2014

While We’re Young

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(USA 2014)

Noah Baumbach’s snooze of a film about a middle-aged couple (Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts) whose staid life is seemingly revived by an effervescent, young hipster couple (Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried). While We’re Young relies heavily on angst and clichés, and glides into an unfortunately trite comparison of GenXers vs. Millennials. What a fucking yawn. Yes, there are a few laughs and a nice cameo by Beastie Boy Adam Horowitz, but still—I was bored with most of this disappointing piece of meh. I should’ve brought a book. Now get off my lawn.

(AMC River East) D-

http://while-were-young.com

The Outrageous Sophie Tucker

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(USA 2014)

Who was Sophie Tucker? Born Sonya Kalish in 1887, The Outrageous Sophie Tucker walks us through her rags to riches climb to the top of vaudeville in the early 20th Century and makes a strong case for her as the true original sassy, strong blonde—long before Madonna, Marilyn Monroe, and even Mae West.

Tucker seems like she was a riot: she stayed out all night and slept until afternoon, she had a girlfriend during the Depression, and J. Edgar Hoover (allegedly) wanted one of her gowns. Thoroughly enjoyable on multiple levels and from multiple perspectives, The Outrageous Sophie Tucker is historical, political, social, and even prurient (i.e., celebrity gossip from Hollywood’s Golden Era). It also celebrates early Jewish contributions to American entertainment—remarkable for a time when being Jewish wasn’t exactly kosher in America.

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival

(St. Anthony Main) B+

http://www.menemshafilms.com/outrageous-sophie-tucker

Monument to Michael Jackson [Spomenik Majklu Dzeksonu]

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(Serbia 2014)

After his wife leaves him, Marko (Boris Milivojevic) comes up with a way to revitalize his janky small Serbian town—and hopefully win back his wife, Ljubinka (Natasa Tapuskovic), in the process: he sets his sights on replacing a dreary old communist monument in the town center with something more exciting and “current:” a statue of the King of Pop, who he claims is attending its unveiling. You knock me off my feet now, baby…whooooo!

Monument to Michael Jackson is strange and wonderfully sublime, even if it is melancholy. The characters are realistic and fully developed, and the story is loaded with twists I didn’t see coming—like the reaction of many townspeople and the date of the unveiling (on May 25, 2009, the day Jackson died). I liked it, even with an ending that goes somewhere I was not expecting—at all. This definitely is not an American movie.

Director Darko Lungulov previously did Here and There, which I know from Cyndi Lauper’s title song for the soundtrack. Her husband, David Thornton, starred in it.

(St. Anthony Main) B+

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival

http://www.monumenttomichaeljackson.com

 

3 Hearts [3 coeurs]

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(France 2014)

Chiara Mastroianni and Charlotte Gainsbourg are sisters who fall for the same man, Marc (Benoit Poelvoorde), unbeknownst to all three of them, in this very French melodrama directed by Benoît Jacquot. One sister gets the guy, the other does not. The reality of their bizarre love triangle slowly emerges, causing plot twists and character turns.

A few things made no sense to me. I didn’t see the attraction to Marc. I found very little chemistry between him and either sister. Catherine Deneuve is the sisters’ mother, a curiously inconsequential role–I’m not sure why she took it. I preferred her covered in horse shit in Belle du jour, anyway.

Thanks to a schedule change, I had to leave this one right before the end so I could get to my next screening. If 3 Hearts had a point to make, it was lost on me. Still, I would have liked to see how this wrapped up.

(St. Anthony Main) B-

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival

http://cohenmedia.net/films/three-hearts

 

The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution

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(USA 2014)

Essentially an oral history of the Black Panther Party, Stanley Nelson covers every angle. Beginning with the social and political climate in American cities following desegregation, he moves through the Party’s formation, rise, fall, and ultimate splintering to demonstrate its impact. I found it immensely interesting for its historical perspective, but also remarkable for its overall objectivity. Interviewing members past and present who stayed and strayed, he leaves it to the viewer to decide whether the Party’s leaders and strategies were right or wrong.

(St. Anthony Main) A-

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival

http://theblackpanthers.com/home/

https://youtu.be/F56O3kZ9qr0

Black Coal, Thin Ice [Bai ri yan huo] [白日焰火]

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(China 2014)

A suspended alcoholic detective (Liao Fan) is pulled back into the game when a gruesome murder is committed—and it looks a lot like the same case that got him suspended five years before. A woman (Gwei Lun-Mei) working at a dry cleaner holds the key to the mystery.

Diao Yinan’s Black Coal, Thin Ice (Daylight Fireworks in China) is a beautifully shot film noir drama. Everything about it is icy and cold: its story, themes, and style all bring a chill. One shootout scene at a hair salon wouldn’t be out of place in a Tarantino movie. Intricate and complicated, it’s a pity I was tired for it. I suspect I missed a bit of interesting subtext that would have made this even more enjoyable.

(St. Anthony Main) A-

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival

http://www.fortissimo.nl/catalogue_lineup_title.aspx?ProjectId=fdb41202-f384-e311-93ff-b8ac6f1685e8

Happy Times [Tiempos felices]

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(Mexico 2014)

Breaking up is hard to do, but for thirty-something cartoonist Max Quintana (Luis Arreita) it’s impossible: he fails every time he tries to dump his domineering girlfriend, Monica (Cassandra Ciangherotti). When she misreads his intentions as a marriage proposal, he “hires” an agency to do his dirty work for him. What did he get himself into?

Wry, cynical, and weird, I really liked Happy Times. It was paced using a similar plot device that the Coen brothers use, which worked really well keeping the story moving along in an interesting way. This was fun to watch—and the ending is not happy. Bonus!

(St. Anthony Main) B+

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival

http://www.tiemposfelices.mx

Hand Made with Love in France [Le temps suspendu]

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(France 2014)

Interviews with Parisian craftsmen working for big names in haute couture—Chanel, Dior, Saint Laurent—and their view on the future of fashion. Hand Made with Love in France was interesting and even amusing at points. It shows the massive amount of work and attention to detail that goes into making fine clothing. However, it did not deliver on what it promised, exactly.

The craftsmen discussed the impending death of their craft. While not in itself a bad thing, I expected the focus to be somewhere else—specifically, the cheap quality of today’s so-called “luxury” goods. Faux pas! I thought this would be more fun and less handwringing about tomorrow.

(St. Anthony Main) C-

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival

http://www.handmadewithloveinfrance.com

Beatles

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(Norway 2014)

Four high school age boys in Oslo—Kim (Louis Williams), Gunnar (Ole Nicolai Myrvoid Jorgensen), Ola (Halvor Tangen Schultz), and Seb (Havard Jackwitz)—are not very different from most boys their age. They do things like steal hood ornaments from cars, get trashed at school dances, and stalk girls. They love the Beatles, so much that they each adopt a Beatles persona and hatch a plan start a band, the Snafus.

Based on Lars Saabye Christensen’s novel, Beatles is a sugar and salt (the name of a Snafus song) coming of age film. It’s sappy nostalgia celebrating a simpler time—think The Wonder Years with a cooler European bent. Set during the late Sixties, it hits a universal note that stops it from sliding into oversentimental dreck. I love all the Beatles references, and how well the film captures the feel of total devotion to a pop star. One scene in which the four boys stop everything to listen to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on the day it comes out is gold; it reminds me so much of my own idols in the MTV era. Performances are strong all around. Beatles is not the kind of thing I usually go for, but it is easily one of my favorites from the festival.

(St. Anthony Main) B+

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival

http://www.nfi.no/english/norwegianfilms/search/Film?key=103342

White God [Fehér isten]

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(Hungary 2014)

Tara Fass of Huffington Post was right on the mark when she called Kornél Mundruczó’s White God “a thrilling and visceral fairy tale.” This particular fairy tale traces the parallel paths of Lili (Zsofia Psotta), a brooding teenager handed off to her father (Sandor Zsoter) for three months, and her dog, Hagen (switch hitters Body and Luke), after the two are separated when Lili’s father abandons Hagen on the street. The two main characters– girl and dog– become increasingly feral left on their own. They’re brought together again after a series of events culminating in a beautifully orchestrated over-the-top canine takeover of the city reminiscent of Hitchcock, Disney, and Tarantino. Think of Old Yeller on crack. Not what I expected, which is what drew me in and kept me watching.

Bonus: all of the dogs in the film were strays that reportedly were adopted after shooting ended.

(Music Box) B+

http://www.magpictures.com/whitegod/