Shelli Sonstein Takes us to the Movies

“Hamilton”… on Disney Plus for subscribers only, not available with the free trial. This is NOT a movie version of the Broadway mega hit. It’s a filming FROM an original cast performance of the Broadway show. So a heads up it’s almost 3 hours long . It’s a glorious 3 hours. It’s not like anything you’ve ever seen on Broadway and just perfect for these times. I hear families are dressing in period costume to watch. If you DO watch as a family, you’ll be doing lots of googling research after - a great history lesson for all. It’s the next best thing to live when we can’t have live. But it’ll make you long for IRL theater.

3-and-a-half hearts

“The Tobacconist”.. this subtitled film from Austria is a sexy coming of ager about a 17 year old sent to Vienna to apprentice (or what we’d now say intern) with the owner of a tobacco shop. One of the shop’s patrons is Sigmund Freud (played by the late Bruno Ganz in his last performance). The 17 year old becomes friends with the father of psychiatry, mostly because the teen needs advice on his love life, which is at first non-existent but then blossoms into a frustrating infatuation for a burlesque dancer. The backdrop to all this is the rise of Nazism in Austria.   Each person has a painful decision to make: whether to stay or go. The end is exquisite and not at all sugar-coated. They all did what they needed to do. I was jarred by how relevant this film felt, with so many characters talking about “these strange times” with tensions so high between neighbors. I loved it.

3-and-a-half hearts

“Palm Springs”…on Hulu. With so many feeling like they’re living a “Groundhog Day” each day in this pandemic, the timing couldn’t be better for this movie where Andy Samberg is living his own version of “Groundhog Day” because he’s stuck in a time loop. While things change over the course of each day the next morning is always the same. The story is always the same. All this happens at a destination wedding in Palm Springs. J.K. Simmons co-stars , and has very different reaction to his plight.  It’s not your typical rom-com but worthy of 90 minutes of your time. Director Max Barbakow guests on next weekend’s “Sonstein Sunday” , July 19th.

2 hearts

“Greyhound” on Apple TV plus. Tom Hanks is in familiar territory here because he loves to play a captain. He was Captain Jim Lovell in “Apollo 13”, Captain John Miller in “Savinbg Private Ryan”, Captain Richard Phillips in “Captain Phillips”, Captain Sully Sullenberger in “sully”, and now he plays “commander Ernest Krause in “Greyhound”- a World War 2 sea battle film based on a novel and actually written by Tom Hanks himself. Hanks plays the navy commander in charge. It gets 76% on Rotten Tomatoes.


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