Movies

LA CHIMERA: six genres for the price of one

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Photo caption: Carol Duarte and Josh O’Connor in LA CHIMERA. Courtesy of Neon.

The star of the Italian genre-shifter La Chimera is really its director, Alice Rohrwacher, with her inventive storytelling. Rohrwacher’s story does have a protagonist, Arthur (Josh O’Connor – the marriage-age Prince Charles in The Crown); when we meet him, he is grubby, weary and returning to a Tuscan village where his heart has been broken by a woman and where he has been betrayed by friends. We wonder what has drawn this Italian-speaking Englishman back to a place that hasn’t treated him well.

He shows up at the villa of Flora (Isabella Rossellini), the mother of his disappeared girlfriend, Beniamina. Flora adores him, and her new housekeeper/companion/voice student Italia (Carol Duarte) is quite taken by him. He is also welcomed by a rabble of village ne’er-do-wells, as rowdy and vibrant as Arthur is surly, and as course as Arthur is cultured.

It turns out that these vulgar roughnecks are tombaroli – nighttime robbers of ancient Etruscan graves, who then sell the artifacts to a more sophisticated fence, to be trafficked in the shady marketplace of antiquity dealers, collectors and ethically-challenged museums. It turns out that Arthur, who seems to know a lot about archaeology, has a gift in water witching the locations of undiscovered tombs.

La Chimera, which has started out as a dramatic portrait of a man broken and alienated, becomes a heist procedural, and then a comic thriller, and a charming romance (as Italia gives Arthur “Italian lessons” in gestures, not vocabulary). There’s a sudden break in the fourth wall, a dream sequence with magical realism and even an homage to Mack Sennett. All the while, the tombaroli serve as a comic Grek chorus, right up to a neo-noir ending, dotted with yet more magical realism.

Here’s where La Chimera was a success for me. I always wanted to know what would happen next. I was continually surprised by the changes in tone. The Wife, however, thought that Rohrwacher threw in at least one genre too many.

But by bit, and rarely overtly, Rohrwacher unspools the mysteries of the backstory. Why is Arthur here? What happened to Beniamina? What is Arthur’s bond to these trashy scalliwags? Does Arthur have a professional training, a supernatural gift or both? By the end, we have a pretty good idea of the answers – well enough to make the story coherent without Rohrwacher spoonfeeding us all the exposition.

When I think about it, other than the novelty of the graverobbing, the plot points are individually familiar – a bitter release from prison, heartbreak from losing a love, the heist, the noirish fatalism. What keeps us on our toes is the inventiveness in the film’s evolving tone.

However, my head was also more involved than my heart, probably because I cared about the the Flora ad Italia characters so much more than I cared about Arthur.

The cast is very good, with Rossellini (what a treasure!) and Duarte as the standouts.

I appreciate a filmmaker who is always aware that she’s storytelling in cinema, instead of, for example, just filming a play. Rohrwacher takes full advantage of the opportunities to vary sequence, construction, and mood. La Chimera is a Must See for cinephiles.

MONKEY MAN: a massacre, one bad guy at a time

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Photo caption: Dev Patel in MONKEY MAN, Courtesy of Universal Pictures.

Monkey Man is a vividly colored and kinetic revenge thriller staring its director and co-writer, the ever sympathetic Dev Patel. It’s also relentlessly violent and, ultimately, empty.

The story is simple, Kid (Patel) is driven to exact vengeance for an atrocity by killing the head bad guy, and so must first kill his way through scores, perhaps hundreds, of the minor bad guys, one or two at a time. I like seeing bad guys get violently chewed up as much as the next guy, but the vastness of the bad guy fodder in Money Man became tiresome.

Now, I love watching Dev Patel, so good in Slumdog Millionaire, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Lion, The Green Knight and The Personal History of David Copperfield. He is magnetic and equipped with what Manohla Dargis calls his “melting eyes that he can light up or expressively dim to create a sense of vulnerability”.

Monkey Man is clearly an homage to Bruce Lee, amplified by the filmmaking advances of the 50 years since Enter the Dragon. Indeed, Patel has studied Taekwando since childhood (not apparent when he’s playing a Dickensian character, for example).

We’ve always known that Dev Patel can act. Monkey Man proves that Dev Patel can carry an action picture. And Monkey Man, with its clever action sequences, speedy pacing and blazing color palette, proves that Dev Patel can direct, too.

When you have dispatch this many bad guys with one’s bare hands, some imagination is required. One instance, with a knife in the throat, will be talked about for decades.

Patel takes a shot at Hindu nationalism in India and a thinly-veiled swipe at prime minister Modi. I noted that Patel is a Brit of Gujarati Indian heritage, some generations removed from India itself. But the need to take on racism and intolerance is universal, so good for him.

Nevertheless, I left Monkey Man unsatisfied. The only unpredictability was whether Kid would kill the next bad guy with a kitchen utensil or the glass door of an oven. The next day, however, I thought about the kind of crap that teenage boys watch, and Monkey Man’s artsy filmmaking, the hint of a political message, and the Indian setting would constitute an elevated alternative. I just can’t think of why an adult cinephile would need to see it.

MATTER OF MIND: MY PARKINSON’S: real, uplifting, essential

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Photo caption. Isa and Veronica Garcia-Hayes in MATTER OF MIND: MY PARKINSON. Courtesy of PBS Independent Lens.

The surprisingly uplifting documentary Matter of Mind: My Parkinson’s shines a light on Parkinson’s disease, and what we need to know about it. An estimated one million Americans are living with Parkinson’s, and the key to Matter of Mind’s success is in introducing us to three of them – a Brooklyn optician, a San Francisco fitness trainer and an Alaskan cartoonist – and their families. On April 8, Matter of Mind: My Parkinson’s becomes available on PBS’ Independent Lens and the PBS App..

Parkinson’s is incurable and degenerative, and attacks motor abilities. Matter of Mind does not sugar coat the symptoms, ranging from from tremors, falling and speech impairment to dementia and depression. Nevertheless, there are now medicines and surgeries ((including deep brain stimulation)) that can impact the symptoms.

We watch the three subjects and their families, all engaging and relatable, explore the medical treatments, with their risks and tradeoffs, and adapt to getting the most out of their lives, even with Parkinson’s. Matter of Mind emphasizes the impacts on family members and the importance of family in supporting each sufferer’s response.

The 54-minute format of Independent Lens fits this subject matter exceptionally well – long enough to explain the science without becoming an eat-your-broccoli slog.

This is the second in a series of three documentaries on neurodegenerative diseases from co-writers and co-directors Anna Moot-Levin and Laura Green; the others are on ALS and Alzheimer’s. I’m usually not keen on disease movies, but Matter of Mind: My Parkinson’s is so good, and Parkinson’s so prevalent and inadequately understood, that this is essential viewing.

THE TASTE OF THINGS: two passions – culinary and romantic

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Photo caption: Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel in THE TASTE OF THINGS. Courtesy of IFC Films.

The French romantic drama The Taste of Things is the story of a man consumed by two passions – an obsession with gastronomy and a profound love for a woman. It’s also one of the mouthwatering movies in the history of cinema.

The man is Dodin (Benoit Magimel), a famous gourmand in 1884 France, a key moment in the history of the culinary arts, when the master French chef Escoffier was still in his 30s. The woman adored by Dodin is Eugenie (Juliette Binoche), not coincidentally his live-in cook.

The Taste of Things begins with a long scene (15+ minutes) as Eugenie leads a team in producing an elaborate garden to table meal, with every ingredient prepared old school, the long and hard way. Fish quenelles are formed by hand, shrimp shells are boiled into a stock, and the quenelles are pached in the shrimp stock. It takes hours for a rack of veal turned into an OMG marvel. It turns out that this is a multi-course feast prepared for Dodin and his chatty four buddies. The guys all fall SILENT when the consommé appears, and then, as the courses pile up, don’t say anything more that isn’t about the meal itself or the history of gastronomy.

The fruit of Eugenie’s labor, exquisitely photographed, are the height of food porn. One highlight is a spectacular vol-au-vent. When Eugenue shows up with a giant croissant-like thing (a giant bioche?) that she and the four buddies dig into with their hands, there were audible gasps from the audience at the screening.

There’s even a scene with a culinary Holy Grail, now illegal in the US, fabled ortolans devoured as per tradition, with the diners’ heads under their napkins. Of course gastronomy, as any human endeavor, can be taken to silly extremes, which is illustrated by a dinner for Dodin and his friends, hosted by a prince under the mistaken impression that more is always better.

Eugenie prepares masterpiece after masterpiece for Dodin until her health falters, giving him the opportunity to express his love by preparing and serving her an even more formidable dinner.

The Taste of Things is a film by writer-director Anh Hung Tran, who certainly knows his way around movie passion and movie foods (The Scent of Green Papaya).

Benoit Magimel and Juliette Binoche in THE TASTE OF THINGS. Courtesy of IFC Films.

It’s always a pleasure to watch the radiant Juliette Binoche, especially when she’s playing an endearing character like Eugenie, who keeps resisting Dodin’s offers of marriage even as she values his culinary partnership and welcomes him into her bed. Their relationship is perfectly summed up in the epilogue when Eugenie asks Dodin a question and receives his answer with bliss. She feels loved – and on her terms.

The Wife liked The Taste of Things less than I did, in part because she was less entertained by the long scenes of meal preparation, which captivated me. (I am The Movie Gourmet, after all.)

We both, however, thoroughly enjoyed the character of the culinary child prodigy Pauline (Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire), especially her reaction to her first Baked Alaska and her growing into a peer of Dodin’s.

The Taste of Things was France’s submission to the Academy Awards. It’s going on my list of Best Foodie Movies. It’s now available to stream from Amazon and AppleTV..

GOLDEN YEARS: when dreams diverge

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Photo caption: Stefan Kurt and Esther Gemsch in GOLDEN YEARS. Courtesy of Music Box Films.

The Swiss dramedy Golden Years begins as Peter (Stefan Kurt) turns 65 and retires. His wife Alice (Esther Gemsch) has been eagerly awaiting this day, which she sees as an opportunity for travel and to rekindle intimacy with Peter. In contrast, Peter doesn’t seem to have been thinking about it at all, but he begins to be consumed with his physical health and suddenly transforms himself into a mountain biking, vegan workout king. Alice wants to downsize, but he wants to stay in their house. Travel doesn’t interest Peter, but he feels trapped into joining Alice on a Mediterranean cruise that their adult children have gifted them.

Esther’s best friend unexpectedly dies, and Peter impulsively invites her heartbroken husband to join them on the cruise, which appalls Esther, who wants Peter to herself on the cruise. Esther has read her late friend’s hidden cache of letters and has stumbled on an explosive secret. Esther’s annoyance from Peter’s inattention simmers until it boils over into she staggers Peter by embarking on her own adventure.

Esther Gemsch, Ueli Jaggi and Stefan Kurt in GOLDEN YEARS. Courtesy of Music Box Films.

At this point, Golden Years departs from a comedy of manners into an exploration of dual self-discoveries. Indeed, there are Men-are-from-Mars moments when Peter is a clueless dunderhead about Esther’s expectations. But Peter’s needs have evolved, too, and Esther has also mistakenly assumed that he will want to do want she wants to do.

We all know couples who drift totally apart after decades of marriage, and there must be some couples who age with identical interests. Many couple have different, but complementary aspirations, or can build a new life together around some core commonality. The question that Alice and Peter face is, where are they on this continuum?

Will Alice and Peter compromise? Will they be able to accommodate each others’ needs? Will they live separate lives? Is there a Win Win?

Screenwriter Petra Volpe (The Divine Order) probes these questions in a consistently funny and engaging movie with a minimum of senior citizen tropes or cheap geezer cheap jokes. (It is very funny, though, when Peter’s Gen X co-worker brightly tells him that his old office will become a server room.)

Esther Gemsch in GOLDEN YEARS. Courtesy of Music Box Films.

Director Barbara Kulcsar keeps the story sprightly paced and maintains just the right balance between comedy and the more serious issues. Alice is the primary focus of the story, and the performance of actress Esther Gemsch is especially strong.

Golden Years can now be streamed from Amazon, Vudu and YouTube.

LOVE LIES BLEEDING: obsessions and impulses collide

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Photo caption: Katy O’Brian and Kristen Stewart in LOVE LIES BLEEDING. Courtesy of A24.

Love Lies Bleeding is a title that legendary film noir director Sam Fuller would have loved, and this highly original neo-noir is a knockout. Kristen Stewart plays Lou, the reluctant manager of a downscale fitness gym in a hardscrabble New Mexico town that is flat, arid and devoid of culture. Love Lies Bleeding may be set in and shot in New Mexico, but this town is not anybody’s Land of Enchantment.

Lou is wallowing through the drudgery of her job, when she eyes Jackie (Katy O’Brian), an aspiring bodybuilder who has just drifted into town. This moment evokes the one in which John Garfield first sees Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice. The two plunge into a passionate affair, and Jackie, who has snagged a job on her first day in town but is still homeless, moves in with Lou.

But soon, the two find out that Jackie has already become entangled with two folks who are important in Lou’s life – and not in a good way. There’s an impetuous homicide and a “perfect crime” cover-up. Unfortunately, an inconvenient witness, a steroid binge, and more impulsiveness threaten to unravel their lives. Love Lies Bleeding hurtles down an alley filled with robust sex, sudden violence and witty observation.

I will not spoil the ending except to say that, just as I was thinking, “this could go one of three ways”, it went in a totally unexpected direction. And, as I was thinking that writer-director Rose Glass was pivoting completely away from noir conventions, she ends the film with one of the most noirish lightings of a cigarette ever. This is only Glass’s second feature, co-written with Weronika Tofiska. Glass’ 2019 debut feature, St. Maud, earned some buzz.

Like many noirs, this is a tale of obsessions, and it’s a character-driven one, contrasting Lou and Jackie. Lous is measured and intentional, and we learn that her prioritization of loyalty has kept her in this place. Loyalty, and pretty much everything else, is situational for Jackie, whose unfocused wanderlust is another symptom of her captivity to her impulses. Lou is obsessed with Jackie. Jackie is obsessed with reinventing her life, through bodybuilding, through sex, through the next shiny thing.

Kristen Stewart is just so watchable, as she was when I first saw the 17-year-old Stewart in as Tracy in 2007’s Into the Wild. Stewart then bit her lower lip through the Twilight franchise, and, now about to turn 34, is at the top of her game. Stewart is fearless in her choice of scripts and likes to bet on interesting directors. She’s just perfect as Lou in Love Lies Bleeding.

This is the first time I’ve seen Katy O’Brian, and there’s just no getting around that she doesn’t look like most other movie actresses. She’s a martial arts instructor who doesn’t rely on her physicality alone, but uses it to great advantage. O’Brian captures Jackie’s supreme confidence (except when her family rejection bubbles to the surface, and how she is capable of one of the epic steroidal rages. She’s already amassed 27 IMDb credits, including a recurring role on The Mandalorian.

If you’re casting a villain with steely and contained determination, who better than four-time Oscar nominee Ed Harris? Harris comes through as expected, and Glass wittily puts him in a bald-on-top stringy wig that evokes Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. She also gives the character a disgusting interest in bugs.

The rest of the cast is very good, too, including Dave Franco, Jena Malone and Anna Barishnikov, who must be pretty intelligent to play such a profoundly dumb character with such intricacy.

Their obsessions drive Lou and Jackie together in Love Lies Bleeding, and it’s a volatile mix with a wowzer ending.

Cinequest movies go on-line today

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Photo caption: Tim Blake Nelson in THE INVISIBLES. Courtesy of Cinequest.

Cinequest’s live, in-person film festival ended this week, but you now you can stream some of the program through Cinequest’s virtual platform, Cinejoy from March 21-31.

The offerings include the two Must See films in my Best of Cinequest:

I also recommend

There’s also a special virtual event for The Invisibles  on March 23 and one for the fine comedy Hailey Rose on March 30.

Screening tickets are available at Cinejoy. Here’s the trailer for Pain and Peace (world premiere at Cinequest):

THE INVISIBLES: choosing to live again

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Tim Blake Nelson and Gretchen Mol in THE INVISIBLES. Courtesy of Cinequest.

In the engrossing dramatic parable The Invisibles, Charlie (Tim Blake Nelson) has become so disengaged from his job and his marriage that he becomes invisible – at first metaphorically and then literally – to those around him. Charlie is finding this disturbing enough, but then he happens on an entire community of invisible people like him in a parallel dimension. Can they return to the world of the visible? And do they want to?

The invisibles hang out together in a decrepit bowling alley, led by Carl the affable bartender (Bruce Greenwood). Charlie learns that the invisibles have each experienced a loss, a disappointment or a betrayal so devastating that they have each given up on life in some way. But there’s no more emotional pain in the invisible world, and the bowling alley is a hub of merrymaking.

Charlie and his wife Hannah (Gretchen Mol) have suffered a grievous loss; Hannah has been working hard to recover, but the grief has paralyzed Charlie into a toxic mire of denial, avoidance and apathy.

As Charlie finds himself torn between his love for his wife and the comfort of the invisible world, The Invisibles explores the how people react to the pain of loss and the painful process of getting beyond it. The ingenious metaphor of the parallel universes is the creation of writer-director Andrew Currie. He wrote and directed Fido, one of my Zombie Movies for People Who Don’t Like Zombie Movies.

Tim Blake Nelson is an acting treasure, and he’s at the top of his game here. Mol and Greenwood are excellent, too, as is Nathan Alexis as one of the invisibles.

Cinequest hosted the world premiere of The Invisibles today and will present a second screening tomorrow, March 11. The Invisibles is highlighted as one of two Must See films in my Best of Cinequest.

Tim Blake Nelson and Gretchen Mol in THE INVISIBLES. Courtesy of Cinequest.

THE ISLAND BETWEEN THE TIDES: what dimension is this?

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Paloma Kwiatkowski in THE ISLAND BETWEEN THE TIDES. Courtesy of Cinequest.

The Island Between the Tides: In this supernatural thriller, a young girl wanders away from her parents on the isolated British Columbia coastline and returns seemingly the same. As a young woman, she disappears again, and this time returns 20 years later, but at the same age as when she left. She’s trying to figure out what has happened, as is the family who has been grieving her loss for twenty years, not to mention her son, who is now older than she is. They and the audience are bouncing between the unsettling possible explanations of delusion and disassociation, ghosts or a dimension where beings move to and may be trapped in different times.

The story is based on the play Mary Rose by Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie, which I’ve read that Hitchcock wanted to adapt, but couldn’t overcome studio suits finding it “too troubling”. Impressive feature debut for writer-directors Austin Andrews and Andrew Holmes. 

Paloma Kwiatkowski is good as the protagonist, and she is ably supported by Donal Logue, Camille Sullivan and David Mazouz. I always enjoy Adam Beach, and here he gets to play a sunny, non-brooding role,

Cinequest hosts the world premiere as Cinequest’s opening night film. The Island Between the Tides is one of my Best of Cinequest.

Laughs at Cinequest

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Photo caption: Megan Seely in PUSDDYSTICKS. Courtesy of Cinequest.

The 2024 Cinequest offers a rich menu of comedies: Here are five good ones:

  • Human Resources: In this dark, dark Argentinian comedy, Gabriel Lynch (Pedro De Tavira) is an alienated office worker, in an absurdly alienating workplace. Gabriel is a low-level supervisor on an anonymous lower floor of a corporate hive with too many layers of management and an oppressive, top-down culture. It’s also oversexed, with a carousel of Inappropriate office liaisons. Gabriel, an Iago with a sick sense of humor, begins a ruthless, unhinged campaign against those who offend him. I’ve rarely seen a more cynical comedy. US premiere.
  • Puddysticks: In this good-hearted and original comedy, Liz (Megan Seely) is a puddle of anxiety. She is a workaholic game developer for an enterprise whose company culture, despite its mission statement, could not be more anti-fun. Liz stumbles on a self-help group, led by the ever blissed-out Sylvester (Dan Bakkedahl of Veep, Sword of Trust), where each participant must reveal their innermost secret. It’s cultlike and filled with psychobabble, but it seems to work for Megan and the others. And then Megan learns someone else’s secret… Puddysticks is a scathing satire of tech workplace culture and the self-help movement, somehow without a hint of meanness. Puddysticks is written and directed by Megan Seely (who also stars) in her first feature.  World premiere.
  • Bosnian Pot: A supremely unambitious Bosnian living in Austria, the affable and harmless Faruk (Senad Bašic), when he’s not sponging off others, gets by with a part-time radio show. Faruk sees himself as a writer because he published a volume of poems decades ago and has been thinking about writing a play. But, with the Yugoslavian wars in the past, Austrian authorities are now requiring real artistic accomplishment by Faruk to qualify for continued residence. Faruk’s only hope is to write his play and convince an Austrian theater troupe to premiere it before the immigration deadline. What could possibly go wrong? After decades of slacking, can Faruk find the needed perseverance? The character of Faruk is a delightful scallywag. US premiere.
  • Hailey Rose: In this good-hearted Canadian comedy, the decidedly urban Hailey (Em Haine) is lured home in the sticks under almost completely false premises. She finds herself right back into the dysfunctional family she has escaped, with her wackadoodle sister Rose (Caitlynne Medrek) and her unashamedly selfish mother (Kari Matchett). Hailey had valid reasons to get the family craziness behind her and go to where she could come out more comfortably; but she learns that her sudden exit has impacted others, especially in a heartstring-pulling conversation with her gentle ex-boyfriend Cole (Josh Cruddas). Things wrap up neatly into a Feel Good ending. Matchett’s performance as the insanely crass mom is brilliant; she’s a howl whenever she’s onscreen. Second feature for writer-director Sandi Somers, who set the story in her native Nova Scotia. US premiere.
  • The Trouble with Jessica: In this dark British farce, the most despicable, unwelcome guest at a dinner party dies by suicide in the back yard, and the other four diners must dispose of the inconvenient corpse to prevent financial ruin of the hosts. As one might expect, the foursome must run a gauntlet of nosy neighbors, earnest police and horny drunks. Five very able veteran actors (Shirley Henderson, Alan Tudyk, Olivia Williams, Rupert Sewell and Indira Varma) keep the laughs coming in this light diversion.

As usual, I’ll be covering Cinequest rigorously with features and movie recommendations. I usually screen (and write about) over thirty films from around the world. Bookmark my CINEQUEST 2024 page, with links to all my coverage.  Here’s my Best of Cinequest.

Em Haine (top) and Caitlynne Medrek in HAILEY ROSE. Courtesy of Cinequest.