GOOD MOVIES YOU MAY NEVER HAVE HEARD OF

                                                             Part 2

Here’s another batch of really good films that slipped under the radar when they came out.

Philomena (2013) stars the legendary Judi Dench. As an Irish teenager Philomena became pregnant and was sent to a convent for unwed mothers. She had a little boy and they lived together for three years. Then the nuns found an adoptive family, he left with them, and she never saw him again. The movie is about her search for her boy after 40 plus years of separation. Steve Coogan is quite good as a journalist helping her look for her son. Movies don’t get much better than this. 

The Class (2009) is a fine French film about a high school teacher who gets into trouble from an offhand remark he makes during a class .With all the hubub about political correctness, it seems right out of the headlines though it is 12 years old. It manages to balance precisely on the edge between sympathy for the guy and understanding what all the fuss is about. The teacher is played by Francois Begaudeau, a real school teacher who wrote the screenplay. The students are not professional actors, and you feel you are in the classroom with them. It should probably be required viewing for every educator. 

Ruby Sparks (2012) is a wonder. Written by and starring Zoe Kazan, it features Paul Dano as a struggling novelist. He had a big hit with his first book but is now completely blocked from writing another. His therapist (Elliott Gould) says to write a page about someone who likes his dog. The writer has a dream in which he meets Ruby Sparks in the park and she says she likes his dog. So he starts writing about her. Then one day she shows up in his kitchen, possibly as a real person. That’s all I’m going to tell you!

Yet another French entry in this list is the enigmatic and altogether engaging Certified Copy (2011). The marvelous Juliette Binoche meets British unknown William Shimell, who has recently published a book about the difference between originals and copies in the world of art. They agree to meet the next day and go to lunch together in a small Tuscan village. Then the fun starts. Did they really just meet? Or is something else going on here? It is fun to try to figure out, and your guess is as good as any. 

The Square (2010) is from Australia. It is a classic “one bad thing always leads to something worse” movie. A construction company owner tries to hide an affair he is having with the wife of an employee. They hire a thug to burn down her house while they are at a company Christmas party to provide an alibi. Their perfect plan goes horribly wrong, and like the Tar Baby, the more they struggle to right things the worse it gets. 

All of the movies in this article are available on DVD, though some of them may be hard to find. All are for adults.