NEW YORK MOVIE JOURNAL (Sept.-Oct. 2019)

[Chris Knipp]

NEW YORK MOVIE JOURNAL (Sept.-Oct. 2017)
The title-director line is linked to the longer review where there is one.



WHERE'S MY ROY COHN? (Matt Tyrnauer 2019). He is remembered as the chief counsel of Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the Army-McCarthy trials, depicted as growing out of Cohn's infatuation with G. David Schine, a wealthy young Jew like Cohn but unlike him, blond and handsome, and not particularly smart. Cohn was brilliant and devious. Later he became the killer defense attorney for New York gangsters and mafiosi, increasingly crooked in his own dealings and eventually disbarred. He died of AIDS but remained closeted to the end, and denied that he had AIDS. A spectacularly distasteful individual but relevant today because he was a formative influence on Donald J. Trump. A standard talking heads doc which relies a little too heavily on stills of Cohn's face, his dark-rimmed eyes and menacing, basilisk stare. Tyrnauer made docs on Valentino and Studio 54. At Film Forum Sept. 28, 2019 97 mins. Metascore 70%.



NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE: FLEABAG (Vicky Jones 2019). The film is of a West End stage show using material from which Phoebe Waller-Bridge spun her two "Fleabag" series (six episodes each) available in the US on Amazon Prime with a supporting cast including Bill Paterson, Olivia Coleman, and other excellent actors. Phoebie's character is sex-obsessed young woman haunted by the death of her BFF Boo, with whom she started her now failing guinea pig-inspired café. Since the text of this show went into the series (which I've seen twice) nearly word-for-word it was a bit of a disappointment to watch, on an expensive ticket. nonetheless Waller-Bridge always charms and impresses and it's interesting to see the very different format - in which the character seemed sadder than she does spread over the two TV series. The solo stage version makes brilliant use of subtle expressions and pauses and off-stage sounds and voices. Riotous audience laughter in the film wasn't matched by much audible reaction at the 6 p.m. show at the movie theater. Maybe many others knew the lines too well from the TV series? Or is it just that "theatre live" feels a lot less "live" projected on a movie screen? Watched at IFC Center Sept. 28.