A scene from Angeles Cruz’s NUDO MEXTECO. Photo courtesy of SFFILM
In Nudo Mixteco, we visit an indigenous Mixtec village in Southern Mexico and get three dramas for the price of one. It’s the annual festival, and three long-absent locals return home. One is there for her mom’s funeral. another to intervene in her daughter’s welfare and the third has just decided that’s time to come back home.
Nudo is Spanish for “knot”, and the three stories form a loose braid. As in Kieślowski’s Blue/Red/White, the characters in each plot thread can be spotted in the others.
In each story, the women face constraints of patriarchy and traditional culture. An out lesbian has built a life in the city, but her father in the village cannot accept her sexuality, and even blames it for her mother’s death. Another woman also works in the city, and has left her daughter to be cared for by her sister in the village; reports of the daughter’s behavior trigger concern stemming from the mom’s own childhood sexual abuse.
In the third story, a village man has been working in the US. He had promised his wife that he would be gone six months, but it’s been three years. He expects that he can resume their lives as before, but his wife has moved on. Each feels betrayed by the other, and the village is convened to reach a community decision on a just outcome.
Nudo Mixteco is the debut feature for writer-director Angeles Cruz, who has won Ariels (Mexico’s Oscars) for her short films. Cruz is an accomplished actress, who was nominated for a best actress Ariel in 2018.
I screened Nudo Mixteco at SFFILM, where it won a jury award.
A scene from Angeles Cruz’s NUDO MEXTECO. Photo courtesy of SFFILM
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
In the winning indie I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking), Danny (Kelley Kali) is a recently widowed mom who has lost her housing and is on a one-woman crusade to get herself and her daughter back into an apartment.
Scraping together her earnings from here and there, she’s only $200 away from enough deposit for a new apartment. That 200 bucks is the MacGufffin of I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking), and Danny frantically roller skates around Pacoima, braiding hair and making app-based food deliveries.
With a one-day deadline, Danny races the clock through a series of comic and tragic misadventures, suffering more than her share of indignities. She’s desperate, but she still bypasses the off-ramps that would sacrifice her independence and personal integrity.
It’s also important to Danny that no one knows that she’s a mom who is homeless. Danny (Kali), Danny has even been telling her precocious 8-year-old daughter Wes (Wesley Moss) that they’re “camping”, but Wes is about to catch on.
Danny does let her situation slip to a couple of friends; (ironically, one’s housing depends on a new boyfriend and the other has inherited his). She gets more judginess than unconditional support.
We hear of “one paycheck away from being homeless”, but what about those hard-working folks in the informal economy who don’t get any paycheck at all? I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking) makes powerful statements about housing security and the gig economy in a oft funny, always accessible movie.
I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking) is an authentic and clear-eyed portrait of a woman navigating out of a fix. Danny is not an artificially noble character – not all of her choices are ideal. But she is driven by devotion to her daughter.
In a tour de force performance, Kelly Kali is a tornado of hustle. They say that acting is reacting, and Kali’s face tells us when she is thinking “I’m not going to go THERE” or “WTF am I going to tell my kid?”. Her Danny puts on the best possible face in a way to convince her acquaintances (without being convincing to the clued-in movie audience).
Deon Cole (Blackish) delivers a brief, magnetic turn as one tempting and very bad potential choice for Danny.
This is the first feature for co-directors Kelley Kali and Angelique Molina, who co-wrote I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking) with Roma Kong (also first feature). (Kali was also one of nine co-directors credited on The Adventures of Thomasina Sawyer). This film is especially well-paced, as Kali and Molina economically set up the situation that Danny and Wes are in and then keep up with Danny as she spurts from vignette to vignette on her quest.
Let’s not overlook that this is another example of female filmmakers, on the hunt for quality source material, writing it themselves. And they shot it on a low budget during a pandemic. With the matter of fact masking of the characters, I’m Fine is ever COVID-conscious.
I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking) won two jury awards at SXSW and can be streamed through April 18 at SFFILM.
A scene from Marilyn Agrelo’s film STREET GANG: HOW WE GOT TO SESAME STREET, playing at the 2021 San Francisco International Film Festival, April 9 -18, 2021. Courtesy of SFFILM
This year’s San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM) opens tomorrow, April 9, and runs through April 18. As always, it’s a Can’t Miss for Bay Area movie fans. This year, you can attend at home: with the exception of a few drive-in events at Fort Mason, the movies can be streamed.
The menu at SFFILM includes 42 feature films and 56 shorts from 41 countries, with 13 world premieres and 20 North American or US premieres. Of the 103 total films, 57% have female directors and 57% are directed by BIPOC.
Besides the streaming, here’s what’s new in this year’s SFFILM:
After years of programs impeccably curated by Bay Area treasure Rachel Rosen, Jessie Fairbanks takes over as Director of Programming. (And this is the first SFFILM fest for new SFFILM Executive DIrector Anne Lai.)
A cross section of movies highlighted as Family-friendly films, something that more film festivals should do. Introduce the kids to good cinema!
Mid-Lengths – a competition of five movies with hard-to-program running times of 30-50 minutes.
The festival’s Closing Night Film is Marilyn Agrelo’s documentary Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street, the origin story of the beloved children’s show.
I’ve screened some of the films, and I’ll be recommending some indie gems soon.
A scene from Bo Maguire’s’s film SOCKS ON FIRE, playing at the 2021 San Francisco International Film Festival, April 9 -18, 2021. Courtesy of SFFILM
It’s time for this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM), which opens tomorrow, April 9, and runs through April 18. This year, you can ATTEND AT HOME, so make the pandemic work for you and stream these movies. Here’s my first look at the 2021 SFFILM. Today or tomorrow, I’ll be posting recommendations of three very special indies.
ON VIDEO
Nomadland: refusing to be defeated. THE YEAR’S BEST MOVIE. Hulu.
The Father: as reality shifts. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play.
On April 12, Turner Classic Movies presents one of the greatest ever courtroom dramas, Stanley Kramer’s Inherit the Wind from 1960. The story is taken from the real-life Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925, so it has elements of the culture wars and politics that resonate today. Spencer Tracy and Fredric March are superb as the warring thought-leaders (based on Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan).
Spencer Tracy, Harry Morgan and Fredric March in INHERIT THE WIND
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
This week, we’re between Bay Area (virtual) film festivals – Cinequest, which just wrapped up on Tuesday, and the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM), which opens next weekend. My CINEQUEST page has links to features, a filmmaker interview and comments on 19 Cinequest films. My SFFILM preview is coming very soon.
REMEMBRANCE
Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones in Larry McMurtry’s LONESOME DOVE
Writer Larry McMurtry told powerful, unflinching, character-centered stories of the Old West (Lonesome Dove) and the contemporary West (The Last Picture Show). He won an Oscar for his Brokeback Mountain screenplay, and his novels were the basis for Hud and Terms of Endearment.
ON VIDEO
The most eclectic watch-at-home recommendations you’ll find ANYWHERE:
Nomadland: refusing to be defeated. THE YEAR’S BEST MOVIE. Hulu.
The Father: as reality shifts. Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play.
On April 5, Turner Classic Movies presents Jack Nicholson as the iconic 1970s anti-hero in Five Easy Pieces. It’s a profound and deeply affecting study of alienation. Nicholson plays someone who has rejected and isolated himself from his dysfunctional family. Then he must embark on the epic road trip back to the family home. Amid the drama, there is plenty of funny, including the funniest sandwich order in the history of cinema.
Don’t miss this beautifully-written essay on Five Easy Pieces by Steven Gaydos in Variety. Gaydos gets the impact on the 1970 audience just right and shines overdue credit on its female screenwriter Carole Eastman. There’s also a tidbit on Helena Kallianiotes, the funniest hitch hiker in movie history.
Karen Black, Helena Kallianiotes, Toni Basil and Jack Nicholson in FIVE EASY PIECES
My choice as the Must See in this year’s Cinequest was the Canadian indie Lune, an astonishingly authentic exploration of bipolar disorder. In the film, Miriam and her teen daughter Eliza must navigate the impacts of the mom’s illness. I spoke wih writer and co-director Aviva Armour-Ostroff, who also starred as Miriam.
I asked Armour-Ostroff what drew her to the topic of bipolar disorder? She replied “My dad is Miriam. The character of Eliza is based on me.” Wow. There you have it – the key to the authenticity of Lune. “I was so clearly loved by my dad, and we were so close.“
Armour-Ostroff’s parents split when she was a baby, and her dad was her primary care giver during some years in her childhood and youth. He could go an entire year without a bipolar episode. But when she was a teenager, he suffered one or two episodes per year, each lasting two or three months.
“I think there are so many people who, when they are depressed, can’t get off the rug, and, when manic, can’t harness the energy to achieve anything.“
Miriam is the most singular movie character I’ve seen in a while. Her streams of manic speech have the rhythm of poetry like rap or beat poetry. Armour-Ostroff says that her dad was highly intelligent and talked rapidly, like that. “with the tangents and then the change of topics, a lot of wordplay.” She credited her dad, Brian Ostroff, as a co-writer of Lune.
You can see Brian Ostroff himself in a three-minute forty-second documentary, Dr. Bro’s Traveling Medicine Show, that is embedded on Cinequest’s Lune page. Armour-Ostroff describes his state in the clip as “6 on a manic scale.” He had nicknamed himself Dr. Bro.
Armour-Ostroff has made Miriam funny, but not only a subject of comedy, and neither harmless nor a dangerous monster. “He (her father) never had the right concoctions (of medication). My hope is that people can see both the humor and the danger, without stereotypes.“
Despite the rockiness of her upbringing, the character of Eliza seems very well adjusted. Armour-Ostroff notes that the phenomenon of child-as-caregiver is common in such situations. But there was an impact – “In my 20s, I developed anxiety because I needed so much control.”
Miriam’s back story is as a fervent anti-apartheid advocate but, during a psychotic episode, she hurls a South African racial slur at Eliza’s Black boyfriend. Armour-Ostroff said that this is intended to depict Miriam’s underlyingracial attitude. “It’s the product of her background, not her insanity, I think we need to dive deep and explore our own racism.“
Armour-Ostroff’s half brother is a Dutch musician who only met their father five or six times; he contributed the music played during Lune’s end credits.
Lune‘s next stop on the festival tour is RapidLion – the South African International Film Festival. Armour-Ostroff has returned to her Toronto theater company and is continuing to work on projects with her partner (and Lune co-director) Arturo Pérez Torres.
THE BOYS IN RED HATS. Photo courtesy of Shark Dog Films.
Remember the resulting frenzy when the Kentucky prep school boy at the Lincoln Memorial smirked at the indigenous tribal elder? Documentarian Jonathan Schroder is an alum of that very prep school – Covington Catholic or “CovCath”. In The Boys in Red Hats, his point of view shifts as he peels back the onion on what really happened. It comes down to insights into media, social media and, especially, White privilege.
Like most of us, Schroder was initially outraged at the boys; as more facts emerged, he became sympathetic to what seemed like mistreatment of the boys in social media. Don’t give up on this movie as a whitewash – as the story gets more complicated and Schroder becomes more reflective, his needle sways back and forth until the final payoff.
This was a Rorschach event at the Lincoln Memorial. One thing is for sure, these privileged kids and their chaperones, confronted by a crazy hate group (Black Hebrew Israelites), were unequipped to deal with a momentary convergence of disorder and diversity.
To put my own cards on the table, I am not disposed to sympathize with rich kids who were comfortable in being shipped to an anti-choice rally, wearing MAGA hats. In The Boys in Red Hats, the journalist Anne Branigan’s perspective most resonated with me.
Schroder gives plenty of rope to a professional conservative talking head, two CovCath dads and the school’s alumni director, none of whom display a modicum of sensitivity or empathy to those less rich, less white or less male than they.
Schroder sees the significance when one of his CovCath buddies says, “I like my bubble”. I screened The Boys in Red Hats for its world premiere at Cinequest, and it made my Best of Cinequest 2021.
I’M AN ELECTRIC LAMPSHADE. Photo courtesy of Cinequest.
In the winning and surprising documentary I’m an Electric Lampshade, we meet the most improbable rock star – a mild-mannered accountant who retires to pursue his dream of performing.
60-year-old Doug McCorkle is fit for his age and has an unusually mellifluous voice, like a late night FM DJ or the announcer in a boxing ring. Other than that he looks like a total square.
There may be no flamboyance about Doug McCorkle, but it thrives inside him. His own artistic taste is trippy, gender-bending and daring. Think Price Waterhouse Cooper on the outside and Janelle Monáe on the inside.
We follow Doug as he goes to a performance school in the Philippines (where most of his classmates are drag queens) and the montage of his training resembles those in Fame and Flashdance. Doug is a good enough sport to wear MC Hammer pants in a bizarre Filipino yogurt commercial. It all culminates in a concert in Mexico.
Doug’s quest would be a vanity project except he has no apparent vanity. He must have some ego to want to get up on stage, but compared to subjects of other showbiz documentaries, he is most humble, emphatically not self-absorbed and low maintenance. We can tell from how his co-workers, friends and wife react to him, that he is just a profoundly decent guy.
Eminently watchable, this is a successful first feature for writer-director John Clayton Doyle. The stage-setting profile of one of the Filipino artists could have been trimmed, but Lampshade is otherwise well-paced.
The final score: Doug 1, Expectations 0. I screened I’m an Electric Lmpshade for its world premiere at Cinequest, and it made my Best of Cinequest 2021.
I’M AN ELECTRIC LAMPSHADE
I screened I’m an Electric Lampshade for its world premiere at Cinequest, and it made my Best of Cinequest 2021. You can stream it during the festival for only $3.99 at Cinequest’s online Cinejoy.
Derrick Pottle in THE MAGNITUDE OF ALL THINGS. Photo courtesy of 2020 Magnitude Productions.
The meditative documentary The Magnitude of All Things explores the emotional response to Climate Change. An Inconvenient Truth is now 15 years old and seems almost quaint today; Al Gore was certainly not an alarmist.
We in California, with our catastrophic wildfires, may think that we are Ground Zero for Climate Change ground zero, but for those that live on flat atolls in the ocean or in the formerly frozen ice and tundra, it’s even more of a RIGHT NOW phenomenon. The Magnitude of All Things takes us from the Amazon to Australia to Labrador. We meet folks from the uber earnest child crusader Greta Thulin to an indigenous youth activist in Amazon.
We see bleached coral reefs (who knew we needed to worry about THAT?) and “snowing” wildfire ash. An indigenous poet surveys the less-frozen North and asks if his grandchildren will see what he sees.
THE MAGNITUDE OF ALL THINGS. Photo courtesy of 2020 Magnitude Productions.
With especially beautiful photography, a contemplative pace and New Agey piano music, The Magnitude of All Things reminds us that, while we may be ruining it, we still live on a beautiful planet. Even the fires are beautiful in their terrible way.
How do we face extinction – self-caused extinction? Will the grief overwhelm us? Documentarian Jennifer Abbott’s sister recently died, and Abbott brings us inside her own grieving process as a parallel. One subject suggests, “Make peace with the grief but don’t just give up“.
Are grief and hope exclusive? Or, as Abbott posits, can hope be found within grief?
I screened The Magnitude of All Things at Cinequest, it’s fourth stop on the film festival tour, and the first in the US.
Ryan Walker-Edwards in DEMON. World premiere at Cinequest. Photo courtesy of Zersetzung Films.
I written about the the very Best of Cinequest and even more Cinequest films. Here’s my take on the rest.
Demon: On the lam from some aggressive bill collectors, Ralph hides out in an off-the-track motel. It doesn’t take long for things to get odd and then surreal. Ralph’s journey to this most mundane setting becomes nightmarish, but this darkly funny film is not a horror movie. As the lead actor, Ryan Walker-Edwards is very appealing in his feature film debut. This is also the first feature for director and co-writer George Louis Bartlett. I screened Demon for its world premiere at Cinequest.
Yutaka Takeuchi in DRIVE ALL NIGHT, world premiere at Cinequest Photo courtesy of Cinequest..
In Drive All Night, a taciturn night shift cabbie (Yutaka Takeuchi) picks up an alluring and mysterious woman (Lexy Hammonds). She has him take her on a bizarre night ride, and he’s guessing what her secret is. Unfortunately, the dialogue is still and hackneyed, and the payoff just isn’t there. Their ride gets trippy at one point, and there’s a parallel thread with another character, but it doesn’t help.
If you’re from Silicon Valley, you’ll recognize lots of San Jose locations like MiniBoss, the Capri Motel, Western Appliance and I-280.
Drive All Night is the first feature for writer-director Peter Hsieh. Hsieh’s nighttime exterior visuals are superb. So far, he’s a far better director than writer. I screened Drive All Night for its world premiere at Cinequest.
In the light and appealing coming of age comedy Drunk Bus, a young slacker (Charlie Tahan) is paralyzed by the disappointment of a breakup. He’s stuck driving the shuttle between a college town’s bars and the dorms (the “Drunk Bus”) until he is mentored by a 300-pound Samoan security guy with facial tattoos (Pineapple Tangaroa). It’s all sweet and predictable. It’s the first feature for co-directors John Carlucci and Brandon LaGanke. I screened Drunk Bus, which had played at the 2020 SXSW, at Cinequest.
Events Transpiring Before, During, and After a High School Basketball Game: This Canadian indie comedy had the best movie title in Cinequest (an even better title than I’m an Electric Lampshade) and an inviting trailer. But the humor – along the same lines as in The Office and Parks and Recreation – just doesn’t get close to that level. Cast and screenplay were shooting for deadpan, but only reached dead. I screened Events Transpiring… for its world premiere at Cinequest.
Hunting Bigfoot: There are very, very few men who believe that they have personally encountered Bigfoot, and this documentary’s interesting premise is that some of them become obsessed with duplicating those events and returning with scientific evidence that Sasquatch exists. We meet a crew of these guys, of varying degrees of eccentriciy, who devote their spare time to this (so far, futile) pursuit. One of them, John Green, has essentially abandoned civilization and his family to live full time out in what he thinks is Sasquatch habitat. Green’s life journey, with his Bigfoot episode coinciding with crises in his business and his family, would be fascinating for 30 minutes, but doesn’t warrant taking up most of this full length feature. I screened Hunting Bigfoot for its world premiere at Cinequest.
Non Western: This aspirational documentary traces the new marriage of Nanci, a White woman with teen and college-age kids, and Thad, a Cheyenne man. Non Western has a lot going for it: an intriguing and underseen setting (the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana) and masterful cinéma vérité filmmaking by Laura Plancarte. But ts very subject lets us all down. It’s impossible to watch this movie without asking what is she doing with this guy?
Nanci’s childhood was so destitute that she was taken in by a Lakota family on the Pine Ridge Reservation, possibly the most socioeconomically deprived community in the US. Somewhere along the line, she had an unsuccessful relationship that produced these kids. Yet she has overcome all this to get her PhD and a job at a college. But Thad just expects her to do all the housework and wait on him, using his embrace of his Cheyenne traditions as an excuse. He’s not traditional – he’s just a dick. It’s painful to watch this dynamic (along with her kids) and observe how low that Nanci’s self esteem seems to have sunk. The Wife HATED this movie.
Ironically, Thad’s mom, who seems close-minded and cruel throughout most of the film, turns out to be the most interesting character when she finally reveals her own view of traditional family culture. I screened Non Western for its US premiere at Cinequest.
Mister Candid Camera: This is an affectionate but clear-eyed biodoc of Allen Funt, who originated the iconic television show Candid Camera and, in the process, invented reality television. It’s written, directed and extremely well-sourced by Allen Funt’s son (and Camera Candid performer) Peter Funt. Peter Funt reveals the secret sauce of the show (e.g., how mean can you be). Baby Boomers will especially appreciate the insider’s look at Allen Funt himself and the nostalgic glimpses of sidekick Durwood Kirby, etc. Everyone will enjoy the classic clips, including the talking mailbox, split automobile and the hilarious utterances of little kids. I screened Mister Candid Camera for its world premiere at Cinequest.
