The movie “Gifted” has ingredients of films we have seen before about child custody; probably the most famous of those is “Kramer vs Kramer” that was released in 1979. What is different with the story in Gifted is the suicide of the child’s mother, who was a mathematical genius and her suicide and prodigy are the connection to the 7-year-old child she left behind, who inherited her mathematical gifts. The rest of the story slowly uncovers the reasons why this brilliant woman killed herself and her brother, played by Chris Evans, who is trying to prevent her child from following her same depressing path in life. When your a genius at the level of Mary, the child in this movie played very well by Mckenna Grace, just like most everything else in life, there are good parts and bad parts. The good parts are your massive intelligence at a level where you could potentially change the world with your inventions or ideas. The bad parts are that you might become socially inept because you will be going to school in think tanks or special schools, possibly going to college with people much older than you and because of this you might never achieve your potential as a human being and as well as a gifted prodigy. Fundamentally, this movie asks the question: “is it even possible to be a child prodigy and also develop normal social skills”? As this movie shows, the young girl can be very impatient and rude around other ordinary children, which would be just one of many problems trying to raise a gifted child.

We find out during the story that one of the main reasons for the woman’s suicide was because of her overbearing mother, who tried to control her life and put too much pressure on her to succeed, even to the point of trying to ruin her relationships. Most of this comes out during the child custody court hearings which were boring at some points, but in the end took an unexpected twist that I thought was well done and lead to a satisfying conclusion. Most movies about child prodigies that can only come for Chess, Music and Mathematics are for the most part very impressive when they show the prodigy performing their main talent and this movie has several impressive mathematical demonstrations by Mary that I thought were very well done. Octavia Spenser also stars in this movie as neighborhood friend of Mary and her uncle and she seems out of place in this story and perhaps there was a deal made to add her to the movie to obtain more ticket buyers due to her recent success in movies like “Hidden Figures” that was another movie about a mathematical child prodigy.

Gifted is a good movie about a child prodigy but not a great one and I do recommend it.

The movie “Going in Style” is a remake of the 1979 movie of the same title, that started George Burns, Art Carney and Lee Strasberg. The idea behind this story is essentially the same, 3 men in their 70’s and 80’s who have nothing to lose, decide to rob a bank because all 3 are broke due to a major injustice. In the case of this new version, the major injustice is very understandable. One of the 3 men, played by Micheal Caine was tricked into getting a mortgage that ballooned into payments that tripled after a year. On top of this, all 3 men are retired factory workers and now because of cost cutting and typical screwing over workers, they have lost out on their pensions that it took them 30 years of hard work to earn. Now all of them are broke and after Caine’s character witnesses a robbery, he decides to rob the very bank that tripled his mortgage payments and is now threatening to foreclose on his house. I found all of this believable and understandable, considering the kind of anger these 3 men and so many other Americans must feel when they are screwed out of their pensions or laid off because their job has moved overseas. Caine’s friends are played well by veteran actors Morgan Freeman and Alan Arkin and they both provide some comic relief and believability to the story. On to of all their other problems, Freeman’s character is on dialysis and needs a Kidney transplant, which adds some perhaps unnecessary drama to the plot.

I thought that the story was entertaining enough, believable and considering the bank and the company involved that screwed over these 3 men almost justifiable.

The negative part of all this is that as you watch this 100 minute or so movie you slowly realize that most of the story you have seen many times before, so before long this film is over it can seem to be boring and average.  Ann Margaret also makes an appearance in this movie along with Matt Dillon, who I have not seen in a movie in a long time.

I give this movie only a mild recommendation, mainly because of the 3 great actors involved.

Once a month or so, back in the mid-70’s the announcement that Don Rickles was going to be on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson on Friday night was everything to me because you just knew it was going to be another great event of the best comedy there ever was. Carson was the perfect straight man to Rickles who could just make a face, make a noise or do one of the many jokes about his wife or any number of different people that we heard before. Regardless this always worked because with Rickles, because it was all about his face and his impeccable comedic rhythm and timing.

Rickles was 90 years old when he passed away today and he will be very sorely missed by everyone who loves comedy. Without Don Rickles, there would never have been the Dean Martin Roast shows in the 70’s or all the roast shows that followed. Don Rickles was the all-time greatest roast master and one of the greatest comedians of all time.