LAMB: dark fable of karma

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Photo caption: Ingvar Hilmir Snær and Noomi Rapace in LAMB. Courtesy of A24.

The very quiet drama Lamb is one of the most gripping films of the year, and one of the most unsettling. I’ve seen Lamb described as a horror film, but it is very unlike most of today’s horror films. I would rather label it as a dark, cautionary fable of karma with some supernatural elements.

It’s difficult to imagine a more pastoral setting than Lamb’s remote Icelandic sheep farm. Maria (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason) run the farm with studied competence, caring for the sheep and maintaining their tractor. No neighbors are in sight. Neither the routine nor the isolation burdens them; they are comfortable with and enjoy each other’s company.

One of their routine tasks is birthing lambs. We see that Maria and Ingvar have an established division of labor and confidence. We think we know what to expect until a lamb is birthed and Maria and Ingvar’s reaction shows that this newborn is anything but normal.

It’s remarkable that the two never debate what to do or consult experts. They both immediately fall into behaving in complete alignment. But we suspect that they are not behaving as most people would.

Writer-director Valdimar Jóhannsson is such an able story-teller, that he doesn’t show us the lamb’s body right away, and we have to surmise what’s going on by the reactions of the characters. When Ingvar’s nogoodnik bother Petur (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson) shows up uninvited, he brings with fresh eyes and asks WTF?

Jóhannsson uses the starkly beautiful but menacing Icelandic landscape to fill us with foreboding. Something is not right here. And there will come a reckoning.

Lamb drove me to the dictionary to review the meanings of the word monster. In Lamb, there is a creature who fits under the definition, but which is pure and sweet. Another creature is the terrifying kind of monster. And a human takes an action that is normal from a human point of view, but from a monster’s perspective is, well, monstrous.

The cast (and this is really a three-hander) is excellent. You may recognize Rapace as the pierced-and-inked Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish Girl with the Dragon Tattoo franchise.

Lamb is the first feature for Valdimar Jóhannsson – and it is a superb debut. You haven’t seen anything like this movie before.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Daniel Craig in NO TIME TO DIE Photo credit: Nicola Dove © 2020 DANJAQ, LLC AND MGM.

This week, we have familiar favorites – Daniel Craig’s final fling as James Bond and Tony Soprano’s origin story. Plus, the Mill Valley Film Festival is underway through this weekend – here’s my festival preview.

Time for a rant: yesterday I saw Lamb at a midday show in a 209-seat theater auditorium. When I bought my ticket, someone had already purchased a ticket for seat P9, almost at the top of the room. I purchased seat C8, in the middle of the third row. As the trailers ended, a third patron seated himself – in seat C10 – with only one seat buffering us. This guy chose between 207 available seats and picked one only two feet from me – in a pandemic. What a tool! He probably encroaches at the urinals, too.

IN THEATERS

No Time to Die: Daniel Craig returns one last time as his world-weary James Bond – and it’s epic. No disposable women this time.

The Many Saints of Newark: This prequel of The Sopranos shows us what formed the teenage Tony Soprano, especially his role model “uncle”, Dickie Moltisanti (Alessandro Nivola). Also on HBO Max.

Also in theaters:

ON VIDEO

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

ON TV

Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton in WHERE EAGLES DARE

On October 16, Turner Classic Movies presents Where Eagles Dare, a crackerjack thriller from the WWII commando subgenre (think The Guns of Navarone and The Dirty Dozen). The seemingly impossible target is a cliff-side Nazi stronghold only accessible via a funicular. And not all the commandos understand the true mission. The oddly matched stars are Richard Burton (nearing the end of his second marriage to Elizabeth Taylor) and Clint Eastwood (after the Leone spaghetti westerns but before his Dirty Harry franchise). It all works.

NO TIME TO DIE: went to a James Bond movie and a romance broke out

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Léa Seydoux and Daniel Craig in NO TIME TO DIE. Photo credit: Nicola Dove © 2020 DANJAQ, LLC AND MGM.

I went to a James Bond movie and a romance broke out. No Time to Die, a fitting farewell to Daniel Craig’s reign as James Bond, has all the action set pieces, fantastic gizmos and exotic locations that you would want in a Bond film; it all just comes down to his profound love for a woman.

Remember when the Bond formula was impossibly sexy woman beds James Bond and then tries to kill him; repeat. In No Time to Die, however, there are no disposable women.

Bond, retired from the British MI6, is living in domestic bliss in Southern Italy with his girlfriend Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) from the previous Bond movie, Spectre. Bond is also grieving for the redeemed double agent of past Bond films, Vesper Lynd (most recently played by Eva Green); on the suggestion of Madeleine, who is a psychiatrist, he visits Vesper’s grave – but an assassination attempt kicks off the action in No Time to Die.

Besides Madeleine and Vesper, Bond faces another woman, his own replacement in MI6’s new Agent 007 Lashana Lynch. 007 is talented and cocky, and Bond and 007 slide effortlessly into comradeship. Ana de Armas is very funny as the supposedly inexperienced agent Paloma in a set piece (in de Armas’ native Cuba) – lethal in a stunning Bond Girl dress.

Daniel Craig and Ana de Armas in NO TIME TO DIE. Photo credit: Nicola Dove © 2020 DANJAQ, LLC AND MGM.

But No Time to Die revolves around Bond’s relationship with Madeleine. Madeleine’s father was also a hunter of super villains, and she has as many secrets as Bond. So, Madeleine’s reliability comes into question, and the oft-betrayed Bond certainly has justification for his trust issues. Bond once ruefully mutters, “No – I don’t know her at all.” Can Bond summon the trust that is requisite to love?

Don’t worry – the action set pieces are spectacular, particularly the once before the opening titles. That one features perhaps the most impressive deployment ever of the Bondmobile.

There’s also a super villain (Rami Malek) with a biological weapon of mass destruction. There’s a lot of blah blah about how this weapon works, and then more blah blah between the supervillain and Madeleine. And then Bond has a face-to-face with the previous supervillain, Blofeld (Cristolph Waltz) with more blah blah. I started to doze during this part of No Time to Die, but soon we were plunging back into another thrilling action.

Neither supervillain is as entertaining as the traitorous agent Logan Ash (Billy Magnussen), an ever smiling bro boy so white bread that he is referred to as “Book of Mormon”.

Daniel Craig in NO TIME TO DIE. Photo credit: Nicola Dove © 2020 DANJAQ, LLC AND MGM.

IMO Sean Connery was essential to the Bond franchise by creating a studly character so arrogant yet sympathetic – the guy who men want to be and women want to be with. Movie James Bonds have come and gone; (Pierce Brosnan was good, I never saw the Timothy Dalton Bond movies, and my least favorite Bond was the brattily insouciant Roger Moore.) To me, Daniel Craig is every bit as good as Connery. Craig has the requisite physicality, confidence and sex appeal, while off-loading a Connery’s hint of brutishness and adding a sad tint of world-weariness.

The Bond franchise itself is remarkable. Mick LaSalle recently wrote:

…The key to its resiliency is that it has changed with the times, yet never so much that it fully lost contact with what initially made it popular. This amazing balancing act has played out for 59 long years. (To give you a sense of how long that is in movie time, 59 years before the first Bond movie, “Dr. No,” it was 1903.)

No Time to Die is ably directed by the Bay Area’s own Cary Joji Fukunaga (Sin Nombre, Beasts of No Nation, True Detective). No Time to Die is epic and is the keystone to Daniel Craig’s run as James Bond.

THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK: Tony Soprano’s origin story

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Michael Gandolfini and Alessandro Nivola in THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK

In the The Many Saints of Newark, David Chase’s prequel to The Sopranos, we get a peek inside the world that formed Tony Soprano. It’s pretty good.

Set when Tony Soprano was a high schooler, The Many Saints of Newark centers on Tony’s favorite “uncle”, mobster Dickie Moltisanti (and moltisanti is Italian for Many Saints). Dickie is played by Alessandro Nivola, who has had important, but supporting, roles in plenty of good movies (Junebug, Ginger & Rosa, American Hustle, A Most Violent Year, Selma). Here, he plays the story’s protagonist, charming and smarter than the average goon, and also capable of sudden, irrevocable violence.

Dickie and Tony are not really related, but, while Tony’s dad is incarcerated, his mob colleague Dickie is looking after his family. When we meet Tony’s sulking brute of a dad (Jon Bernthal) and his nightmare of a mom (Vera Farmiga), it’s clear why Dickie is young Tony’s role model.

Michael Gandolfini, James Gandolfini’s son, plays the young Tony. Beyond the resemblance to James Gandolfini’s adult Tony, the kid can act. He’s good, but the lead is Nivola.

Ray Liotta plays Dickie Moltisanti’s dad, Hollywood Dick Moltisanti. I don’t personally KNOW Ray Liotta, so I will refrain from saying that he can play mobsters effortlessly or that’s he’s a natural. Let’s just say that Liotta makes his mobster performances LOOK effortless. Here, his Hollywood Dick, returning home from an Italian holiday with a trophy bride, is filled with gusto. There’s also a bonus Liotta performance as a related, but much different, second character.

There’s enough in The Many Saints of Newark to show us how Silvio Dante, Big Pussy and Paulie Walnuts, all a few years older than Tony Soprano, would come to accept Tony as he crew leader. And there’s a big reveal about the extent of Uncle Junior’s (Corey Stoll) vindictiveness.

The Many Saints of Newark includes a depiction of the 1967 Newark riots, rising Black consciousness and the changing demographics of Newark and its suburbs,

Has there ever been better episodic television than The Sopranos? Breaking Bad and The Wire can stake their claims, but it’s clear that The Sopranos sets the standard.

The David Chase-crafted story of Dickie Moltisanti would allow The Many Saints of Newark to stand on its own as entertainment. For fans of The Sopranos, however, it’s even more insightful and evocative.

The Many Saints of Newark is in theaters and streaming on HBO Max.

Movies to See Right Now

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Photo caption: Tim Blake Nelson in OLD HENRY. Courtesy of Shout! Factory.

Three new movies in theaters this week, but I’m only recommending one of them. Of course, I’ll try to catch the new James Bond movie, the last with Daniel Craig, No Time to Die.

I just got back from covering the Nashville Film Festival, and here’s my preview of the Mill Valley Film Festival, opening tonight.

IN THEATERS

Old Henry: If you appreciate a good western, then Old Henry is your movie.  The big shootout is thrilling, and Tim Blake Nelson is so good as a man who knows he can’t have redemption and only seeks some solace. Old Henry is now playing nationally, including for one-week run at San Francisco’s Roxie.

The Nowhere Inn: In this comedy, Carrie Brownstein (Portlandia) plays herself directing a documentary about her real life friend, the avant-garde musician Annie Clark, who performs as St. Vincent. These are two smart and talented women, and the movie is maybe half as funny as they are. If you need a dose of St. Vincent’s sexy vibrancy, then watch her perform instead.

Titane: Demented, icky and excessive, the Cannes Palme d’Or winner is intentionally unpleasant to watch. A maniac stripper has sex with, and becomes impregnated by, a Cadillac; she’s also a serial killer with a fetish for impaling her victims. I felt punished, even tortured, when I was watching Titane.

Also in theaters:

ON VIDEO

Sandra Guldberg Kampp in WILDLAND. Photo courtesy of BAC Films.

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

ON TV

Edmond O’Brien in D.O.A.

On October 13, Turner Classic Movies brings us one of my favorites – 83 minutes of noir hysteria titled D.O.A. This gripping whodunit opens with a man walking into a police station to report HIS OWN MURDER. The man (Edmond O’Brien) finds out that he has been dosed with a poison for which there is no antidote – and that he has only a few days to live. He desperately races the clock to find out who has murdered him and why. Much of D.O.A. was shot on location in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and one SF scene has one of the first cinematic glimpses into Beat culture. The little known director Rudolph Maté gave the film a great look, which shouldn’t be a surprise because Maté had been Oscar-nominated five times as a cinematographer. The next year, he followed D.O.A. with another solid noir, Union Station, with William Holden and Barry Fitzgerald.

OLD HENRY: too late for redemption

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Photo caption: Tim Blake Nelson in OLD HENRY. Courtesy of Shout! Factory.

The fine western Old Henry is centered on Henry (Tim Blake Nelson), a widowed settler in the wilds of 1906 Oklahoma.  Henry is content with being a solitary sod buster, but he has serious skills from a violent past, and both the past and the skills are unknown to his teen son (Gavin Lewis).  The son is brash and impulsive, and desperate to escape the drudgery and isolation of the homestead.

A man badly wounded by a gunshot (Scott Haze) turns up with a satchel full of cash ( (obviously contraband).  Henry nurses him, and chooses to hide him when three armed men show up, led by Ketchum ( Stephen Dorff), who claims to be a sheriff.  Ketchum knows that his target is in Henry’s cabin, and he recognizes that Henry is more than a dirt farmer.  When Ketchum returns with reinforcements, a climactic gun battle is inevitable.

One wild card is the wounded man, with his uncertain identity and motives.  Another is the son, rigorously sheltered by Henry and ignorant of the cost of real violence.  He’s spoiling to get into a fight  – and that is not helpful.

Tim Blake Nelson, with nary a wasted word or action, commands the screen as the ever steely Henry. I saw Old Henry in personat the Nashville Film Festival,  where Nelson revealed that his performance was informed by “restraint and stillness” because, for Henry, “any exposure means vulnerability”.  So, Blake made Henry “laconic in actions as well as words”.  

Nelson is a magnificent actor, who has elevated many a character role (Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?).  Here he gets the lead role in a movie that premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Good for him.

Old Henry is the the first feature written and directed by Potsy Ponciroli. And it’s a well-crafted film.  The filmmakers get the period right.  The art direction and the production design are flawless, and the weapons have the necessary heft.  Old Henry was filmed on a cattle farm in Tennessee, but it sure looks like Oklahoma. 

If you appreciate a good western, then Old Henry is your movie.  The big shootout is thrilling, and Tim Blake Nelson is so good as a man who knows he can’t have redemption and only seeks some solace. Old Henry is now playing nationally, including for one-week run at San Francisco’s Roxie.

TITANE: demented, excessive and icky

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Photo caption: Agathe Rousselle and Caddy in TITANE. Courtesy of NEON.

I don’t think I’ve ever before described a movie-going experience as “punishing”, but here goes.  After being assaulted by the French sci fi horror film Titane, which purports to be two portraits of abnormal psychology, I felt beaten, even tortured.

The headstrong child Alexia causes an auto accident and gets a platinum plate in her skull.  She grows into a stripper at car shows (Agathe Rousselle), and has a serious automobile fetish.  In Titane’s most notorious scene, Alexia gives a new meaning to auto-eroticism by having sex with, and becoming impregnated by, a Cadillac.  

Alexia is also a serial killer, and her second signature fetish is impaling her victims.  She keeps a spike in her hair for this purpose, but a bar stool will suffice, too. One victim gets away and indemnified her, so Alexia changed her appearance and goes underground as a young man. Here, she happens on a beefy fire captain (Vincent Lindon), who is grieving for a son who disappeared ten years ago, and adopts Alexia as his long lost, now recovered, son.

Through much of Titane, we are asking WTF is going on? Writer-diretor Julia Ducournau keeps surprising us by piling on segments that are SO twisted and bizarre, that most of us could not imagine them.

Most of Titane is intentionally unpleasant to watch.  Characters bleed blood, unless they bleed motor oil.  Bones crunch, mouths froth and bellies are picked open. The murders are gory, and Alexia self mutilates as her pregnancy progresses, right up to an excruciating birth scene.

Oh, and let me be very clear about this, Titane is NOT a date movie.

The character of Alexia is just a bad seed, a feral maniac. The character of the troubled fire captain is also bizarre, but he’s more psychologically interesting.  He insists that everyone else accept what is clearly a delusion.  Does he understand that this is not his son?

Vincent Lindon in TITANE. Courtesy of NEON.

Lindon (who muscled up for the role) is superb in this crazy role, which requires him to exude command authority and also the deepest vulnerability. It’s a very brave performance, and it works, for example, in his solo dance to She’s Not There. 

Myriem Akheddiou is also excellent in a brief scene as the mother of the fire captain’s missing child.

I know my share of American firefighters.  They would be surprised by Titane’s French firefighters, who let off steam by getting high and holding raves in the firehouse, all hypnotically dancing to electronica.

Notably, Titane won the Palme d’Or at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. While one of the two most prestigious prizes in cinema (along with the Best Picture Oscar), the Palme d’Or is no guarantee that a movie is great – or even watchable. On the positive side, recent winners have included the superb Parasite, Shoplifters, Amour, Blue Is the Warmest Color and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. On the unfathomably bad side, cinematic excrement like The White Ribbon, The Tree of Life, Dancer in the Dark, and now Titane – has also won.

The critical consensus is far too kind to Titane.  Many critics correctly label what had come out of  Julia Ducournau’s mind as “demented” and then credit her for the visual excess in telling an unbearably icky story.  It’s just demented, excessive and icky.

THE NOWHERE INN: watch a St. Vincent performance instead

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Photo caption: Annie Clark (St. Vincent) and Carrie Brownstein in THE NOWHERE INN. Courtesy of IFC Films.

The Nowhere Inn is a comedy about the making of a fictional showbiz documentary.   Carrie Brownstein (Portlandia) plays herself directing a documentary about her real life friend, the avant-garde musician Annie Clark, who performs as St. Vincent.  (Bill Benz is the actual director of The Nowhere Inn.)

Now here’s the best part of The Nowhere Inn.  We see snippets of St. Vincent’s dazzling performances.  And, even when off stage, the camera loves Annie Clark and her magnetism

In The Nowhere Inn, Annie Clark sees herself, when not “on” as St. Vincent,  as an introvert who gets pleasure from mundane pursuits like eating radishes. That creates tension with Brownstein, who needs more interesting back stage content for the doc.  The two get increasingly annoyed with each other until Brownstein ambushes Clark with a situation that is too emotionally raw. 

This is witty and all mildly amusing. And then The Nowhere Inn gets sillier, as Clark and a famous sexpot actress show up in black lingerie (the actress deadpans “Annie turned me gay”) and force Brownstein to film their amorous play.  Then there’s a Texas segment which looks like a late night comedy sketch shoehorned in – which it is.

These are two smart and talented women, and the movie is maybe half as funny as they are.  If you need a dose of St. Vincent’s sexy vibrancy, then watch her perform instead.

MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL: see ’em here first

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Photo caption: Simon Rex in Sean Baker’s RED ROCKET, paying at the Mill Valley Film Festival. Photo courtesy of A24.

The Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF) 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’s fest runs from October 7 through October 17.

The biggest movies playing at this year’s MVFF:

  • Red Rocket: a Cannes hit from Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Tangerine).
  • Dune: Denis Villeneuve’s take on Frank Herbert’s epic science fiction novel.
  • Parallel Mothers: Pedro Almodovar’s latest, with Penelope Cruz.
  • Spencer: Kristin Stewart as Princess Di.
  • Belfast: Kenneth Branagh’s period coming of age film set amidst Northern Ireland’s Troubles. Branagh will appear in person at the MVFF.
  • C’mon C’mon : Joaquin Phoenix’s performance has been described as “endearing” (huh?). Also wih Gaby Hoffmann.
  • The French Dispatch: If you can bear to sit through another of Wes Anderson’s star-studded, overly precious self-indulgences, here it is.
  • A Hero: The latest from Asghar Farhadi (A Separation, The Salesman).

The slate of documentaries includes:

  • The Velvet Underground: Todd Haynes (Carol, Far from Heaven) looks at the seminal band.
  • Like a Rolling Stone: The Life and Times of Ben Fong-Torres: About the pioneering rock journalist.
  • Becoming Costeau: About the iconic Jacques Costeau, popularizing the worlds under the surfaces of our oceans.

Last year, MVFF brought us the year’s two most honored films: Nomadland and The Father. In 2019, MVFF showcased five films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: the winner Parasite, along with Marriage Story, The Irishman, Jojo Rabbit and Ford vs. Ferrari. The 2018 festival featured Roma, Green Book, Shoplifters, If Beale Street Could Talk and Cold War; those five films combined for 28 Oscar nominations and 7 Oscars. You get the idea.

Take a look at the Mill Valley Film Festival program. Here’s the trailer for Parallel Mothers.

Movies to See Right Now

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Sylvie Mix and Bobbi Kitten in POSER, playing at the Nashville Film Festival, Photo courtesy of the Nashville Film Festival.

I’m in Music City for the Nashville Film Festival, which is both an in-person and on-line event. Check out my coverage so far:

IN THEATERS

Without Getting Killed or Caught: This lyrical documentary traces the lives of singer-songwriter Guy Clark and his painter-songwriter wife Susanna. Their roommate was troubled songwriter Townes Van Zandt, Guy’s best friend and Susanna’s soulmate. This is a film about an unusual web of relationships amidst the creative process. It’s already slipped out of Bay Area theaters, but I’ll let you know when it streams.

Also in theaters:

ON VIDEO

Wildland: A teenage girl is orphaned and is placed with relatives that she doesn’t really know. She gradually learns that the family, headed by her mom’s estranged sister is a ruthless criminal enterprise. Wildland simmers and evolves into a nail biter right up to its noir-stained epilogue. Laemmle.

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

ON TV

Levon Helm at left and Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner’s Daughter

Turner Classic Movies is aligned with my trip to Nashville, the Ground Zero of Country music. On October 4, TCM airs Coal Miner’s Daughter, one of my 5 Great Hillbilly Movies. Sissy Spacek won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Loretta Lynn in this successful biopic.  In an early major role, Tommy Lee Jones plays Loretta’s husband Mooney.  Levon Helm, the Arkansas-bred drummer for The Band has one of his rare but compelling film roles as Loretta’s Daddy.  Besides the performances, the movie works because Loretta must grow from nobody to star, girl to woman and hick to worldly.

Coal Miner’s Daughter was one of the big Hollywood movies directed by Michael Apted, whose 7 Up series is one of the most significant documentary series in cinema history.