“Still Alice” opens with a 50th birthday dinner in honor of Alice Howland, a brilliant linguistics professor at Columbia, given by her loving family. Everything seems picture-perfect for the successful, intelligent Howland family.

Not long after the dinner, Alice begins to notice that all is not right with her. She goes to California to give a guest lecture and, inexplicably, forgets a key term. When she returns to New York, she goes jogging one day and forgets where she is. Concerned, Alice consults a neurologist. They find that she has early onset Alzheimer’s. Alice informs her husband, John (Alec Baldwin) and her three grown children, Anna, Tom, and Lydia. All are shocked and, at first struggle with the diagnosis. How could Alice, such an accomplished professional, have developed such a disease so early in life?

“Still Alice” chronicles the progression of the Alzheimer’s in Alice. Alice was a great teacher, but has to admit her disease to her department chair and give up her career. She becomes distraught when she cannot find a bathroom in her seaside cottage, and has an accident. She does not sleep well, waking up John in the middle of the night looking for her phone. Alice becomes fearful and agitated. Little by little, she slips away from the world she knew and loved so much. An independent woman, she can no longer go out by herself.
More

“American Sniper” has become a huge hit, a multiple Oscar nominee, and the topic of much conversation this winter. Clint Eastwood has brought the true story of Chris Kyle, Navy SEAL and much decorated sniper in Iraq, to the screen. After serving four tours of duty in Iraq, Kyle was shot on a shooting range back at home by a mentally unstable veteran he was trying to help in 2013.

A bulked-up Bradley Cooper plays Kyle, a Texan who loves his guns. In an early scene, Kyle’s father tells Chris and his brother that there are three kinds of people in the world: wolves, sheep, and sheepdogs. It is the job of the sheepdog to protect the sheep from the evil wolves. Chris’ father makes it clear in no uncertain terms that he wants his sons to be sheepdogs, and never sheep. It’s a black and white world view, with little room for gray. Mr. Kyle teaches Chris and his brother to shoot and hunt at a young age. Chris becomes an excellent marksman and hunter.

After witnessing the 9/11 attacks on television, Chris volunteers with the Navy, saying that he wants to protect his country. Noticing Chris’ size and physique, the recruiter suggests that Chris train for the SEALs. Chris does so and graduates from the rigorous SEAL training. Using his skills as a marksman, he becomes an accomplished sniper in Iraq. While training as a SEAL, Chris meets Taya, (Sienna Miller) a lovely woman at a bar. They marry before Chris is shipped off for his first tour of duty.
More