Raya Burstein and Uri Burstein in CHARM CIRCLE. Photo courtesy of Cinequest.
Inthe superbly structured documentary Charm Circle, writer-director Nira Burstein exquisitely unspools the story of her own bizarre family. At first, we meet Burstein’s father, a sour character who inexplicably is about to lose his rented house, which has become unkempt, even filthy. He is mean to Burstein’s apparently sweet and extraordinarily passive mother, and the scene just seems unpleasant.
But then, Nira Burstein brings out twenty-year-old videos that show her dad as witty, talented and functional. We learn a key fact about the mom, and then about each of the director’s two sisters.
Some of the publicity about Charm Circle describes the family as eccentric, but only one daughter is a little odd – three family members are clinically diagnosable. Charm Circle is a cautionary story of untreated mental illness and the consequences of failing to reach out for help.
This is Nira Burstein’s first feature, and she has two things going for her: unlimited access to the subjects and a remarkable gift for storytelling. Charm Circle works so well because of how Burstein sequences the rollout of each family member’s story.
I attended a screening of Charm Circle, with a Nira Burstein Q&A at the Nashville Film Festival. In July and August, it will play both the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival and Cinequest.
Photo caption: Sylvie Mix in POSER. Photo courtesy of Oscilloscope Films.
Poser, a deeply psychological portrait of an artistic wannabe among real artists, was the Must See at the 2021 Nashville Film Festival and it’s in theaters now (albeit hard to find). It is worth seeking out.
Lennon (Sylvie Mix) reveres the underground music scene of Columbus, Ohio’s Old North (which she compares to the cultural achievements of Renaissance Florence). Her entrée is a podcast, which allows her to meet a panoply of local artists, including Bobbi Kitten, the charismatic front woman of the real life band Damn the Witch Siren. At first, we chuckle and cringe at Lennon, until it becomes apparent that a much darker personal plagiarism is afoot and Poser evolves into a thriller.
Poser is the first narrative feature for directors Ori Segev and Noah Dixon (Dixon wrote the screenplay), Mix, Kitten and damn near the entire cast and crew, and it’s packed with original music. Segev and Dixon are Columbus filmmakers who work in music, and they wanted to set a story in that music scene with their favorite bands; they could have done that with a banal premise, but instead their story is super original
There is so much in here about identity and the creative process, lots of original music and some cultural tourism, too. A shot of the recording of train sounds is indelibly chilling.
The podcast lets Lennon invite herself into the world she worships. When Lennon is invited up on a rooftop by two actual artists, she can barely contain her excitement. We find Lennon amusing until she practices aping an artist in front of her mirror, and we sense something much darker is afoot. Stealing the creative work of someone else is plagiarism – but what is stealing someone else’s identity?
It’s easy to mock self-invention, but every achiever begins with the ambition to be something he/she is not yet. (And it doesn’t escape me that no one but me decided that I would become a movie blogger.)
Sylvie Mix and Bobbi Kitten in POSER. Photo courtesy of Oscilloscope Films.
Be prepared to be creeped out by Mix’s performance and to be dazzled by Bobbi Kitten’s magnetism. This is the first feature film for Sylvie Mix, and she is able to turn the role of a passive, unaccomplished, initially silly character into something powerful.
Poser is the first screen credit for the exuberantly confident Bobbi Kitten, who commands our attention whenever she is onscreen. Damn the Witch Siren is the premiere electronic act in Columbus, Ohio, and five of her songs are on the soundtrack.
Z Wolf in POSER. Photo courtesy of Oscilloscope Films.
Kitten’s colleague Z Wolf is also a presence in Poser. Z Wolf always wears a full wolf mask on his head, sipping a fountain drink through a straw with great practicality.
The audience gets to visit the Old North, Columbus Ohio’s local arts neighborhood. There’s a very funny montage where we hear from real artists and aspiring artists. It reminded me of a code that The Wife and our niece Sarah devised when strolling through an art show – BA for Bad Art, NA for Not Art and KA for Kid Art. One very stoned guy marvels over the secret of the doubled-over potato chip.
Poser is rolling out in theaters and is playing Landmark’s Opera Plaza beginning July 8. My favorite film at last year’s Nashville Film Festival, Poser is one of the Best Movies of 2022 – So Far.
Photo caption: Fanny in FANNY: THE RIGHT TO ROCK. Courtesy of Film Movement.
Fanny: The Right to Rock documents the first all-female rock band to get signed by a major record label and churn out five albums. Fifty years ago, the band Fanny was breaking ground for women musicians – and for lesbians and Filipinas. Women rockers were a novelty in the early 1970; imagine layering on LGBTQ identity and Asian-American heritage.
Although you probably haven’t heard of them, this was no garage band. They had a major label record deal, European tours, and hung out with big name peers. Unlike many male bands of the period, Fanny didn’t crash and burn due to drug use or clashing egos. They just never caught on with record-buyers.
It’s pretty clear that music industry and media sexism, combined with maybe being a little ahead of their time to deny Fanny stardom. Too bad – I would have loved to listen to them in their heyday.
Their music fits right into the stuff I was listening to in the 1970s. I’m guessing that the reason why I hadn’t heard of them is that they didn’t get played on FM radio in the Bay Area.
Fanny in FANNY: THE RIGHT TO ROCK. Courtesy of Film Movement.
These women can still really rock in their 70s, and they’re a hoot.
Fanny: The Right to Rock is filled with colorful anecdotes from back in the day. Todd Rundgren, an important early associate of Fanny, and Bonnie Raitt appear as eyewitnesses. Cherie Curry of the Runaways, Cathy Valentine of the Go-Go’s and Kate Pierson of the B-52s testify to Fanny’s trailblazing status.
I screened Fanny: The Right to Rock last year at the Nashville Film Festival. It releases into theaters, albeit very hard to find, this weekend. I’ll let you know when it becomes available on streaming services.
TALE OF KING CRAB. Courtesy of Oscilloscope Films.
The Tale of King Crab, a story-telling masterpiece from Italy, begins with old Italian guys rehashing a local legend, and correcting each other on the details. That story concerns Luciano (Gabriele Silli), the town’s smartest and most interesting man – and also the local drunk. Luciano fixates on a grievance – the closing of a shortcut for shepherds. In spite of his own anti-social bent (and matted beard), Luciano falls into a romance. The grievance, the romance and his alcoholism combine to precipitate an accidental tragedy. We next see a sober and guilt-ridden Luciano searching for buried treasure at the barren tip of South America, an apparent priest among pirates.
TALE OF KING CRAB. Courtesy of Oscilloscope Films.
The Tale of King Crab is the first narrative feature for writer-directors Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis and for cinematographer Simone D’Arcangelo. D’Arcangelo’s work, in vibrant Lazio and desolate Tierra del Fuego, is stunning. The Italian segments were filmed in northern Lazio near Lago di vico.
Dotted with mystical elements and filled with stories within stories, this is an operatic fable, exquisitely told. I screened The Tale of the King Crab for the Nashville Film Festival. It has opened theatrically, including this week only at Laemmle’s Monica Film Center and NoHo 7.
Photo caption: Lexie Mountain in ADVENTURES IN SUCCESS. Photo courtesy of Nashville Film Festival.
The broadly comic Adventures in Success traces the misadventures of a self-help retreat center led by Peggy (Lexie Mountain), a self-described energy transformationist. Peggy claims to have experienced a 12-hour orgasm. Her movement is centered on the female orgasm, the mantra is Jilling Off, and the sessions are essentially orgies where men are not allowed to ejaculate.
Of course, Adventures in Success sends up self-help movements, New Age affectations, and, especially, would-be cult leaders. As Peggy, Lexie Mountain projects a demented self-assurance.
The comic tone is set early – the opening shot is an impressive 28-second performance of urination art.
ADVENTURES IN SUCCESS. Photo courtesy of Nashville Film Festival.
There some inspired LOL moments, but Adventures in Success is not a laugh-a-minute. It runs out of energy when the group takes a final, doomed bus trip to Vegas.
Cinequest hosted the world premiere of Adventures in Success; I screened it for the Nashville Film Festival. Adventures in Success is streaming from Amazon and AppleTV.
Photo caption: Tim Blake Nelson in OLD HENRY. Courtesy of Shout! Factory.
The fine western Old Henry is centered on Henry (Tim Blake Nelson), a widowed settler in the wilds of 1906 Oklahoma. Henry is content with being a solitary sod buster, but he has serious skills from a violent past, and both the past and the skills are unknown to his teen son (Gavin Lewis). The son is brash and impulsive, and desperate to escape the drudgery and isolation of the homestead.
A man badly wounded by a gunshot (Scott Haze) turns up with a satchel full of cash ( (obviously contraband). Henry nurses him, and chooses to hide him when three armed men show up, led by Ketchum ( Stephen Dorff), who claims to be a sheriff. Ketchum knows that his target is in Henry’s cabin, and he recognizes that Henry is more than a dirt farmer. When Ketchum returns with reinforcements, a climactic gun battle is inevitable.
One wild card is the wounded man, with his uncertain identity and motives. Another is the son, rigorously sheltered by Henry and ignorant of the cost of real violence. He’s spoiling to get into a fight – and that is not helpful.
Tim Blake Nelson, with nary a wasted word or action, commands the screen as the ever steely Henry. I saw Old Henry in personat the Nashville Film Festival, where Nelson revealed that his performance was informed by “restraint and stillness” because, for Henry, “any exposure means vulnerability”. So, Blake made Henry “laconic in actions as well as words”.
Nelson is a magnificent actor, who has elevated many a character role (Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?). Here he gets the lead role in a movie that premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Good for him.
Old Henry is the the first feature written and directed by Potsy Ponciroli. And it’s a well-crafted film. The filmmakers get the period right. The art direction and the production design are flawless, and the weapons have the necessary heft. Old Henry was filmed on a cattle farm in Tennessee, but it sure looks like Oklahoma.
If you appreciate a good western, then Old Henry is your movie. The big shootout is thrilling, and Tim Blake Nelson is so good as a man who knows he can’t have redemption and only seeks some solace. Old Henry is now playing nationally, including for one-week run at San Francisco’s Roxie.
The Nashville Film Festival, opening today, has its share of high-profile movies (notably Spencer), but don’t miss the gems that are screening under the radar. Here are my picks, including the festival’s Must See film, Poser. These movies are why we go to film festivals.
POSER. Courtesy of Nashville Film Festival.
Poser: This deeply psychological portrait of an artistic wannabe among real artists is the Must See at this year’s Nashville Film Festival. Lennon (Sylvie Mix) reveres the underground music scene of Columbus, Ohio’s Old North (which she compares to Renaissance Florence). Her entrée is a podcast, which allows her to meet a panoply of local artists, including Bobbi Kitten, the charismatic front woman of the real life band Damn the Witch Siren. At first, we chuckle and cringe at Lennon, until it becomes apparent that a much darker personal plagiarism is afoot and Poser evolves into a thriller. A shot of the recording of a train’s sounds is indelibly chilling. Be prepared to be creeped out by Mix’s performance and to be dazzled by Bobbi Kitten. Poser is the first narrative feature for directors Ori Segev and Noah Dixon (Dixon wrote the screenplay), Mix, Kitten and damn near the entire cast and crew, and it’s packed with original music. Must See.
THE TALE OF KING CRAB. Courtesy of Nashville Film Festival.
The Tale of King Crab, a story-telling masterpiece from Italy, begins with old Italian guys rehashing a legend, correcting each other on the details. That story concerns Luciano (Gabriele Silli), the town’s smartest and most interesting man – and also the local drunk. Luciano fixates on a grievance – the closing of a shortcut for shepherds. In spite of his own anti-social bent (and matted beard), Luciano he falls into a romance. The grievance, the romance and his alcoholism combine to precipitate an accidental tragedy. We next see a sober and guilt-ridden Luciano searching for buried treasure at the barren tip of South America. This is an operatic fable, exquisitely told. The Tale of King Crab is the first narrative feature for writer-directors Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis and for cinematographer Simone D’Arcangelo. D’Arcangelo’s work, in vibrant Lazio and desolate Tierra del Fuego, is stunning.
FAYE. Courtesy of Nashville Film Festival.
Faye:Filmmakers Kd Amond and Sarah Zanotti have ingeniously braided horror elements into an unexpectedly funny grief movie. Faye (Zanotti) is a best-selling author who is paralyzed by grief. She holes up at her editor’s vacation house in a Louisiana bayou to get herself writing again – her own personal Overlook Hotel. So, we have a woman isolated in a swamp, and she can hear things go bump in the night and the neighbors’ chainsaws. The first thing we notice about Faye is that she is talking to someone who isn’t there – her dead husband. As we listen to Faye (ironically, a self-help author) talking herself though the stages of grief, her sanity goes on a roller coaster and Faye takes on the look and feel of a horror movie. That idea, the exquisite editing and Zanotti’s’s performance makes spending 83 minutes with a neurotic woman eminently watchable.
CLEAN SLATE. Courtesy of Nashville Film Festival.
Clean Slate: In this clear-eyed documentary, Cassidy and Josh are living in a faith-based recovery program – the kind you need to avoid incarceration. They are working to make a short film about the program. It’s stressful enough to make an indie film – finding a no-budget cast and crew, braving torrential downpours while shooting exteriors, and wrangling a roadkill armadillo. But more than a movie is at stake with these guys – they’re both hanging on to their sobriety by their fingernails. Like living with an addict, Clean Slate has its heartbreaking moments. Over 23 million Americans are living in long-term recovery from addiction. Clean Slate is the rare film that explores the connection between relapse and recovery – and it’s a cliff hanger.
Here’s how to find these nuggets:
The Tale of King Crab is screening in-person at Nash Fest.
Poser and Faye are screening in-person and streaming within the Southeastern United States (Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina).
Clean Slate is screening in-person and streaming within the United States.
Check out the program and buy tickets at the festival’s Film Guide. Watch this space for Nashville Film Festival recommendations (both in-person and on-line) and follow me on Twitter for the latest.
Bo Maguire in his film SOCKS ON FIRE. Photo courtesy of Nashville Film Festival.
The 52nd Nashville Film Festival opens today – in Nashville and on your personal device. Nash Fest is a hybrid in-person and on-line event, which means that you can watch some of the films through October 6 without even traveling to Nashville.
These Nash Fest films can be streamed anywhere in the United States:
Socks on Fire is Bo McGuire’s tale of his own family’s inheritance battle over a Hokes Bluff, Alabama, bungalow. The family of church-going Bama football fans – and one drag queen – is jarred and wounded by the mean behavior of one aunt. Enriched by old home movies and re-enactments, this ain’t your conventional talking head documentary. Socks on Fire swings between funny and operatic, and there’s a sweet remembrance of a grandmother in here, too. Won Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Clean Slate: In this clear-eyed documentary, Cassidy and Josh are living in a faith-based recovery program – the kind you need to avoid incarceration. They are working to make a short film about the program. It’s stressful enough to make an indie film – finding a no-budget cast and crew, braving torrential downpours while shooting exteriors, and wrangling a roadkill armadillo. But more than a movie is at stake with these guys – they’re both hanging on to their sobriety by their fingernails. Like living with an addict, Clean Slate has its heartbreaking moments. Over 23 million Americans are living in long-term recovery from addiction. Clean Slate is the rare film that explores the connection between relapse and recovery – and it’s a cliff hanger.
Window Boy Would Also Like to Have a Submarine has the best title at the festival and must be the trippiest movie. A worker on a cruise ship touring Patagonia opens a door in the crew quarters and finds himself inside a Montevideo apartment. There’s a parallel story set in the Philippines highlands where villagers find a mysterious concrete shed. How do people react to a portal that disrupts the space-time continuum? The film hails from Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Netherlands and the Philippines.
Fable of a Song is a documentary about the writing of a song; this film was originally intended to document the creative process, but real life intervenes both to stagger the artists and to impact the very meaning of the song’s lyrics. There’s an insider’s peek into a cowrite, where professional songwriters take a glimmer of inspiration and work over two days to form it into a complete song. In a no-dry-eye moment, the song is performed for its subject in a personal studio concert.
Adventures in Success: This broad comedy traces the misadventures of a self-help retreat center led by a self-described energy transformationist who claims to have experienced a 12-hour orgasm. Her movement is centered on the female orgasm, the mantra is Jilling Off, and the sessions are essentially orgies where men are not allowed to ejaculate. Opens with an impressive 28-second performance of urination art.
Sylvie Mix and Bobbi Kitten in POSER: Courtesy of Nashville Film Festival.
These films can be streamed anywhere in the Southeastern United States (Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina):
Poser: This deeply psychological portrait of an artistic wannabe among real artists is the Must See at this year’s Nashville Film Festival. Lennon (Sylvie Mix) reveres the underground music scene of Columbus, Ohio’s Old North (which she compares to Renaissance Florence). Her entrée is a podcast, which allows her to meet a panoply of local artists, including Bobbi Kitten, the charismatic front woman of the real life band Damn the Witch Siren. At first, we chuckle and cringe at Lennon, until it becomes apparent that a much darker personal plagiarism is afoot and Poser evolves into a thriller. A shot of the recording of a train’s sounds is indelibly chilling. Be prepared to be creeped out by Mix’s performance and to be dazzled by Bobbi Kitten. Poser is the first narrative feature for directors Ori Segev and Noah Dixon (Dixon wrote the screenplay), Mix, Kitten and damn near the entire cast and crew, and it’s packed with original music. Must See.
Faye:Filmmakers Kd Amond and Sarah Zanotti have ingeniously braided horror elements into an unexpectedly funny grief movie. Faye (Zanotti) is a best-selling author who is paralyzed by grief. She holes up at her editor’s vacation house in a Louisiana bayou to get herself writing again – her own personal Overlook Hotel. So, we have a woman isolated in a swamp, and she can hear things go bump in the night and the neighbors’ chainsaws. The first thing we notice about Faye is that she is talking to someone who isn’t there – her dead husband. As we listen to Faye (ironically, a self-help author) talking herself though the stages of grief, her sanity goes on a roller coaster and Faye takes on the look and feel of a horror movie. That idea, the exquisite editing and Zanotti’s’s performance makes spending 83 minutes with a neurotic woman eminently watchable.
The Neutral Ground: In this pointed documentary, C.J. Hunt explores the continuing legacy of Confederate monuments in America. Hunt, a producer for The Daily Show, started out to make a snarky YouTube video, but he found himself drawn more deeply into the history of Confederate monuments, so intentionally braided with white supremacy. Hunt is fascinated by the chorus of White Southerners advocating for the preservation of Confederate monuments, all claiming that the Civil War was not about slavery. Hunt probes the disconnect between historical fact and the Lost Cause lie – and his own racial consciousness.
Fanny: The Right to Rock documents the first all-female rock band to get signed by a major record label and churn out five albums. Fifty years ago, the band Fanny was breaking ground for women musicians – and for lesbians and Filipinas. These women can still really rock in their 70s, and they’re a hoot.
Check out the program and buy tickets at the festival’s Film Guide. Watch this space for Nashville Film Festival recommendations (both in-person and on-line) and follow me on Twitter for the latest.
CJ Hunt in THE NEUTRAL GROUND. Courtesy of Nashville Film Festival.
Brian Wilson in BRIAN WILSON: LONG PROMISED ROAD. Photo courtesy of Nashville Film Festival
The Nashville Film Festival opens on Thursday, September 30 and runs through October 6 with a diverse menu of cinema, available both in-person and on-line. I have already seen over a dozen films in the program, and I’m impressed so far. I’m am heading back to Nashville for my first in-person film festival coverage since March 2020.
The Nashville Film Festival is the oldest running film festival in the South and is an Academy Award qualifying festival. The program includes a mix of indies, docs and international cinema, including world and North American premieres.
This year’s fest opens strong with the in-person screening of Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road, an unusual documentary about an unusual man. The Beach Boys’ songwriting and arranging genius weighs in on his life and work. The extremely terse Brian Wilson would not be the ideal subject for a conventional interview documentary. Instead, the filmmakers have Wilson’s old and trusted friend, rock journalist Jason Fine, drive him around important places in Wilson’s life; it’s the format of Comedians in Cars Drinking Coffee, and it pays off in with emotional revelations. It turns out that Wilson is remarkably open about his travails and his creative process – and we get to see which of his songs that Brian himself listens to when he is feeling grief or nostalgia.
The fest closes with The Humans, Stephen Karam’s film version of his Tony Award-winning play. It’s a family drama with Steven Yuen, Beanie Feldstein, Richard Jenkins, Amy Shumer and June Squibb. I haven’t seen it, but it got promising buzz at Toronto and is slated for a theatrical release by A24.
Lauren Ponto, Nashville Film Festival’s Director of Programming, says, “The 2021 Nashville Film Festival will be a different experience than our audiences are historically accustomed to and our team is excited for the community to be a part of it. The reimagined 52nd Festival will include 150 films ranging in categories from narratives, documentaries, new twists on horror, US Indies, eclectically bold Music Documentaries and much more.“
Ponto continues, “It’s been invigorating to program the Festival this year, knowing that we will be able to showcase a select group of films in person. The content is stronger than ever and very intentional. “
The Nashville Film Festival embraces its home in Music City and emphasizes films about music. Besides Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road, the program includes
Fanny: The Right to Rock documents the first all-female rock band to get signed by a major record label and churn out five albums. Fifty years ago, the band Fanny was breaking ground for women musicians – and for lesbians and Filipinas. These women can still really rock in their 70s, and they’re a hoot.
Poser (my favorite film in the festival) is set in the underground music scene of Columbus, Ohio’s Old North and is packed with original music. It’s a dark psychological portrait of an artistic wannabe among real artists.
Fable of a Song (a film that I haven’t seen yet) is a documentary about the writing of a song; this film was originally intended to document the creative process, but real life intervenes both to stagger the artists and to impact the very meaning of the song’s lyrics.
Hard Luck Love Song (another film that I haven’t seen yet) is a portrait of a troubled, self-sabotaging musician. Inspired by singer-songwriter Todd Snider’s song Just Like Old Times.
See it here first: Old Henry, Hard Luck Love Song, Luzzu, Beta Test, Flee, The Humans, Clara Sola, The Tale of King Crab and Poser have all secured distribution and will be available to theater and/or watch-at-home audiences. Before just anybody can watch them, you can get your personal preview at the Nashville Film Festival.
Check out the program and buy tickets at the festival’s Film Guide. Watch this space for Nashville Film Festival recommendations (both in-person and on-line) and follow me on Twitter for the latest.
Sylvie Mix and Bobbi Kitchen in POSER. Photo courtesy of Nashville Film Festival.
