The People's Joker in a first for the Midnight Madness program screened once at it's world premiere and was hit with a cease and desist order from Warner Brothers. Filmmaker Vera Drew is positive the film will be seen again. As I learn more I will share the details.
Pearl was the surprise movie that was announced after X premiered at the South by Southwest Festival. Not only was the film announced as an origin story to Pearl who appears in X, it was already completed. As the story goes X was filmed in New Zealand at the height of the pandemic and Covid restrictions. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre inspired set, house, barn and a guesthouse was already built. Having an already built full-on set was the origin for this origin story. In a two week hotel quarantine stay West came up with the story and script for Pearl. Once again A24 came onboard to make the film.
The film begins as a camera passes through a barn. The barn doors open revealing an idyllic farm pastoral. The music composed by Tyler Bates and Tim Williams is full of wonder and splendor. We see Pearl in her room surrounded by dolls. She is made up, her lips a rich hue of red. She stands. She is Judy Garland. As we learned in X Pearl was/is a dancer. The lights dim in her mind's eye, a spotlight hits her and reflects off of the mirror she stand before. The door opens and the illusion is shattered. It is back to life on the farm. However dreams do not fade, a pitchfork makes a great dancing partner. The cows are a rapt audience.
Pearl maybe look like an innocent farm girl. This is also the Pearl from X. A goose wanders into the barn. The goose is carried out of the barn impaled on Pearl's pitchfork. She carries the goose out to the dock overlooking the lake where Pearl will first spy on Maxine many decades later.
On a side note on the interesting dynamics of film festivals. I watched All Quiet on the Western Front and later Pearl. Both on the same day. Both films take place in 1918. Both films are horrific in their own right. It is an extremely interesting condition of seeing so many films in quick succession. There are emotions, notions and observations that carry over int different pieces you are writing about films on any given festival day.
Along with World War One, another major event was occurring. A pandemic, the Spanish flu. In an exceptional parallel to our times. To escape the hum drum of farm life, an over bearing German mama and her ill Father, Pearl goes to the movie picture house wearing a mask. The other patrons are all masked as well. A news reel shows graphic scenes from WWI. Palace Follies begins to play. Pearl is enraptured by the singing and dancing and the morphine she is sipping on. Pearl meets the projectionist who in turn hands her a little piece of cinema. Then it's back to the corn fields.
Both Pearl and X are definitely part of which is now a trilogy with the announcement of MaXXXine rounding out the last film of the trilogy. Both films stand on their own but there is much more to be gleaned from Pearl having seen X prior. It is compelling from a film making stand point to see two vastly different cinematic styles applied to the same set. There is a great scene with Pearl and the projectionist who shows her a film "nobody has seen yet" that leads in the late 1970s in X.
As the horror in Pearl slowly builds - a Ti West trademark - it pays as much homage to Tobe Hooper as X did with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre so too does Pearl pay homage to Hopper's second film Eaten Alive. Does this mean the third Mia Goth/Ti West film will be an ode to Lifeforce? Only time will tell. Or perhaps being the third film it will be Salem's Lot.
The horror is also the dread of family dynamics. Pearl lost in isolation and reverie. A husband at war who has not been heard from in months. An overbearing Mother who is trying to shelter her. A sick Father. Dreams that will not subside of somewhere faraway on stage in front of an adoring audience. It is a potential suitor turning cold.
Ti West has become much more a stylist in these films, which I dig a lot. He has also grown on me as filmmaker with these last two movies. A lot has been said about Mia Goth and all the positive accolades are very warranted. Mia goes from oh shucks to full on Psycho in the flip of a switch. These films are Pearl and Maxine's world of which Mia brings to grainy 16mm and Technicolor life. West and Goth have become each other's muses.
Mia Goth delivers one of the all time great soliloquies delivered on film. All the world's a stage and all the men and women in Pearl's way are merely victims.
The Good Nurse is based on a true story. Jessica Chastain plays nurse Amy Loughren. Eddie Redmayne plays Charles Cullen. Charles Cullen is a serial killer who killed patients in hospitals. The film is based of the book written by Charles Graeber. Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917) adapted the book. Tobias Lindholm who directed tiff favorite Another Round as well as The Hunt in 2012 helms The Good Nurse.
There was a lot of anticipation ahead of the premiere of Lindholm's first American feature film. The journey of this film was a long one as Lindholm was sent a version of the screenplay several years ago. He was drawn to the material because the focus was not an obsession with the serial killer but the nurse who stops him.
The film opens in a hospital room as doctors and nurses rally around a bed of a patient who is dying. The camera. They are of to the side. The focus of the opening is a slow zoom towards Charles Cullen (Redmayne) who stands expressionless as the events unfold. The patient passes away. Cullen slouched walks down a hallway under a glowing red exit sign.
The events of the film center around Parkfield Memorial Hospital in New Jersey in 2003. The hospital is run on a strict budget. The American hospital is a business. The nurses are overworked and exhausted. She works the overnight ICU shift as well as caring for her two kids. Amy is informed that she will be getting help soon as another nurse was just hired. Amy also has health problems of her own. As she sits on a bed in a doctor's office he walks in with a clipboard and informs Amy, "If you continue like this you're looking at a serious coronary incident within months." Amy is in danger of suffering a stroke. She has to continue to work the long stressful hours because she does not receive health insurance until she has been employed by the hospital for a year. The consultation she just had runs 980 dollars. The American healthcare industry is a business.
Amy sits in her car in the parking lot of a hospital as the rain pours. We see her grappling with her circumstances. She gets out of the car and pushes forward. She meets Charlie and shows him around the ward. They begin to bond over the job and their similar backgrounds. Both have two girls around the same ages. The dynamics of their burgeoning friendship is what makes The Good Nurse fascinating. Amy has a heart episode in front of Charles. He shows empathy talking her through the situation. He asks her if she has spoken to their hospital.s cardiologist. She panics and asks Charles not to mention her health condition to anyone. They both have secrets.
In a film where the two lead actors are Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne one would expect that performances are great. One would be correct. The filmmakers do a great job balancing the film, as the stories unfolding are personal dynamics, hospital drama and police procedural. The film becomes quite compelling as the tension increases with intensity. Amy becomes trapped between the system of the healthcare industry and the legal system.
A hospital should be a place of empathy, care. People should be treated with dignity. In the apparatus and gears of capitalism, patients can become products. When something is suspect the system is designed to protect the hospital from lawsuits. The American healthcare system, the insurance machine, the bureaucracy, the costs of care can be horrific. To then have a serial killer running loose in ICUs that hospital administrators and lawyers are covering up, truly horrific. The film made me think a lot about systems and how they operate. How the hospital industry dealt with, not dealt with Charlie Cullen reminded me of another giant system, the catholic church. How they move abusers around. The policing system, problematic police are fired only to be rehired somewhere else. The film speaks to the fortitude and strength of Amy Loughren a good nurse that stood up against the system and fought for justice for Cullen's many victims.
"At the beginning, there's nothing. There's no concept of a robot
explorer crawling across the surface of another world. And then,
gradually, you start to think. You start to act. We just start to build.
And those machines come to life." the principal scientist on the
Opportunity mission. Steve Squyres
Oppy is the affectionate nickname for the Mars exploration rover named Opportunity. Oppy was expected to be operational for 90 days and wound up roving the red planet for fifteen years. In Ryan White's documentary, Good Night Oppy. Ryan White has directed previous documentaries, notably, The Case Against 8
which was the behind the scenes look at overturning California's ban
against same-sex marriage and a film I helped screen at The In Light
Human Rights film festival in Bloomington, Indiana in 2014.
White and his team follow the rover and the scientists over the course of Opportunity's lifespan. From the ten years of proposals until NASA gave the green light to begin the program. To how would they get the rover to Mars. How do you get the rovers to land on Mars without damaging the robots. How do you build the machines so they can roam the arduous surface of Mars. What cameras and other equipment to you put on the rovers to collect and transmit data? The rovers began to be created at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "It's just a box of wires, right? But you end up with this cute-ish looking robot that has a face." Doug Ellison, camera operations engineer.
At one point early on we see Oppy navigating the surface of Mars and stops at it detects a hazard. It is only Oppy's shadow and NASA informs the robot rover she is safe to proceed. In 2003, twin sister robots named Opportunity and Spirit were sent to Mars.
One of the great sequences in the documentary is watching the scientist figure out the airbag landing system to get the rovers to land safely on Mars. We see people sewing this giant airbags. We watch the creation and testing of the parachutes. One of them crash to the surface during a test. That was going to be one of the parachutes that were going to go to Mars. There is genuine suspense as we follow the trials and tribulations of undertaking this mission to Mars. There are so many things that have to go right for any scientific space exploration mission and there are so many more things that can go wrong.
"And along come Opportunity. And on every test, Opportunity came through with flying colors. So, even before they left this planet, Spirit was troublesome, Opportunity was Little Miss Perfect." Doug Ellison. We see Opportunity take her first steps. "To say that it is like a child being born would be to trivialize parenthood, but it feels kind of like that." Steve Squyres.
In an age of science denial it was great to spend time with scientist asking questions about life on other planets. The grand adventure, the thrill of discovery and the act of creating robots. How can you not get emotionally caught up watching the rockets blast off to Mars with Spirit and Opportunity. "...it was hard to say goodbye. I devoted 16 years of my life to these rovers. And then you put them on top of a rocket and shoot them into space and you're never going to see them again." Steve Squyers.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? As the Sols go on and Oppy lives far past her projected lifespan. She gets arthritis and suffers memory loss. It is a hell of a thing to get so emotional invested and defeated when the two rovers pass away.
Spirit and Opportunity. It what was expected to be a 90 Sol mission. Opportunity explored Mars for 5262 Sols. What a journey. Roam where you want to.
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.
A lot can and will be written about the 2022 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival but there is no doubt that one of the biggest stars to arrive in Toronto was Harry Styles. King street was crowded more than it has been in years which was a great change of pace form the last couple of Septembers. The screams, oh yes the screams. Loud is not a word that does this collective sound justice.
Waves cross the oceans. They can be rough or calm but they are always moving. Rolling in and out. Rolling out and in. The tide can be high and the tide can be low. Waves can be metaphors or they can be literal. There is a house by the sea where waves are literally crashing into the beach. Those same waves are extremely rough today such as the regrets of a life nearing an end.
J.M.W. Turner was a British painter. Arguably Britain's most famous painter. Turner primarily painted in water colors. His landscapes were vibrant, expressions of color. His maritime paintings were also beautiful practices of color interpretation. Fiery palettes. The seascapes were also violent. Turner's watercolors depicted life as both beautiful and turbulent. Ships on fire. Ships sinking. Snowstorms, swirling vortexes, slavers throwing the dead overboard. In Calais Pier (1803) Ships are in a momentary break from a storm and are desperately trying to navigate extremely turbulent seas trying to reach the safety of shore. Waves man.
My Policeman opens with the metaphorical and literal waves of the sea. A frail old man Mr. Hazelwood (Rupert Everett) arrives at a house. The house of Older Marion (Gina McKee) and Older Tom (Linus Roache). Older Tom is not happy to have Mr. Hazelwood staying with them.
Marion begins to care for the old man. She takes a reflective smoke break. As she looks out the window she spots Older Tom walking up the road. The camera lingers and she and us are back in time with Young Marion (Emma Corrin) and Young Tom (Harry Styles). They are standing on a beach. Young Tom says, "I'm a policeman now" The titular character. Young Marion remarks to Young Tom that "Must be quite fulfilling" Young Tom looks over to Young Marion kinda smiles and looks back at the waves. We since that life as a policeman is not so fulfilling. Since they are at a beach and you guessed it waves are rolling in. Could anyone have guessed that Marion is afraid of water. She is. As Young Tom says to her, "Well, you can't go through life afraid of the water." Instead of going into the ocean though they head to a pool or as Young Tom calls it a Lido.
Young Marion and Young Tom begin spending more time together. They are in a library and Young Tom mentions he has never really looked at art before. He know believes he could get something out of it. Young Marion asks if there is any particular painter Young Tom is interested in. He asks if there is a painter named Turner. Oh Young Tom, indeed there was. He was also arguably Britain's most famous painter whose water colors were interruptions of beautiful and turbulent life. They acquire some books and Young Tom studiously pours over the pages. Swimming lessons in the lido continue. Oh glorious summer days of youth.
Young Tom takes Young Marion to the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery will they will be going on a private tour conducted by the Director of the Western Art Galleries, Young Patrick (David Dawson). Young Tom met Young Patrick at the scene of an accident where Young Patrick was a witness. An accident, a random act that occurred in the never unfolding universe. The three of them stroll through the empty museum surrounded by so many beautiful pieces of art. They stop at a painting by arguably Britain's most famous painter, J.M.W. Turner. They then look at a painting done by Blake. As Young Tom says, "Blake's trying to startle the senses as well as the spirit. There's so much passion in his work. You just have to let it take hold of you." There is a lot at work in this sequence Young Tom and Marion are on a date. This is the first time all three people are in the same space. There are stolen glances from all three people directed to one another. Unspoken words, a tension is building. Perhaps the two boys fancy Young Marion.
The three become inseparable. Attending classical recitals. Dinners. Talk of travel. Young Patrick wishes to go to Mother Russia because it is the setting of his favorite novel Anna Karenina. The story of Tolstoy's novel goes, "The story centers on an extramarital affair between Anna and dashing cavalry officer Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky that scandalizes the social circles of Saint Petersburg and forces the young lovers to flee to Italy in a search for happiness, but after they return to Russia, their lives further unravel." Young Marion hasn't read it. Young Patrick assures her she must because it is literature's most tragic love story. He goes on to insist that all love stories are tragic.
Time is the frequency of longitudinal energy waves. If a wave frequency changed today we would not know the difference. Our perception of time would still be the same. So it goes with Young Marion, Young Tom has changed however Young Marion cannot register it. They get married, they consummate the union, Marion lies and says it was lovely. Time is a miraculous concept, it matches ever forward and yet while sitting still in a house by the ocean one can go back to the days of youth. A dairy written by one you caring for in elderly state of life helps. My Policeman takes on qualities of Rashomon. The glances and the subtle touches at the art museum take on different meanings.
The crux of My Policeman, many other writers and reviewers seemed to have a personal grudge against Harry Styles and what acting chops he brought to the film, some more than likely were caught up in a the stories out of Venice days prior. Stories of in fighting on another film, a possible spitting incident at another world premiere. Harry Styles was fine. The crux is My Policeman is a film that leans into metaphor of the art the characters are gravitating towards and a simple look at the plot of Tolstoy's novel leaves none too much dramatic surprise. Of course this story is going to be tragic, because aren't all love stories.
There was a lot of anticipation for Sick, the new film by screenwriter Kevin Williamson (Scream, I Know What You Do Last Summer) playing the Midnight Madness program. Kevin has been a leading figure shaping the horror genre. The screenplay was also written by Katelyn Crabb. Horror is one of the tenets of the program with wold premieres such as Hostel, Saw and showcasing the French New Extremity wave in the early part of the century. Add to the the anticipation Sick being directed by John Hyams. John's take on the Universal Soldier franchise, especially with Day of Reckoning is absolutely fantastic. A film that drew from numerous film inspirations one of which is Gaspar Noe. I was personally was very much looking forward to Sick, a horror, action hybrid set during the early part of the pandemic.
The film opens with the following facts. April 3, 2020 273, 880 COVID-19 cases reported and rising. 42 states have issued stay at home orders. Nearly 97% of the country is quarantined. Reading this takes one right back to the dread and fear of the unknown. An airborne virus was unleashed on the world and no one really knew what was going to happen. The film opens on empty selves in a grocery store. As someone who was working in a grocery store during the pandemic reaching America these images immediately take right back to all the overwhelming emotions of the time, which as of this writing seems both a long time ago and just yesterday.
A surgical masked customer asks a clerk "Hey do you have any toilet paper in the back?" "What you see is what we got." The customer name is Tyler and he starts getting text messages from some unknown person who wants to party. A woman coughs. Everyone stares at her. Tyler gets a text message saying "Nice Ass" and a picture of him standing in the checkout line. He looks back, everyone is a suspect and anyone could be carrying the virus. The phone rings, he answers, silence. "Fuck you and your stalker bullshit." Instant Scream vibes.
Tyler gets home and wipes down his groceries with wipes. Ah, the early days of the pandemic. The news is playing, Tyler shuts off the tv and a figure clad all in black brandishing a knife appears. This first scene of brutality is exactly what I would expect from John Hyams and his team. Intense, visceral, right in your face action and brutal. Sirens sound outside. Help arriving? More likely someone with Covid being rushed to the hospital.
We then meet Parker (Gideon Adion) and Miri (Bethlehem Million) They are heading to a lake house to ride out the pandemic. We know this and who ever is following Parker on Instagram now knows this. The house is a substantial giant wood (cabin) mansion. The place is pretty sick. "I know how to 2020" Parker. Ding. Ding. They begin to receive text messages from some unknown person. Creepily specific text messages. Blocked. Problem solved.
Nothing like a good drinking game watching pandemic news and taking a shot every time Fauci is mentioned! The doorbell rings. Then banging on the door. Parker arms herself with a knife and heads outside. Mimi masks up. That is what is great in the movie how our collective fears of the global pandemic play into the fear of a serial killer. The ringer of the doorbell is an unexpected "friend" shows up at the lake house. DJ Cole (Dylan Sprayberry)
Like any good serial killer film your protagonists should get high, really high, however in our Covid times one must practice safe social distance single use joint smoking and a good Lysol spray down as you throw down dancing.
I love mise en scene in movies. I believe it is not written or talked enough in interviews with filmmakers. The mise en scene in relation to the intruder and the other characters is great. The use of the phone in the film is also so effective. What's the first thing anyone of us do upon waking these days? Reach for your phone. Oh the horror of not having it charging beside you upon waking. The suspense is highly effective. Which brings me to the classic "what the fuck are these characters doing". Once the film ratchets up the violence there is a lot of WTF with the character decisions. The filmmakers have to be fucking with us, the audience, right? Oh yeah there are.
The movie brings the scream vibes, big time. Not so much in the pop cultural referential way but in the way our protagonists and killer move throughout the movie. The film is a tight, tight sojourn through a night from hell in a pandemic lock down. All in all, it's pretty sick.
