Reel Corner - February 2024 Issue
Who Are You Rooting For?
February 2024 Issue
Reel Corner by Donne Paine
Who Are You Rooting For?
As the Reel Corner recovers from knee replacement surgery, I wondered if there were any films with a knee or leg injury as part of the story line. Believe it or not, there was plenty to choose from. Included were I Tonya, Bend it Like Beckham, and Varsity Blues.
After reviewing the list, the one that stood out most to me was Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, where Jimmy Stewart solves a murder with his leg in a cast and without ever leaving his room. If you have not seen Rear Window, or perhaps forgotten about it, stream it. You will not be disappointed.
The Golden Globe Awards were a few weeks ago and the film Oppenheimer was the big winner with five awards. The Academy Awards (Oscars) will be held March 10, and although Oppenheimer is an excellent film and will be hard to beat, I will be rooting for The Boys in the Boat.
THE BOYS IN THE BOAT
Starring: Callum Turner, Joel Edgerton, Sam Strike
Director: George Clooney
The Boys in the Boat is a biographical sports drama based on the 2013 book of the same name. The film follows the University of Washington rowing team and their quest to compete in the 1936 Summer Olympics in
Nazi Germany.
This non-fiction film describes the University of Washington crew who represented the United States in the Men’s 8 at the 1936 Summer Olympics. The coaches, boat builder George Pocock, and the working-class student athletes, particularly rower Joe Rantz, who was abandoned by his family and left to fend for himself at a young age, immediately capture your heart.
Rowing is an especially cinematic sport, the oars moving in sync with precision that rivals a Radio City Rockettes kickline, while the sunrise tints the sky a soft pink. This story quickly captures our attention and evokes sympathy for the young men who came of age during the bleakest years of the depression.
They have holes in their shoes and are always hungry. There are barely any jobs anywhere, making the University of Washington’s offer to financially support any man who wins a spot on the crew team alluring.
This classic underdog story, conventionally old-fashioned, may not surprise you, but it will satisfy you with gorgeous visuals and heartfelt performances.
THE BOY AND THE HERON
Golden Globe Winner: Best Animated Film
Director and Writer: Hayao Miyazaki
A young boy named Mahito, yearning for his mother who dies in a hospital fire, ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead. There, death comes to an end, and life finds a new beginning. This film somehow plays as both a child’s heroic journey and an old man’s wistful goodbye at the same time. It is gorgeous and mesmerizing as the 12-year-old boy follows a heron to his own Wonderland.
If you enjoy speculating on who will win Oscars, do not ignore animated films, film shorts and foreign language films, many of which can be streamed.
References: www.imdb.com, www.nyt.com, www.rogerebert.com
Donne Paine, film enthusiast, once lived around the corner from the Orson Wells Theater in Cambridge, Massachu-setts, where her strong interest in films, especially independent ones, began. Supporter of the arts, especially films, she has traveled to local and national film festivals including Sundance, Toronto and Tribeca. There is nothing like seeing a film on the big screen. She encourages film goers to support Hilton Head local theaters, Park Plaza Theater and Northridge. To support her habit of frequent movie going, Donne is a vaccine medicine nurse consultant and also the author of 4 Interview Pillars available on Amazon. See you at the movies!