NEW YORK MOVIE JOURNAL (Mar. 1-Apr. 2, 2018)

[Chris Knipp]

NEW YORK MOVIE JOURNAL (Mar.-Apr. 2018)
The title-director line is linked to the longer review where there is one.
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FOXTROT (SAMUEL MAOZ 2017).A well-off Tel Aviv couple is devastated to learn their young son, serving his military service in the IDF, has died in action. Maoz is interested in the grief but also very much in Israeli military organization around soldiers' deaths. Suddenly after five hours of tormenting sorrow, they learn it was all a terrible mistake and the boy isn't dead. The dad insists he be brought home so he can see him. Then the scene shifts to the remote, neglected checkpoint where the son is stationed and the focus is on the absurdity of this duty. Too many switcheroos in this picture for me. I felt played with. But Maoz' technique and his invention are impressive, and the sequence of the swivel-hipped young soldier dancing with his rifle is unforgettable. In Hebrew. Watched at Angelika Film Center opening day, 2 Mar. 2018. Metacritic 92%.



OSCAR NOMINATED LIVE ACTION SHORTS (96 mins.) (See full description in the NYTimes HERE.)
DeKalb Elementary (Reed Van Dyk), 21 mins., is about a would-be school shooter, essentially a two-hander between the unstable young overweight white man and the black female school office employee who talks him down. Based on a 911 call in Atlanta. Rather unexpected and sort of heartening: not all shooters follow through.

The Silent Child (Chris Overton), 20 mins., from the UK, concerns a "profoundly deaf" little girl of well-off parents who have a social worker specialist come and teach the girl sign language. She makes great progress in a short time and warmly bonds with the lady, but, heedles of this, the parents elect to dismiss the specialist and send the child to regular school, because she can lip-read - the wrong choice; she should have both, lip reading skills and a signing helper, to fully function in school. The film gives statistics showing these parents' wrong choice is sadly often the case. A beautiful, engaging, and enlightening film. My favorite at once. AND IT WON THE OSCAR!

The Eleven O'Clock (Derin Seale and Josh Lawson 2016), 13 mins,. from Australia, depicts a grandiose and delusional patient clashing with a psychiatrist, both believing they are psychiatrists having an appointment with a patient. A frenetic, Ionesco-esque comedy, really more clever than amusing and with a somewhat obvious twist, but neatly executed. The spaces seemed a little large for a psychiatrist's offices, but Australia's a big place.

My Nephew Emmett (Kevin Wilson Jr.), 20 mins. The title reveals the grim content: a rather quiet depiction (compared to how I'd imagined it) of the horrific slaughter and mutilation in Mississippi of a black teenager from Chicago, Emmett Till, for the high crime of whistling at a white woman. Focus is on his uncle Mose (an impressive L.B. Williams, his lean face looking carved in stone), "who has seen too much and knows what is coming," as Jeannette Catsoulis put it in the Times. The trouble is, so have I and so did I. But this is a student film, so cut it some slack.

Watu Wote: All of Us (Katja Benrath) 22 mins. Depicts a noteworthy 2015 attack in Kenya on a bus by Al-Shabaab, "Muslim" extremists who for a decade had massacred Christians and sown hostility between the two groups. This was when the tide turned because the Muslim bus passengers protected and hid the Christians and solidarity between them all against Al-Shabaab began to grow. This film is gorgeous and full of heart, a stunner. Outstanding particularly as a student academy award winner, by Katja Benrath of Hamburg Media School. Great local actors.


The Silent Child