July 23, 2014 THE VILLADOM TIMES I, II, III & IV • Page 19 ‘Cesar Chavez’ depicts labor activist and his times by Dennis Seuling “Cesar Chavez” (Lionsgate) is a biopic about the 1960s labor activist and his struggles to organize Latino and Filipino vineyard laborers into a workers’ union for the first time. Director Diego Luna covers the highlights and Michael Peña portrays Chavez not as a larger-than-life historical icon, but as a simple man with deep con- viction. The movie begins in 1965 when Chavez leaves his Los Angeles office to experience firsthand the plight of the labor- ers, whose livelihood depends entirely on the growers. With wife Helen (America Ferrera) and their eight children, he heads to California farm country. There he faces not only the arrogance of the growers and a corrupt police force, but also the escalat- ing anger of the laborers as their movement seems to making snail’s-pace gains. Chavez perseveres despite costs to himself. The story of the title character’s dedi- cation and resolve to unionize the unrepre- sented laborers is well worth telling, par- ticularly in today’s environment of eroding union power and political attacks on unions. The movie serves as a reminder that there is strength in numbers. Chavez’s charisma comes not from grandstanding, but from heartfelt concern for his fellow men. Peña has usually taken supporting roles, but in this film, he is in nearly every scene and ably shoulders the production. The script is overly ambitious in that it deals also with growing estrangement between Chavez and his eldest son, Fernando (Eli Vargas). Bonuses on the Blu-ray release include a digital copy, and a making-of featurette. “Heaven Is for Real” (Sony) is based on the book by Todd Burpo about his son Colton, who claimed at age four to have met Jesus in heaven during a near-death expe- rience. Gred Kinnear plays Todd, an aver- age, pleasant guy from a Nebraska town. Todd is a sometime minister who earns his living installing garage doors. He coaches wrestling, volunteers as a firefighter, and is devoted to his wife (Kelly Reilly) and two kids. Colton (Connor Corum) nearly dies after an emergency appendectomy. While recov- ering, he begins describing angels who sang to him. He also knows what his parents were doing while he was on the operating table and says he met the stillborn sister his parents never mentioned and a grandfa- ther he never knew. Word spreads about his visions and the media get involved, causing concern for local church leaders. Though the story can be taken as either reality or hallucination, director Randall Wallace loads the deck by showing Colton’s recollections of heaven — a paradise with billowing clouds, eternally young folks, and warbling angels. This is pretty much the cliché image of heaven that literature and movies have presented for decades, so it hardly seems as majestically spiritual as might have been intended. There are fine performances from Kin- near, Margo Martindale, and Thomas Haden Church, and young Corum is moving in his nonchalant descriptions of heaven. Even though this is a theatrical motion pic- ture, it has the feel of a “Lifetime” movie of the week with its mundane production values and ordinary locations. The two-disc combo pack contains Blu-ray and DVD ver- sions, digital copy, and behind-the-scenes Michael Peña stars as the dedicated labor organizer in ‘Cesar Chavez.’ featurettes. “The Angriest Man in Brooklyn” (Lion- sgate) stars Robin Williams as lawyer Henry Altman, who has a bad day every day. Always unhappy and angry at the world and everyone in it, Henry sits impatiently in his doctor’s office until he is finally seen (continued on Crossword page)