Spent a long weekend courtesy of Doc Martin Luther King watching some old and not so old movies produced by American and British studios.
- Among the memorable ones was a BBC production of a British author's book by the same name called Brick Lane. This film is around 10 years old and describes the tale of a child marriage, a girl from Bangladesh who moves to London to live with a man twice her age.
It is filmed over a 10 plus year period including the 9/11 incidents in NY and showcases a myriad emotions from a girl torn away from the only home she knew growing up with her sister to now live in a cold isolated place like London in a housing project in Brick Lane with a man she knows nothing of, to the racial tensions spurred post 9/11 in the poor east end neighborhood of London.
The lead role is a Bengali actress who gives a stellar performance of being a bride, mother and lover caught in a breath choking environment. Her husband is a comical and temperamental dude that quotes Hume and Chaucer adding some levity to the otherwise serious and dark movie. Some observations that this otherwise miserable person makes include a philosophical posit by Hume who held that passion rather than reason governs human behavior.
The film ultimately (at times slow) ends with the wife and her two daughters separating (staying in London) from the husband and father who returns to Bangladesh having given up on finding success that proves too elusive.
- Of the not so remarkable but sometimes witty and crazy movies were 'Logan Lucky' and 'Cafe Society' made by some prolific directors. The former is a Steven Soderbergh film while the latter is directed by Woody Allen.
Logan Lucky is a goofy caper at the NASCAR track with Daniel Craig in a role of a convict that is busted out to pull this robbery. His film name is Joe Bang as an ode (same initials) to his more famous role on her majesty's secret service. Adam Driver as a one armed bartender and Channing Tatum complete the ridiculous but engaging cast.
Cafe Society on the other hand is a typical fast moving film in a Woody Allen kind of way produced by his sister and starring Jessie Eisenberg as a young Jewish man who moves from NY to Hollywood to work for his uncle played by Steve Carell.
Steve is a big shot movie producer in Hollywood who is constantly moving in egotistical circles and Jessie gets a taste for that life and immediately regrets it wanting to move back to NY. Meantime finds love which is complicated by the fact that his love interest also is hitting on his uncle etc. Some parts are very funny but the story lacks any specific oomph.
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