Drama

KATE PLAYS CHRISTINE (2016)

April 12, 2021

(hoopla/kanopy/VOD) Coincidentally, this was released in the same year as CHRISTINE, but by the radical documentarian Robert Greene, again about Christine Chubbuck.

While I dodged Christine’s life events in yesterday’s recommendation of CHRISTINE, I can’t do so here because it’s the crux of this documentary. So, if you’d planned on watching CHRISTINE, go ahead and do so before reading further.

I’ll wait.

Still waiting.

Pad, pad, padding the post.

Okay, ready?

While giving a news report on the local news network she worked for, Christine diverged from the report and said: “In keeping with Channel 40’s policy of bringing you the latest in ‘blood and guts’ and in living color, you are going to see another first—an on-the-air suicide.” She then shot herself in the head, and died shortly after.

While CHRISTINE is a fictionalized exploration of Chubbuck’s psyche, KATE PLAYS CHRISTINE sees Kate Lyn Sheil (previously mentioned: the STRANGE WEATHER music video, also of YOU’RE NEXT and SHE DIES TOMORROW, as well as previously recommended director Sophia Takal’s debut GREEN) doing research for the role of playing Christine Chubbuck.

If you aren’t familiar withe Robert Greene’s work, he plays with the nature of recreation in documentaries. His follow-up, BISBEE ’17, explicitly explores that as he enlists an entire town to recreate what becomes a xenophobic, union-busting exiling of denizens. As a fan of documentaries, I believe this sort of meta-exploration of the inherent exploitation of documentaries is important, but also potentially fraught with their own sort of problems.

That’s why, with KATE PLAYS CHRISTINE, Greene’s smartly — and just as potentially problematically — documentary puts it entirely on Shell’s shoulders, and — if what we’re shown is to be believed — really puts her through the wringer. Shell is recreating Christine, physically and mentally, and it takes its toll.

It’s worth nothing that KATE PLAYS CHRISTINE is partially constructed around the urban legend that Paddy Chayefsky’s NETWORK was inspired by Christine’s on-air suicide, which is complete and utter bullshit — Chayefsky had been workshopping NETWORK well before her suicide — but something Greene defends as “being not quite true seems completely appropriate.”

It’s also worth noting that the dramatic re-enactments are terribly scripted, feel stilted and, apart from a few scenes, probably should’ve been excised completely, even if they were intentionally mawkish. That seemingly undercuts all of the work that everyone — especially Sheil — has done, but I get the feeling Greene doesn’t care.

Before writing these two recommendations, I’d felt that KATE PLAYS CHRISTINE was the ‘better’ film versus CHRISTINE; it conceptually tackles more; it’s more artfully, abstractly constructed; the intent is to take a magnifying lens to why we want to examine this story. Today, I’m not so sure.

At the end of the day, it’s still just a bunch of dudes reappropriating Christine’s story for their own reasons, for reasons she Christine herself probably wouldn’t agree with, which seems like the biggest sin here. Fundamentally, this is a story about a woman trying to live the life she’d set out for herself. The fact that she lived in a masculine world of journalism, or that she killed herself in what would be considered a masculine way, shouldn’t require a masculine retelling, but instead we received two re-appropriations of the tale.

“You have to tell me why you want to see it. … Are you happy now?”

CHRISTINE (2016)

April 11, 2021

(fubo/Hulu/kanopy/Netflix/tubi/VOD/Vudu)? No, not John Carpenter’s adaptation of Stephen King’s CHRISTINE — a fine horror film, but you hardly need me to tell you that — this is a dramatized depiction of Christine Chubbuck, a local TV news reporter in the 70s who struggled with depression. The film details her personal and professional troubles as she tries to grow her career and realize the life she wants.

There are other facets of Christine’s story that you may or may not be familiar with. I’m not completely sure whether detailing them would improve a viewing, so I’m going to err on the side of caution and intentionally bite my tongue.

If this were a fictional film, I’d feel a lot better about it, and it wouldn’t have the ending it has. Every thing leading up to that is a smart, nuanced portrayal of a complicated woman, bolstered by Rebecca Hall’s amazing performance. It’s fantastically cast film — Michael C. Hall as Christine’s fellow news man, Tracy Letts as her boss, Maria Dizzia as her co-worker, J. Smith-Cameron (from the previously recommended RECTIFY) as her mother, and VEEP’s Timothy Simons as the weatherman — but this film wouldn’t work without Rebecca Hall’s nuanced handling of Christine. She’s a persona we rarely see on-screen: a smart-but-flailing woman, clearly awkward in general, but so goddamn determined to succeed, and to hide from and survive her mental issues.

Again, if it were fictional, it’d be a triumph. While it’s still a stunningly scripted movie, it just feels… dirty. But that’s a matter for tomorrow.

“Yes, but—”

THE MUSIC MAN (1962)

April 9, 2021

(VOD) Lest my prior JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR recommendation confuse matters, I was a reluctant musical fan. It wasn’t until I saw the film adaptation of THE MUSIC MAN that musicals really struck me, partially because I suddenly realized: ‘Oh, that’s what Conan O’Brien was riffing on in the monorail episode of THE SIMPSONS! You mean I can have both thieving, scheming hucksters and quippy, clever songs?!’

If you aren’t familiar with THE MUSIC MAN, I’ll briefly summarize: Harold Hill (Robert Preston) is a con-artist who frequents towns to sell musical instruments and lessons to all of the children, then plans to leave said town after receiving the cash but before the town realizes they have instruments but no instructor. However, this time he falls in love with Marian (Shirley Jones), the local librarian, as well as the town.

In case you doubt my love for the source material, my wife bought tickets to see a live production of it at the Goodman Theater for my birthday two years ago. We even trekked to downtown Chicago to join in a 76 Trombone march as part of the premiere festivities. (I still have my hand flag!) We had plans to see the perfectly cast Broadway revival with Hugh Jackman as Harold Hill and Sutton Foster as Marian last year, but …COVID. Fingers crossed for, uh, 2022?

I’ve watched Morton DaCosta’s adaptation of THE MUSIC MAN too many time to count. Whenever I see it in passing on Turner Classic Movies, I always take a moment to enjoy it. Sometimes two or even three moments.

I’ll freely admit this is a film that coasts by on its songs, Meredith Willson’s love of language, Robert Preston’s charm, and a cast chock-full of amazing character actors (including Buddy Hackett!). While DaCosta’s film adaptation of his production of AUNTIE MAME hits the spot, I can’t quite say the same for THE MUSIC MAN, even though I love it so. It feels rather slapdash at times and, while that may be due to the film needing a bit of a restorative love, I tend to doubt it as the props often look hastily cobbled together, plus the poor sound mixing, lazy framing and staging, and dull colors. That said, it succeeds as an enthralling musical adaptation despite all of those marks against it.

On the other hand, there’s a 2003 TV adaptation of THE MUSIC MAN which was part of THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY and, while it has a similarly stellar (but woefully miscast) Broadway line-up including Matthew Broderick as Harold Hil, Kristen Chenoweth as Marian the Librarian, and Victor Garber as The Mayor, it’s sadly over-produced. While it looks more expensive than DaCosta’s adaptation, it’s poorly paced due to over-zealous editing and over-cramped camerawork (which feels like it might be the result of cropping it down to a 1.33 aspect for TV, but I could be wrong), resulting in the best numbers limping along without any charisma — partially because Broderick’s performance is too slight and tempered for Harold Hill, and THE MUSIC MAN without charisma is an empty rig.

In short, I’ll take a hastily assembled adaptation with the proper talent over an expensive, well-meaning but poorly cast adaptation any day of the week.

THE MUSIC MAN (1962) trailer:

Rock Island Opening (1962), just for fun:

Rock Island Opening (2003), just to be cruel:

THE SIMPSONS: Monorail (A far shorter song than I recall):

Ya Got Trouble (1962):

THE MUSIC MAN (2003):

THE DIVORCEE (1930)

April 7, 2021

(VOD) When most folks hear Norma Shearer these days, they probably think of THE WOMEN (if they recollect her at all), but while she was a star well before THE DIVORCEE, it’s THE DIVORCEE that turned her from a conventional leading lady into an unconventional one, one proudly willing to tackle sensitive material. (It helps that she won an Oscar for her role.)

THE DIVORCEE is based on a Ursula Parrott’s novel EX-WIFE — it shouldn’t be confused with the lost 1919 silent film THE DIVORCEE, which was based on the 1903 play LADY FREDERICK — and centers around a love triangle between Jerry (Norma Shearer), Ted (Chester Morris), and Paul (Conrad Nagel). Paul loves Jerry, but Jerry marries Ted. Paul gets drunk and, while driving a party of their friends home, gets into an accident, viciously scarring friend Dorothy’s (Helen Johnson) face. Paul feels terrible guilt and marries Dorothy. Ted cheats on Jerry, so Jerry returns the favor by sleeping with Ted’s best friend Don, and informs Ted that they’re even now. Ted becomes outraged and divorces her.

Jerry moves on, living her best life by traveling and partying, while Ted becomes an alcoholic, and Paul re-enters her orbit, still married to Dorothy. Lessons are then learned by all, roll credits.

If it sounds like I’m dismissive about the end of the film, it’s because it’s meant to be dismissed. THE DIVORCEE is a pre-code film, which means that it didn’t have to adhere to the increasingly strict Hays Code of on-screen moral representation that penalized, well, practically every Hollywood production from the mid-1930s into the 1960s. While it’s possible THE DIVORCEE could have been made under early Hays Code regulations, it certainly wouldn’t be so frank about infidelity. That said, the closing is laughably moralistic, and undoes all of the fine progressive groundwork of the prior 80 minutes, but I find it hard to believe audiences of the time would have been fooled by it.

While the film has some clunky visual exposition — specifically the opening shot that looks like they opted to film a high school theater rendition of the novel — a fair amount of Robert Z. Leonard’s work is stellar, especially whenever Jerry and Ted are in a tight two-shot. (The moment when she plots her next step after confronting him about his infidelity, the smoke in the party room rolling behind her head simulating angry steam, is pitch-perfect.)

Not a trailer, but an excerpt:

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND (2018)

March 31, 2021

(Netflix) Back when Netflix was trying to court critical respect by restoring old films — yeah, that didn’t last long — they helped fund the restoration of Orson Welles’ final work: THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND. They also co-funded a documentary about the restoration of the film, but that’s a story for another day.

If you aren’t familiar with THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, it’s a surreal depiction of a master director (a perfectly cast John Huston) trying to complete a film that everyone believes has spiraled out of his control. Yes, indulgent, but it’s Orson Welles.

I poke a lot of fun at Orson (for instance, I watch THE CRITIC clips lambasting Welles with embarrassing frequency. “They’re even better raw!”) but he was certainly a genius. A flawed genius for sure, but his best pieces were always about fucked up geniuses, including THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND which is not so nakedly about him and his legacy. It helps that his longtime paramour Oja Kodar (who appeared in the previously recommended F FOR FAKE, and also appears in WIND’s film-within-a-film, rarely wearing anything) co-wrote and greatly influenced the production. She has been quite silent about the production and restoration, so it’s hard to say how much of her vision is on the screen but, given how unflattering the bulk of the film is, I can’t help but believe she contributed quite a bit. (That’s sheer speculation on my behalf.)

Given that only 45 minutes of this two-and-a-half hour long film was actually edited by Welles, what we’re seeing is more or less a fan edit, as opposed to the restored version of TOUCH OF EVIL where Welles expert Jonathan Rosenbaum aided in restoring EVIL based on Welles’ extremely detailed notes. That said, what’s passed off as WIND -feels- like a later Welles film, often coming across as something that could come unhinged at any point in time, but manages to reel itself in. It’s a fascinating film, one that — given Netflix’s history — may never again be screened in an actual theater (which is a shame, because it sings on the big screen) but watching it on a smaller screen is just one more compromise.

QUEEN & SLIM (2019)

March 29, 2021

(VOD) Fuck everyone that said this film was style over substance. Every scene here exists for a reason, and -just happens to be- stylishly shot.

Yes, this can be called a Black Bonnie & Clyde film. (Hell, it’s called out in the trailer linked below.) It’s the story of two strangers — Slim (Daniel Kaluuya) and Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith), magnetically thrust together, immediately pegged as criminals as they try to escape an unjust system while working their way through America by car for freedom.

The film runs the emotional gamut: it’s cruel, hard, emotional, romantic, sad, heartbreaking, violent, and worth your time.

LOVE & BASKETBALL (2000)

March 25, 2021

(HBO MAX/VOD) First things first: it leaves HBO MAX at the end of the month (March 2021) so, watch it while you can!

LOVE & BASKETBALL, written and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (THE OLD GUARD, BEYOND THE LIGHTS) is just perfect. Absolutely perfect. The opening scene, introducing us to young tomboy Monica and her future life-long love/combatant Quincy is perfect, even down to Monica sustaining a scar due to a heated game. The following scene, where Quincy is reprimanded by his parents not for saying ‘shit’, but for saying ‘can’t’ is perfect. The fact that Monica owns her scar, and the film never portrays her as an ugly monster, is perfect.

This is a film where the script is so lovingly overworked — overworked in the way that you know the author was like ‘I have one shot. I’m going to cram everything I want to say into this.’ — that you can’t help but laugh when it becomes a bit too predictable, such as a scene where Monica is taken out to a local dance with a college student. Her suitor asks: “Can I take your coat?” and she responds, straight-faced: “Oh, you’re cold?” And it still works!

I’d love to discuss the film in full, but if I did so we’d be here for days so, I’ll simply say: this is one of the best romantic dramas simply because Monica and Quincy start off with a mutual respect for each others’ talents, and that is a goddamn rare thing in fictional romances. They see each other as equals, and butt heads as equals. Even when they’re falling out of each other’s orbits, they still respect each other and are life-long friends. You simply don’t see that in modern romantic films.

The penultimate scene is astounding. “Double or nothing.”

Again, going to point you towards Caroline Siede’s notes about the film.

Trailer (although it’s kind of awful):

THE MAXX (1995)

March 22, 2021

(VOD/DVD) THE MAXX was a short-lived animated adaptation of Sam Keith’s comic book featured in MTV’s similarly short-lived ODDITIES block and, to this day, remains one of the most faithful — and most intriguing — comic book adaptations ever.

THE MAXX is about a spandex-clad vagrant (The Maxx) who believes himself to be the protector of Julie Winters, a complicated social worker who is being tormented by a man known as Mr. Gone. The Maxx sometimes slips into another realm known as The Outback, where he’s a noble warrior instead of a homeless man in a purple suit. If it sounds slightly ridiculous, well, -comics-, but it’s essentially a hard-boiled vehicle to explore repression and trauma.

While the narrative and characters would be interesting enough on its own, what really makes the series stand out is how it adapted Keith’s extremely stylized artwork and layouts to TV: they essentially ripped the panels from his comic, and -then- animated them. Occasionally they throw in some CGI or live action video footage, but the majority of it is exactly what you would have seen and read in the first twelve issues of the comics. Amazingly, instead of feeling like a hollow recreation, it feels vibrant and thrilling and often even funny.

If Keith’s comic were a lesser work, it might not have translated so well to bizarro late-night 15-minute programming, but instead it feels fresh and audacious, even today. There’s never been anything that looks or feels like THE MAXX, and it’s unlikely there ever will be.

You can watch all 13 episodes in around three hours. It used to be stream via MTV.com (albeit as a very poor transfer) but it’s now it’s only available to purchase via DVD or the usual VOD outlets. However, resourceful folks can find episodes through Vimeo (but you didn’t hear that from me).

BROADCAST NEWS (1987)

March 20, 2021

(HBO MAX/VOD) I watch BROADCAST NEWS about every five years, and every time my appreciation for it grows. I love how adults are posited more like immature teens, but still have to tackle serious issues like balancing their career and their personal desires; I love how the newsroom was brutally portrayed; I marvel at the unsure balancing of the love triangle; Jane Craig’s character is still a breath of fresh air, and how Holly Hunter absolutely nails her very distinct blend of determination, confidence, and anxiety; oh, how stellar the camerawork is, and the exactly attention paid to each edit.

My most recent viewing was by far the most special. Not only did I nab tickets to see it at TCM Fest 2017 so I finally managed to see it on a big screen — and with a bigger audience than my traditional audience of one — not only did Ben Mankiewicz lead a discussion with director James L. Brooks about the film, but co-star Albert Brooks was the surprise guest! Given how reluctant Brooks is to join in anything that comes close to an interview event, I was stunned to see him join James L. Brooks on stage, and I couldn’t have been happier to see -and- hear these two giants of dramatic and romantic comedy discuss this magnificent work.

I’d like to recommend Caroline Seide’s relatively recent article on BROADCAST NEWS — it’s part of her AV Club series ‘When Romance Met Comedy’ — as it’s a finely detailed examination as to why the film works so well, why it resonated then, and why it still holds up.

HOUSEKEEPING (1987)

March 17, 2021

(VOD) I didn’t realize this going into HOUSEKEEPING, but it’s an adaptation of Marilynne Robinson’s first novel of the same name. If you aren’t familiar with Robinson, she’s probably better known for her series of GILEAD novels, which examines the small but sprawling matters of a family.

(I’ll note I’ve only read the second novel in the series, HOME, so I may be misrepresenting the series a bit.)

In any case, Bill Forsyth (writer/director of BEING HUMAN and LOCAL HERO) adapted Robinson’s novel, which is a story of two sisters who are abandoned by their mother, then looked after by their aunt, an eccentric with more than a few issues, but not in the cute AUNTIE MAME way. It’s quietly, but mannerly, handled, feeling more like a prestige picture as opposed to an indie piece, but never loses sight of the characters, all of whom are unique and grow and brush against societal and cultural norms in their own way.

I’ll note that the trailer most certainly positions the film as a sort of unconventional wacky comedy. It is not that at all.