The Movie Gourmet’s 2022 Oscar Dinner

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Photo caption: Gummy worms (front center) and, clockwise, bulgogi/banchan/rice, burger/fries, tea, fried chicken/mash potatoes, cocktail, snacks, licorice pizza, cod/chips, pernil.

Every year, The Wife and I watch the Oscars while enjoying a meal inspired by the Best Picture nominees. This year, our lives are in chaos because we are moving; since we didn’t have time to actually prepare every dish from scratch, we looked to a menu that could be out-sourced.

  • Gummy worm centerpiece from Dune: The Wife is celebrating the giant sandworms in culinary art. (Gummy worms from 7-11.)
  • Cocktail from Nightmare Alley: We passed on the obvious carny chow to reference Stan’s (Bradley Cooper) nightclub act and how well Lilith (Cate Blanchett) pulls off holding a cocktail glass. There are no geeks at The Movie Gourmet, so no live chickens were involved tonight. This particular cocktail is one of The Movie Gourmet’s favorites – Bulleit Rye, Averna and Aperol, chilled and served up with an orange twist and a floater of homemade Strega.
  • Tea from Belfast: Tea is sipped throughout. (Tea from our pantry.)
  • Snacks from Don’t Look Up: One of the funniest bits is that Kate (Jennifer Lawrence) can’t stop obsessing about General Themes (Paul Guilfoyle) and his scam with White House snacks. (From Rotten Robbie.)
  • Cod and chips from CODA: The family catches cod. and they eat cod. (This also works for Belfast.) (From City Fish and Chips.)
  • Bulgogi, banchan and rice from Drive My Car: The theater organizer and his Korean wife host Yusuke (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and Oto (Tôko Miura) with a memorable Korean repast. (From HOM Korean Kitchen.)
  • Fried chicken and mashed potatoes from The Power of the Dog: We’re thinking of the meal served by Rose Gordon (Kristin Dunst) at her inn. (From KFC.)
  • Hamburger and fries from King Richard; Richard takes the family for fastfood burgers in Compton before his intended showdown with a local thug. (From In-N-Out Burger.)
  • Pernil from West Side Story: The Puerto Rican gangbangers certainly visit their abuelas for this roast pork comfort food. (Actually made this – leftover from a family meal earlier this week.)
  • Licorice Pizza from Licorice Pizza: Although no one eats this in the movie, it IS the title, for gosh sakes. BTW, the licorice and the pizza are each better when not eaten with the other. (My go-to pizza joints, A Slice of New York and Bibo’s New York, would be horrified at the thought, so I made this myself.) Important: the pizza and the licorice are much better when eaten separately.

Thanks again to The Wife, who has been the primary driver of the Oscar Dinner in recent years, and the genius behind masterpieces like the Severed Hands Ice Sculpture for Winter’s Bone and the Black Bean Alien Signal from Arrival.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: could this be a LICORICE PIZZA?

This week at The Movie Gourmet – I previewed Noir City, underway through Sunday, reviewed my final list of the Best Movies of 2021 and tossed in a belated review of The Last Duel. Plus – a sneak peek at tomorrow night’s Oscar Dinner.

Taylor Hawkins, the Foo Fighters’ drummer, has died at 50. He is featured extensively in HBO’s Alanis Morissette documentary Jagged.

CURRENT FILMS

  • Drive My Car: director and co-writer Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s engrossing masterpiece about dealing with loss – and it’s the best movie of 2021. Layered with character-driven stories that could each justify their own movie, this is a mesmerizing film that builds into an exhilarating catharsis. In theaters.
  • Nightmare Alley: enough burning ambition for a thousand carnies. In theaters.
  • Belfast: a child’s point of view is universal. If you have heartstrings, they are gonna get pulled. In theaters.
  • The Power of the Dog: One man’s meanness, another man’s growth. Netflix.
  • Don’t Look Up: Wickedly funny. Filmmaker Adam McKay (The Big Short) and a host of movie stars hit the bullseye as they target a corrupt political establishment, a soulless media and a gullible, lazy-minded public. Netflix.
  • The Tragedy of Macbeth: No surprise here: Joel Coen, Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand deliver a crisp and imaginative version of the Bard’s Scottish Play. AppleTV.
  • Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn: completely different than any movie you’ve seen. AppleTV, Drafthouse On Demand.
  • Parallel Mothers: Pedro Almodovar gives us a lush melodrama, sandwiched between bookend dives into today’s unhealed wounds from the Spanish Civil War. In theaters.
  • Jagged: Insightful biodoc of Alanis Morissette, who is really not that angry, after all. HBO.
  • The Lost Daughter : Great, Oscar-nominated performances by Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley in this dark, unsettling exploration of the obligation of parenting. Netflix.
  • House of Gucci: Lady Gaga and Adam Driver shine in this modern tale of Shakespearean family treachery. In theaters.
  • Licorice Pizza: When nine years is a big age difference. In theaters.
  • The Hand of God: Filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino’s own coming of age story – and a time capsule of 1986 Naples. Netflix.
  • Being the Ricardos: a tepid slice of a really good story. Amazon (included with Prime).

ON TV

THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK

On March 28, Turner Classic Movies airs one of the greatest political movies of all time – The Times of Harvey Milk, the documentary Oscar winner from 1984. It’s the real story behind the 2008 Sean Penn narrative Milk – and with the original witnesses. If you pay attention, The Times of Harvey Milk can teach you everything from how to win a local campaign to how to build a societal movement. One of the best political movies ever. And watch for the dog poop scene!

The Movie Gourmet’s 2022 Oscar Dinner – the menu

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The Movie Gourmet’s culinary tribute to 127 HOURS and WINTER’S BONE

Every year, The Wife and I watch the Oscars while enjoying a meal inspired by the Best Picture nominees. For example, we had sushi for Lost in Translation, cowboy campfire beans for Brokeback Mountain and Grandma Ethel’s Brisket for A Serious Man – you get the idea. The high point has been the Severed Hands Ice Sculpture in 2011 for 127 Hours and Winter’s Bone (photo above). Here’s our most recent pre-COVID menu, centered on the family’s meal at a beach resort in Roma.

Here is our menu for tomorrow night.

  • Gummy worm centerpiece from Dune: The Wife is celebrating the giant sandworms in culinary art.
  • Cocktail from Nightmare Alley: We passed on the obvious carny chow to reference Stan’s (Bradley Cooper) nightclub act and how well Lilith (Cate Blanchett) pulls off holding a cocktail glass. There are no geeks at The Movie Gourmet, so no live chickens are involved tonight.
  • Tea from Belfast: Tea is sipped throughout.
  • Snacks from Don’t Look Up: One of the funniest bits is that Kate (Jennifer Lawrence) can’t stop obsessing about General Themes (Paul Guilfoyle) and his scam with White House snacks.
  • Cod and chips from CODA: The family catches cod. and they eat cod. (This also works for Belfast.)
  • Korean food from Drive My Car: The theater organizer and his Korean wife host Yusuke (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and Oto (Tôko Miura) with a memorable Korean repast.
  • Fried chicken and mashed potatoes from The Power of the Dog: We’re thinking of the meal served by Rose Gordon (Kristin Dunst) at her inn.
  • Hamburger and fries from King Richard; Richard takes the family for fastfood burgers in Compton before his intended showdown with a local thug.
  • Pernil from West Side Story: The Puerto Rican gangbangers certainly visit their abuelas for this roast pork comfort food.
  • Licorice Pizza from Licorice Pizza: Although no one eats this in the movie, it IS the title, for gosh sakes.

Best Movies of 2021

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Hidetoshi Nishijima and Tôko Miura in DRIVE MY CAR. Courtesy of The Match Factory.

The Oscars are coming up this weekend, and I’m standing by my first thoughts on the Oscars.

Anyway, after catching up with some 2021 straggler movies, I have finalized my own list of the Best Movies of 2021 (follow the link for full reviews, images, trailers and how to find them, plus some bonus picks). Here are my top fifteen movies of last year:

Also keep watching this space for my annual Oscar Dinner.

A scene from RIDERS OF JUSTICE, a Magnet release. © Kasper Tuxen. Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing

THE LAST DUEL: power, gender, superstition and knights in armor

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Photo caption: Adam Driver and Matt Damon in THE LAST DUEL. Courtesy 20th Century Studios.

Based on accounts of the last medieval trial by combat, The Last Duel is both a thriller and a thinker. Director Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, The Martian) brings alive medieval superstition and savagery, and embeds an exploration of the power dynamics within feudal society, especially for women.

The setting is France in the 1380s. Jean (Matt Damon) and Jacques (Adam Driver) have been born into the nobility as squires, which means that they serve as mounted, armored warriors and can own land and castles supported by their very own peasants. Jean is later promoted to the higher title of knight. That puts Jean and Jacques in the elite one percent, but they are totally subservient to the region’s count, Pierre (Ben Affleck), who in turn owes the same absolute fealty to King Charles VI (check him out on Wikipedia).

Jean is an impressive fighter, but not very strategic. He’s a dunderhead, devoid of any social or political skill. Jean has married the beautiful and intelligent aristocrat Marguerite (Jodie Comer), whose father had fallen out of royal favor. Try as she might, Marguerite is only moderately successful in helping Jean from bulling his way through life’s china shop.

Jacques is a canny smoothy, with a rare business sense and charm that melts the ladies. Those financial smarts, along with his appreciation for culture, makes Jacques a protege of Pierre, the count. Pierre favors favors Jacques over Jean, who resents it.

Finding Marguerite alone at home, Jacques rapes her. When Marguerite accuses him, Jacques denies it. Jean presses the case, which culminates in the film’s titular trial by combat.

Ridley Scott tells the story first from Jean’s point of view, then from Jacques’ and, finally, from Margeurite’s. Unlike in Rashomon, the three versions of what occurred don’t diverge much from each other. Instead, we see how Jean and Jacques, who both adhere to the code of their class, see themselves. Jean really thinks that he is a good husband. Jacques, although he has forced himself on Marguerite without her consent, really doesn’t think he has committed rape. (They have their Code of Chivalry, but it sure isn’t very chivalrous.)

Jodie Comer in THE LAST DUEL. Courtesy 20th Century Studios.

We learn that, in 1300s European legality, rape wasn’t even a violent crime against the woman, but was a property crime against her guardian; (she was essentially the property of her father or husband). Ridley Scott slyly emphasizes this when he shows Jean’s reaction to an equine assault on his favorite breeding mare.

Margeurite’s insistence on bringing the rape charge publicly is a major problem for both Jean and for Jacques. It’s also an annoying inconvenience for the count, the king and the Church, who would sweep it under the rug. Jean thinks that he cleverly found away around the cover-up, but he overlooks one disturbing factor – if he dies in the duel, Marguerite will be immediately burned at the stake.

The performances by Comer, Driver, Damon and Affleck are all excellent. Harriet Walker is very good as Jean’s mother, a role which seems at first like a stereotypical stereotypical shrewish mother-in-law, until we learn of her own complicated journey navigating a world where men are unaccountable.

Scott shows us some savage medieval battles to prepare us for the final duel. Warfare at the time was desperate and brutal hand-to-hand butchery, within a sword’s length, like fighting in a phone booth. To stab, slash or impale an opponent, a combatant needed to find an unarmored body part. The jousting in The Last Duel seems especially authentic.

The Wife didn’t want to accompany me when I described it as the “medieval rape movie”; I should have said it’s the “trial by combat movie”.

I was late to The Last Duel, catching up with it several months after its summer 2021 release. Due to the distributor’s blustery publicity campaign, I had underestimated it; it’s one of the Best Movies of 2021, The Last Duel is streaming from Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube, HBO and redbox.

Previewing this weekend’s Noir City

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The Noir City film fest, always one of the best Bay Area cinema experiences, returns IN-PERSON January 20-23, 2022. What’s new in the 2022 edition of Noir City:

  • As usual, Noir City will be held in a vintage movie palace – but it will be the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland (not San Francisco’s Castro).
  • This year’s program contains all American movies from the classic film noir period; (no international titles or neo-noirs this year).
  • The festival will be compressed into four days from the usual ten.
  • Masks and proof of COVID vaccination will be required.

Noir City is the annual festival of the Film Noir Foundation, spearheaded by its founder and president Eddie Muller. The Foundation preserves movies from the traditional noir period that would otherwise be lost. Noir City often plays newly restored films and hard-to-find movies.

Muller, host of the popular Noir Alley franchise on Turner Classic Movies, explains, “The Grand Lake provided Noir Alley with a temporary studio during the pandemic, and I realized its vintage movie palace atmosphere, and the care and upkeep of the venue, would work perfectly for the type of show NOIR CITY loyalists have come to expect. Plus, I love Oakland. It hurts that the town has lost the Warriors and the Raiders, so I’m happy to give a little something back to the city’s cultural life.“

The 2022 Noir City will host the world premiere of the Film Noir Foundation’s 35mm restoration of The Argyle Secrets. The Argyle Secrets (1948) is not available for streaming, nor are these Noir City titles:

  • The Accused (1949)
  • Open Secret (1948)
  • The Sniper (1952)
  • Force of Evil (1948).

I particularly recommend the unfortunately prescient The Sniper, which presages the Texas Tower shooting, the Zodiac Killer and all manner of overtly misogynistic violence. Journeyman television actor Arthur Franz comes through in a career-topping performance as a woman-hater who can’t control his compulsions. Director Edward Dmytryk enhances the drama, Marie Windsor unleashes dazzling charm and the San Francisco locations are vivid. This is your best chance to see the rarely-seen The Sniper; (I have the French DVD).

The rest of the program includes the more familiar titles On Dangerous Ground, The Prowler, Odds Against Tomorrow, No Way Out, The Killer That Stalked New York, All the King’s Men and Crossfire. The 2022 program, subtitled “They Tried to Warn Us!“, offers movies that address contemporary issues: racism, anti-Semitism, sexual predators, serial killers, police brutality and a KILLER CONTAGION. Muller describes them as “warning flares about issues that still plague our culture more than seventy years later.”

Make your plans now. Review the program and buy tickets at Noir City.

Arthur Franz in THE SNIPER

Movies to See Right Now

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A SONG FOR CESAR

This week at The Movie Gourmet – remembrances of Alan Ladd Jr and William Hurt. Remember that A Song for Cesar is now in Bay Area theaters.

REMEMBRANCES

Alan Ladd Jr. (left) with George Lucas.

I don’t often celebrate Hollywood suits, but studio exec and producer Alan Ladd, Jr., had a major artistic and social impact on American cinema. Ladd is being remembered now chiefly for being the guy who greenlit Star Wars, which seems like a no-brainer now, but it wouldn’t have happened without Ladd; then in his thirties, Ladd was younger than his Hollywood peers, but old enough to have enjoyed the Flash Gordon series as a kid. Ladd also supported Mel Brooks’ vision to shoot Young Frankenstein in black and white.

We don’t immediately think of Ladd as a feminist warrior, but it was Ladd who changed the character of Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in Alien from male to female. And Ladd was the key player behind the most groundbreaking of 1970s feminist cinema, An Unmarried Woman, Norma Rae and 9 to 5, and, 15 years later, the iconic Thelma and Louise.

Ladd’s body of work was astounding: Chariots of Fire (Best Picture Oscar), Braveheart (Best Picture Oscar), Body Heat, To Live and Die in LA, The Right Stuff, Moonstruck, A Fish Called Wanda, The Man in the Moon, Gone Baby Gone, All that Jazz, Breaking Away, a wedding, Julia, The Three Musketeers, Harry and Tonto, The Scent of a Woman, The Omen and even Kagemusha.

William Hurt in BODY HEAT.

Actor William Hurt, broke through unforgettably in his first feature film Altered States, which began a stunning run in the 1980s, of which my favorites were Body Heat, The Big Chill and Broadcast News. Hurt’s characters were frequently cerebral, contained and deliberate. His Ned Racine in Body Heat was always thinking, too, just not thinking as quickly or diabolically as Kathleen Turner’s femme fatale Matty Walker. Even after his A-list days had passed, Hurt was uniformly excellent supporting others in films like History of Violence and Into the Wild .

CURRENT FILMS

  • Drive My Car: director and co-writer Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s engrossing masterpiece about dealing with loss – and it’s the best movie of 2021. Layered with character-driven stories that could each justify their own movie, this is a mesmerizing film that builds into an exhilarating catharsis. In theaters.
  • Nightmare Alley: enough burning ambition for a thousand carnies. In theaters.
  • Belfast: a child’s point of view is universal. If you have heartstrings, they are gonna get pulled. In theaters.
  • The Power of the Dog: One man’s meanness, another man’s growth. Netflix.
  • Don’t Look Up: Wickedly funny. Filmmaker Adam McKay (The Big Short) and a host of movie stars hit the bullseye as they target a corrupt political establishment, a soulless media and a gullible, lazy-minded public. Netflix.
  • The Tragedy of Macbeth: No surprise here: Joel Coen, Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand deliver a crisp and imaginative version of the Bard’s Scottish Play. AppleTV.
  • Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn: completely different than any movie you’ve seen. AppleTV, Drafthouse On Demand.
  • Parallel Mothers: Pedro Almodovar gives us a lush melodrama, sandwiched between bookend dives into today’s unhealed wounds from the Spanish Civil War. In theaters.
  • Jagged: Insightful biodoc of Alanis Morissette, who is really not that angry, after all. HBO.
  • The Lost Daughter : Great, Oscar-nominated performances by Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley in this dark, unsettling exploration of the obligation of parenting. Netflix.
  • House of Gucci: Lady Gaga and Adam Driver shine in this modern tale of Shakespearean family treachery. In theaters.
  • Licorice Pizza: When nine years is a big age difference. In theaters.
  • The Hand of God: Filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino’s own coming of age story – and a time capsule of 1986 Naples. Netflix.
  • Being the Ricardos: a tepid slice of a really good story. Amazon (included with Prime).

Remember to check out all of my Best Movies of 2021.

ON TV

BABETTE’S FEAST

Turner Classic Movies is in its 31 Days of Oscars series and, on March 20, will present Babette’s Feast (1987), one of my Best Foodie Movies. Two aged 19th century Danish spinster sisters have taken in a French refugee as their housekeeper. The sisters carry on their father’s severe religious sect, which rejects earthly pleasures. After fourteen years, the housekeeper wins the lottery and, in gratitude, spends all her winnings on the ingredients for a banquet that she prepares for the sisters and their friends. As the dinner builds, the colors of the film become warmer and brighter, reflecting the sheer carnality of the repast. The smugly ascetic and humorless guests become less and less able to resist pleasure of the epicurean delights.The feast’s visual highlights are Caille en Sarcophage avec Sauce Perigourdine (quail in puff pastry shell with foie gras and truffle sauce) and Savarin au Rhum avec des Figues et Fruit Glacée (rum sponge cake with figs and glacéed fruits). This was the first Danish film to win Best Foreign Language Oscar.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie in THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD. Courtesy of NEON.

This week at The Movie Gourmet – new reviews of A Song for Cesar and Adventures in Success. Also, Nightmare Alley is now streaming from HBO Max and Hulu.

CURRENT FILMS

The Power of the Dog: Kodi Smit-McPhee on his breakout performance | EW.com
Photo caption: Kodi Smit-McPhee in THE POWER OF THE DOG. Courtesy of Netflix.
  • Drive My Car: director and co-writer Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s engrossing masterpiece about dealing with loss – and it’s the best movie of 2021. Layered with character-driven stories that could each justify their own movie, this is a mesmerizing film that builds into an exhilarating catharsis. In theaters.
  • Belfast: a child’s point of view is universal. If you have heartstrings, they are gonna get pulled. In theaters.
  • The Power of the Dog: One man’s meanness, another man’s growth. Netflix.
  • The Worst Person in the World: funny, poignant, original and profoundly authentic. In theaters.
  • Nightmare Alley: enough burning ambition for a thousand carnies. Hulu, HBO Max.
  • Don’t Look Up: Wickedly funny. Filmmaker Adam McKay (The Big Short) and a host of movie stars hit the bullseye as they target a corrupt political establishment, a soulless media and a gullible, lazy-minded public. Netflix.
  • The Tragedy of Macbeth: No surprise here: Joel Coen, Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand deliver a crisp and imaginative version of the Bard’s Scottish Play. AppleTV.
  • Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn: completely different than any movie you’ve seen. AppleTV, Drafthouse On Demand.
  • Parallel Mothers: Pedro Almodovar gives us a lush melodrama, sandwiched between bookend dives into today’s unhealed wounds from the Spanish Civil War. In theaters.
  • Jagged: Insightful biodoc of Alanis Morissette, who is really not that angry, after all. HBO.
  • The Lost Daughter : Great, Oscar-nominated performances by Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley in this dark, unsettling exploration of the obligation of parenting. Netflix.
  • Licorice Pizza: When nine years is a big age difference. In theaters.
  • The Hand of God: Filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino’s own coming of age story – and a time capsule of 1986 Naples. Netflix.
  • Being the Ricardos: a tepid slice of a really good story. Amazon (included with Prime).

Remember to check out all of my Best Movies of 2021.

ON TV

Edih Chatterton and Walter Huston in DODSWORTH. Photo by Goldwyn/Kobal/Shutterstock (5880310c) Goldwyn USA Scene Still

On March 24, Turner Classic Movies airs the compelling Dodsworth, William Wyler’s 1936 film version of the Sinclair Lewis novel. The title character is a guy who has worked hard to get rich enough to step away from the rat race and take his wife on an extended European holiday. He thinks that he finally has it all – until he discovers that his wife has conflicting needs.

In one of his greatest performances, Walter Huston plays Sam Dodsworth as a guy supremely confident in his own skin, until he is devastated in learning who his wife really is. Unlike many stars from the Classic Era, Huston’s naturalistic acting would work in today’s cinema. Ruth Chatterton, who was a big Broadway star just ending a ten-year movie career, is equally good as Sam’s unashamedly selfish wife Fran (you’ve just got to let me have my fling!).

The third great performance is Mary Astor’s most sympathetic, as Edith, the straight-shooting anti-Fran. Astor shot Dodsworth during the daytime and then suffered through a humiliating child custody trial, held at night (with Chatterton at her side for support). Astor won over the court on the stand by channeling the character of Edith.

“Love has to stop somewhere short of suicide.” I just discovered Dodsworth in 2020, thanks to TCM guru Sandy Wolf.

A SONG FOR CESAR: the arts embedded in activism

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Photo caption: A SONG FOR CESAR. Courtesy of Juno Films.

A Song for Cesar is a rich documentary on the role of music and the arts in the critical years of Cesar Chavez’s United Farm Worker movement – so rich that it’s much more than that. There’s a time capsule of the turbulent 1960s, the story of emerging Chicano identity and a meditation on the role of arts in political activism – all embedded in a compelling history lesson.

A Song for Cesar shows us how music and the UFW uplifted each other. Anthems were used in mobilizing, and benefit concerts were a major pillar of UFW fundraising. In the other direction, Cesar Chavez and the movement inspired a generation of Chicano musical artists. We hear directly from a veritable Who’s Who of Chicano musicians from Malo, El Chicano, Tower of Power, War, Santana and Los Lobos through Ozomotli. The memories of UFW allies like Taj Mahal and Joan Baez are also central to A Song for Cesar.

It’s not just only about music, either – the importance of murals and theater are highlighted. We hear from Luis Valdez, founder of Teatro Campesino, about the beginnings of Teatro and its place in the movement.

A Song for Cesar captures the zeitgeist of the time. The UFW’s organizing campaign coincided with (as well as inspiring) new Chicano identity and pride. As Tower of Power’s Emilio Castillo says, “People were ready to protest for social change.They weren’t going for the old okey-doke no more.” 

A Song for Cesar reminds us of the mass casualty tragedies that galvanized the Farm Worker movement, along with the low pay, wage theft, horrid working conditions and exploitation. (A personal reflection: when I think of the cruelty, disrespect and social control embodied in the short handled hoe, I still get pissed off.) Exceptionally well-sourced, A Song for Cesar presents first-hand recollections of Chavez family members, UFW leader Dolores Huerta and other participants. The UFW history is deep enough to acknowledge the overlooked role of Filipinos in the UFW, with Larry Itliong as a co-founder of the union.

The Farm Workers had to face goon violence from the growers and infiltration by racist law enforcement. It becomes all the more relatable when Luis Valdez describes facing the violence with non-violence in very personal terms. A Song for Cesar is solid history and an important document of the times.

A Song for Cesar is filled with cool tidbits, like how Cesar Chavez was himself a big jazz fan, who would comb record store bins whenever he had the chance. Who knew?

A Song for Cesar opens this weekend, and will have March 18-24 runs at the Opera Plaza and the Smith San Rafael.

ADVENTURES IN SUCCESS: sending up seekers

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Photo caption: Lexie Mountain in ADVENTURES IN SUCCESS. Photo courtesy of Nashville Film Festival.

The broadly comic Adventures in Success traces the misadventures of a self-help retreat center led by Peggy (Lexie Mountain), a self-described energy transformationist. Peggy claims to have experienced a 12-hour orgasm. Her movement is centered on the female orgasm, the mantra is Jilling Off, and the sessions are essentially orgies where men are not allowed to ejaculate.

Of course, Adventures in Success sends up self-help movements, New Age affectations, and, especially, would-be cult leaders. As Peggy, Lexie Mountain projects a demented self-assurance.

The comic tone is set early – the opening shot is an impressive 28-second performance of urination art.

ADVENTURES IN SUCCESS. Photo courtesy of Nashville Film Festival.

There some inspired LOL moments, but Adventures in Success is not a laugh-a-minute. It runs out of energy when the group takes a final, doomed bus trip to Vegas.

Cinequest hosted the world premiere of Adventures in Success; I screened it for the Nashville Film Festival. Adventures in Success is streaming from Amazon and AppleTV.