UNIDENTIFIED OBJECTS: offbeat, then surreal, finally redemptive

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Photo caption: Matthew August Jeffers in UNIDENTIFIED OBJECTS. Courtesy of Unidentified Objects Film, LLC.

The Odd-Couple-On-A-Roadtrip dramedy Unidentified Objects takes us on a singular journey – from the offbeat through the surreal to the redemptive.

The self-isolation of anti-social gay dwarf Peter (Matthew August Jeffers) is disrupted when his neighbor, the chirpy sex worker Winona (Sarah Hay) insists that he provide his car for her drive from New York to Canada. She seeks to keep an appointment there with her space alien abductors. Wanting nothing to do with Winona or any aliens, Peter is nonetheless driven by financial necessity to agree.

In every social situation, Peter is quick to find (or manufacture) a grievance and explode in a torrent of invective; the rest of the time Peter seethes, leaking unpleasantness. It turns out that he is grieving the loss of a close friend – and with an overlay of guilt.

The trip is eventful. The two encounter lesbian cosplayers (one proud to cosplay full time – is that a thing?). Peter has dreams of a traffic stop by an extraterrestrial highway patrolman and of unexpected kindness in Canadian roadhouse.

Matthew August Jeffers (Peter Hobbes) and Sarah Hay (Winona Jordan) in UNIDENTIFIED OBJECTS. Courtesy of Unidentified Objects Film, LLC.

Yet the tone of Unidentified Objects is neither is not zany nor madcap. In his first feature, director and co-writer Juan Felipe Zuleta has created a character-driven story – no matter the odd occurrences, the roots of Peter’s unrest are simmering just beneath the surface. The story is about what Winona finds at the end of her trip, and, more profoundly, what Peter finds at the terminus of his.

Zuleta’s dream sequences are vivid and realistic – and all the more surreal because they seem real (until they don’t).

Through most of the film, Peter’s bitterness becomes grating, but, for those who hang in there, the payoff is worth it.

The US premiere of Unidentified Objects is at Frameline – in person on June 19 and streaming after June 24.

Matthew August Jeffers in UNIDENTIFIED OBJECTS. Courtesy
of Unidentified Objects Film, LLC.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Ben Fong-Torres in LIKE A ROLLING STONE: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF BEN FONG-TORRE. Courtesy of Netflix.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of Fanny: The Right to Rock (hard to find in theaters, but a hoot-and-a-half) and A Hero (streamable, but a lesser film from a great filmmaker).

I’m currently screening films that will playing at the Frameline film fest June 16-26.

CURRENT FILMS

ON VIDEO

THE WOMEN’S BALCONY

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

  • The Women’s Balcony: a righteous man must keep his woman happy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • The Handmaiden: gorgeous, erotic and a helluva plot. Amazon (included with Prime), Vudu.
  • Very Semi-Serious: glorious The New Yorker cartoons. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
  • Touching the Void: the gripping true life story of a mountaineer who had to cut his climbing partner’s rope. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Dick Johnson Is Dead: funny, heartfelt and frequently bizarre. Netflix.
  • The Women’s Balcony: a righteous man must keep his woman happy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Electrick Children: magical Mormon runaways in Vegas. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
  • NUTS!: the rise and fall of a testicular empire. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • The Imposter: you gotta see this. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.

ON TV

Humphrey Bogart and Martha Vickers in THE BIG SLEEP

On June 11, Turner Classic Movies presents Humphrey Bogart as Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled LA detective Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep. Bogart’s performance is iconic, and The Big Sleep is famous for its impenetrably tangled plot. It’s also one of the most overtly sexual noirs, and Lauren Bacall at her sultriest is only the beginning. The achingly beautiful Martha Vickers plays a druggie who throws herself at anything in pants. And Dorothy Malone invites Bogie to share a back-of-the-bookstore quickie.

Dorothy Malone and Humphrey Bogart in THE BIG SLEEP

FANNY: THE RIGHT TO ROCK: triple-threat trailblazers

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Photo caption: Fanny in FANNY: THE RIGHT TO ROCK. Courtesy of Film Movement.

Fanny: The Right to Rock documents the first all-female rock band to get signed by a major record label and churn out five albums. Fifty years ago, the band Fanny was breaking ground for women musicians – and for lesbians and Filipinas. Women rockers were a novelty in the early 1970; imagine layering on LGBTQ identity and Asian-American heritage.

Although you probably haven’t heard of them, this was no garage band. They had a major label record deal, European tours, and hung out with big name peers. Unlike many male bands of the period, Fanny didn’t crash and burn due to drug use or clashing egos. They just never caught on with record-buyers.

It’s pretty clear that music industry and media sexism, combined with maybe being a little ahead of their time to deny Fanny stardom. Too bad – I would have loved to listen to them in their heyday.

Their music fits right into the stuff I was listening to in the 1970s. I’m guessing that the reason why I hadn’t heard of them is that they didn’t get played on FM radio in the Bay Area.

Fanny in FANNY: THE RIGHT TO ROCK. Courtesy of Film Movement.

These women can still really rock in their 70s, and they’re a hoot.

Fanny: The Right to Rock is filled with colorful anecdotes from back in the day. Todd Rundgren, an important early associate of Fanny, and Bonnie Raitt appear as eyewitnesses. Cherie Curry of the Runaways, Cathy Valentine of the Go-Go’s and Kate Pierson of the B-52s testify to Fanny’s trailblazing status.

I screened Fanny: The Right to Rock last year at the Nashville Film Festival. It releases into theaters, albeit very hard to find, this weekend. I’ll let you know when it becomes available on streaming services.

A HERO: Kafka, Iran-style

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Photo caption: Mohsen Tanabandeh, Saheh Karimai and Amir Jahidi in A HERO. Courtesy of Amazon Studios.

In A Hero, the latest from Iranian auteur Asghar Farhadi, Rahim (Amir Jahidi) finds himself entangled in a Kafkaesque web of Iranian law and social convention. To start with, Rahim is in debtor’s prison. That’s right – Rahim’s creditor has him incarcerated so he can’t work to pay off his debt. Of course, the creditor is Rahim’s ex-brother-in-law (Mohsen Tanabandeh), who seems to prefer ruining Rahim’s life to being repaid.

Rahim gets a two-day pass, so the clock is ticking – Rahim must get his creditor’s sign-off in his 48 hours of freedom, or he goes back to the slammer. Rahim’s secret girlfriend Farkondeh (Sahar Goldust) happens on a lost purse with gold coins, but fluctuations in the gold market mean that the trove isn’t enough to pay off the debt anyway.

[MILD SPOILER IN THIS PARAGRAPH}. In any case, Rahim feels sorry for whoever lost the gold coins, so he finds a way to return them. The absurdity of a guy in debtor’s prison returning some gold that he found fair and square is noted by the prison authorities, who call in the TV news crews for a Feel Good story. In his 15 minutes of celebrity, everything is lining up to help Rahim to collect donations and pay off enough of his debt to avoid reincarceration..

Unfortunately, the creditor ex-brother-in-law is so bitter that he won’t play along. Then Rahim’s luck turns bad and things start spinning out of control. Traditional family honor makes things worse.

Rahim’s young son (Saheh Karimai ) accompanies him throughout much of Rahim’s two-day dash and witnesses his dad’s indignities and desperation – a particularly poignant aspect of A Hero.

Jahidi delivers a fine performance as the lead, and excels at portraying Rahim’s sense of resignation. 

Farhadi, perhaps the world’s leading master of the family psychological drama, does not make Feel Good movies. That’s because he makes the audience care so much about his characters that we ache along with them. The payoff is that Farhadi delivers genuine human behavior and authentic human emotion.

I summarized his Oscar-winning film A Separation, which as “brilliant film/tough to watch”. That movie and his The Past and The Salesman all reflect life at its messiness – especially how life resists our desire to make everything tidy and symmetrical. 

Those previous Farhadi films are more universal than A Hero, which is very specific to Iranian institutions and customs that Farhadi is criticizing. There would be no plot at all if this were set in a Western nation – Rahim would just get an on-line loan to refinance his debt – and he would never see the inside of a prison. I found A Hero two steps down from his other work – the payoff doesn’t justify the squirming.

Farhadi is highly admired by the Academy of Motion Pictures, which loves to jab at the oppressive Iranian government by praising Farhadi, so it is telling that A Hero was NOT nominated for the Best International Picture Oscar.

A Hero is streaming on Amazon (included with Prime).

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Maggie Smith in DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA, Courtesy of Focus Features.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of Like a Rolling Stone: The Life and Times of Ben Fong-Torres and Downton Abbey: A New Era, two remembrances and a comic swashbuckler on TV. Plus, here’s my preview of the world’s largest LGBTQ film fest: Get ready for Frameline.

And this past week, I’ve completely refreshed most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE.

REMEMBRANCES

Actor Ray Liotta became a star with his leading role in 1990’s iconic Goodfelllas and was still at the absolute top of his game this past year in The Many Saints of Newark and No Sudden Move.

Musician Ronnie Hawkins is best known as the irrepressible, earthy rockabilly mentor of The Band. In the movies, he was unforgettable in stage in The Band’s concert film The Last Waltz; (who is THAT guy on stage with Dylan, Clapton, Neil Young and Van Morrison?) He also had an acting role in Heaven’s Gate.

CURRENT FILMS

Owen Teague in MONTANA STORY. Courtesy of Bleecker Street.

ON VIDEO

THE HANDMAIDEN

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

  • The Handmaiden: gorgeous, erotic and a helluva plot. Amazon (included with Prime), Vudu.
  • Very Semi-Serious: glorious The New Yorker cartoons. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
  • Touching the Void: the gripping true life story of a mountaineer who had to cut his climbing partner’s rope. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Dick Johnson Is Dead: funny, heartfelt and frequently bizarre. Netflix.
  • The Women’s Balcony: a righteous man must keep his woman happy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Electrick Children: magical Mormon runaways in Vegas. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
  • NUTS!: the rise and fall of a testicular empire. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • The Imposter: you gotta see this. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.

ON TV

Michael York, Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain and Frank Finlay in THE THREE MUSKETEERS

On June 4, Turner Classic Movies is airing Richard Lester’s boisterous The Three Musketeers from 1973. Watch Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain, Michael York and Frank Finlay swashbuckle away against Bad Guys Christopher Lee, Faye Dunaway and Charlton Heston. Geraldine Chaplin and Raquel Welch adorn the action. [If you like it, you can stream the second volume, The Four Musketeers, from Criterion Collection, Amazon and YouTube; it was filmed in the same shoot and released the next year.]

Get ready for this year’s Frameline

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A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN. Courtesy of Frameline.

Frameline —the world’s largest LGBTQ film festival—is taking place Thursday, June 16 through Sunday, June 26, 2022. Screenings will take place at the Castro Theatre, Roxie Theater, SFMOMA, Proxy and AMC Kabuki in San Francisco and the New Parkway Theater in Oakland. Many films in the program will also be available to stream from June 24 through June 30.

The program will feature over 130 films from more than 30 countries. There will be 18 world premieres, eight North American premieres, five U.S. premieres, 28 West Coast premieres and 44 San Francisco Bay Area premieres. See it here first.

Highlights include:

  • A League of Their Own: the first two episodes of the new Amazon Prime series based on the beloved 1992 movie.
  • Mars One: the Brazilian indie hit at Sundance that will be coming to art house theaters later this year.

I haven’t seen either of those two, but I’ve been screening festival films and will post my recommendations on June 16. Stay tuned. Peruse the program and buy tickets at Frameline.

MARS ONE. Courtesy of Frameline.

DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA: harmless enough

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Photo caption: Hugh Bonneville in DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA. Courtesy of Focus Features.

In Downton Abbey: A New Era, writer Julian Fellowes adds a chapter to the saga of the characters he created in the beloved television series. It follows the 2019 movie Downton Abbey which I liked and thought had wrapped up all the story lines. But, apparently, there was more wrapping up to do, and Downton Abbey: A New Era begins with a wedding, ends with a funeral and a birth, and constitutes a fitting farewell to Maggie Smith’s unforgettable Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham.

The trailer is misleading, and suggests a fish-out-of-water romp with the most English of aristocrats and servants visiting France. Some characters do go to France, but they uncover a dramatic mystery that goes to the roots of the family’s identity. While they are gone, Lady Mary rents the Great House to a movie studio as a set, just as silent films are being replaced by the talkies; the predictable culture clash ensues.

This time, Hugh Bonneville gets to showcase his acting chops. Usually his Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, stands around in stiff correctness, placidly content with the old ways and irritated by any modernity, while smarter female relatives and servants manage up. In Downton Abbey: A New Era, he experiences the strongest emotions, and his fear of loss illuminates what really means the most to him.

To appreciate what his lordship faces in France, it bears remembering that the very first two episodes of Downton Abbey revolved around that most arcane rule of heredity, that of the entailment of estates. As they obsessed over breaking the entail, the characters seemed dressed for the 1900s, but with their feet firmly planted in the 13th century. Here is the best explanation of hereditary property laws and their original rationale.

On a lighter note, I must observe that the inept Molesley (Kevin Doyle), whose innocent earnestness led him into the most spectacular faux pas, has grown into the series’ funniest character not named Violet.

Maggie Smith in DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA, Courtesy of Focus Features.

We do get to enjoy a dose of Maggie Smith’s wonderful Violet. The cast does well in general, and Dominic West is great fun as silent film star Guy Dexter.

The one thing I disliked in the film is admittedly an Inside Baseball complaint. The character of the French aristocrat’s mother is one-dimensional and never evolves. That doesn’t bother me, but this stiff, underwritten minor character is played by Nathalie Baye, who is France’s greatest screen actress. (think Meryl Streep level). It’s a waste of Baye’s time and talent.

Director Simon Curtis doesn’t waste a second letting the camera linger on something that doesn’t move the plot; some of the transtions are abrupt, but at least the movie doesn’t drag. Curtis is a prolific TV director who has only directed five feature films (one of them being the very good My Week with Marilyn).

If you’re not already a Downton Abbey fan, there isn’t anything much in this movie for you. But if you are a Downton Abbey fan, it will be entertaining. Downton Abbey: A New Era is now in theaters.

LIKE A ROLLING STONE: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF BEN FONG-TORRES: tell me more

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Photo caption: Ben Fong-Torres in LIKE A ROLLING STONE: THE LIFE AND tIMES OF BEN FONG-TORRE. Courtesy of Netflix.

The documentary Like a Rolling Stone: The Life and Times of Ben Fong-Torres lives up to its title, which is a very good thing. Fong-Torres, the longtime music editor of Rolling Stone magazine, is an accomplished man in the most interesting times. Like a Rolling Stone is a satisfying combo of Fong-Torres helping to invent rock music journalism, the history of Rolling Stone magazine, and Fong-Torres’ personal journey growing up the son of Chinese immigrants in baby boom America.

For rock enthusiasts, Like a Rolling Stone: The Life and Times of Ben Fong-Torres is filled with nuggets like:

  • Ray Charles, having been made comfortable by Fong-Torres, unleashing his resentment of racism and the mainstream co-opting of black music.
  • Fong-Torres himself interviewed about his Marvin Gaye interview, the first popular introduction of Gaye and how he thought of his artistry.
  • The audiotape of a candid moment ith Jim Morrison, apparently in a liquor store.

Fong-Torres reminds us that the coolest people are those who are not trying to be hip. A humble man among raging narcissists and ever the consummate professional, Fong-Torres behaved professionally even amid the hardest core rock star partying.

As his rock critic protege and now movie director Cameron Crowe describes him, Fong-Tores projects “a lightness and a gravitas at the same time“.  The best interviewers are, as is Fong-Torres, good listeners; Fong-Torres’s signature technique has been to follow-up the answers to his question with a simple “tell me more“.

The documentary also gives Fong-Torres the chance to reveal the origin of his puzzling name: His Chinese father came to the US under a false Filipino passport as “Ricardo Torres” to evade the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Like a Rolling Stone: The Life and Times of Ben Fong-Torres is streaming on Netflix.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Hasan Majuni and Amin Simiar in HIT THE ROAD. Courtesy of Kino Lorber.

This week on The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of Hit the Road, 18 1/2 and Jane by Charlotte, plus a completely refreshed the most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE. The best new movie is still Montana Story.

CURRENT FILMS

  • Montana Story: a family secret simmers, then explodes. In theaters.
  • The Duke: he finally gets his audience. In theaters.
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once: often indecipherable and mostly dazzling. In theaters.
  • Hit the Road: a funny family masks their tough choice. In theaters.
  • 18 1/2: the paranoid thriller meets the darkly silly. In theaters, including Laemmle’s Monica Film Center and soon the Glendale and the NoHo 7.
  • Jane by Charlotte: as mildly interesting as the subject. AppleTV.
  • Mau: fact-based optimism and thinking big. In theaters.

ON VIDEO

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

VERY SEMI-SERIOUS
  • Very Semi-Serious: glorious The New Yorker cartoons. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
  • The Handmaiden: gorgeous, erotic and a helluva plot. Amazon (included with Prime), Vudu.
  • Touching the Void: the gripping true life story of a mountaineer who had to cut his climbing partner’s rope. Amazon, AppleTV.
  • Dick Johnson Is Dead: funny, heartfelt and frequently bizarre. Netflix.
  • The Women’s Balcony: a righteous man must keep his woman happy. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • Electrick Children: magical Mormon runaways in Vegas. Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube.
  • NUTS!: the rise and fall of a testicular empire. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.
  • The Imposter: you gotta see this. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube.

ON TV

SOLARIS

On June 1, Turner Classic Movies will air the sci-fi classic Solaris (1972), the masterpiece of Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky. A psychologist, with that common Russian name of Kris Kelvin, is sent to check out a space mission orbiting the oceanic planet Solaris. He finds things ominously awry, with a suicide and suspiciously furtive behavior by the surviving crew. Then he is face-to-face with his own dead wife from Earth; and after he dispatches her into space, she reappears on the spacecraft. Things are seriously messed up.

Much of Solaris’ two hours and 47 minutes – watching this movie is  a commitment – consists of trippy shots of the ocean planet, with waves breaking across its colored surface. Solaris is not so much an enjoyable art movie as it is a fascinating one. It won the Grand Prix at Cannes and is firmly placed in the sci-fi canon. Solaris is a must see for sci-fi fans [Note: This is NOT the inferior 2002 Steven Soderbergh remake.]

SOLARIS

18 1/2: the paranoid thriller meets the darkly silly

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Photo caption: Willa Fitzgerald in 18 1/2. Credit Elle Schneider (c)2021, Waterbug Eater Films, LLC.

In 18 1/2, a dark comedy that sends up the paranoid thriller genre, we’re back in the vortex of the 1973-74 Watergate scandal. A low-level government clerical worker (an excellent Willa Fitzgerald) finds herself in possession of the infamous 18 1/2 minute gap in the Watergate Tapes. She’s trying to find the best way to leak it to the press. Double crosses and red herrings escalate, as does the dark, dark humor. The paranoia finally morphs into over-the-top horror movie silliness and a neo-noir epilogue.

Of course, co-writers Daniel Moya and Dan Mirvish (who directed 18 1/2) had to devise a way to get this notorious MacGuffin into her hands; given the paranoia, deviousness and clumsiness of the Nixon White House, their solution is surprisingly plausible. I am a Watergate buff, and their device passed my smell test.

To review American scandal history, the 18 1/2 minute gap was a national obsession between November 1973 and August 1974. Investigators had subpoenaed the tape recordings of various Oval Office conversations, seeking evidence of White House involvement in the Watergate burglary or its coverup. The tape of a key Nixon conversation showed up with 18 1/2 minutes in the middle ERASED. The presumption was that the content of the gap was highly incriminating, and it was very likely that Nixon himself, or someone acting at his direction, obstructed justice by erasing the tape. The White House explanation, that Nixon’s secretary Rose Mary Woods had contorted her body to accidentally erase the tape, was laughable. When another tape, the “Smoking Gun”, came to light in August 1974, Nixon was forced to resign.

Willa Fitzgerald is very good as the somberly earnest protagonist. Her sudden burst of lust signals 18 1/2‘s shift into pedal-to-the-medal parody

Vondie Curtis-Hall, John Magaro, Willa Fitzgerald and Catharine Curtin in 18 1/2. Credit Elle Schneider (c)2021, Waterbug Eater Films, LLC.xxx

Two of my favorite character actors, Richard Kind and Vondie Curtis-Hall sparkle in supporting roles.

Kind plays the operator of a remote motel, just enough of an eccentric oddball to make the audience think he may be unhinged. You’ll recognize Richard Kind, a reliable character actor and voice artist with 263 screen credits. My favorite Richard Kind performance was the moving portrayal of a man seeking closure after the death of his wife in Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter. I also love his recent lead role in Auggie.

Curtis-Hall gets to bypass unhinged on his way to monstrous. He and Catharine Curtin play an older couple of relentless sociability. The revelation of his true character is the keystone to the parody. BTW not many actors have been in as many good movies as has Curtis-Hall: Mystery Train, Passion Fish, Crooklyn, Gridlock’d, Eve’s Bayou, Honeydripper, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Blue Bayou.

I screened 18 1/2 earlier this year at Cinequest, where it was the Opening Night film 18 1/2 opens in theaters this weekend, including at Laemmle’s Monica Film Center and soon the Glendale and the NoHo 7.