2017 SLEEPERS
                                                           Part 7

This is, I promise, the last article about good 2017 films missed by most fans. I finally found a DVD of The Insult I could watch, and decided to do just one more article on last year’s sleepers. 
The Insult is a Lebanese film that is a cautionary tale for the world in general and the Middle East in particular. It is of course in Arabic and for a long time I could only find it with Arabic subtitles. Asheboro library to the rescue, with English subtitles! This movie got an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film but lost to A Fantastic Woman (from Chile).A Lebanese man carelessly insults a Palestinian worker. Then he won’t apologize. Then things escalate. It is altogether possible this could happen. Note that it does not involve the Israelis; all the combatants are Arabic. Well, the Middle East is a real mess and this film helps to show why. 
Wakefield is very weird story starring Brian Cranston of Breaking Bad fame. What if you could observe your family without yourself being present? That’s the premise and while it gets a little hard to believe, it is engaging. The main character unwittingly discovers that from the attic of his garage he can observe his wife and family without their knowledge. He decides to stay there and is reported missing. Some of what he sees is good and some not so good. 
Last Flag Flying features Lawrence Fishburne, Brian Cranston (he’s everywhere!) and an underrated Steve Carrell. They are Vietnam vets who served together. Carrell plays Doc Shepherd, who reveals to the others that he is widowed and that he has lost his only son in an Iraq battle. He does not want the young man to be buried in Arlington, but in the hometown where his Mom has been laid to rest. They decide to go get his body and take it home.  They encounter miles of red tape but don’t give up. 
There were at last count three films about Winston Churchill last year. Darkest Hour was nominated for an Oscar and so was Dunkirk. The third is named simply 
Churchill and features Brian Cox as the Prime Minister. This is the imagined story of Sir Winston’s misgivings about the Normandy invasion and while it isn’t up to the first two films, it is interesting and well played by Cox. 
And finally, there is the intriguing biofllick, Bombshell, about actress Hedy Lamarr, . She was a great beauty and played in various movies in the 40's and 50's. She also had a mostly secret life as an inventor! She invented “frequency hopping” which I frankly don’t understand, but I can tell you that it is a device still used in cell phones and other technology. Like many Hollywood idols, Ms Lamarr did not have a happy life. She was married six times and in her last years became a recluse. And yet- who knew she was this brilliant scientist? 
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. All are for grownups.