Category Archives: Drama

The United States vs. Billie Holiday

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The United States vs. Billie Holiday                           2 stars

There has been quite an abundance lately of films dealing with stories of racial injustice. The latest is Lee Daniels’ The United States vs. Billie Holiday that tells the life story of jazz icon, Billie Holiday, or at least part of it. It stars Andra Day as the legendary singer who was a star in the 1940’s and created a controversy by singing the song, “Strange Fruit”, so much so that the government was determined to get her to stop. I was familiar with the song and its connection to Holiday but was not aware of the story behind it. The song’s lyrics describe in graphic detail the scene of a lynching of black men, something people were aware of in the forties, but mostly would not speak of. The Narcotics Dept. of the FBI in the person of Harry Anslinger (Garrett Hedlund), federal agent is determined to make her stop singing it as the government is more interested in hiding the problem of the lynching of black men than it is in stopping them.  He does so by framing her with drug possession and he is aided by black agent Jimmie Fletcher (Trevante Rhodes of Moonlight) who infiltrates Holiday’s entourage. I found parts of the film hard to follow as some characters appeared for only a short while and others acted in such a way that I could not understand the motives for their actions. It is clear that few of those around the singer really cared for her and most were interested in their own gains. Fletcher is a hard one to understand as he is at first responsible for putting Holiday in jail and then has an affair with her. What a change that was! Two actors bringing comic relief are Miss Lawrence and Da’Vine Joy Randolph as part of Holiday’s entourage. The telling of her background was disjointed using a melodramatic way of showing her upbringing and her connection with a lynching. There is a comical interview scene with Leslie Jordan (whom Will & Grace fans will recognize instantly) as Reginald Lord Devine doing the questioning at a time late in Holiday’s career, inserted into the more chronological story. I felt it wasn’t done very effectively. We don’t get to hear the song Strange Fruit performed until well after the halfway point and though it is quite haunting it only shows up once. What we don’t get is any idea of how Holiday became so attached to it in the first place. Billie Holiday is known as the godmother of the civil rights movement before it was a movement and Andra Day does a remarkable performance portraying her. I just wish she was in a better movie about this historic icon.

Opus

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Opus     2 stars

Based on a few recent films that include Blink Twice, Glass Onion and The Menu, we have learned that if a billionaire invites you to their private island, you should probably politely decline. Now we can modify that rule to say that if a wealthy celebrity resurfaces after a 30-year absence and invites you to their isolated compound in the desert, you should not accept! That’s the premise in the social thriller Opus, from first time director Mark Anthony Green, which recently appeared at the Sundance Film Festival and is now in theaters. The film is partly a commentary on the culture of celebrity worship and partly about a psychopathic cult leader. We meet Ariel (Ayo Edebiri of The Bear), a young writer for a pop culture magazine who is lamenting how she is being overlooked in her job. One day she is greeted by the news that a pop icon from the nineties who seemingly vanished has reappeared with the announcement of a new album. Moretti (John Malkovich of Velvet Buzzsaw and Young Adult) who is also known as the Debutante, has invited Ariel along with her boss, Stan (Murray Bartlett of The White Lotus) and a few other media types including TV talk show host Clara Armstrong (Juliette Lewis) to his compound in the Utah desert for the weekend to be the first to hear his new tunes. Ariel is happy to accept thinking it will be good for her career, but she seems out of place in this crowd. Upon arrival at the airport, the group is picked up by bus for a 4-hour ride to the compound. There they are treated like royalty to 4-star meals, a fabulous wardrobe and massages. Each of the six in the group is shadowed by a personal concierge who watches their every move plus they are under surveillance even in their rooms. Ariel finds this disturbing in addition to the fact that they must relinquish their cell phones and laptops. She seems to be alone in her concerns as everyone else is mesmerized by the persona of Moretti, who preaches great platitudes about the religion he has written about in a book they all received called Meditations of Levels. He sings and dances in what looks like a metallic space suit and has a group of followers who he calls Levelists who follow his every command, including a disturbing scene where one of them must manually open a roomful of oysters in search of rare pearls. (Many followers have scars on their hands from performing this ritual.) Ariel is the only one of the guests to be suspicious when one of their members mysteriously disappears and on her own goes on a hunt for clues as to what this cult is about. Ultimately, as predicted by the audience, the terror is unleashed when Moretti finds his guests unpleasing, and it is up to poor Ariel to find a way to escape and bring justice to this psychopath. In the end you can tell that the film thinks it has something to say about false prophets and the role of the media in a culture of fandom, but it amounts to a tired formula that we have seen many times. I found the ending unsatisfying as I felt it didn’t really explain Moretti’s motives. For a much better movie about a terrifying experience in a cult I recommend 2019’s Midsommar.

Tyrel

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Tyrel                      3 ½ stars

Tyrel, by director Sebastian Silva can be called a subtle horror movie with a racial twinge. It doesn’t have the sci-fi mind bending elements of Get Out, but is none the less full of racially related moments of tension. Tyler (Jason Mitchell of Mudbound), a young black man has taken up his friend John’s (Christopher Abbott) offer to join him for a guy’s weekend in update New York since Tyler’s girlfriend has taken over his own apartment for the time being. Tyler is surprised to learn that he is the only black person among the eight or so young men at the isolated house in the woods where there is to be an alcohol fueled weekend of reckless games and other foolishness. Upon meeting, one of the white guests mispronounces Tyler’s name as Tyrel, but we are not sure if the act was intentional leaving us to wonder what is to come. The evening proceeds with a silly game where each person takes a turn imitating a voice of different ethnicities with Tyler being asked to imitate a black New Orleans woman. This is awkward to say the least. Although nothing overtly racist is said to our black guest, we are made to feel uncomfortable as many of the remarks said could be called insensitive. I was wondering throughout the film (less than one and a half hours) just how bad things would get for Tyler. He has to constantly stay on the defensive and be careful about how he reacts to various indiscretions such as when one drunk member decides that he should burn a religious painting because it would be funny. Fortunately, it did not descend into full horror, but things are bad enough that we feel for him and hope that he will emerge from a dangerous situation unscathed. The movie is set in the days immediately following the Donald Trump inauguration. (Any movie that involves destroying an effigy of Trump adds a half star to the rating.) Jason Mitchell plays his role well making us believe the fear that he is experiencing. I hope to see more of him in future movies.

Hillbilly Elegy

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Hillbilly Elegy                      2 stars

Ron Howard’s Hillbilly Elegy is the screen adaptation of the J.D. Vance memoir about his life growing up in a dysfunctional family in Middletown, Ohio, but with roots in the hills of eastern Kentucky. We see J.D. in two parallel timelines, one as a teenager dealing with his abusive drug addicted mother Bev (Amy Adams) and the other as a Yale Law School student called home to handle his mother’s latest episode of a heroin overdose. The movie is a series of abusive situations in which the family reacts to Mom’s explosive temper, brought on by a lifetime of disappointments. The acting by Adams and especially Glenn Close as the Mamaw, the matriarch of the family is realistic. Close has been transformed with a wig and baggy T-shirts into a gruff meanspirited grandmother who uses tough love to keep her grandchildren from falling into the pattern of failure familiar to her family. (Though there is a scene where she sets her husband on fire, but never mind that.) Close deserves the Academy Award nomination she received for the role. Unfortunately, it takes more than good acting to make a good movie so Hillbilly Elegy doesn’t deserve the same praise and is hard to watch as the characters put themselves through such misery. I didn’t read the book which is reputed to be a social commentary on poor working-class white America. Sadly, the many social and political issues raised in the book did not carry over into the movie that can be described as a series of face-slapping, door-slamming and drug fueled abusive scenes. It’s a collection of talented actors in a movie in search of a purpose. The director of Cinderella Man and The Da Vinci Code has missed the mark with this one.

A Complete Unknown

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A Complete Unknown   4 ½ stars

Legendary folk singer/song writer Bob Dylan finally gets the biopic treatment in A Complete Unknown, by Director James Mangold (who previously did the same for Johnny Cash in Walk the Line). The movie focuses on the short span of time from Dylan first appearing on the music scene in Greenwich Village in 1961 to his rise to stardom in 1965. You can tell from the opening scenes you are in for a treat when the 20-year-old Bob Dylan, arriving in New York from Minnesota, seeks out his idol, an ailing Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) in a hospital and sings ’Song to Woody’ which he personally wrote for Woody. Watching the private performance is folk singer Pete Seeger (Ed Norton) who was well known by this time. Both men can see that they will see more of this kid. Likewise, we the audience see something iconic in the actor portraying Dylan, Timothée Chalamet, who is already well known to movie audiences from appearances in Dune, Wonka and Don’t Look Up. He plays the notes and sings in a warbly voice that is more than just an impression. He gives a performance that raises your expectations for the movie wondering what he will do in later scenes. In the movie, Dylan forms relationships with people in the industry including Joan Baez, Seeger and management types like Albert Grossman. He crashes with girlfriend Sylvia (Elle Fanning) who, through her activist causes, gives Dylan an awareness of the crises headed for America, inspiring his songwriting. You can see why he wrote The Times, They Are a Changin’. It is through the relationships with these characters that we get a sense of how Dylan is changing and that he is charting his own course. I was glad that unlike some biopics the movie did not go into his upbringing, (think Rocketman and Ray) leaving some sense of mystery about him. Of course, the fact that Bob Dylan himself was a producer of the film probably has something to do with how he is portrayed. There are several different venues depicted from small nightclubs to the Newport Folk Festival, giving a sense of Dylan’s rising fame. The movie culminates at the popular music festival where the drama of whether Dylan will follow the tradition set by the festival or go full loud volume electric guitar. The critics say that there was much playing around with the events depicted, meaning the movie isn’t exactly accurate. Since I don’t remember anything of that time I can’t say, but it sure makes for some good movie drama.

In the Heights

In the Heights                    4 ½ stars

For my first 2021 movie to be viewed in the theater I saw the musical extravaganza In the Heights. This is the film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first Broadway musical about the joys of living in New York City’s Washington Heights, a primarily Latin community. Along with the wonder of the neighborhood are the struggles the main characters go through trying to find their place in life. The scenes go well beyond what could be done in the confines of a stage production using large set pieces with what must be hundreds of dancers and carefully choreographed numbers with moving cameras. The story centers on four or five young people who are all facing challenges and tough decisions as they search for their calling, be it in the community or in a new setting. The young cast is impressive but it is Anthony Ramos of the original Hamilton on Broadway who really steals the show with his convincing role as Usnavi, the Dominican Republic native who runs the bodega that he inherited from his parents. His well delivered hip hop lyrics to Miranda’s songs are masterful. The movie was released on home video, but it is best to see it on the big screen to really get the full experience.

Nickel Boys

Nickel Boys         5 stars

Nickel Boys by filmmaker RaMell Ross, based on Colson Whitehead’s novel about the experiences of two black teens sentenced to a racist boy’s reformatory in the deep South is certainly one of the most unusual films to come out in the past year. Its depictions of the nightmarish treatment of young blacks by white men in the south of the early sixties, while shocking, is not unfamiliar. There have been many films depicting the abuses suffered in the Civil Rights Era. (To Kill a Mockingbird, Raisin in the Sun, Selma). What makes this film unique is the way that Ross chose to construct the shots. From the beginning we see everything from the point of view of the main character, Elwood (Ethan Herisse of When They See Us), from his time as a young boy rolling in the grass, to his time with his grandmother and when he is offered the chance to go to a Florida university with all expenses paid. While walking to the college, Elwood is picked up on the road by a friendly driver, not knowing that the car is stolen. When they are stopped by the police, Elwood is falsely accused of the crime and is sentenced to the racist Nickel Academy, a hellhole based on the Dozier School in Florida. While there he makes acquaintance with another teen, Turner (Brandon Wilson of the Ben Affleck movie The Way Back) who befriends him. Then we start to see other scenes shot from the point of view of Turner with the scenes alternating between Elwood and Turner. The technique seems like a gimmick at first but pays off as it gives the viewer the feeling that they are experiencing the abuses suffered firsthand. The two boys have different outlooks on their situation. In Elwood we see the optimist as he records his activities in a secret notebook thinking that he will be able to reveal the truth of what Nickel is like and escape the brutal punishment. Turner is practical as he looks for ways to survive the abuse. It is all set against the backdrop of the Civil Rights struggle as we see clips of Martin Luther King and the moon mission of Apollo 8. There are flash forward scenes with Daveed Diggs playing the adult Elwood as he researches via the internet about an investigation of the Nickel site where bodies are being unearthed, reminding us of the wider abuses of the time. Plus, it assures us that Elwood survives the experience. Viewing Nickel Boys is an experience to be taken seriously. You will be thinking of it long after leaving the theater. The movie is one of the Academy Award Best Picture nominees, an honor certainly deserved.

Maria

Maria    4 stars

Director Pablo Larrain has constructed not so much a movie but a portrait of Maria Callas, one of the greatest female opera singers who ever lived. In Maria, Oscar winning actress, Angelina Jolie gives one of her best performances to date, completely breaking from the action roles she is known for. In the movie we follow Maria in her final days living in her extravagant Paris apartment in the 1970’s where she remembers her greatest past performances while self-medicating with a variety of drugs. Her only company is her faithful butler and her housemaid who watch over her religiously. Occasionally, she is visited by her doctor who urges caution in the face of her deteriorating condition. He advises that she should not attempt singing anymore as it puts too much stress on her frail body. Even so she still goes to a vacant theater where she attempts singing with the help of a supportive pianist. She is visited by a TV journalist who records her telling of the important times in her life. The journalist exists only in her mind though and has the same name as one of the drugs she is taking. She even relates her long relationship with shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. Callas is framed in shots showing her almost in a trance, alternating to scenes of past opera performances made to look like old films of the fifties and sixties. Opera fans will adore hearing parts of pieces by Verdi, Bellini and Puccini in these segments. The voice of Callas is superb, apparently being a blend of Jolie’s voice and actual recordings of the opera star. The opera scenes not only serve to showcase Callas’s talent but also relate to parts of her life that she is thinking of in each particular scene. The production design of the street scenes in Paris and the fashion and contents of Callas’s apartment are done in such authentic detail you can imagine that you are really there. Of course, it is Angelina Jolie who delivers a performance that conveys the singer’s diva status as well as her lost sense of reality. Maria is nominated for one Academy Award, that being in Cinematography. The Academy did not see fit to nominate Jolie for another acting award, though she deserves it.

By Design

By Design            2 stars

If there is a movie genre for absurdity, then Amanda Kramer’s By Design would certainly fit that category. I am sure there are people that like this type of movie, but it’s not me (at least not this one). Camille (Juliette Lewis) likes to spend time with her friends, but she mostly listens to them, not participating in the conversations much. One day the friends go to a furniture store to look at the chairs they have on sale. One of them, a wood chair that is plain but elegant, attracts Camille’s attention and she must have it. Before she can buy it though, someone else purchases the chair and Camille is so upset that she transfers her soul into the chair leaving her own body behind in a trance. The chair comes into the possession of Olivier (Mamoudou Athie) who senses something special about it and essentially falls in love with the chair as if it is a person. In the meantime, Camille’s body at home is visited by her friends and her mother who have conversations with her as if she is engaged with them. Camille herself only stares into space without ever speaking. The movie sends a message that we are defined by the objects we possess. We have relationships with our possessions that can be as important to us as people. There are some interesting performances that can be called interpretive dance with bodies climbing over one another and over chairs. Some acting performances are very good, but at other times they have a bland speaking tone. Athie is especially good in his role. The movie tends to drag on too much and could have been better as a short. It was not a good start at Sundance with it being my first film. Amanda Kramer has directed several movies before, none of which I have ever seen.

Where the Wind Comes From

Where the Wind Comes From 4 1/2 suns

From the country of Tunisia comes what I thought was one of the best films I’ve seen at the festival. Where the Wind Comes From is a sort of road trip movie featuring a pair of young friends on an event filled journey. Alyssa is 19, rebellious and tired of her boring life in Tunis and dreams of a better life away from her home. Mehdi, a 23 year old man is her close childhood friend, who is a talented amateur artist who has taught himself to draw. Alyssa learns of an art contest being held in a city across the country and sees it as a chance for the two of them to escape their boring lives in Tunisia and travel to Germany. She convinces Mehdi to enter and devises a rather haphazard plan to get to the contest which is tough since they have almost no money. Alyssa is a real risk taker, putting them in dangerous situations and it’s up to the calm and thoughtful Mehdi to keep things from getting out of control. There are some musical interludes that use animation as a way of showing Alyssa’s active imagination. The movie includes scenes that show the male dominated Arab culture and how this can be difficult for women. Generally, the movie is optimistic in tone and is about the relationship of close friends that have a shared interest. And it deals with African migration as those in tough economic conditions seek a better life. The two young actors portray their contrasting personalities, convincing us of the close friendship. The movie also features some beautiful Arabic music that was great to hear. The film is mostly in Arabic with some French. I am hoping that it wins some awards from Sundance and that it will be seen by a wider audience.