By: Henry J. Fromage –
This week is the first of two that will be jam-packed with Tribeca Film Festival releases, plus the usual odds & ends.
571. I Am All Girls
This South African crime thriller about two cops fighting a child abduction ring involving people in the highest positions of power in their own ways is handsomely staged and shot in that apparently quite imitable David Fincher house style. It’s also a bit of a story-telling and characterization muddle, but fans of slickly told crime stories with grey-hued vigilantism will still likely find much to like. Three Beers.
572. Madeline’s Madeline
Josephine Decker directed this right before Shirley, and it’s very clearly one of hers, obsessed with performance and sanity and how the sliding scale of each defines our realities. Helena Howard is stunning as a high school girl with a heavily implied mental health issue or at least episode in the past, who has landed the lead of a stageplay that increasingly becomes about her own life and issues. Both actress and character are asked to push things outside of our collective comfort zones- discomfiting, but admirably so. Two Beers.
573. Labyrinth of Cinema
In 2016, Japanese director Nobuhiko Obayashi (House) was diagnosed with terminal cancer and told he had months to live. In 2020 he released his second three-hour film made after that point, which would prove his last. Labyrinth of Cinema is rather true to its advertising, about a small theater running an all-night marathon of war movies and four young people who are literally sucked into them, bouncing around different wartime eras and cinematic styles on a path to, of course, Hiroshima. Obayashi mixes truly gorgeous shots with truly, intentionally cheap-looking ones, but never loses sight of his central thesis- war is evil in any of its forms. Two Beers.
574. See for Me
My first film of the Tribeca Film Festival (man, I hope they keep these at-home editions going in upcoming years), this one is a thriller about a blind ex-skier who is cat-sitting in a remote mansion when she hears the tell-tale noises of someone breaking in. It just so happens that there’s a safe the owner doesn’t know about that a criminal team is trying to crack, but they didn’t account for her or the ex-Iraq War veteran who provides assistance for the blind that she calls. While the grand finale finally burst the bounds of my credulity, the majority of the film is a cracking good time with an interestingly grey-toned moral outlook. Three Beers.
575. 7 Days
Miracle Workers‘ Geraldine Viswanathan and Karan Soni star here as a couple of Indian-Americans whose parents have set them up on a blind date on the worst possible day for that- right as California’s stay at home orders hit. It doesn’t take long to burst the traditionalist, vegetarian, alcohol-free facades, and it’s clear they are far from a logical fit, but as the days stretch out their better qualities also emerge, as does a more classically romantic film than it appeared to be at first blush. It helps that the leads have both comic and romantic chemistry to spare. Two Beers.
576. No Running
Delmar Washington delivers an abduction thriller by way of Get Out with this stylish little thriller about one of only a few black kids in a small rural town who draws the attention of police when the girl he likes goes mysteriously missing and he doesn’t feel like he can tell them what he actually saw happen. The ideas are ultimately more interesting than the execution, but the highs of the film make it worth the watch. Three Beers.
577. Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain
The coupling of Won’t You Be My Neighbor‘s Morgan Neville and the subject matter of Anthony Bourdain led many to believe we’d have another career-defining tear-jerker on our hands, and while that’s certainly a possibility, I would look to the penultimate episode of Parts Unknown for a more concise and superior example of that. Bourdain was no Mr. Rogers, and Neville doesn’t shy from the darkness inherent to a man loved by so many who ultimately chose to take his own life. Those who continue to wonder why may find their answer here, but Bourdain was much more than his end, however, cruelly disappointing to so many in his life, and those seeking out how he grew into an icon will likewise find their answers here. Truly a man unlike any other, and one I still would love to follow in the footsteps of, despite it all. Two Beers.
578. Agnes
I’ve been hearing about Mickey Reece more and more as of late, the “Backwoods Bergman” or “Soderbergh of the Sticks” who up until recently has largely been a taste acquired via a word of mouth. Well, I can confirm he’s an exciting talent, and one who hopefully will use this as a stepping stone beyond self-produced Oklahoman fare. Agnes is a exorcism film about a nun in a small American convent who starts with the guttural voices and thrashing, drawing in a disgraced exorcist who doesn’t exactly believe in all of this and his more faithful young assistant. Reece has style to spare, and story-wise is unafraid to zag hard when everything up until that point has suggested a more normal zig. Perhaps not the most internally consistent film, but one that takes fascinating chances like are all too rare to see these days. Two Beers.
579. Buddy Guy: The Blues Chase the Blues Away
This short documentary told mostly in Buddy Guy’s own words and those of his admirers (essentially the entire British Invasion, among others) does a lovely job summing up what makes the man so special- both the exuberant and mind-bending guitar skills and the style he hasn’t veered from through thick and thin. I’ve gotten to see him live in his club in Chicago a couple of times now (perhaps the only reason to visit Chicago in January) and can attest- the man at 84 remains a legend. Come and catch him while you can, you won’t regret it. Two Beers.
580. No Man of God
You may have seen the scuffle between the director of this film, Amber Sealey, and Joe Berlinger, who helmed both of Netflix’s Ted Bundy films last year. For my money, they both come off horribly, but I have to admit Sealey wins the battle of quality, perhaps first by casting an age and mien-appropriate actor in Lenny Bruc-er-Luke Kirby across from Elijah Woods’ real life profiler whose story this is based on. Woods just wants to get the wily Bundy to admit to what he’d done and most importantly why, and their back and forth over the years and particularly before Bundy’s execution are all the fireworks and dramatics the film needs. Superbly acted, and appropriately chilling (although if one of the conclusions is that all men have a little Bundy in them, I’ll go ahead and call bullshit on the behalf of half the human race). Two Beers.
581. The Justice of Bunny King
This New Zealand-set film is another prime showcase for the talents of Essie Davis, here playing the titular Bunny King- a woman between homes whose kids are on the verge of being taken into foster care. Her every attempt to rise above her station or even just find a temporary oasis of stability for them is thwarted by her circumstances and her past trauma. Ultimately, she hits the road in a stolen car with her niece (Thomasin McKenzie, also excellent) hell-bent on keeping her promise to her daughter that she’ll be at her birthday party. Davis is tremendous, and Gaysom Thavatt demonstrates an easy and naturalistic touch directing. Two Beers.
582. Shapeless
This Midnight selection is a horror film, but only hardly in the classic sense. While you start out confused, it soon becomes clear that this is a film about lead actress Kelly Murtagh’s (who also wrote and produced the film) character’s struggles with an eating disorder. Director Samantha Aldana communicates the dysmorphia of her protagonist via a dysmorphic style, full of dreamy and nightmarish visuals in turn and occasional Cronenbergian body horror that likely drew this film’s Midnight designation. It’s maybe more time than you want to spend in this headspace, but it delivers what it sets out to. Three Beers.
583. Italian Studies
I gave this a watch because the presence of Vanessa Kirby is fast becoming a no questions asked mark of quality. This is definitely an artsier tangent for her to take, playing a woman seemingly dropped into the middle of NYC with no idea who she is or what she’s supposed to be doing. As she gets possibly identified as short story writer she gloms onto that personality, as well as a group of teenagers she’s introduced to by an interesting young man she encounters in, of course, a Gray’s Papaya. This is the type of movie that gets described as ‘dream-like’ by most reviews, which is a new tack for director Adam Leon, who up until now seemed to be traveling a Safdie Bros-like career path with Gimme the Loot and Tramps. I can’t say it’s altogether successful, but it’s never less than interesting, and Kirby knocks it out of the park playing a literal void of a character. Three Beers.
584. The Kids
I watched the controversial film Kids just last week in part because I knew Tribeca would feature this documentary about its cast and what happened to them since. In the case of Rosario Dawson and Chloe Sevigny, I suppose you know what they or even the incredibly young screenwriter Harmony Korine are up to, and the less said about what director Larry Clark is doing, perhaps the better (being creepy in Marfa, Texas, namely). No, this documentary is about all of those kids Clark and Korine found wandering the New York streets and skateparks, kids in some ways as crazy and alive as the characters they created, but far less debauched. It’s quite a story, full of tragedy and hope and frankly in my opinion better than their first collaboration. Two Beers.
585. Ascension
Documentarian Jessica Kingdon has crafted a documentary of many disparate subject matters and focuses that all come back to the primary thesis that the New China is a society full of great and often ironic divides between economic classes but also a rising Chinese Dream to rival the American one, in all of the inherently ridiculous ways that manifests. Mao must be rolling in his tomb and yet this is what real impending global domination looks like. Two Beers.
586. Souad
This Egyptian film follows a young woman named Souad who is constantly torn between the two poles of the conservative Muslim culture she is being raised in and the hyperconnected modern world she can access via her smartphone. She’s obsessed with a low-level social media star in big city of Alexandria, flirting with him from afar even as she acquiesces to the extremely patriarchal whims of her father, who relegates her to an adjunct of her mother, cooking and cleaning and doing nothing else. When a tragedy strikes, the story deepens and goes off on an unexpected tangent, but through it all director Ayten Amin remains laser-focused on her characters and the both fast and slow-changing world they inhabit. Two Beers.
587. Accepted
This documentary tells the story of T.M. Landry, a prep school in a small town in Louisiana famous for its 100% college placement rate, 30% to Ivy League and other similarly prestigious schools. Feted by the world when videos of students receiving word of their admission and exploding into celebration went viral, all of the positive attention brought with it a level of scrutiny that this seemingly too good to be true story began to buckle under the weight of. Dan Chen does an excellent job conveying the story as it develops while never losing sight of the unquestionably bright and driven students caught in the middle of it all. Two Beers.
588. All These Sons
Bing Liu burst on the scene with his Oscar-nominated years in the making documentary Minding the Gap a couple of years ago, and here he proves that was no fluke, moving a few hours eastward from his native Rockford, Illinois to document the violence-ridden streets of West and South Chicago and two men working to help the youth of their community break the cycle even they had been subsumed by, as well as three of those young men committed to doing the work and yet struggling with all of the factors that have overcome so many before them. Liu and first-time codirector and Minding the Gap editor Joshua Altman do an excellent job of blending into the background and keeping the focus on their subjects and their stories. Two Beers.
589. Queen of Glory
Nana Mensah bit off quite a bit for her directorial debut, also writing, starring in, and raising the money for this film about a second generation Ghanian-American academic and scientist who wants to move to Ohio with her (still-married) boyfriend (Adam Leon- yes, the director of Italian Studies above) from NYC, but who finds herself unexpectedly arranging a traditional funeral, dealing with her relatively estranged father, and taking over a quaint Christian bookstore (and it’s incongruously intimidating-looking yet soft-spoken single employee played by Meeko Gattuso) when her mother passes. It’s joys are in its specificity and character-building, but Mensah has a deft comic touch and nice eye for color and composition on top of it all. This really should be a springboard for her. Two Beers.
590. The Lost Leonardo
This fascinating documentary delves into every aspect of the story of the Salvator Mundi painting, from its purchase at a New Orleans estate auction for $1,175 to its most recent sale for $450 million to an initially unknown buyer. It is a fascinating story that includes (still extant) questions of authenticity, those freeports from Tenet that are totally real and likely even shadier in real life, unscrupulous Swiss dealers, vengeful Russian oligarchs, art exhibition negotiations that attain the level of fraught international statesmanship, and even the touristic and reputational future of Saudi Arabia. It’s a goddamn trip, and if you dig documentaries at all, you owe it to yourself to see how it all comes together. A Toast.
591. All My Friends Hate Me
This British comedy was the first that I added to my original list of Tribeca watches based on early critical response, and I’m glad I did. It tells the story of a man who meets up with university friends he’d largely lost touch with over the years to ostensibly celebrate his birthday. It very quickly becomes a horrifying comedy of discomfort as the inevitable awkwardness of years apart and some other strange happenings begin to weigh on his nerves. Director Andrew Gaynord and lead (and co-writer) Tom Stourton wring every bit of discomfort and cringe-laugh possible out of the material, truly a master study of human unease. Two Beers.
592. Catch the Fair One
This has been one of the buzziest titles to come out of Tribeca so far, and it’s easy to see why. Josef Kubota Wladyka crafts a muscular, no holds barred revenge thriller that recalls the work of Jeremy Saulnier. Real life boxer Kali Reis plays a washed-up half-Native American fighter who joins a truckstop prostitution ring to try to find her younger sister who was abducted from the street. What ensues is a bloody and all too messily realistic desperate battle for survival and salvation that Reis commands both physically and via performance that belies the fact this is her first feature. Two Beers.
593. The First Step
I’m at the point where if I have some additional time I nab another Tribeca release that wasn’t on my initial list- I’m gonna get my money’s worth, dammit (the buffet ticket really is an amazing deal). I knew of Van Jones from CNN, but I had no idea how controversial a figure he is on both sides of the aisle, mostly for his willingness to work with both sides of the aisle, particularly on prison reform (here’s where we find out that the one good thing Trump did during his tenure he had to be cajoled and almost tricked into doing). While I’m not always on Jones’s side when he says something particularly obviously going to end up as cannon fodder for one side or the other, this is a fascinating portrait regardless, and he’s ultimately right- the only way we’re going to rise above this shameful period in American politics is to find some kind of common ground to begin to work from. Three Beers.
594. Wolfgang
Jiro Dreams of Sushi‘s David Gelb is at it again, delivering another beautifully photographed documentary about what drives a preternaturally successful chef, this time one Wolfgang Puck. The jovial Austrian had far from an ideal upbringing, which drove him away from his home and his cultural and culinary roots for years, before he both makes contact with his family again and turns back to Austrian cuisine with Spago. This feels in some ways like a beefed up episode of Gelb’s Netflix series Chef’s Table, but it’s a pretty good one. Three Beers.
595. Ultrasound
The less I tell you about the plot of this, the better off you’ll be, so I’ll be brief. Reviewers have been comparing this work by experienced producer but first-time feature director Rob Schroeder to Christopher Nolan’s early work, and I’ll go ahead and back that up. It’s a puzzlebox of a movie that gives you enough in the end to both be satisfied and prepared to debate how everything you just saw fits together and whether that damn top falls for days, focused on technology and the nature of reality with implications both philosophical and plot-driving. Bound to be a discussion piece if it gets the release it deserves. A Toast.
596. The Phantom
This short true crime documentary tells the strange and shameful story of the State of Texas’s execution of Carlos De Luna, who was arrested for the stabbing death of convenience store clerk Wanda Lopez in 1983 when he was found hiding nearby after several eyewitnesses indicated he was fleeing the scene. The case seemed open and shut, despite De Luna insisting a Carlos Hernandez was the real murderer (dismissed by the prosecution as a phantom) and not having a drop of blood on him despite the brutal and bloody nature of the crime. Patrick Forbes quickly and convincingly dismantles the case, and the willful blindness of everyone in the system that took De Luna’s life. Two Beers.
597. Super Mario Bros: The Morton-Jankel Cut
This recut of one of cinema’s most famous boondoggles has been getting some press lately, as some brave souls banded together to cut in about 20 minutes of excised material in the interests of more fully realizing married couple directors Morton and Jankel’s original ‘vision’. What this additional footage largely proves are things that we probably already knew- editing scenes to death instead of letting them breathe just a bit was bad, and more Dennis Hopper can only be a good thing. It probably also makes an undesired case that no amount of additional footage could salvage this thing. Five Beers.
598. The Return of the Jedi
Oberst and I went to see our friend Josh at his apartment complex which has its own projector and theater, and as is often the case he wanted to put in a Star War. This time around our viewing of the final film of the original trilogy was of particular interest because we watched it not in the theater but rather on a common room TV. I can attest to you that there is no shittier version of a Star Wars film that exists than the Special Editions on a motion-smoothing TV. Everything looks like you are on the set while it’s being shot- aka, the rubber suits are very clearly rubber, and the CGI is completely unintegrated. Fascinating, honestly. Three Beers.
599. The Empire Strikes Back
Now, this one we saw in the theater proper, and yes, it plays great on the big(ish) screen. I’ve finally come around to the conventional wisdom that this is the best of all the Star Wars films and my third or fourth viewing or whichever this is pretty much cemented it. Luke kissing his sister is clearly the franchise highlight. I bring it up whenever Star Wars conversations get too deep. A Toast.
600. Mad Max: Fury Road
Now, here’s a goddamn masterpiece. Our last film of the get-together was Josh’s introduction to George Miller’s masterpiece, and he was a great appreciator of how little plot gets in the way of mayhem and badassery. One of these days I’ll check out the black & white version, but I can attest that the original version holds up to a second viewing beautifully. A Toast.
