AUGUSTINE: obsession, passion and the birth of a science

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Vincent Lindon (left) and xxxxx (center) AUGUSTINE

The absorbing French drama Augustine is based on the real work of 19th century medical research pioneer Jean-Martin Charcot, known as the father of neurology. A young kitchen maid begins suffering wild seizures and is brought to Charcot’s research hospital. He ascertains the triggers for the seizures, and begins to close in on cure. Needing funding for his research, he triggers her seizures before groups of his peers; he is showing off his research, but it’s clear that his affluent male audience is titillated by the comely girl’s orgasmic thrashes.

She is drawn to this man whose kindness to her belies their class difference and whose brilliance is the key to her recovery. The good doctor intends to cure her – but not until she has performed for his potential funders. She is unexpectedly cured just before Charcot’s most important demonstration, and she gets to decide whether to continue her exploitation. In the stunning conclusion, she gets the upper hand and her simmering feelings erupt.

The fine French actor Vincent Lindon (Mademoiselle Chambon) excels at playing very contained and reserved characters, and here he nails Charcot’s clash of decency and professional ambition.

The French pop singer Soko is captivating as his patient. I noted the feral fierceness and simmering intensity of Soko in The Stopover, a film that I saw at the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM).

It’s an auspicious first feature film for writer-director Alice Winocour. She has constructed a story that about two sympathetic characters whose interests converge, then diverge and then… Since Augustine, Winocur has co-written the wonderful Mustang and directed Disorder.

Augustine is available to stream from Amazon (included with Prime), AppleTV, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

an unexpectedly comfortable Oscars

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Caption: Watching the Oscars in The Movie Gourmet’s screening room

Oddly, watching the Oscars seemed so comfortable in such a bizarre year. Less was more. The no-host format, the Union Station set, the incorporation of the remote locations and subbing Questlove for the orchestra, each improved the show. Steven Soderbergh and the other producers finally off-loaded the Best Song category to the pre-show – a huge help. And I sure didn’t expect the most powerful moment to come from Tyler Perry and the funniest from Glenn Close.

The awards, for once, pretty much all went to deserving winners. My only quibble was the atrocious Documentary Feature win for the good but not great My Octopus Teacher, an opinion shared by critics such as Christy Lemire and Jason Gorber. (I did like the octopus in the movie, just not the human.)

In each of The Movie Gourmet’s ten years of blogging, 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 (below) in 2011 for 127 Hours and Winter’s Bone. Here is the 2019 version.

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

The characters in Nomadland, Sound of Metal, The Father and Minari all spent time in kitchens, so we could have come up with an Oscar menu. But it didn’t seem right this year. I, for one, haven’t been inside a movie theater in 417 days. To honor the movie theater experience, we chose movie popcorn and movie candy (Hot Tamales for me, DOTS for The Wife) and settled in for the telecast.

The Wife and her father indulging in The Movie Gourmet’s 2021 Oscar dinner

STREET GANG: HOW WE GOT TO SESAME STREET: the origin story of an institution

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Caption: A scene from Marilyn Agrelo’s film STREET GANG: HOW WE GOT TO SESAME STREET. Courtesy of SFFILM

There’s a lot to like about Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street, a documentary as charming as the beloved TV series. As groundbreaking as it was, Sesame Street is now a 51-year-old institution, and its origin saga has not been well-known. Most of the key players survive, allowing director Marilyn Agrelo to present the first-hand back story.

We take the concept for granted today, based on the recognition that kids voraciously learn from commercial television – they learn to consume commercially marketed products. Sesame Street’s founders aimed to find out what kids like to watch and what is good for them to watch and put the two together.

Refreshingly. the pioneering producer Joan Ganz Cooney, the visionary Lloyd Morrisette of the Carnegie Foundation and the inventive director/head writer Jon Stone, each gives the credit to the others. If you add Mister Rogers to these folks, you have the Mount Rushmore of children’s television.

Everything in Sesame Street was intentional – like the street setting itself. Noting that most kid shows had fantasy settings, the creators chose a gritty urban neighborhood street to be relatable to disadvantaged urban kids. The same is true for the integrated cast.

Of course, Street Gang highlights the role of the Muppets. At first, the Muppets had their own set, but the creators learned that kids were so entertained by the Muppets that they found the street boring. So, they pivoted and brought the Muppets on to the street.

Jim Henson founded the Muppets as a late night satirical act and brought that adult sensibility to Sesame Street. The jokes embedded for adults encouraged parents to watch Sesame Street with their kids (which the educators thought was important).

There is also the astounding story of Sesame Street in Mississippi, where state government-controlled public television refused to air a show with an integrated cast. Those stations had to reverse themselves when private Mississippi stations put the show on the air.

This had not occurred to me, but Sesame Street requires creation of original music for 100 episodes per year – an enormous body of work. Street Gang takes us into the songwriting craft, with witty gems like Letter B (from Let It Be).

I screened Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street at SFFILM. It opens today in select San Francisco theaters and will release on VOD on May 6.

Movies to See Right Now (at home)

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Caption: Choe Zhao, director of NOMADLAND

The Oscars will presented Sunday night, and I expect deserving Oscars for Nomadland (Best Picture), Chloe Zhao (Director), Chadwick Boseman (Actor), Another Round (International Feature) and Sound of Metal (Sound). I’ll generally be happy with any wins by Nomadland, Sound of Metal and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom Blues.

Zhao is also nominated for Original Screenplay and Editing. I’m annoyed that IMDb and some other sources describe Chloé Zhao as a “Chinese director”. Although she was born in Beijing, I consider Zhao a Chinese-born American filmmaker. As a child, she left China for a London boarding school and finished high school in LA; she graduated from college and film school in the US, and has made all of her movies in America. Besides, what other filmmaker has set her last three movies in South Dakota, for chrissakes?

This Oscar week, I’ve also highlighted what I think is the Most Overlooked Movie of 2020: Driveways.

And here’s my remembrance of cult director Monte Hellman.

ON VIDEO

See the Oscar-nominated films (IN THIS ORDER).

ON TV

Janet Gaynor, Fredric March and Adolphe Menjou in A STAR IS BORN

Compare and contrast. On April 26, Turner Classic Movies is showing the 1937, 1954 and 1976 versions of A Star Is Born. In all three, the story is about an entertainment superstar self destructing from narcissism and addiction, with a sinking career eclipsed by that of a lover-protege. Each version features with A-list talent, but some are much better than others.

The 1937 original stars Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, with the screenplay adapted by Dorothy Parker and others from a story co-written by director William Wyler. The 1954 screenplay was adapted by Moss Hart, and the movie, starring Judy Garland and James Mason, was directed by George Cukor. The 1976 re-remake stars Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristoffersson (at his hunkiest) with a script by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne.

The 1976 film launched the producing career of Jon Peters, Streisand’s hairdresser boyfriend. Despite a terrible personal reputation, he went on to produce 52 more films before his career was extinguished by a #MeToo scandal.

My favorites are the 1937 original and the 2018 version (which TCM is not airing) with Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. Cooper also co-adapted the screenplay and directed; Lady Gaga shared the Oscar for Best Original Song for Shallow. The Streisand-Kristoffersson version is not good.

The real life basis of the story is said to be Barbara Stanwyck and her contemptible and obnoxious first husband Frank Fay. 16 years younger than Fay, Stanwyck married him when she was 21 and transitioning from chorus girl to movie ingenue. Within seven years, she had become a major movie star and had had enough of the fading vaudevillian Fay. By all accounts, Fay was a drunken, anti-Semitic, pro-fascist, wife-beater with a massive ego: Fred Allen said of Fay, “The last time I saw him he was walking down Lover’s Lane, holding his own hand.“

Janet Gaynor and Fredric March in A STAR IS BORN

Monte Hellman

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Harry Dean Stanton and Warren Oates in Monte Hellman’s COCKFIGHTER

My favorite cult director, Monte Hellman, has died at age 91. The New York Times called him a “hero of the American independent film movement“.

Hellman worked in low-budget genre movies, collaborating with Roger Corman, Jack Nicholson and Hellman’s great muse, Warren Oates. Hellman could elevate the sparest of scripts and the most minuscule of budgets into film classics.

Hellman showcased Oates’ gift for playing a tough, bottom-feeding grasper who needs a little too much luck in Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) and Cockfighter (1974). Cockfighter, a movie that even Hellman couldn’t make today, is probably his masterpiece.

Road to Nowhere, in 2010, was the first film in twenty years from the then 79-year-old Hellman. It’s a multi-layered riddle that challenges the audience.  Road to Nowhere is far more stylish and ambitious than Hellman’s 1970s films, but far more baffling.

I can’t find Two-Lane Blacktop available to stream, but the Blu-Ray DVD is available from The Criterion Collection. Cockfighter can be streamed from Amazon (included with Prime) and a few other outlets. Road to Nowhere is available to stream from Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube and Google Play.

The most overlooked movie of 2020

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Brian Dennehy, Lucas Jaye and Hong Chau

The Oscars are coming up on Sunday night, so here’s a plug for The Most Overlooked Movie of the Year. I can’t think of a more authentic movie about intergenerational relationships than the charming, character-driven Driveways. I saw this modest little indie at Cinequest, and it’s one of the Best Movies of 2020.

Kathy (Hong Chau) and her nine-year-old Cody (Lucas Jaye) arrive in a small town to clean out and flip the house of Kathy’s late sister. Kathy and her much older sister had lost touch,and Kathy is surprised and disheartened to discover that the sister had become a hoarder, making the clean-up job monumental. The octogenarian next-door neigbor Del (Brian Dennehy) watches from his porch.

All three are facing life challenges. Kathy is a single mom trying to navigate a career change; now she has an unwanted chore and some guilt from not reviving the relationship with her sister. Cody is a sensitive kid who isn’t comfortable in many situations and who has an embarrassing reaction to anxiety. Del is grieving the loss of his wife and facing the loss of his independence. Things do not go as the audience expects.

Hong Chau in DRIVEWAYS

Director Andrew Ahn, by dropping subtle clues, lets the audience connect the dots about the characters and their back stories. We learn about the mom-son relationship when she discards a cigarette on the ground and he wordlessly grinds it out with his shoe. We learn about Del’s fears about his independence when he glances at an increasingly forgetful buddy.

Driveways is a three-hander and all three actors, Hong Chau, Lucas Jaye and Brian Dennehy are superb. 91-year-old character actor Jerry Adler is brilliant in a few very brief scenes.

This was the final performance for Brian Dennehy (scroll down to bottom for my remembrance). His performance – so remarkably genuine and subtle – in Driveways is award-worthy. Dennehy’s facial expression, in one fleeting moment, conveys Del’s profound regret about a mistake that he made with his own daughter.

Brian Dennehy and Lucas Jaye in DRIVEWAYS

Driveways played at Cinequest 2020 with an in-person appearance by Hong Chau, which I skipped because I sized it up as too sappy. I was wrong.

You know how children are drawn to some kids and not to others? Driveways perfectly captures the joy of making friends when a kid discovers another kid with common interests.

That authenticity is exactly what keeps Driveways from being corny. There’s not a hint of manipulation from Ahn. That’s why Driveways is that rarity, a recommendation from The Movie Gourmet that can be described as”heartfelt”.

Cody is as much the lead character as are the mom and the old guy. The Wife thinks that the movie is too slow for kids. But I’d give it a try and challenge the kids. It’s only 83 minutes, and I think kids will be drawn to the portrayal of a kid that is so real-world and unlike the stock characters spoon fed them by the likes of the Disney Channel.

Driveways is available to stream on all the major platforms.

Movies to See Right Now (at home)

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Caption: Riz Ahmed in SOUND OF METAL, deservedly Oscar-nominated

This weekend concludes the SFFILM, which you can mostly stream at home. Here’s my first look at SFFILM and three indie gems at SFFILM. If you’re going to catch just one film at SFFILM, I suggest I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking).

ON VIDEO

We’re coming upon the Oscars, so it’s time to see the nominated films (IN THIS ORDER).

ON TV

Jack “Dragnet” Webb and Peggy Lee in PETE KELLY’S BLUES

On April 21, TCM brings us something COMPLETELY different, the 1955 Pete Kelly’s Blues, directed by and starring Jack Webb, who we all know from TV’s Dragnet.   Made at the downturn of the Big Band Era, Pete Kelly’s Blues is set at during Prohibition in the infancy of Big Bands.

It’s a fairly routine drama about a small time bandleader on the outs with a dangerous crime boss, but Jack Webb loved jazz and worked hard to get the music in the movie right, resulting in quite the period document.  Peggy Lee received a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for portraying an alcoholic vocalist.  There’s an unforgettable cameo performance by Ella Fitzgerald at the top of her game.  The house band includes many real-life musicians who played with Benny Goodman, Bing Crosby and the like, including  Matty Matlock, Eddie Miller and Jud De Naut.

Webb never had much range as an actor, but the rest of the cast is excellent: Janet Leigh, Edmond O’Brien,  Lee Marvin, Andy Devine, Jayne Mansfield and Harry Morgan.  Not a great flick, but worth a look for the music.

SFFILM: three indie gems

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Kelley Kali in a scene from Kelley Kali’s and Angelique Molina’s film I’M FINE (THANKS FOR ASKING), playing at the 2021 San Francisco International Film Festival, April 9 -18, 2021. Courtesy of SFFILM

The San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM) is always an important showcase for independent cinema. Here are three indie gems in this year’s SFFILM program.

In the winning indie I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking), a recently widowed mom has lost her housing and goes on a one-woman crusade to get herself and her daughter back into an apartment. With a one-day deadline to earn the last $200 for a rental deposit, she races the clock through a series of misadventures – both comic and tragic – roller skating around Pacoima, braiding hair and making app-based food deliveries. And she’s putting on the best face, hiding her homelessness (and even convincing her 8-year-old that they’re “camping”). I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking) makes powerful statements about housing security and the gig economy in a oft funny, always accessible movie. It’s the first feature for the female, BIPOC filmmakers – shot on a low budget during a pandemic.

A scene from Bo Maguire’s film SOCKS ON FIRE, playing at the 2021 San Francisco International Film Festival, April 9 -18, 2021. Courtesy of SFFILM

Socks on Fire is Bo McGuire’s tale of his own family’s inheritance battle over a Hokes Bluff, Alabama, bungalow. The family of church-going Bama football fans – and one drag queen – is jarred and wounded by the mean behavior of one aunt. Enriched by old home movies and re-enactments, this ain’t your conventional talking head documentary. Socks on Fire swings between funny and operatic, and there’s a sweet remembrance of a grandmother in here, too. Won Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival.

A scene from Kentucker Audley’s and Albert Birney’s film STRAWBERRY MANSION, playing at the 2021 San Francisco International Film Festival, April 9 -18, 2021. Courtesy of SFFILM

The very trippy and ultimately sweet fable Strawberry Mansion is set in a future where people’s dreams are taxed. An Everyman tax auditor (co-writer and co-director Kentucker Audley) is assigned to the dreams of an elderly artist and is plunged into an Alice in Wonderland experience with her dreams, and his dreams, and a romance, to boot. Strawberry Mansion is also a sharp and funny critique of insidious commercialism.

Socks on Fire had its North American theatrical premiere at a drive-in event – complete with live drag queen performances – as SFFILM’s centerpiece event. I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking) and Strawberry Mansion can be streamed at home through April 18. Tickets are available at SFFILM.

STRAWBERRY MANSION: a trippy and sweet fable

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A scene from Kentucker Audley’s and Albert Birney’s film STRAWBERRY MANSION, playing at the 2021 San Francisco International Film Festival, April 9 -18, 2021. Courtesy of SFFILM

The very trippy and ultimately sweet fable Strawberry Mansion is set in a future where people’s dreams are taxed. Preble (Kentucker Audley), a workaday tax auditor, is assigned to audit the dreams of an elderly artist, Bella (Penny Fuller). Preble is soon plunged into an Alice in Wonderland experience with her dreams, and his dreams, and a romance to boot.

Preble puts on a gizmo to watch the dreams pf others (and comes across an even cooler gizmo that filters dreams). He even encounters Bella’s younger self (Grace Glowicki).

Strawberry Mansion is also a sharp and funny critique of insidious commercialism. A fictional brand of fried chicken keeps showing up in the story. Hilariously, Preble becomes entangled in an endless loop of upselling at a fast food drive-thru. And Preble is constantly prodded to consume by his own diabolical dream buddy (Linas Phillips). A sinister marketing plot is revealed.

A scene from Kentucker Audley’s and Albert Birney’s film STRAWBERRY MANSION, playing at the 2021 San Francisco International Film Festival, April 9 -18, 2021. Courtesy of SFFILM

Kentucker Audley is very good as Preble, who starts out the movie mildly annoyed and evolves into various degrees of bewilderment. Audley is one of those actors who keeps showing up in something interesting (and offbeat) like Amy Seimetz’s She Dies Tomorrow and Sun Don’t Shine, or in smaller parts in especially fine films like Her Smell and Ain’t Them Bodies Saints.

As Bella, Penny Fuller radiates a contentment that ranges from ditzy to sage. Reed Birney is especially good as Bella’s sinister son.

Audley co-wrote and co-directed Strawberry Mansion with Albert Birney. They make the most of the surreal settings within dreams, and use different color palettes for each dream; the palette for Preble’s real-life bachelor apartment is pretty surreal, too.

Strawberry Mansion played at the Sundance Film Festival and can be streamed through April 18 at SFFILM.

A LEAVE: the workplace evolves…unkindly

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A scene from Ran-hee Lee’s film A LEAVE. Courtesy of SFFILM

Ran-hee Lee’s unpretentious A Leave is a surprisingly insightful slice-of-life into the modern global workplace. It opens on Day 1893 of a labor sit-in, as laid-off workers hold out to get reinstated in their longtime jobs. They have obviously lost this struggle a long while ago, although not everyone is ready to internalize that fact and move on. Middle-aged Jaebok, one of the sit-in;s remaining leaders, decides to take a leave from organizing that he characterizes as “like taking a leave from work”.

With some distance from the day-to-day campaign, he’s back in his apartment, and back to clogged drains and surly teenagers. He realizes that, without a paycheck, he cannot give his kids what they need (and his bright, promising older daughter needs college tuition). So, Jaebok finds a job in the new economy.

A scene from Ran-hee Lee’s film A LEAVE. Courtesy of SFFILM

It turns that his new job is as a temp contract worker in a sweat shop that supplies a big company like the one that laid him off. His new boss sells the opportunity with, “the company is disaster-free” – a low bar if ever there were one.

Jaebok, used to a decades-long career path with a single employer is puzzled by the revolving door of fellow workers. Only one young guy stays for more than a couple days, and many of the others must be undocumented immigrants working illegally.

The younger worker is not used to any continuity of co-workers – and not used to having relationships with his co-workers, something that Jaebok thinks is normal. The kid believes that asking for an eight hour shift is quaint.

A Leave is the first feature for writer-director Ran-hee Lee. She knows how to tell a little story in a little movie, which is not faint praise at all. Sometimes a little story is the best way to unmask great truth.

Lee uses non-actors in the film Her leading man is a 49-year-old guy who was laid off in real life and then picked up a temp job as a low wage contractor with undocumented, very green co-workers.

I screened A Leave for the SFFILM, where it won a jury mention.

A scene from Ran-hee Lee’s film A LEAVE. Courtesy of SFFILM