A Movie Classic

French and US production but shot entirely in California—This is a true story of a young attorney (played by Christian Slater) who takes the defense of an Alcatraz convict who murders another convict, during a state of emotional trauma, just getting out of 3 years of solitary confinement in the worst of conditions. The young attorney proves that the staff of Alcatraz are abusive. Kevin Bacon (the convict) should have gotten an Academy Award for his role as a poor ...
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James Frecheville plays a returning soldier during the Irish Potato Famine of 1847, who returns home to a violent country (just as bad as the war), where people are killing each other to survive and the rich making sure they have all the food, like they do now. When he gets home, he finds out his family has been killed by the rich and even some of the townspeople were part of the murders, because his family had a few pigs that everybody wanted to eat. So a lot of townspeople turned their eyes...
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Lithuanian and U.S. drama—A film about World War II, where the Russians exile hundreds of Lithuanians to Siberia, to slave labor camps, and the ordeals they go through to survive. This film is good but it has a kind of Russian "Hallmark" quality about it, but worth seeing anyway for its history. Sophie Cookson, Bel Powley. Languages: English, Russian, Lithuanian.

United States/United Kingdom/French drama—This film was nominated for Oscars in two categories, sound and cinematography, but Oscar Isaac's acting, singing, and playing was the highlight of the film. This film, for him, was a blessing I am sure, as he definitely was made for this part. I do not know if he was an actor before a singer/songwriter, but he has become known as an actor and his audience is surprised that he is also an accomplished singer and songwriter. He is a starseed and, ...
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Based on a true story of a drug-addicted teenager whose parents divorced at an early age. The boy finally got addicted to crystal meth. As a counselor I have been in rehabilitation since I was 24 years old, first working with Nicky Cruz Halfway Houses and many others around the country. I felt very close to the young man in this story and saw and worked with many like him and also many young women too. Luckily, this young man somehow—through what he writes in his book as a ...
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Uruguay, Argentina, Spain drama — A true story of three political prisoners, one of which becomes the President of the country of his imprisonment, just like Nelson Mandela. He was tortured and kept mostly in solitary for all these years and survived tremendous physical and emotional torture. To me, it is also a story of how destiny overrides the cruelty of evildoers when a soul is meant to live and become a president and leader. Language: Spanish with English subtitles

This of course is a recent movie, but I wanted to write a review of it. Being a musician myself, and an actor in my point of origin, and a professional extra in this life, I felt very close to the characters, having my best friend die of alcoholism, in a way committing suicide, but not hanging himself literally. I feel a kindred spirit to Lady Gaga because she is from an Italian family in real life and her character was from an Italian family, so I identified very much with the character and ...
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