R; 1h 23m
After college, Will is having problems getting a good, lasting job, as are his roomies, his girlfriend, and his just-fired dad.
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Category Archives: Romance
Get a Job (2016)
Fallen Leaves (2023)
In modern-day Helsinki, two lonely souls in search of love meet by chance in a karaoke bar. However, their path to happiness is beset by obstacles – from lost phone numbers to mistaken addresses, alcoholism, and a charming stray dog.
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NYT review: Can a Rom-Com Make Sense in Dark Times? Yes, When It’s From This Master.
The Union (2024)
Mike (Mark Wahlberg), a construction worker from Jersey, is quickly thrust into the world of super spies and secret agents when his high school sweetheart, Roxanne (Halle Berry), suddenly comes back into his life and recruits him on a high-stakes U.S. intelligence mission. Watch on Netflix.
Netflix hit “The Union” is a miss
Reviewed by Chris Garlock (Labor Heritage Foundation newsletter)
The Union is a hit on Netflix, but it’s not really about the labor movement, and it’s a pretty lousy movie, despite starring Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry. Wahlberg plays Mike, a construction worker in New Jersey, who finds himself thrust into the world of super spies when his high school sweetheart, Roxanne (played by Berry), enlists his help on a high-stakes US intelligence mission for a shadowy group of ex-agency operatives called The Union. It’s a telling sign that a film called The Union doesn’t bother to say whether Mike’s construction job is union or not. J.K. Simmons runs the team and does have a cool class-conscious rationale for its existence: “(We’re the) invisible army that keeps the world running. The people who do the actual work. Street smarts over book smarts. Blue collar, not blue blood. Able to build our cities, keep production lines humming. That’s who we are. We get shit done.” Unfortunately that’s about the only nod to labor in the film, which has been getting abysmal viewer reviews, the best of which call it “generic” and “cheesy”. Action fans will be disappointed by the rote gunplay, endless — and pointless — car chases and lame dialogue from movie stars who — like us — deserve better. And the big plot twist involving a traitor in The Union is not only completely unbelievable, but misses an obvious opportunity to take a shot at scabs. Hate to say it, but this is one union you won’t want to join.
Got an opinion you’d like to share about labor art you’ve seen or heard lately? Email us at info@laborheritage.org.
The Grand Seduction (2013)
The small harbor of Tickle Cove is in dire need of a doctor so that the town can land a contract to secure a factory which will save the town from financial ruin. Village resident Murray French (Gleeson) leads the search, and when he finds Dr. Paul Lewis (Kitsch) he employs – along with the whole town – tactics to seduce the doctor to stay permanently.
Director: Don McKellar
Writers: Michael Dowse, Ken Scott
Stars: Taylor Kitsch, Brendan Gleeson, Liane Balaban
Morning Glory (2010)
DIR Roger Michell; SCR Aline Brosh McKenna PROD J.J. Abrams, Bryan 
Burk. US, color, 107 min. RATED PG-13
After hard-working producer Rachel McAdams gets fired from her lackluster suburban New Jersey morning show, she lands a new job producing the lowest-rated network morning talk show in New York City. This decidedly mixed blessing includes wrangling randy host Ty Burrell, in bad need of training about sexual harassment in the workplace, and former beauty queen Diane Keaton, frosty behind her fake smile. Meanwhile, disgruntled serious newsman Harrison Ford, McAdams’ idol, is idling away, playing out his contract before retirement. Would he go for a morning show makeover? Time to get to work! Director Roger Michell gets the best from his game cast; screenplay by Aline Brosh McKenna (THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA). “It grows from human nature and is about how people do their jobs and live their lives. It is wisely not about a May-October romance between McAdams and Ford. It’s more about their love for their work.”—Roger Ebert.
They Don’t Wear Black Tie (Eles Não Usam Black-Tie) [1981]
122m; Brazil
Director: Leon Hirszman
Cast: Gianfrancesco Guarnieri, Fernanda Montenegro and Carlos Alberto Riccelli
Synopsis (NYT): At the beginning of the Brazilian film “They Don’t Wear Black Tie,” a middle-class boy and girl are making plans to live happily ever after. Maria (Bete Mendes) is pregnant by the handsome young Tiao (Carlos Alberto Ricelli), and that helps accelerate their plan to rush into marriage. Everything looks rosy. “They Don’t Wear Black Tie” is an extremely successful politically aware drama about how the bloom falls off the rose . . . The film chronicles the process by which Maria realizes that Tiao is not the man she thought he was. Her understanding of Tiao’s weakness is heightened by the political activity surrounding a local strike, at the factory where Tiao, his father and Maria are all employed. When the labor trouble begins, Tiao manfully wanrs Maria that she’d better stay home, exhibiting just the hind of stubborn sexism this courageous heroine refuses to tolerate. Later on, he violates the most basic tenets of his upbringing by becoming a scab. And Maria declares that her child will be bery, very proud of his grandfather, even if he never has a kind thought about his father at all.
“They Don’t Wear Black Tie” is an outstandingly good film in this year’s New Directors/New Films lineup.
Tobacco Road (1941)
84m; U.S.
Director: John Ford
Cast: Charley Grapewin, Gene Tierney and Marjorie Rambeau
Synopsis (IMDB): Shiftless Jeeter Lester and his family of hillbilly stereotypes live in a rural backwater where their ancestors were once wealthy planters. Their slapstick existence is threatened by a bank’s plans to take over the land for more profitable farming; subplots involve the affairs and marriages of son Dude and daughter Ellie May.
Toni (1935)
81m; France
Director: Jean Renoir
Cast: Charles Blavette, Celia Montalván and Jenny Hélia
Synopsis (IMDB): In the 1920s, the Provence is a magnet for immigrants seeking work in the quarries or in the agriculture. Many mingle with locals and settle down permanently – like Toni, an Italian who has moved in with Marie, a Frenchwoman. Even a well-ordered existence is not immune from boredom, friendship, love, or enmity, and Toni gets entangled in a web of increasingly passionate relationships. For there is his best pal Fernand, but also Albert, his overbearing foreman; there is Sebastian, a steady Spanish peasant, but also Gabi, his young rogue relative; there is Marie, but there is also Josefa.
Trace of Stones (1966)
139m; East Germany
Director: Frank Beyer
Cast: Manfred Krug, Krystyna Stypulkowska and Jutta Hoffmann
Synopsis (IMDB): Hannes Balla is the foreman of a group of building construction workers at the large construction site “Schkona” in the GDR. They spend most of their time working hard and drinking harder – to some they are fun, to some they are a public nuisance. Things get more complicated when the good-looking Kati Klee is employed as a young technician, and the ambitious new Party Secretary, Werner Horrath, aims to boost work efficiency and downsize Balla’s ego. Kati slowly warms up to Werner, but is also attracted to Balla’s nonconformity. A contemporary movie about work, love, and everything in between.
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