2019 Sleepers
                                                             Part 4

Here’s another big helping of good 2019 movies that did not get noticed much. Hope you can find one or two you would like to see.
Clemency is yet another death penalty movie, but the focus this time is upon those who have to carry it out. Alfre Woodard’s performance as the warden is the glue that holds this thing together. How would you like to be the one that nods to start the injection of the fatal drugs? After getting to know the prisoner, to boot. It takes a toll and she is stellar at showing the results.
Many (ok most) of the readers of these articles will recall the late Mike Wallace, mostly from CBS’s 60 Minutes. He was the relentless skewer of the great and powerful and never met a controversy he didn’t like. But he was also fair and never sensational just for the sake of being so. Mike Wallace Is Here is the phrase those in power dreaded to hear, and it is the name of this warts and all delineation of the popular reporter. 
Thirty years ago, Clifford McBride led a voyage into deep space, but the ship and crew were never heard from again. Now his son -- a fearless astronaut -- must embark on a daring mission to Neptune to uncover the truth about his missing father and a mysterious power surge that threatens the stability of the universe. Brad Pitt is the astronaut-son undertaking this perilous mission. A supporting cast that includes Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler and Donald Sutherland helps to sell this rather far-fetched story. Ad Astra is just fine if you can suspend your justifiable skepticism.
Kenneth Branagh directed and stars in All Is True, a charming if doubtful story of the real life of William Shakespeare. When his beloved Globe Theatre burns to the ground, it seems that all is lost. But it isn’t. 
We don’t get that many movies from Finland, but The Other Side Of Hope is Finnish and it’s a gem. Waldemar sells all his goods, leaves his wife, wins big in a poker game and starts a restaurant. He shelters, befriends and hires Khaled, who has fled from Syria. They jointly hunt for Khaled’s sister, who was lost in the shuffle in the flight to Finland. After that it gets complicated.
All of the films in this article are available on DVD. All are for grown-ups.