Million Dollar Baby 2004 A sports drama based on short stories by F.X. Toole, the pen name of fight manager Jerry Boyd. Directed by Clint Eastwood. Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor Academy Awards. Margaret “Maggie” Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), an underdog amateur boxer from the Ozarks, is determined to make the big time. Eddie “Scrap-Iron” Dupris, the narrator (Morgan Freeman), helps the scrapper, convincing former trainer/now gym owner Frankie Trainer (Clint Eastwood) to begrudgingly take her on. Though Trainer never lets up on her, they develop an extraordinarily close relationship,
Maggie is immobilized for life after a sucker punch and fall. Frankie finds his heart. Acting and direction are terrific. A powerful film. The term ‘Million Dollar Baby’ was the nose art of a WWII Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber. Swank trained five hours a day in the ring and weight room, gaining 19 pounds of muscle. Rent on Amazon Prime.
Iron Lady 2011 Biopic drama based on the life and career of Margaret Thatcher, the first woman and longest-serving Prime Minister of The United Kingdom. Also loosely based on John Campbell’s biography The Iron Lady: Margaret Thatcher, from Grocer’s Daughter to Prime Minister. Directed by Phyllida Lloyd.
In flashbacks, we follow the rise of Margaret Roberts from her childhood to unlikely entry into the Conservative Party and House of Commons, then the office of Prime Minister. Events of her time are well drawn, but this is primarily a character portrait. Meryl Streep (Academy Award) declared she only hoped her stamina lived up to Thatcher’s. The Actress is grand. Free with Amazon Prime.
Joy 2015 Directed by David O. Russell. The biography of entrepreneur Joy Mangano (Jennifer Lawrence) who, with a single great idea, despite major setbacks and a wildly dysfunctional family to support, becomes a multi-millionaire before Shark Tank. The invention is a self-wringing mop brought to QVC by executive Neil Walker (Bradley Cooper) who realizes the young woman is her product’s best advocate. You can’t help but cheer her on. Also featuring Robert Di Niro, Diane Ladd, Edgar Ramirez, Virginia Madsen, Isabella Rossellini. Rent on Amazon Prime.
Hidden Figures 2016 Loosely based on the non-fiction book by Margot Lee Shetterly about female, Black mathematicians who advanced NASA during the Space Race between the Soviet Union and the U.S. Directed by Theodore Melfi. Though liberties are taken, this film will be a revelation to most. It depicts Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae) a NASA engineer, and Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer), mathematicians who respectively calculated important flight trajectories. (Vaughan became a NASA programming supervisor.)
All three begin as “human computers” in a segregated division at Langley Research Center, Virginia. Assigned to an all male team, Katherine endures constant derision until superior, Al Harrison (Kevin Costner), gives her enough responsibility to prove herself. Even then, she’s passed over until she saves the day during the John Glenn launch.
Dorothy teaches herself programming when no one (no man) in the department can manage a new computer set-up. Mary finds a fatal flaw in a design, but cannot be promoted without certification which requires that she attend classes at an all white high school. We see the women at work, at home, and facing a bigoted community. And cheer as they’re recognized. Rent on Amazon Prime.
A Private War 2018 Based on the 2012 Vanity Fair article “Marie Colvin’s Private War” by Marie Brenner. Directed by Matthew Heinman. Times Correspondent Marie Colvin (Rosamund Pike) was an inexplicably courageous documentarian of some of the most violent civil wars of our time. Losing an eye in Syria and being diagnosed with PTSD hardly slowed her down. “You’re never going to get to where you’re going if you acknowledge fear.” We get a glimpse of the difficulty of life back in “civilization.”
In 2012, Colvin returned to Syria with photographer Paul Conroy (Jamie Dornan) and was killed. Conroy, despite being gravely injured, survives and continues to work as a photographer. A helluva look at what it takes. Free with Amazon Prime.
On the Basis of Sex 2019 A biographical film based on the life and early cases of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the second woman to serve on The United States Supreme Court and arguably the standard bearer for human rights of her time. Directed by Mimi Leder. A fascinating look at Ginsberg’s (Felicity Jones) youthful determination and the instrumental influence of her supportive/loving husband, Martin (Armie Hammer). A sense of the era, academic institutions, law, prejudice, and the courts. The climb up a glass mountain. Stirring. Also with Justin Theroux, Kathy Bates, and Sam Waterston. Rent on Amazon Prime. Remarkable Documentary RBG completes the story.
Late Night 2019 Directed by Nisha Ganatra. Once popular late night talk show host Katherine Newberry (Emma Thompson) finds her job in jeopardy as ratings slip. That she’s a stubborn, imperious snob disliked by her staff doesn’t help plausible redemption. In order to diversify and revamp, she adds inexperienced Indian-American Molly Patel (Mindy Kaling) to the writing staff. Much to everyone’s surprise, Molly comes up with some excellent ideas. Just as Katherine retrenches, however, a former affair with one of her writers is brought to light. Molly gets fired. Sincerity finds its way into the host’s life and on-air. Molly is rehired. Doesn’t quite live up to expectations, but Thompson is grand. Rent on Amazon Prime.
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