Category Archives: 2023

Woman of the Hour

Woman of the Hour        4 stars

Last year’s Woman of the Hour is a true crime thriller that is based on the time that an actual serial killer appeared on a TV game show, The Dating Game as a contestant. In 1978 Rodney Alcala had been murdering women for years by luring them to remote locations while posing as a photographer. He appeared on the game show as Bachelor Number 3 where he answered questions from female contestant Cheryl Bradshaw and was chosen by her to go on a date. The movie, directed by and starring Anna Kendrick introduces us to Cheryl (Academy Award nominee Kendrick) and Alcala (Daniel Zovatto) separately before the fateful episode of the iconic TV show. We see how Alcala uses his charm to convince the victims to accompany him before he kills each one. As the killer, Zovatto is alternately likeable and menacing in the role. Cheryl is a struggling actress having a difficult time finding roles when her agent lands her an appearance on a TV show, which happens to be The Dating Game. She is not very thrilled about the idea but goes along with the idea as it will give her some exposure. So, she does the show where she is expected to look pretty and ask each of the three bachelors prearranged questions that will appeal to the audience. There is more to the movie though, as it is set in the 1970’s, a time defined by sexism. Cheryl must calmly endure sexist remarks from men about her appearance. She has to be overly polite with her male neighbor in conversations to make sure she doesn’t hurt his feelings. But when the big moment comes for her TV appearance, she decides she has had enough of pleasing men and asks her own challenging questions of the three bachelors that includes one dimwit and one sleazebag, causing them to squirm and upsetting the TV host (Tony Hale). Finally, when the two meet face to face, Cheryl has a conversation with Alcala and gets the sense that there is something not right about the guy which leads to the intense final confrontation between them. The way women are poorly treated is further exemplified by a scene when one woman recognizes Alcala as a suspect in a murder and is routinely dismissed by the police and other men. The movie is more than a true crime story as it paints a picture of the seventies showing how women are objectified in this man’s world. This was a challenging subject for Kendrick to choose for her first effort at directing. Let’s hope to see more projects from her.

The Burial

The Burial            4 stars

I went back and viewed a gem of a movie from last year that I had missed and was not even aware of. The Burial written and directed by Maggie Betts is a throwback to the legal dramas of the nineties. But this legal drama has the distinction of starring two of the greatest talents working today: Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones. It starts with a display on the screen: “Based on real events”. (The movie is based on a 1999 New Yorker article by Jonathan Harr.) We first see hot shot personal injury lawyer Willie Gary played by Foxx in a court room doing what he does best: performing in front of a jury in the style of a preacher on Sunday morning. Gary is rich and proud of the fact that he has never lost a case. We next see Jeremiah “Jerry” O’Keefe (Jones), the owner of several funeral homes in southern Mississippi that have been the family business for decades, at home with his large family. Jerry has run into hard times, the result of a bad business decision and needs a buyer for part his business. He turned to a megacorporation owned by Canadian Raymond Loewen (Bill Camp) for the deal, but a few months later Loewen still has not signed the contract and Jerry’s lawyers, Hal Dockens (Mamoudou Athie) and Mike Allred (Alan Ruck) think that Loewen is just trying to force the funeral home business into bankruptcy so that it can then be bought up in a fire sale. It is then that the star power of Willie Gary comes to the attention of Jerry’s legal team, so they try to recruit him for the case against Loewen. In order to convince Gary to take the case though, the lawsuit damages are increased from $8 million to $100 million, making it worth it to Gary. This is all set up for the real drama that takes place in the courtroom and in meetings between the lawyers and their client as they struggle to win the case against the corporate giant. Many confrontations happen and a few surprises are discovered in testimony in traditional legal drama fashion. Although the case is about the little guy taking on a giant over a legal contract, with it being set in southern Mississippi we find out that the case is really about race, only adding to the drama. What really makes the movie is the first rate acting or rather performance by Jamie Foxx (who is probably best known for playing Ray Charles in Ray). Add to it Tommy Lee Jones (of The Fugitive) as the southern gentleman and you have a truly entertaining movie, even if it looks a bit dated, including 1990’s references to Johnny Cochran and O. J. Simpson.

Theater Camp

Theater Camp   4 stars

Somewhere in upstate New York at a place called AdirondACTS children who are theater fans and budding actors and singers gather for a summer filled with putting together classic and original plays with the help of the teachers and staff of this magical place.  This year at the opening however,  its founder,  Joan (Amy Sedaris) collapsed and fell into a coma.  This leaves the operation of the camp including its finances in the hands of her moronic son, Troy (Jimmy Tatro) who sees himself as a business genius,  but is clueless about what it takes to put on a play or musical.  Such is the premise of Theater Camp,  the very campy and probably cult film by Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman.  The fast paced comedy is put together as a faux documentary much like the Christopher Guest films of the past.  The film really goes overboard with the stereotypes of the theater crowd in an amusing way that is aided by some very talented kids.  Mostly,  the movie creates a preposterous situation using it to produce some very funny moments in what is sure to be a cult classic for years to come. 

The Eternal Memory

The Eternal Memory   4 stars

From the country of Chile and entered in World Cinema Documentary comes The Eternal Memory,  which documents the life of Augusto, a prominent journalist in Chile who covered events during the Pinochet dictatorship.  Augusto has had Alzheimers disease for several years and is cared for by his wife Pauli. The filmmaker,  Maite Alberdi takes us into their home showing us the struggle for Augusto as he tries to hang on to his identity with his wife’s help.  There is much archival footage from the eighties and later to give us a sense of his work and of the unrest during the Pinochet regime.  We see just how much has been robbed from Augusto by this terrible disease.  He can go for hours unable to recognize his own wife and imagines there are people that will steal his books which he treasures.  But Pauli, who is an actress and still working is there to reassure him and bring him back to reality. The best moments are when she is talking to him about his life and he calmly accepts what she says.  The Eternal Memory won the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary. 

The Persian Version

The Persian Version  4 1/2 stars

The Persian Version has to be one of the funniest comedy-dramas at the festival.  It is the story of an Iranian-American family in New York City as told by daughter Leila who has seven brothers.  The story begins with the family gathering when the father has to have a heart transplant.  The movie is about the difference in cultures between the US and Iran and how the characters have to adapt to it. It spans a time from the sixties up to near the present.  As far as the story itself,  it is an amusing way of showing the conflict between mother and daughter,  done brilliantly by actors Layla Mohammadi and Niousha Noor. There are many funny moments including times when the main characters directly address the camera.  Despite their differences we see how mother and daughter are both determined to do things their way and to survive in a foreign culture.  The Persian Version won the Audience Award for US Dramatic and is one of the favorites among fans.

Animalia

Animalia 3 1/2 stars

Animalia is an unusual science fiction story set in Morocco about some strange happenings that lead to an alien presence that affects the natural world and humans.  Itto is very pregnant and is to be left alone in the family’s opulent mansion while husband,  Amine is away on business.  A state of emergency is declared because of odd weather happenings and Itto is forced to evacuate with some help from the local peasants, but the locals resent her expensive trappings and she is stranded in a village far from her husband. There she sees animals that behave strangely. We never actually see the aliens.  We only see the effect they have on people as those affected become blissful and content giving us the feeling that the world is about to change.  The movie is hopeful,  but exposes the distinction in people based on class differences.  The filmmaker,  Sofia Alaoui is French-Moroccan and previously made the sci-fi short,  So What If The Goats Die which I saw at a previous Sundance. The French title is Parmi Nous which means Among Us. Animalia won the Special Jury Award: Creative Vision. 

Fairyland

Fairyland 4 1/2 stars

Based on the memoir of writer Alysia Abbot, Fairyland follows the life of young Alysia and her father Steve after the sudden loss of Alysia’s mother.  It’s the seventies and the pair move to San Francisco, move into a cheap apartment where Steve develops his writing skills and starts to date men.  The story is told mainly from the child’s perspective and shows how she has to learn to cope with a father who is absent more than he should be. Eventually,  the eighties come and with it the AIDS epidemic which impacts the small family in painful ways.  The success of the movie is helped greatly by the acting skills of Scoot McNairy as Steve and Emilia Jones as the teenage Alysia. It’s a meaningful drama that shows the joy and pain of a father daughter relationship. 

Fancy Dance

Fancy Dance  4 stars

In the US Dramatic category is Fancy Dance,  a fictional account of a missing native American woman and her family’s search for answers that mirrors all too well the reality of Native Americans on reservations.  Jax (Lily Gladstone) is caring for her 13 year old niece Roki since Roki’s mother disappeared weeks earlier.  The police seem to be making little progress in solving the case so Jax takes it upon herself to start asking questions,  taking Roki with her and risking losing her to her father’s custody (Shea Whigham). The movie is a mystery drama that brings focus to the real problem of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women epidemic in this country. 

20 Days in Mariupol

20 Days in Mariupol,  5 stars

20 Days in Mariupol has to be one of the most compelling and important movies to show here at the festival. Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukranian war correspondent and filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov took a team of journalists into the eastern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. Then the war started with the city receiving incessant shelling and bombing against the military and civilians alike.  Chernov’s team recorded as much as they could spending much of the time in the hospitals where they show us the many casualties of the conflict that included women, children and the elderly. They show how the Russians targeted infrastructure to remove electricity and heat from the population.  The journalists sometimes have to travel around to find an internet signal so they could get their material to the Associated Press and the world. We are not spared seeing many atrocities caused by the shelling including children dying on the operating table.  An estimated 25,000 people were killed in the city and suburbs.  Many of the images are familiar as they were seen worldwide in the early days of the war. The film gives a wider perspective too by showing the propaganda war waged by the Russians that seeks to discredit the truth.  In the footage we even see civilians who are convinced that they are being attacked by the Ukranian military. The entire movie is narrated by Chernov who was also present at the Q&A where he expressed how important it is show the truth about the war. 

Victim/Suspect

Victim/Suspect   4 stars

In the documentary Victim/Suspect we are introduced to Rae de Leon, an investigative reporter working for The Center for Investigative Reporting.  She was looking into some cases involving young women who have reported being sexually assaulted only to find that the police then charge them with filing a false police report,  a crime which carries a long jail term.  She starts with a case of a student at the University of Alabama which leads her to many others in all parts of the country.  The documentary shows how through interviews and hundreds of hours of legwork she and her team learn how the police fail to investigate the allegations of rape and then use interrogation tactics including lying about evidence to convince the victim to recant their story.  The recanting is then used to file charges against the women who are often then convinced to accept a plea. The victims are often women in their twenties who have no idea what is coming for them.  This is all done just to make life easier on the police without regard for the lives damaged.  The film by director Nancy Schwartzman tells a compelling story that will outrage the audience.  The film does have a positive outcome with the subject women of the film being exonerated of their charges. de Leon, the director and two of the victims and a lawyer helping them were present for the Q&A. They are planning to spread their message of these police practices with the result being to educate police departments and the public on this important issue.