THE 11TH GREEN: a thinking person’s conspiracy

Campbell Scott in THE 11TH GREEN

Writer-director Christopher Munch notes that it’s difficult to have a serious discussion of extra-terrestrial visitors to Earth; he notes that talk of UFOs brings giggles and that “gatekeepers in the media” avoid the subject, fearing that they won’t seem smart anymore. That’s the territory he plumbs in The 11th Green. There are no lovable ETs or terrifying space monsters or flying saucers in The 11th Green, just a life-and-death conspiracy of secrets.

Suppose there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. Now it’s not much of a leap that such intelligent life would have visited Earth. If THAT has happened, then maybe humans have noticed the visitors – or maybe even humans have been contacted by the visitors.

The 11th Green starts with the premise that extraterrestrials visited and made contact in the 1950s, but the leadership of that American generation, having experienced Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds, has suppressed the news until the public can be prepared not to panic. The conspiracy of secrecy has survived to this day.

Our protagonist, Jeremy Rudd (Campbell Scott), is a DC-based science journalist. He has been estranged from his father, an Air Force General retired from the national security elite. When his father dies, Jeremy travels to his father’s home in Palm Desert, California, to handle the estate. There, he goes through his father’s stuff and meets his father’s peers, including a fascist general, an oleaginous spook and his dad’s nubile assistant.

As Jeremy unpeels the onion of his father’s career, he uncovers the story of the Millennium. And here’s where Munch launches his trademark Magical Realism. Weird shit starts happening – but all with its own internally consistent logic.

Ike and Mamie Eisenhower show up as characters in The 11th Green, along with a retired President Barack Obama and post-war Defense Secretary James Forrestal. (Jeremy’s father had been living in the former winter retirement home of President Eisenhower on the 11th green). You need to suspend disbelief here – do it.

I loved Christopher Munch’s previous film, Letters from the Big Man, a work of uncommon beauty. Munch’s magical realism worked there because he presented it absolutely straight, as if having a lovelorn Sasquatch in the forest setting was as normal as a squirrel. Sadly, Letters from the Big Man is currently difficult to find.

The cerebral and reserved Campbell Scott is perfectly cast as the offbeat, but always contained, brainiac Jeremy. Religiously scientific, Jeremy always follows the data, even when the data takes him to what others would find unbelievable. More than a little OCD, he makes the emergency trip from DC to Palm Desert – on a train!

I am resistant to science fiction generally, But I went with the story, and found The 11th Green to be absorbing and satisfying – and another completely original work from Christopher Munch. You can buy a virtual ticket for The 11th Green – and support the Roxie Theater – at Theatrical-At-Home.

2013 at the Movies: breakthroughs

Adèle Exarchopoulos in BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR

The year’s biggest breakthrough has to be 19-year-old actress Adèle Exarchopoulos, who delivered the year’s best cinematic performance in the year’s best movie, Blue is the Warmest Color.

American actress Brie Larson‘s star-making performance Short Term 12 showed her to be a big-time talent, possibly another Jennifer Lawrence.

Other remarkable breakthrough acting performances:

  • Elle Fanning in Ginger & Rosa (in which she, at her actual age of 14, played a 17-year-old).
  • Michael B. Jordan, thoughtful and charismatic in Fruitvale Station.

And here are the filmmakers whose work showed special promise:

Letters from the Big Man: Sasquatch is her stalker

Employing magical realism like Electrick Children, Letters from the Big Man is a completely original movie.  A young woman of fierce independence has left a career with the US Forest Service to do art.  Upended by a bad breakup, she takes an assignment from her former employer that conveniently requires her to do what she really needs to do – make a solo backpacking trip deep into the southern Oregon forests.

The opening quarter of the movie establishes two things.  First, the ancient Oregon forest is awesomely beautiful and inspires reflection.  Second, this woman’s wilderness skills are beyond impressive – she hikes, kayaks, chops wood, makes camp and kindles fire with great ease.  It’s clear that she is extremely experienced in the wild, and she exudes confidence.  She recognizes every plant species, snorkels to count the horns on a sturgeon and wades into streams to measure the siltation. And she can handle a handgun, too.  Wow. (Later in the movie, we see her matter-of-factually rig her bike to recharge her laptop battery with pedal power.)  She comes to realize that someone/something is following her, a thought that may terrify the audience (especially at night), but which only annoys and intrigues her.

As the young woman, Lily Rabe carries the film with her physicality and strength of will.  (Rabe is the daughter of the late Jill Clayburgh.)  Her character is also prickly, which keeps us from warming to her right away.  But she attracts the attention of two males.  The first is another backpacker, who turns out to be an environmental activist at odds with the Forest Service and ready for female company.  The second is a Bigfoot, who rages against logging in his forest, but who melts at the sight of our heroine and leaves her piles of twigs as tokens of his affection (this is the magical realism).  The movie turns on her response to her two suitors.

Writer-director Christopher Munch has created a movie of uncommon beauty, and he has the balls to include a lovelorn Bigfoot.  The magical realism works because he presents it absolutely straight, as if having a Sasquatch in the story is as normal as a squirrel.  Most of the rest of the story is extremely realistic, especially the interactions between officials of the Forest Service, environmentalist activists and loggers.  The one exception is an unnecessarily farfetched conspiracy theory about military intelligence.

Letters from the Big Man is one of the best looking and best sounding movies of the year.  Visually, it’s like trekking through wilderness (but without the insects).  And the sound track is exquisite, centered on the natural sounds of rushing water and animal calls, occasionally augmented with an ensemble’s reverential music.

Will Sasquatch get the girl?  It’s worth finding out.  Letters from the Big Man is available on VOD, including on Amazon Instant.