Fright Club: Evil Steps in Horror

The evil stepmother has been a source of fear and dread for eons. The Grimm brothers knew it – they disliked stepmothers as much as they disliked wolves. Horror has picked that same scab again and again over the years, but it’s not just that mom-substitute that you need to worry over. As we discover this week, stepdads – especially the heavily bearded, axe-wielding variety – are just as problematic.

5. The Stepfather (1987)

Years before Terry O’Quinn gained a following on Lost (or West Wing or Alias or Millennium), he crafted a memorable villain out of a weakly written toss-off of a horror flick, creating, in turn, a movie worth a second look.

With an idyllic suburb-turned-nightmare hellscape, the film opens like John Carpenter’s Halloween, the camera wading through the falling leaves and quiet street before stopping on the window of one particularly unpretentious little home. Inside, O’Quinn quickly and effectively establishes character. This is an actual character, not a cookie cutter psycho, and on the strength of his performance, this bloody confection of 80s family values works.

O’Quinn’s Jerry Blake marries into fatherless homes, ever seeking the perfect family. As soon as he sees the reality of familial bliss, he decides his family is a disappointment and slaughter ensues. As the film unspools, Jerry’s new brood, including Charlie’s Angel’s Shelley Hack, as well as Jill Schoelen, as her 16-year-old daughter, show signs of fatigue already.

Stepfather explores ideas of the exclusivity of the American dream and the inexplicable popularity of shaker knit sweaters. Mostly, though, it mines that same tension that worked so well for the Brothers Grimm: the fear inherent in taking on a step parent, in that they not only represent the finality of the loss of a beloved, but the possibility that the new household head to which you must submit will actually bring you danger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZGHTP2dH10

4. Amityville Horror (1979)

Back in the Seventies, Long Island residents Kathy and George Lutz caused quite a stir with their tale of a diabolical house that nearly killed their whole family. The cultural hysteria they stirred led to a bestselling book, at least ten feature films and a documentary. The most famous of the cinematic efforts was the 1979 flick, a picture that followed the Lutzes as they took one step inside 112 Ocean Avenue and screamed, “Oh my God, this wallpaper is hideous!”

But, the house was really cheap, what with the former tenants having all been slain by their oldest son/brother Ronald DeFeo, so the Lutzes turned a blind eye to the hideous décor and moved right in.

James Brolin and his hair star as George Lutz, newly married to Kathy (Margot Kidder), new father to her three kids, serious wood cutter. George goes a little nuts, and who can blame him? There is obviously not a single decent barber in all of Long Island, and he’s sunk his life savings into a lovely home that sits atop the gateway to hell. (Honestly, though I always thought Tiffin, Ohio was the gateway to hell, the actual gateway lies beneath Columbus, OH. It’s true. Look it up.)

The film seems like low-level exploitation for director Stuart Rosenberg (Cool Hand Luke), whose approach is more melodramatic than horrific. He rode the cultural hysteria to big box office, but his effort feels a little silly now. Maybe it’s the red-eyed pig out the window?

3. The Snowtown Murders (2011)

John Bunting tortured and killed eleven people during his spree in South Australia in the Nineties. We only watch it happen once on film, but that’s more than enough.

Director Justin Kurzel seems less interested in the lurid details of Bunting’s brutal violence than he is in the complicated and alarming nature of complicity. Ironically, this less-is-more approach may be why the movie leaves you so shaken.

An unflinching examination of a predator swimming among prey, Snowtown succeeds where many true crime films fail because of its understatement, its casual observational style, and its unsettling authenticity. More than anything, though, the film excels due to one astounding performance.

Daniel Henshall cuts an unimpressive figure on screen – a round-faced, smiling schlub. But he brings Bunting an amiability and confrontational fearlessness that provides insight into what draws people to a sadistic madman. There’s not a false note in his chilling turn, nor in the atmosphere Kurzel creates of a population aching for a man – any adult male to care for them, protect them and tell them what to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcoCTA2IZ7c

2. Tale of Two Sisters (2003)

A lurid Korean fairy tale of sorts – replete with dreamy cottage and evil stepmother – Jee-woon Kim’s Tale of Two Sisters is saturated with bold colors and family troubles.

A tight lipped father returns home with his daughter after her prolonged hospital stay. Her sister has missed her; her stepmother has not. Or so it all would seem, although jealousy, dream sequences, ghosts, a nonlinear timeframe, and confused identity keep you from ever fully articulating what is going on. The film takes on an unreliable point of view, subverting expectations and keeping the audience off balance. But that’s just one of the reasons it works.

The director’s use of space, the composition of his frame, the set decoration, and the disturbing and constant anxiety he creates about what’s just beyond the edge of the frame wrings tensions and heightens chills. The composite effect disturbs more then it horrifies, but it stays with you either way.

Tale masters the slow reveal, and the dinner party scene is a pivotal one for that reason. One of the great things about this picture is not the surprise about to be revealed – one you may have guessed by this point, but is nonetheless handled beautifully – but the fact that Tale has something else up its sleeve. And under its table.

1. Night of the Hunter (1955)

Robert F. Mitchum. This may be the coolest guy there ever was, with an air of nonchalance about him that made him magnetic onscreen. His world-wizened baritone and moseying way gave him the appearance of a man who knew everything, could do anything, but couldn’t care less. And perhaps his greatest role in definitely his best film is as serial killer/preacher Harry Powell in the classic Night of the Hunter.

The iconic film noir sees Mitchum as a con man who cashed in on lonely widows’ fortunes before knocking them off. He’s set his sights on Willa Harper (Shelley Winters), whose bank robber husband had been a cell mate before his execution.

What unravels is a gorgeously filmed, tremendously tense story of Depression-era terror as Powell seduces the widow and her entire town, but not her stubborn son. Many of the performances have that stilted, pre-Method tinge to them, but both Winters and Mitchum bring something more authentic and unseemly to their roles. The conflict in styles actually enhances an off-kilter feel director Charles Laughton emphasizes with over-the-top shadows and staging. It gives the whole film a nightmarish quality that, along with Mitchum’s unforgettable performance, makes Night of the Hunter among the best films of its era.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0LCUM-hnQc

Drowning in Sap

The Sea of Trees

by Hope Madden

In 2002, filmmaker Gus Van Sant released one of his more polarizing and thoughtful films. In Gerry, two guys named Gerry (Casey Affleck and Matt Damon) hike ill-prepared into the desert to find themselves fighting for survival.

A quick glance at The Sea of Trees suggests that perhaps Van Sant returned to these themes. Matthew McConaughey loses himself in a Japanese forest, befriends another wayward traveler (Ken Watanbe), their treacherous journey offering life lessons aplenty.

Because horror writer Chris Sparling penned The Sea of Trees, I was kind of hoping the film would be a cross between Gerry and The Blair Witch Project.

It is not.

No, it’s an overtly sentimental, culturally patronizing waste of one Oscar winner and two Oscar nominees.

We wander Aokigahara, Japan’s “suicide forest,” with McConaughey’s Arthur Brennan. Brennan’s a scientist, and you know that that means. That’s right – atheist.

Van Sant falls back on the crutch of the flashback to help us understand what this handsome scientist is doing in the suicide forest. It’s in these segments that we meet Naomi Watts’s Joan Brennan and begin to unravel the mystery behind Arthur’s trip into the woods.

Watts suffers most from Sparling’s hackneyed dialog. Her few scenes need to be pivotal and weighty – we know this because of her utterly unrealistic speeches as well as Mason Bates’s condescending score.

Van Sant is no stranger to schmaltz. As great a filmmaker as he has been, sentimentality tripped him up in Promised Land, Finding Forrester and others. His career is peppered with other writers’ projects, many of them with a point to make, and those statement films tend to be Van Sant’s weakest.

Perhaps it’s because, rather than finding his own language for the story via camerawork or score, he relies on an existing style. The Sea of Trees certainly suffers from a heavy handed score. Van Sant also misses opportunities to create a sense of foreboding, claustrophobia, isolation or even redemption with the forest itself, Kasper Tuxen’s photography instead offering irrelevant yet lovely images of windblown treetops.

Trees can definitely be sappy.

Verdict-2-5-Stars

Baby Onboard

The Light Between Oceans

by George Wolf

Can stellar performances, skilled direction, pristine cinematography and an evocative score elevate a story built on weepy schmaltz?

Well….yes.

The Light Between Oceans is definitely a melodramatic weeper, but one saved from outright embarrassment by the sheer force of the talent assembled to bring it to the screen. Writer/director Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine, The Place Beyond the Pines) adapts M.L. Stedman’s best-selling novel with a determined earnestness and a rock solid cast.

Michael Fassbender is Tom, a WWI veteran haunted by memories of combat who takes a job as lighthouse keeper off the coast of Australia in 1918. Before heading back out to his post, a picnic with Isabel (Alicia Vikander) leads to multiple letters full of romantic longing between the two, and then to marriage. Years at the island lighthouse go by without an addition to the family, when suddenly an old rowboat washes ashore…with a crying baby inside.

The child obviously needs them, and no one will ever be the wiser, right?

Waves of guilt begin crashing at the baby’s christening, when Tom learns about Hannah (Rachel Weisz), a wealthy town resident who still grieves for the husband and child who were lost at sea.

The plot turns that follow seem born from a unholy union of Sparks and Dickens, as contrived circumstance begets impossible choice, painful sacrifice, and a search for absolution through that far, far better thing to do.

Cianfrance wraps it all in the majestic, windswept landscapes necessary to recall classic period romances, with sharp instincts for knowing when to let Alexandre Desplat’s music swell with power, and when to let silence fuel the sense of isolation.

Fassbender and Weisz are customarily nuanced and splendid, while Vikander is simply wonderful, making Isabel’s arc from youthful naivete to world-weary grief feel as authentic as material this emotionally manipulative possibly could.

The Light Between Oceans amounts to a two-hour struggle between talent and substance. One side brought the varsity squad.

Verdict-2-5-Stars

 

 

Docs Prosper This Week at Gateway

Every year, the lineup of documentaries programmed by Gateway Film Center President Chris Hamel for Columbus Documentary Week (Sept. 1 to 8 this year) manages to include most – or all – of the Oscar-nominated documentaries months before they’re picked by the Academy.

How does he do it?

“It’s something I genuinely love, and sincerely want my neighbors to experience,” Hamel said. “I think a great documentary can change the course of your life. When you feel that passionately about something, I think it shows up in the work you do.”

The results of Hamel’s picks in the last 10 documentary weeks have demonstrated an uncanny eye for the films that will later be named the best docs in the world. Last year, Hamel choose every documentary eventually nominated for an Oscar, and played eventual winner Amy, about singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse, for a several-week run.

“It’s a major arts moment for Columbus,” said Jami Goldstein, VP Marketing, Communications and Events for the Greater Columbus Arts Council. “There is no other place in the world besides Columbus Documentary Week, not even Cannes, where you can see these films together in the same week. It’s really a tremendous gift to the city.”

This year’s program includes 22 documentaries from around the world.

Opening the event Sept. 1st is Tower, a unique exploration, using a combination of live action and animation, of the U.S.’s first mass shooting, the 1966 University of Texas clock tower sniper. Tower will be followed by a panel discussion on gun violence in America, including a Columbus Police officer and community members.

The closing night film on Thursday, Sept. 8 – on the 50th anniversary of Star Trek’s television premiere – is For the Love of Spock, a documentary by Leonard Nimoy’s son Adam about his father and the Spock character Leonard transformed into a worldwide icon.

Also scheduled is Just Desserts, a behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of horror anthology Creepshow, followed by a screening of Creepshow.

Screenings will include discussions, director introductions, question and answer sessions and pairings with themed food and drink specials.

“There’s nothing like it in the country,” said Hamel. “I am proud we’re bringing Columbus this experience, and I can’t wait to see people take in these films.”

Complete Columbus Documentary Week listing: Opening Night, 9/1:
6-6:45 p.m. Mixer in the Lounge
7 p.m. Showtime

9/5, 11 a.m.
9/7, 5 p.m. TOWER Combining archival footage with rotoscopic animation in a dynamic, never-before-seen way, Tower reveals the action-packed untold stories of the witnesses, heroes and survivors of America’s first mass school shooting, August 1, 1966’s University of Texas clock tower massacre.

9/2, 9 a.m.
9/4, 5 p.m.
9/6, 11 a.m. NDIAN POINT (2015) More than 50 million people live near Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant, which looms just 35 miles from Times Square. Exploring the brewing fight for clean energy and the catastrophic possibilities of government complacency, director Ivy Meeropol presents a balanced argument about the issues surrounding nuclear energy and offers a startling reality check for our uncertain nuclear future.

9/2, 11 a.m. 
9/3, 9 a.m.
9/5, 7 p.m. THE OTHER SIDE (2015) In an invisible territory at the margins of society, abandoned veterans, lost adolescents and drug addicts trying to escape addiction through love. Renowned documentarian Roberto Minervini opens a window into this hidden pocket of humanity in today’s America.

9/2, 1 p.m
. 9/4, 9 p.m.
9/7, 9 a.m. A SPACE PROGRAM (2015) Internationally acclaimed artist Tom Sachs takes us on an intricately handmade journey to the Mars, providing audiences with an intimate, first-person look into his studio and methods. The film is both a piece of art in its own right and a recording of Sachs’ historic piece, Space Program 2.0: MARS, which opened at New York’s Park Avenue Armory in 2012.

9/2, 3 p.m. 
9/7 7 p.m. RICHARD LINKLATER: DREAM IS DESTINY A rare and unusual look at a fiercely independent style of filmmaking that arose from Austin, Texas in the ’80s and how Richard Linklater’s films — Slacker, Dazed and Confused, Waking Life and Boyhood — sparked a low-budget, in-your-own-backyard movement in this country and around the world.

9/2, 5 p.m.
9/4, 9 a.m.
9/6, 5 p.m. DON’T BLINK – ROBERT FRANK (2015) The sometimes harrowing story, told with unblinking honesty by the reclusive artist himself, of how Robert Frank revolutionized photography and independent film, documenting the Beats, Welsh coal miners, Peruvian Indians, The Stones, London bankers, and the Americans.

9/2, 7 p.m.
9/5, 1 p.m.
9/8, 11 a.m. ANTS ON A SHRIMP Charismatic Copenhagen-based chef René Redzepi, whose NOMA has been hailed as one of the world’s best restaurants, embarks on the thrilling, unprecedented challenge of relocating the restaurant and its entire staff from Denmark to Tokyo.

9/2, 9 p.m.
9/5, 5 p.m.
9/8, 9 a.m. BREAKING A MONSTER (2015) Follow along in the break-out year of Unlocking the Truth, a band composed of 13-year-old members Alec Atkins, Malcolm Brickhouse, and Jarad Dawkins, from playing weekends in Times Square to their first encounters with stardom and the music industry.

9/3, 11 a.m.
9/6, 9 p.m. DYING TO KNOW: RAM DASS & TIMOTHY LEARY (2014) A revealing, intimate portrait of Harvard psychology professors Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert, who in the ’60s began probing the edges of consciousness through their experiments with psychedelics. With interviews spanning 50 years, the film explores questions about life, drugs and the biggest mystery of all: death.

9/3, 1 p.m.
9/7, 3 p.m. AN ART THAT NATURE MAKES: THE WORK OF ROSAMOND PURCELL (2015) Finding beauty in sometimes disturbing visual studies of the natural world – from a mastodon tooth to a hydrocephalic skull – photographer Rosamond Purcell has developed a body of work that has garnered international acclaim, fruitful collaborations with writers such as Stephen Jay Gould and admirers like Errol Morris.

9/3, 3 p.m.
9/5 3 p.m.
9/7, 1 p.m. UNDER THE SUN “[A] revealing act of subversion that is arresting however you take it.” (Variety) Russian filmmaker Mansky smuggled footage from North Korea to create this documentary, which reveals for the first time at this depth the reality of day-to-day life in Pyongyang, North Korea.

9/3, 5 p.m.
9/6, 1 p.m. THE SEVENTH FIRE From executive producers Terrence Malick and Natalie Portman. When American Indian gang leader Rob Brown is sentenced to prison for a fifth time, he must confront his role in bringing violent drug culture into his beloved community — even as his young protégé dreams of becoming the most powerful and feared Native gangster on the reservation.

9/3, 7 p.m.
9/6, 3 p.m.
9/8, 1 p.m. KAMPAI! FOR THE LOVE OF SAKE (2015) A British sake brewer, an American journalist, and a young president of a century-old sake brewery in Japan join together to explore the fascinating origin and mysterious world of sake, or Japanese rice wine.

9 p.m., Double Feature JUST DESSERTS: THE MAKING OF CREEPSHOW (2007)
followed by
CREEPSHOW (1982) The ultimate behind-the-scenes look, warts and all, at the production of a horror anthology icon: Stephen King and George Romero’s 1982 classic, Creepshow. Followed immediately by the feature itself, Creepshow — five terrifying tales based on E.C. horror comics.

9/4, 11 a.m.
9/7, 9 p.m. WALL WRITERS Narrated by John Waters, Wall Writers provides unprecedented access to TAKI183, CORNBREAD, and other legendary graffiti artists, as well as footage and photos from the late 1960s and early 1970s where their art from was born.

9/4, 1 p.m.
9/6, 9 a.m.
9/8, 5 p.m. GERMANS AND JEWS Through personal stories, Germans and Jews explores the Germany’s profound transformation from silence about the Holocaust to facing it head on — and, unexpectedly, a nuanced story of reconciliation emerges.

9/4, 3 p.m.
9/5, 9 a.m.
9/7, 11 a.m. HOOLIGAN SPARROW A harrowing, inside acount of Chinese state surveillance. Harassment. Imprisonment. Human rights activist Ye Haiyan, AKA Sparrow, knew the risks when she went to Hainan Province to seek justice for six elementary school girls who were sexually abused by their principal. But the scale and intensity of the government’s reaction — chasing her ruthlessly from town to town — surprised even the most seasoned activists across China.

9/4, 7 p.m.
9/8, 3 p.m. SOUND OF REDEMPTION: THE FRANK MORGAN STORY (2014) At the late night jam sessions in LA, Jazz musicians used to dedicate their shows to the greatest alto sax player in the world, Frank Morgan, but if you wanted to hear him, you had to go to San Quentin. SOUND OF REDEMPTION is the late jazz saxophonist’s tale of redemption, from drug addict, conman, and convict to beloved elder statesman of jazz.

9 p.m. MADE IN VENICE MADE IN VENICE the movie takes you on a rippin’, shreddin ride with the sport and art of skateboarding, from its birthplace on the streets of Venice and Santa Monica – aka “Dogtown” – to the local skateboarders who’ve carried on its “tradition” from the early ‘70s through today, in the form of the now-iconic Venice Skatepark.

7 p.m. SEED: THE UNTOLD STORY Executive produced by Phil Fairclough (Grizzly Man, Cave of Forgotten Dreams). In the last century, 94% of our seed varieties have disappeared. In a harrowing and heartening story, reluctant heroes Vandana Shiva, Dr. Jane Goodall, Andrew Kimbell, and Winona LaDuke rekindle a lost connection to our most treasured resource and revive a culture connected to seeds.

Closing Night, 7:30 p.m. FOR THE LOVE OF SPOCK Presented on the 50th anniversary of Star Trek’s broadcast premiere. Adam Nimoy explores and honors the enduring legacy of his father Leonard Nimoy’s portrayal of Spock. Beginning with the original television series, Leonard Nimoy has appeared in Star Trek series and films over the course of six decades, including the 2009 reboot by J.J. Abrams.

Closing Night, 9 p.m. ONE MORE TIME WITH FEELING Screening for one night only, and #OnlyAtGFC: be the first to hear music from the new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album Skeleton Tree the night before its release in ONE MORE TIME WITH FEELING, a documentary of its production interwoven with live performance.

For more, visit gatewayfilmcenter.org

Fright Club: Disabilities in Horror

From the earliest horror films, physical disabilities have plagued characters. It’s the inherent vulnerability that makes the topic such a draw for the genre, but some films – like these five – defy your expectations.

5. Planet Terror

Losing a leg – in most horror movies, this would spell doom for a character. Not in Robert Rodriguez’s half of Grindhouse, though. Indeed, for Rose McGowan’s Cherry Baby, an amputated limb turns her to the film’s most daring badass.

A machine gun for a leg! How awesome is that?! McGowan strikes the right blend of hard knock and vulnerability to keep the character interesting – beyond the whole leg of death thing. I mean, you’d hardly call her boring.

The entire film is a whole lot of throw-back fun – gory, fun, lewd, funny, gross (so, so gross). It’s so much fun that even a lengthy Tarantino cameo doesn’t spoil things. And it makes the point that people who’ve been struck by physical disabilities can still be total badasses – not to mention hot as F.

4. Misery (1990)

Kathy Bates had been knocking around Hollywood for decades, but no one really knew who she was until she landed Misery. Her sadistic nurturer Annie Wilkes – rabid romance novel fan, part time nurse, full time wacko – ranks among the most memorable crazy ladies of modern cinema.

James Caan plays novelist Paul Sheldon, who kills off popular character Misery Chastain, then celebrates with a road trip that goes awry when he crashes his car, only to be saved by his brawniest and most fervent fan, Annie. Well, she’s more a fan of Misery Chastain’s than she is Paul Sheldon’s, and once she realizes what he’s done, she refuses to allow him out of her house until she brings Misery back to literary life.

Caan seethes, and you know there’s an ass kicking somewhere deep in his mangled body just waiting to get out. The film’s tension is generated by way of his utter helplessness as he’s trapped in that bed – on the road to recovery until…. Well, we assume you know the scene.

There is so much to be said for the sharp writing, the outstanding performances, and the way the film subverts your expectations of villains, women, men, and disability.

And mallets.

3. Don’t Breathe (2016)

Young thugs systematically robbing the few remaining upscale Detroit homeowners follow their alpha into a surefire hit: a blind man (Stephen Lang) sitting on $300k.

Unfortunately for our trio – Rocky (Evil Dead’s Jane Levy), Money (Daniel Zovatto) and Alex (Dylan Minnette) – this blind man is not the easy mark they’d predicted.

The always effective Lang cuts an impressive figure as the blind veteran with mad skills and crazy secrets. Wisely, director Fede Alvarez sidesteps easy categories. Though you may think you recognize each character as they first appear, no one is as easy to pigeonhole as you may think.

There are surprises enough to confound and amaze. You may think you have the old man’s secret figured out, but so do our hapless felons. Things get a little nuts as the tale rolls on, but thanks to the film’s breakneck pace and relentless tension, you’ll barely have time to breathe, let alone think.

2. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

With this horror masterpiece, director Tobe Hooper sidestepped all the horror gimmicks audiences had grown accustomed to – a spooky score that let you know when to grow tense, shadowy interiors that predicted oncoming scares – and instead shot guerilla-style in broad daylight, outdoors, with no score at all. You just couldn’t predict what was coming.

Hooper also cast aside any concerns for dignity or fair play, a theme best personified by wheelchair-bound Franklin. Franklin is supremely unlikeable – whiney and selfish – ending horror’s long history of using personal vulnerability to make a character more sympathetic. Films such as Wait Until Dark and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and Rear Window – excellent films, all – ratcheted up tension through the sympathy they could generate toward the helpless character. These films’ anxiety and payoff both owe everything to watching the vulnerable protagonist in danger, and waiting for them to overcome the odds.

But Hooper is after an entirely different kind of tension. He dashes your expectations, making you uncomfortable, as if you have no idea what you could be in for. As if, in watching this film, you yourself are in more danger than you’d predicted.

But not more danger than Franklin is in, because Franklin is not in for a good time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY4ldz615FA

1. Freaks (1932)

Short and sweet, like most of its performers, Tod Browning’s controversial film Freaks is one of those movies you will never forget. Populated almost entirely by unusual actors – midgets, amputees, the physically deformed, and an honest to god set of conjoined twins (Daisy and Violet Hilton) – Freaks makes you wonder whether you should be watching it at all.

This, of course, is an underlying tension in most horror films, but with Freaks, it’s right up front. Is what Browning does with the film empathetic or exploitative, or both? And, of course, am I a bad person for watching this film?

Well, that’s not for us to say. We suspect you may be a bad person, perhaps even a serial killer. Or maybe that’s us. What we can tell you for sure is that the film is unsettling, and the final, rainy act of vengeance is truly creepy to watch.

Dream Dates

Southside With You

by George Wolf

Even if you knew nothing about the characters involved, Southside With You would be a sweet, smart, refreshingly grown up romance. It does nothing more than follow two people over the course of their first date.

But these people are Michelle Robinson and Barack Obama during a very hot Chicago day in 1989, and writer/director Richard Tanne, in a confident feature debut, finds plenty of resonance in an otherwise uneventful afternoon that changed the course of history.

As Barack (Parker Sawyers) and Michelle (Tika Sumpter) visit a museum, attend a community event, see a movie and get ice cream, Tanne’s dialogue lets us glimpse not only the beginning of one particularly important love story, but also more universal themes of identity, racism, sexism, political compromise and social justice.

Both leads are exceptional. We know these people, but not like this and not back then, and the actors are able to find that delicate balance between conveying first date curiosity and foreshadowing future achievements.

Sumpter (also one of the film’s producers) brings grace and measured defiance to the future First Lady while Sawyers nails Mr. Obama’s gait and speech pattern without the slightest hint of caricature or impersonation. As the couple flirts, argues and engages in a wonderfully free flowing conversation, the actors’ chemistry is irresistible.

Thought-provoking, slyly aware and unabashedly romantic, Southside With You could be the start of an exciting relationship with a talented new filmmaker.

Verdict-4-0-Stars

 

Do You Smell That?

Mechanic: Resurrection

by Hope Madden and George Wolf

Who smells hot trash? Is it a dumpster fire?

No, it’s just the latest Jason Statham movie.

Mechanic: Resurrection revisits the by-the-numbers Statham character Arthur Bishop. Back in 2011, Statham reprised the role first held by Charles Bronson in a middling-to-fair remake of The Mechanic. That film inexplicably merited a sequel that was not direct-to-home-viewing. Why that is confounds us.

Get nervous Gods of Egypt and London has FallenMechanic: Resurrection wants that “worst film of the year” award, and it is not above soiling itself with incompetence to get it.

“WHO SENT YOU??!!”

Bishop faked his own death years back so he could escape his pointless existence as an assassin, but an old enemy has tracked him down. And brought henchmen! And kidnapped master thespian Jessica Alba! Damn this confining shirt!

“WHERE’S CAINE?!!”

Statham removes his shirt no fewer than 8 times in the film’s 99-minute running time. That’s almost once every ten minutes. The man is 49, so good for him, and for that core audience he’s built over a career of shirtless man-on-man action.

“PLAYTIME’S OVER!!”

Alba’s character development is more nuanced. She keeps her shirt on, but it’s always clingy and sometimes…even wet.

Remember how great Statham was in last year’s Spy? His turn as Rick Ford, uber-macho super agent, was hilarious specifically because it was sending up ludicrous movies just like Mechanic: Resurrection.

Bishop criss-crosses the globe with nary a toothbrush, yet at a moment’s notice he has access to countless bomb-making chemicals, ammunition, kick ass scuba equipment and multiple expensive watches. Then, before Bishop has to dive into shark-infested waters, the film is careful to show him applying a shark repellent lotion (patent pending), just to keep it real. Come on, by that point we’re expecting any sharks to have lasers on their heads on a direct order from Dr. Evil.

The sad thing is, this movie could have been saved. Make a few edits, give it a new score, call it Spy 2: Ford Gets His Own Movie, and you’ve got comedy gold. As is, this film is so bad John Travolta is jealous.

Verdict-1-0-Star

Yes, and…

Don’t Think Twice

by Cat McAlpine

The three rules of improv are as follows:

1. Say yes
2. It’s all about the group
3. Don’t think

The six members of improv troupe The Commune live, bend, and break these rules on stage and in the green room in Don’t Think Twice. The ensemble dramedy pits the dreams of your 20s against the hard realities of your 30s and asks: When is it okay to be about me?

With the self-awareness of an improv performance, Don’t Think Twice keeps it real and stays grounded. The most recognizable face in the cast, Keegan-Michael Key (Key and Peele), plays Jack, the guy with a real shot at stardom. Samantha (Community’s Gillian Jacobs), has the skill but not the desire while Miles (Mike Birbiglia, who also wrote and directed) refuses to accept that he just doesn’t have what it takes.

Don’t Think Twice is intentional in its choices that way, inviting the audience to arrive with whatever context they can. Birbiglia never lets the drama spiral too low, either, immediately scooping you up again with jokes and laughter. The Commune develops several inside jokes throughout the course of the film, meaning you’re not only in on it, you understand how this sort of family keeps laughing even when life stops being funny.

At the beginning of each Commune show, Samantha asks “Did anyone have a particularly difficult day?” The ironic part, as most actors and improvisers will tell you, is that the best place to work through your own intimate problems is on stage in front of an audience.

We see this mechanism in action quite beautifully throughout this film, as Birbiglia uses the show-inside-a-show format to explore many themes.

His most powerful visual element, for instance, is the staging of chairs. Before each performance starts, the cast chairs are arranged onstage. In prepping for the performance, all the chairs are lined up neatly in a row, and if a performer is missing their chair is removed. The improvisers drag these chairs across the stage as needed throughout their performance, with the point being there is a chair for each of them. This literal setting of the stage underscores the narrative’s emotional current, and becomes a strong indicator of mood. “Hey, we’re about to work through some shit, and here’s exactly what we’re working with.”

Don’t Think Twice is a film that takes an honest look at “making it” from all sides. It challenges the notions of success and fame, and suggests that it’s okay to love doing something even if you never want to be famous for it.

If you’re invited to go see Don’t Think Twice this weekend, reply “Yes, and…”

Verdict-3-5-Stars

Split Decision

Hands of Stone

by George Wolf

Early in Hands of Stone, legendary boxing trainer Ray Arcel (Robert DeNiro) is schooling future legendary boxer Roberto Duran (Edgar Ramirez) on technique versus strategy. The film tells us there are vital differences, then shows us these differences aren’t just in the ring.

Like a fighter too caught up in the moment to remember the plan, the film boasts solid fundamentals but employs a tired strategy while exploring more openings than it can safely land.

Duran was born in Panama, rising to stardom against a backdrop of poverty and political unrest in his homeland. So of course his story is told from the old white guy’s point of view. Trainers are a natural element in boxing movies, true, but anchoring this one with Arcel is just bad strategy. I mean, Mickey was great at telling us that women weaken legs, but he never altered the long game: telling Rocky’s story.

Writer/director Jonathan Jakubowicz’s respect for Duran is evident, and sincere enough to not shy away from some of the unflattering aspects of Duran’s past. Equal confidence that his story could be told on its own terms would have been welcome. Ramirez rises above it with a terrific performance, capturing the early hunger and eventual crash of a gifted champion who often seemed plagued by contradictions.

DeNiro brings a nicely underplayed grace to the wise narrator’s role while Ana de Armas is dynamic as Duran’s wife Felicidad, showing her recent one-note role in War Dogs was a complete waste of both time and talent.

The fine performances do much to keep the film grounded as it struggles to find a consistent voice. Jakubowicz wants us to understand the social, political and familial forces that nagged Duran, but also lament how great boxing used to be and appreciate Duran’s rivalry with Sugar Ray Leonard (nicely done Usher Raymond).

It’s a crowded narrative, even before Arcel’s own family dramas and mob connections come to call.

Hands of Stone shows admirable heart and strong technique, but is often derailed by scattershot focus and a questionable strategy. Call it a split decision.

Verdict-3-0-Stars

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W1L0WnVnjY

Waiting to Exhale

Don’t Breathe

by Hope Madden

Filmmaker Fede Alvarez announced his presence on the horror film scene with authority. His 2013 Evil Dead reboot was not only critically and commercially successful, it was also the bloodiest movie ever made. Nice.

For his sophomore effort Don’t Breathe, the director dials down the blood and gore in favor of almost unbearable tension generated through masterful deployment of set design, sound design, cinematography and one sparse but effective premise.

Young thugs systematically robbing the few remaining upscale Detroit homeowners follow their alpha into a surefire hit: a blind man (Stephen Lang) sitting on $300k.

The depleted urban landscape makes for an eerie reminder of the state of the once proud Motor City, but it’s also the perfect locale for a B&E – there are no neighbors left to call 911.

Unfortunately for our trio – Rocky (Evil Dead’s Jane Levy), Money (Daniel Zovatto) and Alex (Dylan Minnette) – this blind man is not the easy mark they’d predicted.

This is a scrappy film that gives you very little in the way of character development, backstory or scope. Instead, Alvarez focuses so intently on what’s in front of you that you cannot escape – a tension particularly well suited to this claustrophobic nightmare.

A masterwork in efficiency, Don’t Breathe wastes barely a frame. So few elements are telegraphed that the rare overplaying of a hand – a camera holds too long on a mallet or lingers on a framed photo sitting upside down on a mantle – feels like a real disappointment.

Rodo Sayagues’s taut screenplay wastes little time, relying instead on Pedro Luque’s panicked camera to convey as much as we need to know about the predicament these three friends have gotten us all into.

The always effective Lang cuts an impressive figure as the blind veteran with mad skills and crazy secrets. Wisely, Alvarez sidesteps easy categories. Though you may think you recognize each character as they first appear, no one is as easy to pigeonhole as you may think.

As he does with so much of the rest of the film, Alvarez makes excellent use of what little we know about the characters to keep us anxious.

But that’s not all – there are surprises enough to confound and amaze. You may think you have the old man’s secret figured out, but so do our hapless felons. Things get a little nuts as the tale rolls on, but thanks to the film’s breakneck pace and relentless tension, you’ll barely have time to breathe, let alone think.

Verdict-3-5-Stars

Hope Madden and George Wolf … get it?