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The Bikeriders (#566)

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The movie I saw yesterday was interesting, unusual and very good.  And it featured standout performances by three leading actors — Tom Hardy as Johnny, Austin Butler as Benny, and Jodie Comer as Kathy. (I was not familiar with the careers of the latter two).  And the cinematography in THE BIKERIDERS  is noteworthy. The film, largely narrated by Kathy, is the story of a motorcycle club started and led by Johnny in the Chicago area. It is simply that — a motorcycle club of beer drinkers and no more than that.  It takes place in the tumultuous sixties and is a reason for a bunch of guys to get together because of their love of motorcycles.  Benny is an off-kilter loner but also a member of the club who acted unhinged much of the time.  The club's popularity grows and bikers from other parts of the country seek them out to join, with Johnny being most selective about who is allowed to join.  Kathy tells her story to a photographer who is chronicling the Vandals, the name of the club, a
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Thelma (#565)

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On a hot and humid Saturday, I wen to see THELMA, expecting to see hoards at the theater escaping the heat,  Nope, the usual paucity.  Two other men were in the theater, sitting in my reserved seat but moving off when I threatened them with my cane.  Just kidding!!  It presumably is based, in some measure, on the antics of the director's grandmother.  It was a light-hearted comedy, intended to amuse and entertain (critics described it as hilarious).  I had mixed emotions because, as a longtime senior citizen, I thought it had the odor of demeaning those of us advanced in age.  Thelma is an elderly woman, living independently but leaning heavily on her beloved grandson.  She gets a call, purportedly from him, revealing that he is incarcerated and she needs to send him ten thousand dollars in cash to get him out. Yeah, she's a senior victimized by a scammer about which we've been warned countless times by the media.  She scrounges through her residence, gets the required fund
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Tuesday (#564)

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Today, Monday, I reluctantly saw TUESDAY, which doesn't mean anything.  I say reluctantly because it stars Julia Louis Dreyfus in a deeply dramatic role.  I describe this movie as an allegory but I'm not really certain it is.  It certainly is a fantasy or fairy tale with more symbolism than I recall seeing in a movie for a long, long time.  I am only guessing that it takes place in England because two characters, Julia's daughter and her caregiver, speak with an English accent.  Julia and her daughter live in a large home.  Daughter obviously suffers from some serious disease (unnamed as far as I remember) whose main companion is s grotesque parrot-like bird with s nasty-looking beak.  This mysterious creature is capable of transforming itself from a sparrow-like size to one of eagle or larger proportions.  If I'm not mistaken, the bird is the symbol of death and is trying to prepare the daughter for it.  The bird also insists that the girl try to prepare her mother for
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Treasure (#563)

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On Father's Day, I went to a movie with one of my daughters. It was depressing and sad, but we both thought it was worth seeing. This film, inspired by true events, is the story of two New Yorkers, a daughter who is a journalist and her father, a holocaust survivor, who travel to the country of his birth, Poland.  The daughter in TREASURE is trying to learn about the history of her family because her parents never spoke about it.  Her father has a different agenda and counters her plans at every opportunity. He is a kind of hale fellow well met who insists that they engage a car and driver to take them everywhere (she had purchased train tickets for them) and who immediately looks upon the driver as his best friend.  The father and daughter clash at every new phase of their trip. They visit the family apartment, now occupied by a sullen family, who claim there is nothing left from the previous occupants, but her father recognizes his mother's china and other items, and the daug
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In a Violent Nature (#562)

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In a theater with more than the usual crowd of one, I saw another horror film, and I must admit that it was not the usual bill of fare and a welcome change from the Halloween-type scary movie.  It was more than unusual; it was strange and unique and I'd even call it innovative.  It had very little dialogue, with most of it coming from off-camera actors.  Much, maybe too much, of the film featured the camera following s burly man with his back to the camera plodding through a forest.  The events are explained by a young man telling the story of Johnny (obviously the man in the woods) who killed people years ago in this woods, was killed, buried and came back.  One of the group around a campfire listening to the story has found a necklace which we learn belonged to Johnny's mother and he wants it back.  When he's not plodding, Johnny kills anyone he comes across in very graphically filmed ways—like plunging a hook into a girl and pulling out her innards, and tearing off someo
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