(Fubo/hoopla/kanopy/VOD) Kathy, a struggling Asian-American single mom travels with Cody, her pre-teen son, to settle the affairs of her dead sister’s estate. While there, the son befriends an aging-but-able Vietnam veteran, who welcomes them into his small town.
While it’s a standard indie film premise, DRIVEWAYS excels in a number of ways, first and foremost by having Brian Dennehy (RIP, Brian — I’ll never forget you in THE BELLY OF AN ARCHITECT) as the neighbor, secondly by having a simple human story play out simply and, lastly, how it’s visually framed — lots of tight shots instead of expository shots, which are disarming for the first half of the film until it settles into a familiar sort of comfort.
While Dennehy is fantastic, I’d be remiss to neglect both Hong Chau (WATCHMEN’s Lady Trieu) and Lucas Jaye as the mother-and-son pair, who have an exquisitely honest mother/son relationship. Chau is especially brilliant as she tries to compose herself as everything around her is falling apart.
All of that said, my favorite part of the film is how much everyone swears around this kid.
It’s a film filled with melancholy, but is also a very sweet slice of life.
(Starz/VOD) Adapted from detective fiction writer Charles Willeford’s novel, this film is oddly not much of a potboiler, and not terribly thrilling. It does, however, attempt to examine critic-as-artist and vice-versa, as well as the different masks one wears in order to operate in order to ingratiate yourself to others in society, which gives it the trappings of a prestige neo-noir.
To summarize: art critic James Figueras (Claes Bang) hooks up with an enigmatic woman named Berenice (Elizabeth Debicki) and the two of them go on a road trip to visit his friend/art dealer Joseph Cassidy (Mick Jagger — yes, Mick Jagger). James is handed the possibility to reinvigorate his career by scoring an interview with the reclusive ‘last great modern artist’ Jerome Debney (Donald Sutherland), who just happens to live on Joseph’s Italian estate. Plans misfire culminating with an end that you may or may not enjoy. (That said, the final realization is extremely satisfying and, I imagine, taken from the book.)
As this is a ‘prestige’ genre flick, director Giuseppe Capotondi takes it slow, giving you all the time in the world to revel in the fantastic backdrops and production design* while the characters talk circles around each other. It is a nice distraction because the mysteries and secrets aren’t terribly intriguing, and the characters are maddeningly paper thin. While the film is explicit about its themes of critic-as-artist/artist-as-critic/the many masks folks wear, the execution is rather facile, and rarely paid much more than lip service. For example: Debney bluntly states to Bernice that “It’s masks all the way down.”
It’s disappointing because novelist/screenwriter Scott B. Smith (A SIMPLE PLAN, THE RUINS) penned the adaptation, and he certainly has a tendency towards noir-like duplicity and the ramifications of distrust, but there is very little friction or underhandedness on display. It feels as if Smith couldn’t quite get a bead on how to approach the adaptation.
However! This film does scratch a certain itch for me and, despite the wasted potential of Bernice, Debecki wrings as much out of it as she can, and Jagger is a delightful surprising, turning in a restrained devilish performance that — as someone who has seen FREEJACK — didn’t think he had it in him. Worth a watch if your tastes are THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY-adjacent.
(VOD) In January 2020, I had just watched FORD V. FERRARI at a cineplex in Evanston, Illinois as part of my obligatory Oscar viewing, and I had some downtime before I was due to meet up with my wife to watch 1917. I exited the theater and noted the poster for UNDERWATER on my right. “Well,” I asked myself. “I could eat popcorn for dinner again and squeeze this film in, or I could wander around town and look for a new pizza place.” Sick of popcorn, I opted to skip UNDERWATER and, while the pizza and unnerving quiet of exploring a college town in-between semesters was memorable, I have regrets because this film is best watched on a big screen, not at home.
UNDERWATER is a film that shamelessly borrows from ALIEN and THE ABYSS but, if you need a summary, here’s one: it’s about a ramshackle bunch of characters stuck in a corporate underwater mining rig that’s about to collapse upon itself due to what may or may not be some newly discovered creature. Despite that, it’s the film’s later clutch collection of set-pieces that makes it feel more inspired from videogames like BIOSHOCK, SOMA, and METROID PRIME. Cinematographer-turned-director William Eubank and cinematographer Bojan Bazelli (who shot the fascinatingly gonzo A CURE FOR WELLNESS) make this film into a visually relentless marvel; there is one scene that literally made my jaw drop and then start clapping — don’t worry, you’ll know it when you see it — but I realized I was clapping alone, and wished I’d witnessed it with a crowd, even if I’d be the only person clapping.
It helps that Kristen Stewart makes a fantastic action lead, as all of the Stewart tics that people (unfairly) complain about — her flat affect, her distanced glance, her disaffected air — also make her a great action hero. She isn’t given much to work with character-wise but she goes above and beyond to imbue it with something more meaningful. The supporting characters include T.J. Miller who, predictably, sucks up everyone’s air (and obviously improvs some terrible lines), and even tries to outshine French mainstay Vincent Cassel (LA HAINE), who is keeping it classy.
Obviously, this film was buried as production wrapped in 2017. You can visibly see that there were rewrites involved during shooting, re-edits, probably re-shoots. It wasn’t released until January 2020 and it bombed because who wants to see a underwater horror film in January? My guess is: the end tested poorly, which is understandable, but it’s a big swing that made my eyes well up and I love films that take big swings, and perhaps you do too.
(It’s worth noting that the expository dialogue in the trailer is -not- in the film, and it’s a better film without it.)
(VOD) TITO is a scrappy and rough film that seems at odds with Amazon Prime’s library, but who am I to argue?
It’s a difficult film to describe, but: Tito is a person trying to live their own young life, fearful of much — as evidenced by the hunch on their back caused by endless peering and cowering as well as the orange ‘emergency’ whistle hanging around their neck — but still has appetites. Someone else enters their life, feeds them, latches onto them, and everything cascades from there.
Written and directed by Grace Glowicki, it’s an audacious character study that at times reminded me of TETSUO: THE IRON MAN, mostly because of its severe sound design and outsider character — not because there’s any aggressive cyborg action in it — but also because it’s a prolonged experimental look at a someone very damaged trying to cope with what’s been forced upon them.
In case I haven’t been clear: this is not a fun watch. That said, Glowicki’s execution perfectly nails what the film means to accomplish. (I didn’t realize it was Kickstarted until writing this post, but the Kickstarter pitch lays out exactly what Grace wanted to do with the film and, well, mission accomplished. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/449341300/tito-feature-film)
(Apple TV+) BOYS STATE is a documentary that’s a deep-dive into The American Legion’s yearly effort to prep teens for a political career via a week-long camp that mimics a trial electoral run. It was filmed in the middle of the Trump Administration, and this film focuses solely on the Texan Boys State program so you can expect teen boys trying to impress other teen boys, doodling Pepe the Frog, and shouting many slogans they’ll (hopefully) come to regret in the coming years.
Despite that, it’s still a documentary that shows this isn’t just about MAGA trolls or narcissistic right-wingers. It’s a fascinating look at political youth that made me realize that many are basically theater kids that feel like they’re on a higher mission, in more ways than one, and when they feel the warmth of the limelight, they just want more.
(Hulu) Yes, PALM SPRINGS is yet another film riffing on GROUNDHOG DAY, where folks are trapped reliving a day over-and-over again, and while everyone was surprisingly pleased when EDGE OF TOMORROW, HAPPY DEATH DAY, and RUSSIAN DOLL proved to be amazing works, I don’t think many people expected Hulu’s PALM SPRINGS to capture the same kind of magic.
Yet, it does. It’s an utterly charming high-concept rom-com that improves on the formula. Samberg plays a less-aspirational fuckup version of the lovable, learnable lunkhead he’s played on BROOKLYN NINE-NINE and it works here, but Cristin Milioti (who I know from FARGO S2, but others may know from HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER) is the star of the show. She’s another fuckup — describing the hows and whys would sadly spoil matters — but she’s the lynchpin of the film, the actionable agent that refuses to settle for living every day as a bridesmaid. Oh, and J.K. Simmons is a third-wheel in a very delightful way. (RIVERDALE fans may want to note that Camila Mendes is in it too, but is given very little to do but sit around and look sultry.)
The trailer below arguably gives a bit too much away, so I’d skip it, but it’s there if you’re on the fence.
(hoopla/HBO MAX/VOD) I love films about fuckups, folks who are old enough to be aware that they’re stumbling through life but simply haven’t honed the skills to steady their adult steps, and I USED TO GO HERE is certainly about a fuckup about to fall flat on her face. It’s the tale of Kate (Gillian Jacobs), a 30-something Chicago-based writer whose fiancé has broken up with her because of how he’s portrayed in her first novel and, complicating matters, her first novel lands with a thud, her promotional tour canceled.
Written and directed by Kris Rey, who has spent quite a bit of time in Illinois — delightfully obvious from the opening which showcases a corner of Chicago’s Lincoln Square as opposed to shots of The Loop — keeps the film breezier than most probably would. The script is peppered with deflecting quips that keep the emotional hits her character takes at bay as she tries bolster her self-confidence while navigating her old campus fifteen years after the fact. While it could get away with it, the film rarely leans on many of the traditional tropes you’d expect from a ‘revisiting my old stomping grounds!’ work.
That said, the film succeeds because of Jacobs, who has been perfectly playing fuckups for years (best exemplified by her run as Britta on COMMUNITY https://uproxx.com/viral/britta-brittad-it-community/ ). She’s always been fantastic at turning in clueless performances but, with I USED TO GO HERE, she turns up the self-awareness a bit without making it too winking or hammy. Consequently, her journey is a winsome and entertaining one.
(Hulu/VOD) BABYTEETH opens with a jarring glimpse at self-destructive youth before unfurling into a portrait of a family trying to cope with matters they’re not prepared for.
The rest I’d like to leave a mystery, however don’t fear the the trailer as it masks most of the better turns, and it highlights the fact that Essie Davis (MISS FISHER, THE BABADOOK) is in it and she’s brilliant, as always. Eliza Scanlen turns in a magnificent performance as the daughter, making terrific use of her moony facial features. (Scanlen hasn’t had many roles, but she’s been noteworthy in all of them, including Beth in LITTLE WOMEN (2019) and Amma in SHARP OBJECTS.)
While the subject matter might cause a different filmmaker to shoot a treacly mess, director Shannon Murphy keeps a commanding grip on the tone, leaving you off-kilter much of the movie while deftly cranking up the emotion resulting in an extraordinarily moving end.
“I can’t feel anything because you take up all the air!”
“This is the worst possible parenting I can imagine.”
(Hulu/VOD) I love fictional (emphasis on fictional) works about con-artists, smooth talkers, grifters — however you want to name ‘em, I’ll line up to watch a work about ‘em.
BUFFALOED falls into the genre of ‘grifters with a heart of gold’ that I like, as opposed to the grifters that took over film around the late 80s. (I blame WALL STREET.) It features Zoey Deutch (who keeps flying under the rader, but she’s fantastic in FLOWER) as Peg, a lower class teenager living in Buffalo, NY whose father died of a heart attack when she was young, leaving her with her brother (SCHITT’S CREEK’s Noah Reid) and her mother, played by Judy Greer. Peg is consumed with having enough money to never have to worry about finances ever again and, as a youth, runs a few mostly-harmless small scams like reselling buffalo wings and trafficking loosies in her high school parking lot.
Peg gets accepted into her first college pick, but her mom informs her that they don’t have enough money to actually send her, so she upgrades her grifting and starts selling counterfeit Bills football tickets, which eventually lands her in jail before she has a chance to finish high school.
Several years and many lawyer bills later, she gets out and gets a phone call from a debt scammer (yes, we’ve culturally moved along from the penny stocks of say, BOILER ROOM (2000) to debt collection) and she sees an opportunity to wipe out her owed ‘cash’ as a debt collector and she leaps at it, albeit on her own terms.
The film is brash and brisk: the script — via Brian Sacca — is tighter than a drum, and director Tanya Wexler gives it proper verve. If there’s one fault, it’s that the portrayal of the town and characters occasionally become more cartoonish than necessary but, otherwise, it’s a fun, well-crafted, and well-disguised screed against the state of consumer debt in America.
(Prime — yes, Amazon picked this one up, despite the fact that they forced so many physical bookstores out of business) Whenever my wife and I travel, we always make it a point to visit the local bookstores and find a book (or two or three) to bring home as a worthwhile memento to read later, and documentary THE BOOKSELLERS instigated flashbacks of our trip to NYC in 2016, as we stopped by all of the classic NYC bookstores. Sure, we didn’t have the money to buy anything too rare or fancy, but we did pick up a few token prints and a handful of cheap genre books with snazzy covers.
THE BOOKSELLERS is a NYC-centric deep dive into the folks who collect and sell rare and/or interesting books, or just consider themselves ‘collectors of books’. The people they interview are a wide tangle of distinct personas, ages, and genders, which is rather refreshing as, yes, it’s still unrightfully considered a ‘male’ business.
I constantly harp about the need for physical media because it’s something that’s -important- and it’ll only become more important in the future as fewer works are denied proper physical releases. We’ll see more and more important works wither off because of licensing issues, because they’re too niche, deemed too unimportant. This doc definitely details the fetishization of physical media, but it also makes the case for the importance of it.
Ultimately, this is a documentary about people who care about the -printed word- and ensuring that these words live on. It’s not the most engrossing documentary but, if you’re a book nerd, it’ll open your eyes towards certain facets of of the industry. And, if you’re familiar with the booksellers, it’s a welcome COVID escapist film.
One item of note: Julia Wertz has a terrific collection of NYC book store renditions in her amazing illustrated history of New York City: TENEMENTS, TOWERS & TRASH. It’s a hefty tome, and I don’t know how relevant it is in a post-COVID world, but it’s well-worth your time.