Category Archives: Drama

The Starling Girl

The Starling Girl                4 stars

The Starling Girl, the first feature film from director Laurel Parmet appeared at this year’s Sundance and was just released in theaters. It concerns a young seventeen-year-old girl, Jem Starling (Eliza Scanlen of Little Women and Sharp Objects) who is coming of age in a small rural town in Kentucky where she and her parents are part of a fundamentalist congregation. Jem is very devout in her faith, but is starting to realize her sexuality and the limits placed on her in this patriarchal society. She takes pride in the dance troupe she is in, but must heed the warnings from adults not to make it about her and to keep God first. One must be very careful in this setting as straying from the fold can result in requiring a confession in front of the congregation and being sent to a disciplinary camp for rehabilitation. Owen Taylor (Lewis Pullman), a handsome thirty-year-old youth pastor returns from an assignment in Puerto Rico with his wife, having a deep impact on Jem’s world. It is then that the story takes a darker turn with Jem pursuing a relationship with the pastor which he is all too willing to accommodate. The naïve Jem sees it as part of God’s plan to get them together while the audience knows what Owen is up to and that only disaster can result. To some extent the story is predictable, but it is made believable because of the acting ability of the young Eliza Scanlen. I don’t know anything about Laurel Parmet’s background but the film was useful in framing the Christian fundamentalist view of life and the outside world and of the effect on young people within the fundamentalist community.

You Hurt My Feelings

You Hurt My Feelings     4 ½ stars

The new movie You Hurt My Feelings, written and directed by Nicole Holofcener first premiered at Sundance this past year and was one of those I heard good things about but didn’t get the chance to see. Now it is in theaters and thankfully can be seen and appreciated by movie fans. The previous Holofcener movies I have seen, Friends with Money, Please Give and Enough Said all have a special comedic style. They feature relationships between people that care for each other and have conversations where slight amusing cuts are made between them. They are not cute but also are not vicious; they are for the most part honest. In this movie Beth (Julia Louis Dreyfus), a writer and writing instructor is happily married to Don (Tobias Menzies), a therapist. Beth has written a memoir about her relationship with her father that was a success and is now working on a work of fiction but can’t get a publisher to accept it. Her sister, Sarah (Michaela Watkins) is an interior designer and is married to Mark (Arian Moayed), a stage actor. The couple discuss everyday things and go about their jobs until one day Beth and Sarah accidentally overhear Don telling Mark that he thinks Beth’s new book is awful but is afraid to tell her that and instead only gives her more encouragement. This causes great distress for Beth but she is afraid to say anything and is now worried that her marriage is all a lie. All of this is handled in comedic style with the combination of Holofcener and Dreyfus giving us plenty to laugh at. Dreyfus’s acting here is not at all like her angry character in Veep. She plays it more subdued and really brings out Beth’s insecurities toward everything. Holofcener and Dreyfus worked together previously on Enough Said and it’s great to see them collaborating again in a light comedy. I find Julia Louis Dreyfus to be one of the funniest actresses working today. This pair working together has given us a real gem of a comedy.

Past Lives

Past Lives            5 stars

Past Lives is another of the Sundance movies from this year that I did not see in Park City. Fortunately, it has hit the big screen and can be seen by all audiences. The movie brings out the concept of In-Yun, a Korean belief that people that are connected to one another and will reunite in other ways in other lives at different times, hence the name of the film. This movie Is a real emotional tear-jerker that is aided by some great performances from the main actors. The story takes place in three time periods. We first meet Na Young and Hae Sung as 12 year olds in South Korea where they are close friends, But Na Young’s family is about to immigrate to Canada so they must separate. Later the story jumps ahead twelve years and Na Young now goes by the name Nora (Greta Lee previously appearing only in supporting roles) and is trying to get established as a writer in New York. Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) stayed in Korea and is doing his mandatory military service, but has never forgotten his childhood friend, so he has done an online search for her and finally found her. The pair carry on an on-screen relationship where the pair relate well to each other and they are obviously close, but they must end things. Seeing one another in person is not practical. In the third act, an additional twelve years later, Nora has married Arthur, an American man, (John Magaro) another writer and received her Green Card. Hae Sung still has not forgotten his friend and arranges a trip to see her in New York. One may think this would create a very awkward situation but the writing of first time director, Celine Song is so honest and subdued that she makes the characters seem very real. There is still an obvious attraction between the two main characters, but the reality of their situations determines that they must remain friends. Hae Sung even says that it hurts to like Arthur, Nora’s husband so much. Greta Lee is impressive as an actress who can express feeling with a simple look and through long pauses that tell a great deal. By the end you are wondering what will be in store in their next lives. Some people have already said this is one of the best films of the year.

I Saw the TV Glow

I Saw the TV Glow            4 stars

One of the movies featured at Sundance made its way to the theaters so I took in one of the festival’s favorites by watching I Saw the TV Glow. This teen horror about fandom of a cult TV show is the second feature from writer/director Jane Schoenbrun and is unique with its style and presentation. (Her first movie was the horror film We’re All Going to the World’s Fair.) It has the potential to be a cult classic and is meant to appeal to young audiences who see themselves as loners and misfits but find comradery in a mysterious TV show. In the movie we meet Owen (Ian Forman), a middle school student who lives with his parents and has no friends at school. One day while accompanying his mom (Danielle Deadwyler of Till and The Harder They Fall) to a voting booth, he spots Maddie (Brigette Lundy-Paine (Bill and Ted Face the Music)), an older girl, also a loner, reading an episode guide for her favorite TV show called The Pink Opaque. Owen has heard of the show before but could never watch it because it is on Saturday evenings after his bedtime. (The movie is set in the nineties before streaming and DVRs, so most TV shows are watched live.) The show is very campy with poor special effects but is popular with young audiences. It is about two teenage girls (actors Helena Howard and Lindsey Jordan) who meet at Sleepaway camp and become friends though they live far apart from one another. They have psychic powers enabling them to communicate with each other. Each episode they fight against the monster of the week that always appears in ridiculous looking costumes. (Think of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, except on a much lower budget.) The monsters are controlled by a mysterious being called Mr. Melancholy who looks like the moon and is out to destroy the girls. Owen and Maddie aren’t close, (She is gay, and Owen isn’t sure what he is.) but they bond over the show after Owen sneaks over to her house to watch it. Then Maddie provides Owen with VHS tapes of episodes so that he can watch it on his own. A couple of years later Owen is still watching the show but he is then played by Justice Smith (The American Society of Magical Negroes). (In a note of irony, the high school they attend is Void High School (VHS).) It is only then after Owen’s mother passes away, Maddie mysteriously disappears with her TV set on fire in her back yard and The Pink Opaque is cancelled after five seasons, that we get the sense there is more to the TV show than we realized. The teens find that their very lives are intertwined with the show, and they can’t separate their lives from fiction. The neon colors and disturbing images of I Saw the TV Glow are designed to give us a sense of escapism, to get away from reality and not think about the troubles of our lives. Goth style music and dark unkept rooms aid in the nightmarish feel of the whole experience. I Saw the TV Glow may be a new cult movie that today’s Gen Z will relate to for years to come. I would like to see what Schoenbrun will bring us next.

Raya and the Last Dragon

Raya and the Last Dragon             3 ½ stars

In 2021 the popular animated Walt Disney release was Encanto, the story of a magical family in Columbia. That same year Disney released the animated movie Raya and the Last Dragon which didn’t quite get the same attention in the era of Covid. This fairly typical Disney story concerns a fictional land called Kumandra, where 500 years ago a plague of sinister monsters that could turn people into stone was stopped by a race of dragons who lived peacefully with humans. But over time the humans broke up into factions leaving only one village to keep the dragon gem safe that continues to protect the people. That village is led by Benja, who has a daughter, Raya, a sort of young ninja in training. The peace is broken when another village breaks the gem, stealing pieces of it which releases the curse of the monsters again, spreading havoc across the land. The only hope is for Raya, accompanied by her pill bug friend, Tuk tuk to find the last remaining dragon who can defeat the monsters. She finds the dragon, a comical, energetic creature named Sisu who is powerful, but somewhat immature and needing guidance. Somehow, Sisu was chosen to be the last dragon after all the others were sacrificed to the magic, stone creating monsters. In classic Disney fashion, the pair and their friends must deal with many action filled dangers along the way to saving their people. The movie is rich in action and color, but was written by a team of writers so it is quite an amalgam of characters and references to Southeast Asia. It is not really a Disney princess movie but contains elements from a variety of Disney movies that we have seen before. The movie is very suitable for young audiences even including the monsters.

The Hand of God

The Hand of God              4 ½ stars

Academy Award winning Italian director Paolo Sorrentino creates a Fabelman-esque story in The Hand of God, a sort of coming of age story loosely based on his own upbringing in 1980’s Naples. If you have seen one of his previous movies, The Great Beauty, you know he has set some high standards. In The Hand of God, we follow 18-year-old Fabietto (Filippo Scotti) who lives with his mom and dad and spends his time going to large family gatherings, going with his brother Marchino to acting auditions and dreaming about sex and soccer (European football), though it’s hard to tell which interests him more. He also has an interest in the movies. The early scenes are amusing in this two hour and ten minute movie, such as when his aunt Patrizia takes the opportunity at a family outing to sunbath nude in the presence of the entire family. Other relatives create equally absurd situations. A central element of the film comes when real life Argentinian superstar Diego Maradona joins the Naples soccer team creating a sensation for young Fabietto and the whole city. It is when a great tragedy strikes that forces the young man toward making decisions about what he should do with his life and is steered toward filmmaking. The Hand of God is largely fictionalized, but it does mirror events from Sorrentino’s life including the life changing tragedy. (The meeting with film legend Frederico Fellini did not actually happen though.) It’s worth viewing provided you can commit for the full duration. The Hand of God was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Asteroid City

Asteroid City      4 stars

Viewers of Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City will immediately recognize the picturesque style and rapid storytelling techniques of the acclaimed director. This is apparently the eleventh film of Anderson’s going back to Bottle Rocket in the nineties. This one may be the most imaginative one yet. Here we get a story within a story as the film starts with a TV host in a 1950’s Actors’ Studio show telling us about the writing efforts of a famed playwright working on his play, Asteroid City. This part of the movie is in black and white, but when we travel to the play, set in a 1950’s southwestern town in the desert the screen switches to bright pastel colors so typical of Anderson’s movies. The town is the location of the annual Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention because it is the site of a crater created by an asteroid many centuries before. There, we see a large collection of interesting characters portrayed by many well-known Hollywood actors, including some regulars that Wes Anderson works with. They include Jason Schwartzman as a war photographer traveling with his Brainiac son, Scarlet Johansson as a Hollywood film star and Tom Hanks as a rich grandfather. Some of the actors have double roles portraying their Asteroid City characters and the actors in the play when they interact with the play’s director (Adrien Brody). There are too many notable characters for me to list here. You will have to see the movie to get the full experience. Eventually, there is a life changing event in the small town that brings the attention of the US military. We do get a fascinating story told with rapid fire dialogue and narration that’s familiar as was done in movies of the forties and fifties. You may experience some confusion about what’s going on as expressed by Schwartzman’s Jones Hall does when talking to the director, Schubert Green (Brody). His advice: “Don’t worry about it, just keep telling the story.” Wes Anderson’s movies aren’t always cohesive. They are more about being something to experience and Asteroid City is all about the experience.

Sound of Freedom

Sound of Freedom          no review

I have not seen the Jim Caviezel movie Sound of Freedom, nor will I ever see it. The ads for it have been appearing regularly on television. The movie has had some very high box office numbers and has created a stir in the right-wing world so I felt compelled to make a public service announcement and warn people about it. The thriller action movie appears to be part of a crusade against child trafficking and features Caviezel as a sort of one man super hero out to rescue the victims of the sex trade. (Caviezel is best known for his portrayal of Jesus Christ in the Mel Gibson movie The Passion of the Christ.) In reality, it is a propaganda piece put out by the people who adhere to QAnon fantasy conspiracy theories such as the traffickers are harvesting children’s organs and extracting adrenochrome before killing them. The movie appears to be appealing to a mostly older white audience who are there to reinforce their views of what is wrong with the government and the country. Based on what I have read of the movie it is full of implausibilities and condemnations of the government. The movie was reportedly made in 2018 and it took this long to find someone to distribute it as it was considered to be a money loser. I have a suspicion that certain churches and right-wing groups have been buying out theater tickets in order to inflate the numbers. This has been a practice for other such propaganda movies. If you have not seen the movie you are warned to stay away from it. If you have seen it then you have my sympathy for enduring the pain.

Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom

Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom  4 ½ stars

In an Academy Awards first, a movie from the mountainous country of Bhutan was nominated for an Academy Award in the Foreign Language category. Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom takes a familiar theme of a new teacher assigned to a class of poor students and gives it a new take, with a setting in the Asian village of Lunana, a real village in Bhutan that must be one of the most isolated spots in the world. Ugyen is a young man who is fulfilling his government contract as an elementary school teacher who really wants to move to Australia and perform as a singer. His boss remarks that he is the most unmotivated teacher she has ever seen so gives him the assignment to serve one term as teacher in the remote mountain village of Lunana where a post is available. Ugyen, who likes to listen to music on his iPod most of the time has no choice but to make the journey to Lunana, a trip of six days on foot through the mountains accompanied by two guides and three horses. When he finally arrives he is greeted by the village elder Asha who has great respect for teachers who “touch the future”, along with most of the village and the children who are to be his students. Lunana is without running water, has only solar panels for electricity and the main source of heat is burning yak dung because paper is too valuable to burn. Ugyen undergoes something of a transformation from thinking of teaching as an annoyance to seeing its value and having a sense of purpose when seeing the enthusiasm of the students even amid such conditions. He also learns more of the local culture by hearing the music dedicated to the life of a yak herder. The audience feels the transformation going on as Ugyen’s experience progresses. The movie’s premise may sound like a cliché, but it is moving especially since all of the cast has never acted before. The real life residents in the village had never even seen a car or a camera before. The movie’s film crew had to manage in the remote location for a three month shooting schedule as well as make the long journey on foot. I will leave it to you to discover what Ugyen decides to do at the end of the movie.

Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer   4 ½ stars

“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” These are the words that J. Robert Oppenheimer, played by Cillian Murphy says early in the Christopher Nolan new epic film Oppenheimer about the life of the theoretical physicist who was chosen to head the Manhattan Project during World War II. We don’t know if Oppenheimer really said this but it demonstrates just how troubled he became as he would come to terms with the incredible destructive power unleashed with the atomic bomb. The film gives us the story of Oppenheimer’s life and how he led the project located in the desert at Los Alamos, New Mexico, including the scandal of an affair and the drama of two court hearings. The movie packs a heck of a lot in the three hour running time. It is about the creation of the bomb, but is just as much a tense political thriller. It follows multiple time lines and a myriad of characters from academics and the military using both color and black and white footage sometimes interspersed with images of explosions and rotting corpses and faces. Nolan often uses short scenes with only a few longer ones all of which are packed with dialogue jumping from one time to another. It would be nice to see the years the scenes occur in, but there are many clues given as the time lines stretch from the nineteen twenties to the nineteen fifties. Oppenheimer’s (Cillian Murphy) main enemy in the film is Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.), the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission after the war who first recruits Oppenheimer then seeks to destroy his career. One may be surprised to see that the achievement of completing the first atomic explosion happens about two-thirds of the way through the film with the hearings taking up the remainder of the movie. In the first, occurring around 1954, Oppenheimer is accused of being an agent for the Soviets with communist leanings when it is brought out that his views toward the weapon changed with the development of the H-bomb and that his wife, Kitty (Emily Blunt) may have been a member of the Communist party many years before (the worst accusation in the America of the 1950’s). In the second, a Senate hearing is held for the confirmation of Strauss as the Commerce Secretary for President Eisenhower in 1959. We seem to go through endless testimony from individuals who played a role in the Manhattan Project, some on Oppenheimer’s side and some who are not. Throughout the entire movie, it is Murphy’s performance that makes it a success more than anything letting us see Oppenheimer’s talent as a visionary who is also deeply troubled by the threat brought to humankind by this creation. There are a great many actors with supporting roles in this complicated story that will be familiar to audiences. To mention a few there are Matt Damon, Josh Hartnett, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, Casey Affleck, Florence Pugh and Jason Clarke without going into the individual roles. (Gary Oldman is great as Harry Truman being a real jerk.) To really understand what is going on, one would have to see the movie more than once. I can guarantee that it will keep your attention throughout, thanks to Nolan’s writing and an excellent score by Ludwig Goransson. I would say though that the sex scene in a hallucination that Oppenheimer has could have been left out and nothing would be lost. It is safe to say that this is one of two must see movies of the summer. We will be looking for many Academy Award nominations for Oppenheimer next year, I am sure.