You Can See Everything

My nephew and I have been eagerly anticipating You Can See Everything ever since the trailer dropped after its surprise premiere at the Telluride Film Festival last month so we were both giddy with excitement when we attended a sold out early access screening at the Broadway last night (we are both weirdly fascinated by the Elizabeth Holmes scandal).  I had unreasonably high expectations and it did not disappoint!  In fact, it is one the best documentaries I have ever seen and watching it with a large and vocal crowd was one of the best theatrical experiences I have ever had!  Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced former CEO of Theranos, invites Nathan Fielder to move in with her, her partner Billy Evans, and their two children to document her final 34 days before reporting to prison in May of 2023.  She gives him and his film crew unprecedented access in order to tell her side of the story after being vilified in articles, books, documentaries, and a limited series on Hulu starring Amanda Seyfried.  In her conversations with Fielder, she vehemently denies any wrongdoing (in a fascinating discussion about her word choice when describing the device she invented to test blood) and she details her plans for another medical testing startup with Evans.  The way Fielder interviews both Holmes and Evans is ingenious and I was most impressed by how the camera lingers on their faces during the silences.  After Holmes reports to prison, Fielder interrogates whether or not he has been manipulated in a twist that produced an audible gasp from my audience.  Without spoiling anything (you should go in as blind as possible), this twist is absolutely brilliant because there are so many layers and it recontextualizes everything that has gone before several different times (I still don't know who to believe because Holmes and Fielder match each other in intensity and it is mesmerizing to watch).  I was completely riveted (my nephew actually leaned forward in his seat multiple times because he was so locked in) and the three hour runtime flies by with scenes that I found equally moving (I hate to admit that I felt bad seeing her cry at the thought of leaving her small children), funny, intriguing, maddening, and horrifying.  Beyond all of that, the production value is outstanding, especially the lighting and the editing.  I will definitely be thinking about it for a long time and I highly recommend seeing it with a crowd!

Note:  This is practically a shoo-in for the Best Documentary Oscar and I predict that it will be nominated for Best Picture!

The Social Reckoning

Last night my nephew and I went to see The Social Reckoning at the Broadway and, while I didn't hate it, I found it to be very underwhelming.  Jeff Horowitz (Jeremy Allen White) is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal who transfers to the San Francisco Bureau in 2019 to investigate the role Facebook plays in influencing politics and culture.  When he reaches out to members of Facebook's Civic Integrity Team, data engineer Frances Haugen (Mikey Madison) is the only employee to respond.  She was motivated to examine the algorithms used by Facebook after her friend Kayleigh (Portia Doubleday) became radicalized by a white supremacy group on the site.  She discovers that the platform is prioritizing hateful and divisive content for engagement and revenue without regard for the consequences to the user and, while she is initially hesitant about revealing information that would harm Facebook or her job there, she eventually shares internal documents with Horowitz and then goes on the record which leads to testifying before the Senate.  This narrative is interrupted by repetitive scenes in which Mark Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong) is prepped by a crisis management team led by Raya (Wunmi Mosaku) for his upcoming testimony before the Senate about content moderation in 2021.  The investigation is interesting, even if it does go on longer than necessary, but it is not very compelling.  I already knew about the manipulation of algorithms on platforms such as Facebook after watching the documentary The Social Dilemma so the conclusion was a bit anticlimactic for me.  Strong is brilliant as Zuckerberg (his voice and lack of expression are uncanny) but, in my opinion, his many scenes are more for effect than to advance the plot because all but one of them consist of him telling everyone that he is a free speech absolutist with no obligation to monitor content (these scenes stop the momentum of the investigation).  On a positive note, White and Madison do a good job of making Sorkin's dialogue sound believable and the verbal sparring between the two is entertaining (I loved the running gag about Horowitz's lack of tech knowledge).  However, while it is unfair to compare this to The Social Network (which is brilliant), it lacks the tension and visual flair of that movie and I can't help wondering what might have been if David Fincher had directed it.  This is definitely a movie you can wait to see when it streams.

Note:  This was my 100th new release in theaters this year.  I usually hit this milestone earlier but I only saw one movie at Sundance (instead of my usual 20-25) so I am a bit behind.

The Incomer

Last night my nephew and I went to the Broadway to see The Incomer and we both loved this weird, funny, and heartwarming movie.  Siblings Isla (Gayle Rankin) and Sandy (Grant O'Rourke) have spent their entire lives in isolation on a remote Scottish island being influenced by folktales about the mysterious finman (John Hannah) who demanded that their father sacrifice himself to the sea.  They defend their island fiercely against incomers from the mainland with odd rituals and, if need be, primitive weapons made of stone and bone.  Eventually, the Northeastern Scottish Council sends Daniel (Domhnall Gleeson), a meek and socially awkward land recovery agent, to the island to evict them.  They easily capture and restrain him but first Sandy and then Isla take a liking to him and soon they are sharing their folktales with each other (Daniel tells a folktale from the mainland about a hero named Frodo).  Hilarity ensues as Daniel tries to convince them to leave the island while Sandy and Isla try to get him to stay.  They ultimately discover that belonging comes from more than just a place.  My nephew and I are huge fans of quirky British humor and we were laughing out loud most of the time (as was the large crowd watching it with us).  I especially loved a sequence in which Isla and Sandy initiate Daniel with a "Way of the Gull" ritual (which is a long-standing tradition and not something they made up that morning).  Daniel is as lonely and as weird as the siblings and another amusing scene involves him using his phone, which the siblings have never seen before, to prove that he is a wizard.  In addition to the humor, this is also quite poignant because they find an unexpected kinship with each other and their interactions help them overcome their fears.  This is especially true when Isla realizes that the finman isn't real and that her upbringing and world view may have been skewed by her father's delusions.  The three actors give committed physical performances that are a lot of fun to watch and I loved their impersonations of birds (their bird costumes are fabulous).  Finally, the locations are spectacular (it was filmed in the Scottish Highlands) and the cinematography is beautiful, particularly a sequence on the edge of a cliff.  Some might find this tedious but if you have an offbeat sense of humor you will probably enjoy it as much as my nephew and I did.

Primetime

Last night my nephew and I saw Primetime at the Broadway and, the more I think about it, the more I like it.  Broadcast journalist Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson) hosts a reality show called To Catch a Predator, which grew from segments filmed for Dateline NBC, using hidden cameras to capture undercover sting operations conducted by the watchdog group Perverted Justice in which adult men are lured to a house to have sex with minors played by decoys before being confronted by Hansen.  He has grandiose ideas about serving the public good, even if the program is a bit sordid, and often treats his subordinates badly, especially his producer Andie Bender (Merritt Wever) and a decoy named Del Harvey (Phoebe Bridgers).  The show becomes wildly popular so the NBC Head of Programming Jeff Zucker (Himself) moves it to a prime time slot against ABC's Lost.  Hansen soon becomes preoccupied with improving ratings and hires an aspiring actor named Dan Plum (Skyler Gisondo) to portray a decoy but an indiscretion with a woman makes the stakes even higher for him.  He breaks with the usual protocol to actively pursue a high profile predator, assistant district attorney Bill Conradt (Alex Winter), with tragic consequences.  The focus of this movie is the intersection between justice and entertainment and it was very intriguing to see how each character abandons the pursuit of the greater good in favor of self-promotion, especially when Dan continues to participate despite his misgivings because he wants to earn a SAG card.  The visuals are incredibly stylized with distorted angles, extreme close-ups, high-contrast lighting, and lurid color grading (I found it very uncomfortable to watch at times) and it replicates the look of the original show with 16mm film.  Pattinson, who imitates Hansen's voice and mannerisms so accurately that it is uncanny, gives a fascinating and unsettling performance as a man so consumed by his own success that it becomes his downfall and I was particularly struck by the many scenes in which he practices his lines while looking in a mirror because you can see him unraveling right before your eyes. Wever and Gisondo are also outstanding and I loved some of the cameos for the child predators (I was shocked, in more ways than one, to see Jonathan Lipnicki).  This is definitely a movie that will generate interesting conversations and I highly recommend it.

American Doctor

I watched the documentary American Doctor as part of my double feature at the Broadway last night and, even though it is extremely difficult to sit through at times, I think it is very important that everyone watch it.  It follows Dr. Mark Perlmutter, Dr. Thaer Ahmad, and Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, three American doctors with diverse backgrounds, as they travel to Gaza both before and after the 2025 ceasefire to provide medical aid to the civilian casualties of the genocide.  It includes compelling footage of them treating patients, mostly children, in challenging conditions and with very few resources at the Nassar Hospital in Khan Younis only to have the hospital targeted by an Israeli strike (the images of the strike as it happens are absolutely devastating).  The most poignant moment comes when a child they just fought hard to save is killed by the bombing.  We also see their interactions with the media upon their return to the United States, in which the veracity of their accounts is challenged by the pro-Israeli news outlets, and their advocacy in favor of ending military aid to Israel (at one point Sidhwa calls their efforts futile after visiting with a number of senators).  There were several moments that particularly caught my attention.  The first is when the director Poh Si Teng tells Perlmutter that she will probably pixelate some of the more disturbing images and he vehemently opposes this because he feels that people need to see what is happening in order to believe it.  Another is when Perlmutter, who is Jewish, says that you can love Israel without supporting the current regime and you can be Jewish without being a Zionist.  The next is when Sidhwa wonders aloud if he paid for the mortar round that injured his patient with his tax dollars (this was especially upsetting to me).  The last is when the epilogue states that over 1,700 healthcare workers have been killed during the conflict simply for trying to render aid.  This is an incredibly powerful reminder of what is still going on in the region and I highly recommend it.

If I Go Will They Miss Me

Last night I had another double feature at the Broadway (these are becoming a regular occurrence on Tuesdays) starting with If I Go Will They Miss Me.  This is an incredibly lyrical examination of the sometimes fraught relationship between fathers and sons and I really enjoyed it.  Anthony "Little Ant" (Bodhi Dell) lives in the Nickerson Gardens housing project in Watts, California, which is in the flight path of LAX so he has an obsession with flying as a result.  His father Anthony "Big Ant" (J. Alphonse Nicholson) has been in and out of prison most of his life so the only information he has about him comes from the embellished stories that his mother Lozita (Danielle Brooks) tells him.  When Big Ant returns home from his most recent incarceration, he struggles to reconnect with his son.  Little Ant is studying Greek mythology in school so he rationalizes his father's absences by thinking of him as Odysseus trying to return to Ithaca.  He also views himself as Pegasus because of his love of flying which makes his father Poseidon.  Big Ant is uneasy with his son's hero worship because he doesn't really know how to be a good father.  It is only when Little Ant sees his father for who he is that Big Ant is able to work to repair the relationship.  This uses magical realism to tell the story and it is filled with beautiful images.  In addition to the scenes evoking Greek mythology, there are many shots of the airplanes flying overhead (which represent adventure to Little Ant and the desire to escape to Big Ant) as well as shots of the current inhabitants of Nickerson Gardens to ground the fantastical narrative in reality.  Both Nicholson and Brooks give highly nuanced and powerful performances as flawed parents who are trying to break the cycle of generational trauma (their scenes together crackle with electricity) but I was most impressed with newcomer Dell because I found his sensitive performance to be very compelling (I had tears in my eyes several times).  I also liked a monologue by Myles Bullock, as Big Ant's best friend from childhood, in which he tells Big Ant to be the hero his son believes him to be.  This is a slow burn with a resolution that might be too ambiguous for some but I highly recommend it.

The Cycle of Love

Yesterday I went to a matinee of The Cycle of Love at the Broadway (along with all of the other old retired people in the Salt Lake valley) and it is the most life affirming documentary I have seen in a long while.  P.K. Mahanandia is born in a small village as an "Untouchable" in the restrictive caste system in India and, when he is a child, he is told by an astrologer that the woman he marries will come from a land far away, will be a Taurus, will be musical, and will own a jungle.  At age twenty he moves to Delhi to escape the limitations of his caste and becomes a street artist who draws portraits for tourists.  One of these tourists is Lotta von Schedvin and, when he learns that she is from Sweden, is a Taurus, plays the piano, and lives in the middle of a forest, he believes that they are destined for each other.  They spend several weeks together and she also comes to believe in the prophecy (in one my favorite scenes) but she must return to Sweden for school.  They correspond by letter but P.K. eventually decides that he needs to go to Sweden to be with her.  He sells everything he owns, buys a second-hand bicycle, and begins the arduous 6,000 mile journey across Asia and Europe without any knowledge of the geography.  He faces numerous obstacles and starts doubting that he is good enough to be with Lotta but he comes to rely on the kindness of the strangers who not only help him on his physical journey but also help him on a journey of discovery in which he realizes his worth (this will restore your faith in humanity).  In addition to interviews with P.K. and Lotta in the present day, this features reenactments, with Chirag Benedict Lobo as the young P.K. and Mina Dale as the young Lotta, that are so realistic, with a 1970s aesthetic and the grainy look of the film used in that era, that you wonder if it is actual footage.  These reenactments also include ordinary people who tell their real stories to Lobo as a clever way to portray those who P.K. encountered on the journey.  I loved this so much and I highly encourage everyone to seek it out.

Hope

Last night I went back to the Broadway (my happy place) to see Hope, a movie I have been anticipating ever since it premiered at Cannes earlier this year, and it is absolutely wild!  When Ko Sung-ki (Zo In-sung) and a group of his friends discover a bull that was killed by an unknown but unusually large predator lying in the middle of the road, he calls his cousin Ko Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min), the police chief of the small South Korean village of Hope Harbor, to investigate.  The young men think it might be a tiger so Bum-seok sends them into the nearby forest to search while he investigates the village.  He discovers more dead livestock and several dead people before he sees that something large has rampaged through the streets.  As he slowly walks through the carnage, he encounters several people, including a retired colonel named Ahn Nak-yeon (Lee Sang-hee), who have survived attacks by a large and seemingly indestructible creature until he, too, is pursued by it.  He and Im Sung-ae (Hoyeon), a rookie on the police force, are eventually able to kill the creature and, in the aftermath, they learn why it attacked the village and that there are more of them in the forest.  Meanwhile, Sung-ki and his friends discover what the creatures are (sort of) but they are attacked until only he is left alive.  Bum-seok, Nak-yeon, and Sung-ae rush to the forest to rescue Sung-ki which leads to an epic show-down (sort of).  I found this a bit confounding but it hardly matters because it is just so entertaining.  The tension builds and builds with the creature always one step ahead of Bum-soek as he tracks it through the streets and it is almost unbearable because you only see the devastating effects of the creature rather than the creature itself for almost an hour of the runtime (the camera work in these scenes is brilliant).  The action sequences are an absolute adrenaline rush and I was holding my breath during several thrilling high speed car chases and an equally thrilling chase on horseback through the forest.  The creatures, portrayed by Alicia Vikander, Michael Fassbender, Taylor Russell, and Cameron Britton, look great but the CGI is sometimes really wonky when they move and, because they are so much larger than the humans, the perspective is weirdly skewed and the distance between them is frequently off during the chases.  There is lot of dark comedy, which did make me laugh out loud (I especially enjoyed a running joke in which Bum-seok questions where everyone got the guns they are using), to relieve the tension but the pacing grinds to a halt in the second act with unnecessary and lengthy scenes.  Finally, all of the spectacle is ultimately meaningless because we know so little about the creatures and their motivation and, just when we start to learn something, the screen suddenly goes to black (I was actually shocked when it ended and I was not alone judging from the response of my audience).  However, I have to say that I had an absolute blast watching this because it is so completely bonkers and I think people will either love it or hate it!

Colony

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway last night was Colony and I found it very entertaining and compelling.  A disgruntled biologist named Seo Young-cheol (Koo Kyo-hwan) deliberately releases a virus he engineered during a biotechnology conference being held in a high-rise building in Seoul, South Korea, and informs the police that he has ingested the only antidote.  Those infected by the virus immediately mutate into violent and aggressive zombies and soon all but a small group of survivors, led by a controversial biotechnology professor named Kwon Se-jeong (Gianna Jun), are affected so the government seals the building under a military quarantine.  As the trapped survivors attempt to elude the zombies, they are horrified to discover that the virus has given them a collective hive mind and that they all share any sensory input received by one of them.  This allows them to evolve and adapt to any strategy the survivors use to escape.  They are forced to search the building for Young-cheol because he is their only hope for an antidote but he is also their biggest threat because he controls the zombies.  This is incredibly suspenseful because the survivors must travel from floor to floor to escape from zombies who are always one step ahead of them.  The character design for the zombies, including the prostheses and makeup, as well as the way they contort their bodies make them terrifying.  The action sequences are epic and I loved the synchronized movements used by the zombies as they receive new input, particularly the scene in which they are overwhelmed by faulty information and devolve to their primitive state.  Finally, I found the message about the dangers of groupthink to be very thought-provoking and I loved that Se-jeong and another biotechnologist named Gong Seol-hee (Shin Hyun-been), two women who are outliers in their field and think for themselves, are the ones who stop the zombies.  This is a fresh take on the zombie genre and I highly recommend it.

The Sun Never Sets

Since the mainstream releases were a bust this weekend I decided on an indie double feature at the Broadway last night.  I started with The Sun Never Sets mostly because I loved the beautiful Alaskan scenery featured in the trailer but I ended up enjoying it.  Wendy (Dakota Fanning) is a thirty-something woman who is in a long-term relationship with Jack (Jake Johnson), an older man with two children from a previous marriage.  He is very set in his ways and does not share her passion for the great outdoors but, more importantly, he has no desire to get married again or have more children.  She has adapted to fit into his life because she loves him but her reaction to the news that her best friend Lindsay (Debby Ryan) is pregnant has him worried that she might regret her decision not to have children in the future.  He suggests that they take a break for six months so she can explore her options and decide if she really wants to be with him on his terms.  She objects but he finally coerces convinces her and she goes on several amusing blind dates.  While on one of these dates, she runs into Chuck (Cory Michael Smith), an ex-boyfriend who has recently returned to Anchorage, and she resumes a relationship with him.  This makes Jack extremely jealous and he suddenly wants her back on any terms but now she is unsure.  Jack then begins dating Sara (Karley Sciortino), a woman his age with whom he is very compatible.  Chuck begins exhibiting the behavior that made Wendy break up with him in the first place and, when she learns about Sara, she is jealous and wants Jack back.  Confusion (and many screaming matches) ensues.  What I especially liked is that the characters are complicated, flawed, and messy because I think they really reflect the uncertainty that many young adults feel when their lives don't look like everyone else's (I definitely went through this when I was in my early thirties).  I found it very interesting that the free-spirited and immature Chuck is obviously meant to be the villain but Jack, who is more settled and responsible, is even more problematic because he is so controlling and manipulative (one scene, in particular, in which he is trying to get her to come home with him is extremely disturbing in my opinion).  This is why I loved the final resolution because it is so empowering that she doesn't settle. Fanning gives an incredibly nuanced performance, one of her very best, because Wendy is often frustrating but you still like her enough to root for her to succeed.  I wanted to see more of the Alaskan wilderness and the bickering between the characters does go on a bit longer than it needs to but I liked this and recommend it to fans of romantic dramas.

Finding Emily

Last night my nephew and I went to the Broadway to see Finding Emily (I have quite a few movies from last weekend to catch up on).  I am not a big fan of romantic comedies but I thoroughly enjoyed this!  Owen Brompton (Spike Fearn) is a sound engineer at a student bar near Manchester City University where he meets and forms an immediate connection with a girl named Emily (Sadie Soverall).  She quickly gives him her phone number when she leaves the bar but, when he tries to call her the next day, he realizes that she made a typo in her haste.  He is desperate to find her so he begins looking for her at the university.  His search leads him to another Emily (Angourie Rice), a psychology student working on her thesis about the self-destructive nature of romantic attachment, and she thinks he will be a perfect case study for her research so she offers to help him find his Emily.  Of course Owen and Emily fall for each other, which invalidates her conclusions, but not before they cause mayhem on campus with their search and eventually find the original Emily.  This is incredibly predictable and you know exactly what will happen beat for beat as soon as Owen interrupts Emily's class for their meet cute but it has a sparkling energy and a message about the travails of finding love in the digital age that I found compelling.  I really loved the music (any movie that features "Blue Monday" by New Order will always get a positive review from me) and I enjoyed all of the eccentric side characters, particularly a militant Emily (Kat Ronney) who mobilizes all of the other Emilys on campus against Owen because she believes he is a stalker.  Fearn, who is so endearing, and Rice, who gives a delightfully earnest performance, have genuine chemistry and are very charming together.  It does go on a bit longer than it needs to but I had so much fun watching this (I laughed out loud multiple times) and I highly recommend it!

Union County

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway last night was Union County and I really appreciated the humane and honest portrayal of addiction but I found the observational approach to be a bit slow and remote.  Cody Parsons (Will Poulter) is an addict who is in a mandated recovery program along with his foster brother Jack (Noah Centineo).  He is barely hanging on as he struggles to attend required drug tests, support groups, and court appearances while living in his car and working a menial job at a lumber mill.  After a relapse which lands him in jail and Jack in rehab, he recommits to the program with the help of his counselor Annette (Annette Deao) and a fellow addict named Anna (Elise Kibler).  He begins taking the meetings seriously and has a breakthrough which leads to a reconciliation with his sister Katrina (Emily Meade).  However, a tragedy threatens his hard-won sobriety.  This features performances from people who are actually involved with the Adult Recovery Court in Ohio, including Deao, a social worker, Kevin T. Braig, a judge, as well as addicts who tell their own recovery stories in the court and support group scenes.  This (along with shooting locations in central Ohio and austere cinematography) gives the narrative an authenticity that is palpable and I was impressed by how seamless their performances are with those of the actors. Centineo is a live wire and Poulter is a coiled spring who telegraphs all of the pain and guilt Cody is feeling through facial expressions and physicality rather than dialogue.  It is a powerful and empathetic performance that does much to destigmatize addiction but the long silences sometimes become tiresome (my mind wandered at times) and there are a few scenes that require a bit more context.  This is a movie that I admire more than I love but I still recommend it.

Late Fame

Last night I had another double feature at the Broadway beginning with Late Fame.  I was intrigued by the trailer and I found it very charming.  Ed Saxberger (Willem Dafoe) was once a member of the bohemian art scene in the 1970s and even had a volume of poetry titled Way Past Go published but he now works at the U.S. Postal Service and spends his evenings playing pool with a group of working class men at a local bar.  One evening he is approached by a wealthy and pretentious young man named Meyers (Edmund Donovan) who tells him that he and his artistic friends, who call themselves the Enthusiasm Society, have recently discovered his poetry and would love to have him join their group.  He grows to love how much they fawn over him, especially an exotic and mysterious actress named Gloria (Greta Lee), and this gives him a renewed passion for the arts.  However, even though he is very well-received at a poetry reading organized on his behalf by the group, he eventually realizes that he no longer belongs in this milieu and that Meyers and his friends are mere dilettantes.  The portrayal of the Enthusiasm Society is often very humorous and I especially enjoyed seeing Meyers' apartment because, even though he professes a disdain for contemporary culture, it is sleek and modern and filled with every technological advance (I laughed out when it was revealed).  I also enjoyed the juxtaposition between real artists, embodied by Ed and Gloria, and the poseurs, represented by Meyers and his group, who use them for authenticity.  The cinematography evokes the NYC of a bygone era, particularly a sequence in which Ed wanders the city looking for inspiration for a new poem, and I love that the members of the Enthusiasm Society dress like Victorian-era dandies.  Finally, Dafoe gives a grounded and effortless performance as a man who ultimately discovers that he is living a romanticized version of his past but Lee steals every scene she is in as the flamboyant Gloria, especially when she performs "Surabaya Johnny" at a club.  This is a sometimes funny and sometimes melancholy character study and I really enjoyed it.  Definitely seek it out.

The Rivals of Amziah King

Last night I went to the Broadway to see The Rivals of Amziah King and I was completely charmed by this movie.  Amziah King (Matthew McConaughey) is a beekeeper, bluegrass musician, and born-again Christian in rural Oklahoma.  He is the undisputed leader of his tight-knit community and hosts impromptu jam-sessions with members of his band, employs wayward young men in his honey making operation, attends pot-luck dinners at his church, and frequently helps out with bee emergencies in town.  After he encounters his former foster daughter Kateri (Angelina LookingGlass) when she returns to the area, he integrates her into his circle of friends and instructs her in the characteristics of his bees.  When one of his rivals, Dob McCoy (Kurt Russell), steals all of Amziah's bee hives, Kateri rallies his friends to help her get them back and exact revenge.  The first act features several vignettes of Amziah interacting with his eccentric friends and these scenes are filled with joy, exuberance, and wonderful music (not to mention a lot of comedy which made me and the rest of the audience laugh out loud).  McConaughey gives one of his most charismatic performances to date and his scenes with LookingGlass are incredibly touching. The second and third acts then become a tension-filled revenge thriller with a brilliant breakout performance from LookingGlass.  So many of the sequences that seem totally random in the first act suddenly make sense as each of Amziah's friends use their unique skills to help Kateri in her quest.  I really loved the message about the importance of community and I also loved that Amziah's community mimics the structure of his bee hives (the line that bees know when to find a new queen really struck me).  I honestly did not know what to expect but this quirky and atmospheric movie pulled me in and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I think it is definitely worth seeking out!

Wild Inside

I wasn't very interested in any of the new releases this weekend so I spent my Friday night at the Broadway watching a documentary about an owl (as one does).  I really enjoyed Wild Inside because it is both heartwarming and thought-provoking.  Flaco, a male Eurasian eagle-owl, was bred in captivity and spent 13 years in a small enclosure inside the Central Park Zoo before escaping.  When he is discovered in and around Central Park, he captures the attention and imagination of New Yorkers, especially a group of birdwatchers who document his actions and movements online (and provide many of the photos and video footage used in this documentary).  At first, the public is concerned that Flaco will not be able to survive in the wild and advocate for his immediate capture and return to the zoo.  However, Flaco's natural instincts kick in and he eventually improves his ability to fly with practice and develops the ability to hunt on his own.  The public then decides that he should remain free and the staff at the Central Park Zoo stop trying to capture him.  Sentiments shift once again when Flaco meets an untimely end after he is weakened by rodenticides used to control the city's rat population and many point out that he would have lived a much longer life inside the zoo.  Flaco is definitely anthropomorphized but, like many interviewed for this documentary, I also couldn't help but ascribe human characteristics to him, such as choice, resilience, and curiosity, and this made me root for him to succeed.  The photos and footage are adorable and I especially loved his big orange eyes and the way he looked into windows to watch people (much like he was watched in the zoo).  I also learned a lot about Eurasian eagle-owls and about owls in general (they are surprisingly fascinating).  Finally, I really appreciated the discussion about the best way for animals to interact with humans and urban environments even if there are no easy answers.  Penny Lane, the director, has an obvious opinion about zoos and keeping animals in captivity but she does interview people who advocate for their necessity in order to keep them safe and to stave off extinction of endangered species.  I think this is a documentary that will resonate with many people and I highly recommend it.

The Piano

I am so happy that The Piano is back in theaters because I think it is an atmospheric masterpiece and I have always wanted to experience it on the big screen (I missed it during its original theatrical run).  I went to see it yesterday at the Broadway and I was completely mesmerized.  Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter) is a Scottish woman in the mid-19th century who has been mute by choice since childhood.  She travels to New Zealand with her precocious daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) and her cherished piano for an arranged marriage to a colonial settler named Alisdair Stewart (Sam Neill).  When she arrives, Alisdair refuses to transport the piano from the beach to his settlement and this alienates her from him.  She asks Alisdair's neighbor, George Baines (Harvey Keitel), to take her back to the beach and he falls in love with her after he witnesses a passionate performance.  Baines has her piano taken to his house and then offers Alisdair a piece of property in exchange for lessons from Ada, which Alisdair compels her to give.  However, Baines tells Ada that he will trade the piano back to her, key by key, if he can listen to her play in various stages of undress during encounters that become more and more intimate.  He eventually gives the piano back to her before she fulfills their agreement and they begin an intense affair with tragic consequences after Alisdair learns the truth from Flora.  Many find the narrative to be problematic but I have a different interpretation. I think the piano represents Ada's voice because she communicates by playing it rather than by speaking.  Both Alisdair and Baines manipulate her with their control of the piano and getting it back represents that she is able to choose her destiny.  This is why she is able to leave it behind in the middle of the ocean and why she begins speaking after she is rid of it.  I love Hunter's performance because, even though she is incredibly stoic, you can still see everything she is feeling in her eyes and her piano playing is incredibly impressive.  I also love Paquin's performance because it is so nuanced and strikes a delicate balance between innocence and mischievousness.  The visuals are gorgeous (New Zealand is one of my very favorite trips) and I was blown away by many of the evocative shot compositions.  Finally, the score by Michael Nyman is hauntingly beautiful, particularly the main theme "The Heart Asks Pleasure First."  This is brilliant on so many levels and I highly recommend it (especially if you have a chance to see it on the big screen).

Rose of Nevada

I was absolutely mesmerized by the movie Enys Men so I was excited to see Mark Jenkin's latest, Rose of Nevada, at the Broadway yesterday.  When the fishing vessel Rose of Nevada disappeared from a Cornish village thirty years ago, the effect was catastrophic.  The community has not yet recovered economically and the families of the lost fishermen, Alan and Luke, are still mourning the loss.  The boat mysteriously reappears and Mike (Edward Rowe), the former owner, decides to hire a new crew and send it back out to sea.  He recruits Nick (George MacKay), a husband and father who desperately needs money to repair his roof, and Liam (Callum Turner), an itinerant worker who sleeps on the dock.  Even though neither one of them have experience, they return with a substantial catch but the village they return to is thirty years in the past.  Liam is mistaken for Alan and is warmly welcomed by Alan's wife Tina (Rosalind Eleazar) and his young daughter while Nick is mistaken for Luke and is taken in by Luke's parents (Adrian Rawlins and Mary Woodvine).  They both realize that something is amiss and go back out on the boat thinking that they will reset the timeline but, when they return to the past again, Liam happily settles into a life with Tina.  However, Nick is increasingly distraught and goes to extraordinary lengths to return to his wife Emily (Mae Voogd) and young daughter but eventually becomes conflicted about condemning his community to poverty and grief again.  What I love about Jenkin as a filmmaker is the way he uses images rather than dialogue to tell the story.  He opens with a series of static shots and it is immediately clear that the village is suffering from an economic depression.  He also uses several extended sequences of Nick and Liam working on the boat (fishing is hard work) to establish that they have an aptitude for the job despite the fact they have no experience.  I also love the ambiguity in his movies, especially in this narrative, because you are never really sure if Nick has been displaced in time or if he is suffering from madness.  I was particularly struck by a recurring photo of Alan and Luke taken on the boat because the movie ends with Nick and Liam in that same photo.  Finally, I loved the use of degraded 16mm film, because this emphasizes that these characters are in another time, as well as the unsettling sound design and otherwordly score, because it creates such a haunting atmosphere.  I really dug this and am now eagerly awaiting the next movie from Jenkin.

Note:  I basically spent the whole day at the Broadway because I saw The Odyssey in 35mm (my third viewing!) next.  It gets better every time I see it!

The Invite

Last night my nephew and I went to the Broadway to see The Invite.  This movie got a lot of buzz at Sundance this year so I was really excited and it definitely lived up to the hype!  Joe (Seth Rogen) is a former musician who now teaches at a third-rate music academy and Angela (Olivia Wilde) is a bored stay-at-home mom who fills her days by endlessly remodeling and decorating their apartment.  They bicker back and forth until their upstairs neighbors, Pina (Penelope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton), arrive for dinner.  Angela tries way too hard to impress them and Joe resents their intrusion but, after several extremely awkward encounters, they eventually become titillated by Pina and Hawk's unconventional sex life.  When Pina and Hawk invite them to participate in one of their orgies, everything that is wrong with Joe and Angela's relationship is revealed and they must decide whether they want to separate or make the changes needed to remain married.  This is absolutely hilarious (I don't think there was an empty seat in the theater and the audience laughed out loud through the entire runtime) and I especially loved a scene that cuts back and forth between Joe asking Pina how she knew when a relationship was over and Angela asking Hawk to help her make an important decision because it subverts expectations in a highly amusing way!  This is also an insightful and thought-provoking exploration of how couples lose connection and intimacy within a marriage when they become complacent (the ambiguous ending is quietly devastating).  This reminded me of a play performed live on stage because it takes place in one location in real time with an emphasis on dialogue rather than action.  However, this structure is surprisingly compelling because the scenes are framed in an incredibly dynamic way, particularly one in which the couples are placed opposite each other against the large cased opening to the dining room to highlight the distance between them, and the dialogue is very witty with brilliant performances that feature perfect timing (Rogen is outstanding).  I really enjoyed this and I am sure that it will be among my favorites this year.

Leviticus

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway last night was Leviticus and I absolutely loved it!  Arlene Reid (Mia Wasikowska) moves with her son Naim (Joe Bird) to an extremely conservative Christian community in Victoria, Australia.  She finds comfort but he struggles with the repressive environment until he begins a secret relationship with Ryan Whelan (Stacy Clausen).  However, Naim sees Ryan kissing the pastor's son Hunter (Jeremy Blewitt) and, because he is jealous, he outs them to the pastor.  A deliverance healer is called in to perform a ritual on the two of them to cleanse them of their homosexual desires but this summons an invisible entity that stalks them in the form of the one they love.  A malevolent being that looks Naim attacks Ryan and another one that looks Ryan kills Hunter.  When Arlene learns about Naim's feelings for Ryan, she takes him to the deliverance healer to perform the same ritual on him and a spirit that looks like Ryan attacks him.  Naim and Ryan eventually discover that the entity appears whenever they are alone and it becomes difficult for them to distinguish between perception and reality.  In addition to the physical threat, this is a psychological nightmare for both Naim and Ryan because the one person who makes them feel less alone is now the person they fear the most when they are alone.  Bird and Clausen have tremendous chemistry and I love the way they portray the romance that develops between their characters because this makes what happens to them absolutely heartbreaking as well as terrifying.  Bird, especially, is devastating during the scenes in which he wants so desperately to believe that the person in front of him is actually Ryan.  There is a tension whenever Naim and Ryan are on screen together that is palpable as a result.  This has a lot to say about the damage caused by homophobia, religious extremism, and conversion therapy but I was really struck by the theme of fear and how it is weaponized.  The shapeshifter wants Naim and Ryan to fear each other so that they will repress who they really are but both of them eventually realize that love is more powerful than fear.  I was incredibly moved by this and highly recommend it!

The Death of Robin Hood

I spent most of last night at the Broadway for a double feature because I missed a few movies that I really wanted to see while I was out of town.  I began with The Death of Robin Hood and it is definitely my jam.  Despite all of the stories that have turned him into a folk hero, the outlaw Robin Hood (Hugh Jackman) is tormented by a lifetime filled with violence and is living in self-imposed exile to escape those seeking vengeance against him.  He agrees to help fellow outlaw Little John (Bill Skarsgard) fight a clan who has taken his wife and daughter hostage so that he can die in battle but he is severely wounded, instead.  John takes him to a Priory on a remote island to be healed by Sister Brigid (Jodie Comer) and he begins to find a measure of peace through his interactions with her, a leper (Murray Bartlett) who works as a caretaker on the island, and John's daughter Little Margaret (Faith Delaney).  However, his past eventually catches up with him in the form of Godwyn (Noah Jupe), the sole-surviving member of the clan slaughtered by Robin and John, and he is finally forced to reconcile everything he has done.  The movie begins with several bloody and brutal action sequences involving medieval warfare that establish Robin Hood as a villain but then it turns into a more contemplative character study as he deals with the consequences of his actions with a conclusion that I found very powerful.  I loved the themes of vengeance, forgiveness, redemption, and legacy, especially in the scenes when Robin convinces Godwyn to abandon his quest as well as when Robin perpetuates the myth to spare Margaret from learning the truth about her father.  The cinematography, which uses lots of desaturated blues and grays, is incredibly bleak but strangely beautiful and I was really struck by the change in aspect ratio because it becomes almost claustrophobic on the island to represent Robin's inability to hide from his actions.  All of the performances are outstanding but Jackman is particularly haunting because he conveys a lifetime of regret with just his eyes and body language.  This will not be for everyone (some may be put off by the violence in the first act and others may find the pace of the second and third acts to be too slow) but I always love flawed characters who find redemption and I really appreciated the subversive take on a well-known character.