SFFILM

MEETING GORBACHEV: uncritical but humanizing

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Mikhail Gorbachev in MEETING GORBACHEV

Meeting Gorbachev is Werner Herzog’s admiring biodoc of Mikhail Gorbachev, unquestionably one of the 20th century’s most pivotal figures. Herzog filmed three conversations with the then 87-year-old Gorbachev in 2018.

Gorbachev is revered in Germany – particularly by Werner Herzog – for allowing the peaceful, and startlingly quick, reunification of Germany. This biodoc is, to a fault, uncritical. At one point, Herzog even tells Gorbachev, “I love you”.

As the leader of the USSR, Gorbachev’s concepts of Perestroika and Glasnost transformed the political, economic and foreign policy of the Cold War superpower. More than any other individual, Gorbachev can claim credit for ending the Cold War, abolishing and destroying mid-range and short-range nuclear weapons, and the unchallenged independence of the Iron Curtain countries.

Gorbachev is also a tragic figure of Shakespearean proportions. He was intending to reform the USSR, not to destroy it. A coup by fossilized communists knocked him out of power but couldn’t be sustained, spinning out of control and leading to a chaos taken advantage of by the strong man Putin,.

Herzog’s film is excellent in its well-researched and well-told story of the rise of Gorbachev from a modest agricultural backwater – a talented achiever on the rise. Herzog’s irreverent sense of humors, as always, peeks through in the state funerals of Gorbachev’s predecessors, each more absurdly funny than the last.

The greatest gift of Meeting Gorbachev is, as the title suggests, is the unfiltered Gorbachev himself – now a grandfatherly raconteur. We get to appreciate his intellectual curiosity and his clarity of thought and direction. His charm and charisma, even at 87, help us understand how he rose to world leadership.

Werner Herzog and Mikhail Gorbachev in MEETING GORBACHEV

Herzog was a charismatic and innovative leader of German New Cinema. Between 1972 and 1982, he created the art house hits Aguirre:The Wrath of God, Strozek Nosferatu the Vampyre, and Fitzcarraldo.

In 1997, Herzog switched gears with the underrated documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly and followed it with great docs like Grizzly Man and Encounters at the End of the World. Most remarkably, Herzog has also become one of the greatest narrators of English language documentaries; somehow, his German-accented narrations are hypnotic. (In 2007, Herzog slipped in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans with Nicholas Cage in the Klaus Kinski wild man role and cinema’s funniest iguana hallucination.)

Meeting Gorbachev played at the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM). I saw Meeting Gorbachev at Silicon Valley’s Cinema Club.

RAMEN SHOP: yummy reconciliation

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Eric Khoo’s RAMEN SHOP. Courtesy of SFFILM.

Ramen Shop is about a family’s reconciliation in light of troubled Singaporean-Japanese history. Masato (Taikumi Saito) is a young Japanese ramen chef who loses his father; his Singaporean mom had died when he was a young child. He heads to Singapore to probe his family’s past and encounters a smorgasbord of Singaporean cuisine, a helpful and comely food blogger and his relatives – some more welcoming than others.

The first thirty minutes – with the grief of the son, his memories of his saintly mother and the flashbacks of parental romance – are too schmalzy for me. On the other hand, the thread of family turmoil as the legacy of a specific trauma from the Japanese conquest of Singapore works well.

There’s a metaphorical foodie angle here, too, in Masato’s Holy Grail – fusion of Singaporean pork rib soup with Japanese ramen stock. The foodie scenes – especially the food exploration scenes in Singapore – are mouth-watering.

I saw Ramen Shop at the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM). It opens this week in the Bay Area.

WE BELIEVE IN DINOSAURS: denying science on a monumental scale

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WE BELIEVE IN DINOSAURS

In the thought-provoking documentary We Believe in Dinosaurs, filmmakers Clayton Brown and Monica Long Ross introduce us to Ark Encounter, a Kentucky attraction with a full-size replica of Noah’s Ark.  Explicitly pro-creationism and anti-evolution, Ark Encounter is filled with interpretive exhibits that illustrate the Biblical story of Noah as historical fact, kind of a fundamentalist, evangelical Smithsonian.   Ark Encounter is 45 miles from its sister attraction, the Creation Museum.

There’s a lot to think about – and even marvel about – here.  First of all, the Ark Encounter is an impressive spectacle.  In Genesis, God directed Noah to build the ark to be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high.  That means that this thing is a football field-and-a-half long and over four stories high.  We get to meet and observe the technicians and artists as they build the animatronic Noah family and the reproduced animals.

The bigger story here, though, is the massive investment in anti-science propaganda.  To justify their literal acceptance of Biblical content that is inconsistent with scientific fact, these folks behind the Ark Encounter believe that they need to discredit science itself.  And they’re not just defending the literal occurrence of every Bible story, but also the chronology of Bishop Ussher who, in the mid 1600s, calculated that the earth was created in 4004 B.C.  That means that the Ark Encounter aggressively explains that the Earth and the human race, despite fossil evidence, are each 6,000 years old – and that dinosaurs lived alongside humans (and voyaged on the Ark). It also means that they seek to discredit the Theory of Evolution and the scientific method itself (while enjoying its byproducts – vaccines, for example).

When you distill their beliefs, these neo-creationists are essentially turbanless Taliban.   Just for perspective, after suppressing Galileo’s 1615 discovery of the earth-centered solar system, the Catholic Church started backpedaling in 1718.  That means that 300 years ago, even the reactionary Church decided not to double down on denying scientific discoveries.

And what about the scientists? And people of faith who accept science?  We Believe in Dinosaurs brings us the perspectives of Ark Encounter opponents, most notably a geologist, and a former neo-creationist, both native Kentuckians.  There’s also a local Baptist minister, who thinks that people of faith can also accept science.

One of the stunning aspects of We Believe in Dinosaurs is the unexpected David-and-Goliath story.  We might expect the science-deniers to be outmatched.  But the folks with most primitive beliefs are the creative masters.  Anti creationists are the Goliath, supported by hordes of believers, massive private investment, capacity for technical wizardry and even state support.  On the other hand, scientists are not often skilled in or equipped with tools for political persuasion and mass communications.  The pro-science folks are, like John the Baptist, a lone voice in the wilderness, losing the optics battle.

Brown and Long Ross have a point of view (that science is good), but they don’t make the Ark Encounter people ridiculous.  We directly hear the Ark Encounter leadership’s public pronouncements, and we meet the earnest and often sympathetic folks who are using their considerable talents to build and fill the attraction.  Brown and Long Ross let us hear from both sides and let us connect our own dots.  Watch the closing credits to the very end to get the subjects’ unfiltered view of the filmmakers. And wait for the film’s super-creepy money shot – that of an animatronic figure reflecting on the fate of others.

I saw We Believe in Dinosaurs at its world premiere at the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM).  While We Believe in Dinosaurs is just starting out on the festival circuit, this film is too compelling and audience-friendly to go very long without a distributor; I expect that you’ll be able to see it, too, this year.

Stream of the Week: FRANK & LOLA – Bad Girl or Troubled Girl?

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Imogen Poots with Michael Shannon in FRANK & LOLA. Photo courtesy of the San Francisco Film Society.
Michael Shannon and Imogen Poots in FRANK & LOLA.
Photo courtesy of SFFILM.

The San Francisco International Film Festival is underway, so this week’s video pick comes from the program of the 2016 festival. The absorbing neo-noir romance Frank & Lola opens with a couple lovemaking for the first time – and right away there’s a glimmer that he’s more invested than she is. Soon we’re spirited from Vegas to Paris and back again in a deadly web of jealousy.

Lola (Imogen Poots) is young and beautiful, a lively and sparkly kind of girl. Frank (the great Michael Shannon) is older but “cool” – a talented chef. He is loyal and steadfast but given to possessiveness, and he says things like, “who’s the mook?”.

In a superb debut feature, writer director Matthew Ross has invented a Lola that we (and Frank) spend the entire movie trying to figure out. Imogen Poots is brilliant in her most complex role so far. She’s an unreliable girlfriend – but the roots of her unreliability are a mystery – is she Bad or Troubled? A character describes her with “She can be very convincing”, and that’s NOT a complement. Poots keeps us on edge throughout the film, right up to her stunning final monologue.

Shannon, of course, is superb, and the entire cast is exceptional. There’s a memorable turn by Emmanuelle Devos, the off-beat French beauty with the cruel mouth. Rosanna Arquette is wonderful, as is Michael Nyqvist from the Swedish Girl With the Dragon Tattoo movies. I especially liked Justin Long as Keith Winkleman (is he a namedropping ass or something more?).

Frank & Lola has more than its share of food porn and, as befits a neo-noir, lots of depravity. But, at its heart, it’s a romance. Is Lola a Bad Girl or a Troubled Girl? If she’s bad, then love ain’t gonna prevail. But if she’s damaged, can love survive THAT either? We’re lucky enough to go along for the ride.

I saw Frank & Lola in 2016 at the San Francisco International Film Festival. I liked it more than most and put it on my Best Movies of 2016.  Frank & Lola is now available to stream on Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

https://vimeo.com/188033673

SFFILM – a peek into world cinema

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Benjamin Naishtat’s ROJO, playing at the San Francisco International Film Festival April 10-23. Courtesy of SFFILM.

As usual, this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival) features a strong sampling of world cinema. Here some highlights:

  • Rojo is Argentine writer-director Benjamín Naishtat’s slow burn drama.  Rojo is set just before the 1970s coup that some characters expect – but no one is anticipating how long and bloody the coup will be.  Several vignettes are woven together into a tapestry of pre-coup moral malaise. Watch for the several references to desaparecida, a foreboding of the coup.
  • Ramen Shop is about a family’s reconciliation in light of troubled Singaporean-Japanese history. There’s a metaphorical foodie angle here, too, in the fusion of Singaporean pork rib soup with Japanese ramen stock.
  • Winter’s Night is Korean director Woo-jin Jang’s contemplation on a longtime marriage in which one partner has grown profoundly dissatisfied and both partners have become very confused about what to do about it. They are addressing this – or not – on a winter vacation to a remote monastery. This especially visual film (see the still below) makes full use of the frigid nights and the stark landscape to emphasize the wife’s emotional isolation.
  • I haven’t yet seen Loro, but master filmmaker Paolo Sorrrentino’s take on Italian scoundrel/prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is very promising. Sorrentino has already created two of the most brilliant films of this decade – The Great Beauty and Youth.

Here’s my SFFILM Festival preview. The 2019 San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILMFestival) opens this Wednesday. Here’s SFFILMFestival’s information on the program, the schedule and tickets and passes.

Jang Woo-jin’s WINTER’S NIGHT, playing at the San Francisco International Film Festival April 10-23. Courtesy of SFFILM.

DVD/Stream of the Week: DEAR WHITE PEOPLE

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dear white people2

The San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM) opens tomorrow, and this week’s video pick comes from the 2014 festival.  On its surface, the brilliant comedy Dear White People seems to be about racial identity, but – as writer-director Justin Simien points out – it’s really about personal identity (of which race is an important part). Set at a prestigious private college, Dear White People centers on a group of African-American students navigating the predominantly white college environment.

Each of the four primary characters has adopted a persona – choosing how they want others to view them. Middle class Sam is a fierce Black separatist (despite her White Dad and her eyes for that really nice White boy classmate). Coco, having made it to an elite college from the streets, is driven to succeed socially by ingratiating herself with the popular kids. Kyle, the Dean’s son, is the college BMOC, a traditional paragon, but with passions elsewhere. Lionel is floundering; despite being an African-American gay journalist, he doesn’t fit in with the Black kids, the LGBT community or the journalism clique. All four of their self-identities are challenged by campus events.

This very witty movie is flat-out hilarious. The title comes from Sam’s campus radio show, which features advice like “Dear White People, stop dancing!” and “Dear White People, don’t touch our hair; what are we – a petting zoo?”.  While the movie explores serious themes, it does so through raucous character-driven humor. It’s a real treat.

It’s the first feature for writer-director Justin Simien and it’s a stellar debut. Dear White People is on my list of Best Movies of 2014. Dear White People, which has been spun off into a popular Netflix series, is available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming on Amazon Instant, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, and Google Play.

THE SOUND OF SILENCE: novel and engrossing

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Peter Sarsgaard in Michael Tyburski’s THE SOUND OF SILENCE, playing at the San Francisco International Film Festival April 10-23. Courtesy of SFFILM

In the engrossing character study The Sound of Silence, Peter Lucian (Peter Sarsgaard) is obsessed with the musical tonality of the built environment.   Having assigned each area of Manhattan its own distinct musical key, Lucian prowls the city, tuning forks in hand, to map its sounds.

Lucian pays the bills as a house tuner, bringing well-heeled apartment-owners a kind of auditory feng shui.  Lucian is sought after to isolate the hum of a problem refrigerator or toaster that can make a living space depression-inducing.  He’s even been profiled in The New Yorker.

But we sense that Peter Lucian is a little too confident in his expertise.  He is disdainful of the corporate suits trying to monetize his discoveries.  “This is about universal constance, not commerce.”  In a mistake of hubris,  Lucian takes on a research assistant (Tony Revolori – Zero the bell boy in The Grand Budapest Hotel).   Lucian is jarred by corporate espionage, and starts to unravel when a respected scientist views him as a crank.  Can he recover?

Peter Sarsgaard is a marvelous choice to play a cool obsessive who seems, at time,  both blissfully above validation and desperate for it.  In spite of his handsome, regular features, Sargaard’s gift for uncanny stillness helps him play creepy.   Sarsgaard’s Lucian has the unintended capacity of reassuring other characters, but making then even more uncomfortable.

Rashida Jones plays Ellen, a Lucian client who is not just garden-variety neurotic, but has been  so rocked by a tragedy that she remains profoundly unsettled.   Jones is so talented as a comic actress, a voice artist, a documentarian and the writer of that rarest of things, a smart romantic comedy (Celeste and Jess Forever).  Here, she shows her dramatic chops with a character who starts the movie adrift, but grows able to offer emotional safe harbor.

There’s even a welcome appearance by Austin Pendleton as a Lucian mentor of uncertain reliability.  I’ve loved Pendleton since his turn in 1972’s What’s Up, Doc?. (Come to think of it, that movie had a musicologist obsessed with the inherent tonal qualities of igneous rocks.)

The Sound of Silence is the first feature for director and co-writer Michael Tyburski, and it’s a promising debut.  Despite using an understated color palette, Tyburski delivers some stirring cinema with his use of sound.  As Lucian looks over the city early in the morning, we hear a few musical notes, and then a full orchestra tuning up as the city awakens into its workday.  When Lucian takes Ellen for a drink, it is to the quietest possible venue – a club with a decibel level somewhere between a library and a morgue; afterwards, Lucian emerges into urban  cacophony.  When an academic treats him like a crackpot, we all hear ringing, not just Lucian.

As one would hope, the sound design of The Sound of Silence is remarkable, and the score works very well.  The April 14 San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival) screening is at the Dolby Cinema, which should be a real treat.

The Sound of Silence premiered at Sundance, has distribution through Sony Pictures, and screens twice at the 2019 SFFILM.

SFFILM Festival is here

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A scene from ARMISTEAD MAUPIN’S TALES OF THE CITY, playing at the San Francisco International Film Festival April 10-23. Courtesy of SFFILM.

This year’s San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival) opens on April 10 and runs through April 23. As always, it’s a Can’t Miss for Bay Area movie fans.

The menu at SFFILM includes 86 feature films and 70 shorts from 52 countries, impeccably curated by Director of Programming Rachel Rosen and her team. 72 of the films have female directors. At last year’s fest, I was introduced to the movie that became my choice as 2018’s best film, Leave No Trace.

This year’s program is especially loaded. Here are some enticing festival highlights:

  • The premiere of the upcoming Netflix series Amistead Maupin’s Tales of the City.  Nothing is more San Francisco than the Tales of the City saga, first serialized in the Chronicle in 1978 and adapted into the 1993 PBS episodic series that made Laura Linney a star.  The Netflix series continues the story into today’s San Francisco, with Linney’s Mary Ann returning to 28 Barbary Lane.  Laura Linney will attend the screening.
  • Linney will make a second personal appearance to receive an award at a screening of her film The Savages.
  • French director Claire Denis will present her venture into sci-fi, High Life.  The word among critics is that High Life is a doozy – and both the sex and violence are unforgettable.
  • Laura Dern will appear with her latest film, Trial by Fire.
  • Fresh from its premiere at SXSW, actress Olivia Wilde will attend the screening of the film she has directed, Booksmart, starring Kaitlyn Dever.
  • Documentarian Jennifer Siebel Newson will present her latest, The Great American Lie.  Siebel Newsom, also the First Lady of California, is not a dilettante, as anyone can tell her previous film, Miss Representation.
  • John C. Reilly will receive an award at a screening of last year’s The Sisters Brothers.
  • The world premiere of Q-Ball, the documentary about the basketball team at San Quentin. (Yes, they play all their games at home.)  The film is produced by Warriors star Kevin Durant.
  • Boots Riley, the Bay Area director of last year’s iconoclastic hit Sorry to Bother You, will make the State of Cinema Address.
  • Loro, master filmmaker Paolo Sorrrentino’s take on Italian scoundrel/prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, will screen.  Sorrentino has already created two of the most brilliant films of this decade –  The Great Beauty and Youth.

My  under-the-radar recommendation is the quietly engrossing The Sound of Silence, which just premiered at Sundance, starring Peter Sargaard.   It’s the feature debut for director and co-writer Michael Tyburski, and it’s exceptional.

The 2019 San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILMFestival) opens this Wednesday. Here’s SFFILMFestival’s information on the program, the schedule and tickets and passes.

Throughout SFFILMFestival, you can follow me on Twitter for the very latest coverage.

Peter Sarsgaard in Michael Tyburski’s THE SOUND OF SILENCE, playing at the San Francisco International Film Festival April 10-23. Courtesy of SFFILM.

TRE MAISON DASAN: sins of the father…

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A scene from Denali Tiller’s TRE MAISON DASAN, playing at the 2018 San Francisco International Film Festival, April 4 – 17, 2018. Courtesy of SFFILM.

The unwavering and emotionally powerful documentary Tre Maison Dasan was my top pick from the World Premieres at the 2018 San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM) – and you can finally watch on TV this weekend.  The title reflects the names of three Rhode Island boys with incarcerated parents.  Unfettered by talking heads, Tre Maison Dasan invites us along with these kids as they interact with their families – both on the outside and the inside.  It’s all about the kids, all of the time – an effective choice by writer-director Denali Tiller In her feature debut.

One of the parents is released from prison early in the film; the other two are going to stay there during critical developmental periods in their children’s lives. Tre, Maison and Dasan are each taking different paths.  One kid is getting wonderful nurturing and guidance from a released parent, and lots of support from the community; we sense that he’s going to be OK.  That’s not the case with all of the kids.

Tiller doesn’t get academic or partisan.  By simply showing the impact on these children of having a parent incarcerated, she gets our attention and sympathy.  Tre Maison Dasan may not be a call to action in itself, but it’s an essential predicate.   PBS is airing Tre Maison Dasan on its Independent Lens series on April 1; you’ll also be able to stream it on PBS.

https://youtu.be/RmUjmOwCa-g

THE THIRD MURDER: legal procedural turns philosophical

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Masaharu Fukuyama and Kôji Yakusho in Hirokazu Koreeda’s THE THIRD MURDER. Photo courtesy of San Francisco Film Society (SFFILM).

The Third Murder opens with a killing, and the audience gets a clear full-face view of the killer.  Then the mystery begins – not about who done it, but about why and who will be held accountable.

A high-powered defense lawyer (Masaharu Fukuyama) has been called in to take over a challenging case; it’s potentially a death penalty case, and the defendant (Kôji Yakusho) has confessed. Moreover, the defendant has previously served thirty years for an earlier murder, he’s an oddball and he keeps switching his story.

Nevertheless, the lawyer thinks he can avoid the death penalty with a technicality about the motivation for the crime. He gets some good news from forensic evidence and then discovers one startling secret about the victims’ family – and then another one even more shocking – one that might even exculpate his client.

The Third Murder is a slow burn, as the grind of legal homework is punctuated by reveal after reveal. Eventually, there’s a shocker at the trial, and this legal procedural eventually gives way to philosophical questions. Finally, there’s an edge-of-the-seat epilogue – a final lawyer-client face-to-face where the shell-shocked lawyer tries to confirm what really happened and why.

Masaharu Fukuyama in Hirokazu Koreeda’s THE THIRD MURDER. Photo courtesy of San Francisco Film Society (SFFILM).

Yakusho (Tampopo, Shall We Dance?, Babel, 13 Assassins) is quite excellent as the defendant, a man who seems to be an unreliable mental case, but who might have a sense of justice that trumps everyone else’s.

The Third Murder is the work of director Hirokazu Koreeda, who made the 1995 art house hit Maborosi and one of the best movies of 2008, Still Walking.  Koreeda’s Shoplifters just won the Palm d’Or at Cannes, and will be released in the US by Magnolia Pictures on November 23.  I saw The Third Murder at the 2018 San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM).