#Julia Louis Dreyfus Son

[jmunneytumbler]

'Wakanda Forever' and Ever, Amen

Forever? Forever Ever? (Credit:Marvel Entertainment/Screenshot) Starring: Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Winston Duke, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Florence Kasumba, Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Divine Love Konadu-Son Director: Ryan Coogler Running Time: 161 Minutes Rating: PG-13] Release Date:] November 11, 2022 (Theaters) Upon…

[themousefromfantasyland]

The unproduced Into the Woods Adaptation with Jim Henson Company Animatronics

By Erin McCarthy | Dec 24, 2014

[...]

The show won three Tonys, but Hollywood didn’t come knocking until a few years later. In the early ‘90s, the Jim Henson Company and Storyline approached Sondheim and Lapine with a movie adaptation of the musical that would mix live actors with Henson creatures as the show's animals. The duo signed on, and Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel—who wrote City Slickers and A League of Their Own—penned the script.

Sondheim also wrote two new songs for the project, which he included in Look, I Made a Hat, the second volume in his books of collected lyrics. The first was a new opening number, “I Wish.” While the Broadway show’s first song featured the main characters singing about their wishes, the film version expanded the song to include villagers who sang of their wishes (“I wish my well was filled with beer,” “I wish my son-in-law would disappear,” “I wish my cow could go with me to school”) as they went about their business, and featured a narrator doing a voiceover.

The second new song, "Rainbows," was for the Baker and his Wife and “occurs a bit later,” Sondheim writes in Hat, “when the Baker is despairing about his inability to have children and the wife is trying to conceal her impatience with his pessimism.”

[...]

Sondheim.com, a fansite dedicated to the lyricist/composer, got a peek at a version of the script in 1994, and wrote that “The story basically follows that of the show's first act, although the story unfolds in a different manner, without a narrator or a Mysterious Man”:

Several confusions of the play have been fixed. For example, Rapunzel is no longer related to the Baker, nor does she give birth to twins, so the question of why the family curse didn't affect her has been erased. At the end of the first “act,” the Giant rises from his fall and goes on a rampage, allowing the rest of the story to unfold more-or-less as it did in Act II of the play. The intricate back stories of the Baker's father and the witch's mother have been deleted, eliminating "No More" and changing a bit of "Last Midnight." There is no "second bean," so the Baker's wife's scenes with Cinderella are fairly different. Finally, at the very end of the movie the wife reappears, having tricked the Giant into thinking she was dead. Strangely, there has been no effort to integrate “Children Will Listen” into the action. Rather, the camera just switches to a shot of the witch singing the song against a backdrop of Rapunzel's tower, followed by a montage of the survivors going about their lives after the giant.

“Although there will certainly be more work done on the script before it becomes a film,” the site concluded, “what we've seen is certainly promising, and will definitely be entertaining, even if it's not the Into the Woods we all know and love.”

Two readings of the script were held in Los Angeles: The first included Martin Short as the Baker, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the Baker's Wife, Neil Patrick Harris as Jack, Mary Steenburgen as his mother, Kathy Najimy and Janeane Garofalo as Cinderella’s stepsisters, Cynthia Gibb as Cinderella, Rob Lowe as her prince, Christine Lahti as the Witch, Daryl Hannah as Rapunzel, and Michael Jeter as the Giant. At the second, Robin Williams played the Baker and Goldie Hawn was the Wife; Cher played the Witch, and Steve Martin played the Wolf. Carrie Fisher and Bebe Neuwirth were the stepsisters, Moira Kelly played Cinderella, and Kyle MacLachlan was her prince. Brendan Fraser played Rapunzel’s prince. Elijah Wood was Jack and Roseanne Barr was his mother. The cast was rounded out by Danny DeVito playing the Giant. In 1995, Rob Minkoff, co-director of The Lion King, signed on to direct.

Source:

@ariel-seagull-wings @thealmightyemprex @the-blue-fairie @piterelizabethdevries @theancientvaleofsoulmaking @mask131 @princesssarisa

[transparentgentlemenmarker]

La liste des stars de la musique, du cinéma et de la télévision qui ont soutenu Kamala : Oprah Winfrey, Taylor Swift, Jon Bon Jovi, Tyler Perry, Bruce Springsteen, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Beyoncee, George Clooney, Robert De Niro, Barbra Streisand, David Letterman, Jennifer Lopez, Samuel L. Jackson, Spike Lee, Julia Roberts, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Tessa Thompson, Bryan Tyree Henry, Scarlet Johanson, Robert Downey, Jr., Don Cheadle, Mark Ruffalo, Paul Bettany, Chris Evans, Dania Guria, Ben Stiller, Andy Cohen, Harrison Ford, Jack Black, Billie Eilish, Anne Hathaway, Whoopi Goldberg, Billy Porter, Jennifer Lawrence, Eminem, Jason Bateman, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Jennifer Garner, Jessica Alba, Patton Oswalt, Emmy Rossum, Glenn Close, Kumail Nanjiani, Jason Alexander, Kevin Smith, Steven Colbert, Larry David, Morgan Freeman, Cher, Nick Offerman, Michael Keaton, Jeff Bridges, Josh Bag, Sean Aston, Bradley Whitford, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Kelly, Paul Schreer, Misha Collins, Mark Hamill, Lance Bass, Josh Groban, Matt Damon, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Will Ferrel, Billy Eichner, Alicia Keys, Usher, Dave Bautista, Jimmy Kimmel, membrii formației Mumford & Sons, John Legend, Pink, Maren Morris, Keenan Thompson, Lil John, Eva Longoria, Mindy Kaling, Tony Goldwyn, D.L. Hughley, Lizzo, Martin Sheen, Sigourney Weaver, George Lopez, Howard Stern, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion, Marc Anthony, Sam Elliot, Keegan Michael Key, John Stamos, Ed Helms, Ken Jeong, Jon Hamm, Cecily Strong, Tiffany Haddish, Ike Barinholtz, Rosie O' Donnel, Kathy Griffin, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Anthony Anderson, Sally Field, Rob Reiner, Jamie Lee Curtis, Julianne Moore, Cynthia Nixon, George Takei, Mia Farrow, Alyssa Milano, Sandra Bernhard, John Cleese, Michael Ian Black, Piper Perabo, Stephen King, Michael Moore, Jane Fonda, Bette Midler, Marisa Hargitay, Sheryl Lee Ralph, GloRilla, Padma Lashmi, Matthew Modine, Aubrey Plaza, Fat Joe, Christina Aquilera, Dick Van Dyke, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, LeBron James, Jennifer Aniston, Bad Bunny, Ariana Grande, Ricky Martin, Chappel Roan, Martha Stewart, Steph Curry, Sara Bareilles, Olivia Rodrigo, Tina Knowles, Shonda Rhimes.

📍Les journaux nationaux et les chaînes de télévision qui ont soutenu Kamala : CBS, NBC, MSNBC, abc, CNN, New York Times, The Economist, The New Yorker, Houston Chronicle, The Boston Globe, The Seattle Times, Las Vegas Sun, The Philadephia Inquirer, Rolling Stone, Daily Herald, Times Union, Newsday, Lincoln Journal Star, Vogue, The Republican, The Sun Chronicle, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Observer et d’autres plus petites.

[joeygoeshollywood]

My 25 Favorite Films of 2023

It's that time of year again! Here are my top 25 films of 2023.

25. Joy Ride

Following in the footsteps of Bridesmaids and Girls Trip, Joy Ride offers some of the biggest laughs of 2023 proving once again women can be just as raunchy as men. The cast includes up-and-comers Ashley Park, Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu, and a scene-stealing breakthrough performance from Sherry Cola. Joy Ride marks a strong debut from writer-director Adele Lim.

24. Theater Camp

Anyone who had aspirations of becoming an actor can relate to Theater Camp, a mockumentary about the staff of a theater camp struggling to keep it afloat. Molly Gordon, Ben Platt, and Noah Galvin lead both behind and in front of the camera in this superb comedy that will leave you singing from the rooftops.

23. A Thousand and One

A Thousand and One is a heartbreaking indie film about a mother's desperate effort to form a bond with her estranged son by kidnapping him from the foster care system following her stint in prison. Teyana Taylor packs an emotional punch with her crushing performance with the help of A.V. Rockwell in her feature debut as a writer-director.

22. Thanksgiving

Eli Roth's filmography in horror is a mixed record, but his latest flick Thanksgiving may be his best work yet. Not only is it a solid slasher with great over-the-top killings, its brilliantly hilarious. In a time where horror franchises can be tiresome, Thanksgiving is one that could call for a second or third helping.

21. Somewhere in Queens

TV icon Ray Romano makes his feature directorial debut in the family comedy Somewhere in Queens. He stars as the father of a promising high school basketball player who goes through perhaps desperate means to assure he lands a college scholarship. Joined by the wonderful Laurie Metcalf, Somewhere in Queens has plenty of laughs as well as plenty of heart.

20. Dream Scenario

The remarkable comeback of Nicolas Cage continues with his brilliant performance in Dream Scenario, a dark fantasy horror comedy in which he plays a college professor who inexplicably starts appearing in everyone's dreams, sparking a national phenomenon that will ultimately take a personal toll. Cage balances the absurdity of the situation his character is in with emotional heft that comes with it. This marks Norwegian filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli's first English-language film and based on how well-executed Dream Scenario is, hopefully it won't be his last.

19. The Covenant

Guy Ritchie's latest The Covenant is a heart-pounding war film based on the true story of Sgt. John Kinley's rescue effort of his Afghan interpreter Ahmed. Jake Gyllenhaal and Dar Salim make a perfect duo in this dramatic, suspenseful film that may be Ritchie's strongest work to date.

18. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.

Judy Blume's 1970 adolescent classic Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. finally made its way to the big screen this year in the heartwarming coming-of-age tale of a girl's awkward journey from childhood to adulthood as well as the complexities that come from being an interfaith household. Abby Ryder Fortson shines as the titular Margaret in an outstanding performance not often seen from child actors. Also, we need more Rachel McAdams.

17. BlackBerry

Arguably the biggest surprise of 2023, BlackBerry offers some of the best laughs in the comedic retelling of the rise and fall of the iconic BlackBerry device. BlackBerry is a showcase of talent of its star Jay Baruchel, Matt Johnson (who also directed and co-wrote the film), and Glenn Howerton of It's Always Sunny fame, easily giving one of the best on-screen performances of the entire year.

16. You Hurt My Feelings

Writer-director Nicole Holofcener reunites with her Enough Said star Julia Louis-Dreyfus with You Hurt My Feelings, which centers a turbulent chapter in a couple's marriage after a novelist overhears her husband mocking her latest book. The dramedy examines the thought-provoking nuances of how fully honest one actually should be with their spouse (the answer may surprise you!). The greatest strength from Holofcener's latest is how its humor comes naturally from the reality of relationships.

15. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One

Mission: Impossible does the unthinkable in Hollywood: keeping a franchise in top-notch shape. Dead Reckoning Part One, the whopping *seventh* installment of the Ethan Hunt saga, delivers on a compelling plot and incredible action sequences, all of which is cemented by the star power of Tom Cruise, who has carried this spy franchise for nearly 20 years. There have been hints that Dead Reckoning may be the beginning of the end for Mission: Impossible, and if that's the case, it's going out with a bang.

14. Talk to Me

The best horror movie of 2023, Talk to Me is a chilling film about a group of teenager's ill-fated decision of doing a viral challenge of interacting with the dead, only to mistakenly leave the portal open between the living and the spirit world. What makes Talk to Me work is the family drama at the core of the film and the powerful performance from its troubled heroine Sophie Wilde.

13. Sisu

Inglorious Basterds meets Mad Max: Fury Road meets John Wick, Sisu is a WWII-era revenge action flick about a gold prospector's quest to retrieve the gold that was stolen from him from a group of Nazis. Full of brutal, bloody fight sequences with a twisted sense of humor, Sisu is one helluva ride.

12. Creed III

Creed III is a throwback to the era where Hollywood blockbusters were able to provide complete satisfaction. The latest installment of the Rocky spin-off franchise marked the strong directorial debut of its star Michael B. Jordan and also may have sadly marked the final film of the incredibly talented Jonathan Majors, whose recent assault conviction may be a knockout punch to an otherwise booming career.

11. May December

Often having vibes of a soap opera, Todd Haynes' May December is a compelling and at times disturbing film of an actress (played by Natalie Portman) who shadows the woman she's depicting in a film (played by Julianne Moore) famous for her 90s love affair with a then 13-year-old, who later became her husband. Despite the powerhouse performances from the two Oscar winners, the film really belongs to rising star Charles Melton, whose character finally comes to grips with the trauma he unknowingly endured as a child. And Melton's performance is among 2023's best.

10. Anatomy of a Fall

We don't often get great courtroom dramatic thrillers these days which is why Anatomy of a Fall really stands out. German actress Sandra Hüller gives a breakthrough performance as a wife and mother who becomes the prime suspect in what authorities believe is the murder of her husband, who had fallen to his death from the attic window. With plenty of twists and turns, Anatomy of a Fall will keep viewers guessing throughout.

9. Maestro

Not only does Bradley Cooper give the performance of his career, he has also shown his ability to direct is no fluke. Maestro, a biopic that spotlights the personal drama of legendary composer Leonard Bernstein, is a beautifully-shot, well-acted film that solidifies Cooper as one of Hollywood's newest talented filmmakers.

8. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

One would assume that a Spider-Man cartoon would solely be geared towards children but Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is such a sophisticated film between its complex plot and the remarkable animation that are a continuation from its 2018 Into the Spider-Verse predecessor. Between a strong voice cast, an amazing score and a brilliant cliffhanger, Across the Spider-Verse was the shining gem of the many superhero duds 2023 had to offer.

7. Killers of the Flower Moon

At 81-years-old, legendary director Martin Scorsese hasn't lost his step with Killers of the Flower Moon, his best film in at least a decade. The crime drama is based on a true story on the 1920s murders of members of Osage Nation and its ties to the marriage Ernest Burkhart and Mollie Kyle, played by the reliably gifted Leonardo DiCaprio and powerful newcomer Lily Gladstone.

6. Saltburn

Following her strong debut with 2020's Promising Young Woman, filmmaker Emerald Fennell makes a valiant return with her twisted comedic psychological drama Saltburn, which surrounds an Oxford student who is quickly embraced by the wealthy family of a classmate and the jarring fallout as a result. Barry Keoghan (The Banshees of Irisherin, Dunkirk) proves he's more than capable of being the leading man and is joined by rich ensemble including Rosamund Pike, Jacob Elordi, Richard E. Grant and Carey Mulligan. With stunning visuals and some of the most shocking things you'll see onscreen in 2023, Saltburn is a stirring work of art.

5. The Holdovers

It's been a long time since a new Christmas movie can live up to beloved holiday classics and Alexander Payne makes the closest effort with The Holdovers, a 1970-set dramedy about a miserable teacher at a boys academy who is stuck essentially babysitting the "holdover" students who didn't go home for the holidays. Joining the always-brilliant Paul Giamatti is newcomer Dominic Sessa as his troublesome student and Da'Vine Joy Randolph, who gives a powerful Oscar-worthy performance as the cook mourning over the loss of her son. The Holdovers is the perfect film to warm your heart over the holidays this year and every year going forward.

4. Past Lives

Perhaps one of the more unsung heroes of 2023 cinema, Past Lives is a touching story about love and what if. Greta Lee stars in a breakout role as a married woman who rekindles a relationship with a childhood friend from South Korea but rather than going down the typical "will they, won't they" or "love triangle" paths this film easily could've taken, Past Lives delves into the emotional complexities with such tenderness that only writer/director Celine Song could've told (the film is semi-autobiographical).

3. Oppenheimer

If anyone knows how to make a biopic an epic, it's Christopher Nolan. Oppenheimer is essentially two films rolled into one- a tick-tock thriller about the creation of the atomic bomb as well as a political drama that J. Robert Oppenheimer endured. Cillian Murphy gives the performance of his career and leads a gigantic ensemble cast in a film that despite its 3-hour running time goes by fast. And while Barbie may have won the box office battle, Oppenheimer certain won the war in more ways than one.

2. Polite Society

Polite Society is a brilliant action comedy following an aspiring stuntwoman who believes her sister is marrying into a sinister family. In the style of a Tarantino movie, up-and-coming filmmaker Nida Manzoor makes a strong feature debut that is the epitome of a fun popcorn movie, which have been in short supply in recent years.

Poor Things

Yorgos Lanthimos has quickly risen as of the strongest filmmakers of this generation, proving so once again with his latest film Poor Things. Emma Stone gives an Oscar-worthy performance as a woman brought back to life who embarks on a journey of self-discovery and autonomy and is accompanied by an excellent supporting cast. Like a modern-day Tim Burton, Lanthimos was able to create a mesmerizing universe with incredible production design, a whimsical music score, and stunning cinematography. Going to the movies is meant to be an escape, and Poor Things perfectly encapsulates that.

[boag]

This guy Andrew in The Sex Lives of College Girls is rlly hot to me so I looked up the actor and it turns out he’s Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s flop nepo baby son with 40k followers which actually made him hotter in my eyes

[jartita-me-teneis]

Debo reconocer que muchas veces pasé de largo cuando me topaba con esta película, principalmente porque me costaba ver a James Gandolfini en una comedia romántica. Grueso error...

"Enough Said" es una comedia romántica protagonizada por Julia Louis-Dreyfus y James Gandolfini. Ambos tienen una química tremenda y son el alma de la cinta.

La trama trata sobre cómo es vivir el amor después de los 50, con un divorcio a cuestas. Todo esto mezclado con enredos, dramas y un toque de humor.

La principal "gracia" de la cinta es que se preocupa de narrar de manera muy acertada todas las situaciones que pueden ocurrir en un amor "maduro": inseguridades, proyecciones, afrontar a la pareja con un cuerpo que dista de lo que fue en la juventud, compatibilizar con hijos ya maduros, etc.

El motor de la película es Gandolfini, quien logra proyectar empatía, inseguridad y ternura. Es fácil identificarse con él y creer que seguramente pasaremos por ello alguna vez en nuestras vidas.

La vi hace tiempo, me encantó, Gandolfini genial como siempre.

[ericbttle]

did make me giggle when biochem guy said 'yeah I'm actually gonna have to work for my career instead of having it bankrolled by my mommy' and then the actor is literally Julia Louis-Dreyfus' son

[sher-ortiz]

Mujeres Buenas

Los primeros 10

Cuando yo tenía diez años quería tener cuarenta. Veía a las mujeres adultas bajo esa luz de protagonismo que ellas mismas se forjaban y que habitaban con soltura y anhelaba sentirme así de empoderada, aun cuando en ese momento no tenía el vocabulario para definir esa seguridad que emanaban como EMPODERAMIENTO. Palabra que escribo toda en mayúsculas deliberadamente. Palabra que escribo toda en mayúsculas celebratoriamente.

Muchas niñas y adolescentes quieren ser grandes, pero no quieren tener cuarenta años, al menos no la amplia mayoría. Por ejemplo, mis amigas de la niñez anhelaban el inicio de la vida adulta porque pensaban en la llegada de los veinte como una garantía de libertad, la promesa de lo que está comenzando y lo que está por venir; la seducción del “todo es posible”. Pero la verdad es que no hay nada más duro que los primeros diez años de los veinte años. Jane Fonda bien lo dice en una entrevista con Julia Louis-Dreyfus: me encanta ser vieja porque ser joven es muy difícil.

Es en esos primeros diez años de los veinte años en los que te piden que tomes decisiones que marcarán el resto de tu vida profesional y personal aun cuando no tienes ninguna experiencia.

Es en esos primeros diez años de los veinte años en los que te mueves o te mueven.

Es en esos primeros diez años de los veinte años que mi mamá se hizo mamá. Y técnicamente, la verdad, nací cuando mi mamá tenía diecinueve años.

Cuando yo tenía diez años mi madre tenía treinta. Crecí mirándola navegar mares muy turbios, agitados por el contexto familiar y por la torpeza propia de su juventud. Sus padres, mis abuelos, no la comprendían y la maltrataban moralmente. Me cuidaban porque se enternecían, mi madre les había dado el regalo de ser abuelos, pero no le perdonaban el pecado terrible de ser ELLA.

ELLA nació más blanca que sus hermanos, rojiza, llena de pecas. No se parecía a sus padres.

ELLA era una niña hiper activa, desordenada, siempre estaba en las nubes. No se parecía a sus hermanos.

ELLA era una adolescente que se escapaba buscando refugio en cualquiera que le tendiera la mano. Así conoció a mi padre… y mi padre no era un hombre bueno.

Los primeros diez años de los veinte años son muy difíciles. Para mi madre fueron terribles.

Tenía unos padres que la desmoralizaban constantemente, un matrimonio roto por la violencia y las adicciones y una hija que la miraba atentamente aun cuando ella no se sentía merecedora de su mirada.

La vi navegando esos mares turbios con una balsa muy pequeña en la que apenas cabía ella y en donde yo, a veces, me sentía una polizonte.

Por eso, llegados mis diez años, miré hacia los lados. Miré a las madres de mis amigas que ya estaban en sus cuarenta y busqué refugio en ellas que me tendieron la mano. Y ellas eran mujeres buenas.

Mi madre también era buena, pero ella no lo sabía.

No se lo creía porque nadie se lo había dicho.

Las mujeres buenas

Una de esas mujeres buenas es una italiana que siempre se quejaba porque me comía todo lo que tenían en la casa, pero siempre me servía un segundo plato. Se pintaba el pelo de rojo rubí. Se ponía un chal verde esmeralda. Yo la veía hacerse cargo de todo: su trabajo, la comida sobre la mesa, la educación de sus hijos. Una mujer divorciada que aprovechaba cada ocasión para celebrar en voz alta su independencia y su hazaña. EMPODERADA que decimos ahora. Tenía en su apartamento afiches de varias obras de arte enmarcados. Fue en su hogar donde vi por primera vez El Beso de Klimt. También tenía un afiche de El Jardín de las Delicias de el Bosco. Me enseñaba todos los detalles que tenía cada pintura. Encendía mi imaginación y alimentaba mi deseo de viajar y conocer el mundo. Guardó los secretos de mi pubertad y mi adolescencia. Me regañó cuando me lo merecí. Me orientó para aceptar y enmendar mis errores a tiempo.

Teresina es una mujer buena. No me alcanza una vida para agradecerle todo lo que me dio.

Más adelante llegó otra mujer buena a mi vida. Una árabe que celebraba mi apetito voraz y si se quejaba de algo era de que no le aceptara otro plato. Estaba siempre cuidando de todos los que la rodeaban: su familia cercana y extendida, sus amigas, la familia de sus amigas… y claro, de mí. Nunca me hizo falta pedirle ayuda porque su instinto fue tan fino que siempre supo cuándo y cuánto darme. Nunca me hizo sentir culpable o deudora por todo lo que me dio. Su casa olía a menta, canela, cardamomo y pimienta porque cocinaba para su familia y para sus comensales. El negocio familiar es un restaurante y ella era (y es) la reina de las atenciones y las cosas hechas con amor. Esto se lo heredó a sus hijas. Pensar en eso me hace llorar bonito.

Fadia es una mujer buena. Una prueba absoluta de que la luz de la Clara Luna (así se llama su restaurante) llega para reconfortarnos en la oscuridad.

Menciono a estas dos mujeres porque solo permitiéndome respirar su mismo aire me ayudaron a formar gran parte de mi carácter. Veo en mi mucho de Teresina y Fadia. La fuerza y la determinación, la generosidad y la devoción. Pero no son las únicas. He tenido la suerte de estar rodeada de mujeres buenas que me han tendido la mano y me han ayudado a crecer.

Mis tías, mis maestras, las mujeres con las que he trabajado, MIS AMIGAS. Valentina, Claudia, Lucía, Francis, Ángela, Mariana, María Elizabeth, Florencia, Andreína, Verushka, Daniela, Oriana, Andrea, Norma, Carolina, Marie Claire, María Paula. Sus madres, sus hermanas, sus hijas, sus primas, las amigas que me presentaron y las que no he mencionado.

Me las quisiera llevar a todas a un VIP.

La Balsa

Hoy cumplo treinta y nueve años. En tan solo un año cumpliré esa edad que romanticé durante tanto tiempo: ¡los cuarenta! ¡QUÉ DICHA!

Me siento muy feliz de que lleguen y comienzo a pensar en los cincuenta, los sesenta, los setenta y los ochenta con un anhelo inmenso, porque si algo me ha quedado claro es que con el tiempo los problemas se ven más pequeños y los vínculos que sobreviven al paso de los años solo alcanzan a fortalecerse. Sobre todo cuando se tejen con mujeres buenas.

Gracias a la mano que me tendieron esas mujeres buenas hoy tengo una balsa mucho más grande de la que tuvo alguna vez mi madre. En mi balsa voy remando sin prisa. Sin miedo. Sin polizontes. La llevo a mi madre cómoda y tengo espacio para invitar a todas las madres que me dio la vida. Tendemos puentes para ir de una embarcación a otra, repartiendo el peso de lo que nos ha tocado a cada una. Somos una flota de mujeres buenas. Todas remando.

[agentem]

Julia Louis-Dreyfus compares Marvel Execs explaining Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine to listening to her accountant.

I personally love it when the actors have no idea what the fuck is going on. Like I think GP not knowing she was in Spider-man was the most endearing thing she ever did. Happy Julia husband and sons are there to buy her comics and explain things.

Also, as an aside, can men on YouTube stop pronouncing her name wrong. They call her Julia Louise Dreyfus, like it is her (feminine pronunciation) middle name. But it's just a weird French surname not an actress has to use her middle name because of SAG situation.

(She's kind of a Nepo Baby, I guess. Her family is wealthy from the company they own. But her grandfather was also a celebrated Jewish member of the French Resistance during WW2 so you can at least think "French shit" when you pronounce her name.)

[yennciri]

just discovered that the biochem guy from sex lives of college girls is julia louis dreyfus' son

[tomorrowedblog]

Friday Releases for June 14

Friday is the busiest day of the week for new releases, so we've decided to collect them all in one place. Friday Releases for June 14 include Ultraman: Rising, Reverse the Curse, Tuesday, and more.

Ultraman: Rising

Ultraman: Rising, the new movie from Shannon Tindle and John Aoshima, is out today.

With Tokyo under siege from rising monster attacks, baseball star Ken Sato reluctantly returns home to take on the mantle of Ultraman. But the titanic superhero meets his match when he reluctantly adopts a 35-foot-tall, fire-breathing baby kaiju. Sato must rise above his ego to balance work and parenthood while protecting the baby from forces bent on exploiting her for their own dark plans.

Reverse the Curse

Reverse the Curse, the new movie from David Duchovny, is out today.

Reverse the Curse follows Ted (Logan Marshall-Green), a failed writer-turned-Yankees Stadium peanut slinger who moves back home after learning of the failing health of his Red Sox-obsessed father, Marty (David Duchovny). While Marty strives to make amends for his past, his health drops abruptly whenever his beloved Sox lose a game. To keep his dad’s spirits up, Ted takes matters into his own hands and manufactures a winning streak with the help of a crew of dad’s neighborhood pals. In the process, Ted strikes up a bond with Marty’s charming “Death Specialist,” Marianna (Stephanie Beatriz), and the prospect of a new love reignites his ambitions. An ode to the bond between father and son, this warm and witty film demonstrates how life truly belongs to the losers, and that the longshots are the ones worth betting on.

Tuesday

Tuesday, the new movie from Daina Oniunas-Pusic, is out today.

A mother (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, in a profoundly moving performance) and her teenage daughter (Lola Petticrew) must confront Death when it arrives in the form of an astonishing talking bird.

Ride

Ride, the new movie from Jake Allyn, is out today.

Desperate to raise money for his daughter’s cancer treatment, a retired bull rider teams up with his estranged son and resorts to robbery to secure payment before time runs out. But after the heist goes awry, keeping the money—and their freedom—requires the duo to outwit a dogged pair of local law enforcement officers, including a justice-minded sheriff who soon suspects that the key to her case may lie uncomfortably close to home.

Latency

Latency, the new movie from James Croke, is out today.

When Hana (Sasha Luss), a professional gamer who suffers from acute agoraphobia, is asked to trial sophisticated new gaming equipment which uses AI to interpret the electrical activity of her brain, she sees an opportunity to enhance her game. As Hana and her best friend Jen (Alexis Ren) experiment with this new technology, the line between reality and Hana’s subconscious quickly begins to blur and she starts to wonder if the device is helping her or serving a more sinister force.

Ghostlight

Ghostlight, the new movie from Kelly O'Sullivan and Alex Thompson, is out today.

When a construction worker unexpectedly joins a local theater’s production of Romeo and Juliet, the drama onstage starts to mirror his own life.

Firebrand

Firebrand, the new movie from Karim Aïnouz, is out today.

In blood-soaked Tudor England, twice married, accomplished, and educated Katherine Parr (Vikander), reluctantly agrees to become the sixth wife of the tyrannical King Henry VIII (Law). Her consent to marry him carries great personal risk, given that her predecessors are either vanquished, beheaded, or dead. When Henry appoints her as Regent, the nation’s ruler during his absence when he departs to fight overseas, he lays a dangerous path for her. Henry’s courtiers, suspecting she’s sympathetic to radical Protestant beliefs that have taken root in the kingdom and are a threat to their power, scheme against her and cast doubts upon her fidelity to the increasingly ailing and paranoid King. Once Henry returns to England, his courtiers convince him to turn his fury on the nation’s radicals, including Katherine’s childhood friend Anne Askew, who becomes one of the scores of people convicted of treason and burned at the stake. Horrified and privately grieving, Katherine finds herself under ever-increasing scrutiny and suspicion. Knowing that even a whisper of scandal might lead to her downfall, Katherine must unleash her own scheme to fight for survival.

Bad Behaviour

Bad Behaviour, the new movie from Alice Englert, is out today.

Lucy, a former child actress, seeks healing from the traumas of her life. She embarks on a spiritual retreat, only for it to become anything but healing: she’s easily annoyed by the other attendees and wants attention from the retreat’s new-age guru Elon Bello. Even worse, she has become destructively obsessed with the retreat’s celebrity guest, a model named Beverly. As Beverly finds “enlightenment” easily, Lucy’s feelings of insecurity continue to rise to the surface. During this time, Lucy also tries to connect with her stunt performer adult daughter, Dylan who’s currently on set in New Zealand. Dylan’s falling into an obsession of her own: a bad romance with the main actor Elmore, whose insistence on doing his own stunts will have disastrous consequences. Brutal incidents in both women’s worlds force them to back together to confront their personal demons and their own relationship.

Inside Out 2

Inside Out 2, the new movie from Kelsey Mann, is out today.

Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” returns to the mind of newly minted teenager Riley just as headquarters is undergoing a sudden demolition to make room for something entirely unexpected: new Emotions! Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust, who’ve long been running a successful operation by all accounts, aren’t sure how to feel when Anxiety shows up. And it looks like she’s not alone.

Nightmares and Daydreams

Nightmares and Daydreams, the new TV series from Joko Anwar, is out today.

Tales of supernatural sci-fi phenomena unfold in this collection of seven mind-bending stories imagined by writer-director Joko Anwar.

Fallen Aces

Fallen Aces, the new game from Trey Powell, Jason Bond, and New Blood Interactive, is out today.

The A.C.E.S, watchful guardians of Switchblade City, are being taken down, one by one. Now it's up to one man, with two fists, to get to the bottom of it all. Fallen Aces is a crime noir FPS that plays right out of the '90s and looks like it's right outta the comics.

[greensparty]

Preview: 2024 IFFBoston

Forget about Xmas, this is the most wonderful time of the year!  It is now my favorite time of year in Boston! My favorite film festival in Boston, in Massachusetts and possibly the world is Independent Film Festival Boston (read my coverage here).  I have a special place for this festival: in 2014 my documentary Life on the V: The Story of V66 had its World Premiere at the festival, and in 2015 I was on the Documentary Jury. The 2024 festival is at Somerville Theatre (Somerville), Brattle Theatre (Cambridge), and Coolidge Corner Theatre (Brookline) from Wed. May 1 to Wed. May 8, 2024!

2024 IFFBoston logo

Here are just some of the Official Selections that are on my radar:

Wed. 5/1/24:

The Opening Night Film is the recent Sundance hit Ghostlight, about a construction worker who joins a theater group!

Thurs. 5/2/24:

One of the most highly-anticipated movies of this year is I Saw the TV Glow about two teens who bond over their fandom of a mysterious TV show. I caught director Jane Schoenbrun's last film We're All Going to the World's Fair when it was was at the 2021 IFFBoston and while I had a mixed response to the film, I'm excited to see their follow up.

In a festival first, they are going to be doing their first episodic screening with the first episode of a 3-part documentary series Ren Faire airing on HBO later this year. While IFFBoston is very much a film festival and not a TV festival, I think it's kind of cool they are expanding their reach to include this doc about a Texas renaissance faire.

Fri. 5/3/24:

In the recent Sundance hit My Old Ass, an 18-year-old's mushroom trip brings her face-to-face with her 39-year-old self played by Aubrey Plaza (who makes everything she's in better).

Sat. 5/4/24:

In addition to all of the shorts package programs, it's always exciting to see IFFBoston do a Students Short Showcase made up of student films.

After my friend Michael Gill passed away in 2022, my hope was that his long in the works documentary about Billy Ruane, owner of legendary Boston rock club The Middle East (actually Cambridge, but a big part of the Boston music scene), would somehow get completed and released. I met up with Gill a few times before he moved around 2017 as I had heard about his doc and there was a lot of overlap with his doc and my doc Life on the V: The Story of V66 in terms of interviewees and subject matter. I am thrilled to see that co-director Scott Evans completed The Road to Ruane and it is finally premiering. The fact that the doc features loads of Middle East archival footage and interviews with members of Dinosaur Jr., The Lemonheads, Buffalo Tom, Letters To Cleo, Morphine has my attention too!

Sun. 5/5/24:

In the comedy Tallywacker, a two-member rock band's friendship is tested when one of them gets a gig touring with a major rock star.

My friends director Dan Habib and editor James Rutenbeck were at the 2018 IFFBoston with the great doc Intelligent Lives. Now they are back with a new doc The Ride Ahead co-directed by Dan's son Samuel about his own personal journey to becoming an adult. “But no one tells you how to be an adult,” Samuel says, “let alone an adult with a disability.” I've been hearing a lot of great things about this doc!

The always good Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a comic genius, but she's flexed her dramatic muscles in films like You Hurt My Feelings. In Tuesday she plays a mother who must confront death with her teenage daughter in the form of a talking bird.

Mon. 5/6/24:

My friend Mark Phinney's film Fat was at 2014 IFFBoston when I was there with Life on the V: The Story of V66. We've remained good friends since then and I'm super excited to see his new feature Fear of Flying about a man struggling with his anxieties while trying to maintain his relationships.

Earlier this year I got to cover the Oscar-nominated Short Films and one of the nominees for Best Documentary was Nai Nai & Wai Po from director Sean Wang. Without missing a beat, Wang is back his with his Sundance award-winner Didi.

Tues. 5/7/24:

In My Own Normal, director Alexandre Freeman turns the camera on himself: living with cerebral palsy since age two he is now an adult about to become a new father and how his parents react to this. This is produced by Friends producer Kevin S. Bright, Oscar-winner Chris Cooper and my friend Ariana Garfinkel (she's an IFFBoston alum having produced Best and Most Beautiful Things, You Don't Nomi, and On These Grounds).

Sing Sing stars recent Oscar nominee Colman Domingo as a man imprisoned at Sing Sing who is involved with a theater troupe for incarcerated men. This movie actually walks the walk and features the majority of its cast made up of formerly incarcerated members of the real life theater troupe the film is based on.

Wed. 5/8/24:

The Closing Night Film is the comedy Thelma starring Oscar-nominee June Squibb as an elderly woman who is scammed by a caller claiming to be her grandson and goes on a city-wide quest to get back what's hers. I've been hearing a lot of good things about this one!

For tickets and info to IFFBoston

[voidingintotheshout]

Mini Movie Review

You Hurt My Feelings (2023).

Grade C plus.

A movie starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as an aging writer married to a mediocre therapist, with an underachieving twentysomething son. Okay, so the first thing I will say is that even though all of the characters in the movie seem to be canonically agnostic or Christian, it has a very Jewish New York feel to it. Like all of the characters, even the ones who go to church and volunteer at their local church, seem to have a very Woody Allen feel to them. That’s not a knock, it’s just confusing. If you wanna have stereotypically Jewish characters, it’s weird to have a character that talks and acts like Woody Allen, but who goes to church constantly and volunteers daily at their local church charity shop. It was purposeful enough that it almost feels like they were deliberately trying to not make the characters Jewish, which seemed ever so slightly problematic. It had a very Home for Purim feel to it, in reference to the movie within Christopher Guest’s 2006 movie For Your Consideration where an independent movie about a Jewish family reconnecting during Purim ends up being whitewashed until eventually it’s a group of Christians getting together for Thanksgiving. In any event, You Hurt My Feelings is basically just about nebbishy people whose problems come about because they are not assertive enough at establishing boundaries with others. As soon as they start doing that near the end of the movie, all of their problems start to go away. All of the characters kind of seemed a little bit whiny and in their own head, so the happy ending is that they finally get out of their own way. I didn’t really like the movie, but I did acknowledge that it told a story well to an extent, but it just feels like this is movie about middle-aged burnout that we’ve seen before. It didn’t really seem to be covering ground that the movie American Beauty didn’t cover back in the 90s. The characters were in a rut and then they got out of the rut. It serves to bring truth to that old axiom by Roger Ebert, that the difference between a good movie and a bad movie is half an hour. This movie was saved by the fact that it was only 90 minutes long.

Oh, I almost forgot! The reason why I liked this movie was because of the underachieving son, calling out his parents for constantly pushing this “potential” on him. Him complaining that he always felt like a failure, because they always hyped him up and implied that he could be amazing when he was really just mediocre. There is something toxic about being “supportive“ in this gaslighting way, where you’re brightsiding the person and not acknowledging reality. I really appreciated him calling out his parents for the fact that his life as an adult felt like it wasn’t good enough because the expectations was always on him being the best, and not just simply being happy and productive.

[disappointingyet]

More films that didn't quite make my favourites of 2023 list... although some of these got very close.

You Hurt My Feelings

Nicole Holofcener has been making consistently good very talky films for many years now. This one stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a writer whose essentially rather appealing life has just become a little more complicated. Her husband (Tobias Menzies) is (of course) a therapist. If you’re not the kind of person who gets upset at the idea that people with such enviable lives should ever think they have any problems, this is funny and insightful.

(Prime)

Alcarràs

My mother spent part of her childhood in a village in Catalunya (otherwise her family were city people), and her strongest memory was picking fruit from the trees and eating it, and nothing (she told us) could ever approach how delicious it was. I thought of that watching Alcarràs, which takes place on a Catalan tenant farm during the peach harvest. 

It all seems idyllic: the gentle abundance of nature, little kids roaming freely over the land… But of course, it isn’t: the family’s lease on the farm is not a formal one, rather the legacy of a (huge, it should be said) favour done in the 1930s, one that understandably seems pretty distant to the current landowner, born, I’m guessing, in the late ‘80s. He’s busy shifting his fields to the more profitable option of solar energy generation, so this could be the last peach season.   

The cast is largely non-professional, there’s no score and the cameras often stay close to the characters, so the approach is naturalistic. But this is isn’t brutal realism: there’s fun and it is all very pretty if maybe doomed. We see it through the eyes of multiple age groups: the little kids who keep losing their latest fort, the teenagers who are somewhat adrift, the current generation in charge of the farm and the oldies, including the patriarch in decline (Josep Abad, who looks a lot like the great British character actor Peter Vaughan).

Small point: I think it would be useful for non-Iberian audiences if the subtitles pointed out the rare times the characters are speaking (Castilian) Spanish - eg, with west African day workers or with the Romanian woman the film seems to be implying is a mail-order bride.

Anyway, it’s very good.

(MUBI)

L’Innocent

This doesn’t have a promising premise: mother and adult son who interfere too much in each other’s lives, mother runs acting classes at a prison, marries one of the inmates, when he’s released the son doesn’t trust him and starts spying on him. Director-star Louis Garrel has given himself the role of one of those moody, immature blokes we are somehow meant to have some sympathy for despite their dickishness.  (If this were British, it would almost certainly be the year's worst release.)

And yet… I really liked this film. It contains a lot of things that – if done well – endear a film to me: amateurs trying to trail people, scenes in which the characters are acting, heist planning… Also: I’m wondering if I’ve ever seen a film set in Lyon before?  It’s funny, it shifts gear nicely and ties together well. (If you’ve only seen Noémie Merlant in Portrait Of A Lady On Fire and Tár, here’s a chance to watch her having fun.) (MUBI)

Actual People

Super low-budget/ultra-indie/neo-mumblecore movie about a student gradually falling apart in her final year of college – it’s basically a comedy if not a particularly cheery one. Lots of parties in small apartments and shouted conversations in hip bars, that kind of thing. I liked it quite a lot… but also don’t remember it that clearly.

(MUBI)

Broker

After a career making films in Japan, the great director Hirokazu Koreeda ventured abroad for 2019’s La Vérité, just the most French film you’ve ever seen. That was an impressive bit of code switching, but didn’t play to his strengths. For Broker, he’s also working away from home in a foreign language (Korean), but this one has a lot in common with Shoplifters, his excellent film from 2018.

In Broker, a young mother abandons her baby outside a church. She later tries to retrieve him, but he’s been nicked by a couple of guys who sell babies to desperate couples. These are the bad guys, right? Nope. These are our rather sweet protagonists, and the mother joins up with them on a road trip to find a nice couple who are also willing to pay a decent amount for poor little Woo-song. Meanwhile, a pair of exhausted cops are on their trail. 

You can tell it’s a Koreeda film by the sheer amount of time the characters spend eating and, if not eating, talking about food, plus all the stuff about families, biological or chosen. I’ve watched a lot of movies set in Korea, but I think this is the first one I have seen with multiple references to Tottenham Hotspur’s dazzlingly skilful forward Son Heung-Min. On the other hand, like many Korean movies I’ve watched, it stars Song Kang-ho.

It’s touching, it’s funny, the characters are endearing, it’s a very nice film.

Retour a Seoul

French party girl* Freddie (Park Ji-min) sort of accidentally ends up in holiday in Korea, country of her birth. Just as haphazardly, she makes contact with her biological father and has a massively awkward meeting with him and his family, not helped by the fact that she doesn’t speak the language. Freddie, it seems, is not a comfortable fit for Korea. The film then takes some interesting turns, while determinedly not filling in the gaps. If you’re the kind of film watcher who needs to know who/what/why and sometimes when, you’ll get deeply frustrated here. I found it very absorbing even though I was never entirely sure what the film was trying to say – plus there’s some great hair, make-up and costume work going on.

*In the non-euphemistic sense.

Amanda

Super-offbeat Italian indie about a young woman from a privileged family who has no friends and does things like hang out at raves on her own. I guess some points of comparison (if probably not particularly helpful ones to most people) are Todd Solondz and Roy Andersson. Bleak comedy, basically. I’d heard great things about this and it didn’t fully live up to my super-high expectations. (Its director, Carolina Cavalli, co-wrote Fremont, which I liked a whole lot more.)

Tár

How much of the love for this film came from (my fellow) Gen Xers enjoying watching Cate Blanchett’s Lydia Tár humiliating the kids with their ‘my journey’ self-obsessions? To be sure, there are many other pleasures to be had: Blanchett’s performance, the interior design, the costumes, the music etc… Plus just debating questions like: is this a ghost story/horror movie? But while I was impressed, I’m not sure I really liked it that much. 

May December 

Actor gets cast in a movie about a real-life scandal - grown woman had sex with 13-year-old… and when she gets out of jail and he’s of legal age, they marry. Almost a quarter of a century on, they are still together and they allow the actor to visit for research. Which is surely asking for trouble.

May December is not the only film this year (I’m thinking of Anatomy Of A Fall, for instance) that in summary could sound like it could be a 1991 erotic thriller but very much isn’t.

Natalie Portman plays the TV star, Julianne Moore the suburban mom-turned-sex offender-now again a suburban mom. Both women are terrifying. Charles Melton plays the somewhat hapless husband. 

This is a strange film. It’s directed by Todd Haynes, who is known for wildly adventurous music biz movies (Velvet Goldmine, I’m Not There) and retro-set melodramas (Far From Heaven, Carol.) May December is a melodrama but its 2015 setting is not long enough ago to count as a past when things were different*. So it lacks the tension between nostalgic beauty and undisguised bigotry that was crucial to the appeal of FFH and Carol. 

In its place we get… a jarring score borrowed from The Go-Between (1971) and the occasional unsettlingly weird shot. Presumably, by way of reminding us that this is a doubly screwed-up situation: that even if the outcome is seemingly a happy family, what Moore’s character did was unspeakable but also Portman’s actor is a nasty piece of work. 

There are echoes of Single White Female, but few of the trashy thrills that movie had. Some critics have mentioned Bergman’s Persona, and I can see why. I was left wondering whether if I had watched more films by (1970s German master/chemical dustbin) Rainer Werner Fassbinder, May December would make more sense to me. Then again, I have to assume the vast majority of people who catch May December on Sky (in the UK) or Netflix (US) will have seen exactly zero Fassbinder flicks.

All of which is to say that May December is an interesting and sometimes compelling movie, but not one I actively enjoyed.

*I mean, in a number of ways it does feel like a long time ago, but none of those are relevant to this film.

How To Blow Up A Pipeline

There are plenty of films about people setting off bombs. Less common are serious-minded, commercially released films unambiguously endorsing the destruction of corporate assets in the country the film was made. The reference point for critics was Kelly Reichardt’s Night Moves – the other relatively recent film about American eco-terrorism – but that film is deeply ambivalent about its characters’ underlying motives and the wisdom of their actions. HTBUAP, at least as I understood it, is firmly onside with its crew of angry Gen Zers. 

But although the message is pretty earnest, the medium is a stripped-down thriller: it’s classic heist movie assemble-the-team, plan, execute and then deal with the messier than planned consequences. It’s pretty effective, and very watchable – I just felt the film requires more of a buy-in on its politics and admiration of its characters than I can manage. (Netflix)

Un Beau Matin (One Fine Morning)

Secretly, the most Brexity film of the year, occasionally seeming like it’s directly aimed at Brits who imagine that the French have figured out how to do things like care homes. Apparently not, according to this film starring Léa Seydoux as a young widow whose writer father has dementia. The ending seems to be trying for something a bit upbeat, but the rest of the film is so bloody miserable it can’t pull that off. I really liked Mia Hansen-Løve’s previous film – Bergman Island – but this is hard work. (MUBI)

Les Cinq Diables (The Five Devils)

This gloomy, spooky French drama starring Adèle Exarchopoulos  is rather like a darker, fucked-up reworking of Petite Maman,  and fulfils my default expectation that ‘x but dark’ = ‘x but worse’. It can’t quite decide whether it wants to be an all-out horror movie – I think it would have been far better if it had been.

(MUBI)

El Conde

Hard to think of anything more off-putting for people of my age and ideology than a film narrated in the voice of Margaret Thatcher – that’s a real fingernails down the blackboard experience. This is a truly bizarre film from the always-interesting Chilean director Pablo Larraín: the idea is that Augusto Pinochet is a vampire and thus didn’t die in 2006 but instead continues in existence in hiding in a vast remote compound. The movie is a baffling mix of horror fantasy (it’s in lush black & white) with characters reading out great lists of how much the Pinochet family have stolen from the Chilean people. And then there’s that narration in English and dialogue largely in Spanish (and some French). Credit to Larraín for looking for new and interesting ways to tell stories about historical figures (this follows films about Pablo Neruda, Jackie Kennedy and Diana Spencer and he’s taking on Maria Callas next), but for me this doesn’t really gel at all.

(Netflix)

Passages

Very big with critics, this one. Tomas (Franz Rogowski) is a diva-ish film director married to long-suffering Martin (Ben Whishaw). Then he gets picked up by Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos) at a club and pretty soon is saying he’s in love with her. If you’re thinking this is the familiar tale of a bloke stubbornly insisting he’s straight after all, you’d be wrong – Tomas is still very much the same silk-crop-top-wearing dude whoever he’s shagging on any particular day. I think the film’s success hinges on whether you can understand why either Martin or Agathe tolerates this obvious tosser for more than a few days – I couldn’t, so didn’t really enjoy the film. (Indeed, probably the best scene for me is one with just Whishaw and Exarchopoulos.)

(MUBI)

Women Talking

One of those films I had a very strong idea of what it was going to be like before I saw it, and that idea was not exactly wrong, but not right either. I think the version in my mind was more like 1970s Marxist collectivist theatre – truly just women talking. Don’t get me wrong, there’s an awful lot of debating, but there’s also some pretty Malickian shots of kids running through fields, a bit of romance (misplaced) and some dramatic tension. 

It takes place in one of the religious communities that cosplay living in the 19th century (the news story the book the film is based on was inspired by happened in a Mennonite settlement). Some of the men and boys have been drugging and raping women and girls, and on a day when all but one of the men are away, the women gather in a barn to decide whether to stay or leave. Rooney Mara is very good, Claire Foy I don’t really get, Ben Whishaw is unnecessary (and I’d already see him being perpetually long suffering this year in the couldn’t-be-more-different Passages.) It’s watchable but worthy and a little obvious in places. 

La Amiga De Mi Amiga (Girlfriends And Girlfriends*)

Barcelona-set (but in Castilian Spanish not Catalan) indie movie in two senses – it’s minimal budget and somewhat homemade but also assorted characters are in somewhat twee bands and the soundtrack is on a similar tip. The director, Zaida Carmona, plays Zaida (it’s one of those films where most of the cast use their own names), who has been dumped by her girlfriend and flees to Barcelona. She meets up with old friends; she fancies a woman, that woman fancies another woman’s girlfriend who in turn fancies… You get the vibe. They have dinner parties, they go each other’s rubbish performance art or gigs, watch Eric Rohmer films, hook up and fall out. It’s meant to be kind of funny but also kind of honest, but I found it flimsy and a bit clumsy. Then again, that’s also my take on Rohmer, so maybe Carmona has nailed what she was aiming at.

*This English title is absolutely terrible. Firstly, My Girlfriend’s Girlfriend both sounds so much better and tells you what the film is about. Secondly, the title is a riff on Eric Rohmer’s L’Ami De Mon Amie – the lead character’s fave film – which in the UK came out as My Girlfriend's Boyfriend, in line with the original title. (In the States, it’s true, that was released as Boyfriends And Girlfriends, but why double down on a lousy decision from 36 years ago?) (MUBI)

Saint Omer

Bleak French courtroom drama. A woman is on trial for killing her small child – that she did it is not in question, whether there were any mitigating circumstances is. A writer/academic goes to watch the trial as material. She’s pregnant. Like the accused, she comes from a West African family and seems to feel that they share something. It’s fairly austere in style and intellectually high flown – characters are described as Cartesian (ah, the French, or at least the French in movies). It’s clearly a good film, and there are pertinent points being made about racism and France etc, but it’s a tough watch and I never felt I was in its groove. 

(MUBI)

A Plein Temps (Full Time)

My sister and I were discussing a French film when she asked, ‘Has it got that actress who always gets naked?’ With French actors, that doesn’t narrow it down a lot. But I think she was talking about Laure Calamy from Dix Pour Cent/Call My Agent, who stars in this film but stays dressed. 

This is a very stressy picture – it’s got the fraught vibe of something like Uncut Gems although everything that happens stays within the law. Calamy plays Julie, the divorced mother of two who lives in a village some way out of Paris but works cleaning rooms in a posh hotel in the city. She’s got an educated, bourgeois background so maybe feels the work is beneath her – and her manager certainly assumes that’s the case. During the week or so the film is set, there are escalating strikes bringing Paris to a halt, so each commute is something of an odyssey and she’s late to work, late picking up her kids from the neighbour who reluctantly looks after them, etc. Those commutes get urgent electronic thriller music, and the idea is to make us feel as on edge as Julie. It’s well done, but not much fun… and I suspect it wants us to have more sympathy for Julie because she is a middle-class person in an uncomfortable situation. If true: boo!

[haroldgross]

New Post has been published on Harold Gross: The 5a.m. Critic

New Post has been published on http://literaryends.com/hgblog/you-hurt-my-feelings/

You Hurt My Feelings

[3 stars]

Writer/director Nicole Holofcener (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) loves examining the flaws and joys of relationships. And she has a penchant for looking at creatives and how they function both in process and in life.

This is no exception. Through the family of Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Tobias Menzies (Lear), and son, Owen Teague (The Stand), we experience the push and pull for the need to have validation as well as love in relationships. It rarely goes over-the-top, and it definitely echoes real life in quietly amusing and even sometimes uncomfortable ways. It is also a movie that requires a particular frame of mind. It is slow and naturalistic. If you’re looking to be grabbed by the shirt or enticed into the tale, you’ll be disappointed. It is presented simply and honestly. It is up to you to care and engage.

Holofcener, however, makes it easy, even if you’re not in quite the right mood, to settle into her world. I was definitely not in the right frame, but found myself committed by a third of the way in and accepted the ride I was offered rather than what I thought I wanted that evening. I wasn’t at all disappointed. I don’t think you will be either.

Where to watch