A NATION OF IMMIGRANTS
We are, as FDR famously told the DAR, a nation of immigrants. To put it in Southern terms, to begin with none of us was from around here. And since almost all of us trace the family tree back to immigrants, you would think Hollywood would come up with good movies on the subject. And you would be right!
The fairly recent Brooklyn (2015) is the story of one Irish immigrant, Ellis Lacey. She is played by the outstanding Saorise Ronan (recently seen as Jo in Little Women (2019). She has a difficult time adjusting to America. She meets and marries an Italian-American plumber just as news arrives of the death of her sister in Ireland. She goes back home to help her mother and finds a satisfying life in her old hometown. Her painful choice to go back to America and her husband is the soul of this wonderful film. It was nominated as best film, but lost to Spotlight. Miss Ronan and the screenplay were also nominated and lost. 
Perhaps the best film about the influx of Latinos is El Norte (1983) which rings true across the 30+ years since its making. Director Gregory Nava assembled a cast of unknowns resulting in a documentary-like feel. A brother and sister flee their war-torn village in Guatemala seeking a better life. Their trip north is harrowing but only half the story. Their attempts to adapt to their new home with few language or other skills is by turns funny and moving. Their story is not easily forgotten. 
The polar stars of movies about immigrants in America weren’t even made by Americans, but by Swedes. The Emigrants (1971) features the familiar-to-Yanks faces of Liv Ullman and Max Von Sydow as a Swedish husband and wife who immigrate to farm in Minnesota. The hardships and triumphs of this family and their friends is fascinating and moving. 
Even better is the sequel The New Land (1972) with the same characters (played by the same actors) which carries the immigrants to the ends of their lives here. Imagine leaving America to go farm in a country you’ve never seen and where you don’t speak the language, and imagine never going back! Warning: these two marvelous films have been cobbled together, and dubbed,  as a TV show. Avoid this bastardized version and stick to the originals!
America, America (1963) is Elia Kazan’s love song to his adopted land and is a wonderful film about the experience of Greek immigrants to our shores, including an unforgettable trip through Ellis Island. 
Just as good is Barry Levinson’s superb Avalon (1990) about Jewish immigrants to his beloved Baltimore. The importance of family, and the impact of the new land on it, are the core of this fine film. 
For comic relief, there is Robin Williams running wild as a would-be Russian defector in Moscow On The Hudson (1984).
Finally, look for the excellent Gangs Of New York (2002). Leonardo Di Caprio and Daniel Day-Lewis star in Martin Scorcese’s tribute to the Irish in early New York. 
All of the films in this column are available on DVD. All but Gangs are suitable for 10 and up. Gangs is adult fare. 

                                                        DANNY AIELLO 

I’ve been writing articles for Mr. Movie for over 20 years and I’ve seen some unusual careers. But I can’t think of a Hollywood career as strange as that of Danny Aiello. He had a steadily rising career until he appeared as Sal in Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing in 1989. He was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for this role and though he didn’t win either one, it seemed like the beginning of a rising star. And though he worked steadily from that point until his death in 2019 he never appeared in a really good movie again! Twenty years of mediocrity!
Aiello’s first appearance of note was a very minor part in Bang The Drum Slowly (1973) a film about a dying major league baseball player. Robert DeNiro was virtually unknown until this movie. Aiello’s Horse is just one of the other players. 
The Godfather part 2 (1974) is widely acclaimed the best organized crime movie ever made. Mr. Movie concurs. Danny Aiello has a very minor part as one of the thugs (Tony Rosato).
Fort Apache the Bronx (1981) is a cop movie starring Paul Newman and Ed Asner. Danny Aiello plays Morgan, one of many police officers. 
Once Upon A Time In America (1984) is a rambling crooked police movie too complicated to outline here. However, Danny Aiello appears as a police chief and even gets to keep his own last name. 
Aiello hooked up with Woody Allen in two of Allen’s lesser-known movies. Again, minor roles. He appears as Monk in The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) and as Rocco in Radio Days (1987). Don’t blink or you’ll miss him.
I would call Aiello’s appearance as Johnny Camareri in Moonstruck (1987) his breakout part. This is a charming movie starring the very underrated Cher as Loretta Castorini. Danny Aiello plays her fiancé, who has to leave for Sicily to care for his dying mother. In his absence, Loretta falls in love with Johnny’s brother Ronny (Nicholas Cage). On his return from Sicily Johnny breaks off the engagement and Ronny quickly fills the gap. This delightful film is owned by Cher, whose performance as a very soft, feminine woman amazed just about everybody. 
Then came Do The Right Thing (1989) and Danny Aiello won widespread acclaim as Sal, owner of a delicatessen in a Harlem neighborhood. He can’t seem to grasp the fact that his business doesn’t pay much attention to the African-American athletes and heroes, though the black neighborhood residents make up most of his clientele. 
And then, Aiello drops off the edge of the world, role-wise. Dozens more movies, none very good.
The movies in this article are available on DVD. All are for grown-ups.

                                                    LITTLE WOMEN 

So, after six movies and a Broadway musical, do we really need another version of Little Women? Actually, yes!
Greta Gerwig’s 2019 version is, well, perfect! Who doesn’t love Amy, Beth, Meg and especially Jo? Gerwig’s idea is to meld fledgling writer Jo March with real life Louisa May Alcott. And it works to a charming tee! Saorise Ronan is an inspired choice for this role, and she knocks it out of the park. The film opens with Jo visiting a surly publisher who tells her if she makes a woman the main character, the woman should end up either married or dead. But Jo perseveres, thank goodness. The mother of the girls, Marmee, is wonderfully played by veteran Laura Dern. And speaking of veterans, Meryl Streep is on board as the curmudgeonly Aunt March who is wealthy and doesn’t care who knows it. 
Aunt March takes Amy to Europe for a Grand Tour instead of Jo, whom she deems too forward and pushy. Well, she is both, of course. Jo is dearly loved by neighbor Laurie (Timothee Chalomet) who declares he will always love only her no matter what. Jo likes him okay but just isn’t in love with him, and isn’t interested in marriage anyway. Laurie somehow shows up in Europe, courts and marries Amy, and they surprise just about everyone on their return to Massachusetts. Amy is well played by Florence Pugh. Beth (Eliza Scanlen) charms their neighbor Mr. Laurence, (Chris Cooper, another veteran) by her playing on his piano. She reminds him of his deceased daughter. 
Meg develops scarlet fever and her demise is feared. After a lingering illness, Meg (Emma Watson of Harry Potter fame) indeed dies. All this time, the March girls’ father is away serving in the Union army during the Civil War. Toward the end he makes a triumphal return to the homeplace. 
I have left out great chunks of the story, which most of you know anyway. Suffice it to say the at the end the publisher talks Jo into having her main character get married, so Jo marries Professor Baher and they open a school. Her manuscript is published, with the title Little Women.
Mr. Movie hasn’t actually seen all of the prior efforts at Little Women. Before Ms.Gerwig’s version, my favorite was the 1949 with a who’s who of great actors. June Allyson is Jo, Peter Lawford is Laurie, Elizabeth Taylor is Amy, Janet Leigh is the doomed Meg, Margaret O’Brien is Beth and Mary Astor is Marmee. Good Lord, what a cast! And it is really good, maybe only a half step behind the 2019. 
The 1933 version is certainly worth a look, if for no other reason to see Katherine Hepburn’s take on Jo March. The 1994 version is quite good, with Susan Sarandon as Marmee.
I didn’t care for the 2018 version, which is hopped up as a modern story.
And I have seen, and liked, the musical version and have the CD. It made it to Broadway, but only ran January-May in 2005. I guess this UNC alum should admit I saw the musical version at Duke University.
All of the films in this article are available in DVD except the newest one. All are fine for everyone.

                                                     COEN BROTHERS
                                                        Part 2

        As promised, here is a second helping of films from the wild and wonderful Coen Brothers.  As previously noted, they tend to hit it out of the park or pop up.
Let’s start with their mega-award winning feature, No Country For Old Men (2007). This very dark film captured Oscars starting with Javier Barden as the weirdest, scariest character in a while. Leaving a trail of corpses as he looks for the loot from a busted drug deal, he spares the life of a clueless filling station operator who correctly calls a coin toss. Barden copped the Best Supporting Actor award, the Coens scored for Best Director, Best Writer- and Best Movie. Josh Brolin portrays an antelope hunter who stumbles on a fortune from a drug deal gone real bad in the desert. He decides to keep it and hide it. Bad idea. Tommy Lee Jones and Woody Harrelson are along as mostly honest lawmen.  
Another excellent Coen outing is Bridge Of Spies (2015) based on the true story of the exchange of a Russian spy (portrayed for an Oscar by Mark Rylance) and American Francis Gary Powers. Tom Hanks plays an American attorney, recruited by the CIA and thrust into the middle of this and given the Herculean task of pulling off the switch. The suspenseful film received five other Oscar nominations.
I’m not a big fan of remakes for very good reasons- most are pale imitations of the original. But the Coens make the exception to the rule in their rendering of True Grit (2010). The original with John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn was quite wonderful and won him his only Oscar. But the Coens’ version with Jeff Bridges in the title role and Matt Damon as the tagalong lawman is just as good. Mattie Ross (Heilee Steinfeld) hires Rooster to hunt down her father’s killer (the delightfully bad Tom Chaney, played with evil glower by Josh Brolin).
On a considerably lighter note, there is 2007's Oh Brother Where Art Thou featuring three convicts escaped from a Mississippi chain gang who search for freedom and fortune, still in their prison stripes. John Torturo and Tim Blake Nelson combine with George Clooney for the trio. Clooney spend most of the film searching for an elusive brand of hair oil. The music by Tbone Burnett won awards. The movie won lots of laughs. 
Also on the good side of the ledger is the wacky Hail, Caesar! (2016). In this one George Clooney plays a really bad actor who is kidnaped by Communist screen-writers. Josh Brolin plays studio head Eddie Mannix who has to deal with the kidnapers, an unmarried actress who is pregnant, a comedy of manners with a cowboy star who can’t lose his accent, and other problems. It is complicated but very funny.
A couple of Coens near misses are The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs (2018) and A Serious Man (2009). Suburbicon (2017) is just a mess.
All of the films in this arcticle are available on DVD. All are for adults.

                                                                      HORSES
This is only a wild guess, but I’d say about 99% of the kids who wanted a pony for Christmas didn’t get one. As a not-very-reasonable substitute, how about some of the best movies about horses? 
Any discussion of horse movies must start with the marvelous Black Stallion (1979). A young boy is marooned on a desert island with a magnificent black stallion. Their rapport and the photography are both amazing. The second half, in which they are rescued and the boy (Kelly Reno) becomes the horse’s jockey under the tutelage of trainer Mickey Rooney, is ok but not wonderful. But the first half is mesmerizing. Kids love this.
While most of the films in this article are fairly old, 2019 produced an excellent horse movie, The Mustang. Though fictional, it is based on a real program in Nevada in which prison inmates train horses. Inmate Roman has been assigned to train Marquis, only recently brought in from the wild. It doesn’t go well for quite a while, but persistence pays off and the man and the horse become a good team. That’s enough to give you the idea. This is one fine film, but for adults only. 
Perhaps the very best horse photography ever is in The Man From Snowy River (1982), an Australian “western” with our own Kirk Douglas and hundreds of gorgeous horses. Their run down the mountain is completely thrilling. Kids won’t much like the love story but the horse stuff is great.
Mickey Rooney showed up 35 years earlier in the fabulous National Velvet (1944). Elizabeth Taylor (already stunningly beautiful at 12) wins a horse in a raffle and determines to make it a racing champion, and to do the riding herself. Fabulous scenery (in addition to Miss Taylor) and excellent horse photography. For the whole family.
Similar and only a step behind is My Friend Flicka (1943) with Roddy McDowell as the lad determined to make a winner of his horse and Preston Foster as his dubious 
dad. Faithfully adapted from Mary O’Hara’s beloved book, it’s a pleasure throughout. 
More great horse photography. For all ages.
Black Beauty (1994) is often sold and not always well-loved, but his story is compelling. This version is superior to the earlier ones and while it will bring you and the kids at least to the edge of tears, you can count on a happy ending for all.
For grown-ups only, The Horse Whisperer (1997) features Robert Redford as a gentle restorer of damaged horses. The Misfits (1961) has Marilyn Monroe, Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift as three misfits who love wild horses. Phar Lap (1984) may be the best story ever made about horse racing. The subject was an Australian national hero who died in a mysterious fashion on a trip to the United States. Great racing photography.
All of the films in this article are available on DVD.

                                                           The Coen Brothers
                                                          part 1
The Coen brothers, film makers of the weird, remind me of some not-so-legendary hitters of my youth, say Dick Stuart or Frank Howard. When they stepped up to the plate they either struck out or hit it out of the park. Their homers, however, tended to be tape-measure jobs.
Fargo (1996) won them an Oscar for best screenplay. Best described as a comic murder mystery, it is their most accessible film and a solid commercial hit. Frances McDormand also won an Oscar for best actress as a pregnant police chief in a small Minnesota town. Wry observations on the local mores, and terrific performances by McDormand and William H. Macy as a two-bit hustler in way over his head. 
In Blood Simple (1985) a husband hires a seedy private eye to murder his cheating wife. McDormand, Dan Hedaya and especially M. Emmett Walsh are superb, but the best thing is the intricate Coen screenplay that keeps you guessing to the very end. Unusual camera angles and shots strengthen the Coen’s unique spin on film noir.
Raising Arizona (1987) is a bizarre comedy viewers tend to either love or hate.  Holly Hunter and Nicholas Cage are a childless couple who badly want a baby. When they see a magazine article about a couple with quintuplets, they resolve to snatch one  for themselves on the curious theory that no one with five children the same age will notice that one of them is gone. Some of the funniest chase scenes ever.
Miller’s Crossing (1990) is a splendid gangster film, topped only by the Godfather trilogy. John Turturo, Gabriel Byrne and Albert Finney head a fine cast in a movie long on style and story. There are the patented Coen triple and quadruple crosses; you’re never sure what will happen. Slow starting, but stick with it, it’s worth it.
Crimewave (1985) is a real mess about thugs on a killing spree. Barton Fink (1991) starts out being about playwright John Turturo going to Hollywood to write a screenplay then  halfway through it falls down and can’t get up. The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) features Tim Robbins as a know-nothing who mysteriously rises to the top of a heartless corporation. Hard to follow and not worth the effort. 
The Big Lebowski (1998) is somewhere between great and goshawful. John Goodman is excellent as a wacky Vietnam veteran; Jeff Bridges is Jeff Bridges. Call it a solid single.
All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. None are suitable for children under 14.
And as they say on TV, but wait, there’s more! Stay tuned for part 2 on the Coens.


 

                                                         A YEAR OF DOCS

If you like documentary movies, this year’s films should suit you to a tee! I count at least eight worth seeing so far, and the year isn’t over.
Maiden is the improbable but true story of a group of determined women who enter the Whitbread Around-The-World yacht race. Tracy Edwards, a cook in her day job, gathers a mismatched bunch of British women to try their luck and skill. They are demeaned and belittled by the yacht racing establishment and the world in general. Undaunted, they brave bad weather, high seas and a sometimes leaky boat in an attempt to complete an incredible feat.
Pavarotti documents the career of Luciano Pavarotti, perhaps the world’s greatest tenor. Even if you don’t like opera much (me neither!) you will love this film. The singing is just super and he was one heck of a guy. Generous almost to a fault, he spread his talent and money freely. And Lord, what a voice! Do NOT confuse him with the disgraced Placido Domingo! 
You don’t have to be all that old to remember the glory days of 60 Minutes. And the news terrier who just wouldn’t turn loose was Mike Wallace. Mike Wallace Is Here is about that legendary reporter and the many people he hacked off. I remember him as being used as a threat- watch out, Mike Wallace could cover this!
Toni Morrison went from humble beginnings in Ohio to legendary books, the Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am does a good job outlining her life and work. I must confess Beloved and Song Of Solomon are sort of over my head, but she is clearly one of our greatest writers. 
Molly Ivins was a Texas reporter and gadfly. She was unequaled in sticking it to the famous and prominent. Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins is a bushel of fun even if you are a reddish person. She famously called George W. Bush “Shrub” and that will give you an idea of her persona.
In 1980 Communist China, in a completely misguided effort to control population growth, enacted a policy of limiting couples to having only one child. Violators were severely punished. The main result was that most people wanted sons, not daughters. The number of female babies killed is an unredeemable scandal. Another result was a dearth of marriageable women for many years. The policy finally ended in 2015. One Child Nation is an eye-opening film about this draconian policy. Strangely enough, it is banned in China!
Other 2019 docs of note include Aquarela, a surrealistic paean to water, and Knock Down The House, the story of the four young women Democrats who changed Congress. 
All of the films in this article are available on DVD. All are for adults, but Maiden would be fine for mature young girls.