Category Archives: Heidi Nast

The Sessions is based upon the autobiographical writings of California-based journalist and poet Mark O’Brien confined to an iron lung who is determined – at age 38 – to lose his virginity. With the help of his therapist and the guidance of his priest, he sets out to make his dream a reality with a sex surrogate in 6 sessions.  The cast includes Helen Hunt as Cheryl the surrogate, William H. Macy as the Catholic priest, Adam Arkin as Cheryl’s husband and most notably, John Hawkes as Mark O’Brien.

How can a movie about a man stricken with polio since age 6 move the audience from laughter to tears?   Well, it does.  If committed to an institution following his childhood diagnosis, Mark O’Brien’s life expectancy would have been 18 months, but his devout Catholic parents decided to care for him at home and he lived decades beyond the average age. O’Brien attends UC Berkley on a rolling flatbed and graduates along with his peers.  O’Brien wrote this well before modern day computers by pecking, letter-by-letter using a stick in his mouth from the confines of his iron lung, his safety net between life and death, as he ponders his quest to be “de-flowered.”

O’Brien’s wicked sense of humor effused a love of this very special person while his handicap became secondary.  Women in his life found themselves falling head over heels with his je ne sais quoi charm.  O’Brien’s spirit created a very special bond with his priest that he visited often to discuss his de-flowering desires, something the Catholic Church frowns upon out of wedlock. But as O’Brien says, “My penis speaks to me and I’m getting close to my ‘use by’ expiration date.”  “Go for it, O’Brien” is the quintessential endorsement from his priest, along with his blessing!

The Sessions is an amazing film, a study of human perseverance, of humor, of love, of acceptance and sex.  Mark O’Brien reminds each of us the importance of expressing one’s self and to not be frightened by taking a leap of faith to communicate our deepest desires with love and kindness. Sounds simple doesn’t it? Why is it so difficult for many to express?  That’s what makes this film special …  A+++ for this must-see testament to strength and doing our best with the cards we are dealt.

By Heidi Nast

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Reviewed by Heidi Nast

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is packed with a star-studded cast featuring Dame Judi Dench, Dame Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy and Dev Patel and directed by John Madden whose previous films include Shakespeare In Love.  The film was shot in 9 weeks on location in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India and the cast and crew fell in complete awe with the sights and sounds and most important, the people.  For Dench, this was her first trip to India and can hardly wait to return “whilst on holiday.”

This is a delightful film, well-acted and offers pure entertainment as the audience takes in the essence of India.  One can almost taste the food, smell the street markets and are inclined to reach through the screen and grab a handful of dried marigolds and crunch them between your fingers.  It has strong undertones of love, of love lost, of sadness and of enlightenment with satisfied closure.  Intertwined is a strong message to not look backward or forward because of the “good stuff” in between that often times, each one of us misses in our own personal journey. It’s about getting on in years, and how each strives to continue as independent beings, even under the auspice of great adversity or financial constraints. It’s about being yourself; on your terms, even if the hand you are dealt is not what you had planned on.  It’s a lesson of how to pick oneself up and embrace the fundamental concept that life is a privilege and not merely a right, to take risks and dive in head first and swim out to the other side, to find a way to cope and thrive in celebration of life’s continual changes.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is marketed as a respite for the “Elderly and Beautiful” but the reality is quite different.  Instead, these British expatriates’ senses are assaulted with vivid hues of color, of street congestion, a barrage of rickshaws, of camels, cattle and chickens listlessly roaming free, crowds on foot, unseemly mayhem and stench that permeate the air they breathe in.  But as time goes by, there is a reason why each collided on this dilapidated oasis.  In the end, it’s a stopping point for new beginnings to come alive that makes this film so inspirational, so much so the theater audience yelled bravo with loud applause afterward.  And that kind of reaction I rarely witness, ever!

The Descendants Reviewed by Heidi Nast

The Descendants directed by Alexander Payne and written by Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash opens with Oscar buzz rumors twirling around George Clooney’s role as Matt King.  A beautifully scripted character development throughout the film, beginning with Matt’s daughter’s Shailene Woodley as Alexandra, a precocious 17 year-old attending prep school and her 10 year old naive sister Amara Miller as Scottie.  Nick Krause stars as Sid, the quintessential surfer dude cohort that is attached to Alexandra’s hip, much to her father’s chagrin, who grows on you like an orchid indigenous to a tropical setting, by the end of the movie. There is a guest appearance from Beau Bridges, as the entitled cousin, one of 24 that hover around a complex family decision.  Patricia Hastie stars as Matt’s wife Elizabeth, whose role is powerful; but silent, with her not-so-silent heartbroken father, Robert Forster that pulls at any parents’ heartstrings, as he laments about Daddy’s little girl.

The King family represents a multi-generational dynasty that has made millions passed down over the years from land purchased by their great-great-great grandmother’s husband.  With every sell the King family amassed incomprehensible wealth, and has done nothing to deserve it, coupled with the inherited distaste of the King dynasty from the Hawaiian citizens.  What will Matt do, as the attorney and sole trustee in making the ultimate family decision, develop or leave the land pristine, and what about the heirs?

So now we understand that the King family rules; but can it buy happiness with each other, with their children and their wives in this land of paradise?  As Matt says in the opening line of the movie, “It’s assumed that living in Hawaii is paradise, Paradise can go F*@! Itself.”  He’s in a marriage that’s broken. They haven’t spoken in months and now his wife has just been in a terrible boating accident, decisions need to be made and yet he feels like the back-up father, the understudy. This marriage defines unrequited distance, absence, resentment and anger with justifiable behaviors that counter a lack of closeness that binds a marriage together.

Alexandra is old enough and wise enough to see her parents’ imperfections, their bad choices and shares in her dad’s anger. Elizabeth’s dad is angry too — angry that Matt was so stingy with his wealth, that his own wife lost her voice many years ago, and now his daughter has lost her voice too.  And let’s not forget the surfer dude Sid that gets a well deserved shiner and suffers his own recent loss. Without expressing the painful commonalities that Sid and Alexandria uniquely share; it is their unspoken words that hold their friendship together; an attribute Alexandra’s parents couldn’t do for each other.

The cinematography is breathtaking, The Descendants makes you laugh and cry, it’s a movie about human frailties, of complex connections that cannot be bought, but a priceless commodity that must be nurtured, protected, a creed to personal relationships that is much greater than a deed to land.

The Way opens to critical acclaim, written and directed by Emilio Estevez, produced by David Alexanian, co-produced by Taylor Estevez and starring Martin Sheen, Deborah Kara Unger, Joaquim de Almeida, Tcheky Karyo, James Nesbitt and flashbacks of Emilio.

The Way is about how we can all make changes in our lives with four main characters that all have different reasons for making this multi-century 700- kilometer Christian pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago. It’s about the relationship between a father and his son, a woman who wants to quit smoking, a man suffering from writer’s block and an overweight man who desperately wants to lose weight, but eats his way through Spanish villages and over lofty mountain paths. Each is propelled by their own unique imperfections, to seek a better way and finish at the end of their pilgrimage somehow enlightened.

Emilio is a genius storyteller that holds your attention from the beginning until the end of this film. The cinematography is breathtaking and the first ever footage inside the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela (Saint James) in Galicia, Spain also known as the Way of St. James, is unforgettable. The Way is a true inspiration that gives each of us pause to ask if we’re doing all that we can, here and now.

If you didn’t read my personal interviews in September in Art-Seen on KC Studio’s website with Emilio, Martin and David, I would encourage you to do so HERE. It sheds a lot of light on the intent and over-arching message as to why Emilio wrote The Way and why Emilio knows that this is the best film his father has been in since Apocalypse Now. Run as fast as you can to see this film, it’s everything they say it is and more. I will leave you with what Martin said to me, “Think about the journey.”

Helmets’ secured, start your
scooter engines…………………ready-set-go for a great ride with Larry
Crowne starring, written and directed by Tom Hanks and co-starring the
always delightful Julia Roberts.  It’s light, it’s entertaining, it’ll
pull at your heart strings, make you laugh and will give you moments of
introspective pause.  Larry Crowne is like anyone’s friend, co-worker or
neighbor; the over achieving employee of the month nine times to be exact at
UMart, after retiring from 20 years in the Navy serving his country and seeing
the world; only to be let go at UMart because as exemplary as he is, he doesn’t
have a college degree for upward mobility at UMart.  Mystified is an
accurate description for Larry’s reaction.�
How many of us in these hard
times know someone who’s lost their job, foreclosed on their house and forced
to sell all their belongings-downsizing is the politically correct
expression?  We’ve seen people in this
agonizing predicament and we all know someone just like Larry.  However;
Larry picks himself up by his boot straps and enrolls at the local community
college and begins that tour at age 50+.  When times get tough, a great
solution is to go back to school regardless of your age to improve yourself and
become a marketable citizen, when all that’s missing is that golden ring-that
piece of parchment signifying security in the workforce and yet does it
really?  You’ll see what other twist happens in the UMart family, my lips
are sealed; suffice it to say, there is a hint of sweet redemption.

In strides Mercedes (Julia
Roberts) and I’m not even going to attempt to spell her last name; that is a
major comedic thread in the film, begrudgingly showing up for her 8 a.m. speech
101 class hung over from yesterday, the yesterday before and years of
suppressing her unhappy marriage and career and carrying the load on her
slumped shoulders.  She’s tired, it’s too early, as her mornings remind
her of her own angst cohabitating with a husband that’s a washed up writer
turned bum who surfs the internet all day long and interestingly; he really,
really, really likes himself.  You’ll have to judge for yourself.

Larry is transformed by his
experience at the community college, his college friends-young enough to be his
own children embrace him, his personal style evolves and his zest to learn is
contagious.  It inspires those around him want to find a new way, a better
way to be happy and content, even under duress.  This is a great summer
flick, perfect for the baby boomer generation who can relate to Larry and to
anyone who’s returned to college as an adult (as I personally did myself in my
40′s) We understand what it’s like to redefine who we are, over and over
and over again in our career path; just like Larry on his journey.  Larry
gives each of us hope and courage to put one foot in front of the other-to pull
oneself up and recreate our abilities and ultimately ourselves.  Julia
Roberts is ageless and a pure joy to watch and Tom Hanks delivers a wonderfully
entertaining film; Larry Crowne plus; a sure bet boost for the
scooter business. Go see it, just leave your helmet in the car-you won’t want
to miss a word!