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This Month at Theatre N

Chilean director Sebastian Delio has an abiding empathy for women in situations of turmoil and marginalization. His prior film, Gloria, was a touching meditation on a 58-year-old divorced woman’s desire to find a place in the world as a vibrant, romantic sexual being though the culture repeatedly warns her to remain invisible.

In his new film, A Fantastic Woman, Delio again visits a marginalized woman. In this case, it is Marina (Daniela Vega), who finds herself thrust out of the way when her older lover Orlando unexpectedly dies. Marina is trans (as is the actress Vega who plays her so movingly), and she is immediately omitted, questioned, judged, even investigated. She wants only to grieve her partner, and society wants her to disappear.

Without being preachy, Delio manages to bring a political and social issue into great focus and human perspective, by telling the stories of people instead of taking an abstract position. He finds the humanity in Marina, and by extension, in all of us.

Playing at Theatre N in March: Catch up on Oscar nominees. Darkest Hour and Call Me By Your Name (March 2-4); Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri (March 9-11); The Shape of Water and Phantom Thread (March 16-18).

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Black Panther

Much has been written about this landmark superhero movie, and as the record-setting grosses continue to pile up, the coverage (and thoughtful analysis) will likely keep on coming. Beyond its cultural significance, Black Panther is tautly scripted, beautifully designed and photographed, and stunningly executed. If you have any interest in the genre, even if you’ve felt that recent entries have been disappointing, go…just go.

Also opening in March: It’s adventure and thriller season! Ava Duvernay’s eagerly-awaited A Wrinkle in Time (March 2); Alicia Vikander in a remake of Tomb Raider (March 16), a new stop-action animated headtrip from Wes Anderson, Isle of Dogs (March 23); and Ready Player One, Steven Spielberg’s tribute to classic arcade games (March 30).

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Stupid Fun

Comedy thriller delivers with inconsequential game night humor

As unmemorable as a game of checkers, as insubstantial as party charades, but as fun as a round of drunken Scattergories. Game Night, a new comedy thriller from the people behind Horrible Bosses and Vacation, will barely stay in your brain long enough for you to get to the car, but nevertheless, it’s good, stupid fun.

Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams play Max and Annie, a thoroughly cute yet fiercely competitive married couple. To exercise their love of competition (well, in truth, winning), the two have a standing weekly date with two other thoroughly cute couples for game night. Into this benign situation comes Max’s older brother, Brooks (Kyle Chandler), who has succeeded in the game of life to a degree that fosters sibling resentment in Max.

Brooks co-opts game night with a wild role-playing kidnapping adventure that quickly if predictably spins out of control. Add a priceless Faberge egg, a mobster called the Bulgarian, and a creepy cop as a next-door neighbor, and we have ourselves a raucous comedy.

Bateman and McAdams have just the right light touch for this kind of borderline comedy. They manage the ruder, darker elements with a grace that prevents the movie from becoming unredeemable (as The Hangover often did). Chandler approaches his caricature of a role with gusto and conviction. But the highlight of the cast is Jesse Plemons as the incredibly sinister-sad neighbor Gary. Recently divorced and desperate, excluded from the board-game fun, Gary longs to be a part of something, anything. Plemons brings the right blend of mania and melancholy to the part.

Directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, who have both cut their teeth as comedy writers, show the right blend of grounded and ridiculous to keep the action moving, and the dialogue is well-seeded with great toss-off jokes.

The banter is fast, the coincidences implausible, and the humor frequently unnecessarily coarse or morbid. But none of that really matters. In the era of The Hangover and Seth Rogen-Judd Apatow comedies, the goal is admirably simple: create a diverting, entertaining, somewhat risqué few hours in the cinema. The sights are set fairly low, but Game Night manages to achieve and even surpass them.

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Two Oscar Contenders: One Verbal, One Visual

The Post and The Shape of Water show diverse styles of Spielberg, del Toro

These are not great days for those in the media game. The reporting business has been racked by major setbacks: the take-over by profit-driven conglomerates; the trivialization of news from the 24/7 cable beast; the more recent disgraces of high-profile journalist-harassers; and most of all, the demeaning howl of “fake news” popularized by the sitting President.

All that is distressing, even nauseating for those of us who value the importance of the media and view exceptional journalists as modern-day heroes. Well, director Steven Spielberg with his new film, The Post, has just the cure: a taut, cerebral thriller about how The Washington Post broke the Pentagon Papers story and held the federal government accountable for its disinformation campaign about the true state of the Vietnam War.

In 1971, The Post was not the revered national newspaper and journalistic exemplar that it is today. Rather, it was a family business in a smallish eastern city that just happened to be the national capital. D.C. socialite Katharine Graham had assumed the role of publisher upon the premature death of her husband, a position of authority and responsibility that was much more uncommon for a woman in those days.

Then, Daniel Ellsberg, a military analyst, leaked a classified study that revealed decades of government deception about Vietnam to several newspapers, and The New York Times became the first to publish portions of what became known as the Pentagon Papers. When the Times was enjoined by the Nixon Administration, publisher Graham and her crusty, ambitious editor, Ben Bradlee, were faced with a perilous opportunity: defy the Nixon Administration to break a landmark news story but face repercussions that could include jail.

Spielberg’s telling of this historic event, aided by Liz Hannah and Josh Singer’s rat-a-tat screenplay, contains all the ingredients one wants in a journalism thriller: compelling and eccentric characters, the ink-stained romance of a humming newsroom, a powerful political adversary, and the ever-present pressure of a deadline. And although the dramatic rhythms of this story feel familiar, they do so in a reassuring way, at least for those who see journalists as virtuous, albeit flawed heroes. One especially effective touch: Richard Nixon himself appears as a character, seen only from a distance through windows at the White House with voiceovers provided by his own surreptitious tape recordings.

Spielberg turns to two other Hollywood titans to embody this project. Tom Hanks plays Bradlee with the requisite combination of brusqueness and charm. Meryl Streep is both flighty and flinty as Graham as she comes into her own both as a publisher and a leader. The two of them, who have never worked together on a film before, make their scenes crackle with intensity and gravitas. They are surrounded by a raft of accomplished supporting actors, including Bob Odenkirk, Jesse Plemons, Carrie Coon and Sarah Paulson.

One can’t watch this film without being mindful of its cinematic forebear, All The President’s Men. After all, that story about Watergate also involves The Washington Post and editor Bradlee. Spielberg doesn’t shy away from the parallel. In fact, the denouement of this Pentagon Papers adventure wryly hints at the Watergate story coming just around the corner.

As both a timely history lesson about the dangers of insular, autocratic government and as a lesson in bravura filmmaking, The Post proves itself to be more than newsworthy.

The Shape of Water

If Spielberg is a verbal film stylist, then Guillermo del Toro is a comparable master of visual cinema, with an emphasis on the fantastic and bestial. His The Shape of Water delights the eyes and exhilarates the imagination.

Set in a secret government research lab in Cold War-era Baltimore, The Shape of Water tells of an unlikely yet completely entrancing romance between a lonely, mute janitor and the non-human lab specimen whom she befriends…The Creature from the Black Lagoon meets Marty.

I don’t want to reveal more of the story, so that viewers can be caught up in del Toro’s magical realism for themselves. But the film is beautifully shot and deftly directed, a dazzling palette of greens, blues, and teals that gradually introduces the occasional punch of red.

Sally Hawkins captivates as janitor Elisa, and del Toro regular Doug Jones is both otherworldly and truly empathetic as the creature. Michael Shannon is enjoyably odious as the cruel lab security chief. Octavia Spencer, Richard Jenkins and Michael Stuhlbarg play Elisa’s friends and collaborators as fully formed characters within the framework of the movie.

One needs a robust suspension of disbelief to buy into the premise of this offbeat love story, but for those willing to make the leap, The Shape of Water will be a provocative treat.

Also opening in February: The 15:17 to Paris, retelling of the train hero story, Feb. 9; eagerly-awaited Marvel film focused on a black superhero, Black Panther, Feb. 16; Alex Garland’s supernatural thriller, Annihilation, and a mystery comedy about board gamers, Game Night, both on Feb. 23.

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This Month at Theatre N

Coming to Theatre N in February: The Final Year, a documentary about the end of Obama’s term as president, Feb. 2-4; the current crop of Oscar-nominated Short Films, Feb. 9-11; and I, Tonya, feature version of skater Tonya Harding’s life story. For specific dates and times, visit theatren.org.

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Seven for ’17

Best movies, and a couple of additional year-end lists

Apologies to David Letterman, but I’ve always thought 10 was an arbitrary number for compiling “best” lists.

So, here are my seven favorites from 2017, not ranked but in alphabetical order. Why seven? Frankly, my dear, for the alliteration of seven and 17. But, of course, you know that there are always a few more worthy films that fall just shy of the cut-off. Hence, I’ve included some honorable mentions. A final caveat: as a part-time film critic in a smaller market, I haven’t managed to see every buzzy movie of the last year, so I’ve also provided a list of those for which I still have high hopes.

The Big Sick

This indie comedy stars stand-up comic and actor Kumail Nanjiani, and it’s even co-written by him and his wife, Emily V. Gordon, based on their own cross-cultural love story. Nanjiani plays a Pakistani stand-up comic named Kumail who falls in love with a white grad student, Emily. When Emily becomes seriously ill, he must come to terms with her prickly parents, his traditional family’s expectations, and his own conflicted feelings. Offhandedly funny, modernly relevant, touching, and oh, so meta!

Coco

Pixar’s latest animated film featured an entirely Latino voice cast in a fast-moving but thoughtful story about family and destiny. Miquel, born into a family of shoemakers, aspires to be a musician, and must travel to the land of the dead and his ancestors to find his way home physically and emotionally. Not only does Coco celebrate a rich Mexican cultural tradition, it’s also an arrestingly beautiful and detailed film. This is not your abuela’s movie cartoon.

The Florida Project

Writer-director Sean Baker’s newest project has amped up the production values from his 2015 Tangerine, but still hews to his affection for the downtrodden and marginalized. Set at and around a ramshackle residential motel in the shadow of Disney World, The Florida Project uses non-professional actors to show the boot-strapped lives of its struggling residents mainly through the eyes of the motel’s latch-key children. The film is painful to watch at times, but always deeply poignant. Willem Dafoe shines as the motel manager and den mother to a wayward pack of kids.

Get Out

Comic actor Jordan Peele (half of the Comedy Central team of Key and Peele) astonished everyone last summer with this satirical horror film, which was also his directorial debut. Get Out slyly punctures somewhite liberal dogma while delivering terrific comic licks mixed with the frisson of fairly earned thrills. The solid cast includes newcomer Daniel Kaluuya, along with Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford and Allison Williams. The result is a winning trifecta: genuinely scary, hilarious and woke. 

Lady Bird

This bittersweet coming-of-age tale about a teenage girl (Saoirse Ronan) and her loving but unforgiving mother (Laurie Metcalf) is another directorial debut, this one by actress Greta Gerwig. Lady Birdmanages to walk a fine line between unsparingly honest and profoundly affecting. Born Christine but renaming herself Lady Bird, the teen trudges through her senior year in high school seeking a way out of her confining home town and the road to excitement, adventure, and ultimately, a comfortable self-identity. This is a familiar cinematic journey, but Gerwig’s assured direction and Ronan’s and Metcalf’s unvarnished performances make it feel brand new.

Wonderstruck

Todd Haynes’ mysterious fantasy sets two lost (and deaf) children on adventures in the wilds of New York City, but the twist is they are happening 50 years apart. Haynes cuts back and forth between the stories, with the 1920s version shot in luminous black-and-white and the ‘70s sequences in raucous color.Julianne Moore, a frequent Haynes collaborator, plays multiple roles, but the true stars are the two adolescents at the movie’s center: Millicent Simmonds as Rose and Oakes Fegley as Ben. Both are captivating.

Wonder Woman

At last, a female superhero worthy of a film franchise! And, girl, is she ever! Wonder Woman got a lot of attention during and even prior to its release for its groundbreaking qualities: not only a woman hero but a woman director in the Marvel universe. But the movie itself more than delivers on its promise by showcasing a central character whose greatest strengths are arguably her feminine qualities: curiosity, a thirst for justice, and abiding compassion. Israeli actress Gal Gadot embodies the Amazon princess with serene ease in front of the camera. The viewer cares about Wonder Woman, and therefore, her quest. The period setting and World War I revisionism are additional clever touches.

Honorable Mentions

Baby Driver, Blade Runner 2049, Detroit, Lady Macbeth, Lost in Paris, Mudbound, Okja, Personal Shopper, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and War for the Planet of the Apes. (Interesting side note: Mudbound and Okja were both made for Netflix and reached most of their audiences on that streaming site, not in theatrical release.)

High Hopes

(Movies I’ve not yet been able to see but which I look forward to)

Call Me by Your Name, Darkest Hour, Downsizing, I Tonya, Molly’s Game, Phantom Thread, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, The Post and The Shape of Water.

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Train of Thought

Branagh’s star-studded version of Christie is beautiful, fun

I’ll confess to a latent fondness for mystery novels, and especially that of Dame Agatha Christie, whose books were perennial take-aways from the public libraries of my childhood. Nothing quite tickled my adolescent fancy as depictions of veddy, veddy British manor life contrapuntally laced with the frisson of cold-blooded murder. So I was intrigued by the plan to remake one of Miss Agatha’s classic stories, Murder on the Orient Express, with Kenneth Branagh as director and star (in the role of the Belgian mastermind detective Hercule Poirot).

Branagh, who is most renowned as an actor and director of Shakespeare both on stage and on screen (his cinematic Henry V surpassed Olivier’s, in my opinion), is, nevertheless, no stranger to the mystery thriller genre. One of his first directing efforts was Dead Again, a stylish film noir detective story, and he played sleuth Kurt Wallander for several years on PBS. So, the man knows his way around a whodunit.

This new adaptation hews fairly closely to the details of the original novel. A disparate group of travelers, ostensibly strangers to one another, are journeying together on the luxury train that once linked Istanbul and Paris. One of the passengers, Edward Ratchett (Johnny Depp), a dislikable and shady American businessman, is found stabbed to death in the middle of the trip. Fortunately, Monsieur Poirot is on hand to solve the crime.

The tropes of the genre are quite familiar: A series of interviews revealing possibly incriminating details; protestations of innocence; a few bursts of menace; more than a few coincidences. And eventually, an astonishing solution by the master detective.

Branagh is aware, of course, of the pitfalls of any such mystery plot, and especially this one, a cultural touchstone known by so many. So, Branagh the director dresses the movie in sumptuous sets and costumes, reveling in the exotic locales of Jerusalem, Istanbul, and the Eastern European countryside through which the train travels. He also delights film fans by filling the cast with good-looking stars such as Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Judi Dench, Josh Gad and Penelope Cruz.

And Branagh the actor creates a Poirot quite distinct from the prim, fussy characterization of David Suchet on TV and Albert Finney in the 1974 big screen version. Branagh’s Poirot is tired, brooding and equivocal, though he also does possess a most opulent mustache.

The film is beautiful to look at, and also entertaining. The direction is assured and accessible, though this viewer wished that the director was a little less in love with his own sorrowful visage on camera.

None of the performances, beyond Branagh’s, are particularly noteworthy because none of them are any more than archetypes, nor do any of them have much time on screen. Each star gets a little turn, and then the story must chug along.

Given the strictures of the genre, Murder on the Orient Express is a trip worth taking, but perhaps not one you will remember vividly a few months from now.

Also playing in December: It’s last chance for Oscar releases with I Tonya, a fictionalized version of the Tonya Harding story, Dec. 8; The Greatest Showman with Hugh Jackman as P.T. Barnum, Dec. 20; Jessica Chastain in Molly’s Game, Dec. 25; and Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, starring Annette Bening, Dec. 29. Oh, and a little sci-fi sequel, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, opens Dec. 15.

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This Month At Theatre N

Jane

Jane Goodall with a chimp family. Photo courtesy of National Geographic Studios

This enthralling documentary centers on recently discovered film footage of naturalist Jane Goodall from the early years of her landmark chimpanzee research in Gombe National Park in Tanzania. Directed by Brett Morgen, the film reveals new information and insight into one of the most familiar figures in natural science and her passionate dedication to study. At Theatre N, Dec. 8-10.

Also at Theatre N in December: Sean Baker’s touching tale of marginalized citizens living in the shadow of Disney World, The Florida Project, Dec. 1-3; Victoria and Abdul, directed by Stephen Frears, Dec. 8-10; and a pair of documentaries Dec. 15-17, Bill Nye: The Science Guy and Frank Serpico. For specific dates and times, visit theatren.org.

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Small Wonder

Director Todd Haynes explores the power of silence, the wonder of connection

Director Todd Haynes has worked in a variety of cinematic genres and with diverse subject matter over his esteemed indie career. His work includes Superstar, a critique of celebrity culture; Safe, a drama warning of the toxicity of modern American life; Far From Heaven, a technicolor homage to 1950s sexual melodramas; I’m Not There, an unconventional and poetic biography of Bob Dylan; and most recently, Carol, the multi-Oscar-nominated drama about a forbidden lesbian love affair.

There is, however, a thematic through-line in Haynes’ films: a deep sensitivity for those estranged, for whatever reason, from conventional society. In his latest feature, the delicate and lovely Wonderstruck, Haynes again explores what life is like for those out of step with the norm: in this case, two deaf children on their own in New York in two seemingly unrelated stories set 50 years apart.

In 1927, Rose, a child isolated by her deafness from birth, runs away from her suburban home in pursuit of a silent film star, Lillian Mayhew (Julianne Moore), whom she idolizes. Played by newcomer Millicent Simmonds (who is herself deaf) with a mesmerizing screen presence, Rose is looking for a place where she belongs in a society that marginalizes and patronizes the disabled.

Fifty year later, in 1977, Ben (Oakes Fegley) is a lonely Minnesota boy grieving over the recent death of his mother and determined to find the far-away father he has never known. Finding a clue to his dad’s identity in an old book leads him on a quest to New York City, but not before Ben is also struck deaf in a freak lightning accident.

The two mysteries are told in an interspersed fashion—1927 in luminous black and white cinematography and nearly silent, 1977 in lurid pop colors and a noisy and era-appropriate rock soundtrack. And both stories reflect the innocence and resilience of the two young characters at their center.

To reveal more of the plot and the two stories’ connection would be a disservice to Haynes’ and screenwriter Brian Selznick’s thoughtfully constructed gem of a film. Incidentally, Selznick wrote the book on which Wonderstruck is based, and he also wrote the novel that inspired Martin Scorsese’s recent Hugo. The almost magical delicacy of Wonderstruck is given further resonance by cinematographer Edward Lachman’s deft evocation in the two eras and in Carter Burwell’s enchanting film score (which is especially effective in Rose’s story).

Both Simmonds as Rose and Fegley as Ben are natural magnets in front of the camera. Their straightforward, earnest performances carry the film. But, credit also must go to solid supporting work from Jaden Michael as Ben’s friend Jamie; Michelle Williams in a brief but crucial role as Ben’s mother; and Moore, who plays two characters in the movie, one in each era.

Some overly long third-act exposition aside, Wonderstruck is a captivating story about two isolated children who manage to find comfort and connection.

Also appearing at your nearby multiplex in November: Thor: Ragnarok, the latest movie exploration of the Marvel universe (11/3); Wonder, a domestic drama starring Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson as parents of a unique child (11/17); and Coco, a Pixar story featuring an all-Latino voice cast (11/22).

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At Theatre N

78/52

3 Stars

A documentary for the obsessive cinephiles among us, 78/52 dissects the watershed film moment of the shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Filmmakers, critics, actors, and family members lovingly break down the brilliance of that short but transformative sequence with a breathless fascination that is both credible (in its sincere geekdom) and incredible (for its unabashed admiration). The title refers to the frenetic 78 shots that Hitchcock, his film editor George Tomasini, and composer Bernard Hermann packed into a 52-second scene from the 1960 film. Filmmaker Alexandre O. Philippe cleverly shoots this documentary in black-and-white, though his strange use of newly shot Psycho-like footage ill serves his paean to the artistry of the Master of Suspense.

Also at Theatre N in November: Lucky, the great Harry Dean Stanton’s last film (11/17 weekend); Dina, a documentary about a couple with psychological and development issues seeking connection (11/17 weekend); and In Between, a feminist drama about three very different Palestinian roommates (11/24 weekend). For specific dates and times, visit theatren.org.