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American Fiction

by Hope Madden

Boyz in the Hood is a great movie. In 1991, the same year 23-year-old John Singleton’s feature debut made box office and Oscar history, Julie Dash released the beautiful, generational drama, Daughters of the Dust. No guns, no cops, no real violence to speak of, Dash’s film nabbed a Sundance grand jury prize nomination and cinematography award.

Daughters of the Dust was essentially forgotten upon its release. (It has, thank God, in recent years been rediscovered, restored, and added to the National Film Preservation Registry.) But Boyz in the Hood immediately reshaped movies.

Writer/director Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction takes aim at fiction – print or cinematic – and its problematic relationship with Black trauma. But to say that Cord’s film would like to see movies move beyond Boyz in the Hood and other films that revel in suffering would be to simplify, even miss its point. The filmmaker complicates the discussion with debate over a Black creator’s right to simply pursue success, as any other creator might. Even if that means catering to a white audience’s thirst for Black trauma.

“White people think that they want the truth, but they don’t. They just want to feel absolved.”

You might not expect a film that floats this truth so effortlessly to be a laugh riot, but American Fiction delivers an awful lot of laugh-out-loud moments.

Jeffrey Wright plays cantankerous college professor and literary writer Thelonious “Monk” Ellison. His latest manuscript is not being picked up for publication, his students hate him, and suddenly he needs to look after his mother, who will need round-the-clock care. Which costs money. The kind of money you can make if you pander to exactly the readership he loathes.

Monk does, incognito, and soon he’s pretending to be something he’s not at work and pretending not to be something he is at home. Buried within this are a couple of really lovely, sweetly complex middle-aged romances. Those are rare in films, so they deserve a mention here.

Issa Rae and Sterling K. Brown offer remarkable supporting turns as characters you want to dislike but simply cannot – part and parcel of a film that forever asks you to rethink what you believe you know. And maybe laugh bitterly as you do.

Adam Brody is also a hoot as that same smarmy douche he always plays, but he does it so very well. Jon Ortiz and Erika Alexander both bring warmth and humanity to a story essentially about a man who is not quite sure how to be warm and human.

Wright – an underappreciated genius of an actor if ever there was one – does what he always does. He conjures a fully formed human being, flawed but forgivable and endlessly earnest. Buoyed by a delightful ensemble and cuttingly hilarious script, he delivers one of the finest performances of his career.

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Don’t Look Back

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Memory

by Hope Madden

“I remember…”

These are the first words uttered in Michel Franco’s deceptively spare drama, Memory. Sylvia (Jessica Chastain) is celebrating 13 years of sobriety at an AA meeting. She’s brought her daughter, and those around her are remembering her impact on them.

For the next 140 minutes, Franco examines what’s true and what’s faulty in the human memory, and what he finds is sometimes harsh and unpleasant, but just often, profoundly tender.

Chastain’s performance is brittle but with complexity and depth. Sylvia’s life, and her hard-edged wall, are built from the years of being denied her truth. She knows who she is and she’s doing what she can with that.

Saul (Peter Sarsgaard, astonishing) does not always know who he is, but when he does the film shimmers with life and humanity. Saul follows Sylvia home from a high school reunion of sorts. The catalyst is provocative in that it makes Sylvie reconsider her own memory, which allows those around her to reignite their assault on its veracity.

A razor-sharp ensemble lends remarkable support to Chastain and Sarsgaard. Jessica Harper, in particular, is picture perfect, her sly and cheery manipulation leading to an emotional climax blistered by authenticity.

Memory is a bit of a departure for Franco, who’s films often keep audiences at arm’s length from the emotional turmoil beneath a character’s enigmatic surface. Not so here. Chastain’s slowly melting wall of ice creates real intimacy, and what she reveals beneath is raw.

She and Sarsgaard are veteran talents reveling in an opportunity to discard artifice and create something untidy. Their work, particularly in scenes together, testifies again to each actor’s remarkable skill.

Franco’s films rarely answer all the questions they ask, and can feel almost shapeless and often hopeless. Memory is a departure here as well. Though it’s far less rigidly structured than many Hollywood films, there’s a comforting structure to it and, more comforting, an undeniable spark of hope.

Shudder Premiere

Would You Be Mine? Could You Be Mine?

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Destroy All Neighbors

by Hope Madden

A film for anyone who squeezes creative passions into the hours outside other responsibilities, refuses the label “hobby” and still never manages to complete anything, Destroy All Neighbors lives that nightmare.

William (Jonah Ray) has been working and reworking the final song on his prog-rock album for ages. Years. He’s so close, but then the loudest, most aggressively weird neighbor moves in next door. Vlad (Alex Winter, who also produces) may have charmed William’s longsuffering girlfriend (Kiran Deol), but he’s pushing William to the brink of insanity. Who can get anything done with all that noise?!

William is that nonconfrontational nice guy who’s always being taken advantage of. But Vlad has pushed him too far. Which is why it will be so difficult to convince anyone that Vlad accidentally killed and dismembered his own self. But he did! Really!

Destroy All Neighbors delivers silly, sloppy horror comedy with the highly relevant message: maybe this is all your own fault. Ray (MST3K) drives the lunacy with an earnest performance. You kind of already know this guy. Hell, he could be you.

And that’s the real charm of Destroy All Neighbors. Director Josh Forbes, working from a script by Mike Benner, Jared Logan and Charles A. Pieper, isn’t wagging a finger of judgment. The finger is gently pointed inward.

The writing team comes from animation and comedy rather than horror, which may be why the film is so gleefully gory, no meanness in it. Whenever William does find his inner badass, the film makes sure he immediately regrets it.

A cameo from Kumail Nanjiani and the supporting goofiness from Lennon and Ryan Kattner as rock and roll has been Caleb Bang Jansen (say the whole name!) keep the tone silly.

Destroy All Neighbors is not a great movie. It’s definitely not a great horror movie. But it’s a light, weird, gentle reminder that you may be all that’s holding you back. (And also, loud neighbors kind of suck.)

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Violent Fantasies

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ClearMind

by Brandon Thomas

With Clear Mind, director Rebecca Eskreis and writer Seanea Kofoed craft a darkly comedic tale of revenge while also poking fun at new age therapy.

After losing her daughter in a freak drowning accident, Nora (Rebecca Creskoff) finds herself adrift in grief. Her marriage over and dropped from her friend group, Nora seeks solace in a new form of virtual reality therapy. In the virtual world, Nora gets to exact revenge against the family and friends who have wronged her. Unfortunately the violence doesn’t stay virtual. 

Despite presenting itself as a horror thriller, Clear Mind is surprising light on frights. As the carnage begins to splash across the screen later in the film, it’s only after Eskreis has subjected the audience to round after round of uncomfortable confrontations between Nora and her former friends. While the kills and gore gags might not wow horror fiends, the tension and seat-squirming anxiety created in the lead up more than makes up for it. 

Despite being high-concept, Clear Mind is not a plot heavy film. The bulk of the movie features characters simply talking to one another around a table. It’s a testament to Kofoed’s writing that while the movie is overly chatty, it’s never boring. Only when the movie stops to propel the plot forward does Clear Mind stumble.

Eskreis and Kofoed’s commentary on therapy and the people found in Nora’s friend group is so well established through character relationships that any push to highlight it through plot seems disingenuous and clunky. The genre hook of the movie feels like the part the filmmakers were the least interested in.

Despite somewhat pulling punches with its genre elements, Clear Mind is still a well written jab at pseudo-science and the people in its orbit.

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Honey Don’t

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The Beekeeper

by George Wolf

About two-thirds of the way through The Beekeeper, director David Ayer and star Jason Statham hit us with the film’s highlight. It’s an elevator sequence that takes an unexpectedly gory turn, then adds a clever surprise for the finishing touch.

If only the rest of the film could be this interesting.

Statham is playing his usual one man killing machine, this time named Adam Clay. He’s living a quiet and reclusive life as a beekeeper in rural Massachsetts, until a cybercrime firm scams Clay’s only friend (Phylicia Rashad) so badly she kills herself.

Clay takes very explosive, very lethal revenge.

But the phishing firm’s CEO Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson in hipster douchebag mode) has friends is high places, including a former CIA director (Jeremy Irons, classing up the joint). Danforth wants Clay taken out, but he soon learns that will not be so easy.

See, Clay is more than a beekeeper, he’s a former beekeeper, an elite group of enforcers who are outside the chain of command and charged only with “protecting the hive when the system is out of balance.”

Bad news for anyone standing between Clay and the scale-tipping Danforth.

Screenwriter Kurt Wimmer (Expend4bles, the Point Break and Total Recall reboots) rolls out a script that feels like a discarded idea from Denzel’s first Equalizer film. Each step closer to “the head of the snake” gets more ridiculous, all presented with a bone dry seriousness from Ayer (Fury, Suicide Squad) and Statham that screams for a little self awareness.

Instead, The Beekeeper keeps pushing toward its own misguided goal of sermonizing about corruption while celebrating vigilante vengeance. Where it lands – elevator ride aside – is strictly in plug-and-play Statham territory, another ironic reminder of why his comedic turn in Spy was such a joyous bullseye.

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Shadow Dancing

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Reflect

by Rachel Willis

Writer, director, and star Dana Kippel delivers a trippy journey through a form of psychotherapy called shadow work in her film, Reflect.

As Summer, Kippel invites participants to a spiritual retreat as a challenge of sorts in which they can win money upon completing “reflective” obstacle courses.

Accompanying her on this journey to the desert (both spiritual and literal) are three friends (and one frenemy). Each woman brings her own past traumas with her, but none of them take their upcoming journey too seriously. From the clothes they wear to the things they pack, they don’t seem to understand the gravity of what they’re getting into.

Along the way, the characters meet some odd balls – odd balls that are part of a show, The Game of Life, in which the women are unaware participants.

It’s a strange set up for sure. By putting our characters on this journey, Kippel mines the sources of trauma in each woman’s life, some of those traumas more damaging than others.

As each woman undertakes the obstacle courses, they must face their anguish. It’s part of the game, part of the journey, but it makes you wonder what exactly becomes of a person who can’t handle the pain that plagues them.

Reflect excels at delivering a game cast of women (including Grace Patterson and Jadelyn Breier) who play off each other with the authentic dynamic of friends. There is genuine affection, but also a level of cattiness that keeps the quintet from truly letting each other in. Perhaps if they were able to do so, those life traumas would not be so overwhelming.

The film’s only weak element is when Kippel cuts away from the women to the gameshow framing device. Reflect would have worked just as well as a psychedelic journey into shadow work without the added element of voyeurism.

However, Kippel wisely keeps most of our attention on Summer and her friends, revealing their baggage little by little. It’s an interesting look at how our past infects our present and influences our future. Is there a way to move forward when the past pervades our every being? Maybe, maybe not. Kippel offers no easy answers, and the film is better for it.

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Survive and Advance

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Society of the Snow

by George Wolf

2012’s The Impossible proved director J.A. Bayona could recreate a real life disaster with heart-racing precision, and then mine the intimate aftermath to find a touching depth.

Since then, he’s had his big screen mind on monsters, with results both miraculous (A Monster Calls) and mixed (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom). Now, Netflix’s Society of the Snow finds Bayona back in the true adventure business.

And his business in Society of the Snow is heartbreakingly, thrillingly, unbelievably good.

It’s the latest account of the 1972 Andes flight disaster, a legendary ordeal that has been detailed in several books and films over the last five decades plus. Bayona read Pablo Vierci’s “La Sociedad de la Nieve” while researching The Impossible, bought the rights soon after, and now teams with co-writers Bernat Vilaplana and Jaime Marques for a harrowing and fittingly reverent treatment.

Following Vierci’s lead, Bayona makes sure we get to know many of the members of the ill-fated Uruguayan rugby team, who were on their way to a long weekend in Chili when their plane – carrying 40 passengers and 5 crew members – went down among the snowy peaks.

After an introduction that endears the young men to us via enthusiastic friendship and youthful naïveté, Bayona pulls us into the crash experience with a spectacular, terrifying set piece almost guaranteed to whiten your knuckles and quicken your pulse.

It’s a stunner, as it should be, because it anchors the film in a survival mode that will be tested beyond what most people could ever imagine.

The ensemble cast, filled mainly with newcomers, is deeply affecting. The survivors will be pushed to their physical, moral and spiritual breaking points, and these young actors make sure not one exhausting second of it feels false.

Bayona and cinematographer Pedro Lugue present the Andes as a beautiful monster in its own right, capable of majesty and menace in equal measure. The smaller you feel, the better, so experience this one on the biggest screen you can find.

Forget what you know. Even if you’re aware of what these people went through, Society of the Snow will reframe the tale with a deeper level of humanity and courage. And should this legend be new to you, resist the urge to research until after you’ve seen Bayona’s take.

It’s one unforgettable journey.

Outtakes

2023 COFCA Nominations

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Nominees for the 22nd annual Columbus Film Critics Association awards 

(Columbus, December 31, 2023) The Columbus Film Critics Association is pleased to announce the nominees for its 22nd annual awards. Winners will be announced on the evening of January 4th, 2024.

Founded in 2002, the Columbus Film Critics Association is comprised of film critics based in Columbus, Ohio and its surrounding areas. Its membership consists of 28 print, radio, television, and online critics. COFCA’s official website at www.cofca.org contains links to member reviews and past award winners.  

The 2023 Columbus Film Critics Association awards nominees are:

Best Film 

–American Fiction

–Barbie

–Godzilla Minus One (Gojira -1.0)

–The Holdovers

–The Iron Claw

–Killers of the Flower Moon

–May December

–Oppenheimer

–Past Lives

–Poor Things

–Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

–The Zone of Interest

Best Director 

-Greta Gerwig, Barbie

-Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things

-Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer

-Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon

-Celine Song, Past Lives

Best Lead Performance

-Bradley Cooper, Maestro

-Leonardo DiCaprio, Killers of the Flower Moon

-Colman Domingo, Rustin

-Zac Efron, The Iron Claw

-Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers

-Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon

-Greta Lee, Past Lives

-Carey Mulligan, Maestro

-Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer

-Margot Robbie, Barbie

-Andrew Scott, All of Us Strangers

-Emma Stone, Poor Things

-Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction

Best Supporting Performance 

-Penélope Cruz, Ferrari

-Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon

-Robert Downey Jr. – Oppenheimer

-Jodie Foster, Nyad

-Ryan Gosling, Barbie

-Glenn Howerton, Blackberry

-Charles Melton, May December

-Julianne Moore, May December

-Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

-Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things

-Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers

Best Ensemble 

–Asteroid City

–Barbie

–The Color Purple

–Killers of the Flower Moon

–Oppenheimer

–Poor Things

Actor of the Year (for an exemplary body of work) 

-Willem Dafoe, Asteroid City, The Boy and the Heron (Kimitachi wa dô ikiru ka), Inside, and Poor Things

-Matt Damon, Air and Oppenheimer

-Colman Domingo, The Color Purple, Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken, Rustin, and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

-Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall (Anatomie d’une chute) and The Zone of Interest

-Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction, Asteroid City, and Rustin

Breakthrough Film Artist 

-Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon – (for acting)

-Cord Jefferson, American Fiction – (for directing and screenwriting)

-Charles Melton, May December – (for acting)

-Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers – (for acting)

-Celine Song, Past Lives – (for directing and screenwriting)

Best Cinematography 

-Matthew Libatique, Maestro

-Rodrigo Prieto, Barbie

-Rodrigo Prieto, Killers of the Flower Moon

-Robbie Ryan, Poor Things

-Hoyte Van Hoytema, Oppenheimer

Best Film Editing

-Michael Andrews, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

-Kirk Baxter, The Killer

-Nick Houy, Barbie

-Jennifer Lame, Oppenheimer

-Yorgos Mavropsaridis, Poor Things

-Thelma Schoonmaker, Killers of the Flower Moon

Best Adapted Screenplay

-Kelly Fremon Craig, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.

-Cord Jefferson, American Fiction

-Tony McNamara, Poor Things

-Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer

-Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon

Best Original Screenplay

-Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola, Asteroid City

-Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik, May December

-Sean Durkin, The Iron Claw

-Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, Barbie

-David Hemingson, The Holdovers

-Celine Song, Past Lives

-Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, Anatomy of a Fall (Anatomie d’une chute)

Best Score 

-Jerskin Fendrix, Poor Things

-Ludwig Göransson, Oppenheimer

-Laura Karpman, American Fiction

-Robbie Robertson, Killers of the Flower Moon

-Naoki Satô, Godzilla Minus One (Gojira -1.0)

Best Documentary 

–20 Days in Mariupol

–32 Sounds

–American Symphony

–Anselm (Anselm – Das Rauschen der Zeit)

–Kokomo City

–Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie

Best Foreign Language Film 

–Afire (Roter Himmel)

–Anatomy of a Fall (Anatomie d’une chute)

–The Boy and the Heron (Kimitachi wa dô ikiru ka)

–Godzilla Minus One (Gojira -1.0)

–Perfect Days

–The Zone of Interest

Best Animated Film 

–The Boy and the Heron (Kimitachi wa dô ikiru ka)

–Elemental

–Nimona

–Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

–Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Frank Gabrenya Award for Best Comedy

–American Fiction

–Asteroid City

–Barbie

–Bottoms

–The Holdovers

–No Hard Feelings

–You Hurt My Feelings

Best Overlooked Film 

–Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.

–Blackberry

–Rye Lane

–Showing Up

–Theater Camp

–You Hurt My Feelings

COFCA offers its congratulations to the nominees.

Previous Best Film winners:

2002:  Punch-Drunk Love

2003:  Lost in Translation

2004:  Million Dollar Baby

2005:  A History of Violence

2006:  Children of Men

2007:  No Country for Old Men

2008:  WALL·E

2009:  Up in the Air

2010:  Inception

2011:  Drive

2012:  Moonrise Kingdom

2013:  Gravity

2014:  Selma

2015:  Spotlight

2016:  La La Land

2017:  Lady Bird

2018:  If Beale Street Could Talk

2019:  Parasite (Gisaengchung)

2020:  Promising Young Woman

2021:  The Power of the Dog

2022:  The Banshees of Inisherin

For more information about the Columbus Film Critics Association, please visit www.cofca.org or e-mail info@cofca.org. 

The complete list of members and their affiliations: 

Richard Ades (Columbus Free Press); Dwayne Bailey (Bailey’s Buzz); Adam Barney (The Film Coterie); Sam Brady (I Am Sam Reviews); Logan Burd (Cinema or Cine-meh?); Kevin Carr (www.FatGuysattheMovies.com, Westwood One); Michael Cavender (cinedump.com, pophorror.com); Bill Clark (www.fromthebalcony.com); Olie Coen (Archer Avenue, DVD Talk); John DeSando (90.5 WCBE); Johnny DiLoretto (90.5 WCBE, PencilStorm.com); Chris Feil (FilmMixTape.com, TheFilmExperience.net); Mark Jackson (MovieManJackson.com, ThatMomentIn.com); Brad Keefe (freelance); Kristin Dreyer Kramer (NightsAndWeekends.com, 90.5 WCBE); Adam Kuhn (Corndog Chats); Roger Legg (The Film Coterie, Faith and Film); Hope Madden (Columbus Underground, WTTE-TV, MaddWolf.com); Paul Markoff (Filmbound); Denny O’Leary (Columbus Free Press); Lori Pearson (Kids-in-Mind.com, critics.com); Mark Pfeiffer (Filmbound, Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema); Melissa Starker (Freelance); Brandon Thomas (MaddWolf.com); Rachel Willis (MaddWolf.com); George Wolf (Columbus Underground, WTTE-TV, MaddWolf.com); Jason Zingale (Bullz-Eye.com); Nathan Zoebl (NathanZoebl.com, Psycho Drive-In).

Hope Madden and George Wolf … get it?