Classic Movie Review: Lenny Cooke (2013)

Lenny Cooke (2013)

Directed by: Joshua & Benny Safdie.

 

I have been meaning to see the two first Safdie brother’s films – Lenny Cooke and Daddy Longlegs – since I loved their third film, Heaven Knows What, and particularly since I was head over heels for Good Time back in 2017. But I’m glad I waited a little bit to catch up with them. Lenny Cooke – their only feature documentary – makes sense in the wake of Uncut Gems. Part of it is the basketball connection – Uncut Gems features Kevin Garnett (who is mentioned, but not seen here) – so it is clear the brothers have a love of basketball, but also see it clear eyed – they don’t romanticize the game, and see it clearly as a moneymaking venture, for the players, and everyone else around it. But it’s also clear that the Safdie have a love for these types of characters – the characters who charge straight through something, even when all signs are telling them to hold up.

 

Lenny Cooke was once the top rated high school basketball player in America – ahead of future stars like LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony. And yet, Cooke never made it to the NBA at all, let alone become a star. He wasn’t even drafted. Lenny Cooke, the documentary, is made up of two parts. The first half of the movie is footage that the Safdie have accumulated from other sources – from interviews with Cooke when we were on top of the world, a guaranteed star. The second half of the film is shot years later – when his basketball career has fizzled out, he is now turning 30, he has gained some weight, and while he puts on a happy face, he is clearly a man with regrets. He was a year older than LeBron – who of course went 1^st overall in the draft, and has become one of the best players the game has ever seen. Cooke made the same decision as LeBron – to bypass college, and go straight into the draft. And then – for a variety of reasons (perhaps because he aged out of high school basketball, and hadn’t player organized ball in 18 months) isn’t drafted. There is a moment, a little earlier, where a scout says of Cooke that he’s at a crossroads – one way, he is a star player in the NBA, the other he becomes a New York playground legend, and nothing more.

 

I doubt the Safdies would have much interest in Cooke had he gone down the first path – and become a star. The New York brothers probably really did know of Cooke, and decide to look into what happened to the legend. They find him in Virginia with his family – the place we saw him in his previous life saying he’d never return to – now living his life. He is outwardly happy – he still has the big personality we saw in the past. But he has been humbled, he has been hurt. And there are times when that comes out – like a scene late in the film when he visits his old New York friends, and complains that they have basically abandoned him.

 

When you watch Lenny Cooke, you know where this is going – you know he’s not going to become a star, since we don’t know his name. Watching those early scenes then have an air of sadness to them. We see Cooke, who has the big personality and confidence, and yet we also see how all that makes him make one mistake after another after another. It’s one thing to have talent – but after only doing showcases for a while, what did he really expect? And yet, it’s also a sad story, because we see all these people pumping his tires, convincing him of things that are unrealistic. And when you’re a kid – 18 years old, from a poor neighborhood, you want to believe what they say.

 

All of the Safdie brother’s films are about self-destructive people in a way – ones who cannot help themselves, and keep following their path down to its end point, even once it becomes clear they need to pull back. Cooke is perhaps the saddest of these characters – in part, of course, because he’s real. But part because he’s perhaps the one who we shouldn’t have suspected to know better – he’s a stupid kid, who does stupid things – and cannot see the end coming. Lenny Cooke is a very good, very sad documentary. Any star athlete in their teens should see it – as a warning of things to come. Most of them will end up like Cooke, not LeBron.

Classic Movie Review: Daddy Longlegs

Daddy Longlegs (2009)

Directed by: Joshua & Benny Safdie.

Written by: Joshua & Bnny Safdie and Ronald Bronstein.

Starring: Ronald Bronstein (Lenny), Alex Greenblatt (Alex), Sag Ranaldo (Sage Sokol), Frey Ranaldo (Frey Sokol), Victor Puccio (Principal Puccio), Eleonore Hendricks (Leni), Sean Williams (Dale), Dakota O’Hare (Roberta), Firas Al-Ramahi (Firas), Larry Pelton (Terry), Miranda LaPrelle (Miranada).

 

Lenny, the main character of the Safdies debut film Daddy Longlegs, will undeniably remind you of the characters at the heart of their Good Time and Uncut Gems. He is just as manic as both of them – always on the move, always just trying to stay ahead of whatever is behind him as he stalks the streets of New York. Lenny isn’t a criminal though – although like those later Safdie films, you are in constant fear of just what Lenny is going to do next. He’s a middle aged screw-up – works as a movie projectionist at a rundown theater, who cannot seem to do anything right. You may even be fooled into thinking he is a lovable loser – except for the fact that almost the entire movie is set during the two-week period every year when Lenny has to watch his two young sons – Safe and Frey, who are probably about 9 and 7. His ex-wife still lets him do every year – but you get the impression that it will be ending sooner rather than later. If Lenny was just a screw-up, no big deal – but as he keeps parenting his kids, you worry something awful is always about to happen.

 

Lenny is played by Ronald Bronstein, and it’s pretty much his entire acting career. He continues to work with the Safdies as a co-writer and a co-editor, and has directed the acclaimed Frownland. It is a brilliant performance – every bit as integral to the success of Daddy Longlegs as the performances by Arielle Holmes in Heaven Knows What, Robert Pattinson in Good Time or Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems. This was a personal film for the Safdies – based on their own experiences (they are essentially Frey and Sage) – and perhaps because they are so close with Bronstein, they are able to capture something about Lenny that is hard to describe. The film is subtle in its shift of perspectives – there are times when we see them through the eyes. They love their dad, and it’s exciting to be in his orbit. It’s also scary – and for the same reasons – you never really know what he’s going to do next – you never know who goings to come over, where you’re going to end up, or what you’ll be doing. Sometimes, you head out for fun, sometimes your dad inadvertently over drugs you and you’re passed out for 2 days.

 

The Cassavetes influence, which continues until today with the Safdies, is perhaps the most pronounced here. This is the Safdies on the street level, stealing shots when they can, and get all the action from the streets of New York playing out in the background – people going through their own little dramas as Lenny goes through his. Cassavetes also would have loved a character like Lenny – a larger than life, manic character who would fit right in films like A Woman Under the Influence or Love Streams.

 

What the Safdies really capture here is what it’s like to be around someone like Lenny. It’s not surprising that he has a lot of friends – everyone seems to like Lenny. It’s also not surprising that not many of them seem to be that close of friends – and that many of them get to the point where they have to pull away from him. His new, younger girlfriend, Leni, eventually gets there – you can see it in the way she examines him at a Chinese restaurant when they’re out to dinner, and he tries to explain what he’s going through by taking rapid sips of cold soda and hot tea back and forth. You can see it with his ex-wife, who has basically just had it with Lenny, and almost cannot believe she’s stuck in his orbit forever because of the boys. Or the doctor who comes to his house when the boys are drugged – who is none too pleased to get there. Or the friend who is supposed to help Lenny move – until he sees the boys there as well. Everyone likes Lenny – but everyone tires of Lenny at the same time. It’s exhausting to be around him.

 

But the film also shows how exhausting it must be to be Lenny at the same time. He’s a man always in crisis – and even if that crisis is always his own doing, it’s still exhausting to there at that level, at all times. In retrospect, there was something about the Safdies right from the start. This isn’t quite as polished as Uncut Gems or Good Time, and not quite as raw as Heaven Knows What. But it’s a real film – a deeply felt one, and one that shows just what they would go on to become.

Movie Review: Uncut Gems

Uncut Gems ***** / *****

Directed by: Benny Safdie & Josh Safdie.   

Written by: Ronald Bronstein and Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie.

Starring: Adam Sandler (Howard Ratner), Julia Fox (Julia), Kevin Garnett (Kevin Garnett), Idina Menzel (Dinah), Jonathan Aranbayev (Eddie), Jacob Igielski (Beni), Noa Fisher (Marcel), Paloma Elsesser (Kat), LaKeith Stanfield (Demany), Eric Bogosian (Arno), Keith Williams Richards (Phil), Tommy Kominik (Nico), Louis Anthony Arias (Buddy), Judd Hirsch (Gooey), Benjy Kleiner (Aaron), Josh Ostrovsky (Noah), Sahar Bibiyan (Ida), Lana Levitin (Ruth), The Weeknd (The Weeknd), Pom Klementieff (Lexus), Jake Ryan (Actor). 

 

Watching Uncut Gems is a deliberately anxiety inducing experience. Watching the film, I was even more convinced than I was by the Safdie brothers last film, the mesmerizing and brilliant Good Time, that the filmmakers were trying to give me a heart attack. The film is propulsive, kinetic, filmmaking from beginning to end – the type of film that doesn’t slow down for second, just goes from one brilliant, tense set piece to another without coming up for air. I assume the film will turn a lot of people off – it is loud and brash and bold, and I don’t think there is one likable character in the entire film (maybe NBA star Kevin Garnett, playing himself). It is a dazzling high wire act that runs over two hours and never lets you breath.

 

If I was surprised by how great Robert Pattinson was in Good Time (seriously, he should have won an Oscar for that performance) I am even more surprised that Adam Sandler so brilliantly carries Uncut Gems. This isn’t because Sandler hasn’t been great in other movies – as much as he normally just coasts on his charm, his silly voices, etc. – when Sandler digs in to a performance – he can be great. Uncut Gems belongs on a list with Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love in many ways for Sandler – as both movies essentially have Sandler play extreme versions of his normal screen persona – but just take it to extremes. Sandler often plays self-absorbed psychopaths – but they are wrapped up in that charm, disguised by those voices, so you don’t quite understand what narcissistic monsters he’s really playing (does Sandler know? I have no idea). Punch-Drunk Love had Sandler embrace the anti-social side of his characters – the wounded child, prone to violent outbursts because he is so beat down by life. Uncut Gems goes the other way – and has Sandler full embrace his brash, obnoxious, over-the-top side. It’s one of those performances you see, and could never imagine anyone else playing it.

 

Sandler is Howard Ratner – a diamond dealer in New York, with a store full of jewels – which should mean money – but that disguises just how desperate he is. He owes money all over town – various bookies, gangsters, pawn brokers, etc. are constantly wondering where their money is – and Howard always has an answer for them, although its never one they want to hear. Howard is constantly on the move – constantly going from one place to the next in an attempt to get money, make deals, place bets, etc. Howard is the type of guy who always has 10 scams on the go. But now his whole world is closing in around him. His wife (Idina Menzel) is going to leave him, his girlfriend (Julia Fox) may not be as loyal as she seems – and people are no longer buying his excuses, willing to lend him anything more.

 

He has what he considers a fool proof plan though. He has imported an Ethiopian Black Opal in, and is convinced he will be able to auction it off for over a $1 million – making a huge profit for himself. He shows the opal to Kevin Garnett – brought in by his friend (LaKeith Stanfield) – and Garnett becomes obsessed with the stone. He convinces Howard to lend him the stone – he’s in the playoffs against the 76ers – and needs the luck (this is 2012, perhaps for no other reason than because it allows the Safdies to use Garnett, now retired). Garnett even gives Howard his NBA championship ring as collateral (which Howard, of course, immediately pawns to place more bets).

 

The Safdies never lets Howard slow down – have a moment of peace. Even things like Passover dinner with his family is fraught with tension – even danger, or attending his daughters school play ends with Howard naked in the trunk of his car, etc. Howard’s world is constantly turned up to 11. And the movie suggests that the way he wants it to be. Howard doesn’t seem desperate to get out from under his debts – to get everyone off his back. He’s enjoying every minute of the drama, of the pure adrenaline rush of his existence. It’s the end of the world as he knows it, and he feels fine.

 

Uncut Gems is a masterpiece of filmmaking by the Safdies – who find the perfect style to capture Howard’s non-stop sprint to the bottom. It confirms the Safdies status as the most energetic filmmakers around – giving you a propulsive, anxiety inducting trip to hell and back, smiling all the time. One of the very best films of the year.

Movie Review: Good Time

Good Time **** ½ / *****

Directed by: Ben Safdie & Joshua Safdie. 

Written by: Ronald Bronstein & Joshua Safdie.

Starring: Robert Pattinson (Connie Nikas), Buddy Duress (Ray), Benny Safdie (Nick Nikas), Taliah Lennice Webster (Crystal), Jennifer Jason Leigh (Corey Ellman), Barkhad Abdi (Dash the Park Security Guard), Necro (Caliph), Peter Verby (Peter the Psychiatrist), Saida Mansoor (Agapia Nikas), Gladys Mathon (Annie).

 

You cannot help but think of the New York films of the 1970s – from Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets (or After Hours, although that’s the 1980s) to Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon and beyond – when you watch Good Time. The film captures that same nervous energy, that sense of constant action, and impending doom, from beginning to end. Good Time is a film of constant, propulsive energy – and represents a step forward for director brother Ben and Joshua Safdie – who are among the most exciting directors of Indie films in America right now. They capture that constant hum of a city like New York – in no small part because of the great performance at its core by Robert Pattinson – whose career since the Twilight films ended hasn’t been spotless, but shows remarkable ambition, and good taste in directors. Here, he channels an actor like Pacino at the height of his 1970s power – and delivers one of the great performances of the year.

 

The film opens not on Pattinson’s Connie – but on his brother, Nick (co-director Benny Safdie) who is being interviewed by a psychiatrist about his recent difficulties. It’s clear that Nick suffers from some sort of mental disorder – although the film never specifies what. After this interview, which goes on longer than you would think it would, Connie busts in and takes Nick out of the interview – walking down the hall, he points at the other patients in the area and asks Nick, almost cruelly if he thinks he’s like them. Smash cut to the pair of brother committing a bank robbery – that seems to go off without a hitch – until during the getaway, a dye pack explodes. In the foot chase after, Connie gets away – but Nick gets arrested. Nick doesn’t do well at Rikers Island – and finds himself in the hospital. The majority of the movie takes place over one long night, in which Connie tries to find a way to get his brother out of jail/the hospital – first by trying to come up with bail, and then more adventuresome means.

 

At his core, Connie is a gifted conman – he thinks well on his feet, and through the night, as one thing after another goes wrong, Connie is able to up with one plan after another to keep himself ahead of the noose that is tightening around his neck. He may not always be great and seeing ahead four or five moves – but in the moment, he’s able to figure out the one move he needs to make to stay ahead. The camera seems to tighten on him throughout the movie – moving in closer and closer to him, trapping him – until the film climax, which pulls back in a dazzling helicopter (not drone) shot to see Connie as the rat in a maze of his own design he cannot get out of.

 

I’ve heard Good Time described as a crime film about white privilege, and while I’m not sure I’d say the movie is “about” that, it certainly acknowledges the advantage Connie has because he is white – and how he exploits it. From the bank robbery itself – where both he and Nick don masks that make them look like black men, to the elderly woman into whose apartment he cons his way into, to her teenage granddaughter he seduces, to the security guard at a seedy “amusement park” (Oscar nominee Barkhad Abdi – it is black people who are most hurt by Connie’s actions, and who he exploits.

 

There is a point – while at the woman’s apartment – where I almost felt like the movie had painted itself into a narrative corner it couldn’t escape – and that is when Ray (Buddy Durress) – shows up, with a story so convoluted, and brilliantly told, it almost acts as its own short film within the film. Ray isn’t any better than Connie – in some ways he’s worse, and not as charming to boot, but he gives the movie a shot in the arm, and sends it hurtling towards its brilliant climax.

 

Good Time is the kind of gritty, small scale crime drama you do not see made much anymore. The Safdies made the film for little money, grabbing shots where they could, and getting great performances by pros and near amateurs alike. Pattinson has never been better. You like him despite yourself, and then gradually realize how monstrous he is (this is something the Safdies have specialized in during their careers). He has turned himself into an ambitious actor with an impressive list of directors he’s work with – David Michod (The Rover), David Cronenberg (Cosmopolis, Map to the Stars), James Gray (The Lost City of Z), Werner Herzog (Queen of the Desert) – and upcoming projects by Claire Denis, the Zellner brothers, Olivier Assayas, Harmony Korine and Joanna Hogg. I was hard on Pattinson during the Twilight films – and with good reason, unlike co-star Kristen Stewart, he was painfully awkward in those films – but while not all of his performances have been great since then, he has shown more range, skill and ambition than I would have thought he would. Here, he is a brilliant bundle of nervous energy – it is a great performance at the heart of a great film.

Movie Review: Heaven Knows What

Heaven Knows What
Directed by: Ben Safdie & Joshua Safdie.
Written by: Ronald Bronstein & Joshua Safdie inspired by a book written by Arielle Holmes.
Starring: Arielle Holmes (Harley), Caleb Landry Jones (Ilya), Buddy Duress (Mike), Ron Braunstein (Skully), Eleonore Hendricks (Erica), Yuri Pleskun (Tommy).

Francois Truffaut once famously said that it was impossible to make an anti-war movie, because no matter what you do, you would end up making war look glamorous. I think there have been a few movies that have proven Truffaut wrong, but the point is a valid one – it is hard not to make war look exciting. You could say something similar about movies about drugs – it’s hard to make a truly anti-drug film, because no matter what you do, you almost have to acknowledge that drugs use can be fun, or at least make you feel good for a time. Many drug movies include the inevitable slide into oblivion and death or jail, but it often comes after an hour of people having a hell of lot of fun on drugs. Heaven Knows What is somewhat different then – this could hardly be described as a glamorous or fun film, and none of the characters ever seem to be having much fun on drugs either. When the movie opens, everyone in the film is already at the point where they have stopped using drugs to make themselves feel good – they just continue to use them to prevent themselves from feeling horrible. The same thing can be said about the central relationship in the movie – between the main character Harley (Arielle Holmes) and her boyfriend Ilya (Caleb Landry Jones). They do not seem even to like each other much anymore, let alone love each other. But they’re stuck with each other regardless. They are stuck in a rut, but cannot move forward. There are as addicted to each other as they are to drugs.

The story of how Heaven Knows What was made is at least as interesting as the movie itself. Apparently the directors, Joshua and Ben Safdie, were researching a different movie when they bumped into star Arielle Holmes, and was immediately taken with her. She was beautiful, but obviously suffering. They encouraged her to write her story – which she did (apparently largely in Apple Stores), and the result was a book that ended up being the basis of the movie –with Holmes acting out scenes from her own troubled life. This is a risky gambit, but it pays off because Holmes has instant screen presence, and never overdoes it – never goes over the top into drug fueled craziness that many actors would. It is a performance of quiet intensity that holds your attention throughout. Holmes has apparently turned her life around – and has turned her stunning debut performance into a few other acting jobs – whether or not she can play something else, I have no idea, but she is brilliant in this film.

Her Harley is a heroin addict, who is in love with Ilya – who is angry with her as the movie begins (for reasons only eluded to). She says she’ll kill herself to prove her love to him, and he eggs her on to do just that – resulting in the kind of ill-fated suicide attempt that only makes sense to drug addicts. She survives, of course, but their relationship seems doomed. Instead, she takes up with Mike (Buddy Duress) for a time – which makes sense. He is a drug dealer, so getting her daily dose will be easier, and he also has connections to a place to stay. That’s really all Harley needs. Eventually though, she’ll drift back to Ilya – even though they’re probably better off without each other.

Heaven Knows What is a largely plotless film – which is befitting its characters. It drifts from one day to the next, where each day has the same basic problems that require different solutions. The movie concentrates on the various scams Harley and company pull off to try and get money – stealing mail in the hopes of finding something (their big score there? A Banana Republic gift card), or stealing a lot of Five Hour Energy Drinks from a pharmacy, and reselling them to a news stand. The film takes place in New York, but is about those areas of the city that are often hiding in plain site – where rich people walking their dog co-mingle with the likes of Harley – or where the place to go when it’s cold outside is the library until they kick you out. There is not a moment in the film that feels inauthentic. The Safdie’s get almost uncomfortably close to the actors, not letting them out of the frame, and blurring the background so we’re trapped with them. The brilliant use of electronic versions of Debussy songs is disorienting, and effective.

The problem with movie like Heaven Knows What is always in how to end them. If you don’t have much a plot, there’s really no way of winding it down. Heaven Knows What doesn’t really end, it just sort of stops – having come full circle once again, with nothing resolves, nothing learned. And that is precisely the sad point of it all.