Suffragette

Review by Pamela Zoslov

In 1912 London, Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan) leads a life of unrelenting drabness. She works in a hot, steamy laundry in Bethnal Green, where she and other women workers suffer burns, chest coughs, leg ulcers and sexual molestation by the boss, all for 13 shillings a week. David Lloyd George (David Schiller), Chancellor of the Exchequer and future prime minister, asks the soft-spoken young woman — who's been suddenly pressed into speaking at Parliament on behalf of women's suffrage — “What does the vote mean to you?” “I thought,” she responds thoughtfully, “there is another way of living this life.”

Paddington

Review by Bob Ignizio

A marmalade-loving bear with human level intelligence loses his home in “darkest Peru” and sets off for London in PADDINGTON, a live action film based on the beloved series of children's books. In London, Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishaw) is found by the Brown family, and while Mr. Brown (Downton Abbey's Hugh Bonneville) is against it, Mrs. Brown (Sally Hawkins) and children Judy (Madeline Harris) and Jonathan (Samuel Joslin) convince the safety-conscious patriarch to let the bear stay, at least until other arrangements can be found. Meanwhile nasty museum taxidermist Millicent (Nicole Kidman) plots to get her hands on our furry hero so she can stuff and mount him, which she just might do with the aid of the Brown's fussy neighbor Mr. Curry (Peter Capaldi).

Lilting (January 8th and 9th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[LILTING screens Thursday January 8th at 8:40 pm and Friday January 9th at 7:30 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

A small but moving film, writer/director Hong Khaou's LILTING tells the story of two very different people finding a connection. Junn (Pei-pei Cheng) is an elderly Chinese woman who immigrated to England with her late husband years ago. Although she knows six languages, English isn't one of them, and she relies heavily on her son Kai (Andrew Leung) to take care of her.

Junn is unaware that Kai's friend Richard (Ben Whishaw) is actually his lover. She only knows that he seems to take up more of her son's time and attention than she would like, and she further blames Richard for Kai's decision to temporarily place her in a nursing home. Richard is amenable to having Junn come live with him and Kai, but first Kai needs to work up the nerve to come out to his mother. Unfortunately, Kai dies suddenly and unexpectedly before that can happen.