Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand in THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH. Photo courtesy of A24.

This is simple: stream The Tragedy of Macbeth, Don’t Look Up or The Power of the Dog. If you’re game for a theater experience, see Drive My Car, Nightmare Alley or Belfast.

IN THEATERS

  • 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.
  • Nightmare Alley: enough burning ambition for a thousand carnies.
  • Licorice Pizza: When nine years is a big age difference.
  • Belfast: a child’s point if view is universal. If you have heartstrings, they are gonna get pulled.
  • Red Rocket: a genius at burning bridges.
  • C’mon C’mon: In Mike Mills’ charming and authentic film, Joaquin Phoenix plays a well-intentioned, emotionally intelligent guy who gets an immersion course in parenting.
  • House of Gucci: Lady Gaga and Adam Driver shine in this modern tale of Shakespearean family treachery.
  • Benedetta: Paul Verhoeven’s entertaining parable of belief and class, wrapped in scandal and sacrilege.

ON VIDEO

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.

Styx: In this gripping drama, a skilled and resourceful woman embarks on an open-sea solo voyage, and we think we’re about to watch a survival tale. But then she is confronted with a situation that presents all bad choices – and, this time, she can’t fix it by herself. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu.

Western: In the evocative and thought-provoking German drama, an alienated man goes native. Western played the Cannes and Toronto film festivals in 2017, and then five US film fests, but never got a US theatrical release.  Western can be streamed from The Criterion Channel, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube.

Some of my choices for Best Movies of 2021 are already on video:

  • Riders of Justice: Thriller, comedy and much, much more. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube.
  • 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.
  • Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain: Bad ass romantic. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and redbox.
  • Lamb: This dark, cautionary fable of karma is a brilliant and unsettling debut by writer-director Valdimar Jóhannsson. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and redbox.

More 2021 movies on video:

ON TV

Spencer Tracy and Robert Ryan in BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK

On January 24, Turner Classic Movies serves up the John Sturges masterpiece Bad Day at Black Rock. Spencer Tracy investigates a disappearance in an especially hostile, racist and sinister town. Besides having Tracy at his best and being a great looking movie, Bad Day at Black Rock is notable for its menacing crew of Bad Guys – Robert Ryan, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin.

WESTERN: alienated man goes native

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Meinhard Neumann in WESTERN

In the evocative and thought-provoking German drama Western, a crew of German hardhats sets up a construction camp on a remote Bulgarian mountainside to build a water power plant.  They aren’t cultural tourists and certainly not diplomats, and they see the nearby Bulgarian village as a distraction from, even an impediment to, their project.  Of the Germans, only Meinhard (Meinhard Neumann) seeks out contact with the Bulgarians.

Writer-director Valeska Grisebach lets the audience connect the dots about what’s going on. The Germans and the Bulgarians have encounters at the camp, at the riverside swimming hole and in the village.  As one would expect from any modern German filmmaker, Grisebach shines a harsh light on the German sense of superiority and entitlement.  One German even says, “They know we’re back. 70 years later, but we’re back.”  But the characters have dimension.  The blustery project boss Vincent (Reinhardt Wetrek) is an asshole, but even he has his own personal and job problems.

Of the Germans, only Meinhard makes Bulgarian friends.  Meinhard is a loner among his co-workers, yet he seems to be searching for something among the Bulgarians and their alien language and culture.  Meinhard is well-traveled and looks like he Has Lived a Life.  He’s not a misfit (he’s very functional), but he hasn’t found where he DOES fit.

What has caused Meinhard’s alienation?  That’s not clear, but it doesn’t need to be.  Hell, Jack Nicholson just shows up alienated in every movie from Five Easy Pieces through The Passenger, and that works out just fine.

Meinhard has no ties.  Asked if he is homesick, he queries, “what is homesick?” He thrives in the simpler culture, and this solitary man finds himself becoming social.  He develops a deep trusting friendship with a local leader, Adrian (Syuleyman Alilov Letifov).

We have the advantage of subtitles, so we know what is being said in German and in Bulgarian. The characters are not understanding about 90% of what is spoken in the other language.  The friendship between Meinhard and Adrian transcends language. The highlight of Western is a beautiful dialogue in which the two don’t understand all (or even most) of each other’s words.

Meinhard goes native.  Will it work out for him?  The Germans and the Bulgarians learn that they are competing for the same scarce resource.  The Germans are always on the verge of provoking a riot.  The insular Bulgarians are wary of strangers.

Western is not a brisk movie, but Grisebach paces it just about perfectly.  This character-driven story is a sequence of revelations, and we need Grisebach to take her time. Grisebach uses the handheld camera effectively to plunge us right into the experience of the characters, who are often trying to discover something about the other guys.

Meinhard Neumann and Syuleyman Alilov Letifov in WESTERN

So that’s what is on the screen. I was astounded to learn that Grisebach used no professional actors in Western.  She reportedly auditioned 600 working folks to get her cast.  She snagged two sublime natural talents in Meinhard Neumann and Syuleyman Alilov Letifov. Not only that, but Grisebach did not use a script.

Quoted by Stefan Dobroiu in Cineuropa, Grisebach said, “I wanted to get closer to the solitary, inflated, often melancholic male characters of the western.”  Grisebach may not have intended it, but she nailed the Going Native subgenre of Westerns, where a first world man becomes immersed into a native culture, which he ultimately embraces.  Examples include A Man Called Horse and Dances with Wolves.

Western played the Cannes and Toronto film festivals in 2017, and then five US film fests, but never got a US theatrical release.  Western can be streamed from The Criterion Channel, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube.

THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH: driven, then haunted

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Photo caption: Denzel Washington in THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH. Photo courtesy of A24.

Director Joel Coen brings us the best of Shakespeare in The Tragedy of Macbeth. Of course, he has two of our finest screen actors as his leads – Denzel Washington as Macbeth and Frances McDormand as Lady Macbeth. They are both great. McDormand has played Lady Macbeth on stage at the Berkely Rep.

Vaulting ambition. Macbeth has always been my favorite Shakespearean play because my own life’s work has been a study of political ambition. Ambition raises one essential question, will you do what it takes? At first, Lady Macbeth worries that Macbeth is too decent to do what it takes, but then…

Coen is very faithful to Shakespeare’s original version, although he compresses some minor characters. Coen tells the story in a brisk one hour, forty-five minutes. The play is usually performed in well over two hours, and Roman Polanski’s fine 1971 Macbeth ran almost two-and-a-half hours.

Coen has chosen to use black-and white to bring out the darkness of the plot, the gloominess of dank medieval Scotland and the supernatural aspects. His staging reflects that the original work is a play.

Frances McDormand in THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH. Photo courtesy of A24.

Bertie Carvel brings the needed gravitas and decency to Banquo, an accomplished man betrayed. Harry Melling (Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter franchise) is perfectly cast as Malcom, as is Brendan Gleeson as Duncan.

Coen has enhanced the role of Ross, plugging him in to some situations that add ambiguity to his intentions. Alex Hassell is very good as Ross, maintaining the mystery of whether he is a good guy or a villain.

Kathryn Hunter in THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH. Photo courtesy of A24.

The most extraordinary performance in The Tragedy of Macbeth is that of Kathryn Hunter as the Witches and the Old Man. Hunter’s intensity and the contortions of her body bring a startlingly credible supernatural cast to these characters, which Coen enhances even more with his staging. Look for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for Hunter.

I’ll be adding The Tragedy of Macbeth to my Best Shakespeare Movies, along with Roman Polanski’s 1971 Macbeth.  Polanski set Shakespeare’s definitive study of vaulting ambition in an especially dank and gloomy medieval Scotland.  Unsurprisingly for a Polanski film, the witches and Macbeth’s visions are nightmarishly trippy.  And Polanski makes Birnam Wood march on film as Shakespeare could not have dreamt of doing on stage. As Lady Macbeth, Francesca Annis played the sleepwalking scene nude.

The Tragedy of Macbeth is brilliant. It is streaming on AppleTV and playing in a few art house theaters.

STYX: a confident woman with no good choices

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Susanne Wolff in STYX

In the gripping drama Styx, Rieke (Susanne Wolff) is a woman who intends to pilot her sailboat on a solo voyage from Europe to Ascension Island off the coast of Africa. That’s one woman, all alone on her boat for 3,000 miles of open ocean.

Oozing matter of fact confidence, Rieke seems well-equipped for the adventure. She is fit, highly skilled, an experienced sailor and provisioned up with top quality gear and supplies. Rieke’s day job is as an emergency physician, and we see that no crisis situation seems to faze her.

In the first part of Styx, we think we’re watching a survival tale – woman against nature. But when a dramatic storm hits, we’re afraid for her but she’s not.

After the storm, she faces the first situation that she can’t handle on her own – one of life-and-death that has been spawned by a humanitarian crisis bigger than any individual. Frustratingly, she knows exactly what must be done, but she can’t do it herself; instead, she must rely on civilized nations behaving according to expected norms. But are those expected norms available to everyone? And will everyone act as they should?

Rieke’s persona is based on acting to solve every problem. But here, there are no good choices.

This is a German film about a German character, but almost all the dialogue is in English, the international language of navigation.

The second feature for director Wolfgang Fischer, Styx has won film festival awards, including at the Berlin International Film Festival. Styx can be streamed from Amazon, AppleTV and Vudu.

THE SNIPER: lethal mommy issues

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Arthur Franz in THE SNIPER

The Sniper is an unfortunately prescient film noir that tracks the loner Edward Miller (Arthur Franz), whose misogyny drives him to murder a series of San Francisco women in what seem like random shootings.

From the beginning, it’s very clear that 1) every encounter with a woman pushes Miller’s buttons, and 2) he is trying to control a compulsion to shoot them.

When ER doctor treating him for a burn asks, “Can I ask you a question? Were you ever in a mental institution?”, Miller replies, “Only when I was in prison – in the psycho ward.” Uh oh.

Understandable public hysteria triggers a manhunt, led by a seasoned detective lieutenant (Adolphe Menjou) and his snarky assistant (Gerald Mohr), a guy who is never witty but thinks he is. The embattled police chief is played by Frank Faylen (cabbie Ernie in It’s a Wonderful Life). The cops don’t understand who they are looking for or how to track him down.

If The Sniper is any indication, the SFPD’s police methods of communications, investigation and crowd control  were very primitive in 1952.

A police psychologist (Richard Kiley) educates the cops about the killer’s profile, and they finally close in. The weakest part of The Sniper is a talky “message picture” segment where the psychologist tries to convince some civic dinosaurs that the mentally ill need treatment to keep them from killing the rest of us. It’s as lame as the Simon Oakland epilogue lecture in Psycho. 

It’s notable that The Sniper was released in 1952, before “active shooter” was a thing. This was 14 years before the Texas Tower shootings and 16 years before Peter Bogdanovich’s similarly-themed fictional narrative Targets. The Zodiac Killer, a real life anonymous serial killer who communicated directly with the police, first struck 16 years after The Sniper (and also terrorized the Bay Area).

The Sniper is also an early exploration of misogynistic attitudes and violence. Even the casual remarks from the folks on the street illustrate unconsciously sexist attitudes on gender.

Arthur Franz in THE SNIPER

The Sniper depends on the performance by Arthur Franz, and he is excellent. Of course, he gets to play full psycho, but he is best when he is observing women and silently registering disgust and repulsion. With his countenance otherwise placid, the look in Franz’s eyes changes at the instant that he is triggered into antipathy; you can see him thinking Bitch! Slut! This performance is Franz’s career topper.

I had a vague recollection of Franz, but couldn’t place his other screen work, which was primarily in amiable supporting roles. Franz was the young corporal who narrates The Sands of Iwo Jima, a young ship’s officer in The Caine Mutiny and had a supporting turn in the fine Fritz Lang/Dana Andrews noir Beyond a Reasonable Doubt. But most of his 152 screen credits came in 1950s and 1960s television, including five guest appearances in Perry Mason.

Marie Windsor and Arthur Franz n THE SNIPER

The most dazzling performance in The Sniper is Marie Windsor’s as one of Miller’s laundry delivery customers, the singer in a bar. Windsor is at her most charismatic; her sexy charm, however, is exactly what rubs Miller the wrong way.

Menjou is solid, but these are not Mohr’s or Faylen’s best performances. Jay Novello sparkles in a very small role as the tavern owner who employs Marie Windsor’s songstress.

Arthur Franz in THE SNIPER

The Sniper is directed by the accomplished Edward Dmytryk (Murder My Sweet, Crossfire, The Hidden Room, The Caine Mutiny). Dmytryk elevates the tension with dramatic shots from the sniper’s and victim’s points of view. Dmytryk even gets a lttle showy when Miller shoots someone and the fatal bullet breaks the glass on her publicity poster.

The San Francisco locations are superbly detailed in the blog ReelSF, an essential for Bay Area cinephiles. (However, the boardwalk carnival was shot in Southern California, not at San Francisco’s Playland-at-the-Beach.)

The Sniper is very hard to find. It is not available to stream, and I needed to buy the French DVD. The Sniper is scheduled to screen at the 2022 Noir City film festival.

Adolphe Menjou and Gerald Mohr in THE SNIPER

THE ARGYLE SECRETS: racing for a politically explosive Macguffin

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Marjorie Lord and William Gargan in THE ARGYLE SECRETS

The Argyle Secrets is a fast-paced 63-minute espresso noir, a race to find a politically explosive Macguffin. That Macguffin is the Argyle Album, a list of those Americans playing footsy with the Nazis, just in case Hitler might win the war. This list has obvious value, both as a news media exposé and as blackmail leverage. value.

The Argyle Secrets starts out with voice-over exposition, flashes of the characters to come, and some rapid voice-over exposition from our protagonist, the investigative reporter Harry Mitchell (William Gargan).

Mitchell has the opportunity to meet a visiting national columnist (George Anderson), who tells him about the existence of, but not the content of the Argyle Album. When the columnist suddenly dies amid suspicious circumstances, Mitchell comes under suspicion and goes on the run to solve the case and prove his innocence. Of course, he also wants the Big Scoop for his own newspaper.

George Anderson and William Gargan in THE ARGYLE SECRETS

But Harry Mitchell is not alone in his pursuit of the Argyle Album. Just like in that Macguffin classic The Maltese Falcon, he is racing devious characters with multiple aliases. In pursuit of the Argyle Album themselves, they’re now in pursuit of Harry. There’s even a fat man in a white suit (Jack Reitzen).

The fat man is a solo operator, but there’s also a gang with an accented leader (John Banner, 20 years before his Sgt. Schultz in Hogan’s Heroes) and sunglasses-wearing muscle (Mickey Simpson) – and they’re willing to use a blowtorch on Harry. Plus a shifty fence (Peter Brocco).

There’s also the alluring Marla (Marjorie Lord), a sexy femme fatale who may or may not be loyal to the gang. Fondling Harry’s lapels, she puts on her best Brigid O’Shaughnessy and coos, “You think I’m really rotten, don’t you? I am. I really am.”

The plot transpires over 24 hours. Who will find the Argyle Album? Is Marla playing Harry? Will Harry survive?

William Gargan in THE ARGYLE SECRETS

William Gargan carries the story as Harry. Gargan made a career of playing fictional detectives – Barrie Craig for four years in the popular radio series Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator, then Ellery Queen in three movies and Martin Kane in 51 television episodes.

Marjorie Lord in THE ARGYLE SECRETS

Marjorie Lord, who considered herself primarily a stage actress, did massive amounts of television, especially 227 episodes playing Danny Thomas’s wife in The Danny Thomas Show (plus another 24 episodes as the same character in in Make Room for Granddaddy).

However, Lord is right at home playing a movie femme fatale in The Argyle Secrets, exuding sexuality and unashamed self-interest.

The Argyle Secrets was written and directed by Cy Endfield, then a 34-year-old Orson Welles protege, in what he called his first film as an auteur. Blacklisted in the US, Endfield went on to direct the fine 1957 British noir Hell Drivers and the 1964 hit Zulu.

The Argyle Secrets has been newly restored by the the Film Noir Foundation. The world premiere 35mm restoration of The Argyle Secrets will be at the 2022 Noir City film festival.

The Argyle Secrets is very hard to find and is not available to stream; I expect that a Film Noir Foundation DVD will become available.

Marjorie Lord and William Gargan in THE ARGYLE SECRETS

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Denzel Washington in THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH. Photo courtesy of A24.

Joel Cohen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth with Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand is now streaming on AppleTV. I’ll be writing about it next week.

REMEMBRANCES

Sidney Poitier in THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT

Sidney Poitier was an actor whose great intelligence, charisma and intensity, which combined into a righteous power. He was the first black A-list movie star and a man who changed things forever by insisting on playing empowered, non-degraded roles. Revisit the moment in In the Heat of the Night when his detective informs Carroll O’Connor’s redneck lawman, “They call me Mister Tibbs“. He wasn’t just an iconic actor, either – he was a also an accomplished director and a bona fide civil rights leader.

And ICYMI, here’s last week’s remembrance of Peter Bogdanovich.

IN THEATERS

Licorice Pizza: This entertaining coming of age story has a lot going for it – the originality of an age mismatch, two fresh and interesting lead actors and a 1973 time capsule of the San Fernando Valley. A little too much length and an odd segment with Bradley Cooper as Jon Peters keep this from being among the best films of the year.

ON VIDEO

The Heist of the Century: This delightful crime tale from Argentina, tells a story that would be unbelievable – except it all really happened. HBO Max, Amazon, Vudu, YouTube.

Light from Light: This indie gem ingeniously embeds three portraits of personal awakening into what looks like a familiar haunted house movie. Amazon, AppleTV.

Some of my choices for Best Movies of 2021 are already on video:

  • Riders of Justice: Thriller, comedy and much, much more. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu and YouTube.
  • 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.
  • Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain: Bad ass romantic. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and redbox.
  • Lamb: This dark, cautionary fable of karma is a brilliant and unsettling debut by writer-director Valdimar Jóhannsson. Amazon, AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and redbox.

More 2021 movies on video:

ON TV

Robert Mitchum in THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE

On January 18, Turner Classic Movies airs The Friends of Eddie Coyle, a neo-noir triumph for Robert Mitchum. Mitchum plays a world-weary, low-level hood being squeezed between Boston’s Irish Mob and law enforcement. Double crosses abound. Sandwiched between his turns in The Candidate and Young Frankenstein, Peter Boyle delivers one of his best – and sleaziest – performances. For more details, see the The Friends of Eddie Coyle page in my Overlooked Neo-noir.

Peter Boyle in THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE

LICORICE PIZZA: when nine years is a big age difference

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Photo caption: Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim in LICORICE PIZZA. Courtesy of MGM.

The entertaining coming of age story Licorice Pizza has a lot going for it – the originality of an age mismatch, two fresh and interesting lead actors and a 1973 time capsule of the San Fernando Valley. A little too much length and an odd segment with Bradley Cooper as Jon Peters keep this from being among the best films of the year.

Gary (Cooper Hoffman) is a successful child actor who, at fifteen, is aging out of his marketability; nevertheless, he has stashed his earnings and can’t pass up the chance to build a business mini-empire, whether in waterbeds or pinball machines. Gary is a bundle of showbiz charm and ambition, and he is always “on”.

Gary’s ambition contrasts with the 24-year-old Alana (Alana Haim), who is drifting through deadend jobs. Amused, and then intrigued, by Gary’s chutzpah, she starts driving him around (he’s too young for a driver’s license) and becomes entangled in his schemes, intermittently questioning why “I’m hanging out with Gary and his 15-year-old friends“.

Alana is open to experiences, and flirts with a more age-appropriate actor pal of Gary’s, enjoys meeting much older celebrity in a Ventura Blvd showbiz bar, and moons after a young politician. Still there’s Gary – will he become her friend – or her soulmate?

Licorice Pizza is the creation of accomplished writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson (Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood, The Master, Inherent Vice). The vibe of Licorice Pizza is so specific to the period and place that I was surprised to learn that Anderson, who did grow up in the San Fernando Valley, was only three years old in 1973.

Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman in LICORICE PIZZA. Courtesy of MGM.

Licorice Pizza is entirely a character-driven story and its most successful moments rest on the performances of newcomers Haim and Hoffman. Haim excels at portraying Alana’s moxie. Gary is a force of nature, and Hoffman captures his knack for ever acting as the adult hustler, except when his teenage emotional immaturity peeks out.

Cooper Hoffman is the son of Anderson’s frequent collaborator Philip Seymour Hoffman. Philip Seymour Hoffman had an early-career minor part in Hard Eight, broke through with his supporting performance in Boogie Nights, and starred or co-starred in Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love and The Master.

Alana Haim is a musician in the sister band Haim. Here’s the pretty cool, 3:57 one-shot video of their pop hit Want You Back and a live festival cover of the Peter Green Fleetwood Mac’s Oh Well. Paul Thomas Anderson has directed nine of Haim’s videos (but not that Want You Back video that I just linked). Haim’s real life parents and sisters play her family in Licorice Pizza.

Sean Penn, showing a sense of humor for the first time since Fast Times at Ridgemont High, is very good as a veteran Hollywood celebrity, as is Tom Waits as his drinking buddy.

Indie filmmaker Benny Safdie is excellent as the non-fictional elected official Joel Wachs. (I essentially grew up in campaign offices like the ones perfectly re-created in Licorice Pizza (and the one in Taxi Driver where Cybill Shepherd volunteered).

In one disjointed segment, an over-the-top Bradley Cooper sends up the by-all-counts-scumbag Jon Peters, who washes over Gary and Alana with a tsunami of self-absorbed outrageousness. The tone of the Jon Peters scenes just doesn’t mesh with the rest of the movie and only serves to jar the audience out of the story.

I was expecting Licorice Pizza to be among the very best films of the year, so I was a little disappointed. I still enjoyed it overall, but it failed to engage The Wife, who thought that the oft-repeated motif of characters running didn’t work.

Gary would be 63 today, and Alana 72. I’m pretty sure that they’re not together as a couple, but that they have lived very interesting lives.

LIGHT FROM LIGHT: a haunted house movie that isn’t

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Marin Ireland and Jim Gaffigan in LIGHT FROM LIGHT

Writer-director Paul Harrill’s indie gem Light from Light ingeniously embeds three portraits of personal awakening into what looks like a familiar haunted house movie.

Single mom Sheila (Marin Ireland) has been a paranormal investigator (a ghost hunter), but she isn’t sure that she even believes in ghosts; she had taken up this pursuit because her most recent ex was a true believer. A clergyman asks for her help with a widower that he is counseling; the man (Jim Gaffigan) has experienced some odd happenings and wonders if his dead wife is haunting the house. And so we think we’re off on a thrill ride of chills and jump scares…

Instead, the phenomena that Light from Light explores are down-to-earth: the impacts of absence and loneliness.

Scarred by one too many failed relationships, Sheila is closed down. She’s working a dead-end job behind a rental car counter, doing her best to raise her sensitive teen son and not doing much else; she has isolated herself in her routine. Her son mirrors his mom – a girl is sweet on him, but he’s afraid to have a relationship with her lest it bring him the heartbreak that his mom has experienced. The widower is both immersed in grief and mulling over something about his wife that complicates his feelings.

The plot is about looking for the ghost, but the movie is really about these three people and whether they can self-liberate from their social paralysis and engage with others.

Light from Light is centered around an astonishing performance by Marin Ireland (Hell or High Water, Sneaky Pete and Tony-nominated for reasons to be pretty). Elisabeth Moss is a producer, and she suggested Marin Ireland for the role of Sheila.

The well-known comedian Jim Gaffigan (who also had a serious supporting turn in Chappaquiddick) has impressive screen-acting chops. The grief of Gaffigan’s character does not look “dramatic”; it’s all the more powerful for being matter of fact. Harrill wrote the part with Jim Gaffigan in mind after listening to him on NPR’s Fresh Air, and learning that Gaffigan had almost lost his wife to cancer and understood facing this loss.

This is the second feature for Harrill. Besides successfully subverting a genre, he makes effective use of a quiet, restrained, spare soundtrack. Set and shot in Knoxville, Tennessee and the Great Smoky Mountains, Light from Light excels in bringing us into a very specific time and place.

Light from Light can be streamed from Amazon and AppleTV.

THE HEIST OF THE CENTURY: improbable, ingenious and all too human

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Guillermo Francella and Diego Peretti in THE HEIST OF THE CENTURY. Photo courtesy of Mill Valley Film Festival.

The Heist of the Century, a delightful crime tale from Argentina, tells a story that would be unbelievable – except it all really happened.

Most improbably, one of the masterminds is Fernando (Diego Peretti), a dope-smoking, new agey martial arts instructor. He has an idea for One Big Score – a bank robbery that will take hours, during daylight, in the middle of the city, and is certain to mobilize the entire police force. Fernando enlists a highly disciplined, professional criminal Luis Mario (Guillermo Francella); initially skeptical of and resistant to both Fernando and the job, Luis Mario joins Fernando in planning and assembling a team.

The planning is meticulous, including unexpected elements like studying the SWAT Team manual on hostage negotiations and attending acting class. Three of their solutions to defeating the bank’s security demonstrate undeniable genius.

The heist itself, with the seconds ticking and the bank surrounded by an army of police, is thrilling. The thieves have a formidable opponent in the police negotiator Sileo (an excellent Luis Luque); he is a wise and solid pro surrounded by lesser minds – and he doesn’t appreciate being made to look like Wiley Coyote.

However, what looks like a triumph might come to ruin – because of the most human of foibles. The ending is amazing.  

The Heist of the Century is the true story of the 2006 Banco Rio robbery in Acassuso, Argentina, a seaside suburb of Buenos Aires. Fernando Araujo, the original mastermind, is credited as one of the screenwriters.

The Heist of the Century is directed by Ariel Winograd, who emphasizes the contrasting personalities of Fernando and Luis Mario and creates a perfect balance between the humor and the thrills. Winograd spices the soundtrack with music ranging from The Kinks, spaghetti westerns to Motown and opens with a cheesy James Bondesque tune.

Guillermo Francella, who plays Luis Mario, played Ricardo Darin’s drunk assistant in The Secrets of Their Eyes. In this movie, Francella’s real life daughter Ana plays Mario Luis’ daughter Lu.

I screened The Heist of the Century for the Mill Valley Film Festival in October 2020. Now you can stream it from HBO Max, Amazon, Vudu and YouTube.