The 15:17 to Paris / *½ (PG-13)

Spencer: Spencer Stone

Anthony: Anthony Sadler

Alek: Alek Skarlatos

Ayoub: Ray Corosani

Joyce: Judy Greer

Heidi: Jenna Fischer

Spencer (11-14): William Jennings

Alek (11-14): Bryce Gheisar

Anthony (11-14): Paul-Mikél Williams

Warner Bros. Pictures presents a film directed by Clint Eastwood. Written by Dorothy Blyskal. Based on the book by Anthony Sadler and Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone and Jeffery E. Stern. Running time: 94 min. Rated PG-13 (on appeal for bloody images, violence, some suggestive material, drug references and language).

The 15:17 to Paris, Clint Eastwood’s latest directorial effort, is a film of our times. The world has become violent. Terrorist attacks are becoming so common that we are teaching our children how to live in a world rife with them. We look for examples of how to survive them. More importantly, we look for examples to follow to inspire us to be better in the face of evil. Eastwood has found those examples in Spencer Stone, Alek Skarlatos and Anthony Sadler. The first two service men, all three lifelong childhood friends who helped to thwart a planned terrorist attack on the Thalys train line from Amsterdam to Paris. There is no doubt that these three men are heroes. This, however, is not the movie they deserve. Nor is it the movie we deserve from their example.

Everest / *** (PG-13)

Rob Hall: Jason Clarke

Beck Weathers: Josh Brolin

Scott Fischer: Jake Gyllenhaal

Jon Krakauer: Michael Kelly

Doug Hansen: John Hawkes

Helen Wilton: Emily Watson

Jan Arnold: Keira Knightley

Guy Cotter: Sam Worthington

Peach Weathers: Robin Wright

Caroline Mackenzie: Elizabeth Debicki

Andy ‘Harold’ Harris: Martin Henderson

Michael Groom: Thomas M. Wright

Yasuko Namba: Naoko Mori

Universal Pictures presents a film directed by Baltasar Kormákur. Written by William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy. Running time: 121 min. Rated PG-13 (for intense peril and disturbing images).

There is a scene in the new mountaineering movie “Everest” when journalist Jon Krakauer asks two amateur climbers who have hired a guide to take them to the summit of Mt. Everest why they feel the need to climb such a mountain, one that has taken the lives of many professional climbers. They struggle to articulate their need to pursue a goal that they admit is filled mostly with pain. I might also struggle to articulate my own fascination with mountain climbing disaster pictures. I suppose watching an expedition/adventure that is bound to go bad is connected to our inability to turn away when witnessing the aftermath of a car accident. Our human need to empathize and understand what went wrong overrides any need we might have to keep a rosy outlook on the world. We need to examine adversity and tragedy as a mechanism to develop our own ability to deal with the inevitable reality of it in our own lives.

Black Mass / *** (R)

James ‘Whitey’ Bulger: Johnny Depp

John Connolly: Joel Edgerton

Billy Bulger: Benedict Cumberbatch

Steve Flemmi: Rory Cochrane

Kevin Weeks: Jesse Plemons

Marianne Connolly: Julianne Nicholson

John Morris: David Harbour

Lindsey Cyr: Dakota Johnson

John Martorano: W. Earl Brown

Charles McGuire: Kevin Bacon

Brian Halloran: Peter Sarsgaard

Robert Fitzpatrick: Adam Scott

Fred Wyshak: Corey Stoll

Warner Bros. Pictures presents a film directed by Scott Cooper. Written by Mark Mallouk and Jez Butterworth. Based on the book by Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill. Running time: 122 min. Rated R (for brutal violence, language throughout, some sexual references and brief drug use).

Johnny Depp delivers a speech about keeping secrets as notorious Boston gangster James ‘Whitey’ Bulger to an FBI agent with whom he’s in collusion in the new movie “Black Mass” during which he announces his performance as one of the great monsters of the screen. Immediately following that scene he has a conversation with another FBI agent’s wife that plays like a predator who captures his prey and instead of killing it, shows it just how much he can play with it instead. Scott Cooper’s crime film is an interesting study in this real life figure who surely couldn’t have achieved what he did without the help of the FBI, using their desire to control the Italian mafia in Boston to his advantage in becoming the biggest crime kingpin in South Boston.

Straight Outta Compton / *** (R)

O’Shea “Ice-Cube” Jackson: O’Shea Jackson, Jr.

Andre “Dr. Dre” Young: Corey Hawkins

Eric “Eazy-E” Wright: Jason Mitchell

Antoine “DJ Yella” Carraby: Neil Brown, Jr.

Lorenzo “MC Ren” Patterson: Aldis Hodge

Tracy “The D.O.C.” Curry: Marion Yates, Jr.

Suge Knight: R. Marcos Taylor

Tomica: Carra Patterson

Kim: Alexandra Shipp

Jerry Heller: Paul Giamatti

Universal Pictures presents a film directed by F. Gary Gray. Written by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff and S. Leigh Savidge & Alan Wenkus. Running time: 147 min. Rated R (for language throughout, strong sexuality/nudity, violence and drug use).

Despite the conservative political push of the 80’s lead by the Reagan White House, that decade was a particularly progressive time in which to grow up. As a child of the 80’s, I was heavily influenced by pop culture and heavily invested in the politics centered around it, more so than I even realized at the time. Tipper Gore’s heralding of the Parental Advisory label that was adopted by the recording industry seemed a tumultuous event in the eyes of a wide-eyed, music-obsessed prepubescent. Later, the banning of 2 Live Crew’s controversial “As Nasty As They Wanna Be” album was a neon sign of the times that most certainly were a-changin’ despite the wishes and desires of the conservative right. In the middle of all of this, heading the charge was a rap group from Compton, California that managed to bridge the gap between many of our diverse cultures in this country by introducing, not just the black community to gangsta rap, but the entire country with their debut album “Straight Outta Compton”.

Sadly, almost 30 years after N.W.A’s seminal album began the tide of change by exposing to the world what much of the black experience in America was like, we still find ourselves struggling with the same issues of misunderstanding the racial divide and dealing with the same issues of racism that were at the heart of what inspired those musicians at that time. Perhaps it is fitting then that now is the time that we finally get to see a movie chronicling the struggles of those musicians in a film that shares its name with their debut album. “Straight Outta Compton” brings to fruition many years of work by the two most successful members of that group, Dr. Dre and Ice Cube, to bring their story to the silver screen. As such, it doesn’t seem the harshest examination by the men it is mostly about, but it is an intriguing and entertaining document on one of the most influential bands in modern music.

Joan Rivers (1933-2014)

I became aware of Joan Rivers as I did most celebrities as a child; she was on TV. It didn’t matter if they were a movie star or a television star, a comedian or rock star. I saw them on TV. Rivers was a TV presence. I knew she was a comedian, but I never seemed to catch her act when I was young. Today I know why.

Word came today from River’s daughter and business partner in some endeavors, Melissa that the comedy legend had passed away at the age of 81. The television host went into cardiac arrest during a medical procedure on September 3. She had been rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital in New York after experiencing complications during throat surgery at New York Medical Clinic on August 28. Accounts on what had occurred had been vague, but Melissa updated fans with a statement today after her mother’s death. “She passed today surrounded by family and close friends,” Melissa continued, “My mother’s greatest pleasure in life was to make people laugh.”

Although my own personal experience with the comedian was peripheral in my youth—with her performance as Dot Matrix in the Mel Brooks “Star Wars” skewering “Spaceballs” comprising most of my knowledge of her—I would later in life come to appreciate her contribution to the entertainment industry as a whole. Rivers was the first female to sit in the host chair of “The Tonight Show”, having filled in on several occasions for longtime host Johnny Carson. It was long assumed that Rivers was being groomed to replace Carson when she was offered her own late night program on another network. Her show failed, and the incident went down in the annals of the dramatic late night history as resulting in NBC “banning” the comedian from appearing on any of their shows for multiple decades. On a recent appearance on “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon”, Rivers down played the history as water under the bridge.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Tiny: A Story About Living Small (2013) ***

NR, 66 min.

Directors: Merete Miller, Christopher Smith

Writer: Merete Miller

Featuring: Christopher Miller, Merete Miller, Daryl Gibson, Jay Shafer, Logan Smith, Paul Smith, William Smith, Tammy Strobel, Dee Williams

I hate, hate, hate home improvement shows. My wife loves them and invariably I will walk into the living room on a Saturday afternoon and one of the cursed things will be on my TV. However, there is one home designing phenomenon that I have to admit is a guilty pleasure of mine—tiny houses. I will click on any Facebook link that has anything to do with tiny houses. I love the ultra-simplification philosophy that goes into them. I like the lower environmental footprint they promote. But mostly, I just love to see how their designers find different ways to fit all the basics of living and even one or two luxuries into less than 200 square feet.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Mike Birbiglia: My Girlfriend’s Boyfreind (2013) ****

NR, 75 min.

Director: Seth Barrish

Starring: Mike Birbiglia

Mike Birbiglia’s stand up concert film “My Girldfriend’s Boyfriend” should go down as one of the great stand up films. Along with Richard Pryor’s “Live on the Sunset Strip” and George Carlin’s “Carlin at Carnegie” and even a little bit like Spalding Gray’s “Swimming to Cambodia”, Birbiglia’s comedy concert transcends mere stand up comedy and ventures into performance art and autobiographical enlightenment.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—The Unknown Known (2014) ***½

PG-13, 103 min.

Director/Writer: Errol Morris

Featuring: Donald Rumsfeld

Voice: Errol Morris

In his first feature, “Gates of Heaven”, documentarian Errol Morris interviews an old woman who just lets loose on his camera with a five minute monologue that goes from one end of the spectrum to the other in a way that sees her contradicting her own point by the time she reaches the end. “The Unknown Known” is a feature-length version of that same monologue, this time with former two-time U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as the interviewee.

Life Itself / **** (R)

A documentary featuring: Roger Ebert, Chaz Ebert, Marlene Iglitzen, A.O. Scott, Richard Corliss, Gene Siskel, Ramin Bahrani, Errol Morris, Werner Herzog, Martin Scorsese, Avy DuVernay

The voice of Roger Ebert: Stephen Stanton

Magnolia Pictures and CNN Films present a film by Steve James. Based on the memoir “Life Itself” by Roger Ebert. Running time: 115 min. Rated R (for brief sexual images/nudity and language).

I didn’t know I was a writer. I went to school to be an actor. I’d watched “Siskel & Ebert & the Movies” on Saturday mornings as a kid. To me Roger Ebert was just a guy on TV who talked about movies, which I thought was pretty cool, but that was the end of it. Then when I was in college, an acting friend of mine turned me on to Roger’s written word. Suddenly I realized that not only was there more to movies than I’d ever imagined, but there was more to criticism.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom (2013) **

PG-13, 141 min.

Director: Justin Chadwick

Writers: William Nicholson, Nelson Mandela (autobiography)

Starring: Idris Elba, Naomie Harris, Tony Kgoroge, Riaad Moosa, Zolani Mkiva, Simo Mogwaza, Fana Mokoena, Thapelo Mokoena, Jamie Bartlett, Deon Lotz, Terry Pheto

“Critic proof” is a term frequently used to categorize types of movies that are aimed at certain types of genre fans. These movies are critic proof because it doesn’t matter how bad they are, the fans will still eat them up. I believe the “Transformers” franchise has proven itself critic proof, given its universal critical disdain and its relentless success at the box office.

It often seems to me that dramatic fare can also be critic proof to some degree, if it involves a subject that is worthy enough of a cinematic treatment. If any subject would seem worthy enough, it would be the life of Nelson Mandela. Mandela is best known for bringing the South African nation together in racial unity after more than 50 years of racial unrest under the prejudiced rule of Apartheid. Before that he spent 28 years in prison, 18 under a life sentence in one of the country’s harshest prisons. And before that he was a leader in the civil rights movement against Apartheid who did not denounce the use of violence as an acceptable form of civil unrest.

Jersey Boys / ***½ (R)

Frankie Valli: John Lloyd Young

Tommy DeVito: Vincent Piazza

Bobby Guadio: Erich Bergen

Nick Massi: Michael Lomenda

Bob Crewe: Mike Doyle

Joey: Joseph Russo

Gyp DeCario: Christopher Walken

Warner Bros. Pictures presents a film directed by Clint Eastwood. Written by Marshall Brickman & Rick Elice, based on their musical. Running time: 134 min. Rated R (for language throughout).

My father liked his pleasures simple. He was a man who enjoyed life to its fullest, and in that enjoyment he could appreciate movies and music at the most basic level. I did not get my level of standards for either art form from him. I developed that over years of appreciation and exploration. But, I did get my foundational enjoyment of them from him.

My father had a very select number of musical artists he would follow through anything. One of those groups was Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons. He loved that unique voice of Valli’s, and he loved the writing style of the songs that were penned mostly by Four Seasons member Bobby Gaudio and their producer Bob Crewe. There were also a select number of movie stars that he trusted implicitly to provide the type of movies he wanted to see. One of those people was Clint Eastwood. Eastwood never relied on the flash and flair of Hollywood, but on straightforward storytelling about men—who might be flawed—but could certainly be relied upon for doing what they do best. It is those qualities that bring together Clint Eastwood and the Four Seasons for the new movie musical “Jersey Boys”. I’ve no doubt he would’ve loved it as much as I.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction (2013) ***

NR, 77 min.

Director: Sophie Huber

Featuring: Harry Dean Stanton, David Lynch, Sam Shepard, Kris Kristofferson, Wim Wenders, Deborah Harry

Yesterday I reviewed “Repo Man”, the movie probably most responsible for my awareness of character actor Harry Dean Stanton. I had most likely seen him in many movies before I saw “Repo Man”, certainly in Ridley Scott’s “Alien”; but it was “Repo Man” that let me know that this was an actor to whom I must pay attention.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Surviving Jack (2014) ***½

TV-14, 8 24-min. episodes

Creators: Patrick Schumacker, Justin Halpern

Directors: Roger Kumble, Michael McDonald, Victor Nelli Jr., Joe Nussbaum, John Putch, Michael Weaver, Ken Whittingham

Writers: Patrick Schumacker, Justin Halpern (also book “I Suck at Girls”), Connie Marshall, Jim Brandon, Emily Heller, Sierra Teller Ornelas, Brian C. Singleton, Bill Callahan, Zachary Rosenblatt

Starring: Christopher Meloni, Connor Buckley, Rachel Harris, Claudia Lee, Tyler Foden, Kevin Hernandez

Narrator: Kevin Rahm

Guest starring: Lili Reinhart, Thomas Kasp, Troy Romzek, Carter Sand, Damaris Diaz, Neil Flynn, Brett Gelman, Mark Berry

Oh network television, you are a cruel, cruel mistress. You allow a show like “Two and a Half Men” to stay on the air for years on end, despite the fact that the half man left because he realized how stupid and insipid the program was, but you cancel a show like “Surviving Jack” without ever even giving it a chance. A show with genuine wit and something to say about life that is real, “Surviving Jack” deserved a fighting chance. Instead it’s dumped into a spot without any ratings in the last quarter of the season and no one ever knows what they’re missing.

Ebert Thoughts ‘14—Born on the Fourth of July (1989) ***

R, 145 min.

Director: Oliver Stone

Writers: Ron Kovic (also memoir), Oliver Stone

Starring: Tom Cruise, Raymond J. Barry, Caroline Kava, Josh Evans, Samantha Larkin, Tom Berenger, Frank Whaley, Jerry Levine, Stephen Baldwin, Kyra Sedgwick, Karen Newman, Willem Dafoe, Tom Sizemore, Michael Wincott, Ed Lauter, Dale Dye, Oliver Stone, Bryan Larkin, John Getz, Willie Minor, Rocky Carroll, Billie Neal, Richard Poe, Bob Gunton, Lili Taylor

It’s interesting that “Do the Right Thing” and “Born on the Fourth of July” were invited to Ebertfest the same year. They were each released the same year. Both had Oscar implications. ’89 was one of the first years that I made a point to see the Oscar nominees. I was disappointed with both “Do the Right Thing” and “Born on the Fourth of July” at that time. I later watch them each again and totally changed my opinion of “Do the Right Thing”. I liked “Born on the Fourth of July” better upon a second screening as well, but I still never thought it was Oscar-level, especially considering Oliver Stone’s other Oscar-nominated films.

Ebert Thoughts ‘14—Capote (2005) ****

R, 114 min.

Director: Bennett Miller

Writer: Dan Futterman, Gerald Clarke (book)

Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Clifton Collins Jr., Chris Cooper, Bruce Greenwood, Mark Pellegrino, Amy Ryan, Bob Balaban, Marshall Bell, Allie Mickelson

I imagine “Capote” was chosen for this year’s festival to honor the work of Philip Seymour Hoffman, who passed away earlier this year from a drug overdose. Director/producer Bennett Miller is the panel guest for the movie, but much of the talk this afternoon will surely revolve around Hoffman and his body of work.

Ebert Thoughts ‘14—Life Itself (2014)

NR, 114 min.

Director: Steve James

Featuring: Roger Ebert, Martin Scorsese, Werner Herzog, Errol Morris, Ramin Bahrani, Chaz Ebert, Ava Duvernay, Stephen Stanton (voice), A.O. Scott, Marlene Iglitzen

When I wrote my review for the 15^th Annual Roger Ebert Film Festival, the first without the man for whom it is named, a documentary filmmaker contacted me on my blogsite. Her name is Karen Gehres and had been invited to the film festival in 2009 to screen her incredible documentary “Begging Naked”. She just wanted to express to me how much she wished to experience another Ebertfest. We challenged each other to make it to this year’s festival. I hope she was more successful in her plans than I was.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life (2013) ***½

NR, 38 min.

Director: Malcolm Clarke

Writers: Malcolm Clarke, Carl Freed

Featuring: Aliza Sommer-Herz

The Best Documentary Short Oscar-winner for 2014 saved me from going 0-3 in the short categories of the Oscar pool this year. That movie was “The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life”. I don’t really know why I picked it. Perhaps I connected with its subtitle. Perhaps I just thought the Oscar voters couldn’t resist giving an award to a movie about a sweet elderly woman. I didn’t even know if she was sweet. I just assumed because—like all the films of the shorts categories—I hadn’t seen it; nor had most people who didn’t meet the strict voting criterion of the Academy rules on such films.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay (2013) ***½

NR, 88 min.

Director: Molly Bernstein

Narrator: Dick Cavett

Featuring: Ricky Jay

I haven’t really been fascinated by magic since I was a kid. I remember being extremely fascinated as a child, however. It seems anytime there was a magic special on TV, I was sitting in front of it. That was when the networks used to put things like magic specials on TV. I’m not sure just what it was that disinterested me in magic. I think it was the discovery that it truly was a trick. I think I wanted magic to be real. Once I knew it wasn’t, I looked for magic in different places.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) ***½

R, 180 min.

Director: Martin Scorsese

Writers: Terence Winter, Jordan Belfort (book)

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Kyle Chandler, Jon Bernthal, Jean Dujardin, Christin Milioti, P.J. Byrne, Kenneth Choi, Brian Sacca, Henry Zebrowski, Ethan Suplee, Rob Reiner, Joanna Lumley, Jon Favreau, Matthew McConaghey

In his age, Martin Scorsese has become content to observe rather than propelling his characters down the rabbit hole with terse story structure. There are scenes in “The Wolf of Wall Street” where it seems as if Scorsese just lets his characters be. This works well for the kind of laid-back comedy he’s going for. Not that the lives of the characters are laid back, just the film’s approach to observing them.

Penny Thoughts ‘14—Ain’t In It For My Health: A Film About Levon Helm (2013) ***

NR, 82 min.

Director: Jacob Hatley

Featuring: Levon Helm, Larry Campbell, Libby Titus, Amy Helm, Billy Bob Thornton

I’ve never seen Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Waltz”. I feel that confession is necessary before commenting on a film about The Band drummer and vocalist Levon Helm. It’s a definite hole in my movie viewing history. In fact, it is one of only two Scorsese films I’ve never seen, the other being “Boxcar Bertha”. Of course, my crime is even greater since I’m such a music fan and quite a fan of The Band. I promise to rectify this deficiency soon.