Reading Freely

January was….a serious month, movie-wise. Lot of emotional intensity. Perhaps that’s right for a month often defined by people taking stock of the past, looking for the future, and deciding how to navigate the bridge betwixt them. I almost had another for this list, but I fell asleep and woke up in February.

Train Dreams, 2025.  I started my year off on an….interesting note. Rod Dreher recommended this movie to me (or, to his substack subscribers in general – although I’ve spoken with him a few times we do not exchange cinematic correspondence), describing it as something like a Wendell Berry story. As I watched, I could hear Berry in my mind: “‘That which cannot be helped must be endured,’ Mat said, and he was a man who knew.”   Readers of Berry, of course,   know the tragedies Mat Feltner endured; that line is one of the reasons Port William grows and grows and grows the more one reads its stories.   Train Dreams is a story of endurance, and like Rod I will try desperately to avoid spoilers: let us say it is the story of a man who had happiness and a simple life, and yet lost it and was forced to endure and grapple for meaning in the present while haunted by the past.  Excellent writing, acting, and cinematography.  Like Wonka, I will venture to say this movie will be on my top ten list despite how early in the year it is.  If you  like thoughtful movies, deep character focus, and reflections on suffering, I can recommend this.  It is NOT a “Friday night with beer and pizza” kind of film, though.  I loved the writing and, like Rod, looked for the book which this is based. (It underwhelmed.) Will be looking into Joel Edgerton: he plays this gentle, melancholy Job so well.  I cannot BELIEVE he was also in Great Gatsby: I did not recognize him at all.  William Macy also appears in very fine form.   Word of warning,  this may be a movie to watch with kleenex: I had an allergic reaction that caused some eyeball leaking.

“There was Apostle Frank, a faller who spoke about the Bible with such familiarity as to suggest he’d been there when it was all written down.” 

“This world is intricately stitched together, boys. Every thread we pull, we know not how it affects the design of things. We are but children on this Earth, pulling bolts out of a Ferris wheel thinking ourselves to be gods.”

“Beautiful, ain’t it?”
“What is?”
“Everthin’. Every last bit of it.”

“My family is…everywhere there’s a smiling face. Never been somewhere I didn’t have some family. Except for Kansas. That state is a collection of savage lunatics.”

“They told me about you, you know. The people who recommended you. Said you was different.”
“Ain’t everybody different?”
“No.”

“Sometimes it feels like the sadness will eat me alive. Sometimes it feels like it happened to somebody else.”

“I had more questions than answers…like nobody’d ever died before.”

“The world needs a hermit in the woods as much as it needs a preacher in the pulpit.

Home Again, 2017.  Reese Witherspoon is a single mom who just hit forty; at least she has her late movie-producer’s daddy’s house. And guesthouse.  At her 40th birthday party, she meets 3 aspiring filmmakers who are being kicked out of their digs, and her mother volunteers the guesthouse because one filmmaker is obsessed with mom’s acting career and knows how to flatter her. This is a sweet film about “found family”.  Ladyfriend  and I watched this because it was my turn to pick and I saw Reese Witherspoon.  

Shall We Dance?, 1996. (Shall we ダンス?) A middle-aged Japanese accountant, going through the motions of a comfortable but joyless life, notices a woman gazing down from a ballroom dance studio during his evening commute. On impulse, he begins taking dance lessons. The effect on his spirits is immediate—and so noticeable that his wife grows suspicious. The film gently explains that ballroom dancing carries social stigma in Japan—public physical intimacy between spouses is rare, let alone with strangers—so dance here becomes a small, subversive act of self-discovery. While there is tension involving one of the instructors, this is not a story about infidelity; dance itself is the affair. Warm, funny, and humane, the film is enriched by small character touches, especially Mr. Aoki, an accountant by day who transforms into a passionate Latin dancer by night. A lovely, sweet movie about joy rediscovered. The trailer for the American version appears to lean more heavily into comedy than character drama, but I am still interested in watching it, if only for Stanley Tucci’s take on the memorable Mr. Aoki.

Our Little Sister, 2015.  Three adult daughters receive word that their father, who had left their mother for another woman,  has died. They travel to attend his funeral and there meet their effectively orphaned half-sister, Suzu.  Although there’s obviously resentment toward their father for abandoning them, the sisters –  Sachi, Yoshiko, and Chika – don’t hold it against young Suzu.  Suzu, for her part, is deeply bothered by her father being a twice-over adulterer, who is described by his older daughters as “Kind, but useless” – a man who had a habit for falling for needy women. Plotwise, this is not a film in which A Succession Of Things Happen Leading to A Dramatic Conclusion: it’s more of….an immersion into the life of these women, watching how they sort out their own issues and their issues with others around one another. (This two hour movie was more like a 3.5 one for me, because I kept pausing to google things or query chatgpt. I learned a lot about chopsticks.)  A very ‘human’ film, if that makes sense. My first but probably not my last Hirokazu Kore-eda.

Lincoln, 2012.  I have resisted this film for some time, but the star talent onboard – Sally Field, Jared Harris,  James Spader, David Straitharn, TOMMY LEE JONES! – combined with my current historical obsession finally put it before me. Daniel Day Lewis does an excellent portrayal of Abraham Lincoln attempting to pass the 13th amendment to ban slavery in early ‘65  during the war.  Lewis is good at conveying Lincoln’s ‘folksiness’, his humor, his charisma, his expressed humility. There’s a lot of great acting going on, with a wide and deep bench:  I laughed far too much at Sally Field (Mrs. Lincoln) sassing Tommy Lee Jones.  Jared Harris was a surprise as Sam Grant, I will say.  I love so many of these actors, making  this  a grand time despite its historical inaccuracies: the Capitol is shown in full  form despite its new Dome still being under construction during the war years. (Definitely do not recommend watching movies with a history major.)

Lincoln: There was Jefferson City lawyer who had a parrot who started each day with TODAY IS THE DAY THE WORLD SHALL END, AS SCRIPTURES HAVE FORETOLD! Until one day the lawyer shot him – for peace and quiet, I presume  – thus fulfilling, for the bird at least, his prophecy.
Me: XD
Everyone in Lincoln’s Oval Office: O_O   

Tommy Lee Jones: It’s late. I am old. I am going home.
Me: Hear hear! 

Lincoln: The compass, I learnt when I was surveying, it’ll point you true north from where you’re standing – but it’s got no advice about the swamps, the deserts, and the chasms you’ll encounter along the way. If in pursuit of your destination, you plunge ahead heedless of obstacles, and achieve nothing more than to sink in a swamp… what’s the use of knowing true north?

The Holdovers, 2023. Paul Giamatti plays a curmudgeon (I’m sold already) who is forced to spend Christmas break with a rascal student named Tully (first name Marcus, last name Cicero?)   Although at first they knock heads, as the weeks pass they develop a genuine bond – both men having their own inner demons. A sweet and delightful movie.

“Mr. Koontz, for most people, life is like a henhouse ladder – shitty and short. You were born lucky. Maybe one day you entitled little degenerates will appreciate that.”

“Stop RIGHT there. You know the gym is strictly off limits. This is your Rubicon. Do not cross the Rubicon.”
“Alea iacta est!!”

(Giamatti is kissed)
Female Teacher: Mistletoeeeeee!!
Giamatti: You know, Aeneas brought mistletoe with him when he searched for his father in the underworld.

Giamatti: There is nothing new in human experience, Mr. Tully. Every generation thinks it invented debauchery, or suffering, or rebellion, but Man’s every impulse and appetite, from the disgusting to the sublime, is on is display right here [in this hall of antiquities]. All around you!  So, before you dismiss something as boring or irrelevant, remember – if you truly want to understand the Present, or yourself, you must begin in the past. You see, history is not simply a study of the past: it is an explanation of the present.

The Young Mr. Lincoln, 1939. Henry Fonda plays the Young Mr. Lincoln.  Directed by John Ford, this depicts “Honest Abe” as a twenty-something studying law and venturing into politics.  We then see him stand against mob justice and demonstrate quick wit in courts of law, disarming his opponents with humor before he wallops them with argument. Most of the movie follows Lincoln through his ‘first trial’, a murder, and his future antagonist Judge Stephen Douglas presides. This is a nice nod for the history majors watching, though in truth Lincoln’s first case was a boring land-border dispute. There are some liberties taken with courtroom procedure; I was yelling “Objection!  Defense counsel is testifying!” at the screen.

Lincoln: I’m not sayin’ you fellers aren’t right. Maybe these boys do deserve to hang. With me handlin’ their case, you probably don’t have much to worry about on that score. All I’m askin’ is,….. let it be done with some legal pop, some show!
Mac:  We’ve gone to a heap of trouble to not have at least one hangin’!

Lincoln: Trouble is, when men go to takin’ the law into their own hands,  they go to hangin’ just for fun.  We do things together we wouldn’t do ourselves. 

Mary Todd: Well, Mr. Lincoln, I will say – you are a man of honor. You said you wanted to dance with me in the worst way, and that was the worst way I have ever danced. Shall we go outside instead of – dancing? 

Enola Holmes, 2020.  The ladyfriend thought I might like this, and she was right – what with the Sherlock connection, combined with bicycles and trains.  Henry Cavill plays a young Sherlock Holmes, but he is not the main character. His sister Enola is: she was raised by their mother, Helena Bonham Carter, who is brilliant but eccentric; after HBC disappears,   Sherlock’s big brother Mycroft takes over as Enola’s ward and tries to shove her in a boarding home, only she’s more interested in solving the mystery. Sherlock is her accomplice, though not very overtly: he tries to toe the line between being a dutiful brother to Mycroft and a helpful brother to Enola. Given the date of the movie, there’s abundant silliness –  a teenage girl beating grown men  in fights because she was taught jiu jitsu, that sort of thing – but I enjoyed it.  The fourth wall is absent altogether.

After the Storm, 2016. A return to Kore-eda.  A divorced writer, Ryota, has sunk into fairly low ground in life,  throwing away his meager earnings as a private detective at the bicycle racing track. Between his gambling debts and his inability to commit to the detective job – he prefers working part-time and pretending he’s writing another great novel –  his circumstances are pretty dismal, and everyone  – his mother, his sister, his ex-wife, and his son – are disappointed in him. Knowing that his ex-wife Kyoko is about to bar him from seeing  his son if he doesn’t pony up 100,000 yen,  Ryoto has a desperate idea:  use the arrival of an imminent typhoon to trap Kyoko and their son with him at his mother’s apartment. Surely he can get through to her before the dawn? This is a fairly melancholy  and philosophical film, but as with Our Little Sister there’s pleasure in the saturation of real moments. This is not an action film, it’s not driving us somewhere – and yet the story does arrive.  It’s ultimately about dealing with disappointment – not being crippled by it, but learning how to continue to strive. It’s sad, but sweet. 

“At my age, making new friends just means going to more funerals.”

“It’s not that easy growing up to be the man you want to be.”

“Missing him after he’s gone won’t bring him back. You have to deal with people while they’re here.

“I’m not who I wanted to be, yet….but it doesn’t matter. What matters is to live my life trying to be the person I want to be.”

What kind of future was I dreaming of? Farewell to me from yesterday…