Storm Boy

A mild-mannered father (Peter Cummins) takes up fishing off the rugged coast of Australia, securing a modest independent living for him and his only son (Greg Rowe as Mike 'Storm Boy' Kingley).

His wife passed on unfortunately and he never sought the hand of another, incredibly chill laidback pastoral but still stern about materialistic things.

His poor son would like a radio to tune into the outside world, he's naturally curious and doesn't attend school and would like to learn more about his bustling surroundings.

But he's not a brat, he doesn't bother his dad in routine disgruntled tantrum, instead he turns the beach and its enveloping countryside into a multifaceted mysterious classroom.

His habitual innocent candour leads to the making of animal friends, notably after finding some baby pelicans whose parents were likely shot by casual hunters. 

He takes the babies home and helps to raise them with good ole dad, forging fluent amicable bonds, one even stays on into adulthood.

Mr. Percival makes adorable sounds while going about his pelican business, and proves quite perspicacious as the sea erupts in challenge.

But will 'lil Storm Boy ever go to school or at least take correspondence courses?, so full of life and compassionate vision he'd no doubt benefit from general learning.

His Indigenous friend (David Gulpilil as Fingerbone) encourages schooling and teaches him to be cautious 'round snakes, perhaps too cautious indeed they're lifeforms too with a right to exist!

Nevertheless, young Storm Boy authenticates the amiable inquisitive frontier spirit, perhaps not as wild as at the time of first contact, but still overflowing with naturalistic life.

If you can still find joy in nature there's certainly an abundance in Canada and Australia, true the winter makes it difficult in North America, but there also aren't many venomous snakes (or spiders).

Storm Boy presents open-minded individuals who haven't been misled by prejudice, and gradually shows them peacefully interacting with intuitive grace and humanistic dignity. 

It also composédly challenges speciesism by crafting integral animal friends, not just cats and dogs but other animals who can also learn to harmoniously co-exist.

Its inherent calm enabling chill well-meaning tranquil harmless goodwill, should make Storm Boy a family favourite for different generations not only in Australia.

A must see if you have a family that's genuinely interested in the natural world.

It's not entirely chill, tough scenes await!

Why the emphasis on gruelling mortality?

*Isn't Kes's return the worst episode of Voyager?

**Speciesism doesn't show up in spellcheck!

***I can't find the Storm Boy sequel online!

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

A small village in rural Malawi struggles to make ends meet, farmers reliant on the yearly harvest to generate vital income.

The Kamkwambas have been working hard with the hopes of sending their son to school, they've even paid his initial deposit and purchased the requisite uniform.

William's (Maxwell Simba) eager to learn, to excel, but needs time to sit back and study, competing demands ensuring time management's a full-time strict priority.

As school progresses and routines conflict drought descends with stifling severity, and his family can't pay his remaining tuition and must subsist on meagre preserves. 

But his sister's dating his teacher so he thinks of a crafty plan, and gains access to his school's modest library keeping instructive books on hand.

He's quite adept at finding solutions for quizzical electronic conundrums, his practical fluency highly valued by friends and neighbours and family.

He finds books that teach him new things and give him ideas he never thought possible, including a way to irrigate crops during the lengthy hot dry season.

With this method his family and others can plan to grow crops throughout the year, the extra harvest a bountiful godsend scientifically engineered. 

But book learning's still highly suspect and his idea simply seems too radical, his father (Chiwetel Ejiofor) fearful of making things worse should it fail to produce as planned.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind celebrates bold dynamic learning, in an environment suffering from extreme hardship, without staples or resource to spare.

It's a shame the library within wasn't public and required so much wealth just to access it.

Creating public libraries can be rather difficult if there's little to tax, but communal initiative can spearhead exuberance to keep infrastructure intact.

The sharing of ideas the transmission of knowledge the transformative vast applications, await people seeking solutions to questions they may never have known how to ask.

Myriad subjects augment traditions with novel imaginative spice, skies opening up within reason as ingenuity serves to entice.

You can learn a lot through chill conversation while working on various projects, but sometimes the right book will present years worth of discussion in less than 200 pages.

William reads such a book and makes an incredible difference in his community.

Resiliently daring to dream.

Cultivating robust yields. 

With Joseph Marcell (Chief Wembe).

*Also, a great film directed by an actor (Chiwetel Ejiofor).

Boundaries

Entrepreneurial ambitions complicate a straightforward road trip, as a mother (Vera Farmiga as Laura Jaconi) agrees to transport her mischievous father (Christopher Plummer as Jack Jaconi) to a location where his passions will be viewed less dismissively.

The next generation (Lewis MacDougall as Henry), having recently been expelled from school, curiously comes along, sort of eager to spend time with grandpa, unaware they'll be visiting his deadbeat dad (Bobby Cannavale as Leonard).

So many different paths to tread, so many ways in which they intertwine, a crash course in extracurricular enigmatic eccentricity mysteriously thrilling young Henry, as they travel from contact to contact, conjuring spells as pitstops confuse trusting mom.

She's truly wonderful.

Her magnanimous heart endears her to animals and she consistently comes to the aid of the lost and downtrodden.

Unfortunately this leads people to take advantage of her, some harmless, some cruel, all of them blind to the fact that they've encountered a resplendent sun, inside and out, who transforms tumbledown lots into palatial realms, worthy of uncompromised praise and adoration, if the self-obsessed would only think past craven impulse, and consider abundant rays down the road.

Shana Feste's Boundaries presents lighthearted mischief which is intense at times yet still wondrously illuminates candid impropriety.

As the tender loving embraces the devoutly incorrigible, multigenerational muses thoughtfully materialize.

Forbidden portraits.

Conjugal miscommunication.

Evergreen commerce.

Therapeutic theatrics.

If you don't simply fit there's freedom in the labyrinthine.

Constant flux may be tiring, but spontaneous adjustments create grand novelties.

Chaotic logic rationally intensifying.

Kafkaesque at times.

Nice to head out for ice cream.

Accept Boundaries as a clever comedic reflection upon individuals conceiving unique masternarratives, and embrace a steady flow of unexpected conditional ruses.

Full of existential craft.

And love scolding ever after.

Loved it.

Tully

Exhaustion complicates a dedicated mother's life as neverending chores, responsibilities, and appointments demand too much of her limited time.

It's tough to pay attention, secondary tasks remain unfinished, it's difficult to swiftly recall precise details, and sleep beckons with tempting uncompromised reverie.

She takes care of business, she's tough, creative, dependable, reliable, Tully empathetically and realistically characterizing resilient motherhood while emphasizing that Marlo (Charlize Theron) could use a break without suggesting she can't take care of it.

Then, as the clouds disperse and the heavens burst forth with luminous starlit magnanimity, a nanny is hired to manage her household during the night, reprieved, so that she can catch up on that sleep, clad in peaceful angelic dreams cheerfully composed with reflective serenity.

Or, pyjamas, love that word, the industrious Tully (Mackenzie Davis) still fully charged by the carefree energy unconsciously sustained throughout one's twenties, seemingly effortlessly excelling beyond Marlo's highest expectations, agilely working throughout every nocturnal moment, mindfully crafting with spontaneous endearing glee.

It's win-win-win-win.

The best character I've seen introduced midway through in a while.

Tully.

Rich with thought compelling interpersonal detail convincingly narrativized with multitudinous emotional commitment, like an unpretentious bourgeois folk band reflecting upon family life, it intergenerationally synthesizes to produce joyous rhythms, before unfortunately succumbing to dire judgmental decree.

I suppose a lot of storytelling tends to include a traumatic ending which hauntingly calls into question everything that has previously taken place, in Tully's case it seems as if the story is saying that it's fine for Tully to imagine a role she might play in the future, but foolish for Marlo to decide to revisit her past, but it was such an uplifting film before the final fifteen minutes or so, so uplifting I don't see why things suddenly became morbidly intense.

They could have just kept chillin'.

Still a wonderful film though, my favourite moments condemning a school that would harshly judge a child so young (solid John Hughes), and discussing the checks and balances occasionally associated with socializing post-29, Mackenzie Davis and Charlize Theron work well together and their conversations are full of lively invention, several deep characters diversify a shallow pond with flora and fauna and sun and shade that tantalizingly makes you wish you could symbiotically camp nearby, a thoughtful well-written, directed and acted comedic drama that I'd love to see again, bold print brainiac style.

Pioneering off the beaten track.

Huggable.

Infinitely Polar Bear

Rolling, coasting, recoiling, roasting, stabilized ruptures fuel Cam Stuart's (Mark Ruffalo) days as he's prescribed more responsibility than he's used to levelling, medicated and somewhat unemployable, he begins looking after his kids el lobo solo when his partner moves to New York to study.

He's a handful, and not used to the innocent ponderings of his two young daughters, meticulous yet sloppy, steady while breaking down, he slowly learns to mirthfully manage, the acculturation of a wild renaissance man.

Refrained.

Eccentric and helpful, he tries to cultivate bonds with both his neighbours and extended family, occasionally succeeding, although his wondrous naivety does shake and bake from time to time.

Eclectic churn.

It's a lighthearted look at the strength of the human spirit, Infinitely Polar Bear, at second chances, the exceptional, the highly talented intelligent people who don't crave order or structure yet excel nonetheless at whatever it is they happen to be doing.

Also a heartfelt look at why medication can be good, and why too much can be harmful.

Maggie (Zoe Saldana) and Cam's relationship pirouettes like distilled spontaneous chuckling, working as a team to loving care, sorting it out, getting down to it, taking risks, believing in one another.

Inspired freeform flexibility, perennially youthful, ebullient leaps and bounds.

Because it's lighthearted, some of its cultural critiques, although direct and to the point, lack the stamina associated with more rigorous analyzes.

I would have left the seasons out. The film's too short to have four seasons and they seem like they're over as soon as they begin.

The frustrated wholesomeness still encourages further research, exploratory expeditions, nights out on the town.