VOD

TITO (2020)

December 21, 2020

(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)

I USED TO GO HERE (2020)

December 18, 2020

(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.

BABYTEETH (2020)

December 17, 2020

(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.”

BUFFALOED (2020)

December 16, 2020

(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.

FRANK (2014)

December 14, 2020

(hoopla/Kanopy/VOD) A ‘stranger in a strange land’ band story that focuses on the enigma of frontman Frank (Michael Fassbender), who never removes his gigantic, pie-eyed papier-mâché head, and the folks drawn into his orbit including Domhnall Gleeson on keyboard, Maggie Gyllenhaal on theremin, Carla Azar on drums, and Scoot McNairy as the band’s manager/producer. (Really, that’s a tremendous cast.)

While it’s directed by Lenny Abrahamson (ROOM), it’s really the vision of renaissance man Jon Gleeson who, before being the gonzo journalist who wrote THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS and making documentaries, he played keyboard in Chris Sievey’s band, known as THE FRANK SIDEBOTTOM BAND.

Chris Sievey was an aspiring singer/songwriter but one day he fashioned himself a gigantic, pie-eyed papier-mâché head and adopted a rather juvenile comedic man-child persona and thus Frank Sidebottom was born. Frank Sidebottom would perform both in his band and as a comedian, ultimately becoming a minor British TV personality. Sadly, the character would ultimately feel like a boondoggle for Chris Sievey’s artistically-minded aspirations, and Sievey had a hard time coping with Frank’s limitations. (You can learn more about Chris Sievey and Frank through the documentary BEING FRANK: THE CHRIS SIEVEY STORY (2019, Prime/Rental).) Allegedly, Gleeson asked for — and received — Cievey’s blessing for the film before he died, but who knows what Gleeson actually pitched to Sievey.

The Frank portrayed in FRANK is a cracked take on Sievey’s Frank: Gleeson’s Frank is the frontman of a band, and he’s child-like, and a few other similarities, but his Frank is also quieter and more thoughtful — perhaps what Gleeson suspected Sievey wanted to be in the first place. The end result is a a film that meanders some times while wearing its heart on its sleeve, while occasionally pulling the rug out from under the audience. It helps that the film ends on an emotional high note. (I rewatch the closing scene on a monthly basis.)

It’s worth noting that all of the songs were performed by the actors — no miming here — and by Gleeson’s admission it worked out because of Carla Azar (who you may know as the drummer for Autolux, and is now Jack Black’s drummer) was a firm backbone for every scene, and while watching, you can see her intensity and professionalism bleed through.

Secure the Galactic Perimeter:

Final scene (obviously, spoilers):

Trailer:

THE CATERED AFFAIR (1956)

December 13, 2020

(VOD) Gore Vidal adapts Paddy Chayefsky’s (best known for NETWORK and MARTY) play about a young couple (Debbie Reynolds and Rod Taylor) that wants a no-muss, no-fuss wedding get pressured into a huge wedding by Reynold’s mother (a delightfully antagonistic Bettie Davis) that Reynold’s father (Ernest Borgnine) can’t afford. (It also features Barry Fitzgerald as the idiosyncratic uncle, one of my favorite character actors.)

Like all Chayefsky works, it’s the words, culture, and class issues that matter, but when I think about this film, I think about the set design and decoration: it’s grimy, it’s old, it’s cramped, it’s -lived in-, but it’s home. It’s a fantastic little film that gets lost in Chayefsky’s catalog, simply because it a rather small melodrama, but that doesn’t make it any less effective.

DOGTOOTH (2009)

December 12, 2020

(hoopla/kanopy/Shudder/tubi/VOD) One of the other ‘uncool’ Chicago film fests is the European Union Film Fest, which takes place at the Siskel Film Center. Even I often forget about this one, but back in 2010 I caught wind of this weird Greek film from unknown-to-us director Yorgos Lanthimos (who would go on to direct THE LOBSTER and THE FAVOURITE) that sounded like a batshitcrazy modern New Wave-ish film, and my wife — being Greek — was also intrigued, so we immediately pre-ordered two tickets..

We arrived at the Siskel and were happy to already have tickets, because it was completely sold out — the line wound completely around the upper second floor — and the audience consisted of 80% older Greek couples, clearly there to support Greek film. I whispered to my wife: “Do they know what they’re getting into?”

I say that because most Greek films I’ve attended with my wife have been in-offensive crowd-pleasers, whereas DOGTOOTH actively, -aggressively- is not. It’s a film about shelter, about not letting go, about manufactured culture, about language, about emotional, psychological, physical, and sexual abuse, and even heavier subjects. I was surprised to see that Shudder (a streaming service solely geared towards horror) picked it up and I realized, why yes: it is a Haneke-esque horror film, and not just an incredibly dense, fucked up family drama.

I exited the theater feeling dazzled and bruised, and fully expected the crowd we entered with to have turned against it, especially since they were very quiet during the screening — even the funny parts (of which there are many) — but no! They were ebullient about it! To this day I don’t know whether they liked it (much less enjoyed it — this isn’t a film you ‘enjoy’) but it was a singularly memorable screening for a brilliant film.

TUFF TURF (1985)

December 10, 2020

(Prime/hoopla/tubi/VOD) A quintessential mid-80s high school film where the teachers fear the students, but a new pupil has come to town to set them straight. TUFF TURF features a pre-PRETTY IN PINK James Spader as the new stranger at school, Kim Richards as the gang leader’s girlfriend who Spader has designs on, and a pre-LESS THAN ZERO Robert Downey Jr. as Spader’s over-eager new friend.

TUFF TURF is directed by Fritz Kiersch, best known for helming the first CHILDREN OF THE CORN, which may explain why the film is surprisingly violent, especially the elaborate final confrontation. While the combination of wooing, dance scenes, and vicious beatdowns does feel a bit jarring, it results in a rather winsome little film. It helps that the soundtrack features a healthy dose of The Jim Carroll Band.

DOGVILLE (2003)

December 9, 2020

(VOD) DOGVILLE is the first in Lars von Trier’s unfinished ‘USA – Land of Opportunities’ trilogy, comprised of this and MANDERLAY. (The third film, WASHINGTON, never materialized, and probably never will.) DOGVILLE and MANDERLAY are staged like black box theater productions: shot on a sparse, flat set that barely sketches out the town via a handful of open-standing walls and props, painted lines delineating the properties and prominent objects.

Despite having the trappings of black box theater, the camerawork is smartly considered and tightly covers the action while still allowing you to see the ‘private’ activities occurring in the background. Additionally, the wall-to-wall synced sound and editing heightens the tension, especially in the last few chapters.

Both films deal with class issues and human exploitation in a way that I think feels organic to the story, but as commentary about the US it falls a bit flat, although I don’t feel it detracts from the film itself. (It’s worth noting that Lars von Trier wrote DOGVILLE and MANDERLAY having never visited the United States, which is glaringly obvious even without watching the wildly insensitive MANDERLAY.)

Obviously, as this is a Lars von Trier film, it’s an extremely difficult watch and, as is par for the filmmaker, focuses on beating a woman down (literally and figuratively), but it ends in a very different place as most of his films (albeit, while still retaining his standard nihilism).

The cast is loaded with talent: Nicole Kidman is the lead, a woman running from gangsters who takes sanctuary in a small town for safety, and the town sucks her dry. The townsfolk consist of Stellan Skarsgård, Lauren Bacall (who also appears in MANDERLAY), Philip Baker Hall, Jeremey Davies, Chloë Sevigny, Patricia Clarkson, and more. Udo Kier, Ben Gazarra, and James Caan also appear, and everyone turns in amazing performances, especially Kidman.

Even for Lars von Trier, it’s a severely avant-garde film, and one that seems to get lost in the rest of his oeuvre. It’s worth seeking out if you can stomach it.

DOGVILLE’s prologue:

A hilariously terrible official trailer that tries to disguise what the film really is:

THE BIG CIRCUS (1959)

December 8, 2020

(VOD) I’ll be straight: THE BIG CIRCUS isn’t a great film. Yes, it’s exactly what the title promises: a deeply fictional take on a post-break-up Ringling circus with Vincent Price as the ringleader, Peter Lorre as a clown., and Victor Mature as the defiant owner. Sounds thrilling, right?

Sadly, the film lacks in narrative sizzle — it’s basically an array of calamities that Mature overcomes to thwart the bank supervisor overseeing the circus’ use of its significant loan — but it makes up for with the circus acts, especially the acrobatics. Unfortunately, all of the circus spectacles are mostly one-setup shots, mimicking an audience member’s view, so even the performances feel a bit cheap. If it were shot in Cinerama, like it feels like it should be, perhaps it’d achieve the grand spectacle Irwin Allen intended.

Yes, this film was the vision of Irwin Allen, the ‘Master of Disaster’. Before THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE and THE TOWERING INFERNO, Allen wrote and produced this, and intended to direct it. (Instead Joseph M. Newman ended up as the director.) Consequently, his penchent for catastrophes fits this film well, especially since most of the disasters portrayed in this film are somewhat based on actual events during the Ringling history.*

About the cast: Victor Mature portrays Hank Whirling like GYPSY-era Rosalind Russel but as a circus owner, and just think about what that might have been. Price is fine as a straight-laced ringleader, and a very squat Lorre ambles along as a drunk clown, which is also fine. Kathryn Grant’s mis-matched solids/plaid outfits often steal every non-circus scene.

Again, it’s not a great film, but it’s heart-warming fun with some entertaining numbers, and why would you give up the chance to see Price and Lorre on-screen together?

“Where are you going?” “All the way.” “I thought you’d never ask.”