Concussion (2015)

Dr. Bennet Omalu (Will Smith) has a million degrees and works in the coroner's office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He loves his job, though it is a sad one, figuring out how people die. But he treats it like an art and the dead bodies are his canvas and the knives his brushes. He treats the died with dignity. When the dead body of a beloved football player, Mike Webster (David Morse) arrives on his table, Dr. Omalu is determined to figure out how he died. Mike was a Center and had a celebrated and award-winning career before falling into debt, homelessness and sniffing glue. Dr. Omalu wants certain tests performed on him and will even pay for them out of his own pocket, which he does, to the tune of twenty thousand dollars. Shocking. It is determined that Mike died of a disease abbreviated CTE, from all the concussions he suffered from his many years of playing football. And he's not alone. Several others have committed suicide or suffered from abusive-like tendencies as a result of their injuries. They hear voices in their heads. But Dr. Omalu won't be heard, even though he has some powerful friends, including the former doctor to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Dr. Julian Bailes (Alec Baldwin, with a wavering accent) and his supportive boss Dr. Cyril Wecht (Albert Brooks), but the commission is furious with his findings and calls them false and him a quack. He is taking on one of America's most lucrative businesses but he wants them to work together to find something that will fix the extreme amount of concussions received by football players.
Playing alongside this main plot is the tender love story of Dr. Omalu and the woman he would eventually marry, Prema (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, great nailing her accent). A priest introduces the two at church as Prema has just arrived to Pittsburgh from Kenya and needs a place to stay. A set-up if there ever was one. Why does that never happen to me? Moving on. The most awkward scene is right after Dr. Omalu's article on his findings is published and Prema takes him out to celebrate. Yes, Will Smith is awkward and stiff in a hip hop club. Never thought I'd see that. After they return home, he even asks if he can kiss her. No one does that. But his proposal is awkward. He takes her to the place where he wishes to build a house. After all, the schools are good and he sees good in her. Eventually, love will come along. But it doesn't show the wedding, you just assume they are married because you see Dr. Omalu wearing a wedding ring. Dr. Omalu still has many struggles but Prema supports him, saying that he must speak for the dead. Still, that is a bitter pill to swallow as Prema suffers a late-term miscarriage after being followed right after. It is a devastating scene. Dr. Wecht is fired and charged with some quack charges.
For a few years. the Omalus stay out of the limelight, moving to California and finally having a healthy little girl.
But then, a sad miracle happens. One of the executives with the Players Association, who previously denied that anything could be wrong, had committed suicide and donated his brain to science. Finally, the NFL is taking his word seriously but changes are slow to come. Though the NFL is sued by countless families, they settle and never release how long they have known about the connection to head injuries. Improvements need to be made as there is no way to determine if an athlete suffered from CTE until after they have expired. It is a shame that the NFL didn't take the word of an African doctor more seriously earlier.
Now, the film is good, though, of course, I have a few problems with it. At the end, when Dr. Omalu addresses the commission, Mike Webster is there in the audience despite being dead. Yes, that is weird, but it didn't bother me, He was finally getting the justice he deserved. I also thought that Dr. Omalu should have nicer to Dr. Bailes, who really did stick his neck out for him and needed to get the point across to the NFL, but Dr. Omalu wished to do it himself. Sure, they should have heard his speak, but it wasn't Dr. Bailes's fault. The ending is also squishy, with Dr. Omalu turning down a great job in Washington D.C. because it means he will no longer have to perform autopsies. While returning home, he drives by a high school football practice where methods of hitting haven't changed. And the film just ends.
Still, it was a great film and Smith probably should have been nominated for an Oscar as he was amazing with a steady accent and mannerisms throughout. I also liked that it took on football, head on. Football does indeed own a day of the week and it shouldn't. Nothing should be that important to risk the health of human beings just before some people worship the sport. I hope ten percent of mothers do keep their sons from playing football, then the sport will eventually die out. This will happen sooner than a resolution is found. Surely, there are ways to design a safer helmet or something like that. Grade: A-

Cheerful Weather for the Wedding (2012)

This film was a big disappointment.
Despite being beautifully filmed, it is petty with poor character development.
Dolly (Felicity Jones) is about to get married but isn't thrilled with her choice in groom, though she says otherwise. She keeps longing for her boyfriend from some months ago, Joseph (Luke Treadaway). But Joseph went away to Greece for some sort of dig. After all, he is a professor. Oh, yeah, who knows what these people do for a living, they are the typical rich and useless people that fill up plenty of British films.
Dolly does things in her own time and finally runs into Joseph just before she is getting in the car, and she doesn't want to hear what he has to say. She gets married to Owen (the always underused James Norton, who is never allowed to develop any as a character) and then heads off to Argentina.
The big reveal falls flat. Joseph calls Dolly out for getting married so quickly. She is pregnant but not even he knows who the father is though he himself is a candidate but he is unsure. I don't understand how he would be privileged to that information when the two haven't spoken in weeks.
The characters aren't that interesting with the exception of Dolly's younger sister, Kitty (Ellie Kendrick) who even sneaks off with her aunt's chauffeur, and Dolly's friend, Evelyn (Zoe Tapper) who is probably the most sensible person there, though she doesn't wish to get married. Elizabeth McGovern is Dolly's in denial mother who is livid that Joseph is there.
The characters take actions that you don't fully understand, though they are pretty interesting and the acting is good. I don't understand why Owen was so insistent on Dolly not being able to take her turtle (a gift from Joseph) with them on the boat trip to Argentina where they will be for at least two years. Joseph is just able to leave Dolly but then he admits that he lets her break his heart, not the other way around.
This film was unfortunately, a waste of my time but it is what it is. At least it was a beautiful journey, too bad nothing was obtained along the way. Grade: B-

Mister Roberts (1955)

This was actually an interesting film. Sure, interesting is a cop-out. But this film demonstrates the loyalty a crew can have and how important morale is to save the troops from boredom and monetony of everyday life aboard a cargo ship.
Henry Fonda is the title Mr. Douglas Roberts and he is a deck captain, in charge of cargo and the men. But he is not the captain. The captain (James Cagney) is not a nice man. He could care less about the fact that his men haven't had a liberty is about a year. They need other human contact. He ignores Doug's requests for a transfer. But Doug can have the upper hand. He persuades the admiral to send the ship to a port so they can finally get a liberty. But Captain denies it so Doug strikes a deal. He will obey everything the captain says and will stop asking to be transferred. He agrees and soon the crew no longer likes him, as he is following every order to the letter.
However, he does get revenge. He throws the captain's beloved palm tree overboard and he throws a fit. Over the loud speaker, all is revealed. About what he did for the men. The men risk jail time by writing another letter asking him for a transfer and forge the captain's signature. Which works. Doug gets reassigned and the men honor him with a special medal they designed themselves. He accepts the honor with extreme gratitude. The film ends sort of as I figured it would, Mr. Roberts dies in an airstrike by the Japanese. It is devastating.
Now, I didn't mention another main character, Ensign Frank Pulver (Jack Lemmon) is a lump and a ladies' man. He is lazy and has no backbone until the final when he is so furious and upset at Doug's death that he finally shows some real emotion and snaps at the Captain. He throws overboard the new palm tree and storms in to tell the Captain and wants to know about why there won't be a movie showing that evening.
William Powell is also great as the ship's loyal doctor, who can make vodka out of ordinary alcohol, in a great scene when Frank persuades a nurse to come aboard, but she doesn't come alone so he gets no private time with her.
Though the plot is simple, and at times, thin, this film is still very good and the scene where the palm tree is thrown overboard (both of them) is well worth the wait. The performances are good though I don't know if Lemmon deserved the Oscar, despite him being a great actor, this role wasn't that much special. It is shame that this would be William Powell's final film. This film has good scenery and the score is truly memorable. Grade: A-

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

This is Orson Welles follow-up to the wonderful and amazing Citizen Kane, and yes, it pales in every way.
That being said, it isn't a bad film, it just isn't as good as Citizen Kane, basically no movie can be.
The Ambersons are true royalty in their small midwestern town just before the turn of the century, the twentieth century. Isabel (Dolores Costello) marries someone is not her true love and their child, George (Tim Holt) is indeed the most spoiled, self-absorbed child in the city. He is nasty to the children and even an older man, disrespectful to his core. He isn't nice to his girlfriend, Lucy (Anne Baxter) but worse, after his father dies, he learns the truth about his mother and can't stand her newfound happiness. As it turns out, Isabel loved Lucy's father, Gene Morgan (Joseph Cotton) before she married Wilbur (Don Dillaway). So when Gene turns up at the house, George turns him away, cruelly. Though Isabel picks her son over Gene, it ultimately kills her. She dies before she can reconcile with Gene. Then, the money goes away. Well, it sort of whittled away over time and then Aunt Fanny (Agnes Moorhead) admits that she made a bad investment which will force George to actually work for a living, something which he doesn't relish.
George's life continues to get worse, he is hit by a newfangled automobile and breaks both of his legs. But at least Gene is friendly with the family again. And George will be okay, once his broken bones heal.
Now, while this is an interesting film, I probably would have liked to have seen a film that detailed George's life after he fell from glory. Lucy was too good for him anyway. Still, it is filmed brilliantly and looks amazing, with brilliant costumes and good performances, though some scenes were cut too short. Moorhead was deservingly nominated for an Oscar and while Holt was good, I feel that a stronger actor could have done better. Welles himself would have done the role justice. Holt, by the way, is the other guy in Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Baxter, on the other hand, was great. I wish the studio hadn't gotten their hands on it and we could have seen the film that Welles truly wanted us to see. Grade: B+