Review: Showing Up

Image courtesy of A24.

 "Showing Up" is more of a low-key outing from director Kelly Reichardt - and that's really saying something. For the past 25-plus years, the filmmaker has been cranking out low budget indie films that one might describe as quiet in nature, often chronicling lower class denizens of the Pacific Northeast. 

Her previous - and, in my opinion, best - film was "First Cow," a picture that could be described as novelistic in its approach. Her latest feels more like a short story, and one with an observational approach and some consistently dry humor.

Her latest is set in the art world in what appears to once again be the Pacific Northeast. In this case, her protagonist is Lizzy - portrayed by Reichardt favorite Michelle Williams, whose most memorable previous collaboration was "Wendy and Lucy"- a sculptor who is preparing for an upcoming art show, but lacks the confidence or ability to market herself as her neighbor/landlord/fellow artist Jo (Hong Chau) is able to do.

Lizzy labors away in her studio on her evocative figurines of women, while also juggling some familial drama - her father (Judd Hirsch) likes to chase younger women, a fact brought to Lizzy's attention time and again by her mother (Maryann Plunkett), for whom Lizzy is an assistant, while her brother (John Magaro) is a reclusive artist who might be emotionally disturbed.

To add to her troubles, her mischievous cat drags an injured bird into the house, and Lizzy tosses it outside. The bird, still alive, is discovered by Jo, who nurses it back to health, but then foists it on Lizzy to be its babysitter. She begins to take a surprise liking to the pigeon - which is shuttled around in a box - although it distracts her from putting the finishing touches on her show.

Much like other Reichardt films, there are few turns of plot or moments when characters take lived experiences and use them to make life changes. "Showing Up" is mostly observational, and its easy pace and style requires some patience, but like other films in the director's oeuvre, there's payoff. 

The meaning of the film's title is left somewhat to the imagination. The phrase "showing up" can refer to being there for others - which, in this case, Jo drops by Lizzy's show, whereas the latter failed to do the same for the former. It can also refer to the mantra that "showing up" is often half the battle - which applies here to how Lizzy might feel ambivalent about elements of her work - she's particularly unhappy about how a kiln operator (Andre Benjamin) burnt her finest piece - while also accepting that she has to go with what she's got. A scene near the film's end at Lizzy's show involving the bird's fate makes me lean a little more toward the latter usage of the phrase.

"Showing Up" may be what one might call a minor work in Reichardt's filmography - and I can agree that it's not on the level of her great "First Cow" or as tightly controlled as, say, "Night Moves," but it's another of the director's easygoing explorations of a specific scene. It's often funny and the cast is all solid, making it well worth a look.

Review: Are You There God? It's Me Margaret.

Image courtesy of Lionsgate.

It's not that common for an iconic novel to turn into a movie that captures its essence and is anywhere near as good as the source material. But director Kelly Fremon Craig's adaptation of Judy Blume's often frank coming-of-age story, "Are You There God? It's Me Margaret," is one such instance.

The film juggles all sorts of subjects - religion and a young girl awaiting her first period chief among them - that shouldn't translate well to a movie, but here they provide material for a wonderfully funny, very well acted, charming, and occasionally surprisingly serious examination of a young girl's ritual into adulthood. It certainly helps that the titular character, Margaret Simon, is brought to life so vividly, both through witty screenwriting and a strong performance by Abby Ryder Fortson.

As the film opens, a summer is winding down as Margaret returns from a New Hampshire summer camp and is picked up by her parents - Barbara (a luminous Rachel McAdams) and Herb (a good-natured Benny Safdie) - only to learn some shocking news. Her family is moving, much to the dismay of her melodramatic grandmother (Kathy Bates, great as always) from the five boroughs to the suburbs of New Jersey. Margaret's first conversation with God involves her asking him not to let New Jersey be "too horrible."

The family moves into a semi-WASPy neighborhood, and Margaret is immediately taken under the wing of Nancy Wheeler (Elle Graham), who tells Margaret that she lives down in the street in "the bigger house." Nancy - and her mother, a PTA dominator - give off the vibe of snobbery, while Barbara is an earthy art instructor who forces herself to try to fit into the suburbs. 

However, Nancy is more complex than a caricature, and she inducts Margaret into a group of girls - which include Gretchen (Katherine Mallen Kupferer) and Janie (Amari Price). There's a wonderful chemistry among this group of girls, who form their own secret society, which involves them discussing boys, promising to divulge details of their first menstruation, and other topics. The three other members of the group are in love with pretty boy classmate Philip Leroy (Zackary Brooks), but Margaret sets her sights on the slightly older - and gangly - Moose (Aidan Wojtak-Hissong), a friend of Nancy's brother.

The film plays like a year-in-the-life of coming-of-age story, but there's a whole lot going on here. For starters, there's a fairly heart-wrenching scene early in the picture during which Barbara tells her daughter that she hasn't spoken to her fundamentalist, Midwestern Christian parents for years because they wouldn't accept that she'd married a Jew. This plot thread later comes into play during an awkward surprise visit, which involves relatives from both families.

The film is, much like Blume's book, frank about sex, bodily changes, and other topics, although the filmmakers manage to still keep it within PG-13 bounds. One of the more interesting elements of the film regarding the nonstop discussions of the horrors of puberty involve the group's cruel treatment of a tall, more-developed girl in their class, whom Margaret also instinctively shuns, but is later mortified when she realizes that she's mimicking the unkindness of people like Nancy and Philip Leroy.

For a movie with this many characters, one of its small wonders is how each of them has a distinct personality, even if in small glimmers - for example, Moose being cut off at a dinner when he's going to tell Margaret what it is he likes about her; Barbara's love of art and mournfulness around the fact that she's not partaking in it; Bates's grandmother, who obviously lives her own life, but can be a fiercely protective ally when called upon; and the girls' teacher, who challenges Margaret to examine her thoughts on religion and hilariously ducks out during a sex education film being shown to the class.

"Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" doesn't reinvent the wheel for this type of material, but it feels honest and true. It's often very funny - and many of the jokes land so efficiently because they are centered around the recognizable humiliations of young adulthood - and, at times, even uncomfortable when dealing with the challenging family dynamics. Those who survived their youth with the help of Blume's novel will likely find much to like here - and so will anyone else who has undergone the challenging experience of growing up.

Review: Beau Is Afraid

Image courtesy of A24.

 

Director Ari Aster makes movies about people who come to realize that their fate is out of their hands and maybe always has been - the family in "Hereditary" and the characters who unknowingly join a cult for a ritual in "Midsommar" - and this is certainly true for the titular character of the extremely weird, unsettling, and often outrageous "Beau is Afraid." 

Joaquin Phoenix plays Beau, an awkward man-child who lives in an unnamed city that is so dangerous that he has to run across the street to a convenience store to buy a bottle of water, so as not to be attacked by the seemingly insane people who populate his street. A dead body lays on the street in front of his building for days, seemingly attracting no attention, while a shirtless man dances on a continual loop in front of the convenience store, and a completely naked man attacks random people, stabbing them.

Beau is planning on visiting his mother, who is only a presence via phone for most of the film, to commemorate the death of his father, who passed away before Beau was born. However, an incident in which Beau leaves his keys in his apartment door and suitcase in the hallway and comes back to find them gone causes him to miss his flight. His mother appears to be not particularly understanding, and this causes Beau all manner of agita.

Then, Beau gets some horrible news when he calls his mother back, and much of the rest of the picture involves his attempts to get to her house. First, an accident involving a bus and the naked man with the knife results in Beau being taken care of by a doctor (Nathan Lane) with a love for pills, his seemingly caring wife (Amy Ryan), and their spiteful daughter (Kylie Rogers), who quickly becomes an enemy. 

His travels lead him to a forest where a troupe of actors is performing some sort of play that, at times, appears to tell the story of Beau's life and, at others, the story of a man who lost his family in a flood and spent his life wandering to find them. Later, Beau makes his way to his mother's palatial home, and the scenes - both visually and in terms of tone - reminded me of David Lynch's work. There's also a scene in which he bumps into a childhood flame (Parker Posey), and the resulting sex scene is provides the biggest laughs in the film. I doubt viewers will ever think of Mariah Carey's "Always Be My Baby" the same way again.

Without giving too much away, suffice it to say that there's a confrontation that takes place between Beau and another character during this final series of scenes, including a visit to an attic that is both indescribable in terms of its strangeness, but also where "Beau is Afraid" starts to go off the rails a little. There's a final scene that one could describe as a (sort of) courtroom scene that leads to a somewhat unsatisfactory conclusion.

However, Aster is a real talent. His "Hereditary" was one of the most unsettling and frightening horror movies of recent years, and like the best in the genre, it used its horrors to tackle thematically interesting material. "Midsommar" was also pretty solid and used grief as an entry point into its horrific material. "Beau is Afraid" is significantly stranger than either of those films and what it's meant to be about - on the surface, it's a three-hour running joke about a man who never grew up due to being traumatized by his overbearing mother - is often nebulous.

Regardless, this is an ambitious effort and it's shocking that a film of this sort was bankrolled in a day and age where not only adult fare has become rarer, but also anything that is out of the ordinary - and "Beau is Afraid" is undoubtedly anything but ordinary. Phoenix gives a fascinating performance that is almost childlike, and the film is filled with arresting visuals. If "Beau is Afraid" isn't exactly the great movie that its creator imagined, it's certainly a good and a memorable one. There's nothing else quite like it.

Review: Renfield

Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.

Nicolas Cage appears to be having fun as Count Dracula in the new film "Renfield," in which the centuries-old bloodsucker's familiar (or slave), Robert Montague Renfield (Nicholas Hoult), finds himself in a support group in present day Los Angeles, complaining about the narcissistic, demanding boss who is making his life miserable.

In 1989, Cage played a man obsessed with the notion that he was a vampire in a delirious performance in the film "Vampire's Kiss," so it seems like a good fit that he'd portray Dracula in this new film. And he seems to be enjoying himself as he - for lack of a better phrase - vamps it up, even though his character basically amounts to a supporting role.

It's unfortunate that the film can't keep up with him. Renfield is tasked with finding innocent victims - a group of nuns and a busload of cheerleaders are among his master's requests - for Dracula to feed on, but increasingly becomes disillusioned; hence his decision to join a support group where he finds compassion among other people who are in toxic relationships.

Renfield also befriends an eager young cop, Rebecca (Awkwafina), after saving her from a group of gangsters who had previously murdered her police officer father. There's some decent buddy cop movie chemistry between the two characters, although the filmmakers' choice to spend so much time on the turf war involving the gangsters seems like an odd choice.

The film also doesn't seem to want to waste time on dealing with the odd scenario that binds Renfield and Rebecca together. At one point, he explains his conundrum and Rebecca - a cop with a bone to pick with her department and a person who seemingly doesn't suffer fools gladly - just accepts it at face value, as if the filmmakers didn't have time for her incredulity.

Also, for a movie that's meant to be a horror comedy, there's a hell of a lot of extremely gory violence in the film - so much so, in fact, that I felt obligated to check the credits to see if Troma Films had anything to do with the production (it didn't). "Renfield" is never scary, although it's technically adjacent to the horror genre, and there's not much in the way of suspense. There are some genuine laughs, but people being gutted, heads exploding, arms being ripped off, and faces being skinned isn't quite as funny as the filmmakers seem to believe it is.

If there's any reason to see "Renfield," it's mostly Cage's ongoing commitment to letting it all hang out. Recent films have utilized his unique brand of acting - sometimes wildly ("Mandy"), other times subtly ("Pig") - to great effect, and his amusing portrayal of the count is the film's best asset. 

Unfortunately, the film spends more time showing Renfield engaging in kung-fu like fights with villains and jumping through the air as if he's in "The Matrix" than focusing on Cage. "Renfield" isn't a bad film - and it has its fun moments - but it still feels like a missed opportunity. 

Review: Air

Image courtesy of Amazon.

It wouldn't be factually incorrect to say that Ben Affleck's "Air" is a movie about the making of a shoe, but that would be selling this very well made, highly engaging, and often surprisingly funny true story woefully short. 

To date, Affleck's work behind the camera has primarily involved crime pictures and one Oscar-winning true story about some serious subject matter - so "Air" is arguably his breeziest work as a director, but also possibly his best. And yes, it is primarily concerned with how a group of employees at Nike - a company that, in the mid-1980s, sold a decent amount of running shoes, but was falling way behind its competitors - namely, Converse and Adidas - in the game to nab high-profile basketball players to wear its shoes - came up with a concept to lure basketball star Michael Jordan.

As the film opens, Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon in a great performance) - considered somewhat of a guru at the company - shrugs resignedly as another basketball season passes and his fellow execs aim low in finding three players to endorse their shoes. While watching TV one evening and seeing a commercial in which a tennis racket is marketed as capturing the essence of the star - Arthur Ashe - who wields it, Sonny comes up with an idea.

His fellow Nike execs aren't exactly sold on Sonny's concept of using the year's entire budget on just one basketball player, and it is generally frowned upon when Sonny travels to North Carolina to visit Deloris Jordan (a terrific Viola Davis), the shrewd mother of rising star Michael, to tries to convince her that her son would be best suited in Nike shoes (he's more prone to Adidas). This leads to some hilariously profane calls involving Jordan's agent (Chris Messina).

But Sonny gets Deloris to agree to at least bring her son to Oregon - where Nike is headquartered - for a meeting. At this point, the film becomes what one might call a process movie as a group of characters - Sonny, Nike marketing director Rob Strasser (Jason Bateman), player-turned-exec Howard White (Chris Tucker), shoe designer Peter Moore (Matthew Maher), and Nike co-founder Phil Knight (Affleck), who insists that his Porsche is "grape," not purple and is quick with the Zen aphorisms - prepare for a specific job. In this case, it's coming up with the shoe - the Air Jordan - and pitch to land the basketball star during his visit.

This film boasts one of the best ensemble casts I've seen in a while. Damon is compelling, sympathetic, and poignant as Sonny, a middle aged guy who knows he's running out of chances, while Davis brings an understated calm as Deloris, a woman whom everyone in the scenario recognizes as the one in charge. Affleck displays a comic timing of which I was currently unaware, Messina adds some foul-mouthed hilarity, Tucker's fast-talking repartee provides for more than just comedic effect, Bateman deftly mixes dry delivery with world weariness, and Marlon Wayans gets a solid cameo as George Raveling.

Do the filmmakers go a little overboard in trying to capture the time period? Yes, perhaps, the opening credit sequence - which blends Jane Fonda workouts, Ronald Reagan, Cabbage Patch Kids, and clips from "Ghostbusters" and other popular movies of the era - combined with the nonstop needle drops lays it on a little thick. But it's not to the film's detriment. "Air" often takes a lighthearted approach to the material and is frequently good for a laugh.

However, the picture occasionally diverges into more serious territory - for example, the divorced Strasser talking about how his 7-year-old daughter has become used to him not being a presence or, during another sequence, how he is bothered by the fact that the manner in which Nike's products are produced might be exploitative. 

The film's piece de resistance, however, is a phone call late in the picture during which Deloris and Sonny negotiate a deal and, in the process, the film veers from being a comedy about capitalism into a drama about equity. It's a great moment of acting between Damon and Davis in a film that - especially considering the subject matter - is one of the bright spots of 2023 moviegoing so far.

Review: Spinning Gold

Image courtesy of The Boardwalk Entertainment Group

 The problem with "Spinning Gold" isn't the material. Hell, this is the story of a record company (Casablanca Records) that, in the 1970s, fostered the careers of Donna Summer, Kiss, Bill Withers, Parliament, Gladys Knight & the Pips, and The Isley Brothers, and it's directed by Timothy Scott Bogart, the son of Neil Bogart, the company's founder.

There's a whole lot of interesting material to be mined here - George Clinton's insistence on the record company purchasing him a space ship, Summer being plucked from obscurity as a performer in Germany and her seemingly orgasmic experience recording "Love to Love You Baby," and the strange events leading Bogart to believe that Kiss' song "Beth" was a dig at the record company executive's marital strife.

Unfortunately, the film falls into the trap that some pictures telling stories about real people and events occasionally do. Rather than letting the story flow organically, "Spinning Gold" tries to cram everything in, making the story feel like - as a character in the "The History Boys" described history itself - one fucking thing after another. Nearly every scene in the film could be described as "... and then this happened."

One problem is that Bogart (Jeremy Jordan) himself might be an unreliable narrator - hell, he even says so. He has a penchant for exaggeration and it's possible that in making a film about his own father, the film's director doesn't have enough distance between his lead character to be subjective. Based on Jordan's portrayal and the film's screenplay, the biggest takeaway about Bogart was that he was full of energy and always scheming about ways to market his struggling company.

Also, because there's so much taking place here, scenes that should have more impact - Bogart being threatened by Motown for stealing its artists or Bogart leaving his wife and children for another woman - just fly by without much fanfare. There's a lot of great music here, but the portrayals of those creating and performing it feel more like a Wikipedia page than fully developed characters in a movie, although there is a solid scene here in which Bogart has a heart to heart with a young Gene Simmons (Casey Likes).

"Spinning Gold" has a lot of energy - for better, during the live Kiss performances or Jason Derulo's profane portrayal of Ron Isley; but also for worse during an odd scene that kicks off the picture when Bogart attempts to get Edwin Hawkins to sell him the rights to his hit song "Oh Happy Day" - but it's not always channeled in the right direction. 

This is the type of movie that might help you next time you attend a trivia night, but as a film the interest stemming from the material itself - but not always its execution - is what occasionally keeps it compelling. There's likely a great documentary to be made about Casablanca Records and how it took on the major record labels to score some gargantuan hits, but "Spinning Gold" feels more like a really crammed VH1 "Behind the Music" episode. It feels like a missed opportunity.

Review: A Thousand And One

Image courtesy of Focus Features.

A.V. Rockwell's "A Thousand and One" was considered a surprise winner of the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival. I haven't seen many of the films screened at the festival yet - but the only surprise about Rockwell's film taking the prize for me is that there was any doubt. 

This is a very powerful, beautifully acted, and engrossing film. It tells what one might call a small story, but the culmination of everything that takes place over a period of a decade and a half make the film a mini-epic. 

The story opens in 1994 as Inez (a terrific Teyana Taylor) is being released from a yearlong stint on Rikers Island for a crime that's never made quite clear. Inez is a person who takes shit from absolutely nobody and, upon returning home, shows up at her old place of work and squabbles with her ex-boss - who won't take her back - before staying with a friend, whose mother instantly clashes with the new houseguest.

Most importantly, the 22-year-old Harlem resident feels the need to be near her son, Terry (played by Aaron Kingsley Adetola, Aven Courtney, and Josiah Cross at ages 6, 13, and 17, respectively). The boy has for several years been living in foster care, but when Inez visits him in the hospital following what appears to be an accident at a foster home, she decides that he'd be happier and live a fuller life at home with her. So, she basically kidnaps him from the hospital.

Struggling to scrape together money for food and to find a place to live, Inez - who exhibits tough love toward her shy young son - pays her way by doing women's hair and eventually finds other work as well as romance with a man named Lucky (William Catlett), who has his share of flaws but ultimately warms to Terry and acts fatherly toward him.

The film at first plays like a thriller - and there is suspense surrounding whether Inez and Terry's secret will be discovered as they mostly live off the radar - but it grows into a captivating saga that can be summarized by that quote about the family you choose. 

Changes in time are often marked by music (some mid-1990s Wu-Tang Clan pops onto the soundtrack) or audio news clips about changes taking place in New York - Mayor Rudolph Giuliani cleaning up Times Square, the fatal shooting of Amadou Diallo by NYPD cops, stop and frisk, the gentrification of the city's neighborhoods, and the election of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The societal changes involved in these moments out of time also make subtle commentary on the action taking place in the film.

The film's solid script and direction are complemented by excellent performances across the board. All three young actors portraying Terry are very good at capturing the various stages of this young man's difficult childhood, while Catlett provides some subtle supporting work as Terry's father figure. But it's Taylor's breakthrough performance as Inez that makes the film so powerful. I'd had little previous exposure to Taylor but the performance has the feeling of one in which an actress disappears completely into a role. 

It's still early in the year, but "A Thousand and One" is the first movie of 2023 that feels like a contender. This is a powerful film with strong performances and captivating storytelling that stays with you long after the credits roll. I'm excited to see what all involved get up to next.