‘Arts’ Archives
What Are Some of The Best Films of 2017?
Ten out of 120 Howard Viewed in 2017! 1.) “Paradise” (Rated R?) This film is from The 2017 Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival, entirely in black and white, the film is set during World War II, when three people cross paths. Simply put, “Paradise” one reason to go to big screen. Cast: Yuliya Vysotskaya (Olga), Christian Clauss (Helmut), Philippe Duquesne (Jules),Viktor Sukhorukov (Heinrich Himmler).Running time: 130 minutes.Languages: Russian/German/French/Yiddish. Director: Andrey Konchalovskiy. 2.) “Phantom Thread” (R) A famous dressmaker Reynolds (Daniel Day-Lewis), and sister Cyril (Lesley Manville) are at the height of their careers making dresses for film stars, heiresses, debutants and dames at the House of Woodcock. Reynolds is an older gent, a bachelor, has had his share of women but then a young, shy woman Alma Vicky Krieps) comes into his life. Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis (Reynolds Woodcock), Lesley Manville (Cyril), Vicky [...]
“The Shape of Water”
“The Shape of Water”(2017) Fox Searchlight ****1/2 Back during the Cold War, a young mute woman, Eliza Esposito (Sally Hawkins), lives in a shabby apartment above the Orpheum Theater (“The Story of Ruth and the Mardi Gras” on the marquee) with in-a-closet, gay struggling illustrator, Giles Richard Jenkins in Baltimore, Maryland, circa 1962. She works as a cleaning woman in a questionable, secret government facility. She goes about her job in a perfunctory way and has only one friend on the job Zelda Fuller (Octavia Spencer), who looks out for her. One thing will change Eliza”'s life forever which she doesn”'t see coming. One day she and Zelda are told to clean some spilled blood in the laboratories. Eliza becomes curious about a tank in the lab. What they find next is an amphibian humanoid creature in the tank. For Eliza, whenever the chance she gets while at work, she gets the creature”'s trust. The boss of the secret place is Colonel [...]
Lady Bird
“Lady Bird” (2017) Studio A24 ***** “Lady Bird” is the most refreshing film on adolescence in a long time. Thanks to Greta Gerwig, her directional debut is fantastic, everything is in place, keen, realistic, charming and humorous (and serious, too) all in the right spots. Yes, adolescence is a turbulent, experimental, and growing time in life that seem often to work against him or her. Then the adolescent has to be under the roof of parents, oh, those people we call parents, the ones hopefully to guide into adulthood. Values, good ones --well, pray those ones be the frontrunner. “Lady Bird”' is the title character played by Saoirse Ronan (“Brooklyn” [2015), in large part has a turbulent relationship with her mother, Marion McPherson (Laurie Metcalf). Her mother tells her and her father Larry (Tracy Letts) cannot afford to send her to Columbia, Yale or Penn and barely can afford to send her to a college in California (where they [...]
