Interview with Sue Kim, the director of ‘The Last of the Sea Women’

The documentary “The Last of the Sea Women” arrives on Apple TV+ on October 11, and director Sue Kim tells the story of the haenyeo, a company of women who free dive – and hold their breath for up to two minutes - in the ocean to catch seafood with their hands.  Sue focuses on Jeju Island in South Korea, where the haenyeo are in their golden years but have been diving for decades.  The practice has been passed down for generations, but today, the haenyeo profession is decreasing, and Sue explores the reasons for this and spends time with these fascinating women.  

Sue also met with the Phoenix Film Festival to discuss her new film, which won the NETPAC Prize at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.

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PFF:  I didn’t know the haenyeo’s story, but I understand that you learned of their history when you were a kid.  Can you expand on that? 

SK:  I did.  I’m Korean American.  My parents are Korean immigrants, and they took my brother and me back to Korea several times during my childhood.  The very first time, I was eight years old, and we took a short trip to Jeju Island to have a fun, tropical vacation.  That’s the first time I ever saw the haenyeo.  I didn’t know anything about them.  We were by the ocean, by a cove area, and we saw this large gaggle of women in their wetsuits, putting their masks on, and getting ready to go in the ocean.  I was so fascinated with them.  To my young-girl brain, they looked so cool and tough, and I didn’t know what they did, but they looked like some kind of underwater, secret girl gang.  I totally fell in love with them in that moment. 

PFF:  It’s almost like you’re describing a scene from “Dr. No”.   

SK:  Totally.  Also, they’re quite loud, feisty, and funny, so they gave off this vibe of fearless, bold confidence.  (With) the whole energy around them, I just fell in love with them.  That started my fascination.  I stayed fascinated with them as I grew up, read everything I could get my hands on about them, watched every news piece I could, and then I finally started going back to Jeju as an adult to try to find them. 

PFF:  The haenyeo are engaging.  During their everyday life, when they aren’t diving, they are friendly and seem unassuming and warm.  What are the women like off-camera?

SK:  They were the exact same off-camera that they are on-camera, which is so wonderful.  I’m a documentary filmmaker, and you don’t really know how people will be on camera.  Sometimes, (your subjects) will freeze on camera, or they become a more muted version of themselves.  The haenyeo, in general, don’t care about what people think.  They are very unapologetically who they are.  Even though we filmed for quite a long time, they kind of ignored us in the best way, which is exactly how I prefer to film subjects.  They forgot that we were there, and then they were their truest, most authentic selves.  The way you see them in the film is exactly how I experienced them: tough, feisty, and argumentative at times, but also loving and community-minded, and (they have) an absolute sisterhood, so it was the whole gamut.  It was like filming with our aunties, (who) were sometimes bullying us and a lot of times taking care of us.  

PFF:  The haenyeo are in their golden years, but you introduce two haenyeos in their 30s from Geoje Island, Jeongmin and Sohee.  I loved how you introduced them, as the pair filmed themselves dancing for their social media page.  Jeongmin and Sohee do the same work as the haenyeo from Jeju Island, but how are their working and lifestyle choices different? 

SK:  They do the exact same work, and that work is quite physically arduous.  All haenyeos share the same qualities, a determination and a resilience to figure out how to make a true living from work.  The way that (Jeongmin and Sohee) came to this occupation is totally different.  The older haenyeo learned this occupation by virtue of having it passed down through a familial lineage.  At the same time, all of our older haenyeo subjects, who are in their 60s and 70s, recalled (that) their introduction to this culture wasn’t really a choice.  It was the only occupation that was really available to them.  It was a great occupation because it gave them financial independence and freedom, but it was what they were destined to do.  

It’s very different with Jeongmin and Sohee, who both came to the haenyeo culture without any connection.  But they found it and latched onto it for very post-modern reasons.  Sohee found the haenyeo culture after having an office job for eight years, and she was just very disillusioned sitting in a cubicle for 10 hours a day with digital fatigue and email.   She found the haenyeo occupation a complete change where she could be close to nature and (feel) satisfied having this connection to nature in her daily work.  She sought out (the haenyeo profession) as a break from our modern, white-collar, digital-exhaustion office life.  

For Jeongmin, her husband lost his job, and she wanted to contribute to the household income, and the haenyeo occupation allowed her very flexible hours as a working mom.  It’s a very post-modern dilemma of how (to) balance work and family life.   She found that the haenyeo work (allowed her) to make her own hours.  She can decide which days to dive, and it provides her (with) this awesome occupation that can totally coexist in harmony with her family.  

So, yeah, they had different choices (than the older haenyeo).  They chose this (job) because it gave them freedom.  It (is) the most rewarding to them.  It (keeps) them connected to the planet, and they grew to love it for very different reasons.  

PFF:  Jeju Island is a beautiful place, but I appreciate that you also filmed garbage lying on the shore.  Sometimes, documentaries about nature may not address or film actual pollution in the environment.  

SK: (The plan was to) find out the existential threats to the haenyeo culture.  What is really jeopardizing their continuation?  From the beginning, all of our haenyeo subjects spoke about ocean pollution and (how it affects) marine life.  When filming, we were on boats pretty frequently, and we could see the garbage piling up.  Of course, we wanted to show that.  Jeju Island is renowned for being this paradise, this beautiful, beautiful coastal island, but the minute you see that garbage piling up, it’s distressing.  You can see the physical splendor of this island and the juxtaposition of years and years of pollution and garbage.  So, we wanted to show that because (it’s) a very real threat, not just to the haenyeo way of life but to this beautiful island.  Look at what we’re doing to it.  Yeah, it was an important part of the story.  

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A Different Man – Movie Review

Directed and written by:  Aaron Schimberg

Starring:  Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve, and Adam Pearson  

Runtime:  112 minutes

‘A Different Man’ is an unexpected and twisty cautionary tale

Edward (Sebastian Stan) resides in New York City, the most populous city in the United States, but he feels alone.  He lives by himself in a small apartment with a plumbing problem leaking from his ceiling, but most of his setbacks have nothing to do with a leaky pipe.  His face is covered with benign skin tumors that leave him with a facial difference.   

For decades, Edward has most likely internalized this physical issue, which has run rampant on his self-esteem.  For instance, during the first act, he reveals that a woman has never touched him romantically.   

Ironically, he works as an actor, and we see Edward working on-set for a corporate video that promotes sensitivity towards those who have experienced ableism.  He tries to stay “invisible” in public, but occasional New Yorkers stare at his appearance.  However, generally speaking, pedestrians and subway passengers ignore him.  

However, one day, doctors notice Edward for a study to remove his facial tumors, and perhaps the growths would reduce or fall away altogether.  

In director/writer Aaron Schimberg’s “A Different Man”, after some treatment, voila, Edward’s tumors subside, and underneath layers of lesions, he has the face of a runway model. Schimberg’s film then depicts Edward’s next choices after medical science has granted him his primary wish.  

“A Different Man” is a cautionary tale about listening to one’s id after winning a rocket-ship boost to one’s ego.  In Edward’s case, he unexpectedly becomes a handsome man in a society where great looks can advance one’s love life, career, and earning potential.   

As Edward sees it, the world can be his oyster, but then again, beauty is only skin deep.  Edward isn’t unethical, but his self-esteem has suffered for years, so the man doesn’t have an existing track record of comfortably mingling in the world.  

So, the question is, how will he react to this rebirth?

It’s difficult to categorize ‘A Different Man’ into one specific genre.  Schimberg’s movie is a dark comedy, a mystery, a psychological drama, and a mad scientist sci-fi flick.  

The latter is especially true with an eerie score featured during the opening credits and a pair of gross body horror moments during the first act.  In fact, during a September screening of the second such moment, six or seven patrons left because the movie, up until that point, felt like a David Cronenberg production from the late 1970s or early 1980s.   

Yes, the film gets that dicey, but the gore then subsides, never to return.  

Stan is compelling in the lead and convincing as a sad sack underneath the make-up.  After Edward’s transformation, Stan carries the duality of new-found confidence but also Edward’s baggage, his insecurities from his previous life.  For the audience, we know Edward, so the self-doubt is written all over his face, even if his work colleagues, acquaintances, and girlfriends don’t sense or see it.  

Schimberg includes a key scene immediately after Edward’s successful medical treatment where a group of men embrace him like a new-found brother.  In that moment, our hero immediately feels like he belongs, and his masculinity is recognized. 

It’s also important to recognize two characters that shape Edward’s journey.  

Ingrid (Renate Reinsve from “The Worst Person in the World” (2021)) is his next-door neighbor.  She’s bright, beautiful, bubbly, and inquisitive.  She’s a playwright who can write her own ticket just about anywhere, but for the moment, Ingrid works Off-Broadway.  It’s difficult to get an exact beat on her.  Ingrid seems genuine but is confident and conditioned to get whatever she wants.  Edward is attracted to her, so how will his recent changes impact their relationship?   

Oswald (Adam Pearson) is the second.  Edward and he don’t know each other, but Oswald copes with the same condition as Edward, and they look similar.  Pearson doesn’t wear make-up or prosthetics like Stan.  In real life, Pearson has neurofibromatosis, which caused his facial tumors.  In the movie, however, Edward and Oswald took two very different paths, where Oswald didn’t let his ailment define him, and hence, he fits within societal norms, free of self-doubt.   

During a 2024 Fantastic Fest red carpet interview, Mama’s Geeky (a YouTube channel) asked Pearson about the film, and he responded, “We’ve avoided the three tropes that normally occur: victimhood, villainy, and false heroism, and to me, that’s the big thing.” 

These three big players converge to form a twisty, unexpected tale about the human condition.  Schimberg’s film is a thought-provoking 112 minutes in which character motivations and decisions will be questioned over long gulps of bottomless coffee at a local diner afterward.

Jeff’s ranking

3/4 stars

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The Outrun – Movie Review

Directed by: Nora Fingscheidt

Written by: Nora Fingscheidt and Amy Liptrot, based on Liptrot’s memoir

Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Stephen Dillane, Saskia Reeves, and Paapa Essiedu

Runtime: 119 minutes

‘The Outrun’ doesn’t sit still in its bohemian cinematic approach to address alcoholism and (a possible) recovery

“Recovery is an acceptance that your life is in shambles, and you have to change it.” – Jamie Lee Curtis

Rona (Saoirse Ronan), a 20-something college student, studies a discipline in biology. She lives in London, and, like many young university scholars, Rona also revels in the festive nightlife that The Big Smoke smolders on every day that ends in y.

She drinks in pubs and clubs but, unfortunately, in excess, and her consumption begins to impact other phases of her life, primarily her classwork and relationship with her boyfriend, Daynin (Paapa Essiedu).

Rona is an alcoholic.

Not unlike countless other big-screen stories of alcoholism, Rona engages in irrational, ugly behavior, and specific scenes in director/co-writer Nora Fingscheidt’s “The Outrun” will draw winces and gasps from the audience. However, “The Outrun” doesn’t focus on these dreadful moments for the majority of the 118-minute runtime. Based on Amy Liptrot’s 2016 memoir, the movie is a specific, personal story about recovery. Most roads to success in life do not form a straight line, nor does Rona’s journey to hopeful sobriety.

This critic didn’t read Liptrot’s book, but the film adaptation certainly embraces the idea that Rona’s trek to possible nirvana is a winding road, one littered with peaks and valleys, both figuratively and literally. She may have studied and partied in London, but she’s from the Orkney Islands off Scotland’s northern coast.

This beyond-remote setting sits at the 58th parallel, as far north as the Alaska Peninsula.

Yes, Wi-Fi exists in Rona’s hometown, but the most considerable bustle on the weekend might be the birth of a sheep or two on her father’s farm.

Our struggling heroine moves back home to live in a more orderly environment wrapped in simplicity away from the commotion of the city, but as the old saying goes, “No matter where you go, there you are.”

The audience also learns that growing up in her parents’ home was anything but an effortless space due to one of her folks unsuccessfully coping with mental illness throughout Rona’s life, and this affliction imprinted emotional damage onto Rona.

Turbulence often swirled in Rona’s limited universe as a child. That external churn may or may not have been a partial catalyst for her alcohol consumption during her young adult years. At a minimum, it didn’t help!

Her life is messy, and Fingscheidt and editor Stephan Bechinger construct the film as such. The narrative doesn’t move linearly; instead, it frequently shifts from present-day Scotland to her London days and a few moments from her childhood, many times without warning.

The result is a challenging, bohemian approach to revealing Rona’s story. Sometimes, it’s not entirely clear where we are in the timeline, even though London’s skyline is worlds apart from the Orkney Islands’ isolated savannas and rugged coastal shores. Cinematographer Yunus Roy Imer indeed captures the pastoral region’s beauty, including filming endless prairies and waves crashing at the shore.

Symbolism is everywhere. Whitecaps embody the never-ending desire to drink, and Rona’s solitary existence in wide-open spaces signifies her realization that she must slay her demons on her own. It’s up to her.

Meanwhile, she often blasts modern, electronic music through her earbuds, which contrasts the vastly different countryside, as a coping mechanism or a quiet stance of defiance.

Fingscheidt also includes two scenes with apples that embody the saying, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”

It’s a film that sometimes offers prescriptions in the form of small victories against occasional setbacks that lay beside a backdrop of vulnerabilities.

Meanwhile, Ronan, one of the most engaging actresses on the big screen today, isn’t asked to regularly burst with uninhabited emotions and mood swings. Yes, there are moments, but she mainly processes Rona’s story with reflection, regret, and (sometimes unwillingly) reaching out to sobriety. Ronan gives a (mostly) understated performance, in which crucial moments of heartbreak sneak up on us when we least expect it, including one where Fingscheidt fills the screen with Rona’s face in a scene of utter despair.

Because, again, no matter where you go, there you are.

Jeff’s ranking

2.5/4 stars

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The Wild Robot – Movie Review

Directed by:  Chris Sanders

Written by:  Chris Sanders, based on Peter Brown’s book

Starring:  Lupita Nyong’o, Kit Connor, Pedro Pascal, Bill Nighy, Catherine O’Hara, Ving Rhames, Stephanie Hsu, and Mark Hamill

Runtime:  101 minutes

‘The Wild Robot’ spurs untamed, runaway thoughts of technology and its connection with the animal kingdom.

“Being a mother is an attitude, not a biological relation.” – Robert A. Heinlein

Science fiction writer Robert Heinlein’s (“Starship Troopers” (1959)) quote sums up the principal relationship in “The Wild Robot”: between a state-of-the-art robot, Roz (Lupita Nyong’o), and an orphaned gosling, Brightbill (Kit Connor). 

Set sometime in the future on this “bright, blue ball” known as Earth, Universal Dynamics, a company that could be Amazon meets Tesla, runs into an accident.  One of their ships, during a journey longer than a “three-hour tour,” lands on an isolated island, and a fleet of their Rozzum robots don’t reach their intended address.  One automated machine “survives” the traveling mix-up, powers on, explores the isle to gather data, and looks for an assignment.  You see, the Rozzum machines are born to serve. 

“Do you need assistance?”  

“Just ask.” 

However, Roz doesn’t speak Rabbit, Deer, or Crow, so it/she activates its/her learning mode, and presto!

She can communicate with all the animals.  

Pretty cool.  Who needs Rosetta Stone, right?  

Along this trek, she discovers her purpose:  to raise Brightbill.

Director/writer Chris Sanders’ (“How to Train Your Dragon” (2010), “The Call of the Wild” (2020)) animated feature, adapted from Peter Brown’s 2016 book, welcomes the concept that technology, when applied with care, is a beneficial force for humanity or, in this case, the animal kingdom.  Roz, who probably stands eight feet tall and pseudo-resembles BB-8 (“Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens” (2015)) with her (let’s just settle on “her”) spherical head and spherical body.  However, Roz has spindly, flexible arms and legs (like Doctor Octopus from the “Spider-Man” comics and movies) that are handy for climbing, running, and grabbing.  

Her sturdy metallic frame is toughened armor against the weather.  Roz has zero chance of rusting, and she can physically withstand contact with the wildlife’s brawnier creatures, like a grizzly bear, although she is not indestructible and does show wear and tear.  She isn’t a fearsome T-800 from “The Terminator” (1984) as her programming is akin to Mary Poppins, always wanting to offer a metaphorical spoonful of sugar.  

Roz’s sweet but ultimately pragmatic parenting skills influence Brightbill’s personality.  Her logical, scientific approach to everything makes his interactions a bit robotic as well.  

He’s a bit of an outcast in the geese community, so the movie hinges on two ideas:  Brightbill’s growth into hopeful acceptance and Roz’s parenting work becoming an emotional bonding experience.  

Sanders and the animation department effectively portray Brightbill and Roz’s parallel emotional journeys.  Frequent reminders of Brightbill’s vulnerabilities with his fellow fowls form a distinct, palatable underdog story for audiences, and Roz’s ever-present attempts to formulate the correct answer for her surrogate son and other island dwellers develop a sincere rooting interest for her synapses to reach a magical emotive resolve.

Roz expresses her “feelings” through expressive changes with her eyes, and Nyong’o balances Roz’s silicon-based, synthetic cadence with underlying empathy and compassion.  

The film works best when Roz and Brightbill’s bond is embraced and tested.  This petite gosling should eventually grow up and join a flock for migration, and this fact also becomes a point of contention.  

Any mother who drops her 18-year-old at a freshman dorm knows this specific pain.

Now, changing gears from children flying from the nest and to the animation.  This movie looks beautiful.  Dynamic color palettes frolic on an isle free from human beings.  Dazzling coastal blues, gray mountainous peaks, shades of greens in forests, and vibrant varieties of life are everywhere.  They are waiting for Roz’s discovery, including our programmed heroine mimicking her new animal buds (and some, at first, enemies) and even placing her hand on a yellow tree trunk, which reveals a massive assembly of butterflies.   

Of course, we meet all kinds of four-legged friends, including a fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal), a geese leader called Longneck (Bill Nighy), a mama opossum named Pinktail (Catherine O’Hara), a grizzly bear named Thorn (Mark Hamill), and much more.  

The comic relief is hit and miss, and more of the former.  Still, Fink, a fox, becomes Brightbill and Roz’s guide to the island’s particulars, and he MUST constantly quell his instincts from devouring the young bird, which begs the question:  

Couldn’t Fink be an herbivore, like a deer or something?  

Fink’s relationship with Brightbill previews a later effort when ALL the animal residents need to become neighborly colleagues.  In reality, this idea would be problematic as many carnivores would need to eat their BFFs to survive, and this critic can’t see Thorn dining on berries and alfalfa off-camera.  Can you?  

A widespread partnership is eventually required, as a prime character’s arc takes an additional turn that feels tacked on during the third act.  Does the aforementioned turn hurt the movie?  No, but it extends the narrative outside the original and clear dynamic between Roz and Brightbill.  It’s not necessary.  Admittedly, this third-act twist aims to deepen their connection, but the 101-minute runtime felt long.  Leaving the unnamed plot point on the cutting room floor would ironically have left a more potent impact on the film’s basic premise…in this critic’s opinion. 

Still, this PG-rated film offers a positive and pleasant family-friendly experience.  With wondrous animation and an emotional story, “The Wild Robot” spurs untamed, runaway thoughts of technology and its connection with the animal kingdom.  

What could be better?  

Well, parents, please prepare your children for any future accidental steps into their television or YouTube excursions where they could run smack dab into a nature video of a lion hunting down and devouring an unsuspecting zebra.   They might have questions. 

Jeff’s ranking

3/4 stars

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Sleep - Movie Review

Directed and written by: Jason Yu. 

Starring: Jung Yu-mi, Lee Sun-kyun

Runtime: 95 minutes.

Korean horror film ‘Sleep’ confronts demons in the dark

Sleep is easy to take for granted. It’s something your body just does. For a third of your life, your consciousness goes offline, a computer powering down to recharge. If you’re lucky, you don’t have to work at it – it just happens. Like breathing, it’s easy to take for granted. Until something goes wrong. 

And it goes very wrong in the aptly titled psychological horror film “Sleep” by Korean filmmaker Jason Yu. His promising debut takes a simple premise, almost entirely set in the confines of one small apartment, and wrings it for all it’s worth in a tight 95 harrowing and darkly funny minutes.

Hyun-su and Soo-jin (played by Lee Sun-kyun and Jung Yu-mi) are a picture-perfect young married couple. Sweet and loving with one another, and with their adorable fluffball Pomeranian named Pepper, they have a baby on the way, and Hyun-su’s acting career is going places. At night, the couple cuddle on the couch to watch his latest appearance in a TV show while he covers his face in mock embarrassment. On the wall hangs a wooden placard emblazoned with the motto of their marriage: “Together we can overcome anything”

“Sleep” puts that motto to the test. 

Hyun-su, usually so peacefully asleep during the night, starts experiencing disturbances, small at first. His wife wakes to find him talking in his sleep. The next night, he begins scratching himself and wakes to find his hands and face bloody, Pepper shivering underneath the couple’s bed. Then, the sleepwalking begins. In the night, Soo-jin finds her husband, seemingly awake but not, eating raw meat from the fridge.

When the sleepwalking turns dangerous – almost deadly – they try creative solutions, like zipping Hyun-su tight in a sleeping bag with oven mitts on his hands. They go to the doctor for pills, even install a bell on the bedroom door to alert Soo-jin if her husband breaks free of his confines. When the baby comes, so small and so vulnerable, Soo-jin is driven to insomnia with vigilance, afraid of what her sleepwalking husband might do to their newborn daughter. 

In a fit of sleep-deprived desperation, they invite a shaman into the apartment – a huckster, maybe, but it’s what she senses that turns this psychologically fraught domestic drama into a proper horror film.

Like the best of modern Korean horror, Yu’s smartly directed “Sleep” displays a delicate mastery of tone, deftly balancing the sweetness of the central relationship with psychological unraveling, supernatural terrors and devilishly black humor that makes the minutes fly even as not much is happening onscreen. It’s not reinventing any narrative wheels, but “Sleep” still unnerves in its understanding of the vulnerability of sleep: how much we need this basic function we take for granted, the particular insanity that descends when we don’t get enough of it and how fragile we are when we’re in the midst of it – especially if our partner is suddenly possessed by a malevolent force. 

If you sleep at all after watching “Sleep,” it best be with one eye open.

Barbara’s ranking

3/4 stars

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Best of TIFF 2024 – Part Two

The 49th Annual Toronto International Festival (TIFF) may be over, but the memories of so many great movies remain!  Over 10 days, I caught 48 screenings (47 films and one television show), and here are five more of my favorites, The Best of TIFF 2024 – Part Two.

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“Hard Truths” – Director/writer Mike Leigh is back with his first movie in six years, and he does not disappoint.  Neither does Marianne Jean-Baptiste (“Secrets & Lies” (1996)), who delivered the best performance that this critic saw at TIFF 2024.  Pansy (Jean-Baptiste) is possibly the most cantankerous matriarch portrayed on screen since Violet Weston (Meryl Streep) in “August: Osage County” (2013).  The difference here is that Jean-Baptiste’s Pansy carries massive swaths of comedy during her astonishing rants, ones that rival Allison Janney’s Oscar-winning work as Tonya Harding’s mother, LaVona, in “I, Tonya” (2017).  The rest of the characters, in this English family drama, attempt to cope with Pansy’s angst while Leigh offers no easy answers to reach harmony, as only he can. 

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“I’m Still Here” – Former Brazilian Congressman Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello) turned away from politics.  He’s a successful businessman now and lives with his wife, Eunice (Fernanda Torres), and their children, steps away from Rio de Janeiro’s beach scene.  Life is beautiful, until it’s not.  Director Walter Salles (“Central Station” (1998), “The Motorcycle Diaries” (2004)) chronicles a Paiva family biopic about their deeply personal and unjust encounter with Brazil’s military dictatorship during the 1970s.  Salles’ film is a cautionary tale of extreme government overreach, while Mello and Torres deliver absorbing performances during this unsettling and inspirational watch. 

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“Santosh” – Santosh (Shahana Goswami) loses her husband, a police officer, when he is killed in the line of duty; however, through a government-sponsored program, as a widow, she is offered his position within the force.  With no background in law enforcement, Santosh attempts to navigate her new career in a male-dominated arena but finds an ally, a toughened female veteran, Sharma (Sunita Rajwar).  They follow a troubling case in Northern India that leads to raw, explosive choices for the new constable.  Goswami and Rajwar are nothing short of mesmerizing during their characters’ complex relationship in director/writer Sandhya Suri’s impressive effort, her first narrative feature.

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“The Shadow Strays” – Holy smokes.  Director/writer Timo Tjahjanto modern-day martial arts film is a wildly entertaining, crowd-pleasing bloodbath.  Granted, this critic doesn’t often catch flicks in this genre, but I can’t recall a more violent movie, which is Tjahjanto’s point.  Set in Jakarta, a gifted, efficient assassin named 13 (Aurora Ribero) embarks on a ferocious campaign against a vast, vicious criminal organization.  Well, its nefarious members are in trouble!  Twenty-year-old Ribero, with only four months of training, is a wondrous, charismatic phenom, and Hana Malasan plays 13’s mentor, Umbra, as her coercing, cutthroat on-screen co-star.  Swordplay, knife fights, machine-gun fire, slugfests, ruthless swings of a baseball bat, and more fill the screen for 144 minutes!

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“Vermiglio” – Director/writer Maura Delpero whisks us to a gorgeous, mountainous setting in Northern Italy for a sensitive family tale at the end of World War II.  Pietro (Giuseppe De Domenico), a war veteran from Sicily, arrives in town and meets Lucia (Martina Scrinzi), the daughter of a revered teacher, Cesare (Tommaso Rango).  Lucia is shy but smitten, and she and Pietro begin cordial flirting, which blossoms into something more.  Delpero develops several rich supporting characters, in addition to Lucia and Pietro, and she and the actors easily allow our immediate investment into following their individual destinies.  A beautifully crafted picture.  

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The Substance – Movie Review

Directed and written by:   Coralie Fargeat

Starring:  Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid

Runtime:  141 minutes

Moore and Qualley are the perfect ingredients for ‘The Substance’, Fargeat’s wild body horror social commentary

“It changed my life.”

Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) is a successful, Oscar-winning actress and proudly has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  These days, she shines on the small screen as a fitness instructor for a television show that looks like a throwback to the 1980s and 1990s, the “:20 Minute Workout” meets “Getting Fit with Denise Austin”.  However, her exercise gig suffers a career-ending injury when her misogynistic boss, Harvey (Dennis Quaid), fires her due to her age and on her 50th birthday to boot.

Later that day, feeling blue and the effects of Father Time, someone introduces The Substance, a fountain-of-youth solution, to Elisabeth and utters the aforementioned quote.  After watching director/writer Coralie Fargeat’s (“The Revenge” (2017)) “The Substance”, a wild and gruesome mad-scientist flick, it might change your life too. 

“The Substance” is a shocking experience that excels by riding along a few vital parallel tracks.  

Fargeat’s film is a cautionary tale about trusting a stranger/product/system without proper vetting, but desperate times call for desperate measures.  Elisabeth has digested the impossible beauty standards that society has placed on women for decades (or possibly forever), and she suffers the consequences of these unfair ideals through her brand-new unemployment.  

How far is she willing to go to change the narrative?  

Far enough to inject a mysterious green liquid with a needle that could double as an 11-century steel lance.  Well, it’s not that large, but Elisabeth’s strange journey to secure The Substance in a questionable Los Angeles neighborhood builds plenty of tension with what-will-happen-next vibes when she eventually presses the needle’s tip on her skin.   

That scene and the rest of the 141-minute movie (which flew by in no time) clearly and effectively convey the obsession and desire for eternal youth and surface-level splendor.   

From this perspective, “The Substance” is an important film, not just a random horror movie.  

To communicate her point, Fargeat and a stellar special effects team gorge on gore, which will delight horror fans and force others to believe that the apocalypse has begun.  This movie is not for the squeamish, but covering one’s eyes is always an option.  This critic is not a special effects expert when deciphering CGI versus practical effects.  Still, the effects look practical – similar to John Carpenter’s “The Thing” (1982) – and Margaret Qualley (who becomes Elisabeth’s 20-something self after Demi’s Elisabeth injects the green goo) remarked during the September 5th Toronto International Film Festival screening that she indeed donned practical effects on her person.  

Demi does, as well.  

Both Demi and Margaret properly garner Elisabeth’s stress and desperation to maintain everlasting gorgeous looks to keep up with the culture’s expectations and embrace the benefits, including satisfying one’s lust and pursuing fame, which Sue (Qualley) can accomplish by simply walking into a room. 

Of course, everything has a price, but in this case, Elisabeth and Sue need to follow The Substance’s rules.  See also “Gremlins” (1984).  You know that drill from that 80s classic.  “Don’t get them wet.  Don’t feed them after midnight.”  

No, Elisabeth and Sue can swim and eat at Denny’s at 1 a.m., but other specifics must be followed.  Dear Elisabeth and Sue:  For the love of God, please follow the rules!

“The Substance” certainly breaks conventions through its wonderfully horrific plot thread, although the film itself took a similar awards’ turn as Julia Ducournau’s “Titane” (2021).  

“Titane”, a twisted body horror picture, won the Cannes 2021 Palme d’Or, and Fargeat won the Cannes 2024 Best Screenplay honors.   

Ducournau’s vision is a dark, sicko journey that resembles David Cronenberg’s gloomier work, while “The Substance” takes a somewhat campy approach while also divulging the most disturbing images that I’ve seen this year.  

Meanwhile, the film’s Demi-Margaret dynamic duo is an explosive combination where Elisabeth and Sue need to cooperate to maintain harmony, and Fargeat features the women as physically vulnerable, sexualized, and under harmful distress.  For my money, Elisabeth is Moore’s most memorable role, which tops her turns in “Ghost” (1990) and “Disclosure” (1994), and Qualley – who has chosen some terrific jobs, like “Novitiate” (2017) and “Kinds of Kindness” (2024) - bends herself into pretzels to communicate that Sue is the object of the male gaze.

As gory as some of Demi and Margaret’s moments are, Dennis’ Harvey delivers one of the most nauseating scenes over a contentious lunch.   

For those hungry for something unexpected, “The Substance” is your film, especially if you can embrace the gore or, for more delicate audiences, negotiate with it.  However, at its core, Fargeat holds up a maddening mirror to our current state of affairs, and Moore and Qualley are the perfect ingredients for “The Substance”, both inside and out.  

Jeff’s ranking

3.5/4 stars

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My Old Ass - Movie Review

Directed and written by: Megan Park.

Starring: Maisy Stella, Aubrey Plaza, Percy Hynes White.

Runtime: 88 minutes.

‘My Old Ass’ a clever coming-of-age tale with heart and wit – and on ‘shrooms

It’s an age-old philosophical question: What advice would you impart to your younger self if adult you, with all the scars and hard-earned wisdom of adulthood, could reach back through time and connect with your wide-eyed, idealistic teenage self? 

Would you tell 18-year-old you to study harder in school? To stop taking your family for granted? To invest in the stock market? The winning lottery numbers?

Or would you drop ‘shrooms in the woods and dance? 

There’s room for both in “My Old Ass,” a coming-of-age comedy as irreverent as its title written and directed by Megan Park, the 38-year-old director of “The Fallout” who clearly remembers with keen acuity what it was like to be 18. Here, she’s able both to channel the naïve optimism of adolescence and the battle-hardened weariness of midlife to explore weighty philosophical questions about aging, fate and self-determinism with bittersweet cheek. 

Elliott (Maisy Stella) is 18 and bursting at the seams to leave her childhood in the dust. The queer tomboy, feeling constrained by rural life, is blazing through her last summer on her family’s bucolic Canadian cranberry farm before she leaves for university in big-city Toronto. She’s had her fill of fruit-filled bogs and tractors and annoying little brothers, and ditches family dinners as the days tick down to her departure to zip around the lake in her motorboat, make out with her number one girl crush and take psychedelic mushrooms in the forest with her friends. So far, so 18. 

But psychedelic mushrooms mean psychedelic trips, and it’s during one of these that Elliott encounters a strange 39-year-old woman in the woods. She has Elliott’s same brown doe eyes, her same sardonic wit, her same name – in fact, she claims, she is her, from the future. 

Old Elliott (Aubrey Plaza) wisely refrains from interfering with the space-time continuum or Young Elliott’s joy of discovery – she won’t tell her younger self which stocks to invest in or any winning lottery numbers. Pressed for any piece of intel, Old Elliott only says, with wariness in her voice: Stay away from a guy named Chad. He’s bad news. 

No problem, thinks Elliott. She’s only interested in kissing girls, anyway. What on earth would she ever want to do with some guy named Chad? But then suddenly a gangly summer worker on the cranberry farm has her questioning her life, her sexuality, her relationship to her family and their cranberry farm – and why on earth Old Elliott would warn her away from the gentlest, funniest, sweetest boy she’s ever met. (And she doesn’t even like boys!) 

That you never deeply question the logistics of “My Old Ass” (especially as Young and Old Elliott continue to text each other across the void of space and time) is a credit to Stella’s charm as the profanely charismatic Elliott. She plays Elliott like a rocket gearing up to blast into orbit, a teenager on the cusp of young adulthood who can’t contain her craving to suck the marrow out of life. She wants to fall in and out of love, to have her first threesome, to sing and dance and sometimes do drugs. Confronted with her older self, she asks if they can kiss – you know, just to see what it's like. 

It’s easy to see why a young woman so full of life would feel let down by the woman she grows to be. Here she is, ready to set the world on fire, only to discover she grows to be a middle-aged woman who takes yoga classes, who looks a little beat down and a lot sad. 

“I thought I’d be happier at 40,” Elliott says.

But what makes “My Old Ass” a coming-of-age tale unlike any other isn’t just the time travel and ‘shrooms (or the riotously funny Justin Bieber musical interlude). It’s the understanding that we are, all of us, at every phase of life, “coming of age.” It’s not just Young Elliott learning how to live – it’s Old Elliott, too.

And you, whatever age you are. “My Old Ass” will make you remember who you were at 18. Will make you realize, even, that teenage you still exists on some cosmic wavelength with some lessons left to teach. 

No ‘shrooms required.

Barbara’s ranking

3.5/4 stars

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Best of TIFF 2024 – Part One

The 49th Annual Toronto International Festival (TIFF) offers countless movie options for professionals and fans of all ages, and this proud Phoenix Film Festival critic has caught 39 films in the Great White North, so far.  I recommend a ton of features, but here are five of my favorites, The Best of TIFF 2024 – Part One, and on Sept. 20, I’ll add an additional five for a Best of TIFF 2024 – Part Two article. 

Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you soon, Phoenix! 

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“Anora” – Director/writer Sean Baker’s boy-meets-girl movie is an electric and turbulent exotic-dancer-meets-Russian-billionaire love story.  Anora (Mikey Madison), or “Ani” as she prefers, dazzles Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn) with seductive charm, and his freewheeling charisma and monetary excesses astonish her.  This dynamic duo disregards their safety belts on their wild rollercoaster affair.  Baker’s films (“Tangerine” (2015), “The Florida Project” (2017), “Red Rocket” (2021)) live on society’s fringes, but this high-roller flick frequently lives in lavish spaces.  With kinetic camerawork and captivating performances, this comedy – with, of course, grounded drama too - flies as Baker’s most vivacious film. 

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“The Girl with the Needle” – Karoline (Vic Carmen Stone), a seamstress, can’t make ends meet in Copenhagen while her husband fights in The Great War.  She’s forced to move into a dilapidated flat that sets in motion her desperate journey where harsh lines of societal classes and limited choices for women lead her to an unexpected landing spot with a new friend (Trine Dyrholm).  Director/co-writer Magnus von Horn’s gorgeously shot black and white picture contrasts and compliments the exceedingly bleak narrative, and Stone delivers one of best performances of the year. 

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“The Seed of the Sacred Fig” – Germany’s Foreign Language Oscar submission, directed and written by Mohammad Rasoulof, is set in modern-day Tehran, where a family of four – at first - internally struggle with the differing generational outlooks on the 2022/2023 hijab protests.  However, the focus changes once the patriarch, Iman (Missagh Zareh), faces a specific work crisis that spills into the home.  Rasoulof’s stressful whodunit is filled with paranoia as Iman, Iman’s wife, Najmeh (Soheila Golestani), and their girls, Rezvan (Masha Rostami) and Sana (Setareh Maleki), attempt to cope with their in-house commotion as well as country-wide turmoil.

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“The Substance” – When 50-something actress Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) feels the effects of Father Time, she turns to a mad-scientist treatment, a mysterious green liquid known as The Substance, and suddenly, her 20-something self (Margaret Qualley) appears!  How cool, right?  Well, there’s a catch.  Uh oh!  Director/writer Coraline Fargeat’s (“Revenge” (2017)) sensational body-horror tale gorges on gore and proudly holds up a maddening mirror to society’s demand for impossible beauty standards.  Moore and Qualley are terrific, both inside and out! 

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“The Village Next to Paradise” – The sun is always shining in Paradise, a modest oceanfront village in Somalia, but there isn’t enough commerce for residents to save for a rainy day.   Mamargade (Ahmed Ali Farah), a gravedigger by trade, can’t find enough work and even asks a colleague if any deadly drone strikes have recently struck…to help support his day job.  He lives with his sister Araweelo (Anab Ahmed Ibrahim) and his young son, Cigaal (Ahmed Mohamud Saleban), but Mamargade leans on her for financial support while she also grapples with the depressing economic status quo.  Director/writer Mo Harawe’s tranquil pacing and commitment to the three leads’ arcs deliver a mesmerizing watch over 132 absorbing minutes.  

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Relax with Five Movies about Working on Labor Day

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Labor Day offers workers a chance to unwind, barbeque, or visit with family and friends.  In my book, any vacation day is perfect for watching a movie, so here are five films centered around working to appreciate during your day off!   

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“9 to 5” (1980) – Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton starred in the second highest-grossing movie of 1980, $103 million and second only to “The Empire Strikes Back”, as three women use figurative laser cannons and lightsabers to smash an unjust workplace in amusing and empowering fashions.  Judy (Fonda), Violet (Tomlin), and Doralee (Parton) plot against their boss, Franklin Hart (Dabney Coleman), after his repeated sexist slights, and the triad winds up running the company while keeping Mr. Hart indisposed.  All three leads are especially likable, and Fonda offers the biggest surprise with her understated performance.  Arriving in theatres during the height of the women’s liberation movement, the film – and Parton’s song - struck a chord with audiences, especially with women impacted by discriminating office environments. One can imagine packed 1980 movie theatres bursting out in laughter and emotional release when Doralee threatens Mr. Hart by saying, “I’m gonna get that gun of mine and change you from a rooster to a hen in one shot.”

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“Clerks” (1994) - Working behind the register of a New Jersey convenience store would appear to be a stress-free job, but no one warned Dante Hicks (Brian O’Halloran) about his upcoming day in writer/director Kevin Smith’s hilarious first feature, one filmed in black and white on a shoestring budget.  Dante deals with a constant stream of oddballs looking to buy cigarettes, candy, and milk while his ex-girlfriend drops by and two harmless drug dealers loiter outside.  Highly conversational, Smith’s picture paints the struggles of directionless 20-somethings, as Dante and his best friend, Randal (Jeff Anderson), opine about the original “Star Wars” trilogy and pornography, and they plan a street hockey adventure too.  No, Dante’s work is not overly laborious, but he was “not even supposed to be here today.” 

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“Night Shift” (1982) – Michael Keaton, while playing Bruce Wayne in “Batman” (1989), famously uttered, “Come on.  Let’s get nuts!”  Well, Keaton’s breakout performance as a New York City morgue driver, Bill Blazejowski, in director Ron Howard’s “Night Shift” is delightfully over-the-top and nutty.  Bill is a loose cannon, a self-proclaimed idea man, who wears sunglasses inside, repeatedly sings “Jumping Jack Flash”, and convinces his morgue partner, Chuck Lumley (Henry Winkler), into running a prostitution ring from their place of business during the – you guessed it – night shift.  They aren’t pimps but “love brokers,” as Bill declares.  Winkler’s mild-mannered, soft-spoken take on Chuck is nowhere near the self-confident Arthur Fonzarelli from “Happy Days” (1974 – 1984), and Henry and Michael enjoy straight-man-versus-zany-lunatic comedic chemistry while overseeing the “oldest profession” in a new locale.  The main plot thread features Chuck’s hopeful journey towards gaining his self-assurance and potentially finding romance with Belinda (Shelley Long), but Keaton’s star-making turn lights up the day, swing, and night shifts!  

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“Norma Rae” (1979) – Sally Field won her first Best Actress Oscar by playing the title role in director Martin Ritt’s picture about a single mom toiling in a North Carolina cotton factory.  Persistent and altruistic, Norma Rae Webster (Field) fights for workers’ rights against unfair conditions.  She’s a leader, and the words “stand up” can be taken literally when Norma Rae raises a “UNION” sign above her head.  All eyes - on-screen and in the audience - focus on her.  It’s an iconic cinematic image, Field’s grandest moment, one that topped her on-screen mischief as a California teen in “Gidget” (1965-1966) and her act as an airborne philanthropist in “The Flying Nun” (1967-1970).  The movie – nominated for three other Oscars, including Best Picture – is based on the true story of Crystal Lee Sutton.

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“Two Days, One Night” (2014) – In writer/directors Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne’s emotional roller-coaster, Sandra (Marion Cotillard) takes a temporary leave of absence from her job at a Belgian solar panel company due to depression and anxiety.  Still, the higher-ups might permanently remove her from the company payroll to cut expenses when they offer the other employees a choice:  keep your bonus or keep Sandra employed.  In a fascinating look at the human condition, Sandra approaches each of her coworkers over a weekend to ask for their vote of confidence, and her colleagues respond in various – heartbreaking and sobering – ways.  The Academy rightfully nominated Cotillard for a Best Actress Oscar, as she masterfully captures the internal churn of potential downsizing while her character attempts to discover her self-worth. 

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Between The Temples – Movie Review

Directed by:   Nathan Silver

Written by:  Nathan Silver and C. Mason Wells

Starring:  Jason Schwartzman, Carol Kane, Caroline Aaron, Dolly De Leon, Madeline Weinstein, and Robert Smigel

Runtime:  111 minutes

‘Between the Temples’: Schwartzman and Kane offer keen performances in this eccentric comedy

Benjamin Gottlieb (Jason Schwartzman) is having a bad day.  

While sitting in a local Upstate New York bar, minding his own business, and drinking a mudslide, Ben overhears a stranger poking fun at him.  Ben, to his credit, confronts the bully but is knocked to the floor with one punch.   

Ooof.

A random patron (Carol Kane) comes to Ben’s aid, but in a rare moment of fate, Ben realizes that this Good Samaritan is his elementary school music teacher, Mrs. O’Connor, who now goes by her maiden name, Kessler.  Carla Kessler, a grandmother, doesn’t remember Ben from all those years ago.  Still, they awkwardly connect – in the here and now - through the aforementioned violent circumstance and their scholastic link.

Let’s go back to Ben.  He is having a bad YEAR.  

This 30-or-40-something is depressed.  Ben is no longer together with his wife, Ruth.  (The audience doesn’t immediately know why, but we discover the reason later.)  He moves back home with his two moms, Meira (Caroline Aaron) and Judith (Dolly De Leon), and even attempts suicide.  

Ben looks for some spiritual relief as a cantor for Rabbi Bruce (Robert Smigel) at Temple Sinai but, when called upon, fails to sing in front of the shul.  However, when Carla, in her 60s or 70s, shows interest in having a bat mitzvah (because she never had one as a kid), Ben and she have a harmonious opportunity to support one another through her future celebration and music.  

Director Nathan Silver’s “Between the Temples” is music for Schwartzman and Kane fans.  Their characters form an unlikely new friendship in this curious, eccentric comedy that’s driven and filled by purposely awkward, character-driven discourse as Ben and Carla attempt to overcome their individual challenges.  

Sad sack Ben has much more internal work to do than Carla.  He needs a team of therapists.  Moving in with your parents, who provide comfort (and a roof) but little practical advice, 20 years after graduating from high school is an obvious tell.  

As Ben, Schwartzman, one of Wes Anderson’s go-to actors, is the polar opposite of the fearless, overconfident Max Fischer from his breakout performance in “Rushmore” (1998).  Here, a directionless Ben wallows in grief and self-pity and in a way, reminds this critic of Richie Tenenbaum (Luke Wilson), the struggling tennis pro in another Anderson classic, “The Royal Tenenbaums” (2001).    

Ben is down 40-LOVE in the game of life, but he discovers purpose by mentoring Carla on her bat mitzvah journey.  

By design (or through possible financial limitations), the film looks and feels made on a shoestring budget and possibly filmed with an iPhone or two.  Silver and cinematographer Sean Price Williams’ cameras (or phones) bob and weave on location in Kingston, NY, a small town with a population of 24,000, located 100 miles north of New York City through a local bar, restaurant, a couple of homes, and a temple.  The photography often/sometimes seems grainy, where the natural light isn’t enough.  The look is distracting at first, but it weirdly gives the story authentic vibes, as if Ben and Carla’s tale could almost be a random documentary.  Ben and Carla even talk with their mouths full at lunch, including the former player spitting out his food on the table. 

The camerawork and comedic banter use a similar style that made “The Office” (2005 – 2013) famous (my apologies, I’ve only seen a handful of the original British production episodes).  Uncomfortable exchanges frequently occur, and the subsequent big-screen image will then settle on a close-up of a character’s face for a reaction shot.  De Leon, Aaron, and Smigel play along with the gags nicely, and so does Madeline Weinstein, who is Gabby, a potential love interest for Ben.  

For lonely Ben, Carla becomes a friendly fixture of time, so she could be the cure on his way to recovery!  The screenplay spins most of Ben’s backstory yarn in the first act, but Carla’s reveal twirls throughout the second and third, and Kane gracefully works through it beautifully.

Speaking of grace, Smigel offers a sturdy, foundational supporting performance as the ever-steady rabbi, lightyears away from his maniacal Triumph the Insult Comic Dog alter-ego.  

Still, “Between the Temples” might have shades of Triumph in spirit because Silver, Schwartzman, Kane, Smigel, and the cast aren’t afraid to say, “I keed.  I keed.” 

 Jeff’s ranking

2.5/4 stars

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Sing Sing – Movie Review

Directed by:   Greg Kwedar

Starring:  Colman Domingo, Clarence Maclin, Paul Raci, Sean San Jose, David Giraudy, Patrick Griffin, Sean Dino Johnson, and John “Divine G” Whitfield

Runtime:  105 minutes

‘Sing Sing’:  This real-life incarceration drama sings with hope and authenticity

“The world expects brothers like you and I to walk in with our heads held down.  No, you got to walk in like a king.” – John “Divine G” Whitfield (Colman Domingo) 

John “Divine G” Whitfield champions a theatrical stage company.  He writes, produces, and performs in live-action plays, and he’s done so for years.  John is passionate about his work and enjoys the freedom to showcase his creativity.  

Freedom, however, is in limited supply for John and his acting troupe, Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA), because the performers are, in fact, incarcerated persons serving sentences at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison, which sits about 40 miles north of New York City.  

Director/co-writer Greg Kwedar’s touching drama is an ensemble piece where an assembly of men caucus for a constructive common good to improve themselves and the world by creating art.  

Kwedar takes a holistic, expressive approach to convey this story.  Throughout the 105-minute runtime, he and cinematographer Pat Scola include dozens of shots that starkly contrast the warm, colorful labor of love in creating theatrical art with the cold, hard truth of incarceration.  

A prime example of this cinematic juxtaposition arises in the first act, as close-ups of a delicate, almost-glowing stage curtain with angelic qualities along with an emotional Divine G are soon followed by the RTA players glumly forced into a militaristic-like procession and marching to their cells.  Divine G lives in a tiny space with his roommate, Mike Mike (Sean San Jose), in an unassuming concrete corner marked by two doors, B27 and B28, and we don’t know which one houses the two men. 

Triumph and joy from the stage morph into anonymity and desolation.  

“Sing Sing” lives and breathes in these physical and emotive spaces with barbed wire, towering fences, and intimidating but weathered brick and mortar, retaining the men who routinely recite their acting approaches and lines in small circles, accompanied by smiles, laughter, and frequent confessionals.   

(Note that Kwedar and his team filmed the outside of Sing Sing but not inside because the facility is still in service.  Instead, they shot indoors at the nearby Downstate Correctional Facility, which properly captured bleak, institutional vibes.) 

To tender an authentic RTA presentation, the vast majority of on-screen actors are RTA alumni, including Sean Dino Johnson, Patrick Griffin, David Giraudy, and – in a stunning breakout performance – Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, who also earned a writing credit.  In fact, according to the film’s production notes, over 85 percent of the cast are RTA alums.  Domingo, San Jose, and Paul Raci (who plays the company’s director, Brent Buell) help anchor the RTA cast to this film production, but Johnson, Griffin, Giraudy, Maclin, and many others steer the narrative with their personal stories.  Tales of past acting successes, current wants on the working play - a time-traveling comedy, “Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code” with appearances from Hamlet and Freddy Krueger (yes, that Freddy Krueger!) – caring moments of friendship, reflections on past mistakes, and dreams.  

The engaging, intimate reveals and prep sessions that help bring “Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code” from Brent’s paper to life on stage feel organic through Acts I, II, and III, but we also get a bit lost in the timeframe.  Now, the end goal is clear, but the individual, personal moments, at times, tend to drift as loose, leisurely storytelling choices that raise questions on the film’s direction in the moment on our way to a hopeful conclusion.   

However, not in Divine G’s and Divine Eye’s cases.  

Divine G, a long-time RTA veteran, and Divine Eye, a newcomer to the troupe, weave their mentor-pupil thread through the ups and downs of rehearsals and life lessons.  Divine Eye, a drug dealer inside these walls, brings an element of contention to this otherwise merry RTA cast.  We see G and Brent push and pull Eye to bring out his best for “Mummy’s Code”, but they also know when to limit their efforts to not quell his confidence nor raise his ire.   

Maclin, in his first feature film role, stands toe-to-toe and alongside Domingo as they build a budding friendship.  Kwedar includes several quiet, emotional scenes where Eye leans on G, while we also hope that G will allow Eye to repay his kindness.  

“Sing Sing” is a film about men creating a cohesive bond and introducing tangible, positive change into the universe.  That universe includes events within Sing Sing’s stark walls, but these feelings extend outside as so many real-life graduates of the program have not returned to incarceration, breaking an all-too-common cycle.  

Does the real-life John “Divine G” Whitfield reach total freedom?  You’ll have to stay until the end to discover his fate, and my advice is to wait through the end credits with your head held high.  

 Jeff’s ranking

3/4 stars

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It Ends with Us – Movie Review

Directed by:   Justin Baldoni

Written by:  Christy Hall based on Colleen Hoover’s book

Starring:  Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Jenny Slate, Hasan Minhaj, Brandon Sklenar, Alex Neustaedter, and Isabela Ferrer

Runtime:  130 minutes

‘It Ends with Us’ delivers an important message along with a never-ending array of rom-trauma cliches

Lily Bloom’s (Blake Lively) life is starting to blossom, and “Blossom” is her middle name.  Truly.

This 20-something Bostonian moved from Stephen King country in (fictional) Plethora, Maine, and she owns a massive, gorgeous flower shop, one overflowing with buds and florets.  

One evening, while sitting on the roof of a pristine apartment building, she meets a guy, a striking fellow named Ryle (Justin Baldoni), who also happens to be a neurosurgeon.  

You can’t make this stuff up.

(Ryle looks like a runway-model version of Sacha Baron Cohen (a.k.a. Borat), but this Superman doctor deploys smarmy, creepy player vibes and pursues Lily like a stalker.  He won’t take no for an answer.  Ick!  Unfortunately, she caves to his pressure, but hey, we need the movie to happen, right?)

This is a dream scenario for Lily.  Could life get any better?  

Life is a far cry from her nightmarish upbringing in King’s Pine Tree State, where she witnessed her father’s lifetime ritual of inflicting domestic abuse on her mother, Jenny (Amy Morton).

Has Lily overcome her past, and has she escaped this cycle of abuse? 

“It Ends with Us”, based on Colleen Hoover’s 2016 novel (so, apparently, you can make this stuff up), attempts to answer these questions.  Baldoni performs triple duty as a director and producer as well.  

This critic did not read Hoover’s novel because a 50-something man is not the target audience.  Now, if Larry Bloom opens a hugely successful sports bar (with no apparent means of raising the capital), Gisele Bundchen swings by the pub, and she instantly falls for Larry, perhaps I’d buy that book.  

No question, the “It Ends with Us” film adaptation offers an important message about attempting to defeat past demons and face present challenges.  Baldoni and screenwriter Christy Hall (“Daddio” (2023)) do an admirable job of revealing Lily’s adolescent experiences and tying them into her days as a businesswoman grown-up.  The film volleys between the two experiences and frequently returns to a time when teenage Lily (Isabela Ferrer) and her first boyfriend, Atlas (Alex Neustaedter), navigate their awkward but sweet courtship.  

Quite frankly, young Lily and young Atlas’ relationship – with grounded moments of making cookies, a bus ride, and first kisses - is engaging and feels more authentic than the happenings with our present-day heroine.  Let’s have a 130-minute big-screen story with young Lily and Atlas instead.  

Anyway, Blake’s Lily bestie, Allysa (Jenny Slate), and her husband, Marshall (Hasan Minhaj), have more money than God and throw luxurious parties.  We don’t see Lily dealing with the day-to-day stresses of owning a business or supplier issues, watering the plants, or working with customers other than Ryle or current-day Atlas (Brandon Sklenar) stopping in to say, “Hello.” 

Ryle works an easy, breezy 9-to-5 work schedule because brain surgeries aren’t in high demand in Beantown, and Lily prepares dinner before he gets home.  Her floral shop runs itself.  Of course, Ryle and Lily’s relationship in this film is paramount, so day-to-day operational challenges aren’t significant, but “It Ends with Us” decorates a fantasyland of domestic riches, and a never-ending utopia of tranquil conveniences splash on the screen. 

Baldoni, cinematographer Barry Peterson, and art directors Marci Mudd and Annie Simeone offer Lily a welcoming environment while including montages of big city life as an array of maudlin songs similar to Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Want to Wait” from “Dawson’s Creek” (1998 – 2003) shower through the movie theatre’s speakers.  The film also frequently cuts away to momentary wide shots of downtown Boston in between scenes so often that shades of Tommy Wiseau’s infamous “The Room” (2003) – where he deploys a similar strategy with San Francisco – creep into view. 

Granted, “It Ends with Us” isn’t a bad film, but it’s an all-too-familiar cinematic formula that feels like a nuanced grandchild of “The Burning Bed” (1984), a TV movie starring Farrah Fawcett that gave birth to 100,000 or so similar cautionary tales.  

Admittedly, “It Ends with Us” is critic-proof and will probably pack theatres, like “Transformers: Age of Extinction” (2014) did with an entirely different audience.  But hey, if millions of young women take away the positives of the movie’s message through Lively’s and Baldoni’s capable performances, who can argue with that, right?  So, cheers to that hopeful sentiment.

Still, the same lesson can be gleaned while watching countless other rom-trauma options via streaming, and “It Ends with Us” won’t be the last such film to cover this dicey topic. 

Jeff’s ranking

2/4 stars

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The Duel – Movie Review

Directed and written by:   Justin Matthews and Luke Spencer Roberts

Starring:  Dylan Sprouse, Callan McAuliffe, Denny Love, Hart Denton, Maria Gabriela de Faria, Rachel Matthews, Christian McGaffney, Ronald Guttman, and Patrick Warburton

Runtime:  100 minutes

‘The Duel’:  This modern-day dramedy, about an old-school idea, successfully balances humor and anxiety

“Revenge is a dish best served cold.” 

Woody (Callan McAuliffe) discovers that his girlfriend had an affair with his best friend, Colin (Dylan Sprouse), and he decides to serve revenge with fiery heat. 

Woody burns Colin’s surfboard, one with colossal sentimental value.  Colin’s late father crafted the board for his son, and it’s now charred into smoke on a Southern California beach in the black of night.  

The audience witnesses this striking, burning sight, but Colin does not.  Still, the thought of his BFF torching this personal memento ignites Colin’s ire, and the two 20-somethings need to settle their differences.  

Talking it out over a few beers while playing “Madden NFL 24” won’t cut it.  

They decide that a more somber solution is required, and Woody and Colin choose a duel to the death.

This story sounds as serious as a heart attack, but directors/writers Justin Matthews and Luke Spencer Roberts’ “The Duel” is a comedy too.  Woody, Colin, and their buds, Sam (Denny Love) and Kevin (Hart Denton), wander from California to Mexico on a road trip to see this duel declaration through.  The screenplay basks in the absurdity of this mutually destructive threat, as Sam and Kevin act as the on-screen observers for the audience.  They attempt a voices-of-reason responsibility for Woody and Colin, but Sam and Kevin are unwilling chaperones or wingmen for their stubborn besties.  

In a way, “The Duel” shares some parallels with the teen comedy “Losin’ It” (1982), in which four kids – led by Dave (Jackie Earle Haley) and another Woody (Tom Cruise) – head to Tijuana to party.  

In both movies, four naive young men throw themselves into the deep end of the pool, tread water, and attempt to reach a secure edge for safety, although in “The Duel”, the stakes are dramatically higher. 

With Woody and Colin taking a stoic and unyielding outlook towards destruction, the screenplay leans on Love’s Sam, Denton’s Kevin, and other colorful characters for comic relief. 

Sam and Kevin comedically balance one another with the former’s optimism and the latter’s gloom and doom, and their engaging on-screen time is welcomed.  

Along the way, they meet Christof (Patrick Warburton, best known as Puddy from “Seinfeld”), an eccentric database of high-stakes mano e mano combat knowledge and a collector of personal warfare instruments in his warehouse-district abode.  Christof’s instructions, via his elegant and posh cadence, help guide Woody and Colin into a choice of terminal tools.  

However, they need a locale to sanction this collision, and they bump into a small-time dealer, Joey (Christian McGaffney), who will help escort them south of the border to a drug kingpin, Rudolpho (Ronald Guttman).  Sam’s and Kevin’s comedic exchanges with Joey generally miss, but the cocaine-fueled Joey certainly provides an element of danger.  On the other hand, Guttman’s Rudolpho shines with all the feels of a Bond villain.  He eloquently speaks like an aristocrat while providing comfort in his lavish Biltmore-like estate but also exudes a sense of gravitas and finality.  He and his dozens of guests expect a real-life lethal contest with the pomp and circumstance of a holiday banquet and after-dinner entertainment on lavish grounds.  

Credit Matthews and Roberts’ team for finding such a beautiful locale for the film’s second and third acts and cinematographer Robert Brinkmann, production designer Gordon Strain, and costume designer Lara de Bruijn for capturing the opulence all around the four men. 

Speaking of beauty and opulence, a debutante named Aphrodite (Maria Gabriela de Faria) engages with the boys as a wacky but informed loose cannon.  The guys (and the audience) clasp onto this semi-sane person as the slow-moving madness of a duel seems inevitable.

Still, Woody and Colin have free will and could back out, but what would be the consequences if they canceled their clash at Rudolpho’s estate?  

In the 21st century, men might settle their disputes over conversation, social media, or the previously mentioned beer and video games, but “The Duel” places two modern-day men into a potential promise of physical consequences for unjust actions.  

Matthews and Roberts throw the audience and the players into an uncomfortable arrangement and build tension to see if Woody and Colin will push forward with their declaration.  Over the course of a 100-minute runtime, simple talk leisurely becomes an authentic threat, and the filmmakers and supporting cast successfully play with humorous tones while insecurity also runs high.  

Revenge is a dish best served cold, but will cooler heads prevail?

“The Duel” delves into a struggle of ideas between eras, faces the audience, and answers this question.   

Jeff’s ranking

3/4 stars

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Twisters – Movie Review

Directed by:  Lee Isaac Chung

Written by:  Mark L. Smith

Starring:  Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, David Corenswet, Sasha Lane, and Maura Tierney

Runtime:  122 minutes

‘Twisters’ spins in place compared to its 28-year-old predecessor 

In 1996, “Twister”, a tornado-chasing action-adventure flick starring Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt, took movie audiences by storm and funneled a massive box-office take of just under half a billion dollars. 

Director Jan de Bont’s 90s disaster thriller is filled with twisty terror but also whimsy as a ragtag collection of scientists and researchers regularly encircle, with daredevil abandon, nature’s whirlwinds.  However, the will-they-or-won’t-they romantic tension between Bill (Paxton) and Jo (Hunt) is the emotional glue that holds this entertaining picture together. 

Twenty-eight years later, a sequel, “Twisters”, blasts into theatres.  Although the film – at times - attempts to capture the magic of the original, “Twisters”, directed by Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari” (2020)), takes a noticeably sharp tonal shift from whimsical and hazardous to melancholy and hazardous.  In other words, this movie isn’t terribly fun.  Furthermore, the 2024 weather phenomena may be more dangerous and more frequent, but the menacing conditions don’t offer enough scares, save a couple of places, including the opening few minutes where tragedy strikes.  

No, “Twisters” isn’t a tragedy, but it feels like an ordinary event.  

As mentioned, the movie opens with a traumatic happening in which a bright, plucky student, Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones), leads her team to chase an Oklahoma tempest, hoping to “tame the tornado.”  Essentially, she and four others, including her boyfriend, Jeb (Daryl McCormack), try to dissipate the tornado with a chemical compound in the form of a powder.  Kate’s hopes are rained out, and the disastrous incident haunts her for years, five to be exact.  

We find Kate a shell of her previously confident and bubbly self, even though she has a great job in New York City.  A friend and colleague, Javi (Anthony Ramos), pays her an east-coast visit and talks her into returning to the Sooner State to chase tornadoes again.  

Well, storm chasing is now an Olympic sport!  Several teams, with varying uniforms, are hopped up on triple macchiatos, a scene that seems plucked out of “Midnight Madness” (1980).  Still, with all the supporting researchers and assistants roaming around, Sacha Lane’s Lily and David Corenswet’s Scott are the only halfway memorable ones.

Javi runs a corporate machine of SUVs and Type-A fellas, and Kate uses her hometown intuition to help his team find tornadoes so they can take 3D pictures.  

Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), a YouTube sensation known as the Tornado Wrangler, leads a rival faction.  He’s from Arkansas, dons a cowboy hat, and says, “If you feel it, chase it!”  

Catchy!

Powell easily emits arrogant Hangman vibes from “Top Gun: Maverick” (2022), but Tyler shows a compassionate, sensitive side, mainly because he’s attracted to Kate and her tornado know-how.  

They could make a lovely couple if the script allows it.

The human components of “Twisters” center around a potential romance between Tyler and Kate and also her struggles over the past.  She essentially wallows in self-pity during the present.  These two ideas intertwine, and Powell is especially good at balancing Tyler’s flashy, thrill-seeking tendencies with genuine empathy and care for Kate.  Edgar-Jones’ performance is adequate for the story, but her character places her in a one-note bind.  Kate’s frequent malaise runs in place over the same ground for most of the 122-minute runtime and grows tiresome.  However, in the third act, she has a shot at redemption in a climactic confrontation.  

If you buy into Kate’s internal churn and arc, this film could spin you into cinematic delights.  If not, “Twisters” rains and reigns with boredom as Tyler, Javi, and Kate’s mom (Maura Tierney) incessantly offer encouraging words – in quiet, intimate spaces - to our lead.  Chung and screenwriter Mark L. Smith are so focused on frequently raising Kate’s spirits through several one-on-one pick-me-up talks that this plotline sucks all oxygen out of the Oklahoma atmosphere.  

We’re left with the “hope” for bigger and badder weather systems.  

Unfortunately, the tornadoes – as villains without faces - are hit-and-miss.  Sometimes, they evoke angst (like in the opening few minutes), and other times, they feel like boilerplate, CGI creations from a Hollywood laptop.  Tyler’s souped-up truck, ironically, quells much of the danger because – at a press of a button – two corkscrew drills spring from his vehicle, drill into the ground, and secure his savage method of transportation and its passengers, even when he parks it within inches of a tornado.  

Nice!  But then, where’s the danger?  

So, cinematographer Dan Mindel and the special effects team conjure a refinery explosion and a rodeo’s utter decimation.  In another scene, innocent bystanders huddle in place in a specific brick-and-mortar building while 300 mph winds rip away the said bricks.

Well, tornado science has come a long way since 1996, so maybe the on-screen Oklahoma residents will be OK when facing these weather disasters.  

That’s encouraging, but as a movie, “Twisters” spins in place compared to its 28-year-old predecessor. 

Jeff’s ranking

2/4 stars

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Touch - Movie Review

 Directed by:  Baltasar Kormakur

Written by:  Baltasar Kormakur and Olaf Olafsson, based on Olafsson’s novel

Starring:  Egill Olafsson, Palmi Kormakur, Koki, Masahiro Motoki, Meg Kubota, Masatoshi Nakamura, Yoko Narahashi, and Ruth Sheen

Runtime:  121 minutes

‘Touch’ taps into tangible feelings of love found and lost

“Looking back as days go by.” – Kristofer (Egill Olafsson)

 Director/co-writer Baltasar Kormakur’s film “Touch”, based on co-writer Olaf Olafsson’s 2022 novel, taps into tangible feelings of love found and lost. 

It’s about aging and taking inventory of one’s life. 

It’s about looking back, touching memories of first love, reaching out for closure, and either shutting a door forever or leaving it open for a second chance. 

Well, “Touch” is a sweet, tender, worthwhile story that swims in cross-cultural waters, but it wades in place at times with pacing issues due to the casual beats of ordinary, clumsy courtship rituals.

Kristofer, a septuagenarian Icelander living in his home country in 2020, has health problems.  His doctor informs him to address his affairs.  This daunting message forces him to immediately ponder a romantic relationship that ended over 50 years ago, and he must seek his long-lost love, Miko. 

The film returns to 1969 when Kristofer (also played by Palmi Kormakur, Baltasar’s son) studies at The London School of Economics.  This idealist has “lost interest” in his studies.  His buddies, who resemble the minor assembly of Harvard snobs in “Good Will Hunting” (1997), don’t understand Kristofer when he quits school to be a dishwasher at a Japanese restaurant near campus.

Quite frankly, Kristofer doesn’t entirely understand his foggy decision, but life clears up when he meets Miko (Koki), the beautiful and kind early 20-something daughter of the restaurant’s owner, Takahashi (Masahiro Motoki). 

The congenial and soft-spoken new dish hand has zero food service experience and can’t speak Miko and Takahashi’s native language, but he’s eager to learn.  He works hard, pays deference to his co-workers, becomes familiar with the menu, and learns Japanese in his spare time. 

Kristofer is a model employee but a bit awkward around Miko, who isn’t shy when asking questions.  She makes subtle first moves and peruses him in measured steps while her father isn’t looking.  Miko and Kristofer eventually engage in a tender, heartfelt romance, as they spend stolen moments at the restaurant but also between Miko and her dad’s apartment, Kristofer’s place, and the trains traveling to and from blue-collar neighborhoods. 

The two immigrants – from different nations - engage in intimate conversations, where they learn about each other’s cultures, but Miko’s past is wrapped in vulnerabilities.  The screenplay breaks from traditional dating questions and into fascinating territory when exploring a hellacious period in Japan’s history.  Kormakur and Olafsson have plot-device reasons for including this particular fact.   

Koki’s Miko is constantly fascinating, as she carries a bold confidence that conflicts with her demure impressions when she’s around her dad.  Meanwhile, Kristofer may have shown bravado when dramatically changing his life, but he’s a bit sheepish and willing to be led in his new environment.

As a couple, the two are inexperienced with affairs of the heart, which requires patience from the audience.  Their frequent and familiar new-relationship discourse occurs in quiet rooms and free of fanfare.  Cinematically, there is little to enjoy in 1969 from a production design perspective, as the couple never explores London’s wonders, like Big Ben, a rock concert at a club, or a trip to the zoo.  Instead, Kristofer and Miko pontificate in ordinary spaces, where the most engaging background object (on-set) is a painting of Jesus Christ who faces their bed. 

Still, while we visit 1969, we wonder how their divine relationship ends.

Well, Kormakur splits his time between 1969 and 2020 and frequently volleys between the two Kristofers.  The technique helps alleviate the slow-as-the-London-traffic pace in 1969, as 2020 Kristofer’s scavenger hunt for clues about Miko jettisons him on a worldwide search. 

Egill effectively carries Kristofer’s emotional baggage like a badge of honor.  This private, thoughtful character maintains his dignity, but the feeling of loss and the absence of endless time wears on him like an anvil and motivates him to quickly find answers about Miko.  It’s not lost on the audience that Kristofer’s determination doesn’t slow or stutter in the face of COVID lockdowns.  

Contrasting 1969’s mundane art direction, cinematographer Bergsteinn Bjorgulfsson draws a few absolutely gorgeous shots of natural surroundings and a stunning view of a specific cityscape to accompany 70-something Kristofer on his hopeful journey.  Generally, Kristofer is on his own in this massive world, and these sweeping moments help emphasize this point.  Still, his stepdaughter, Sonja, occasionally calls, and a brand-new friend, Kutaragi (Masatoshi Nakamura), offers warm, pleasant company for our lead for a short while. 

Perhaps Kormakur is saying something about the contrasting art direction styles from 1969 and 2020, where we, as human beings, might take life for granted in our youth but relish every moment in old age. 

In our youth, we have all the time in the world…until we don’t.

 Jeff’s ranking 

2.5/4 stars 

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June Zero - Movie Review

Directed by:  Jake Paltrow

Written by:  Jake Paltrow and Tom Shoval

Starring:  Noam Ovadia, Yoav Levi, Tom Hagi, Tzhai Grad, and Joy Rieger

Runtime:  105 minutes

‘June Zero’ has value and shares unique perspectives. 

Adolf Eichmann. 

He was a Nazi officer and one of the top organizers of the party’s Final Solution to exterminate the Jewish population.  Years after WWII’s end, Israeli agents apprehended Eichmann in Argentina and brought him to trial in 1961.  

Director/co-writer Jake Paltrow’s “June Zero” is set during this time and place.  However, rather than covering intricate details about Eichmann’s court case, the film focuses much of its 105-minute runtime on three ordinary individuals in three different real-life narratives that, tangentially, are connected to the man.  

Innocently connected.

Actually, “June Zero” is about – spoiler alert - Eichmann’s execution.  Paltrow and co-writer Tom Shoval should be applauded for taking a unique approach in covering such a grim slice of history.  Paltrow and Shoval explore how Eichmann affected the three aforementioned human beings, but cinematically, the audience is left with mixed results.   

Well, a little better than mixed.

David (Noam Ovadia), a 13-year-old Libyan raised in Israel, is experiencing mixed results in life.  He regularly shoplifts and sometimes drags his little brother into trouble.  His father knows David’s shaky pastimes, so he scores him a job with a small factory, one that builds ovens, so his son will spend hours working rather than run around town with hijinks on his mind.  The enterprising young man earns favorable status with the owner, Zebco (Tzahi Grad).  Still, David and Zebco earn some tense moments, and their heritage differences and vast age disparity highlight David’s vulnerability in a new country and as the only child on-site. 

Noam and Tzahi deliver convincing performances as this odd couple, and they both become tied to Eichmann through the factory’s chief product, even though this Eichmann connection isn’t as engaging as David’s journey of hopeful reform. 

Haim (Yoav Levi) is a corrections officer who works at a prison near the factory.  He’s usually concerned with reform, however, this middle-aged, by-the-book guard is entirely consumed with one prisoner, Adolf Eichmann.  This Nazi officer waits for his likely execution within the four concrete walls of this facility, and the stress of his presence has Haim and almost everyone else on edge.  Paltrow captures Eichmann’s everyday gestures, like sleeping or receiving a haircut, with gravitas and fear.  We never see Eichmann’s entire face, which emits sickening-mysterious vibes. 

David’s and Haim’s yarns are strung together with the one shared thread, but Micha’s (Tom Hagi) tale is not.

Without warning, the film whisks us to Poland, and Micha is a tour guide for the remains of a WWII Jewish ghetto.  He recounts his time in this particular ghetto and later reveals a link to Eichmann.  Micha’s heartfelt screentime resonates, but the sudden movement across the continent and no apparent tie to David and Haim is puzzling.  The screenplay’s shift feels random, as if Micha’s story belongs in an entirely different film, which throws off the previous rhythms with David and Haim.

“June Zero” breaks its own rules, like starting a Scrabble game and announcing after 45 minutes that every vowel played is worth 10 points…for the next 20 minutes only.

Otherwise, the film doesn’t play around with communicating ways that the Nazi Party impacted these three people, whether a boy finds an unlikely source of employment, a corrections officer feels trauma over an unwanted guest, or a new guide recalls his distressful childhood. 

Rather than take big swings at massive, nightmarish blows that impacted the globe, Paltrow dramatically reduces the scope, 16 years after WWII’s end.  He skillfully films in intimate, personal spaces and introduces intriguing characters, but the movie is – unfortunately – hampered by a couple of baffling editing and narrative choices, including an odd denouement. 

Still, “June Zero” has value and shares unique perspectives. 

Jeff’s ranking

2.5/4 stars

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Let’s celebrate Eva Marie Saint’s 100th birthday!

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Eva Marie Saint turns 100 years young on July 4, and while celebrating the United States’ Independence Day, let’s also applaud this Oscar-and-Emmy-winning actress by enjoying her work that has lit up the big screen for decades.  

Diehard and brand-new Ms. Saint movie fans should first watch her Supporting Actress Oscar performance, opposite Marlon Brando, in “On the Waterfront” (1954) and her tangled turn with Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock’s all-time classic thriller, “North by Northwest” (1959).

Eva proudly carries north of 80 film, television, and podcast credits (87 to be exact), per IMDb, and here are three other movie performances to enjoy.

Happy birthday, Ms. Saint! 

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Louise Frederickson, “Grand Prix” (1966) – Director John Frankenheimer’s sprawling racing spectacle has no shortage of stirring road contests where Formula One drivers compete on sharp curves and straightaways at 180 mph, including a jaw-dropping opening at Monte Carlo.  Off the track, Pete Aron (James Garner), Scott Stoddard (Brian Bedford), Nino Barlini (Antonio Sabato), and Jean-Pierre Sarti (Yves Montand) contend to find romance.  This big-budget ensemble piece includes American fashion reporter Louise Frederickson (Saint), who rolls into the sport to work on a racing car magazine issue and falls for Jean-Pierre.  Saint and Montand share warm chemistry, as Louise offers charm and support and gains acceptance of Jean-Pierre’s hazardous lifestyle while he shares his increasing reservations about driving at breakneck speeds.  The on-screen personal relationships run neck and neck with the four-wheel battles on the asphalt in an engaging 176-minute picture from start to finish.  Buckle up. 

Selma Wilson, “Loving” (1970) – Selma and Brooks Wilson (Saint and George Segal) are living and loving the American Dream with their two children in their Connecticut home.  Not exactly.  Brooks is having an affair with Grace (Janis Young), and a colleague’s wife, Nelly (Nancie Phillips), hopes to be his next extramarital tryst.  Meanwhile, this freelance illustrator desperately tries to win “the Lepridon account” for short-term financial security.  Meanwhile, Selma preserves order at their suburban homestead and attempts to persuade Brooks to move their family to a larger home.  Selma is steady, loyal, and beautiful but also clueless about Brooks’ philandering ways and loose-cannon sense of humor, which lands him in trouble within the ad agency community.  Neither Grace nor Nelly is physically threatening like Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) in “Fatal Attraction” (1987), but Selma seems like a genuine prototype for Beth Gallagher (Anne Archer), Dan’s (Michael Douglas) wife in Adrian Lyne’s 1987 thriller.  Selma wishes for a happy domestic life while her thoughtless husband makes miserable mistakes in director Irvin Kershner’s dramedy about stumbling on corporate and social ladders. 

Miss Franny, “Because of Winn-Dixie” (2005) – “And then one morning, the preacher sent me to the store for a box of macaroni and cheese, some white rice, and two tomatoes, and after that, everything changed,” Opal (AnnaSophia Robb) says.  In director Wayne Wang’s light family film, Opal and her dad (Jeff Daniels) move to the Friendly Corners Mobile Home Park in Naomi, Fla., but this little girl misses her friends.  She doesn’t have any in Naomi until she encounters a bulky, orphaned dog, a Berger Picard, in a Winn-Dixie grocery store and names him after the said establishment.  Wang’s movie is about building resiliency and making connections.  Winn-Dixie assists Opal with both as she meets and regularly visits three adults in town: a pet store worker, the formerly incarcerated Otis (Dave Matthews), a blind, recuperating alcoholic named Gloria (Cicely Tyson), and a storytelling librarian, Miss Franny (Saint).  This pet movie holds a short leash on heartbreak but lets the narrative run loose on healing and hopeful feelings.  Saint, Tyson, and Matthews all deliver friendly, heartfelt moments as recurring supporting players, including Miss Franny’s sincerity when accepting Opal and Winn-Dixie’s friendship.  “That would be fine.  That would be grand.  Just grand,” she says with a winning smile.  

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Kinds of Kindness – Movie Review

Directed by:  Yorgos Lanthimos

Written by:  Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou

Starring:  Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Hong Chau, Mamoudou Athie, and Margaret Qualley

Runtime:  164 minutes

‘Kinds of Kindness’:  Yorgos doesn’t kill his audience with kindness.  He tests our endurance for cruelty. 

Yorgos Lanthimos’ previous film, “Poor Things” (2023), rightfully triumphed with riches of Academy Award gold with four Oscar wins - Best Actress, Production Design, Costume Design, and Makeup and Hairstyling - out of its 11 nominations that included Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, and Best Supporting Actor.  

(For the record, Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo gave the Best Actress and Supporting Actor performances, respectively, that this film critic saw in 2023, but let’s not digress.) 

“Poor Things”, his most ambitious creation – with a depraved backstory that “blossoms” into a soaring, whimsical, albeit twisted adventure - bursts with bizarre and wondrous opulence.   

His new movie, “Kinds of Kindness”, strips down the pomp and circumstance of big-budget whimsy.  Lanthimos and co-writer Efthimis Filippou conjure three short stories that dwell in the depths of depravity.  Yes, this anthology offers a few moments of straight-up hilarity – like an uber-specific sports memorabilia sight gag, one that would make Wes Anderson proud, but a majority of the scarce (other) laughs transpire due to disbelief and anxiety. 

It's a challenging picture and probably one that hard-core Yorgos fans or those who appreciate their cinema with extra helpings of cynicism will enjoy.  “Kinds” scoops concepts like selling your soul for Corporate America, relationship distrust, and desperate wishes for acceptance.  Control, power, and ambition light up, like a Saturday night on Las Vegas Blvd., and the three stories feature an invisible judge and jury that silently opine about morality in ways that made “The Twilight Zone” (1959 – 1964) and “Tales from the Crypt” (1989 – 1996) famous. 

In this case, Lanthimos holds up a mirror to the current state of the human condition, and audiences won’t like what they see.  Shadowy tones connect the three tales but also through the exploits of one consistent supporting figure named R.M.F. (Yorgos Stefanakos) and a terrific ensemble – Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe, Hong Chau, Mamoudou Athie, and Margaret Qualley – who play different characters in each story.  The cast is certainly up to the task.  Everyone across the board offers compelling performances during each narrative. 

(My favorites here are Dafoe, Plemons, and Qualley.)  

Part of the allure is observing the said performers dive into completely different roles as the film moves from Part I to Part II to Part III. 

“Kinds” premiered at Cannes 2024, and Plemons took home the festival’s Best Actor award for this unapologetic arthouse picture.  Plemons’ characters are the primary focus in the first two installments.  Parts I and II land on target with Lanthimos’ (supposed) intention of pessimism and irony, setting up our everyman protagonist (Plemons) with two claustrophobic situations where escaping with a clear conscience appears unattainable.  

The welcome pacing, frequent reveals, shocking turns, and an ambiance of doom align with our director’s signature, even though the laughs – this time - feel almost as infrequent as a snowball fight in Phoenix.

However, the picture cools during the third segment, in which Stone dominates the screen rather than Plemons.  It’s not the two-time Oscar winner’s fault.  The script meanders between two lukewarm narratives, and each doesn’t pack the wallop of the first two episodes.  

While the movie’s first two yarns spin rather quickly, the third strings us along like a Monday morning traffic jam.  Without holding a stopwatch during the screening, the first two tales feel about 45 minutes each, while the third seems like 90 minutes on its own.  The film’s total runtime is 164 minutes, so this critic’s estimates are probably pretty close.

The third act is a disappointing slog, and the rare levity throughout the picture compounds the disenchantment, even with its striking conclusion.  

Still, “Kinds of Kindness” leaves a mark with plenty to ponder once the (final) end credits roll, including attempting to piece together the connections between the stories.  It’s a film that may need to be seen a few times to connect the warped dots (assuming they do connect)…if you can sit through this troubling triad of tales for multiple viewings. 

Yorgos doesn’t kill his audience with kindness.  He tests our endurance for cruelty. 

Jeff’s ranking

2.5/4 stars

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Janet Planet - Movie Review

Directed and written by: Annie Baker.

Starring: Julianne Nicholson, Zoe Ziegler and Will Patton. 

Runtime: 113 minutes.

Pulitzer-winning playwright Annie Baker’s ‘Janet Planet’ a meditative memory of childhood

“I’m going to kill myself.”

The opening moments of “Janet Planet” are suffused with dread. A girl alone at night, held in a static shot, announces her intention to end her life to an unseen, unheard person on the phone. She’s small and awkward, this bespectacled ginger girl who wants to die. After a long, pregnant beat, the girl adds, “I said I’m going to kill myself if you don’t come get me.”

A held breath then a sigh of tentative relief, that uncertainty of whether to feel amusement or alarm, captures the horror and humor of encroaching adolescence in debut filmmaker and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker’s beautiful, bittersweet “Janet Planet.” Baker’s meditative vignette of early 1990s girlhood is a different, more truthful kind of coming-of-age tale that moves at the pace of life, full of terrible waiting. 

That death-desiring girl in the film’s opening scene (at summer camp, it turns out) is Lacy (Zoe Ziegler), the by-turns tender and feral 11-year-old daughter of single mother Janet (Julianne Nicholson), a free-spirited acupuncturist bouncing between boyfriends and oddball pursuits in the woods of western Massachusetts. “Janet Planet” occupies the summer before sixth grade, that middle-school cusp in which the simplicity of childhood begins to yield to the complications and mess of more adult responsibilities and desires. 

Lacy is an odd duck. She complains she doesn’t make friends easily. She plays an electric keyboard, poorly. In the shower, she sticks wet clumps of her hair to dry on the tile. She sleeps at night in bed with her mother and can only fall asleep if they’re touching, her hands cupping her freckled face in the dark. With her big eyes, made bigger by her round gold glasses, Lacy observes the outcasts who orbit luminous Janet like satellites: bad boyfriends, would-be cult leaders, down-on-their-luck friends.

There is her mother’s boyfriend Wayne (Will Patton), a sharp-tongued ogre with migraines and little love for Lacy. Then there is Regina (Sophie Okonedo), an actress friend with nowhere else to go after she leaves what might be a cult. And then there is the would-be cult leader himself, Avi (Elias Koteas), who professes his captivation with Janet. These misfits move in and out of Janet’s life, in and out of her home, as wide-eyed Lacy takes it all in for us.

Lacy (and the camera) loves Janet in all her frustrating, glorious imperfection. “I’ve always had this knowledge deep inside of me that I could make any man fall in love with me if I really tried,” Janet says. “And I think maybe it’s ruined my life.” Nicholson gives an alluring, earthy performance. Her Janet never settles, yearns for something she can’t find; she won’t apologize for the search, however messy it is. 

“Janet Planet” commands a certain patience. Like the summer it inhabits, it moves with a sun-struck slowness, lingering on the mundane. It feels the way it feels to remember how your mom smelled, how her earrings glittered in the sunlight, how her voice sounded over the ambient hum of cicadas. 

The film quickly trains you to stop bracing for dramatic turns. Will Janet’s ex-boyfriend break into the house? Will the toaster oven left unattended burn it down? Those are questions for a more conventional movie. In “Janet Planet,” as in real life, nothing much happens. And like real life, that emptiness can be frustrating until you look back and realize the days weren’t so empty after all, that every day meant so much.

Barbara’s ranking

3/4 stars

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