An enchanting story, beautifully told. Who could resist watching this “comely miss,” Jane Goodall, clambering through the Tanzanian jungle in safari shorts, to be rewarded by acceptance from a troop of colorful chimpanzees. There is drama and action to match Planet of the Apes and a bittersweet love story with the dreamboat photographer sent to record Jane’s discoveries and personal appeal. The wildlife of Africa, seen in both micro- and macro- views, provides stunning punctuation throughout. In these times of trouble, which certainly extend to Africa, how pleasant it is to encounter a story where good is done and determination is rewarded. My choice for the Oscars.

Adorable story of a high school senior in Sacramento, with Saoirse Ronan playing Greta Gerwig to a T. The humor is perceptive and non-stop, never broad, and the lead character works her believability into our minds and hearts. The coda in New York raises more questions than it answers and could have been omitted, but by then we’d been won over, so it hardly mattered.

On the plus side: A love letter to France, its small towns and its people (the French title, Visages Villages, says it better). The art of JR – huge black-and-white photo portraits pasted on local walls – that makes you smile.
The negative: whereas in many documentaries I am amazed how people ignore the fact they’re being filmed, here I felt every scene was played for the camera. The setup was hokey, the dialogue unnatural, and I never felt the “genuine affection” between JR and Agnes Varda that I sensed I was supposed to feel. What was Agnes Varda even doing in the picture? There were cute moments, but the whole was less than the sum of its parts, and could have been 20 minutes shorter without a complaint from me.

A movie about a not-especially-charming brat being “raised” by a mother who lies, cheats and steals and accepts no responsibility, with the seemingly inevitable result that the mother will go off to jail and the daughter will turn into her mother. I don’t know director Sean Baker’s point, but it’s hard to have any sympathy for the mother, as she is surrounded by other single parents with no greater advantages in life who hold jobs, help their neighbors and discipline their kids. Scenes were consistently cut short, often weren’t connected to anything, and there was no plot to speak of. Only an understated performance by Willem Dafoe rose to the level of professionalism.