Fruitvale Station

Movies to See Right Now

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THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO

Frameline, the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival, is underway; scroll down to see what I’ve written about several Frameline films.

OUT NOW

  • The Last Black Man in San Francisco is an absorbing exploration of inner lives reacting to a changing city – and it’s one of the best films of the year. The link will go live this weekend after I finish my review.
  • The wildly successful comedy Booksmart is an entirely fresh take on the coming of age film, and a high school graduation party romp like you’ve never seen. Directed and written by women, BTW.
  • The Fall of the American Empire is a pointed satire cleverly embedded in the form of a heist film.
  • Rocketman is more of a jukebox musical than a film biography, but it’s wonderfully entertaining.
  • So you think you know what you’re going to get from a movie titled Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese. It is indeed a documentary of a concert tour, but Scorsese adds some fictional flourish, as befits Dylan’s longtime trickster persona.
  • Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen are pleasantly entertaining in the improbable Beauty-and-the-Beast romantic comedy Long Shot.
  • The documentary Framing John DeLorean is an incomplete retelling of this modern Icarus fable. If you already know the basics of the DeLorean story, I’d recommend this Car and Driver article instead. Framing John DeLorean is available to stream from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

ON VIDEO

I have the perfect film to kick off the summer – the marvelously entertaining dark comic thriller Headhunters. You can stream Headhunters on Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube or Google Play It’s such a great choice, I’ll reprise it next week, too.

ON TV

Wow, on June 24, Turner Classic Movies will present two classics from the 1970s.  The first is one of the all-time greats of cinema – Martin Scorcese’s Taxi Driver.  It’s a masterpiece exploration of alienation through its searing portrait of loner Travis Bickle, played by an explosive Robert De Niro.  Also the first glimpse of Jodi Foster’s genius.

Then there’s the original Shaft – a low-budget and simplistic film not anywhere in the class of Taxi Driver.  But it is the icon of the Blaxploitation genre and a snapshot of an important moment in our culture.  And – it has one of the best movie theme songs EVER.  I can’t hear it without thinking of songwriter Isaac Hayes accepting his Best Song Oscar in his shirt-of-chains.

Isaac Hayes at the Oscars

Movies to See Right Now

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Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever in BOOKSMART. Credit: Francois Duhamel / Annapurna Pictures

I can recommend Booksmart for fun and smarts and Rocketman for fun. This weekend, there is a wave of movies that I haven’t seen yet, both critically praised (The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Late Night) and popcorn movies (Men In Black: International, Shaft).

OUT NOW

  • The wildly successful comedy Booksmart is an entirely fresh take on the coming of age film, and a high school graduation party romp like you’ve never seen. Directed and written by women, BTW.
  • The Fall of the American Empire is a pointed satire cleverly embedded in the form of a heist film.
  • Rocketman is more of a jukebox musical than a filmbiography, but it’s wonderfully entertaining.
  • So you think you know what you’re going to get from a movie titled Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese. It is indeed a documentary of a concert tour, but Scorsese adds some fictional flourish, as befits Dylan’s longtime trickster persona.
  • Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen are pleasantly entertaining in the improbable Beauty-and-the-Beast romantic comedy Long Shot.
  • The documentary Framing John DeLorean is an incomplete retelling of this modern Icarus fable. If you already know the basics of the DeLorean story, I’d recommend this Car and Driver article instead. Framing John DeLorean is available to stream from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

ON VIDEO

My DVD/Stream of the Week is Bay Area writer-director Ryan Coogler’s emotionally powerful debut, Fruitvale Station. Coogler, of course, has become one of the top American filmmakers with Creed and Black Panther (both also with Michael B. Jordan). Fruitvale Station is available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon, Vudu, Google Play and YouTube.

ON TV

On June 20, Turner Classic Movies presents David Lean’s WWII epic The Bridge on the River Kwai.  It’s the stirring story of British troops forced into slave labor at a cruel Japanese POW camp.  The British commander (Alec Guinness, in perhaps his most acclaimed performance) must walk the tightrope between giving his men enough morale to survive and helping the enemy’s war effort.  He has his match in the prison camp commander (Sessue Hayakawa), and these two men from conflicting values systems engage in a duel of wits – for life and death stakes.  William Holden plays an American soldier/scoundrel forced into an assignment that he really, really doesn’t want.  There’s also the stirringly unforgettable whistling version of the Colonel Bogey March. The climax remains one of the greatest hold-your-breath action sequences in cinema, even compared to all the CGI-aided ones in the  62 years since it was filmed.

Sessue Hayakawa in THE BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI
Alec Guinness in THE BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI

Stream of the Week: FRUITVALE STATION – the human moments that define a life

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FRUITVALE STATION

The emotionally powerful Fruitvale Station explores the humanity behind the news. If, as I do, you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you know what happened to Oscar Grant. Returning to the East Bay after 2008 New Year’s Eve revelries in San Francisco, the unarmed 22-year-old was handcuffed and lying on his stomach when he was mortally wounded by a transit cop’s gunshot. Oscar Grant was African-American. The transit cop was white. Multiple cell phone videos of the incident went viral on New Year’s Day. Fruitvale Station opens with one of those shaky videos.

But the beauty and strength of this impressive film is that Fruitvale Station is not about the incident and its political fallout – it’s about the people involved, in their workaday and familial roles to which all of us can relate. It follows the fictionalized life of Oscar Grant as he lives out what he doesn’t know is his last day.

Writer-director Ryan Coogler’s Oscar Grant is a complete and textured character. Oscar is a charming guy, a loving father and the fun dad/uncle who children love roughhousing with. He’s remarkably unreliable as a boyfriend, son and employee. He’s done a stretch in San Quentin, and he’s got a temper. He’s capable of random acts of kindness. He’s a complete package of decency, fecklessness, irresponsibility and possibilities. Would he have turned his life around if he hadn’t been at Fruitvale Station that night? We’ll never know. And that’s the tragedy laid bare by Fruitvale Station.

Although it’s a tragedy with some heartbreaking moments, Fruitvale Station isn’t a downer – it’s too full of humanity for that. Neither is it a political screed; Coogler lets the facts speak for themselves and the audience to draw its conclusions.

The acting is first-rate, especially Michael B. Jordan as Oscar, Melonie Diaz as his girlfriend and the great Octavia Spencer as his mom. Equally, important, the supporting cast is just as authentic.

It’s was stunning debut feature for then 27-year-old filmmaker Ryan Coogler,  (Coogler is also an African-American from the East Bay who was roughly the same age as Oscar Grant.)  Coogler, of course, has become one of the top American filmmakers with Creed and Black Panther (both also with Michael B. Jordan).

Fruitvale Station was justifiably honored at both the Sundance and Cannes film festivals, and played Cinequest.  Fruitvale Station is available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon, Vudu, Google Play, YouTube and Xbox Video.

https://youtu.be/ZxUJwJfcQaQ

DVD/Stream of the Week: Fruitvale Station

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FRUITVALE STATION

Note:  You can see Fruitvale Station on the big screen this week at Cinequest.  It will be introduced by LA Times and NPR Morning Edition movie critic Kenneth Turan on Saturday, March 8 at the San Jose Rep.

Here’s number 8 on my Best Movies of 2013. The emotionally powerful Fruitvale Station explores the humanity behind the news. If, as I do, you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you know what happened to Oscar Grant. Returning to the East Bay after 2008 New Year’s Eve revelries in San Francisco, the unarmed 22-year-old was handcuffed and lying on his stomach when he was mortally wounded by a transit cop’s gunshot. Oscar Grant was African-American. The transit cop was white. Multiple cell phone videos of the incident went viral on New Year’s Day. Fruitvale Station opens with one of those shaky videos.

But the beauty and strength of this impressive film is that Fruitvale Station is not about the incident and its political fallout – it’s about the people involved, in their workaday and familial roles to which all of us can relate. It follows the fictionalized life of Oscar Grant as he lives out what he doesn’t know is his last day.

Writer-director Ryan Coogler’s Oscar Grant is a complete and textured character. Oscar is a charming guy, a loving father and the fun dad/uncle who children love roughhousing with. He’s remarkably unreliable as a boyfriend, son and employee. He’s done a stretch in San Quentin, and he’s got a temper. He’s capable of random acts of kindness. He’s a complete package of decency, fecklessness, irresponsibility and possibilities. Would he have turned his life around if he hadn’t been at Fruitvale Station that night? We’ll never know. And that’s the tragedy laid bare by Fruitvale Station.

Although it’s a tragedy with some heartbreaking moments, Fruitvale Station isn’t a downer – it’s too full of humanity for that. Neither is it a political screed; Coogler lets the facts speak for themselves and the audience to draw its conclusions.

The acting is first-rate, especially Michael B. Jordan as Oscar, Melonie Diaz as his girlfriend and the great Octavia Spencer as his mom. Equally, important, the supporting cast is just as authentic.

It’s a stunning debut feature for 27-year-old filmmaker Ryan Coogler, from whom much is now expected. (Coogler is also an African-American from the East Bay who is roughly the same age as Oscar Grant.)

Fruitvale Station was justifiably honored at both the Sundance and Cannes film festivals. Fruitvale Station is available on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and streaming from Amazon, Vudu, Google Play, YouTube and Xbox Video.

Best Bets at Cinequest

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HEAVENLY SHIFT
HEAVENLY SHIFT

17 movies to watch for at Cinequest:

Most likely to be crowd pleasers:

  • The Grand Seduction: In Cinequest’s opening night film, Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges, The Guard, The General, Braveheart) and Gordon Pinsent (Away from Her) play isolated Canadians try to snooker a young doctor (Taylor Kitsch of Friday Night Lights) into settling in their podunk village.
  • Friended to Death: Bromantic comedy about a jerk who fakes his own death to see how many of his social media “friends” will attend his funeral.  Very funny.
  • Words and Pictures: Romantic comedy starring Clive Owen and the ever-radiant Juliette Binoche as sparring teachers.
  • Dom Hemingway: Jude Law and Richard E. Grant star as two cheesy British hoods in a reportedly funny and fast-paced crime caper. Opens widely in theaters in April.
  • Unforgiven: the Japanese remake of Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-winning Unforgiven  starring Ken Watanabe (Inception, The Last Samurai, Letters from Iwo Jima).   Since Clint’s career was boosted by a remake of Yojimbo (A Fistful of Dollars), it’s fitting that his Unforgiven is remade  as a samurai film.
  • Fruitvale Station: the masterpiece debut from Bay Area filmmaker Ryan Coogler, introduced by LA Times and NPR Morning Edition movie critic Kenneth Turan.

Most promising foreign entries:

  • Ida: This Polish story of a young nun who learns that she is the survivor of a Jewish family killed in the Holocaust won the International Critics’ Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.
  • The Verdict:  This Belgian drama won Best Director at the Montreal Film Festival.  I’ll be writing about The Verdict early this week.
  • The Illiterate:  Paulina Garcia, the star of the popular Gloria, stars in this metaphorical emotional Chilean drama.
  • Class Enemy: You’ll be rocked by this classroom drama, Slovenia’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.  I’ll be writing about Class Enemy early this week.
  • Heavenly Shift: A hilariously dark (very dark) Hungarian comedy about a rogue ambulance crew with a financial incentive to deliver its patients dead on arrival.  I howled at Heavenly Shift, and I’ll be writing about it early this week.
  • Zoran: My Nephew the Idiot: OK, this Italian comedy has a great title, and it was a hit at the Venice Film Festival.  I’ll be writing about Zoran before its US Premiere.

Documentaries:

  • Teenage: Great subject material: chronicling that 20th century American phenomenon – the evolution of “the teenager”.
  • Sex(ed): The Movie: Sampling Sex Ed instructional films from 1910 through today.  Should be a howl.  May be thoughtful, too.  World Premiere at Cinequest.

Something you haven’t seen before:

  • Happenings on the Eighth Day: This is a pure art film, juxtaposing the attempts to create art against forces seeking to censor or obliterate it.  Filmed in the Bay Area by Iranian filmmakers. World Premiere at Cinequest.
  • The Circle Within: A Turkish fable that turns into a psychological drama.  Not a favorite of mine, but it provides a rare glimpse into the Kurdish religion of yezidism.

Here’s the Cinequest program and ticket information.

Best Movies of 2013

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BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR

Visit my Best Movies of 2013 for my list of the year’s best films, complete with images, trailers and my comments on each movies.  My top ten for 2013 is:

  1. Blue Is the Warmest Color
  2. The Hunt
  3. Before Midnight
  4. Stories We Tell
  5. The Spectacular Now
  6. Mud
  7. Short Term 12
  8. Fruitvale Station
  9. The Act of Killing
  10. Captain Phillips.

The other best films of the year are:  The Great Beauty, Nebraska, American Hustle, Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, Rendez-vous in Kiruna, The Gatekeepers, At Any Price, Undefeated, In a World… and Me And You.

I’m saving space for these promising films that I haven’t seen yet:  Her, The Wolf of Wall Street and The Past (Passe).

Note:  Undefeated is on this year’s list, even though it won an Oscar a year ago, because it only became available for most of us to see in 2013.

2013 at the Movies: breakthroughs

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Adèle Exarchopoulos in BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR

The year’s biggest breakthrough has to be 19-year-old actress Adèle Exarchopoulos, who delivered the year’s best cinematic performance in the year’s best movie, Blue is the Warmest Color.

American actress Brie Larson‘s star-making performance Short Term 12 showed her to be a big-time talent, possibly another Jennifer Lawrence.

Other remarkable breakthrough acting performances:

  • Elle Fanning in Ginger & Rosa (in which she, at her actual age of 14, played a 17-year-old).
  • Michael B. Jordan, thoughtful and charismatic in Fruitvale Station.

And here are the filmmakers whose work showed special promise:

Movies to See Right Now

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AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS

This week’s top two picks:

  • I really liked the absorbing drama Ain’t Them Bodies Saints.
  • In A Word… is the year’s best comedy so far – it’s a Hollywood satire, an insider’s glimpse into the voice-over industry, a family dramedy and a romantic comedy all in one.

I haven’t yet seen Short Term 12, the drama set in a group home with a reputedly star-making performance by Bree Larson (Rampart, The Spectacular Now). Same goes for The Family, Luc Besson’s tongue-in-cheek Mafioso-moves-to-France movie.  You can read descriptions and view trailers of it and other upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

The powerfully authentic coming of age film The Spectacular Now and the emotionally powerful Fruitvale Station are both on my list of Best Movies of 2013 – So Far.

My other top recommendations:

My other recommendations:

Check out my new feature VOD Roundup, where you can find my comments on over twenty current movies available on Video on Demand. There are some good ones, some bad ones and some really, really good ones (including Letters from the Big Man).

My Stream of the Week is the documentary How to Make Money Selling Drugs, a dispassionate critique of the Drug War. How to Make Money Selling Drugs is available streaming from Amazon, iTunes and Vudu.

On September 17, Turner Classic Movies will air the very trippy Un Chien Andalou, made in 1929 by the then very young absurdist director Luis Buñuel with surrealist painter Salvador Dali. If you’ve never seen the famous eyeball-slicing scene, here’s your chance.

Movies to See Right Now

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Lake Bell in her IN A WORLD...

In A Word… is the year’s best comedy so far – it’s a Hollywood satire, an insider’s glimpse into the voice-over industry, a family dramedy and a romantic comedy all in one. 

The powerfully authentic coming of age film The Spectacular Now and the emotionally powerful Fruitvale Station are both on my list of Best Movies of 2013 – So Far.

My other top recommendations:

  • The jaw-dropping documentary The Act of Killing, an exploration of Indonesian genocide from the perpetrators’ point of view, is the most uniquely original film of the year.
  • Woody Allen’s very funny Blue Jasmine centers on an Oscar-worthy performance by Cate Blanchett.
  • The very well-acted civil rights epic Lee Daniels’ The Butler.

My other recommendations:

Also out right now:

You can read descriptions and view trailers of it and other upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

Check out my new feature VOD Roundup, where you can find my comments on over twenty current movies available on Video on Demand.  There are some good ones, some bad ones and some really, really good ones (including Letters from the Big Man).

My DVD of the Week is the riveting IRA thriller Shadow Dancer, with Clive Owen.  Shadow Dancer is available on DVD from Netflix.  Also check out my newest movie list: Best Movies About The Troubles (Northern Ireland).

On September 10, Turner Classic Movies is broadcasting the great French heist movie Rififi. And on September 12, TCM will air one of the greatest examples of film noir, Out of the Past with Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer and Kirk Douglas.

OUT OF THE PAST

Movies to See Right Now

by

Lake Bell in her IN A WORLD...

In A Word… is the years best comedy so far – it’s a Hollywood satire, an insider’s glimpse into the voice-over industry, a family dramedy and a romantic comedy all in one.

The powerfully authentic coming of age film The Spectacular Now and the emotionally powerful Fruitvale Station are both on my list of Best Movies of 2013 – So Far.

My other top recommendations:

  • The jaw-dropping documentary The Act of Killing, an exploration of Indonesian genocide from the perpetrators’ point of view, is the most uniquely original film of the year.
  • Woody Allen’s very funny Blue Jasmine centers on an Oscar-worthy performance by Cate Blanchett.
  • The very well-acted civil rights epic Lee Daniels’ The Butler.

My other recommendations:

Also out right now:

  • The American porn star biopic Lovelace, more of a soap opera.
  • The British porn kingpin biopic The Look of Love.
  • The Irish horror comedy Grabbers, which fails to deliver on a great premise.
  • The astonishingly bad shocker The Rambler, with its 58 second vomit scene.

I haven’t yet seen the indie criminal-on-the-run story Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, which opens today. You can read descriptions and view trailers of it and other upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.

My DVD/Stream of the Week is the New Zealand cop miniseries Top of the Lake, starring Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss. You can catch Top of the Lake episodes on the Sundance Channel or watch all seven episodes on DVD or streaming from Netflix, and it’s perfect for a Labor Day Weekend marathon.