Safety First

Utilizing the same name as the quaint village in which it is set, Manchester by the Sea depicts the lives of a family struggling with the recent death of a father and brother. The story follows Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck), a man wallowing in a morass of pain, sorrow and apathy. The quiet, introverted gent works as a handyman in Quincy, Massachusetts, though soon gets a call that his brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) is in the hospital. Rushing to Manchester, with its clapboard houses and brisk, windy, wintery weather, he is too late. Having the unenviable task of tracking down his nephew Patrick (Lucas Hedges) to tell him the dispiriting news (he finds him at hockey practice), he soon discovers that his brother has left him in charge of raising the sixteen year old. While in the picturesque locale, people point, stare, whisper and snarl at the former resident (a mystery that will, in its own fine time, be revealed).

Based upon a stage play, Denzel Washington utilizes August Wilson’s adaptation of his own drama Fences to tell an engrossing story of an African American family growing up in the 1950s. Both literal and figurative, Troy Maxson (Washington) is building a fence in his backyard, though it is also a symbolic barrier placed up to guard against his own projections of the impending Grim Reaper (fighting off a serious case of pneumonia, aka. Death, at a young age, he is constantly vigilant for his return – though not afraid in the least). He enjoys the chess match that they play over time. It is also a powerful allegory for the walls he builds between himself and different members of his family. On the opposite spectrum, it is also a way for his wife Rose (Viola Davis) to put up something that will protect her family, keeping them safe on the inside, while keeping unwanted dangers at bay.

The saying ‘the eyes are the windows to the soul’ is perhaps no better explored than in the Argentinian Academy Award winning (for Best Foreign Language Film) 2009 motion picture The Secret in Their Eyes. Though the face is often inscrutable, as many put on masks to hide their true feelings from those around them, the eyes truly show the love, hate, lust, passion, pain regret and confusion that lies just below the mysterious facade. Co-written, directed, edited and produced by Juan José Campanella, the story follows retired criminal investigator Benjamín Esposito (Ricardo Darín) as he contemplates the innumerable hours he spent on the Liliana Coloto (Carla Quevedo) murder case (it is his white whale) by way of writing a novel. Struggling with a proper beginning, he visits Judge Irene Menéndez Hastings (Soledad Villamil), who he worked with all those years ago (the murder took place in 1974).

Filmed with visual panache, Eran Creevy’s Welcome to the Punch gives London a cold, austere blue hue, helping depict a complicated, crime-filled world. Our lead is officer Max Lewinsky (James McAvoy), a man who is haunted by a mistake made in his past. Nearly catching notorious criminal Jacob Sternwood (Mark Strong), instead, he finds himself with a bullet in his leg and then reprimanded for disobeying orders. Now a shell of his former self, he has lost the fire that once drove him, trudging through life in a haze of pain and apathy. Paired with a partner, Sarah Hawks (Andrea Riseborough), who has the drive that he once had, she is constantly fighting his indifference.

Born out of the horrors of World War II, famed British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger released A Matter of Life or Death one year after the conclusion of the hostilities. Cleverly evoking the complexities of the era, the writer/director team fuse together multiple themes that, in some way, make sense of love, life, death, Heaven and the wounds that soldiers suffered during the traumatic affair. Beginning on a grand celestial scale, we are brought forth to an intimate, heartbreaking moment when British Royal Air Force Squadron Leader Peter Carter (David Niven), after ordering his crew to bail out (letting them know that he will soon follow), reveals to an American radio operator, June (Kim Hunter), that his plane is crashing and he has no parachute. His smooth vocals, grievous situation and stiff upper lip attitude leave the woman distraught, and the two fall in love by way of the irregular circumstance. Leaving his dead friend Bob (Robert Coote) on the plane, Carter leaps into the pea soup thick fog just off the English coastline.

Here’s hoping that everyone has been enjoying the beginning of 2017. The end of last year was certainly a difficult one for us film fans, as we lost both Star Wars’ Carrie Fisher and her mother, icon Debbie Reynolds just one day apart. This followed the loss of so many other iconic actors, ranging from Alan Rickman (one of the best voices in the business) to Robert Vaughn (the last living member of The Magnificent Seven), and many, many more. Thankfully, we have their work to remind us of their amazing talents. Yet, it was not all doom and gloom – it was exciting to be able to witness two milestone birthdays, as two members of Hollywood royalty, Kirk Douglas and Olivia de Havilland, both turned one hundred this past year.