for Academy Awards. The lion Aslan dominates your attention in every scene he appears in, and as the story unfolds, he becomes as human-like as any of the four children.

The four children seem normal enough with their constant teasing and fighting among themselves, but when events truly matter, they come together and exemplify the highest standards of sacrifice, courage, fidelity and heroism. Both children and adults will find inspiration and role models in these four children.

The lion Aslan is a mystical and almost biblical hero. There are many parallels between Aslan and Christianity, and you can watch this film anywhere in the religious-secular spectrum you care to. I suspect that over many years the other six books that make up The Chronicles of Narnia will be made into movies and they will have the same type of financial and artistic success as The Lord of the Rings film trilogy had. That is high praise indeed.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Truly Moving Picture Award winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.

Innocent Voices

I am a judge for the Indianapolis-based Heartland Film Festival. This feature film is a Crystal Heart Award Winner and is eligible to be the Grand Prize Winner in October of 2005. The Heartland Film Festival is a non-profit that honors Truly Moving Pictures. A Truly Moving Picture “…explores the human journey by artistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life.”

The film is set in war-torn El Salvador in the early 1980s. The in-power, repressive, government’s army is fighting the peasant guerilla movement. The residents of a rural poor town have the misfortune to be between the rebels and the army. Their homes in the town become incredibly dangerous, and they are always on the cusp of becoming destitute refugees.

There is no doubt who the bad guys are. The army has dictatorial powers and forcibly recruits boys into the army once they turn 12 years old. They also rape girls, execute anyone they are suspicious of regardless of age and sex, and harass the Catholic Church and its priest.

This story is told via a poor family consisting of a Mother, a 11-year old son (Chava), and a younger brother and older sister. They live in squalor and danger. The main character is Chava, and we see the plight of all the residents through his eyes as he is able to move around the town more easily as a child. He is also a typical boy in an atypical environment. He is foolhardy, fun-loving, brave, adventurous, and curious. He is determined to live his 11-year old life as normal as possible no matter what. And he does a good job of it – for a while.

The Mother is heroic and courageous. She sacrifices everything for her children always trying to protect them and love them under the most gruesome circumstances.

It is hard not to be moved and sickened as you watch the story of the family and town unfold. The movie has a strong anti-United States bias because of the U.S. support for the army and the in-power regime.

The cinematography, art direction, and directing are excellent. And the boy, Chava, is amazingly believable and unaffected by the camera.

FYI – There is a Truly Moving Pictures web site where there is a listing of past Crystal Heart winners that are now either at the theater or available on video.