the Girl on the Train

First of all, I like Emily Blunt. Not only because she seems to be a very sweet, fun, and smart person from what I've seen in talk shows but also because she's an actress, who can be vulnerable and strong at the same time. Also, she can play a variety of characters convincingly. 

She is the main character in the Mystery/Crime/Thriller movie from 2016 that's based on the Number 1 bestseller book of Paula Hawks ... It's the story of a commuter divorcee woman, who catches glimpses of the life of a couple who live in a beautiful house her train passes by every morning. With every glimpse she gets drawn back into her own past story and one day, when she sees something shocking, she eventually gets involved in a murder investigation. 

The critics loved Emily Blunts performance but seem to have expected more from the movie. Personally, I liked all the performances AND the storytelling. The movie uses a lot of voice-over and I had the feeling - though I never read the book - that the directer tried to stay true to the language style of the book. I loved what expressions Blunt's character used to describe her deepest and darkest thoughts and found it at times quite poetic. 

It's one of those movies that don't let go of you even after you leave the theater or turn off the DVD player. It stays with you, like a good book stays with you when you finish it. 

Joy

"JOY is the wild story of a family across four generations [Joy’s grandmother, her mother, Joy herself, and her daughter] centered on the girl who becomes the woman who founds a business dynasty and becomes a matriarch in her own right. Betrayal, treachery, the loss of innocence and the scars of love, pave the road in this intense emotional and human comedy about becoming a true boss of family and enterprise facing a world of unforgiving commerce."

This biopic is about "Joy Mangano [,who] is most famously known for her first product: the Miracle Mop, but she holds more than 100 patents for her inventions, including Huggable Hangers, the best-selling product in HSN history. After starting her career at QVC, she led her company, Ingenious Designs LLC, to major financial success before it was purchased by HSN in 1999. Mangano has been the face of the network ever since, and in her 15th year, she remains one of HSN’s most successful sellers, with annual sales topping $150 million. She’s been named Long Island Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young, and has twice been honored for her accomplishments in Fast Company rankings of creatives and women in business. As of 2015, Mangano’s net worth is reportedly around $50 million—yet, for all her incredible success, there’s precious little additional information to be found about her. And those articles that do detail her rise to fame are virtually identical, name-dropping all the same inventions, sales numbers, awards, and career milestones you see above.

Until the release of Joy, in which Jennifer Lawrence plays a very Mangano-esque entrepreneur, Mangano has fostered what appears to be a painstakingly curated and protected image while remaining firmly in the public eye. (An example: we attended a cocktail party celebrating her 15th year with HSN, but everything about the seemingly benign event, in which we spoke with Mangano for a few moments, was deemed confidential.) Information about her life prior to creating the first prototype of the Miracle Mop in 1990, though the bulk of the story in Joy, is particularly hard to come by." 

You'll find lots of articles about this movie, directed by David O'Russell (Silver Linings, American Hustle ...), and most of them seem to be focused on what's fiction and what's not. 

Fergus Mason, who authored Joy: The Unofficial Biography of Miracle Mop Inventor Joy Mangano, knows this fact all too well. Of the 36 books he’s written for the biography’s publisher, BookCaps—which specializes in pieces that highlight a lesser-known or sometimes forgotten life—he says Mangano’s story is one of the most challenging jobs he’s taken on. “It was extremely hard to find information, particularly about Joy’s early life,” says Mason. “I had a lot of difficulty filling in gaps, because most of what’s available is about her shopping-channel career and what she chooses to release in interviews. The period between her divorce and starting work on the Miracle Mop was an absolute nightmare to find any information about.”

Which is what makes Joy especially fascinating—it primarily follows the main character through that little-known time from age 10 to 40, which means there are never-before-known nuggets of information about Mangano buried within the narrative. But what’s truth and what’s fiction?

It seems though that David O'Russell mostly cared about telling the story of a strong woman in the light of strong women and the life around them - with all its ironic, hurtful, joyful, inspirational and rough elements. You'll see a tapestry of emotional scenes that have a big impact on that Joy's life and how all that shapes her. 

What I liked about the movie was the way it was told. 

I liked the comical elements in sad moments in the movie, and the scenes when you expect a "BANG!" that turn into rather quiet, attention-soaking seconds, which eventually create a bigger impact (e.g. when you expect Joy to scream at the QVC producer on the phone for not fulfilling his part of the deal she chooses to whisper her anger). Picking up on that example, I found it fascinating that overall the character Joy is a forgiving soul, which makes her strong in a very feminine way. 

I don't know how much of this is true (feel free to research that) but I found it ironic how the director David O'Russell publicly pointed out that he made Joy to tell story of strong and successful women, while he is also known to make the life of actors (especially actresses) hell.

I guess, somehow or another we are all complex, contradictory and maybe even sick people: On the one hand we celebrate individuals for their qualities and on the other hand we treat other individuals incredibly disrespectful. (Here is the article I'm referring to.) 

I always take the contents of news and articles with a grain of salt but there is often a little truth to everything and I try to look at a story from different angles. The emphasis is on "I try".

Sources: Rotten Tomatoes and Vanity Fair 

Colonia

Colonia kept my husband and me awake at night. We were in bed, ready to sleep but I guess we still needed time to digest it. We both wondered why we never had heard of it before.

It is a good film overall; one that’s gripping - up to an uncomfortable level – and one that makes you think. With Daniel Brühl (from Goodbye Lenin and Glorious Bastards), Emma Watson and Michael Nyqvist the main protagonists are well chosen. The acting is calm but leaves an impact behind.

The story is based on true events, namely that there had been an ex-Nazi cult in Pinochet’s Chile called Colonia Dignidad. The plot is about a young woman, who decides to find her abducted boyfriend and ends up in that infamous cult that nobody had ever escaped from.

I guess for me its always fascinating in a scary way how people get brainwashed, how control and power works, and with how much corrupt people and governments get away with.

The film is very good at almost giving you a heart attack with the way it keeps the tension up, and although that would usually be a plus point for a movie, I almost found it exhausting to feel that way until the very end. I also had the impression that because it could keep the tension up throughout the whole time, the film didn’t bother so much to go deeper and sometimes got away with rather unrealistic moments.

Still, I recommend Colonia as stories like that can be found all around the world, in some way or another, and manipulation of the mind is always right around the corner. 

Locke

When I was a teenager one of my dream jobs was being a screenwriter. And although I never did much for this quiet dream of mine it will always stay a part of me. Occasionally some films have the power to wake it up and stir it a bit. Those are moments of sweet pain because I feel immensely excited when a film does that to me, while at the same time a part of my brain says "Why did you not come up with this idea??!!"

Locke is one of those movies.

What I find fascinating about it is that it manages to give you a round picture of someone’s life, a drastic situation and also - despite the fact you only hear their voices - an idea of who the people around the central character are, simply by one continuous scene that takes place in a car, and phone calls. No change of scenes or time lapses, and no facial expressions of supporting roles; just a segment of a man’s life, his story with different people, and the consequences of his actions.

Ivan Locke - played by Tom Hardy - is the name of the protagonist, who's driving in his car on the highway at night while talking separately to a set number of people on the phone. The fact that the whole long scene takes place in a narrow space makes all phone conversations and also the moments Locke is alone with his thoughts intense.

I love this movie for being able to capture power of the silence you can have with yourself in a car when you are driving, especially at night ... But I don’t want to give away too much.

Tom Hardy does a brilliant job. I don’t think that many actors can pull off a character like Locke's and under the circumstances the protagonist finds himself in.

Plus, as you can guess, I love Tom Hardy. I find him very charming. 

I’m sure that not everyone will find this movie as fascinating as I do but I hope you get a chance to watch it.

Me before You

This movie was a recommendation from my aunt, who is in the movie business and whose choice in books and movies I love. 

The story is about a small town girl, who takes up a new job, in which she has to take care of a wealthy recently-paralyzed man. 

To me there are parallels between Pretty Woman and Me Before You in the sense of rich, privileged man meets girl, who hasn't seen the world yet and could do more with herself. Then again it’s not done in the Hollywood style, and that's what's good about it. 

I was surprised to see two Game of Throne actors in it. Emilia Clarke is one of them. She is a sweetheart in this movie. You got to love her with her positive attitude, colorful outfits, and her cute eyebrows, who move like Tsunami waves. 

I also downloaded the soundtrack and have been listening to Jack Garrett’s Surprise Yourself, which holds elements of what the movie is about. 

Please enjoy.

Little boy

This movie came to me as a surprise. I hadn't heard about it, hadn't seen any trailers and yet I can say that it is one of my top ten movies now. 

Little Boy from 2015 is a War Drama was directed and partly written by Alejandro Monteverde and has a wonderful cast. 

I loved the way the story was told, the way it brought up so many serious and important topics without lifting the index finger with the intention to teach and it uses so playful techniques to do that that you find yourself crying and laughing at the same time. 

It's definitely one of those movies that uses elements of storytelling mixed with an amazing cast that makes it into the collection of movies you can watch many times and fully enjoy each time. At least, that's how I feel about it.  

It was interesting to watch the part about how hard things were back then for Japanese people who had been living in the U.S. for generations, especially with a Japanese friend sitting next to me in the cinema. I loved how the movie worked that topic into the storyline. 

The boy, Jakob Salvati, did an amazing job and I'm sure we'll hear more from him in the years to come. 

Enjoy! 

This is 40

"This is 40" came out in 2012 but I stumbled over it just recently and found it hilarious.

There are several reasons I would like to recommend this movie.

I'm usually more into British comedy but this is the type of American humour I find sharp and funny. Dialogues might be overstressed but they nail it when it comes to absurd conversations you have in real life. You laugh because you can relate to the core truth of them. 

The movie cast is also well picked - Paul Rudd has played several similar part and is always great to watch, Leslie Mann seems the born comedian (I kinda like her way of talking - as if she is a bit high but fully there), Melissa McCarthy, who just smashes her part, and all actors who play family and friends.  

Maybe I wouldn't have appreciated this movie in 2012 as much as I do now - heading towards 40. Therefore I'm glad it took me four years to discover it. 

If you don't have time to watch the movie anytime soon, please enjoy this trailer on imdb for now. 

Im Labyrinth des Schweigens

Although I've watched quite a lot of movies recently, I didn't find any of them really worth mentioning in a post … Until this one: Im Labyrinth des Schweigens ("Labyrinth of Lies"), a 2014 German production directed by Guilio Ricciarelli, a young and idealistic public prosecutor in post war Germany takes interest in the case of a former Ausschwitz extermination camp commander, who is teaching at a school in West Berlin, which indicates that he has never been brought to justice. 

I majored in History and graduated from Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich. Although I grew up in a Germany that is dealing with its history on different levels unlike many other countries I'm related with (Turkey and Japan), and although I am of the mind that many at that time wanted to forget the past but that in the end we were lucky for having had no choice but to look at what had been done in Germany mostly because of the Allies, I was quite surprised and also shocked to learn new things through this movie, which is based on true events. 

First of all, what I was surprised about was that I was wrong about the Allies. It wasn't them who made us look at the consequences of Nazi-Germany. It was a young German prosecutor and his group of supporters that helped make the crimes of Nazis a topic that everyone wanted to brush under the carpet. 

Secondly, not only that … I was shocked to find out that a lot of Germans had never HEARD of Ausschwitz. 

All the people, who committed all these terrible crimes as Nazis would have gotten away with everything they had done, if it hadn't been for a few people with the right occupation to dig it all up again, to make us look at what we had done.  

Like with anything bad in your life you can't really move on without looking at something closely and accepting it. I believe that any country that chooses not to teach its children its true face as a nation, faces or will face political and social problems at some point. 

I won't say more about the movie, except for what an impact it had on me and how happy I am to have watched it. 

To true heroes, who remind us of the righteous way.

John Wick

John Wick is not necessarily a brilliant movie but since I liked the action, the plot, the performances, I can say that it is a pretty good movie.  

Just yesterday I watched Paycheck with Ben Affleck in it. While the plot is not bad it just shows again how much the performance of the protagonist can make or break the movie. I’m not a big fan of Affleck’s acting – it’s distracting and I have trouble staying in the story.

John Wick could have run the same risk. Instead they were wise enough to let Keanu Reeves play the main part.

In general, to me Keanu Reeves is one of those actors who shine in certain roles that seem to be cut out just for him, like in Matrix! In other movies, it feels like he is the wrong piece in a jigsaw puzzle – but never as bad as Ben Affleck. Never!

In John Wick he plays an ex-hitman who comes out of retirement to go after the gangsters, who take the last good thing in his life from him.

The plot is simple and a lot of you might go “Umm! … No, thank you!”, which is fair enough.

A lot of times Keanu Reeves is presented by the media as someone who lost his love in an accident (there are so many stories out there and who knows what’s right and wrong), who lives a simple life, is one of the most decent actors/ people film crews have worked with, and does big gestures (giving money to a film crew staff in need) in a quiet way. It’s easy to like Keanu Reeves for all that. When I watched him on the Graham Norton Show he was this cool, decent guy with a touch of mystery and a sad story in his heart, which made me like him even more. Therefore I might be fond of this movie because John Wick is a bit like Keanu Reeves or Keanu Reeves is a bit like John Wick.

I loooooove movies like Bourne Identity, Matrix, Enter the Dragon with Bruce Lee for their smart action and fighting scenes. Now I can add John Wick to that list.

Oh, and one more thing! After the movie I’m sure you will want to get a beagle dog as your new pet. Don’t ask why … Just watch it! :-) 

Keanu Reeves in the Graham Norton Show:

Who Am I - Kein System Ist Sicher (No System Is Safe)

My husband's barber recommended us this German thriller about a young, genius hacker, who finds himself drawn into a "dark net" through a subversive hacker group. 

At some point during the movie you will be reminded of another one, which I don't want to name here because it could be a spoiler. That, I thought, was the only real flaw of the movie. Don't forget I told you. (If you really should not guess what movie I am talking about and you start gazing into the distance for minutes as if you can read the answer in the air then don't hesitate to drop me a line and I'll tell you the title of the other movie.)

I liked the cast, I liked the language, and I thought that the movie had a smart storyline and was not disappointing until the very end. 

The style felt more like an American movie that's successfully trying to be a little European, rather than being a German movie that's trying to be American. It's okay if you have lost me there. See what you make of it AFTER you watch the movie given that you like and have seen a couple of German movies.

I'm not a hacker. I don't know much about computers. In fact, I panic over any anomaly that appears on my desktop. Therefore, I'm sure that some geeks might cringe here and there because some details in the plot are not accurate. Blessed are the ignorant, like me. 

What I thought was brilliantly done was the visualisation of the communication in the hacker net world, especially for someone who has a hard time grasping the Internet world. 

Also, as the title says - No System Is Safe - the plot gets you to think about how we need to prepare ourselves for how we will pay for our digital conveniency in the years to come. 

Carol

I tell you what my first judgmental thought is when I think of Carol: A lesbian story. Of course, there is much much more I want to say about this movie … So, please hold on.

When my friend and I decided to go see Carol, we had little time before the next show nearby, but just taking one look at the poster with Cate Blanchett, who is great in any movie, we knew for sure the night was going to be free from disappointment.

And we were right.

Until around the very first kiss though, we had not really seen it coming that it was a love story between two women, and the fact that that took us both by surprise (we both looked at each other in the dark with a smiling No-way!-face) was a funny moment I won’t forget and will always associate with Carol.

On that note, it’s maybe not a bad idea to go watch a movie without having read any summaries or reviews. It’s quite refreshing.

The Price of Salt: OR Carol

￥ 1,269

By Patricia Highsmith

Buy on Amazon

Carol is based on Patricia Highsmith’ book The Price of Salt.

Set in the 1950s in New York City, the movie tells the story of a young sales clerk with a soon to blossom talent for photography (Rooney Mara) and her relationship with a wealthy elegant lady (Cate Blanchett), who is going through a difficult divorce.

I hate giving away too much. I usually just want to describe how a movie made me feel.

I enjoyed the beautiful screenplay, the costumes, the décor and the sort of testimonial to 1950s movies with a new touch. It felt like a walk through an art museum on a lazy afternoon – cozy, recharging, and silently occupying one's mind. But I have to say that, despite the great performances of both actresses, the characters didn’t fully touch me.

Then again, I think, characters don’t always have to do that in order for someone to walk out of the cinema with a satisfied feeling. 

Begin Again

Begin Again: Music from and Inspired by the Original Motion Picture

￥ 1,320

By Various Artists, Keira Knightley, CeeLo Green, Cessyl Orchestra, Adan Levine

Buy on Amazon

This musical comedy-drama was a nice surprise and felt like a walk in the park (and I don't mean the idiom "walk in the park"). It was refreshing and filled me with good energy. It was cute, smart, creative and the lyrics and soundtrack was like topping the walk in the park with an ice cream. 

Check out the soundtrack in "music".