Movies

MAKING MONTGOMERY CLIFT: exploding the myths

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MAKING MONTGOMERY CLIFT

The best documentary in this year’s Frameline festival may be Making Montgomery Clift, from directors Robert Anderson Clift and Hilary Demmon. It’s an unexpectedly insightful and nuanced probe into the life of Clift’s uncle, the movie star Montgomery Clift. And it explodes some of the lore that has shaped popular understanding of Montogomery Clift.

Clift is the son of Brooks Clift, Montogmery Clift’s brother and archivist. The younger Clift never met his uncle Monty, but had access to his father’s vast collection of Monty memorabilia and to the memories of family, friends and previous biographers.

Many of us think we know the arc of Montgomery Clift’s life: success as a 1950s movie heartthrob is torpedoed by the inner torment of his closeted homosexuality; then alcoholic self-medication and disfigurement from an auto accident propel him into drunken despair and an early death. It turns out to be a much, much more nuanced story.

It turns out that some in the Clift family indulged in secret audio taping to a jaw-dropping degree. Directors Clift and Demmon take full advantage of the actual conversations of Monty and others. Their gift is to drop in the most startling revelations without lingering or even emphasizing them. To watch Making Montgomery Clift is a constant exercise in “wait…WHAT?” Demmon’s brisk editing helps, too.

How tormented was Monty by his sexuality (which we learn was a robust bisexuality)? Witnesses – who would know – let us know that Monty was comfortable in his own skin and fairly open – for the times – about his sexuality. This wasn’t Rock Hudson or Tab Hunter.

We learn that Montgomery Clift’s refusal to sign a studio contract was to preserve BOTH his artistic independence and his sexual independence (avoiding being forced into faux marriage and the like).

Making Montgomery Clift also discredits the view that Monty sank into depression after the accident changed his looks. His personally most satisfying performances came AFTER the accident.

The insights into Monty’s artistic process are unique and significant. We hear the actual conversation between Montgomery Clift and director Stanley Kramer about Clift’s riveting cameo in Judgment at Nuremberg. Monty’s intentionality in shaping the scene dispels the myth that, instead of giving a performance, he had an actual breakdown before the camera. Yes, he was acting it, and it was spectacular.

There has been a handful of recent showbiz biodocs made by younger relatives of the famous artists. Usually, these films add some personal family anecdotes, but are so fond of their subjects that they’re not especially insightful. Making Montgomery Clift is not that – it ascends above the pack – and should change how all of us understand Monty Clift.

MONSTERS.: when it’s time to move on

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MONSTERS.

In the ambitious and innovative Monsters., writer-director Marius Olteanu unspools his story one chapter at a time. First we follow Dana (Judith State), a morose woman whose behavior is bewildering her cab driver – and the audience. In the second chapter, we meet two men, one of them Arthur (Christian Popa), and try to figure out the connection to the first chapter. The third and final chapter weaves the stories together into a romantic tragedy. (And, yes, there is a period in the film’s title.)

[MILD SPOILER: The movie is about a couple in love who want to have a conventional marriage, but whose relationship cannot succeed in that form.]

Monsters. is Olteanu’s feature film debut. Stylistically, Monsters. is typical of Romanian Slow Cinema, long takes and all, and it depicts a 24-hour story in under two hours.

Olteanu is an ambitious and fearless filmmaker. The beginning and most of Monsters. is in an unfamiliar, vertical aspect ratio; right away, we know that we’re watching something different. And, just when we’ve settled in, Olteanu CHANGES the aspect ratio to make points about the content. This dynamic aspect ratio and the film’s structure are self-conscious, but it’s clear that Oltenau is aspirational and innovative. I’m looking forward to what he has in store for us next.

Both lead actors are very good. State is up to the challenge of playing a sad character who is always aggrieved without becoming tiresome. Serban Pavlu is especially excellent as an off-puttingly meticulous Grindr hookup.

Frameline hosts the North American premiere of Monsters..

CARMEN Y LOLA: sexual awakening and a glimpse into the urban Romani

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CARMEN Y LOLA

Carmen y Lola is a sexual coming of age story set among urban Romani people in contemporary Spain. 16-year-old Lola (Zaira Romero) is a smart, talented and feisty kid; she knows that she likes girls and wants a career; how she can do either within her traditional Romani culture is a dilemma. Buoyant 17-year-old Carmen (Rosy Rodriguez) embraces her future – being married off to a handsome young Roma man – but meeting Lola awakens her to other choices – and to her own sexual preference.

I’ve seen movies about the Romani people (widely known as Gypsies) before – usually historical period pieces and always with itinerant Romani. There are no wagons or RVs in Carmen y Lola; these characters live in the hardscrabble suburbs of Madrid. (Almost 2% of Spain’s population is Romani.)

We also get to see the ugly face of anti-Romani prejudice (which I’ve just learned is called antiziganism). Carmen y Lola is unsparing in its point of view that the Romani are held down by both external racism and some of their own patriarchal and anti-education Roma traditions.

There’s also a welcome element of cultural tourism here. We get to watch a Romani betrothal ritual, a Romani evangelical church service and an all-female flamenco party.

Carmen y Lola is the directorial debut of Arantxa Echevarria. It’s one of the successful first features showcased in this year’s Frameline film festival.

SONG LANG: operatic romance in a Vietnamese opera

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Isaac and Lien Binh Phat in SONG LANG, playing at Frameline.

Song Lang is writer-director Leon Le’s groundbreaking romantic tragedy. Set in 1990s Vietnam, Dung (Lien Binh Phat) is an effectively brutal collector for a loan shark, Sent to collect from an on-the-skids traditional opera company, Dung is about to trash the company’s wardrobe, when he encounters the opera’s charismatic lead singer Phung (Isaac). Dung has a female bed buddy, but Phung triggers some strong feelings in Dung. The evolving relationship between the two soars – until the consequences of Dung’s business catch up.

Song Lang is a great-looking movie. The color palette reflects the tropical vibrancy of Vietnam, and the sets and the costumes of the cải lương opera are breathtaking.

Isaac and Lien Binh Phat in SONG LANG, playing at Frameline.

Song Lang is also a love letter to cải lương itself; the art form is depicted beautifully and affectionately. And the story reveals that Dung himself has his own connection to cải lương.

Both leads are very good. This is the first screen credit for Lien Binh Phat, who won an acting award at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

American audiences will expect more physical expressions of passion than are portrayed in this film romance. This is a Vietnamese film.

On the other hand, there is one distracting moment for Vietnamese-American – when there’s a quick hug of grandma – no one hugs their grandma in Vietnam.

But, as is common in Vietnamese cinema, this is a tearjerker. It’s too easy to call this just “the Vietnamese Brokeback Mountain“. It’s an especially beautiful film with two original characters.

I also recommend this LA Times article on Leon Le and how he came to make Song Lang.

Frameline hosts the North American premiere of Song Lang. This is the directorial debut for Leon Le and is one of several first features in the Frameline program.

FRAMELINE: the documentaries

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MAKING MONTGOMERY CLIFT, directed by Robert Anderson Clift and Hilary Demmon

Frameline, the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, is underway and offers a rich selection of documentaries.

  • Frameline’s closing night film, the emotionally powerful documentary, Gay Chorus Deep South. It tracks the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus concert tour through the Deep South in the aftermath of the Trump election. This will be an audience-pleaser; bring hankies.
  • The best doc in the fest may be Making Montgomery Clift, from directors Robert Anderson Clift and Hilary Demmon. It’s an unexpectedly insightful and nuanced probe into the life of Clift’s uncle, the movie star Montgomery Clift.
  • Anybody who attends Frameline (or SFFILM or Noir City, for that matter) knows the Twin Peaks bar at the corner of Castro and Market. Through the Windows tells the story of the first San Francisco gay bar set up to let patrons and passers-by observe each other directly.
  • The documentary short that plays before Through the Windows, Dressing Up Like Mrs. Doubtfire, explores the history of cross-dressing in the movies and the impact of the Robin Williams performance in Mrs. Doubtfire. There are several intriguing threads in this short, which could be expanded into a future doc feature.

ROLLING THUNDER REVUE: A BOB DYLAN STORY BY MARTIN SCORSESE: doc and playfully not

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Scarlett Rivera and Bob Dylan in ROLLING THUNDER REVUE: A BOB DYLAN STORY BY MARTIN SCORSESE

So you think you know what you’re going to get from a movie titled Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese. Indeed, Scorsese documents Dylan’s 1975 Rolling Thunder tour. But he also, in what critic Jason Gorber calls an “anti-documentary” adds some fictional flourish, as befits Dylan’s longtime trickster persona.

Now for the documentary, which gives us a look at a mid-career Dylan (on the downside of his superstardom). The talking heads are great: lots of Bob Dylan himself, his sidemen, performers Joan Baez, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Ronnie Hawkins and Ronee Blakley, and even the subject of a Dylan song, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter. There’s a hilarious encounter between ex-lovers Baez and Dylan, as they mull over who left who.

There are explosive concert performances of Hurricane, Isis and A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall (but also a disappointing version of the tour’s signature song, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door).

Baez aside, the real co-star of the Rolling Thunder Revue was violinist Scarlett Rivera, whose violin licks elevated almost every song, especially Hurricane. My favorite Dylan performance – One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below) from the live album – is really more Rivera’s song than Dylan’s. In Rolling Thunder Revue, we get to hear from Rivera – and about her and her spirited personal life.

And now for the playful part – Scorsese has dotted this “documentary” with stuff that is not true. The performance artist Martin von Haselberg claims to have shot the concert footage for a pretentious art film that was never made, which Dylan credits to Stefan van Dorp. Hasleberg didn’t shoot it and van Dorp doesn’t even exist. The guy identified as the tour promoter is actually a movie exec. And Sharon Stone was too young to have been on this tour, although she spins a ROFLMAO faux anecdote about Just Like a Woman.

Michael Murphy, who starred in Robert Altman’s political mockumentary Tanner, is shown as a real Congressman Tanner. And did Scarlett Rivera really have a sword collection? Was Allen Ginsberg really a good dancer?

The critical praise for Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese has been rapturous, with one respected critic pegging it as the best doc of year. This reeks to me of Scorsese worship. I’m not sure I would recommend Rolling Thunder Revue to a general (non-Baby Boomer) audience. It does do a great job of taking us backstage for the inside morsels – and it is creatively sly.

Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese is now streaming on Netflix.

BTW I highly recommend Peter Sobczynski’s comprehensive essay on the Cinema of Bob Dylan in rogerebert.com. It’s kind of spectacular.

HELMET HEADS: engaging characters can take a light comedy a long way.

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HELMET HEADS

Engaging characters can take a light comedy a long way.  (And light comedy can take social commentary a long way, too.)  That’s the case with Neto Villalobos’ amiable comedy Helmet Heads (Cascos Nomados).

Mancha (Arturo Parda) buzzes around San Jose, Costa Rica, as a motorcycle delivery driver and canoodles with his girlfriend Clara (Daniela Mora). Mancha hangs out with his buddies from work. Clara tends a pack of 700 wild dogs on a mountainside outside the city. There’s a job crisis at Mancha’s employer, and Clara is moving to another town – so Mancha faces some choices.

The core of Helmet Heads is the bro-buddy camaraderie of the drivers. They all know each other by nicknames (and not their real names). “Mancha” means “Stain” and refers to the protagonist’s prominent facial birthmark. I especially loved the ever-blissed out Chito, the bombastic Gordo and the conveniently/inconveniently diabetic Gato. I was surprised to learn that most of the cast are non-actors and some are motorcycle delivery drivers.

Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose. These guys, especially Mancha, value their independence, but Helmet Heads reminds us – usually slyly – that their place in Costa Rica’s society is insecure, even fragile. Even with the social comment, Helmet Heads is pretty funny throughout.

There is also a sex scene unlike any I’ve seen. The sex is conventional, but the setting is not.

[Oddly, I flashed on another motorcycle messenger movie, the 1981 French thriller Diva, even though that is an entirely dissimilar movie – sleeker production values, a Hitchcock homage, an iconic chase through the Paris Metro, etc.]

I saw Helmet Heads at Cinema Club Silicon Valley, with a post screening Q&A with director Neto Villalobos.. I’ll let you know when and if Helmet Heads can be streamed.

FRAMING JOHN DELOREAN: a pulpy story, partly rehashed

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John DeLorean in FRAMING JOHN DELOREAN

Ever since the myth of Icarus, we have understood that audacity can take you only so far – but it often makes for a great story. The biodoc Framing John DeLorean tells PART of the story of a man whose audacious risk-taking invented the muscle car, propelled a meteoric corporate career, led him to found an automaker and to become a global celebrity and to marry a supermodel. And then to stumble into criminal prosecution, bankruptcy and divorce.

Framing John DeLorean leads through the familiar DeLorean story of his rise and flame-out and General Motors, the founding of the DeLorean Motors Company and the FBI videotaping him in a hotel room with $6.5 million of cocaine. We hear from Bill Collins – DeLorean’s engineering whiz for the Pontiac GTO and the DeLorean – and from DeLorean’s son and daughter. (But not from Cristina Ferrare, DeLorean’s celebrity trophy spouse). There a few unfamiliar nuggets, like DeLorean’s getting cosmetic surgery to enhance his jaw – and make him look like the swashbuckler that he was.

However, there’s a massive hole in Framing John DeLorean. A sketchy deal with a company called GPD is mentioned, but even with a forensic accountant as a talking head, the film doesn’t answer, or even pose, some questions that come immediately to mind. This article in Car and Driver provides more insight into the real story than does Framing John DeLorean.

The actor Alec Baldwin claims that DeLorean himself once suggested that Baldwin play him on screen. Framing John DeLorean has Baldwin play DeLorean in re-enactment scenes (along with Josh Charles as Bill Collins). The scenes with Baldwin add nothing to the film. I suspect that these Baldwin scenes were added only to use Baldwin’s drawing power to create a more marketable, not a better, film.

Framing John Delorean repeatedly asks why a narrative feature film has not been made about DeLorean and his pulpy story. But there isn’t a clear answer, and asking that question should be left to the audience of any documentary.

If you don’t know anything about John DeLorean, Framing John DeLorean is a decent primer. If you already know the story, I’d recommend the Car and Driver article instead. Framing John DeLorean is available to stream from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

ROCKETMAN: just a jukebox musical, but that’s okay

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Taron Egerton (center) as Elton John composing Your Song in ROCKETMAN

The tagline to Rocketman pretty wells captures the movie: “A musical fantasy about … Elton John’s breakthrough years”. Emphasis on the musical fantasy. It’s not the standard showbiz biodrama like Ray or Walk the Line – it uses the form of a musical (characters bursting into song) to illustrate Elton John’s creative rise, his descent into substance abuse and his recovery.

Taron Egerton (and juvenile actors Matthew Illesley and Kit Connor) play Reggie Dwight, who must battle a pair of unsupportive parents and his pasty, pudgy, hirsute and bespectacled appearance – all while coping with being gay in an unwelcoming culture. What Reggie has going for him is that he is a musical genius. Paired with a song-writing partner, his brother-from-another-mother Bernie Taupin (Jamie Bell), he explodes into popular culture as Elton John. Suddenly making kazillions, he buys a lot of booze and drugs, and that – as we know – doesn’t usually go well…

Of course, the best reason to see Rocketman is the Elton John songbook. The best numbers are the recreated composition of Your Song and Elton’s debut at the Troubadour Club with Crocodile Rock. The latter – a magical moment – is depicted as literally magical. Tiny Dancer is fine, but my favorite screen version is still the one on the tour bus in in Almost Famous.

Taron Egerton actually sang the songs himself and did well; most importantly, he captured Elton’s on-stage flamboyance. As I wrote about Elisabeth Moss in Her Smell and Elle Fanning in Teen Spirit, given that Rami Malek just won an Oscar for lip-syncing, we should bestow a Nobel upon Egerton. 

[And when did it become okay for Bryce Dallas Howard to portray somebody’s middle-aged mom?  I’ve barely gotten used to Ron Howard having an adult child.]

Elton John’s story is a good one, Taron Egerton’s performance is convincing and appealing and two hours filled with Elton John songs make Rocketman a fun diversion.

DEADWOOD: THE MOVIE

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Timothy Olyphant in DEADWOOD: THE MOVIE

The series Deadwood ranks among the best of episodic television because of its vivid characters, along with its ruthless violence and its florid – and unexpectedly foul – language. It is the apogee of the Loquacious Western.

For fans of Deadwood, there is now Deadwood: The Movie, an affectionate update of our frontier friends – both vile and righteous. Deadwood: The Movie is just as character-rich as the series. If you already know the characters, that is. And one of the denizens utters the line, “Does brevity exist in your repertoire?

More than a decade has passed since the events of the Deadwood series. The occasion of South Dakota’s statehood has brought back merciless George Hearst with another monopolist scheme, this one based on the new technology of telephone wires. Motivated by old grudges and new greed, he threatens a spate of Deadwood stalwarts: Charlie Utter, Trixie, Sol Star, Marshal Seth Bullock, Samuel Fields and Mr. Wu.

At last, Al Swearengen’s life of dissolution has taken its toll on his health. But his personality still comes through his slurred speech, and he observes all from from his balcony – the Oracle of Deadwood.

It’s all an entertaining swan song for our favorite characters; Calamity Jane, Joanie Stubbs, Mrs. Ellsworth, Doc Cochran, Tom Nuttall and E.B. Farnum all show up, too.

Deadwood: The Movie is broadcast on and can be streamed from HBO.