fauxklore | Second Quarter 2018 Movies

Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel. I saw this documentary at the Washington Jewish Film Festival. Given my obsession with Jewish baseball players, I had to. A lot of the film has to do with a trip to Israel that several of the American players (who qualified for the team under the heritage rule) took before the 2017 World Baseball Classic. And, of course, there was the thrill of revisiting the team’s sweep of Pool A. Cody Decker came across as a fun guy who exhibited the best traditional spirit of baseball. Sam Fuld is adorable. And why, oh why, didn’t Ryan Lavarnway play so well during his days at the Red Sox? Overall, this was a fun film, but I am not sure I would recommend it to people who don’t share my obsession.
The Shape of Water. United has excellent movie selections on their trans-con flights, so I took advantage of the opportunity to see this Oscar winner. For anyone who is unfamiliar with the plot, it involves a mute woman who works cleaning a secret research lab where an amphibian man is being studied. She develops an interesting relationship with him, opposing the scientist who sees the amphibian man as a monster. There’s another twist, involving Russian spies. Overall, this is a mixture of romance, fantasy, and thriller. I admit I had been skeptical based on the plot description and the rather mixed reviews, but I found this movie fascinating. Recommended.
The Post. The story of Katherine Graham and her decision to pursue the story of the Pentagon Papers was dramatic enough to hold my attention, even though I knew the outcome. There were some excellent performances, particularly Meryl Streep’s as Graham. But I felt that the ending (touching on Watergate) was a bit of cheap melodrama.
The Greatest Showman. I love musicals and I love P.T. Barnum, so I should have liked this movie, right? Wrong. The problem is that I actually know a lot about Barnum, so I found myself annoyed at the large number of inaccuracies. In addition, the music was not especially interesting, nor did it fit the era of the story. I’m not sure why I bothered to watch this piece of tripe all the way to the end.