Movies

Subterms

    More stories

    • 113 Shares199 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Personality Crisis: One Night Only’ Review: New York Droll

      by

      David Johansen, once the lead singer for the New York Dolls, proves a first-rate raconteur in this documentary co-directed by Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi.When David Johansen’s alter ego, Buster Poindexter, swings into “Funky but Chic” early in “Personality Crisis: One Night Only” — a documentary co-directed by Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi — a viewer should consider herself primed for a droll and cheeky evening. A first-rate raconteur, Johansen — wearing a pompadour, sunglasses and bespoke suit — brings the funk. The storied Café Carlyle delivers the chic. The song was the first single Johansen released after having been the lead singer of the iconic 1970s band the New York Dolls.In January 2020, Johansen celebrated his 70th birthday with a cabaret show at the Carlyle. And the film treats that happening as a hub as it ventures into a rich visual archive of Johansen’s (and New York City’s) renegade past and his ruminative present. Interviews with the boundlessly inquisitive artist, conducted by his stepdaughter Leah Hennessey, are intercut with the performance and Johansen’s vagabond history, which includes fronting the Harry Smiths, named for the Chelsea Hotel denizen who compiled the “Anthology of American Folk Music” album that put a spell on so many.The cinematographer Ellen Kuras captures the singer and his terrific ensemble, the Boys in the Band Band, with suave fluidity. Downtown luminaries including Debbie Harry of Blondie are among the assembled.In clips of the New York Dolls performing “Personality Crisis,” Johansen belts and the late Johnny Thunders’s guitar rattles. In addition to Thunders, the Dolls Sylvain Sylvain, Arthur Kane, Billy Murcia and Jerry Nolan have died. Johansen is mindful of his ghosts — there are many. Yet to quote Sondheim’s battered and triumphal tune, a standard at cabarets like Café Carlyle, Johansen’s still here.Personality Crisis: One Night OnlyNot rated. Running time: 2 hours. Watch on Showtime platforms. More

    • 75 Shares149 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Hilma’ Review: An Artist With Spirit

      by

      The film gets off to a rough start, but the director wins the audience back with his sincere connection to the artist Hilma af Klint.Before production started on his guilelessly charming biopic “Hilma,” about the mystical artist Hilma af Klint, the Swedish filmmaker Lasse Hallstrom insisted on a séance to meet his subject. The painter, who died in 1944, believed that spirits guided her to create symbols which, when mounted together, would illustrate an energy map of the universe.In her lifetime, af Klint was seen as a kook — and her occult work was barely seen at all. Before she died, she stipulated that her paintings remain hidden for another two decades. Though she was painting abstract canvases before Wassily Kandinsky or Piet Mondrian, af Klint’s eye-popping color combinations didn’t emerge until the moment Mary Quant could have slapped them on a minidress.“Hilma” likewise gets off to a rough start. Hallstrom’s script is inked in simplistic lines. It’s a humorless caricature of period-piece conventions, complete with heavy-handed depictions of sexism — “That girl, she paints — paints!” The classic telltale cough of doom arrives courtesy of her younger sister Hermina (Emmi Tjernstrom), whose death kick-starts the artist’s fixation on the great beyond.Yet, Hallstrom wins the audience back with his sincere connection to af Klint, played in her bullheaded youth by his daughter, Tora Hallstrom, and in her muttering years by his wife, Lena Olin. He and the cinematographer Ragna Jorming challenge themselves to see through af Klint’s eyes, animating her overpowering images of spirals and lines until they swirl around her body. Some visual experiments work, like lingering shots of a raspberry’s geometry or a flayed horse’s veins. Others are merely odd, like when he intermittently manipulates footage to look like an early silent film.What emerges is a softly supernatural story about a futurist who behaved as selfishly as any retrograde male genius. The narrative thrust comes from af Klint’s insensitivity toward her fellow female artists in the theosophic collective, The Five, particularly her lover and patron, Anna Cassel (Catherine Chalk). Hallstrom credits that insight to his beyond-the-grave conversation with af Klimt. Believe him or not, the emotions onscreen have true power.HilmaNot rated. Running time: 2 hours. In theaters. More

    • 100 Shares99 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Rare Objects’ Review: A Woman Under the Influence

      by

      Actors are given a long and generous leash in this sometimes compelling, sometimes tepid drama about mental illness from Katie Holmes.For long stretches of its two-hour running time, “Rare Objects,” a story of recovery and addiction based on Kathleen Tessaro’s novel of the same name, is a heavy, somewhat slow-moving drama that seems perhaps better suited to the stage.Julia Mayorga stars as Benita, a young woman recently discharged from a mental institution, who is slowly and carefully putting her life back together, one day and one paycheck at a time. She talks at length about her life with her loving but critical mother (Saundra Santiago); gets a low-paying but honest job at an esteemed antique dealer, where she receives compassionate treatment from the owners, Peter (Alan Cumming) and Ben (Derek Luke); and makes fast friends with Diana (Katie Holmes), an incredibly wealthy heiress whom she met at the hospital.“Rare Objects” proceeds sluggishly, and a bit ponderously, as characters take on a staid air and say things that mean little but sound deep, like, “Some people need to be seen before they can hear.” Holmes is a generous but indiscriminate director of actors: She has the tendency, not uncommon among actors turned directors, of extending a cast of inconsistent talent a degree of latitude better reserved for the heaviest hitters. (She doesn’t have this problem with her own performance, which is both compelling and well-situated in the context of the film.)At times, the style of the movie gets in the way of the simple effects of the drama — a couple of pointlessly showy long takes add nothing and are a distraction — while a few baffling creative decisions threaten to spoil the good elsewhere. Cumming has a particularly moving scene in which he grieves the anniversary of the death of a lover over a boozy dinner — a scene very nearly ruined by the inexplicable choice to surround him with multiple empty martini glasses, something no restaurant on earth would do.Rare ObjectsRated R for strong language and mature themes. Running time: 2 hours 3 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on most major platforms. More

    • 88 Shares149 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Suzume’ Review: Gods, Spells and Instagram Posts

      by

      Makoto Shinkai’s latest animated film, about a girl who accidentally unleashes chaos over Japan, is at once mythical and thoroughly modern.Makoto Shinkai is often praised as a descendant of the great Hayao Miyazaki for his masterly animation, and his latest film, “Suzume,” is no exception. The film speaks the same cinematic language, employing an ethereal, emotive color palette that enlivens every splash of water and blade of grass.You can spot Miyazaki’s influence in more than just the visuals. There are familiar symbols and themes: The portal doors, the cursed male hero and a few narrative moves in the resolution all scream Miyazaki’s “Howl’s Moving Castle,” while the exploration of memory and grief mirrors his “Spirited Away.”I’ll stop the Miyazaki comparisons there because Shinkai showcases plenty of his own narrative and directorial signatures in “Suzume.” He’s created a thoroughly modern world of both old and new forms of magic, of spells and old gods and of Instagram posts and texts. Like a locomotive chugging uphill, the story’s stakes are quickly raised to the scale of natural disasters and mythical phenomena, while Shinkai puts an emphasis on specific towns and regions in Japan, grounding us in the real world even as he whisks us away to other worlds.What’s particularly exciting in “Suzume” is the story’s start. Seventeen-year-old Suzume wakes up from an otherworldly dream and heads off to school. On the way, she encounters and tries to follow a mysterious stranger named Souta but ends up in the ruins of an old resort, where she stumbles upon a free-standing door floating in a shallow bank of water. She opens it, and soon flaring wind, flying debris and massive red tendrils reach out and consume the darkening skies of Japan. This is only 10 minutes in. Shinkai doesn’t give you a chance to gauge your interest in its story; he immerses you immediately in the movie’s mythos and spells so that you have no choice but to offer your attention.At the ruins, Suzume finds out she has unwittingly released a cute but troublesome cat-god that Souta calls the keystone, which caused the door to unleash a monstrous earthquake-causing beast beneath Japan. Souta is a “closer,” someone who finds and shuts doors to prevent such destruction — but the keystone has transformed him into a sentient three-legged chair to prevent him from completing his mission. Suzume must then help Souta in an odyssey across Japan, making new friends while the two race to stop a catastrophic equivalent to the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake.It’s not just the drama that works. Shinkai delivers hilarious physical comedy in the awkward gambols and leaps of Souta the three-legged chair — a refreshing reversal of the trope of the handsome young love interest who leads the naïve girl on a journey. Shinkai is nothing if not a sentimental director, but here, instead of making the flirtation between Suzume and Souta the film’s emotional crux, thankfully he focuses in on the relationship between Suzume and her mother, a nurse who died in the aftermath of an earthquake when Suzume was 4.Though the film does work as a metaphor about growth and loss, it never elaborates the rules of its world, which detracts from the narrative. The film, like Shinkai’s last, “Weathering With You,” can’t decide if it wants to be an outright climate change parable or just a fictional story that references real climate disasters. Inspired by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, “Suzume” doesn’t fully square its mythology with those real environmental tragedies — or with humanity’s accountability in the inevitable monstrous acts of the natural world — and what this all means for the film’s plot and resolution. Unclear character motivations and murky magical logistics raise more questions than provide answers.Which is what makes “Suzume” a fascinating, frustrating film. It doesn’t fulfill the promise it made in that truly stellar first act: to launch us into an adventure that crosses regions and planes but lands us steady back on our feet.SuzumeRated PG. In Japanese, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 2 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 100 Shares179 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Wild Life’ Review: Their Land Is Our Land

      by

      This documentary looks at the efforts of Kristine McDivitt Tompkins and Douglas Tompkins to preserve stretches of land in Argentina and Chile.“Wild Life,” the latest eco-conscious documentary from the filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin (“Free Solo,” “Meru”) is a rickety helicopter tour of a fascinating marriage; nearly every scene makes you want to stop and explore in more detail. Things move fast with barely a beat of introduction. Those unfamiliar with the American philanthropists Kristine McDivitt Tompkins and her husband, Douglas Tompkins, may feel in the film’s opening minutes as disoriented as if they’ve been dropped in the wilderness. One catches on that the Tompkins purchased a lot of it: more than one million acres in Argentina and Chile, with the goal of gifting the land back as recognized national parks. The scale of the couple’s ambition teeters on the surreal. Asked in archival footage about a massive snow-flocked volcano on the horizon, Doug casually replies, “Yeah, that came with it.”The film doesn’t do much besides pair snippets of the Tompkins’ biographies with staggeringly beautiful shots of Patagonia’s natural splendors. An early effort to structure the running time around Kris’s first summit of a mountain named in her honor by her husband, who died in 2015, unspools clumsily and is eventually set aside. Chin, a climber himself, joined Kris on the trek and must have decided the footage was less interesting than the story that brought her and Doug to Chile in the first place — an unusual adventure in 20th-century capitalism that begins in 1968 with Doug and his friend Yvon Chouinard embarking on a nine-month van expedition through South America and returning home to each start apparel companies: one would found Esprit; the other, Patagonia.These two mountaineers on the precipice of great wealth were also free-spirited “dirtbags,” a word Chin uses with reverence. Yvon doesn’t disagree, explaining, “If you want to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent.” Yvon would soon hire a teenage Kris to work at Patagonia as an assistant packer; she rose to become chief executive. In her 40s, Kris met and married Doug, completing the loop.Chin and Vasarhelyi, married themselves, understand the unity and isolation couples experience when spurred by a shared goal. The details of negotiating this staggering land donation with Chile’s former president Michelle Bachelet include a moment of suspense that’s hard to follow. (The filmmakers seem too shy to ask questions about costs and legal clauses.) But what is clear is the Tompkins’ twin passions for nature and romance, which merge in the metaphors Kris uses to describe her husband’s effect on her life: “You get hit by lightning,” she beams, adding later, “Once, I was a pebble in a stream. Not anymore.”Kris and Doug’s moving love story should be the emotional foundation of the documentary, but it’s edited in a bit too late. Paradoxically, however, we also crave more scenes of their individual transitions from bohemians to business titans. We’re tantalized by a glimpse of Patagonia meetings held barefoot and cross-legged on the corporate carpet, an allusion to Yvon and Doug’s competition to run the most ethical company (though there’s no need for the klutzy needle-drop of the Tears for Fears hit “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”), and a hasty mention of Doug’s efforts to course-correct the environmentally destructive fast-fashion industry with a 1990 Esprit advertisement asking mall rat teenagers whether their clothes are “something you really need.” I’d watch a real-time documentary on just that next board meeting.Wild LifeRated PG-13 for brief strong language. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 113 Shares189 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Honorable Men’ Review: The Trials of a Prime Minister

      by

      It would take an eight- or 10-hour mini-series to deal with all the issues this documentary raises about the legal travails of Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister of Israel.“Honorable Men: The Rise and Fall of Ehud Olmert” is a rare instance of a two-hour documentary that should have been an eight- or 10-hour mini-series, because it would take that long to clarify all the issues it raises, then present persuasive evidence. It concerns the legal travails of Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister of Israel. Olmert was under investigation for corruption when he announced his resignation in 2008. He ultimately went to prison in 2016 for bribery and obstruction of justice, but he has consistently denied doing anything criminal.The documentary, directed by Roni Aboulafia, takes a broadly pro-Olmert position. Olmert is painted as the victim of an array of vaguely conspiratorial forces: political opponents relentless in their search for dirt because they feared his positions on settlements and the peace process; witnesses overly eager to please; a particular toxic case of apparent sibling rivalry; and a legal system that had a way of proceeding under its own momentum.And that’s to say nothing of various individuals who worked with Olmert and whose actions are called into question. But was he wronged in all respects? “Honorable Men” never quite says so. Direct access to Olmert — mostly heard speaking over the phone, although he is eventually shown being interviewed in person after his release — hasn’t led to a coherent thesis.The film was first screened in 2020, meaning that recent developments — including Olmert’s November loss in a libel case to Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister again as of December — aren’t included.Honorable MenNot rated. In Hebrew, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours. Rent or buy on most major platforms. More

    • 100 Shares149 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Human Flowers of Flesh’ Review: The Life Aquatic

      by

      This contribution to slow cinema observes the quiet routines of a captain and her crew as they sail a small boat across the Mediterranean.Anyone who (like me) savors the aquatic sequences in “Avatar: The Way of Water” but tires of its action and visual effects might find an intriguing art-house substitute in “Human Flowers of Flesh.” The serene feature, directed by the German filmmaker Helena Wittmann and largely shot on 16-millimeter film, is about as far as one can get from a blockbuster, but it shares with “Avatar” a love of seafaring, a reverence for briny blue hues and an inclination to surrender to the quiet grandeur of nature.The film unfolds as a series of cinematic seascapes captured onboard a boat sailing from Marseille toward Algeria. The captain, Ida (Angeliki Papoulia), and her crew are seldom shown speaking. Instead, they laze about on the sun-baked planks, read books and poetry, play board games or contemplate the horizon as waves rock the ship. Traversing sea and shore, the characters seem most comfortable near and on the water, and Wittmann follows their lead, rarely letting the Mediterranean leave ear- or eyeshot.There is little story beyond the snatches of conversation we receive, but “Human Flowers of Flesh” brims with visual and aural detail from the rocky coasts and gurgling reefs. Because of the scarcity of dialogue, the film’s few lines acquire outsize importance and can sometimes feel overwrought, as when a crew member reads aloud about wanderers who find comfort in the world’s smallness. Better to let the ocean water do the talking — it could babble for hours.Human Flowers of FleshNot rated. In English, French, Portuguese, Tamazight and Serbo-Croatian, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 125 Shares99 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Everything Went Fine’ Review: To Be or Not to Be?

      by

      This French drama about a woman whose father wants a medically assisted death is both bracingly unsentimental and a touch inert.The latest film from the prolific French director François Ozon, “Everything Went Fine” is a drama about assisted suicide that wears tragedy lightly. Understated almost to a fault, the film pitches its tone somewhere among the looming sorrow, gentle comedy and bureaucratic tedium that death, especially when planned, can entail. If the result is bracingly unsentimental, it’s also a touch inert — a little too poised to compel emotionally.Adapted from a 2013 memoir by the French writer Emmanuèle Bernheim, “Everything Went Fine” traces the resentments and fears that unfurl around Emmanuèle (Sophie Marceau) when her 80-something father, André (André Dussollier), asks her to help him end his life after he’s partially paralyzed by a stroke. She finds herself caught amid competing responsibilities: to a father who was often cruel to her, as we see in flashbacks; to her mother (Charlotte Rampling), sick herself and seemingly indifferent to her estranged husband’s plight; to a man from André’s past whose fraught relationship with the patriarch emerges in a late revelation; and, above all, to herself.The caprices of the characters pose repeated threats to Emmanuèle and André’s heist-like plan of getting him to Switzerland, where medically assisted death is legal. Dussollier is formidable, vacillating between desperation and entitlement, but there’s a repressed quality to the movie — and to Marceau’s performance — that mutes the emotions, sanding down conflicts to pat exchanges. Where “Everything Went Fine” opens up into thornier (and richer) territory is in the practical intricacies of euthanasia. When Emmanuèle tells André that the entire process will cost him 10,000 euros, he asks, glibly, “I wonder how poor people do it?”“They wait to die,” she coolly replies.Everything Went FineNot rated. In French, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 53 minutes. In theaters. More