CleveMan66

Class warfare, health care, immigration. "Elysium" (R, 1:49) is an action thriller that explores all these social issues and more.

Less than a century and a half in our future, the rich live in the ultimate gated community – a man-made satellite shaped like a bicycle tire, which hangs in the sky within sight, but out of reach, of the poor people of earth. Earth has become a dirty, run-down planet full of dirty, run-down people who are lucky if they have a job. Elysium is a paradise with a swimming pool in the middle of every manicured lawn. Every home is beautiful and they all have a device that looks like a cross between a tanning bed and an MRI, which can heal any citizen of Elysium of any injury or disease.

Naturally, the citizens of earth want to be on Elysium and the citizens of Elysium want to keep that from happening. Whenever the citizens of earth attempt their futuristic version of a border crossing…. well, they're stopped. Leading that effort is Secretary Delacourt (played by Jodie Foster) - a Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Homeland Security, National Security Adviser and border patrol agent all rolled into one. She's also ruthless and she talks funny. In the future, unusual accents are plentiful, but morals, not so much. Delacourt will do anything to keep Elysium pure and secure, while people like Matt Damon's character, Max, yearn, and sometimes really NEED to "get up there".

When Max suffers a serious accident at work, he knows that getting to Elysium for medical attention is his only chance for survival. The same need exists with a little girl, the daughter of a childhood friend of Max. Max knows someone who can get him to Elysium, but only if Max does something for his "friend" in the process. And that "something" could turn out to be a game-changer for everyone in this Orwellian morality play.

There's a lot going on in "Elysium". Maybe too much. Incorporating so many social issues into the plot makes the film feel cluttered. The condition of earth and its people is portrayed with an nearly overwhelming grittiness and the "every man for himself" mentality of almost all the characters is pretty depressing. The story is interesting and the action is exciting to watch, but I would call other aspects of the film…. too much of a good thing. "B"

There's a sub-sub genre of movies under the general heading of drama that has produced some very entertaining and even poignant films. I don't know that this narrow category of movies has a name, so I'll just call it "rebel dance films". These are movies in which people (usually teenagers) get together to dance, but under some degree of secrecy due to the disapproval of their parents, local religious leaders or even government authorities. Parents may disapprove of the kind of dancing (or what it may lead to), religious leaders may feel that the kind of dancing these young people do is immoral, or the authorities may see modern, non-traditional dancing as a form of rebellion… and a sign of more rebellion to come.

The short list of these rebel dance films range from very popular to very obscure, but they should be recognized and appreciated by dedicated movie fans, regardless of the individual's own level of proclivity to move to the music. In 1984 (and in an ill-advised remake in 2011), "Footloose" told the story of the new kid in town trying to bring a senior prom to his small, repressed southern community. 1993's "Swing Kids" showed us teenagers in pre-World War II Nazi Germany insisting on listening and dancing to swing music, even though much of it came from musicians who were… Jewish! One of the "Step Up" movies, namely the 4th one, 2012's "Step Up Revolution", has teens dancing in a flash mob to disrupt a corporate developer's plans for their neighborhood. In 2014, "Desert Dancer" told the true story of Iranian young people who learned to dance in secret and planned to put on a performance in the desert. 2015's addition to rebel dance films is the British-Irish movie "Jimmy's Hall" (PG-13, 1:49).

This one is also based on a true story, but is about a lot more than dancing which some people and institutions find objectionable. Jimmy Gralton (Barry Ward) returns to his rural Irish home after ten years of living in the United States. He had been exiled for his unpopular political views, but now he wants no more than to live the life of an ordinary man and help his aging mother take care of the family farm. Unfortunately for him, he's still something of a local legend for the community center that he ran before he was forced to leave the country. Now, with the post-Irish civil war government firmly in place, the locals beg him to fix up and reopen the hall that, years earlier, meant so much to so many. He agrees and the community pitches in to bring the old place back to life. Soon, once again, Jimmy's Hall becomes a spot where everyone is welcome to take classes, learn boxing, take music lessons and, most of all, to socialize and dance. All of this brings him back into contact with a lost love (Simone Kirby) and back into conflict with Father Sheridan (Jim Norton), a powerful local priest who uses the pulpit to criticize the hall for its modern music and dancing – and the socialist ideas discussed in the hall. Most of the community supports Jimmy, and a younger priest (Andrew Scott) increasingly speaks out against Father Sheridan's handling of the situation, but strong forces are gathering to oppose Jimmy and his hall.

Then, the movie's plot takes a sharp turn – a sharp LEFT turn. Things get overtly political, as they were in Jimmy's real life. A local landowner evicts a family from their home, a very serious situation for a poor family in rural Ireland during the Great Depression. Out of empathy for this family, and out of a larger concern over what will happen to the community if these kinds of evictions continue, rival political groups band together to do something about it. There's a vigorous debate over what Jimmy's role in their plan should be. He's an important local symbol, but he knows that his direct public involvement will likely destroy any remaining possibility of him living out his life in peace and helping his mother in her old age. It's quite a dilemma. And quiet a story.

"Jimmy's Hall" depicts an interesting and little-known episode in Irish history, but isn't very compelling. People with no prior knowledge of the problems of this place at this time will have trouble relating to Jimmy's story, and the movie lacks the narrative power to overcome that obstacle. Seeing this film is an opportunity to become educated about what common folk in a different country and in a different time had to deal with, and the underlying themes of standing up for your principles and helping your neighbors should appeal to most movie fans, but it's not quite enough for me to give this film a very strong recommendation. If you're already interested in the subject matter or the setting, you should probably check out "Jimmy's Hall". If, after reading this review, you still have no more than a passing interest, and you come upon "Jimmy's Hall", you should probably pass it by without a second glance. "B"

Do you want to know what's wrong with the world? What? Yeah, you're right, we don't have all day, and my reviews are long enough anyway. Alright, I'll narrow it down to two things: lack of responsibility and lack of respect. When people live as if their actions have no consequences (or they shouldn't be subject to any consequences arising from their choices), they show a lack of responsibility. When people don't treat others as they would want to be treated, they show a lack of respect. If you stop to think about it, I believe you'll agree that the world would be a much better place if we all were even a little more responsible in our daily lives and a little more respectful in our interactions with other people. Oh, and it's also a big problem when people make a movie in which so few of the characters are likable. Okay, I guess that makes three things, but they're all relevant when discussing the film "Grandma" (R, 1:19).

The great Lily Tomlin takes on her first lead role in a feature film since 1988 (when she starred with Bette Midler in the underrated comedy farce "Big Business"). Tomlin plays the title character in this comedy-drama about an uninhibited, but tough lesbian poet named Elle Reid and her relationship with her 18-year-old granddaughter, Sage (Julia Garner). Elle is still mourning the death of Violet, her life-partner of 38 years. That situation obviously has her emotionally edgy, but it's pretty obvious that she's always been a real pill. Sage stops by her grandma Elle's house in the morning, shortly after Elle cruelly breaks up with her much younger lover of two months (Judy Greer). Elle, in her own words, is "just being maudlin" as she goes through a box of pictures and memorabilia from her lifetime with "Vi". Sage says she needs money. She's pregnant and needs $630 to pay for an abortion she scheduled for late that day.

Elle has very little cash on hand and has cut up her credit cards, so she peels the cover off of Vi's old car and takes Sage on a sort of local road trip to visit people who give them various sums of money toward their goal. They visit Sage's rude, self-centered boyfriend, Cam (Nat Wolff), Elle and Vi's old friend, Deathy (Laverne Cox) in her tattoo parlor, Elle's scowling friend, Carla (Elizabeth Peña), Elle's grudge-harboring old flame, Karl (Sam Elliott), and Sage's unsympathetic businesswoman mother, Judy (Marcia Gay Harden). As the day progresses, instead of an open and frank discussion about Sage's choices and the direction of her life, or even some family bonding, we see Elle being very rude to a series of one-dimensional characters that Elle clearly regards as on the wrong side of the tracks, politically-speaking.

"Grandma" is full of outstanding acting, but lacking in likable characters, moral direction… and fun. Garner is well-cast and gives a nicely lived-in performance, while Elliott makes great use of his limited screen time to give an emotionally-layered performance. Tomlin is as great as ever. I just wish it were in service to a better movie. Although this film is mercifully short, it's basically a long commercial for abortion. Earlier in this review, I generously referred to this movie as a comedy-drama, but two out of three websites I checked label the film simply as a comedy. An abortion comedy?? Regardless of my personal feelings on the issue, I find the idea of a comedy about abortion to be offensive. Whether you're pro-choice, pro-life or don't care much either way, I'd like to think we could all agree that this complicated issue would have been better served by at least some discussion of Sage's options and the probable results of different courses of action. Surely nothing is to be gained by portraying the few religious and/or conservative characters in the story simply as close-minded, abusive snobs.

"But you're missing the point," someone reading this review is thinking. "This is a comedy about an unconventional grandmother's relationship with her granddaughter. Well, I would say in response, I can think of a hundred different ways to make a movie like that without exploiting a very serious, divisive and personal issue for comedic purposes. And even if I ignored the issue which drives this story, where's the comedy? Is it in Elle's terrible treatment of both friends and strangers? Is it in Sage's clueless lack of personal responsibility? Is it in the animosity between Elle and her daughter Judy? If that's your idea of humor, go ahead and enjoy this film. I'm not criticizing your taste in movies, but I'm not laughing either.

Oh, and the movie's boring too. The director must have known that. He placed title cards between each "chapter" of this story, as if to reassure us that the plot was progressing and driving towards some point.

If there's any positive message here, it's about not burning bridges in your dealings with others, but even that lesson is overshadowed by selfish and unkind characters who rarely show remorse for their actions or treat anyone with respect, being especially rude to anyone different from themselves. I don't know about you, but I had grandmas who were outspoken but loving and who taught me about personal responsibility and respect. I miss my grandmas. I wish I had missed the movie "Grandma" too. "D"