NEW THIS WEEK JULY 19, 2024 (IN THEATERS AND ON HOME VIDEO)
BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN--Remember Sonny Crawford and Duane Jackson from Peter Bogdanovich's "The Last Picture Show"? Now imagine if Sonny and Duane had been gay and lived in 1963 Wyoming instead of 1951 Texas. Ennis Del Mar (the late Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), dual protagonists of Ang Lee's masterpiece, are the "Picture Show" boys' spiritual kin: taciturn loners who speak slowly and give every word the utmost consideration. Just making eye contact with the person they're talking to takes a concerted effort. They do what's expected without asking a lot of questions. And since they have as few options as Sonny and Duane, not asking a lot of questions is probably the way to go. Although based on Annie Prouix's 1997 New Yorker short story, it's "Picture Show" author Larry McMurtry whose fingerprints are all over "Brokeback Mountain." McMurtry, who cowrote the terse, terrific, Oscar-winning screenplay with Diana Ossana, brings the same understated eloquence, compassion and humanity to Jack and Ennis that he brought to the weatherbeaten cowpokes of "Lonesome Dove" and the small-town dreamers of "Picture Show." Taiwanese-born Lee's remarkable talent for burrowing into the underpinnings of every genre he attempted, whether martial arts epic ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"), crinoline-and-lace period pieces ("Sense and Sensibility") or tony literary adaptations ("The Ice Storm"), held him in good stead here. This gay cowboy romance was quite unlike anything Lee had attempted before, and it remains his most strikingly accomplished, deeply felt work. Heart-wrenching and achingly poignant, it's simply one of the greatest of all movie love stories. In a career-redefining performance that people are still talking about two decades later, Ledger thoroughly dominates every frame of the film. While Gyllenhaal is equally fine, it's Ledger who takes your breath away. He managed the difficult task of revealing everything there is to know about a man who can barely articulate his own desires. Among copious supplements on the KL Studio Classics' Blu-Ray are historian/writer Julie Kirgo's audio commentary; interviews with McMurtry and Ossana; multiple featurettes (including a making-of-doc and conversations with Lee and composer Gustavo Santaolalla); and the 2005 theatrical trailer/TV spots. (A PLUS.)
https://youtu.be/z89xU8l5wn8?si=SZa_iB6sbK6B3Vky
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS--It's not surprising that the McCarthy era would have spawned movies practically oozing with themes of paranoia and mass conformity. Although Don Siegel's 1956 sci-fi classic was just one of many to address the era's topical concerns (among them "The Blob," "I Married a Monster From Other Space" and "The Red Planet"), the particular way it dealt with themes of insurgency and hidden alliances helped make the fantastic seem utterly plausible. Not surprisingly, it remains every bit as shocking today as it must have been to audiences at the time. In a sleepy California backwater, Dr. Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) is warned by several people, including his new girlfriend Becky (Dana Wynter), that their loved ones have been replaced by lookalike imposters who evince no trace of human emotion. In a spectacularly creepy scene, Miles and Becky's married friends, Jack (King Donovan) and Theodora (future Morticia Adams, Carolyn Jones), discover a half-formed body resembling Jack. After discovering that everyone--including the local police force--has been replaced by aliens, they immediately try hightailing it out of town. Siegel incorporated several ingenious tricks to establish and build palpable tension, including presenting the characters in constant forward motion and by framing much of the film in dark, shadowy settings. The future "Dirty Harry" director also used staples of the action genre he specialized in: diverse camera angles, close-ups mixed with ambiguous longshots and sharp cutting between scenes. Unlike contemporary sci-fi/horror movies, special effects and gimmicks never take precedence over characterization. After all, what we're witnessing--our family members/friends becoming mortal enemies, fighting to retain the ability to love--is terrifying precisely because of the human element. And few moments in screen history are as shocking or sad as when Miles kisses Becky and realizes that she's become one of...them. For decades, people have debated whether Siegel's movie is anti-McCarthy or anti-communist. Certainly the studio-imposed opening and closing scenes have an anti-communist slant because the transformation of "our" people into emotionless pods is being conducted by an alien force (Russia? China?), and the President, FBI and military try to repel it. But if the film ends pessimistically the way Siegel intended, with Miles running on the highway warning people "You're next!," then he's implying our indoctrination has been ordered from within and that you can't trust anyone in the government because they're all part of the conspiracy. For the record, two subsequent reboots of Jack Finney's original source material (Phil Kaufman's New Age-y 1978 "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and 1994's "Body Snatchers" by indie maverick Abel Ferrara) are both first-rate and eminently worth seeking out. (The less said about Olivier Hirschbiegel's 2007 "The Invasion" the better.) KL Studio Classics' Blu-Ray has a plethora of tasty extras, including four (!) separate audio commentary tracks; three featurettes (including "The Fear is Real" with Cinefantastique icons Joe Dante and Larry Cohen); and the 1956 theatrical trailer. (A PLUS.) https://youtu.be/pNJB363yql8?si=Y82uwScztMbVLcrI
JUST THE TWO OF US--This well-acted, if ultimately superficial French-language psychological thriller is an unwieldy mix of the bald melodramatics of Tyler Perry's "women's pictures" (the most recent, "Divorce in the Black," premiered last week on Amazon Prime) and the formal asceticism of Justine Trier's Oscar-winning "Anatomy of a Fall." The fact that director Valerie Donzelli's film works as well as it does--most of the time anyway--is a tribute to the talents of Virginie ("Benedetta," "Other People's Children") Efira and Melvil Poupaud as Blanche and Gregoire, a married couple whose fairy tale romance turns increasingly Grimm. After moving his pregnant schooolteacher wife across country, ostensibly because of a work transfer, banker Gregoire grows increasingly unhinged. He starts phoning her dozens of times a day to check up on her whereabouts, grows deeply suspicious of any non-work related activities and effectively distances Blanche from her familial support system (including free spirited twin sister Rose, also played by Efira with a different haircut). Since the movie is framed with scenes between Blanche and a lawyer, it's clear that things will ultimately turn really bad for all concerned. Which they do, in almost self-parodic fashion, especially for anyone who's seen one of Perry's overheated soapers or Julia Roberts' "Sleeping With the Enemy." Poupaud, who played a similarly menacing spouse in Woody Allen's "Coup de Chance" from earlier this year, has really cornered the market on husband-from-hell roles, and the wonderful Efira makes every film she's in seem exponentially better by virtue of her incandescent beauty and formidable thesping skills. While "Just the Two of Us" might suffice as a Friday night VOD rental, it's not worth leaving the house for. (B MINUS.)
THE LAST STOP IN YUMA COUNTY--A traveling knife salesman ("Thunder Road"/"The Beta Test" auteur Jim Cummings) is one of several hostages being held at gunpoint by a pair of bank robbers in a podunk Arizona truckstop diner. The only one keeping their head is Charlotte (Jocelin Donahue), the motherly waitress whose husband just happens to be the wife of the town sheriff. But the robbers' distressingly erratic behavior (particularly hothead Travis, chillingly played by Nicholas Logan) and the arrival of Bonnie and Clyde wannabes Miles and Sybil (Ryan Masson and Sierra McCormick) only accelerates an already pressure cooker environment. First-time writer/director Francis Galluppi is clearly beholden to the '80s/'90s neo-noirs of the Coen Brothers ("Blood Simple," "Raising Arizona") and Quentin Tarantino ("Reservoir Dogs," "Pulp Fiction"), and his industry calling card might have had a hard time sticking out at the Sundance Film Festival thirty years ago. But in today's Darwinian theatrical environment of pre-sold IP/tentpole blockbusters, its relative modesty and insouciant charms make it a refreshingly alternative to corporate moviemaking. Clocking in at a svelte 91 minutes (including end credits), it never overstays its welcome either. The Well Go USA Blu-Ray includes three separate audio commentary tracks, the best with Galluppi, Cummings and Donahue; a making-of featurette; and the theatrical trailer. (B PLUS.)
ODDITY--Indie powerhouse I.F.C. has been on a roll lately with extreme terror flicks like "Late Night With the Devil" and "In a Violent Nature." Their latest, a British import that prizes moody atmospherics over jump scares, hearkens back to an earlier era of screen horror, namely the relatively sedate Hammer Films of the 1960's/early '70s.On the anniversary of his wife's brutal murder by a disturbed former patient, asylum shrink Dr. Ted (Gwilym Lee) is visited by former sister in law, Darcy (the terrific Carolyn Bracken who also plays her dead sister in flashbacks), a blind spiritualist. After being presented with Darcy's gift--a creepy life-sized mannequin--Ted is conveniently called into work, leaving Darcy in the unwelcome company of his churlish new girlfriend, Yana (Caroline Menton). A cross between Gothic haunted house movie (the primary setting is a stately Irish country home), slasher shocker (you just know that Darcy's present will somehow come to murderous life) and paranormal freak-out, director Damian (2021 cult film "Caveat") McCarthy hatches a mood of intoxicating malice and dread leading up to a delicious final shot that's literally killer. (B PLUS.) https://youtu.be/TvZgqDzUSGI?si=e9sWZa--7URWrqaw
TAKING VENICE--Behind the scenes politicking at the 1964 Venice Biennale is the principal focus of director Amei Wallach's engrossing inside-baseball documentary whose colorful cast of characters wouldn't be out of place in a fiction film. The Biennale is often described as the art world equivalent to the Olympics, and the '64 edition proved to be the launching pad for that decade's aesthetic New Wave, the Pop Art Revolution. A cabal of inside the Beltway players including D.C. socialite Alice Denney, enigmatic museum curator Alan Solomon and high-powered NYC art dealer Leo Castelli hatched a plan to award the Grand Prize to an American (the French had dominated the Biennale since time immemorial). And the recipient of their largesse and backroom dealing was Robert Rauschenberg whose visionary mixed-media paintings ("combines") with their 3-D effects ushered in a new era for the formerly staid art world. Referring to their machinations as a form of "cultural diplomacy," Denney admits to some aggressive PR tactics to help win Rauschenberg the prize, but insists that it was all strictly above-board. With his Cheshire Cat grin, the rakishly charming Rauschenberg seemed to have been a willing--and even enthusiastic--pawn in Denney & Co.'s chess game. And who could blame him? Rauschenberg's Biennale triumph turned him into an overnight art world superstar. The Kino Lorber/Zeitgeist DVD includes expanded interviews with many of its talking heads participants as well as the theatrical trailer. (B PLUS.) https://youtu.be/c-K3K8bz_RY?si=g8yq8OXISc5DbmWt
TWISTERS--Five years after a twister killed her boyfriend, New York meteorologist Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones from 2022 sleeper "Where the Crawdads Sing") is reluctantly dragged back into the world of storm-chasing by former colleague Javi ("In the Heights" star Anthony Ramos). Almost immediately, Kate strikes romantic sparks with "Tornado Wrangler" Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), a cocky social media sensation whose biggest fan is himself. This standalone "legacy sequel" to Jan de Bont's 1996 blockbuster is a somewhat unlikely follow-up to director Lee Isaac Chung's previous film, lo-fi indie--and 2020 Best Picture nominee--"Minari." Fortunately, Chung manages to bring some of the humanist tropes from his Korean immigrant saga to the world of I.P. tentpoles. Edgar-Jones and blast of charisma Powell are predictably solid, and there's nice support from "Nope" breakout Brandon Perea and Sasha ("American Honey") Lane as members of Tyler's thrill-seeking crew. The state-of-the-art CGI easily surpasses the FX work from the earlier film, but the "wow factor" has been somewhat dampened by the plethora of You Tube videos of actual tornados we've been inundated with over the past 28 years. Yes, global warming is real. (B.)
WIDOW CLICQUOT--Haley ("The Girl on the Train," "Cyrano") Bennett is superb as real-life feminist trailblazer Barbe Nicole Ponsardin-Clicquot who, after being widowed at age 26, is left to run her late husband Francois' Reims vineyard in early 1800's France. I only wish that director Thomas Bapier's decorous, slackly paced biopic was half as compelling as Bennett's commanding performance. While gorgeously lensed by Caroline Champetier who gets great scenic mileage out of the pastoral French locations, this curiously inert film never evinces a pulse. Even though it runs a mere 91 minutes, it's surprisingly dull, never once engaging on an emotional basis. Sam Riley, as Clicquot's wine merchant ally and eventual lover, leaves more of an impression than Tom Sturridge (seen in intermittent flashbacks as Francois) who comes across as a neurasthenic wimp. Not helping the movie's verisimilitude is that everyone--even American Bennett--speaks with posh British accents. Although Barbe Nicole eventually hit paydirt with her Veuve Clicquot Ponsardian Yellow Label champagne--still regarded as an industry standard--the movie is an also-ran in just about every department. (C.) https://youtu.be/vOFBDabjZt0?si=UDEnFx1hieThsBiZ
---Milan Paurich
NOW AVAILABLE IN THEATERS, ON HOME VIDEO AND/OR STREAMING CHANNELS:
BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE--Was there really a crying need for a fourth "Bad Boys" movie? Probably not, but at least Sony had the good sense to re-hire Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, co-directors of 2020's "Bad Boys For Life," the 29-year-old franchise's standout iteration. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence (naturally) reprise their roles as Miami cops Mike and Marcus, this time tasked with clearing their late boss (Joe Pantoliano's Captain Howard) of corruption charges. It's all pretty boilerplate, but El Arbi and Fallah once again manage to make the whole thing go down smoothly enough. And unlike most derriere-numbing studio tentpoles these days, the movie clocks in at a relatively breezy 110 minutes. Another wise choice the directors made was bringing back the threequel's scene-stealing bad guy, Jacob Scipio. (B.)
DESPICABLE ME 4--Gru (Steve Carrel) and wife Lucy (Kristen Wiig) have a new baby--Gru Jr.; what else?--in the fourth official entry in Illumination Animation's all-ages-friendly franchise that kicked off in 2010. Chris Renaud, who helmed the first two movies, returns to the director's chair and it's all pretty much business as usual. After being targeted for extermination by his adolescent arch nemesis (Will Ferrell's Maxine Le Mal), the Anti-Villain League puts Gru and family into their Witness Protection Program. Subplots include Gru's unwanted new tweener protege (Netflix poster girl Joey King), a heist involving some nasty honey badgers (don't ask) and the Minions being turned into Minion Mutants. It's all so busy and episodic that the whole thing feels more like a collection of loosely connected shorts than a cohesive feature. Per usual, the Minions are the standouts, once again proving better in support than they are headlining their own middling standalone vehicles. (C PLUS.)
DOGFIGHT--Nancy Savoca made three wonderful movies with producer/co-writer husband Richard Guay between 1989-'93 then essentially disappeared. In the process, the American cinema lost one of its most singular and distinctive voices. The fact that Savoca is largely unknown today, despite this being an era which purportedly champions female directors, makes her relative obscurity both depressing and infuriating. Fortunately, Criterion is doing their part to help auto-correct that grievous injustice by releasing "Dogfight," Savoca's greatest film, on Blu Ray for the first time. (In a happy coincidence, Kino Lorber just released Savoca's two other masterworks, "True Love" and "Household Saints," on home video as well.) Savoca's only major studio production, "Dogfight" was badly marketed and barely released by Warner Brothers in the fall of 1991. I remember driving three hours round trip to see it when a single Pittsburgh theater finally opened it months after the New York premiere. Part of a sub-genre I like to refer to as the "Doomed Love Love Story"--other exemplars include Elia Kazan's "Splendor in the Grass," Alan J. Pakula's "The Sterile Cuckoo" and John Sayles' "Baby, It's You"--"Dogfight" tells the heart-wrenching story of an impactful San Francisco night shared by an 18-year-old marine (River Phoenix's Eddie Birdlace) ready to be shipped off to Vietnam and waitress/folk singer aspirant Rose (Lili Taylor) in November 1963. After impulsively inviting Rose to be his plus-one at a party (the titular "dogfight") in which the grunt with the ugliest date wins a cash prize, Eddie tries to make amends by taking her on a real date. During the course of their enchanted evening, the two find themselves connecting in ways neither could have ever anticipated. Phoenix, who was on the cusp of officially becoming "The Actor of His Generation" before his untimely death two years later, gives a performance of such aching, lacerating vulnerability that he literally takes your breath away. (Amazingly, Gus Van Sant's "My Own Private Idaho," with an equally remarkable Phoenix performance, opened the same month.) And the mercurial Taylor, in an exquisitely modulated turn, matches her co-star's brilliance every step of the way. Extras include Savoca/Guay's audio commentary recycled from a no-frills 2003 DVD release; "American Psycho"/"I Shot Andy Warhol" director Mary Harron's 32-minute interview with Savoca and Guay; a 2024 featurette in which Guay interviews the film's cinematographer, production designer, script superviser and editors; and an insightful essay, "Love and War," by critic Christina Newland. (A PLUS.)
FLY ME TO THE MOON--In early 1969, White House apparatchik Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson) recruits Madison Avenue marketing whiz Kelly James (Scarlett Johansson) to help NASA sell Apollo 11's impending moon landing to an increasingly apathetic America. It's Kelly who brainstorms the idea of engineering a studio-lensed fake ("Project Artemis") in case the real Apollo mission fails. Complicating Kelly's hush-hush agenda is her growing attraction to straight-arrow NASA launch director Cole Davis (Channing Tatum). Greg ("Love, Simon," "The Broken Hearts Club") Berlanti's defiantly old-fashioned rom-com is a movie that will probably work best for audiences unfamiliar with its Golden Age Hollywood predecessors (e.g., the films of Frank Capra and Preston Sturges). As competent a job as Berlanti does, his direction sorely lacks the snap, crackle and pop panache to pull it off. Perhaps only the Steven Spielberg of 2002's "Catch Me if You Can," another movie that mix-and-matched Capra-corn idealism and Sturges snark, could have pulled it off. And as "Movie Star"-charming as Johansson and Tatum are, they're clearly not Gary Cooper and Rosalind Russell. The frequently doddering 132-minute run time doesn't help; instead of soaring to the stars (or moon), it remains persistently, stubbornly earthbound. (C.)
HORIZON: AN AMERICAN SAGA--CHAPTER ONE--Set against highly scenic backdrops of the Wyoming and Kansas territories in 1859, the first part of Kevin Costner's new big-screen western epic ("Chapter 2" opens in August, and he's currently shooting "Chapter 3" with more installments planned) would have probably worked better as the kick-off for a new miniseries. Seen in that episodic format, it might have soared like the two Paramount+ "Yellowstone" prequel miniseries, "1883" and "1923." But as a standalone theatrical feature, it falls a little flat. The episodic script--by Costner and Jon Baird--rambles a bit too much for its own good, introducing a plethora of supporting characters (essayed by, among others, Luke Wilson, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Danny Huston and Jena Malone), none of whose individual narrative arcs are satisfyingly intertwined. Accordingly, there isn't enough follow through for any of them to register emotionally. It essentially plays as a series of vignettes, some of which work better than others. Costner's leading character, laconic horsetrader Hayes Ellison, isn't even introduced until an hour into the film. Some of the most impressively staged scenes are the (frequently violent) encounters between settlers and Apache Indians, but they're only one part of a very long, ultimately exhausting whole. While I admire Costner's creative vision and audacity in tackling such an ambitious, multi-tier project, I'm worried that he may have misjudged the venue for his considerable hubris. (C PLUS.)
INSIDE OUT 2--A "pretty much what you expected" sequel that picks up two years after the events of the Oscar-winning 2015 Pixar 'toon with Riley (Kensington Tallman) confronted with brand new emotions to contend with (Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, Nostalgia and Ennui voiced by Maya Hawke, Ayo Edebiri, Paul Walter Hauser, June Squib and Adele Exarchopoulas respectively). All the old emotions that previously roiled now-tweener Riley are present and accounted for, too--Joy, Envy, Disgust, Fear, et al--along with her well-intentioned if rather feckless parents (Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan reprising their duties from the first film). The CGI animation is once again lovely and it's all very benign, but first-time director Kelsey Mann's film is also yawningly, depressingly predictable. As a minority voice who found the original a tad overrated (earlier Pixar movies like "Up, "Wall-E," "Finding Nemo" or any of the "Toy Story" iterations are all infinitely superior), I thought it was just O.K. Fans of the earlier film will almost surely disagree, though. (C PLUS.)
LONGLEGS--Creepy as hell, Osgood ("Gretel and Hansel," "The Blackcoat's Daughter") Perkins' serial killer procedural gives Nicolas Cage his best screen role since 2021's "Pig" as a psychopathic dollmaker (think a demonic Tiny Tim minus the ukele) targeting families with young daughters born on the 14th of the month. Fortunately fledgling FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe from "It Follows" and "Watcher," terrific) is hot on the case, using her psychic abilities to help crack the case. Cinematographer Andres Arochi's stunning imagery--he ingeniously uses analog 16 mm for the intermittent flashback sequences--contributes immeasurably to the freak-out vibe Perkins is clearly grooving on. It's one of those increasingly rare contemporary horror films with the uncanny, insidious ability to take up unwanted residence in your subconscious. (B PLUS.)
MAXXXINE--The concluding chapter of the groovy Ti West trilogy that began in 2022 with "X" and "Pearl," this is also an official sequel to the first movie. ("Pearl," set in 1918, was a prequel to "X.") If all that sounds confusing, you're probably not the target audience anyway. For fans of the earlier films, though, it's decadent fun. Maxine (Mia Goth, terrific as usual), the sole survivor of "The Texas Porn Shoot Massacre" from "X," is now a bona-fide adult film actress living in 1985 Los Angeles who dreams of crossover/ mainstream stardom. After landing the starring role in a B-horror flick ("The Puritan II") helmed by British diva Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki), Maxine finds herself being stalked by the serial killer--inspired by L.A.'s real-life 1980's Night Stalker--currently terrorizing the city. Costarring Kevin Bacon as a private eye with sinister motives and Bobby Cannavale and Michelle Monaghan (amusing as a pair of LAPD detectives), it also serves as West's mainstream breakthrough, too. A "B" movie with "A" movie ideas about Hollywood's epidemic (mis)treatment of women throughout cinema history, "Maxxxine" proves that he's definitely ready for the Big Leagues. (B.)
QUERELLE--The remarkably prolific German New Wave wunderkind Rainer Werner Fassbinder died in June 1982 shortly after finishing "Querelle," and when it opened in theaters the following year reviews were generally dismissive. Even New York Times critic Vincent Canby who did more than anyone to "break" Fassbinder in America found the movie disappointing. Or maybe it was simply because the (largely) heterosexual bloc of American film critics at the time failed to appreciate Fassbinder's swan song for what it was: the most luxuriously stylized evocation of Gay Sensibility ever seen in a major movie. Along with Fellini's "Satyricon," it was (and remains) pretty much the gayest film ever made: a veritable Disneyland of queerness. Luxuriating in Fassbinder's deliberately artificial mise-en-scene is like taking a hit of amyl nitrate on the dance floor at Manhattan's fabled Crisco Disco in the pre-AIDS era. Although adapted from a novel by Jean Genet, the film seems even more beholden to the homoerotic artwork of Tom of Finland. As the titular sailor, Brad ("Midnight Express") Davis practically oozes sexuality, strutting his fine self into Feria, a Brest bar/brothel run by the imperious Madame Lysiane (Nouvelle Vague diva Jeanne Moreau). In short order, Querelle gets involved in an opium deal with Lysiane's husband (Gunther Kaufmann's Nono) that climaxes with the killing of his criminal cohort. Lusted after by everyone he crosses paths with, especially his superior officer, Lieutenant Seblon (Franco Nero), Querelle is a veritable walking and talking phallus. While the film ends tragically, it's also deeply, ironically funny. (Shades of Fassbinder creative muse Douglas Sirk's gloriously overheated 1950's Hollywood melodramas.) Would the New Queer Cinema that emerged a decade later have ever taken root without Fassbinder's posthumous masterpiece? Maybe, maybe not. Both Todd ("Poison") Haynes and Gregg ("The Living End") Araki have cited the film as a key influence on their early work. What can't be disputed is that Fassbinder--who died at age 37 after having directed over 40 films, 24 plays (most of which he wrote) and three television miniseries (including his magnum opus, 1980's "Berlin Alexanderplatz")--remains, along with Jean-Luc Godard, the most compelling, provocative and singular European filmmaking voice to emerge in the post-WW II era. Extras on the new Criterion Collection Blu-Ray include an interview with Museum of the Moving Image editorial director (and Queer Cinema scholar) Michael Koresky; Wolf German's 1982 documentary, "Rainer Werner Fassbinder: Last Works;" and a compelling, appreciative essay by critic Nathan Lee. (A.)
A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE--Like the first season of "Fear the Walking Dead," this Michael ("Pig") Sarnoski-directed prequel--or "origin story" if you prefer--to John Krasinksi's two "Quiet Place" movies somehow manages to better its antecedents. Some very good actors (including Alex Wolff, Djimon Housou and Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o) help seal the deal, and it's a suitably creepy, nicely atmospheric kickoff to a potential new horror franchise. I just hope the quality control is better than it was on AMC's "Walking Dead" spin-off which spiraled into rank tedium after a spectacular first season. (B.)
THREE REVOLUTIONARY FILMS BY OUSMANE SEMBENE--Unlike most Third World films of the 1960-70's which were unrelievedly grim and barely disguised Marxist tracts (e.g.,"The Hour of the Furnaces" by Argentinean directors Octavio Gettino and Fernando Solanas), the works of Senegal's Ousmane Sembene were often warm, funny and satirical. Although Senegal--a former French colony which won its independence in 1960--has a population of just four million, it produced the most important movies of Black Africa, notably those of Sembene, the continent's best-known filmmaker. Three of Sembene's finest, most controversial and politically incendiary films ("Emitai," 1971; "Xala," 1975; and "Ceddo," 1977) have just been released in a Criterion Collection box set. For fans and initiates alike, it's a cause for celebration in helping boost the profile of World Cinema. Sembene, the unofficial "Godfather of African Cinema," has finally received his due.Set during World War II, "Emitai" depicts the clash between native Senegalese and French troops over forcible conscription, heavy taxation and dwindling rice supplies. Although it won prizes in the former Soviet Union (Sembene studied filmmaking in Moscow and briefly worked at Gorki film studios in the early 1960's), the movie provoked considerable resentment in France where it was deemed "politically objectionable."Spoken in French and Wolof, Senegal's native language, "Xala" (roughly translated as "the curse of impotence") uses the story of an aging businessman (Thierno Leye's El Hadji) unable to consummate his third polygamous marriage for an expose of the nation's ruling class whose members have eagerly embraced the culture of their white colonial predecessors/oppressors. Although it's easy to laugh at El Hadji's absurd Europeanization (always speaking French, drinking Evian water and driving a Mercedes), we ultimately grow to sympathize with his ultimate downfall at the hands of others who are even more corrupt. The East-West clash of cultures also figure prominently in "Ceddo" which depicts a Senegalese village sometime between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as a heady microcosm of African political and social history. Set against the backdrop of an outsider community with animist beliefs, the narrative kicks into gear after the king dictates that everyone must convert to Islam. As retaliation, the king's daughter (Tabara Ndiaye) is kidnapped, triggering a series of cataclysmic, history-altering events.The Criterion set includes 4K digital restorations of all three titles; a dialogue between African Film Festival founder/executive director Mahen Bonetti and writer Amy Sall; Paulin Soumanou Vierya's 1981 documentary, "The Making of 'Ceddo;'" and a thoughtful essay by New York-based writer and film programmer Yasmina Price. (A.)
---Milan Paurich
