Month: November 2019

Baumbach’s ‘Marriage Story’ vows to leave a mark

Jeff Mitchell

“Marriage Story” – “We were perfectly happy until we decided to live happily ever after.” – Carrie Bradshaw, “Sex in the City” “Marriage is compromise and hard work, and then more hard work and communication and compromise.  And then work.  Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” – Gillian Flynn If the weather doesn’t comply with your family’s proposed weekend plans, a most-reliable backup is always at your disposal:  start a pot of coffee, make some sandwiches, open a box of cookies, and reach into the hallway closet and pull…

‘Rojo’ is an unconventional, smoldering slow burn

Jeff Mitchell

“Rojo” – It’s 1975 in Argentina.  Looking back at history, but looking forward within writer/director Benjamin Naishtat’s film, a right-wing coup will overthrow Argentina’s President Isabel Peron in a move called the “National Reorganization Process” in March 1976. So, in 1975, the country’s politics are uncertain, but life still goes on.  Adults work.  Kids learn in school.  Families enjoy harmony and also fall into disagreements.  Households pay their mortgages. Couples go out to dinner. It’s a lovely early evening, and Claudio (Dario Grandinetti) – a prominent lawyer who everyone in…

Veterans Day double-feature that faces PTSD in the 21st century

Jeff Mitchell

In honor of our veterans, AHFW recommends two sobering films that may have slipped past you in the theatres.  These pictures cope with post-traumatic stress disorder in the 21st century, and they are both available on Amazon Prime. “Thank You for Your Service” (2017) – Three young Iraq War veterans and friends return home to Kansas, but realize that they carried invisible, cerebral scars back from the Middle East.  Director Jason Hall and actors Miles Teller, Beulah Koale, and Joe Cole raise PSTD awareness in 2017 with their grounded, heartbreaking…