TIFF 2022 THE GREATEST BEER RUN EVER: A Reflection by Robert Aaron Mitchell

"Based on a True Story." With these words so begins The Greatest Beer Run Ever. It is 1967 and the film begins in Inwood, New York City. A neighborhood in northern Manhattan. With beer, lots of beer, pitchers of beer! Chickie Donohue (Zac Efron) sometimes cheapskate, sometimes merchant sailor is buying the rounds tonight. He stills lives at home with hos parents and is not really do a whole lot with his life.

The Vietnam war is raging and so are the tensions in the country and around the Donohue breakfast table. The brutal images of war are on TVs at the local bar. A debate is going on with The Colonel, the bartender (Bill Murray) and Chick and his buddies about the war being shown on television. Regardless young men are being killed and returning home in caskets. Protests are gong on, "LBJ how many kids did you kill today?" An argument ensues about the nature of protest being against the troops and the counter argument that it is honoring the soldiers by demanding they be sent home. The country, Inwood is divided.

Like a lot of insane ideas the crux of this story beings in a bar. The Colonel casually throws out the wish to just going over to Nam and bring the boys from the neighborhood as a gesture to just say thanks. Chick has a revelation, he can do that. Sign up for a ship that is going to Vietnam and jump off and bring the boys some brews. There is definitely a lot guilt and inadequacy of not serving in the war going on in Chick's mind. 

Chick heads to the shipping office and through fate or dumb luck there is a ship heading out in Vietnam in three hours that actually needs an oilier. Now that he is on the ship there is the matter of getting off the ship. A story is concocted and it works. He now has three days to get off the ship, head into a war zone and find his buddies. Beer from New York acts as currency. 

Now that Chickie is in country and has met up with his first buddy now he has to figure out how to navigate a war zone. He figures he'll just hitchhike to meet up with the other Inwood boys. He heads over to the hotel where all the press are. They of course find his story and ambitions, "an idiotic but noble gesture." Left with no other recourse he takes to the streets of Saigon and sticks his thumb out. A military truck picks him up. He heads to a base and tries to hop on a plane. Chick somehow gets on a plane when the Captain exclaims, "It's one of you guys." Things start weirdly falling into place. The military personal believe he is someone who it is indeed not. The funny thing is Chick just straight up tells the truth. 

Everywhere Chick goes there are dead American boys being moved. The further North he heads the further embroiled in the actual war he becomes. Chick sees more brutality as his journey continues and his ideas to get back to Saigon and the ship are increasingly dangerous. He learns first hand how scary, intense and absurd war is.

This fictional film follows the book by Chick Donhue and J.T. Molly and the short documentary by Andrew Muscato. This film is directed by Peter Farrelly (Something About Mary, Dumb and Dumber). I appreciate that the soundtrack of this Vietnam movie was not steeped in the soundtracks of the others that have preceded it. It is also great that Efron is going against a movie star type playing Chickie, a regular schmo in the midst of a very stupid idea. The Farrelly name is so ingrained in a collective imaginations as being associated with over the top dumb comedies. The Greatest Beer Run Ever is not playing for easy laughs even though the true life story could have seen an adaptation easily turned into a farce. The film exceeds in showing how everyone was struggling with the war. The boys in Vietnam, the friends and family back home. There are a lot of strong visual montages in the movie.

One of the strongest scenes in the film is when Chick and reporter Arthur Coates (Russell Crowe) are having a conversation - over a few beers - about the effect of the war on everyone. Chick believes it's the truth and the never-ending "bad" stories that affecting everyone. Coates points out that it isn't the truth that is hurting America, it's the lies. The first causality of war is the truth. This scene leads to a great sequence. When the bullets start flying, war is indiscriminate in it's terror. 

Chickie's three day Vietnam sojourn turned into eight weeks. The amount of resources that Chick goes through for his "idiotic yet noble mission" is straight up crazy. It is also indicative of the larger war he somehow is miraculously is moving through shows how truly idiotic the American involvement in Vietnam truly was. War is scary, intense and absurd. He also learns that it is a lot easier to get into a war than it is to get out of a war. Chick brought beer to the boys over there, he brought pack a perspective and truth to the boys in Inwood.

TIFF 2022 CAUSEWAY: A Reflection by Robert Aaaron Mitchell

 

The American Psychiatric Association defines Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as, "Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event, series of events or set of circumstances. An individual may experience this as emotionally or physically harmful or life-threatening and may affect mental, physical, social, and/or spiritual well-being. Examples include natural disasters, serious accidents, terrorist acts, war/combat, rape/sexual assault, historical trauma, intimate partner violence and bullying." In the era of World War One this condition was known as "shell shocked" and was far less understood than our modern era. 

According to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs the number of military service people who have PTSD, "Operations Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Enduring Freedom (OEF): About 11-20 out of every 100 Veterans (or between 11-20%) who served in OIF or OEF have PTSD in a given year.Gulf War (Desert Storm): About 12 out of every 100 Gulf War Veterans (or 12%) have PTSD in a given year.Vietnam War: About 15 out of every 100 Vietnam Veterans (or 15%) were currently diagnosed with PTSD at the time of the most recent study in the late 1980s, the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (NVVRS). It is estimated that about 30 out of every 100 (or 30%) of Vietnam Veterans have had PTSD in their lifetime."

This brings me to the tiff premiering film Causeway, I hesitate to say "starring" Jennifer Lawrence as this is a film far removed from popcorn spectacle. Along Ms. Lawrence is Brian Tyree Henry. The film marks the feature film debut of director Lila Neugebauer working from a script written by Elizabeth Sanders, Luke Goebel and Ottessa Moshfegh.

Jennifer plays Lynsey a U.S. Veteran returning to America dealing with a traumatic brain injury that she received while serving in Afghanistan. She arrives at a care facility where she is trying to rehab. She has mobility issues, panic attacks and struggles with PTSD. Jayne Houdyshell plays Sharon, Lynsey care taker. In the midst of this struggle where even the act of driving a car brings out a deluge of painful emotions Lynsey's goal is not to transition to civilian life but to redeploy in another tour of military service. 

The camera, "we" sit across from Lynsey as she transverses her way back home, to New Orleans. The silence as she looks out the window as the bus moves across American highways, we she the look of apprehension and determination on Lynsey's face.  She arrives home unknown to her mother. Her mom wanted to plan a heroes welcome. Lynsey just wants to sleep. 

A near empty fridge freezer, a pick up truck that needs a new carburetor that Lynsey doesn't want or doesn't have the money to replace underlies her need to return to work, which for her means a war zone. For now, she applies for a job as a pool cleaner. As she is driving home she once again as a debilitating panic attack.

This story could be now or perhaps it was twenty years ago when we see a C.D. Player in a car. That's the thing about America at war, it spans decades. Decades of returning soldiers trying to return to life in America. Decades of pain, torment and silent suffering. 

This is a film anchored by performance. Lynsey in a Doctor's office retelling the day she was driving in a convoy in Afghanistan which came under attack is told by her without flashy Michael Bay flashbacks. When she mentions the explosion we the audience are not jolted by a fireball across the screen with a giant soundtrack boom. The camera slowly zooms towards Lynsey as her retelling draws both the Doctor and us, the audience close to this tragic and traumatic event. 

The day Lynsey is driving home after getting the pool cleaning job and the pick up truck she is driving breaks down Lynsey drives it to a nearby garage. Where is meets Henry, a mechanic (Brian Tyree Henry) they strike up a friendship. Watching their burgeoning friendship is a joy in a movie that has such intense material. 

Causeway is in no way a "message" movie. It is a slice of life film. Causeway is a film that follows people navigating random traumatic life circumstances in American life. It reminds us that the person sitting next to us on a bus or having car problems near us on the morning commute maybe dealing with events that scar both physically and mentally for the duration of life. As Lynsey's mom remarks upon her return home, "Well, you look like you." It is the hidden wounds that society does not see that can be the hardest to navigate in a world that is built and functions well for able-bodied, mentally well adjusted people. People may leave a war zone but the war is always there. What we ask of each generation that is shipped to war and the cost they pay is far too great and the burden they carry far too heavy.