By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

2014 was such a disappointing year that last year I could only name seven movies for my annual Top 10 list. A few weeks later, Hollywood released their Academy Award considerations and I would have balanced the list with the following motion pictures: American Sniper, The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything and Whiplash.

The movies for 2015 provided escapist entertainment. Beyond my own enjoyment, I could consistently hear people laughing, crying and applauding the images on the big screen. With good stories, interesting characters and clear visualization, movies were simply more fun in 2015. The included Top 10 list sidebar is presented in reverse alphabetical order.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens just dethroned Avatar as the biggest grossing motion picture of all time. Given the fragmentation of movies between television and Internet, the record breaking box office figures reveal that people still want to see big screen epic entertainment. Jurassic World allowed ticket buyers to see the actual size of a Tyrannosaurus rex on the Museum of Discovery’s 5-story IMAX screen.

2016 will feature a big screen box office battle between a Star Wars spin off (titled Rogue One) and Star Trek Beyond. Given the success of the Marvel Comics Expanded Universe, arch rival DC Comics plans to expand their universe with Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, which will be followed up with Suicide Squad, featuring the Rogue’s Gallery of Villainy.

Despite a sense of diminishing returns from last year’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, Marvel is predicted to regain the box office championship throne with Captain America: Civil War. While Captain America (Chris Evans) and Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) are expected to fight on the big screen, Civil Wars is a political movie that will examine the fine line between security and liberty on May 6, 2016.

Change is in the air locally. The Palm Beach International Film Festival (PBIFF) is under new management. Given that the base of operations is in Manalapan, it remains to be seen if PBIFF will have relevance for our Observer readers this April. Stay tuned, we always have the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival in November.

2016 will mark my 17th year writing this column in which we have witnessed the home video evolution from VHS to DVD to direct streaming through businesses like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Yet, for all of these technical innovations, nothing beats seeing a flick on the big screen for popcorn-eating Saturday Matinee fun.

By Dave Montalbono

Compared to the previous year, 2015 has been a consistent year for the box office. As predicted, Disney dominated with their Marvel and Star Wars franchises. While not the Disney Juggernaut, Universal Pictures scored big with 50 Shades of Grey, Furious 7 and Jurassic World. However, 2015 low budget independent fare like Ex Machina produced a high profit margin for investors.

In April 2003, The Observer covered the Palm Beach International Film Festival (PBIFF) for the first time. Recent Oscar winner Adrien Brody, producer Robert Evans, musician Michael Jackson and the legendary Fay Wray were in attendance at an elegant gala held at the Boca Raton Resort & Club.

Concurrently in Houston, director/writer Richard Linklater had completed filming the first year of Boyhood, a film that took 12 years to complete. At 2015’s PBIFF, Ellar Coltrane, one of the stars of this ambitious independent film attended.

The film, which was well received at the Academy Awards, also featured Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke.

Tired of being on the sidelines, I invested in a student short subject, Give Me Trouble starring local Blues Legend Joey Gilmore and featuring Robert “Hi Hat” Carter as the bass player. This film details a blues man’s last concert and will hopefully be entered in either the Palm Beach or Fort Lauderdale Film Festivals. Gilmore and his band frequently perform in our neighborhood, so check ‘em out!

Best known for playing “Marcy Darcy” on Married with Children, Amanda Bearse found her niche behind the scenes as a television director. A Winter Park native, Ms. Bearse also appears on the soap opera All My Children and the movie Fright Night. Of the many celebrities that I have met this year, Amanda Bearse was a true class act; she asked every individual their name and was generous with her time.

I briefly met Burt Reynolds on the red carpet at PBIFF six years ago. Having just recovered from open heart surgery, Reynolds seemed timid among the paparazzi. Despite walking with a cane, Reynolds appeared “born again” at the Spooky Empire convention. He was chatting with his diverse fan base, fans of films like Deliverance or the Smokey and the Bandit movies.

Reynolds has done much for the film culture in South Florida. The Burt Reynolds Institute for Film and Theater in Jupiter has provided a valuable stepping stone for local talent. At the peak of his stardom, Reynolds was generous to Palm Beach culture and his alma mater, Florida State University.

The film business is a forward-focused culture; however, it would be wise to reflect upon those Florida pioneers who paved the way for our future. Happy New Year!

By Emily Rosen

ERosen424@aol.com

www.emilyrosen424.com

I graduated from High School in Brooklyn, NY on the day that American troops stormed the Normandy Beachhead (DDay), the beginning of the end of the “good” war.

There were 500 kids in my graduating class and only two of us – me and my best friend Carol — who were exhorted to keep our mouths shut during the singing of our class song, reconfirming the well-known fact that both of us habitually sang off-key .

Don’t bother with the math. Suffice it to say that many a year and many a lifetime have subsequently passed, but Carol and I have endured as good friends, singing our hearts out in private on the very few occasions when we get eye-to-eye contact, she, a resident of Connecticut, and I, a transplanted Floridian.

So when she called several months ago, insisting that is was time for me to visit in her newly downsized condo digs, I succumbed.

The first thing she did was get tickets for the Emmy multi-awarded “The Curious Incident of the Dog,” etc., the price of which was “curiously” close to a Porsche. But I didn’t want a Porsche.

And thus began “Emily’s Life Review” tour.

Once “up there,” I could not “not visit” the remains of my other life – people who contributed to what became the richness of my life, people with whom I shared important milestones and giggles. Carol’s house was my final and longest stop.

Planning the trip had some similarity to the planning of an army invasion, minus the big map and pointer and 4-star generals. Many of my personal 4-star generals, however, were quick to offer me updated intelligence. It went like this: “You’re crazy to attempt so many places.” “Renting a car? You don’t know how bad the traffic is. You will be stuck on throughways forever.” “One wrong turn and you’ll be lost. And you know how bad you are with the GPS.” “You’re too old to be traipsing alone all over the tri-state area.”

The bile rose in my stomach – and I am known to live and advocate in loud decibels for a stress-free life — but I soldiered on … and a glorious “Nyeah Nyeah” to all of them. My plan worked seamlessly – from the cousin family wrap-up, to the nursery-school car pool reminiscences, to the years of exotic world travel in out-of-the-way destinations with Billie, my best of all times travel friend (a former next door neighbor), and to Carol and our high school war-time days and young motherhood.

Beaches and parks, and community activities, were all part of the deal. Manhattan streets and traffic, subways and frenzy, the cacophony of sounds and smells, the body shapes and misshapes, the whirring of unrelenting movement and fl ow of energy – the numbing experience of the 9/11 memorial and museum brought it all, in the midst of building cranes rising to the sky, to a meditative halt, a reality check, a somber reflection on humanity and the eternal struggle between good and evil, and a human artistic achievement worthy of its purpose.

I came home on an emotional high. Now, I am breathing deeply and exhaling slowly. I let go of my stress and fulfilled my mission.

So it’s Back-To-School August and for many Florida full-timers, vacation is over, and the countdown to next June begins. But, now, it’s time to knuckle down and get the work done.

A man approached a friend of mine the other day. He was dressed rather shabbily and he was not exactly well kept. Okay, he smelled to the high heavens. His jeans were torn and his shoes looked like they were going to fall apart at any second.

In the olden days, we would have referred to him as a bum, but this particular bum must have been a Boca bum because asking my friend for money made him so thirsty that he needed to take a gulp of the frozen latte he held in his hands from Starbucks.

Make no mistake about it, it wasn’t my friend who was holding the latte. My friend would never pay that kind of money for a fancy coffee, frozen or not.

While our parents might never have judged someone asking for a handout, in our day and age, we have become a bit more cynical and some use this cynicism as a excuse to avoid giving charity to anyone or anything.

My Father of Blessed Memory never questioned. He just knew that he wanted to thank G-d by sharing his blessings with others. I may take after my father in a lot of ways, and I certainly hope that I have taken on many of his good traits. But, to be honest with you, before I give to a charity now, I check to see how much of what they take in actually helps the poor.

Sadly, I have even become cynical when it comes to someone on the street asking for a handout. Of course, the fact that on one particular corner in Boca I drive by early in the morning and have seen a gorgeous Mercedes drop off three or four people to beg on the corner …well, that just makes me wonder. No, it does more than that, it makes me cold and cynical.

Even more sad is that I have seen people standing by various intersections with signs in their hands that say things like, “Hungry, will work for food.” I used to keep some things like a case of peanut butter in my car to hand out to these folk, but you would not believe how many of them turned down the peanut butter and even gave me dirty glares for offering it to them.

Now, before I put you in such a negative mode that you never consider giving to charity again, let me turn this around a bit.

There are people, sadly, more people than you can even imagine who are in great need. And no matter how much you think the government is doling out to them, many simply cannot take care of the most basic of needs.

So many of you are going to make New Year’s resolutions of what you are going to give up this year; but, as we begin 2015, I would ask you to make a resolution not on what you are going to give up, but rather on what you are going to give.

Someone I know did this last year and, after giving all that he had planned to give, other things happened in the world, other things came up in the community, and he still found that he had enough blessings to give even more; and he did!

So while you are joyously ringing in the New Year, count your blessings and, who knows, maybe you will take these words to heart and resolve to share those blessings throughout the year. You see, giving to those in need isn’t just a good deed, it is the fulfillment of Holy Commandment.

Shalom my friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is the Spiritual Leader of Temple Beth Israel of Deerfield Beach, which will be staging the “biggest” version of Rip Van Winkle you have ever seen on Jan. 18. For tickets, call 954-428-0578 or etaarts@aol.com. Come to the show and start the New Year feeling young again.