absurdist

MOTHER COUCH: obstreperous mom, surreal situation

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Ewan McGregor (right) in MOTHER COUCH. Courtesy of Film Movement.

In the nightmarish fever dream Mother Couch, Ewan McGregor plays a man trapped in an absurd situation – his obstreperous, estranged mother (Ellen Burstyn) is refusing to leave a couch in a furniture store. His adult siblings (Rhys Ifans, Lara Flynn Boyle), whom he barely knows, are present but not supportive. The oddly singular furniture store is itself a bizarre construction, and this fable of parental emotional abandonment just keeps getting ever more surreal.

The now elderly mom has been a terrible mother – selfish, emotionally unconnected and not the least bit nurturing – and unashamed. Now that she needs care, her two oldest kids are prepared to giver a dose of her own medicine. But the youngest son (McGregor) feels obligated to take care of dear old mom, as hateful as she is.

Ellen Burstyn in MOTHER COUCH. Courtesy of Film Movement.

McGregor’s and Burstyn’s performances are very strong, and the depth of the cast is extraordinary: Taylor Russell, F. Murray Abraham and Lake Bell.  I particularly admired Rhys Ifans’ subtle performance as guy who doesn’t want to be as apathetic and irresponsible as his behavior would indicate. We get to enjoy Abraham as two characters – twin brothers with very disparate personalities.

Mother Couch is the first narrative feature for writer-director Niclas Larsson, an acclaimed director of car commercials, and it’s a remarkable calling card.

This is the most surreal film that I have seen in a long while. I screened Mother Couch for the SFFILM in April; it releases into primarily arthouse theaters on July 5.

A DARK, DARK MAN: rounding up the usual suspects in Kazakhstan

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Photo caption: Daniyar Alshivnov in A DARK, DARK MAN. Courtesy of MHz.

In the Kazakh neo-noir A Dark, Dark Man, a provincial detective is stationed in a place that is remote, even by the standards of Kazakhstan. The authorities are unaccountable and utterly corrupt, and human life isn’t so much cheap as it is valueless. A boy has been murdered and wheels having no relation to justice begin to grind.

The cop is Bekzat (Daniyar Alshivnov), a smart guy whose moral compass drives him to solve the crime, not to cover it up. But he’s also practical, and he understands that he doesn’t have the power to undermine his bosses, who have decided that Pukuar, a mentally disabled local, is the suspect.

The sordid order of things is rocked by the arrival of a nosy journalist Ariana (Dinara Baktybaeva), who uncomfortably points out that 11 suspects have died in police custody in the past year, and that this murder shares convincing similarities with a series of local murders over the past decade. It appears that someone has been getting away with serial murder while the cops “round up the usual suspects”.

In a compelling performance, Alshivnov has us hanging on Bekhat’s moral decision. Which choice will he make, and at what risk? How can he survive?

Yes, this is my first Kazakh film. Director and co-writer Adilkhan Yerzhanov uses absurdism to depict the incompetence of the rural police. The violence in A Dark, Dark Man is anything but stylized – Yerzhanov makes it up-close-and-personal and messy.

Teoman Khos is superb as the innocent Pukuar, both half-witted and pranksterish, and understanding more of what is going on than it seems.

Make sure you watch the interview with star Daniyar Alshivnov (embedded below the trailer). You will be surprised.

A Dark, Dark Man is streaming on MHz. MHz has split it into 3 episodes, but it’s a coherent 2 hour, ten minute movie that is easy to binge.

ABOUT ENDLESSNESS: damned if I know

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Photo caption: ABOUT ENDLESSNESS

In About Endlessness, Roy Andersson, that genius of deadpan existential cinema, probes the meaning of human life.

Andersson movies are a series of vignettes, with ponderous Scandinavians arranged or paraded in front of a stationary camera, in a way that critic Justin Change has likened to diorama. There is never a closeup. It is all superbly photographed by cinematographer Gergely Pálos.

Now, Andersson is not for everyone. This is what I wrote in 2014 about his most recent film:

Some viewers are going to hate, hate, hate the droll Swedish existentialist comedy A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Contemplating Existence, but it’s kind of a masterpiece. For most of its 101 minutes, dull Swedes sit and stand talking about dull things.  It’s no secret that the Scandinavians (who The Wife refers to as “Your people”) are not the most lively bunch.  Filmmaker Roy Andersson uses this trope to probe the meaning of life itself.

About Endlessness, with all its randomness, is more direct than A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Contemplating Existence. This time, in a psychiatry office and in a student’s bedroom, Andersson is explicit. When a doubting priest asks the point of life without religious belief, his shrink answers, “Damned if I know.  Maybe being content with being alive.” 

Most vignettes are absurdist and darkly funny, often about someone deeply engaged in something that Andersson sees as trivial. But, About Endlessness, contains some life and death moments, mixed among the clearly meaningless.

This time, some of Andersson’s vignettes are bracing. In one, a man has committed a horrific and irreversible act that he has come to realize, too late, was profoundly misguided.

Two other vignettes are among the sweetest you’ll see this year – one with young women bursting into into an impromptu dance, the other with a father tying his small daughter’s shoes.

About Endlessness is an art film in the best sense, an experience that demonstrates what what cinema can do in the hands of a talented artist with something to say. I recognize that it’s not for everyone – but it’s only 76 minutes, so give it a chance. I’m putting it on my list of Best Movies of 2021.

In just over a month, the 78-year-old Andersson will be out with another film, Being a Human Person.

About Endlessness is streaming on Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

THE KIDNAPPING OF MICHEL HOUELLEBECQ: tres droll

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THE KIDNAPPING OF MICHEL HOULLEBECQ
THE KIDNAPPING OF MICHEL HOUELLEBECQ

When Michel Houellebecq, one of the most well-known writers in France, disappeared for a few weeks recently, there were media rumors that he had been kidnapped. The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq is an absurdist mockudrama in which Houellebecq himself plays himself in an imagined kidnapping. Once Houellebecq’s captors hide him in a farmhouse, the interactions between the characters become very funny.

The humor is all very droll and stems from the characters’ reactions to what Houellebecq finds to be an absurd situation. He is kept in the frilly room of a little girl, complete with large doll. And we see one of France’s leading public intellectuals and his less gifted captors fully engaged in existential discussions on topics such as “Does Poland exist?”.

Unfortunately, The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq opens with an almost intolerably slow segment BEFORE he is kidnapped. In fact, the pace of the entire film is pretty slow, so The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq is not for everyone.

But if you fast forward over the beginning and settle into observing the writer and his motley crew of kidnappers, you’ll find some laughs. The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq is available streaming on Netflix Instant, Amazon Instant Video, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.