Green Book:

This exceptional movie, Oscar winner for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor, is based on a very true story.  It stars Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali as the real-life Italian-American driver, Tony Vallelonga, aka Tony Lip, and African-American concert pianist virtuoso, Dr. Don Shirley, set in the early 1960s.   The Green Book of the title refers to an actual publication, the full name of which was "The Negro Traveler's Green Book," which outlined establishments to which people of colour would be welcomed as they traveled in the American South during the `40s, `50s, and 60s.  Tony could be a character right out of the Sopranos, a nightclub bouncer in New York.  When the club closes for two months for renovations, he looks for work to fill in the gap, to feed his family and keep them clothed, his wife Dolores (Linda Cardellini), and two small children.  He gets word that a doctor is looking for a driver, and he shows up for the interview, thinking it's a medical doctor.  The Doctor is Don Shirley (Ali), a piano virtuoso with two PhD s, one in psychology, the other in music.  He seeks a driver/butler/valet for his trip through the American Midwest and the Deep South, playing his highbrow music in a variety of venues. Tony takes the job and they hit the road driving a green 1960 big-finned Cadillac.  Both actors are superb.  Many of the supporting actors are actual family members of the real Tony in this story that was written by Tony's son Nick.  An exceptional movie that could have had a heavy hand, but is actually full of chuckles and good humour. Rated PG.

Creed II:

Well, I went to see a boxing movie, and surprise of surprises, a story broke out.    Michael B. Jordan is back as Adonis Creed in this sequel to the 2015 movie that introduced his character, the son of the late boxer Apollo Creed.  Sylvester Stallone returns as Rocky Balboa who trained Creed originally.  As Adonis Creed, we see him as the World Champ, he proposes to his fiancée Bianca, and before long she is expecting their first child.  And then ... Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) who killed Adonis’s father, Apollo Creed, in the ring, is back on the scene with his own son Viktor Drago.  They want a shot at the title, a grudge match, but Rocky disagrees, and decides he will not train Adonis for this one.  Normally with a boxing film such as this, all the bits and pieces of story are like so many unimportant preliminary rounds as we work up to the big fight.  That doesn't happen in this film, as there is a substantial story about Adonis and his new wife ... and a backstory about Rocky and his estranged son.  Stallone wrote the screenplay.  A good, old-fashioned boxing movie at times, and a warm, family relationship movie at others.  Liked it very much!  Rated 14A.

 Free Solo:

This National Geographic documentary is a real thriller-chiller as it profiles free climber Alex Honnold who became the first person to scale El Capitan, one of the largest granite rock faces in the world, without ropes.  Climbing free, with only his running shoes and his rosin-covered hands between the rock face and a fall of thousands of feet, the photography and the story itself are totally gripping.  Oscar-winner for Best Documentary. It's a treat - with as much drama and as much tension as a scripted action-thriller.  Terrific film!  Rated PG. 

Triple Frontier (2019):

This Netflix original has great talent behind it.  A military thriller written by Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty) spins the story of five Special Forces soldiers who decide, for the first time, to do something for themselves instead of for their country.  They decide to go after millions in gold by shaking down a South African drug lord, but everything changes when loyalties are tested.  Ben Affleck, Charlie Hunnam, and Oscar Isaac star.  Rated 18A. 

If I Hadn't Met You (2019):

Another Netflix original, this sci-fi fantasy tells the story of Eduard, a husband and father who loses his family in a tragic series of events.  Unable to live without them, he finds his way into a parallel universe where they might still exist alive.  Rated 14A.