
Coda
Coda is the remake of a French movie. The American version is taking place in a small fishing town in New England. At the center of the film is a high school senior whose parents and older brother are deaf. She has been the translator for her family with the outside “hearing” world for her entire life. But she’s getting tired of this as she wants to lead a more independent life.

No Time to Die
Sometimes in the 1990s I had vowed never to see another James Bond movie. In my early teens, I watched a James Bond movie every weekend. I described c my teenage love affair with James Bond that came to an end like many teenage love affairs do here: Me and Mr. Bond. But when Daniel Craig took over the role and the producers announced that they would give Bond emotional depth, I wanted to see whether they have achieved this in Casino Royale. They did as I wrote in my review.

White Tiger
I loved Slumdog Millionaire and Liondepiction of India. I was particularly moved by the scenes when Lion was lost in India. When novels work well, they depict real social problems and injustices and mobilize us to action. After seeing White Tiger I felt paralyzed rather than mobilized. Charles Dickens’ novels created in the hearts of many people the desire to change the awful working conditions in 19th century Britain. I was disgusted by the murder that the protagonist committed, making me more outraged about the poor storytelling than about social conditions in India. This was not how the writer and filmmaker intended it. I felt that they exaggerated so strongly and came across as so assured that their viewpoint is the correct one that I was turned off. I also did not learn anything new about India or became more sympathetic to the challenges for this gigantic country. Two thumbs down.

Parasite
In die middle of February, Donald Trump made fun of this year’s best picture. I watched Trump’s campaign lines. He could not believe that a South Korean film would win an American based movie award. He called for “great American movies” like Gone with the wind to win Oscars. So I wanted to see the South Korean film and see why and how it convinced the majority of the voters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to do something that it has never done before: To give the best movie award to a foreign film.

Movies, Drama, Music, The Rest
Get on Up
The premature death of Chadwick Boseman due to colon cancer led to an international outpouring of grief. I had never seen a film with Boseman but I remembered how sad I was when Heath Ledger died much too young. People who knew Boseman gave eulogies that I would have given about Ledger, whose talent I admired deeply. So I wanted to see a film with Boseman. I chose the film about the musician James Brown.