Category Archives: Drama

Hala

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Hala       4 stars

One very relevant movie for young first generation immigrants is Hala. And especially suitable for young Muslims experiencing the clash of cultures in America.  The main character,  Hala is a seventeen year old girl, the only child to immigrant parents from Pakistan.  She is experiencing the usual thrills and challenges of being a teenager in high school with the added pressure of dealing with very traditional parents who believe in the practices of the old country.  And that includes their attitudes toward boys and dating.  Hala has a friendship with a white American boy that she is hiding from her parents while they are thinking of matching her with a boy from a Pakistani family for marriage.   This all leads to much pain and drama pitting parents against child and husband against wife.  This is a very engaging story and has good acting from the main cast.  The filmmaker was present for Q&A and said while the movie wasn’t her own story she knew of plenty of experiences to draw from. It was one of my favorites that I saw after hearing others talking about it.

Them That Follow

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Them That Follow.       4 1/2 stars

Them That Follow is a first time feature by two new directors that takes place in the Appalachians of Kentucky.  It is about a young woman who is part of the snakehandling Pentacostal Church. The church is under the control of the pastor played by Walter Goggins who sets all the rules of the small mountain community.  He is aided by Sister Hope played remarkably by the incredible Olivia Coleman who keeps a watchful eye over the flock.  The church is often persecuted by the outside world because of their practices with handling poisonous snakes as part of their rituals. The real story starts when we see that the pastor’s daughter has a secret she is hiding that could impact many lives of this small fellowship.  The story was well put together and was aided by some top notch acting. Also in the cast was Jim Gaffigan the comedian in a very uncharacteristic role.  I warn you there are some very intense and graphic scenes. Some of it was too much for some audience members.  I especially liked this one which I picked because of the casting of Coleman in a key role.

Society of the Snow

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Society of the Snow        4 ½ stars

You have probably heard the story before. I know I have a few times. In 1972 a plane carrying a Uruguayan rugby team and friends and family crashed in the snow-covered Andes mountains while on their flight to Chile. The plane had 40 passengers. Several of the passengers survived the crash. Weeks later after the search was abandoned two members of the team crossed the Andes on foot and told the world that they were alive. 16 people were still alive having survived in part by resorting to cannibalism on the bodies of those who died. The incredible story was previously made into the English language movie Alive in 1993. Society of the Snow is a Spanish language telling, made by J. A. Bayona, who previously made The Impossible, the story of a family caught in the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. The new film depicts the events of the tragedy including acts of heroism performed by several of the young victims who were mostly young men in their twenties. It shows the initial crash that most of the passengers somehow survived, the hope for a rescue that didn’t come, and an avalanche hitting the fuselage taking more lives. The movie shows how they were forced to choose to use the dead as nourishment and how a select few had the task of retrieving the food so that the rest would not know who it was they were consuming. The film also focuses on the emotional aspects of the ordeal and the members’ devotion to one another. Bayona and the actors have made the film one about survivalist adventure but also about spirituality. At times it is a tough one to watch but is certainly worth it. It was nominated for two Academy Awards in 2024. The film is available on Netflix. If you see it be sure to check out the How the movie was made, video. The roles were all filled with non-actors, and they had to do the scenes chronologically so they could lose weight progressively during the filming.

Selah and the Spades

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Selah and the Spades.      4 stars

One movie that was something of a surprise is Selah and the Spades. It was written and directed by a very young filmmaker named Tayarisha Poe who is probably all of 28. She was present for the Q&A afterwards. The story takes place is an exclusive boarding school where the students are self divided into 5 different factions that each perform their own illicit activity. Selah, a seventeen year old African American girl is the leader of the Spades, the faction that supplies the illegal drugs to students. Since she is a senior she needs to find her successor before graduation. She finds Paloma, a new student who has transferred into the school and believes she is good material for a Spade. There is plenty of mean girl activity and power plays and betrayals in the time that follows that culminates in a conflict at an unsponsored school prom that will test the characters` loyalty and trust to one another. For someone that is so young I was very impressed by the quality of the final product. The director had been working on the idea since she was in college. I only hope to hear more of her work in coming years.

Give Me Liberty

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Give Me Liberty.      3 1/2 stars

Give Me Liberty is a comedy that I saw on the first night of Sundance. This film by a Russian-American follows a young Russian-American man through a single day as he drives a van for elderly and disabled people. His job has to be one of the toughest jobs there is as he personally has to move people, move obstacles and sometimes persuade his customers to cooperate. On top of that he has an impatient boss and there is a riot going on in his normal route. He faces many challenges that have a comedic quality and also has to deal with problems from his own family. At the same time that the story is unfolding, the film shows us issues of life including life for the disabled and the racial divisions that are the reality of urban living. It was filmed in Milwaukee and uses many untrained actors who are local residents of the area. It was not one that was on my must see list, but I am glad for having the chance to see it.

I Love Boosters

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I Love Boosters                 4 stars

When I saw that the new film, I Love Boosters, was written and directed by Boots Riley, I knew that I had to see it. His first film Sorry To Bother You was at Sundance in 2018 and was a big hit. It was an absurd comedy starring LaKeith Stanfield that attacked the corporate structure of America and our class society. His second film is equally absurd and takes on the high fashion industry while glamourizing aspects of our criminal society. It stars Keke Palmer (One of Them Days, Nope, Alice) as Corvette who while out clubbing one night meets a man (LaKeith Stanfield (Judas and The Black Messiah)) and invites him back to her place. He doesn’t get what he is expecting though, since Corvette isn’t interested in sex. She wants to sell him some expensive clothes. (He does get some new shoes for his trouble.) You see, Corvette is in the business of Boosting. She, along with her two partners Sade (Naomi Ackie (Sorry, Baby and The Thursday Murder Club)) and Mariah (Taylor Paige (Zola)), (known as The Velvet Gang) seek out high-end fashion stores, steal expensive clothing and shoes and resell them to their customers at a deep discount. They have a particular interest in fashion magnate Christie Smith (Demi Moore of The Substance) who has a chain of stores for her fashion designs. Corvette sees herself as a fashion designer and wants revenge on Smith for stealing one of her designs, an outfit that has flaps on the arms and legs. The gang comes up with a plan to get jobs at one of Smith’s stores where they will rob the entire store on their lunch break. The store manager (Will Poulter) is very self-obsessed, talks down to his employees and makes them pay for their uniforms. But then someone else beats them to it and instantly removes the entire inventory of the store. This is where the movie becomes absurd. The gang catches up to the new robber, Jianhu (Poppy Liu of Hacks) who is Chinese and in possession of a transporter device developed by the Chinese government that she has stolen and has been using to transport the clothes back to China where they were originally made. Jianhu is doing this to stand up for the Chinese workers in the garment plants and against the owners and Christie Smith. So, Corvette realizes that they can all work together against their common enemy. After this point things get increasingly bizarre as it turns out the transporter can also transform things and people into an exaggerated form of themselves, leading to some very strange occurrences. There is also a skyscraper built at an angle creating slanted floors, making walking very difficult. There is a line of clothes from Smith called the hundred-thousand-dollar suits or skin suits that requires the wearers to have their skin removed to wear them and then there is the demon who is an expert in cunnilingus. Riley puts all this in the form of absurd comedy while also making a statement about workers’ rights and the injustice of the corporate culture of the fashion industry. This is the second movie I’ve seen this year attacking the high fashion world, the other being Mother Mary. The dialogue of the movie is very street urban and along with the type of comedy, bordering on slapstick, may not be for everyone. The name of the movie, I Love Boosters, was actually from a song written by Boots Riley a few years ago that sang praises to people who steal clothing and sell it to the less fortunate, portraying them as a modern Robin Hood. Obviously, Riley has had issues of race and social inequality on his mind for a long time. He has put them on display here in some very funny and odd set pieces.

Flamin’ Hot

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Flamin’ Hot         2 ½ stars

A few years ago, we saw the release of Flamin’ Hot, a movie about the inventor of a new flavor of Frito Lays Cheetos, matching the name of the movie. Although I had heard of the film at the time I hadn’t seen it until now. It tells the story about Richard Montañez, a poor, young Mexican-American man trying to support a family who snagged a job at the local Frito Lay plant in the early eighties as a janitor and then had and sold the idea of making a new, spicy flavor of Cheetos that came to be known as Flamin’ Hot. This is another of the corporate success movies that have shown up in recent years, like Air, Tetris and Blackberry that tell of the people behind a successful product. It is also the directorial debut of Eva Longoria who you may recognize from TV shows like Only Murders in the Building and Desperate Housewives. There are appealing things about Flamin’ Hot like the enthusiasm of the main character, Richard (Jesse Garcia) and his never say quit attitude toward his mission to save the jobs of those who work in the factory and his love of family. His story is inspirational as he goes against the protocol of the corporate structure to try to sell his idea of a product that would appeal to the Hispanic community despite his being just a janitor. Unfortunately, according to a few sources the story is mostly untrue with events in the movie being exaggerated. Parts of the movie I found corny like the narration that Garcia gives and scenes where the executives speak like Mexican fighting cholos voiced by Garcia. Though parts of the movie were entertaining, I couldn’t lose sight of the fact that it was selling a story of identity consumerism that apparently is not quite true. The movie earned an Academy Award Nomination for Original Song for “The Fire Inside” in 2024.

Touch of Evil

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Touch of Evil                       5 stars

I recently viewed Orson Welles’ classic film about an ethical lawman facing off against a corrupt police captain, Touch of Evil, starring Charton Heston as Mike Vargas, the Mexican drug enforcement officer, and Welles as Hank Quinlan, the corrupt American police captain. It is a film full of notable performances but is equally known for Welles’ inventive ways of filming shots and for its labyrinthine plot. It’s important to note that I saw the restored version that was made in 1998 based on the extensive notes that Welles wrote after his disappointment with the edited version that the studio released in 1958. The story takes place in and around a Mexican-American border town with rundown storefronts, hotels and brothels. In one of Hollywood’s best known long takes we follow a doomed car with a planted bomb driven by a wealthy American through the streets of the town for 3 minutes and 20 seconds before it finally explodes. (In the restored version we hear the sounds of the street and background music instead of the theme music the studio used.) The investigation is led by the very heavy and alcoholic Quinlan with bystander Vargas inconveniently inserting himself into the case. Vargas’ new American wife, Susan (Janet Leigh) is accompanying him and eventually finds herself the subject of attention of a local gang. The story becomes rather complicated but basically involves Quinlan trying to frame the car bomb crime on a local Mexican boy with Vargas getting in the way, then Quinlan getting revenge by setting up Vargas and his wife to take the blame for murder and drug crimes. With the longer restored version the plot becomes easier to follow than in the original studio version. As the plot progresses, the drunken Quinlan, who has a history of faking evidence, becomes more obsessed and reckless with a scheme to stop Vargas. Toward the end of the movie in a scene with a fortune-telling madam (Marlene Dietrich), Quinlan asks, “Come on, read my future for me.” She responds prophetically, “You haven’t got any.” Quinlan is racist and has contempt for the local Mexicans he encounters. My only criticism is that Heston does not make a convincing Mexican. He has only a couple of short lines spoken in Spanish. Otherwise, Touch of Evil is a masterpiece by Welles and his cinematographer, Russell Metty. They implement multiple tracking shots with a moving camera in Welles’ innovative style. Two other notable appearances are Zsa Zsa Gabor as a strip club owner and Dennis Weaver as a very odd night clerk at a seedy motel. The film was named the best picture at the 1958 Brussels World Fair, but got even more recognition much later from film critics in the late 1990’s. If you can find it be sure it is the 1998 restored version. You will be pleased.

Vice

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Vice                                       4 stars

In what has to be one of the zaniest movies of the year screenwriter Adam McKay and actor Christian Bale take on a biopic of Vice-President Dick Cheney, following him from a drunk and college drop out to becoming the most powerful man in the world as the VP to George W. Bush.  Bale does an amazing job of immersing himself in the part, gaining over 40 pounds to become the short speckles wearing Cheney.  He has the speech patterns and mannerisms down perfectly.  The film takes us through many decades as Cheney takes an assignment working for Donald Rumsfeld (Steve Carell), becomes Chief of Staff for President Ford, Secretary of Defense for President George H. W. Bush and finally the VP to George W. Bush (Sam Rockwell in another great performance)  The film does an outlandish take on everything you may remember from the Bush administration, the Iraq war, the surveillance of US citizens, the enhanced interrogation techniques and the black sites for holding prisoners.  We see how he took control of the situation during 9/11 while Bush was still on Air Force One.  Cheney’s brashness is sometimes shown in comedic fashion as he doesn’t hesitate tell others what needs to be done.  Especially enlightening is his conversation with Bush before he accepts the nomination when he suggests that the Vice President take care of mundane things like foreign policy, intelligence, budgetary matters and defense leaving the president take handle the important things.  The film also takes time to show a softer side of him in the moments with his wife Lynne (Amy Adams, which you have to see) and his two daughters.  He even handles Mary’s coming out as gay well.  Though it is mostly a comedy, it leaves us something to contemplate as it alludes to the current administration and how it is that we have reached this point in history.  Look for Vice to get substantial attention this awards season.

Mary Queen of Scots

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Mary Queen of Scots                      2 ½ stars

Mary Queen of Scots is a partly historical, partly fictional account of sixteenth century England when Mary Stuart (Saoirse Ronan), the teenage queen returns to Scotland to claim the crown and threatened the rule of Queen Elizabeth I (Margot Robbie) over England.  The film is remarkable in its sets, costumes and dialogue, but gets bogged down in the story that focuses on the men who serve the monarchs as they scheme to gain power and influence for themselves.  We are frequently bombarded with the message that these two “sisters” could accomplish great things if they could find a way to work together and unite the two kingdoms.  Elizabeth’s authority is questioned by the fact that she has not produced a royal heir and Mary is despised by many of her own people because she is both a Catholic and a woman in a mainly Protestant land.  I was confused a bit by the multitude male characters all sporting beards with their English accent, so had some trouble keeping them straight.  Since there are two different kingdoms involved, the two main characters never come together except for one seemingly fabricated scene near the end.  The film does deliver one clear message being most of the men are unwilling to accept the authority of a woman which is still a relevant message today.  The film is still worth seeing for the performances of both Ronan and Robbie who are genuine talents in Hollywood.  David Tennant appears as John Knox, the Protestant leader who preaches against the whorish ways of Mary and is unrecognizable in the long beard and heavy accent.  This year a more entertaining movie than Mary Queen of Scots about British royalty is The Favourite.