Posts tagged Sam Bell
“Nowhere Boy” A Bit Like You and Me
Oct 21st
“A Bit Like You and Me”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
NOWHERE BOY is the haunting story of John Lennon’s troubled teenage years from when he learned some important secrets about his family that had been kept from him since he was five years old to just before the Beatles were formed and the lads from Liverpool made rock ‘n’ roll history.
The story begins about 1956 when John is 16, and he is always getting into trouble in school. One day while he is being disciplined, John is told, “You’re going nowhere,” and John responds in his quick, witty, and irreverent fashion, “There’s nowhere for the geniuses, Sir.”
Then John’s life takes the first of many sudden and drastic changes. He is living with his Uncle George and Aunt Mimi, and Uncle George dies suddenly, leaving John alone with Aunt Mimi, who is a very strict disciplinarian and who constantly tells John to wear his glasses whenever he leaves the house.
Uncle George was more than just an uncle to John, and at the funeral we see a red-haired woman whom John has known as Aunt Julia. Now John is told that he should call the red-haired woman “Mum.”
A friend knows where Julia lives, and he and John go to visit her, which is within walking distance of Aunt Mimi’s. Julia has two little girls, and they all go to Blackpool for a day of fun, where Julia gets a little wild from the excitement.
At the end of the day when John is going back home to Aunt Mimi’s, Julia tells him, “Don’t tell Mimi. Please. This is our secret.” And then she adds, “I love you. You’re my dream. Don’t forget that.”
John slowly begins to learn more of the details behind this complicated relationship, and it is about this time he becomes aware of Elvis Presley and fascinated with the success and popularity of the American singer.
So, Johns asks Aunt Mimi to buy him a guitar, gets some of his mates to join him in forming a rock ‘n’ roll band, and calls the neophyte band “The Quarrymen.”
A friend of a friend named Paul shows up, he knows how to play his left-handed quitar better than John does, teaches John some new chords, and, well, you know the rest.
NOWHERE BOY is, like the song says, a bit like you and me.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Nowhere Boy – Movie Trailer
Oct 20th
The true story of John Lennon’s troubled childhood and difficult relationship with his family is brought to the screen in this period drama. Young John (Alex Ambrose) is a bright but sharp-tongued boy living in the coastal town of Liverpool during the 1950s with his aunt Mimi (Kristin Scott Thomas) and uncle George (David Threlfall). John’s father walked out on the family when he was four years old, and the boy was given to Mimi to raise, even though his mother, Julia (Anne-Marie Duff), was still alive. While Mimi’s straight-laced nature runs counter to John’s more reckless personality, they clearly love one another and the household is thrown into chaos when George dies suddenly. At the funeral, teenage John (now played by Aaron Johnson) sees Julia, and learns to his surprise that she lives only a few blocks away from Mimi. John pays her a visit, and Julia gratefully welcomes him back into her life. Julia’s personality is a much closer fit to John than Mimi, and she encourages his love for writing and music, teaching him to play the banjo. However, John’s renewed relationship with Julia brings up a number of unanswered questions, and causes new tensions between Mimi and John. And as rock & roll becomes the hot new sound of the day, John falls in love with the bold new music and makes a friend who is interested in forming a band, Paul (Thomas Brodie Sangster). The first feature film from artist-turned-director Sam Taylor-Wood, Nowhere Boy was the closing night attraction at the 2009 BFI London Film Festival.
“Moon” Excellence
Jul 22nd
Excellence
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
MOON is an excellent film that doesn’t answer all of the questions it raises, but it leaves them for you to think about and enjoy for weeks to come, if not for years to come.
In other words, it stays with you and isn’t easily forgotten about, as so many other movies are today.
It was directed by Duncan Jones, which is all the more remarkable, because this is the first feature film that he has directed. What is at least interesting, if not also remarkable, is that Jones is the son of David Bowie.
The film stars Sam Rockwell as Sam Bell, the only human on a mining base on the far side of the Moon, which means that he doesn’t even have the comfort of being able to look up into the sky and see planet Earth.
Sam has only two weeks left on his three-year contract with Lunar Industries, and he says, “I’m talking to myself on a regular basis. Time to go home.”
However, Sam isn’t alone inside the lunar station. There is also a robot named Gerty to look after him and the operation.
Gerty, which is voiced by Kevin Spacey, isn’t just a stationary box inside a wall, either. It has components that can move around inside the station, and it has an animated smiley face that displays its three “emotions”: happy, sad, and noncommittal.
Sam can also communicate with his wife and daughter back home on Earth by using recorded video messages, but that isn’t very much comfort to him.
One day Sam injures himself when he is distracted by a hallucination of a beautiful woman sitting in a chair, and his injury will have consequences later on.
Worse than that, however, Sam has an accident in one of the lunar rovers while out at a mining operation, and this accident will change his life for the rest of the time he has on his contract, if not forever.
When Sam lies to Gerty, and then we catch Gerty lying to Sam, we know that something dramatic is about to happen. And when Sam’s replacement shows up, it does.
At first Sam and his replacement don’t get along, but then they start cooperating for reasons that we couldn’t have imagined.
MOON leaves us with questions, but its lasting impression is excellence.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
