Category: Drama

Russian Doll ☆☆☆☆☆ (5/5) 4/1/19

I feel like Natasha Lyonne really Gets Me, ya know?

Sweet jumping Jesus, I loved this show.

Literally anything I could say about the clever plot would be a spoiler of some sort, so I’ll just say the acting and writing are terrific. Lyonne’s performance is spellbinding – rough, raw, and hilarious, but Charlie Barnett and Elizabeth Ashley also shine. Ritesh Rajan is gorgeous. Brendan Sexton iii (Hey, remember the “I’m gonna rape you at 3 o’ clock” bully from Welcome to the Dollhouse? That’s him!) kills his role in a really special way that I predict is about to give him a solid career boost.

Check out the definition-of-cool playlist of the show’s songs, too.

One of my all time favorite TV shows.

Watch it.

I Want to Live!☆☆☆☆ (4/5) 2/20/19

Susan Hayward won an Oscar for her oddly compelling performance in this noir procedural.

Not going to lie – I love a title with punctuation.

And I love Susan Hayward’s awkward, jerky, brittle portrayal of Barbara Graham, a desperate woman headed for the gas chamber. She’s weird and stagey, and it works perfectly against the droll, deadpan world of the film. You don’t exactly like her, but you root for her anyways because she seems more alive than her surroundings. Virginia Vincent shines as the friend who unexpectedly stands by her.

A great movie might have more deeply questioned the role the press has not just in her vilification, but also in her would-be redemption. It seems unlikely that the newsman pressing for her release genuinely believes in her innocence.

The great final sequence is still powerful in its simple mechanics, in spite of the corny elements Robert Wise uses to generate empathy.

Underrated and worth a look.

Roma ☆☆☆☆ (4/5) 2/14/19

Amazing cinematography raises this simple slice of life drama above the ordinary.

I want to love Roma more than I do. Alfonso Cuarón is one of the most talented directors currently working anywhere in the world, and the cinematography here is breathtaking. There’s just something about a carefully composed black and white image that resonates in my soul, maybe because the first best films I ever saw were oldies on TV.

And Roma is very beautiful. The suspenseful scenes are gripping. The actors are solid. But there’s a distance.

It seems to me that there is something fundamentally unknowable about Cleo – in fact that may be the point, that she can’t be put into a box and labeled simply one thing or another. But it also seemed like the movie itself was holding me at arms length, when I wanted to get all up in there with my emotions.

The Favourite ☆☆☆ (3/5) 2/10/19

An early-18th-century All About Eve. There’s no substitute for Bette Davis, but the three modern heavy hitters do slay.

Not as thematically ambitious or overall successful as Yorgos Lanthimos last picture, Killing of a Sacred Deer, a whole lot of The Favourite seems half baked.

It doesn’t really matter though, because The Favourite is actually just a vehicle for its stars. And they’re great across the board. Olivia Colman is the big winner, but Emma Stone is a whole lot of fun as – arguably – the actor playing most against type.

It is also worth noting that the women of The Favourite get to be ugly hearted and unsympathetic in ways that women are rarely allowed in Hollywood movies. Which is cool, kind of.

This movie, with its anachronistic (but not inaccurate) approach to a historical rivalry reminded me most of Amadeus. I’m glad to see such an odd film get some acclaim, but I wish it had been more focused.

Bohemian Rhapsody☆☆☆☆ (4/5) 2/07/19

Superficial but affecting.

Critically, I’m not sure where to start. I could bemoan the fact that the survivors of Queen have clearly had their hands in writing this version of history. I could point out the inherent dangers in crafting a biopic of someone who to modern eyes seems like – looks like – a queer icon, but who really wasn’t at the time. Who didn’t want to be, at the time. Who surely faced homophobia in both the industry and the rock audience that is completely ignored by the film. I especially could roll my eyes over this movie’s Sad Freddie, who never seems to actually enjoy the fame and the drugs and the fucking.

Those criticisms, and many others, are valid.

But here’s the thing. I liked Bohemian Rhapsody. Sort of a lot. I liked the whole cast. Rami Malek, certainly, but Ben Hardy (who I’ve liked since Eastenders) does an awful lot with what he’s given. I even, to a degree, enjoyed the superficiality, the gloss, which was certainly no worse than that of A Star is Born. I liked that it ended on a high note, even if it had to cut the story quite short to do so.

After so many years of awful queer films, I still haven’t gotten used to this recent explosion of queer films of quality. We’ll have to wait and see where Bohemian Rhapsody ends up on that list, but I have a feeling it will be higher than the skeptics today think.

Can You Ever Forgive Me? ☆☆☆ (3/5) 2/03/19

Strongly acted but lacking in wit.
Just watch Spy again – you don’t have to feel guilty about it.

Did you ever spend time drinking in dive-y gay bars with shady characters? I have, kind of a lot. It’s sort of fun. More fun than Can You Ever Forgive Me? would have you believe.

Can You Ever Forgive Me? is a good movie, but it plods through its paces with a monotony that keeps it from rising above a certain level. Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant are great. They’re pretty much always great. Well, at least he is. But they’re both bona fide scene stealing stars with proven track records. Maybe people are surprised that she can actually act, but they shouldn’t be.

There’s no shortage of empathy in Can You Ever Forgive Me? for the oddball losers they’re playing, which is nice, but I wonder whether the real people involved in the story would have appreciated the pity the film encourages. I don’t think they would. I think maybe they’d tell Academy Award nominated screenwriter Nicole Holofcener to go fuck herself, and gigglesnort until they fell off their bar stools.

Mindhunter (TV) ☆ (1/5) 2/3/19

Dull and drawn-out Silence of the Lambs wannabe.
 “Just the facts, ma’am.”

I’m not a David Fincher fan. I think his only really good movie is Zodiac, otherwise I think that somehow his chilly style prevents people from seeing just how flat and on the nose his work is.

Mindhunter was filmed in my hometown, though (My childhood Dairy Queen is in it!), and I am interested by Jonathan Groff, because he’s an out gay actor and because I think his performances are weird. Not in that fake, attention grabbing Johnny Depp way, more in an, “I don’t know if I think that is good or awful,” way.

I don’t know if I think Groff’s performance here is good or awful, either. His natural charm keeps shining through the cold fishface he sinks into as his character becomes increasingly obsessed with his serial killer work. He’s definitely watchable, and the other actors do their best to shine through the low-key material they’re given. Holt McCallany is especially good.

It’s just all so… gray. Happy Anderson elevates his scenes by flirting with camp, and a less stagnant director could have really turned that into something special, but Mindhunter doesn’t want to be fun or suspenseful. It wants to be Serious, and it has all the flat affect of a modern Dragnet.

Don’t even get me started on the stupidity of that recurring cat thing. I’m still mad at how that pays off.

Abducted in Plain Sight ☆☆☆ (3/5) 2/03/19

Truth is stranger – and more infuriating – than fiction.

My mouth hung open for 90 minutes watching this shocking tale of parental neglect and sexual abuse. There are so many twists, each so outrageous that I had to talk about the film all day today.

It is a bit like gawping at the scene of an accident, though. While it may empower other victims of predators, the situation is so specifically strange that it’s hard to see Abducted in Plain Sight as any kind of serious warning or enlightenment. Don’t be a shitty parent, maybe. Maybe that does need to be said more.

My nominee for worst person in a film full of them? The brother.

This is like The Up Series for misanthropes.

The Rider ☆☆☆☆☆ (5/5) 1/17/19

One of the year’s best, and most unusual, films.

The Rider’s pace is what critics often, charitably, call deliberate, and my father calls slow. It entranced me, but individual mileage is going to vary. I think that’s important to note up front.

Chloé Zhao casts non-professional actors to play versions of themselves to heartbreaking effect. Brady Jandreau may be essentially playing himself, but that doesn’t negate the honest sensitivity he projects. He’s stunning, with an introspective charisma male actors can rarely convey effectively, and Zhao casually showcases his youthful physical beauty in the same vivid way she films mountains and sunsets. Everyone seems completely authentic and unrehearsed; Jandreau’s sister, Lilly, is particularly lovely and is, herself, a reason I already plan to revisit this film soon.

The Rider has no shortage of heavy themes, hardship, identity, masculinity, recovery, and sport are all examined in surprisingly complex ways, but the film never feels bogged down or preachy.

I think The Rider is going to stick with me for a long time.