Took these films from the Phoenicia Library when I finally got upstate that Friday afternoon. I had never heard of Brooklyn Castle; it's a film about New York City middle and high school kids who play chess, specifically in IS 138, in Brooklyn. It isn't only a film about chess and how good kids can play that game, but it is also a morality tale of how cruel adults can get when they put their minds to it, cutting school budgets at the same time corporations get tax breaks. The kids are amazing (nom, the adults aren't).
Muscle Shoals is about rock and roll: Wilson Picket and Aretha, Duane Allman, Percy Sledge and a bunch of white boys who comprised one of the greatest rock and roll rhythm sections ever. It is also about human ambition and greed, jealousy and weakness and strength. A damned good film.
Genius is about Maxwell Perkins and Thomas Wolfe. Excellent acting. Very good film, not as good the second time around, but still fine.
