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Notorious

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On the Basis of Sex

by George Wolf

In his wallet, my friend Jake keeps a picture of an attractive young woman he’s never met, just so he can use it for a bar trick.

It’s a picture clearly taken decades ago, and after a few cold ones, Jake will put the snapshot in someone’s face and challenge them.

“Who is this?!”

Most times they don’t know.

“RUTH BADER GINSBURG!”

That’s just one example of the rock star status RBG has achieved since joining the Supreme Court in 1993. A progressive champion at age 85, her every sniffle draws attention while more serious issues (like the recent surgery that caused her to miss SCOTUS opening arguments for the first time) elicit regular Google searches on her health.

But behind the pop culture status and “Notorious RBG memes” lies a truly heroic life. Already profiled last year in the Oscar-contending documentary RBG, On the Basis of Sex adapts her story for a big screen feature unable to contain its pure fandom.

Biopics on such legendary figures are usually wise to keep the focus tight rather than tackle the entire life story, and OTBOS works best when it digs deep into the first gender discrimination case Ginsburg (Felicity Jones) argued in court: Moritz v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue in 1971.

She presented the case alongside husband Marty (Armie Hammer), giving the film an organic mix of the personal and professional that first-time screenwriter Daniel Stiepelman (who is also RBG’s nephew) uses as his opening to also salute the sweetness of the Ginsburg love story.

It’s an understandable approach by an understandably biased party, but one that leads the film toward a path of hagiography and intermittent schmaltz that director Mimi Leder (Deep Impact, Pay It Forward) is seldom interested in resisting.

Jones carries the film with a terrific lead performance, Hammer delivers his usual fine support, and there’s no question Ginsburg is worthy of a big screen tribute, but this one can’t free itself from the admiring glow RBG basks in today. The sexism she faced is addressed, of course, but in ways that never feel more threatening than annoying flies this Superwoman will easily swat away.

Though its finale scores big, with Jones delivering a stirring closing argument before a cheer-worthy walk up courthouse steps, On the Basis of Sex rests as a film always competent and sincere, but seldom revealing.

 

 

 

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Devil in Disguise

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El Angel

by Hope Madden

Everyone loves a good bad guy. Why is that?

That’s a question that drives Luis Orgeta’s El Angel, a fantastically stylish period piece and provocative bit of storytelling that mythologizes Argentina’s most notorious serial killer.

Lorenzo Ferro is Carlito, mischievous imp and beautiful youth. In his acting debut, Ferro mesmerizes—appropriately enough. The sleepy charisma of the performance, paired with Ortega’s beguiling direction, seduces you.

Ortega saturates every frame with color, pattern and song, creating a sensual atmosphere that mirrors the storytelling. Meanwhile, Ferro captures a fearlessness that comes from the singular desire to experience each moment as it happens with no regard for what comes after, an alluring quality for both the audience and the other players in Carlito’s world.

While the newcomer is the clear center of gravity in this film, each supporting turn is stronger than the last. Together the actors populate this charmingly unseemly world with dimensional, intriguing misfits.

Chino Darín has the beefiest role as Carlito’s best friend, partner in crime and the object of his longing. That’s a theme—longing—Ortega plays with to unsettling results. There is a sexuality to everything Carlito does, and the relationship between the two friends remains tantalizingly unarticulated.

The release the audience gets instead is in the violence of the crimes.

The way Ortega emphasizes small, curious moments and deemphasizes the brutality without looking away from it is a true feat. The film—and, indeed, the life of Carlos Robledo Puch, the murderer in question—holds a great deal of violence. Truth is, the film may not contain enough.

Ortega’s interest involves the seductive quality of the bad guy. To get at this, though, he whitewashes Puch’s crimes. Besides being a murderer and a bit of an eccentric, Puch was a rapist and kidnapper who once shot at a sleeping infant. The omissions change the film from one that explores and mirrors the seductive quality of the villain to one that manipulates true life to fit a tidier vision.

Still, the sheer off-kilter spectacle that finds its focus in small, weird moments is too great to dismiss. Like the character it creates, El Angel’s allure is too strong to resist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ypjYdv8L2M

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Slippery Slope

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Free Solo

by George Wolf

There are only so many times I can use the word “breathtaking,” so Free Solo has me inventing some new ones.

“Sweatpalming”? “Gutknotting”? “Fascinating” works, too.

It’s all of those, a totally enthralling account of one man’s quest to do the unthinkable, and the uncommon psyche that drives him to do it.

Alex Honnold became hooked on rock climbing at an early age, eventually dropping out of Cal-Berkeley to live in a van and devote himself to the climb. Recognition and sponsor money soon followed, until his increasing devotion to climbing without safety equipment (“free soloing”) caused some sponsors to withdraw support, citing concern for pushing the boundaries of risk.

Last year, Honnold realized a dream eight years in the making, becoming the first human being to free solo up the 3200 feet of granite that is El Capitan in California’s Yosemite National Park, a wall Honnold calls “the most impressive on Earth.”

Directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, plus a very visibly nervous crew, were there to document the climb with truly awe-inspiring footage that demands to be seen on the biggest screen you can find. You will marvel at the accomplishment even as you doubt Honnold’s sanity, which makes the second layer of the film that much more meaningful.

As they did with the mountain climbers in their 2015 doc Meru, Chin and Vasarhelyi want to get in their subject’s head, even following Honnold into an MRI brain exam when he wonders if there might be a biological reason for his death-defying urges.

It’s his upbringing, though, one of few displays of affection and a constant need to perform, that’s more revealing. We see Honnold as an extremely bright young man undeterred by societal concerns, yet consistently trying to self-access and become more social.

At 23, he thought it was best to practice the strange act of hugging.

A serious girlfriend, the bubbly, camera-friendly Sanni McCandless, complicates things, and as climbing legend Tommy Caldwell reminds us of the near-total mortality rate for free soloists, Honnold matter-of-factly debates any “obligation to maximize my life span.”

This is merely one contrast in a film of many. Even the filmmakers, committed as they are to the project, question the affect their very presence might have on Honnold’s decision-making. It’s all never less than compelling.

But in contrasting glorious human achievement with acceptable sacrifice, Free Solo becomes nearly unforgettable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4F3JK7oHn0

For Your Queue

I Don’t Want to Go Out—Week of January 7

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Holidays are over, work is already a drag, who wants to just snuggle up and watch a movie? There is one great one available this week. Also one that’s got some promise, even if it derails. Then there’s one that’s frustrating because we really wanted to like it.

Click the film title for the full review.

Mid90s

The Oath

Hell Fest

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Horror 101 Full Lineup Is Here!

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FULL LIST OF HORROR 101 AT GATEWAY FILM CENTER ANNOUNCED

National panel of experts selects titles for the new program

In 2017, Gateway Film Center launched its most ambitious program ever, Cult 101, which was a celebration of the best cult films of all-time. Selected by a national panel of experts, all 101 films were screened at the center in 2017, and presentations were often paired with conversations, expert analysis, and always with a healthy dose of audience affection. Many of the films were presented as restorations, sometimes in 4K, or on 70mm or 35mm film.

Now, one year later, the center will launch a companion program, Horror 101, paying tribute to the best of those films that scare, unsettle or disturb.

“As soon as Cult 101 ended, I started getting requests for more programs that were similar to it in scale and scope,” said Gateway Film Center President, Chris Hamel. “With the amazing impact these films have had on our culture, and the spirited debates horror films seem to create, Horror 101 was the obvious choice for a new program.”

National and local news outlets, filmmakers, studios, distributors, critics and programmers were selected to help the film center with its final picks. Contributors include representatives from Warner Brothers, Lionsgate, IFC Films, Paramount, MPI Media and Dark Sky Films, Magnolia Pictures, Nightmares Film Festival, Days of the Dead, Fangoria, Maddwolf, and more.

The program begins Valentine’s Day with Candyman (1992) at 7:30 p.m. The complete list of films is below, and their screening times will be revealed each quarter, treating Horror 101 as four seasons of top horror film.

The first screening schedule will be announced on January 15.

Normal Gateway Film Center ticket pricing will apply to all screenings. Most screenings are free to myGFC members. Visit www.gatewayfilmcenter.org for more information.

Here is the list of Horror 101 titles, listed alphabetically:

28 Days Later (2002)
A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
Alien (1979)
Altered States (1980)
The Amityville Horror (1979)
An American Werewolf In London (1981)
Antichrist (2009)
Audition (1999)
The Babadook (2016)
Battle Royale (2000)
Beetlejuice (1988)
The Birds (1963)
Black Christmas (1974)
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
The Cabin In The Woods (2012)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Candyman (1992)
Carnival of Souls (1962)
Carrie (1976)
Cat People (1942)
The Changeling (1980)
Child’s Play (1988)
The Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954)
Creepshow (1982)
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Dead Alive (1992)
The Descent (2005)
Don’t Look Now (1973)
Donnie Darko (2001)
Dracula (1931)
Drag Me To Hell (2009)
Eraserhead (1977)
Evil Dead II (1987)
The Evil Dead (1981)
The Exorcist (1971)
The Fly (1986)
Frankenstein (1931)
Friday the 13th (1980)
Fright Night (1985)
Get Out (2017)
Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1954)
Halloween (1978)
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
Hellraiser (1987)
Hereditary (2018)
High Tension (2003)
The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
Horror of Dracula (1958)
The House of the Devil (2009)
House On Haunted Hill (1959)
I Saw The Devil (2010)
Inside (2007)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Jacob’s Ladder (1990)
Jaws (1975)
King Kong (1933)
The Last House On The Left (1972)
Let The Right One In (2008)
The Lost Boys (1987)
Martin (1977)
Martyrs (2008)
Masque of the Red Death (1964)
Misery (1990)
The Mummy (1932)
Near Dark (1987)
Night of the Creeps (1986)
Night of the Hunter (1955)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Nosferatu (1922)
The Omen (1976)
The Orphanage (2007)
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
Paranormal Activity (2007)
The People Under The Stairs (1991)
Pet Semetary (1989)
Phantasm (1979)
Poltergeist (1982)
Psycho (1960)
Re-Animator (1985)
Return of the Living Dead (1985)
The Ring (2002)
Ringu (1998)
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Saw (2004)
Scanners (1981)
Scream (1995)
Se7en (1995)
The Shining (1980)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Suspiria (1977)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
The Thing (1982)
Trick ‘r Treat (2007)
Videodrome (1983)
The Wicker Man (1973)
The Witch (2015)
The Wolf Man (1941)
Zombie (1979)

The Screening Room

Screening Room: Beale Street, Escape Room, Liyana

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We crash into the new year with a mixture of Oscar contenders and off-season studio mediocrity: If Beale Street Could Talk, Escape Room, Liyana. We also cover all that’s new and interesting in home entertainment.

Listen in HERE.

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Familiar Pattern

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Escape Room

by Hope Madden

Man, I really liked Escape Room back in 1997 when it was called Cube.

Director Adam Robitel, who managed to do something fresh and upsetting with his 2014 feature directorial debut The Taking of Deborah Logan, here contents himself with borrowing … lifting…no, this is downright larceny.

In Vincenzo Natali’s underfunded but groundbreaking Canadian horror, Cube, six strangers—each with unique skills and backgrounds—find themselves trapped in a building and must unravel each room’s puzzle only to escape to the next room/deathtrap.

I don’t know if you’ve seen the trailer for Escape Room, but Robitel and screenwriters Maria Melnik and Bragi F. Schut have certainly seen Cube.

Cripplingly shy brainiac Zoey (Taylor Russell) is one of a handful of random strangers to receive a puzzle box in the shape of a cube. Let’s just assume that’s a nod toward the film’s source material and not a different, terrible rip off of Hellraiser.

By solving the puzzle, Zoey—and, sprinkled all over town, others—win the opportunity to attempt the most elaborate escape room ever constructed.

Actually, the architecture is weirdly familiar.

If you can get past the plagiarism and lazy theft–please add Final Destination and Saw to the list of the aggrieved—you will note that Russell and the entire cast performs quite well. Deborah Ann Woll (True Blood) impresses as a bit of a badass, while Nik Dodani endears in a small role and Tyler (Tucker and Dale vs Evil) Labine is adorable, as is almost always the case.

Many of the set pieces are pretty cool, too. One upside-down billiards room bit, in particular, holds your attention. But the game cast and sometimes fun sequences can only overcome the film’s weaknesses for so long.

Even if all these antics are new to you, the film’s predictable climax and disappointing waning moments are bound to leave you feeling that this movie could have been better.

It was once.

For Your Queue

Sit Tight, Take Hold

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Thunder Road

by Hope Madden

Thunder Road is the best film you almost certainly missed in 2018. You should rectify that situation post haste.

Jim Cummings writes, directs and stars as Officer Jim Arnaud, a man at a crossroads. Who else would be at the center of a film named for a Springsteen tune?

Like one of the year’s other most insightful and original indie gems, Hereditary, Thunder Road opens at a funeral. Also like Ari Aster’s breathless exploration of familial loss and dysfunction, Thunder Road establishes the tone for the film, the mental state and general disposition of the lead, and an unusual perspective with its opening scene.

But Cummings takes his meditation on grief and existential dread in very different directions.

As both a filmmaker and a performer, Cummings walks a tonal tightrope strung just that side of hysteria. Equally earnest and absurd, comical and heartbreaking, the film and the lead turn compel your attention, your empathy, your discomfort and your love.

You will love Officer Jim Arnaud by film’s end, not regardless but because of his epic failures and bottomless reserve of vulnerability. It is impossible not to root for him, not to feel his humiliations, not to admire his corrective measures no matter how ridiculous they are.

The filmmaker’s assembled a wonderful supporting cast. Nican Robinson, in particular, bursts through best friend/partner clichés to develop a tender character whose wearied facial expressions say more about his years of friendship than Cummings’s pitch perfect dialog could manage.

Macon Blair, Kendal Farr and Jocelyn DeBoer all bring a wonderfully familiar but nuanced small town resignation to their scenes that suits the film’s overall tone and creates an ecosystem where Jim Arnaud could certainly exist.

Cummings’s film is hilarious and unblinking, uncomfortable yet kind, and above all things, forgiving. A lot of filmmakers have taken inspiration from Springsteen’s lyrics and brought a dying blue collar American to the screen. None have done the Boss justice the way Cummings has.

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Sharing the Pen

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Liyana

by Rachel Willis

“Once upon a time, there was a girl….”

That girl is Liyana, a fictional character brought to life by the children living at Likhaya Lemphilo Lensha, a home for orphans in Swaziland.

During a storytelling workshop at the children’s home, author Gcina Mhlophe guides the boys and girls through exercises that allow them to imagine a collective story. Together, they weave a tale of a young girl facing enormous challenges.

Directors Amanda Kopp and Aaron Kopp focus primarily on five children, Phumlani, Nomcebo, Sibusiso, Mkhuleko and Zweli; their voices are the ones we hear throughout the film. By keeping these five at the center, we’re given a chance to get to know their personalities. Each tells the story in their own way. While the plot is the same, the details are unique to each child.

As the creative narrative unfolds, the audience is given glimpses into the lives of the children at Likhaya Lemphilop Lensha. We learn that many of the details of Liyana’s life reflect the children’s realities. HIV takes both of Liyana’s parents; her twin brothers are kidnapped in the dead of night by three vicious men. But Liyana faces each tragedy with determination; her hope and her fearlessness reflect the inner feeling of the children telling her story.

Liyana’s story is brought to life through a combination of the children’s words and gorgeous illustrations that animate the narrative. The film’s strengths lie in this weaving of the day to day realities of life with the vibrant story the children narrate.

The film’s most moving moments are when we’re allowed to spend time with the children. Watching them work in the garden, herd cattle, dance and play games is when the documentary shines. Though the children’s story is wonderful, it might have been a more powerful film if the directors had struck a better balance between fantasy and reality.

However, the indomitable spirit of children is the heart of the film. All of them have faced adversity, sadness and despair, but each has hope and it shines throughout the documentary. Liyana celebrates that wondrous courage.

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Voices of Experience

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If Beale Street Could Talk

by Hope Madden and George Wolf

Writer/director Barry Jenkins follows up his 2016 Oscar-winning masterpiece of a debut, Moonlight, with the ambitious goal of translating the work of a beautifully complex writer to a cinematic narrative. By respecting the material with a stirring commitment to character, If Beale Street Could Talk meets that goal with grace.

Based on the novel by James Baldwin (and the first English-language adaptation of his fiction), the film follows a struggling couple as a means to illustrate the intersecting forms of oppression facing African Americans.

Tish (KiKi Layne in an impressive feature debut) and “Fonny” (Stephan James, from Selma and Race) are a young couple in Harlem who embraces their unexpected pregnancy while struggling to prove Fonny’s innocence in a rape case.

As the surface tension is driven by the potentially dangerous chances Kiki’s mother (Regina King) takes to clear Fonny’s name, smaller, more quiet moments around the neighborhood cement Baldwin’s incisive take on what it means to be black in America.

Baldwin’s writing – a mix of brutal honesty, brilliant clarity and weary outrage – is understandably daunting as a film adaptation. Themes which breathe with life on the page can come to the screen in an awkward rush and land as heavy handed melodrama.

Jenkins, whose early script got the blessing of Baldwin’s estate even before the triumph of Moonlight, brings an elegance to the story which fits comfortably. A poetic camera, authentic characters and tender, fully realized performances—especially from the glorious King—weave together to sing the praises of Baldwin’s prose in hypnotic, and often heartbreaking fashion.

Amid a story of grim realities and American resilience lie bonds of love and family that the film never loses sight of, even in its most sober moments, which may be the most miraculous aspect of If Beale Street Could Talk.

It is a film without illusions, but one that carries the unbowed spirit of its characters on a deeply felt journey that honors its origins.