Fed Up

Hi Viewers!  Normally I review razzle-dazzle, knock-your-socks-off movies....and I sometimes suggest you RUN out to see a film.

Not true with this one.  It's a documentary.  Yeah, a learning thing.  Think of being back in school.  The teacher is lecturing you and you are trying to pay attention.  Zzzzzz.....

Haha!  Well, it's not quite that bad.  Do you have an interest in diet?  Are you fighting to shed a few pounds?  Did your doc suggest you eat less fats and carbs and maybe even hit the treadmill too?  If so, you might consider this exposé.

What's it about?  SUGAR!  Yes, nothing more complex...or simple, as carbs go, if you get my drift.  The film shows you how almost every food you eat is full of sugar.  Think you're eating low-fat?  Maybe, but you have NO idea how much sugar you are ingesting on a daily basis.

The film is somewhat morbid:  It focuses on obesity in kids.  Sad fact is that many kids in school are way, way, way overweight.  Some fight the weight, others don't.  Just like adults.

So what?  I happen to enjoy my occasional SEE'S candies.  I happen to enjoy my occasional hot fudge sundae.  I happen to enjoy a lot of sugar-laden foods.  See, I'm a sugar addict.  I admit it.  You too?  Don't take away my cakes and pies and cookies...please!

Many of us are a few pounds overweight and figure hey, life is short.  Problem is, those words can be prophetic.  Sugar can mess up our metabolism, and give us cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and a host of other really nasty health issues.

The film:  Very revealing, when it comes to the sugar we eat without meaning to.  Very weak, when it comes to telling us what to do about it.

A must-see?  Hardly.  But, if you are one of those many folks seeking reasons for why you can't lose those extra pounds in spite of some solid efforts, consider viewing this documentary.

In fact, maybe RUN out and see it....for just a bit of needed exercise!

Divergent

Divergent offers a fascinating premise:  In a futuristic society, everyone must belong to one of five groups, or "factions":

1.  Dauntless (the brave)  2. Amity (the peaceful)  3.  Erudite (the thinkers)  4. Abnegation (the generous) and 5. Candor (the honest)

On a special day every year, all sixteen year olds must select the faction to which they will devote themselves for the rest of their livers.  Once they make the choice, they can never go back on it.  They cannot go home again.

Enter young Beatrice, played brilliantly by Shailene Woodley.  She takes an aptitude test (that looks into her mind...haha) to determine where her talents might lie.  Lo and Behold!  She is a freak!  She does not fit into any of the five categories.  She risks being DIVERGENT!

You get the picture.  No spoiler, so I hesitate to offer plot details.  Let's just say that she does select one of the five groups of society in spite of her ominous test results.  Problem is, she has to hide her true self from others in that group.

Worse:  The group she chooses makes her go through a rigorous training program. The trainers are tough dudes who run our young heroine through some mighty tough trials. If she fails in her training, she will be dumped and then, as an independent, what will become of her?

Ah, such angst!

This sci-fi thriller is fun.  The basic messages hit home:  Do we all need to fit into a group?  What if we don't?  Does society function best if we each know our place in life?  What if you end up an outcast?

Machiavelli is alive and well in this flick.  Everyone believes in the greater good and subjugation of the individual.  Might makes right.  The ends justify the means.

Well...not everyone, thank goodness. Our heroine, and her boyfriend, just happen to tend toward free will.  They need to fool their peers into thinking they are true believers.  How do you fit a square peg in a round hole?  How do the non-conformists manage among the conformists?   Uh-oh!

Acting: Great!  Shailene Woodley, who finally got big star exposure in a brief role as George Clooney's rebellious daughter in The Descendents, has been acting for years.  She came up as a child actor.  Her former lead roles were in The Secret Life of the American Teenager and The Fault in our Stars.  Her love interest, played by Theo James, is a little known British star who will no doubt gain traction for his handsome demeanor.

Is the film five star?  No.  I would say that the ideas might be more significant than the actual plot.  Yet I have to admit that the story grabbed me and held on.  There are times in the film that we truly have to suspend our disbelief and go with the flow.  But that is sci-fi, right?

Are you a conformist?  A divergent?  Where do YOU belong?  Where do I belong?

Hmmmm...............

Two Faces of January

Check out the threesome!  That's Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst, and Oscar Isaac.  They create a tour  de force that rivals any Hitchcock thriller.

Think of a theatrical performance with three stars on stage.  They are closely knit, inextricably bound to each other, tied in a very creepy way!  They need to figure each other out to survive!

Never the spoiler, I can say this much:  A couple travels happily in Greece, touring the Parthenon and partaking of the wonders of Athens.  Then they meet a stranger.  He gets entwined in their lives.  Before long, the three become complicit in a crime, well, more than one, and end up on the lam!

Yes, it's cops chasing tourists.  Across Greece.  But with a twist:  Who is good?  Who is bad?  What does the stranger have to do with the couple?   Who can be trusted?  There is murder, mayhem, and of course a stash of money at play too.   Oh my, what a delightful mess!

The music and setting are pure Hitchcock.  I was reminded of Vertigo. Remember Jimmy Stewart and the beautiful, blonde Kim Novak?  Enter Viggo and Kirsten:  They have so much of the aura and mystery of the famous Hitchcock characters.

Acting:  Superb!  Viggo Mortensen is best known, in this viewer's opinion, for A History of Violence, where he was fantastic as the man who could not escape his past.  Kirsten Dunst's best work, I believe, is as Marie Antoinette.  And Oscar Isaac played the lead in the Coen brother's moving story of a musician in Greenwich Village in Inside Llewyn Davis.

This film grabs and does not let go.  Join the threesome as they run from cops amid Greek ruins.  Enter the labyrinth of intrigue and deception.

Next time you travel, don't talk to strangers!  Haha.

Enjoy a fine work of art.