2015 Sleepers
                                                         Part 3

Here’s another batch of under-appreciated 2015 films for your consideration.
Focus begins with Margot Robie and her loser boyfriend trying to scam Will Smith with the old “caught in bed with my wife” trick. He quickly calls them out and they slink away. But then she decides he is an expert scammer (he is) and wants him to mentor her. He does. Their most entertaining scam involves betting the farm on Ms. Robie’’s ability to pick out the number guessed by the Chinese millionaire out of all the football players on the field. And after that it gets complicated!
Phoenix involves a woman who has miraculously escaped from a Holocaust camp. She has reconstructive facial surgery because of a bullet wound, and asks to look just like she did before. That can’t be done, but the surgeon can come close. The fact that she slightly resembles her old face is the key to this film. She reconnects with her former husband. He has thought his wife was killed in the war, and wants to use this woman to collect the “dead” wife’s inheritance. The ending is a stunner. 
Here in America, we have trouble getting our heads around the idea of arranged marriages. Not so in India. Completely Americanized Ravi Patel’s parents are determined to find him the right bride. He resists, but goes along with meeting dozens of candidates, all the while carrying a torch for his blonde California girl. Meet The Patels is a documentary that is both entertaining and instructive, and we can see some benefit for both ways of getting hitched. 
I’ve always liked Mark Ruffalo, starting with the under-rated You Can Count On Me (2000) through last year’s Oscar-winning Spotlight. His sleeper film from 2015 is the frantic, enjoyable Infinitely Polar Bear. He plays a bipolar Dad of two daughters, who are hugely embarrassed by his antics. Zoe Saldana is his loving, dependable wife who wins a scholarship to Columbia and convinces him to stay behind with the kids in Boston. Hijinks ensue but you can’t help but like the guy (and be greatly entertained).
An Honest Liar is a riveting documentary about James Randi, a magician by trade. He tells you he is going to fool you, and then he does. There is nothing supernatural about the magic of true magicians. He despises and sets out to destroy charlatans who bilk the public by pretending they have supernatural powers. How they do their tricks, and how he catches and exposes them, is quite good. 
All of the films in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All are for mature audiences. Is this the last 2015 sleepers article? Probably not!

                                            MY MOVIE CHILDHOOD

I grew up in Randleman. We had one movie theater, the Fox, which later moved up the street and became the Rand. Both were owned and operated by Mr. Charlie Price, a great American in my book. He operated on the same schedule for years: One movie Monday and Tuesday, another movie Wednesday and Thursday, a single movie on Friday, and a double feature on Saturday. Sunday? Get real...
I might as well admit we’re talking about the 40's and early 50's. The admission price was 9 cents. It gets better. If you wanted to go to the Tuesday movie and you had already been to the same movie on Monday, all you had to do was say “Done saw it, Mr. Price” and you got in free! And I did that- a lot. 
My grandparents took me most of the time during the war (World War II is still The War to people my age). We rarely paid any attention to what was on.  It didn’t really matter. I might not like or understand the movie, but it wouldn’t have sex or excessive violence. 
You may have heard the phrase “This is where we came in.” We never knew, or cared, when the movie started. We just went. When we got to the part where we arrived, someone would utter the magic words and we’d leave (or stay if it was really good). 
When I got older (like 8) I would go by myself or with buddies. Hey, this was a different time. Popcorn was a dime, candy and drinks a nickel each. So if you had a quarter, you could go to the movie, have popcorn and a drink, and still have a penny for bubble gum. 
My favorite was the Saturday double feature. There would also be a newsreel, and a serial (probably Buck Rogers) which hung off a cliff at every ending. The movies would probably be two westerns.
We liked Rocky Lane, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans (and Gabby Hayes!). We loved Red Ryder and Little Beaver (Robert Blake- he was Bobby back then). They always came out of a book that magically opened. We loved Lash Larue, whose major weapon was a bullwhip. We didn’t much care for Whip Wilson, a pale imitation. There was also Hopalong Cassidy. 
During the week there would be Bogart, Gable, Irene Dunne, John Payne (not Wayne yet), Fred and Ginger. I loved them all. I still do. 
The first time I remember Mr. Price varying the schedule was for The Greatest Show On Earth, a 1952 Cecil B. DeMille blockbuster about the circus. It ran a full week. He did NOT jack up the ticket prices, and the Done-Saw-It rule was still in effect. I can’t remember if I saw it three times or only twice.
A lot of people ask me how I could love movies so much. So now you sort of know.

                                                ALSO APPEARING
Grace Kelly deservedly won an Oscar as the long-suffering wife of a washed-up entertainer in The Country Girl (1954). And yet, it is Bing Crosby’s outstanding, heart-rending performance as her husband that sticks with me. I mean, here is a guy best known for crooning with big bands and playing straight man to Bob Hope in stupid Road movies. Who woulda thought it? 
Everyone raved about the performance of child actor Haley Joel Osment in the creepy and splendid The Sixth Sense (1999), and he is exceedingly good. But- it is Bruce Willis, a consummate pro, whose solid performance sells the somewhat shaky premise of the movie. Because of his appearance in so many action flicks, Willis is grossly underrated as an actor, but has proved time and again he can do the job.
Ordinary People (1980) is a wonderful film chock full of great performances. Timothy Bottoms, as the troubled son, Donald Sutherland as the father, and Judd Hirsch as the compassionate psychiatrist are all excellent. But it is comedienne Mary Tyler Moore, as the distant mother in uncomprehending denial, that makes the movie great. I thought Moore a strange choice when the cast was selected, but she is nothing short of superb in this, by far her best performance. 
Dustin Hoffman deserved and won an Oscar as the idiot-savant Rain Man (1988), who can remember everything except the most fundamental social graces. But it is Tom Cruise, as the short-suffering brother, that makes this movie go. His part is twice as difficult, and he pulls it off with grace and humility. For me, this is Cruise’s best
performance, and it is one that most viewers don’t notice. 
Both Sean Penn and Tim Robbins won Oscars for Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River (2003), a harrowing tale about three friends growing up together after something horrible happens to one of them. Penn and Robbins get the juicy, emotion-packed parts and they excel in them. But Kevin Bacon is the third friend, and his solid performance as the blue collar cop from the old neighborhood glues the somewhat jumpy movie together. 
Tex (1982) is an underrated small film about two teenage boys left parentless and trying to cope without much guidance or money. It provided Matt Dillon with his break-out role as the younger brother. Mr. Dillon is, as always, quite good. But it is the unheralded Jim Melzer as the older brother who steals this under-the-radar movie.
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. All are for adults. 
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                                                     ANSWERS
It’s time to answer at least some of the questions I get asked as the author of this blog.
Q- Have you seen every movie in your articles?
A- Mostly. Sometimes I refer to movies I have not seen. 
Q- How many movies do you watch, anyway?
A- Probably 4-5 per week; around 250 a year. My computer data base contains around 4500 movies I have seen; these are the ones I can remember.
Q- Do you ever go to a real theater?
A- Oh, yes. Since the column deals with movies available for watching at home, that’s where most of my viewing takes place. But I probably average two-three times a month in a real theater. 
Q- Is there any subject off-limits for your column?
A- Well, yeah. I never write about horror or slasher movies cause I don’t like them.  Other than porn, anything else is fair game.
Q- Who are your favorite critics, and who don’t you like?
A- The late Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times was my all-time favorite. I also like Kenneth Turan of the LA Times, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone  and all of the New York Times reviewers. I do not like David Denby of The New Yorker, who seems to hate everything. 
Q- How do you know what movies are available on video and DVD?
A- This information is readily available to anyone on the internet. Amazon.com is a good site to find this.
Q- How do you decide what ages are suitable for a movie?
A- I’m a father, grandfather and life-long movie nut. Mostly it’s just a gut feeling from the content. I pay as much attention to the boredom factor as I do to sex and violence. 
Q- How do you decide what to write about?
A- The inspiration, if you can call it that, can come from anywhere.  Friends and readers make suggestions. A new movie may inspire a note to write a column about that subject when the movies goes into video. The death of an actor or director may warrant a column on their work. 
Q- What recent technological advance do you like best?
A- Almost every DVD now has subtitles. I don’t hear as well as I used to, and I find this to be a real blessing. And, if you watch some Irish or British films, it doesn’t matter how good your hearing is, you won’t understand the words. 
Q- What bugs you about other movie fans?
A- Some people won’t watch black and white films; others won’t tackle films with subtitles. I have a friend who steadfastly refuses to watch animation. They are missing way too much!
Q- What’s a fun thing about being Mr. Movie?
       A- People ask me to find a movie for them based on something they vaguely remember- an actor, a plot line, part of the title. I try to track it down and usually I can!
 

                                                       2015 SLEEPERS
                                                       Part 2
Here is a second batch of 2015 movies that I thought quite good and that didn’t get much play. Hope you can find one that you’ll enjoy.
Who didn’t love the enormous, goofy yellow guy on Sesame Street known as Big Bird? I guess we always realized there was a person inside that costume. I Am Big Bird is the true story of Caroll Spinney, who invented and played the giant creature for over 40 years. This fascinating documentary shows in detail how the magic was managed to captivate the hearts of children of all ages. Big Bird was the kind, slightly off-center friend we all wanted.  By the way, Mr. Spinney also voiced the hilarious Oscar The Grouch!
Ex Machina features the superbly talented Alicia Vikander as a beautiful life-like robot. She is subjected to the Turing Test which reveals whether the subject is human or mechanical. She far surpasses the threshold and we begin to wonder. Her creator has had unlimited funds to play around with robotics and a visitor discovers he plans to “kill” the gorgeous robot. He and she plot together to abort that plan. The plot thickens and that’s all I’m going to tell.
Steve Jobs is a better than average biopic about the founder of Apple, clearly one of the most brilliant minds to come along in a while. The film stars Michael Fassbender (another European able to seamlessly play Americans) as the obsessive and not altogether likeable inventor. Kate Winslet is quite good as an associate, and Jeff Daniels, Seth Rogen and Katherine Waterston complete a fine cast. But the movie belongs to Mr. Fassbender, portraying the wunderkind in this warts-and-all film. 
McFarland USA stars Kevin Costner as the improbable cross-country coach at a predominantly Latino high school in California. The school has never had a cross-country team, but McFarland has seen some of the boys run and knows that there is real potential for a good team. He talks the principal into letting him form a team, which meets with lots of resistence from the kids and their parents. This being not only a Hollywood, but also a Disney, movie, you already know great things are in store. But it is a lot  of fun getting there, and takes a good look into the hard lives of the kids and their families. 
Tangerines is an Estonian-Georgian film about the horrors of war and the humanity that still hangs on by a thread. Ivo decides to stick it out in his Estonian village
because he hopes to harvest his lucrative tangerine crop. Almost everyone else has fled the area because of the raging civil war. After a firefight in front of Ivo’s house, a soldier from each side is gravely wounded. Ivo takes in both of them and begins nursing them back to health. They each have vowed to kill the other when strength returns. Well, it doesn’t turn out that way. This is a nice little sleeper. Caution: The 2015 film named Tangerine (no S) is a real dog. 
Kids would like I Am Big Bird and McFarland. The rest are for adults. All are available on DVD and for streaming.  
 

                                                James Cagney

His voice and mannerisms in his early gangster movies were so distinctive that every comedy impersonator in the world “did” Jimmy Cagney. He made dozens of movies as a snarling, vicious little thug. He was only 5'6" but could be absolutely scary as a really bad guy. And yet, his variety of starring roles is remarkable.
To start at the start, there are at least a dozen Cagney gangster flicks. The best and most famous is White Heat (1949). The clip of Cagney smashing half a grapefruit into the pretty face of Virginia Mayo has been shown millions of times, and has tended to pigeonhole him. Another good one in this line is Angels With Dirty Faces (1938), with a 39-year-old Cagney convincing as a teen-age hoodlum and being nominated for an Oscar in the bargain. Also good is The Public Enemy (1931), co-starring Jean Harlow as a tough-talking gun moll. 
Mr. Cagney could also do crazy. Mr. Roberts (1955) features Henry Fonda as the seasoned officer who’s seen it all and Jack Lemmon as his excitable protégé. James Cagney is the observably insane Captain Morton, making life miserable for all hands on deck.
Jimmy Cagney’s most surprising role to me was as song and dance man George M. Cohan in the enormously entertaining Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942). Yes, he could sing and he could dance and he did both and won the Oscar for this part. 
Mr. Cagney reprises his gangster persona in the so-so biopic Love Me Or Leave Me (1955). He plays gangster-manager “Moe The Gimp” Snyder and Doris Day plays songstress Ruth Etting. He was nominated for an Oscar (puzzlement here-not even in his top five performances) but lost out to Ernest Borgnine for Marty.
James Cagney  was an unlikely choice to play Lon Chaney in The Man Of A Thousand Faces (1957), because his own face was by then so well known. But he brilliantly pulled off a role in which he appeared as at least a dozen different characters. 
Billy Wilder picked Mr. Cagney as Coca-Cola magnate C.R. McNamara in the hilarious One, Two, Three (1961). Mr. Cagney has his hands more than full when the boss’s visiting daughter decides to marry a Communist. Fun ensues. 
That was Mr. Cagney’s last appearance on the silver screen until director Milos Forman talked him into coming out of retirement to play police commissioner Rhinelander Waldo in Ragtime (1981). Mr. Forman knew what he was doing- Mr. Cagney almost steals the movie though he’s only on the screen a few minutes. 
All of the movies in this column are available on DVD and for streaming. Factoring in the boredom quotient, all (except Ragtime- adults only) are fine for all ages. 
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                                                         2015 SLEEPERS                                                             
                                                                    Part 1

This begins a series of articles where I mention movies from last year that didn’t get a lot of attention but I think are worth a look.
The Wrecking Crew is one of the most fascinating documentaries I have ever seen. It is about a group of musicians who play back-up for some of the most famous acts. Almost no one has ever heard of them- except the singers they play behind. In the music business, they are legendary. They have backed up The Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, the Mamas and the Papas, Frank Sinatra, Sonny & Cher, and others. They are absolutely the go-to, call them first, back-up group. 
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is so real and wonderful it will wring your heart out. It features three first-time actors who are just super. Olivia Cooke is Rachel, the title girl. She is rather reluctantly befriended by Greg (Thomas Mann) and later by his friend Earl (R.J. Cyler). Their interaction is completely believable and so very touching. There is hardly an ounce of sentiment in this film, which could have been a smarmy tear-jerker but certainly is not. I love this movie.
When Marcie Was There is the latest, and perhaps last (?) entry from Japan’s greatly revered Ghibli studio. Although it does not have the touch of the legendary Hayao Miyazaki (Kiki’s Delivery Service, Spirited Away, etc), it has the signature drawing of each frame. Even if the story weren’t good, which it is, the animation alone is worth a look. It is just so gorgeous it will take your breath away. And it is a good story: A lonely orphaned girl discovers her identity in a very unusual way. It is ethereal and altogether wonderful. As usual with productions from this studio, you could hang each frame on your wall and be glad you did. 
Only hours after I wrote the above paragraph, Ghibli released 1991's Only Yesterday, never before seen in America. Something to really look forward to!
Malala Yousafzai spoke out for women’s rights in her home country of Pakistan. The Taliban responded by shooting her in the head. She survived and became a spokesperson for the rights of women in extremely restrictive Muslim societies. He Named Me Malala is the story of her attack, recovery and undaunted will to advance the cause of her gender against great odds. You cannot help but like and admire this courageous young woman, and her story is quite a good one. Her father named her after a legendary Afghan woman who fought for the rights of women, and she proves to be worth of her name. 
Wild Tales 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 me 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 nearly as good. What fun!
All of the films in this article are available on DVD and for streaming. Really all but the last one are ok for general audiences. That one is for adults.