Netflix streaming tip: CHANGE IN THE AIR -- Try Dianne Dreyer/Audra Gorman's unusual and quite beautiful bit of uplift

If you follow this blog at all, you already know how anti-organized religion TrustMovies certainly is. And yet, by the end of the 2018 film CHANGE IN THE AIR, now available via Netflix streaming, he had undergone about as close to a religious experience as he may be capable. And, no, we're not talking Jesus, Moses, Buddha or Muhammad here.

Rather, this very small but surprisingly expansive movie manages to gift us with the kind of appreciation of our natural world and the people in it that few films even try -- let alone achieve. And fucking hell, in the midst of global warming, the most corrupt and incompetent political administration in my lifetime, the current global pandemic and, oh, let's see, what else? -- do we ever need right now something as joyful and caring as this film!

Director Dianne Dreyer (at right) and screenwriter Audra Gorman have concocted a tale of humanity put in touch with its most personal needs, desires, regrets and hopes in a manner of a kind of mystery. And, yes, you could even liken this film to one of those religious mystery plays or old -- made spanking new via an original combination of symbolism and art in which the otherworldly bumps up against the mundane, and in the process ignites a fervent understanding and appreciation of the wonders all around (and including) us.

The screenplay offers characters who are quirky but never beyond-the-pale and a situation -- a mysterious young woman appears in a small town and begins receiving each day a huge sack of mail all to herself -- that can't help but grab us. Who is she and what's going on?  That this character is played by an exquisite, ethereal Rachel Brosnahan (above), nearly unrecognizable from her Mrs. Maisel role, let alone that in House of Cards, will make this movie, for many, a must-see. And Ms Brosnahan is terrific, walking a fine line between symbol and reality with perfect grace and ease.

The rest of the cast is not only exceptional, each makes good on his/her storied reputation by offering a plethora of moments that are both believable and worth treasuring. The neighbors surrounding the house in which the Brosnahan character lives are played by Mary Beth Hurt and Olympia Dukakis (above, left and  right, respectively), M. Emmet Walsh (as Dukakis' dementia-addled husband, below),

Aidan Quinn as the local cop (below), and Macy Gray (shown at bottom, left) leading the local youth choir in a wonderful rendition of Leonard Cohen's Anthem that helps bring the film to a rousing, moving close, sound-wise, even as, sight-wise, we're treated to a beautiful coalescence of those symbols we've been viewing and considering.

Dreyer and Gorman offer us just enough explanation, without ever overdoing it, that we can take this and figure out what we need in order to -- just as does the movie -- come to some fruition. Nowhere is this more evident than in the lovely scene between Ms Hurt and the local postman (played so well by Satya Babha, below, left, that you'll want to see this actor again, ASAP), as the two of them surreptitiously open and read the mail that is being delivered and are slowly blown away by it -- just as you will be, too.

Why? Well, see this remarkable film and start mulling it all over. In addition, the way in which Change in the Air calls attention to and appreciation of our natural world is much needed these days. Bird lovers in particular should be thrilled by what they see. In that regard, a word must be said for actor Peter Gerety (shown below, right). I've seen this fellow in many films, but here he becomes indelible, giving a rich, real and lovely performance in the kind of supporting-actor role that doesn't come around at all frequently.

And then there's Ms Brosnahan. So different is she here from almost anything else I can recall that this alone ought to make you stick the movie in your Netflix DVD queue or streaming list.

Originally released in very limited theatrical fashion by Screen Media Films and running just 94 minutes, Change in the Air is available digitally now via Netflix and elsewhere for purchase or rental.

With BROOKLYN, John Crowley and Nick Hornby come close to touching pure movie joy

BROOKLYN will knock your socks off. But so quietly and gently that you'll imagine you're still wearing them. It is difficult to explain how and why this movie is so special, but allow me to try.

First off, in the midst of our horrific modern world -- ISIS murderers abroad and hate-filled, stupid Republican Presidential "front-runners" funded by corporations and the wealthy bent on turning us all into minimum-wage slaves here at home -- Brooklyn exists as a reminder of an earlier, lost time. So, yes, this is nostalgia. But it's nostalgia done right, in which actions have consequences and the themes of family, homeland, coming-of-age, and the meaning of autonomy are treated seriously.

Secondly, in their actress/star, Saoirse Ronan (shown on poster, top; above, right; and variously, below), director John Crowley (at right) and screenwriter Nick Hornby have a winner and the strongest contender I have seen so far for the Best Actress "Oscar." Ms Ronan -- never a showy actress and, while quite attractive, no great beauty, either -- possesses the ability to display the kind of cool and collected inner strength that most actors would give up a year of Botox to be able to understand and use. But there it is in full view here -- in her speech, movement, face -- displayed in ways that none but the finest actors can muster. In every role -- from I Could Never Be Your Woman and Atonement through The Way Back, Hanna and Violet & Daisy to the more recent The Grand Budapest Hotel, Ronan shines differently and brightly. Here, at last, she becomes the movie's spine.

Fortunately, this actress is surrounded by other fine performers that bring fully to life a past time and place, together with the people who inhabited it. The tale is of a young woman in Ireland smack at the moment of mid-last century, with seemingly no real opportunities ahead of her. Consequently, her sister and her local parish priest arrange for her emigration to America -- to Brooklyn, where most of the Irish seem to have ended up.

On the way there. Eilis (that is her name) endures a seasick sea voyage (above), and once she arrives, she is homesick to near distraction and feels greatly out of place. But as helped by a kindly local priest (a nice change of pace for Jim Broadbent), employed at a posh department store, and stationed in a rooming house for young women run by a delightful Julie Walters (below, center), our girl begins to blossom, if just a bit. (The scenes around the dinner table at that rooming house are so wonderfully real, alert and on-the-mark that you may feel you've stumbled into a legitimate theater piece and are suddenly watching live actors.)

Then love enters the picture -- personified by a young Italian kid who likes Irish girls. As played to perfection by Emory Cohen (below), who brings such an unusual combination of sweet masculinity and savvy decency to his role, this performance becomes an indelible portrait of first love.

How director Crowley -- who, by the way, has so far given us nothing but excellent, under-seen, independent films (Intermission, Boy A, Is Anybody There? and Closed Circuit) -- brings all this to fruition is key. He never pushes, but instead allows Hornby's excellent, full-of-specifics screenplay to keep things on track by making every moment count. It would seem that Crowley has at last connected with a subject that will resonate hugely with the masses -- and then done that subject full justice.

The odd thing about Brooklyn is that so much works out so well for our heroine that one might wonder along the way just where the "conflict" will come from. Interestingly, it arrives directly from Eilis herself as she returns to Ireland to visit mom and finds herself more than a little attracted to her former home and its people.

Holding the film together is Ms Ronan, who simply gleams with hope and promise. And strength. This actress will pull you into her world like nothing you'll have seen, then hold you in her strong, clear gaze until you imagine that, yes, anything is possible, after all. And you may feel, as though for the first time (certainly at the movies after a very long dry spell) real, radiant joy for characters you have come to love.

Brooklyn, from Fox Searchlight and running 111 minutes, opens today in South Florida and elsewhere. Click here, then scroll down and click on THEATER LISTINGS to find a theater near you in just about any state on the map. Your friends are probably already telling you that this is the movie to see. If not yet, they soon will be.