My Zoe (Movie)

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    ‘Undine,’ ‘My Zoe’ and More Offbeat Streaming Gems

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    From slasher musicals to water nymph dramas, we recommend a number of unusual films to breathe new life into your streaming routine.This month’s off-the-radar recommendations include a trio of terrific (but modest) indies from earlier this year, along with a thoughtful biblical drama, a wild slasher musical (yes, you read that right) and a documentary to fill that “Summer of Soul”-sized hole in your heart.‘Together Together’ (2021)Stream it on Hulu.The writer and director Nikole Beckwith opens her character-driven comedy-drama with credits rendered in a white Windsor font — unmistakable as Woody Allen’s go-to title font. It seems like a bold, even ill-advised choice, but it’s a purposeful reference; the flaws of Allen’s cinematic worldview are discussed later in the film, which can be read as a feature-length rebuke to the ubiquity of May-December romances in that director’s work. The relationship here, between a would-be single dad (Ed Helms) and his gestational surrogate (Patti Harrison), is much more nuanced than that, though awkwardness gives way to affection and even love over the course of the pregnancy. Beckwith dares suggest that such emotion can exist outside the realm of romance, and scene after scene lands with sensitivity and depth, without sacrificing any laughs along the way. Helms crafts his best film work to date, and Harrison is a real find.‘My Zoe’ (2021)Stream it on Amazon.Julie Delpy writes, directs and stars in this tender familial drama with an unexpected dose of science fiction. Delpy’s Isabelle is a scientist and newly single mother who is struggling to navigate through the minefield of conflicts and emotions tied to her recent divorce; both parents want what’s best for their daughter, but have vastly different methods of achieving it. What begins as a 21st-century riff on “Kramer vs. Kramer” veers into more serious territory when little Zoe (Sophia Ally) is struck by tragedy, prompting Isabelle to call upon her vast scientific knowledge — and willingness to experiment. Delpy writes about parenthood from the inside out, capturing its fears and presumptions with a vividness that borders on emotional brutality. But her gift for dialogue and mood makes “My Zoe” an ultimately rewarding experience.‘Undine’ (2021)Stream it on Hulu.Christian Petzold’s latest begins in the middle of a breakup, with the standard explanations and platitudes, until Undine (Paula Beer), the woman on the receiving end, says something you don’t typically hear in such conversations: “If you leave me, I’ll have to kill you. You know that!” This is no ordinary romance, obviously; true to her name, Undine is a water nymph, and according to legend, when a man betrays her, she must kill him and return to the sea. But she’s waylaid by another, immediate romance, with (of course) a kindhearted deep-sea diver (Franz Rogowski), and complications ensue. Petzold is delving into the realm of magic realism, but with an emphasis on the realism; “Undine” is first and foremost a romantic drama, with the compelling intimacy and chemistry of its leads front and center, and the fantastical present mostly as well-drawn flourishes.‘Mary Magdalene’ (2019)Stream it on Netflix.Like “Ophelia,” from last month’s column, Garth Davis’s biblical drama “Mary Magdalene” repositions a woman into the center of a familiar tale, while simultaneously retelling it to a modern audience. Rooney Mara is quietly superb as the title character, carrying much of her faith and fear in her soulful eyes, and Joaquin Phoenix is a surprisingly effective Jesus of Nazareth, adroitly using his naturalistic approach to emphasize Jesus’s humanity and charisma. Davis and the screenwriters, Helen Edmundson and Philippa Goslett, revisit the expected highlights — the raising of Lazarus, the conflict with the money changers, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection — but never present them as tableaux or pageants. Much like in Scorsese’s “Last Temptation of Christ” (a clear stylistic influence), these scenes have an urgency and immediacy to them, as if they’re being staged for the first time.‘Seeking a Friend for the End of the World’ (2012)Stream it on HBO Max.The genuine end-of-the-world vibes of late — floods, fires, a mutating plague — might make this apocalyptic romantic comedy hit a bit too close to home. On the other hand, its underlying message of giving in to the insanity, and making the best of the time you have left, feels exceedingly welcome. Steve Carell is at his sad-sack best as an average guy whose wife abandons him the second it becomes clear that the end is near; Keira Knightley is charming as the neighbor who accompanies him on an impromptu road trip. The writer and director Lorene Scafaria, later acclaimed for “Hustlers,” makes an assured debut, orchestrating a top-notch ensemble cast with skill, and creating wildly funny comic situations that remain anchored in the story’s crumbling reality.‘All Good Things’ (2010)Stream it on Amazon.Those who eagerly followed the twists and turns of the true crime documentary series “The Jinx” should seek out this earlier dramatization of its events from the “Jinx” director Andrew Jarecki. Ryan Gosling stars as David Marks — a fictionalized version of Robert Durst — who leaves his life of privilege to be with his wife, Katie (Kirsten Dunst), only to become a suspect in her disappearance, as well as an increasingly bizarre series of unsolved murders. Gosling is given a tricky task, finding the humanity in a seemingly impenetrable character who may or may not be a murderer; and Dunst makes a good match, conveying how this sincere woman could have seen that humanity — and the price she paid for it.‘Disobedience’ (2018)Stream it on Hulu.Sebastián Lelio narrates a sequence from his film, starring Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams.Bleecker StreetRachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams star as members of a strict Orthodox Jewish community whose shared past forcefully returns in this powerful drama from the director Sebastián Lelio (adapting Naomi Alderman’s novel). Ronit (Weisz), estranged from the community, returns following the death of her father and resumes her romance with Esti (McAdams), who has repressed her desires and entered a loveless marriage. Lelio approaches the material matter-of-factly, refusing to either sensationalize or desexualize the relationship; it’s a rare mainstream portrayal of same-sex attraction that considers both emotional and physical attraction, on equal footing.‘Like Crazy’ (2011)Stream it on Netflix.Young romance is dramatized so often in popular culture that yet another story of lost love hardly seems noteworthy — but few are rendered with the kind of lived-in experience that the director Drake Doremus brings to this Sundance hit. Anton Yelchin stars as Jacob, who falls hard for the British foreign exchange student Anna (Felicity Jones) and must face the geographical and emotional difficulties of a long-distance relationship. Doremus and his co-writer Ben York Jones penned only an outline, working with their actors to improvise the dialogue, creating intimacy and authenticity in even their offhand exchanges. Yelchin and Jones convincingly convey their longing and desperation, while a pre-fame Jennifer Lawrence shines as a potential complication for Jacob.‘Stage Fright’ (2014)Stream it on Amazon.Fans of throwback horror will delight in this cheerful mash-up of “The Phantom of the Paradise” and “Friday the 13th,” in which a summer musical theater camp’s production of a “Phantom of the Opera” rip-off is disrupted by the troubled past of its leading lady, and the return of the bloodthirsty killer that murdered her mother. The writer and director Jerome Sable both embraces and sends up the conventions of Gothic horror and slasher movies, while convincingly staging the musical-within-the movie (and ensuring echoes of “Rocky Horror Picture Show” by casting Meat Loaf in a supporting role). Keep an eye out for the “Schitt’s Creek” star Daniel Levy in a cameo role.‘Mr. Soul’ (2020)Stream it on HBO Max.If “Summer of Soul” whetted your appetite for archaeological explorations of forgotten pop culture artifacts, this energetic documentary makes a fine companion piece. It concerns “Soul!,” a variety and talk program produced for public television from 1968 to 1973 — one of the first such programs produced by Black talent, aimed at a Black audience. As such, it showcased an astonishing array of musical stars, including Stevie Wonder, Al Green and Earth, Wind & Fire (whose awe-inspiring performances are excerpted), as well as prominent Black authors, intellectuals and activists. The show was the brainchild of Ellis Haizlip, who produced and hosted; “Mr. Soul!” is written and co-directed by Ellis’s niece, Melissa Haizlip, who captures the show’s history with a mixture of cultural awareness and familial pride. More

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      Julie Delpy, Science-Fiction Filmmaker? It’s True

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyJulie Delpy, Science-Fiction Filmmaker? It’s TrueBest known for romantic comedies, the creator of the cloning drama “My Zoe” refuses to be pigeonholed: “I love to mess up and not go in the direction that is expected.”Julie Delpy in Los Angeles. She wrote, directed and stars in the new film. Credit…Jake Michaels for The New York TimesFeb. 26, 2021, 11:49 a.m. ET“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” said a flustered Julie Delpy, who was a few minutes late for a video interview. “My son is doing online school, and there is always something complicated to sort out.” She paused and took a breath. “But it’s nice too, having this time together.”Motherhood, its deep pulls of love and its concomitant potential for terror, is the central subject of Delpy’s new film, “My Zoe.” It’s a tough depiction of an antagonistic divorcing couple who are struck by tragedy, but then (spoiler alert!) moves into futuristic terrain as Delpy’s character, Isabelle, a geneticist, searches for a radical solution: cloning the child she has lost with the help of a controversial fertility doctor, played by Daniel Brühl.Brühl, who has worked with Delpy previously and was also one of the film’s producers, said in a telephone interview that the questions the film raised about ethics and morality, “about what might be possible, or what is perhaps already possible,” were deeply interesting to him. His character was “driven by his scientific ambitions to hold these questionable moral positions, but also driven by a growing empathy for the despair of this one mother,” Brühl said.“My Zoe,” Glenn Kenny wrote in The New York Times, “is an unusually compelling domestic drama with sharp ears, a sharp eye, and up to a point, sharp teeth.”It’s probably not the kind of film that mainstream audiences associate with Delpy, 51, who may be best known for the Richard Linklater romantic-comedy trio “Before Sunrise,” “Before Sunset” and “Before Midnight.” In those movies, spaced nine years apart, she played Celine, a strong, flawed heroine at the center of a compelling and equally flawed romance with Jesse, played by Ethan Hawke. (She also co-wrote the films, earning two Oscar adapted-screenplay nominations alongside Linklater and Hawke.)The French-born Delpy has been acting since the age of 14, when Jean-Luc Godard cast her in “Detective,” and she has worked in European art house cinema as well as mainstream Hollywood movies. But Delpy, whose parents were actors, has always wanted to write and direct, and she has done so since the mid-1990s: “My Zoe” is her seventh film and she has a number of writing and directing projects in the works, including a television series, “On the Verge,” in production for Canal Plus and Netflix.In an hourlong interview from her Los Angeles home last week, she talked about the genesis of “My Zoe,” the ethical questions around cloning, and whether conditions for female movie directors have improved. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.Delpy with Sophia Ally as Zoe in a scene from the film.Credit…Blue Fox EntertainmentWhat made you take on a subject and a genre so different from your previous films?When I worked with Godard, he published a book of letters he had written to actors and never sent. To me, he wrote, be careful in your life because people will put you in a box. He knew I wanted to direct, not just be a pretty actress. For me it’s essential not to stay in one place, it’s just not interesting. I love to mess up and not go in the direction that is expected.The story of “My Zoe” comes from a few different places. I was witness to a terrible accident with a child who died at my school and to the grief of the parents. And then being a parent yourself, you always think about this and fear it. But I think I had the idea even before that. I remember talking to [Krzysztof] Kieslowski when we were making “Three Colors: White” and discussing the idea of fate, and whether you could change things.I have seen so many movies in which people deal with death, and the main idea is acceptance. When you think about it, loss is an ancestral burden, particularly for women, who for centuries routinely lost babies at birth or young children. Isabelle refuses that condition of loss; she rebels and tries to recreate a child who is only hers. That’s the No. 1 fear of men, and I think that’s partly why this idea upsets many people.You divide the film into three parts, and the first shows the grim, petty realities of divorce; why was it important to you to set up the story in that way?I was writing the film in the middle of a separation, and sorting out custody of our kid, and it was important to me to have the first act be all about that horrible stuff, because I wanted to show how people forget the big thing: the well-being of the child. Sometimes in films, you get the bigger picture of separation; they don’t do the minutiae of breaking up with a child [involved]. I wanted to build a story from something rooted in reality, so that when you move into the next act, it doesn’t feel like science fiction.The second part, after Zoe’s accident, is luckily less familiar to most of us but still grounded in reality, and then we move into the third part, to events that are a possibility in the near future if not now. I didn’t want to be judgmental about Isabelle’s actions, just show her point of view. I am not saying that cloning is a good thing, but I’m saying, let’s not blind ourselves: When I.V.F. was first done, people called it evil and now they don’t think twice. For me, it’s an allegory of what people are capable of doing.Daniel Brühl said that you can be “very nerdy, very precise, a real perfectionist” as a director. How did you manage that role alongside this emotionally draining part in “My Zoe”?Often I would really rather have another actress play my role, but I always do these low-budget films and it helps to have a bit of a name. It irritates people that I do everything, they think it’s megalomania. But it really isn’t, just necessity!Yes, I am a perfectionist, and this film was really hard. The actors and I talked a lot before takes, but it’s very hard to judge the quality of a scene if you are also acting in it. The main tool is the playback; you need time to look at your own performance and make sure you are giving very different colors to scenes. In this case, I was very conscious of not turning it into a melodrama. We had a low budget and limited time — not a good combination. But I am not scared of difficulty, struggling, even chaos. Perhaps that’s the one thing I have in common with Isabelle.You’ve been outspoken about the difficulties facing female filmmakers — do you think things have improved in the last few years?I am happy to say things have improved. Now I feel I’m at the same level as male directors, and probably have almost the same opportunities. I see this particularly clearly in France; America isn’t quite there yet for all the talk about feminism and racism and equality. But there has been change. When I made “Two Days in Paris,” at 36, I had to battle for a half a million dollar budget; talking to younger female filmmakers now, that’s not the case.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘My Zoe’ Review: Julie Delpy’s Provocative Family Drama

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘My Zoe’ Review: Julie Delpy’s Provocative Family DramaThe characters can be confoundingly self-involved, but Delpy finds unusual threads to pull you closer to them and their crises.From left, Richard Armitage, Sophia Ally and Julie Delpy in “My Zoe.”Credit…Blue Fox EntertainmentFeb. 24, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETMy ZoeDirected by Julie DelpyDramaR1h 40mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.The French filmmaker Julie Delpy is still best known as an actor, but she’s been building a varied and impressive filmography as a feature writer and a director since the early part of the century. Her new picture, “My Zoe,” in which she also stars, is an unusually compelling domestic drama with sharp ears, a sharp eye, and up to a point, sharp teeth.Delpy plays Isabelle, a geneticist living in Berlin with her young and adorable daughter Zoe. Her ex-husband, James (Richard Armitage), seems a perpetual and arbitrary thorn in her side, constantly needling her about visitation days and the competence of babysitters. The bickering doesn’t stop when disaster strikes. While their daughter has surgery to relieve the pressure on her brain caused by an aneurysm, Isabelle and James argue about their married sex life.[embedded content]Sounds like something to be appalled by. But Delpy writes these characters with such depth, and stages their interactions with such sensitivity, that you understand them without necessarily approving of them.The movie takes a likely unexpected turn from the conventional bad marriage story. Isabelle travels to Russia, appealing to a controversial medical researcher, Thomas Fischer (the frequent Delpy collaborator Daniel Bruhl), for a radical solution to a family tragedy.For nonspoiler purposes, let’s call that solution “the shiny object” — a project of dubious ethics, and little probability of succeeding, that nevertheless proves irresistible to all who contemplate it. As it happens, it proves irresistible to filmmaker Delpy as well. It’s in her embrace of it that the movie, so tart and assured up to a certain point, goes wrong. But Delpy is a sufficiently assertive cinematic voice that she’s well worth arguing — and maybe ultimately disagreeing — with.My ZoeRated R for language and themes. Running time: Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More