This is a pleasant enough Japanese animated film about Kun, a young boy who has to cope with the arrival of a cute, baby sister named Mirai. Kun is jealous of the new baby's monopolization of his parent's limited attention. He's also quite imaginative, and the film has time binding scenes of all the characters as their past, present and future selves. Sometimes it is hard to separate Kun's often scary fantasies from his supposed reality. The version released in the U.S. was dubbed, and the vocal actors were adequate. However, watching the subtitled trailer, I think I would have preferred the film with the original voices. Still, the 2D animated visuals were splendid, especially when the film opened up from the family home, and followed Kun on a terrifying, run-away adventure. This is a singularly insightful anime that presents a psychologically accurate depiction of childhood that may be more suitable for adults than for kids.
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On Her Shoulders 2018
Nadia Murad and her family were members of the non-Muslim Yazidi religion living in north Iraq, whose mountainous territory was taken over by ISIS in 2015. Many Yazidis were executed, others taken into sex slavery, others escaped, only to be stuck in internment camps. Natalie did escape from the life as a sex slave, made her way to Germany, and became a spokesperson for her oppressed people. Along with a translator, she visited various countries and spoke at the United Nations, where she effectively argued that her ISIS tormentors should be tried for genocide. This documentary follows Nadia for three years as she bravely rose to the occasion despite yearning to just return to her land and farm. The film plays long, and necessarily a little repetitive. But ultimately it is an emotional affirmation of a true hero and the rightness of her cause.
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Period. End of Sentence. 2018
India is one of the most patriarchal societies on earth. For eons, menstruation has been a taboo subject; and women have been shamed and shunned for having their periods. This short documentary tells about a group of women who got together to manufacture and sell sanitary pads that were superior to what existed before in the country. For the first time in their lives, many of these women were actually making money. This turned into a victory of sort for women's liberation in a society that subjugates women to their husbands. The film is uplifting, educational and heartening. Not a film that enthused me in particular; but still an important message film.
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In a Relationship 2018
Actually, despite over trying, this is a rom-com that does for millennials what the brat pack flicks did for boomers. I only watched this because a friend turned me on to free Hoopla library rentals streamed direct to my TV because he knows I'm a Michael Angarano fan...and it actually worked! But the clever dialog, the sparkling young cast, and the ridiculously modern relationship zig-zags made me a fan of writer/director Sam Boyd's navel gazing script.
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Hale County This Morning, This Evening 2018
This impressionistic documentary feature film takes the viewer through a 77-minute magical mystery tour of Hale County, Alabama, a predominately African-American small town backwater teeming with life. Film maker RaMell Ross concentrates his adventuresome camera on two young men and their families, tragedies, triumphs and travails. Daniel is an energetic athlete, obsessed with basketball and the chance of bettering his lot if he makes the team in his first year at Selma University. Quincy (and his wife Boosie) are a young working class family, with an energetic 3-year old daughter and twins on the way. Ross's camera captures this nuclear family's quotidian life with all the fidelity and enthusiasm of social media representation...complete vignettes of lives lived filtered through an observant, but non-judgmental camera.
Film maker Ross uses his camera in inventive ways, sprinkling time lapse fast action and slo-mo sequences throughout, often separating sound from picture to the point of confusion. This is "Koyaanisquatsi" film technique for the digital internet age. But there is a problem here: the filmic techniques overpower any narrative throughput. I found the lack of signposts and identifications annoying, and the scattershot editing made it difficult to focus on and make sense of the individual sequences. The film sprinkles some poetic titles to explain some scenes; but they are substantively opaque and not very useful for comprehending what is being shown on camera. Another problem is with the rural Alabama accents...I literally couldn't understand much of the dialog. Subtitles would have helped. The bottom line here is that this is a uniquely creative documentary for out times; but it just seemed too random and unfocused for my tastes.
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A Night at The Garden 2017
In February, 1939, 20,000 Nazi sympathizers met in New York City's Madison Square Garden, to celebrate America First, gesture en masse the familiar one-armed heil salute, and beat up one (probably Jewish) demonstrator who tried to storm the stage. It was a horrifying event in a dark time, starkly shown in B&W footage shot at the rally that evening. But in some awful way all those fanatical white faces gathered together resembled a present day Trump rally, a concept to send shivers down the spine. The documentary short lasted only 8 minutes; but even in that short time, it made its terrifying, almost unbelievable, point.
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My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes 2018
Recently I've been giving out 5-star reviews of documentary shorts on this year's Oscar short-list like it's no big deal. But it takes something special for me to award my highest accolade...although all four films that have rated that high deserve it for vastly different reasons. This film is only 14 minutes long. It's a very personal look back at the director's strained relationship with his policeman father who passed away in 2008 when Charlie Tyrell was 20. The film uses incredibly inventive fast cut graphics, and a narration of interviews with Tyrell's mother and siblings, to flesh out his father's life of stress and parental abuse. By doing this, Charlie is also weaving an intimate autobiographical tapestry of his own development as a film maker. The result is an emotionally shattering experience, the likes of which I've rarely had watching a documentary. Many years ago, my friend and fellow film maker Frank Mouris won the short film Oscar for his own graphic retelling of his life story: Frank Film. It was a masterpiece. And this Canadian film, watched through salty tears, had the same impact, even if none of Charlie's dad's ancient porno VHS tapes were ever part of the actual narrative.
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Charm City 2018
[C]harm City is the name of the poorest sectors of Baltimore, especially centered on the crumbling infrastructure around Rose St., the heart of the drug infested African-American ghetto. This documentary covered various sectors of the populace there: the overwhelmed police, the overwhelmed community organizers, the overwhelmed city council, and especially, the overwhelmed victims of institutionalized neglect and everyday violence and murders.
The film played like a tragic combination of The Wire and the long-running TV series Cops. However, for all its well meaning message, the film itself was poorly structured, an almost random series of varied horrific sequences shot over a three year period and strung together with no discernible editorial plan. Still heroes emerged: an elderly organizer named Mr. C, who inspired youths to good works; a 30-year old city councilman determined to solve his constituents' problems; a woman police captain struggling with lack of resources leading to 12-hour shifts. But still, after all, the drugs and guns are winning; and this viewer felt overwhelmed himself watching it go down.
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Los Comandos 2017
El Salvador is a war zone: gangs of terrorists fighting against each other and the army. The non-affiliated youths are especially troubled, many of them seek to emigrate. This beautifully shot documentary short tells the story of The Comandos, a group of about 3,000 yellow uniformed young people who volunteer to operate ambulances and brave the mean streets of the capital, San Salvador, helping people at great danger to themselves. We see their plight through the eyes of a 16-year old girl named Mimi, who cannot attend high school because of threats from gang members; but who volunteers daily to do duty as a Comando. She does this despite one of their numbers, a young boy, who was shot and killed by gangs in the offices of the group. The boy's parents were also threatened; and the Comandos helped them move from their barrio, and possibly emigrate. These victims, fleeing from terror, are the very people the U.S. government is currently denying asylum to. The film is technically superb: fine action cinematography, beautifully edited. 30 minutes of courage and heartbreak.
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Lifeboat 2018
One of the most intractable problems worldwide is the mass migration of refugees by boats in the Mediterranean from Africa and the Middle East to Europe. Many drown; and it is only getting worse by the year. This documentary short was shot off the coast of Libya, from the point of view of an outspoken rescue boat captain. The film captures the rescue of several boat loads of these desperate people, many of them escapees from a Libyan internment camp. There are interviews with some of these refugees, along with heart breaking close ups of pitiable children and drowned bodies. This has been the subject of several (and better edited) documentaries in recent years. Still, through superb cinematography, the message of the desperation of these boat people and the humanity of the rescue missions came through loud and clear.
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End Game 2018
"Death is a part of life" is the message of this superb, emotionally shattering yet hopeful documentary short. The film covers the end of life experiences of a handful of San Francisco dying patients and their families. Every aspect of the film is well done, especially, the choice of patients. An Iranian woman, her husband, mother and young son and their voyage through the process of end stage cancer in the hospital will break your heart. But the film also explores the activities in a Zen hospice, and the choice of home palliative care. It may be true that I am particularly vulnerable to feeling such a strong emotional response to this film (elderly, and having several times faced the death of loved ones myself.) Still, the film makers have made an objectively fine film, one that moves and educates the viewer in equal measure.
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Black Sheep 2018
Note: I might have rated this higher if the British accented dialog had had subtitles. I simply could not understand some of the narration.
This documentary short starts out with a close up interview in a stark setting, of a bearded black man named Cornelius, who is narrating the story of his youth in the 1990s. He recounts that after the racial murder of a neighborhood black boy, his parents moved the family out of London to a small town where the entirely white populace was demonstrably racist. The film then illustrates the story as he talks, with actors re-creating the events from his youth... where he was a victim of frequent fights, beatings and slurs, until, desperate to fit in, he eventually joined up with the very gang of ruffians that initially tormented him.
Some might protest that this is not a documentary at all, rather a clever synthesis of documentary and drama. But it has an undeniable ring of truthfulness, at the same time being a powerful indictment of English racism at its most corrosive. Apparently, the real Cornelius who is narrating on camera today got through his tough youth reasonably unscathed, although the film leaves a lot of questions unanswered.
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The Silence of Others 2018
Spain spent 40 years under Franco's fascist rule; and thousands of citizens were executed by the government, many left in unmarked mass graves. Also, the state encouraged a policy of punishing unwed mothers, by stealing their newborns and secretly placing them in the homes of families that supported the regime. In the year after Franco's death in 1975, the Spanish government ushered in an era called "The Forgetting," basically an amnesty for both sides. But in reality it was government legislating forgive and forget for the torturers and abusers of power in the Franco era, who were safeguarded from punishment by a blanket perpetual pardon in the courts.
This documentary tells the story of the spouses and children of the disappeared, who are increasingly demanding justice and the return of their loved ones' remains and information about their stolen babies. Since the Spanish courts and government refused their suits, they brought action in an Argentinean court for crimes against humanity. This is an important human rights struggle, that needs to be told and the injustices rectified, since many of these surviving victims are dying off. But the film spends a lot of time presenting its case rather dryly; and then reaches an emotionally powerful climax when a partial victory is achieved.
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’63 Boycott 2016
This short documentary recounts with vintage film sequences and contemporary interviews what amounted to an uprising in Chicago in 1963. It was an era when schools, even in the North, were completely segregated despite the Supreme Court decision Brown vs. Board of Education, which seemed only to apply in the South. In October, 1963 a coalition of forces closed the schools, marched and filled downtown Chicago with a peaceful protesters. Ultimately the results were disappointing. Even today the Chicago public schools are almost entirely black, due to white flight, private and charter schools. Still, as this film showed, the boycott was a spiritual triumph which did break down barriers. The film makers collected an impressive amount of visual material from the time, and edited it together into a stirring and uplifting documentary.
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The Mule 2018
Clint Eastwood is getting old, and apparently enjoying it. His latest (last?, hopefully not) film recounts the story of Earl, crusty nonagenarian horticulturist, who ignored his family for his job when he was younger. Facing ruin, he became a drug runner for the Mexican cartel, driving his loads of cocaine northward to Chicago from the border...over and over again. The film teeters on the brink of being too repetitive, losing steam. But Eastwood's canny character ("the only people who want to be 100 are 99-year olds") kept my interest and, to some extent, my involvement. Credit a couple of old hands in supporting roles, Dianne Wiest as his ignored ex-wife, and Andy Garcia as a fun loving drug lord, for adding some extra emotional weight. But the film belongs to Eastwood, and maybe his wise-cracking, tough old boy shtick is becoming a little tired.
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Aquaman 2018
The comic book film gods know I'm not a fan of the genre. But somehow this excessive, ear-splitting, eye-popping, roller coaster of a movie managed to entertain and involve me as few of these films have in recent years. Oh, the plot...a titanic, multi-front battle between half-brothers for dominance over the undersea world and ultimate conquest of the entire earth...was totally silly, unrealistic and predictable. But due to the convincing, state-of-the-art special effects, my jaded sense of wonder was engaged. Credit a fine, attractive cast...and especially director James Wan, whose previous work gave only a slight clue to his unerring sense of outrageous visual spectacle exhibited here. If the characters and costumes and acting styles sometimes strayed into caricature, or even camp, it just added to the size and scope of the spectacle. Only a terrible, inappropriate song score marred the otherwise flawless action sequences. Maybe this review is too effusive; but too many of these genre films lately have been disappointing. This one was a pleasant surprise.
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Mary Queen of Scots 2018
As a rule, I have an affinity for costume dramas about English royalty, so I was looking forward to this retelling of the familiar rivalry between the Scottish Mary and the English Elizabeth I. However, this film was particularly disappointing, adding little to previous films from the era, with the possible exception of Saoirse Ronan's steely take on Mary (the less said about Margo Robbie's gothic take on Liz, the better.) For most of the film, the script was a muddle of confusing court politics and sketchily drawn courtiers. Only in the predictable last act did I feel a frisson of emotional response (again Ronan's work) rather than unaccustomed boredom. Points for the costumes, hair styling and Elizabeth's hideous makeup. But those could only go so far to redeem this misbegotten drama.
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Ben Is Back 2018
The anti-Christmas, family Christmas movie. All the trauma of teen-age drug addiction without the high. Still, it's well acted, rang true, and, darn it, it got to me. For sure, I'm not a addict's mother...but Julia Roberts made me care, even as her tough love turned stupid. But what parent wouldn't want to rescue Lucas Hedges, he's such an inherently sympathetic actor? Respect for the film making; but I could have skipped the film.
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If Beale Street Could Talk 2018
This is a stirring indictment of the failure of the legal system for African Americans, based on a '70s novel by James Baldwin. It is set in Harlem in the early 1970s; but it could likely just as realistically apply today. However, for all its important message, I was profoundly disappointed by the film itself, which had stock characters played primarily by actors who just failed to convince me. That's all I feel like writing in this review.
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On the Basis of Sex 2018
This is a mildly disappointing, pro forma biopic about the early career of women's rights activist and pioneering female attorney (and future Supreme Court justice hero) Ruth Bader Ginsburg. One can't fault the cast, although Brit actor Felicity Jones seemed somewhat miscast as the youthful Ginsburg. It's also hard to fault the writing, which managed to invent some stirring dialog for her first, important appearance in appellate court on an important case (in Q&A the screen writer, a nephew of his famous subject, offered that after 7 years the transcripts of the court in question had been destroyed.) If I had to put my finger on why this film was ultimately so meh, it's probably due to its formulaic presentation of so many biopic tropes. In any case, Ginsburg's life story is worthy of several films...and this one was informative enough to merit viewing.
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Vice 2018
I'm a big fan of director Adam McKay's brand of cleverly subversive political satire. Here, abetted by an amazing cast led by the most protean actor in cinema, Christian Bale, he skewers Dick Cheney...the politician who failed upward as effectively as few in history have. It's a tragicomedy of manipulation and hubris by a shadowy world leader that needed to be told with McKay's stiletto blade, so effective that it is bound to be controversial.
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Destroyer 2018
An amazingly deglamorized Nicole Kidman was the entire ball of wax in this policier thriller. Don't get me wrong...the time binding plot, which turns back upon itself several times, was also intriguing and involving. No plot spoilers from me. See it, if only to admire what Kidman does here...reminiscent of what Charleze Theron did to her image in Monster and equally deserving of an Oscar (although for some reason this performance isn't getting that sort of traction.)
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Andy Irons: Kissed by God 2018
Andy Irons was a surfing champion from Hawaii, dyslexic and bipolar...but gifted with almost supernatural skills on a surfboard. He ruled the surfing world, winning three world championships in a row in the early 2000s. This documentary tell his life story, a saga that is both thrilling and cautionary, triumphant and tragic. For Irons died at age 32, having dissipated his talents with drugs and hard living, but still obsessed with finding the biggest waves and winning the next surfing championship.
The film contained a generous amount of good surfing footage, well shot. But the meat of the documentary was the commentary by his parents, his competitive younger brother (also a surfing champion), and his beautiful wife, 9 months pregnant when Irons passed away, victim of congestive heart failure. He was on the road in a Texas hotel at the time, desperately trying to get back home after aborting one last surfing contest. I guess that's more of a spoiler than I usually give in my reviews...but Irons was a celebrity, and his life was well covered by media. But the film succeeded in going beyond the scope of a mere sports documentary, instead emotionally involving the viewer in Irons' life behind the scenes; and it was a surprisingly moving and cathartic experience to go there.
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Reversing Roe 2018
This is a hard hitting issue documentary about the historic fight to legalize abortion, and the subsequent struggle in the courts and in the states to limit women's right of choice, or repeal Roe v. Wade entirely. While the film has national scope, it mainly focuses on some dramatic efforts in the Texas legislature to put increasingly stringent limits on doctors and abortion clinics, with far reaching consequences.
The film does a good job of presenting both sides in the debate. I'm not sure if this film will change minds on either side. That doesn't seem to be the point of the film, even though one suspects the film makers favor choice by their choice of who they interview and what they emphisize. Bottom line: this is an important film, timely and comprehensive. It's actually frightening how close the foes of choice are to finally prevailing and overturning Roe in this decades long battle.
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Amazing Grace 2018
In my considered opinion, there is a difference between the film making of a documentary and the subject matter. That has never been more evident than with this brand new release of a documentary that was shot in 1972 and had multiple technical and legal problems that prevented its being released until now. The idea was that Warner Bros., for a TV presentation, would shoot a live recording session of an Aretha Franklin gospel album with choir and audience at a church in Los Angeles. At the time, Aretha was at her youthful peak as a singer and pianist. In addition, Gospel singer Reverend James Cleveland would MC and contribute his talents to the ensemble. Choir master Alexander Hamilton would lead a large church choir to accompany Aretha. And several studio musicians would provide backup. The performances were, almost without exception, simply thrilling...even incandescent.
However, the film making, not so much. Multiple cameras were used without much coordination. As a former concert video editor myself, I really felt for the people assigned to edit all those cameras...especially since there were some technical problems with the syncing and sound mic quality. None of this was necessarily the fault of director Sidney Pollack (although he apparently thought the project was a failure and was not able to complete film before his death in 2007.) And to top it off, Aretha was not enthusiastic about releasing the film when it was finally finished in 2015 and sued, successfully, to keep it in the can. We'll never be absolutely certain why the singer wanted to deprive the world from watching her amazing talent at age 29, even as she was dying herself. However after her death, her family agreed to let the finished film be released.
Of course, it's worth having waited 46 years to watch this event, even if the film itself is something short of a polished documentary. Some divine spark was obviously present at that two-day recording session. And, despite all the technical problems and editorial compromises, the experience of watching the film does transmit the divine passion, even to a non-fan of gospel music such as myself. The world was owed this documentary, and now it is here.
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The Distant Barking of Dogs 2017
This involving documentary takes place in a small town in eastern Ukraine, an area where Russian partisans are in open revolt and the nights especially are filled with the sounds of war (the distant sound of dogs barking is a metaphor, but also a reality.) The film centers on Oleg, 10-years old. He is living with his grandmother...his mother is buried in a nearby cemetery. His best friend is his younger first cousin, and they play together and swim and fish in the nearby stream despite the nearness of the fighting. The only narration is provided by the elderly grandmother, who is determined to stick it out in her home, even as a neighbor has been decapitated by an errant missile. Oleg is a plucky, Huck Finn type boy. Even as the town depopulates, he still goes to school and explores his picturesque territory with his cousin and an older boy. The film really doesn't resolve anything...the war intermittently goes on, the family survives. The film is hopeful and hopeless all at once.
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Of Fathers and Sons 2017
German-Syrian film maker Derki spent two years in Syria disguising himself as a jihadist sympathizer while embedding himself within a family involved in an al-Quida affiliated group in revolt against the Assad regime. Abu Osama (a pseudonym) was the 40ish, bearded father of eight children, avowed partisan and fan of the Afghani Taliban. Of his children, we only follow the boys, never see the mother or girls at all. The father is a confirmed jihadist, who until an accident off screen which cost him a foot, was a sapper for his group, finding and disarming mines. The father's story in itself, his dedication to his cause up close and personal, would make in interesting documentary.
But this extraordinarily intimate and revealing documentary film also tells the story of his two elder sons, Osama, 13, and Ayman, 12. The former is a tough, scrappy kid, eager to don a uniform and ski-mask and attend a camp for budding terrorists complete with live-bullet exercises. The scenes in this camp are so vivid and well shot and edited that the film earns 5-stars for that alone. Ayman, on the other hand, has a scholarly bent; and the film follows him to school where he excels at math.
This one film discloses more about what goes into the making and training of young jihadists than anything I've seen before. It's frightening; but film maker Derki's sensitive, neutral, fly-on-the-wall camera also humanizes its subjects and really transports us into their world. This was the most important documentary I've watched this year.
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Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood 2017
Scotty Bowers is a remarkably fit nonagenarian, who left Illinois after serving as a Marine in WWII, moved to L.A. and became a benign pimp, handling a coterie of attractive young men and women without (he claims) taking a cut of their take. His HQ in the '40s and '50s was a Richfield gas station on Hollywood Blvd.; and his clientele apparently was made up of some remarkably famous celebrities, many of which he gladly, even proudly, names in the film. Not only names names; but the film is replete with photos and vintage home movie footage that is occasionally openly lewd. Today he is married to an elderly, homophobic chanteuse; and he remains an inveterate pack-rat with all his marbles. This would be pretty tawdry stuff if Bowers himself wasn't so charming, good-natured and disarming about it all. I lived at the periphery of all this at the time and knew nothing about Scotty's world, unfortunately. Some may find this cautionary and even shocking. I just enjoyed the juicy gossip from the horse's mouth.
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Eldorado 2018
Swiss film maker Imhoof has constructed a dual thread documentary. He tells one personal story from his childhood, where he recounts that in post-WWII Switzerland, his family took in a young, Italian refugee girl for a short time. The kids became friends, which lasted past her forced repatriation back to Italy, and her death while still a child. Imhoof then compares in parallel stories this old familial tragedy to the current Mediterranean centered refugee crisis, where many African and mid-East boat people are attempting to escape to Europe while encountering almost inconceivable hardships. The film provides a pictorial overview of these people and their struggles. But, unfortunately, it doesn't do as good a job of personalizing the current victims as it does for his friend in the 1940s. The result is a rather confusing, muted overview of the current crisis that doesn't actually explicate the crisis or involve the viewer with any of the individual victims.
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Whitney 2018
This flashy, glossy bio-documentary tells the profoundly depressing story of Whitney Houston's meteoric life span. From childhood, her incandescent talent was obvious; and the film contains generous chronological examples of her undeniable singing and acting prowess. The film ambitiously intersperses these sequences with fast cut flashes of the contemporary social and political milieu to place her career and fraught relationships in a larger context. And then, like the metaphorical meteor, her fire gradually was extinguished through drugs and abuse. The film spares nobody in the process of detailing her decline. It's painful to watch. Yet, on balance, just being in her presence for the many highs of her career made the journey worth taking.
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Amer 2009
Watched in 2010 and reviewed back then:
This is a typical midnight film: a genre slasher film which is all overwrought style over any rational substance. It's the story of a girl, maybe schizophrenic, definitely hysterical, in three parts...as a child, teenager and young woman. She lives in a remote seaside mansion and deals almost totally without dialogue with inner and outer demons. I've got to give the film credit for its outrageously gorgeous widescreen cinematography...all supersaturated reds and blues. But to say I hated this film is an understatement...I have no affinity for this genre and kept wishing I was anywhere but in the theater being subjected to the artificially overamped terror tropes. Still, leaving the theater I did hear some complimentary comments from apparent aficionados of the genre who recognized some merit in the way the film comprehensively covered all the slasher film bases. -
Nothing Like a Dame 2018
Four octogenarian British actresses, all Dames, anointed by royalty, get together multiple times in front of Roger Michell's camera to reminisce convivially about their lives and careers. Frequent cutaways to past films and stage performances enliven the proceedings. And the three Dames, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Joan Plowright and Eileen Atkins are certainly worth spending time with.
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Communion 2016
This fly-on-the-wall, cinema verité style documentary follows a dysfunctional Polish family for a few weeks. The parents are splitting up, mom and baby mostly absent, father apparently out of work and often drunk. The family depends on 14-year old Ola to keep things together and get her (autistic? seems so) younger brother, Nikodem, prepared for his communion. The film occasionally leaves the claustrophobic apartment to follow Nikodem to school and church. And an ineffectual social worker occasionally shows up. The affect is chaos and empathy for a family in tatters.
The film making is pretty good, competently shot and nicely edited. But the questions arise: why this family? Why do I want to spend time with them? What's the point of the film? Honestly, I can't come up with an answer...and neither does the film maker by ignoring any backgrounding, explanatory material. What does impress is the desperate maturity of young Ola. And, Nikodem is a fascinating case study of high functioning autism, and how he deals with the world and the world deals with him. But even there, the neutral, objective camera just observes and fails to edify, leaving more questions than answers.
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The King 2017
This fascinating compendium of Americana is unlike any bio-documentary I've ever seen, a true artistic achievement in itself. Film maker Eugene Jarecki has turned Elvis's own late 60's vintage Rolls-Royce automobile into a metaphor for both a singular life and an entire era. The car, inhabited by a series of passengers ranging from Ethan Hawke to James Carville, to Alec Baldwin and Ashton Kutcher, to musicians of all stripes, to just plain folks...all with stories to tell...drove through the U.S. following the path of Elvis's life: from Tupelo, MS, to Memphis, to Nashville, to New York, to Hollywood, to Vegas. Interspersed along with this metaphorical journey, Jarecki edits in a vast panorama of Elvis's life in films and videos, along with commentary about American culture and politics by several astute pundits like Van Jones and Dan Rather. The result is a feature length, dream-like montage that is far more comprehensive and interesting than a mere bio-doc has any right to be. It's ambitious, and almost overwhelming. But what a singular achievement!
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Dark Money 2018
This documentary focuses on political contribution scandals in Montana and Wisconsin in the post-Citizens United era. But the film makes clear that the U.S. election system has been under attack by shadowy corporate money for decades. And the hard to pinpoint "dark money" sources are winning as electoral safeguards are corrupted and journalists are systematically stymied. The message here is of vital importance; but the film's structure and editing scheme is diffuse, partially diluting the impact of what is disclosed here. Still, anybody watching this film should fear for the future of the republic if Citizens United is not repudiated.
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Fahrenheit 11/9 2018
Once again, celebrity film maker Michael Moore shovels truth into the face of power. But what sinister forces in corporate America managed to get this documentary branded as a failure? It wasn't a failure. Michael Moore is like the canary in the coal mine, telling us that we're slowly dying, while offending us with our need to deny, deflect and hope that the political carbon monoxide from the 2016 election isn't coming to destroy our American way of life after all. Michael Moore's real sin is that he is not subtle, that he refuses to compromise with reality, that he's preaching to a constituency that isn't listening, that he's probably right and it doesn't matter. Who can blame people for giving in to their apathy, their paralyzing hopelessness? We ignore the many lessons taught in this film, sometimes intemperately, always passionately, at our peril.
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Quincy 2018
Quincy Jones was arguably the most vital and important figure in the past 70 years of the music industry...both as a talented musician and a great recording producer and executive. But this intensely personal documentary, co-directed by one of his daughters, actress Rashida Jones, was told in two simultaneous, chronological threads: the personal, life story (schizophrenic mother, several marriages, 7 children); and his professional career (one of only 18 worldwide EGOT winners, an octogenarian polymath still remarkably active.)
Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony...EGOT...one word tells why his professional story is so interesting and important in its entirety. But the personal story is also remarkable in its revealing honesty about what an artist, especially an African American artist, must have experienced through the years. Jones worked with several other great artists like Sinatra and Michael Jackson; and this film in a way becomes their story, too. But as fascinating as it all was, I felt it was just a tad overlong, trying to be too comprehensive, perhaps a touch too hagiographic. Does that really matter? My answer: resoundingly no. This man's titanic achievements were worthy of this comprehensive historical record.
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Studio 54 2018
The quintessential, trendoid, Manhattan disco of the 1970s is profiled, along with its two founders, in this entertaining, intriguing, and cautionary documentary. Not being part of the NYC glitterati, I never went to Studio 54 (although I did occasionally partake of the frenzy at the contemporary West Hollywood disco, Studio One). Still, this was a fascinating and remarkably non-judgmental look back at an era long gone, along with a large portion of its coterie of gay revelers who perished in the 1980s.
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Welcome to Marwen 2018
I went into this film knowing nothing of the plot except that it was based on a true story that had been told in the 2010 documentary film, Marwencol, that I had regrettably missed. I also knew that Robert Zemeckis directed it; and I suspected that this innovative film maker would have come up with something visually unique. I've decided not to try to summarize the plot of this fascinating film...prepare for some surprises, not always pleasant. But the visual dazzle was there in spades: state of the art motion capture animation alternating with matching live action, in a tour de force of special effects.
Steve Carell played the main character, an amnesiac, ex-soldier and conceptual artist named Mark Hogancamp. Carell did a fine job of playing both the real Hogancamp, and also a matching animated doll which populated a fantasy world arising from Hogancamp's PTSD, the result of a savage hate-crime beating that stole his memories. If that sounds complex, well it is. And occasionally I was discomfited by the fantasy elements, which were hard hitting and pressed some of my personal buttons. But I recommend watching the film anyway, if only for Zemeckis's brilliant visuals, and the heartening, triumph of the human spirit story.
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Minding the Gap 2018
This personal history documentary shows an intriguing, unsparing look at three skater dudes, their families and relationships over the course of several years. They grew up in what is reported to be the domestic violence capital of rust-belt America, Rockford, IL. All three were from broken homes, with abuse rampant. But above all, what kept them together as friends was their obsessive skill at skateboarding, that ever-so-American pastime. And also, the film making skill of one of three, Asian-American, Bing. There have been a few notable skateboard films in recent years, fiction and documentary. But Bing's prowess on the board, and his flawless action cinematography as he skated along with his friends, is in a class by itself.
But this film was far more than an action/sport documentary about skateboarding. Over the course of several years from age 14 on, Bing's film making took the viewer on a sociological excursion into the lives of his three subjects: gregarious, African-American Kiere, teenage father Zack (and his ill-fated relationship with his girlfriend, Nina, and their adorable baby son, Elliot), and the film maker himself, along with his abused mother and older half-brother. What differentiates this film is that the actual film maker was an integral part of the story...yet somehow managed to sustain a neutral objectivity about his subjects, including himself. The result was a remarkable snapshot of middle-America today, honest and insightful.
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Stan & Ollie 2018
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were a pair of mismatched comic actors who were thrown together by producer Hal Roach almost accidentally, and were at the top of the world of filmed comedy in the 1930s. But this film tells the story of their later days in the 1950s, when their careers had stalled, and they were doing a vaudeville like tour of Britain in futile search of backing for a new film. I grew up watching Laurel and Hardy films. Somehow they amused me, even if their act wasn't resonant with my experiences. Two fine actors, John C. Reilly and Steve Coogan, portray Ollie and Stan respectively...and they are both superb in capturing their magical stage partnership and getting to the meat of their disparate personalities. The script was sort of a predictable showbiz bio-drama, although the subjects were unfamiliar enough to be surprisingly revealing. However, the performances of the two leads made the film worth watching. This is one film that will work just as well on the small screen as in theaters. But its entertainment value, amusement mixed equally with pathos, is not at all small.
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The Price of Everything 2018
This entertaining and informative documentary examines the present state of the modern art market, from the Manhattanized point of view of several artists, collectors, historians, auctioneers and others at the periphery of the art world. Art has become a commodity, sort of like stocks and real estate, with multi-million dollar sales and reputations based on the value the market puts on the works of these artists. The featured artists ranged from clever, trendoid manipulators getting rich off of "lobby art," to authentic talents, and everything in between. The collectors ranged from speculators to real aficionados of quality. What I took from this fascinating examination of the current art world is that everything has a price that is separate and removed from their real value. And that a great deal of what may be valued masterpieces in the future are being sequestered in residences worldwide because their exorbitant prices in today's market preclude museums from competing in auctions. Bottom line: I have never been a big fan of "modern art" even as I adore painting and sculpture as a viewer. But when this film took me into the world of some of the most famous of these contemporary artists, I came to appreciate their works more and more. For that, I'm glad.
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Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind 2018
Robin Williams was born to have a bio-documentary made about him. Fortunately the film makers here didn't fuck it up. Like Williams's stand-up act and his many film roles, this film took me on a journey from hysterical laughter to sobbing pathos without missing a beat. The film contained insightful interviews with family and friends, and they're without exception an interesting group. But what astounded me were the well edited filmed records of his lengthy career: his film, TV and stand-up performances. His was an amazing gift for improvisation...maybe the fastest quipster ever.
One way I measure the worth of a documentary (and I've watched a lot of them), is applying the formula: subjective time divided by actual film length. Less than one is a good film. Zero is an impossibly great film. I watched this film, looked up at the 117 minute end point and realized that I had lost the awareness of time completely. Documentaries are not meant to be entertaining necessarily, which is why show biz docs rarely win Oscars, which usually go to those films of world shaking import. But Williams couldn't help himself from being constantly on; and he hung out with friends and colleagues like Billy Crystal and Eric Idol, and Letterman and Whoopie who were nearly his equal. Despite the title, I'm not sure it would have ever been possible for this viewer to go inside Robin Williams's mind. But just the process of attempting to get there was enough.
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Wendy’s Shabbat 2017
For several years some of the the elderly Jewish residents of Sun City, in Palm Desert, CA, have been gathering together at the local Wendy's for Shabbat dinner under the guidance of a 97-year old, retired rabbi. They do the ritual prayers, share challah bread, and enjoy their hamburgers and fries, rave about the chili, and have a convivial Friday sabbath dinner together. This documentary short follows home several of these elderly people, mostly women, as they discuss their lives, feed their dogs, reminisce about their passed-on husbands. The film is concise and well made...the people are interesting, their $4 inclusive shabbat meal looks delicious. I happen to love Wendy's; and being an elderly Jewish man, myself, I could totally relate to this film. Maybe one of these days, if I happen to be passing by, I'll just drop by the Palm Desert Wendy's and celebrate shabbat with this group.
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Voices of Kidnapping 2018
This succinct documentary short film tells the story of the family of kidnapping victims of FARC guerillas in Colombia...victims that have been separated hopelessly from their families for many years. It tells these stories with simple voice over messages of hope and love recorded by various families by phone or radio. The visuals are various cuts of foggy and dark jungle scenes with no embellishments. There is no resolution here, just plaintive messages about family doings and encouragement about government efforts towards a truce with their captors. The minimalism of words and visuals is effective, if ultimately not enough.
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RX: Early Detection – A Cancer Journey with Sandra Lee 2018
Sandra Lee is a celebrity that I'd never heard of. She's on the Food Channel, and is the partner of the governor of New York State...not areas normally within my purview. She is also a beautiful, late-40s woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer after a routine check-up. Turns out it was relatively early detection; and within two weeks of the diagnosis, she decided on a full mastectomy. She also decided to have her struggle with the illness be professionally videoed and told in this 39 minute documentary short. Her harrowing, but positive story is told in chronological order, nicely shot and edited. It's a gripping saga; but [spoiler] apparently she pulled through. The film represents a valuable plea for early detection; and her boy friend, Andrew Cuomo, was in the position to get legislation passed that helps New Yorkers get free breast cancer screenings. Yay, Andrew! And Ms. Lee was brave to undergo all this suffering under the camera's scrutiny. Yay, Sandy! Seriously, it is an important good deed when a celebrity decides to deglamorize their image, and use their fame for the benefit of all.
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The Last Honey Hunter 2017
This documentary short subject explores the exotic mountains of Nepal, and villagers who go to extreme lengths to harvest a somewhat poisonous, medicinal honey from hives perched on incredibly dangerous cliff sides. There is a strange and mystical element to this process, which is revealed with some astounding aerial cinematography and interviews with the endangered collectors. This is an intriguing example of worldwide natural history exploration by intrepid film makers.
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They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead 2018
I watched this intriguing documentary about the making of Orson Welles's previously unfinished and unreleased last film, The Other Side of the Wind, immediately after watching that film. To construct this insightful history, film maker Morgan Neville edited together out take from the vast amount of footage that was shot over 30 years ago, along with media coverage of the imposing genius himself during his final years, and interviews with survivors of the aborted, lengthy shoot. Especially intriguing were the interviews with the two actors who played the same subsidiary role in the film, Rich Little, who was replaced by Peter Bogdanovich, and whose scenes were haphazardly re-shot months and years later. There was enough drama and intrigue involved with the actual production; but I wish that more emphasis had been placed on the process of finding and re-constructing the finished film (which only partially worked for me as I discussed in a separate review.) I guess that will have to wait for the extras on the Blu-ray special edition. One final note: the documentary needed more identifying titles for the many people interviewed. I was left with many questions unanswered.
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The Other Side of the Wind 2018
Don't misunderstand my rating...there is much to admire about this film that has been cobbled together from previously lost footage shot over many years and directed by the authentic genius, Orson Welles. There are sequences of stupendous inventiveness, especially in the "film within the film" that was supposedly directed by the fictitious director, played by John Huston as a thinly disguised avatar of Welles himself. But that fictitious, ill-fated love story was only about a third of the finished film.
The rest tells the story, in verité documentary style, of a frenetic 70th birthday party for this world-famous director on the day he commits suicide. And this party sequence, and the presentation of all the surrounding events, are a mess. It's something of a miraculous mess, however, as the accompanying documentary about the making of the film (They'll Love Me When I'm Dead) made clear. Portions of entire scenes were shot haphazardly over years; and were mostly extemporized by the large cast. But, frankly, I was always aware of the mismatches and fractured narrative of these scenes. Most of this documentary-ish 2/3 of the film was terrible: poorly shot, poorly acted, edited as best as it may have been possible from the original material, but terrible anyway. I know my reaction is a minority one based on reactions here on letterboxd. But the film maker in me simply could not get past the technical flaws. Welles was a great film maker; but I doubt he would actually have released this film as is. Which is probably why it was never finished in the first place. Still, for all that, the current release does fill an historical imperative to finally see what was achieved, flawed as it is.
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Infinite Galatea 2017
This 17 minute French documentary short film details, utilizing the extended metaphor of Pygmalion creating Galatea, the role of the vagina and its robotic surrogates in modern life. Or something like that. I'll admit that despite the incredibly inventive and detailed visuals (or perhaps because of them), I just wasn't into this film at all.
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Crown Candy 2016
This 10 minute documentary short examines the operation of a century old confectionery and lunch counter, Crown Candy, that is a St. Louis institution. The film was shot in Easter season; and creating and selling Easter candies is a particular specialty (along with serving scrumptious BLT sandwiches in the lunch room.) It's told from the point of view of the owner/manager, a white man whose store is in an increasingly upscale black neighborhood in a city that has been wracked with racial tension in recent years. I was impressed by the editing, making good use of fast-cut montages and totally organic voice-overs. This is a fine example of an issue documentary that also serves as a revealing slice of modern day Americana.
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Travel Ban 2018
This documentary follows the careers and the acts of a series of minority stand-up comedians (many of them of Islamic faith) working the comedy clubs and radio/TV interview circuit in Los Angeles. It's not often that a documentary actually makes me laugh; but this one did, frequently and happily. Much of the humor comprised quips about how these men and women were handling increasing religious tension since 9/11, and riffs on such post-Trump depredations as travel bans and immigration problems. I was surprised by how few of the comedians were familiar to me; but, in any case, this entertaining and timely documentary was a fun watch. And it may even open a few closed minds, and effectively help improve contemporary society with humor rather than rancor.
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Cold War 2018
This tragic love story covers the first 15 years of the Cold War period. Zula (a radiant, memorable performance by Joana Kulig) was picked to be a performer in an inaugural Polish folk singing/dancing troupe formed in 1949 to make cultural tours advancing the Party's objectives. Pianist and conductor Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) initially led the troupe until defecting to the west in 1952. Zula and Wiktor slowly fell in love, something of a Romeo & Juliet type affair that spanned time and countries, always with the political specter of Cold War ideology coming between them.
The film was shot in gorgeous B&W, in the old-fashioned, traditional 4X3 aperture...giving the impression of a throwback to pre-1950s film making. The compositions within the frame were perfection; and the film was filled with thrilling re-creations of the traditional Polish folk music entertainments. However, for all the technical mastery, I felt somewhat removed from relating emotionally to the characters and their ill-fated affair. Maybe this was a minor flaw; but it made a difference in the way I reacted to the story. For me, the film just nearly missed being a great film, despite its surface perfections: an artistic triumph that was short on soul.
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Ruben Blades Is Not My Name 2018
I'm pretty sure that Ruben Blades really is his name; and the film isn't exactly clear why it has this title. In any case, Blades is a Panamanian patriot (once ran for President of that republic), whose major reputation is that of a major salsa singer/musician. He has also been an actor, one of those familiar supporting faces in more than 30 films. And remarkably, he won a law degree from Harvard as a youth. This bio-documentary tells his story, mostly in his own words, spoken on camera in various situations, in Panama and mostly in New York City, where he usually resides. His message is that he wants to leave for posterity a vestige of his real self, artist and man. The film comes off as half vanity project and half fascinating, observant documentary. In any case, even for an observer such as myself, who has no background in listening to and appreciating Latin salsa music, Blades's performances on film were revealing of what I have been missing. He's a talented song writer and singer, as the sub-titled Spanish lyrics of his songs reveal; and for that this film was definitely worth the watching.
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Restoring Tomorrow 2017
This documentary is the story of the restoration of the impressive, but time-damaged, Wilshire Boulevard Jewish temple in my neighborhood of west-central Los Angeles. The domed building was originally built in 1929; but time had dealt harshly with the infrastructure. The film maker, Aaron Wolf is the grandson of one of the major rabbis of that temple; and he has made a fine tribute to tradition and his heritage. I really should recuse myself from writing further about this film. I've become a secularized Jew since adolescence; and was never associated with this temple (although my mother was confirmed here in 1933; and I always was aware of its existence and importance to the community.) Let it suffice for me to say that I was immensely moved by this film, by director Wolf's personal involvement on screen, and the superb quality of the film making. The film is more a commercial for L.A. establishment Judaism, and an appreciation of the costly effort to reconstruct this remarkably beautiful edifice, than a real documentary of universal import. Yet, watching it made me thankful for the reminder of my deep personal roots into the city and area of my current habitation. Nice job, Aaron Wolf. I love your film.
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Of Love & Law 2017
Japan is mostly a culturally homogeneous society, which institutionally denies the rights of minorities, even when the basic law is more lenient. This documentary examines several cases taken on by Fumi and Kazu, two gay lawyers from Osaka, who are in a loving relationship that is still not normalized in their country. The causes they're fighting range from a woman manga artist whose representational vagina creations are considered obscene, to a couple of people born out of wedlock and denied registration papers, to the laws prohibiting same-sex couples from becoming foster parents. As a couple they live on the fragile edge of society, despite supportive family; as lawyers they are fighting the good fight and often winning, despite the odds stacked against them. This is a feel-good documentary that actually educates the viewer about Japanese culture and basic human rights.
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Monrovia, Indiana 2018
Documentary film maker Frederick Wiseman has a shtick: find a subject, and then exhaustively shoot footage up, down, and around the subject. Finally, edit it all together without any sort of explanatory narration, or even a discernible editing schema. And make it lengthy. Amazingly enough, this usually works to produce a revealing tapestry that somehow isn't boring.
This film travels to rural and small town Indiana, about as Midwestern and white bread Americana that one can still find today. It is Trump country, and Jesus country, and livestock country, and tractor country, and Masonic country, and old folks shooting the breeze country. It certainly has no similarity to my own coastal urban country. But darn it, his simple, nicely composed, stationary camera becomes an effective and neutral witness to life itself...beautiful, banal, smart and above all interesting life. Even the piglets being sent off to slaughter, and the invisible lady passed on to Jesus with a touching, if overlong sermon, and the town council regretting unplanned growth, and the Rotarians debating the budget of dedicating a library bench, and dozens of other scenes all cut together randomly...somehow cohere into a living, breathing whole. Wiseman is a documentary auteur...nobody else makes films so instantly identifiable as their personal work. More power to him!
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Killer Bees 2017
There is a tradition of documentaries about high school basketball teams, leading back to the granddaddy of the genre: Hoop Dreams. This year's example is about a small, racially mixed, high school situated on the wrong side of the tracks in the wealthy suburb of the Hamptons, on Long Island. The Bridgehampton Bees have a tradition of sending champion teams to the New York state tournament. But what can a documentary do if [spoiler] the team just falls short of making state, the school is perpetually on the brink of being closed by the wealthy newbee settlers, and the families of the mostly black students are being priced out of the area? The answer for the makers of this documentary was to rely heavily on the players and coaches as human interest stories, and to spice up the coverage of the games and the season with superb montages. This isn't the greatest sports documentary to come down the pike; but it was diverting enough and actually made you care about the "Killer" Bees of Bridgehampton.
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John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection 2018
First of all, tennis is my favorite spectator sport, and has been for several years. I love that it is an individual sport which rewards strategy and smarts as well as athleticism. So I was looking forward to watching this documentary. Sure, John McEnroe was never my favorite player. His spoiled child tantrums on the court were an embarrassment; and I usually rooted against him. However, this film is is not really about John McEnroe the person. Nor is it really about tennis, per se. Rather it is a dry, almost scholarly study of the psychology of what makes a tennis champion by examining with exhaustive 16mm film footage McEnroe's actions on the clay court of the French Open tournament over the course of his early career. The sequences were presented with a sound track heavy on punk rock, which fit perfectly McEnroe's temperament...and some poetic French narration that at times was just too intellectually French to comprehend.
The film has some of the same flaws as the game: it goes on too long, it's boringly repetitive, and only really is gripping in the final game or set (the film culminates with full coverage of the fascinating and exciting championship match between McEnroe and Lendl in 1984.) Finally, one learned a lot about the subtle nuances and mental processes on the court through this close, single match study of the actions of one of the greatest players to ever pick up a racquet. But it was just too little and came too late in the film for this viewer, who had mostly lost interest before the film actually started to work.
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The Heart of Nuba 2016
Occasionally a documentary comes along that checks all the boxes: about an important subject, of heart rending human interest, beautifully made in every detail, geopolitically impactful, grippingly dramatic, and ultimately hopeful. This is one of those. It tells the story of Dr. Tom Catena, an American who is running the only hospital serving the million besieged inhabitants of the Nuba mountains in South Sudan. The Nuba people are being systematically terror bombed by Sudanese dictator and war criminal Omar al-Bashir...a situation in large part ignored by media, but direly in need of maximum exposure. Dr. Tom is a true hero, working under the most trying of circumstances, and providing an effective humanitarian service that is almost inconceivable. This film is gut wrenching, life affirming, challenging, inspirational, and truly important.
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Graves Without a Name 2018
This documentary commemorates the victims of the Cambodian killing fields with gorgeous present day imagery and stories of victims told by some survivors acting out Buddhist burial rituals. It was accompanied by droning French poetic narration; and I'll be honest, I couldn't finish the film. Perhaps on the big screen with more readable sub-titles I would have found it moving. Watching on video without having any memory of the director's previous documentaries on the subject, it was just a visually beautiful muddle of disconnected, monotonous dirges.
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Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes 2018
This documentary covers the career, and to a lesser extent the life story, of kingmaker and media guru Roger Ailes. In my opinion, he was one of the most evil Americans that ever lived; and he (along with his creation, Fox News Channel) is in many ways responsible for the political pickle the the U.S. is in today. But his story of great power and surprising fall (an important victim of the #MeToo movement) is fascinating and well told in this straightforward, chronological bio-doc that pulls no punches. The only downside was that I was forced to watch so many clips from Fox News and endure its personalities in action...something I've managed to avoid assiduously before now. At least this film managed to bring some perspective to that chore.
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Daughters of the Sexual Revolution: The Untold Story of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders 2018
In the 1970s and continuing through the 1980s, the 36 member Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders were a national phenomenon...actually for a time becoming more famous than the team itself. It wasn't sex, exactly. Due to the close supervision of "den mother" Suzanne Mitchell, the group had rules of conduct that were a reflection of the best morals of that era. This documentary tells the story of this group, utilizing interviews with many of the members (including the recently passed Ms. Mitchell) and filmed footage from the time. It examines the cheerleader phenomenon from today's perspective of the sexual revolution (which is something of a stretch.) The current documentary is informative; but I found the editing scheme of repeating multiple short interviews interspersed with short historic footage to be a tad repetitive.
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Bathtubs over Broadway 2018
The almost totally unknown phenomenon of the Industrial Musical flourished in the mid-late 20th century. Enormous sums were spent by such companies as Ford Motor to put on one-time, staged musical extravaganzas for their sales force and stock holders. Broadway talent was used to write the songs and perform. This documentary follows the quest of "Letterman Late Show" writer Steve Young, to track down and reclaim for posterity some of these shows and the people who took part. The current film is not only educational in describing this all but lost art form...but it is also witty, entertaining and beautifully produced (including an original reproduction of such a show which is, well, fabulous!) The nostalgia I felt watching this film actually brought me to tears...perhaps because [personal note] I,myself, worked to produce for Amtrak a film sequence for such an event without actually knowing what my film was for. Live and learn. But what a wonderful way to be taken into this hidden world.
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Shirkers 2018
This is an entertaining, impressionistic documentary about the making of a [terrible] [amateur] [labor of love] [historic] [picturesque] [unique] [pick any or all of these] super 16mm "new-wavish" feature film in 1992 Singapore called Shirkers. There is a background true story here of three teenage girls (including Sandi Tan, the present day film director), who were in thrall to George, their film teacher and mentor, who had some strange control issues. The film was shot and then stolen by the mysterious George, who disappeared, taking the unedited film cans with him. Upon his death over 20 years later, the intact footage appeared as if by magic; and this documentary revisits the people involved and sort of re-creates the film that might have been. It's all fun to watch, even educational in terms of how not to go about making one's first film.
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Mary Poppins Returns 2018
The Disneyesque live action musical, lavishly combining animation and real actors in real sets, is alive and well in this modern sequel to the 1960s era musical film Mary Poppins. The songs aren't quite as memorable as in the original film (the genius of the Sherman Brothers is sorely missed; but Marc Shalman's work is adequate for this era.) But the production design and technical wizardry of the animators are quite amazingly realized. I wasn't enraptured, and the story seemed a tad pro forma and overlong. But I expect this will be a resounding box office success and a real audience pleaser.
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The Favourite 2018
The early 18th century English court of Queen Anne is ravishingly brought to life in this remarkably visual period film. Anne (a wonderfully mercurial performance by Olivia Colman) is under the political and sexual influence of two rival women cousins, urbane Sarah (Rachel Weisz) and deceptively cunning Abigail (Emma Stone). The men of the court are mere adjuncts to the women of power, especially the Whig leader, played as an effete dandy by Nicholas Hoult, and Abigail's dashing boy toy played by Joe Alwyn. But the real star of the film is director Yorgos Lanthimos's incredibly lush and detailed production design and his inventive wide-angle lens camera work. Lanthimos has been known in the past for the satirical edge to his films starting with Dogtooth. But here he adds to the satire a much more subtle and serious game of court politics, weaving an altogether satisfying and educational tapestry.
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Widows 2018
This is a moderately entertaining and sort of inventive heist film, which reverses the usual suspects making them four women, widows of a set of thieves who lost their lives during a daring caper. I'm qualifying my praise, since once again screen writer Gillian Flynn fails to provide a script which logically holds together by the climax. The mixture of genres: crime, women's liberation, Chicago local politics and racial strife...into a fetid stew didn't quite work for me. However, the superb cast (watch Viola Davis and her stupendous wardrobe light up the screen), plus McQueen's assured direction almost save the film, and certainly make it watchable.
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Green Book 2018
The story is based on a true event and real-life characters. Back in the early 1960s, a low-class white man was hired by a high-tone black musician to chauffeur and bodyguard him through a performance tour of the American South. Despite its troubling pandering to modern racial stereotypes, the film succeeds because of a pair of superb performances and a fine and realistic depiction of its time and place. Tony Lip was a thuggish bouncer and family man of Italian extraction from the Bronx. Danish American actor Viggo Mortensen gave a truly great, transformative performance in the role. Don Shirley was a superb jazz and classical fusion pianist, an educated, gay black man who fronted a famed trio with two other white musicians. Mahershala Ali managed to reveal every aspect of this complex artist, including persuasively authentic musicianship. This is a shameless reversal of the formula that won a best picture Oscar for Driving Miss Daisy several years ago. But, darn it if it doesn't work as an audience pleaser the same as that previous film did. Credit director Peter Farrelly, working without his brother, for creating a slightly comic tone within a serious sociological depiction of America's racial and class divisions.
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Capernaum 2018
Thanks to the impeccable casting of the two kids, one a tweener runaway, the other a lost toddler, this Lebanese exercise in miserableness and corrosive, underclass poverty was gripping and heart wrenching. That's all I am going to say about it other than the film put this apathetic, over-privileged viewer on empathy overload.
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Donbass 2018
This contemporary Ukrainian film tells a series of unconnected vignettes about what is happening in the nation's east, where Russian partisans have formed a separatist nation state called Novorossiya, and fomented a civil war that is more propaganda than destructively violent. The varied sequences range from vaguely interesting to politically incomprehensible. But despite my ignorance about what was happening, I had to admire the film making which was kinetic (great steady-cam camera work), and vividly realistic (the project had a documentary feel to it.) Still, it went on too long and I had to stifle the desire to flee the theater.
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Eternity 2017
Ostensibly a downer film, about an old couple living in isolation in the Peruvian Andes raising sheep and a llama. They are subject to every challenge to their lifestyle possible. Yet, somehow it managed to be a beautiful, human story despite its constant barrage of despair. I can't say I enjoyed, or even liked this film...but it was artfully shot, the mountain scenery was striking, and the characters were memorable.
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Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald 2018
Can extraordinary sound and visual special effects make up for a plot so lacking in exposition and coherence that it becomes a bombastic muddle? The answer from this viewer is no...but nice try.
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The Ballad of Buster Scruggs 2018
The Coen brothers attack the Western mythos with an anthology of six unrelated stories in varied western styles (the "singing cowboy", the "wagon train west", the "sympathetic outlaw", "gold rush prospecting" etc.) The film utilizes some really great actors, a different ensemble for each sequence. And the wide scope of the production and cinematography are splendid. But the quality of the plots varied from spectacular (a wagon train love affair featuring Zoe Kazan and the future star Bill Heck), to weird (itinerant quadruple amputee entertainer played by Harry Melling and his handler Liam Neeson), to uproarously entertaining (Tim Blake Nelson as the singing cowboy), to boringly talky (an ensemble cast pontificating in a stagecoach.) Bottom line: not every sequence works; but the total effort is enjoyable and brings new life and relevance to the Western genre.
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Sunset 2018
Great production design: pre-WWI Budapest is brought to life with amazing fidelity and huge scope. However, the direction is really quirky...emotionless close-ups, long sequences of just following the main character from the back as she walks through the scenery. But the background story, apparently about the unsettled political situation in the Austria-Hungary empire from the point of view of disaffected Hungarians, is murky and difficult to follow. The main character is an orphan from a successful merchant family of milliners, who returns from exile to reclaim her heritage. At least the women's hats on view are spectacular. But by the end of the film, this attentive member of the audience just was left in a quandary about the plot and what actually transpired.
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The Front Runner 2018
In 1988 Gary Hart was leading in the polls to win the Democratic nomination for U.S. President. He was unusually charismatic for a politician, with sex appeal (i.e. great hair) that gave him the celebrity of a star in an era when integrity was still politically valued. Hart's hubris and Casanova nature eventually brought him down. His fall, in retrospect, the first politician victim of celebrity journalism, resounds today with a certain quaintness, reminding the audience of how different the U.S. was 30 years ago. This film got the political milieu of a Presidential campaign just right. However, maybe because Hugh Jackman, a fine actor, was miscast as Hart...he couldn't quite reproduce Hart's unusual sex-symbol aura of the time...the film just failed to resonate as a true depiction of what happened and why.
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Never Look Away 2018
Kurt was an artistic young boy in pre-WWII Germany, when his older sister was eliminated by the Nazis as a mental illness defective. She was sent to the gas chambers by Kurt's future father-in-law, gynecologist Professor Seeband (Sebastian Koch), not precisely an accident because after the war, Kurt became involved with Seeband's daughter, Ellie, (Paula Beer) who had an uncanny resemblance to Kurt's sister. That is the background for an epic study of life in post-war East and West Germany, centered on developments in mid-century art through the development of an artist of genuine genius. Tom Schilling is one of the few 36-year old actors who can realistically portray the age range from 17 to 30, and do it with intelligence, good nature and a convincing portrayal of artistic temperament. The film runs more than 3 hours; but kept my interest in the characters and their stories throughout...perhaps because I was swept up in the fascinating scope of modern art in Germany that was surveyed so successfully by the superb production. But more than that, this was a beautifully made film...cinematography, score, acting, direction all first rate.
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Jirga 2018
An Australian soldier commits a crime (of conscience) in the Afghanistan War fighting. Thee years later he returns to the country, risking Taliban capture, to make amends. This simple film is an almost biblical parable of contrition and redemption. Despite its simplistic message it works...mainly because Sam Smith is so convincing in the role of the ex-soldier. But also because its "simplistic" message is heartfelt and valuable in today's divided world.
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Bohemian Rhapsody 2018
As rock biopics go, this one seemed tentative about the details of lead singer Freddie Mercury's life (but not coy about his bisexuality)...and the other characters were more sketchily drawn (although the acting throughout was at a high level.) But this film was less a real biopic than a convincing performance spectacle. And the band Queen was arguably the most charismatic performing band ever. The film re-created the feelings and thrills of several Queen concerts and recording sessions with superb syncing of action with the musicianship of the original tracks. The result was edge-of-the-seat rock concert energy in a movie theater. I wasn't a huge Queen fan at the time; but Rami Malek's portrayal of Mercury was so strong that I became one for this film.
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Boy Erased 2018
This is a based-on-true-life story of a gay teenage boy (a solid, if unemotive performance by Lucas Hedges) living in Arkansas, whose Baptist preacher parents sent him to a camp, ostensibly devoted to a 12-step like program of gay conversion therapy. Australian actor/director, Joel Edgerton played the head brain-washer...aided by fellow Aussi actors Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe as the something less than benign, but still loving parents. Interesting subsidiary roles as fellow campers were played by Xavier Dolan (who can't help but be an on-screen hottie), Troye Sivan and Britton Sear, as the obligatory, overweight victim. Also, Joe Alwyn and Théodore Pellerin (two of my favorite young actors) played Hedges's boyfriends. As is evident, this is a really splendid cast. But I couldn't help but feel that the script wasn't quite hard-hitting enough about the techniques used by these pray-away-the-gay organizations.
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What They Had 2018
Yes, this is another family drama about the ravages of Alzheimer's. Yes, we've seen this before and what more can be added. Well, to quote Tolstoy: "each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." However, in this case, a superb cast and heartfelt script made me feel every tragic moment as if it had happened to me (and, of course it did in the case of my recently departed mother and her 25+ year decline.) I was especially impressed by Robert Forster's portrayal of the crusty father, too in love with his dangerously declining wife (Blythe Danner, completely convincing) to let her go. Hillary Swank provided spine in the pivotal role of younger daughter, estranged by absence but temporarily returned to the fold with her teenage daughter (Taissa Farmiga). And Michael Shannon as the dutiful older son gave his least mannered, most controlled performance in years. Kudos to writer/director Elizabeth Chomko, who pulled this cast together after winning a major script writing prize in 2015.
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Suspiria 2018
Splendid production design, interesting acting and dancing. Yet I have rarely sat through a film I detested more. But that says more about me than the film, which I expect that some will find worthwhile as artistic cinema. Horror is the one genre I try to avoid, since I know it isn't for me. But this film isn't exactly a horror film...I don't know what to call it except confusing and cringeworthy. I knew better than to watch the 1977 Argento directed version; but director Luca Guadagnino was too much a favorite auteur for me to pass this up. At least his visual brilliance with the material and his faithful re-creation of late-70s Berlin was enough to make the film watchable, despite my feeling of disgust at the film's underlying message of witchcraft run amok.
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The Happy Prince 2018
Nobody plays the post-prison, exiled version of Oscar Wilde better than Rupert Everett. Maybe he was born to play the role. Too bad he wrote and directed this film, too. It's dark and without wit; talky but often unintelligible; prurient but unsexy; tragic, yet strangely dispassionate. But it does serve to resurrect Wilde's rightful place as the first great and martyred gay hero.
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The Marriage 2017
This is a contemporary story centered on a gay man, living in Kosovo, who spurns his long-time male friend/lover to marry a woman. The film is well acted; but the script and direction have many problems. 1) Motivations are confusing, and are never made clear. 2) The timeline is scattered going back and forth from past to present with few guideposts to figure out where we are in the story. 3) The film is shot verité style, with a constantly moving hand-held camera that is disorienting and distracting. 4) Other than the 3 main characters, the subsidiary characters (parents, friends) are sketchily drawn to the point of being annoyingly opaque. Bottom line: I connected with the story personally, but felt alienated from any identification with the characters as written.
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Girl 2018
Lara (a mesmerizing, complex performance by Victor Polster) is a teenager living in Belgium, from a supportive single-dad working class family (father, sympathetically played by Arieh Worthalter, is a taxi driver). She was born a boy; but has been on hormones to adjust her body to future sex reassignment surgery. In the meantime, she is admitted to ballet class, to further her passion to become a ballerina. This is an often difficult to watch, but likely quite accurate psychological portrayal of teenage transsexualism from the point of view of a troubled, but determined 16-year old. First time director Lukas Dhont shot much of the film in stark close-ups of Lara, as she mutely struggled to conform her changing body to that of a girl dancer. Personally, this cisgender gay filmgoer has never felt such identification with a trans character, so convincing was Polster's performance. But that identification came with a price...intense discomfort while watching parts of the film. But, on balance, it was worth it, if only for appreciating the amazing performance by the lead actor.
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A Private War 2018
Marie Colvin was a celebrated war correspondent for the Sunday London Times. This large-scale biopic follows her danger seeking career from her interviews with the Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka in 2001 which led to losing an eye in a grenade attack, through her coverage of Desert Storm in 2003, the Libyan revolution, and finally her heroic expoits covering the Syrian uprising and destruction of the besieged city of Homs. Rosamund Pike played Colvin with steely, courageous bravado...quite an achievement. Colvin was accompanied by photo journalist Paul Conroy (Jamie Dornan looking great, but sort of receding in the role compared to Pike's strong performance.) The war footage throughout was well directed and seemed quite authentic. However, the film just failed to emotionally involve me, even as I was admiring the details of the production.
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Wildlife 2018
This resonant family drama takes place in small-town Montana in the 1960s. Jeanette (Carey Mulligan) and Jerry (Jake Gyllenhaal) have recently relocated there with their quiet, observant 14-year old son "[just plain] Joe" (Ed Oxenbould). Jerry loses his job as a golf pro, becomes depressed, and eventually volunteers to go fight a hugely destructive forest fire in the area...leaving wife and son to struggle in his absence. What follows is a beautifully acted chamber piece of a family dissolving before our eyes...told mostly from the point of view of the boy, coping with his parent's marital breakup and his own ongoing adolescence. The script rang true, with each character's inner life projected through silent moments of revelation. Novice director Paul Dano's touch is low key and actor focused; but he does manage to portray the era and the Big Sky countryside with fidelity.
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Sobibor 2018
Sobibor was a Nazi concentration and extermination camp situated near the Polish/Ukraine border. This film shows in excruciating detail some of the horrors committed by the guards leading to an uprising and mass escape. The film was never quite clear about the nationalities and languages of the inmates (a mixture of Poles, Ukrainians, Russians and Jews.) And, frankly, the character development among the prisoners left a lot to be desired, mostly archetypes to the point of clichés. But the film was crystal clear about the sadism and inhumanity of the Nazi characters and their black-uniformed collaborators.
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Wonderful Losers: A Different World 2017
This documentary tells various stories of the participants in the bicycle race Tour of Italy. It focuses on the non-stars, the members of teams who are useful as support troops for the leader who may eventually win the event (there's even an Italian word for them: "gregarios". ) Also featured are the medical teams who travel along the peloton giving aid to riders injured in accidents, who are usually back on their bikes and suffering. The film has some good action photography; but this is really mostly of interest to fans of the sport. It's pretty grueling to watch.
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Roma 2018
One of the most accomplished directors in cinema history, Alfonso Cuarón, reached into his own life experiences as a child to tell the story of an upper class family living in Mexico City in the early 1970s. Except, he told the story from the point of view of the family's native live-in servant, Cleo (superbly played by Yalitza Aparicio, bilingual in Spanish and her indigenous tongue.) That isn't to say that a central focus isn't on the family: strong mother driven to financial difficulties by the desertion of her unfaithful husband, four young children (3 boys and a girl), and elderly grandma. But the salient plot points concern the life of the beloved, loyal servant. I'm offering no further plot spoilers. Just watch the film. It is an exquisite upstairs-downstairs character study.
However, I'd like to add some observations. Cuarón chose to shoot the film in wide screen B&W, which was a brilliant way to evoke the nostalgia for that period of his life. Cuarón was his own cinematographer here; and, seriously, this was the most artfully shot film I've watched in years (perhaps some of this was due to pre-production discussions with Cuarón's usual cinematographer, the great Emmanuel Luberzki, who bowed out from shooting Roma due to a work conflict.) This is a director who has made a career out of creating visually unforgettable scenes (for example, one of the most amazing tracking shots in the history of film in Children of Men, and the most realistic space-walk ever in Gravity). But this film was comprised of one memorable and impactful scene after another...e.g. a heart-clenching beach rescue, a heart-breaking still birth, lonely jet planes flying high in the sky going who-knows-where, realistic portrayals of riots and the cult of toxic marshal arts. But more than anything, Cuarón's script highlighted his affection for and appreciation of the devoted young girl who, even more than his parents, apparently raised him. This was a stunning act of love which affected me deeply.
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Mid90s 2018
Stevie (played by the slight and cocky Sonny Suljic) is a skater-dude wannabe 13-year old, growing up in L.A.'s westside in the mid-1990s. He's living with his overwhelmed single mother (Katherine Waterston), and getting beaten up regularly by his overbearing 17-year old older brother, Ian (Lucas Hedges, playing sort of dumb, sort of gay...anyway, not all there.) However, Stevie starts to hang with a bunch of older teens who congregate at a skateboard store and skate and party and generally shoot the shit. What follows is basically Stevie's plucky coming of age story.
The film was written and directed by comic turned serious actor Jonah Hill. Hill has chosen to shoot the film in 4X3 aspect super-16 film, looking as if it was shot on the fly, but actually quite interestingly photographed, with many stationary long shots alternating with steady-cam action tracking shots. He's cast the film mostly with amateur actors, chosen for skating prowess more than their acting chops...but still gets some fine, profane performances from the entire ensemble. He accompanies the action with an amazing soundtrack of pop music contemporary to the period. The affect is utter realism, true to its L.A. setting and time.
I can only compare this with another indie released earlier this year: Skate Kitchen, a similar story following a group of skateboarders, only in that case girl skaters doing their wilding thing in New York City's Hell's Kitchen. However, for me, Hill's film is superior in every possible way to that film, better written, more vivid, with more compelling characters. Or maybe I just prefer to watch skater dudes more than skater chicks. Bottom line: this was an amazing, auteur-like debut film from Jonah Hill as behind the scene film maker. I can't wait to see if he manages to parlay this into the kind of action film making career that another comic actor, Jon Favreau (Iron Man) succeeded at.
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Maze Runner: The Death Cure 2018
It's hard to believe that a script could have so many logical flaws and still be watchable. Barely. Attractive cast, fairly good special effects, some nifty action sequences. Thankfully, there won't be a 4th film in this series.
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The Cakemaker 2017
Oren was an Israeli man, married with a young son, who has been sporadically working in Berlin. Despite his love for his family back in Israel, he fell in love with Thomas, a younger German man who was a skilled baker at a tony confectionery. In an unlikely series of events, Oren died in an auto accident, and Thomas relocated to Jerusalem where he got involved (mostly professionally) with his ex-lover's widow without her knowledge of his prior involvement with… more
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Winter Flies 2018
Immature teenager Hedus (Jan Frantisek Uher), hooks up with fellow student Mára (Thomás Mrvik); and the two embark on a runaway lark through the Czech countryside in Mára's stolen Audi. They pick up a hot chick hitchhiker, and somehow magically survive for a while foraging and scavenging. The film combines road-trip and semi-comic youthful anomie into a rather fun adventure story that always threatens to go off the rails into disaster and never quite does.
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The Angel 2018
Carlos (a sensuous, scary performance by the beautiful young actor Lorenzo Ferro) was a 17-year old sociopath in 1971, a burglar and serial killer from a middle-class Argentinian family who became a media sensation in real life. He fell in with schoolmate Ramon (played by Chino Derín, son of famed actor Ricardo Darín) a handsome, wannabe celebrity from a criminal family. They set off on a life of crime together, reminiscent in some ways of the crime spree couple from Terrence Malick's Badlands.. The film implies, rather than implicitly states, a homosexual component to the relationship. In any case, the angelic appearing Carlos's wanton criminality was convincing and frightening. And Ferro's physical allure and androgyny made it all the more fascinating.
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Birds of Passage 2018
This film is an epic depiction of the marijuana trade by indigenous tribal families in rural Colombia during the decades from the late 1960s through early 1980s. It's told in five "stories" centered on a budding native drug lord, his advantageous marriage combining clans, his success as conduit between the local growers and the gringo purchasers, and his struggle to remain morally upright despite the fatal corruption of the drug trade in that era. Huge in scope, with remarkable cinematography and a script which delivers horrific violence and soulful human interactions in equal measure, this is an ordeal to watch, but also an artistic triumph.
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Watch Dog 2018
Despite, or maybe because of, an energetic, demented performance by young Canadian actor Théodore Pellerin, this dysfunctional family crime drama was hard to watch. Two brothers (the sane one played by attractive Jean-Simon Leduc) become involved as enforcers in their Montreal family's protection racket. But the complex, warped family dynamic (alcoholic mom, gangster uncle, mental illness and hints of incest) gets in the way. Ugh! But I won't be forgetting Pellerin's crazed performance anytime soon.
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Shoplifters 2018
There is no better director of child actors in world cinema than Japan's Hirokazu Kore-eda. This film, like that director's superb 2004 Nobody Knows continues his study of children lost in the underclass milieu. In addition, this is an audacious look at an unconventional "family" of scofflaws...ambiguous, and ultimately moving.
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Free Solo 2018
In this thrilling, viscerally affecting documentary, "free solo" rock climber Alex Honnold defied death (not a spoiler, thankfully) in climbing the famous 3,000 ft. granite face of Yosemite's El Capitan in a little over 3 hours. "Free solo" means climbing alone, without any protective gear, no ropes, only naked hands and feet and enormous gumption (or foolhardiness, or a death wish.) The film followed Honnold in his preparation for the feat (aided by another famed climber, Tommy Caldwell, whose 2015 "free climb" of another, once thought impossible route up the same monolith, was featured in another grueling documentary released earlier this year, The Dawn Wall.) The current film also delves into Honnold's life off the climbing trails, his living in a van, his budding, tentative relationship with his girlfriend, his book tour, his celebrity.
I watched this film in a weekend double-feature with the other El Capitan climbing saga: The Dawn Wall. The films have some subject matters in common (rock climbing El Capitan and the people who partake in this crazy sport.) But Free Solo also extensively covered the processes of shooting a documentary like this, something missing from the god's eye, invisible camera viewing of the climb in the other film, which I found to be a distraction. For me opening up the film to the reactions of the various film makers was a definite plus. Also, there was a certain symmetry in bringing back the main subject of the earlier documentary, Tommy Caldwell, as an important supporting character in this film. It turns out that both Alex and Tommy are impressive examples of human scale, if obsessive, sportsmen. But, bottom line, this was the superior film, tauter, better edited, more involving for the audience. And the climactic footage of the climb itself was agonizingly tense, so intimate and well covered that I felt myself viscerally clench from vicariously sharing the experience. All I can say is wow! I'm glad I don't have the daredevil gene; but I'm very glad that some special people do and that I could go along with their adventures on film.
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First Man 2018
In what can only be called an anti-epic epic film, the superbly talented director Damien Chazelle tells the story of the reluctant, nerdy, family oriented, heroic icon, Neil Armstrong. After all, Armstrong was the first human to set foot on the moon, a secure place in history. But what do we actually know about Armstrong the person? Well, now we know from Ryan Gosling's unemotive, but humanistic, characterization a lot. Even more, his family life of tragedy and dedication to work was exposed by the incredible performance of Claire Foy as his wife, Janet, left to fret for a decade of potential tragedy with her two surviving children.
The film covered the entire decade of the 1960s, probably until now the most divisive, politically fraught decade of my lifetime. But it covered it from the limited perspective of NASA, and the obsessive, sometimes tragically fatal, single purpose of the moon mission. And it did that very well, including a superb reproduction of the moon landing and lunar surface that rang true in almost every aspect. It's only while earthbound, that the film sort of bogged down in the minutia of ordinary life. Even so, the film making worked for me: the super-16 film stock that had the Kodachrome tinted hard edge of the era added verisimilitude to the family scenes. The intriguing score that occasionally used eerie theremin wails reminiscent of 1950s sci-fi films; and the fine sound design incorporating theater-shaking sound effects that were a miracle of Foley work and recorded material taken from life...these were superbly realized. Yet it was all put together so low-key and anti-heroic that some will inevitably find it too slow and overly meticulous to hold up as an example of epic film making.
But not me. In 1969, I was a science nerd, with a lifetime interest in space travel dating back to my pre-teens (my fantasy when I started college in 1959 at CalTech was to live in the space station computing orbits for passing spaceships...a dream that eventually came back to earth since I couldn't even make myself fly in an airplane.) I loved the film for its attention to detail, for the vicarious feeling of being there that it transmitted so effortlessly. I can't help but feel that Chazelle backed off a little from hero making in the service of realism, to the detriment of success with today's younger audience who didn't live through it all. But at the time, I was glued to the TV set, along with following the entire panorama of space flight achievement; and this film was a fulfillment of a desire to know more about the reality of that effort that was totally satisfying for this viewer.
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The Hate U Give 2018
This is an engaging and emotionally evocative contemporary family drama that is also a timely, issue-oriented film based on the "Black Lives Matter" meme. Starr Carter (a star-making performance by young Amandla Stenberg) was an African American high-school student who witnessed the panicked murder-by-cop of her best male friend (charismatic Algee Smith) after a bogus traffic stop. Starr's father (Russell Hornsby), was an ex-gang-banger, who now owned a convenience store in a fictional urban ghetto (actually shot in Atlanta, GA.) The family still lives there; but has entered their children into a suburban, mostly white private school, where Starr has made mostly white friends (including her sympathetic boyfriend played by KJ Apa, the Kiwi actor who is currently staring as Archie in the TV show "Riverdale.") In a now familiar plot development, torn from recent headlines, the policeman's racially fear-driven, fatal shooting threatens to be whitewashed by the system, despite dashboard camera evidence and Starr's eye-witness testimony. This leads to demonstrations, rioting, and tragedy.
This old-white-guy viewer was forced to examine tribal attitudes by the effective script...and to be honest, I was both moved and convinced by the racial politics here. At every turn, the story threatened to overstep into obviousness and cliché; but due to the fine acting and George Tillman Jr.'s assured direction, the film stayed real. I may not like it...but in my gut I simply had to admit that my tribe was excoriated fair and square. For an issue film to achieve that result is both remarkable and admirable.
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The Dawn Wall 2017
In late December, 2014 a pair of intrepid "free climbers" (rock climbers who use ropes and paraphernalia for safety, but climb totally on their own unassisted power) spent 19 days on the heretofore unclimbably steep and treacherous "dawn wall" of Yosemite's granite monolith El Capitan. Tommy Caldwell had spent his life building up to this feat; and his companion, Devin Jogeson, was relatively new to the sport at this level. It isn't a spoiler to say they made it to the top...the climb was heavily covered by the national media at the time. However, the climb itself (and especially Caldwell's life story to that point) made a gripping and suspenseful documentary. And Tommy Caldwell came off as a true super-hero sportsman, both an obsessive and a genuinely nice guy.
But from my point of view, I was always conscious of the invisible cameramen, who obviously were on the journey, too. At every step of the climb I was aware of the sheer impossibility of the camera work, how intimate, how steady and professional was the coverage of these two men in their arduous, dangerous climb, mostly at night and superbly lit. Even more than appreciating the climbers, I was fascinated by what must have been happening off screen to shoot the amazing footage. The film making was almost as great an achievement as the climb.
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Filmworker 2017
Leon Vitali was an actor (unforgettable in Barry Lyndon), who hitched his star to director Stanley Kubrick after that film wrapped; and for the next 30 years worked with and for him. He became Kubrick's 24/7/365 slave, factotum, and all around filmworker assistant. This documentary tells his story, much of it in his own words in filmed interviews. But it also has genuine insights into the film making processes at all levels, and glorious footage from Kubrick's sets and from the finished films themselves. Vitali devoted himself to Kubrick with a dedication almost as great as Kubrick's innate creative genius. It came at great personal cost, as interviews with Vitali's children told. But over it all is the invisible spectre of Kubrick's obsessiveness, and Vitali's devotion to his job...as filmworker extraordinaire.
[personal note: To this day, I define myself as a "filmworker"...an unassuming, post-production jack-of-all-trades. So, watching this film, I felt a particular affinity for Vitali - a sympathetic resonance for what he went through and how successful he was doing it. I, more than most, can appreciate how important and unsung his contribution to the Kubrick mythos and oeuvre actually was. For me, this was fascinating stuff, even if told in excessive detail. Others may find it tedious in its details. But that is the essence of what it means to be devoted to art and one's career.]
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Licu, a romanian story 2017
Liviu (nickname Licu) Canter is a 92-year old Romanian from a middle-class family. He suffered through WWII on the run from the Soviets, then somehow survived the Ceausescu years; and now is surviving as a pensioner from his working years as an engineer. In this wide screen B&W documentary, he speaks directly to the camera...telling the story of his life in a series of interviews that are skillfully edited to weave a continuous narrative. Licu is a crusty old man, intelligent, verbal, and strangely likable. His story spans a large portion of the 20th Century in a country that had more than its fair share of disruption and conquest. If his story is self-serving, at least it has the ring of truth.
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Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable 2018
Garry Winogrand epitomized mid-late 20th century photo journalism. His obsessive shooting of street scenes in his native New York and later in Texas and Southern California, led to a vast body of interesting people tableaux (over a million 35mm photos taken, many never developed until after his death in 1983.) This documentary does a fine job of showing off his work, mainly in chronological order. But filmed footage of the man during his life was scant; and interviews with his wives and analyses of his work by various museum officials and art experts lacked depth. I'll admit that his vast body of photos are interesting and perhaps even important as a distillation of urban Americana during his time; but there are other photographers from that period whose output speaks more to me as works of art.
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Can You Ever Forgive Me? 2018
Melissa McCarthy proves that she is a versatile actor, playing the true-life, misanthropic writer and convicted memorabilia forger, Lee Israel. In this archtypal New York story, McCarthy is provided the perfect companion, amusingly fey, gay recluse, Jack (Richard E. Grant). For me this was a very entertaining trip into the sordid world of the 1990s gay and literary cultures. The film both satirized and edified this world through its completely flawed (but based on real-life) characters, who must do anything to survive with sharp wit and their incorrigible, antisocial behavior. I just couldn't help loving these totally unlovable characters.
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Beautiful Boy 2018
A father tries to deal with his 18-year old son's meth addiction and self-destructiveness. Interspersed are flashbacks to the adorable boy's normal upbringing. The script is so truthful and attuned to the Zeitgeist, that even a non-parent or a non-addict such as myself is forced to deal emotionally with the plight of the characters (based on real people and their autobiographies.) Or maybe not, since denial is a thing, too. But for me, the acting and the direction of the film took me on this trip to despairville with awesome verisimilitude. Credit especially Timothée Chalamet (and I hope he gets his Oscar, possibly for supporting actor). Not once did his descent into addiction hell deliver a false note. I wasn't quite as convinced by Steve Carell's dad. His anguish was a trifle one-note. But it served as a perfect counterpoint to Chalamet's immersive, convincing method acting. In my generation, a parallel story was well depicted in the 1962 classic film Days of Wine and Roses, also an example of film acting at the highest level. Bravo! to all concerned with the production of this harrowing, truthful, contemporary drama.
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A Star Is Born 2018
I'm recusing myself from reviewing this film. Knowing the story as thoroughly as I do (the '54 Cukor/Mason/Garland film was indelibly imprinted on my 14-year old brain, my first real cry in a movie theater), I spent most of the film comparing it to previous versions. I loved Cooper's and Gaga's take on their roles; and the music was...well...OK, except in comparison with the previous films' sound tracks (including the otherwise undistinguished '76 version.) There was a lot to admire about the cinematography, sound mix, sets, and the nicely edited, authentic concerts. But I remained emotionally inert...maybe not the film's fault, just mine for over familiarity with the plot. So I respectfully must decline to write this review.
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Crime + Punishment 2018
This is an issue documentary, illustrating that the New York Police Department, despite stated policy and laws to the contrary, still enforces mostly racially discriminatory arrest and summons quotas on its force members. It illustrates this by intercutting the various stories of the so-called NYPD12: a dozen police persons, mostly of color, whose careers have been curtailed by refusing to go along with this quota policy, and have sued the city and department. This is a vital issue which needs to be exposed; and the practice is still in some respects continuing. However, despite delivering some photographed "smoking guns," the film could have used a clearer, more concise editing schema to make its points.
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40 Years in the Making: The Magic Music Movie 2018
You've never heard of the soft rock group from the 1970s called "Magic Music"? Don't worry, you're not alone. They were an acoustic band made up of a group of harmonizing, male, hippie friends in Boulder, Colorado who did gigs on the university lawn and played opening acts for more famous touring musicians. But their anti-capitalist, back-to-nature attitude of the era led to their spurning the offered recording contracts; and eventually they broke up and more or less kept in touch with each other as they ventured into the real world.
Forty years later, documentary director Lee Aronsohn, feeling nostalgic for his college days, and having fond memories of the band, set out to tell their story and if possible reunite the group. The result is a fascinating look back on the chaotic era of the early 1970s, told with superb graphics, interviews with the surviving personalities, and plentiful performance sequences. But, even more, at least for this elderly survivor of the era, this was a surprisingly entertaining revival of a pleasing, pop music style that represents woulda, coulda, shoulda at its most revealing (in an alternate universe this band could have had a Grateful Dead kind of impact.)
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Family in Transition 2018
This is an Israeli feature documentary, about 71 minutes duration. It describes a family living in a small city in the far north near the Lebanon border: Amit and Galit, who married in 1999, and subsequently had 4 children, one boy and three girls. At some point a few years ago, father Amit decided that he wanted to transition to female, starting with harmones; and then undergoing the full surgery in Thailand. His children made the difficult transition to having two mothers, and his wife, Galit, cooperated fully, disclosing a lesbian side herself. However, after the transition, the marriage started to fall apart.
The film is told mainly from Galit's point of view, perhaps because hers was the more externally and vocally realized presence. Amit, throughout the transition, surprisingly, won the viewer's sympathy and the continued love of her children, despite her seeming inability to communicate her thoughts on camera. The film was made over the course of several years, and was shot chronologically in a verité style with no narration or editorializing by the film makers. It is a remarkably illuminating study of family dynamics during such a stressful occurrence, all the more remarkable since it comes from Israel, which still by law observes conservative, Jewish religious strictures.
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Skip Day 2018
The opening title of this doc short says it all, to the effect that the Monday after prom, several African American, south Florida high school seniors skip school and drive 60 miles to the beach for a day of...well...frolicking in the surf and chatting, mainly about college. Then they leave. That's it for 17 minutes of cinema verité film making. It's a nice day, the kids speak teen-speak that I could hardly understand. The camera and sound were technically proficient. But the sum effect was aimlessness.
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Saule Marceau 2018
This is a French short documentary, 35 minutes of boredom. Juliette, the film maker is ostensibly telling the story of Clement, her 30-something brother who grew up in the city, but is now eking out a living as a tenant farmer raising meat animals and always on the brink of bankruptcy. They decide to make a film together, a kind of Western with no discernible plot. Fragments from their aborted attempt are combined with a sociological treatise on the plight of the farmers and inhabitants of their rural French region. Director Archard narrated the documentary in a dry monotone. And the editing was...to be honest...amateurish and scattered would not come close to the truth. I think I get what she was going for: artistic impressionism breaking all the formal rules of documentary film making. But to say I disliked her experiment would be an understatement.
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Ignite: A Burning Man Experience 2018
This 18 minute impressionistic documentary short covers a recent Burning Man gathering and bacchanal. The film is structured as a rapidly edited experience, cut to a New Age, symphonic original score along with some overly florid narration, without natural background sound or sound effects. However, it is gorgeously shot and presented as a spectacle in wide screen format. The film maker used frequent drone shots, some rudimentary animation, and time lapse and slo-mo sequences to fine effect. If one knows nothing about Burning Man, the film won't provide the hows or the whys; but it does a good job of showing the people and the strange, psychedelic, mystical rituals which comprise this semi-pagan, hippie infused annual event in the Nevada desert.
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The Girl and The Picture 2018
This important and moving documentary short recounts the testimony of 88-year old Xia Shuqin, who as an 8 year old survived 3 bayonet wounds in her back, as most of her family were slaughtered in the now famous Nanking, China massacre of 1937. At the time, a courageous American missionary named John Magee remained in the city to give aid and succor, and also to record on his 16mm home movie camera the startling footage of the invading Japanese soldiers who ran wild, raping and killing over 300,000 citizens of the city. Part of that footage showed this little 8-year old girl and her 4-year old sister standing amidst the city's destruction and decomposing bodies, now identified as the surviving Xia and her younger sister.
The present day documentary was thematically presented as a letter written by Xia's grand-daughter to her now 7 year-old son, so that he will remember and pass on his great-grandmother's story to his own progeny. But it also was enhanced by the filming of a meeting between elderly Xia and missionary Magee's grandson, who had traveled from the U.S. to modern day Nanking to commemorate the event and present photos and films from the time (films that were instrumental in the war crimes tribunals in Japan post-WWII.) The result for this viewer was both educational and emotionally cathartic. The survivors of this atrocity are dying off, as are the survivors of my own ethnicity's Holocaust. And this film provides an important and positive reminder that at least these personal remembrances must never die with them.
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The Earth is Humming 2018
This 14 minute documentary short subject is basically an instructional film for the Japanese as to how to cope in an earthquake. That country has been epicenter for centuries of some of the most destructive earthquakes in history, so the film has great utility. Even for this Southern Californian who has lived through four major quakes (in 1952 as a 10-year old I was literally thrown out of my bed by a 7.7 quake centered 130 miles away), I can appreciate the learning experience. But the film itself was rather dry and didactic.
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The Old Man & the Gun 2018
Even as an octogenarian, Redford has never been more congenial and movie star charismatic. Spacek is a good match as the platonic love interest. This is a light-hearted caper film...ostensibly based on a true story written in a New Yorker magazine piece, but heavily dramatized to the point of incredulity. Casey Affleck plays a cop obsessed with catching Redford's bank robber...and I hope that #MeToo doesn't submarine his career because he's a special kind of naturalistic actor. I almost gave this an extra 1/2 star because I really did enjoy it. But the pacing was slow and repetitive, and somehow the script just failed to pay off.
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The Boy Who Never Came Home: A True Story 2018
In this 25 minute documentary short subject, an elderly grandmother tells her grandson a tragic story on camera. She had emigrated from India to England in the late 1960s. And in 1975 she took her five children on a trip to India for a funeral. There, her 4-year 8-month old son was hospitalized, and likely had his kidney secretly removed...a commonplace in India where stolen body parts are routinely sold for money to fill a steady need. The boy died and was cremated in India; and has been visiting the old lady in her dreams. The story is told in spare black and white, mostly interviews of the lady speaking in her native language, along with re-creations of scenes of the young mother and her child. The film is flawed by hard to read white subtitles that flash by in about 1/2 normal reading time. Still, this old lady's tragic story came through to a large extent.
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The Sisters Brothers 2018
This is a revisionist Western, taking place in Oregon and California during the gold rush era of the 1850s. Two outlaw brothers (played by John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix) go on a six-gun rampage working for a mysterious Commodore to steal the formula for a chemical that makes prospecting for gold incredibly easy and profitable. At least I think that was the plot. Despite some fine acting, and the visually striking direction of one of my favorite French auteurs working in English for the first time (Jacques Audiard), the plot never made much sense to me...too many unmotivated shoot-em-ups. I would probably have checked out early...except for the charismatic and witty performances by the two victims, played by Jake Gyllenhaal and Riz Ahmed. I love westerns; and Hollywood should make more of these very American moral fables. But maybe the austerity of the French interpretation of the genre was the wrong way to go.
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The House with a Clock in Its Walls 2018
This epic haunted house children's fable would have scared the bejeezus out of me when I was a kid in the 1940s. I would have hid under my seat. But these days, kids are made of sterner stuff, at least that was my observation from observing the children in the audience. But make no mistake, director Eli Roth's mastery of the creepy is very effective, even if leavened with a dose of good humor (Jack Black can't help himself) and superb characterizations (Cate Blanchett, no need to say more.) Extra credit for the realistic special effects, the knockout sets and production design, the eerie organ score by Nathan Barr, and a convincingly earnest 10-year old kid performance from Owen Vaccaro. Black magic and necromancy aren't my thing...but the script somehow made it fun.
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Science Fair 2018
Like the best sports documentaries, this entertaining examination of some of the high school students competing for the prizes in the International Science and Engineering Fair competition in 2017 established a rooting interest...only in this case for the nerdiest of nerds. But by illustrating the international nature of the competition, the film pointed to the discouraging fact that the United States is systematicaly de-emphisizing education in the sciences in the nation's schools compared to the rest of the world. In other words, we're going back to the know-nothing national mind-set of the 1950s, before Sputnik galvanized the nation to glorify intelligence, leading to the Moon landing. [personal note: I should know, I was a high-school junior in 1957 when Sputnik went up and the attempted launch of the American satellite Vanguard failed dismally. Suddenly "smart" and "science" were in, and the jocks weren't as powerful in the school hierarchy anymore.]
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Hal 2018
Hal Ashby was a superb film editor, when he embarked as a director on a remarkable run of 7 successive masterpieces of quirky personal film making in the 1970s. Then he became trapped by the increasingly corporate studio system, and was ground under in the 1980s with a succession of box-office failures. This documentary tells his story...not so much as a person, since he was not the sort to seek the limelight and died far too young. But rarely has a career in film been so well presented...with phenomenal editing of excerpts from his films, letters and interviews. This may not be the most successful documentary of 2018 at the box-office; but for film buffs, such as myself, this is an indispensable and even important addition to film lore.
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Life Itself 2018
A time-binding, cleverly scripted, extended family portrait, by the creative force behind the TV show This is Us. I was enthralled, shocked, moved to tears in turns; but mostly impressed by how original the concept was, considering that it was in such a time-worn genre, and general downer. If you want to read the worst film review ever written, go read Peter Travers in "Rolling Stone." Or don't, since his prejudices were evident and overblown. Life Itself wasn't a perfect film; and I'll admit that the flawed "unreliable narrator" shtick was carried a bit far. But I was involved with these characters from beginning to end. And that was enough.
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Colette 2018
This authentic Parisian belle epoque costume drama is surprisingly terrific, with splendid top of their form performances from Keira Knightley and Dominic West, portraying the real-life authorial couple Colette and Willy. The film is a remarkably faithful reproduction of its period (1890s France); but still has striking parallels and relevance to the modern day women's movement. Wash Westmoreland shows, once again, that he is a true auteur, with total control of every aspect of story and visuals. And for once, the lesbian content was so tasteful and artistically presented that I could relate to it as organic and not gratuitously salacious.
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Operation Finale 2018
Having witnessed on TV some of the 1960 era Adolf Eichmann trial, I thought I knew much of what led up to Eichmann's capture by the Israelis. Turns out, I really didn't know the details, which are exhaustively shown in this interesting, involving, and occasionally turgid docu-drama. It's clearly based on the memoir of one of the participants in the capture, Peter Malkin (played by Oscar Isaac with grit, charm and smarts.) And Sir Ben Kingsley was equally as impactful as the smarmy, self-aggrandizing Eichmann.
This wasn't a high point of director Chris Weitz's career, however. Despite the authentic, beautiful locations set in Buenos Aires, and a fine score by Alexandre Desplat, the film failed to rise above its predictable, repetitive script which didn't make any novel inroads into the traditions of Holocaust cinema (despite the continuous melodramatic digression into Peter Malkin's past, when he was traumatized by the execution by German soldiers of his sister and her children under Eichmann's command in WWII.) This was a noble effort whose dramatic effect was scuttled by its dragging middle section talk-fest that was set between the propulsive action of Eichmann's capture and his delayed kidnapping from Argentina. Worse, what impact remained was completely stalled by the perfunctory climactic courtroom scenes taking place two years after the capture.
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The Little Stranger 2018
This is a strange combination...as if post-WWII vintage Downton Abbey were made as a genteel, ghost-in-the-mansion, horror story. It does have a fine, if subdued performance by Domhnall Gleeson, playing a dedicated physician whose mother had served as a maid at the mansion years before, making this a story of class conflict in Britain. But that is secondary to the story of the upper-crust Ayres family (Charlotte Rampling, Ruth Wilson, Will Poulter), impoverished, in decline, and beset by ghosts from their past. The film had an interesting atmosphere of high-class decay; but ultimately it didn't pay-off on its premise.
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Papillon 2017
This harrowing, based-on-fact film tells the story of a French safe-cracker nicknamed Papillon (for his butterfly tattoo) who was framed for murder and sentenced to an indeterminate term at the hell-hole island prison off the South American coast of French Guiana. He is played here by Charlie Hunnam, buffed and charismatic as never before. Upon being shipped to prison, Papillon befriends a fellow convict, Dega (Rami Malek), who is rich, but weak; and offers to protect him in return for support in Papillon's inevitable escape attempt. That is the set-up for a pretty fair, well made film that for several reasons is getting a bad rap.
First, it's being compared to the 1973 Franklin Schaffner film, which is fondly mis-remembered as a classic undeserving of a remake. That film was good; and its stars, Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman are revered today. But the current cast is also quite fine. [personal note: I met Steve McQueen on the Goldwyn Studio lot back in the 1960s, and he was in person probably the most charismatic presence that I've ever encountered. Still, Charlie Hunnam isn't chopped liver...and the comparison as to acting skills is not a slam dunk in McQueen's favor. Malik doesn't quite match Hoffman, however; but it isn't a trouncing. ]
When one adds today's enhanced technology at re-creating the past era and truthfully representing the degradations of prison life back then, this remake doesn't seem so misbegotten. The film ends with a tribute to the real Henri Charrière, a nice touch. Maybe this version is a tad overlong and dramatically uneven. However, the original film was also long, as scripted by leftist hero Dalton Trumbo, who is given a "based-on" credit here, along with Charrière's own autobiography. But, honestly I could have spent a lot longer gazing at Charlie Hunnam's shirtless torso.
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The Bookshop 2017
This is a genteel, Dickensian story taking place in the 1960s era Northern Ireland. It concerns a relatively young widow (Emily Mortimer) who settles in a seacoast hamlet and buys an old home which she turns into a quaint bookstore. But she runs afoul of the town's grande dame (Patricia Clarkson, who's currently enjoying a run of subtly evil women characterizations), who abhors the idea of a bookstore, and wants to turn the derelict manse into an "arts center." Mortimer has one ally, an older man who is the rich, well-read, village hermit (Bill Nighy, in another superb role exuding a rare intelligence and goodness). The film is slow and old fashioned, and feels like a throwback to a more cerebral, mannered cinema of yore. But it is also beautiful to watch (the town is relentlessly picturesque), has great vintage costumes, and a succession of original, quirky characters. I've admired the films of Catalan director Isabel Coixet in the past (My Life Without Me is an all-time favorite of mine)...and she remains for me an auteur to follow.
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Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat 2017
This is a reasonably interesting documentary that shows the early artistic development of Haitian born, New York City artist Jean-Michel Basquiat during his late teen years (circa 1978-1981). Basquiat started out as an anonymous graffiti artist who wrote stories and simplistic drawings on various walls around the city. He was an unschooled artist; but assumed a valued place along with Herring and Warhol and several others (many of them interviewed in this documentary) in the art world. The film is well edited, with some amazing vintage footage of New York City from the period. Honestly, Basquiat's early work doesn't appeal to me; and the film really didn't give me any special insight into the young man's artistic process.
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The Fourth Estate 2018
I watched this fascinating, informative and important 4-part documentary series on Showtime this past June. At the time it didn't even occur to me to review it on letterboxd, since it was a TV series; and I think of this venue as a place to review movies. This series follows the activity of the newsroom and reporters at the ["failing" if you listen to Donald J. Trump's frequent tweets] New York Times during the year after Trump's surprising victory in the 2016 election. The editors and reporters gave the film crews unprecedented access to their processes, discussions, decisions etc. on their political beats during that vital year. Proving that truth can sometimes beat fiction, this was every bit as fascinating a story as the best of the newsroom fiction films of the past (for instance All the President's Men). And as a bonus, I got to know the faces behind the bylines (clever reporter Maggie Haberman, thoughtful editor Dean Baquet, and a host of familiar faces who show up as guest commentators on MSNBC.) OK, maybe I'm a libtard and obsessive long-time reader of the NY Times...so don't listen to me. But watch this great, beautifully shot and edited verité documentary anyway.
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The Sinner 2017
Why did Jessica Biel suddenly out of nowhere kill the boy on the beach? It takes a while to find out (8 episodes, actually). And when all was said and done the reason wasn't all that surprising. But as a psychological crime thriller, this one was better than average. And Bill Pullman's tortured, but obstinate detective was an original creation that justified the trip. By the way, he's back in season #2 with a different cast and plot...this time a young kid mysteriously murders an adult couple. So far, half way through, the new season shows promise; but it isn't quite as riveting a story.
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Salting the Battlefield 2014
The third and final chapter of David Hare's "Worricker Trilogy" spy thriller series for BBC and PBS. Johnny (Bill Nighy) and his companion Margot (Helena Bonham Carter) are still on the run, now in Germany, as they continue to plot the undoing of the corrupt British Prime Minister (Ralph Feinnes.) Judy Davis joins the battle as the clever spymaster behind it all. This concluding film drew it all together nicely; but it was a little bit of a talky letdown after the sparkling intrigue of the previous two films. Still, I can strongly recommend these films now available on Amazon Prime, for their smarts and wit, the timeliness of the politics, and the incredible depth of great casting.
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Turks & Caicos 2014
The second TV movie of a trilogy by David Hare, which tells the story of rogue MI-5 agent Johnny Worricker (Bill Nighy), on the run as he tries to bring down the British PM. For my money, this was the best film of the three...taking place on the tropical British island of Turks & Caicos in the Caribbean, and involving shadowy American money men, murder and intrigue. Helena Bonham Carter joined Worricker on the run as Margot, an old flame and ex-spy herself. Winona Ryder shows up as a mysterious femme fatal. And Christopher Walken is fantastically quirky playing a CIA agent involved in the same international intrigue that might bring down governments. The plot thickens. Hare's dialogue sparkles with wit and intelligence. This is how a spy thriller should be...all menace, but civilized; and without the fake accouterments of chases and violence.
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Page Eight 2011
The first of three low-key, sophisticated, spy thrillers written and directed by David Hare for the BBC and PBS. It starred Hare's alter-ego Bill Nighy as Johnny Worricker, a principled MI-5 agent who analyzed a dossier implicating the British Prime Minister (Ralph Feinnes) in a geopolitical scandal. He risks his career going rogue; and an intellectual chess match of intrigue follows him out of England as he sets out to play a subtle game to perhaps bring down the government. Worricker was the anti-James Bond; and this trilogy from earlier this decade turned out to be alarmingly predictive of current events stretching all the way to D.C. and the CIA.
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Ordeal by Innocence 2018
Occasionally overwrought, but totally involving, this 3-part BBC Agatha Christie adaptation tells the story of the murder of a family matriarch. As usual, everyone in the family has a motive to do the deed; and secrets are ultimately disclosed. Unfortunately for me, I guessed most of the secrets well in advance of when I was supposed to. And I pegged the actual killer very early. However, the upper-crust British atmosphere was well portrayed; and the nice cast, and skilled direction made the experience worth the trip.
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Goyokin 1969
I was privileged to watch on the big screen a gorgeous Panavision color film print of this classic Japanese samurai epic. It is the story of a ronan who extracts revenge on his former masters for the massacre of an entire village to hide an even greater crime. For my taste, the incessant violence was a little much...but it is an inherent part of the genre. Goyokin was the first Japanese wide-screen color epic...and there are massive visual set-pieces of extraordinary beauty and impact that fully take advantage of the technology. And the film print (borrowed from a Japanese source, and maybe the only surviving one in the world) was remarkably preserved, the colors as vivid as if the print had been struck today. There were no subtitles...but the film was shown with projected supertitles that were virtually indistinguishable from ones incorporated into the print. This is a technology long needed and useful, if it takes hold.
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BlacKkKlansman 2018
Equal parts racial history lesson and impassioned polemic, this film recounts the true story of Ron Stallworth (played by a game John David Washington, son of Denzel). As recounted in his published memoir, Stallworth was a black cop in Colorado Springs in the 1970s who, as part of a secret sting operation, infiltrated the local "Organization" (their code for Ku Klux Klan). He was aided in this impersonation by the pseudonymous "Flip Zimmerman" (another winning role by Adam Driver), his Jewish fellow cop, who was able to pass as a white supremacist. And to top it off, Stallworth/Zimmerman was inducted into the klan by none other than Grand Wizard, David Duke himself (Topher Grace, playing against type but quite effective.) Truth being stranger than fiction, yes?
Auteur Spike Lee leaves little doubt as to his feelings about America's history of racism (he even includes some of the most incendiary footage from D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, cleverly incorporating it into the narrative.) The film has a 2017 Charlottesville coda at the end which seems somewhat misplaced and on-the-nose, seeing that the film made its point quite well during its telling with counterpoint editing that dramatically contrasted the violence and malevolence of the Klan members and their black power resisters. I suspect this film will do very well come Oscar time...if the lengthy standing ovation at the screening I watched it at has any relevance.
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Crazy Rich Asians 2018
After all, it's just a rom-com, people. What do you expect? Well, maybe not the opulence, the perfect ensemble of actors, the costumes, the sets, the spot on direction, the script which plays with all the rom-com clichés and manages to be fresh and fun and identifiable for all the reasons listed above. I haven't had this much fun in a movie theater all year. Whew!
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Stan 2018
Stan Walker is a Kiwi heart-throb pop singer. He comes from a Maori family that for generations has been passing down a gene which, if present in an individual, causes an almost certainly fatal stomach cancer. In the 1990s, that gene was found; and a possible cure of surgically removing the stomach and attaching the esophagus to the intestines became a theoretical possibility. Stan's grandfather died in an early attempt at this operation. And Stan risked his career if he had the operation, since no stomach meant the diaphragm muscles used for singing might never work again. Still, he had the operation in 2017. This moving documentary tells Stan's (and his family's) story, of Stan's difficult recovery, and his struggle to return to the singing stage. It's a tribute to a strong family (Stan's mother has the gene, but none of his siblings); and even more a tribute to the resilience of a very talented individual and the human spirit that inspired him.
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Set It Up 2018
I got suckered by an article in "The Ringer" today touting this Netflix rom-com and its "movie star you've been waiting for": Glen Powell. I guess I'm still waiting, since I couldn't last more than 45 minutes into this "sleeper hit. " All I saw was a frenetic, office-based romantic farce, with smart characters doing dumb things. Better luck next film, Glen.
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Christopher Robin 2018
I wish I could say I loved this film. Innocence and old-fashioned, childish wonder should be its own reward. But maybe there is a limit to my appreciation of this sort of fantasy in this cynical age. I'm pretty sure children will love it, since it has magical elements of the Winnie-the-Pooh books that they'll relate to, despite its period English setting. But I, for one, was not taken in...bored by the simplicity and naivety of the message. And worse, unable to appreciate the technique of combining 3D character animation with live actors, since the layering of the effects was all too obvious on the big screen. I'm not sure why the technical aspects of a Disney animated film were so poorly achieved; but it was a constant distraction for me. So, if the beautiful cinematography and the charm of the 100 acre wood setting is enough to transport you, by all means go. I wasn't enchanted.
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The Darkest Minds 2018
It's not like I'm too old, or too elitist to enjoy YA sci-fi. I actually enjoyed the "Twilight" films, loved "The Hunger Games" and even got into the "Divergent" films. But this kids-as-mutants, dystopian allegory was just too dumb to actually enjoy. Sure the cast was OK, even if none of the actors actually stood out as a breakthrough star. The special effects were more than adequate...the wispy, smokey memory erasure f/x were even beautiful. However, the teen-empowerment plot, the hokey love story, and the naively fascistic politics were...well, simplistic and offensively unrealistic. I'd be shocked if the film found enough of an appreciative audience to merit continuing the series.
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Saving Brinton 2017
In 1981, a Washington, Iowa native named Michael Zahs claimed a discarded collection of films and memorabilia that was left in a local basement for disposal; and he pack-ratted it in storage on his properties ever since. The collection had originated from the years 1895 through 1908, remnants of the belongings of a theater owner and his wife, Frank and Indiana Brinton. Eventually Zahs convinced film historians to take notice; and one of the great troves of restored B&W and color films from the earliest known cache of such surviving material resulted (including some previously lost, priceless Georges Méliès special effects marvels.) This documentary follows the white-bearded Zahs as he discloses his find to the world, traveling to Paris and Bologna, among other places. But also celebrating the collection in his own town at the restored State theater, which is claimed to be the oldest, continuously run movie theater in the world.
Zahs' story is interesting, if a little extended and repetitive in this film. But the restored film clips from the collection are literally mind-blowing...frame by frame colored scenes of fabulous, inventive early film making, fantasy and comedy sequences that hold up amazingly well. For me, documentaries about the history of film are inherently interesting. This film may not be quite as superbly produced as last year's Dawson City: Frozen Time. But it is a worthy companion piece to that wonderful film.
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Recovery Boys 2018
Four young addicts, Jeff, Rush, Adam and Ryan are admitted to a West Virginia recovery program called Jacob's Ladder. It's a working farm, where nature, animal husbandry, plentiful support and strict substance denial are freely given for six-months. In the course of the documentary, we follow the struggles of all four to stay sober, to follow the 12-steps, to find a useful, drug-free life after the program, to lapse and relapse (or do a real recovery). Of the four, 2 1/2 apparently succeed in rehabilitating themselves. But on the way, their struggles are superbly and movingly caught by the invisible camera, with no narration, only superb cinema verité naturalism and a smart editing schema which skillfully intercut the four stories. This is an emotionally wrenching experience to watch; but all credit is due to the film makers. Rarely, if ever, has a film delved so successfully into the hearts and minds of substance abusers from the heartland of America.
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Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami 2017
Grace Jones is an interesting entertainer with a fabulous visual sense and a modicum of singing talent. But this documentary does her no favors. The film follows her to get-togethers with her family in Jamaica, plus performances and experiences in New York and Paris. The performances were well lit; but not particularly well photographed...and certainly not well edited. In fact, the editing of this film was confusing and lacked any coherent structure. This is a film only diehard Jones fans could love.
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Hot Summer Nights 2017
You might wonder how a poorly written, retro, teenage drugs-and-summer-romances saga could get a ♥ from me. One word: Timothée Chalamet. OK, that's two words. Sure, this film sat on the unreleased shelf for two years until Mr. Chalamet's star ascended the firmament. But it was worth the wait. Oh, there were other pleasures: a constant stream of 90's pop music that nobody ever has been nostalgic for. A promising, young English actor with a sometimes convincing Boston accent named Alex Roe, who exhibited some star quality as the hot, lunkhead friend. And, at least the cinematography was vivid and colorful. But a script with plausible motivations? Perish the thought! Hopefully Mr. Chalamet has a brighter future ahead than this film would indicate.
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Mission: Impossible – Fallout 2018
This mega-action thriller reached a new high in ridiculous scripting. Yet, somehow it worked. If it had been maybe a half hour shorter this would have been the best film of the entire series. But after the first 10 can-we-top-that-yes-we-can death defying chases, fights, shootings, near death experiences, actual death experiences, nick-of-time-clock-ticking-calamity-impending impossible events take place, a certain ennui sets in. By the final scene, I had hit the wall, a wall of incredulity even steeper than the cliff-side that Ethan Hunt (aka Tom Cruise, looking 20 years younger than his actual age) clung to at the climax.
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Haunted 2018
This documentary short is like an extended, competently edited home movie. The Norwegian director rarely visits his mother. But on the occasion of such a visit after his mother claimed to have seen a ghost man walk through her home, he shot and narrated this video of his mother's quotidian life and reminiscences. He intersperses his narrative with old home movies that were shot by his father...especially of his youngest brother who died at age 3 of a rare blood disease. I think the implication was that the long ago death of her baby haunts his mother to this day. But the film making lacked professionalism (although it had a resonant original score, at least); and it is hard to figure out why an audience would find this woman and her family worth such a study.
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Prince’s Tale 2018
Actor and dancer Prince Amponsah is a Ghana-born Canadian who was severely burned in an apartment fire in 2012. Both of his arms were amputated under the shoulder, and he was disfigured over just about all his body by burns. But he survived; and after a long recuperation returned to the theater. This heartbreaking but positive documentary short tells his story in his own words, accompanied at times by beautifully artistic footage of his dancing and uncompromising photography of the horrendous damage his body suffered. He's a brave and gentle soul who has managed to overcome his disabilities and thrived in a renewed career as an actor on the stage.
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The Black Mambas 2018
This documentary short covers a group of black South African women who are members of a paramilitary group called "The Black Mambas." These women patrol the national parks to fight poachers who prey on the wild animals...especially rhinos, who are prized for their horns. They also provide some of their members to local schools to educate young people about protecting animals and conservation of resources in general. This is a documentary about valuable people doing good, voluntary work. But my one reservation was that most of the dialogue and narration (by the women of the Black Mambas themselves) was in an accented English that, honestly, needed absent subtitles to fully understand. Still, the message was clear.
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The Wife 2017
When a film about grown-ups, played by elderly actors, and about themes that primarily concern the intellectual elite appears these days, it is as if Hollywood has been taken over by aliens. This is the territory of the obscure foreign film, the Bergmans, the Bertoluccis, only without the sub-titles. So it is with The Wife, a film so smart and literate that it doesn't have a place in today's American cinema. Or does it? When actors of a certain age whose talents have never been better showcased like Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce go at it with a vengeance as a long-time married couple with a corrosive secret...then maybe there is still a market for films of quality. That isn't to ignore the rest of the fine cast, or the superb 2-camera direction of Björn Runge. I was transfixed throughout. Oscar nominations for acting should follow...only why is this film being wasted on an August release?
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Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again 2018
I happen to love film musicals as a genre, even sequels of musicals. But this over-bloated, retro, ABBA based semi-operetta was a challenge to love. Yes, the script had an interesting parallel structure (two-timelines 30+ years apart, two matching heroines, two sets of attractive male consorts...or maybe even three if great-grandma Cher and her paramour, Andy Garcia, count.) Sure, both sets of casts had interesting, charismatic actors, even if I had trouble for a while differentiating the two ingenue leads, Amanda Seyfried and blonde-tressed Lily James from each other; and the actors playing each other at different ages in the two parallel stories didn't match up very well physically. However, the director went in for gigantic production numbers with a cast of, if not thousands, at least it seemed that way. In this case excess was just excessive. Bottom line: not as bad as it could have been...but I kept getting distracted by the many flaws.
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Son In The Barbershop 2015
Who could resist watching a 7 minute film with such an attractive actor as Donat [Daoutov] Kazanok on the poster? I sure wish I had ever had enough hair for such a fabulous haircut. However, the message of the film, involving a bilingual fake phone conversation, left me mystified.
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Three Identical Strangers 2018
Nature or nurture? That is the question this documentary really doesn't answer. But it is a fascinating exposé of a scientific experiment secretly carried out in the 1960s gone seriously wrong. The film starts with recounting how three diversely raised 19-year old boys discovered by happenstance in 1980 that they were identical triplets separated at birth. Their story became a media sensation at the time. The film uses re-creations and authentic home movie footage from the boys' childhoods, along with TV tapes and newspaper accounts from the boys' lives after they re-united. It adds present day interviews with surviving family and principal participants to try to solve the mystery of why these three boys, their families, and several other families of twins separated at birth were secretly studied for decades. Fascinating stuff, reminiscent in today's moral climate of the Nazi genetic experiments of Dr. Mengele. But we'll have to wait until 2066 when all the experiment subjects have died off to maybe find out the results of this secret twins study. But there's no doubt that the consequences of the experiment for the three boys (and other subjects) were profoundly damaging. If a major objective of great documentaries is to expose hitherto unknown scandals and malfeasance, then this entertaining, shocking, thought provoking documentary easily fits that bill.
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Eighth Grade 2018
It would be hard to come up with a plot for a film that has less personal relevance for me (a 77 year-old gay, childless retiree): shy 14-year old girl graduating from middle school in 2017, who is fitfully navigating the shoals of adolescence together with her naive, but concerned single father. The fact that I felt such a feeling of involvement and frisson of angst at the social problems of such a pimply faced teenage girl today is an amazing tribute to the script and direction of Bo Burnham (a gangling comedian totally unknown to me before this film), actress Elsie Fisher (a revelation in youthful authenticity), and Josh Hamilton (achingly earnest as a dad trying his best.)
This wasn't an easy film for me to watch. I'm far removed from the horrible trials of middle school; and 2017 is about as different a milieu for social interaction (the internet!, smartphones! etc.) from 1954 as it is possible to imagine. Still, I got it. Burnham and Fisher took me there: pimples and makeup, YouTube vlogging, Instagram obsession, nascent sexuality, nasty girl problems, dating, getting hit on by a high school boy...whew! As if I long to return to the concerns of that age from any point of view. But, darn it, the film works...even on such an unlikely audience member as I. So, reluctantly, I've got to give credit where credit is due to this amazingly truthful, painful, and ultimately positive slice of life film.
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This is Home: A Refugee Story 2018
This involving and well edited documentary recounts the story of the lives of three Syrian refugee families during the 8-plus months after they were re-settled in Baltimore, MD, having escaped from years of conflict and red-tape. All of the families faced language and work problems. All had children with problems of their own (including PTSD from memories of the horrors of war and displacement that they were subjected to.) All benefited from some help from Anglos who were working for a non-profit resettlement center which runs an eight month program of financial and placement aid for refugees.
Some of the families adjusted better than others; but all were amazingly positive as role-models. The film documented some of the positive aspects of American response to the Syrian refugee crisis, which has become so problematical under the current administration. But somehow, the refugees have mostly managed to prevail...and Americans of good will seem to be doing good works in Baltimore. The film makers chose their subjects well and organized the material to maximize identification with the people involved. That is fine film making.
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Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot 2018
Director Gus Van Sant has made a touching bio-film about quadriplegic, alcoholic John Callahan, based on his 1989 autobiography. It's an unsparing, often comic look at this real character, who conquered his auto accident caused disability to become a successful cartoon illustrator, author, and apparently a pretty good singer (based on his own song running behind the end credits.) The plot centers on Callahan's struggle to complete the 12 steps of AA and deal with his alcohol dependency. But ultimately it is a heartfelt humanistic story mixing triumph and tragedy.
Van Sant's direction and commitment to the making of this offbeat indie film is admirable. But, truly, this is an actor's film; and Joaquin Phoenix has never been better than here portraying Callahan, in a role both physically difficult and emotionally challenging. But Jonah Hill is equally outstanding playing Donnie, Callahan's rich, gay AA sponsor who imparts both heart and wisdom to the role. Also impressive was Rooney Mara, strikingly beautiful and beatific as a Swedish physical therapist and flight attendant.
This wasn't an easy film to watch...personal struggle and tragedy well told cannot be facile if it has any veracity. And this film is both unsparingly truthful and a loving tribute to its damaged characters.
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The Blue Tooth Virgin 2008
Brown has written and directed a smart, funny, trenchant satire of the Hollywood scene. It's the story of two young and on-the-make Hollywood types: the first, a one-hit tv series writer who has written his dream movie script, arty and edgy; the other, his younger college buddy, a successful new media editor, whom he has asked to critique the script and write notes. The writer is played as neurotic and needy by Austin Peck. The editor is played with searing intelligence by one of my favorite actors, Bryce Johnson. Other notable roles: Roma Maffia (of Nip/Tuck) as a psychiatrist who holds no punches; and Karen Black as a zany New-Agey screenwriting guru. The animated main titles are clever, as are amusing quotations used as intertitles between scenes from various authors writing about writing. The dialog sparkles throughout, highly literate, funny. And the acting is first rate. It's only to be hoped that this gem of an American indie film can find an audience.
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Sorry to Bother You 2018
I wanted to do an entire review based on satire and black anger from Richard Pryor through Boots Riley, with a digression for white guilt through horror films like Get Out. Or maybe an examination of Marxist philosophy: exploitation of the downtrodden masses, as portrayed in this film. Instead I'll admit that I was both charmed by the cast (Lakeith Stanfield is charming) and repelled by the covert racist message of the film (e.g. "the white voice" as an initially amusing comedy trope that plays too long for comfort). In Q&A, writer/director Riley told that the start of the script for this film was a rap song idea he wrote over ten years ago and discovered later in a note: "a telemarketer sells Slavery as the product." And believe it or not, Riley made that idea make sense today. Quite an achievement.
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Ant-Man and the Wasp 2018
As a stand alone film (I didn't see the original, nor the recent Avengers) this was somewhat incomprehensible. I guess I'm just not Marvel-ous enough. However, Paul Rudd channeling Michelle Pfeiffer was worth the [free] price of admission to the screening.
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Won’t You Be My Neighbor? 2018
Fred Rogers started developing his influential children's TV show in Pittsburgh in 1954. But it wasn't until the 1960s that his show went national. I was too old by that time to become a denizen of Mr. Rogers' neighborhood. Still, I knew who he was as a celebrity, even if I was never a viewer. This ingratiating documentary took me into this gentle man's world...and it was an amazing place. Could this soft spoken, talented vocal actor and piano player, subtle sock-puppeteer with a message of love, Presbyterian seminary graduate and minister, husband and father, and influential child psychology expert actually have been on the level? It would beggar belief. But darn it if I wasn't convinced by the end of this skillfully compiled film of excerpts from his shows and interviews with his co-workers and family, that this man really was an authentic personification of all the philosophy he espoused. Did he engender a generation of entitled "snowflakes" as one Fox News personality hinted a few years ago (he didn't use that term; but that was what he meant)? Summing up the affect of this film, I'd say no...his message was heartfelt and effective; and humanity is better off from his influence. Finally, this feel-good documentary is a reminder that for all the evil loose in today's America, hopefully goodness will prevail if people like Fred Rogers existed.
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RBG 2018
This entertaining, informative and gratifying documentary examines the life and works of the "Notorious" Ruth Bader Ginsburg. It's no secret that this remarkable octogenarian, in her 25th year as Associate Justice of the SCOTUS, and a hero of the struggle for women's equality and progressive liberalism, is a worthy subject for documenting. The film uses interviews and filmed footage from various eras to paint an intelligent and moving picture of a modest and unprepossessing woman, a lawyer, wife, mother, and historically important personage. Probably no film could do her justice, where would we be today without her? But at least the film makers have done a fine job of humanizing her while also celebrating her titanic achievements.
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Woman Walks Ahead 2017
A history lesson about America's criminal and genocidal actions against the indigenous people as late as the 1890s...disguised as a romance of sorts between Sitting Bull and a New York woman painter determined to paint his portrait. The history part is educational and resonant, even important to remind us of our national original sin. And the gorgeous cinematography of windswept plains nicely fills the big screen. However, the people story borders on the ridiculous and unlikely. On balance it's a bad film that is worth watching...if that makes any sense at all.
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Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom 2018
The special effects keep getting better; but the stories just keep getting more and more inane and cliché ridden. Bad humans save endangered dinosaurs in order to weaponize them and make mucho dinero. Dinosaurs do what dinosaurs do...wreck havoc. Just another theme park ride disguised as a summer blockbuster.
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Man in an Orange Shirt 2017
A two-part British mini-series combined into one film on PBS. The first part tells the story of Michael, a British officer in WWII who encounters Thomas, his wounded schoolboy lover and a future gay artist, on the battlefield. They love one another; but Michael marries his girlfriend Flora anyway, and they have a child. Flora discovers Michael's gay side and can not accept it or him.
Part two jumps to the present day, when Michael's grandson Adam (a sympathetic performance by Julian Morris) is a sexual compulsive, closeted gay 31-year old man addicted to Grindr. Flora is now his elderly grandmother, and as portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave, one wracked by guilt over her spurning of her ex-husband all those years ago...but still innately homophobic (even as it hurts her beloved grandson.) The film is a moving family saga, a testament of generations of secrets and personal traumas from society's treatment of gays.
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Boundaries 2018
Laura (a spirited performance by Vera Farmiga) is a single mother, an obsessive pet rescuer with serious daddy issues, who is thanklessly working as a personal assistant to a rich bitch. Jack, her 85-year old ne'er do well father (Christopher Plummer), has been absent most of her life, and is now getting kicked out of his retirement home for growing pot. Henry, her teen-age son (Scottish actor Lewis MacDougall so impressive in last year's A Monster Calls, convincingly American and age appropriate) has been expelled from public school for drawing obscene pictures. In desperation, Laura, Henry, and several animals set off to drive Jack from Seattle to L.A. to place Jack in the care of Laura's irresponsible younger sister. What ensues is a modern day, hippie infused road trip that clearly is an autobiographical purge of writer-director Shana Feste's own daddy issues. Nobody comes off very well here (except for young Henry, who probably will end up with mommy issues of his own.) Still, despite characters that defy empathy, I found myself enjoying the film for its innately positive outlook in the face of serial disasters, some fine character actors in small supporting roles, and the gorgeous Pacific coast vistas along the way.
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The Killer Inside Me 2010
Confusing, ultra-violent & misogynistic. Also chilling, repellant, & maybe brilliant. Saw this once in 2010, hated it and erased it from my memory. So I sat through it again, alas. I'll bet that Casey Affleck regrets today that he ever portrayed Lou Ford: icy, conniving, deputy sheriff. Woman beater, psychopathic serial killer. The film plays differently in 2018 than it did in 2010 (and even then the sadism and on-camera violence ["her face was like hamburger"] were too realistic to be watchable.)
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Scotch: A Golden Dream
A competent, polished, but for me somewhat boring, documentary to sell the idea of scotch whisky, from the entire process of manufacture to the story of Master blender Jim McEwan and his family and various single malt distilleries in the Hebrides islands northwest of Scotland.
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The Poet and the Boy 2017
Thirty-something Korean poet Hyon (pudgy actor Yang Ik-June), is listlessly going through life writing poems and resisting his wife's obstinate requests to inseminate her. In the course of this off-center romantic dramedy, Hyon becomes fixated on a beautiful teenage boy who works at a new doughnut shop near his home. It may be a sexual attraction; but Hyon is too shy to go there. The film reminded me in some ways of Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice" (without the death, of course.) Youthful actor Ga-ram Jung played the "boy" with a naive canniness that was particularly attractive. The film is frustratingly slow to get anywhere; and I'm not a particular fan of Korean poetry (of which there is a lot quoted in dialogue). However, the film played as particularly true-to-life for me and I definitely could relate to the characters.
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McQueen 2018
Alexander McQueen (Lee to family and friends) was an English fashion icon, designer and international luminary of the 1990s through 2010, when he hung himself at the peak of his fame and success [note: it did seem an odd and troubling coincidence to watch this film the same day that fashion icon Kate Spade reportedly hung herself in New York.]
I was enthralled by this documentary, which covered his life through interviews, photos and videos. But what the film made abundantly clear was that McQueen was a fabulous talent, a troubled, workaholic genius, who traveled the path from skilled tailoring apprentice to world-class couturier in Paris and London. I was astounded by the video recordings of his fashion shows and the inventiveness and sheer brilliance of his often transgressive designs. However, through superb editing and sensitive interviews with family, colleagues and friends, the film also managed to personalize our perception of this shy, pudgy boy-man who could not manage to survive a single day after the death of his mother. That achievement, transporting this viewer into really caring for the artist and man, was worthy of 5-stars for me.
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My Big Gay Italian Wedding 2018
No surprises here...the film's title says it all. Antonio and Paolo are living comfortably gay lives in Berlin when they decide to get married at Antonio's ancient Italian hilltop village Civita di Bagnoregio, where his father is mayor. Much angst and merriment ensue. But while entertaining, the film just touches the surface of relationships and sexual politics in Italy. It does suddenly end in a musical number which seems rushed and gratuitous, but has all of the visual campiness that the rest of the film lacked.
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The Crime of Monsieur Lange 1936
This B&W dramedy was made in 1936 by the great director Jean Renoir. It has been restored with pristine visuals; but the sound track remains somewhat tinny and distorted. The story of a justified homicide by an aggrieved author who was ripped off by an evil, dishonest publisher is told in an extended flashback. The film showed flashes of the genius of later Renoir films...but, perhaps because I was tired and feeling the onset of a cold, I couldn't get engaged with the story or characters.
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Never Steady, Never Still 2017
Shirley Henderson is nothing short of astounding playing Judy, suddenly widowed mother of a shy, sexually confused 19-year old son (Théodore Pellerin). Judy is suffering from advanced Parkinson's (never steady, never still...the mark of the disease). The family lives in a particularly isolated and desolate part of the inner channel north of Vancouver, B.C. This is a shatteringly dismal slice-of-life drama as the mother and son cope with adversity. But it is so well acted, so true-to-life, that for all the despair, the film somehow became a triumph of the human spirit, albeit a distressing one. Director Kathleen Hepburn expanded this story from a short film. She shot it in 2-perf 35mm film; and the wide screen vistas are striking. I couldn't help admiring the film making even as I left the theater depressed.
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Lemonade 2018
Mara (Malina Manovici) is an attractive 30-something Romanian woman, a rehabilitation nurse trying to obtain her U.S. Green Card. She has outstayed her visa; but has recently married an American man whom she has been helping recover from a work accident. At the start of this involving drama, her 10-year old son Dragos has arrived from Romania...and Mara and her husband are in the midst of interviews with a corrupt naturalization agent. At this point everything including the kitchen sink falls on poor Mara and Dragos. The film is wonderfully written and acted; but maybe goes a tad too far for comfort in portraying its all-too realistic and tragic story of today's immigration process and the possible abuses of power that can occur.
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A Rough Draft 2018
This is a complex, Russian sci-fi thriller adapted from a novel by the same author who created the Night Watch/Day Watch universe. Thus you know right off the bat that it is going to be challenging to watch. It's the story of a video game creator who is somehow trapped in a multiverse where he is the gatekeeper between dimensions reached by going through doors in a mysteriously constructed cylindrical building. It's as if he's trapped in one of his own games, only it is a rough draft of his creation badly in need of a rewrite. I didn't enjoy the film...the twists and turns of the plot defied coherence. But the special f/x were spectacular and original enough to merit a watch. However, the unresolved ending left the film open to a necessary sequel which, frankly, I have little desire to watch (unlike Day Watch which was an improvement over the first film.) All I can add is that director Sergey Mokritskiy seemed to be less in control of the action than his predecessor at the Russian sci-fi game, Timur Bekmambetov (whom I consider to be a genius.)
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Pig 2018
This visually dazzling and politically dangerous Iranian film tells the story of a banned film director who is being stalked by one woman, in love with another...all while a serial killer is busy beheading a series of other film directors and etching "pig" on their foreheads in their own blood. If that sounds zany, well, it sort of is; but the film manages to have a coherent script and an incredible central performance by Hasan Kasmai, whose character Hassan is jealous that all these other directors got to be murdered, and why not him? Occasionally laugh-out-loud funny (actually the most laughs in a full theater than I've heard in a long while), always outrageous, even maybe a little too frenzied, this is an Iranian film that breaks the mold!
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Amateurs 2018
The fictional Swedish town of Lafors has seen better days, as its once prosperous industries failed and populous left. When a German conglomerate indicates that Lafors is in the running to house their new expansion project which will add many hundreds of new jobs, the town council at first enlists school children to make a PR film with their smartphones touting their town and region. Two mischievous girls, Aida and Dana take charge...and proceed to make a truthful, amateur video which perhaps is too true to real life for the original purpose. There is humor and originality here; but the film goes on too long and takes too many meandering trips into the trivialities of town life before the payoff of the final screening of the scandalous finished project.
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A Moment in the Reeds 2017
Leevi (portrayed by handsome blond actor Janne Puustinen) is a Finnish 20-something man studying literature afar in Paris. He's returned home to help his widower father (Miko Melender) remodel for sale their old summer vacation home, situated on a lake in a pristine forest. The father hires a Syrian refugee, Tareq, an architect in his country, but now making a living as a handy-man. Tareq was played with compassion and intelligence by actor Boodi Kabbani. When dad leaves to tend to his failing business, the two young men work together, enjoy saunas, swimming, boating and incidentally, eventually start a beautifully authentic love affair. This is the set-up for one of the most profoundly touching contemporary gay films I've ever watched. I was reminded of the 2011 masterpiece, Andrew Haigh's Weekend...another film which examined in depth a short-term but authentic in every way (including artistically realistic sex scenes) gay encounter. But this film contained, in addition, an examination of the problems of being a political refugee in Europe, and even more being a gay one estranged from one's endangered family back home. This provides substance above and beyond the typical gay film, which may explain why I'm giving it my rarest of 5-star ratings. I was profoundly moved, titillated and educated all at once.
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Queerama 2017
This is a compilation documentary made up of scenes from a century of British movies depicting LGBTQ characters and lifestyle. These cleverly edited scenes were mixed in with old B&W documentary interviews about gayness from various sources. It's all cut together with a marvelous musical track of songs with gay subtexts by Hercules & Love Affair, Goldfrapp, and primarily John Grant. I did miss that scenes from the seminal British TV series "Queer as Folk" were absent; but I suppose it was difficult enough to get the rights to use as many sources as the film makers managed to find and use. The film is entertaining; but not particularly profound. However it is a useful reference...presenting a valid history of the advancements in gay rights in Britain which will undoubtedly be a treasure trove for future film historians.
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Doubtful
In this occasionally illuminating Israeli film, Assi (Ran Danker) is a film-maker who is serving community service time for some infraction by holding group therapy sessions for a number of Israeli juvenile delinquents. Among the group is a particularly troubled youth, Eden (an impressive performance by novice actor Adar Hazazi Gersch). The two somewhat bond as mentor and mentee; but the pathway to salvation is hard for both characters and just as distressing for the audience to watch.
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C’est la vie! 2017
A frazzled wedding planner (Jean-Pierre Bacri) gathers an assortment of vivid characters to help run a huge party celebrating the marriage of a hopelessly crass and parvenu groom client. The film is structured as a French farce; but it is only occasionally amusing and mostly exhaustingly lengthy with maybe three endings too many. Still the production was impressive, with a large cast of fine French actors and striking cinematography.
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1985 2018
1985 was the year when AIDS finally entered the general consciousness as a hopeless, always fatal "gay" disease (it was the year Rock Hudson died.) This heartbreakingly truthful American indie film recounts the story of one conservative Christian, Texan family, whose closeted and dying elder son, Adrian, has returned for Christmas from self-imposed exile in New York City. Shot on 16mm film in artfully obscure B&W, this is about as realistic a depiction of the corrosive effects of the homophobia, secrets and fears of the era that we've seen yet. Kudos to director Yen Tan for his sensitive, somehow hopeful script and casting: Cory Michael Smith as the gay son, Michael Chiklis and Virginia Madsen as sympathetic, if willfully ignorant parents, and Aidan Langford as Adrian's artistic, much younger brother. I was impressed by how positive and hopeful this tragic story made me feel through the flow of my tears.
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Mutafukaz 2017
This is a mostly incoherent, but visually striking, animated sci-fi, dystopian, gang banging, alien invasion film. It takes place in a fictional Dark Meat City, which looks a lot like a dilapidated future Los Angeles. It features a runt of a pizza delivery boy hero and various other apparitions. All the signage and visual cues are in English; but the version watched had only French dialogue with subtitles. And the vocal acting wasn't even that good. This is one case where quality dubbing of the dialogue into English would have been fitting with the material and improved the experience (for anglophone audiences, anyway) immensely. It would have been worth it, since the dazzling animation visuals and amusing hip-hop sensibility were almost enough to turn the film into a real winner.
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Number One 2017
In this timely, feminist thriller, Emmanuelle Devos is Emmanuelle Blachey, a tough business woman who is in a fight with the entrenched male hierarchy to become the first woman CEO of a French top 40 company. She is a wife and mother; but also an effective fighter in the industrial trenches of smears and rivalries. This is an intelligent film, with an unpredictable script that examines the rarefied and misogynistic world of the upper echelons, where even the French language, with its separate masculine and feminine genders for everything, tends to discriminate against women in business. Director Tonie Marshall provided the film with a rich gloss of production design, and effectively realistic casting, especially Devos, who is totally convincing in portraying both sides of her character's persona.
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Going West 2017
Kaspar (cute actor, Benjamin Helstad) is a recently unemployed elementary school music teacher. His father, Georg (a spirited performance by Ingar Helge Gimle) is a cross-dressing recent widower, gone to seed in his mourning for his seamstress wife. Together the two set off through the Norwegian countryside in the father's motorcycle and sidecar to attend a quilting bee on a remote island, bringing the late matriarch's last quilt to be judged. That's the start of a heartening, well observed road trip where father and son bond, and try to heal from their loss. The various characters met on the road are well written; and the film gets to its predictable ok ending with some very inventively written episodes on the way.
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Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle 2017
This documentary is basically one, long, often amusing home movie about a voluble, rich old lady and her extended family. Septuagenarian Julia Salmeron never stops talking about her life of progeny and her prodigious pack-rat accumulation of things, including a castle full of antiquities. The film's arc is one of upper-middle class upbringing to riches to (almost) rags after the fortune is lost in the bank crisis of 2008. The film was produced by the family itself, directed with love by Julia's son, Gustavo. But the subject matter never quite justified the amount of time I spent with this family watching their lives on film.
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The Reports on Sarah and Saleem 2018
In this riviting, revealing, contemporary Palestinian film Sarah, an Israeli woman married to an army colonel, has a sexual affair with Saleem, a married Palestinian delivery man whose wife is in late term pregnancy. All parties become enmeshed in a political drama of scandal leading to unavoidable security apparatus involvement. As inevitable as night following day, events spin out of control. However, the characters are so true-to-life and the politics so convincingly complex, yet understandable and probably unavoidable, that the film just has the ring of tragic truth.
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The Long Dumb Road 2018
Nathan (another ingratiating performance by Tony Rivolori) is 19-years old and on his way by car from his family home in Austin to attend art school in L.A. After his car breaks down, he reluctantly picks up a scruffy, just fired, auto mechanic hitchhiker, Richard (Jason Mantzoukas ), who fixes the loose hose and off they go. They get as far as New Mexico when the predictable disasters start to occur. This is a fun road-trip movie, with nice scenery and well portrayed characters. But I could see the disaster coming from the start, as Nathan was sympathetically naive, and Richard most clearly shady. Still, this off-center buddy film worked for me.
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Mobile Homes 2017
Ali (an intense, if unsympathetic performance by Imogene Poots) was a young, irresponsible mother of an 8-year old irrepressible boy (a strong debut from age-appropriate Frank Oulton). They are traveling along the Canadian-U.S. border from motel to motel with attractive, petty criminal boyfriend Evan (Calum Turner), scrounging a tawdry existence to make enough money to afford a mobile home of their own. However, fate and bad fortune intervene. This is a fine example of a film with characters that are mostly repugnant...but one becomes intensely involved with them anyway out of empathy and sympathy. This isn't an easy trick to pull off; but director Vladimir de Fontenay managed to do it with excellent casting and a knack for presenting propulsive action on screen that was viscerally affecting.
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Virus Tropical 2017
This is a rather mundane telling of a modern day Ecuadorian family's story from the youngest (of three) daughter's point of view. The film was adapted from an autobiographical graphic novel, and was presented in simplistic and uniquely artistic B&W animation along with a series of catchy songs which fell short of making this a musical, but still worked to advance the story. The family saga didn't much interest me; but the unique animation technique and vocal talent were of a high quality...which made the banal plot easier to enjoy.
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Bloody Milk 2017
Pierre (an intense performance by Swann Arlaud) is a 30-something French dairy farmer, who is single handedly running the family enterprise, with occasional help from his veterinarian sister (Sara Giraudeau). When one of his cows contracts a bovine hemorrhagic disease which is sweeping through European herds, he attempts to save his charges from official mass euthanasia by hiding evidence of the infection. This is an often fascinating look at the processes of dairy farming, and a cautionary tale of the dangers and consequences of modern day husbandry.
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The Bleeding Edge 2018
This documentary illustrates in furious detail the sins of the medical equipment industry in the U.S., companies and devices that are much more un-regulated by the FDA than big pharma drugs (and unlikely to become more adequately regulated under the current administration.) The film indicts such devices as metal joints which cause cobalt poisoning, and radiation overdoses from CT scans. But the film concentrates on two disastrously harmful female reproductive devices: Essure sterilization coils along with contraceptive meshes. This is an example of a pro-active documentary that has an important message, but delivers it at such length and repetition that it threatens to becomes boring from too much information.
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Falling 2017
This is a bittersweet love story from present day Ukraine. Anton (a charismatic debut performance by Andriy Seletskiy) was a talented musician, recently released from rehab for various addictions. He's living with his elderly grandfather in the forests outside Kiev when he meets and falls for Katya (beautiful actress Dasha Plahtiy), who is in an unsatisfying relationship with a German man. These are sympathetic, if flawed, characters that I could relate to and hope the best for. But first-time director Marina Stepanska had a darker fate for them, one that affected me deeply. This isn't a feel-good love story, quite the opposite. But it was well enough portrayed to be worth watching.
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New Turn
This is a somewhat touching road-trip film: four strangers touring Taiwan by bicycle in search of something missing from their lives. Leading the searchers was A-Lan, who sets out from Hong Kong to find her heretofore unknown identical twin living somewhere in Taiwan. Both twins were played by actress Cherry Ngan, in a nifty job of acting and special effects. Another searcher was Zhenting (played by attractive actor Ting-hu Zhang), who blamed himself for the death of his older brother and was searching for expiation. The film mixed romance, slapstick, sentimentality and tragedy into a frothy travelogue. I enjoyed it; but it was mostly empty calories.
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The Place 2017
In this Italian puzzle of a film, a mysterious man sits for the entire film at the same table in a diner called "The Place." He ceaselessly holds court as ten people arrive in turn at his table to request a wish to be granted and to be given a task to fulfill in order to have the wish come true. Gradually it becomes clear that the requests and off-screen tasks are somehow interconnected between the characters. It's a clever bit of circular plotting; but the pace of the film was so languid and static that my attention wandered at times. Still, the fine cast and the enigmatic premise (who is this mystery manipulator...maybe the devil?) held my interest.
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Love, Gilda 2018
Who doesn't love Gilda Radner? Certainly nothing in this documentary is less than lovable. She was funny, amazingly human for a celebrity (watch the film if you don't believe that), and tragically died too young of recurring ovarian cancer. For my money it's hard for a celebrity bio-doc to deserve 5-stars, there's just so much importance that can attach to one life. But at a film festival so far that has (for me at least) been filled with serious dramas and cautionary documentaries, it's great to actually laugh continuously along with an audience (until the tears of mourning this fragile comic genius inevitably arrive.)
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The Captain 2017
This ferocious, belief-defying, yet somehow ringing true, war drama takes place in the final two weeks of WWII, somewhere behind the front lines in Germany. A young private, Willi Herold (a superb, inventive performance by Max Hubacher) is a deserter, who has escaped capture in the forest. He discovers an abandoned automobile and a trunk filled with the belongings of a Wehrmacht captain, whereupon he dons the outfit and pulls off a ruthless impersonation of a real captain, who supposedly is under orders directly from the Fuhrer. His uniform gave him the power to wreck havoc with the remnant army. Filmed in horrifyingly realistic B&W, the film takes a revisionist German view of the war's closing days, satirizing the kind of authoritarianism that led to the excesses of the Third Reich.
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The Third Murder 2017
Director Hirozaku Kor-eda is one of my all-time favorite film makers (he just won the Palm d'Or at Cannes for his subsequent film.) However, this turgid, talky courtroom procedural was 180 degrees opposite in affect from the brilliantly insightful family films from him that I've loved in the past. Even though I suffered through stretches of boredom, this film still raised important questions about the justice system and the death penalty in general. Kor-eda stalwart Koji Yakusho plays a confessed murderer who masterfully manipulates the system to achieve the verdict that he wants. It's a legal conundrum; but by the time it was resolved I didn't much care.
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Summer 1993 2017
Two seconds into the opening shot of this Spanish language festival film I realized that I had already watched it months before and hadn't remembered the title...senior moment in action. Still, it was a refreshing, sun-shiny break in a series of dismal dramas: the story of a mischievous 8-year old girl whose parents had both died of AIDS, now being raised by her compassionate aunt and uncle, who also are raising an impressionable younger little girl. For all the tragic circumstances, this is a feel-good film which edifies the human condition.
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See You Up There 2017
In the final days of WWI, two soldiers, Albert and Eduard are forced out of the trenches by a bloodthirsty lieutenant for one last charge. Albert, an older clerk by trade (played by director, Albert Dupontel), is saved by Eduard, artistic young son of a rich tyrant father (Niels Arestrup.) But Eduard is soon thereafter disfigured horribly by mortar fire. Tended by Albert, Eduard recovers, changes his name, and decides to hide his destroyed lower face by creating artistic masks. What ensues is a typically French, absurdist caper film, sort of a male buddy version of Amélie, taking place in the same post-war 1920s era of A Very Long Engagement.. Only this time without cute gamine star of this sort of film, Audrie Tautou. Her leading role is instead played by today's equivalent male player...doe-eyed, Argentinian teenage actor Nahuel Paréz Biscayart, who is becoming a grown-up movie star in France. Dupontel directs the film with an eye for gorgeously detailed visuals and a sure hand with actors, while successfully asserting control over the unconventionally fabulist script, which was adapted from a recent Pierre Lemaitre novel.
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Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts 2017
This satirical Indonesian film starts with Marlina's husband dead and embalmed in their ranch house living room. Seven men then show up to rob and rape the widow. Murders, adventures reminiscent of an off kilter spaghetti western, a childbirth and several grisly revenges ensue. I didn't find it as amusing and satisfying as (apparently) most of the audience did.
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Dark River 2017
At the start of this dark drama, Alice (Ruth Wilson) has returned to her family's Yorkshire sheep ranch after 15 years absence. Her father (Sean Bean) had just died; and Joe (Mark Stanley), her brother that stayed on the land, is reluctant to share the tenancy with his prodigal sister. But the family has shared terrible past secrets, gradually disclosed in flashbacks...corrosive secrets which lead to tragedy and sacrifice. The Yorkshire accents were difficult to decipher. But the stark landscape and hardscrabble work of farming and raising sheep were strikingly photographed and portrayed. The film worked as a revealing people story, despite the bleakness of the plot.
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Hard Paint 2018
This is a dark, sexy Brazilian film about a 20-something gay boy who makes a living of sorts in an online erotic chat room, performing naked blacklight body painting for paying viewers. He's in some sort of legal trouble, hardly ever leaves his apartment, and still manages to get into a relationship of sorts with another chat room dancer. The film is a hard-R (or maybe even X-rated) for its full frontal, even tumescent, nudity.
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Sadie 2018
A ferociously good American indie centered around Sadie (played by Sophia Mitri Schloss), a 13-year old girl living with her mother in a Northwest area trailer-park. Her adored father has been absent fighting overseas for 4 years; and her mother (Melanie Lynskey) is moving on, especially into the start of a relationship with a newly arrived in the trailer- park, sympathetic, but troubled, ex-soldier (John Gallagher, Jr.). That is the set-up for a film about abandonment and growing pains and relationships, with sympathetic performances that hit all the right notes and a script that is authentic, revealing and tragic all at once.
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Looking For? 2017
This is a documentary that examines the modern day phenomenon of worldwide internet apps for gay hookups, such as Grindr. It does this with multiple interviews by on-screen director Chou Tung-Yen of several sexually active gay men from far-flung big cities (including Taipei, Beijing, Seoul, San Francisco, New York, London). Chou added some artistic transition scenes of multiple men holding smartphones against a black background. But the interviews were paramount here, the 60 or so subjects well chosen for their honesty and verbal intelligence (and mostly youthful attractiveness, I suppose.) Personally, as a gay man in my 70s, I find myself resenting the ageism of apps like Grindr...and yet I can't help but wish that they had been around when I was young. These interviews, and the smart and attractive director who asked so many of the right questions, did manage to arrive at some remarkably revealing lifestyle truths.
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Leave No Trace 2018
A former soldier (another fine, nuanced performance by Ben Foster) is suffering from a pernicious form of PTSD, which requires a back-to-nature withdrawal from society. Except that he is still responsible for the upbringing of his motherless teenage daughter (an impressive debut from New Zealand-born Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie.) Director Debra Granik brought this subtle family saga to vivid life. See it for the lovely Northwest forest milieus and the innately good, if flawed characters revealed here. For me, this was a more intimate and lower keyed version of my favorite film of two years ago, Captain Fantastic. Like that film, I became deeply involved with the story and characters without quite supporting their choices and lifestyle.
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Marilyn 2018
This is a based-on-true-story family drama. Marcos is a gay, cross-dressing teenager living on a dairy farm in repressive rural Argentina. He is personified with absolute conviction by actor Walter Rodriguez, whose attractiveness and star quality leap off the screen. However the rural milieu and an inflexibly unsympathetic mother make life for Marcos's alter-ego "Marilyn" too hard to bear. The film is a convincing, difficult coming of age story. Motivations are clearly drawn; but the slow pace and depressing story detracted from my totally relating to the film.
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Mademoiselle Paradis 2017
This interesting 18th century costume drama tells the based-on-true-story of a young, blind, Austrian piano prodigy, Maria Theresia von Paradis whose sight underwent a temporary remission under the care of the famed "Dr." Mesmer. See it for the extraordinary lead performance by Maria Dragus, whose eyes flawlessly expressed both blindness and sight as her indomitable artistic spirit struggled with her exploitative parents. Credit director Barbara Albert for flawless period costumes, sets and casting, plus a script of convincing authenticity.
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Beast 2017
This is a curious combination of love story, crime thriller and horror film, all occurring in the lush forests, towns and seashore on the isle of Jersey. It features a pair of outrageous and career-making performances by Jessie Buckley and Johnny Flynn as the well-matched, if screwed-up central couple. Many in the audience walked out of the theater volubly hating on the film. I had reservations; but overall sort of loved the film for daring to go to the extremes of human experience that it eventually reached.
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Mountain 2017
This documentary collects some of the most awesome, world spanning, high resolution footage ever shot of a wide range of mountains, and the daredevils and risk takers who scale, climb, ski, fly, jump, and otherwise risk life and limb on their slopes. It's all presented with a beautiful orchestral score and poetic, if somewhat over florid, narration in the sonorous voice of Willem Dafoe. It's best seen on the largest screen possible to appreciate the majesty of the visuals, much of which were aerials impossibly shot using drones, or photographed close-up on the slopes at risk of life and limb. Those with a fear of heights might best think twice; but even those people (among them myself), should attempt to risk watching this in the safety of the cinema. I could argue a bit at some of the editing decisions and the over-all pacing; but on merit, this is a must-see documentary.
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Racer and the Jailbird 2017
Bibi is an unlikely racecar driver, a beautiful girl from a wealthy family who beats the guys on the track in her Porche. Actress Adele Exarchopoulos is remarkable in the role, worldly wise and interesting, but also vulnerable. Gigi is a rakish, devilishly attractive man who happens to be in a gang of childhood friends who rob banks. He's played by one of my favorite actors, Matthias Schoenaerts, who has never been more magnetic and attractive than here. The two meet and fall in love despite Gigi's secret and dangerous life of crime. Until the film went off the rails for me in the third act, I was adoring every moment of this adrenaline filled story, and was ready to award it 5-stars. However, in keeping with its "live fast with tragic consequences" story, the ending left me feeling bereft and even maybe a little cheated. Still, this was a totally absorbing thrill ride of a film; and Belgian director Michael Roskam (Bullhead, also with an unforgettable Schoenaerts performance) is one hell of an action director.
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Suleiman Mountain 2017
This road-trip movie takes place in today's mountany Kyrgyzstan, at the base of Suleiman Mountain, an imposing central Asian landmark. Pre-teenager Ulik is living in an orphanage when his shaman healer mother, Zhipara, claims to have found and rescued her long-lost son. They then join Zhipara's ex-husband, an itinerant grifter who owns a rusty East German truck and hauls freight and gambles his way through life with his younger second wife. The film really centers on Ulik, who proves to be both clever and moral, in contrast to his birth family. I was thoroughly entertained by this film, which combined a revealing glimpse into a vital Moslem culture with a family saga and fun road trip. It wasn't a polished gem of a film technically; but certainly held my interest.
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Sansho the Bailiff 1954
This intimate B&W Japanese drama from 1954 has been lovingly restored with a newly mixed sound track. It's one of the few all-time top films that I had missed heretofore. And even though its 11th century class conflict and beset family kidnapping and slavery plot seemed a little simplistic by today's standards, this film still involved and moved me. I'm still not sure why the minor character of Sansho the bailiff was featured in the title...must be something about the historical Japanese culture that edified that character over the long suffering central family. In any case, the beautiful compositions and cinematography, and the moral clarity of director Kenji Mizoguchi's vision and story telling technique made clear why this is a deserved classic art film.
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Prospect 2018
This low-budget sci-fi film takes place on an exotic planet's moon, where the earthlike vegetation is lush; but the atmosphere apparently isn't breathable. A father and his teen-age daughter are prospecting for valuable jewels and become embroiled in a series of battles with other prospectors. The story is rudimentary and didn't always make perfect sense to me. For instance, motivations and actions were suspect; and there were discontinuities in the narrative that bothered me a bit. Still, the film makers and actors managed to design lived-in spaceships and an extra-terrestrial planetary environment that seemed real enough to belie the film's low budget.
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Blindspotting 2018
This contemporary indie buddy dramedy explores three critical days in the lives of two lifelong, hip-hop loving friends living and working as moving truck workers in Oakland, CA. Collin (dreadlocks sporting Daveed Diggs) is cautiously trying to survive his final 3 days of probation after serving time. His white buddy, Miles (Rafael Casal) has an angry chip on his shoulder...fighting out-of-control battles against hipsters and gentrifiers that put his friend's upcoming freedom at risk. What ensues is an entertainment about race and class, that is at times funny, at times violent, but always presented with convincing acting and a superbly written, anecdote filled script. Director Carlos Lopez Estrada is an undeniable talent with a populist bent, that I expect has a really interesting future in film.
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I Miss You When I See You 2018
Kevin and Jamie were schoolboy friends in Hong Kong. Near to graduation, Kevin's family was emigrating to Sydney when "straight" Jamie planted a kiss on "gay" Kevin's lips. Cut to ten years later, Kevin has been institutionalized with depression, and Jamie visits him in Australia. Soon after, they rekindle their friendship, more or less, when Kevin returns to Hong Kong. That's about the bare bones of the plot of this slow to develop, journey of personal discovery film. I was particularly taken by Jun Li's subtly effective performance as Kevin, fighting an often losing battle with his internalized homophobia and bipolar syndrome. However, I was a little disappointed by how coyly the film approached the gay angle compared to other recent Asian films.
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Freaks and Geeks: The Documentary 2018
OK, I'll admit up front that I was a dyed in the wool "Freaks and Geeks" enthusiast when it first aired for one glorious season back in 1999. I watched every episode on NBC and then bought the collection package when it was released a few years later. So it wouldn't be strange if I loved this documentary. That said, I did love this documentary...if only for the passion that the film makers put into it, for instance interviewing important cast, creatives and crew members today in sets carefully re-created from their lairs in the show. But the film goes further with heretofore unseen footage of casting videos, staff meetings, on-set backstage scenes and parties. And most importantly: interviews today with the suits who axed the show, which provided background and personified without rancor what seemed at the time inconceivable, that they cancelled this incredible, Zeitgeist influencing, stars-to-be studded, sublime and original dramedy. But with this respectful, loving, thrilling documentary the show lives on in a way.
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The Children Act 2017
Emma Thompson is remarkable here playing Fiona, an English family court judge faced with the dilemma of Adam, a 17-year old boy dying of leukemia who refuses on religious grounds to undergo a life-saving blood transfusion. The law is clear; but Fiona, whose marriage to Jack (Stanley Tucci) is on the rocks, becomes too involved personally in the case. Adam was played by Fionn Whitehead, who was impressive as the central young soldier in Dunkirk. The story was based on a novel by Ian McEwan, his second filmed book at this festival. It's a story of a good people subsumed by a moral dilemma. Director Richard Eyre has a sure hand with actors; and I was totally involved with the intelligent world of laws and manners that was created here.
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First Reformed 2017
In this contemporary American gothic thriller, Ethan Hawke plays Reverend Toller, who leads a sparse congregation in a 250 year-old church in upstate New York. He's tortured by his past, the breakup of his marriage, his son's death in the Iraq war; but he is doing his best to comfort his flock. At the start of the film, one of his parishioners was a pregnant married woman (Amanda Seyfried) whose eco-activist husband (Philip Etinger) has demanded she abort the child. What ensues is a bleak parable of trial and redemption, written and directed by Paul Schrader in his most gripping film in years. It's a difficult watch; and frankly I was confused by the ending...was it real? Or maybe a fantasy reality? Either way, this is a powerful statement by committed artists.
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The Eternal Road 2017
Based on a true story, this is the epic saga of a Finnish man's odyssey through the horrors of collectivization in the Soviet Union during the 1930s. Jussi (an impressive performance by Tommi Korpela) was a construction worker in the U.S. who returned to Finland, married, had two kids...and then was forced by Finnish patriots to escape wounded to the USSR. There he also was forced against his will by Soviet security to join and spy on a collective farm of an idealistic, religious American cult that had settled in Russia in 1931. The film is about Jussi's trials and survival; but it is also about the horrible, forgotten fate of American idealists that emigrated to the Communist paradise and were never assimilated or trusted by the regime. The production values of this film were excellent, superb cinematography and acting that matched the best of contemporary epic film making. The true historical story is an important one to tell, even as the torture and violence was hard to watch.
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A Skin So Soft 2017
This French Canadian documentary follows the lives of five male body builders. They are a disparate bunch: among them a wrestler, a strong-man competitor, an Asian family man, a professional fitness instructor. But all are dedicated to their regimens to add muscle bulk and tone their bodies with competition in mind. This is a process film; the film focuses on the how they work out, but not why they become so dedicated to the point of obsession. For an audience like myself, that is not so attuned to the sport of body building, watching this process eventually became tedious. At one point they all set out on a nature retreat together where they swam and relaxed. That provided a restful interlude of male bonding. But mostly the film failed to engage or provide any understanding in depth of these men.
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Let the Sunshine In 2017
Juliette Binoche is lovely here, playing a divorced woman of a certain age who is trying to find an appropriate man to spend her life with. In the course of the film she dates (and occasionally beds) several men, mostly in excessively talky scenes in restaurants or various apartments. Unaccountably, most of the men more or less reject her or visa versa. Finally she visits a psychic (Gerard Depardieu, grizzled and voluable) whose advice isn't all that helpful. Claire Denis directed this from clearly a woman's viewpoint. I suspect this was meant to be a rom-com French style...but if the film actually had a point other than the nihilism of heterosexual relationships in this day and age, I wasn't able to glean it.
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The Song of Scorpions 2017
In this slooooow and seemingly endless Indian film, Noreen is a beautiful young woman, a scorpion bite healer who is living with her elderly grandmother in a small desert community. An older man falls for her, a rape happens, her grandma disappears into the desert, and many scorpion bites ensue. This is a revenge drama from the aggrieved woman's point of view; but it takes its time getting to any meaningful action. The desert scenery was striking, if mostly comprised of the same wind gutted dunes. I never quite believed in these characters, and their actions seemed insufficiently motivated to me.
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Skate Kitchen 2018
Camille (Rachelle Vinberg) was 18, living with her Puerto Rican mother on Long Island. After recovering from a skate board accident, and promising her mother that she'd quit boarding, instead, Camille runs away to Manhattan (is the film title a reference to Hell's Kitchen?) and joins a group of rowdy skater chicks. Incidentally she gets involved with a dyed-red hair photographer and skater boy (Jaden Smith, an actual actor! in a cast of unfamiliars obviously chosen for their skate board prowesses) who eschews sex, telling Camille that he only thinks of her as a sister. Typically, nothing much happens. The kids skate, smoke dope, have sex, fight, make up, skate some more...all to a loud soundtrack of urban pop music tracks. Maybe there was enough narrative material for a 15 minute short film about girl skate boarders here (a subject that, honestly, doesn't float my boat.) For me, the film was simply interminable at 100 minutes, and the first time at this festival that I looked at my watch...twice.
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The Miseducation of Cameron Post 2018
Cameron (Chloë Grace Moretz) was a high-school student in 1992, when she was discovered making love with a girl in the back seat of a car. Her religious parents sent her to a Christian camp where the psychologist (Jenifer Ehle) and the formerly gay Reverend (John Gallagher, Jr.) worked, mostly in group therapy sessions with Cameron and others, to re-educate away the gay. What happens to the children at the camp is somewhat predictable (in fact, the photo used to advertise the film is a certain plot spoiler, although it hardly matters.) Still, the acting, especially some of the youthful cast, raised the level of the film from merely watchable to admirable. Conversion therapy was a big deal in the early 1990s, not so much today. But the message of this film is still pertinent and valuable.
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A Kid Like Jake 2018
Alex and Greg Wheeler are a married couple dealing with an expressive, likely gender non-conforming 4-year old son, Jake. Claire Danes plays the tightly wound wife, unable to quite accept her son's status, despite some obvious signs (acting out, being bullied, preferring dolls and girl's outfits), as noted by the sympathetic director of the kid's pre-school (another sterling supporting role from Octavia Spencer). On the other hand, Jim Parsons, in a stroke of perfect casting, plays the more understanding, metrosexual father...a successful adult therapist who is struggling to cope with the realities facing both Alex and Jake. The film is an acting tour de force...I believed every nuance of these characters. Perhaps much of this authenticity can be credited to the transgender director, Silas Howard, who delivered a film exploring themes that are so contemporary that they simply have never been shown as deeply and sympathetically in any previous film.
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Fake Tattoos 2017
At the start of this film, long-haired Québecois, Theo (Anthony Therrien) is celebrating his 18th birthday by attending a punk rock rave. Afterwards, he's sitting at a diner when vivacious, blonde, 19-year old Mag (a star-making turn by Rose-Marie Parreault), admires his "fake" arm tattoo, admits she's on the rebound, and overcomes his reticence to converse. She invites Theo to bicycle them to her parents house, and they start an affair with a two-week expiration date since Theo is scheduled to leave Montreal to live with his older sister. That is the set-up of this youthful romantic drama that reminded me of the films of the fondly remembered French New Wave of the 1960s...sort of as if the humanist Truffaut had made a typically edgy Godard film about a mismatched couple.
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On Chesil Beach 2017
In the summer of 1962, a young couple are spending their wedding night in a formal hotel at an English beach resort. But this is a story steeped in English reserve, adapted from an Ian McEwan novel of manners by the celebrated author himself. I haven't read the source book; but I imagine it must have been attempting something like a modernization of a Jane Austen-ish type novel.
Saoirse Ronin, no stranger to McEwen having made her initial impact in his story Atonement, played the newly-wed girl, Florence. She was a skilled musician, daughter of an industrialist and a snob of a mother (Emily Watson), but utterly unprepared for the rigors of matrimony. Handsome Billy Howle played the enthusiastic, if somewhat naive, groom, Edward: son of a grammar school teacher and a brain damaged mother (a disparity of class that was meaningful in 1962 England).
The script jumps around in time throughout the difficult wedding night events, intercutting scenes from each character's past which explored each newly-wed's early years and their courtship, but with a mysterious ambiguity about the couples' actions and motivations. The result is a frustrating experience at times, more Victorian than mid-20th Century...but ultimately an emotionally cathartic one by the time the story, which continues on to events in 1975 and then 2007, is fully told. Director Dominic Cooke added visual flair, an authentic feeling for the period, and drew fine performances from his cast. This is a notable prestige drama about characters contemporary to myself (although of a totally different culture) that just worked for me.
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Pick of the Litter 2018
This surprisingly involving documentary tells the story of one litter of five Labrador puppies that were bred to be guide dogs for the blind. Each puppy was given a name starting with "P", and each were assigned to a series of skilled and loving handlers and trainers to find the one in three that can ultimately pass the strict tests and be given to a qualified blind person. Let's just be honest, I'm not a dog person. However, the film was so well structured, treating each puppy's journey as something akin to a sporting event...watching them bond with their trainers and rooting for them as they grow in skill or fail to progress...that I was won over completely.
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Hearts Beat Loud 2018
Frank Fisher once was a musician who toured with his singer wife until she died in a bicycle accident on the streets of Brooklyn. Now he is a single father, owner of a failing vinyl oldies record store, and raising a teenage girl, Sam, who intends to start pre-med courses at UCLA. But Sam is showing all the signs of having her mother's talent for singing and song writing; and Frank needs to get back to creating music. That is the set-up for a tender family drama with a great soundtrack of original songs and a somewhat predictable story arc of a father and lesbian daughter bonding over music and overcoming obstacles.
Nick Offerman plays Frank with his usual acerbic manner mixed with tenderness. He also plays a mean guitar. Kiersey Clemens, who plays Sam, is new to me. She's a find, with a fine singing voice and acting chops to match. Toni Collette and Ted Danson are largely underdeveloped neighborhood characters. And then for variety, there is Sam's sweet affair with her bestie, Rose (Sasha Lane, in a breakout performance). This is one of those small, well made American indie films that make going to film festivals worthwhile, since they rarely make a dent at the box office these days.
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We the Animals 2018
This small scale, American indie drama tells the story of a bi-racial Puerto Rican family living in rural upstate New York. Pa (Raúl Castillo) and Ma (Sheila Vand) had a tempestuous marriage with three young sons. The two older boys were mischievous urchins. But the youngest, Jonah (Evan Rosado), was a sensitive 10 year-old momma's boy, who expressed himself with impressionistic drawings (turned into imaginative animation by the film makers.) The story turns mainly on the on-off relationship of the self-involved parents...but mostly on young Jonah's coming of age and his recognition of his almost subliminal attraction to an older neighbor boy. Basically there were two parallel stories being told: parents and children...each authentic by themselves and convincing when they intersected. I was impressed by the direction and acting, especially that of little Evan Rosado's Jonah, one of those special child performances that make a film memorable.
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Looking for Oum Kulthum 2018
Oum Kulthum was an Egyptian torch singer who thrived with her emotional, Arabic anthems from the 1920s to the 1970s throughout the historic regimes of King Farouk and General Nasser. This frankly boring and mostly uninvolving (for me, at least) melodrama tells her story through the eyes of Mita, a female Iranian film director (stolidly played by Neda Rahmanian), who has written a script about Kulthum's life and music. Mita casts her film with three age appropriate singers playing Kulthum; and proceeds to direct the famous singer's biopic as a "film-within-a-film". However, film maker Mita's own contemporary story, one of self-doubt and Arabic misogyny, overwhelms the more interesting biopic that she is directing, which at least has the advantage of fabulous costumes, great production design, and beautifully sung songs. Other than that, the majority of the resulting film is a resounding "meh."
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The Death of Stalin 2017
Fine cast (Steve Buscemi as a canny Khrushchev and Jeffrey Tambor as a bumbling Malenkov were stand-outs.) The film treats the power struggle in the Politburo after Stalin's coma and death in 1952 as farce. I knew enough about the real people from following events at the time (I'm really old!) However, younger viewers might have trouble keeping score since the historical characters are mostly obscure today (and Russian, to boot). That said, the story (apparently originally written as a comic book satire), provided a few laughs...history as painless entertainment.
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After the War 2017
In early 1980s Italy, Marco was a leftist revolutionary who committed a heinous political murder and was granted asylum in France. Twenty years later, in 2002, he has a 16-year old French daughter, is completely disassociated from his Italian family in Bologna, and is an academic suddenly faced with deportation back to Italy to serve a life prison sentence. He goes into hiding, and sets in motion an escape with his reluctant daughter to Nicaragua. That is the set up for a fairly involving drama about the consequences of political terror, not only to the terrorists, but also to the associated, innocent family members. The film is slow to develop its action plot; but ultimately succeeds as an especially illuminating people story.
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The Last Suit 2017
Just when you think there's nothing more under the sun to be mined from the Holocaust, this immensely moving Argentinian film offers just that. Abraham (a powerful performance by Miguel Ángel Solá) was a Polish concentration camp survivor who witnessed his family and younger sister die before he escaped near the end of WWII. At the start of the film he is 88 and living in Argentina. His children have sold his home and are preparing to send him to a care facility. But Abraham has one last task to perform: somehow get to Poland to deliver a suit he made for the non-Jew, childhood friend who saved his life back in 1945. What ensues is a road trip of fateful encounters and hardships. Several times watching this film I was reduced to helpless tears...it was that authentically touching. Director Pablo Solarz and his remarkable cast really do justice to a fine script that is leavened with humor and pathos and somehow avoids excessive sentimentality. If Argentina were to submit this film for the foreign language Oscar competition, I wouldn't bet against it winning.
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That Summer 2017
Grey Gardens was a seminal cinema verité documentary from the 1970s. I have only seen sequences from the Maysles film; but I definitely was aware of the two eccentric women, Little Edie and her elderly mother Edith Bouvier Beale, who lived secluded lives in a derelict Long Island mansion. It turns out that the summer prior to the making of the famous documentary, niece Lee Bouvier Radziwill and artist friend Peter Beard shot their own documentary, with funding from Lee's sister Jackie Onassis and husband Ari. That footage languished in storage for 45 years until a Swedish director, Gören Olsson cut it together into this illuminating, if somewhat diffuse film featuring the two women nattering on about their lives, their cats and the local raccoons among other things. The film adds the present day reminiscences of Peter Beard, who shot the footage and lives today among his art in Montauk, NY. There is a certain fascination with these people and their times; but the film only intermittently held my interest.
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Three Peaks 2017
In this tense, slow to develop thriller, Aaron (Alexander Fehling) has become involved with a woman, Lea (Bérénice Bejo), who has an 8-year old son, Tristan (Arian Montgomery). Aaron is German, Lea is French, and Tristan's absent birth father, whom the boy remains attached to, is English; and it seems that Tristan is clever enough to be fluent in all three languages. The film opens with Aaron teaching Tristan to swim at a public resort pool, which foreshadows a feeling of impending danger. The three then hike up to Aaron's summer cabin in the Italian Dolomite mountains...and are soon enjoying the back-to-nature experience. But Tristan's real father is always a disrupting presence by phone; and as much as Aaron wants to successfully bond with Tristan, the mischievous boy has other plans. That is the setup for a suspenseful story of complex family dynamics in a gorgeous mountain setting that is fraught with lurking perils. At times I was feeling such anxiety watching the film that I wanted to hide my eyes. But the fine acting and direction, and the realistic psychology of the script ultimately won me over.
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The Return 2018
In this film pitched midway between documentary and impressionist drama, a 35-year old Korean woman who had been adopted at birth by a Danish family has returned to her home country to search for her birth mother. While settled in at a hostel devoted to helping such returnees, she meets a fellow Korean-Danish man on a similar quest. For me, except for one sequence of a successful reunion of mother and grown child, the film just meandered and was unfortunately somewhat boring.
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People’s Republic of Desire 2018
This documentary illustrates a Chinese internet phenomenon called yy.net, where millions of anonymous patrons watch on-line and contribute money to web-cam personalities. Huge amounts of money are at stake. The film focuses on two vloggers: a 22 year old female singer and a 25 year old male comedian/raconteur. Their acts and lives are examined in some detail...but the business model of the enterprise that supports all this is kept a little murky. As a film, the videography and animated special effects sequences are inventive and state-of-the-art; however there's a pervasive undercurrent of monetary corruption, exploitation and sleaziness about the entire enterprise. I realize that there are similar web sites in other countries; but the Chinese with their huge population and nouveau riche social culture seem to have fostered a particularly venal version.
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American Animals 2018
This is a caper film, based on an actual true story from 2004, about four Kentucky college students who try to rip off some very rare and valuable books from the special collection of one of their school libraries . It's a case of rare ineptitude...criminals whose ambitions exceed their talents for crime. However, despite that, the scope of planning and execution of the robbery makes for an entertaining, if cautionary, movie. Some of this is due to the sheer craziness of the idea, and the canniness of the casting...especially the two lead actors, who foment the plot, who were played by innocent appearing Barry Keoghan (recently seen in Dunkirk), and superficially clever Evan Peters (a regular on TV's "American Horror Story.") The film features a series of cameos of the real people recounting their experience from present day perspective, which adds to the verisimilitude of the story.
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Making the Grade 2017
This heartwarming documentary tells the varied stories of dozens of adorable Irish children as they learn to play piano. The film is structured by grade level from one to eight, and features a series of individual instructors, many of whom are elderly women. The students vary in talent; but in the course of the film the playing becomes more proficient and the teachers more strict. A film like this depends on the personalities depicted; and here the film makers have made some fortuitous choices...many of the kids and teachers are delightfully insightful and quirky. Maybe I was particularly intrigued by this film since it brought back mixed feelings about my own youthful attempts at learning piano. I tried for years to master the instrument with little to show from the effort. I could totally relate to the people on screen. Nice job.
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Sweet Country 2017
In this Australian "western" set in the 1920s, Sam, an Aboriginal farm hand (Hamilton Morris) shoots a crazy drunk white man (Ewen Leslie) in self defense. Unsurprisingly in that era of extreme racial prejudice, a hunting posse sets out to track and bring to "justice" the fleeing man and his wife through the stark and imposing outback scenery. Familiar grizzled actors Bryan Brown and Sam Neill also are featured playing somewhat upstanding settlers who are part of the posse. The film was bleak, inhabited by malevolent whites and downtrodden, sullen blacks. It was all too predictable and mean...film making to respect but not enjoy.
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Breath 2017
This evocative coming of age film takes place in the 1970s somewhere in rural, coastal Australia. Two "almost 14" boys, studious Pikelet (Samson Coulter) and wild-child Loonie (Ben Spence) become friends and discover surfing together. They soon find a mentor in Sando, a world famous surfing pro who has retired to a hippie lifestyle of surfing and sex with his girlfriend Eva. Sando is played by Australian Simon Baker, familiar from starring in a long-running American TV show "The Mentalist." Baker also directed this film, his first feature, and does a serviceable job...especially with the amazingly realistic surfing and underwater sequences. The story itself, adapted from a novel by Tim Winton, centers on young Pikelet and how he deals with fear of the great waves and his introduction to sex with an affair with a grown-up woman (the age discordance is appropriate to the era the film is set in; but seems oddly inappropriate today.) I really enjoyed this film: beautiful people, gorgeous ocean vistas, involving story. But the narrative occasionally feels disjointed; and others may find the story troubling.
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Gold Seekers 2017
Manu (played by sympathetic newcomer Tomás Arrendondo) is a teenage newspaper delivery boy living in Asunción, Paraguay. At the start of the film he finds a treasure map in a book his dying grandfather gave him. That sets off a frenetic chase film where several of his avaricious friends and some other low-lifes attempt to recover the treasure. Most of the characters were unlikable; and the action occasionally degenerated into implausible farce. It is all mildly diverting; but for me it was too silly and slapstick to actually enjoy.
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The Guilty 2018
Asgur, a Danish policeman manning an emergency phone line while awaiting a decision on a line of duty killing, receives a call from a distraught mother of two who sobs that she is in a van being kidnapped. This sets off a frantic and suspenseful police chase, entirely shown through Asgur's activities monitoring and guiding the chase remotely from the offices of the Danish equivalent to 9-1-1. Asgur was played by the superb actor Jakob Cedergren, in a tour de force performance predominately shot in close-ups on his face as he handled the phones. The tension and suspense build; yet thanks to the skillful direction and editing I found myself continuously at the edge of my seat, and completely focused on Cedergren's actions and the plight of the unseen, anguished victims.
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A Quiet Place 2018
This suspenseful and almost silent thriller is set in a future earth where vicious aliens, blind but with acute hearing, hunt humans that make any sound. The Abbott family have more or less survived for over a year since the invasion, having settled on a small farm and practiced sign language to communicate. Mom (ferocious and wonderful Emily Blunt) is pregnant. Dad (director John Krasinski) is protective of his two kids: older daughter Regan, deaf herself, played by Millicent Simmonds; and young Marcus, played with heartbreaking sincerity by Noah Jupe. The story ratchets up the tension to the breaking point. If the film had any flaws, it's that some of the perils seemed a bit contrived. But mostly, this is an original concept, set somewhere between horror and survivalist sci-fi. It is masterfully directed, and has a superb sound design featuring a signature score by Marco Beltrami that is as effective in its way as the theme from Jaws. The film easily exceeded my expectations.
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The Russian Five
In the 1990s, the Detroit Red Wings hockey team imported five Russian players to try to bring the Stanley Cup to that city for the first time in over 40 years. This documentary tells the amazing and often moving story of those players and their team of destiny. I have zero interest in hockey...I've never been able to follow the itty-bitty puck, and the entire working class ethos of the sport just has no appeal. But this film was so well edited and had such an emotionally uplifting true story to tell (and which all came as news to me), that my indifference to the sport hardly mattered. Not that I've suddenly turned into a hockey fan. But I'm a fan of this film.
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Black Panther 2018
I waited 11 weeks for this? It's hard to imagine a more banal story. The "bad" cousin villain was more interesting than the "good" cousin hero. The special f/x were pretty lackluster, even by Marvel standards (although giant charging rhinos and spectacular waterfalls kept me awake.) I figured this wasn't going to be my cuppa; and I was right.
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The House of Tomorrow 2017
I'm a sucker for boys coming of age films...and this optimistic, involving film fits the bill. Sebastian (Asa Butterfield, all gangly innocence) is a sheltered teenager, living in a famous Minnesota geodesic dome with his grandmother (Ellen Bursten). By fortuitous circumstances he befriends green-haired, heart-transplant patient, punk-rocker Jared (Alex Wolff, scintillating). Adventures and convincing character developments ensue, along with an educational detour into the life and theories of inventor R. Buckminster Fuller, who designed the dome Sebastian inhabits. The film is adapted from a novel by Peter Bognanni, an interesting enough story that I may seek out the book to read. Director/adaptor Peter Livolsi, in his first feature film, shows an affinity for his characters and subject matter which added to my personal identification, mostly with Sebastian, while watching the film.
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Disobedience 2017
In this turgid, but well acted, drama, Ronit (Rachel Weisz) plays the apostate daughter of a famed London Ashkenazi rabbi, who returns from exile in the U.S. for her father's funeral. It soon turns out that the reason for Ronit's expulsion from her father's insular cult was that the old rabbi had discovered her affair with a woman, Esti (Rachel McAdams), and disowned Ronit. However, Esti remained behind and submitted to a loveless marriage with the old rabbi's favored acolyte, Dovid (Alessandro Nivola). Ronit's return, and the restart of the blatant lesbian affair between her and Esti sets off a crisis in the Orthodox Jewish community. OK, that's more than the usual number of plot spoilers from me...but this film is more about complex human relationships and corrosive religious faith than about salacious sex (although there is some of that, too.) Frankly, I didn't enjoy watching this film; but the acting (especially, for me, Nivola's surprisingly humanistic take on religious rectitude) was impressive.
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Tully 2018
It would be hard to imagine a story with less relevance for me, personally, than a mother's postpartum depression after the delivery of her third child. Yet, thanks to Charlize Theron's amazingly realistic performance (even her body changed and conformed to the role with 50 added pounds) and a surprisingly revelatory script by Diablo Cody, I was able to relate. No spoilers from me (and I recommend not reading any reviews that hint at spoilers). This wasn't an easy film to watch...just an amazingly truthful one, thanks to the acting and the empathetic direction of Jason Reitman.
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Meet Me in St. Louis 1944
I was lucky to be able to watch a pristine film print of this old-fashioned technicolor MGM musical film from 1944. The story is a rudimentary romantic comedy about a middle-class family anticipating the great "Louisiana Purchase Expo" of 1904 in St. Louis: mother, father, four daughters ranging from early 20s to age 5, a 20-something son, a grandfather and a feisty maid. Each character has a story to tell, sometimes set to music, with familiar songs by Martin and Blane that are etched into my memory (e.g. the title song and the "Trolley Song" .) The main story is about the 2nd daughter, Esther, played by the immortal star Judy Garland, who develops a longing for the newly moved-in "boy next door" (played by Tom Drake.) Comic relief is provided by her energetic 5-year old sister Tootie (Margaret O'Brien). Vincente Minnelli's direction is strong, mainly characterized by organically incorporating the songs into the narrative and combining fluid camera work and superb production design and costumes to re-create an authentic appearing 1904 St. Louis. However, for me the plot came off as contrived and predictable, even, in the case of a weird Halloween episode, inexplicable. As much as I enjoyed the familiar music and the glorious Technicolor spectacle of the visuals, I was bored at times by the triviality of the central story lines. Still, Garland singing and emoting with that innate innocence and glow...definitely worth the visit.
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Beirut 2018
The place: Beirut, Lebanon in 1972 and 1982, one of the most horrific and violent places on Earth during this period. John Hamm plays an American diplomat sent to Lebanon where he became a victim of a terrorist attack on his home in '72. He then left government service and became an alcoholic while working in the private sector. After 10 years he's called back to Lebanon to negotiate for the freedom of a CIA friend who had been kidnapped by terrorists. That is the set-up for a more than serviceable thriller centered on the utter chaos of the Lebanon civil war between Christians, Muslims, the P.L.O. and Israel. Hamm is superb in his star turn, Brad Anderson's direction is nearly flawless, with a sure handed grasp of the conflict from all sides. And the script actually holds together better than most geopolitical thrillers that attempt to make sense of the Middle Eastern conflicts.
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The Rider 2017
Based on a true story, Brady Blackburn was a young rodeo bucking bronc rider who is slowly recovering from an almost fatal head injury. In the film, he deals with family and friends, and painfully faces a future without rodeo fame and fortune. What distinguishes the film is that Brady, his father and younger sister, and a totally injury disabled rodeo friend named Lane are played in the film by themselves. And make no mistake, Brady Jandreau (the real Brady Blackburn), is a natural actor with a kind of soft charisma that leaps from the screen. In Q&A, he admitted that he would like to have a career as an actor, and I wish him success.
As for the film, it is slow and meditative. Director Chloé Zhao has an innate sensibility for gleaning realistic performances from her amateur cast. Joshua James Richard's cinematography takes full advantage of the spectacular South Dakota scenery in gorgeous long shots. And the rodeo material is fresh and nicely edited. I was intrigued by the story and milieu; but the script and actors didn't totally engage me emotionally, which was my only reservation. This is cinema verité style film making done well. Maybe it takes a Chinese born auteur like Zhao (or Ang Lee, for that matter) to put a fresh slant on the American western mythos.
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The Awakening of Spring 2008
I've always regretted missing the original production of the Broadway musical "Spring Awakening". I was reminded of this by the new TV series, "Rise," where the continuing crux of conflict is a controversial high school production of that musical. So a friend turned me on to a video of this "Here TV" teleplay, which turned out to be a heavily expurgated version of the original 19th century German drama that was the basis for the modern musical. It must be that crucial story developments were edited out, since the play as presented lacked narrative coherence. At this point I can only long for a filmed version of the musical to be made at some future date. We should be so lucky.
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Lean on Pete 2017
In a short, distinguished career as auteur, Andrew Haigh has made trenchant, romantic films about mature gay men (Weekend and Looking) and an elderly straight couple (45 Years.) In this film he goes in the opposite age direction: telling the moving story of 15-year old Charley Thompson and his lonely struggle to survive poverty and loss while trying to rescue an old racehorse named "Lean on Pete" from the glue factory.
Charley was played by gangly, age-appropriate Charlie Plummer (so impressive as J.Paul Getty III in the recent film All the Money in the World.) His naturalistic performance, stripped of affect, reminded me of Jean-Pierre Léaud's creation of a sympathetic, rebellious, teen-age Antoine Doinel in Truffaut's masterpiece, The 400 Blows. That comparison is telling, as Haigh's neo-New Wave oeuvre so far reminds me of Truffaut's. In any case, I was emotionally devastated at the conclusion of this film. I initially gave it the (for me) rare 5-star rating; but some of the plot developments seemed a tad contrived (for instance the progression of the horse's story.) Nevertheless this is a classic boy's coming-of-age story of rare beauty and import.
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78/52 2017
Everything you ever wanted to know about the shooting and editing of the shower scene in Hitchcock's Psycho. And then some. A film lover's treasure trove of minutia. But as an editor myself, a lesson in humility: unpacking the greatest scene ever put on celluloid, shot by shot. Remarkably, the documentary actually succeeds in explicating the ineffable creative process. Nicely done!
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Back to Burgundy 2017
Ten years before the start of this touching film, Jean (attractive French actor Pio Marmaï) left his family owned Burgundy vineyard to "see the world." He was in mild revolt against his critical and controlling father; and he left his two younger siblings, Juliette (Anna Girardot) and Jérémie (François Civil) to hold the fort. Jean eventually ended up marrying a Chilean girl, had a son and emigrated to Australia where he started a winery of his own. But upon the impending death of his father, Jean returns to Burgundy for a short stay that stretches into a full year of tending grapes and delving into his relationships, his family's heritage and the Pinot grape vines that stretch gorgeously to the horizon.
The film is steeped in nostalgia for a French region and lifestyle of wine making that I found appealing and even fascinating. But then, I'm a life-long Francophile and casual oenophile...and director Cédric Klapisch continues to make films designed to provide for me an idealistic escapism, now with a younger leading man in Marmaï replacing his usual avatar Romain Duris. But this film, unlike many of Klapisch's previous, facile rom-coms, is a deep and affecting family drama. One is reminded of a similar, lovely French film about family and inheritance, Olivier Assayas's Summer Hours. If this film isn't quite up to the quality of that masterpiece, it still is in the ballpark.
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Final Portrait 2017
James Lord was an American author/biographer. In 1964 he sat for a quick portrait by the aging, Italian-Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti in the latter's Paris atelier. The portrait, considered a masterpiece today, took weeks to finish. Stanly Tucci has made a stark, stolid film out of these sittings, with Armie Hammer, looking fine mostly sitting still in a chair, playing Lord. Geoffrey Rush plays Giacometti, all tortured artist, neurotic and frazzled. I can't say much more since half-way through the film some lady in the audience had a heart attack and the screening was canceled after the arrival of the paramedics. I received a free pass to a future film...but it won't be Final Portrait, which was starting to feel endless and boring. In any case, there's a documentary short on the web which tells this exact story better in 4-minutes. Save yourself from wasting 90-minutes watching the film by clicking here.
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Chappaquiddick 2017
Frankly, this film didn't add anything new to the unfortunate story of the 1969 Ted Kennedy scandal. It is a reminder, however, that once upon a time in America politicians were more or less held to account for their character flaws. As for the film, its substance is too thin to sustain its length. However, Jason Clark's impersonation of Teddy is eerily on point. Kudos to the make-up artists that transformed his face...the best use of the medium since Gary Oldman was turned into Winston Churchill.
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Love, Simon 2018
By now the broad outlines of the plot are common knowledge: Simon is a contemporary, normal, well adjusted teenager, a high-school senior from an upper middle-class family. Except that Simon has a secret he is reluctant to divulge to his parents and even his best friends: he's innately attracted to boys and is suffering from old-fashioned closet-itis. What ensues is an emotionally laden, coming-out romcom...sort of a spin on 13 Reasons Why without the suicide or existential angst, but nevertheless featuring that film's lead actress Katherine Langford in a prominent role. This time the male lead role of Simon was played by Nick Robinson, an actor who would hardly make a blip on anybody's gaydar. And the story could have applied just as well to 1958 (my senior year in high-school) as to 2018...except they weren't making films like this in 1958, or 1988, or even 2008, for that matter. And the outcome in 1958 wouldn't have been so optimistic and positive, probably in reality more like the outcome of 13 Reasons Why.
That said, I, personally, loved this film. I was emotionally involved with Simon's inner life and shed honest tears during the final third of the film. For me this was a realistic fantasy that touched with rare truth on my own life experiences. But I'm old; and some little voice inside was whispering to me that even with smart phones and today's automobiles on view, this was a story that was set out of its time. Anyway, I appreciate what director Greg Berlanti was doing here. This film really should have been made in 1988. Now it just seems old fashioned and clichéd. Even so, I'll reluctantly admit it again: I loved this film.
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Ready Player One 2018
I feel like this film deserves 5-stars since I was enthralled and even (oh god, how can I admit this) brought to tears at one point. But I have to step back a half-star since it is so obvious that this film was designed to press all my buttons: nerd movie lore, check. Arcade Atari games, check. '80s music nostalgia, check. Spectacular fantasy battles in VR!, check. I may be in my 70s; but a sense of wonder has no age limit (and with so many cultural touchstones contemporary to my salad years on view, I felt particularly in touch with the references and clever easter eggs.) I'm only thankful that I hadn't read the book beforehand, so the script and special effects were transporting, novel and coherent.
That said, this was still an overly obvious, adolescent quest fantasy...with stock villains and youthful, nerdy heroes. So I can't quite give it 5-stars. Maybe a second viewing in IMAX 3D will push me over the top. Or perhaps the thin story will pall and reduce to ennui, and I'll only be left with the spectacular technical achievements: great sound mix, a fresh sounding John Williams-ish score by Alan Silvestri, and truly superb special visual effects that set a new high for genre film making.
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Isle of Dogs 2018
Superior puppet animation, fine vocal acting by a large cast of familiar voices, a great Alexandre Desplat traditional Japanese drum score, and Wes Anderson's usual production design inventiveness and complexity. However, the script's social satire is insultingly simplistic (and even in some regards racist). The final take: flawless animated production in aid of a monotonous and trivial story (at times I struggled to stay awake).
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7 Days in Entebbe 2018
This is a gripping enough historical thriller. It tells the story of a famous airplane hijacking in 1976, where German and Palestinian terrorists forced an Air France plane flying from Tel Aviv to Paris to divert to Uganda. The story is a familiar one (at least to those of a certain age) which seems old fashioned and naive in today's geopolitical climate. It is told mainly from the point of view of the two German radicals (Daniel Brühl and Rosamund Pike) and the Israeli government of Rabin and Peres (Lior Ashkenazi and Eddie Marsan), who are in a quandary as to how to deal with the terrorists. There are dozens of other characters who are less developed to the point of almost irrelevancy. Director José Padilha tries to give the film an artistic gloss by intercutting the action with an Israeli dance troupe performing a metaphoric routine. It's an interesting idea; but I didn't really get the metaphor...and the scenes didn't further the narrative. Bottom line: fine cast, high gloss production, nothing new to add to a familiar story.
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Red Sparrow 2018
Hey, if torture porn turns you on...if you love spy vs. spy whack-a-mole complete with double, triple and quadruple crosses that sometimes don't make complete sense...well then do I have a film for you!
Still I sort of enjoyed it. International intrigue, some fine performances (I especially enjoyed watching Charlotte Rampling giving tough dyke and Mary-Louise Parker giving femme dyke (although not together)). And Matthias Schoenaerts is always interesting. Oh, yeah, the two leads: Jennifer Lawrence and Joel Edgerton were OK, even if they lacked verve and mutual chemistry. That's it in a nutshell: an OK thriller that didn't quite thrill but looked great.
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Flesh and Sand 2017
I have seen the future of the cinematic arts...and this is it. Give a venue and story to a visionary directory like Alejandro Iñárritu. Provide a 360-degree VR camera to a technically adventurous cinematographer like Emmanuel Lubezki. Add encompassing surround sound and sensual mechanical effects. Make the resulting experience available to an adventurous mass audience in a suitable environment (still working on this one.) And voila! instant immersive audience participation in every dimension. I only hope that the technology advances enough and arrives in time for an innovator like James Cameron to bring this type of experience to the Avatar sequels. And that I'm still alive to live them!
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Il vegetale 2018
Watched at the Italian film festival under the title The Vegitable.
Fabio is a 24-year old wannabe white color executive, despite the disdain of his successful father and spoiled sister, who deride him with the nickname "the vegitable". As played by Italian rapper Fabio Rovazzi, he's a loser with a heart of gold and the innate spirit of a winner. Rovazzi is wonderful here, a sort of deadpan, serio-comic presence reminiscent of a young Roberto Benigni. The film pokes fun at Milan's executive culture by placing Fabio as an unpaid intern on a countryside farm picking vegetables along with immigrants of color. This is a modern day Candide type story that mostly works because Rovazzi's Fabio is such a convincingly naive character. Plus, the script effectively satirizes the modern Italian work ethic.
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Come diventare grandi nonostante i genitori 2016
Watched at the Italian film festival under the title How to Grow Up Despite Your Parents.
Based on a cute Disney Italy TV show called Alex & Co, this fun trifle of a film tells the story of five Milanese high school students who form a pop band and enter a sing-off contest despite the stern school headmistress's determination to stifle arts education in favor of scholasticism. The kids have various struggles with parents and school policy, which are overcome by contest time. It's all predictable and familiar...an all Caucasian variant of High School Musical in Italian, with preternaturally adorable actors and badly over produced musical numbers. Yet it was still good fun; and I enjoyed myself despite my innate disdain for the genre clichés.
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The Space Between Us 2017
This film ought to have been right in my wheelhouse. Films I like: coming of age...check. Romantic YA sci-fi stories...check. Asa Butterfield...check (Ender's Game is one of my all-time favorite films, even if the author of the book is a bigot.) Gary Oldman, great actor, even if he's wasted here...check. Yeah, my kinda flick.
But despite all that, this is a script that definitely needed a science advisor. When the Martian boy, pretending to be living in a bubble in New York, was chatting by internet with the Earth girl...with no allowance for the up to 21 minutes of time lag for messages between the two planets, I started to check out. And that was only the start of multiple errors of physics and physical impossibilities that kept bringing me out of the film: Two 16-year old kids cross the continent in multiple stolen cars that magically appear when they need them with nobody ever noticing. A helicopter that never needs refueling follows them on that cross continent journey, lagging mere moments behind the kids for half the film. Planes and space shuttles become instantly available to the characters when they're needed for the story. That's only scratching the surface. Bottom line, the script flaws were just too egregious to allow me to enjoy this film.
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Il premio 2017
Seen at the L.A. Italian film festival under the title The Prize.
In this picturesque, involving Italian dramedy, Giovanni Passamonte (played by grizzled Gigi Proietti) has just won the Nobel literature prize. In order to pick up his medal and give his anticipated speech, he enlists his eldest son (played by director/actor Alessandro Gassman), his intellectual daughter, and long-time personal assistant to accompany him in a road trip from Italy to Stockholm. Passamonte is afraid of flying, something I can definitely relate to personally. The trip is spectacularly scenic, going through the Alps and various countries en route. But the meat of the story are the amusing adventures of the traveling party as they stop and cavort in various venues. The script is filled with surprising minor characters doing interesting things with their lives. This is an entertaining, fun film about intelligent, talented, unconventional characters. Nice job all around.
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Nato a Casal di Principe 2017
Amadeo was a bit-part actor from the Naples region whose gangster wannabe younger brother Paolo was kidnapped (probably by the Cammora) and permanently disappeared. This based-on-a-true-story, Italian film tells of the aftermath and search by Amadeo and his family for the missing, delinquent Paolo. The film wants to be a low budget crime and kidnapping thriller in the mode of All the Money in the World; but its repetitive script lacked propulsive action and suspense. However, youthful actor Alessio Lapice who portrayed Amadeo as a surly obsessive, had almost enough charisma to carry the film.
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La casa di famiglia 2017
The single father of an Italian family of four 30-somethings has been in a coma for 5 years. Each of the offspring has present day money trouble; and they finally decide to sell the house and all the furnishings, in anticipation that their father is close to death. As soon as the deed is done, of course the father awakens and needs to revisit his old home to fully recover from the long sleep. That is the starting point of this moderately clever, occasionally funny, and often stupid Italian farce. The best part of the film occurs right at the beginning when we're introduced to the dysfunctional family when the characters were children. But that sequence goes by so fast that it is hard to connect the kids with their grown-up personas. Too bad, because that was the most interesting part of the script. The rest is just an increasingly unlikely farce building up to a feel good ending that doesn't quite seem deserved.
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The Champ 1979
I had good memories of the 1979 remake (of a popular '30s drama) The Champ. Given the chance to re-watch Zeffirelli's film in a new big screen print, I jumped at the chance. Unfortunately the film doesn't hold up all that well. One can't fault little 8-year old Ricky Schroder for one of the most endearing (if somewhat over-the-top) kid's performances ever. I challenge anybody to get through his final scene without shedding a manipulated tear or two (or a gusher like me.) And it really isn't Jon Voight's fault, playing an ex-boxing champ raising a kid while working as a race horse walker. He shines with true star quality here. Too bad that Dunaway seemed to call in her role...probably her worst ever. Finally, in 2018 both boxing and horse racing as subjects seem hopelessly out of fashion as settings for a contemporary drama. Hopefully this old fashioned, tearjerker story will never see a third re-make.
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The Startup: Accendi il tuo futuro 2017
This is a more-or-less true story biopic about at Italian high-school student and college dropout who started an internet site called Egomnia to hook up companies and job applicants based on merit (rather than the usual Italian system based on contacts and family status.) Matteo Achilli (played with attractive verve by Andrea Arcangeli) thus became the "Mark Zuckerberg of Italy". However, no matter how similar the story was to The Social Network, director D'Alatri is no David Fincher. Still, even though the script at times seemed oversimplified and predictable, I became involved with the characters and their activities, proving that successful internet entrepreneurs are not limited by country or language; and despite (or maybe because of) their egotism and drive, they're well suited for classical dramas of hubris rewarded.
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Ferdinand 2017
This is a talking animals animated feature that may be useful to teach a non-violence message to kids; but for grown-ups it's a somewhat insipid story with uninspired graphics. Still, there were a few laughs and some faint tugs on the heartstrings on the way, so it's not a complete waste of time.
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Call Me by Your Name 2017
Third time is the charm: finally I can honestly raise my rating to that rare 5-stars. This time I could appreciate without reservation the sheer beauty of the big screen depiction of Italy, the subtle naturalness of the acting, the heartbreaking honesty of the love affair, the languid pacing which emphasized the tentative nature of the relationship between Elio and Oliver which blossomed and ripened at just the right time. It all meshed for me: script, direction, acting, cinematography, score, song, editing.
And then there's Timothée. Sure he's going to lose to Gary Oldman. I can even live with that...Oldman has deserved at least a half dozen Oscars for past roles and was only nominated once. But young Chalamet deserves it, too, for the sheer craft of artless naturalness portraying a sensitive adolescent growing into his skin before our eyes. For the depth of emotion done without words, with his inner turmoil mirrored in the eyes and expressed in his loose, coltish body language. This is a classic, subtle film performance. I hope he keeps getting roles that challenge him. The sky's the limit for this kid's career; and his future Oscar will come.
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The Breadwinner 2017
This is a timely, 2D animated feature film about the struggles of an 11-year old Afghani girl during the cultural tyranny of the Taliban just prior to the U.S. invasion in 2001. Parvana's father had lost a leg in the Russian invasion; and for no particular reason he was thrown into prison. Under the Taliban, females were forbidden to set foot outside the home without being accompanied by a male, impossible in the case of Parvana's fatherless family. In order for her family to survive, the girl disguised herself as a boy; and, along with another young girl doing the same masquerade, set out to find her father while dealing with sustaining her destitute family.
The old-fashioned, semi-realistic 2D animation was fairly effective at depicting life in Kabul. However, occasionally the drawings would become stylized and spectacularly graphic when they were used to illustrate a symbolic, bedtime quest story that Parvana was telling to her little brother. The film was basically the the not-so-subtly politicized story of a young girl caught up in the terrors of the geopolitical quagmire of radical Islamic oppression of women. Yes, it was a timely look at a terrible reality; but it's hard to figure what the intended audience is...too complex for a children's film, too simplistic for adults.
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The Boss Baby 2017
In this misbegotten animated film, babies are delivered by conveyor belt (beats the stork, I guess.) One day, pampered 7-year old Tim is presented with his new baby brother, Theodore. To his parents, the infant is an adorable, normal baby. However, Tim becomes aware that his brother is actually a capitalist operative, sent by the baby corporation to thwart a plot by the puppy corporation to steal all the love. Theodore was voiced by a sardonic Alec Baldwin; and after a while the joke of a cute baby spouting adult dialog and wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase grew old. Even the contoured, 3D animation had a cheesy superficiality, unusual from DreamWorks Animation. For me, the script was contrived, even insulting with its silly simplified view of family dynamics and corporate skullduggery. Its Oscar nomination for best animated feature film is inexplicable.
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Star Wars: The Last Jedi 2017
Second big screen viewing...raised my rating a half-star. I'm still not a big fan of the series; but I was able to get past many of my original objections to the story and physics and just enjoy the spectacular technical achievements and Adam Driver's pout and pectorals. Not great sci-fi, not even great space opera...but good enough.
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Mudbound 2017
First time trying to watch this film on my TV, I quit about a half-hour through. The Mississippi mud miserableness combined with the bleakly dark cinematography were too hard to take, strange for a Netflix original. But given the multiple Oscar nominations, I took the opportunity to watch it on the big screen...which was a revelation.
What I could now see with wide-screen clarity was a dual family saga of WWII era poverty and hardscrabble Southern rural life, a moving depiction of the varied lives of a struggling white farming family and the oppressed black sharecropper family that worked the land. Interwoven in this Southern Gothic tapestry, were the stories of two tragic family members, one white, one black, who fought in the war and came home profoundly changed and out of step with the racial strife of the times. What at first seemed to be a total downer of a film, grew into a kind of Steinbeckian epic of its own place and time. And all with luminous cinematography (by Oscar nominee Rachel Morrison), and a truly excellent ensemble cast.
Can I give a special shout-out to actor Garrett Hedlund? Why he hasn't become a major movie star by now is a mystery...maybe he's just too protean an actor who disappears into his characters, rather than an icon. Bottom line: even on the big screen, this is still a hard to take, but realistic look at a bleak time and place in American history...however, it is well worth the journey.
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The Young Karl Marx 2017
This is a politically charged biopic set in the 1840's about two radical, 20-something, bourgeois activists who became friends and ultimately organizers of the proletariat: Prussian, Karl Marx (August Diehl) and German/English Frederich Engels (Stefan Konarske). The film is partially an involving family drama. Marx, son of a middle-class converted Jew, met and married while exiled in Paris his aristocratic German wife Jenny (played by luminous Vicky Krieps, so memorable in The Phantom Thread). Englels, son of an exploiting capitalist factory owner in Manchester, England, married a spitfire Irish working class activist, Mary Burns (Hannah Steele). But most of the film time is composed of talky, political musings and meetings, which I found hard to follow and excessively didactic. Bottom line: realistic, wide-ranging depiction of the 1840s in several countries (England, Prussia, France, Belgium), and a fairly well done people story of life in those times. But the film was too mired in arcane politics and philosophy to hold my interest for most of its length.
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Coco 2017
A young Mexican boy, forbidden to express his musical talent by family strictures, is temporarily transported to the land of the dead to reclaim his musical heritage. And strangely enough, through the magic of Pixar/Disney's most effective, large scale animation design since Inside Out, the film works as an emotionally resonant, epic coming of age story.
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Loving Vincent 2017
Second big screen viewing. The visuals are still amazing, of unparalleled beauty and invention. The quasi-mystery, quasi-documentary narrative seemed somewhat less successful this time, despite the fine acting and direction of the live action scenes converted to animated oil paintings in Van Gogh's style by hundreds of dedicated artists. My lack of emotional engagement this time made me lower my rating a half-star. I still love this film, though, if just for the pure joy of great art brought to life.
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Marshall 2017
This is a biopic about the early career of Thurgood Marshall, centered on a famous 1940 Connecticut trial where Marshall, roving NAACP lawyer activist, helped defend an African-American man accused of raping a white woman. The film has a good cast; and the life of Marshall (who later became a Supreme Court justice) is a fine and timely example of the difficulties and successes of the civil rights movement. However, the script here is predictable and full of courtroom clichés. It is telling to compare this with the almost overlooked biopic of the early careers of Barak and Michelle Obama: Southside With You. Both films are historical re-creations of the early careers of important Black activists who evolved into political phenomena. But the Obama film personalizes the characters in a fresh and compelling way; while the Marshall film provides cardboard characters who are more political symbols than real people. Thurgood Marshall deserves a more representative example of his career path.
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Dunkirk 2017
A second big screen viewing (this time not in 70mm, but just as much a visual epic). The film remains a hugely successful technical achievement: great cinematography, production and sound design, special effects. Still, despite foreknowledge, I still found the sequencing of events confusing...the lack of linearity and any clear resolution of several of the story threads still bothers me. The best I can say is that this is a narratively flawed masterpiece.
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Kong: Skull Island 2017
The Oscar nomination for special effects is well deserved. They are seamless and thrilling. But the story, a rehash of monsters and mysterious, unexplored island tropes, was only marginally involving. Still, I was diverted for two hours; which is about the best one can hope for with these adventure epics, even one with a better than average cast. But is it futile to hope that some day they'll make one of these films without so many gratuitous and predictable deaths and characters who are cliché archetypes?
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Baby Driver 2017
I couldn't pass up another opportunity to watch this film on the big screen. The first half of this film has some of the most exciting car chase scenes ever shot: superb editing, great stunt driving, perfect melding of music and sound effects. All with camera focused on the totally centered, perfectly cool driver, Baby...a stunning performance by Ansel Elgort who has the camera presence here of a true movie star. Credit Edgar Wright for some kick-ass direction. Then the second half arrives, along with Kevin Spacey who carries a lot of extraneous baggage these days. At this point the film devolves into a mess of excessive violence and mayhem that defies suspension of disbelief. But oh, that first half!
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Mosaic 2018
The author of a popular children's book (Sharon Stone) is murdered, the body missing from the bloody scene. Two men, both of whom eventually confess to the crime, may or may not have killed her in acts of passion (the actual crime is never shown, although red herrings abound.) Or, more likely the actual killer is someone else, the motive being money and land. This is an unconventional narrative, a detective story that continues for over 300 minutes and never crosses the t's or dots the i's. If the resolution (or lack thereof) is annoying, the trip to get there is fascinating. Writer Ed Solomon apparently originally conceived this as an internet app, with multiple story branches under viewer control. I had never heard of the app; but the 6-part HBO miniseries had a more linear structure, basically a murder mystery thriller set in a small Utah town steeped in corruption. The actors are superb; especially Garrett Hedlund and Frederick Weller as the two suspects, Devin Ratray as the detective determined to get to the truth, and Jaclyn Hales as the initially accused killer's sister determined to prove her brother's innocence. Director Steven Soderbergh has few peers when it comes to bringing to life complex, multi-level stories steeped in authentic atmosphere. I'd have rated this much higher, if only I had felt any sense of certainty or closure to the central mystery. But maybe that was the point...neat endings are passé in this post-modern age of boutique television.
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Marjorie Prime 2017
Clearly adapted from a one-set play, this is the story of a multi-generational family in a future society where 3-dimentional computer generated holograms of dead loves are created and sold to provide companionship and solace for the living. The cast is superb, especially Lois Smith as Marjorie, the increasingly addled grandmother figure first introduced conversing with the simulacrum of her long deceased husband at a much younger age, Walter Prime (Jon Hamm). In the course of the film, time is very fluid, often transitioning from past to present to future and back with few guideposts. The characters also age, and eventually become computer generated holograms themselves as in an Isaac Asimov novel where humanity has died off and all that is left are robots talking among themselves. It is a fascinating concept with philosophical implications that surmount the usual movie fare.
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Ram Dass, Going Home 2017
Ram Dass (ne: Richard Alpert, ex-Harvard prof, LSD enthusiast, spiritual guru) is in his late 80s now, living after a debilitating stroke on Maui. This documentary short follows his current life (with a few flashbacks to earlier times) post-stroke, where he has limited mobility, but has haltingly recovered his speech. During much of the film he muses on the meaning of life, especially his certainty that death is merely a happy transition to another stage. The film was beautiful to watch...the gardens and seaside vistas from his Maui estate are spectacular. But I have to admit I tuned out listening to the Ram Dass spiritual mumbo jumbo (or enlightened philosophy, if that's the way you roll.) However, the film did make me contemplate my own feelings about death...something I seldom do and that I don't enjoy doing at this still healthy stage of my old age. So this film decidedly wasn't my cuppa.
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Knife Skills 2017
Edwins Leadership and Restaurant Institute is a highly rated French restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio. What distinguishes it from others is that it makes most of its hires from released prisoners who attend a rigorous cooking school, and then work at the restaurant after graduation. This documentary short follows the activities during one school term of several ex-felons. It also tells the moving story of the emotional and dedicated manager and founder of the restaurant, Brandon Edwin Chrostowski. This is a fine example of a good-works documentary, well shot and edited. As a "foodie" doc, it isn't quite up to the best of the breed...the food looked luscious, of course; but the focus was on the people and their struggles to succeed and not recidivate. That the project works, for the most part, is evidence of its admirable purpose in helping ex-prisoners return to civilian life and become productive citizens.
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Traffic Stop 2017
2017 has been the year of the "silence breakers," those people who came out testifying about their sexual abuses by powerful people. However, the past few years have also featured another well publicized trend based on multiple episodes of white cops abusing and sometimes killing people of color. This 31 minute documentary short adds the relatively harmless case of Breaion King, a 26 year-old African-American school teacher from Austin, Texas, to that group. Ms. King was pulled over for a speeding infraction; and what followed was recorded on various dash-cams and body-cams. These records showed an alarming abuse of power by the white policeman, a physical assault which didn't result in death, or even significant bodily harm. However, through interviews with the post-traumatized Ms. King, this white viewer got some idea of what it must feel like to be a helpless black person involved in an ordinary traffic stop. The film leaves the case unresolved...but one hopes, probably in vain, that the city of Austin was forced to pay and the cop involved forced to resign for this travesty of justice. If only life were that fair.
