Ed's Review Dot Com

A&E IndieFilms, Asylum Entertainment, Passion Pictures,

Matt Sandusky, The town of State College, Pa.

Documentary filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev arrived in Happy Valley (the nickname for the little town in northeast Pennsylvania called State College) along with a slew of news cameras as the breaking story of Jerry Sandusky’s (an assistant coach in Penn State football) arrest on charges of child molestation. The story was huge and dominated the news for a few days and weeks, but Amir stayed. He spent over a year in State College documenting the changes, the fall-out, and the attempts to recover from this regional tragic story. He focuses on Matt Sandusky, a young man who was taken in and adopted by Jerry’s family as a child, and through the turmoil it caused him and his loss of both a Mother and a Father through the ordeal as he tried to decide whether to tell his story at the trial or to protect his father. It’s a complex story and there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye initially. This documentary does a pretty decent job of telling the story while trying to be fair to the people involved.

This film really made me sad. My heart was broken at the end. I don’t have sympathy for the people involved, but the entire thing was tragic. Penn State was one of the most successful football teams in college history. Joe Paterno was the coach and father figure for the town and celebrated as a great hero as he built up the reputation of the winning-est college football coach in history. Joe knew there was something terribly wrong with Jerry Sandusky. It was obvious that something was wrong with him, and it was obvious that Joe didn’t even like Jerry very much. When it became obvious that Jerry was doing some really bad things, Joe went to the leaders of Penn State and told them what he knew. They decided not to do anything about it to avoid harming the school’s reputation. Everybody looked away. Jerry loved kids, figuratively and literally. He rescued so many young men who were suffering from poverty and broken families. He started a foundation to help them, and sent many of them through college at his expense. But was he grooming them for his perverse desires. It would appear so. Meanwhile, in a little town like State College there isn’t much to do but celebrate Football, and the school became known for it, and Joe Paterno became the king of the town with a stellar reputation. When Jerry fell, and the stories came out, the first thing everyone wanted to know is how much Joe Paterno knew, and when he knew it. Joe didn’t go to the authorities which he knew he should have done, but he was also very sick at the time. Joe died from cancer long before the trial. The school was still concerned about their reputation and who better to pin it on than a guy who was already dying. The school terminated him and tried to wipe his name out completely even tearing down any reference to the man. This was probably to satisfy the NCAA that they had dealt with the problem and Jerry was in jail and Joe Paterno had been slaughtered on the altar of shame. But the NCAA wasn’t done. They decided it was necessary to punish the school and the students as much as possible. This they did with a huge hammer, wiping out all of Joe Paterno’s wins and dropping him from the winning-est coach to third place. Is it a tragedy that the school lost good students, had their reputation destroyed in a way that they will never recover from, and creating a huge divide between those who want to remember the guy who did so much to put them on the map because of some guy that had a desire for boys? Did Joe do enough by going to the school authorities and expecting them to handle it, and not going to the authorities. I’m sure Joe would even admit that he was wrong. He passed the buck upstream and that was a cowardly thing to do, but who are the guys who sat on that and did nothing? I have no idea. They’re hiding behind the curtain and threw Joe out for the media wolves. Still when the film was done, I just felt sadness for everyone touched by this. It’s a shame they could not have put a stop to this years before. There are people who hated this story, but those I fear are mostly those who hate football, or who are just unable to get past the horrible crimes Jerry Sandusky committed. I can truly understand that. But it was a shame. I thought this was an excellent look at the whole situation and I found it extremely interesting. You may not, and we all have our own tastes. I am glad I watched it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Movie Rentals Releasing Tuesday July 7, 2015

• 5 Flights Up
• Absolution
• Alien Outpost
• Deli Man
• Kill Me Three Times
• The Lovers
• Maggie
• The Road Within
• Slow West
• Woman in Gold

Tarnol Group Pictures,

Sarah Hyland, Steve Howey, Odeya Rush, Bret Harrison, Emma Bell, Jake McDorman, Beau Mirchoff, Michael Weston, Conor O’Farrell

The Burwood family is a mess. After her mother died, Johana Burwood (Sarah Hyland) left home and had no relationship with her brothers or father for four years. Now her brother has died under strange circumstances and Johana has returned home along with her boyfriend and her two brothers to pay their last respects to their brother. Things are tense and no one seems to care much about anyone else, and the family is in shambles. But when an old High School boyfriend shows up who is just not wiling to let go, Johana has to face some past issues and deceit in her life and the family tries to come together to give their brother a bigger sendoff than any of them imagined.

This is a fractured family tale like many others. In that genre people seem to sit around the kitchen table a lot and talk and talk and talk, with a few epic arguments thrown in. This one certainly has that, but the relationship between Johana and her beau, and the triangle with her ex that she’s obviously not completely done with yet makes it a bit more interesting. Then the brothers are very competitive, so they give us a lot to watch. But perhaps the biggest surprise was Sarah Hyland and the job she did carrying this movie. She’s turned into a pretty good little actress. Her performance was definitely a bright point in this film. All in all, this is not a bad little film. I enjoyed it, and despite the long talking scenes, it kept me interested. I can moderately recommend this film if the notion strikes you. You can do a lot worse.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Antzworks,

Anthony Powell, Genevieve Bachman, William Brotman, Michael Christiansen, Tom Hamann, George Lampman, Peter Lund, Keri Nelson, Casey O’Brien, Christine Powell, David Prutsman, Josh Swanson, Andrew Velman,

This documentary by Anthony Powell documents an entire year in Antarctica and the problems and adventures there as well as the benefits and difficulties in doing it. Basically Anthony just turned the camera on himself and the poor souls who stayed there with him. They are scientists who investigate and learn what they can from the southernmost point on the Earth. Most of the people do all the work in the very brief summer that they have, and then go home before the bad weather hits, but someone must stay and mind the store, collect data, and guard the post through the long dark winter. The sun never rises for months, and temperatures of 40 below and hurricane winds are the norm here. Besides the ultimate cold, the bad weather, and the darkness, the challenge of being cooped up in a small building with very little interaction is difficult. It’s possible to go stir crazy in there if you don’t take precautions. It’s a long cold lonely winter, but the team finds ways to keep their spirits up. Mixed with excellent and beautiful photography, including some stunning time lapse segments, plus a plethora of scientific information, I was really interested in this documentary. We get to know the people without the drama and their acting for the camera and after the feature length film you’ll feel like you know these people a bit better. One particular scene broke my heart and it involved a seal that wandered into the camp. I have been pondering since I saw this film about that moment and why they do what they do, but I haven’t found an answer. You’ll know what it is about when you see it. I have seen a lot of Mt. Everest documentaries, and some previously on Antarctica or the Arctic Circle, but this one has a wealth of information on what the day to day life is liked cooped up in an igloo basically. It goes a bit deeper than the typical IMAX adventure, and is filled with information of all kinds. I recommend this documentary if you are interested in the subzero climate of the coldest place on earth. It’s well done.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

Abbolita Productions, Gotham Group, Starstream Entertainment,

Jennifer Aniston, Mos Def, Isla Fisher, Will Forte, Mark Boone Junior, Tim Robbins, John Hawkes, Clea Lewis, Charlie Tahan, Kevin Corrigan

Frank Dawson (Tim Robins) is a developer who has earned a lot of money rather unscrupulously. He’s a bit of a bastard, and his long suffering wife, Mickey (Jennifer Aniston) does her best to put up with his crap. Frank is off on another business trip which is really a tryst with his girlfriend Melanie (Isla Fisher) and Franks divorce papers are in the mail so that Mickey will get it while he’s away and he won’t have to deal with it. But things don’t go as planned when Mickey is kidnapped by a few quirky common thieves who lock her away and demand a million dollars from Frank who doesn’t want to pay. Things get really screwy in this drama with a side of comedy.

Jennifer Aniston is amazing, isn’t she? It’s because of her performance that this movie even works. As it is, she was really good. This story seems very, very similar to “Ruthless People” with Bette Midler and Danny DeVito where she was kidnapped from a husband who didn’t want her. But this is quite different. “Ruthless People” was done as a slapstick comedy with laughs coming every minute. This film, though very funny in parts, is much more dramatic and a lot more serious. The crooks who kidnap her are about as incompetent as “The Apple Dumpling Gang” but somehow they are clever enough to pull it off without being silly. Tim Robbins was perfectly cast as the uncaring husband and he did a good job, but the gem in this film has to be Isla Fisher who is really perfect as the mistress who has an angle of her own. There are twists and turns throughout the movie, and it’s actually a very interesting story. I was impressed by this film as a streaming movie (I haven’t found a place to buy it yet, but it’s available for streaming) and it was a pleasant journey watching this movie. I recommend this as an unusual relationship story with a side of crime and treachery topped with a heaping helping of comedy. If you find this one, give it a shot. If just for Jennifer Aniston’s performance alone it will be worth it.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog