January 23rd
Fantastic Fungi
Underwater
Just Mercy
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

A complete bag of 'allsorts' this week: a brilliant doco starring mushrooms, a terrors-of-the-deep action flick, a legal drama based on true horror in America's south, and an inspiring story of friendship and grace, also based around a real-life TV personality. 

Fantastic Fungi
Director: Louie Schwartzberg
Length: 82 min
Exclusive to Cinema Nova

 ©  Nova/Reconsider – this will change your view
on mushrooms, fungi and the world. 

Who'd have ever thought a film about mushrooms could be so engaging? Well, it's actually about much more than mushrooms per se. I've learnt that Fungi is an entire kingdom in the world of living things, and that this kingdom contains 1.5 million species, six times more than the plant kingdom. Fungi are the oldest living organisms, and what we learn from this film about their interconnection with all life on earth is mind-blowing. Mycelium (of which mushrooms are the fruit) are of course critical to death and decomposition, in turn giving rise to new life. In the medical field, their possibilities remain still largely under-utilised and the film examines this too, (think magic mushrooms and more) along with ways of using fungi to help clear up pollution and save the bees. With important insights from leading mycologists (mushroom experts) and mycophiles (mushroom lovers), along with the most beautiful time-lapse cinematography, this film is an eye-opening education, that both entertains and changes one's view of how we can, in fact should, relate to our natural world. 
4 - highly recommended!

Underwater
Director: William Eubank
Length: 95 min

 ©  Twentieth Century Fox –  give us more
female heroes like this one

Norah Price (Kristen Stewart) is an engineer on a mining rig. Seven miles below the ocean's surface, pitch black with unimaginable pressure, the rig presents  challenging working conditions. When an explosion occurs things go dramatically pear-shaped. Five employees manage to survive the initial catastrophe, but their only hope of safety lies in walking across the ocean floor (in their pressure resistant suits) to another abandoned mining rig, in the hope there are enough escape pods to get them safely to the surface. But it seems they are not the only living creatures on the ocean floor. There is much to be enjoyed in this nail-biting claustrophobic film, and a few things that disappoint. The oppressive environment is masterfully created, and from the first explosion, to the climactic finale the tension rarely lets up. Stewart is suitably kick-arse as a competent fearless woman (even if she performs heroic acts in nothing but her underwear!) Vincent Cassell is a strong foil as the captain, and the thumps and fleeting images of "what's out there" all build up the suspense. However, when we do finally see what's threatening the crew, it's a bit of an anti-climax; the unseen is always scarier than the seen, I believe. Regardless, for fans of this genre, those who love scaring themselves to death, Underwater should do nicely.
3 - recommended!

Just Mercy
Director: Destin Daniel Creton
Length: 136  min

 ©  Roadshow - tense and riveting fight for justice -
and it's all true.

Here's another movie based upon a true story, and a really important one it is. Newly graduated Harvard lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Michael B Jordan) travels south to Alabama in the late '80s to set up a legal advocacy to fight for prisoners wrongly convicted, or tried without access to proper legal representation. His first case is that of "Johnny D" McMillan (Jamie Foxx), accused of murdering an 18-year-old white girl, despite there being no concrete evidence, other than a bogus testimony from convicted criminal Ralph Myers (Tim Blake Nelson). Although no ground-breaking film-making happens, the story is told with such sincerity, solid acting, and an emotional wallop, that it has won me over totally. Jordan can at times be a little one-note, but his character comes across as tenacious and dedicated to justice, while supporting performances from Brie Larsen as Eva Ansley his assistant, and Blake Nelson as the repulsive Meyers are first-class. Foxx is totally convincing as Macmillan, and has already several awards. Scenes featuring Johnny D's cellmates, all on death row, are heart-breaking, and the case for no death penalty is eloquently presented. Images of irrational white bigotry against blacks, especially as dealt out by law enforcers, will induce seething anger. This is a powerful story that should be seen, to remind one of the evil of prejudice, and how fearless are those who put their lives on the line to fight it.
4 - highly recommended!  

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Director:Michelle Heller
Length: 108 min

 ©  Sony –  "niceness" goes a long way in this
gentle, absorbing story of a journo and 
real-life TV hero Fred Rogers

Heard of Fred Rogers? I hadn't until I saw a documentary last year called Won't you Be My Neighbor. In this latest feature film about said Fred, Tom Hanks plays the much-loved host of the TV show Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which ran on American TV from 1968 to 2001. Rogers used his educational show to build children's self-esteem and discuss all manner of topics that could trouble small folk. Real-life journalist Tom Junot was sent to write a magazine piece on Rogers. Here, in the movie inspired by that magazine piece, the journalist is Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), an anger-prone, cynical man, initially determined to expose Rogers' "niceness" as a sham. The effect Rogers will have on Lloyd's life is totally not what the journo expects. There is something so old-fashioned, gentle and kind about Mister Rogers, and Hanks is the man born to play him. His current nomination is for Best Supporting Actor, since the movie is more about Lloyd, his dysfunctional relationship with his father (Chris Cooper), and the sorting out of his life, thanks to Rogers. If viewers know nothing of Rogers' show I wonder what they will make of this film - but even starting with a blank slate, one cannot but recognise and admire the values, so unusual in today's fast-paced abrasive world, that Rogers' typifies. Fortunately it avoids sentimentality (just!) This is anything but a blockbuster, and it should have a strong emotional effect on all but the most hardened hearts. 
3.5 - well recommended!