Beautifully shot in black and white – a rarity these days – Ciro Guerro’s Embrace of the Serpent is Columbia’s nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, and deservedly so. An “elegy for lost cultures and an indictment of exploitation,” this saga of human endurance in the wilderness – also the theme of fellow Oscar nominee The Revenant – plays like “a rainforest fever dream.” Critics Daniel Barnes and Dennis Harvey present their takes on this vivid physical adventure, which opens across North America in February and March.
The Danes think enough of Tobias Lindholm’s A War to nominate it for best foreign-language film in this year’s Oscars. See how Bay Area reviewers Daniel Barnes and Richard von Busack view Lindholm’s “… look at the burden of leadership and the psychological toll of living through hell” in this week’s Critics Corner.
Rams garnered a host of awards as it traveled the international film festival circuit in 2015. The bleat goes on as the Icelandic feature about feuding sibling shepherds opens around the country (in San Francisco, Friday, Feb 12 at Landmark’s Opera Plaza Cinema) and critics Michael Fox and Dennis Harvey decide whether it merits the hullabaloo. The film’s official website is Rams site.
The Coen Brothers love the movies—making them and watching them. Their films often pay homage to classics from The Man Who Wasn’t There with its direct links to Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt (both black and white murder stories set in Santa Rosa) to O Brother Where Art Thou filled with references to Sullivan’s Travels (a movie about making movies). And now they return with a new behind-the-scenes look at the cinematic creative process so darkly explored with Barton Fink—but this time it is an all-star farce. Read what our film buff critics think about Hail, Caesar!
At last year’s Cannes Film Festival there was a strong selection of films to consider but one movie made a lasting impression with images and a story people cannot forget. László Nemes‘ Son of Saul won the coveted Grand Prix award and has been the film “you must not miss” at Toronto, Telluride and New York Film Festivals. Continue reading →
François Truffaut’s many hour of interviews with the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock resulted in a book that influenced several generations of filmmakers. It helped film lovers understand the language of cinema as Truffaut integrated images with their discussions in a truly special collaboration. Continue reading →
From the margins I have watched many phases in the development of TheDiary of a Teenage Girl. In the late ’90s Phoebe Gloeckner, who was a mainstay in the creative circle I hung out in at that time, signed up for the writing workshop I teach in my living room during the summer. She brought in pages from her actual high school diary, using the workshop as a sort of litmus test, asking if the material was interesting, wondering what she could make of it. I remember being impressed with the intelligence and sensitivity of her journals, thinking, rather jealously, I sound like a total ditz in my own high school journals. When the book came out I was even more impressed by how skillfully Phoebe crafted the winding meanderings of her journal into a compelling narrative. I talked the San Francisco Chronicle into allowing me to review it, hiding the fact that I was a friend of the author. “Minnie is one of the most believable teenage protagonists ever written,” I wrote, “a complicated, contradictory child posing as a woman.” I taught the book in a grad writing seminar at San Francisco State, worried the students were going to rebel at reading an illustrated novel about a teen girl, but they loved it, even the guys. One woman in the class was a middle school teacher, and a student found the book on her desk and all of the girls in her class were reading it and loving it. I was again impressed that Phoebe could manage to produce something embraced by both grad writing students and teen girls.
Two women and one girl: Bel Powley, Phoebe Gloeckner and Minnie from Gloeckner’s The Diary of a Teenage Girl.
When I heard about the movie, I was hesitant. It would be so easy to screw up the uncompromising complexity of Phoebe’s novel. Happily, for the most part, given this is a film made for a mainstream audience, Marielle Heller has done a wonderful job protecting that complexity. Even though she keeps stepping into danger, Minnie is never portrayed as an agentless victim. Bel Powley is brilliant at steering Minnie towards ruin—and at remaining adorably childlike no matter how raunchy her behavior. Kristen Wiig is also wonderful as Minnie’s mother, evoking compassion while leading a fucked up, driven existence. Around the time the book came out, I met Phoebe’s mother. The first thing she said to me was, “I’m not as bad as Phoebe makes me out to be in her stories.” Watching Wiig’s charismatic performance, I thought—I bet Phoebe’s mother likes this portrayal of herself better. Alexander Skarsgård is totally dreamy—there’s no problem believing Minnie would fall in love with him—and his acting too is superb—I like that he’s portrayed as kind of a mess but not a bad guy. But perhaps somebody skeezier would have been better casting, somebody who would make the audience cringe a bit when he fucks Minnie, rather than fulfilling our collective desire for his acres of luscious naked flesh and boyish charm. I hope the movie is a big hit. It’s a much-needed antidote to all the sexual moralizing that’s being flung around these days.
Read two critical perspectives on About Elly (Asghar Farhadi, 2009) by Rob Avila and Len Weiler. About Elly opens on May 22, 2015 at Landmark’s Opera Plaza Cinema in San Francisco, Landmark’s Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley, and Camera 3 in San Jose. For release dates in other areas, click here.
Read two critical perspectives on Selma(Ava DuVernay, 2014), by Sunhui Chang and Ellen Sebastian Chang; and Connie Field. Selma opens Friday, January 9 at Bay Area theaters and nationally. Now available on DVD and streaming from Amazon.com.
Beautifully shot in black and white – a rarity these days – Ciro Guerro’s Embrace of the Serpent is Columbia’s nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, and deservedly so. An “elegy for lost cultures and an indictment of exploitation,” this saga of human endurance in the wilderness – also the theme of fellow Oscar nominee The Revenant – plays like “a rainforest fever dream.” Critics Daniel Barnes and Dennis Harvey present their takes on this vivid physical adventure, which opens across North America in February and March.
eatdrinkfilms.com 