Golda

Last night I went to the Broadway to see Golda because I have always been fascinated by the history of the Middle East.  It is incredibly powerful with another brilliant performance from Helen Mirren.  The narrative surrounds the Yom Kippur War between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Syria and Egypt in 1973 with the framing device of the Agranat Comission during which Prime Minister Golda Meir (Mirren) is called upon to explain her controversial decision not to launch a preemptive strike despite receiving intelligence suggesting a coming attack.  While there are strategy meetings with her ministers and generals and some incredibly tense sequences listening to the audio from battle, much of the focus is on how a chain-smoking and stoop-shouldered woman undergoing treatments for lymphoma responds to the crisis.  The constraints imposed on her by her diplomatic position are shown through her complicated relationship with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (Liev Schreiber), her continuing heath problems are shown through her relationship with her personal assistant Lou Kaddar (Camille Cottin), and her despair over the deaths of so many soldiers is shown through her relationship with her secretary Shir Shapiro (Ellie Piercy) and I think this is very effective at showing the real woman behind the politician.  Mirren is absolutely phenomenal and disappears completely into the role.  I was particularly moved by the scene where she keeps replaying the audio from the devastating battle in her mind and when she must inform her secretary of the death of her son in battle.  I also enjoyed some recurring visual motifs throughout, such as the appearance of birds and the use of the ever present cigarette smoke to represent battle, as well as the dramatic sound design and score.  I really liked this historical drama and highly recommend it.

Passages

I am a big fan of Franz Rogowski (he gives a haunting performance in Transit that I still think about) so I was really excited to see his latest movie, Passages, last night at the Broadway.  Even though he plays a thoroughly unlikable character, Rogowski is absolutely captivating as a man who initiates an emotionally damaging love triangle.  Tomas (Rogowski) is a demanding and controlling director living in Paris with his husband Martin (Ben Whishaw).  At the wrap party for his latest film Tomas has a sexual encounter with Agathe (Adele Exarchopoulos) but immediately confesses to Martin who is upset but excuses his behavior.  Tomas continues the affair with Agathe because he finds it exciting to be with a woman but soon falls in love with her and leaves Martin.  However, Tomas becomes irrationally jealous when Martin begins a relationship with an author named Ahmad (Erwan Kepoa Fale) and tries to win him back.  Complications ensue when Tomas attempts to keep both Martin and Agathe in his life only to lose them both.  Rogowski's performance is brilliant because, even though his character does so many reprehensible things, you are still drawn to him and I did feel a tiny bit of sympathy for him in a devastating final close-up shot of his eyes filled with tears (despite the fact that I silently cheered when he is forced to face the consequences of his actions).  Whishaw and Exarchopoulos also give outstanding, but highly restrained, performances as smart and successful people who make terrible decisions when it comes to the heart (we've all been there), especially in a powerful scene between Martin and Agathe that serves as a major turning point.  It is fascinating to watch the shifting power dynamics between the three characters.  There are lots of explicit sex scenes (it certainly earns its NC-17 rating) so this might not be for everyone but I found it riveting.

Note:  This also includes one of the funniest scenes I've seen in a long time.  Tomas meets Agathe's parents wearing a fishnet crop top and the look her mother (Caroline Chaniolleau) gives her father (Olivier Rabourdin) had everyone in my theater laughing out loud!

Afire

Yesterday afternoon I went back to the Broadway (it is my second home) to see Afire, a movie I have been looking forward to ever since it won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival this year.  I really loved it because, unfortunately, I relate to the main character a little too well.  Leon (Thomas Schubert) and Felix (Langston Uibel) travel to a vacation house on an island in the Baltic Sea owned by Felix's mother so Leon can finish his second novel before showing it to his editor Helmut (Matthias Brandt) and Felix can work on his photography portfolio.  When they get there Felix is surprised and Leon is dismayed to learn that a woman named Nadja (Paula Beer) is also staying there.  She has a seasonal job selling ice cream at a nearby hotel and is conducting an affair with a lifeguard named Devid (Enno Trebbs).  Leon is attracted to her but he is also judgmental about her personal behavior and looks down on her because of her job.  He is also peevish and pretentious whenever he is around her.  She asks to read his manuscript and is critical of it but he dismisses her opinion because he feels superior to her even though he knows it is not good.  It takes a devastating tragedy, in the form of wildfires slowly enclosing the island, for Leon to find inspiration and to realize that he was wrong about Nadja.  This is a brilliant character study of an incredibly unlikable and self-absorbed man who is also somewhat sympathetic because he knows that he is antisocial but seems unable to help it.  I really liked the juxtaposition between Leon and Felix because Leon is so uptight and struggles to form relationships and to finish his book while Felix is carefree and bonds with both Nadja and Devid and takes stunning photographs of the sea.  Schubert gives a highly nuanced performance filled with subtle glimpses of Leon's vulnerability and insecurity and Beer is luminous as Nadja (she is fantastic in Frantz and Transit), especially in a scene where she recites a poem by Heinrich Heine. Because I have a tendency to be very antisocial and dismissive, I definitely saw myself in Leon (especially when he refuses to participate in activities with others) so I really appreciated the ambiguous but optimistic ending.  The action unfolds very slowly but it is so multilayered that my attention never wavered and I loved it.  I highly recommend seeking it out.

Note:  Leon also wears black almost exclusively so...

Jules

Yesterday I spent the afternoon at the Broadway seeing the movie Jules.  It is utterly delightful and put a big smile on my face.  Lonely septuagenarian Milton (Ben Kingsley) is beginning to exhibit signs of dementia which causes his frazzled daughter Denise (Zoe Winters) to consider putting him in an assisted living facility when a space ship carrying an alien crash lands in his backyard (and ruins his azaleas!).  No one believes him because of his declining mental abilities (and because he regularly makes a nuisance of himself at the local town council meetings).   He befriends the alien, who comes to be known as Jules (Jade Quon), and he finds him to be a sympathetic listener.  Eventually two other lonely septuagenarians (and regulars at the town council meetings), Sandy (Harriet Sansom Harris) and Joyce (Jane Curtin), learn Milton's secret and also begin confiding in Jules.  They become friends as they protect Jules from discovery and help him return home (this movie is like E.T. for the senior citizen set) which then gives them the courage to face their own challenges.  This exploration of loneliness, loss, and growing older is surprisingly funny (I laughed out loud several times) as well as poignant and I was particularly struck by the realistic portrayal of caring for an aging parent (I had a tear in my eye at one point).  Kingsley, Harris, and Curtin give wonderful performances and their characters have very relatable arcs.  Quon is also noteworthy because she is riveting in a completely physical performance.  The story is simplistic and it takes a while to get going but it is a heartwarming way to spend an afternoon and I recommend it.

Talk to Me

After hearing lots of praise for Talk to Me I was really excited to have a chance to see it at the Broadway last night.  The hype is definitely real because it is incredibly unsettling.  Mia (Sophie Wilde) is a teenager who is still traumatized by the suicide of her mother Rhea two years prior.  She reluctantly attends a party with several of her friends, including Jade (Alexandra Jensen), Riley (Joe Bird), Daniel (Otis Dhanji), Hayley (Zoe Terakes), and Joss (Chris Alosio), and one of them proposes a game that has been making the rounds on social media which uses a mysterious statue, purported to be the embalmed hand of a medium, in order to summon the spirits of the dead.  The subject lights a candle, holds the embalmed hand, and says "Talk to me" to meet a spirit then "I let you in" to be possessed by it but the candle must be blown out within 90 seconds or the connection will not be severed.  Mia volunteers to be the first subject and, even though she is possessed by a malevolent spirit who resists leaving, she is energized by the experience and all of the teens eventually have a turn and feel the same adrenaline rush that keeps them coming back for more.  However, when Riley takes a turn, Mia is convinced that he is being possessed by the spirit of her mother and events quickly spiral out of control.  There are some truly terrifying scenes (with mostly practical effects) but what kept me so unnerved is the way the filmmakers create escalating tension with ominous sound design and disturbing imagery.  In this regard it really reminded me of Hereditary because I felt the same sense of unrelenting dread (although, thankfully, I did not scream out loud).  The young and relatively unknown (to U.S. audiences) cast is outstanding, especially in the possession scenes, but I was particularly impressed with Wilde because her fully committed physical performance is electrifying.  Finally, I really enjoyed the exploration of how grief and trauma can take possession of someone interspersed between the scenes of gore.  I highly recommend this to fans of the horror genre.

Barbie

Last night Sean and I returned to the Broadway to see Barbie and, as with Oppenheimer the night before, it exceeded my already high expectations! A Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie), along with various other Barbies who who perform specific occupations within the matriarchal society (portrayed by Issa Rae, Hari Nef, Alexandra Shipp, Emma Mackey, Sharon Rooney, Ana Cruz Kayne, Dua Lipa, Nicola Coughlan, Ritu Arya, Emerald Fennell, and Marisa Abela), is living the best day ever in Barbieland while a Stereotypical Ken (Ryan Gosling), several other Kens (portrayed by Kingsley Ben-Adir, Simu Liu, Scott Evans, Ncuti Gatwa, Rob Brydon, and John Cena), and Allan (Michael Cera) do anything they can to get her attention.  Barbie soon experiences an existential crisis and seeks out a Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) who has been played with too hard.  Weird Barbie tells her that she must go to the Real World and find the child who plays with her to resolve any issues lest she end up like her.  However, things do not go as planned in the Real World because Ken stows away with her and is influenced by the patriarchy, the CEO of Mattel (Will Ferrell) wants to put her back in a box, and her child Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt) berates her for giving girls unrealistic standards of beauty.  Barbie eventually discovers her true purpose with the help of Sasha's mother Gloria (America Ferrera) and Barbie's creator Ruth Handler (Rhea Perlman).  I loved everything about this movie!  The message about identity is so incredibly powerful and a brilliant monologue about the travails of being a woman in today's society elicited applause from my audience while a montage to Billie Eilish's song "What Was I Made For?" reduced me to tears.  This is definitely an ode to female empowerment but I also really appreciated Ken's character arc as he goes on his own journey to self-actualization (in a hilarious 80s music video featuring a power ballad called "I'm Just Ken" performed by Gosling).  Gerwig (I love her unique voice as a filmmaker) effectively straddles the line between social commentary and nostalgia for a beloved toy through brilliant production design (the Barbie Dreamhouse with a slide to the pool is amazing), costumes that recreate some of Barbie's most famous looks, and witty self-referential dialogue that will have audiences laughing out loud (I loved a throw-away line about wearing high heels).  I can't think of anyone better to embody the iconic doll than Robbie and I loved her performance but Gosling is an absolute hoot who steals the show (especially in the aforementioned musical number) every time he is on screen.  It was such a fun experience watching this with a capacity crowd dressed in pink (they let me and Sean into the theater despite our lack of pink attire) and I highly recommend it!

Note:  After seeing both movies I stand by my recommendation to see Barbie and Oppenheimer on different days.  The shift in tone will be much too jarring!

Oppenheimer

Sean has been looking forward to Oppenheimer for months so we absolutely had to go to an early access screening in 35mm at the Broadway last night!  Even though it is three hours long with lots of dialogue and very heavy themes, we both found it to be riveting and we loved it!  J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) is a brilliant but highly-strung scientist who conducts theoretical research on quantum physics while teaching at U.C. Berkeley, dabbling in unionization, and beginning relationships with women (Florence Pugh and Emily Blunt) who have ties to the communist party.  Despite his dubious extracurricular activities, he is approached by General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) to head the Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico.  Oppenheimer assembles a team of scientists and they succeed in creating a bomb but he is conflicted because he knows that it is needed as a deterrent but is horrified by the prospect of using it.  Once the bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he is devastated and becomes a vocal opponent against the proliferation of nuclear weapons against the Soviet Union.  Oppenheimer's position angers Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey, Jr.), the head of the Atomic Energy Commission, and he surreptitiously convenes a hearing to revoke Oppenheimer's security clearance because of his perceived ties to communism.  This hearing and Strauss' Senate confirmation hearing for a cabinet position in the Eisenhower administration are interspersed with the events leading to the so-called Trinity test of the bomb and I honestly can't decide which scenes were more fraught with tension!  This is in large part due to the brilliant sound design and the intense score by Ludwig Goransson (the ticking sound that mimics a clock is especially effective is creating an anxious atmosphere).  The visuals are striking, particularly those used to portray the quantum realm, and give the audience access to the cataclysmic visions inside Oppenheimer's mind.  Murphy gives the performance of his career (which will undoubtedly be rewarded during awards season) and the scenes where Oppenheimer envisions the consequences of his actions are some of the most powerful I have ever seen (the closeups on Murphy's blue eyes are haunting).  Downey, Jr. also give a powerhouse performance!  I have always believed him to be a great actor but he is next-level here and I had goosebumps in a scene filled with his character's righteous anger.  In addition, I was very impressed with Blunt when her character goes toe-to-toe with the special prosecutor (Jason Clarke).  The narrative is incredibly dense with lots characters and many actors make a big impact in relatively small roles (my favorites include Josh Hartnett, Benny Safdie, Dane DeHaan, Kenneth Branagh, Alden Ehrenreich, David Dastmalchian, Tony Goldwyn, Rami Malek, Casey Affleck, and Gary Oldman).  This movie is a masterpiece and I think what intrigued me the most is that the exploration of power and accountability is morally complex and thought provoking.  Much has been made about the release of Oppenheimer and Barbie on the same weekend (Sean and I are seeing Barbie tonight) with many opting for double features but I think the tonal shifts will be too much and recommend seeing them on different days.

Note:  Sean and I were both dressed in black and we ended up in an elevator at the theater filled with people wearing pink.  Someone said, "I guess you can tell which movies we are all going to!"

Joy Ride

Last night I went to an advance screening of Joy Ride at the Broadway (there have been a lot of early screenings for this around town but I always like to support the Salt Lake Film Society whenever I can) and I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes and then I had tears in my eyes for real!  Audrey Sullivan (Ashley Park) was adopted from China as a baby and her Caucasian parents encouraged her to befriend Lolo Chen (Sherry Cola), the only other Chinese-American child in the neighborhood.  She is now a high-powered lawyer in an exclusive firm and, when she is sent to China to close an important deal, she brings the ne'er-do-well Lolo with her to translate and Lolo invites her eccentric cousin Deadeye (Sabrina Wu) along for the ride.  In China they meet up with Audrey's college friend Kat (Stephanie Hsu), who is now a famous actress, and eventually decide to find Audrey's birth mother to impress her prospective client. When they run afoul of a drug smuggler and are removed from a train without their passports, they are forced to take a wild cross-country trip and hi-jinks ensue (my favorite is when they try to board a private jet by impersonating K-pop stars).  This is hilariously outrageous (some might find it too raunchy but I laughed out loud through the whole thing) but it also has a lot of heart with really affecting themes of friendship, empowerment, and identity.  There is an incredibly moving scene near the end about knowing where you come from that took me by surprise because it is so tender.  Each of the four characters (who are very different and defy many Asian stereotypes) have compelling arcs and the actresses playing them are fantastic with great comedic timing and genuine chemistry with each other.  It won't be for everyone (it is definitely a hard-R) but it is a really fun movie to see with a big crowd and I recommend it to fans of these kinds of comedies.

You Hurt My Feelings

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway last night was You Hurt My Feelings, another favorite from Sundance this year.  This is a simple, funny, and honest exploration of the ways in which we deceive the ones we love in order to spare their feelings.  Beth (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Don (Tobias Menzies) are a loving and devoted couple living in NYC.  He is a therapist and she is an author who has just finished her latest novel but, because she is feeling insecure about it, he gives her encouraging feedback.  However, she and her sister Sarah (Michaela Watkins) overhear Don tell Sarah's husband Mark (Arian Moayed) that he doesn't like her work and she is understandably devastated.  She is not appeased when he explains that he was just trying to be supportive but then she realizes how often she has been guilty of telling little white lies to those around her, particularly her son Eliot (Owen Teague).  She also realizes that she doesn't appreciate the unvarnished truth her mother (Jeannie Berlin) tells her.  The dialogue is sharp and very witty and I laughed out loud several times, especially in the scenes involving Don's bickering patients (real-life couple David Cross and Amber Tamblyn) who are juxtaposed with Don and Beth.  The cast is wonderful (I really enjoyed the interactions between Louis-Dreyfus and Watkins because they actually seemed like sisters) and the situations are very relatable because we have all told a little white lie to avoid hurting the ones we love.  This reminded me of the kind of character-driven slice-of-life comedies about quirky New Yorkers that Woody Allen used to make.  It is charming little gem and I highly recommend it.

Past Lives

Not only is Past Lives my favorite from Sundance this year, it is my favorite movie of 2023 so far!  I had the chance to see it again last night as the first in a double feature at the Broadway and I loved it even more!  I can't imagine that another movie will overtake it (but you never know!).  Na Young (Seung Ah Moon) and Hae Sung (Seung Min Yim) are childhood sweethearts (and rivals for the best marks in school) in Seoul, South Korea.  They are separated when Na Young's family emigrates to Canada and she leaves without saying goodbye to him.  Twelve years later Na Young, who has changed her name to Nora (Greta Lee), is in college in NYC studying to be a playwright when she discovers that Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) has been trying to find her on social media.  They happily reconnect and begin spending all of their time talking and reminiscing with each other via Skype.  They eventually discuss the possibility of visiting each other but, because Nora has been accepted to a writing retreat and Hae Sung is about to do a language course in China, she thinks it best that stop talking in order to concentrate on their studies.  Twelve years later Nora is married to Arthur (John Magaro) and working as a playwright in NYC.  Hae Sung has just ended a relationship because he cannot commit to marriage and decides to vacation in NYC as an excuse to see Nora.  They spend several days together and their undeniable connection leads them to speculate about their destiny.  This is a beautiful story about two people who yearn for the past and the life they might have lived together but understand that the lives they now lead are the ones they are meant to have.  Lee and Yoo give highly nuanced performances where just a glance expresses more emotion than pages of dialogue and I especially loved a scene where Hae Sung is nervously waiting to meet up with Nora because you can see everything he is feeling from just a few gestures.  This is definitely a love story but I felt a deep emotional connection to Nora's experience as an immigrant (I even had a childhood friend that I had to leave behind in Canada and I've always wondered about him) and two incredibly poignant moments brought me to tears.  The first is when Nora tells Arthur that she is where she is meant to be because it is where she ended up and the second is when Nora tells Hae Sung that the twelve year old girl he knew was left behind in Korea.  I sometimes wish that I had stayed in Canada but I know that I am who I am today because I left and seeing Nora eventually come to the same realization was extremely cathartic for me.  The hype I felt for this at Sundance is real and I cannot recommend it enough!

The Last Rider

My sister Kristine has always been a fan of the Tour de France but my whole family eventually became invested in the 1989 race because of her excitement over Greg LeMond and his underdog story.  When I saw the trailer for The Last Rider, which chronicles LeMond and his uphill journey (both literally and figuratively) to win that race, I knew she would love it!  We both went to see it at the Broadway yesterday afternoon and to say that she loved it would be an understatement (I loved it, too).  The documentary briefly describes his childhood in Lake Tahoe, his beginnings in cycling as a way to train for skiing in the off season, his early successes in the sport, his pro contract with a European team, and his Tour de France win in 1986.  Then the narrative delves into the near fatal hunting accident in which LeMond was shot by his brother-in-law.  He was hit by approximately 60 pellets and suffered a collapsed lung and extensive internal bleeding.  Because of the location of some of the pellets an estimated 30 of them had to be left in his body and his recovery was long and painful and he was dropped by his racing team.  He eventually gets back on his bike and, after joining a less competitive team and riding in a few European races, he decides to enter the Tour de France without any realistic prospects of winning.  The rest of the documentary incorporates thrilling footage from the 1989 race as LeMond, two-time winner Laurent Fignon, and the heavily favored Pedro Delgado battle for the yellow jersey with interviews with LeMond, his wife Kathy, Delgado, and his former coach Cyrille Guimard interspersed.  I am a huge fan of feel-good sports stories and, even though this is a very conventional documentary, it is one of the most compelling ones I've seen!  I knew the outcome of the race and I was still on the edge of my seat at the beginning of the final stage along the Champs-Elysees (the filmmakers do a great job of building suspense by emphasizing the rivalry between LeMond and the trash-talking Fignon) and I even cheered out loud at the finish line!  Fans of cycling are sure to love this but I think it is accessible for everyone because of the inspiring story and I highly recommend it!

Note:  I was in France right before the 1990 race (which LeMond also won) and my sister asked me to try and find her some merchandise.  I couldn't find anything until I was on a coach on the way to the airport to come home.  I saw a store window full of Team Z (LeMond's team) jerseys but I couldn't stop to get one for her!

Asteroid City

I am a huge fan of Wes Anderson so I have been looking forward to Asteroid City for a long time.  I had the chance to see it last night at the Broadway and it was so much fun because there wasn't an empty seat in the theater and the audience laughed out loud the whole time (so did I).  Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman), a war photographer mourning the recent death of his wife (Margot Robbie), arrives in the desert town of Asteroid City where his son Woodrow (Jake Ryan) is being honored at the Junior Stargazer Convention hosted by General Grif Gibson (Jeffrey Wright), his aide-de-camp (Tony Revolori), and an astronomer named Dr. Hickenlooper (Tilda Swinton).  He soon meets the actress Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johansson) who is also attending the convention with her daughter Dinah (Grace Edwards), another honoree.  A romance begins between Augie and Midge and between Woodrow and Dinah but an astrological event disrupts the convention.  A quarantine is declared and everyone, including Augie's father-in-law Stanley Zak (Tom Hanks) and his three daughters; the other honorees Shelley Borden (Sophia Lillas), Ricky Cho (Ethan Josh Lee) and Clifford Kellogg (Aristou Meehan) as well as their parents Sandy Borden (Hope Davis), Roger Cho (Stephen Park), and J.J. Kellogg (Liev Schreiber); a teacher named June Douglas (Maya Hawke) who is at the convention on a field trip with her students; and a group of singing cowboys (Rupert Friend, Jarvis Cocker, and Seu Jorge) just passing through town, is detained but given accommodation by a hotel manger (Steve Carrell).  This is a hilarious take on the ultimately futile search for the meaning of life but it is also about the power of art to explain the unexpected because the events in Asteroid City are eventually revealed to be a play.  Since this is a movie by Wes Anderson, the narrative also includes a television show (in black and white and Academy aspect ratio) about the making of the play with a host (Bryan Cranston), the playwright Conrad Earp (Edward Norton), the director Schubert Green (Adrien Brody), the revered acting coach Saltzburg Keitel (Willem Dafoe), and all of the actors (playing roles within roles).  This movie doubles down on everything Wes Anderson is known for and I especially loved the stylized and elaborate production design, the pastel color palette, the symmetrical shot composition, the deadpan delivery which belies deeper emotions (Schwartzman and Johansson are brilliant but the rest of the cast is also outstanding), the subtle humor (the astronomical ellipses made this former English teacher laugh so hard), and all of the title cards. It is a masterpiece (one of Anderson's best) and I loved it but I don't think anyone who is not already a fan of Anderson's idiosyncrasies will enjoy it.

The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster

I had never heard of The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster before I happened to catch the trailer.  It looked really interesting so I saw it last night at the Broadway and this contemporary retelling of Frankenstein with a bit of social commentary mixed in is really good.  Vicaria (Laya DeLeon Hayes) is a brilliant teenager with an affinity for science but she has been traumatized by the deaths caused by the gang violence and drug use that has become prevalent in the Black community where she lives.  After her brother Chris (Edem Atsu-Swanzy) is shot and killed while working for Kango (Denzel Whitaker), the local drug dealer, and her father Donald (Chad L. Coleman) begins abusing drugs as a way to deal with the tragedy, she hypothesizes that death is a disease that she can cure.  She builds a laboratory in an abandoned shed once used by the power company, collects bodies from the victims of violence around her, and eventually brings her brother back from the dead.  However, the creature that emerges from her experiment is not her brother but a monster that goes on a killing spree to exact revenge for his death.  This is a provocative take on Shelley's classic story because using the creature as a metaphor for systemic disenfranchisement is extremely effective but I wish that the narrative had explored the notion that the mad scientist is really the true monster a bit deeper than it does (the ending doesn't feel earned in my opinion).  Hayes give a riveting and multi-faceted performance as a young woman who will do anything to save her family but actually causes more harm and I also liked all of the supporting performances.  The visual effects look great, especially when the creature is brought to life, and the creature design as a shadowy hooded figure is menacing more for what we don't see than for what we do.  There are moments that are really scary with some intense body horror elements that are quite disturbing and the score, as well as the absence of sound, adds to the tension.  This is one of the better horror movies I've seen this year but, unfortunately, there has been very little promotion for it (I was the only person in the audience last night).  I definitely recommend seeking it out!

Sanctuary

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway last night was Sanctuary.  I really enjoyed this psychological thriller until the ending derailed it for me.  Hal (Christopher Abbott) is the presumptive heir to a billion dollar chain of luxury hotels.  He likes to engage in BDSM role-playing games with a professional dominatrix named Rebecca (Margaret Qualley) but, after inheriting his father's empire, he tries to end their relationship because he feels it is no longer appropriate for such a high profile businessman. She feels that her services are what has given him the self-confidence to be a CEO and wants further compensation. They engage in a tense (but thoroughly entertaining) battle of wills in a hotel suite after one of their games in which they each vie for control with escalating stakes.  What makes this so compelling is that you never know if what is happening is real or just part of an elaborate game.  Rebecca first enters the hotel suite as a businesswoman and begins interviewing Hal for the position of CEO but then he complains that she is not sticking to the script that he wrote.  She proceeds to humiliate him because she believes that she knows what he needs better than he does.  Then a close-up of the script reveals that the entire encounter has been part of the game and this is only the first of many times that expectations are subverted.  You are literally left guessing until the final scene but, unfortunately, I found the resolution to be hurried and anticlimactic (several people in my audience groaned out loud).  The action takes place in one location with only two characters but the production design is incredibly stylish with compelling performances from both Abbott and Qualley.  Ultimately, I had a great time trying to figure out who would emerge victorious (even if I didn’t like the answer) so I would recommend it for a bit of escapist fun.

The Eight Mountains

I was really intrigued by The Eight Mountains because it won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes last year (tying with EO) so I decided to see it last night as the first in a double feature at the Broadway.  I absolutely loved this moving portrait of a 40-year friendship.  An 11-year-old boy from Turin named Pietro (Lupo Barbiero) spends the summer with his parents in a mountain village in the Italian Alps.  He soon meets Bruno (Cristiano Sassella), an 11-year-old living in the village, and they become inseparable as they hike around the mountains with Pietro's father Giovanni (Filippo Timi).  They reunite every summer until they eventually grow apart as the teenage Pietro (Andrea Palma) becomes estranged from his father and stops coming to the village while Bruno (Francesco Palombelli) continues hiking with Giovanni on his visits.  Fifteen years later, Pietro (Luca Marinelli) returns to the village after his father's death and learns from Bruno (Alessandro Borghi) that Giovanni purchased a plot of land with the intention of building a cabin on it.  The two of them spend the summer building the cabin together and, even though adventure takes Pietro around the world and domestic responsibilities keep Bruno busy in the mountains, they vow to spend their summers there.  Pietro relates a story he heard in Nepal about the world being made up of eight mountains separated by eight seas surrounding the tallest mountain.  They have a philosophical discussion about whether it is better to visit the eight mountains or to climb to the top of the tallest one which is an allegory for their lives (this reminded me of the theme in Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse).  What I loved most about this movie is that, even though Pietro and Bruno are very different people, the friendship that is forged between them as children is genuine and they support each other through the vicissitudes of life.  Marinelli and Borghi have tremendous chemistry together (as do Berbiero and Sassella) and the friendship feels very lived in and believable.  The cinematography is simply breathtaking with vast mountain landscapes and lakes and I especially enjoyed the Steadicam shots as Pietro and Bruno hike at different times during the year.  The action is very slow (the runtime is 147 minutes) but I was never bored because I was so emotionally invested.  I highly recommend seeking this one out!

Master Gardener

The next movie in my double feature at the Broadway last night was Master Gardner.  As a huge fan of First Reformed, I was very intrigued by Paul Schrader's latest exploration of redemption and, even though it pales in comparison to that movie, I appreciated a more optimistic resolution.  Narvel Roth (Joel Edgerton) is a man with a violent past who has left that life behind to become the head gardener at an extensive estate owned by Norma Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver).  He appreciates the rules and order that can be imposed upon a garden after living a life of chaos and records his thoughts in a daily journal.  However, his ordered life is thrown into chaos once again when Norma demands that he take her troubled grand-niece Maya (Quintessa Swindell) on as an apprentice but his need to protect her from the consequences of her past becomes a way for him to atone for his.  A lot of the dialogue in this is incredibly cringe-worthy (I even laughed out loud during a scene that was definitely not meant to be funny) and I wasn't as emotionally invested in the story as I was for the one told in First Reformed (perhaps because the themes are becoming repetitious).  However, all of the performances are compelling, especially Weaver's turn as the haughty and petty owner of the estate (I think it is her best in years).  Also, I was initially a bit disappointed that, apart from a beautiful stop-motion title sequence with blooming flowers, the gardens seem very drab and lifeless but a gorgeous sequence involving magical realism as Narvel and Maya drive through a forest of flowers highlights how empty his life has been without Maya (this is my interpretation).  Finally, I loved the metaphor about how planting a garden is an act of hope for the future because it left me feeling positive about the fate of these characters (which is rare in a film by Schrader).  I didn't love this as much as I was expecting to but it is thought-provoking enough for me to recommend it.

Carmen

It was another double feature at the Broadway for me last night and I started with Carmen, Benjamin Millepied's directorial debut.  It is meant to be a reimagining of Carmen by Georges Bizet but it shares a vibe with the famous tragic opera rather than a plot.  After her mother Zilah (Marina Tamayo) is brutally gunned down, Carmen (Melissa Barrera) is forced to leave her home in the Mexican desert and cross the border illegally.  Aidan (Paul Mescal), a veteran of the war in Afghanistan who is clearly suffering from PTSD, volunteers with the border guard but ends up impulsively killing another volunteer who captures Carmen.  Soon the two of them are on the run to Los Angeles so Carmen can find Zilah's friend Masilda (Rossy de Palma) who owns a nightclub there.  They begin a passionate relationship but can they outrun their fate?  There are some amazing dance sequences (Millepied is better known as a choreographer and it shows) interspersed in the narrative and this, rather than dialogue, is how all of the characters express their emotions (my favorite is a high energy hip-hop dance sequence when Aidan is involved in an underground boxing match).  Barrera is a beautiful and expressive dancer and she and Mescal sizzle in their scenes together.  The visuals are absolutely gorgeous, particularly the recurring image of fire, and the music is incredibly evocative and haunting.  Even though the story is very superficial and Carmen and Aidan seem more like archetypes rather than fully fleshed out characters, I was mesmerized from beginning to end.  This might not be for everyone but I recommend it to those who appreciate movies with a unique vision.

BlackBerry

I was really excited to see the movie BlackBerry because I had one of the earliest models back in the day and I thought it was the coolest thing ever (before I bought an iPhone).  I saw it with my nephew at the Broadway last night and we both enjoyed it.  Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) is a socially awkward tech genius who, along with his best friend Doug Fregin (Matt Johnson) and the nerdy employees of his company Research in Motion, has an idea for a revolutionary device that acts as both a phone and a computer.  However, he lacks the skills and connections to successfully market his invention so, against Doug's advice, he joins forces with an aggressive and unscrupulous businessman named Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton).  Mike's creativity and Jim's ruthlessness turn Research in Motion into a billion-dollar company but compromise and corruption eventually bring about its downfall.  This is a fascinating character study that is almost Shakespearean because both Mike and Jim foreshadow their fatal flaws of ambition and greed early on which lead to devastating, but entertaining, results.  I enjoyed the structure of the narrative because it follows the rise and fall of the company without much in between and there are clever scenes at the end that mirror earlier ones.  I found it to be both riveting and funny (although I am Canadian and I noticed that there were many times when I was the only one laughing at specific references, especially a scene where Jim is watching Hockey Night in Canada with Don Cherry).  I also liked the hand-held camera work because the documentary style is very effective at depicting a behind-the-scenes corporate environment.  Finally, Baruchel gives one of his best performances but Howerton is completely unhinged (in the best possible way).  I liked this even more than I was expecting to (my nephew ranks it as one his favorites this year) and I highly recommend it.

Showing Up

I am a big fan of Kelly Reichardt's brooding and contemplative character studies so I ended up back at the Broadway last night for her latest, Showing Up, and I have been thinking about it ever since.  Lizzy (Michelle Williams) is a Portland-based sculptor who is preparing for the first small showing of her work during one chaotic week.  In addition to creating several new pieces, she must continue working her day job at the Oregon College of Art and Craft as an administrative assistant for her mother Jean (Maryann Plunkett).  She is feuding with her landlord and friend Jo (Hong Chau), who is also preparing for her own much bigger shows, and is worried that her eccentric father Bill (Judd Hirsch) is being taken advantage of by his perpetual house guests and that her mentally ill brother Sean (John Magaro) is having a manic episode.  She is frustrated because, even though her colleague Eric (Andre Benjamin) is extremely helpful, she has no control over the firing of her pieces.  Finally, her work is disrupted by a wounded pigeon (which serves as a metaphor for Lizzy's creative life in an incredibly exhilarating scene) that she is roped into caring for.  Ultimately, it is this chaos that inspires her work and I really enjoyed the theme that great art sometimes requires a struggle.  This, like all of Reichardt's movies, is a very slow burn but it is full of multiple layers (that I am still trying to unwrap) and it is surprisingly funny.  Williams gives an incredibly restrained and subtle performance (which I prefer to the overwrought one she gives in The Fabelmans) and Chau steals every scene she is in as the foil to Williams' character.  I liked this quite a bit!

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret

The next movie in my double feature at the Broadway yesterday was Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.  Like most everyone my age, I read this classic book by Judy Blume when I was a pre-teen and I absolutely loved this funny and heartwarming adaptation.  Eleven-year-old Margaret Simon (Abby Ryder Fortson) moves with her mother Barbara (Rachel McAdams) and father Herb (Benny Safdie) from New York City, and her grandmother Sylvia (Kathy Bates), to the suburbs of New Jersey.  Because her parents belong to different faiths Margaret has been raised without religion but she turns to God as she navigates the travails of making new friends, dealing with peer pressure, experiencing her first crush, and trying to understand her changing body.  This movie portrays the awkwardness of early adolescence in an incredibly empathetic way and I related to both Margaret and to Laura Danker (Isol Young), a girl in her class who has developed before everyone else.  There are so many poignant moments, especially when Margaret discovers that Nancy Wheeler (Elle Graham), the friend she has been trying to impress, might not be worth the effort and when she realizes that she has been judging Laura for her early development in the same way that others have been judging her for her lack of development, but I also laughed out loud multiple times, such as when Margaret and her friends do exercises to increase their busts and when they attend a socially awkward party with the boys in their class.  I also really enjoyed both Barbara's and Sylvia's character arcs as they cope with changes in their lives as well (the scene where Barbara says she just doesn't want to be part of the PTA any more made me want to cheer).  Fortson gives an incredibly compelling and honest portrayal of a teen girl and all of her complexities but I also loved McAdams and Bates!  This is an absolutely delightful movie that I recommend to everyone, not just teen girls!