movie gourmet

63 UP – the next chapter that we’ve been waiting for

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The Mill Valley Film Festival will be screening 63 Up – the latest in Michael Apted’s Seven Up series. Apted himself will appear at the screening. The Seven Up series is one of the great achievements in cinema history, certainly the greatest documentary series ever ,and on my list of Greatest Movie of All Time. Since 1964, we’ve had to wait seven years for each new chapter, and the latest is finally here.

Starting with Seven Up! in 1964, director Michael Apted has followed the same fourteen British children, filming snapshots of their lives at ages 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42 and 49 – and now at age 56. Choosing kids from different backgrounds, the series started as a critique of the British class system, but has since evolved into a broader exploration of what factors can lead to success and happiness at different stages of human life. (Apted was the hands-on researcher, not the director on Seven Up! and then directed the next eight films in the series.)

We have seen these characters live roller coaster lives.  The surprise in 56 Up was how contented they seemed to be.  They seemed to have independently reached a stage in their lives where they live with acceptance and satisfaction.  Accordingly, it makes for mellow and pleasing viewing for us.

Michael Apted is a big time director (Coal Miner’s Daughter, Gorillas in the Mist).  It is remarkable that he has returned so faithfully to his subjects in the Up series. 

Because Apted includes clips from earlier films to set the stage for each character, you don’t need to watch all nine movies.  Because there is so much turbulence in the earlier films and so little conflict in 56 Up , it would be ideal to first screen an edgier film like 35 Up or 42: Forty Two Up.  The earlier films are difficult, perhaps impossible, to find streaming, but the entire series {Seven Up!, Seven Plus Seven, 21 Up, 28 Up, 35 Up, 42 Up, 49 Up, 56 Up} is available on Netflix DVDs. 56 Up stands on its own, and it’s streamable on Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and Kanopy.

The MVFF will screen 63 Up on October 8, and you can read more and buy tickets on page 15 of the MVFF program.

63 UP

Movies to See Right Now

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OUT NOW

Peter Bogdanovich with Jesse Hawthorne Ficks at the Roxie

This Sunday, I was privileged to attend one of the year’s most stirring experiences of Bay Area cinema culture. The Roxie Theater screened two of director Peter Bogdanovich‘s films – the Oscar-winning The Last Picture Show (1971) and the hard-to-find Saint Jack (1979) – with the legendary Bogdanovich in attendance for two Q&A sessions. Speaking of The Last Picture Show, it’s a remarkable thing to watch a coming of age story about 18-year-olds when you are 18 and then again forty years later when you know stuff.

Check out the impressive program of the upcoming Mill Valley Film Festival: it’s an early look at the most prestigious movies of the year. If you miss the big movies at the MVFF, you can at least stream some of the Best Movies of 2019 – So Far – The Last Black Man in San Francisco, They Shall Not Grow Old, Amazing Grace and Booksmart are all available to be streamed.

OUT NOW

  • Downtown Abbey is a satisfying wrap-up for fans of the beloved PBS series.
  • Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood is a Must See – one of Quentin Tarantino’s very, very best.
  • The family dramedy The Farewell is an audience-pleaser.
  • The Sound of Silence is an engrossing character study starring Peter Sarsgaard as a man confident in his obsession until… It’s had a limited run at the San Francisco’s Presidio and San Jose’s 3Below, and you can stream it on Amazon, iTunes and Vudu.

ON VIDEO

My Stream of the Week is Werner Herzog’s mesmerizing and darkly funny documentary Grizzly Man. Grizzly Man is a superb film, which made my own list of Best Movies of the 21st Century (and Sophia Coppola’s, too) and my Best Movies of 2005. It can be streamed from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play, and it’s available on DVD from Netflix.

ON TV

On September 30, Turner Classic Movies brings us The Best Years of Our Lives. It’s an exceptionally well-crafted, contemporary snapshot of post WW II American society adapting to the challenges of peacetime. Justifiably won seven Oscars. Still a great and moving film.

Harold Russell, Dana Andrews and Frederic March in THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES

THE SOUND OF SILENCE: novel and engrossing

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Peter Sarsgaard in Michael Tyburski’s THE SOUND OF SILENCE. Courtesy of SFFILM

In the engrossing character study The Sound of Silence, Peter Lucian (Peter Sarsgaard) is obsessed with the musical tonality of the built environment.   Having assigned each area of Manhattan its own distinct musical key, Lucian prowls the city, tuning forks in hand, to map its sounds.

Lucian pays the bills as a house tuner, bringing well-heeled apartment-owners a kind of auditory feng shui.  Lucian is sought after to isolate the hum of a problem refrigerator or toaster that can make a living space depression-inducing.  He’s even been profiled in The New Yorker.

But we sense that Peter Lucian is a little too confident in his expertise.  He is disdainful of the corporate suits trying to monetize his discoveries.  “This is about universal constance, not commerce.”  In a mistake of hubris,  Lucian takes on a research assistant (Tony Revolori – Zero the bell boy in The Grand Budapest Hotel).   Lucian is jarred by corporate espionage, and starts to unravel when a respected scientist views him as a crank.  Can he recover?

Peter Sarsgaard is a marvelous choice to play a cool obsessive who seems, at time,  both blissfully above validation and desperate for it.  In spite of his handsome, regular features, Sargaard’s gift for uncanny stillness helps him play creepy.   Sarsgaard’s Lucian has the unintended capacity of reassuring other characters, but making then even more uncomfortable.

Rashida Jones plays Ellen, a Lucian client who is not just garden-variety neurotic, but has been  so rocked by a tragedy that she remains profoundly unsettled.   Jones is so talented as a comic actress, a voice artist, a documentarian and the writer of that rarest of things, a smart romantic comedy (Celeste and Jesse Forever).  Here, she shows her dramatic chops with a character who starts the movie adrift, but grows able to offer emotional safe harbor.

There’s even a welcome appearance by Austin Pendleton as a Lucian mentor of uncertain reliability.  I’ve loved Pendleton since his turn in 1972’s What’s Up, Doc?. (Come to think of it, that movie had a musicologist obsessed with the inherent tonal qualities of igneous rocks.)

The Sound of Silence is the first feature for director and co-writer Michael Tyburski, and it’s a promising debut.  Despite using an understated color palette, Tyburski delivers some stirring cinema with his use of sound.  As Lucian looks over the city early in the morning, we hear a few musical notes, and then a full orchestra tuning up as the city awakens into its workday.  When Lucian takes Ellen for a drink, it is to the quietest possible venue – a club with a decibel level somewhere between a library and a morgue; afterwards, Lucian emerges into urban  cacophony.  When an academic treats him like a crackpot, we all hear ringing, not just Lucian.

As one would hope, the sound design of The Sound of Silence is remarkable, and the score works very well.  I saw it earlier this year at the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM) and it’s playing at San Francisco’s Presidio and San Jose’s 3Below; you can stream it on Amazon, iTunes and Vudu.

Stream of the Week: GRIZZLY MAN – a fool’s misadventure

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GRIZZLY MAN

Werner Herzog’s mesmerizing and darkly funny documentary Grizzly Man is about Timothy Treadwell, who had spent summers observing the brown bears (grizzlies) in Alaska’s Katmai National Park, and believed that he had “gained their trust”. Driven by his ill-advised dream to befriend the grizzlies, Treadwell and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard essentially moved in with the grizzlies, camping by their fishing spot and personally interacting with them at close quarters. It did not end well.

Basically, grizzlies are hard-wired to hunt and eat humans. They are so fast that a human can’t escape one without a vehicle (or, possibly – but not for sure – tree climbing); They are so strong and fierce that a human can’t fend one off without a firearm (or, possibly, bear spray). This makes Treadwell’s’s quest remarkably foolhardy, This also makes Grizzly Man hilarious in a Darwin Awards way.

GRIZZLY MAN

As ridiculous as is Treadwell’s plan, this story had its life-and-death drama. Herzog’s presentation of a wristwatch and an audio recording is a moment that makes the hair on your neck stand up.

Werner Herzog, known for his German New Cinema art house hits of the 70s and 80s (Aguirre:The Wrath of God, Strozek Nosferatu the Vampyre, Fitzcarraldo), switched gears in 1997 with the underrated documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly and followed it with Grizzly Man. Since, Herzog has become a prolific and masterful documentarian.

In Grizzly Man, Herzog makes use of 100 hours of Treadwell’s own video footage of his misadventure. As we’ve come to expect, Herzog’s research is impressively resourceful, and he assembles his finds to construct a masterpiece of story-telling Most remarkably, Herzog has also become one of the greatest narrators of English language documentaries; somehow, his German-accented narrations are hypnotic.

Grizzly Man is a superb film, which made my own list of Best Movies of the 21st Century (and Sophia Coppola’s, too) and my Best Movies of 2005. It can be streamed from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play, and it’s available on DVD from Netflix.

Movies to See Right Now

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Joseph McCarthy and Roy Cohn in WHERE’S MY ROY COHN?

The upcoming Mill Valley Film Festival is the best opportunity for Bay Area film goers to catch an early look at the Big Movies. Check out my list of Best Movies of 2019 – So Far – The Last Black Man in San Francisco, They Shall Not Grow Old, Amazing Grace and Booksmart are all available to be streamed.

OUT NOW

  • Downtown Abbey is a satisfying wrap-up for fans of the beloved PBS series.
  • Where’s My Roy Cohn? is Matt Tyrnauer’s superb biodoc of Roy Cohn – and is there a more despicable public figure in America’s 20th Century than Cohn?
  • Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood is a Must See – one of Quentin Tarantino’s very, very best.
  • The family dramedy The Farewell is an audience-pleaser.
  • Bay Area filmmaker John Maringouin’s inventive satire Ghostbox Cowboy, skewers white entitlement and sneaks a peek inside the shadiest corners of the Chinese boom economy. Ghostbox Cowboy earned a NY Times Critic’s Pick and can be streamed on Amazon (included with Prime).

ON VIDEO

The Aretha Franklin concert film Amazing Grace is, at once, the recovery of a lost film, the document of an extraordinary live recording and an immersive, spiritual experience. Amazing Grace can be streamed on Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play; the DVD can be rented from Redbox.

ON TV

On September 25, Turner Classic Movies will present the groundbreaking French comedy La Cage Aux Folles – a daring film in 1978, when few were thinking about same-sex marriage. A gay guy runs a nightclub on the Riviera, and his partner is the star drag queen. The nightclub owner’s beloved son wants him to meet the parents of his intended.  But the bride-to-be’s father is a conservative politician who practices the most severe and judgmental version of Roman Catholicism, so father and son decide to conceal aspects of dad’s lifestyle. Mad cap comedy ensues, and La Cage proves that broad farce can be heartfelt. Michel Serrault is unforgettable as Albin/Zaza – one of the all-time great comic performances. (La Cage was tepidly remade in 1996 as The Birdcage with Robin Williams, but you want to see the French original.)

Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Serrault in LA CAGE AUX FOLLES

Stream of the Week: AMAZING GRACE – pure, sanctified Aretha

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Aretha Franklin in AMAZING GRACE

Amazing Grace is, at once, the recovery of a lost film, the document of an extraordinary live recording and an immersive, spiritual experience.

At the height of her popular success in 1972, Aretha Franklin recorded a live album of gospel music. She brought her producer Jerry Wexler and her band to New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, a large but modest church with a cheesy mural of Jesus emerging from the waters after his baptism by John the Baptist. Accompanied by James Cleveland and the Los Angeles Community Gospel Choir, she performed for two nights, and the recordings became Amazing Grace, the top-selling gospel album of all time.

The whole thing was filmed by director Sydney Pollack and his crew with five cameras. Having made his bones in live television, Pollack would seem to be a great choice, but he made a critical mistake – he neglected to use clappers, the equipment that allowed for synchronizing the filmed images with the recorded sound. Frustratingly worthless, the film sat in canisters until decades later when technology allowed the music to be synced to the 16mm film. Aretha, however, was notoriously prickly in business affairs, and the rights could not be secured until after her death. Alan Eliot is responsible for finding and assembling Pollack’s footage and turning it into a feature film that could be released for the rest of us to see; appropriately, Eliot’s credit is “Realized and produced by Alan Eliot”.

What brought Aretha get to this moment in 1972? Aretha had grown up in the Detroit church led by her formidable father, C.L. Franklin, immersed in gospel music until she launched a pop music career at age 18. When she was 25, she began working with Wexler, who “got” her, and she became a soul and crossover superstar with Respect, I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You), Do Right Woman, Do Right Man, Baby I Love You, (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, Chain of Fools, Ain’t No Way, Think, I Say a Little Prayer and Rock Steady.  At 30, Aretha commanded the field of R&B and looked to return to her gospel roots.

When Aretha enters the church, the atmosphere is electric, and Aretha is ready from her very first note of Wholy Holy. The church audience knows their gospel music, appreciates what they are witnessing and is, to a person, thrilled. The audience becomes more and more emotionally involved.

Aretha’s version of What a Friend We Have in Jesus is unrecognizable (in the very best way). On Precious Memories, Aretha’s humming is internally intense, and then her voice soars. Completely committed, Aretha produces a prodigious amount of sweat.

The high point of the film is Aretha’s closing song on the first night, Amazing Grace. It’s a very long version of the song, and the choir doesn’t sing until the very end. As Aretha’s instrument wrings every drop of emotion from that most familiar song, we watch the choir members’ reactions, which range from admiration to inspiration, many moved to tears. The moment is one of genius for Aretha and one of epiphany for the choir and for the film audience.

One of the great pleasures of Amazing Grace is watching the choir leader, Alexander Hamilton, lead his choir with an expressiveness that is both elegant and funky. If there is a co-star in Amazing Grace, it’s Alexander Hamilton.

There are pauses for technical issues, which bring out the authenticity of the moment and reinforce that this was a live event. It’s easy to spot Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts in the crowd on the second night.

Where does Amazing Grace fit in the concert film canon along with Monterey Pop, The Last Waltz, Stop Making Sense, Woodstock and The T.A.M.I. Show? It’s in the conversation.

Amazing Grace, which is on my list of Best Movies of 2019 – So Far, can be streamed on Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play; the DVD can be rented from Redbox.

MAKING WAVES: THE ART OF CINEMATIC SOUND – a movie fan’s primer

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Steven Spielberg and Saving Private Ryan in AKING WAVES: THE ART OF CINEMATIC SOUND

We usually say that we SEE a movie, but what we hear (or don’t hear) is just as essential to the movie’s impact. The impact of movie sound is SUPPOSED to be subliminal, so we often enjoy a film without appreciating the sound. The documentary Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound is a comprehensive primer on the art and science of movie sound.

Making Waves begins with the first decades of cinema, when movies aspired to include sound with images, but could only be accompanied by live music and live sound effects at their exhibition. Technology caught up in 1926 with synchronization of recorded sound and images.

The end of the studio period in the late 1960s coincided with the arrival of Walter Murch, the genius who invented modern movie sound design. Thankfully, Making Waves serves up plenty of Murch (The Godfather, The Conversation and Apocalypse Now!), before introducing us to Ben Burtt, who won an Oscar in his first gig (Star Wars) and Pixar’s Gary Rydstrom, who pioneered digital sound design. We also see the impact on movie sound of George Martin and the Beatles (multi-track recording), Barbra Streisand (movie exhibition in stereo) and Robert Altman (shooting with multiple mics).

Making Waves is best described as thorough and systematic, and I wouldn’t call it thrilling. But it’s a great choice for anyone who wants to understand and appreciate filmmaking.

There are plenty of cool tidbits, like how Burtt came up with Chewbacca’s vocalizations with the help of a bread-loving bear. And we see Foley artists at work, rolling a pine cone across dry lasagna to create just the right effect.

Making Waves is the feature debut for director Midge Costin and will be released theatrically later this fall. I saw Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound at Cinema Club Silicon Valley, with a Q&A with Costin.

Movies to See Right Now

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Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern in DOWNTON ABBEY

Make plans for Mill Valley Film Festival, the best opportunity for Bay Area film goers to catch an early look at the Big Movies.

Now is a good time to catch up on films from my list of Best Movies of 2019 – So Far. The Last Black Man in San Francisco, They Shall Not Grow Old, Amazing Grace and Booksmart are all available to be streamed. And, of course, to see Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood if you haven’t.

OUT NOW

  • Downtown Abbey is a satisfying wrap-up for fans of the beloved PBS series.
  • David Crosby: Remember My Name is a rock star bio that reflects on relationship carnage.
  • Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood is a Must See – one of Quentin Tarantino’s very, very best.
  • The family dramedy The Farewell is an audience-pleaser.
  • Bay Area filmmaker John Maringouin’s inventive satire Ghostbox Cowboy, skewers white entitlement and sneaks a peek inside the shadiest corners of the Chinese boom economy. Ghostbox Cowboy earned a NY Times Critic’s Pick and can be streamed on Amazon (included with Prime).

ON VIDEO

My stream of the Week is San Jose native Matt Sobel’s impressive directorial debut, Take Me to the River. Not one thing happens in Take Me to the River that you can predict, and it keeps the audience off-balance and completely engaged. It made my Best Movies of 2016. You can stream Take Me to the River on Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play or rent the DVD from Netflix.

ON TV

On September 15, Turner Classic Movies presents one of the greatest ever courtroom dramas, Stanley Kramer’s brilliant Inherit the Wind from 1960. The story is taken from the real-life Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925, so it has elements of the culture wars and politics that resonate today. Spencer Tracy and Fredric March are superb as the warring thought-leaders (based on Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan).

Spencer Tracy, Harry Morgan and Fredric March in INHERIT THE WIND

DOWNTON ABBEY: wrapping up a beloved series

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Carson (Jim Carter) returns in DOWNTON ABBEY

Downton Abby is writer Julian Fellowes’ satisfying wrap-up of the beloved series. So how good is it? It’s well-crafted and brings a hopeful, romantic and sentimental conclusion to virtually every character in the series.

It’s now 1927, and the aristocratic Crawley family and the Downton Abbey staff must host a visit from the King and Queen on short notice. There are two sources of conflict. Upstairs, there is a question of inheritance, which is where the series began, and which introduces a new character (played by the great Imelda Staunton) to do social combat with Violet (Maggie Smith). Downstairs, the royal family has a traveling squad of servants who try to humiliatingly push aside the Downton staff for the visit.

Fellowes gets credit for creating the marvelous character of Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham. The delightfully unfiltered Violet has allowed Maggie Smith to scene-steal for a decade, and she returns with her cutting bon mots and appalled reaction to modernity.

There is one shark-jumping scene, an action thriller sequence that isn’t really necessary for the story. It serves to make a point about the character of Tom, but that point could have ben made without the Jack Ryan moment.

Downton Abbey is not really a stand-alone movie. If you haven’t watched the series, it won’t mean as much. This is a series finale – it’s just in theaters instead of on TV

This is not The Sopranos, Throne of Blood or Tales of the City. Pretty much all Downtown Abbey fans will feel good about where the story concludes.

MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL: see ’em here first

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PARASITE, one of the prestige offerings at this year’s Mill Valley Film Festival

The Mill Valley Film Festival always showcases the prestige films that will be released during Award Season. It’s the best opportunity for Bay Area film goers to catch an early look at the Big Movies. Don’t wait until Thanksgiving – head to Marin in early October.

For example, last year’s festival featured Roma, Green Book, Shoplifters, If Beale Street Could Talk and Cold War. Those five films combined for 28 Oscar nominations and 7 Oscars. You get the idea.

THREE of the movies I am expecting to be the year’s best are playing at this year’s MVFF:

  • Parasite – This year’s Palme d’Or winner at Cannes. A family of poor scoundrels and a rich family become entangled in a thriller dramedy. Writer-director Bong Joon-ho is one of my favorite filmmkaers (Memories of Murder, Snowpiercer, Mother, Okja).
  • The Whistlers – from Romanian writer-director Corneliu Porumboiu (Police, Adjective), this is a fish-out-of-water crime comedy that won’t be released in the US until February 2020.
  • Jojo Rabbit – the anti-hate satire about a young boy and his shocking inappropriate imaginary friend. From the unpredictable director Taika Waititi (Hunt for the Wilderpeople).

Other highlights include:

  • The Irishman – Martin Scorsese’s latest gangster saga, with Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci; the film employs innovative anti-aging effects for the flashback scenes.
  • The Truth – Master director Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters) first non-Japanese film, with Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche and Ethan Hawke.
  • The Lighthouse – Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson are on a remote island in the 1890s. Major festival buzz about this contemplative movie.
  • 63 Up – the latest in Michael Apted’s Seven Up series, one of the great achievements in cinema history (and Apted himself will appear at the screening).
  • Frankie – the always discomfiting Isabelle Huppert takes her family (Brendan Gleeson, Marisa Tomei, Greg Kinnear) on a roller coaster.
  • Ford v Ferrari – a Hollywood audience-pleaser with Matt Damon, Christian Bale and Tray Letts.
  • Seberg – Kristen Stewart stars as Jean Seberg (and will appear at MVFF). Also stars Maragret Qualley (Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, Novitiate).
  • Pain and Glory, the latest from Pedro Alomodovar.
  • Just Mercy – Southern justice with Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Tim Blake Nelson and Brie Larson. Major Oscar bait from Short Term 12’s Destin Daniel Cretton.
  • Knives Out – currently my favorite trailer, this is Rian Johnson’s (Brick, Looper) star-studded take on the English country home murder mystery.
  • Motherless Brooklyn – the neo-noir from Edward Norton, who also stars.
  • Marriage Story – could be a career-topper from Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale).

Plus there’s a very special event for cinephiles – a screening of the 1988 art house classic The Unbearable Lightness of Being with director Philip Kaufman and star Lena Olin in attendance.

This year’s festival runs October 3-13 at four different Marin County venues (plus BAMPFA in Berkeley),. You can peruse the program and buy tickets at Mill Valley Film Festival.