Chef

I just watched Chef starring Jon Favreau as an inspired chef whose creativity is strangled by the owner of the restaurant he works in. After losing his job he hits rock bottom. The premise of this movie is brilliant. I especially liked the shots of him cooking, the care he puts into making his food not only shows his love for food but the love for his son who he cooks it for. After discovering social media Jeff challenges a restaurant reviewer after he gives him a 2 star review on his food. Chef Jeff is infuriated and starts a twitter war that ends in his losing his job. He goes to Miami with his son and decides to start a food truck business. From that point on it's an odyssey of discovery, food, and love. Chef Jeff's son twitters all the way and the crowds line up! We watched this movie together as a family with my son who is a culinary student. Needless to say we all truly enjoyed it. My 12 year old daughter said several times, I'm going to bed. She continued to stay up and watch the movie! It's a wonderful family dramedy that I would recommend to anyone. Scraping rock bottom means going back to your roots....even if they are in a rolling truck! FIVE ENTHUSIASTIC STARS....

The Book Thief

I have to say I didn't know what to expect going into this movie. It's a poignant and touching movie about a little girl and her infatuation with books. However that is not all of it, she meets a Jewish man who is persecuted and they hide him in her basement. He tells her that the difference between a lump of clay and a human is a single word. The Jewish word for life. He tells her that words are life, and without them we are all lost. This ignites a spark in the girl's heart. This all happens in World War two Germany. It's incredible it will have you laughing and crying. I don't want to say too much to give it away. This is a movie I will be adding to my collection and one I would watch again and again. 5 plus plus plus stars

Twixt - Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

To say the movie Twixt is sick is true. To say the movie is genius is even more so. This movie twisted around a sick man's plot to protect orphan children from the vampires that live across the lake from his small town sounds like a plot that would be hard to follow. This movie is a mixture of darkness and light, black and white and color, beauty and darkness.
Coppola uses black and white filmography to show the past and the dream world that is entered by Hall Baltimore played by Val Kilmer. Baltimore himself is a drunken author using drunken and drug induced comas to write his stories. It was more than he bargained for when he went to the little town and met V a ghost played by the beautiful Elle Fanning. All in all this film was disturbingly amazing. It really pulls you into the murder mystery of V's death and the lives of the residents of the town both in the present and in the past. I loved this movie. It is a dark and exquisitely beautiful work of art. I give it 5+++++++ stars

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12 Years A Slave

I have to say I was skeptical about this movie when we first put it on, but I am obsessed with slavery and the Civil War. I've read Uncle Tom's Cabin, yet I am not old enough to have been part of the civil rights movement. I understand why this movie got so many Oscar nominations. It's excellent from beginning to end and so true to history. This movie made you think. My heart broke many times in this movie at the treatment of the slaves. It was heartbreaking and hopeful at the same time. I don't want to give much of this movie away because there is so much that the viewer needs to see. I would recommend this movie to anyone. I truly enjoyed it and I give it 5++++ stars. I will in the near future be reading the book by Solomon Northrup, if it is anything like the movie (and I know books are always better) I will enjoy it.

The Human Race

This is an odd movie, very much a grow on you movie. The rules are simple Race Or Die, if you leave the path, you die, The house school and jail are safe (really?) if you are lapped you die. There is only one winner. The movie itself touched on social issues, racism, right and wrong, killers, prey, weakness and strength. The movie was poorly acted but really made you think. It used a guerrilla style of film making which is becoming quite popular these days. There were no huge names in this movie and I can understand why, the movie is bad. However, I also liked it. I liked the moral issues involved in this movie. This is a movie I can say I've seen once, but I won't be watching it again. However if you like this style of movie a thriller with a questionable simple plot and holy cannoli moments you should see it.