For our April class we had a choice between “A Dog’s Way Home” and “Captain Marvel”.

“A Dog’s Way Home” is the story of Bella who is confused when sent away from the ones she loved – Lucas, his mother and Olivia.  She did not understand that this was only temporary and escaped to try to find her way back.  It was shown from the dog’s perspective of her adventures in finding her way back home.  She met many different animals as well as people on the way, but it was only Bella’s voice that was dubbed.  The story was lovely, with pleasant and believable characters and magnificent scenery.  We gave it a rating of 4 out of 5.

“Captain Marvel” was a totally different film.  Carol Danvers becomes one of the universe's most powerful heroes when Earth is caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races.  There is an unexpected twist around the mid-point of the film which possibly makes it more interesting.  Performances by the stars were excellent, and the computer graphics is getting better as the technology evolves.  It led to discussions around the introduction of female super heroes (Marvel has done it before) and the comparison between super hero and science fiction films. Overall it was reasonably interesting, a typical Marvel story.  We rated it as 3.5 out of 5.

Our film for discussion at the May class is “Swimming with Men” 

​Joy Shirley

​Our film for discussion at our March class was “Green Book”.  Everyone enjoyed watching the film, with some strong reactions to the treatment of African-American people in the south of the USA in the 60s – and questions as to how much has or has not changed in the 50 years since.
This film was the winner of the Best Movie at the Academy Awards (although there was some controversy) and Mahershala Ali who played an African-American classical pianist won the award for Best Supporting Actor.  We agreed that it was a great film, and Ali’s performance was worthy of the award.

The film is based on a true story.  Tony Lip, a working-class Italian-American bouncer becomes the driver for Dr Donald Shirley, the classical pianist, on a tour of venues through the 1960s American South.  The title of the film comes from the Green Book that listed accommodation available for African-Americans.  The film was full of contrasts – Tony a racist Italian bouncer: Dr Shirley an African American; Tony with a close Italian family: Dr Shirley a lonely man; treatment of African-Americans in the north of the USA: treatment in the south.  It follows how both the men grow and appreciate the other’s strengths.  While there were some disturbing scenes as the men face the problems of an African-American in the south of the country, the film had a happy ending with the men becoming close friends until their death, both dying in 2013 within a few months of one another.

Reviews have compared the film with “Driving Miss Daisy” (friendship between an African-American driver with an upper-class employer), but we thought it was closer to “The Help” (showing the difficulties experienced by African-Americans).  A very enjoyable movie that we rated as around 3-4 out of 5.

It was decided to select two films for our April class – “Captain Marvel” and “A Dog’s Way Home”.  Everyone is invited to watch at least one of these movies for our April class on 10 April. 
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Possible discussion points could be around the use of the computer graphics in “Captain Marvel” or comparisons of “A Dog’s Way Home” with the lost animal films we have seen in the past.
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Joy Shirley