NEW YORK MOVIE JOURNAL (Feb.-Mar. 2014)
In NYC for the 2014 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at Lincoln Center and New Directors/New Films.
I've watched some New York commercial releases as well. Listed in the order in which they were screened.
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A FIELD IN ENGLAND (Ben Wheatley 2013). Wheatley's previous films, DOWN TERRACE, KILL LIST, SIGHTSEERS, have been most interesting. Here he and his wife-collaborator and cowriter Amy Jump, who does most of the initial scripting, have tried something different, a costume piece, though it is as mean, odd, and violent as before. This time events transpire during the 17th century during a battle of the English Civil War. Four men meet in the eponymous field in England. One of them is an alchemist's assistant who has run away from his employer, two are deserters, and the last is an Irishman in fine clothes called O'Neill, who takes control over the others. Some kill others, and some reappear again at the end, restored to life. Very puzzling and deeply English in flavor, this piece allows the team to indulge their taste for the occult, and also to explore avantgardist visual possibilities, incorporating double images, flash-editing, and a succession of sudden tableaux in which the principals strike meaningful poses. A very peculiar film, not to my mind as satisfying as their earlier ones focused more on crime and criminals (KILL LIST is my favorite so far), but savory for its language, its acting, its costumes, and its very handsome, crystal-clear black and white photography. Repeated viewings might be necessary for it all to make sense. At Cinema Village.
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7 BOXES/7 CAJAS (Juan Carlos Maneglia, Tana Schembori 2013). This film is from Paraguay. Tech credits are workmanlike. The IMDb blurb is: Víctor receives an unusual proposal, to carry 7 boxes of unknown content through the Market Number 4 but things get complicated along the way. I tend to agree with the New York Times reviewer Jeannette Catsoulis, who wrote: "The filmmakers stage an amazing race that almost absolves an overstuffed plot and an over-reliance on coincidence.," except that I didn't find the race so "amaizng," or exactly a "race." However the plot is overstuffed (and practically impossible to follow) yet the enthusiasm and boisterousness of the enterprise tend to compensate. Another source's description of the film as "FAST AND FURIOUS with wheelbarrows" is silly, and they aren't "wheelbarrows" exactly either. Many US critics loved this little film (Metacritic rating 72), whose rough overcomplexity and tasty grindhouse messiness might be considered worthy of a Latin American low-budget version of early Tarantino. It seems a bit too tedious an exercise to recommend, though young Celso Franco as protagonist Victor is endearing, if a bit too goofy for even a comedy thriller. In Spanish and Guarani, and probably often a mixture of the two. At Cinema Village.
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AFTERNOON OF A FAUN: TANAQUIL LECLERCQ (Nancy Buirski), a documentary sponsored by Martin Scorsese, was a sidebar of the NYFF 2013, now showing in NYC. It's standard filmmaking, but a must-see for ballet fans. Essential to know about Miss Leclercq (pronounced "Tanakill Leclaire", but everybody calls her "Tany"), a major muse for George Balanchine, his 5th wife, and longtime off and on-love of Jerome Robbins. Leclercq had already made a significant mark on ballet when she tragically was stricken with polio in 1956 when only 27, never dancing or walking again. This was in the early years of the Salk poliovaccine. Other Balanchine company members were inoculated but Leclercq had held off. One arm and both legs remained non-functional. Yet she defied doctors' predictions she would not live beyond the age of 40 and lived on, with remarkable grace and good humor, till the age of 69. This is attributed in the film to her strength of character, determination and the egocentrism she had cultivated as a diva (with a stage mom whom she had to stave off in later life). She was active as a choreographer and coach at the Dance Theater of Harlem with its founder and codirector Arthur Mitchell, who had danced with Balanchine. Jacques D'Amboise was another of Leclerq's major partners. All these voices and more are heard in the film. It might have been nice to get more detail about Leclercq's unique look and style as a dancer, the choreography written for her, and a bit less about the touching and uplifting but still less important story of the illness and brave survival. Screened at Cinema Village.
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CHILD POSE (Calin Peter Netzer), debuting at Film Forum, comes from Romania. It has interesting writing by Razvan Radulescu (script consultant with Cristian Mungiu on 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, AND 2 DAYS), but is an unsatisfactory movie, unclear and unfocused in places, meandering, with much of the acting indifferent, poor use of locations, and with horrible jittery camerawork in some key scenes. It is however worth watching for the intense performance of Luminita Gheorghiu (known for THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU, NYFF 2005) as Cornelia, the main character, the mother of a young man who, speeding on a freeway, has hit and killed a 14-year-old boy who ran in his path. The story of CHILD'S POSE focuses on the dysfunctional relationships in the fatal driver's family and the wealthy and formerly accomplished mother's relentless effort to insure that her son will not go to jail for causing the boy's death. Everything is left inconclusive, but Gheorghiu has some impressive scenes. I notice Mike D'Angelo reviewed this film in more detail for AV Club. He gives it a B- but his title is "For a Romanian New Wave film, Child’s Pose is surprisingly sloppy," and D'Angelo, rightly I think, suggests that it's only because of the good but diffuse screenplay and good acting its"formal ineptitude" doesn't "sink the picture." He particularly emphasizes as I would how terrible the camerawork is. Screened at Film Forum, where it is having a US premiere.
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EASY MONEY: HARD TO KILL/SNABBA CASH II (Babak Najafi Karam 2013i), same Swedish crime series, same star, Joel Kinnaman (the new RoboCop and TV star of "The Living"), same main characters from the first film; new (Iranian Swedish) director, delivers a dark prison-break-drug-deal-gone-wrong story with violent action, obvious cross-cutting, succinct editing delivering a shorter run-time and setting fans up for SNABBA CASH III. Still hard to see how the tall, patrician, bright-eyed Kinnaman can be cast as a loser and man who goes wrong. He has winner written all over him. This movie delivers, but the setup and storyline are not as interesting as the original's. In Swedish, Serbian, Arabic, English. Screened at Cinema Village, where the projection seemed of dubious quality during low-lit sequences.
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ELAINE STRITCH: SHOOT ME (Chiemi Karasawa 2013) A live portrait of the indomitable Broadway and cabaret regular completed a couple years ago when she was nearing age 87 (b. 1925) and did "farewell" shows at the Cafe Carlyle, TownHall, and other venues. Most review of Stritch's past is real-time except for one or two clips. Mainly Karasawa just follows her around as she talks, rehearses, and struggles with Type 1 diabetes and memory lapses. It's interesting to see how she falters in rehearsals, but blooms in front of an audience, especially a larger one. To criticize this movie would be to criticize the very unvarnished and honest essence of this feisty, blunt-spoken star of stage and film (and TV: especially "30 Rock," where she played Alec Baldwin's mother for six years). Notably, though she now drinks one Cosmo a day (or is it two?), she is a recovering alcoholic who was sober for 25 years -- she is shown heading for an AA meeting; so when she says she learned a long time ago that deception was lethal and honesty essential, she may be referring to the lessons of addiction and recovery. Stritch has reportedly now "retired," left NYC and moved back to her native Michigan. A portrait of the pure essence of a performing artist. Screened at IFC Center.
