Cinequest

SHARE?: bread and circuses

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Melvin Gregg in SHARE?

In the very funny sci fi think-piece Share?, an unnamed Everyman (Melvin Gregg) finds himself locked up in his civvies in a high tech cell – and he’s on camera. Through trial and error, he learns that he can acquire necessities – and also on-screen social interaction with other captives – by performing for the camera; the currency is not unlike the likes and follows of social media. There are many layers of metaphor in this exploration of human behavior and the human appetite for bread and circuses.

Our protagonist is able to connect through his screen with others in his situation. One veteran (a great Bradley Whitford) is jaded and burnt out, sometimes a sage life coach and sometimes bursting into a nihilistic frenzy. Another noobie (Alice Braga) is a brilliant, driven strategist who immediately turns to organizing their escape; she proves that rage and fear are clearly the most effective motivators of human behavior (Fox News essentially runs on this fuel), but is the trade off in mental health worth it? A third star of the computer screen (Danielle Campbell) advocates for complacent acceptance and exudes a creepy serenity.

So, how about our current addiction to social media? Is it all one big Distraction that steers us away from addressing real challenges, like injustice, socioeconomic inequality and planetary survival? It’s great to see sci fi that is once again about ideas, not just about blowing shit up in space.

One of the wry ironies in Share? is that the force that is sufficiently technologically advanced to have captured these people without their knowledge and imprisoned them in high tech cells employs a clunky user interface that resembles (and may even be) MS-DOS.

Here’s a novelty – all of Share? is entirely shot from one static camera position. As convenient as this must have been in working from a low budget and perhaps pandemic-driven restrictions, it figures to pose a challenge in keeping the audience interested. But, thanks to the collaboration between director Ira Rosensweig, Assistant Editor Peter Szijarto and Gregg (who’s on screen 99% of the time), that’s not a problem.

Melvin Gregg, with his energy and relatability, does an excellent job carrying the movie. The rest of the cast – Bradley Whitford, Alice Braga, Danielle Campbell – is great, too.

Share? is the first feature for director and co-writer Ira Rosensweig and the third feature for co-writer Benjamin Sutor. Cinequest’s online festival Cinejoy is hosting the world premiere of Share?, which tops my Best of Cinejoy recommendations. You can find the trailer and tickets at Cinequest.

DADDY: four guys, four chances to fail

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A scene from DADDY. Courtesy of Cinequest.

The dark sci fi comedy Daddy: is set in a future where only a limited number of men are approved by the government to father children. Four guys apply for the privilege and are isolated in a mountain lodge to wait for the expert evaluator, who doesn’t immediately show up. As they try to figure out what’s going on and what they should do, they succeed only in demonstrating how unfit they would be as parents – until things get all Lord of the Rings. It’s a very funny skewering of both male overconfidence and male angst.

Finally, the guys get an unexpected visitor, who may or may not be the evaluator that they expect. What’s impressive about this episode is how each man’s instinctual reaction, different from each other’s, can be so profoundly wrongheaded.

The mountain lodge is equipped with an artificial baby model (a doll). Co-writers Neal Kelley and Jono Sherman refrain from overusing this prop in slapstick. It’s far funnier to glimpse the doll as it seems to silently rebuke the foolhardiness around it.

Daddy is the second feature and first feature, respectively, for for co-directors/co-writers Kelley and Sherman, who also play two of the guys. Cinequest’s online festival Cinejoy hosts the world premiere of Daddy.

BROTHERS BROKEN: it was the cult

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The Levin Brothers during their time with People! in BROTHERS BROKEN. Courtesy of Cinequest.

The documentary Brothers Broken contains a singularly refreshing aspect on a familiar phenomenon – the breakup of a 60s rock band. But here, the band breaks up, not because of drugs or ego, but because of a cult. And the estranged band members are brothers. The band doesn’t last long, but the brothers’ arc covers a 58-year arc.

Those brothers were the creative force behind the San Jose band People!, which was poised for future success after their hit I Love You in 1967. But at that point, one brother joined Scientology, and was forbidden to have contact with the rest of the band, including his own brother.

That former Scientologist brother, Geoff Levin, has co-directed Brothers Broken and says, “This has been a 75 year journey. 8 years ago I was on the verge of death. A deep depression caused by close to fifty years in Scientology almost ended my life. I came out of the cult and I am very grateful to my family and friends who have helped me recover. “

People! band members today in BROTHERS BROKEN. Courtesy of Cinequest.

There have been excellent Scientology documentaries, most notably Alex Gibney’s Going Clear: The Prison of Belief. Here, the Scientology aspect benefits from the brothers’ relatability and authenticity.

Not all is happy in Brothers Broken, because Geoff’s decision is still costing him dear family relationships. But Brothers Broken is an audience pleaser.

Brothers Broken is the first feature for co-directors Geoff Levin and Lily Richards. Cinequest’s online-festival Cinejoy hosts the US premiere of Brothers Broken. Fitting for Cinequest, the brothers and the band are from San Jose!

DESTINY ON THE MAIN STAGE: anything but exploitative

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Photo caption: DESTINY ON THE MAIN STAGE. Courtesy of Cinequest.

In the brilliant documentary Destiny on the Main Stage, a female director (and almost all-female crew) chronicle three years in the lives of Dallas-area strippers – and it’s authentic and NOT sensationalist or exploitative. The strippers include both a 20-year veteran very comfortable in her vocation and a former stripper organizing to help women exit the business. And, of course there are the very young women who are puddles of bad choices. Over the three years, the subjects’ lives take some very gripping turns.

This is not an advocacy film that seeks to criticize or promote the industry. This is cinéma vérité, and the pivotal events in the women’s lives are depicted as they happen. Hearing the strippers’ voices through a female lens/gaze/perspective is both novel and insightful. Director Poppy de Villenueve says, “These events are revealed as part of life, filmed in a nuanced way, reflecting something these women rarely are given the opportunity to have revealed.“

What Destiny on the Main Stage is filled with, instead of titillation, is humanity. De Villenueve says, “It is difficult to find real intimacy and connection these days, but by highlighting it in the darkest environments, I believe we move the world towards a better, kinder place.”

This is a serious film that could become an audience favorite, too. Destiny on the Main Stage is the second feature for director Poppy de Villenueve. Cinequest’s online festival Cinejoy hosted the world premiere of Destiny on the Main Stage, and it’s playing the in-person Cinequest in August..

DESTINY ON THE MAIN STAGE. Courtesy of Cinequest.

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The Best of Cinequest’s Cinejoy

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Melvin Gregg in SHARE?

Cinequest’s online festival CINEJOY is underway. Here are my top picks:

Share? In this very funny think-piece, an unnamed Everyman (Melvin Gregg) finds himself locked up in his civvies in a high tech cell – and he’s on camera. Through trial and error, he learns that he can acquire necessities and on-screen social interaction with other captives, by performing for the camera; the currency is not unlike the likes and follows of social media. There are many layers of metaphor in this exploration of human behavior and the human appetite for bread and circuses. First feature for director and co-writer Ira Rosensweig. World premiere.

Destiny on the Main Stage: In this brilliant documentary, a female director (and almost all-female crew) chronicle four years in the lives of Dallas-area strippers – and it’s authentic and NOT sensationalist or exploitative. Hearing the strippers’ voices through a female lens/gaze/perspective is both novel and insightful. The strippers include both a 20-year veteran very comfortable in her vocation to a former stripper organizing to help women exit the business. And, of course there are the very young women who are puddles of bad choices. Over the four years, the subjects’ lives take some very gripping turns. This is a serious film that could become an audience favorite, too. Second feature for director Poppy de Villenueve. World premiere.

Daddy: This dark sci fi comedy is set in a future where only a limited number of men are approved by the government to father children. Four guys apply for the privilege and are isolated in a mountain lodge to wait for the expert evaluator, who doesn’t immediately show up. As they try to figure out what’s going on and what they should do, they succeed only in demonstrating how unfit they would be as parents – until things get all Lord of the Rings. It’s a very funny skewering of both male overconfidence and male angst. Second feature and first feature, respectively, for for co-directors/co-writers Neal Kelley and Jono Sherman, who play two of the guys. World premiere.

Everybody Wants to Be Loved: This German dramedy is a triumph of the harried mom genre. As a psychotherapist, Ina (Anne Ratte-Polle) spends her workdays listening to whining and naval-gazing. Then she goes home to her self-absorbed boyfriend and her teen daughter – and the job of teenagers is to be self-absorbed.-Nobody is most narcissistic and entitled than Ina’s mom. It’s the mom’s birthday, and she is rampaging with demands. The daughter is threatening to move in with Ina’s ex, and the boyfriend wants to move the family to Finland for his career. As Ina is swirling around this vortex of egotism, she gets some sobering news about her own health. As everyone converges on the birthday party, what could possibly go wrong? First feature for director and co-writer Katharina Woll. Second screening in the US.

Brothers Broken: The documentary Brothers Broken contains a singularly refreshing aspect on a familiar phenomenon – the breakup of a 60s rock band. But here, the band breaks up, not because of drugs or ego, but because of a cult. And the estranged band members are brothers. The band doesn’t last long, but the brothers’ arc covers a 58-year arc. Fitting for Cinequest, the brothers and the band are from San Jose! First feature for co-directors Geoff Levin and Lily Richards. US premiere.

This is the thirteenth year that I’ve covered Cinequest. The live, in-person Cinequest returns to downtown San Jose in August. My Cinequest coverage, including the current Cinejoy and past festivals, is on my CINEQUEST 2023 page.

DESTINY ON THE MAIN STAGE. Courtesy of Cinequest.

EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE LOVED: bobbing in a vortex of others’ egotism

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Lea Drinda and Anne Ratte-Polle in EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE LOVED. Courtesy of Cinequest.

This German dramedy Everybody Wants to Be Love is a triumph of the harried mom genre. As a psychotherapist, Ina (Anne Ratte-Polle) spends her workdays listening to whining and naval-gazing. Then she goes home to her self-absorbed boyfriend and her teen daughter – and the job of teenagers is to be self-absorbed.-Nobody is most narcissistic and entitled than Ina’s mom. It’s the mom’s birthday, and she is rampaging with demands. The daughter is threatening to move in with Ina’s ex, and the boyfriend wants to move the family to Finland for his career. As Ina is swirling around this vortex of egotism, she gets some sobering news about her own health. As everyone converges on the birthday party, what could possibly go wrong?

Everybody Wants to Be Loved is the first feature for director and co-writer Katharina Woll, who is a perceptive and clear-eyed observer of human behavior. Woll maintains the perfect level of simmering as Ina’s indignities build toward a meltdown.

Anne Ratte-Polle is excellent as the long-suffering Ina, whose tank is about to hit Empty if she doesn’t start putting her needs above those of everybody else.

The rest of the cast is excellent, too, including Urs Jucker as Ina’s maddening boyfriend. Lea Drinda is very good as the teen daughter who pushes Mom to get what she wants, but knows when to stop.

Cinequest’s online festival Cinejoy will host only the second screening of Everybody Wants to Be Loved in the US. It’s one of my picks for the Best of Cinejoy. Watch it through March 13 at Cinejoy.

Wrapping up Cinequest

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Photo caption: Jim Gaffigan and Rhea Seehorn in LINOLEUM. Courtesy of Blue Fox Entertainment.

Cinequest ran through this August 29. Here are the films that I hadn’t posted about yet:

Linoleum: Colin West’s gentle story of a lovable loser with a nose-diving kid’s science TV show is superficially about the guy’s eccentric attempt to build a real rocket in his garage; but it’s really three love stories – or are they one love story? Although West peppers some clues throughout, it’s not until the final act that the audience connects the dots about what is going on. Linoleum is hard to review – or even describe – without spoilers, but let’s just say that it is a highly original and sweet film.

Spin Me Round: The crowd at a well-attended screening loved this unpretentious and delightful comedy, a showcase for the comic talents of, among others, Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza, Zach Woods and Molly Shannon. It’s a very zany comment on corporate sexual predators with a withering send-up of The Olive Garden. There are wild pigs, too. Spin Me Round is now streaming on AppleTV.

What We Do Next: Stephen Belber’s taut drama featured the best acting ensemble at Cinequest, with searing performances by Karen Pittman, Michelle Veintimilla and Corey Stoll. The story unfolds in seven segments over a a span of years, initially dealing with how an innocent miscalculation years ago could erupt into a career-killing political scandal. Each of the characters becomes more entangled by the choices of the others, and the dominoes fall.

Medusa: In this French drama, two adult sisters live in a house on a woodsy lane. Brain injury from a car crash has crippled one sister’s capacity to walk and to speak, and her sibling cares for her. The caregiving sister brings home her new, hunky boyfriend, who becomes fascinated with occupational therapy for the injured sister. As he helps her recover her speech and mobility (her libido has not been impaired), sexual tension and jealousy simmer. This is the first feature from writer-director Sophie Lévy, and she depicts sexual playfulness from a female perspective. There are several recent films with the same title, so it’s best to search for this movie under its French title, Méduse.

Shoebox: This sweet film is about a man who refuses to accept that his city is changing around him; he persists in trying to run a tiny neighborhood movie theater – kind of an Indian Cinema Paradiso. As it meandered predictably, I lost interest.

Free Renty: This earnest advocacy documentary has one thing going for it: one of the very most searing images from slavery in America. It’s a daguerreotype of Renty Taylor, a slave whose demeanor blares that he is fiercely expressing his human dignity. The film is about litigation by one of Renty Taylor’s descendants to recover the property rights to the image from Harvard University. The family is very sympathetic, but the doc loses credibility when it casts off all objectivity in the final act.

The Dinner Parting: This purported screwball comedy is actually an exercise in dark deadpan humor as three people try to foist a brazen lie on their acquaintances. The humor is supposed to stem from the absurd lengths they use to pull off the deception. But the premise is too obviously contrived, and some actors seem to be working in a different tone than the others. It’s a misfire.

Ghosting Gloria: This Uruguayan comedy was my biggest disappointment of the fest, because I so enjoyed the filmmakers’ witty entry at the 2017 Cinequest, The Moderns (Los Modernos). Here, the protagonist has lived to 30 without an orgasm until she moves to a haunted residence. She is then faced with a choice between a ghost and a real human guy. It’s uncommon that I find a sex comedy to be a yawner, but this was too predictable.

Bottom line: Linoleum and Spin Me Round join Trust, Charm Circle, 12 Months, The Grand Bolero, Out in the Ring and Tell Me a Memory as the Best of Cinequest. In 2023, Cinequest returns to its usual in-person time slot in late February.

Aubrey Plaza and Alison Brie in SPIN ME ROUND, Courtesy of IFC Films.

WHAT WE DO NEXT: searing performances, as the dominoes fall

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Corey Stoll in WHAT WE DO NEXT. Courtesy of Magano Movies and Media.

Writer-director Stephen Belber’s taut drama What We Do Next featured the best acting ensemble at Cinequest, with searing performances by Karen Pittman, Michelle Veintimilla and Corey Stoll.

I was familiar with Corey Stoll’s work since his turns in House of Cards and Homeland, but Karen Pittman (The Morning Show, Yellowstone) and Michelle Veintimilla (Seven Seconds, Gotham) were revelations.

The story unfolds in seven segments over a a span of years. It opens with Sandy (Pittman) compassionately counseling a teenage Elsa (Veintimilla) to survive abuse from Elsa’s father. Years later, the lawyer Paul (Stoll) reconnects with Sandy, now a rising NYC politician; the two game out how an innocent miscalculation years before could erupt into a career-killing political scandal today. Each of the characters becomes more entangled by the choices of the others, and the dominoes fall.

What We Do Next explores the difficulty that those traumatized and ill-equipped by upbringing have navigating the legal system and making constructive choices.

I am not unfamiliar with political crisis management, and most segments of the story rang true.

I attended What We Do Next’s world premiere at Cinequest, with Stephen Berber in attendance. After four days rehearsal in the producer’s backyard, What We Do Next was shot in six days – in a COVID bubble in Louisville. I’ll let you know when What We Do Next is released theatrically or on demand.

LINOLEUM: highly original and sweet

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Jim Gaffigan and Rhea Seehorn in LINOLEUM. Courtesy of Blue Fox Entertainment.

Colin West’s Linoleum, a gentle story of a lovable loser with a nose-diving kid’s science TV show, is superficially about the guy’s eccentric attempt to build a real rocket in his garage; but it’s really three love stories – or are they one love story? Although West peppers some clues throughout, it’s not until the final act that the audience connects the dots about what is going on. Linoleum is hard to review – or even describe – without spoilers, but let’s just say that it is a highly original and sweet film.

Our TV host Cameron (Jim Gaffigan) is an astronomer who seems overqualified for his charmingly corny children’s show. He takes the science seriously, but not himself. Cameron is the kind of affable guy who always gets run over by the more self-interested among us.

Cameron is married to Erin (Rhea Seehorn) a smarty pants aeronautical engineer who is direcying programs at a provicial air and space museum. Like Cameron, she started out as a whiz kid and is wondering. Unlike Cameron, who is placidly content, she is wondering how she got stuck in the bush leagues. Erin’s dissatisfaction with her career, and with Cameron’s lack of ambition, is threatening their marriage.

The teenage girl in the story meets the new boy in high school, and they tentatively stumble into a guileless friendship. This thread in Linoleum is especially charming.

The comedian Jim Gaffigan has shown that he’s also a fine actor (Light from Light), and Rhea Seehorn (Better Call Saul, Veep) is one of our finest TV actors. Both are very good in Linoleum.

The first two acts of Linoleum are fairly easy-to-follow, with a couple small mysteries that could be imagined or hallucinated. The third act, which I will not spoil, becomes more confusing until West connects the threads of the story and we understand what we’ve been watching ll along. Viewers who need linear stories may be frustrated, but the payoff is splendid.

I saw Linoleum at the opening night of Cinequest, with Gaffigan and West in attendance.

SPIN ME ROUND: unpretentious and delightful

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Aubrey Plaza and Alison Brie in SPIN ME ROUND, Courtesy of IFC Films.

In the unpretentious and delightful comedy Spin Me Round, Alison Brie plays the assistant manager of an Italian chain restaurant who wins a corporate junket – a week at the CEO’s villa in Tuscany. She arrives in Italy with a cadre of peers, misfits all, to discover that they aren’t exactly at the villa and the corporate retreat isn’t exactly what it seems. The charismatic zillionaire CEO (Alessandro Nivola) seems to be grooming them – but not for corporate advancement. Many laughs ensue.

Alison Brie, so good as Trudy Campbell in Mad Men, has proven to have a wonderful gift for comedy. She ably works her Girl Next Door quality to reflect the more overtly zany characters around her. Brie co-wrote Spin Me Round’s screenplay with director Jeff Baena. Baena and Brie had worked together on The Little Hours and Horse Girl (which they also co-wrote).

Spin Me Round is a showcase for comic actors:

  • If you can’t get enough of Zach Woods’s Silicon Valley character, he returns with his naive, overly nice, worshipful devotee – with the capacity for a massive meltdown.
  • Aubrey Plaza (director Baena’s wife) plays archly cynical and dangerously edgy better than anyone.
  • Molly Shannon can convincingly play a deranged, over-the-top character because she just commits so entirely.
  • Fred Armisen is as we rarely, if ever, see him – as a macho, oily Silvio Berlusconi type.
  • Nivola, known mainly for his dramatic roles (The Many Saints of Newark), can be very funny.
  • Ego Nwodin, in the tiniest of roles as Brie’s Skypeing roommate, is just perfect.

One of the funniest threads in Spin Me Round is the send-up of The Olive Garden, the restaurant chain so obviously parodied here, The chain’s managers know shockingly little about Italian cuisine. And you may never eat alfredo sauce again.

In real life, wild pigs are not funny; here, they are very, very funny.

I saw Spin Me Round, before its release, at a well-attended screening at Cinequest, where the crowd loved it. It opens this weekend in LA, but I haven’t located a screen in the Bay Area.