It has been almost a year since I saw the movie Joy and I thought at the time it was one of the best movies I have ever seen and I still do. Recently this movie has been showing regularly on HBO and I have been reminded of how great a movie this is and in fact how well this film approached the subject of being poor, trying to break out of a bleak existence and how people even in your own family will do and say almost anything to destroy your dreams. There are several scenes in this movie where Joy Mangano, played by Jennifer Lawrence is sabotaged by her own sister, who was jealous of her success. Joy’s sister was so quick to try and knock her down at every opportunity throughout this entire film. When things were not going well, her sister “piled on” over and over again, almost as if she was receiving extreme pleasure from her sister’s setbacks. Even Joy’s own father played by Robert Deniro seemed to derive pleasure when Joy’s business was having problems and at one point was even facing bankruptcy. Her father was the first to point out the mistakes and that it was all her fault that she put her family in financial jeopardy and that it was a mistake for Joy to ever think that she could be anything more than poor, or a failure, like the rest of the family. He even went to the extent of blaming himself for giving Joy the belief that she could be anything more than below average. Clearly, this is not only a disgusting trait in many people, but just as unfortunately, more often something that someone can expect from good number of people they will encounter in their life.

So one of the main questions this movie points out is, why are people like this? Because they believe that if someone is successful and breaks out of the same reality that they are in, that somehow this reflects on them negatively. In other words, how dare someone believe that they can expect something better than I have resolved to accept? In my experience, this is something I have seen so many times, not only in my own personal life but in my working life as well. Joy points out that in order to be successful in life, you not only have to have perseverance, but you also have to ignore and move on when everybody around you wants you to fail.

There is a scene in the movie Joy that is so profound for me that it ranks as one of the most singular movie moments I have ever seen in any film. The combination of Joy’s reaction to a high point with her business and the muted sound of a bell and some subtle emotional background music gives me an extreme reaction no matter how many times I have seen this movie. The movie Joy should have received an Academy Award nomination for best picture last year and in my opinion, should have won, not only for the great quality of the writing, acting and overall production; but for its unique insight into what it takes in life to be successful.

After almost a year and I don’t know why I waited this long to buy one, I recently bought the mopwhich was the first product that changed Joy Mangano’s life. After using it a few days, I highly recommend it.

The movie Contact was inspired many years ago by the book Contact which was written by the late Carl Sagan. The premise of the book and the entire movie that came out in 1997 was that if there is no other life in the Universe than this would be a “great waste of space”. Clearly there is no arguing that logic, but the real issue is, if there is life, isn’t it equally as likely that it is so many millions of light years away, that it would be impossible for any alien lifeforce to travel that far or even find us, given that the Universe is so vast and traveling at the speed of light or greater than the speed of light is not possible.

Jodie Foster is the star of Contact in arguably one of her best roles. I thought that the science behind this movie was great to see, with the huge array telescopes that monitor all signals coming from space, and a series of complex computer software programs that are able to figure out where the signal is coming from and capture it so it can be analyzed. There are scenes in this movie after a message has been received that include some of the best science I have ever seen any science fiction movie and what follows is even better, where the message is figured out and a massive machine for interstellar travel is built from a message that is embedded in a television signal from the 1936 Olympics, which was held in Berlin Germany. The spacecraft and concept behind it that was built from the alien message was fantastic and one of the best ideas I have ever seen for space travel.

I also liked and strongly related to the real-life work backstabbing and credit taking that happens in this film, where Jodie Foster’s boss, played by Tom Skerrit, who was dead set against Foster’s career of listening for life in outer space only to later take full credit for the discovery and steps on all of Foster’s responses at every meeting with Government officials who rush to undermine her project. Matthew McConaughey plays of all things a member of the clergy and provides the religious perspective on aliens visiting from outer space, and James Woods does a great job playing the evil Government representative, who does everything he can to sabotage this amazing contact with aliens.

Where this movie fails, although not completely is at the very end where I thought that Foster’s encounter with some sort of alien presence was not a satisfactory or logical conclusion to what was a great story with great special effects up to that point. The shame of the ending scene is that it really doesn’t make any sense, given the great science before this scene, which is why the ending does not work. The only upside of the ending is that it does make you think about what could be out there and then makes you think about what was the real point of this whole story in the first place.

Despite this unsatisfactory ending, I have always thought that Contact is one of the best science fiction films ever produced and should be seen by everyone, whether or not you believe in extraterrestrial life. This movie is also expertly directed by Robert Zemeckis.

It could be a considered either a fluke or a coincidence but the fact is that 40 years ago, in 1976, 3 of the most important films in movie history were released. The first 2 Rocky and Network are both also reviewed in this blog, the third is “All the Presidents Men”, which was about the break-in at the National Democratic Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel, that created the greatest political scandal in this countries history, known as Watergate.

In my opinion the story of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, both young reporters at the Washington Post, and what they went through to get the most important political story of all time, is far more interesting than the Watergate scandal or Richard Nixon’s paranoia that lead him to make a huge mistake that ruined his presidency and ultimately his entire life. Woodward and Bernstein made literally thousands of phone calls, they were lied to hundreds of times by hundreds of people, they desperately tried to get information through interviews and tracking down hundreds of leads, most of which lead nowhere, but they never gave up, and because of their dogged determination were ultimately successful in uncovering a series of criminal acts by not only many people who worked for President Nixon but ultimately the President himself.

I found the acting in All the Presidents Men outstanding, about as good as it can ever get in any movie. Jason Robards won a best supporting actor for playing Ben Bradlee, who was the executive editor of the Washington Post but for some odd reason, neither Robert Redford or Dustin Hoffman were not nominated for best actors even though in my opinion this movie represents one of the best movies either of them were ever in. I for one have long given up on the logic of the Academy Award nomination process. At least the movie was nominated for best picture which ultimately went to Rocky.

I found this entire movie fascinating not only with the great acting but with showing the process of uncovering an extremely difficult story that changed the history of this country. It is also interesting to see the technology from 40 long years ago and the use of typewriters and copy paper, which had to make the lives of any reporter so much more difficult than it is today with the use of computers and software. All the Presidents men represents for me one of the best reasons to go to the movies, to learn something about history that you didn’t know before. This movie was directed by Alan J. Pakula who was also not nominated for best director. The actress Jane Alexander was nominated for best supporting actress for her small part in the movie.

All the Presidents Men is a classic and hugely important film that should not be missed.