GOOD LITTLE KNOWN MOVIES

                                                                Part 5

As I write this, there is once again hope on the horizon that things will get better. Almost everyone is still hunkered down at home. Movie theaters are still a distant memory. Anyway, for that and other reasons, I offer herewith another batch of movies culled from the recent past by Mr. Movie. Again, these didn’t make much of a splash, but I thought they were pretty good. 

Still Walking (2009) is a drama about a family with a troubled past. There is a rather unbending patriarch, a mother who tries to hold everything together, grandchildren who are not as well behaved as they should be, and children tired of the old ways. There is a gaping hole left by a child who died early, and the grief-stricken young man who desperately wants to atone. At first the family seems strangely oblivious to the situation. But things change, slowly, in a Japanese way.  

Premium Rush (2012) stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a bicycle delivery guy in New York City. It is worth watching for the bike riding alone. Watching him zoom through impossible traffic is, well, a rush. He is given an envelope to deliver that contains a ticket from China to the USA for relatives of his friend. The plot thickens when a dishonest cop tries to steal the envelope. Just go with it. 

Okay, I know that Paddington (2014) is ostensibly a kid’s movie. But you know what? A good movie is a good movie! The stuffed bear from “Darkest Peru,” who speaks and understands English, is adopted by a normal British family. He of course knows nothing about modern society. Highjinks ensue. This charming film features Sally Hawkins, Hugh Bonneville (His Lordship on Downton Abbey!), Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent and an absolutely adorable bear. The 2017 sequel is just as good!

If Helen Mirren has ever given a bad performance I have yet to see it. She pretty well carries Woman In Gold (2015), the true story of Austrian emigre Maria Altman. Ms. Altman is an elderly American who fled the Nazis. The Germans looted art works by the hundreds, including a portrait of Ms. Altman’s aunt which had hung in her Vienna home. She discovers that it is now hanging in an Austrian museum and sets out to get it back. She employs Randol Schoenberg, the grandson of her friends and a very green attorney. I disagree with many critics that Ryan Reynolds is over his head as the lawyer. I thought he was just fine.

If you like quirky titles, you just can’t top The One-Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared (2015). And this delightful fantasy delivers all the fun you hoped for. Allan Karlson loathes the retirement home where he lives. When he learns the home is planning a party celebrating his 100th birthday he wants nothing to do with it. So he climbs out a window and escapes. A drug dealer asks him to hold a suitcase for him while he visits the facilities. A little absent-minded, Allan gets on his bus with the suitcase and is pursued by nasty thugs and the police. In the meantime, he has various hilarious adventures involving the drug money, and an elephant. 

All of the movies in this article are available on DVD . All are for grown-ups.