{"id":8209,"date":"2019-10-17T07:51:06","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T11:51:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8209"},"modified":"2019-10-31T09:30:13","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T13:30:13","slug":"another-day-another-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8209","title":{"rendered":"Another Day, Another Film"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"popcorn\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

You could call it a \u201cself-curated film festival\u201d or you\ncould just call me lucky to have two top-notch independent movie houses nearby.\nWhatever you call it, five movies in five days is a lot of popcorn-eating opportunity.\nI wouldn\u2019t hesitate to recommend any of these very different films if they\nsound like your thing. Two here, three next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Official Secrets<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gavin Hood\u2019s film (based on a true story, whatever that means these days) centers on a woman (Keira Knightley) working for British intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war (trailer<\/a>) . A memo comes through asking analysts to dig up information the Americans can use to pressure UN Security Council members to support the War. A Security Council endorsement would give the Bush Administration and the Blair government much-needed political cover. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s wrong, and she leaks the memo, in violation of Britain’s strict Official Secrets laws. Matt Smith and Rhys Ifans are helpful and entertaining investigative reporters. She has a Muslim husband (Adam Bakri) a rights lawyer (Ralph Fiennes), and between them, they give fine and timely speeches about loyalty and treason. I was on the edge of my seat. Generally, I don\u2019t like Knightley, but she\u2019s great here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rotten Tomatoes<\/a>\ncritics rating: 82%; audiences 89%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judy<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rupert Goold\u2019s film, written by Tom Edge, about Judy Garland\u2019s sad last days doesn\u2019t contain plot surprises (trailer<\/a>). It\u2019s showstopping strength is Ren\u00e9e Zellweger\u2019s amazing performance. You know Judy\u2019s going to crash and burn, and you so, so, don\u2019t want her to. It’s painful to watch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She scrapes herself together at times, which gives you hope that she can fulfill her contract with a London theater for five weeks of sold-out performances. They\u2019re bringing in the cash she desperately needs in order to reclaim her two younger children from husband #4, Sidney Luft (Rufus Sewell). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zellweger doesn\u2019t try to imitate Garland\u2019s voice, but she\u2019s got the mannerisms cold, and the way she belts out the songs, no wonder fans adore her. Flashbacks provide a cold appraisal of Hollywood\u2019s exploitative star system, where her addictions began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> critics rating: 83%; audiences 86%. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You could call it a \u201cself-curated film festival\u201d or you could just call me lucky to have two top-notch independent movie houses nearby. Whatever you call it, five movies in five days is a lot of popcorn-eating opportunity. I wouldn\u2019t … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Another Day, Another Film - two excellent and very different films: Official Secrets (what is treason when your government is wrong?) and Judy (last sad days of a legend)","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[265,1288,366,193,57,268,359,66,104],"tags":[1657],"class_list":["post-8209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biography","category-culture","category-drama","category-espionage","category-movies","category-politics","category-review","category-suspense","category-the-morgue","tag-judy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/popcorn-576599_1280-e1571314279946.png?fit=350%2C410&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-28p","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8209"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8211,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8209\/revisions\/8211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}