Spinning Reels

Road Trip! Nebraska

Bruce Dern in ‘Nebraska’ Click on picture for more info

Bruce Dern turns in an Oscar-nominated performance as Woody, the bad-tempered retiree who thinks he’s won a million dollars and decides it pick it up in person, making the trip to Montana- by foot if necessary, as he drinks too much to get behind the wheel of a car. His son decides to humour him and offers to drive, wherein the remarkable, complicated, and extraordinary life of this ordinary man comes into view.

Backed by a strong supporting cast including June Squibb, Stacy Keach, and former Saturday Night Live’s Will Forte, the movie is shot in black and white to reinforce the tone and emotion. Nebraska is a poignant, honest, humourous and real portrayal of a life lived, even if not fully appreciated by all concerned.

115 minutes

Our THANKS to this movie’s sponsor:

Click on logo to go to Brackenrig website

Brackenrig Nursery has been the top garden center in Muskoka. We’ve been offering our gardening services and growing plants on the premises for Muskoka, Bracebridge, Port Carling and surrounding areas since 1988. We welcome the individual gardener as well as the landscaper. We have your gardening solutions ready to go!

A VERY revealing Portrait

Ralph Fiennes in The Invisible Woman. For more, click on the photo to see the IMDB page

Spinning Reels presents The Invisible Woman. As both director and star, Ralph Fiennes presents a sumptuous, passionate view of one of the greatest literary figures of the English language- Charles Dickens. Based upon the secret almost twenty-year relationship Dickens had with a much younger actress, this movie examines with great detail and intelligence the energy, ego and motivations of the great novelist. This is an engrossing drama with an excellent supporting cast, and a rich painting of Victorian England as backdrop.

111 minutes

Many THANKS to this Movie’s Sponsor:

Catherine Nasmith Architect

Catherine Nasmith Architect is one of the province’s leading heritage advocates who practices what she preaches. She offers architectural and heritage planning services from the former Windermere post office and general store, a building she and her husband returned from dereliction.
Her most recent Muskoka project is an extension to a 1920’s cottage, built on granite piers and incorporating restored, reclaimed windows, doors, and cabinetwork, an approach she pioneered in the rehabilitation of the cottage next to her office. Both projects have a timeless quality to them, blending perfectly into the Muskoka landscape and architectural traditions.

What does it take to be a real parent?

Click on photo to go to Like Father, Like Son IMDB page

We’ll be looking at that question in the movie Like Father, Like Son.

Two families of very different socio-economic status are thrown into upheaval when it is revealed that their six year old sons had been inadvertently switched at birth. This premise leads to the parents trying different plans to understand and resolve this change.  From the uptight, social climbing father to the father who is just a big kid himself, in the series of family-life scenes we become privy to all their contradictions and nuances, and are given plenty to be both surprised and to think about.

121 minutes

Our THANKS to this movie’s sponsor:

Click on logo to go to Brackenrig website

Brackenrig Nursery has been the top garden center in Muskoka. We’ve been offering our gardening services and growing plants on the premises for Muskoka, Bracebridge, Port Carling and surrounding areas since 1988. We welcome the individual gardener as well as the landscaper. We have your gardening solutions ready to go!

A whole different form of ‘social media’!

Irrfan Khan ( Life of Pi, Slumdog Millionaire) stars in The Lunchbox in which a mistaken lunchbox delivery brings together two very different people—a neglected housewife and a grumpy widower on the verge of retirement—and paves the way for an unlikely romance. What starts as an innocent exchange about one’s cooking gradually develops into something more. Outside the confines of their daily lives, both characters feel free to express themselves in new ways, leading them both to question how they might find happiness.

Take two unhappy people, add one happy accident and you have the recipe for a movie feast for the eyes and emotions.

104 minutes

This movie’s sponsor:

Kawartha Credit Union is one of the fastest-growing credit unions in Ontario. Kawartha employs over 325 people, and serves 50,000 members in Central and Eastern Ontario with 25 branches. With $1 billion in assets under administration and with 60 years of banking history, Kawartha delivers a full range of financial services, solutions, and advice tailored to meet each member’s individual needs, including access to The Exchange® Network with more than 3,200 surcharge free ATMs in Canada. Membership at Kawartha is open to anyone looking for a local-focus financial services provider.

We pride ourselves on offering all of the products and services of a big city bank while always maintaining the personal touch. In addition, we give back to the communities that support us through our Community Involvement Program. In 2013, we will donate over $200,000 to causes that matter most to our members…those that make a real difference in people’s lives.

 A Romance for the Ages?

Meg and Nick have been married- a looong time- and it’s beginning to show. For their 30^th wedding anniversary, they return to Paris hoping for rejuvenation in the romance which they felt the first time.

Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan star in “Le Weekend” Click on the picture for more information

Their interactions and responses to each other lead us on a rollercoaster of emotions from humorous through serious as they hold nothing back.

Roger Michell (Notting Hill, Hyde Park on Hudson) is used to dealing with relationships that are unconventionally not rom-coms, and in tandem with Oscar Winner Jim Broadbent as Nick and Lindsay Duncan  (Under the Tuscan Sun) as Meg, they bring us a real and very enjoyable love story that is anything but saccharine.

93 minutes

This movie’s sponsor

Wayne Mochrie Bookkeeping “+”   Personal and Small Business Tax Services

Personal and Small Business Tax Services with over 25 years experience preparing income tax for individuals, proprietorships, and commissioned sales persons- in Bracebridge since 2004

36 Ridge Valley Drive, Bracebridge ON

705-801-5353              BOOK45@gmail.com

Would YOU? COULD You?

Judi Dench and Steve Coogan in Philomena. Click on the photo to be taken to the IMDB site

On Monday, February 24th at 7 and 7:10PM, we have the chance to ask some very serious questions.

Philomena is an acting  tour de force by Judi Dench (Skyfall, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), and is funny, serious and bittersweet as it looks at questions of our lives and relationships.

As a young girl, Philomena (Dench) was shamed into giving up her child whilst she worked in an Irish convent, an act that shadowed the rest of her life. Ultimately, she decides to try to find the grown child, and enlists the aid of the  recently unemployed and disgraced writer Martin (Steve Coogan).

We accompany them as they progress on their journey of discovery, only to find that the questions they have are our questions, while the answers are as individual as those being asked. The lessons imparted here have comedic moments, surprising twists, and a surprise ending, all masterfully shepherded by Dench, Coogan and director Richard Frears.

98 minutes

This movie’s sponsor

Karen Acton Royal LePage Lakes of Muskoka

A 2012 President’s Gold Winner, Karen is known for her outstanding customer service and integrity.

Oscar Issac in the Coen brother’s Inside Llewyn Davis, Click on photo for more info

Inside Llewyn Davis is another tour de force of writing and directing by the Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan (O Brother Where Art Thou, The Big Lebowski), and as usual, is funny, quirky, sincere and bittersweet as it looks at missed chances and wasted genius.

Davis (well-cast Oscar Isaac at his unlovable best) is a recently solo artist whose efforts to catch the musical star result in him schleping around the Big Apple, couch surfing and decidedly unsure of his future. The soundtrack compiled by T-Bone Burnett provides a beautiful and appropriate background to his quest for answers and stardom.

105 minutes

This movie’s sponsor

SABR

Support for administration, bookkeeping, recordkeeping

Gandolfini and Dreyfuss in 2013 Enough Said.
Click on the pic for more about this movie.

Enough Said highlights the acting of two of television’s most memorable players, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini in his final lead role. These two fine actors bring a sensitivity and comedic timing to their roles that will have you wishing they were able to hit pause and repeat. As two single parents, Dreyfus and Gandolfini chart the honest, emotional and comedic route of two people in a possible courtship fraught with plenty of baggage left over from their previous relationships. Their conversations will have a ring of reality to them, with just enough craziness to keep you from feeling too uncomfortable at the recognizable situations of their characters.

93 minutes

Many thanks to our sponsor