THEIR FINEST AN EXCELLENT ENGLISH WWII FILM

we just watched a fine film released in 2016 Their Finest. Set during the bombing of England in WWII. A young woman arrives in London looking for work as a writer. She signs on with a documentary film company working for the Ministry of Public Education. They make films to buck up the populace. A project to document Dunkirk becomes a dramatic film because of the fine writing and persistence of Catlin, a new hire to the company. Great acting, writing and fine production. Long film ends twice., but in the end its a moving, funny and sad drama. I recommend it especially for people who may be forgetting how important personal, human relations are, particularly in parlous times like these.

A WINNER FOR JENNIFER ANNISTON AND HER CAST

Cake, The movie 2015.

Jennifer Aniston stars. Yes, that glamorous, wonderful-looking Jennifer A. You almost don’t recognize her as Claire Simmons, a pain-wracked survivor of a terrible accident. She is struggling to recover. Her body doesn’t work the way it is supposed to anymore and she uses copious amounts of pain pills. She attends therapy sessions which seem to depress her even more than she already is.

This is a movie about depression. There is no glamour here. No make-up, frumpy clothes, no hair styling. This is a movie about pain, enduring, persistent, stultifying pain. And this is a movie about one woman’s struggle, through her inquisitiveness about another woman’s suicide, to come to terms with her life and its ongoing reality.

Aniston is the star and she lifts this movie out of the doldrums of hundreds of ordinary Hollywood flicks. Cake lets its audience experience some of the weighty characteristics of pain and depression. I wonder if some of the negative elements of some reviews are not because the reviewers were experiencing personal feelings of déjà vu. In the end, this movie is affirmation of life and gut-clenching determination.

Anniston should have received an Oscar nomination for Cake. For a lot of reasons, I strongly recommend this movie, not just to depressed among us, but to everyone.