In the documentary Meet the Hitlers, we are introduced to those few people who choose NOT to change their birth name of “Hitler”. And it’s a varied bunch. We meet a delightfully confident Missouri teen girl, a workaday Ecuadorian whose parents didn’t know who Hitler was and an affable Utah oldster who might be the most jovial fellow ever to brighten up a chain restaurant. And there’s an Austrian odd duck burdened with enough personal baggage that he surely didn’t need this name. Do they see the name as a curse, and how has it affected them? It’s a theoretical question to us in the audience, but it’s compelling to see the real world responses of the film’s subjects.
And then there’s a mystery about three Americans who HAVE changed the name – because they are the last living relatives of Adolph Hitler. We follow the journalist who has been tracking them down for over a decade. (Documentarian Matt Ogens makes a great editorial choice as to whether to reveal their current names.)
Finally, there’s the disturbing saga of a New Jersey neo-Nazi who is NOT named Adolph Hitler but WANTS to be. Of course, anybody can choose to adorn themselves with a Hitler mustache and swastika tattoos and spew hatespeech, but his choices are affecting not just himself, but his children.
Some of these threads are light-hearted and some are very dark. Meet the Hitlers works so well because Ogens weaves them together so seamlessly. It’s a very successful documentary.
I first reviewed Meet the Hitlers for its premiere at Cinequest 2015. Now Meet the Hitlers is available for streaming rental from Amazon Video and Vudu and for streaming purchase from iTunes.
There’s no slick TED Talk or cool graphics in the compelling and sometimes chilling documentary The Cross of the Moment. In that way, it’s exactly the film that An Inconvenient Truth was trying NOT to be. But The Cross of the Moment is actually the more ambitious film because it’s not trying to convince us that global warming exists or is caused by humans – it’s helping us understand the bleakness of the “or else” if we don’t stall or reverse climate change.
Indeed, we hear from talking heads (really, really smart talking heads). Director Jacob Freydont-Attie has selected scientists who are as able as the great scientific popularizers like Carl Sagan and James Burke. It’s stripped down, undiluted science from scientists – but ever lively. As a result, we in the audience are able to connect the dots ourselves. We are in Deep Shit. And capitalism itself may keep us from digging our way out.
The International Film Festival of North Hollywood (IFFNOHO) will present the world premiere of The Cross of the Moment on Sunday, May 1.
PROJECTIONS OF AMERICA. Photo courtesy of PBS International.
Peter Miller’s documentary Projections of America reveals the story of American-made World War II propaganda films, designed to reassure the soon-to-be-occupied Europeans. “Propaganda” is a sinister word, and the surprise in Projections of America is how indirect, subtle and superficially benign the filmmakers were. The goal of the films was to make the liberating Americans seem not so scary, even though they were bombing Europe and then showing up heavily armed en masse and speaking only English.
The government tapped Hollywood screenwriter Robert Riskin (It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town) to make a series of movies, and Projections of America is also very much Riskin’s story. We even see Riskin’s family home movies and hear directly from his children (whose mother was the actress Fay Wray).
We are used to government propaganda being bombastic, obvious and heavy handed, which these films are not. Riskin’s team made slice-of-American-life films to showcase workaday America through the daily experiences of Americans – with their implicit American values shining through.
One film, Swedes in America, hosted by Ingrid Bergman, showed just one tile in the American mosaic, but the everyday lives of Swedish-Americans resonated with other European ethnicities, who could imagine themselves comfortable in American society. Another movie focused on a popular American immigrant from Italy, Arturo Toscanini. And still another film brought a boy from bombed-out Britain to the American West to show him the real-life cowboy experience firsthand (how cool that must have been!).
The most popular movie in the series was Autobiography of a Jeep, which tracked every step of a Jeep’s journey from its American assembly plant to its use in wartime Europe – with the Jeep’s internal dialogue as the film’s narration.
The movies, of course, show a favorable and idealized, but not completely phony, view of America. Certainly, the films did not dwell on problems of American society, such as racial segregation. One movie depicts a small town receiving European refugees at first with distrust, but finally with acceptance. The overall impact of the movies was to depict America and Americans as free, boisterous and alive with possibilities. That, at its core, was not untruthful.
Projections of America is narrated by John Lithgow.
The International Film Festival of North Hollywood (IFFNOHO) will host Projections of America’s LA premiere on Saturday, April 30. Autobiography of a Jeep is also playing separately at IFFNOHO.
I challenge anyone to watch the first one minute of the absorbing documentary Gazelle: The Love Issue without wanting to see more of Gazelle Paulo and his art. Gazelle’s art defies easy description – an unusual combination of fashion and performance art. He dresses, models, takes photos of others and has turned his photo blog (FreakChic.com) into the magazine Gazelle. In Gazelle: The Love Issue, director Cesar Terranova gives us the unvarnished Gazelle, with glimpses of the most personal aspects of his life and relationships.
Gazelle creates striking clothes and makeup that project ideas and feelings. Descriptions like “drag queen” or Gazelle’s own understated “dressing up to go out” are totally inadequate and misleading. Whether it’s funny or disturbing, this stuff is real art, more avant-garde than campy. And as art must be to be good, Gazelle’s is ever evocative.
Spending 94 minutes with Paulo is pretty easy because he’s so gentle and humble despite his flamboyant, even exhibitionistic, behavior. He’s an island of genuine kindness in a sea of snark and bitchiness.
The International Film Festival of North Hollywood (IFFNOHO) is showcasing the LA premiere of Gazelle: The Love Issue as the festival’s opening night film on Thursday, April 28, and it’s a sure-fire crowd-pleaser.
David Oyelowo and Dianne Wiest in FIVE NIGHTS IN MAINE. Photo courtesy of San Francisco Film Society
An Atlanta man (David Oyeowlo) suddenly loses his wife to an auto accident and is completely shattered by the depth and the jarring abruptness of his loss. Pushed by his sister out of his paralysis, he drives up to Maine to visit his wife’s mother (Dianne Wiest). She is a person who is generally harsh, judgemental and irritating at all times, but is more so now that her own health is failing. His experience becomes the antithesis of the comfort and support that one would expect. As she probes and spars with him, the two are each driven to their own catharsis. The end of Five Nights in Maine also comes abruptly, leaving us to reflect on the lessons learned by the leading characters and how their grief is resolved.
Five Nights in Maine uses a handheld camera and LOTS of close=ups. This was a conscious choice by first-time writer-director Maris Curran, who sought a “closing in” effect because “grief is claustrophobic”.
Dianne Wiest’s performance is an awards-worthy tour de force. Flashing fiery looks and shooting piercing remarks from an invariably rigid posture, she commands our attention every moment that she is on-screen. As we would expect, Oyewolo is outstanding, especially in the early scenes where he collapses into shock. Rosie Perez, not as sassy, but every bit as appealing as usual, is rock solid in the supporting role as the mother’s nurse. As the sister, Tenoyah Parris (Chi-Raq, Dear White People, Mad Men) gives yet another flawless performance.
I saw Five Nights in Maine at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF), where Director Maris Curran, producer Carly Hugo and actor David Oyelowo appeared at the screening. Curran said she was motivated to write a story about as her own marriage was falling apart; when the ground was pulled out from under her, she created a protagonist in that situation.
Aiming for a sensual look to an emotional film, Curran was able to snare Tunisian cinematographer Sofian El Fani, fresh from his exquisite work in from Blue Is the Warmest Color, for his first American film. Budgeted for a 19-day shoot,the crew finished in only 18.
Oyewolo, happily married for 18 years, found exploring the territory of losing his wife to be very uncomfortable. for him. Five Nights in Maine was shot right after Selma, so his exhaustion from Selma helped him find this “hollowed-out” character. Oyewolo sees Five Nights in Maine as a fish out of water story – not just geographically but emotionally (a man not used to or prepared for grief). Oyewolo prefers women directors “wants to be part of stories that are emotionally challenging”.
Fortunately, Curran leavens this dark-themed story with bits of sharp humor. It’s an emotionally affecting and authentic movie. The U.S. theatrical release of Five Nights in Maine is expected in late summer or early fall 2016.
In December, 1970, an addled Elvis Presley was isolated and indulged by his hangers-on and feeling cranky enough to shoot out a TV set in Graceland. He decided that he needed a “federal agent at large” badge, and his quest sparked an impromptu visit to the Nixon White House, resulting in the all-time most requested photo from the National Archives (below). All this really happened, and the historical comedy Elvis & Nixon imagines the details, with the iconic characters fleshed by two of our finest screen actors, Michael Shannon (Elvis) and Kevin Spacey (Richard Nixon).
In the movies, Shannon usually projects a hulking menace, but here he uses his imposing presence to dominate and suck the oxygen out of a room. Of course, Shannon doesn’t have the sexual energy of Elvis, but his intensity makes up for it. As impaired and wacky as Shannon’s Elvis is, he can be a charming flatterer and knows how to make the most of his celebrity and sexual power. He wins over Nixon by bringing up their common distaste for commies and the Beatles, and shamelessly complementing Nixon’s homely looks.
Spacey goes beyond impersonation of Nixon’s well-known mannerisms to reach the seasoned pol, the cagey and amoral tactician, the doting father, and, above all, a man submerged in an unquenchable pool of resentfulness. In particular, Spacey perfectly delivers one classically Nixonian chip-on-the-shoulder monologue. And few can portray social awkwardness as well as Spacey.
In Elvis & Nixon, Nixon forces himself to keep a straight face as Elvis explains that “I want to go undercover”. Because his movie experience has given him a mastery of disguises, Elvis continues, he can infiltrate the Rolling Stones and the Black Panthers, slipping back and forth between them with no one the wiser. [Note: There were only five Rolling Stones – wouldn’t they have noticed a sixth one?] The real Elvis reportedly coveted the federal badge so he could take his guns and drugs on airplanes.
The two men size each other up and probe. Each man is using the meeting for his own ends. The humor comes from Elvis’ eccentricities and the hopelessly square and insecure Nixon’s reactions.
Elvis & Nixon is not a guffaw fest, but it has a few LOL moments. Otherwise unadorned, the Elvis-Nixon meeting itself is bizarre enough, but Shannon and Spacey make it especially worthwhile.
Athina Rachel Tsangari, director of CHEVALIER. Photo courtesy of San Francisco Film Society
This year’s San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) includes movies from 50 women directors. Some are high-profile (by indie standards):
Academy Award-winning documentarian Barbara Kopple (Harlan County U.S.A.) brings Miss Sharon Jones!. Sure to be a festival crowd-pleaser, this doc chronicles the salty Dap Kings frontwoman and her fight against cancer.
Oscar-nominated Chris Hegedus (The War Room), with her directing partner D.A. Pennebaker, has the animal welfare doc Unlocking the Cage; and
Elyse Steinberg’s Weinerwas the top documentary hit at the most recent Sundance.
Among the foreign choices, the Must See is one of the funniest movies at the fest, the Greek comedy Chevalier from director Athina Rachel Tsangari. Obviously a keen observer of male behavior, Tsangari delivers a sly and pointed exploration of male competitiveness, with the moments of drollness and absurdity that we expect in the best of contemporary Greek cinema. This is Tsangari’s second visit to SFIFF – in 2011, she brought her hilariously offbeat Attenberg.
Other strong choices from women directors include:
NUTS! from director Penny Lane – a persistently hilarious (and finally poignant) documentary about the rise and fall of a medical and radio empire – all built on goat testicle “implantation” surgery in gullible humans.
Suite Armorcaine, the character-driven drama from French director Pascale Breton;
Five Nights in Maine, a showcase for David Oyelowo, Dianne Wiest and Rosie Perez from writer-director Maris Curran.
Here’s the complete list of women directors with entries at the 2016 San Francisco International Film Festival:
As I Open My Eyes, Leyla Bouzid, Tunisia/France/Belgium Audrie & Daisy, Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk, USA Ayiti Mon Amour, Guetty Felin, Haiti/USA Between Us: Experimental Shorts (Rock, Clay, Sand, Straw, Wood, Something Between Us, Starfish Aorta, Winter Trees) Cameraperson, Kirsten Johnson, USA Check It, Dana Flor, Toby Oppenheimer, USA Chevalier, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece The Fits, Anna Rose Holmer, USA Five Nights in Maine, Maris Curran, USA Granny’s Dancing on the Table, Hanna Sköld, Sweden/Denmark haveababy, Amanda Micheli, USA The Innocents, Anne Fontaine, France/Poland Irving M. Levin Directing Award: An Afternoon with Mira Nair: Monsoon Wedding Maggie’s Plan, Rebecca Miller, USA Miss Sharon Jones!, Barbara Kopple, USA Mountain, Yaelle Kayam, Israel/Denmark National Bird, Sonia Kennebeck, USA No Home Movie, Chantal Akerman, Belgium/France NUTS!, Penny Lane, USA Operator, Logan Kibens, USA Our Kind of Traitor, Susanna White, UK The Return, Kelly Duane de la Vega, Katie Galloway, USA Shorts 1 (In Attla’s Tracks, Seide) Shorts 2 (Partners, The Send-Off) Shorts 3: Animation (Edmond, Glove) Shorts 4: New Visions (My Aleppo, False Start, Sept. – Oct. 2015, Cizre) Shorts 5: Family Films (Bunny New Girl, The Casebook of Nips & Porkington, Mother, Welcome to My Life) Shorts 6: Youth Works (Child for Sale, From My Head To Hers, I Don’t Belong Here Run, Run Away) Sonita, Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami, Germany/Switzerland/Iran Suite Armoricaine, Pascale Breton, France Thirst, Svetla Tsotsorkova, Bulgaria Under the Gun, Stephanie Soechtig, USA Unlocking the Cage, Chris Hegedus, D.A. Pennebaker, USA The Watermelon Woman, Cheryl Dunye, USA Weiner, Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg, USA Wild, Nicolette Krebitz, German
CHEVALIER. Photo courtesy of Strand Releasing and San Francisco Film Society
There are plenty of high-profile movies at the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) this weekend, including the surefire audience-pleaser Miss Sharon Jones! and an appearance by Monsoon Wedding’s Mira Nair. But some other gems are screening under the radar. Here are my picks:
The brilliant Greek comedy Chevalier is this weekend’s Must See and a contender for the festival’s funniest film. Obviously a keen observer of male behavior, from director Athina Rachel Tsangari delivers a sly and pointed exploration of male competitiveness, with the moments of drollness and absurdity that we expect in the best of contemporary Greek cinema. Chevalier screens at 8 PM on Saturday night at the Alamo Drafthouse New Mission ,and director Tsangari is expected to attend.
Dead Slow Ahead– a visually stunning and an often hypnotic film, shot on a massive freighter on its voyage across vast ocean expanses with its all-Filipino crew. Dead Slow Ahead plays the Alamo Drafthouse New Mission.on Saturday night at 9 PM.
Leaf Blower – a gentle Mexican slice-of-life comedy, with three young guys drifting though rudderless adolescence, doing what teenage males do – busting each others balls, wasting time, and achieving new heights of social awkwardness and sexual frustration. Leaf Blower screens on Sunday night at 9:45 at the Alamo Drafthouse New Mission and director Alejandro Iglesias Mendizábal is expected to attend.
I’ll be at the 59th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) for much of the next two weeks; the fest runs through May 5. Throughout the fest, I’ll be linking more festival coverage to my SFFIF 2016 page, including both features and movie recommendations. Follow me on Twitter for the very latest coverage.Here’s some of my early SFIFF coverage:
Here’s my slate of recommended movies in theaters this week:
Ethan Hawke’s performance makes the Chet Baker biopic Born to Be Bluea success.
Thriller meets thinker in Eye in the Sky, a parable from modern drone warfare starring Helen Mirren and with a wonderful final performance from the late Alan Rickman.
I enjoyed every minute of Jake Gyllenhaal’s breakdown in Demolition (but was ambivalent about why I did).
Everybody Wants Some!! is a dead-on 1980 time capsule and an amusing frolic with lots of ball busting and girl chasing – but probably more fun for a heterosexual male audience.
Tom Hiddleston makes a believable Hank Williams, but that can’t save the plodding I Saw the Light, which fails to capture any of the pathos in Hank’s life and death.
This week’s Stream of the Week is Trumbo, the thought-provoking blacklist biopic with its Oscar-nominated performance by Bryan Cranston. Trumbo is now available to stream on Amazon Video, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and a host of PPV outlets.
This week on Turner Classic Movies, I recommending the April 25 airing of John Ford’s seminal 1939 Stagecoach. The 32-year-old John Wayne had been in 80 movies, but this one made him a star – Ford’s Cavalry Trilogy, Red River,The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, True Grit and The Shootist were all yet to come. This is the prototypical Western. John Ford perfects elements that others would make into cliches (Andy Devine’s stagecoach driver, John Carradine’s shady gambler, Claire Trevor’s saloon girl with a heart of gold). The Indian attack features two great stunts on the team of horses by famous stuntman Yakima Canutt – one as an Indian and the second doubling for Wayne. And Ford shot it in spectacular Monument Valley. John Wayne’s searing performance in Ford’s The Searchers also plays on April 25 on TCM.
Weiner – This hit from the Sundance and New Directors film festivals is an inside look at Anthony Weiner’s cringeworthy, self-immolating campaign for New York City Mayor;
Miss Sharon Jones! – Sure to be a festival crowd-pleaser, this doc chronicles the salty Dap Kings frontwoman and her fight against cancer. From Academy Award-winning documentarian Barbara Kopple (Harlan County U.S.A.);
Unlocking the Cage– an animal welfare doc from storied filmmakers Chris Hegedus (The War Room) and D.A. Pennebaker (Monterey Pop and The War Room); and
The Bandit, in the coveted slot as the festivals’ Closing Night film, documents the real life bromance between Burt Reynolds and iconic stuntman Hal Needham that led to Needham’s Smokey and the Bandit movies.
But some of the best docs in the fest are less well-known nuggets:
NUTS! – a persistently hilarious (and finally poignant) documentary about the rise and fall of a medical and radio empire – all built on goat testicle “implantation” surgery in gullible humans.
Dead Slow Ahead– a visually stunning and an often hypnotic film, shot on a massive freighter on its voyage across vast ocean expanses with its all-Filipino crew.
Under the Sun – a searing insight into totalitarian North Korean society, all from government-approved footage that tells a different story than the wackadoodle dictatorship intended.
