Get on Up (2014)

Having just arranged to see Ain't Too Proud on stage next month, I was in the mood for another musician biography in the meantime. On a whim, I went to the library and picked this out. I knew that it had a somewhat lower IMDb score than anticipated, but with Chadwick Boseman as James Brown, how bad could it be?

Like probably most viewers, I knew Brown's music better than his life. This telling goes from his ill-treated, impoverished preadolescence in 1939 to his aging stardom in 1993, so we miss the one scandal I already knew of: his 2004 arrest for domestic abuse. In truth, we miss a lot of details, which is the most common complaint about the film. But it would take far too many hours to cover every item of interest pertaining to this larger-than-life figure, so I for one am content to get an incomplete yet duly varied picture. And the inaccuracies noted so far on IMDb aren't too important.

The Shape of Water (2017)

I could tell from the preview that this would be...distinctive. Not necessarily smart or enjoyable, but surely interesting. I might've figured as much just from the title -- or the credit to Guillermo del Toro; even his schlockier efforts keep me engaged. To my slight surprise, both parents joined me and the Meetup group to see it.

In 1962, mute-but-hearing Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is a custodian at a U.S. government facility that starts housing a sensitive secret: an unnamed amphibious biped (Doug Jones, of course) reminiscent of the Creature from the Black Lagoon. He's dangerous to those he deems enemies, but Elisa senses a kindred spirit and treats him nicely, unlike the people in charge, particularly Col. Strickland (Michael Shannon). She resolves to free her friend/incipient lover before anyone can (a) vivisect him for knowledge that may help in the Cold War or (b) kill him, as Soviet agents hope to do first, tho their inside man (Michael Stuhlbarg) is too science-minded to approve.

Hidden Figures (2016)

We shouldn't hear many #OscarsSoWhite complaints next month. While I have yet to check out Moonlight, Fences, or Loving, they get enough positive press outside the Black community to suggest a few nominations at least. But only HF presents a focus on Black women in particular, facing sexism as well as racism.

Specifically, they're three NASA employees in the early '60s, more united than the other Black women in their position if only because they ride to work in the same lemon. The one with the most screen time is Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), whose mad math skills get a room full of White men to rely on her to check vital calculations. Despite exhaustion, she is receptive to the hints from everyone, including her young daughters, that she should hook up with one Col. Jim Johnson (Mahershala Ali). Meanwhile, Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia Spencer) has been pulling her weight as an unofficial supervisor in the "colored" female mathematician division without the benefits; when NASA finally installs a room-sized computer, she takes the initiative in learning how it works, not just to help NASA but to avoid layoffs. Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) doesn't appear to make any great contributions to the space race in the course of the film, but she does pursue an engineering education and career -- in a Virginia that does not respect Brown v. Board of Education.

Fruitvale Station (2013)

Another movie based on a true story that made many think the Academy racist for a lack of nominations. I'd had it on my streaming list for quite a while, but only when looking with my dad did I muster the courage to give it a try.

If you don't remember the headline event, the opening RL footage (with a mercifully timed blackout) will remind you: Oscar Grant III, age 22, was unduly shot by Oakland-area subway police. Most of what follows the footage apparently takes place in the 24 hours before the shooting, preparing to celebrate not New Year's Eve 2008 so much as his mother's birthday. It ends with his death the next day and an epilogue regarding the high-profile aftermath.

Zootopia (2016)

Like with The Force Awakens, I had been cautiously optimistic for months. As a patron of the furry fandom (don't read too much into that), I was initially caught between tentative gratitude for Disney possibly pandering to us and/or seeding the next generation...and apprehension that that might be all they were doing. Remember Chicken Little (2005)? It too looked cute, well-rendered, and a bit different from usual, but it bombed due to bad writing. Of course, Pixar aside, that was a less successful era for Disney animations. Once I learned that the co-directors had done Bolt, Tangled, and Wreck-It Ralph between them, I worried less. When people who had seen it started talking, well, animatedly about it, I stopped worrying altogether and got both parents to come along.

For those wondering how the premise differs from other animal-centric Disney fare, consider this: Has Donald Duck ever flown south for the winter? Did Bambi get a job? No, most Disney animals either (a) are nonhuman only in physical appearance, for aesthetic reasons; or (b) go naked on all fours, whether or not we can hear them speak. The mammals of Zootopia have a modern-style civilization but exhibit enough behaviors in common with their real-world counterparts that the makers must have thought hard about who should be what. Contrary to a rumor I've read, they did not inherit the Earth from bygone humans but developed intellect and society on their own -- which, unlike in some fiction I know, means that traditional carnivores limit their primary protein sources to the non-anthropomorphic fish and bugs.

The story follows Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin, best known for Snow White on Once Upon a Time), a rural rabbit who doesn't let lifelong discouragement by others stop her from pursuing her dream job in law enforcement in the big city. Becoming easily the smallest member on the force, she gets a vote of no confidence from Chief Bogo (Idris Elba). Fortunately, the mayor's office promotes affirmative action, letting her push her way into detective work on an otherwise neglected missing-otter case. Her only lead: Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), a conniving, street-smart, probably thirty-something red fox whose swindles are mostly within the bounds of the law, but not so legal that she can't manipulate him into helping. What they find is more alarming than they expected: numerous cases of predators behaving like their primitive ancestors.