Antebellum - Movie Review by Monte Yazzie

Janelle Monáe as Eden in “Antebellum”

Dir: Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz

Starring: Janelle Monáe, Eric Lange, Jena Malone, Jack Huston, Arabella Landrum

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past”. – William Faulkner

Directors Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz begin their hybrid horror film “Antebellum” with this quote from William Faulkner’s story “Requiem for a Nun”. The line, specific about the history of the American South, describes how the past still haunts the present. When Barack Obama used a variation of that line during a speech in 2008, it framed William Faulkner’s environment of the South and how the legacy of racial atrocities found in history still linger so prevalent today. 

It doesn’t take much to find horror in the world these days. Amid a global pandemic, the makings of a horror film already, the injustices happening across the world continue to pile on one right after the other. And cinema, consistently one of the best mirrors of present times in the world, has taken to genre film to discuss and dissect the issues. Films like Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” show how genre movies can offer an important lens of insight, understanding the balance between social commentary and exploitation. 

“Antebellum” is a film about slavery and the continuing prejudice and racism towards Black people. The film utilizes a horror narrative frame to enclose and examine these elements. The result is an unbalanced endeavor.

The film begins on a plantation, a long tracking shot pulls the viewer into a moment of utter terror where an enslaved couple is being punished. The camera movements and framing of faces make the moment all the more devasting as the viewer is stuck, forced to watch the devastating viciousness. 

We are introduced to Eden (Janelle Monáe), an enslaved woman who is not allowed to talk and is brutalized in every way possible by a man only known as Him (Eric Lange).  The abuse she endures, rape and torture with a hot iron brand, is appalling. There are more terrible people at this plantation; a woman (Jena Malone) with a Southern accent hides her evil intentions behind an innocent grin and a Confederate captain named Jasper (Jack Huston) who rides his horse while threatening death to anyone who dares try to talk. 

It’s never clear how long Eden has been suffering, though she is well-respected by others and often asked when another escape will be attempted. But something is off about this past world. History, often hinted at by the soldiers on the plantation, seems rewritten to fit a new narrative, while the people enslaved seem to be hiding information about their identities. However, right before the mystery becomes unraveled, a phone rings and the viewer is brought from the past into the present, where Dr. Veronica Henley (also Janelle Monáe) is living a dream life with her husband and child. Veronica is a sociologist, author, and National advocate for the disenfranchised lives of Black Americans. But something is strange about this present world. How are Eden and Veronica connected becomes the mystery that will ultimately be revealed. 

“Antebellum” is aiming for something insightful amidst some pretty unsettling imagery involving slavery and set within a cotton plantation somewhere in the South. The connections between social and historical commentary are often blurred by strong and cruel cinematic qualities. Instead of finding a balance between the two characteristics, the film often wanders in and out of these elements. When the mystery finally gets revealed the revelation feels shallow instead of profound, the wrong emotion considering the use of violence displayed at the beginning of the film.

At the core of “Antebellum” is a wonderful performance from Janelle Monáe, enveloped within photography that is equally beautiful and brutal, sometimes confusingly at the same time. Still, Ms. Monáe is so emotionally raw at times, while also composing a strong and confident female character in both the past and present realms within the story. It’s her portrayal of Eden/Veronica that keeps the mystery interesting.

While the film searches for meaning, at times connecting elements of how the world perceives and analyzes people simply by the color of their skin and not by the content of their character, it also struggles to focus its concepts within a muddled, unbalanced script. While the film does work as a true-to-life horror film, bringing the atrocities of the past into full detail on screen, the balance of tone and imagery is consistently at odds with one another. This keeps “Antebellum” stuck in a place where the past it examines and explores never connects a meaning for the future it hopes to change.

Monte’s Rating
2.25 out of 5.00

H is for Happiness - Movie Review by Jen Johans

Daisy Axon and Wesley Patten in “H Is for Happiness” directed by John Sheedy.

Director: John Sheedy

Writer: Lisa Hoppe (based upon “My Life as an Alphabet” by Barry Jonsberg)

Cast: Daisy Axon, Wesley Patten, Emma Booth, Richard Roxburgh, Miriam Margolyes & Joel Jackson.

Review by Jen Johans

Based upon Barry Jonsberg's award-winning young adult novel “My Life as an Alphabet,” “H is for Happiness” is quirky with a capital Q. With high key lighting and vibrant primary and secondary colors, which are wonderfully captured by cinematographer Bonnie Elliott (as well as Rick Rifici who shot the water photography), the film is as gorgeously rendered as the illustrations in the Little Golden Books series of titles that we read as children at bedtime.

Yet, in blending together Eleanor H. Porter's “Pollyanna” and Roald Dahl's “Matilda,” (both of which were famously brought to the screen by directors David Swift and Danny DeVito respectively), “H is for Happiness” plays best as an exercise in style over substance.

Following the exploits of a tirelessly optimistic, terribly bright twelve-year-old girl named Candice Phee (played with gusto by newcomer Daisy Axon), this Australian import finds Candice taking it upon herself to try to put her broken family back together again. Essentially ignored by her overwhelmed parents (played by Emma Booth and Richard Roxburgh), Candice tries to cure her mom's depression following the death of her younger sister years earlier and also mend her father's rift with her Rich Uncle Brian (Joel Jackson).

Daisy Axon and Wesley Patten in “H Is for Happiness”

Initially, she attempts to do this alone but soon Candice finds help in the form of her new classmate Douglas Benson from Another Dimension (Wesley Patten). Becoming fast friends with the peculiar boy who, as Candice's name for him implies, believes he is from another dimension and dreams of falling out of a tree to land back in his correct universe, our precociously bright leads strive to set everything right throughout “H”'s ninety-eight-minute running time.

Inspired after she tries to stop her classmates from ridiculing her disabled teacher (Miriam Margolyes) – whose constantly bobbling eye feels like it came right out of an unpublished Roald Dahl manuscript – Candice goes right to work. From preparing an elaborate Nashville themed evening for her country music loving mom to taking a page from “The Parent Trap” in trying to get her father and Rich Uncle Brian back together again, “H” means well but its endlessly cloying tone ensures that every emotional moment feels like its being shouted at you rather than genuinely earned.

Freely admitting that his feature filmmaking debut was influenced by the work of John Hughes, Wes Anderson, and Pedro Almodovar, although director John Sheedy's approach to “H” sounds thrilling in theory, a large part of the film's problem is that numerous scenes feel like they belong in one of those auteur's movies as opposed to a new confection made up of all three. Moving uneasily from a Hughes-like scene of burgeoning love between the two preteens to the sardonic Andersonesque fear of her friend jumping out of a tree to an odd gag with an inflatable beach ball boob rig that Almodovar would gravitate to in a heartbeat, this self-consciously quirky, inconsistent movie is all over the place.

Set on the stunningly beautiful Australian coastal town of Albany and adapted from the novel by Lisa Hoppe, Sheedy's well-intentioned film is as lovely to look at as a storybook but plays like there was an error at the printer's and three disparate tales were bound together instead of one.

(Bio: A three-time national award-winning writer, when Jen Johans isn't reviewing movies at FilmIntuition.com or releasing new episodes of her podcast “Watch With Jen,” you can find her on Twitter @FilmIntuition.)

The Devil All the Time - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Tom Holland in “The Devil All the Time”

‘The Devil All the Time’ is a well-crafted, exceedingly grim slow burn

Directed by:  Antonio Campos

Written by:  Antonio and Paulo Campos, based on the novel by Donald Ray Pollock

Starring:  Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Jason Clarke, Riley Keough, Sebastian Stan, Bill Skarsgard, and Mia Wasikowska

“The Devil All the Time” – At the 46-minute mark of director Antonio Campos’ film adaptation of Donald Ray Pollock’s debut 2011 novel, Arvin Russell (Tom Holland) sheepishly smiles when his aunt brings out a cake with a lit candle on his birthday.  As an audience, let’s also celebrate the occasion, because this moment is one of the very few on-screen smiles offered in “The Devil All the Time”, a rough-and-tumble, exceedingly grim step into noir.  It’s a picture that might leave you depressed and reduced to near-zero hope for humanity.  The story’s timeframe runs during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.  That was a long time ago, and the United States has enjoyed 50-plus years of social progress and change to point to with pride.  Look at where we stand as a country in 2020, and—   Well, never mind.  Let’s move on.

Yes, let’s move on to the American Midwest, and - more specifically – to West Virginia and Ohio.  While in the Buckeye State, the movie’s events play out in Knockemstiff, and the town’s name seems appropriate.  During yesterdecade, everyday men settle conflicts with their fists rather than extended discourse and debate.  In other circles, an existing personal strife isn’t the only affair that could trigger violence.  In Campos’ film, hitchhiking is hazardous, and organized crime and community leaders cross blurred lines or practice full – although not exactly willful - cooperation.  As the homeland copes with duress - including economic hardships - overseas wars serve as the narrative’s bookends. 

For Willard Russell (Bill Skarsgard), his troubles begin on the Solomon Islands during WWII.  He witnesses a solitary, horrific act that haunts him for years.  Finding a therapist on Google wasn’t a thing back then, and neither was opening up to family and friends.  No one defined post-traumatic stress disorder, so for some men returning home from war, shell shock or battle fatigue were their diagnoses. 

Perhaps, church is a refuge towards normalcy, but after attending Roy Laferty’s (Harry Melling) unsettling guest sermon, turning to one’s faith might not offer a comforting remedy.  Religion serves as the central theme in “The Devil All the Time”.  After digesting this 138-minute unsettling - and occasionally explosive - downer, it feels like an anti-religious tale, but Skarsgard offers a different explanation. 

“The book isn’t a comment on religion, as much as it’s a comment on what people do with religions,” he said. 

Skarsgard is right, and he changed this critic’s perspective.  The movie follows this mantra as well, and Rev. Preston Teagardin (Robert Pattinson) delivers a prime example.  Pattinson is a bit off-the-charts and downright mesmerizing as an off-kilter preacher who holds his own demented best interests in mind rather than his flocks’ needs.  Geez, the good reverend isn’t the only one, because several others with varying degrees of power – throughout the picture - carry directionless moral compasses too. 

In a Sept. 14 interview, Campos said that he wanted Pattinson to “swing for the fences” as Teagardin, and he added, “That was the mandate across the board.  Everyone pushed themselves.”

The all-star cast took Campos’ words to heart, as Riley Keough, Jason Clarke, and Sebastian Stan deliver standout performances.  From time to time, this ensemble picture feels like a depraved Robert Altman flick, as the characters in power run roughshod over those without megaphones. 

The followers need voices, and Arvin hopefully finds his.  Holland is particularly good here, as a young man swallowing his pain and desperately searching for an outlet to release it.  Well, a specific gesture on his aforementioned birthday could prove to be his needed push. 

(3/4 stars)

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic.  Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

Antonio Campos interview - "The Devil All the Time" by Jeff Mitchell

Antonio Campos on the set of “The Devil All the Time”.

Director Antonio Campos (“Christine” (2016)) recruits an all-star cast – including Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Sebastian Stan, Mia Wasikowska, Riley Keough, Bill Skarsgard, and Jason Clarke – for his intricate noir picture “The Devil All the Time”.  This story – set in Ohio and West Virginia during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s – is adapted from Donald Ray Pollock’s debut 2011 novel with the same name.  Well, the Phoenix Film Festival joined other respected names for a terrific group interview with Antonio, and we discussed the film’s religious elements, Pattinson’s performance, Pollock’s narration, and much more! 

“The Devil All the Time” arrives on Netflix on Sept. 16.

Q:  When watching “The Devil All the Time”, I initially thought that it was an anti-religious movie, but then I read a quote from Bill Skarsgard, who plays Willard Russell, a critical patriarch in the film.  He said, “The book isn’t a comment on religion, as much as it’s a comment on what people do with religions.”   I appreciated his opinion, and he changed my perspective.  What are your thoughts?

AC:  I think that’s beautifully articulated by Bill, who is such a wise, wonderful soul.  The movie is about extreme believers in religion and their faith and the dangers of that.  All these characters are screaming to the heavens looking for answers, and they get (silence) in return.  In that void, they fill it with an answer themselves, and if the person is traumatized or delusional, they can fill it with a dangerous answer.  The film explores the dangers of extreme religion and how (those) in power can take advantage of people’s faith.  That’s what we are exploring, and the film isn’t anti-religion.  It is more (of) a comment on the dangers of religion in the wrong hands.

Q:  You have a history of exploring dark themes in your work.  What drives those choices?

AC:  I think it’s the challenge of making dark characters - these complicated characters - and trying to understand what drives them and motivates some of their bad choices.  Exploring the darkness in books, art, and movies…that’s a safe place to explore those themes. 

Robert Pattinson as Preston Teagardin in “The Devil All the Time”.

Q:  Robert Pattinson took his performance up a notch.  Can you talk about his choices?

AC:  We always wanted Teagardin (Pattinson) to have this otherworldly quality.  He’s designed to come into the movie and shake it up.  Because Teagardin is so far outside the realm of the movie - so far outside West Virginia and Ohio - (Pattinson) had so much freedom to just run with that character and go.  I (told Robert), “Just go as far as you want.  Swing for the fences, and if we have to rein (you) in, we will.”  I love performances like that.  That was the mandate across the board.  Everyone pushed themselves.  Sebastian Stan, as Bodecker, is just amazing.  He’s doing stuff that is really swinging for the fences, and he transforms his body (too).  So, I tried to (give) everybody a sense of freedom and to have fun with their characters.

Q:  You worked with your brother Paulo on this script, and did this change your writing process?

AC:  Writing with (Paulo) was a great experience.  He is my older brother, so there’s already a dynamic there before we got started.  In a lot of ways, my brother was the guy who introduced me to so many books, movies, and music when I was a kid.   So much of the reason why I love these genres is because my brother turned them on to me.  We both had this inherent connection over (and a love for) the material, worked really closely and way, way into the night, sometimes until 5 or 6 in the morning.   (When you work with someone that closely, you’ll) have some of the biggest fights, and you’ll also get closer in a way that you’ll never get without that experience.  (There are) pros and cons, but ultimately (it brought us) even closer. 

Q:  My favorite part of the film was having Pollock play the narrator.  How did you incorporate him into the film?

AC:  From the moment that (we) started implementing narration, there was no other person in my mind than Don Ray Pollock.  I knew his voice was perfect, and it’s a voice born and raised in Knockemstiff, Ohio.  What actor can replicate the feel of that specific place? 

That sound of Southern Ohio is very specific, and the sound of Knockemstiff is very specific.  Don has that.  He knew the world.  He knew the characters.  He created the world and the characters, so there was nobody else.  I hadn’t heard (of) an author (narrating) his adaptation, so it just felt fresh and exciting.  I loved the challenge of working with someone who is not an actor, because you get the kind of performance that doesn’t feel like a performance, but just someone talking to you.  When Don agreed to do it, he recorded all the scripted narration.  We used it as we assembled the movie (and) as we shot it.  As my wife and I (edited) the (film), we would get an idea for a piece of voiceover here or there, and I would email Don right away.  (He) would shoot it back pretty much immediately and give different reads on it.  It was a really great collaborative process.  His voice was so important to the book, and I was happy that we figured out a way of (literally) incorporating it in the movie. 

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic.  Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

The Broken Hearts Gallery - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Geraldine Viswanathan and Dacre Montgomery in “The Broken Hearts Gallery”.

‘The Broken Hearts Gallery’:  You may or may not buy this thin, breezy rom-com

Written and directed by:  Natalie Krinsky

Starring:  Geraldine Viswanathan, Dacre Montgomery, Phillipa Soo, Molly Gordon, and Bernadette Peters

“The Broken Hearts Gallery” – “Sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows, everything that’s wonderful is what I feel when we’re together.  Brighter than a lucky penny, when you’re near, the rain just disappears, dear, and I feel so fine just to know that you are mine.”  - Lesley Gore, “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows”

Spend five minutes with Lucy Gulliver (Geraldine Viswanathan), and Lesley Gore’s 1963 bubblegum tune might immediately pop into your head.  This 20-something is a lively, witty lass who feels lucky in life!  She lives with her two supportive best friends Amanda (Molly Gordon) and Nadine (Phillipa Soo) in a gorgeous Brooklyn apartment and loves her job as an art gallery assistant.  Lucy has it all, except a sustained, loving relationship.  Hey, it didn’t work out with Max (Utkarsh Ambudkar), and although Lucy still sees him in passing, all she has left from their short-term spell of bliss is his tie.  You see, Ms. Gulliver saves mementos from her ex-boyfriends, and some of her keepsakes are a retainer, an espresso machine, a sock, and some toenail clippings. 

Toenail clippings? 

Thankfully, writer/director Natalie Krinsky doesn’t point her camera at the said item, and “The Broken Hearts Gallery” has no icky ulterior motives.  Even though the picture copes with letting go of past heartbreaks, this rom-com has lots of feel-good intentions. 

Krinsky creates a world of wondrous possibilities, open spaces, and big dreams in an urban paradise filled with Ubers, coffee shops, and start-ups on every street (or virtual) corner.  Sure, this utopia does exist in real life.  Then again, thousands and thousands of young professionals – inspired by the NBC hit “Friends” - flocked to The Big Apple in the 1990s and 2000s, but then they realized that Rachel and Monica’s spacious place rents for $25,000 a month.

Harsh reality. 

Krinsky’s flick has a couple of on-screen realities.  First, it should connect with its target audience.  Not only are the movie’s lovely settings and tones nestled with enjoyable movie-goodness, but Lucy is infinitely likable.  Credit Viswanathan.  For those who haven’t seen the “Miracle Workers” TBS series (and include me in this group), this movie is her star turn.  She’s a charismatic comedic actress who has Amy Schumer’s quick wit and humility combined with Ellie Kemper’s positive vibes.  Lucy may badly flub a public speech, but she owns an engaging, girl-next-door, can-do bravado. 

Every new introduction – on the ever-busy NYC streets - is an opportunity for friendship.  Hence, her unexpected second meeting with her pseudo-Uber driver sparks an enthusiastic wave as she declares, “Oh, hey, I know that guy too.  Adolfo-Nick!  What’s up, dude?

It turns out that Adolfo-Nick is just named Nick (Dacre Montgomery), and this financially struggling, wannabe hotel owner becomes Lucy’s new friend, and she invites herself into his lodging project as an art gallery business partner.  Since Max currently sits – somewhat distantly - in her rearview mirror, romance might bloom between Nick and Lucy. 

What do you think? 

Well, “The Broken Hearts Gallery” follows familiar formulas, but that’s okay. 

Unfortunately, the other reality is that the picture feels so light and airy that the heavier messages about letting go carry little weight.  On the one hand, Krinsky includes plenty of vibrant eye and ear candy like Lucy and Nick moving a mustard-colored couch across the city and the pair singing “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” at Amanda’s birthday party, but nothing ever feels at stake.  Just about every adult on Planet Earth has attempted to mend their own broken heart, so the film’s universal message certainly is relatable, but the breezy tones mute any intended emotional impact.  This film’s dramatic moment of truth also lands flat.  A few subplot cul-de-sacs, Montgomery’s distant performance, and the surprisingly-long 105-minute runtime don’t help connect broader audiences either.  (For the record, when you don’t care if the featured couple gets together, that’s a problem.)

Still, Soo (“Hamilton” (2020)) sings poorly on purpose for about five seconds, and Bernadette Peters has some welcome screen time in a limited supporting role, so maybe that’s worth the price of admission for you.  Well, if you want to see “The Broken Hearts Gallery”, go because Viswanathan truly has the whole sunshine-lollipops-and-rainbows thing down.   

(2/4 stars)

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic.  Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

Werner Herzog Double Feature by Jeff Mitchell

Acclaimed director Werner Herzog was born on Sept. 5, 1942 in Munich, Germany, near the epicenter of WWII’s most extreme warfare, and the conflict christened him.  During a 2009 interview, he explains that his mother moved their family from Munich to a small, isolated Bavarian village for safety reasons - when he was about 10 days old – “because a bomb had hit right next to our place.”

Seventy-eight years later, one could accurately describe Mr. Herzog as fearless.  Perhaps his bold, adventurousness spirit points back to that aforementioned incident, when a fiery explosion nearly killed him before he reached his second week of life.  In honor of the man who faced an active volcano (“Into the Inferno” (2016)), explored ancient caves (“Cave of Forgotten Dreams” (2010)), pulled a steamboat over a Peruvian mountain (“Fitzcarraldo” (1982)), and much more, let’s celebrate his birthday with a Werner Herzog double feature.

Herzog makes documentaries and feature films with seemingly-equal frequency, and although we could look back at countless choices, here are a pair - one from each genre – that are perfect companions.  “Little Dieter Needs to Fly” (1997) and “Rescue Dawn” (2006) are about Dieter Dengler, an American (and German-born) Vietnam War Purple Heart recipient and POW.   When approaching these movies, I recommend watching the feature “Rescue Dawn” first, and then absorb the documentary “Little Dieter Needs to Fly”.  The viewing order isn’t critical, but knowing Dengler’s story is.

“Rescue Dawn” (2006) – U.S. Navy Flight Lt. Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) is aboard the U.S.S. Ranger in the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam War. The young lieutenant hasn’t seen any fighting yet, but his commanding officer (Marshall Bell) gives him and his fellow pilots the order to fly into Laos and attack supply lines.  In a horrible turn of events, anti-aircraft fire guns down Dengler’s plane…on his very first mission.  Somehow, he miraculously survives the crash and runs for his life in the brutal heat to avoid capture.  Alas, the local aggressors catch him, like a dozen cats chasing a slower mouse, one without a clue about nature’s traps in this jungle maze. 

The majority of Herzog’s 120-minute picture features Dengler caged in a Viet Cong compound constructed of bamboo, but the guards keep our protagonist and five other prisoners (two Americans and three Thais) in a small fenced-pen during their excruciatingly long days and nights.  Like other Vietnam prison pictures – such as “The Deer Hunter” (1978) and “Missing in Action 2: The Beginning” (1985) – mental torture, physical exhaustion, and inhumane rituals are unwanted items on the prisoner-of-war-menu for these fatigued, malnourished hostages. 

Steve Zahn and Christian Bale in ‘Rescue Dawn’ (2006)

Dieter mostly converses with Duane (Steve Zahn) and Gene (Jeremy Davies), and they are especially convincing as poor souls tossed off a train of sanity and into a wilderness of madness.  Perhaps off-camera, Duane and Gene regularly howl at the moon but only after politely asking for permission.  Yes, for Dengler, escape is imperative to avoid a similar fate.

Released in 2006, “Rescue Dawn” lands in between Bale’s Batman performances in “Batman Begins” (2005) and “The Dark Night” (2008).  Here, he also plays a charismatic leader, but a non-violent, optimistic one.  The guards haven’t eroded Dieter’s hopeful outlook, and his beaten-down cohorts might become believers too. 

Meanwhile, our navy man’s appearance deteriorates, as if Batman slowly – like hands moving on an analog clock – morphs into Trevor Reznik from “The Machinist” (2004), so there’s no denying Bale’s dedication to the role.  Werner devotes most of his shoot in a beautiful Southeast Asian locale, and their camp sits below a towering, mystical butte that one might find in a “Lord of the Tropical Rings” flick.  Reportedly, the cast and crew didn’t have trailers during the filming.  This trip was no vacation, and based on Dengler’s real-life experience, this all seems uncomfortably fitting.

(3.5/4 stars)

“Little Dieter Needs to Fly” (1997) – One of the most anticipated aspects of Werner Herzog’s documentaries – at least to this critic - is that the man narrates them.  His one-of-a-kind cadence, German accent, and word choices with welcomed consonant-staccato blend into an industrial, otherworldly verbal chaperone throughout his docs. 

“Little Dieter Needs to Fly” is no exception. 

After the film’s first minute, we see Dieter Dengler driving along an empty, winding road in foggy Northern California.

Werner recites, “Men are often haunted by things that happened to them in life, especially in war or other periods of great intensity.  Sometimes you see these men walking the streets or driving in a car.  Their lives seem to be normal, but they are not.”

Dieter Dengler in ‘Little Dieter Needs to Fly’ (1997)

Talk to anyone on the front lines of life – coping with marital strife, substance or alcohol abuse, mental illness, financial insecurity, or something else within this family of troubling circumstances - and the struggle to maintain normalcy can be painfully genuine.  Dieter – an outgoing and gracious 59-year-old – seems to have lived nearly six decades of relative benign routine, but we soon learn about his six-month nightmare in a Viet Cong prison camp and the post-traumatic stress afterward.

While this documentary features Herzog’s commentary, it’s a co-narration because Dengler recounts his story throughout the gripping 72-minute runtime.  In effect, these two German men capture forever in film this courageous pilot’s life narrative. 

Born in 1938, Dieter saw Deutschland reduced to rubble, and our director adds, “Germany had been transformed into a dreamscape of the surreal.”

On the other hand, this very same conflict led to Dieter’s dream.  As a small boy, he saw an Allies pilot fly by with his plane’s cockpit open.  This young German junge suddenly struck a chord with destiny. 

“I had one burning desire, and that was to fly,” Dengler says.

As an adult, he left for the U.S. to become a pilot, but not one of war.  He solely wished to operate aircrafts, but his travels eventually led to the events in 1966.  The doc mostly focuses on – sometimes with hefty emotional force – Dieter’s capture and subsequent torture in painstaking detail.  Even further, this 50-something duo also travels across the Pacific to reinforce this terribly disturbing and equally heartbreaking episode of personal collateral damage. 

At one point, Dieter comments, “This feels a little too close to home.”

Yes, Dengler bequeaths his time to make another – albeit much smaller – sacrifice for this movie, but he does so with his friend, his German brother, and they lend their voices together.

(3/4 stars)

 Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic.  Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

I'm Thinking of Ending Things - Movie Review by Monte Yazzie

Jesse Plemons and Jessie Buckley in ‘I'm Thinking of Ending Things’

Dir: Charlie Kaufman

Starring: Jessie Buckley, Jesse Plemons, David Thewlis, and Toni Collette

The backdrop of director Charlie Kaufman’s new film, “I’m Thinking of Ending Things”, is an oncoming storm, one that signals its foreboding nature with dark gray skies only to transition into a beautiful disaster of howling wind with pure white snow concealing every object in its path. It’s cold, lonely, and scary.  Mr. Kaufman continuously tackles the human condition with profound insights into the delicate nature of relationships, connecting emotions that are both overtly fantastical yet overwhelmingly authentic.

Based on the novel by Iain Reid, “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” follows the budding relationship between Lucy (Jessie Buckley) and Jake (Jesse Plemons). They are on a road trip to meet Jake’s parents (Toni Collette and David Thewlis), who live in a country farmhouse. In the car, Lucy and Jake discuss, debate, and dissect philosophy, art, history, and even their own understanding of how their relationship came to fruition. Lucy, who narrates throughout as if we are sitting in her brain while she wanders from thought to thought, displays a keen intuition of numerous subject areas even though her thoughts are often obscured by random distractions. She examines Jake and his quirks while musing “I’m thinking of ending things” when it comes to their ongoing relationship. She will explain to Jake that she doesn’t care for poetry and then recite a beautiful verse she claims to have written herself. She consistently contradicts herself.

Kaufman has never studied relationships, especially romantic ones, through an ordinary lens. He has a way of making the analysis of humans and their connection to romance and love so brutally simplistic while at the same time making it feel so uniquely intricate. It’s almost otherworldly, as if we have been sent to an alternate universe where everything we know and understand, that is predictable and reliable, is somehow jeopardized by an off-kilter object, word, or characteristic.

You can see Mr. Kaufman’s particularly unorthodox methods for constructing the cynical and fanciful flights of naïve and unbridled passion for life, love, and self in the emotionally complicated stop-motion-animated story “Anomolisa” and the reality-challenging nature of a theater directors’ self-indulgent quest for control in “Synecdoche, New York”. The emotional elements explored in these films are further searched in “I’m Thinking of Ending Things”: the struggle for control in a relationship, specifically from an insecure man who challenges and becomes moody in the face of uncontrol; the obsessive nature of romance, challenged by a woman who is unsure about the man she has chosen and whether the feelings she is experiencing are real or part of another construct she hasn’t figured out yet; and the thin line that exists between the identity of reality and fiction, displayed by Jake’s parents who age older and younger every time they leave the room.

Kaufman spends his time with Lucy and Jake, allowing the viewer to find connections with their personalities and emotions before adding strange events into the mix, like the family dog who endlessly shakes or a picture on the wall that is all too familiar to Lucy. Still, dinner with the parents is just half the story. There is an adjoining story woven through Lucy and Jake’s experiences, a story of a lonely janitor at a high school who wanders the halls cleaning and encountering young people throughout the school. The character arrives into the story during interesting spells of conversation at the contentious family dinner. It’s never completely identified but the janitor’s role seems connected to Jake and his family. The couple eventually leave the house and venture back into the wilderness of white snow in an effort to get home before things get worst.

Kaufman layers the film with references, including callouts to David Foster Wallace, Mussolini, Tolstoy, and John Cassavetes. The dialog is dense, deliberate, and distracting; Kaufman roams Lucy’s spiraling thoughts, switching from conversations with Jake to internal monologues with herself. Lucy is a character composed of doubts about everything around her. Are her insights trustworthy? Is she faking something to pretend to be something else? There is no simple answer, and that’s part of the intriguing nature of the film, making everything feel uneasy, lonely, and desperate.

Some have called this film Charlie Kaufman’s horror film. While it does not meet the standards that typically define the genre, this film still finds a realm to explore that has all the feelings associated with the genre of horror, but in an unconventional way. The unease of the unknown, the creepiness of coincidences too familiar, the fear of discovering hidden intentions within others and, specifically within this film, yourself. It’s all there, shaped and molded in a way that is distinctly Charlie Kaufman. 

“I’m Thinking of Ending Things” is confusing yet fascinating. At times I figured it out, other times I was completely lost. The subtle, superb performances from Jessie Buckley and Jesse Plemons completely consume the viewer to indulge the 2-hour-plus story. All the feelings produced throughout the film challenge one another: it’s interesting and infuriating, sometimes at the same time. But altogether it is simply pure cinema, another highlight in the career of Charlie Kaufman.

Monte’s Rating
4.25 out of 5.00

Love, Guaranteed - Movie Review by Jen Johans

Rachael Leigh Cook and Damon Wayans Jr. in ‘Love, Guaranteed’

Director: Mark Steven Johnson

Writers: Hilary Galanoy & Elizabeth Hackett

Cast: Rachael Leigh Cook, Damon Wayans Jr., & Heather Graham

Review by Jen Johans

Like a recipe for sugar cookies that you follow and enjoy, despite finding it in every single cookbook you come across, the ingredients for contemporary romantic comedies have become so easily identifiable that even those who don't follow the genre very closely can break down each element as if separating the liquids from the powders.

Of course, this isn't always a bad thing. Much like cookies, there's nothing like a delectable dessert-like rom-com to bring a smile to your face. Yet sometimes what we're left with feels less like an overall confection than it does just a handful of ingredients that taste great individually but don't work all that well together. And when it comes to Netflix's latest comedy about love, this is precisely what happened.

Looking to stack the deck with an adorably daffy rom-com premise – partially conceived by its affable leading lady Rachael Leigh Cook – and a script penned by genre veterans Hilary Galanoy and Elizabeth Hackett, the film revolves around a man (played by Damon Wayans Jr.) who sues his online dating service because it hasn't made good on its promise to deliver “Love, Guaranteed.”

Having failed to make a romantic connection in nearly a thousand dates, which would've left most men physically and emotionally exhausted as well as incredibly broke, Wayans Jr.'s inexplicably independently wealthy physical therapist Nick hires Cook's idealistic civil litigator to take on the dating service run by Heather Graham's clueless lifestyle guru.

Even without the witty repartee of a sparkling legal comedy like “Adam's Rib,” fueled by Wayans Jr. and Cook's genuinely charming chemistry, these elements alone could've easily led to a fun, if predictably formulaic, Hallmark Channel level rom-com. But in "Love, Guaranteed," Galanoy, Hackett, and, as evidenced by the production notes, Cook and director Mark Steven Johnson, kept filling the pot with new ideas.

And while one – based on a true incident in Cook's life where she became so disturbed by the miscarriage of justice in “The Fugitive” as a young girl that she had to stop watching – is introduced in the film to hilarious effect (but then never develops into anything more), another idea from Johnson wears on viewers' nerves right away.

Similar to the way that on TV's “Stumptown,” actress Cobie Smulders' character Dex drives an old car with a broken tape deck that plays the same cassette over and over again, in “Love, Guaranteed,” Cook's Susan drives an old orange rust bucket that spontaneously plays Tiffany's “I Think We're Alone Now” repeatedly at will. As a woman roughly Cook's age in real life who also remembers Tiffany in the '80s, this sounds comically winning in theory but by the time we watch Cook have an over-the-top romantic breakdown in the car to Tiffany's song, we have long been ready to hit the mute button whenever we hear its opening notes.

From not understanding that people lie on their online profiles to being thoroughly unfamiliar with most dating behavior in the 21st century, as warm and wonderful as Cook is, Susan feels almost less real than Nick's physical therapist who's able to blow tens of thousand dollars on bad dates and also somehow works for free by donating his time. Still, a much better character than her stereotypical co-workers (a flirtatious gay guy and a generic gal pal), besides her scenes with Wayans Jr., Cook's best moments are the ones that her character shares with her pregnant sister who lives in the condo next door.

Less successful than last year's similarly gimmicky but much sweeter Netflix rom-com “Falling Inn Love” penned by Galanoy and Hackett, this film doesn't work nearly as well as a majority of the made-for-TV rom-coms crafted with assembly-line efficiency on The Hallmark Channel, including those that have starred “Love” producer and actress Cook.

Counting at least three toilet references in the first act alone, which, although never explicitly gross just don't really go with the otherwise warm, sophisticated world those behind-the-scenes are trying to create, “Love, Guaranteed,” is never quite certain just what kind of romantic comedy it truly wants to be.

Established early on, one recurring gag in the movie is that Nick – who has weirdly kept diligent notes on every single date that went wrong – has named each bad match he's endured as though they're rejected episodes of TV's “Friends.” And while Susan might be “the one I didn't see coming,” according to Nick, unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the film.

Following the recipe we know by heart to a “T” before trying to spice things up by sprinkling in numerous other ingredients that just don't blend well together, if this movie were a date, I'd probably dub it, “the one I wish I would've fallen more in like with (but really should've been rewritten).”

(Bio: A three-time national award-winning writer, when Jen Johans isn't reviewing movies at FilmIntuition.com or releasing new episodes of her podcast “Watch With Jen,” you can find her on Twitter @FilmIntuition.)

I'm Thinking of Ending Things - Movie Review by Jen Johans

David Thewlis, Toni Collette, Jesse Plemons, and Jessie Buckley in ‘I'm Thinking of Ending Things’

Writer-director: Charlie Kaufman (based on the novel by Iain Reid)

Cast: Jessie Buckley, Jesse Plemons, Toni Collette, & David Thewlis

Review by Jen Johans

Writer-director Charlie Kaufman's “I'm Thinking of Ending Things,” begins with the words “I'm thinking of ending things.” Spoken in voice-over by the unnamed female protagonist (Jessie Buckley) at the center of the surrealist helmer's third feature film, in the lines that follow, we quickly deduce that she's pondering taking not her own life but herself out of her sparks-free relationship with the otherwise nice, unassuming Jake (Jesse Plemons), whom she's dated for seven weeks. Resigned to taking a road trip with the man nonetheless, the two embark on an unusual journey home to meet his parents (Toni Collette and David Thewlis) at the farmhouse where he was raised.

The couple is as polite as they are awkward with one another. Misreading each other's signals and on different wavelengths about not only their relationship but everything else as well, they have parallel arguments that only occasionally intersect.

Colliding most notably when he cajoles her into sharing one of her poems, Buckley's soulful recitation of the complex, deeply affecting “Bone Dog” by Eva H.D. (which is presented as though she wrote it) is one of the high points of the movie. Touching on certain themes and elements that recur throughout the film, the seductive sequence engages us completely.

Yet even before Jake responds by saying that he identified with the piece and felt like she was writing it about him, the antennae of any literature majors and film buffs watching is already up, listening and digesting Buckley's words as a bit of self-conscious signposting or foreshadowing about their journey ahead. Knowing this, of course, the erudite Kaufman treats the poem like a tease and one that's as much about their quest to go home to meet his parents as it is just the first of many pieces of art, music, film, literature, culture, and criticism references to eventually follow.

“I'm Thinking of Ending Things” returns once again to the same questions of whether or not we are what we do and/or consume that have plagued Kaufman from the beginning of his career. Evidenced in his brilliant existential screenplays for “Being John Malkovich” when its characters were most themselves in the body of another or the charge that Kate Winslet's manic pixie dream girl in his script for “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” relied on hair dye to compose her personality, all of these ideas get filtered into “Ending Things” to positive and negative effect.

Inserting a faux romantic film (fictionally directed by Robert Zemeckis) in the second act of the movie before its plot and characters spill over into the personalities of our young couple, Kaufman goes a bit further later on. Using a more subtle approach in the film's intentionally maddening second half, the pair debate and momentarily seem to embody the leads from “A Woman Under the Influence,” as well as Pauline Kael's review of the Cassavetes classic in a blistering sequence.

A poet in the car who becomes a painter in the house but also a college student studying quantum physics and a waitress, just as the biographical elements of Buckley's “young woman” change in Kaufman's film so does everything else, including the ages of both of our protagonists as well as his enigmatic, affable, yet slightly creepy parents. Then again, I should probably put the word parents in quotations because while we're initially led to believe that Collette and Thewlis are playing the parents of Jake, an argument could also be made that they're not.

Jessie Buckley, Abby Quinn, and Hadley Robinson in ‘I'm Thinking of Ending Things’

In fact, that's the main thrust of this movie overall. We're never quite sure if we're seeing things the way they are or if these are daydreams or shifts backward or forward in time. The latter, we find, is explicitly referenced in the dialogue at one point and taps right back into the issue of quantum physics.

(Over six hundred words in and I'm probably no closer to describing or making sense of the film that has still stayed with me since I screened it, but moving on...)

Playing like a magical realism version of “Our Town” as directed by Federico Fellini, “I'm Thinking of Ending Things” is a stream-of-consciousness movie that grows more unwieldy as it continues. Weaving in ballet in just one of a handful of sequences inspired by “Oklahoma,” Charlie Kaufman's film, which was adapted from the acclaimed novel by Iain Reid, is unquestionably enhanced by having seen not only Kaufman's “Synecdoche New York” (which I really didn't like) and “Anomalisa” (which I really did) but the films he wrote for other directors as well.

In my eyes, he's at his best when he lets others – including Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry – interpret his mad artistic visions in such a way that, as dizzying and dense as they are, they become far more universal in scope. Without this vital human filter of another creative mind behind the camera, there's something about Kaufman's work as a director that keeps most mainstream audiences at not just an arm but the state of Oklahoma's length away.

It's telling that of the three films I've seen that he's made, it's “Anomalisa,” which he shared directorial duties with Duke Johnson, that I liked the best. Perhaps needing that valuable cinematic translator or just someone who can take a look at his work and pare some of it down to only what is absolutely essential, the more he packs into the otherwise mostly excellent “I'm Thinking of Ending Things,” the messier it becomes. Still, as a treatise on relationships, aging, identity, and mortality, Kaufman's latest is far more relatable, in my eyes, than “Synecdoche New York,” which I actually watched again to prepare for this review and was disappointed to see that I still dislike.

In addition to his many existential obsessions, which manifest in the strangest of ways throughout his work, however, one constant in every single one of Kaufman's films as both a screenwriter and director is that they're brought to life by an extraordinary cast. “I'm Thinking of Ending Things” (which arrives on Netflix on September 4) is no exception to this rule and features dynamic turns by all of its leads, most notably Buckley and Plemons.

A movie you'll undoubtedly want to discuss with others if, that is, you manage to make it all the way through since it was even a challenge for me (and I was hugely on board with it for at least the first 90 minutes), “I'm Thinking of Ending Things” should have ended things a little sooner than its 134-minute running time.

There's an old adage that because we all approach things differently and with our own experiences, attitudes, and backgrounds, that no two of us ever truly “sees” the same film. This movie proves that philosophy true better than any academy essay ever could. At the same time, it also seems to use it as a challenge to not only ensure that we all see something different in the same metatextual heavy text but also reminds us that what we think of something at one time might not be the same belief we have just five minutes later. In the end, it's all a matter of physics, after all.

(Bio: A three-time national award-winning writer, when Jen Johans isn't reviewing movies at FilmIntuition.com or releasing new episodes of her podcast “Watch With Jen,” you can find her on Twitter @FilmIntuition.)

Words on Bathroom Walls - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Charlie Plummer and Taylor Russell in ‘Words on Bathroom Walls’

‘Words on Bathroom Walls’ draws up a compelling and empathetic story

Directed by:  Thor Freudenthal

Written by:  Nick Naveda, based on Julia Walton’s novel

Starring:  Charlie Plummer, Taylor Russell, Molly Parker, Walton Goggins, AnnaSophia Robb, and Andy Garcia

“Words on Bathroom Walls” – Adam (Charlie Plummer) is halfway through his high school senior year, so graduation is close. 

Whoo-hoo! 

He should have the world at his feet, but a one-two-punch – emerging from a massive, unpredictable jungle, otherwise known as life - delivers a couple of near-crippling blows. 

First, his dad – with little warning or on-screen fanfare - leaves Adam and his mom Beth (Molly Parker).  Since Adam is taking the news better than his mother, he finds the space to prepare meals for their suddenly smaller family, as his “contribution to their underdog story.”  

It turns out that he has a knack for cooking, and this young home-chef holds aspirations for culinary school someday soon, but the second setback has other plans.  After his dad left, an insidious, unwanted guest arrives.  Adam develops schizophrenia, a mysterious disorder that causes him to hear voices and see hallucinations.  A teen’s years are already challenging to navigate, but add declarations and images that no one else can perceive, and his internal compass is compromised.  Adam now copes with a cerebral five-alarm inferno that no firefighter can extinguish.  There’s no cure, and he’s just a 17-year-old kid.

Young adult films sometimes address devastating afflictions, including depression, alcoholism, and cancer, but other than perhaps “Girl, Interrupted” (1999), more severe forms of mental illness – like schizophrenia - seem like new territory, at least to this critic. 

“Words on Bathroom Walls” director Thor Freudenthal and screenwriter Nick Naveda are blazing a trail here.  Sure, the movie – based on Julia Watson’s novel - repeats some familiar patterns, but the narrative has educational value and taps into raw emotions, at least for anyone who holds on to any degrees of self-doubt.

Plummer (“Lean on Pete” (2017)) brings (more than) credible energy to Adam.  He’s instantly believable as a vulnerable, semi-insecure young man who doesn’t need another stumbling block while pursuing personal glory and preserving a partial foundation for his supportive, caring mama.  Freudenthal devotes effective manifestations/special effects to communicate Adam’s condition, including a shadowy presence that acts like The Smoke Monster from “Lost” (2004 – 2010).  Three guides also tag along and give advice, all with distinct personas:  a baseball bat-wielding enforcer (Lobo Sebastian), a loner (Devon Bostick) who notices every pretty girl within eyeshot, and a bohemian (AnnaSophia Robb). 

This triad does not tender malice.  Still, their company is not exactly helping Adam’s teenager experience, especially when reaching out to classmates.  Credit Plummer for engendering empathy for his character, and Freudenthal truly pulls the right levers to draw this protagonist’s headspace into our universe.

Adam’s journey involves not only his personal growth, but also a chance at romance.  Enter Maya (Taylor Russell), the valedictorian who offers tutoring assistance and a connection that could lead to more.  Her predictable arc doesn’t require Cliff Notes, but Russell (“Waves” (2019)) conveys plenty of depth, especially Maya’s internal churn that she suppresses most of the time.

The narrative delves further into a rarely-explored relationship topic that taps into exposed feelings for the teens and the audience.  Admittedly, a critical, sentimental moment in the third act stretches some boundaries that seem implausible, but there’s nothing wrong with knowingly shelving some disbelief.  Add a welcome pair of supporting roles from Andy Garcia and Walton Goggins, and “Words on Bathroom Walls” is a satisfying picture.  Goggins usually plays sinister villains, so the fact that his character doesn’t try to murder someone is an appreciated treat, and all the performances plus the challenging material are cinematic gifts. 

(3/4 stars)

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic.  Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

Bill and Ted Face the Music - Movie Review by Monte Yazzie

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter in ‘Bill & Ted Face the Music’

Dir: Dean Parisot

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, Samara Weaving, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Kristen Schaal, Erinn Hayes, Jayma Mays, and William Sadler

“Be excellent to each other and party on, dudes.”

If these parting words from two teenage best friends don’t ring truthful in our present state of world events, I don’t know what will. The memorable pairing of the time jumping Bill and Ted, call them “Wyld Stallyns”, have solidified the duo in the pop culture hall of fame with the cult classic films “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” and the sequel “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey”. In 1989, somewhat unknown actors Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves would play Bill and Ted and air guitar their way on a journey across time, meeting some famous historical figures along the way.

It’s been 30 year! What more could two goofy 80s kids have to say that will strike relevance in 2020? Surprisingly, much more than you might expect from a silly genre film. “Bill and Ted Face the Music” dabbles in time travel confusion, sidetracking trips to literally hell, and some sloppy narrative dynamics, but it doesn’t seem to matter much because this film is made with such passion, with so much commitment from the actors, and with enough themes of friendship, finding unity, loving music, and being excellent to one another. It’s impossible not to smile, laugh, and just enjoy the escape for 90 minutes.

Bill (Alex Winter) and Ted (Keanu Reeves) gave the high school history presentation of a lifetime and played the concert to define all concerts. Now, after a few failed albums and the breakup of their once epic band, Bill and Ted are still searching for the song that will bring the universe together while also living the family life with their wives (Jayma Mays and Erinn Hayes) and daughters Thea (Samara Weaving) and Billy (Brigette Lundy-Paine).

But things aren’t good within the universe and the song that Bill and Ted promised Rufus (George Carlin, who has a nice visual tribute) they would make still hasn’t come to fruition. Now the universe is falling apart and it is up to Bill and Ted to journey into the future, while their daughters’ journey into the past, to find the song and musicians to save the future.

It’s been a long time since Bill and Ted have influenced the movie screens. The days of rock n’ roll air guitar solos and flannel shirts tied around waists are memories, almost forgotten for some younger people. While it may seem difficult to bring pop culture characters back from the past, “Bill and Ted Face the Music” pulls off the return in sweet, silly fashion. Sure, the narrative is overly convoluted, rambling in parts, and has some dialog lines that don’t quite work as well as they might have looked on paper. Still, the heart of this film is so pure and passionate, it’s impossible not to smile at the ridiculousness happening on screen.

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are completely committed to roles; they embrace their old characters with ease from the first second of screen time. The surprise comes from new cast members Samara Weaving, playing Ted’s daughter Thea, and Brigette Lundy-Paine, playing Bill’s daughter Billy. The two ladies together have great chemistry and embody the mannerisms and speech patterns of their fathers. Also, William Sadler returning as Death brings all the nostalgia back with a funny portrayal of a jaded ex-bandmember just when it feels like the film is stumbling.

“Bill and Ted Face the Music” leads to a place that seems somewhat impossible to ever meet expectations, yet somehow it lands with heart, humor, and a bit of heroics. Its satisfying message of friendship, finding purpose, and that even something as simple as a song could unite the universe. In this cinematic vessel from the past, with two familiar friends to some 80s and 90s kids, it’s a journey worth the wait.

Monte’s Rating
3.25 out of 5.00

The Personal History of David Copperfield - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Dev Patel in ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’

Iannucci spins a classic with ‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’

Directed by:  Armando Iannucci

Written by:  Armando Iannucci and Simon Blackwell, based on the novel by Charles Dickens

Starring:  Dev Patel, Tilda Swinton, Hugh Laurie, Peter Capaldi, Rosalind Eleazar, Benedict Wong, and Daisy May Cooper

“The Personal History of David Copperfield” – “I hadn’t read ‘David Copperfield’ for a long time.  I reread it about 8 or 9 years ago, and I was struck by how modern it was.  The themes in it are very, very 21st century.  It’s all about status anxiety.”  - Armando Iannucci, January 2020

I’ve read a fair share of classic literature, but sadly, I never picked up “David Copperfield”, Charles Dickens’ novel about an Englishman’s 19th-century chronicle told in the first person.  During my 20th century secondary education, either my high school passed over this particular book in favor of “A Tale of Two Cities”, or I succumbed to a two-week illness that also blockaded my memory of it.  No matter the reason, I carried some apprehension - due to a lack of perspective - walking into Armando Iannucci’s take on this renowned story. 

Then again, since the acclaimed director/writer of “In the Loop” (2009), “The Death of Stalin” (2017), and the television series “Veep” (2012 – 2019) helmed this project, most moviegoers – including this critic – should anticipate hearty helpings of humor with occasional brushes of absurdity over a 119-minute runtime.

Iannucci and his flat out brilliant cast – led by Dev Patel in the title role - does not disappoint, as “The Personal History of David Copperfield” is one of the most enjoyable comedies of the year.  Tonally, Whit Stillman’s “Love & Friendship” (2016), based on Jane Austen’s novella, is a close comparison.  In that movie, Kate Beckinsale governs the screen – in a whip-smart, hilarious performance - as Lady Susan Vernon, who seems to operate three chess moves ahead of nearly everyone who stumbles into her view.

“Love & Friendship” (2016) does become complicated at times, as humor and nuance weave through the lightning-fast discourse that lobs grenades and throws daggers over (perceived) pleasantries.  In other words, pay attention, and who knew that the woman portraying a vampire in the “Underworld” series could wildly rule over a comical, sarcastic period piece.  Well, Beckinsale did attend Oxford, so there’s that.

Iannucci’s “Copperfield” project is zany and kinetic, and it plays like a wholesome family film, free of expletives and adult subject matter.  It is rated-PG, a departure from “Loop” and “Stalin”, both rated-R.  Here, many of the colorful characters exaggerate their status and intent.  This way, the audience – including grade school-aged kids - can immediately discern the on-screen players’ roles during Copperfield’s (Patel) winding journey through financial and family hardships, stretches of grace and joy, and attempts at upward mobility that do not follow straight trajectories.

Patel is wholly engaging as Copperfield, a man seemingly tossed – through fate, helping hands, and blind luck - into haphazard turns at several crossroads.  He treks on figurative roller skates between London and several townships located northeast and southeast (like Yarmouth and Dover, respectively) of England’s most bustling metropolis.  

As the film opens, David announces that he will share his life’s tale by declaring, “Whether I turn out to be the hero of my own story, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these moments must show.” 

Naturally, the most logical beginning is his birth – “on a Friday at 12 o’clock at night” - and he describes his observations (as a baby), which include the recognition of his family’s thoughtful servant Peggotty (Daisy May Cooper) and her rough fingers that regularly reach into his bassinet. 

Geez, Copperfield has some memory! 

If only Peggotty’s scratchy touch was David’s worst adversity.  Soon, a force outside his mother’s sphere of influence deports him to London, and the School of Hard Knocks teaches David harsh lessons, ones before unions organized and governments enacted child labor laws.   

The screenplay’s themes of wealth versus poverty and the powerful versus the powerless regularly display their external struggles, but the formers (nearly) always squash the dreams of the latters.  The immovable and ever-present caste system is extremely tricky to outwit or outrun.  While David repeatedly attempts to break free from these invisible chains, they yank him three steps back just after he took two forward. 

Wait, how is this funny?  

Thankfully, Iannucci and company serve these troubling concepts with whimsy, mostly extending from David’s allies.  His aunt Betsey (Tilda Swinton) and the semi-lucid Mr. Dick (Hugh Laurie) are a madcap pair.  Betsey is “fierce, like a birthing badger” and a bit heavy-handed with the random donkeys who trample her meadow.  Still, this tightly-wound, OCD-leaning aunt cherishes her relationship with David and Mr. Dick, a likable fellow, even though he thinly comprehends the meaning behind any consequential conversation.  Think Coach (Nicholas Colasanto) from “Cheers” but with more polish.

If David rolls through life on eight small wheels, Betsey and Mr. Dick draw up the half-pipes, baked and vert ramps, and wax the ground beneath his feet with altruistic intentions.  D.C. meets other supporters like Peggotty’s brother Daniel (Paul Whitehouse), a patriarch – Mr. Micawber (Peter Capaldi) - caught in a debtor’s prison, a close friend Agnes (Rosalind Eleazar), and her father Mr. Wickfield (Benedict Wong), and a few others who help him square against the murkier forces within his orbit. 

All the while, he attempts to reach his perceived nirvana - which is to live like a gentleman - but he hides his previous experiences while becoming tangled in current ones.  David’s name seems to change as often as Irwin ‘Fletch’ Fletcher (Chevy Chase) in “Fletch” (1985), but rest assured no one calls him, “John Coctostan.”   

Despite David’s moniker changes and insecurities, his traveled roads on roller-boots connect the aforementioned John and Jane Q. Citizens, but will he reach his hopeful goals? 

Well, you have to watch the movie, a most playful delight with all the period film trimmings, including beautiful costumes, sets, and locales. 

High school teachers should take notice and screen this movie as a grand audio/visual accompaniment to the novel.  I mean, I think so. 

I haven’t read the book. 

(3.5/4 stars)

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic.  Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

Get Duked! - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Samuel Bottomley, Rian Gordon, Lewis Gribben, and Viraj Juneja in ‘Get Duked’.

‘Get Duked!’ offers regal shenanigans

Written and directed by:  Ninian Doff

Starring:  Rian Gordon, Lewis Gribben, Viraj Juneja, Samuel Bottomley, and Eddie Izzard

“Get Duked!” – The Duke of Edinburgh Award is an outdoor adventure challenge that takes “young delinquents out of the city and into the countryside.”

Misguided teens may be a more appropriate moniker for the program’s target audience, and “Get Duked!” features three perfect candidates.  Outside education teacher Mr. Carlyle (Jonathan Aris) recruits (aka forces) troublemaking teenagers Dean (Rian Gordon), Duncan (Lewis Gribben), and DJ Beatroot (Viraj Juneja) on a trip to the Scottish Highlands for four days and three nights. 

Hopefully, the boys can ingest some fresh air and work together.  To rightfully complete this expedition in exile, they need to demonstrate Teamwork, Orienteering, and Foraging.  These classmates have a rich history of collaboration, because they recently set a school bathroom on fire and posted the act on social media, which – naturally – triggered their immediate enrollment on this hiking and camping trip. 

How will these city kids make it in the wide-open spaces?

“Get Duked!” certainly made it at SXSW 2019, because it won the Midnight Audience Award (when the film was previous-named “Boyz in the Wood”).  After watching writer/director Ninian Doff’s sometimes-zany tiptoe-into-the-rural-unknown, this critic agrees that the midnight-madness genre perfectly fits.  With an industrial, rap score accompanying our three heroes – who pick up a mild-mannered fourth named Ian (Samuel Bottomley) – along with lots of drug use and gregarious physical comedy, Doff’s picture steps into cinematic delights for adolescent and college-aged kids (mostly guys) everywhere.  

With the UK as the setting, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (1975) and “Trainspotting” (1996) act like nurturing grandparents and parents for this new generation.

When Dean, Duncan, DJ Beatroot (although this hopeful rap star’s God-given name is William), and Ian step into the hilly, green landscape and complain of cow manure aromas, one might instantly picture Tommy (Kevin McKidd) encouraging his “Trainspotting” mates to enjoy the great outdoors in Danny Boyle’s landmark picture.  Alas, Tommy and his buddies turned around and hopped on the train back to Edinburgh.

These 21st-century fellas don’t spring across grassy buttes and run into the Knights Who Say “Ni!”, but Doff includes a couple moments of Python insanity that pop up at the most unsuspecting times. 

Filming a group of city slickers trekking and setting up camp in an isolated, pastoral locale is ripe for lush comic blossoms, but the lads also run into terminal danger.  The struggle with the rugged terrain slides away a bit, because dodging this ominous threat (which will not be explained in this review) becomes their primary tussle. 

Of course, frequent screw-ups - like Dean making a (hash) cigarette wrapper out of their only map – showcase the kids’ short-sighted thinking and clumsy innocence. 

The young actors carry generous heaps of charisma and chemistry to hold our attention, and Duncan’s boneheaded judgment and DJ Beatroot’s/William’s hip-hop potential sing warped-joy throughout the picture.  

The script throws them into a different world, like some unseen force setting teenage mice into a maze constructed of emerald fields, empty valleys, some local farmers, and a mysterious menace.  A dozen missing posters taped on the Scottish Wildlife Council bus stop foreshadow impending doom, so luckily, our four young men arm themselves with a few weapons, including a very, very sharp fork. 

Throw in a few Keystone Cops for pointed, good measure, and Doff draws up a funny and quotable escapade that clocks in at 83 minutes.  This movie doesn’t stand as tall as the two previously-noted UK movies, but slews of 19-year-old boys will certainly stream “Get Duked!” on random weeknights close to 12 am.  Hey, these future fans may not personally tackle the Scottish outdoor adventure challenge, but they’ll assuredly employ teamwork, orienteering, and foraging in their dorms and fraternity houses, and especially foraging, if you catch my drift.

(3/4 stars)

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic.  Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

Chemical Hearts - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Austin Abrams and Lili Reinhart in ’Chemical Hearts’.

‘Chemical Hearts’ has some magic

Directed by:  Richard Tanne

Written by:  Richard Tanne, based on Krystal Sutherland’s novel

Starring:  Lili Reinhart, Austin Abrams, and Sarah Jones

“Chemical Hearts” – “You’re never more alive than when you’re a teenager.” – Henry Page (Austin Abrams)

Raise your hand if you’ve heard a version of Henry’s aforementioned statement during your teenage years.  Parents, teachers, or older brothers or sisters are usually the main prophets to bestow this wisdom, but in this case, Henry is narrating his story, as he looks back on his high school senior year.  Before meeting Grace (Lili Reinhart), Henry never really believed it, though.

He never felt it.

Nothing emotionally noteworthy rocked Henry’s universe, but Grace did.  On the surface, she’s a prototypical prom queen, an all-state track star, or a combination of both.  Blonde, beautiful, and considerably intimidating to the hundreds of mere mortals – donning the shapes of adolescent boys, ages 15 to 18 - drifting throughout the locker-laced hallways.

Henry doesn’t know a lot about Grace.  She is the new girl from nearby East River, N.J., but this observant introvert quickly surmises that Grace is hurting, both emotionally and physically.  Since they are editors of the school’s newspaper, they’ll need to work in concert.  Therefore, sparks could fly between these two single teens during the most vibrant period of their lives.

Based on Krystal Sutherland’s novel, “Chemical Hearts” director/writer Richard Tanne  (“Southside with You” (2016)) sends his audience back to this volatile stretch of youth and offers a turbulent teen romance, built on a makeshift foundation of gloom and grief, but perhaps some lasting, bright passion may bloom from the gray groundwork.

When they meet, both teenagers reside in glum spaces, and a mystery surrounds Grace.  This young woman prefers silence.  Finding an invisibility cloak at a local garage sale would solve all her problems, but Grace will curtly respond to small talk or schoolwork-discourse while continuously internalizing her aggravation.  She has a noticeable limp and resents using a crutch to march across campus and everywhere else.  The aluminum aid reminds her of a past autonomy and better days, which are unknown to Henry and us.

Meanwhile, he isn’t exactly bitter or dejected, but his writing, classes, small group of friends, and stable family have occupied his time and space, leaving no room for dating.  Surely, Henry could’ve fit girlfriends into his daily planners, but filling his mind with apprehension is an easier path than establishing confidence.

Fate, however, brings Henry an opportunity to connect with someone, and leaning on his habitual trepidation is no longer an option.  In the high school pecking order, reclusive, inexperienced teenage boys don’t customarily begin dating deep-thinking, all-American girls, although many have tried.  Movies like “Sixteen Candles” (1984), “Secret Admirer” (1985), and “Some Kind of Wonderful” (1987) peppered big screens during the 1980s, as the clumsy male leads attempt – (sorry, *spoiler alert*) in vain – to date future NFL cheerleaders.

Thirty-one years later, “Say Anything…” (1989), however, rightfully earned its staying power for many reasons.   One key explanation is because an unfocused slacker Lloyd (John Cusack) and valedictorian Diane (Ione Skye) meet on equal terms, as meaningful relationships are missing from both of their resumes, albeit for different reasons.

In “Chemical Hearts”, Henry is the lone person in need of emotional growth, while Grace tries to heal her broken past.  While the possibility for love is right here, a good therapist would recommend, “Hey, just stay friends.”

Still, at any age, relationships can get complicated in a hurry, and Tanne’s film takes a unique approach by explaining – like a science class – the chemical reasons behind joy and pain. Henry’s older sister Suds (Sarah Jones) expounds on dopamine, stress hormones, and withdrawal, which is tremendously helpful to him and the audience, at least this critic.  Where was Suds when I was growing up? 

(By the way, if you’re playing at home, C8H11NO2 is dopamine’s molecular formula.)

She thankfully captures needed screen time, but since the movie clocks in at 89 minutes, there’s not much room for anyone else.  Henry’s three friends don’t add to the narrative other than prove to Grace that our hero is not a complete loner, which melts away an unwanted Unabomber-vibe.  No, this is Grace and Henry’s movie.  Abrams is pitch-perfect as young man lost in foreign, misunderstood euphoria, and Reinhart fills her character with complexity, wonder, and despair, as she slowly unveils the roots of her sorrow.

The reveal does feel shoehorned within the confines of a feature film.  It most likely plays out more rhythmically in the novel, and the four school newspaper issues that are supposed to coincide with Grace and Henry’s journey seem like an afterthought.  Still, the movie’s overall message - on the joyous and blustery feelings of first love - does resonate.  Maybe that's enough, but will "Chemical Hearts" echo with the same impact in 2051?

“Say Anything…” probably will.

(2.5/4 stars)

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic.  Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

Tesla - Movie Review by Jen Johans

Writer-director: Michael Almereyda

Cast: Ethan Hawke, Kyle MacLachlan, Jim Gaffigan, Eve Hewson, & Ebon Moss-Bachrach.

Review by Jen Johans

One of the most difficult things to convey onscreen is human thought, particularly what happens when an epiphany washes over us. We do, of course, have an accepted shorthand for these moments in animation. Most commonly depicted by the image of a lightbulb going off above a character's head, we watch as their eyes widen, perhaps a finger is raised, and then they run to go put their ideas into motion. Taken together, these actions are easily understood; we know we've witnessed intellectual serendipity.

And while we've all seen actors attempt to externalize the internal onscreen – usually with the camera closing in on their faces before pulling back to see them start working on a new, grand opus – there are only a precious few actors who we routinely believe we are seeing think in character. It's a short list, to be sure, but one man who is definitely on it is Ethan Hawke.

One of those actors whom you believe that – for both good and bad, depending upon the project – has the soul of a philosopher, a musician, and an inventor, we've seen Hawke triumph when he collaborates with a filmmaker who knows how to "play" him like Chet Baker played his trumpet . . . or Hawke played Baker playing his trumpet in Robert Budreau's "Born to Be Blue."

Still, while he's worked so well with iconoclastic writer-director Michael Almereyda in the past – most notably on his controversial "Hamlet" adaptation in 2000 – their latest effort "Tesla" feels more like a jam session played on rusty instruments by an out-of-practice jazz band than it does the smooth, rich, wrap you in velvet sound of musicians who are perfectly in sync.

It's a damn shame, too, because if anybody knows how to bring a lightbulb moment to life, it's Hawke, so when it was announced that he was going to be playing a man who literally played with electricity, expectations for "Tesla" were set unbelievably high.

The first time we see Nikola Tesla (Hawke) in Almereyda's unconventional biopic, he is wobbling around on roller skates, which is an apt metaphor for the film overall. Awkwardly trying to keep his balance in formal wear, Tesla skates along with his friend, the daughter of J.P. Morgan, Anne Morgan (Eve Hewson), who wishes she could be so much more to the shy inventor. So undone by the sight of pearls on a woman's neck because it reminds him of his mother back in Serbia, (who, for all intents and purposes is the only woman he ever loved), their relationship is doomed long before he ever put on those skates.

Wedded to his pursuits and only very casually intrigued by women from a platonic perspective, Tesla puts everything he has into his work with alternating currents – a practice which alienates his first big American employer, Thomas Edison (a sublime Kyle MacLachlan) – before he eventually finds a patron and financial champion in George Westinghouse (Jim Gaffigan).

Coming off the heels of Alfonso Gomez-Rejon's underrated 2017 film "The Current War," which chronicled the same three figures (with Nicholas Hoult, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Michael Shannon playing Tesla, Edison, and Westinghouse respectively) and was finally released to little fanfare last year, I was somewhat familiar with "Tesla"'s turn-of-the-century electrical terrain.

And while the first act of the film is very engaging – especially with a surprisingly vulnerable turn by MacLachlan and moving supporting work by Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Tesla's best friend from overseas, the hard-working but creatively stymied Anital Szigeti – it's a bad sign when your film happens to be called "Tesla" and the least compelling character in the film is also named Tesla.

As subdued as he is single-minded in his quest, Nikola Tesla is on paper, at least, a perfect character for Ethan Hawke. A highly verbal actor, Hawke sometimes gives his most affecting performances when he's limited by how much he can say since it's in such a stark contrast to his most famous onscreen alter-ego as Jesse Wallace in Richard Linklater's "Before" trilogy.

Yet whereas Paul Schrader knew exactly how to balance the pathos and conflict just below his reverend's collar in "First Reformed," he flounders in this film so much that he nearly blends in with the scenery. And in "Tesla" this is a feat in and of itself considering that, in paying homage to Derek Jarman's minimalist production design in "Edward II" (and other films) and Denmark's Dogme 95 filmmakers, "Tesla" frequently opts for basic projected backdrops you might find surfing the web instead of artfully decorated spaces.

An experimental biopic that (shockingly) isn't weird enough to break any new ground, save for a truly puzzling performance by Hawke as Tesla of the Tears for Fears song "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" toward the end of the movie – which made me wonder why we hadn't seen that level of innovation before – Almereyda's film is an overall yawn.

Struggling to hold our attention as it drones on and away from Edison, who is honestly the most fascinating figure in the film, I found myself fighting to stay awake even though I watched it the very first thing in the morning. A long-gestating passion project from the director who penned his earliest version of the script in the early 1980s, regrettably the 2020 filmed version of “Tesla” is sorely lacking the same level of youthful enthusiasm that Almereyda had for it nearly forty years ago.

The first onscreen reunion of MacLachlan and Hawke since they played Claudius and Hamlet in Almereyda's 2000 film, the two crackle with electricity in the few scenes they share, whether they're sparring verbally or with ice cream cones (don't ask). And while it's always hard to showcase creative thought, when it comes right down to it, no matter how hard Almereyda tries to flick the switch for Hawke in “Tesla,” this is one bulb that never lights up.

(Bio: A three-time national award-winning writer, when Jen Johans isn't reviewing movies at FilmIntuition.com or releasing new episodes of her podcast “Watch With Jen,” you can find her on Twitter @FilmIntuition.)

Boys State - Movie Review by Jeff Mitchell

Here’s an enthusiastic vote for ‘Boys State’

Directed by:  Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss

Starring:  Steven Garza, Ben Feinstein, René Otero, and Robert MacDougall

“Boys State” –  “Political parties are likely to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government.” – George Washington, 1796

The aforementioned quote appears at the beginning of “Boys State”, a highly compelling documentary - from directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss – that presents Texas Boys State, an American Legion-promoted event in which over 1,000 teenage boys descend on Austin to engage in a government simulation. 

Given the current combative state of American politics, the thought of this many young men dividing up into two parties (the Nationalists and Federalists), organizing rallies, writing and delivering speeches, forming coalitions, and culminating their week-long endeavors by electing one governor might cause your head to spin.   

“You have no time to take it all in.  (On the) first day, they throw you into that arena, and it’s like a battle royale.  It’s crazy.”  - Steven Garza, Nationalist Party, during a July 23, 2020 Zoom call

McBaine and Moss also dive into the fray with cameras in hand.  They follow streams of kids – all donning identical, white Texas Boys State T-shirts and red lanyards – throughout the University of Texas courtyards and lecture halls.  For anyone who felt anxious during their first days of high school or the initial 24-hour maze of the college experience, these Boys State meet-and-greets – both big and small – might trigger some previously-buried flashbacks from yesteryear….or yestercentury.     

Some boys’ voices do not quite resonate.  Others, however, do ring with their fellow Nationalists and Federalists.  As leaders emerge, McBaine and Moss feature four key players.  

Ben Feinstein, a well-spoken political junkie, carries the ambition of David Plouffe or Karl Rove and sizes up every individual with the speedy, cold calculations of Joshua from “WarGames” (1983).   Even though Global Thermonuclear War isn’t at the top of Ben’s agenda, he’s not someone to play games with when the stakes are sky-high. 

Since Austin is the setting, it’s difficult not to reminisce about Richard Linklater’s “Dazed and Confused” (1993), and especially when Robert MacDougall graces the screen.  He seems like a combination of three characters from that landmark high school comedy: football players Don (Sasha Jenson) and Pink (Jason London) and also Matthew McConaughey’s memorable turn as Wooderson.  No, Robert doesn’t declare, “Alright, alright, alright,” but he does deliver a misplaced off-color joke to kick-off his campaign speech.

René Otero leans politically left.  After listening to some of his fellow Boys State colleagues opine on conservative positions, he feels isolated.  René’s core beliefs seem to conflict with this massive group.  He’s also black and mentions, “I’ve never seen so many white people…ever.”  Wondering if he’ll fit in, René decides to proudly pronounce his individuality to the audience, and their acceptance becomes an open question. 

Steven Garza discovers similar obstacles.  Former U.S. Congressman Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) is one of his favorite speakers, so Steven runs in Democratic circles.  He’s also a person of color, and in the previously-mentioned Zoom call, Steven adds, “I felt like a fish out of water, not only as a brown person in a sea of mostly white faces, but also personality-wise.”  Soft-spoken and a bit on the shy-side, Steven might not pound his chest and tout his successes, but he carries a quiet confidence and oceans of altruism.  When he speaks, it’s from the heart, duly noted by folks on-screen and off-screen.  

McBaine and Moss spent plenty of off-screen time to pull this film together.  They edited this project for a year and condensed the hours and hours of footage into a tightly-woven 109-minute documentary that plays out like a Hollywood yarn.  Indeed, this is on-the-edge-of-your-seat stuff, especially as the election results arrive in the third act’s crescendo.  The Federalists and Nationalists soar and suffer through ups and downs, as moments of fair play are balanced by hardball gamesmanship.  

Keep in mind, these are 17-year-old kids. 

Although Boys States and Girls States exist throughout the U.S., one of the reasons that the filmmakers chose Texas is because in 2017, the noted Lone Star State assembly gained national attention by voting to secede from the Union.  Okay, in practical terms, those boys didn’t really create a new law (or break an old one), but are these Boys State teens serious about this program, one that doubles as a sociological Petri dish? 

Sure, they learned from “adult” legislators and campaigners, but about 328 million Americans could discover key life lessons from these 1,000 young Texans.  At first, Texas Boys State does seem like a battle royale, but it may or may not end that way.  Let’s hope that the grown-ups keep the combat to a minimum in November 2020.  This critic isn’t too optimistic.  

(3.5/4 stars)

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic.  Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.

Sputnik - Movie Review by Jen Johans

Courtesy of IFC Films

Director: Egor Abramenko

Cast: Pyotr Fyodorov, Oksana Akinshina, & Fedor Bondarchuk.

Review by Jen Johans

“Sputnik” is a work of Russian space horror that takes place in 1983 – it has to be 1983. Not only is that, as the film's director Egor Abramenko acknowledges, the “golden age” of science fiction as “Sputnik” shares a direct lineage to Ridley Scott's masterful “Alien,” but it's also the ideal time for its allegory about the complexities of identity to pay off on the upcoming fall of the Soviet Union. Additionally, 1983 was the peak time after the rise of astronauts in the space race – both in Russia and here in the states – where kids grew up dreaming of being one of those chosen few, the heroic explorers who represented their country and the entire planet as they journeyed into outer space.

This was before the devastation of the Challenger explosion in 1986 and before kids were old enough to see some of the (then) contemporary works of space horror from “2001: A Space Odyssey” to the 1978 remake of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (before its director Philip Kaufman would go on to make the brilliant, flag-waving space docudrama “The Right Stuff”) to “Alien” and beyond. Not only brilliant works of existential science fiction, these films serve as cautionary tales, warning us that perhaps not all of the life forms that awaited us in space were as friendly as the one in “E.T.”

In setting his film in 1983, Abramenko taps into all of these contradictions, including the desire to answer that childlike call in all of us to be a pioneering national hero and the body horror that occurs in its protagonist as a result that is so perfectly suited to '83.

Written by Oleg Malovichko and Andrei Zolotarev (and inspired by Abramenko's short film “The Passenger,” penned by Roman Volobuev, which played at Fantastic Fest), “Sputnik” tells the story of the sole survivor of a space wreck. Chronicling the crash of the Orbita 4 spaceship at the start of the film, after the ship lands, Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Veshnyakov (played by Pyotr Fyodorov) is held under observation in a secure facility in Kazakhstan while scientists work to deduce exactly what happened and what if anything might be wrong with the man who walked away.

Having traveled to Moscow to recruit risk-taking neuro-psychiatrist Tatyana Klimova (Oksana Akinshina) to evaluate the man with promises that he'll take care of her ethics board inquiry from the health ministry, Semiradov (Fedor Bondarchuk) listens to Tatyana's cursory diagnosis that the cosmonaut is suffering from PTSD, knowing full well that the riddle that is Konstantin becomes far more complex by nightfall. Left in the dark right along with Tatyana, we soon discover that although the cosmonaut arrived back on Earth alone, he is very much not alone in a truly shocking reveal that's as disturbing as it is a genuine throwback to the type of space and/or body horror fare we saw in the late 1970s through the early '80s.

An intelligent puzzle that grows progressively scarier as it continues, while the film lays on some of the psychoanalysis regarding the root of the man's troubles a little heavily (and far too early, when it could certainly use one more twist before its thrilling climax), “Sputnik” is still one sophisticated scarer, overall.

Exceedingly well-crafted and featuring chilling antiseptic production design that's heavy on barriers, mirrors, glass, and mazes – all of which become, in Abramenko's hands, an effectively symbolic motif – "Sputnik" benefits from its uniformly excellent cast, particularly Fyodorov and Akinshina who ably carry the film. Infused with an intense, percussion-heavy score from composer Oleg Karpachev that feels at once both well-suited to this film as it also does very reminiscent of the scores of 1983, “Sputnik” is a damn strong calling card for Abramenko in an assured feature filmmaking debut.

The latest in a long line of films that were inspired by “Alien,” from a quality standpoint, “Sputnik” belongs to the upper echelon of these movies and I appreciate just how much it paid tribute to and deviated from the blueprint that is the Ridley Scott classic.

Frustratingly never paying off on a twist involving one of our main characters that it foreshadows but then abandons, “Sputnik” admittedly does start to run out of gas in the last half of the film. Polished and unrelenting nonetheless, it remains gripping enough to hold your attention as we watch the scientists try to figure out who the real Konstantin is deep down and how to separate the “passenger” from its host for good.

Trying (and at times struggling) to juggle both horror and allegorical satire, Abramenko's film is intriguing from a historical perspective as well. Watching its leads question the ethics involved in their work as they wonder if they should report their superiors when things fall apart (just like the Soviet Union would eight years later), Abramenko's “Sputnik” plays especially well to kids who remember the '80s and dreamed of going to space, before Hollywood informed them that the greatest risk might come from within.

(Bio: A three-time national award-winning writer, when Jen Johans isn't reviewing movies at FilmIntuition.com or releasing new episodes of her podcast “Watch With Jen,” you can find her on Twitter @FilmIntuition.)

Out Stealing Horses - Movie Review by Jen Johans

Tobias Santelmann and Jon Ranes in “Out Stealing Horses” (2019) © 4 1/2 Film

Writer-director: Hans Petter Moland (based on the book by Per Petterson)

Cast: Stellan Skarsgård, Bjørn Floberg, Jon Ranes, & Tobias Santelmann

Review by: Jen Johans

Last month, after seeing and loving director Joseph Losey's 1971 film “The Go-Between,” I was asked on Twitter just what it was about the movie that I responded to so much.

“It's hard to sum up in a tweet,” I replied, and by way of explanation of the film's finest qualities, added that I admired “the way that it unfolds slowly like a summer's day, brings you back to childhood being in rooms with adults having conversations you don't fully understand, coming-of-age and discovering love.”

And although those remarks described my reaction to “The Go-Between,” intriguingly, when I watched “Out Stealing Horses” this week to review, I realized that while writer-director Hans Petter Moland's adaptation of the bestselling book by Per Petterson was in no way as narratively successful as “The Go-Between,” what I loved most about Losey's film is exactly what drew me into this one.

A straightforward adaptation of Petterson's novel, “Out Stealing Horses” centers on Trond (played by the always outstanding Stellan Skarsgård), a sixty-seven-year-old grieving widower who moves out to the Norwegian countryside to live a solitary life. Shortly into the film, he discovers that his new imposing, slightly off neighbor (played by Bjørn Floberg) is none other than the younger brother of his best friend from childhood but since Trond chooses not to acknowledge this, we gather that this reunion is anything but joyous. A framing device shot with drab colors, dim lighting, and a general sense of malaise, the more “modern” sequences set in 1999 never really pull us in quite as well as Trond's recollections of life in the 1940s, which make up a bulk of the film.

With the rich shimmer of cerulean hued water and the lush, deep, jade-colored greenery of the surrounding trees, when fifteen-year-old Trond (Jon Ranes) skims his hand over the lake during the film’s extended flashback, “Out Stealing Horses” nearly takes our breath away, thanks to the cinematography of Danish cameraman Rasmus Videbæk. Reveling in nature in a way that recalls the work of master director Terrence Malick, as we watch Trond and his father (a fine Tobias Santelmann) rely on rain for showers, boats for transportation, and trees for their prosperity in their wooded existence, we realize that their work chopping down tall trees serves as a terrific metaphor.

For, just like the two men clear the woods while logging, with each tree they chop down, Trond begins to see the complexities of life a little more clearly as he comes of age. Following a shocking tragedy in the life of his best friend Jon's (Sjur Vatne Brean) family, which he uncovers on the day the two went “out stealing horses” – which just means going for a ride – Trond begins to realize that things aren't always what they seem.

And this certainly hits home when his father insists that Trond's mother and sister should not join them in the countryside and Trond realizes this rule doesn't apply to all women. Observing but failing to fully process his father's closeness to Jon's mother (Danica Curcic) since – at the exact same time – he's developed a crush on the beautiful married woman as well, “Out Stealing Horses” is a languid yet engrossing account of a fateful summer.

As specifically tied to its time and place as the film is, just like Losey's “Go-Between,” and many other contemplative chronicles of an adolescent being thrust into adulthood when they realize that the most important people in their life are flawed individuals of flesh and blood, the thoughts and feelings that Moland's film conveys are universally relatable.

Additionally, by emphasizing the ways that the events of our life – and in particular our role models – can shape us whether we want them to or not, the film will undoubtedly make us think about some of the big early turning points of our lives, which occurred before we could truly understand their significance or impact on others.

Structurally challenged, while it takes a good half-hour or so to truly become invested in the plight of its characters since the 1999 sequences seem to belong to an entirely different movie, overall, it's an uneven yet ultimately compelling work anchored by Videbæk's romantic cinematography and uniformly strong turns by Ranes and Santelmann, in particular.

The fifth collaboration between Moland and Skarsgård might not be as thrillingly riveting as “In Order of Disappearance,” (which Moland later remade in the states with Liam Neeson as “Cold Pursuit”) or as emotionally draining as “Aberdeen,” but it's still an intensely personal work for the filmmaker.

A moderately cogent adaptation of Petterson's novel, which has been translated into more than fifty languages, the film's shortcomings left me wanting to read the book to get the full impact of the storyline. Yet Moland deserves credit nonetheless for transforming this very Norwegian tale into an emotional saga that we all can feel a kinship with even if we've never showered in the rain or chopped down a tree a day in our life.

Though hindered by the pacing of its opening act, “Out Stealing Horses” is at its best when it flashes back to Trond's life as he moves between childhood and adulthood and discovers the gray between the black and white that exists out there in the countryside amid all that blue and green.

(Bio: A three-time national award-winning writer, when Jen Johans isn't reviewing movies at FilmIntuition.com or releasing new episodes of her podcast “Watch With Jen,” you can find her on Twitter @FilmIntuition.)

Made in Italy - Movie Review by Jen Johans

Liam Neeson and Micheál Richardson in “Made in Italy” (2020)

Writer-director: James D’Arcy

Cast: Liam Neeson, Micheál Richardson, Lindsay Duncan, & Valeria Bilello

Review by: Jen Johans

For Jack (Micheál Richardson), getting divorced means more than just changing residences. Having managed the swanky London art gallery owned by his in-laws for years, Jack is in for a rude awakening when his ex-wife-to-be Ruth (Yolanda Kettle) informs him that not only will he be out of a job as soon as the ink on the divorce decree dries but the art gallery he knows and loves is going on the market for sale.

Begging Ruth not to sell the gallery out from under him, Jack embarks on a quest to seek out the funds he needs to purchase the place from his estranged father Robert (Liam Neeson). Whereas Jack's a level-headed optimist, his carefree painter father's head is always the clouds. And their differences are magnified as they travel to the village of Monticello Amiata in the Grosseto province of Tuscany, Italy to check on and sell the palazzo they'd inherited from Jack's mother and Robert's late wife, Raffaella (Helena Antonio). Arriving in the dead of night, they discover not the pristine villa that Jack barely remembers from his youth but the ornate Tuscan equivalent of a falling down shack, complete with no electricity, and a weasel in the bathroom.

An obvious metaphor for the men's need to repair their relationship and deal with their repressed grief over the tragic loss of Raffaella when Jack was a young boy, as the two get to work fixing up the villa with the help of some locals, they begin to break down their own walls as well.

Meeting cute with the lovely chef and trattoria owner Natalia (Valeria Bilello), Jack strikes up a friendship with romantic potential that much like the villa, also pays off on his need to face the past, since she's a loving mother of a daughter who's only slightly older than Jack was when he lost his mom.

Although inevitably, some will call this the male version of the 2003 film “Under the Tuscan Sun” from director Audrey Wells (just like they did when Russell Crowe fixed up a relative's residence in France in the 2006 Ridley Scott movie “A Good Year”), this one hits a bit harder than the rest from an emotional standpoint overall.

Located roughly ninety-five minutes away from the gorgeous Villa Laura just outside the walls of Cortona in Tuscany where Diane Lane impulsively moved in “Under the Tuscan Sun,” the vibrant scenic views of Monticello Amiata in “Made in Italy” are undeniably eye-catching.

Yet more than just a romantic travelogue, since the tragedy at the core of “Italy” closely resembles the sudden shocking loss of Liam Neeson's wife and his onscreen (and offscreen) son Micheál Richardson's mother Natasha Richardson, when the two gifted actors angrily confront one another over a loved one's death and how to grieve, it cuts extremely close to the bone. And while Neeson and Richardson have revealed that they felt like sublimating and addressing their pain through art was cathartic, it's nonetheless heartbreaking to watch.

This plot point aside, however, writer-director James D'Arcy's film remains an otherwise pleasant, airy, lighthearted, perfect for the dog days of summer trifle, just like “Tuscan Sun” and “A Good Year.” Undeniably predictable, of course, it still warms the heart just like a bowl of risotto made with love.

(Bio: A three-time national award-winning writer, when Jen Johans isn't reviewing movies at FilmIntuition.com or releasing new episodes of her podcast “Watch With Jen,” you can find her on Twitter @FilmIntuition.)

Zoom call with the "Boys State" directors and stars by Jeff Mitchell

Sure, 2020 is a different type of election year, but “Boys State” - the 2020 Sundance Film Festival’s Documentary Grand Jury Prize winner – shows a very unique slice of politics.  Directors Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’ film presents Texas Boys State, an American Legion-promoted, one-week event in which over 1,000 teenage boys gather in Austin and engage in a government simulation. 

The Phoenix Film Festival, along with several media outlets, joined a Zoom call with McBaine, Moss, and three Boys State participants: Steven Garza, René Otero, and Ben Feinstein.  The Phoenix Film Festival’s questions were not selected during the call, but we were honored to attend.  Here is the insightful, thoughtful discussion!   

“Boys State” arrives on Apple TV+ on Friday, Aug. 14.

Q:  How did you find Steven, René, and Ben for your film?

AM:  Finding the main characters (for) any vérité film is always a challenge.  (They are) never really the people (who) we initially expect to find.  Out of a pool of 1,000 kids heading to Boys State, we had to whittle (our choices) down to four.  We had a checklist of things that we needed.  We needed them to be diverse, have different political views, be politically savvy, ambitious, (and) vulnerable.  There are all kinds of things we needed, but then there’s the irrational piece of “I don’t know what else we’re looking for.”  It (took) a long time to find them, but when we did, there was an instant moment of recognition.

Steven was a quieter voice in the one of the orientations that Jesse (attended), and we didn’t find René (until after the) event started.  You meet him in the film the way we met him (and we thought), “You! We’ve been waiting for you!”

Fortunately, (René) was game to let us follow him, so it was a little bit of luck too.

Q:  René, we are introduced to you after you gave an incredibly powerful speech.  Tell us about that experience and being a subject of a film.

René Otero in “Boys State”

RO:  (It) was an empowering moment.  I wasn’t entirely certain that I wanted to be part of Boys State yet.  I felt isolated.  Do I conform to survive, or do I proclaim myself?  I was mostly quiet about my political views, but I heard some speeches that just stabbed me in my heart.  I was angry, so I (went) up there, gave the speech, and it worked out for me.  It really, really worked out for me, because Amanda and Jesse happened to be there, and it felt so electrifying to know that they interrupted (their project) and shifted it around to include me. 

Q:  At Boys State, 1,100 of your peers are interested in the same things: government and politics.  I’m curious about that energy.

BF:  It took a good day or two to find my niche.  The whole energy of the week started in this very intimidating place, but it felt like controlled chaos far more than just chaos.  The film captures it to a degree, but the heat, the walking, and the lack of sleep -  especially for an amputee walking 38 miles on prosthetics in 100 degree Texas heat on four hours of sleep day-in and day-out - isn’t the easiest thing.  So, adrenaline (kept) me going.  I don’t think I’ve ever had a week (when) I felt that kind of passion and a raw desire to finish.  Unbelievable.  That’s the best way to describe it. 

SG:  You have no time to take it all in.  (On the) first day, they throw you into that arena, and it’s like a battle royale.  It’s crazy, and my friends who have seen the trailer have said, “Oh my God, it looks insane.”  

Steven Garza in “Boys State”

It’s even crazier in person, and I believe (Amanda and Jesse captured) about 300 hours of footage, (that they) compressed into an hour and 45 (minutes).  Shenanigans (went on) on the entire week, and I felt like a fish out of water, not only as a brown person in a sea of mostly white faces, but also personality-wise.  (I’m not) a rowdy guy that gets involved and (does) backflips.  I couldn’t do a backflip.  I’d break my neck.  That’s not me.  I was just keeping to myself and trying to find quiet throughout this hurricane of a week.  

JM:  It was a bit like taking a little prop plane into a hurricane.  Fortunately, we knew (that) we had exceptional subjects and a great crew.  We had a crew of 28 people, probably - by a factor of 20 - bigger than any crew we’ve ever had. 

We also expected to find some of that crazy energy.  We (also) found some real intimacy and emotion that we didn’t expect.  That was the surprise for us: to get past the “Lord of the Flies”.  We were blown away by René’s speech, but I was more surprised that he captured the room.  That was a really conservative room.

We knew (Boys State) would be predominately white and conservative, but René and Steven (got) traction and rose in their party.  For us, there was a challenge of (properly) capturing the week, which was hard, (and) the edit was very long.  It was a year-long, and I think we wanted to convey the emotion and exhilaration that we experienced in the room.

Q:  In retrospect, it appeared that many candidates were focused on winning rather than governing.  Is that solely because of the nature of the one-week event, or do you feel that this is systemic of American politics?

Ben Feinstein in “Boys State”

BF:  I feel it’s both.  Texas Boys State is a simulation where there’s no history of governance, and there’s no shadow of the future.  It’s one week where everything is isolated, and people can say whatever they want, and if it sounds good, then it gets the votes.  To a larger degree, I think it’s an unhealthy trend in American politics.  It spills over into things that shouldn’t be political at all, like business, foreign policy, human rights, and other areas that we’re willing to score points on each other. 

I feel like to a dangerous degree, our politics and morality have crossed to the point where more aspects of our (lives) are a part of this team sport.  If you’re a conservative, you get those liberals, and if you’re a liberal, screw the conservatives.  It’s an extremely unhealthy trend for a democracy that relies on citizens’ responsibility.

Q:  You are all phenomenal speakers.  Who inspires you?

RO:  My older brother.  I grew up in a black church, and you do a lot of presentations, spoken words, or Easter speeches, and I was very competitive with him.  He (received) a lot of praise and applause, and I (thought), “I want to do that.”

I’m also really into comedians – like Michael Che and Paris Sachay - and I always say that if none of this works out, I can be a comedian.

SG:  Three individuals.  Two are real, and one is fictional.  Beto O’Rourke.  You can disagree with his positions, but he tells you what he believes, and you never have to (wonder), if he’s telling the truth.  The second one is Bobby Kennedy.  His speech after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. is probably my favorite historical speech.  The third person.  I love “The West Wing”, (so it’s) Josiah Bartlet.  Martin Sheen is a phenomenal actor, and it’s an amazing show.  People criticize it for being pie-in-the-sky, liberal utopia, but out of (the) three, I probably get the most inspiration from him. 

Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic.  Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.