Documentarian Kirsten Johnson and her dad face the end of his life in this funny, heartfelt and frequently bizarre film. Dick Johnson Is Dead is so highly original that I would place it in its own genre – docufantasy.
Kirsten’s father Dick Johnson is an 85-year-old psychiatrist whose increasing forgetfulness and frailty is forcing hm to leave his Seattle house and move onto Kirsten’s NYC apartment. As generally sunny as he is, his loss of vigor and independence is hard on him. His impending loss of memory (and of life itself is hard on them both.
Kirsten chronicles the familiar – the doctor’s appointments, the closing of her dad’s practice, the selling of his car and the downsizing of his possessions. And then she grapples with his mortality by staging a series of fictional demises – as he “dies” in a series of quirky accidents, like getting a large appliance dropped on him from a highrise. Other scenes imagine Dick in heaven, dancing with her mom, and dining with Frederick Douglass and Buster Keaton.
DICK JOHNSON IS DEAD
Dick Johnson is indulgent with his daughter and one helluva good sport. There’s even a Seattle “funeral” while Dick is still alive and able to watch from the wings.
Offbeat as it is, the core of Dick Johnson Is Dead is wistful and deeply personal. Dick Johnson Is Dead is streaming on Netflix.
Roger Livesey in THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP
The 1943 masterpiece The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is a remarkably textured portrait of a man over four decades and his struggles to evolve into new eras. Written and directed by the great British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, this is a movie with a sharp message to 1940s audiences about modernity, as well as a subtle exploration of privilege that will resonate today.
The character of Clive Candy, when we first seem him as an old man, is the butt of a humorous scene, being made fun of as out of touch and ridiculously old-fashioned. Candy, a veteran of sabre duels between 19th Century gentleman officers, still naively thinks that wars should be fought according to rules. Made in the urgency of wartime 1943, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp pointedly delivers the message that the old fuddy duddies should get out of the way. Only modern men can fight the quintessentially modern threat – the Nazis with their propaganda and industrialized genocide.
But Powell and Pressburger can make this argument without emasculating or demonizing Blimp; he is a good man, just a good man whose time has passed – and it is what it is.
We see flashbacks of the younger Clive Candy and see his bravery, steadfastness, loyalty, sentimentality, romance, and his occasional wit. He is a man devoted to a code of behavior. always profoundly anchored to doing the right thing and willing to sacrifice (in both love and war).
Candy is also a creature of privilege, and he’s clueless about that privilege. He is an upper crust Englishman in a class-driven, all male and all-white power structure. His day job is serving an empire whose premise is the suppression and exploitation of darker skinned peoples peoples. He never has to compete, on the merits, with women or with the working class or people of color. He just assumes that he should be a military leader and that England should have an empire; but he also unquestionably shoulders the duties and obligations that goes with the leadership and the empire.
Roger Livesey plays Candy as he ages over the forty years. Livesey often played decent and genial romantic leads, and I usually find those roles pretty bland. But here Livesey convincingly depicts a man who believes that he must never change, even as he faces heartbreak or changing times.
Anton Walbrook excels as Candy’s German peer, an officer of Candy’s generation who realizes in the 1940s that their time has passed. I’ve lately warmed to Walbrook, who was typecast as romantic, European dandies early in his career; his later work, in Powell and Pressburger’s The Red Shoes and The 49th Parallel, Max Ophul’s Le Plaisir and La Ronde and the 1940, less well known version of, Gaslight, is excellent.
The always coolly reliable Deborah Kerr appears in multiple roles, playing three different women who show up in Candy’s life.
Powell and Pressburger insert plenty of humor and smart filmmaking to tell this story. The montage of mounted animal heads that spans the period between the world wars is especially witty.
Clive Candy is a creature of his time – which TLADOCB unsentimentally depicts as having passed. But there is value in this man. Just like with Wille Loman – attention must be paid.
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp airs October 15 on Turner Clssic Movies and is available to stream from Amazon, AppleTV and the Criterion Channel.
Roger Livesey in THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP
In The Artist’s Wife, sixty-something Claire (Lena Olin) is married to a famous, much older, painter Richard (Bruce Dern). You get the idea that Richard has always been a handful, but he is undergoing some disturbing changes. He is increasingly confused and mean, even abusive. Claire is the last to recognize and accept that Richard is sinking into Alzheimer’s.
We see glimpses of Richard as a good catch – affectionate and witty – and he is a superstar of the art world. Now, however, Richard is creatively blocked and drinking more. And the dementia is showing itself in more and more inappropriate behavior, from cruelty to his students to the impulse purchase of a $94,000 clock.
Claire was a painter herself, having sidelined her own career to support Richard’s. Now, seeking relief from Richard’s decline, she rents a studio and starts working herself. More than anything, Clare is generous, and she finds ways to give other great gifts.
The Artist’s Wife is Lena Olin’s movie, and her performance is the best thing about the movie, as her Clare ranges from clueless to desperate to persistent to tipsy to seductive to hurt and, finally, triumphant.
Let’s remember that, in 1988’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Olin played the girlfriend even more beautiful than Juliette Binoche. She can still rock bikini underwear.
Speaking of beauties from the 70s, Stephanie Powers (Hart to Hart) appears (and briefly in full frontal nudity).
Ultimately a Feel Good movie, The Artist’s Wife is streaming on Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.
Inna Blokhina’s visually stunning documentary She Is the Ocean explores passion and possibilities. The passion is for celebrating the world’s oceans through science and sport. The possibilities are the great achievements that women can and have achieved in its pursuit.
She Is the Ocean introduces us to a stable of women with astonishing accomplishments, including:
Keala Kennelly, the woman’s pro surfing champ who now competes in men’s pro surfing events.
Andre Moller, who surfs the monster wave Jaws and paddle boards on the open ocean between Hawaiian Islands.
Anna Bader, a championship cliff diver whose highest dive has been from almost eight stories and who trains while pregnant.
Marine biologist Ocean Ramsey, known as the Shark Whisperer.
Teen surf prodigy Coco Ho, who by age twenty has been voted the world’s second most popular female surfer.
Oceanographer Sylvia Earle, still at it 65 years after her first dive, who led the first team of female aquanauts in 1970 and set the record for a single 1000-meter dive.
These women are tied together by their passion. Ramsay says, “I feel more comfortable and more graceful under water. I spend more time with the sharks than my family.“
This Spring, well after She Is the Ocean was completed, Brazilian pro surfer Maya Gabeira conquered a record wave in Portugal, so a woman now holds the Guinness record for surfing the biggest wave ever.
Cinta Hansel in SHE IS THE OCEAN
But the core of She Is the Ocean – and its passion and possibilities – is Balinese Cinta Hansel, the ten-year-old middle daughter of surfer and board shaper Bruce Hansel. Since she was eight, Cinta has aspired to be a world class surfer. Her dad has helped her, and she has become a prodigy. She is absolutely determined, and the joy she feels in the surf is infectious.
Inna Blokhina and her team of cinematographers and editors have created a visual masterpiece in glorious 4K. The underwater and surf shots are stunning. One “money shot” is of Ocean Ramsey getting a tow from a Great White. Another is Andrea Moller standing on her paddle board a few feet from the giant tail of a whale.
You can watch She Is Ocean on October 16 in a virtual screening from the Balboa, the Vogue and the Rafael in the Bay Area.
Gay Walley in EROTIC FIRE OF THE UNATTAINABLE streaming from Cinejoy. Courtesy of Vitale Productions.
This week is all about TWO film festivals underway with new movies to watch at home. We have one more week to stream movies from Cinejoy, Cinequest’s October virtual fest. Here is my best of Cinejoy plus five more Cinejoy films.
The Mill Valley Film Festival is always the best opportunity for Bay Area film goers to catch an early look at the Big Movies – the prestige films that will be released during Award Season. This year is the same – except we don’t even have to visit Marin County in person. Watch at home. Here is my MVFF preview.
Regina King’s ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI opening at the Mill Valley Film Festival. Photo courtesy of Amazon.
ON VIDEO
The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:
Sibyl: trashy, but in that sly and expert French way.
Driveways: I can’t think of a more authentic movie about intergenerational relationships than this charming, character-driven indie. Best Movies of 2020 – So Far.
The Lovebirds: A rom com with a playful plot and a truthful relationship.
ON TV
On October 15, Turner Classic Movies will air the 1943 masterpiece The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, a remarkably textured portrait of a man over four decades and his struggles to evolve into new eras. Written and directed by the great British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, this is a movie with a sharp message to 1940s audiences about modernity, as well as a subtle exploration of privilege that will resonate today. Set your DVRs now; I’ll be publishing about this film next Wednesday.
Roger Livesey in THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP
In the gripping Chinese sci-fi thriller Last Sunrise, we’re in a super-hi tech future, powered almost totally by solar energy – which doesn’t look as blissful as it sounds. As befits a dystopian story, there’s a disaster, and this one is just about the worst one conceivable – the death of our Sun.
Wang Sun (Zhang Jue) is very serious astronomy nerd with no apparent non-scientific interests. He doesn’t really know Wu Chen (Zhang Yue), although she lives in a neighboring apartment, and it doesn’t appear that she’s ever thought about anything profound. When the catastrophe happens, the two are forced on the road together in a race for their lives.
Last Sunrise is real science fiction about a plausible (and inevitable) future occurrence, and it’s about real ideas. This isn’t just blowing stuff up in space, which too often passes for sci-fi today.
Losing the sun is pretty bad – it gets dark, the temperature is plunging and humans are running out of oxygen. There may be refuges, but there’s little remaining battery power to fuel people’s escapes. Of course, it doesn’t take long for social order to break down. Last Sunrise becomes a ticking bomb thriller as the couple tries to find a refuge in time.
Of course, with no sun lighting the earth and moon, it is very dark and many more stars are visible. The f/x of the starry skies in Last Sunrise are glorious.
The two leads are appealing, especially Zhang Yue, whose Wu Chen is revealed more and more as film goes on.
The life-and-death thriller is leavened by witty comments on the consumerist, hyper connected culture (pre-disaster). There are very funny ongoing references to instant noodles. And Wang Sun, who is a bit of a hermit, doesn’t appreciate how devoted he is to his digital assistant ILSA (not Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS, just ILSA).
This is the first feature, an impressive debut, for director and co-writer Wen Ren. Cinequest hosted the North American premiere of Last Sunrise, the sci-fi highlight of the festival and is streaming Small Time in CINEJOY through October 14.
Steve Starr and Gay Walley in EROTIC FIRE OF THE UNATTAINABLE
Cinequest’s October virtual festival CINEJOY. runs through October 14. I’ve written about the best of Cinejoy, and here are five more Cinejoy films.
Erotic Fire of the Unattainable: My favorite discovery so far at Cinejoy, this is a captivating study of a free spirited woman of a certain age and her asymmetric relationships. It’s docufiction – “people playing themselves in stories that relate to their own real lives”. Here’s my full review.
The Last Days of Capitalism: Taking place entirely in a Vegas hotel luxury suite, a rich forty-something extends his encounter with a much younger hooker into several days of verbal probing and sparring. It’s kind of My Dinner With Andre with spa robes and sex. It turns out that he is hedonistic for a purpose, and she is more than she seems, too.
Far East Deep South: In this genealogy documentary, a Northern California Chinese-American family is stunned to discover that they have roots in Mississippi.
Watch Me Kill: Filipino actress Jean Garcia stars as a pitiless and prolific contract killer. Something from her past is haunting her, and there is a mind twisting thread. I was okay with the relentless violence, as would Quentin Tarantino, but not every viewer would be.
The Return of Richard III on the 9:14 am Train: This French comedy of manners centers on a crew of neurotic actors holed up in a vacation rental to rehearse a project. Although it’s got the best title in Cinejoy, it’s only mildly funny.
Gay Walley in EROTIC FIRE OF THE UNATTAINABLE. Courtesy of Vital Productions.
My favorite discovery so far at Cinejoy, Erotic Fire of the Unattainable is the captivating study of a free spirited woman of a certain age and her relationships. Gay (Gay Walley) is a NYC author in her 60s who has a boyfriend, but there are other men available to sample; she’s had a history of struggles in trying to find a guy who is the best fit.
Her relationships are all asymmetric – either she loves the man more than he loves her, or he loves her more.
We don’t see many movies about the romantic lives of women of a certain age, but assessing the relative appeal of lovers is a universal quandary. Unless you have lucked into the Ideal Partner (like I have with The Wife), there are trade offs.
As the actress Gay Walley says about the character Gay, “She is a free spirit. All the men come with strings. She clearly wants to be with someone but she can’t take the strings.”
Steve Starr and Gay Walley in EROTIC FIRE OF THE UNATTAINABLE. Courtesy of Vital Productions
Director Frank Vitale works in his own form of cinema, docufiction – “people playing themselves in stories that relate to their own real lives”. He casts non-actors and their friends, who act out stories that spring from their own real life experiences. His star, Gay Smalley, gets the screenwriting credit. Smalley, who in real life has published a novel entitled Erotic Fire of the Unattainable, plays the author Gay, who has penned a book of the same name.
He may use non-actors, but there’s nothing amateurish about Vitale’s filmmaking – Erotic Fire of the Unattainable looks great. The cinematographer is Niav Conty, who directed another Cinequest/Cinejoy gem, Small Time.
You can stream Erotic Fire of the Unattainable through October 14 at CINEJOY. After the film, there’s an insightful interview with Vitale and Walley.
Audrey Grace Marshall in Niav Conty’s SMALL TIME, premiering at Cinequest. Photo courtesy of Cinequest.
Filmmaker Niav Cinty explores rural America’s opioid crisis through its impact on one little girl in Small Time. Emma (Audrey Grace Marshall) is growing up among damaged and ill-prepared adults who are modeling the worst possible lessons about drug use, parental responsibility, handling firearms, choice of language and taking things that belong to someone else. This is an opioid-ravaged world in which the one character who actually saves two lives is the local abusive drug dealer. Emma sees things that no child should see.
Emma is spirited, smart and has a child’s pureness of heart. Amidst the adult chaos, she’s baking cookies and thinking about the tooth fairy. But we have to ask, what is the shelf life of innocence? When will her environment take its toll?
Nobody is comfortable watching a child in bad situations, so why isn’t Small Time unwatchable? Writer-director Conty has mastered the tone by making Emma such a spirited, hopefully indomitable protagonist. And Conty embeds just enough humor in scenes with the local lunkheads playing the board game Risk and Emma turning the doctrinal tables on a priest, forcing him to resort to bluster.
The child actress Audrey Grace Marshall is very good. Conty shot Small Time over three years as Audrey ranged from seven to ten. Small Time was filmed on location in north central Pennsylvania.
Cinequest hosted the world premiere of Small Time at the March 2020 festival and is streaming Small Time in CINEJOY through October 14.
Olivia Colman and Anthony Hopkins in THE FATHER, coming up at the Mill Valley Film Festival
This week: Not one, but TWO Watch At Home film festivals.
The Mill Valley Film Festival is always the best opportunity for Bay Area film goers to catch an early look at the Big Movies – the prestige films that will be released during Award Season. This year is the same – except we don’t even have to visit Marin County in person. Watch at home.
Cinejoy is Cinequest’s October virtual fest. More watch at home choices, especially focused on indie gems that you can’t see anywhere else.
ON VIDEO
Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story: “Actresses play characters, but stuntwoman play actresses playing characters, while driving fast and kicking ass.” Streaming on iTunes and Google Play.
The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:
Sibyl: trashy, but in that sly and expert French way.
Driveways: I can’t think of a more authentic movie about intergenerational relationships than this charming, character-driven indie. Best Movies of 2020 – So Far.
The Lovebirds: A rom com with a playful plot and a truthful relationship.
ON TV
On October 4, Turner Classic Movies presents an afternoon and evening of Buster Keaton that is one of the best programs that TCM has ever curated. First, there’s Peter Bogdanovich’s fine 2018 biodoc of Keaton, The Great Buster: A Celebration. I had thought that I had a good handle on Keaton’s body of work, but The Great Buster is essential to understanding it.
TCM follows with four movies from Keaton’s masterpiece period: Sherlock, Jr. (1924), The General (1926), Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) and Seven Chances (1925). After 1928, Keaton’s new studio took away his creative control, and his career (and personal life) crashed.
This is a chance to appreciate Keaton’s greatest work. I just wrote about Steamboat Bill, Jr. for last year’s Cinequest. I’ve also recommended Seven Chances for its phenomenal chase scene, one that still (ninety-five years later!) rates with the very best in cinema history.
