TALE OF KING CRAB. Courtesy of Oscilloscope Films.
During the Holidays, I suspend my usual The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE so I can highlight the very best movies from earlier in 2022. These are on my list of Best Movies of 2022, and they shouldn’t be overlooked. Now you can watch them all at home.
Photo caption: Paul Dano and Michelle Williams in THE FABELMANS. Courtesy of Universal Pictures.
In his cinematic memoir The Fabelmans, that great storyteller Steven Spielberg relates two braided narratives – one about the origins of his own dedication to filmmaking and a second about his parents, two people who loved each other but could not be happily married. Both parents were creatives in their way. His dad (Paul Dano) was an electronic engineer in the transistor age who could imagine modern computing. His mom (Michelle Williams) was an aesthete, a pianist-turned-house mom whose exuberance often manifested in song, dance and visual arts. And, importantly, both parents were dreamers who would come to understand their son’s passion.
The story’s stand-in for Spielberg is Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle). We watch as his parents drag him to his first movie. That first film, incidentally, was The Greatest Show on Earth, always in the conversation as the worst movie ever to win the Best Picture Oscar. Nevertheless, it contains a thrilling rain wreck sequence, which definitely left its mark on the young Spielberg. You can draw a line from the train wreck scene in The Greatest Show on Earth and the very young Sammy’s home movie version with a Lionel model train to the final scene in Spielberg’s first real-life feature, the TV movie Duel.
Young Sammy starts making his own home movies, and after the family moves to Arizona, starts enlisting his sisters and his friends in increasingly sophisticated amateur film productions, including a WWII movie with an robust combat finale.
Gabriel LaBelle in THE FABELMANS. Courtesy of Universal Pictures.
When the dad gets a job at IBM in San Jose, it’s one too many moves for mom. She misses a friendship that made her husband’s absences bearable, she decompensates and the differences between the two simmer and finally boil over.
The kids aren’t happy in what will become Silicon Valley either. Sammy and his sisters attend Saratoga High, which is thinly disguised as “Grand View High”, and Sammy suffers antisemitic bullying (and I have read about Spielberg’s bitterness at his experience there). Indeed, Saratoga High in The Fabelmans looks like a camp for Hitler Youth.
Although high school is hellacious and his parents split, Sammy survives to try to break into the film industry. Each parent is able to provide support in his or her own way, and Sammy gets some valuable advice from other adults along the way, including one very famous one.
Gabriel LaBelle, who looks like the teenage Spielberg and who is much shorter than the Aryans at Saratoga High, is completely believable as Sammy. While his performance as this specific character is more than adequate, I’m really not hoping to see him as Mercutio or Holden Caulfield or Billy the Kid. And, as befits the title, The Fabelmans is at least as much about the parents’ impact on Sammy as it is about his own actions and inner life.
How many times can you call an actor’s performance a “revelation”? That’s the challenge in describing what will be another Oscar-nominated turn by Michele Williams. The Fabelman family really revolves around the mom – for better when she is the glue that holds the family together through its moves across the US. And for worse, when she experiences moments of instability and then breaks down completely. Williams’ performance (as always) brings texture and subtlety, along with the strong emotions of joy and despair. There’s a moment when the dad, experiencing unrestrained joy, carries her over the threshold of a new house, one that she has been yearning for; she smiles appropriately for the moment, and then the expression in her eyes slightly changes to hint that things cannot be made right, after all. It’s a singular Michelle Williams moment.
Paul Dano excels as the Fabelman Dad, who is trying so damn hard within the confines of 1950s gender roles, but is often confounded by his wife and his own children.
The rest of the cast is good, too, including Seth Rogen, unrecognizable but for his voice. Julia Butters (who stole a scene from Leonardo DiCaprio in Once Upon a Time..In Hollywood) and Keely Karsten are really excellent as Sammy’s sisters. Judd Hirsch, who is now 87, has a hilarious cameo as the mom’s long-unseen grand uncle, who parachutes in with what amounts to a bizarre pep talk for Sammy. Another great filmmaker, David Lynch, has a priceless and gut-bustingly funny and dead-on cameo at the end as an even more famous filmmaker; Lynch and Spielberg must have been howling with laughter between takes.
Personal digression: The protagonist’s first movie – and the rest of the film – made me think about whether there was one moment in my life that steered me toward my own day-job career in law and politics – certainly there was a zeitgeist of the times in the 1960s, but I ‘ll have to reflect more to come up with a single catalytic moment. For my love of movies, however, there’s a clear spark – seeing movies like Casablanca, Double Indemnity, All About Eve, Strangers on a Train, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Rules of the Game and 8 1/2 for my sophomore History of Film class at Stanford, along with The Godfather, Chinatown, Five Easy Pieces, The Last Picture Show, American Grafitti and other, then contemporary, work by the New Directors in the early 1970s; imagine seeing those 12 movies for the first time within a couple years.
I’ll be adding The Fabelmans to my Best Movies of 2022. It’s peeked out in a few theaters, and I expect a much wider theatrical release after Oscar nominations are announced in late January.
Photo Caption: Frankie Corio and Paul Mescal in AFTERSUN. Courtesy of A24.
The authentic, thought-provoking and entirely fresh Aftersun follows a British dad and daughter on their weeklong holiday at a budget seaside resort in Turkey in 1999.
She is 11, and he is 30. Although he’s always been in her life, he’s not the custodial parent, and perhaps never has been. (If you do the math, he was only 19 when he impregnated her mom.) Dad and daughter are playful ,affectionate and entirely comfortable with each other – and they are both eager for her Week With Dad.
The daughter, Sophie (Frankie Coro), is bright, bouncy and engaged with the present. She’s curious about the dad whom she doesn’t live with and about the older teens at the resort.
The dad, Calum (Paul Mescal of Normal People and The Lost Daughter) is charming and decent. He wants Sophie to enjoy a carefree, fun week, and maybe learn a few things about the culture of the country they are visiting.
But when Calum is not engaged with his daughter, he is moody and tired. There are hints of bad choices in his personal history – his very limited financial means, his not remembering the origin of physical injuries, his buying something that he can’t afford, and a probably unintended early parenthood. He’s experiencing melancholy at where he is and is not as he approaches 31. Calum is too young for a mid-life crisis, but there it is.
Sophie and Calum’s holiday week is a pleasant enough slow burn – playing at the pool and the beach, arcade games, umbrella mocktails, an outing to ancient mud baths and low-grade and corny dinner entertainment at the resort. The week starts very playfully and becomes more tense and forced as Calum’s dissatisfaction with himself begins to leak out.
We glimpse the adult Sophie (Celia Rowson-Hall), now her dad’s age back then, reflecting on her dad in strobe-lit dreams and when awakened in the middle of the night by her own kid. Now with adult life experience, she’s trying to figure out her dad.
The young Sophie is ever watchful. She doesn’t miss much, and we observe her observations. She’s getting a rare full dose of Calum, all from her 11-year-old perceptive. As Sherri Linden writes in The Hollywood Reporter: “ Charlotte Wells’ sharp and tender Aftersun is the rare father-and-child drama that leaves you wondering who the dad will grow up to be. ”
[MILD SPOILER: This is not a child in peril movie, When Calum makes choices that will cause more vigilant parents in the audience to gasp, Sophie can still rely on her uncommon good sense and some good luck to stay safe. ]
This is the first feature for writer-director Charlotte Wells, and it’s a remarkable and promising debut. Wells tells an intimate dad-daughter while refusing to deploy any cliches. She elicited superb performances from her cast, one of whom is11-years-old in her very first movie. And credit Well’s originality for the very idea of a coming of age movie for the adult in a child’s life.
Aftersun is also the acting debut for Frankie Corio, a major discovery. She’s so charismatic that we can’t keep from watching her, and she has an uncommon gift of letting us in on her thoughtfulness.
Paul Mescal is also excellent as Calum. I always respect performances when the role is mostly passive, and the actor has to portray an individual’s inner life without getting to do anything flamboyant.
I’ll be adding Aftersun to my Best Movies of 2022. It’s currently rolling out in a few theaters.
On December 17, Turner Classic Movies is airing the little-seen Mr. Soft Touch from 1949, which is undeniably Christmas film noir. The Holiday season is integral to the plot, which revolves around a Christmas tree, a Christmas party, Christmas decorations and a horde of ne’er-do-wells in Santa suits.
Nightclub owner Joe Miracle (Glenn Ford) returns from WWII to find that the mob has looted his nest egg. He’s able to rob it back, but now he’s got to hide out from the gangsters until his ship literally sails. As circumstances develop, he pretends to be a down-and-outer so he can stay in in the settlement house (isn’t that quaint?) run by social worker Jenny Jones (Evelyn Keyes).
MR. SOFT TOUCH. Photo Credit: Underwood and Underwood Corbis.
Mr. Soft Touch has many of the elements of classic film noir:
a cynical underworld where shady characters are robbed by even shadier types.
the WWII vet who has gotten screwed, and his only option to make himself whole is illegal.
a protagonist whose actions are driven to please a beautiful woman.
a hero who takes a bullet in the street.
a cast packed by recognizable characters of the period: John Ireland, Beulah Bondi, Percy Kilbride and Ted de Corsia.
gritty 1949 San Francisco locations.
That being said, Mr. Soft Touch is light comic noir and often silly. We accept the plot contrivances because the film doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Here, Evelyn Keyes isn’t a femme fatale for once; she’s a naïve do-gooder, but she’s sexy all the same, and sparks fly between Ford and Keyes as she inches him toward altruism and redemption.
I watched on Mr. Soft Touch last year on TCM because it is not available to stream. Set your DVD for a rarity.
Photo caption: Seidi Haarla and Yuri Borisov in COMPARTMENT No. 6. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
During the Holidays, I suspend my usual The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE so I can highlight the very best movies from earlier in 2022. These are on my list of Best Movies of 2022 – So Far, and they shouldn’t be overlooked. Now you can watch them all at home.
Montana Story: a family secret simmers, then explodes. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
Compartment No. 6: a surprising journey to connection. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
Poser: personal plagiarism. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
The Tale of King Crab: storytelling at its best. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
12 Months: an authentic relationship evolves. Amazon.
ON TV
George Kennedy and Paul Newman in COOL HAND LUKE.
On December 12, Turner Classic Movies brings us Paul Newman as an iconic 1960s anti-hero in Cool Hand Luke. Along with Newman being pretty doggone cool, there’s a charismatic supporting performance by George Kennedy, the unforgettable boiled egg-eating contest and the great movie line “What we have here is a failure to communicate”.
How to Run a Chain Gang and Influence People in COOL HAND LUKE
Photo caption: Florence Pugh in THE WONDER. Courtesy of Netflix.
In the intense, somber and profoundly dull drama, The Wonder, Florence Pugh plays an English nurse in 1862 Ireland with an unusual assignment. A local 11-year-old girl has survived for months while purportedly refusing all food. Village leaders commission the nurse as part of a team to watch the girl 24 hours per day and ascertain whether this is a miracle or a hoax.
The nurse takes this task seriously, and proceeds with integrity, diligence and compassion, and Florence Pugh takes it seriously, too, widening her eyes and furrowing her brow. There are many solitary shots of the nurse plodding across the landscape or eating her own meals. However, there are holes in the story which keep the audience from suspending disbelief about the extreme behavior of some of the characters.
The result is that watching The Wonder is drudgery. It’s a misfire by Chilean director Sebastián Lelio, who performed so well with A Fantastic Woman and Gloria.
This isn’t the fault of Pugh, although I’m not ready to anoint her as the next Kate Winslet. I still don’t see what the big deal is about Pugh.
The Wonder does reflect the genius of cinematographer Wegner, who has recently shot The Power of the Dog and Zola. The Wonder is a beautiful film to watch. One shot of the nurse in her sapphire dress, the girl in a gold dress and the girl’s mom in a green dress, all in a candlelit room, reminded me of a Vermeer. Stunning work by Wegner.
Ben Platt, Allison Janney and Kristen Bell in THE PEOPLE WE HATE AT THE WEDDING. Courtesy of Amazon.
The purported comedy The People We Hate at the Wedding feels like an agency deal that attached the talent and was sold to Amazon before there was any story to justify the film. The story, if you chose to call it that, is a compendium of rom com tropes – the anxious bride, the Bridezilla, the bride keeping a Big Secret from the groom, the brides’ estranged parents, the mom not comfortable with her out gay son and his partner, and some more. The tropes are there, but there just isn’t a single moment of authenticity. Nor any reason to care about the characters. Nor laughs.
I’ll watch just about anything with Allison Janney and/or Kristin Bell, but they’re hopelessly wasted in this stinker. The usuallycompelling French actor Isaach De Bankole is surprisingly wooden (perhaps because his lines are in English?).
If you must, The People We Hate at the Wedding is streaming on Amazon (included with Prime).
Photo caption: Brian Tyree Henry and Jennifer Lawrence in CAUSEWAY. Courtesy of AppleTV.
The affecting and uplifting drama Causeway centers on two damaged people and the unlikely friendship that can help them both heal. Lynsey (Jennifer Lawrence) is a civilian engineer attached to a combat unit, who suffers traumatic brain injury from an IED explosion in Afghanistan. James (Brian Tyree Henry) is an auto mechanic who has suffered a family tragedy and is adrift in a morass of grief and guilt.
After regaining most of her motor skills in a challenging rehab, Lynsey returns to her hometown of New Orleans to complete her recovery. Once we learn that her broken family is an ever-partying mom and a junkie brother that she speaks of as dead, it becomes clear why Lynsey escaped by immersing herself in achievement and structure.
When Lynsey’s truck breaks down, she meets James, and an unlikely friendship blossoms. Although they are both working class New Orleans natives, they make an unusual pair of buddies, with different races and different levels of fitness, one approaching life with determined focus, the other aimless.
The relationship between Lynsey and James builds organically with complete authenticity, with just one exception that keeps Causeway off my best of the year list. Dramatically, there needed to be one event that threatened the friendship at the end of the second act; indeed, one character comforts the other one with exactly the wrong action – and it briefly took me and The Wife out of the film. But, it doesn’t ruin the the rest of the film, which is uncommonly genuine.
Jennifer Lawrence is excellent as a character who is dazed much of the time, before she gets to exude the Jennifer Lawrence brightness. After Lawrence has earned massive paychecks from four Hunger Games and four X-Men franchise blockbusters, Causeway represents her return to more adult, thoughtful films. [Amazing note: Jennifer Lawrence is the first person born in the 1990s to have won an acting Oscar.]
Brian Tyree Henry in CAUSEWAY. Courtesy of AppleTV.
The revelation for me was the even better performance by Brian Tyree Henry (Emmy-nominated for Atlanta and This Is Us). Wow – this guy can act. There isn’t a single false note as Henry portrays James’ despondence, self-loathing, compassion, gentleness, worldliness and disappointment.
The distinguished stage actor (three Tony nominations and an Obie) Linda Emond is perfect in the small role of Lynsey’s mom.
Causeway is the first feature for director Lila Neugebauer, and it’s impressive work. I love New Orleans, and I was impressed at how Neugebauer delivered the vibe of the city without any shots of the city’s many tourist-friendly, easily recognizable locations. (I did spot the Maple Leaf Bar and neighboring Jacque Imo’s in one background.)
Irene Cara won an Oscar for writing the song Flashdance … What a Feeling. She performed that song in the movie Flashdance, as she had done with another Oscar-winning title song, Fame; (she played the character of Coco in Fame).
CURRENT MOVIES
Decision to Leave: he’s obsessed, and she asks, “Am I so wicked?”. In theaters.
Photo caption: Sylvie Mix in POSER. Photo courtesy of Oscilloscope Films.
During the Holidays, I suspend my usual The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE so I can highlight the very best movies from earlier in 2022. These are on my list of Best Movies of 2022 – So Far, and they shouldn’t be overlooked. Now you can watch them all at home.
Montana Story: a family secret simmers, then explodes. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
Compartment No. 6: a surprising journey to connection. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
Poser: personal plagiarism. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
The Tale of King Crab: storytelling at its best. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
12 Months: an authentic relationship evolves. Amazon.
ON TV
Maggie Cheung and Tony Leong in IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE.
On December 7, Turner Classic Movies airs In the Mood for Love, Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar Wai’s steamy masterpiece. Tony Leong and Maggie Cheung play apartment neighbors in 1962 Hong Kong. They suspect, investigate and confirm that their respective spouses are having an affair -and become very personally close themselves during the process. They decide to keep the moral high ground and resist falling in bed with each other – and what’s sexier than NOT having sex? This becomes a haunting love story, complete with tantalizing near misses.
Wong Kar Wai’s regular cinematogapher Christopher Doyle combined with Mark Lee Ping-bing to shoot one of the most beautiful and atmospheric films you’ll ever see. You can feel the humidity as the men sweat in their Mad Men Era suits , and the rich color palette magnifies the passion.
Incidentally, the leading man is a different Tony Leong than the star of another art house hit, 1992’s The Lover.
Two big movies that I have not yet seen are opening today: Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical The Fabelmans with Michelle Williams and Luca Guadgnino’s horror film Bones and All with Timothee Chalamet, Taylor Russell and Mark Ryland.
CURRENT MOVIES
Decision to Leave: he’s obsessed, and she asks, “Am I so wicked?”. In theaters.
Owen Teague in MONTANA STORY. Courtesy of Bleecker Street.
During the Holidays, I suspend my usual The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE so I can highlight the very best movies from earlier in 2022. These are on my list of Best Movies of 2022 – So Far, and they shouldn’t be overlooked. Now you can watch them all at home.
Montana Story: a family secret simmers, then explodes. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
Compartment No. 6: a surprising journey to connection. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
Poser: personal plagiarism. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
The Tale of King Crab: storytelling at its best. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, redbox.
12 Months: an authentic relationship evolves. Amazon.
ON TV
Ava Gardner and Robert Taylor in THE BRIBE
Set your DVR for Turner Classic Movies on December 1, when TCM airs The Bribe, one of my Overlooked Noirs. I subtitled my review with ambiguity and double crosses amid the sweat. Robert Taylor plays an investigator who arrives at a Mexican seaside resort and is immediately identified as a cop by all the bad guys – and by his one lead, the unreliable nightclub singer (Ava Gardner at her most luscious). But the best reason to watch The Bribe is Charles Laughton, an acting legend never better than here. His character often acts like a coward, but he is flush with confidence when it’s time to make a deal. A master of manipulation and persuasion, this guy is a great negotiator. In turn ingratiating and menacing, Laughton’s performance lights up the last half of The Bribe.
