Get Out and The Post

I usually skip horror movies, but when I noticed the attention that Get Out was receiving this award season, I went to see it.  I think calling it a horror movie does not do it justice.  This film is nice, then creepy, creepier and yes, then an absolute horror.  The black/white relations in it add spice and humor.  All in all, a fully engaging experience and one not to be missed.
The Post is also an excellent film, centered on the publication of the Pentagon Papers.  It depicts the power and achievements of journalism.  Two of our finest big stars, Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep, deliver compelling performances.
I admit to being so awed by Get Out that I have nothing more to say about The Post.

5 "Little" Movies Also Get High Ratings

Faces Places.  As artists, Agnes Varda and JR, collaborate to traverse the French countryside making new friends and creating art and large format photos.  Its a fantastic exhibition of their imaginations.  The warmth which develops between them and those they meet feels genuine and magnetizing. 
God's Own Country.  This movie is set on a small farm in northern England.  The family consists of the parents and a son, Johnny, who's a tough nut to like.  A Romanian immigrant, Gheorghe, comes to the farm as a temporary worker but before long, he and Johnny strike up a friendship and more.  This simple story and setting develop into an extraordinary film in the harsh and bleak, but beautiful,  landscape.
Noviate.  A young girl with an agnostic mother is drawn to Catholicism and eventually pursues a vocation as a nun.  The girl (Margaret Qualley), the mother (Julianne Nicholson) [see predeeding post on this blog], and the Reverend Mother (Melissa Leo) all deliver compelling performances.  A thoroughly engaging film.
Human Flow.  Artist Ai Weiwei created this astounding documentary about the world-wide refugee crisis.  So many of us are aware of the homeless issues and poverty extremes where we live, but this film, global in scope, takes us beyond to an expansive reality.  It is dense and absorbing.
BPM (beats per minute).  This film involves the HIV/AIDS battles in Paris in the early 90s.  It  focuses specifically on the ACT UP organization and its many attempts for recognition and medical treatment for those afflicted, but also on the religious and political establishments and their passivity and prejudices.  A frustrating but exhilarting film.

Julianne Nicholson, actress

I first noticed Julianne Nicholson in the movie Flannel Pajamas (2006), in which she played the woman in a nasty, but disappointing (you were rooting for them)  break up from her partner.  She was extraordinary.  I've seen her here and there since then, but now in 2017, she has 2 (semi major) roles in Novitiate, in which she is the loving, but angry and vulgar mother of a daughter who has decided to become a nun.  It's a challenging role that she plays to a T.  She also solidly plays the coach in I, Tonya. Furthermore, she is the recipient this season of the rarely given samoblog award, Best Freckles.