Movie with Abe: The World Without You

The World Without You
Directed by Damon Shalit
Released November 1, 2020 (VOD)

The loss of a loved one is devastating even if the circumstances of their death are inherently natural and come at a moment where they are comfortable and surrounded by family or friends. The absence that ensues can be very difficult, and that’s compounded when there are unresolved issues related to the specifics of a person’s passing. It’s rare that everyone in their life had the same relationship with the deceased, and unpacking their complex and often conflicting emotions during the mourning process can be both painful and enlightening.

To commemorate the one-year anniversary of the death of their brother Leo (Joel Reitsma), a journalist killed in Iraq, his adult siblings travel to the western Massachusetts home of their parents Marilyn (Suzanne C Johnson) and David (Chris Mulkey). Noelle (Annika Marks) and her husband Amram (P.J. Byrne), who are strictly observant Jews, arrive from Israel with their children, joining Clarissa (Perrey Reeves) and Nathan (James Tupper), Lily (Radha Mitchell), and Leo’s widow Thisbe (Lyndie Greenwood). Internal tensions and feelings of responsibility bubble to the surface as this extended family spends time together unpacking their emotions and struggling to find answers in the face of a senseless tragedy.

This film contains some strong personalities in the form of the three sisters, who all have different approaches to coping with grief and moving on with their lives. Lily is particularly prickly, picking fights with Amram, who she knew as a child before his religious turn, and expressing disdain for Noelle’s immersion in faith. Clarissa’s relationship with Nathan seems to be healthy, but they still have different ideas of what is okay to share with family. And Marilyn and David have their own problems that they’ve tried to keep hidden from the family, stemming most from a critical disagreement over how they have coped with the death of their son.

This drama features spirited performances from most of its cast, with Mitchell and Byrne succeeding well at creating on-screen rivals whose passions cannot peacefully coexist. Reeves, who typically plays more outspoken characters, lets others take center stage, and the reliable Mulkey delivers a sober and affecting turn. Marks is the true standout, channeling repressed energy into the way she interacts with her husband, her siblings, and her parents. This film is full of involving conversations and meditations on what loss means, as experienced by people who may have grown up together but have come to see the world in wildly disparate ways.

B+

Weekend Movie Recommendations with Abe

Every Friday, I'll be uploading a Minute with Abe: Weekend Movie Recommendations Edition, surveying new releases on DVD, and on streaming services. Check it out, and subscribe to the movieswithabe channel!

New to Netflix: Yes, God, Yes, Alice Junior
Also on Netflix: The Trial of the Chicago 7, Over the Moon, The 40-Year-Old Version
Available on HBO Max: Charm City Kings
Available on Apple TV Plus: On the Rocks
Available on Amazon and Hulu: Joe, Mud

NewFest Wrap

I'm officially done posting my coverage from NewFest. Check out my official wrap post for The Film Experience. Head over there to read about my favorites.

NewFest Spotlight: No Hard Feelings

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from the 32nd Annual New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival, NewFest. The festival runs October 16th-27th, 2020, and this film – the closing night selection – is available watch in the United States through October 30th.

No Hard Feelings
Directed by Faraz Shariat
Ticket Information

People choose what to share of themselves in particular settings based on their comfort level and how accepting they believe their communities will be. Some may choose, for instance, to hide their political beliefs in an environment where they won’t be welcome, and others may allow themselves to be looser around friends than at work. Someone who has two entirely different personas may find it difficult to reconcile those contradictory identities, and that struggle will affect them in some way, either when they try too hard to merge them or remain intent on keeping them forever separate.

Parvis (Benny Radjaipour) is a second-generation Iranian-German assigned to work as a refugee center for community service, serving as a translator despite his only mediocre mastery of Farsi. His hard-partying lifestyle and frequent one-night stands serve as a worthwhile distraction from his traditional family He meets Amon (Eidin Jalali) and his sister Banafshe (Banafshe Hourmazdi) and finds them both fascinating, engaging in a secret romantic relationship with Amon and a close friendship with Banafshe. Parvis’ lackadaisical outlook stands in opposition to the anxiety Amon and Banafshe carry due to the pending status of their refugee applications.

This film begins in a club and features steady, thumping music that pulsates throughout much of its runtime. Parvis has an incredible ability to come alive in social situations, embracing the energy of the room around him. He isn’t always surrounded by the same audience, and therefore the way he acts at the refugee center and in public near Amon strikes others as unexpected and unacceptable. Amon and Banafshe know how tentative their life in Germany is and take care not to feel too exposed in a way that Parvis will never understand because of the experiences he’s had and the way in which he feels he can be his authentic self.

This film, which serves as the Closing Night selection for NewFest, features a protagonist who is unapologetic about who he is and how his identity plays into his life. Radjaipour delivers an accessible performance, putting Parvis out there and enabling him to be both vulnerable and flawed, unprepared to reckon with the different perspectives others have about conclusions he has already made. Hourmazdi and Jalali give equally effective and compelling turns, conveying their passion, fear, and individuality. This film’s pace and focus make it a worthwhile watch, portraying an intriguing intersection of romance and friendship with plenty to say about culture and homogeneity.

B+

NewFest Spotlight: Sublet (Capsule Review)

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from the 32nd Annual New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival, NewFest. The festival runs October 16th-27th, 2020, and films are available to watch anywhere in the United States during that time.

Sublet
Directed by Eytan Fox
Ticket Information

A person may come into someone else’s life at exactly the right time, or perhaps when they least expect it, and those two may not be mutually exclusive. Fleeting whirlwind romances make for great movie premises, and that’s one way to describe this film, from director Eytan Fox, best known for “Yossi and Jagger” and two films that were particularly influential for me based on when I saw them: “Walk on Water” and “The Bubble.” Michael (John Benjamin Hickey) is an American travel writer who comes to stay for a few days in Tel Aviv only to discover that Tomer (Niv Nissim), the young woman whose apartment he is subletting, hasn’t actually made other sleeping arrangements. Though Michael has a husband back home, he and Tomer begin to form a relationship built on probing questions they ask each other that challenge their notions of what they’ve always known. Fox once again delivers an intriguing exploration of the multiculturalism that exists in Israel and the benefits that can come from it with this simple and entertaining dramedy, set for release sometime in 2021.

NewFest Spotlight: Alice Junior

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from the 32nd Annual New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival, NewFest. The festival runs October 16th-27th, 2020, and films are available to watch anywhere in the United States during that time.

One of the best films - and performances - I saw at NewFest can be found in “Alice Junior,” which I reviewed for The Film Experience. Head over there to read my review.

NewFest Spotlight: Dating Amber

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from the 32nd Annual New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival, NewFest. The festival runs October 16th-27th, 2020, and films are available to watch anywhere in the United States during that time.

One of my favorites from NewFest was the delightful Irish comedy “Dating Amber,” which I reviewed for The Film Experience. Head over there to read my review.

NewFest Spotlight: Breaking Fast

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from the 32nd Annual New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival, NewFest. The festival runs October 16th-27th, 2020, and films are available to watch anywhere in the United States during that time.

Breaking Fast
Directed by Mike Mosallam
Ticket Information

Films about religion tend to find characters struggling with their adherence to faith and eventually running in the other direction. Love is often a complicating factor, one that causes a reevaluation of priorities and may invite a new outlook that involves less fidelity and more exceptions to what before was standard practice. It’s refreshing, therefore, to find a comedy about a gay Muslim that doesn’t take any cheap shots and in fact features a protagonist so firmly committed to tradition that he is blinded to the experiences of others around him who don’t want to change who he is but only how he makes room for them.

Mo (Haaz Sleiman), who has always enjoyed broad support from his mother since he told her he was gay, sees his relationship with Hassan (Patrick Sabongui) end when Hassan refuses to come out to his family. He is unprepared for a new entry into his life in the form of Kal (Michael Cassidy), who, despite not being Muslim or Arab, grew up on an army base in Jordan and has recipes just as delicious as his own family’s for Middle Eastern dishes. Because it is Ramadan, the month in which Muslims fast from dawn to dusk, Kal offers to join Mo each night to break fast. As the two become closer, Mo is eager to learn more about the new man in his life who is always warm but rarely talks about himself.

This film features many humorous references to Mo’s experience as the son of an overbearing mother, including her assertion that she wants him to find a nice man who will somehow give her the perfect grandchildren that she believes his brother’s white American wife hasn’t. Mo’s outlook is starkest when contrasted with his best friend Sam (Amin El Gamal), who hasn’t had the same positive experience with his Muslim family accepting his sexual orientation. Mo’s tendency to “bright-side” everything, as Kal puts it, is what threatens the stability of their relationship, not anything to do with the fact that he is a religious Muslim.

This is a very appealing film, one that avoids immature or reductive jokes and instead presents Mo as a man who is equally devout and awkward, unsure of how to navigate a romance in which his prospective partner is so unambiguously interested in him. Sleiman, a familiar face from “The Visitor,” is wonderful, as is Cassidy, politer in this role than he’s ever been in television series like “People of Earth” and “Hidden Palms.” Gamal is also great, affirming this as a story just as much about friendship as it is romance. It’s great to see a film that doesn’t put characters into forced situations where sex is the only way to define a relationship and that feels true to people who are authentically and, for the most part, unapologetically themselves.

B+

NewFest Spotlight: Ellie and Abbie (and Ellie’s Dead Aunt)

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from the 32nd Annual New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival, NewFest. The festival runs October 16th-27th, 2020, and films are available to watch anywhere in the United States during that time.

Ellie and Abbie (and Ellie’s Dead Aunt)
Directed by Monica Zanetti
Ticket Information

Many teenagers – and people of all ages – feel that no one can relate to them or what they’re going through, and the notion of having a support system there not to judge but only to empathize and help might be very comforting. It’s rare to find assistance like that with no strings attached or opinions that are not at least partially at odds with a person’s own perspective. Because no two people’s experiences can be exactly the same, there’s bound to be conflict, but it should still feel good to have someone there hoping and even betting on your success.

Ellie (Sophie Hawkshaw) is an overachieving high school student in Australia. She’s eager to ask her crush, Abbie (Zoe Terakes), to the formal, but hasn’t found the courage or the words to do so yet. She comes out to her mother (Marta Dusseldorp), and is startled when she is suddenly visited by Tara (Julia Billington), her aunt who died before she was born. Tara claims to be her “Fairy Gaymother” who can now help her wishes come true now that she has spoken aloud that she is gay. Ellie is in disbelief but also in desperate need of a plan to make her feelings known for Abbie in a way that isn’t completely embarrassing.

This film’s concept could come off as a silly stretch, but instead it’s one that works very well. Tara can’t remember how she died and isn’t concerned with that particular detail, and she instead channels her excitement at the idea of being able to guide her niece on the right path, lesbian to lesbian. Ellie isn’t lacking confidence, just organization, a humorous problem given her academic proficiency. The relationship they form is unusual but endearing, especially as it offers Ellie the opportunity to learn more about who her mother and her longtime best friend Patty (Rachel House) used to be.

In her second feature film role, Hawkshaw is a delight, focused and hyper but still all over the place as Ellie. Terakes makes Abbie more than just the objection of Ellie’s affection, giving her attitude and opinions that only serve to render Ellie stunned and speechless. Billington is sweet and wonderful, channeling such positivity for her niece, echoed by House and communicated in a more complicated way by Dusseldorp as her struggling parent. This film is a winning comedy that also smartly and stirringly navigates drama, using its fantastical premise to tell a charming and loveable story.

B+

NewFest Spotlight: The Obituary of Tunde Johnson

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from the 32nd Annual New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival, NewFest. The festival runs October 16th-27th, 2020, and films are available to watch anywhere in the United States during that time.

The Obituary of Tunde Johnson
Directed by Ali LeRoi
Ticket Information

It is a sad fact that many unarmed and completely innocent Black people in America are killed for absolutely no reason by police. This has been a reality for a long time, and has been increasingly talked about since the murder of George Floyd this past May. Cinematic realizations of this pattern of injustice include the 2013 film “Fruitvale Station” and the recent PBS documentary “Driving While Black.” Tackling this subject from a different angle sheds new light on the systemic roots of the problem and the inability of eventual victims to do anything to avoid their fate.

Tunde Johnson (Steven Silver) is introduced as being born in Nigeria in 2002 and dying on a specific night in Los Angeles in 2020. At the urging of his best friend Marley (Nicola Peltz), Tunde comes out to his parents, Yomi (Tembi Locke) and Ade (Sammi Rotibi), which goes well, and he is excited to share the news with his secret boyfriend, Soren (Spencer Neville). When he is pulled over on his way to meet Soren, Tunde reaches for his phone and is shot multiple times by one of the officers. He awakens again that morning and relives the day, doing things slightly differently and experiencing the same horrific end regardless of where he ends up.

Time loops are frequently used in film, and one of the most recent examples is “Palm Springs,” which put it to tremendous comedic effect. The better comparison for this film is a season one episode of the new iteration of “The Twilight Zone” in which a Black woman is able to save her son from being killed over and over by a cop by rewinding a video tape. Aside from his birth-death introduction, Tunde never acknowledges to the camera or any characters that he is reliving the same day. Instead, he tries new approaches based on the apparently remembered consequences of his actions, which include navigating the fact that Marley is dating Soren and doesn’t know that he is gay.

Despite this film’s peculiar unwillingness to engage with the unexplained nature of its setup, it works on many levels, including as a tribute to many untold stories and an affirmation of Tunde’s desire to exist. It may well trigger past traumas for many viewers, something that it doesn’t seem to address either. Silver, who recently starred on “Council of Dads,” gives an affecting and genuine lead performance, and both Peltz and Neville offer solid support in the form of loyal friends in a complicated love triangle. Any film featuring a time loop is bound to be divisive in how it resolves or does not resolve it, and this film manages to do the best it can in underlining the strength and power of its story.

B+

AFI Fest Wrap

I'm officially done posting my coverage from AFI Fest. Check out my official wrap post for The Film Experience. Head over there to read about my favorites.

AFI Fest Spotlight: Notturno

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from AFI Fest 2020. The festival runs October 15th-22nd, 2020, and films are available to watch online during that time.

I offered my thoughts on the documentary “Notturno,” from director Gianfranco Rosi, for The Film Experience. Head over there to read my review.

AFI Fest Spotlight: Wildland

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from AFI Fest 2020. The festival runs October 15th-22nd, 2020, and films are available to watch online during that time.

Wildland
Directed by Jeanette Nordahl
Festival Information

It’s not easy to be surrounded by crime and not become involved with or affected by it. Presuming that certain neighborhoods or areas house only those who break the law is a negative and largely untrue generalization, but it’s likely that most within its boundaries have either seen or been part of something that could be construed as criminal. Those who choose not to be active participants may be tempted or unwillingly roped into activity that could come back to haunt them in the future, and reporting on others is a dangerous choice that can lead to deadly retribution.

Ida (Sandra Guldberg Kampp) is seventeen years old when her mother is killed in a car accident. She is sent to live with her aunt, Bodil (Sidse Babett Knudsen), and her adult cousins, Jonas (Joachim Fjelstrup), Mads (Besir Zeciri), and David (Elliott Crosset Hove). They welcome her and quickly bring her in to their collections and enforcements, ready to show her the violent reality of the world she has entered. Ida feels a particular connection to David’s girlfriend Anna (Carla Philip Røder), who Bodil vehemently dislikes and who has yet to become inextricably attached to the family in a way that Ida seems fated to be.

This film plays out for most of its exposition like “Animal Kingdom,” with the genders flipped and Ida encountering male cousins treating her as if she’s one of them. While that film is not the source material, numerous reviews make comparisons to it, and it does feel like a Danish-language remake of the same content, which has also spawned a television series on TNT. Ida is too embroiled in the family that her mother kept her from by the time that she forms an opinion on whether she should resist the allure of its closeness, and any innocence she is at the start of the film is long gone after she has stood by and watched what her cousins do without interfering.

In only her second film role, Kampp impresses, reminiscent of Thomasin McKenzie in the way that she carries herself and performs opposite adult actors. Knudsen, a familiar face from “After the Wedding” and “Westworld,” does an extraordinary job of playing a woman who exerts quiet authority, rarely rising to anger yet commanding respect and fear, even from her temperamental sons. This film’s plot diverges somewhat from its non-inspiration “Animal Kingdom,” offering a haunting and compelling portrait of the seduction of community and the lengths people will go to in order to preserve it.

B+

AFI Fest Spotlight: Jumbo

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from AFI Fest 2020. The festival runs October 15th-22nd, 2020, and films are available to watch online during that time.

Jumbo
Directed by Zoé Wittock
Festival Information

Love comes in many different forms, and may not always be felt equally between two people. Over time, certain types of affection have become more and less acceptable. Close family members like first cousins, for instance, have in the past been married, which is not as common today, while same-sex relationships are more widely recognized and normalized in some places. What people feel for animals or inanimate objects, however, remains largely taboo, and even if it isn’t the same as what two people can feel for each other, there’s definitely something worth unpacking that goes into that strong emotion.

Jeanne (Noémie Merlant) works at an amusement park. She finds her life forever changed when she first sees the Move It, a new attraction that she nicknames Jumbo. It comes alive in a marvelous way for her, using its parts and lights to enthrall her. She finds her feelings to be completely normal, but when she shares them with her mother Margarette (Emmanuelle Bercot), the reaction she gets is one that makes her feel completely isolated. The judgment of others pales in comparison to the strength of what Jeanne feels for Jumbo, a connection she can’t truly explain to anyone else.

This film, which is based on a true story, does a marvelous job of conveying the intensity of how Jeanne interacts with Jumbo, animating this ride so that it does seem like an actual character. Margarette is a stand-in for the audience as someone who loves her daughter but can see that what she’s claiming to feel isn’t inherently normal. Jeanne’s behavior doesn’t suggest that she conforms to most expectations others have of her, but this feels like more of a departure, one that alternatively suggests a need for her to get help and that what she’s experiencing is perfectly acceptable and even healthy.

Merlant’s last big film role was as someone channeling a different kind of forbidden love in last year’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.” Here, she doesn’t have another actress mirroring how she feels, and therefore her performance feels distinctly different, in sync with an amusement park ride that she brings to life just as much as the film does. It’s a film overflowing with passion and endearing resistance to the notion of making people feel bad for who they are, one that still ends up being a bit strange due to the nature of its plot.

B

AFI Fest Spotlight: Apples

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from AFI Fest 2020. The festival runs October 15th-22nd, 2020, and films are available to watch online during that time.

Apples
Directed by Christos Nikou
Festival Information

A movie about a pandemic might be a tough sell right now, but it’s possible that a sense of shared and universal experience could actually make the concept all the more relatable. While it is true that coronavirus and other diseases that have spread throughout the world in the past don’t discriminate, those with means have a disproportionate advantage over those without since they have access to care and the ability to be largely unaffected by missed work or lost wages. Being alone is another factor that can affect the severity of a person’s case and their chances for recovery since support through a difficult time is critical.

In Greece, a number of people are experiencing amnesia for unknown reasons, with no way to reverse the unexplained phenomenon. Many who end up in the hospital are located by their family members, who identify them and bring them home so that they can return to their normal lives. With no papers on him and no one to claim him, Aris (Aris Servetalis) is released into a recovery program that is designed to help him acclimate to not knowing who he is, by following instructions and reintroducing elements of memory into his life.

This film is decidedly reminiscent of past projects of Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou, best known for their collaborations on “Dogtooth” and “The Lobster.” Like in those two films, there are distinct warning signs that what Aris is doing involves him blindly following instructions that may be designed to turn him into a specific type of person or to achieve an aim that will be of no benefit to him. It’s not clear if something slightly supernatural is at play or if any of the work done will serve to actually restore Aris’ memory, even to a functional degree, yet he has no choice but to do it because he does not possess the direction or knowledge to do anything else.

Servetalis is an expressive actor, who conveys much with his face that he does not through his infrequent and carefully-chosen words. As a fellow amnesiac, Sofia Georgovassili presents a different picture of the approach to the program in which Aris is enrolled, open to the activities and curious about them in a way that Aris is not. This film posits an extremely intriguing idea and explores it in an involving way, but ultimately, perhaps purposely, can’t reach a conclusion that feels appropriately satisfying.

B

AFI Fest Spotlight: The Big Scary S Word

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from AFI Fest 2020. The festival runs October 15th-22nd, 2020, and films are available to watch online during that time.

The Big Scary S Word
Directed by Yael Bridge
Festival Information

In today’s increasingly polarized world, there are many political positions and concepts that are portrayed as highly negative. Deeming something as extreme has a tendency to turn people off, and the more that is said to create fear or resentment around a notion, the less likely some people are to ask questions and actually do the research to educate themselves about what it actually means. This has been going on throughout history, and even though it might be hard to deem any analysis as fully objective, it is true that misinformation is incredibly easy to disseminate.

A number of prominent elected officials in the United States, including Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, identify as Democratic Socialists, giving their affiliation a much more prominent spotlight. This documentary traces the roots of socialism and how it was instrumental in the founding of the Republican party, among other influential moments in history. Its prominence during the era of McCarthyism in the 1950s and during the Cold War has now led to a vilifying of any association with socialism, something this film seeks to debunk as it explores what it truly means and how it may indeed be more inherently “American” and fair than the current – and younger – system of capitalism.

This film’s title references a line used by Lee Carter, a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, to describe the stigma against the ideology that he claims as his own. In one memorable clip, Carter is infuriated by a fellow House member who holds up a tablet showing the flag of China’s Communist party behind him while he is proposing a bill during a session. Carter, and many of the film’s interview subjects, argue that many policies that go against the bottom lines of big corporations or institutions are demonized as equivalent to authoritarian regimes that sound deplorable and horrific to those with alleged “American values,” when in fact they stand for much more than that and would have merit if actually considered.

Though this film speaks mostly to socialism as it exists in the United States, it offers a comprehensive and extremely eye-opening lesson on its history, applications, and its renewed relevance in contemporary politics. It’s unlikely that those who are staunchly opposed to any talk of its potential for good will screen this documentary, but if it does manage to reach an audience that was previously not open to the concept, it’s bound to leave an imprint. This film absolutely makes a strong case for at least giving socialism a chance, chronicling its merits and the way in which society and what constitutes “the left” has indeed shifted tremendously since the founding of this country.

B+

AFI Fest Spotlight: My Little Sister

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from AFI Fest 2020. The festival runs October 15th-22nd, 2020, and films are available to watch online during that time.

My Little Sister
Directed by Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond
Festival Information

There is a bond that exists between some siblings that is just as strong as the love between parents and children or even romantic partners. That’s strengthened when the siblings are twins, born at or around the same moment and sharing in many common experiences throughout their lives. What a relationship looks like changes over the course of their lives, which may be close or grow distant, and will almost certainly not end at the same time. Others may try to comment on what their connection feels like, but it’s likely something that cannot be understood except by those who genuinely experience it.

Lisa (Nina Hoss) is a former playwright who lives with her husband Martin (Jens Albinus) and their two children in Switzerland, where Martin teaches at an international school. Lisa’s twin brother Sven (Lars Eidinger) is an actor in Berlin who requires considerable care when he is diagnosed with leukemia. Their mother Kathy (Marthe Keller) has no interest in seeing her son appear weak, while Lisa expresses an altogether different attitude, one of complete support that often stands in the face of reality. Both Sven and Lisa fully believe that Sven will return to the stage, and his strength in the face of illness may ultimately be what motivates Lisa to write again.

This film doesn’t waste time in introducing its protagonists, with Sven returning from the hospital to the rehearsal space to deliver his lines to stunned costars who ask immediately about his condition. His energy level is indicative of fatigue brought on my medication and his body weakening, but there is a spirit within him that lives for the theater. The wigs he wears in particular express personality, and though he knows that he will likely succumb to his sickness, he does not want to go out with a whimper. Lisa, who was born just moments after him, sees it as her responsibility to take care of him in the same way that, as children, he looked after her as her big brother.

Hoss has appeared in a number of international productions including the film “A Most Wanted Man” and the television series “Homeland.” Her performance here is simultaneously strong and vulnerable, representative of a dedication to her brother that makes her blind to the other demands of her life, including her husband who has his own aspirations and doesn’t want to base everything on Sven. Both Eidinger and Albinus contribute with their portrayals of the men in Lisa’s life, but ultimately, as this film’s title suggests, this is the story of a caregiver deeply attached to the patient she is caring for, who she sees in many ways as an extension of herself.

B+

AFI Fest Spotlight: My Donkey, My Lover and I

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from AFI Fest 2020. The festival runs October 15th-22nd, 2020, and films are available to watch online during that time.

My Donkey, My Lover and I
Directed by Caroline Vignal
Festival Information

There are bad ideas that only reveal themselves to be mistakes once they’ve been made and their consequences have become clear, and there are others that should never have been considered in the first place. One reason that the latter do occur and are given the opportunity to play themselves out in a painfully awkward way is that those who do not have anyone else to consult are forced to ratify their own opinions, which might not involve the proper degree of consideration and the recognition that hoping for a positive outcome that is very unlikely to happen won’t make it any more possible.

Antoinette (Laure Calamy) is a fifth-grade teacher in France having an affair with Vladimir (Benjamin Lavernhe), the father of one of her students, Eléonore (Olivia Côte). When she learns that Vladimir is postponing a trip they were supposed to take together to go hiking with Eléonore and his wife, Alice (Louise Vidal), she decides that the reasonable thing to do is to plan a hike of her own, complete with a donkey rental. When she arrives in the Cévennes, she finds herself utterly unprepared for the physical ordeal that lies ahead, as well as lacking a concrete plan for how to insert herself into Vladimir’s family without his wife – or his daughter – realizing that something is going on.

This film’s premise, and its title, are inherently comical, and the execution of this concept could have been less than serious and compelling. Instead, it embraces Antoinette’s nervous energy and uses it to tell a humorous and enjoyable tale of a woman completely blinded by love. Antoinette reveals what she has done to a table full of strangers upon her arrival, inviting curiosity and judgment. She is surprised to learn that no one else has booked a donkey, and only when she becomes frustrated with her slow-moving traveling companion does she begin to acknowledge that everything she is doing may not be in service of her happiness.

Calamy is bursting with so much enthusiasm and laughter that it’s hard not to like her even though her choices are so unfortunate. The glee she transmits is infectious, and Antoinette seems even to impress Alice, the happiest member of that family to encounter her on their trip far from home. This film could have been predictable and derivative, but, thanks to unexpected pivots in the script, instead it’s a joyful and entertaining trip to a place that is filled with beauty and people thinking about other things that get in the way of them noticing.

B+

Weekend Movie Recommendations with Abe

Every Friday, I'll be uploading a Minute with Abe: Weekend Movie Recommendations Edition, surveying new releases on DVD, and on streaming services. Check it out, and subscribe to the movieswithabe channel!

New to Theaters and VOD: The Place of No Words
New to Theaters and Virtual Cinema: Radium Girls
New to DVD: Clementine
New to Netflix: Over the Moon, ParaNorman, Carol
New to Apple TV Plus: On the Rocks

AFI Fest Spotlight: I Carry You with Me

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from AFI Fest 2020. The festival runs October 15th-22nd, 2020, and films are available to watch online during that time.

I Carry You with Me
Directed by Heidi Ewing
Festival Information

New opportunities rarely come without drawbacks. A promotion at a job may come with a higher salary but also usually involves more hours and more responsibility for others’ actions and mistakes. Those who seek a better life with the promise of opportunity often have to work very hard to achieve that, and it may not always be rewarding. There are many who make sacrifices to provide for their families and to build towards giving them what they perceive to be a better place to start, even if that life may be missing some of the defining elements that made them who they are.

In the 1990s, Iván (Armando Espitia) lives in Puebla, Mexico, where he works in a restaurant and tries to support his family. He meets Gerardo (Christian Vazquez) and feels a passionate connection, one rooted in secrecy because of the way the two of them have had to live their lives up to that point. The identity he keeps secret from those around him and the one that recognizes the man he loves threaten to intersect, forcing him to make a choice. Iván decides he must find a way to get across the border to create a life in America, and what he has built two decades later is portrayed at the start of and throughout the film as he recalls all that got him there.

There are many flaws of the American dream and all it offers for those who work tirelessly to attain it. This film is more about love and the lengths people will go to for those who may their lives meaningful, even if, contradictorily, it results in them getting to spend less time together. Iván knows that he cannot be with Gerardo regardless of the strength of his feelings, and he wants nothing more than to be reunited with his son, who is not with him in America. Because he crosses the border illegally, Iván does not have the ability to return home unless he wants the move to be permanent, undoing everything that he has building in the name of family.

This is a strong and poignant story anchored by a powerful performance from Espitia, who makes Iván an understated protagonist, someone who speaks unassumingly and always demonstrates a positive attitude regardless of the difficulty of his choices and actions. Seeing Iván years later riding the subway and imagining the time he spent with Gerardo is deeply affecting, and this film has a wonderful and effectively conveyed sense of nostalgia that, driven by those memories, is carried by Iván over the years, representative of so many stories of separation in many forms.

B+

AFI Fest Spotlight: Pink Skies Ahead

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from AFI Fest 2020. The festival runs October 15th-22nd, 2020, and films are available to watch online during that time.

Pink Skies Ahead
Directed by Kelly Oxford
Festival Information

Expectations can serve as a great motivator for people, giving them a benchmark of what they should accomplish and a way to measure their own success. That’s not universally true, however, since some find living up to what others think they can do daunting and impossible to do, and they may as a result give up trying for fear of failure. Presuming that everyone can achieve the same things is not smart or effective, and those who know that they won’t be able to do as well as others will undoubtedly push back against every attempt to compel them to press on.

In 1998 Los Angeles, Winona (Jessica Barden) has dropped out of college and moved home with her parents, working for her eternally-distracted father (Michael McKean) and mostly avoiding her prying mother (Marcia Gay Harden). A visit to her pediatrician (Henry Winkler) for an imagined ailment produces a diagnosis of an anxiety disorder. Dubious because she’s never had a panic attack, Winona nonetheless finds herself preoccupied with this new explanation for the reason she hasn’t gotten so far in life as she spends her nights partying with her friends and her days trailing her father, who she believes is having an affair.

Disenchanted teenagers and young adults are frequent movie subjects, exploring their place in the world and struggling to find answers for why life isn’t as easy for them as it is for peers or parents. This film has a spunky energy to it best captured in Winona, who doesn’t much care what others think about her but doesn’t want to be seen as a disaster. Her father couldn’t be less interested in what she’s going through, and her mother is far too eager to know everything. Though they’re both unable to communicate it, they want their daughter, who they might argue is going through a phase, to be happy in her own skin and forging a path that feels both productive and comfortable.

Barden is a fantastic actress who has played roles similar to this before, with particularly strong showcases in “The New Romantic” and “The End of the F***ing World.” She’s a natural here, leading a great cast that also includes Rosa Salazar as a friend and Mary J. Blige as her therapist. This film is good at finding its characters where they are, all capable of saying plenty but not doing much. As a result, the direction that Winona lacks seeps into the film, making it a perfectly entertaining chapter in a story that isn’t entirely sure where it’s going.

B

AFI Fest Spotlight: Shadow in the Cloud

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from AFI Fest 2020. The festival runs October 15th-22nd, 2020, and films are available to watch online during that time.

Shadow in the Cloud
Directed by Roseanne Liang
Festival Information

Movies aren’t always taken the way those who made them intended. The implications of a film’s plot or the identity of its characters may be assigned undue relevance that influences the way critics or the moviegoing public digest it. Parodies or satires can also be misunderstood and taken as straightforward by an uninformed audience, which can either make them much better or much worse. A concept that creative forces thought was strong and compelling may in execution turn out to be less than impressive, and the result can be seen as of a completely different quality than pitches and summaries indicated.

During World War II, a female pilot, Maude (Chloë Grace Moretz), arrives on an airstrip tightly clutching a case that contains precious cargo. She boards a bomber plane and is immediately greeted by a hostile and chauvinistic all-male crew, who force her into the ball turret under the plane for takeoff. When she sees a Japanese plane flying close by, Maude tries to alert the crew, only to be mocked as hysterical and incompetent. The situation worsens when Maude sees a gremlin crawling on the wing and all the military men on the radio want to do is open the package, convinced that Maude is not at all who she claims to be.

This film is a wild mess that manages to get more and more preposterous as it goes on. Maude always seems to know more than everyone else on the plane, yet she doesn’t do much to make herself less suspicious. Her cover story is almost asking to be questioned, and her minimal efforts to keep the truth hidden are thin and ineffective. Once the gremlin shows up and the contents of the package are revealed, there’s no turning back for this fully ridiculous film, committed at that point to topping its already unbelievable content with as much absurdity as possible.

As a tribute to the many women who were underappreciated despite significant qualifications during World War II, this film might have been a fun action exercise. Instead, it’s described as an “exciting horror film,” one that is, unfortunately, neither exciting nor scary. It’s unclear whether its most startling moments are genuinely meant to be funny or are laughable only because of how terrible they are. Moretz is a talented actress who hasn’t previously had to contend with such a poor script, though she deserves some credit for her efforts to taking the material seriously. This film runs just eighty-three minutes but begins feeling like a true mistake within its first half hour. Its campiness doesn’t work, and the female empowerment story it’s trying to tell is lost within this truly baffling and plainly bad movie.

F

AFI Fest Spotlight: Sound of Metal

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from AFI Fest 2020. The festival runs October 15th-22nd, 2020, and films are available to watch online during that time.

Sound of Metal
Directed by Darius Marder
Festival Information

The loss of functionality can be devastating for any person and transform their life completely. There is a particular misery, however, that comes with those who depend on part of their body for their livelihood. In many cases, overuse of a particular organ or muscle may create or exacerbate the problem, and the only way to return to health – if that’s even possible – is to stop using it. It’s unlikely to be an easy decision, and the knowledge that senses may deplete completely has the potential to convince someone to experience it while they can even if that will only in time make it worse.

Ruben (Riz Ahmed) is a heavy metal drummer who travels from show to show in an RV with his singer girlfriend (Olivia Cooke). When he begins experiencing hearing loss, he goes straight to a pharmacy and meets with a doctor. Told that he would need expensive cochlear implants to restore the tremendous loss that has already occurred, Ruben, who is also a recovering addict, reluctantly relinquishes his keys and his phone to immerse himself in a deaf community where he is supposed to learn how to live with his new reality.

This film’s subject matter is made exponentially more vivid by Ahmed’s portrayal of Ruben. He is passionate about what he does, and he sees his newfound situation as something he has to fix, as quickly as possible, regardless of what he might have to do to make it happen. He isn’t willing to listen to what others say, and has a particularly difficult time acclimating to the rules of the place where he comes to stay. He doesn’t want to be patient and slowly learn how to communicate in a new way, but instead just wants to get past this hiccup, not willing to admit that, as he’d told repeatedly, this change might be permanent.

Ahmed’s powerhouse turn is complemented by this film’s very effective use of sound. The silence that Ruben hears is indeed disconcerting, and when he does hear at certain points throughout the film, the audience is fully in the experience with him, receiving only distorted or muffled noises that he knows must not be complete. It’s a fully involved, immersive experience conveyed magnificently by Ahmed in a role that should earn him well-deserved awards attention. This film is not an easy watch, but it’s a powerful and deeply resounding exploration of loss and challenges.

B+

Movie with Abe: On the Rocks

On the Rocks
Directed by Sofia Coppola
Released October 23, 2020 (Apple TV Plus)

A marriage doesn’t look the same for every person. Some couples are partners in everything that they do, splitting work as evenly as possible and taking an active role in the raising of children. What their involvement is depends greatly on what their work and other commitments may be, but an effort can still be made to ensure that both parties are contributing in an equivalent manner. There are many models in which that is not the case, and some adult children also have an example set for them that they specifically do not want to emulate because what they have witnessed growing up strikes them as a cautionary tale.

Laura (Rashida Jones) is a writer but finds little time to concentrate between running around New York City to get her daughters up in the morning, to school, and to the various locations they need to be at each day. Her husband Dean (Marlon Wayans) is kind and supportive, but his seemingly constant trips out of town to work on growing his business mean that he is rarely around and almost always takes a backseat to his wife regarding important decisions and the physical labor of attending to their children. Laura makes the mistake of calling her father, Felix (Bill Murray), when she worries that, like he did to her mother many years earlier, Dean may be cheating on her. When Felix shows up in town, he insists on enlivening Laura’s spirits and helping to show her that Dean is indeed being unfaithful.

This film marks the third collaboration between Murray and director Sofia Coppola, whose joint greatest critical success is the Oscar-winning film they made together in 2003, “Lost in Translation.” Murray’s performance in that film earned him an Oscar nomination and featured a quieter departure from his typical comedic routine. Here, his demeanor is overwhelmingly sardonic, and he never lets a moment go by without making the most of it. He embarrasses Laura by flirting with every woman they meet, and, as Laura notes, his chauvinistic comments, wrapped up as intellectual analysis of the human condition, should not have allowed her to become a free-thinking woman capable of existing in the modern world.

The stylized filmmaking that defines much of Coppola’s work, which includes “The Virgin Suicides” and “Somewhere,” is mostly absent from this fairly straightforward and normative film. Yet it comes marvelously alive each time Felix shows up, riding in the back of his chauffeured town car or driving a classic Alfa Rameo that barely works through New York City traffic. His energy is indicative of another time that he has managed to remain in for himself, and his interference in his daughter’s life is his way of trying to infuse some of that liveliness into it. Jones is a terrific scene partner, and it’s wonderful to see the talented veteran of “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation” in a high-profile lead role like this, even if she doesn’t much opportunity to be funny. This dramedy feels relatable and unrealistic at the same time, and the subtle fusion of those two contradictory descriptors is what makes it such a watchable pleasure.

B+

Movie with Abe: Radium Girls

Radium Girls
Directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher and Ginny Mohler
Released October 23, 2020 (Theaters and Virtual Cinemas)

There are many chemicals and substances that have been used over time for positive purposes and later discovered to be dangerous both to those involved in the production process and consumers. New studies and evidence help to inform the public about substantial risks that might be undertaken in either the creation or purchase of something that could be toxic or cause illness. Unfortunately, there are many instances throughout history of companies or industries knowing full well the dangers of continuing to manufacture and market their products and declining to let those who should be informed know for the sake of making a profit.

Bessie (Joey King) works with her sister Jo (Abby Quinn) at the American Radium Factory painting watch dials in 1928 New Jersey. Bessie chooses not to lick the brush, something that all of the women have been told to do and which makes the process considerably quicker. When Jo becomes ill, they meet Wiley Stephens (Cara Seymour), an activist and lawyer who helps them to learn that the radium they interact with so frequently at work can have destructive and lasting effects. Unable to convince many colleagues to join in a lawsuit against American Radium for fear of losing their jobs, Bessie presses on to try to correct a major injustice she sees in the world that affects not only her but many others.

There have been many films made about those standing up to oppressive and unfair work conditions. While the structure of this story and its narrative may be familiar in certain respects, that doesn’t mean that it’s not worth telling, since this is in fact based on true events. This film succeeds well in portraying the horrifying frequency with which all the female employees were exposed directly to the paint after being told repeatedly that it was completely harmless. The energy of this uphill battle is palpable, and charting Bessie’s simultaneous immersion in countercultural interests helps to make her an engaging lead.

King is a talented actress who, before the age of twenty, has already proven herself very skilled with performances in “Wish I Was Here,” “Fargo,” and “The Act.” In this part, she displays strong passion, even if she feels like she could more believably exist in modern times than a century ago. Quinn, who has impressed in “Landline” and “After the Wedding,” delivers a particularly poignant turn, resigned to the state of her declining health and unsure how much and how long she can fight. This story is most effective when it represents the important benchmarks these “radium girls” wanted to achieve to address not only one very problematic practice but also to pave the way for others to combat similar situations in the future. With solid performances, vivid costumes, and purposeful editing, this film does a decent job of bringing its story to life.

B

Movie with Abe: Over the Moon

I'm delighted to report the existence of a wonderful new animated film coming to Netflix this week, “Over the Moon,” which I reviewed for The Film Experience. Head over there to read my review.

AFI Fest Spotlight: Wolfwalkers

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from AFI Fest 2020. The festival runs October 15th-22nd, 2020, and films are available to watch online during that time.

Wolfwalkers
Directed by Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart
Festival Information

People tend to be afraid of things they don’t understand, and that all too often turns into hate. The word homophobia, for instance, should indicate a fear of homosexuality, but instead it’s used almost all the time to refer to a hatred of it. Those who espouse extremist ideologies are rarely willing to take the time to get to know those whose very existence so offends them, and a normalization of behavior deemed different takes considerable time, and may never be accepted by everyone. There are – and will continue to be – many examples throughout history of the toxic effects of othering, which are illustrated wonderfully in this parable.

Robyn Goodfellowe moves with her father from England to Ireland so that he can help the Lord Protector defend the city from wolves. Her father knows that she is curious and eager to learn but urges her to remain within the city’s walls. When she ventures outside of them, she meets Mebh, a girl who calls her “townie” and turns into a wolf each night. As the Lord Protector orders her father to kill all the wolves and the townspeople tremble at the sight or sound of the pack, Robyn begins to learn more about who the wolves are and what they really want.

This is the fourth feature film from Irish studio Cartoon Saloon, which has a strong record with three past Oscar nominees for Best Animated Feature: “The Secret of Kells,” “Song of the Sea,” and “The Breadwinner.” Like its first two films, this one tackles a mythical notion, bringing to life the wolfwalkers who are mysteriously able to control the pack and to communicate with them. Though Robyn tries over and over to shoot with her crossbow when she first encounters this unknown phenomenon, her willingness to be open to a new idea is what ultimately allows her to see the beauty of the wolves and that the threat posed is from the humans to the wolves rather than the other way around.

This film positively echoes many animated productions before it with plucky protagonists who are woefully underestimated by all around them. Robyn is an energetic and passionate main character unwilling to be told what she can and can’t do, and her father is supportive even if his allegiance is to a tyrant who cares little for the people he is supposedly charged to protect. The voice cast, which includes Sean Bean and Simon McBurney, is great, and this film has a tremendous spirit. The animation, as expected, is beautiful, and this film is just as much a visual treat as it is an emotional one.

B+

AFI Fest Spotlight: Whirlybird

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from AFI Fest 2020. The festival runs October 15th-22nd, 2020, and films are available to watch online during that time.

Whirlybird
Directed by Matt Yoka
Festival Information

Journalism has evolved considerably over the past few decades, and what used to be cutting-edge and of most interest to consumers has been replaced by new technologies and formats. Television news still appeals to an older demographic that became accustomed to getting information in that way and are reticent to subscribe to digital publications or read about what’s going on in the world through social media. For those who never grew up with a sense of the importance and relevance of TV journalism, this documentary offers a mesmerizing window into its excitement and intensity.

Before transitioning, Zoey Tur was known as Bob, one of the top faces of news in Los Angeles in the 1980s and 1990s. Bob married Marika Gerrard and, together, they raced to scenes of crashes or fires on a regular basis, always eager to catch the next story and get there before anyone else. Driven to be everywhere across the city, Bob decided he needed to get a helicopter so that he and Marika could travel quickly to get aerial shots of car chases and other enticing events. Bob was indeed one of the most energetic and omnipresent reporters at the height of his career, but the drive he felt impacted those in his orbit in a lasting and mostly negative way.

This film features limited interviews with Zoey, who speaks about Bob as if he was another person guilty of many things due in large part to the testosterone that drove him to anger. A wealth of footage provides remarkable insight into the relationship between Bob and Marika that typically involves Bob yelling at her to get better shots or lean further out of the helicopter to more competently frame the scene. Bob’s now-adult children also offer commentary on their upbringing, which often found them accompanying their parents to a crime scene or seeing their father through the lens of his always-present camera.

This film isn’t a complete critique of Bob since he personified the energy necessary to be there to cover many influential moments, including the 1992 riots and the pre-arrest chase involving O.J. Simpson. This film allows most of what was recorded either by or featuring Bob to make the case that living this life means sometimes putting the wrong priorities first, which has adversely affected those closest to him. This documentary manages to be thrilling and meaningful, constructing its content in an enthralling manner that showcases the passion behind it and pairing it effectively with the measured fallout. Though Bob’s legacy is unquestionably tainted by the way he treated people, his effect on the news industry was sizable, and this film serves as an appropriately complex tribute to his contributions.

B+

AFI Fest Spotlight: New Order

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from AFI Fest 2020. The festival runs October 15th-22nd, 2020, and films are available to watch online during that time.

I wrote about the film “New Order,” which I absolutely do NOT recommend, for The Film Experience. Head over there to read my review.

AFI Fest Spotlight: I'm Your Woman

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from AFI Fest 2020. The festival runs October 15th-22nd, 2020, and films are available to watch online during that time.

I covered AFI Fest's Opening Night film “I'm Your Woman,” starring Rachel Brosnahan, for The Film Experience. Head over there to read my review.

AFI Fest Spotlight: 76 Days

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from AFI Fest 2020. The festival runs October 15th-22nd, 2020, and films are available to watch online during that time.

76 Days
Directed by Hao Wu, Weixi Chen and Anonymous
Festival Information

The entire world has been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. There are still many questions about how the virus can be spread and how it affects different people. What many do know, however, is that the virus originated in Wuhan, China. The city, which underwent a 76-day lockdown beginning in January, has been widely vilified as the cause of the international pandemic. This documentary offers a vivid and unflinching look at what it actually meant for a local hospital to deal with an outbreak of this scale.

There is no narration to introduce this film, which opens as nurses covered completely in protective gear struggle to manage the influx of new patients in the hospital. There are multiple moments when they go to open the door to the outside, where crowds have gathered, ready to push their way in, unhappy to wait for bureaucracy to allow them to be treated. From the other side, nurses plead with their future patients to understand how overrun they are and promise that they will in time admit everyone. There are few breaks for any of the staff, and they take on an extraordinary responsibility in caring for those unable to have any family members or loved ones by their side.

The mere fact that this film exists is incredible, and many viewers will surely wonder how it could have been filmed in a Communist country like China. Those questions are never addressed in a film that is fully free of any commentary or analysis and instead brings its audience fully into an impressively organized operation. The hospital staff is well-prepared for something they’ve never had to encounter before, and it’s affecting to see how they go beyond what might be expected of them, keeping phones and other personal items in clearly-labeled bags in the hopes that they might be able to return them to next of kin once the outbreak subsides. This response feels distinctly human even though we see so little of each person featured because of just how much protective equipment covers their bodies.

Spending time with sick patients in a hospital might be too much for some audiences right now, which is understandable. This film’s title covers the period of Wuhan’s lockdown, the end of which indicates that the city made it out of its worst period. Seeing the dedication and resilience with which these people care for their patients, including one particularly argumentative grandfather not content to sit by himself in his room, is inspiring, and helps to make this global crisis feel universal. To see the way medical professionals give so much of themselves when they’re already asked to do an extraordinary amount of extra work is affirming, and the kind of positivity that I would imagine is needed by so many right now.

B+

AFI Fest Spotlight: Really Love

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from AFI Fest 2020. The festival runs October 15th-22nd, 2020, and films are available to watch online during that time.

Really Love
Directed by Angel Kristi Williams
Festival Information

There are moments when people come into each other’s lives that can be extraordinarily influential and enduring. A chance meeting may occur when those involved are least expecting it, and when other factors in their lives leave them either open or closed to the idea of beginning a relationship. The mystery and excitement that comes at the start of a romance may not last, especially if what either party is sharing with the other isn’t actually their authentic self. The gradual fade of that façade can prove destructive to a relationship in its infancy.

Isaiah (Kofi Siriboe) is an up-and-coming painter eager to capture success, and a conversation at a friend’s show with a gallery manager (Uzo Aduba) gives him hope that it may soon happen for him. His attention is not fully on his work as he also can’t stop thinking about Stevie (Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing), a law student who he meets first at a showing and then again through friends. Their chemistry is obvious, and they begin spending a great deal of time together. As Stevie pursues her career aspirations, Isaiah’s mind returns to his work, demonstrating to Stevie that she may never be his first priority.

This film presents its central romance in an unassuming way, with Isaiah spotting Stevie from across the room and chatting her up without much expectation of anything more to come from it. When they meet again, it’s as if they’re old friends who have another chance to see each other, picking up from the brief introductions to move towards something concrete. Isaiah is a passionate person, and he conveys much of that energy towards Stevie, who is considerably less abstract about the way that she approaches the work she does and the way she lives her life. Those worldviews may indeed be incompatible, but it doesn’t change the strength of the emotions they feel for each other.

This film feels most emphatic because of its two leads. Siriboe’s energy makes Isaiah come alive, transmitting the creativity he expresses through his paintings to the way that he interacts with others, particularly the woman he sets his sights on at the gallery. Wong-Loi-Sing gives Stevie confidence and an appropriate sense of trepidation to tackle the world with caution, with her barriers down just enough to let someone else in. They anchor the feature directorial debut from Angel Kristi Williams that feels like a truthful and rightfully complicated portrait of how deep feelings truly manifest even when not everything is perfectly aligned.

B+

NewFest Spotlight: Cowboys

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from the 32nd Annual New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival, NewFest. The festival runs October 16th-27th, 2020, and films are available to watch anywhere in the United States during that time.

I wrote about the film “Cowboys,” starring Steve Zahn, for The Film Experience. Head over there to read my review.

NewFest Spotlight: White Lie

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from the 32nd Annual New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival, NewFest. The festival runs October 16th-27th, 2020, and films are available to watch anywhere in the United States during that time.

White Lie
Directed by Yonah Lewis and Calvin Thomas
Ticket Information

It’s easy to get caught up in the fallout that comes from one simple untruth. Saying or asserting something that isn’t quite correct is often done without much forethought, and certainly without a plan for the implications that it might have should it be taken as more impactful or serious than it was intended to be. Keeping up appearances and maintaining a misperception can be complicated, and a mistake along the way is entirely possible. There comes a point at which going back can no longer be done, and trying to turn something that was never real into history is an arduous and usually insurmountable task.

Katie (Kacey Rohl) is a star at her college, known as a sympathetic student standing up to cancer. She has a great relationship with her girlfriend Jennifer (Amber Anderson), and is warmly accepted by Jennifer’s family. But when Katie needs to come up with medical forms to document her illness for a grant, her confidence begins to falter since she isn’t actually sick. Going to her estranged father (Martin Donovan) for money to pay off an unscrupulous doctor proves to be a grave mistake, as he sees right through her, intent on exposing her façade. Katie scrambles to forge the paperwork she needs before her entire life comes crumbling down around her.

The festival’s description of this film as a “heart-racing lesbian character-study-turned-thriller” piqued my interest and motivated me to watch it. Interestingly, Katie’s identity as a lesbian is the most authentic and unfabricated thing about her. She faces no adversity during the film as a result of her sexual orientation, and Jennifer is entirely supportive of her at every turn. Katie has gotten herself in over her head in large part because she didn’t trust the right people, and therefore she can’t possibly depend on someone who doesn’t actually understand who she is.

It’s precisely that sense of panic and the dread that comes with realizing that she never thought the truth could come out that keeps this film going. Rohl captures her frantic sensibility, keeping herself focused enough not to do anything especially stupid but too committed to the lie to see a way out. Anderson is a great foil, someone who has such passion for her partner that audiences know will eventually erode once she even begins to doubt the veracity of one of the keystone points of their relationship. This film never quite reaches the point of truly becoming a thriller, but it should keep viewers on the edge of their seats, conflicted about whether to root for a protagonist who has dug her own grave.

B+

NewFest Spotlight: Welcome to the USA

I’m delighted to be covering a number of selections from the 32nd Annual New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival, NewFest. The festival runs October 16th-27th, 2020, and films are available to watch anywhere in the United States during that time.

Welcome to the USA
Directed by Assel Aushakimova
Ticket Information

Leaving one’s home for a place that is allegedly better is not an easy process. There is no guarantee that things will indeed be quite as formidable as they have been made out to be, and moving also means a departure from what is normal and familiar. Even if what has become standard is painful and problematic, there are still elements that will be absent from a person’s new life and which, no matter how hard they try, they may never be able to get back. Taking that step assumes a risk that the end will not necessarily be worth the means.

Aliya (Saltanat Nauruz) is elated to discover that she has won the Green Card lottery and the chance to move to the fabled United States of America. As a lesbian who is not religious, Aliya must keep much of her lifestyle in Kazakhstan a secret. Yet as she prepares for her likely departure, she realizes that she enjoys a relatively comfortable existence filled with great friends and numerous romantic partners. She also examines her fortunes in comparison to those of her sister, whose husband has found a second wife and fails to recognize – or care about – the impact it has had on her feelings of self-worth and happiness.

Opening with this film with Aliya receiving her good news is an interesting narrative choice, one that finds her struggling to verbalize the life-changing information she has learned to anyone close to her and contemplating whether it’s a step she should really take. As she hears radio pronouncements of the glory of the communist Kazakh president and digests her brother-in-law’s opinion of her as parroted by her niece, Aliya sees the appeal of living in a free country. But she realizes that starting over won’t help to fix her own commitment issues, and that she will be leaving behind people that she loves and who she may need just as much as they need her.

Nauruz seems very comfortable in Aliya’s skin, expressing herself through simple pleasures in her own home or smoking in public. She understands how she must live her life but also refuses to conform to what is expected of her, even by her mother or her sister. This feature film debut from writer-director Assel Aushakimova is a sensitive, engrossing drama that engages with complex concepts and the contradictory elements of the life she leads and the one she might soon have. It feels honest and enlivening at the same time, a narrow window into a foreign country where America truly is a dream may will likely never see.

B+