Review of Brooklyn (2015) by Ricky G — 17 Feb 2016

Saoirse Ronan is excellent as Eilis Lacey, a homesick migrant who moves from a small, intimate but struggling town in Ireland to bustling post-war Brooklyn. There, a sea away from her family in a world that was still very big, she discovers herself through the love of others.

Despite the film's title, don't expect to see a lot of Brooklyn, as the movie was made on a puny $10 million budget. Its lighthearted nostalgia for mid-20th century values may not appeal to some, but I found it to be a refreshing change from the themes of this year's other Oscar contenders (sexual abuse, corruption, and violent edge-of-life survival in other worlds).