Photo caption: Wallace and Gromit in WALLACE & GROMIT: VENGEANCE MOST FOWL. Courtesy of Netflix.
The Claymation romp Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is another smart and charming winner from Aardman Studio. If you haven’t met them yet, Wallace is a cheese-loving and socially clueless English inventor. Gromit is his longsuffering dog, who is the one with common sense. Their house is filled with Wallace’s Rube Goldbergesque contraptions.
Wallace often invents gadgets that are totally unnecessary. This time, Wallace, oblivious to how lovingly Gromit tends his English garden, invents a robotic gardening gnome. As they are coping with the inevitable resulting mayhem, they are targeted for revenge by an old nemesis, and things get really out of hand.
Years earlier, they had nabbed the chicken mastercriminal Feathers McGraw for a jewel heist. Now Feathers has escaped from prison and wants to get even. What happens in the fastmoving 82 minutes of Vengeance Most Fowl is very funny and very entertaining.
I’ve loved all the Aardman Studio films (except for Pirates! Band of Misfits, which was merely amusing). Vengeance Most Fowl is even funnier than the usual Aardman fare.
Netflix labels this as “for Kids”, and kids will enjoy it, but adults; will find it very funny, too; like any good children’s content, there are loads of references that will swoop over the heads of kids while the adults are cracking up.
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is streaming on Netflix.
Photo caption: Carrie Coon and Shea Whigham in LAKE GEORGE. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures & Magnolia Releasing.
As the comic neo-noir Lake George opens, the hangdog Don (Shea Whigham) has just been released from a ten-year stint in prison. He has no prospects and is coerced by the fearsome crime lord Armen (Glenn Fleshler) into taking a job he doesn’t want. Having done his stretch for a white collar crime, Don is decidedly non-violent (and unlucky). He would be the first to agree that he is the worst possible choice to pull off a murder-for-hire, but Armen and his henchman Hanout (Max Casella) insists, on pain of Don’s own life, that Don whack the boss’ girlfriend and business associate, Phyllis (Carrie Coon).
Don tracks down Phyllis, and, of course, things do not go according to plan. She convinces him to join her in stealing stashes of loot from Armen, and the two are off on an odd couple road trip.
Phyllis is much, much smarter and quicker-thinking than any of the men in this story. And she’s just as ruthless, too. She has an impressive gift of persuasion and can apparently manipulate anyone into anything. Imagine if Brigid O’Shaughnessy were a lot smarter than Sam Spade. Femme fatale, sociopath – that’s Phyllis.
Don, on the other hand, kno ws that he has been a loser and that he ain’t gonna win this time either. Even if he is not quickest, Don is by no means stupid. Don is smart enough to know that doing Phyllis’ bidding is unlikely to work out and that Phyllis is only out for herself and has zero loyalty to Don. That’s the core of Lake George – Don trudging along at Phyllis’ side because he can’t figure out any alternative.
Lake George is a character study, and it’s an acting showcase for Shea Whigham. Ever dazed by the Phyllis’ increasingly outrageous acts, Whigham’s Don seems to be squinting into a bright light as he ponders how he can possibly escape each situation with his life.
Whigham is one of those character actors who works a lot and is always memorable (The Gray Man, A Country Called Home, Boardwalk Empire, True Detective, The Wolf of Wall Street, American Hustle, Take Shelter). It’s great to see him get a lead role.
Coon has fun with Phyllis’ ever-bubbling self-interest and almost manic charm. It’s an interesting take on the femme fatale because she doesn’t sexually seduce Don. Her smarts and gift of gab are so effective that she doesn’t need to use her gams.
There is a massive plot twist near the end. Lake George was written and directed by prolific TV director Jeffrey Reiner, his first theatrical feature in 29 years.
My personal preference would be to make Lake George more noir by cutting the last minute. But it’s a mildly entertaining lark, and the wonderful character study by Whigham is the most compelling reason to watch it.
Lake George is now streaming on Amazon, AppleTV, YouTube and Fandango.
Photo caption: Babak Tafti and Joanna Arnow in THE FEELING THAT THE TIME FOR DOING SOMETHING HAS PASSED. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
You won’t see a more uniquely original film than the deadpan comedy The Feeling that the Time for Doing Something Has Passed. When we meet the protagonist Ann (played by writer-director Joanna Arnow), she’s in a situation of literal dissatisfaction. Although she is particularly vulnerable in this moment, dissatisfaction seems to be the theme of her life.
Ann is smart and witty, but no one in her life SEES her. She’s so invisible to others, that her workmates award her a one year-anniversary prize, when she’s been there for three years. Her boyfriend is remarkably self-absorbed, selfish and distracted. Her parents are blissfully too far on the other side of the generational divide to relate supportively; (there’s a rollicking scene where they break into Solidarity Forever at a vacation cabin).
Ann decides to stop settling, drops her boyfriend and embarks on meeting new guys with a dating app. But her indignities, at work and on the dating trail, continue with deadpan hilarity. Will she reach a point of self-discovery?
I’ve been burying the gob smack lead, happily perverted as it is. Ann and the men she dates are into BDSM, and Ann is a submissive. When we see someone whom we think has low self esteem as sexually submissive, we may gasp at what looks like exploitation. But, we’re wrong about Ann’s self-esteem – she won’t let herself be victimized. She may be suffering the slings and arrows of life, but she is not going to see herself as a loser.
Arnow’s performance is remarkably brave and adept on several levels. Most obviously, Arnow spends much of the movie naked, and her body more resembles those of her audience members than those of most big screen leading ladies. She’s also frequently engaging in submission sex play, and all that “yes, Master” sounds silly to those not into BDSM.
The Feeling that the Time for Doing Something Has Passed is the first narrative feature that Arnow has written and directed. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.
I understand that this is not a movie for everyone. Some will put off by the BDSM sex play and by a woman constantly in submissive positions. But, uniquely, this is a story told from tha woman’s perspective, and I think the payoff makes the film worth sticking through any discomfort.
This a droll masterpiece of transgressive originality. After a blink-and-you’ve-missed-it theatrical run earlier this year, The Feeling that the Time for Doing Something Has Passed is streaming on Amazon, AppleTV and Hulu.
Photo caption: Mo Chara, DJ Próvai and Móglaí Bap and in KNEECAP. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
In the raucouscomedy Kneecap, a trio of Belfast slackers get busted for spraying some pro-republican graffiti, and, in the police station, resist by refusing to speak anything but the Irish language. When the frustrated anti-republican constabulary kick them loose, the guys form a hip-hop group that raps in Gaelic, with the provocative name Kneecap. Amazingly enough, this is the actual origin story of the real band Kneecap, whose members (Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvai) play themselves in this film.
While Kneecap is about promoting Irish nationalism by embracing the Irish language, it has the tone of Roadrunner versus Wiley Coyote. Plenty of comic situations arise as our three rascals play a frenetic cat-and-mouse with the humorless and repressive cops. Adding a layer of complication to their new local notoriety, the father of one of the band members has faked his death to hide from both the cops and the IRA. The father is played by German-born but Irish actor Michael Fassbinder, he of the two Oscar nominations, who has somehow found himself in this goofy little movie.
You won’t see a more energetic movie this year. Kneecap is the first narrative feature for director and co-wrier Rich Peppiatt, and he is responsible for the zesty pace, even throwing animation and camera effects into his spicy movie, and he’s pulled it off with some first-time screen actors.
Kneecap is a good choice for those especially interested in Ireland, or for those in the mood for some harmless bawdy fun. Mid-movie, The Wife said “at this point, it’s gonna become predictable”, but then she was pleasantly surprised.
Photo caption: Will Ferrell and Harper Steele in WILL & HARPER. Courtesy of Netflix.
The Netflix doc Will & Harper features a road trip by Will Farrell and his longtime friend, former SNL writer Harper Steele, who has transitioned. Steele, who has recently transitioned, has always relished auto journeys across the back roads and small towns of America, and wonders if this pleasure is still open to her as a trans woman; Ferrell is going along for support.
The two start at Steele’s home outside New York City and end up on the beach in LA. As they stop in Indiana, Steele’s hometown in Iowa, Oklahoma and Texas, The Wife and I found ourselves cringing and holding our breaths. There are both sweet moments of acceptance and ugly moments of hostility.
The specific case of Steele and Ferrell is used to flesh out why and how one transitions, and how friends can be both curious and supportive.
Ferrell’s celebrity is a subtext here; he clearly enjoys (and maybe needs to be) recognized. Steele is cognizant of how she is treated (or even acknowledged) in or out of Ferrell’s presence.
I have not been a fan of Ferrell’s brand of comedy, but I have to commend Ferrell for his loyalty to a friend and his generosity in spending over two weeks on this cross-country road trip. Ferrell casts his vanity aside to show one episode where he badly misjudges a situation and worsens Steele’s discomfort.
Of course, Ferrell and Steele are both comedy professionals, and they are funny people, as are their SNL pals, about ten of whom show up from time to time. When Will & Harper wants to be funny, it’s funny. When it wants to be emotional, it’s genuinely emotional.
Photo caption: George Clooney and Brad Pitt in WOLFS. Courtesy of Columbia Pictures.
The crime comedy Wolfs is about the job of fixer, the guy you call when somebody has OD’d in your hotel room and you need someone to clean up the scene as if it had never happened (think Harvey Keitel’s The Wolf in Pulp Fiction). The premise of Wolfs is that TWO fixers are called to the same scene. Both are highly skilled professionals, paranoid, have big egos and are used to working alone. They are also super cool and played by George Clooney and Brad Pitt.
They bicker and posture, and, as they go about their job, circumstances make the situation more dangerous and desperate. Plenty of laughs follow, along with an excellent and imaginative nighttime chase through NYC.
Wolfs is all about the plot and the charm of its stars – it’s really just disposable entertainment. That’s not bad, because it doesn’t take itself too seriously and it’s well-crafted for what it is. It doesn’t take itself very seriously. The last two minutes is an unmistakable homage to to a very popular 1969 movie.
Some really fine actors show up in very small roles: Amy Ryan, Richard Kind and Zlatko Buric (so good in Triangle of Sadness). There’s a very funny performance by Austin Abrams as a slacker piñata in way over his head.
In Nathan Silver’s comedy Between the Temples:, Jason Schwartzman plays a cantor whose wife’s death the year before has plunged him into despair; he is so paralyzed by depression, he has even lost his ability to sing. He has a chance meeting with his childhood music teacher (Carol Kane), now a retired widow.
Despite her age and his resistance, she insists on joining the bat mitzvah class he teaches at the temple. She’s a force of nature and may have enough gusto to overcome his angst. As their friendship evolves, will it bring him out of his funk?
Between the Temples is co-written by C. Mason Wells and director Nathan Silver. There are plenty of chuckles arising from Schwartzman’s character trying to neutralize his former teacher’s tsunami of will. And there are LOL moments from Madeleine Weinstein’s hilarious turn as as the rabbi’s lovelorn daughter Gabby.
Kane is excellent, and so is Dolly De Leon, who stole Triangle of Sadness, sparkles as a relentlessly determined Jewish mother. The prolific comedy writer Robert Smigel appears as the rabbi.
I screened Between the Temples for this year’s San Francisco Jewish Film Festival; Between the Temples opens in Northern California theaters this weekend.
Otis Day, Antonio Fargas and Darrow Igus in CAR WASH. Courtesy of Universal Pictures.
Here’s a jubilant good time at the movies. On June 19, Turner Classic Movies will air the unpretentious ground-breaker Car Wash from 1976. Car Wash portrays the raucous hijinks and foibles of the crew at a downtown LA car wash, the Dee-Luxe, and explores a diversity of contemporary African-American perspectives. And the title song became a major disco hit.
The mostly African-American crew of the Dee-Luxe is very aware that they are at the bottom rung of the economic ladder. The work is menial and boring, and they have no stake in the enterprise. To pass the time, they resort to teasing and pranks. Some of the antics are sophomoric, and many are politically incorrect.
Car Wash samples a range African-American perspectives, from an angry African nationalist to a flamboyantly corrupt preacher. Mostly, we have guys getting by in a dead end job, so they can survive and maybe have fun after work. There’s an openly gay character, which was a big deal in 1976; (he has the best and most quoted line in the movie)..
Henry Wingi in CAR WASH. Courtesy of Universal Pictures.
Car Wash is not a message picture. It does make observations, and lets you form your own social criticism. The white carwash owner is unimaginative, cheap and resistant to change, and his son, the heir-apparent, is well-meaning, but he’s a cannabis-addled buffoon. The foreman’s hard work and initiative is not rewarded. It’s hard to maintain dignity in the face of overtly racist attitudes from customers and symbols of institutional racism, like a parole officer. This America is not a meritocracy.
The guys in the crew are played by a bonanza of African-American acting talent: Bill Duke, Ivan Dixon, Franklyn Ajaye, Antonio Vargas, Otis Day, Leonard Jackson, Garrett Morris, Arthur French, Darrow Igus and Ray Vitte, along with Clarence Muse, who acted in his first Hollywood movie in 1929. Native-Americans and Latinos are represented by Henry Wingi (one of Hollywood’s great stunt men) and Pepe Serna, respectively.
Comedians George Carlin, Richard Pryor and “Professor” Irwin Corey have cameos. Brooke Adams and Danny DeVito were in the cast, too, but had their scenes cut.
Melanie Mayron in CAR WASH. Courtesy of Universal Pictures.
Car Wash was the first film by an African-American director shown in competition at Cannes (and possibly the most unabashedly low brow Cannes entry). Director Michael Schultz was already a veteran television director and was the most prolific African-American director of Hollywood films before Spike Lee.
Three cast members – Bill Duke, Ivan Dixon and Melanie Mayron – became prolific directors themselves. Those three, not a white man among them, have amassed over 160 directing credits between them. Screenwriter Joel Schumacher, one of the few white males with a major creative role in Car Wash, would also go on to direct feature films.
If you miss Car Wash on TCM, you can stream it from Amazon, AppleTV and YouTube.
Photo caption: Jessie Buckley in WICKED LITTLE LETTERS. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
Jessie Buckley sparkles in the comedy Wicked Little Letters, about a contretemps between English neighbors that erupted into scandal. It’s 1920, and, though although no longer technically in the Victorian (or even Edwardian ) Period, Victorian social mores prevailed, and the stuffiness, repression and classism make easy targets for Wicked Little Letters.
Buckley plays Rose, a vibrant single mom who may or may not be a war widow. Foul-mouthed and a joyous carouser, Rose is decidedly tot adhering to the social and sexual mores of the time. Her ultrareligious and ridiculously proper neighbor Edith, (Olivia Colman) on the other hand, could be a poster girl for devout virginity; Edith lives under the tyranny of her father Edward (Timothy Spall), a bullying, racist, patriarchal prig.
The two women start out friendly, but inevitably fall out. Edith is shocked to received a series of profane, obscene and vituperative letters. Edward brings in the police, and soon Rose is on trial for sending the letters, although she denies it. What will happen to Rose? Who really sent the poison pen letters? Wicked Little Letters‘ story closely follows a true story, which you can read about if you Google “Littlehamption Letters Scandal“.
Here’s the most interesting aspect of Wicked Little Letters. We are used to watching people who are sexually and/or socially repressed acting out perversely (see the TV preacher or right wing politician scandal du jour). But here, we have someone who is so angry about BEING repressed, that the perverse behavior comes out of her rage.
This really isn’t much of whodunit, because the authorities, blinded by their own stupidity and classism, and ignorant of forensic tools like handwriting analysis (not to mention the scientific method), keep missing the obvious solution. A fictional young female cop (Anjana Vasan) is the stand-in for the 21st century audience and can see what her superiors miss. Once it’s revealed who is really sending the letters, Wicked Little Letters finishes a little too slowly.
But we get to enjoy a charismatic performance by Jessie Buckley, deploying a deliciously crooked grin as she brings a devil-may-care woman to life. Buckley is so good as troubled characters (Beast, Wild Rose, The Lost Daughter, Women Talking), and it’s great to see her letting loose as a fun-loving character.
Olivia Colman, of course, is superb as Edith, a woman who is not nealy as one-dimensional as she first appears. The great actor Timothy Spall (who has lost a reported 100 pounds over the past several years) has fun with a character who has no nuance whatsoever, unless you count varying shades of bigotry and entitlement.
I caught Wicked Little Letters very late in its its theatrical run and I expect that it will be leaving theaters soon; I’ll let you know when it is available to watch at home.
Photo caption: Stefan Kurt and Esther Gemsch in GOLDEN YEARS. Courtesy of Music Box Films.
The Swiss dramedy Golden Years begins as Peter (Stefan Kurt) turns 65 and retires. His wife Alice (Esther Gemsch) has been eagerly awaiting this day, which she sees as an opportunity for travel and to rekindle intimacy with Peter. In contrast, Peter doesn’t seem to have been thinking about it at all, but he begins to be consumed with his physical health and suddenly transforms himself into a mountain biking, vegan workout king. Alice wants to downsize, but he wants to stay in their house. Travel doesn’t interest Peter, but he feels trapped into joining Alice on a Mediterranean cruise that their adult children have gifted them.
Esther’s best friend unexpectedly dies, and Peter impulsively invites her heartbroken husband to join them on the cruise, which appalls Esther, who wants Peter to herself on the cruise. Esther has read her late friend’s hidden cache of letters and has stumbled on an explosive secret. Esther’s annoyance from Peter’s inattention simmers until it boils over into she staggers Peter by embarking on her own adventure.
Esther Gemsch, Ueli Jaggi and Stefan Kurt in GOLDEN YEARS. Courtesy of Music Box Films.
At this point, Golden Years departs from a comedy of manners into an exploration of dual self-discoveries. Indeed, there are Men-are-from-Mars moments when Peter is a clueless dunderhead about Esther’s expectations. But Peter’s needs have evolved, too, and Esther has also mistakenly assumed that he will want to do want she wants to do.
We all know couples who drift totally apart after decades of marriage, and there must be some couples who age with identical interests. Many couple have different, but complementary aspirations, or can build a new life together around some core commonality. The question that Alice and Peter face is, where are they on this continuum?
Will Alice and Peter compromise? Will they be able to accommodate each others’ needs? Will they live separate lives? Is there a Win Win?
Screenwriter Petra Volpe (The Divine Order) probes these questions in a consistently funny and engaging movie with a minimum of senior citizen tropes or cheap geezer cheap jokes. (It is very funny, though, when Peter’s Gen X co-worker brightly tells him that his old office will become a server room.)
Esther Gemsch in GOLDEN YEARS. Courtesy of Music Box Films.
Director Barbara Kulcsar keeps the story sprightly paced and maintains just the right balance between comedy and the more serious issues. Alice is the primary focus of the story, and the performance of actress Esther Gemsch is especially strong.
Golden Years can now be streamed from Amazon, Vudu and YouTube.
