Movie Review: Princess Cyd

Princess Cyd *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Stephen Cone.

Written by: Stephen Cone.

Starring: Rebecca Spence (Miranda Ruth), Jessie Pinnick (Cyd Loughlin), Malic White (Katie Sauter), James Vincent Meredith (Anthony James), Tyler Ross (Tab), Matthew Quattrocki (Ridley).

 

Not a whole lot happens in the sweet, subtle coming of age film Princess Cyd, and for the most part, that works in the films favor. In fact, the few instances when the film attempts some heavier dramatic moments are the moments when the film stumbles – as if writer/director Stephen Cone is straining for a sense of importance – something to make Princess Cyd something other than a low-key coming of age film. But that is precisely what Princess Cyd is, and precisely what it’s best at. No, it isn’t going to supplant Lady Bird as the year’s best female coming-of-age film, but it appeals to the same audience, and has the drama factor dialed further back.

 

In the film, Jessie Pinnick stars as Cyd – a 16-year old girl, living in South Carolina with her dad. All we know of her mom is that she is dead – although a 911 call that plays over the opening credits hints at dark reasons for that – ones that will eventually be revealed late in the film. As a 16 year old is wont to do – she is clashing with her dad right now, who thinks that perhaps it would be for the best to get away from each other for a few weeks. And this is how Cyd ends up in Chicago, staying with her writer Aunt Miranda (Rebecca Spence) – her mom’s sister – who she hasn’t seen since the funeral, 8 years ago. Miranda lives a happy, but solitary life – no love life to speak of, but she does have close friends, and of course, her work. She and Cyd are very different in many ways – not least of which because Cyd doesn’t read anything not on her phone. Cyd is also direct in that way that teenagers can be – she says things that pop into her head, without thinking how they will sound.

 

The movie is really about how these two women negotiate the space around each other, their boundaries, and each change each other in quiet, subtle ways. There is a love story of sorts in it, when Cyd meets Katie (Malic White), and is drawn to her. She hasn’t been with a girl before – and she resists any sort of label now, but she and Katie really do like each other. There is no secret about what is happening, and one of the ways the film is refreshing is that Miranda never really gives Cyd a lecture about sex – or show that much concern. She knows that Cyd is going to experiment anyway, so why fight it that hard? This also means the one moment when Miranda does lecture Cyd – about Miranda’s choices in her life that Cyd sees as making her incomplete but Miranda does not – it hits all the harder.

 

Princess Cyd is one of those odd movies that as you watch it, you kind of want more to happen in it – this is certainly a movie where some will complain “nothing happens” – and yet, when things do happen, it feels off. The big monologue at the end of the movie explaining what happened to Cyd’s mom feels out-of-place – it’s believable, sure, but I don’t think it really adds anything to film as it comes out of left field, then isn’t mentioned again. A potential sexual assault on Katie by her brothers friend also feels strangely out-of-sync – a plot device to get Katie to stay at Miranda’s for a while, and not a natural part of the story.

 

Besides, as the movie moves along, the accumulation of details about these women – and their slowly flowering relationship is really all that is needed. This is a lovely, low-key indie film – it doesn’t push too hard for effect, which is exactly why it has the effect that it does.

Movie Review: My Happy Family

My Happy Family **** / *****

Directed by: Nana Ekvtimishvili & Simon Gross.  

Written by: Nana Ekvtimishvili.

Starring: Ia Shugliashvili (Manana), Merab Ninidze (Soso), Berta Khapava (Lamara), Tsisia Qumsishvili (Nino), Giorgi Khurtsilava (Vakho), Goven Cheishvili (Otar), Dimitri Oragvelidze (Rezo), Mariam Bokeria (Kitsi), Lika Babluani (Tatia Chigogidze).

 

Nothing plays out exactly how you expect it to in My Happy Family – a new film from Georgia (the country, not the state) in which a woman in her 50s, Manana (Ia Shugliashvili) decides to leave her family. We first meet her when her decision as already been made – although she hasn’t told anyone yet. She’s looking for a small rental apartment, and finds one. When she tells her family – including her husband Soso (Merab Ninidze), two grown kids and her parents (all of whom live in the same apartment), they are shocked. Over the course of the films, extended family and friends will all talk to Manana, and try and figure out why she did what she did. Was Soso abusive? A drunk? Did he cheat on her? No to all of these. It appears more than anything that after spending the first 50 years of her life as part of a large, loud family, always in each other’s faces that all she wants now is quiet and solitude.

 

If this were an American film, you could write the beats of this film by heart. Manana would have a new man by act two – probably someone kind, charming and good looking, and free from the shackles of an oppressive marriage, Manana would slowly start to shine. But that isn’t this film. Manana really doesn’t have any big plans for her life, and no new love interest enters her life. She also isn’t free from her family completely – she’s drawn back in for family occasions, and all this leads to more questions and accusations. Strangely, it is her husband Soso who appears most on her side than anyone – and it isn’t precisely because he wanted out of the marriage either. While Manana may have harboring this secret desire to get the hell out for years, he is harboring his own secrets as well. Like hers, they aren’t the kind of explosive ones you usually build a movie around – but the kind of melancholy, sad ones that we all have.

 

The film is directed by Nana Ekvtimishvili & Simon Gross (with a screenplay by Ekvtimishvili). The filmmaking on display is low-key, but in the best way – it doesn’t draw attention to itself, but the camera is always in the right spot, and flows naturally from room to room, place to place. The screenplay and the acting does the same thing. The film really is a gradual accumulation of details that builds to a powerful conclusion – not because anything is resolved, but because by then, you know everything there is to know about this family, and their lives.

Movie Review: Trophy

Trophy *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Christina Clusiau & Shaul Schwarz.

 

People who are set in their thinking about big game hunting – on either side – will find plenty to be appalled at in the documentary Trophy. The film basically lets people tell their side of the story unchallenged by the filmmakers – who challenge them in other ways, mainly by allowing others to speak, or to look, with unflinching detail, at what this hunting looks like. This isn’t an easy film to watch – nor should it be. Whenever we are talking about the killing of animals – whether its farm animals for food, or various animals that are hunted (either for food or sport), I think it’s necessary to look at what it all looks like, in all of its bloody, disgusting detail. Trophy does that, while it also brings up much food for thought as it goes along as well.

 

For example, the film spends some time with a man who raises rhinos in Africa – and in order to protect them from poachers, every few years, he and his team drug them, and cut off their horns. That is what the poachers want after all, and the horns themselves will grow back. He also argues that he should be allowed to sell the horns he cuts off – that way, he could use the profits to help raise the rhinos, and protect them from extinction. The sale of rhino horns was made illegal to try and cut down on poaching, and thus save the animals, but isn’t this another way around the system? You can look at his point as either monstrous or pragmatic, and probably be right. After all, it’s not saving rhinos that it is the issue – but you want to save who they are. If rhinos are basically raised as farm animals, are they really rhinos anymore? But is it better to let them all die off than have, for lack of a better term, domesticated rhinos?

 

Another person the film spends a lot of time with is Phillip Glass (not the composer) – an American hunter, who we first see taking his small child with him on his first hunt, to kill his first deer. Throughout the film, we will follow Glass because he represents the “hunter tourism” industry – he wants to head to Africa (and does, repeatedly) to kill one of each of the “Big Five” (lions, elephants, rhinos, buffalo and leopard) – each of which will cost him tens of thousands of dollars to kill. Yet, what if that money that is spent to kill these animals is used to protect the animals as well? Nothing really is simple.

 

The film is gorgeous shot by directors Christina Clusiau and Shaul Schwarz, which makes the moments in which animals are killed, and then posed, all the more shocking. The filmmakers will let the people on camera speak about the beauty of hunting, and honoring the animals, etc. – but it’s not going to shy away from the carnage either.

 

The film offers a complex look at an issue, and doesn’t tell you how to feel about it. There will be some who are outraged – and they certainly have a point. I don’t necessary like the idea of hunting for sport, which I think it killing for killing sake. And yet, if you do turn these animals into some kind of money making venture, then there is a profit motive to actually keep them alive, and not let them go extinct. But at what cost. Trophy is a film that may enrage you, but it is a provocative and intelligent film about an issue that is more complex than most people realize.

Movie Review: The Circle

The Circle * ½ / *****

Directed by: James Ponsoldt.

Written by: James Ponsoldt & David Eggers based on the novel by Eggers.

Starring: Emma Watson (Mae Holland), Tom Hanks (Bailey), Karen Gillan (Annie), John Boyega (Ty), Patton Oswalt (Stenton), Eller Coltrane (Mercer), Glenne Headley (Bonnie), Bill Paxton (Vinnie), Nate Corddry (Dan).

 

The best thing about The Circle is Tom Hanks’ performance as the villain of the movie, especially his decision to not play the role as a villain, but just as another Tom Hanks character. It’s this decision that makes the performance work, because it makes the role all the creepier, and all that much easier to swallow. Hanks’ character is essentially a version of Steve Jobs – who works at an internet company that essentially controls almost everything, and wants to take over that little bit that they don’t. He’s so likable, so affable – so Tom Hanks – which he makes even the most insidious things he says seem reasonable – something we could all agree with. That makes it all the more chilling.

 

The worst thing about The Circle is, well, pretty much everything else. This movie, based on a novel by David Eggers, doesn’t capture the same feeling of paranoia that the novel did, streamlines the plot too much, and ends on a confusing note. The novel was a dystopia – but I don’t know what the hell the movie is. True enough, the novel had its share of issues – but generally it worked by taking our modern world, and going just a step or two beyond where we’re already at. The movie tries something similar, but because the film never finds the right tone the result is a bland, flavorless movie.

 

The film stars Emma Watson as Mae Holland – who is excited to start work at The Circle – an internet company, that has essentially found a way to combine everything we do online – from social media to banking, and everything in between – into one account. They are a monolithic company – more powerful than the government. Mae starts in customer service – but works her way up – rather suddenly – when she comes to the attention of Bailey (Hanks) – the CEO of the company. Soon, she is being used as a model for everyone in the company – and indeed in the world – and this formerly smart, opinionated young woman starts sounding more and more like a member of a cult.

 

Or, at least, that’s what I think they are trying for here. I’m not sure Watson is the right actress for this role – she has an innate intelligence to her that comes through in every scene – so you never really believe the brainwashing. The movie also changes the ending of the book – to make it more triumphant – but it really only makes it all the more confusing. The other actors in the film – however talented they may be – cannot do much with the dialogue they are given. Only Patton Oswalt – as another Circle executive – shows you what he could have done had his role been better written (Oswalt is scarier here than I’ve seen him before – but they don’t anything with that).

 

The film was directed by James Ponsoldt, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Eggers. He isn’t a good choice for the material. His previous films include very good films like The Spectacular Now, Smashed and The End of the Tour – which were modest, character driven films. Here, saddled with a narrative with a lot going on, and the necessity of building tension and fear, he really never finds his footing. The film feels like it takes forever getting started, and then just kind of fizzles out.

 

Personally, I do hope that we get more of Hanks in bad guy roles in the future. I don’t think we’d buy him as an out-and-out psychopath – but in this kind of role, he could be brilliant. He already is, in a way, here. It’s just that no one else working on the film figured out what to do.

Classic Movie Review: Wise Blood (1979)

Wise Blood (1979)

Directed by: John Huston.

Written by: Benedict Fitzgerald & Michael Fitzgerald based on the novel by Flannery O'Connor.

Starring: Brad Dourif (Hazel Motes), Dan Shor (Enoch Emory), Harry Dean Stanton (Asa Hawks), Amy Wright (Sabbath Lily), Mary Nell Santacroce (Landlady), Ned Beatty (Hoover Shoates), William Hickey (Preacher), John Huston (Grandfather).

 

John Huston’s Wise Blood, based on the novel by Flannery O’Connor, is a very strange movie indeed. It is a redemption story of sorts – the story a non-believer, a nihilist really, who comes back into the fold and embraces Jesus in the end, although by then he has lost pretty much everything else in his life, so it may well have been better for him not to find Jesus (at least, in this life). It is a story of holy and unholy fools – crooks and charlatans – although according the movie at least, that doesn’t mean that Jesus isn’t real.

 

The main character in the film is Hazel Motes and he’s played with single minded determination by a perfectly cast Brad Dourif. He returns from the war (the film never specifies which one – although O’Connor’s novel in set in post WWII, the film however doesn’t have the trappings of a period piece – perhaps due to budget constraints – so it wouldn’t be inaccurate to say Vietnam), and goes back to his small, Southern hometown. There is a new highway there – opened, he’s told, just long enough for everyone to drive away from town. None of his family is left – we glimpse his preacher Grandfather (played by Huston himself) – is flashbacks, but no one else. Hazel ends up heading into the city, where he plans to start street preaching. But he is not a typical street preacher, talking about how Jesus saves – just the opposite really. His is a “Church without Christ” - “where the blind don’t see and the lame don’t walk and what’s dead stays that way”. Despite all his supposed hatred of Jesus, Hazel has the passion of a true zealot – he rarely talks of anything other than his Church, and spreading his “gospel”. If Wise Blood is anything, it is a reminder of that old saying – the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. Hazel doesn’t really hate Jesus – he’s just mad at him, perhaps because of what happened during the war (he says he has an injury, but doesn’t want people to know where), or perhaps because of the fire and brimstone his grandfather preached (which scared him so much, he wet himself).

 

While in the city, Hazel meets a series of fools, crooks and charlatans. He isn’t there long before he finds a new follower – the hapless Enoch Emory (Dan Shor), who becomes committed to him despite the cruelty in which Hazel treats him. Enoch is clearly a lonely, somewhat dimwitted young man, who will eventually end up in a gorilla suit in another ill advised obsession. There is Asa Hawks (the great Harry Dean Stanton), a supposedly blind street preacher, and his daughter Sabbath Lily (Amy Wright). They are scam artists – he isn’t really blind, despite what his “clipping” says (he supposedly was going to blind himself for Jesus). Sabbath Lily sets her sets on Hazel herself. There’s Hoover Shoates (Ned Beatty), who hears Hazel’s pitch, and likes it – he feels there is a lot of money to be made from it, but when Hazel doesn’t get on board – it isn’t a scam to him – Shoates simply goes out and hires someone to give the same sermon (William Hickey). Finally, there is Hazel’s landlady (Mary Nell Santacroce), who seems so kindly – but of course, even she has something else on her mind.

 

There is nothing new about redemption stories – and yet Wise Blood is one of the strangest ones you will see. It isn’t really about a saint among sinners – we see Hazel Motes do a hell of lot of bad things. It is the work of a cynical Christian – but a Christian just the same. For the most part, the film follows O’Connor’s novel fairly closely – even if Huston initially had a different interpretation – he thought he’d be making a satire about Southern religion, which in a way, I guess he was – he was still the right choice to direct. Huston is one of the few directors who was able to take difficult, literary material and turn it into a film that is both faithful to the novel, and works as film itself. The film isn’t perfect – I find, in particular, that the scenes leading to the ending could use a little more clarity – but mainly, it is a fine adaptation of a difficult novel.

 

Lots of things helped here – including, oddly enough, the lack of a budget. It is a small budgeted film, and so Huston shot mainly on location in Macon, Georgia – using the rundown city as a perfect backdrop to the film. The lack a definitive time period works here (I often don’t like, as specificity is the soul of narrative – here though it makes it a more quintessential American story). The cast of character actors could hardly be improved upon – Dourif apparently wanted to add more nuance to Hazel, but Huston rightly knew that he was a one note character – whatever he embraces, he embraces fully. Harry Dean Stanton delivers one of his finest in a long line of morally dubious conmen. Amy Wright is a wicked joy as Sabbath Lily. Ned Beatty all smiles as he steals from you – and Hickey is wonderfully pathetic as his sidekick. Santacroce sneaks up on you as the unnamed Landlady – helping in those final scenes.

 

If Wise Blood doesn’t quite rank up with Huston’s best films, that is because of the strength of his resume – from The Maltese Falcon to The Treasure of the Sierra Madre in the 1940s to Prizzi’s Honor and The Dead in the 1980s, and much in between, Huston had a varied, wonderful directing career. Wise Blood is a little seen, underrated late career highlight for him – and everyone else involved.

Academy Award Documentary Shortlist

I have seen more documentaries in 2017 than any other year (I am currently at 47 for the year), and looking at the 15 films shortlisted by the Academy to compete for the documentary Oscar a few things stand out. The first I’ve seen 10 of the 15 (I have not had a chance to see Unrest, Long Strange Trip or Ex Libris – I could have travelled far to see Jane, and have so far skipped Human Flow – not because I don’t want to see it, but because it hasn’t fit into my schedule as of yet). The second is that this is a fairly predictable list, which is fairly strong – a lot of familiar names get shortlisted here, but there are notable omissions.

 

One thing I will point out is that I am somewhat surprised (pleasantly so) that Abacus: Small Enough to Jail made the list. I think it’s one of the best docs of the year, but the Academy doesn’t exactly have a strong history with director Steve James – they famously did not nominate his masterpiece Hoop Dreams, and they didn’t shortlist his widely loved Roger Ebert doc – Life Itself, or his acclaimed The Interrupters. Perhaps it’s finally his year. I was also pleasantly surprised that they shortlisted Frederick Wiseman’s Ex Libris – no, I haven’t seen it (and if the pattern of Wiseman holds true, I may never see it) – but I have seen quite a bit of his work, he is an absolute legend, and he has rarely been recognized. The only negative surprise for me in the inclusions is An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power – which is hardly a horrible movie, but isn’t particularly good either. This feels more like a rubber stamp approval to Al Gore than based on the film itself, which was largely greeted with a shrug.

 

Of the films I have seen on the shortlist, I like Chasing Coral, City of Ghosts, Icarus and Last Me in Aleppo just fine – all are solid film that I like them a great deal, even if they are not among my favorites of the year. I would be interested to know why they went with City of Ghosts and Last Men in Aleppo and not Cries from Syria – which was my favorite of three – but all were fine films (and watch for Icarus – a suddenly very timely doc, with Russian being banned from the Olympics).

 

I do really like the aforementioned Abacus, LA 92, One of Us and Strong Island – and Faces Place is my favorite doc of the year. All of them deserve their spots on the list, and would make a fine lineup (although considering I do love Brett Morgan, I wouldn’t be surprised if once I see Jane, it shoots up this list as well).

 

As for the films I wish would have been included and were not, here goes. Casting JonBenet is one of the strangest, most innovative docs of the year (but I seem to be in the minority on that one), Let it Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992, is at least the equal of L.A. 92 – and I would love to have seen them both on the list, The Work is a stunning documentary, and I cannot believe they missed it (I have to think they didn’t see that one, because it seems up their alley), the cat documentary Kedi is beloved, Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond is a fascinating look at acting, and Dawson City: Frozen Time is a great history lesson – and film history lesson – and I would loved to have seen it listed.

 

Other notable films that I liked, and I thought may break into the list that didn’t include Step, Whose Streets? and Nobody Speak: Trails of the Free Press – all of which are good, and I thought may be timely (or popular) enough to crack the list, but didn’t.

 

My predicted five nominees would be this:

 

City of Ghosts

Faces Places

Human Flow

Icarus

Jane

 

And the whole shortlist is below:

 

Academy Award Documentary Shortlist

Abacus: Small Enough to Jail

Chasing Coral

City of Ghosts

Ex Libris – The New York Public Library

Faces Places

Human Flow

Icarus

An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power

Jane

LA 92

Last Men in Aleppo

Long Strange Trip

One of Us

Strong Island

Unrest

Movie Review: I, Tonya

I, Tonya **** / *****

Directed by: Craig Gillespie.

Written by: Steven Rogers.

Starring: Margot Robbie (Tonya Harding), Sebastian Stan (Jeff Gillooly), Allison Janney (LaVona Golden), Julianne Nicholson (Diane Rawlinson), Paul Walter Hauser (Shawn Eckhardt), Mckenna Grace (Young Tonya Harding), Bobby Cannavale (Hard Copy Reporter), Bojana Novakovic (Dody Teachman), Caitlin Carver (Nancy Kerrigan), Jason Davis (Al Harding), Anthony Reynolds (Derrick Smith), Ricky Russert (Shane Stant).

 

You can say a lot of things about Tonya Harding – most of them, not flattering – but you have to admit that she really was close to having one of the greatest underdog sports stories ever. She grew up poor, with abusive or absent parents, got married very young – to a man who may well have abused her as well, and was still, at one point, one of the very best figure skaters in the world. While her competitors got to focus on nothing other than skating, she had to work, and deal with an insane family. None of this excuses what happened – but it certainly makes her interesting. She really is the reason why “the incident” became such a massive media event – and she’s the reason why it’s remembered. Nancy Kerrigan is better remembered for that incident than anything else – which is completely unfair to her, but also true. She’s boring – Harding most definitely is not.

 

I, Tonya is probably the best feature film version of this story that you could ask for – and it’s done in the perfect style for it. The vast majority of the action takes place in the early to mid-1990s, so director Craig Gillespie basically decides to make a film directly from that era. You can see a lot of GoodFellas-era Scorsese influence, a little Coen brother mixture of mockery and humanity, and a lot of Gus Van Sant’s To Die For in the film as well. What happens in the film is so insane you would never in a million years believe it, if it was not true. But – of course – it is.

 

Margot Robbie plays Harding, and it’s a performance that once and for all should prove to everyone just how good she is (I was convinced after The Wolf of Wall Street – and in general, I don’t think she’s been bad in anything, even if the movie sucked). Yes, she’s too old to play Harding starting at 15, but you get over that pretty quick. This is a brash performance – mixing humor with humanity, and more than a healthy dose of self-delusion (Harding never thought she was responsible for anything, ever). The film requires a lot of Robbie – and she carries it well. As her infamous husband/manager Jeff Gilloly, Sebastian Stan is quite good as well – looking awful with a horrible mustache, the film has him flash between sweetly dim, and violent and abusive (the film is structured like a documentary, with various people telling their stories, and then we see those scenes, so you get different version of the people). The best performance in the movie belongs to Allison Janney as Harding’s mother LaVona – you wouldn’t say that she humanizes her – LaVona is clearly a monster, abusive, belittling and controlling, but you get to see what makes her tick. The various guys involving in the actual crime are all convincingly played as a gaggle of idiots – none more so than Paul Walter Hauser as Gilloly’s best friend Shawn – the “body guard and international terrorism expert”. He is hilarious in every scene he’s in.

 

I, Tonya does a great job at walking that fine line between mockery and simply portraying its characters. It would be easy to mock many of them – they are not smart, they are delusional, and from 25 years in the future, the dress and style themselves horribly. The film is certainly funny – it has to be given everything that happens – but it also positions itself well in terms of explaining why this story caught the way it did back then – and what that may mean about us today. The film never gets overt about it – but we see what the story that knocked Harding out of the headlines was, and we know what that means – and we see what she did in later years. She was a reality TV star before reality TV.

 

The film is also, it must be said, just extremely entertaining – an absolute blast from beginning to end. If you’re going to make a film about this subject, you have to fully embrace its inherent sleaziness – and this film does just that. It’s a film that keeps you laughing while watching it – and only really sinks in later.