Good Little Known Movies

Part 7

        So you still don’t quite feel like it’s safe to go into the theatre? . I feel your pain. So- another batch of really good movies you’ve probably never heard of.

        I will admit to being absolutely smitten with Charles Dickens. The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) is a fictionalized account of how he came to write A Christmas Carol. Almost everyone is at least familiar with the basic outline of the story. Each set-piece in the film shows how it could have happened that he wrote this scene. Little-known Dan Stevens is Dickens. Miserly, miserable Ebenezer Scrooge is brilliantly portrayed by the unmatchable Christopher Plummer.

        Wild Tales (2015) is a Spanish film that more than lives up to its title. The movie is a series of vignettes about crazy coincidences. They do not seem  to be related, and some are better than others. The best shows a group of passengers on an airliner who gradually discover they have all done bad things to one man- who turns out to be the pilot of the plane! All the others are almost as good. What fun!

        Victoria And Abdul (2017) is about the unlikely, but true, story of how the Queen became fast friends with an Indian servant. Surrounded by sycophants and ungrateful children (9 of them, waiting for her to die), the Queen is really lonely. Enter a handsome Indian sent to England to present the monarch with a commemorative coin. Soon they are fast friends and he is teaching her Urdu and Hindi as well as cultural matters. Her court is outraged. Too bad...she’s still the Queen! This movie is worth watching for Judi Dench’s performance alone, but it’s an interesting story of an interlude no one would have predicted. 

        Learning To Drive (2015) features two of my all-time favorite actors: Patricia Clarkson (The Station Agent) and Ben Kingsley (Ghandi). She is a high-strung New York City book editor. When her husband leaves her for another woman, she realizes she must learn to drive if she wants to visit her daughter in Vermont. She hires Mr. Kingsley who plays the role of an American Sikh. The culture clash is both humorous and touching, as each gradually learns about and warms to the other. These two actors could carry anything and they make this small, pleasant movie very enjoyable. 

        The great Hayao Miyazaki, the genius of Japanese anime films, says that The Wind Rises (2013)  was his last movie. We hope not, but we can enjoy this beautiful animated film. As always with his work, you could take any scene and frame it. It is the story of a young man who dreams of flying, but eyesight problems prevent it. So he becomes an aeronautical engineer and designs wonderful planes. 

        All these except Learning To Drive are fine for all ages. All are available on DVD. And many are available without charge at your local library.