movie gourmet

ECHOES OF VIOLENCE: turnabout is fair play

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Michaella Russell in ECHOES OF VIOLENCE. Photo courtesy of Cinequest.

In the well-crafted revenge thriller Echoes of Violence, a woman (Michaella Russell) entangles an Everyman (Heston Horwin) to help her escape a series of deadly hit men (the first one is played by Chase Cargill). Loyalties change and lethal new skills (and a novelty weapon) are revealed as her position pivots from defense to offense.

The woman has been done a very evil wrong, and she’s clawed herself to some degree of safety, she launches a campaign of vengeance. Michaella Russell is a compelling enough screen presence to drive the story.

Russell is South African and, in real life, found navigating the US immigration system to be fraught with frustration. That experience (not as horrific as in the movie) inspired Nicholas Wood to make the villain an immigration attorney.

The venerable Frank Oz is effective in a turn as the main villain’s even more monstrous father.

Echoes of Violence is the second feature for writer-director Nicholas Wood and demonstrates that he can bring originality to a genre film.

I screened Echoes of Violence for its world premiere at Cinequest, and it made made my Best of Cinequest 2021; you can stream it during the festival for only $3.99 at Cinequest’s online Cinejoy.

Movies to See Right Now (at home)

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I’M AN ELECTRIC LAMPSHADE, world premiere at Cinequest. Photo courtesy of Cinequest.

We’re in the final four days of Cinequest, so take a gander at my Best of Cinequest. And here are my remembrances of Yaphet Kotto, George Segal and Jessica Walter.

ON VIDEO

Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman deliver heartbreaking performances in The Father, an unsettling exploration of memory loss. I saw The Father while covering the virtual Mill Valley Film Festival in October, and it’s now widely available to stream (just before the Oscars). It’s on my list of Best Movies of 2020.

The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:

ON TV

Jean Gabin (right) in PEPE LE MOKO

On March 27 and 28, Turner Classic Movies brings us one of the greatest movie stars, Jean Gabin in a pre-noir film, Pépé le Moko. Probably the greatest male French movie star ever, Gabin had dominated prewar French cinema with La Grande Illusion, Port of Shadows and Le Bete Humaine.  After the war, he aged into noir (Touchez Pas aux Grisbi, Razzia) and, in the 1960s, into neo-noir (Any Number Can Win, The Sicilian Clan).  Gabin oozed a seasoned cool (like Bogart) and imparted a stately gravitas to his noir and neo-noir characters.

Jean Gabin is on my very short list of the most perpetually cool humans to ever walk the planet, along with Dean Martin, Ben Gazzara, Joan Jett and Barack Obama.

In Pépé le Moko, Gabin plays the titular Algiers gangster who operates, immune from police interference, in the Casbah. The cops have been trying to lure him out of the Casbah for ages – and then they learn that he is obsessed with a woman…

Pépé le Moko was filmed in 1937, four years before the emergence of the film noir movement, an American cinematic phenomenon soon appreciated, named, and joined by the French. Pépé le Moko foreshadows noir with its elements of the dark, shadowy underworld setting and, of the course, the protagonist who has a dame for a weak spot. TCM is airing Pépé le Moko on TCM’s addictive Noir Alley, with intro and outro by Eddie Muller.

Mireille Balin and Jean Gabin in PEPE LE MOKO
Jean Gabin in PEPE LE MOKO

Three remembrances

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Richard Pryor and Yaphet Kotto (right) in BLUE COLLAR

In the past week, we’ve lost three fine screen actors, Yaphet Kotto, George Segal and, today, Jessica Walter.

REMEMBRANCE

Actor Yaphet Kotto has died at 81. Kotto made plenty of big movies (Alien) and is most remembered for starring in the television series Homicide: Life on the Street, as the Bond villain in Live and Let Die and as Idi Amin in the superb TV movie Raid on Entebbe. I most appreciate his performance in Paul Schrader’s 1978 Blue Collar, with Richard Pryor and Harvey Keitel, set in an auto factory. The Movie Gourmet comes from an autoworker family, and I have worked in a plant like the one in the movie, so I found the film especially evocative. Kotto was also excellent as the FBI agent shepherding Charles Grodin in Midnight Run.

George Segal (right) with Elliott Gould in CALIFORNIA SPLIT

George Segal’s big screen breakthrough came in that most searing exploration of toxic marriages, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? My favorite George Segal performance came in what is arguably Robert Altman’s best movie, California Split. Segal and Elliot Gould played two compulsive gamblers; as usual, Gould had the flamboyant part, but Segal was masterful as his more contained character slipped bit by bit into the vortex of addictive behavior.

Jessica Walter in PLAY MISTY FOR ME

Jessica Walter was an incredibly prolific television actress with one great movie performance. That performance was as Evelyn, Clint Eastwood’s nightmare of a one night stand in Play Misty for Me. Walter topped off her career as Lucille Bluth in 84 episodes of Arrested Development. I don’t know what the record is for guest spots in 1972-76 detective shows, but Water appeared in Banyon, Cannon, The F.B.I. (six times), Mannix, Columbo, Ironside, Barnaby Jones, Hawaii Five-O, Banacek, McCloud, The Streets of San Francisco, and MacMillan & Wife.

THE FATHER: as reality shifts

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Olivia Colman and Anthony Hopkins in THE FATHER

Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman deliver heartbreaking performances in The Father, an unsettling exploration of memory loss.

As we meet the elderly Anthony (Hopkins), he is insisting on independence that he can no longer sustain. That makes it hard on his daughter Anne (Colman), who is trying to keep him safe and healthy, despite his resistance. But Anthony is losing his memory and becoming ever more suspicious. Soon, all the characters are experiencing disorentation, even fantasies and hallucinations.

The Father is the directing debut for Florian Zeller, who wrote the original play. Along with the superb acting, the key to The Father is Zeller’s ever shifting of reality as understood by the characters and by the audience. As we think we understand what is going on and then have it unraveled, we, like Anthony, lose confidence in our orientation.

Anthony Hopkins has an Oscar and a long list of great performances (The Silence of the Lambs, The Remains of the Day, Nixon, The Human Stain, The Two Popes), but none is better than this one. His Anthony is a man whose characteristic wilfulness is finally self-defeating; he is a man ever confident of his opinions, but the factual basis for those opinions is eroding. He is a man who firmly believes he is always right, facing a new reality in which he demonstrably is not.

Colman is also superb as the able and devoted daughter who is hurt by her father’s perception that she is betraying him. The rest of cast – Rufus Sewell, Imogen Poots, Mark Gattis and Olivia Williams – is impeccable.

The Father, which I saw while covering the virtual Mill Valley Film Festival in October, will be widely available to stream on Friday. It’s on my list of Best Movies of 2020. It has earned six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and acting recognition for Hopkins and Colman.

HOLLYWOOD FRINGE: be careful what you wish for…

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Justin Kirk and Jennifer Prediger in HOLLYWOOD FRINGE. Photo courtesy of Sleeper Cell Films.

Hollywood Fringe is about a married couple of hopeful creatives (Justin Kirk and Jennifer Prediger). They have been pitching their projects to Hollywood execs in futility; (she’s turned forty and her mom still helps with their rent). Popular interest in their experimental theater performances has been (ahem) limited. They give themselves one last chance to make it – but when a studio buys their idea for a series, things don’t go as planned…

We’re used to seeing Hollywood execs lampooned as tasteless capitalist barbarians who always reach for the lowest common denominator, and Hollywood Fringe does skewer the suits. But nobody gets a pass from writer and co-director Wyatt McDill and co-director Megan Huber. The funniest bits send up the artistes for projects that are overly obscure, overly precious or both. And even an impoverished artist on the lowest rung of showbiz can get a comeuppance for White privilege.

The added dimension in Hollywood Fringe is the dynamic of a married couple working in the same competitive industry and often in the same creative projects.

Led by Prediger and Kirk (Mitchell’s boss Charlie Bingham in Modern Family), the entire cast is excellent. Given that the actors live in the world that they get to send up, they must have had a blast shooting Hollywood Fringe.

Filmmakers Megan Huber and Wyatt McDill returned to Cinequest with a complete change of pace from last year’s inventively constructed thriller 3 Day Weekend. No strangers to the Hollywood fringe milieu, Huber and McGill shot some of the scenes in their own Los Feliz apartment.

Hollywood Fringe made my Best of Cinequest 2021 as the best comedy I’ve seen in the fest. You can stream it during the festival for only $3.99 at Cinequest’s online Cinejoy.

EVERYTHING IN THE END: accepting the inevitable

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EVERYTHING IN THE END

The “End” in the title Everything in the End means, literally, the end of the world. Set in a future where climate change has made human extinction certain and imminent, the story imagines how people would react as they understand that they have only a few days left.

A young man, Paolo (Hugo de Souza), whose mother has died, decides to meet his fate in Iceland, the land of the father he has never met. Paolo meets one stranger after another, each of whom is contemplating the situation in their own way. By now, everyone is beyond the shock, denial, anger and bargaining.

What Paolo doe NOT find is overt rage or a paroxysm of hedonism. One guy swigs from a bottle of booze, but in a half-hearted way.It’s too late for political or commercial exploitation. And this is not a disaster action movie, so heroism does not take the form of battles or chases. More profound than grim, End of Everything takes the sensationalism out of the apocalypse and leaves the humanity.

Lilja Þórisdóttir is especially good as a local who greets Paolo with with kindness and wisdom.

This is the first feature from writer-director Mylissa Fitzsimmons, and it’s a remarkable showcase for the intelligence of her writing and her eye for landscapes. Without her clarity of mission, the story could have easily veered into a downer or an overwrought disaster saga. Fitzsimmons does let us glimpse the actual apocalypse, but in just the perfect number of seconds.

Set in the stark beauty of Iceland, this is a visual stunner. The cinematographer is Todd Hickey.

Everything at the End is a powerful think piece and made my Best of Cinequest 2021; you can stream it during the festival for only $3.99 at Cinequest’s online Cinejoy.

CARVER: will he be undone by a woman? or by his own obsession?

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Victor Rivas (center) in CARVER. World premiere t Cinequest. Photo courtesy of Select Films.

In the neo-noirish Spanish thriller Carver, a guy named Ernesto takes on the alter ego of Carver in the wee hours. Carver strides through Ernesto’s gritty urban neighborhood in dressed in a ridiculous, homemade superhero costume. He has no super powers, but is driven to make things right, vigilante-style. A sexy, stoned woman of uncertain reliability engages his interest. Will she bring him down?

Ernesto (Victor Rivas) seems otherwise a normal, salt-of-the-earth guy . He lives a quotidian existence, monitoring a supermarket’s security cameras by day and presiding over his family’s evening meals. But when his wife and kids are ready for bed (and this is Spain, so it is LATE), he heads out on the streets, to his wife’s increasing displeasure.

Why? He’s not a wannabe hanging judge; he’s pretty merciful to the shoplifters that he catches at his day job. But he has this need to personally patrol the streets to keep kids and single women safe. It’s odd behavior, and he does so with an almost child-like naivete; we wonder what emotional trauma might have damaged him.

At first, as he fails to spot her manipultiveness Victor is no match for the femme fatale Alicia (Mar Del Corral) , who is channelling Brigid O’Shaughnessy. Then he begins to appreciate just how unhunged she may be.

This is the first feature for writer-director Evgeny Yablokov, and this character-driven thriller is an impressive calling card.

There are many film actors named Victor Rivas. The star of Carver is not one of the more famous one, but a mournful-faced stage actor in Madrid, who has played Kierkegaard.

Not everybody will be satisfied with the ending of Carver, but I thought it was perfect.

I screened Carver for its world premiere at Cinequest, and it made my Best of Cinequest 2021. You can stream it during the festival for only $3.99 at Cinequest’s online Cinejoy.

ATOMIC COVER-UP: the truth will out

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ATOMIC COVER-UP

The understated but brilliant documentary Atomic Cover-up reveals the story of the long-hidden eyewitness film record of the atomic destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Japanese film crews immediately filmed the carnage and destruction, which was quickly suppressed by the Japanese military. Within a month, the US occupation forces were in charge, and American filmmakers took over the filming of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, often with Japanese crews. Censorship continued under the US military.

The films have now escaped the censors and are seen in Atomic Cover-up with the testimonies of the original Japanese and American cameramen. As told matter-of-factly by the men who captured these images, it’s a great story.

I screened Atomic Cover-up for its world premiere at Cinequest, and it made my Best of Cinequest 2021. You can stream it during the festival for only $3.99 at Cinequest’s online Cinejoy.

AGUA ROSA: what are they to each other?

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Lizzy Auna and Axel Arenas in AGUA ROSA. Photo courtesy of Cinequest.

The Mexican drama Agua Rosa begins with a young couple heading to stay a few days at an isolated property. We first see them mostly in long shot, often from the back, with very little dialogue, and we need to connect our own dots. Who are they? Why are they here? What are they to each other? That last question is what Agua Rosa is all about.

Mauricio (Axel Arenas) has inherited the place from his father and he’s settling the estate with his significant other Ana (Lizzy Auna). Mauricio is angry at his dad for abandoning his mom, so he’s unhappy and not fun to be around. His anger is leaking on Ana, and I kept hoping “don’t blow it with her by being such a jerk”. But maybe he’s also unhappy with something in their relationship…

Agua Rosa is co-written and co-directed by Miguel López Valdivia and Ca Silva (together credited as Antónimo). It’s their first feature film. They are able to make a languid pace work because Agua Rosa is only 71 minutes long.

The filmmakers use long shots and shots of long duration to emphasize the couple’s isolated setting and the potential isolation from each other. This makes the tight closeups at the climax all the more powerful.

I screened Agua Rosa for its world premiere at Cinequest; you can stream it during the festival for only $3.99 at Cinequest’s online Cinejoy.

The best of CINEQUEST 2021

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Aviva Armour-Ostroff (left) in LUNE, world premiere at Cinequest. Photo credit: Samantha Falco.

I’ve already seen over a dozen offerings from Cinequest 2021, and here are my initial recommendations. As usual, I focus on the world and US premieres. Full reviews are on the way.

MUST SEE

  • Lune: The Must See in this year’s Cinequest is this astonishingly authentic exploration of bipolar disorder. A mother and teen daughter must navigate the impacts of the mom’s illness. Played by writer and co-director Aviva Armour-Ostroff, the mom Miriam is the most singular movie character I’ve seen recently. Miriam’s streams of manic speech have the rhythm of poetry. Don’t miss this Canadian indie. World premiere.

THRILLERS

Michaella Russell in ECHOES OF VIOLENCE. Photo courtesy of Cinequest.
  • Echoes of Violence: In this well-crafted revenge thriller, a woman enlists an Everyman to help her escape a deadly hit man. Loyalties change and lethal new skills (and a novelty weapon) are revealed as her position pivots from defense to offense. World premiere.
  • Carver: In the wee hours, a guy strides through his gritty urban neighborhood dressed in a ridiculous, homemade superhero costume. He has no super powers except his drive to make things right, vigilante-style. A sexy, stoned woman of uncertain reliability engages his interest. Will she bring him down? World premiere.

DOCUMENTARY

THE BOYS IN RED HATS. Photo courtesy of Shark Dog Films.
  • The Boys in the Red Hats: Remember the Rorschach frenzy when the Kentucky prep school boy at the Lincoln Memorial smirked at the indigenous tribal elder? Documentarian Jonathan Schroder is an alum of that very prep school; his point of view shifts as he peels back the onion on what really happened. It comes down to insights into media, social media and, especially, White privilege. World premiere.
  • Atomic Cover-up: Japanese and American film crews documented the destruction from the atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These films were suppressed by the Japanese, and then the US military. The films have now escaped the censors and are seen in Atomic Cover-up with the testimonies of the original Japanese and American cameramen. As told matter-of-factly by the men who captured these images, it’s a great story. World premiere.
  • I’m an Electric Lampshade: We meet the most improbable rock star – a mild-mannered accountant who retires to pursue his dream of performing. The final score: Doug 1, Expectations 0. World premiere.

INDIES

  • End of Everything: Here’s a powerful thinkpiece – the “End” in the title means, literally, the end of the world. Set in a future where climate change has made the human extinction imminent, the story imagines how people would react as the very end nears. More profound than grim, End of Everything takes the sensationalism out of the apocalypse and leaves the humanity. Set in the stark beauty of Iceland, this is a visual stunner.

WORLD CINEMA

IN THE SHADOWS from Turkey: North American premiere at Cinequest. Photo courtesy of Cinequest.
  • In the Shadows: The charismatic actor Numan Acar (Homeland) leads us through this gripping dystopian fable. If you admired the 1984 Super Bowl Commercial Introducing Apple’s Macintosh, you’ll like this Turkish film. North American premiere.

COMEDY

Justin Kirk and Jennifer Prediger in HOLLYWOOD FRINGE. Photo courtesy of Sleeper Cell Films.
  • Hollywood Fringe: Filmmakers Megan Huber and Wyatt McDill return to Cinequest with a change of pace from last year’s inventively constructed thriller 3 Day Weekend. Hollywood Fringe is about a married couple of hopeful creatives. They have been pitching their projects to Hollywood execs in futility; (she’s turned forty and her mom still helps with their rent). Popular interest in their experimental theater performances has been (ahem) limited. They give themselves one last chance to make it – but when a studio buys their idea for a series, things don’t go as planned…

AND FOUR I HAVEN’T SEEN YET

  • Death of a Ladies’ Man: With a brain tumor starting to cause hallucinations, a professor (Gabriel Byrne) relocates to an Irish village. With Jessica Pare (Mad Man) and Brian Gleeson. US premiere.
  • Six Minutes to Midnight: WWII espionage suspenser with Dame Judy Dench and Eddie Izzard trying to frustrate a Nazi plot.
  • Drunk Bus: Young slacker is stuck driving the shuttle between college town bars and the dorms until he is mentored by a 300-pound Samoan security guy with facial tattoos. This was a hit at the 2020 SXSW.
  • Summertime: Directed by Carlos Lopez Estrada (Blindspotting), this comedy revolves around 25 characters intersecting on one hot Los Angeles day – and making poetry.

Stream these films for as little as $3.99 each at Cinequest’s online Cinejoy.

As usual, I’ll be covering Cinequest rigorously with features and movie recommendations. I usually screen (and write about) about thirty Cinequest films from around the world. Bookmark my CINEQUEST page, with links to all my coverage. Follow me on Twitter for the latest.

CARVER: world premiere at Cinequest, Photo courtesy of Select Films.