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Friday, May 12, 2017

Notes from Tribeca 2017, Part 2

This is the second Notes on Film installment highlighting some of the movies featured at the 2017 Tribeca film Festival. In the first installment, I provided summary reviews of three pictures: The Lovers, Take Me, and The Wedding Plan.  In Part 2, I will look at two more, both of which should be available in theaters within the next few weeks.

Let’s start with Paris Can Wait (2016), the first feature-length narrative film written and directed by Eleanor Coppola. I actually saw a screening of Paris Can Wait a few weeks before the Tribeca Festival, but it was shown there at least five times, and has been featured at several other recent film festivals over the last several months as well. Family connections probably do not hurt in this regard. Ms. Coppola, of course, has been married to Francis Ford Coppola for over fifty years now, and the whole family seems to be in the movie biz (her children Sofia and Roman Coppola, granddaughter Gia Coppola, nephews Nicolas Cage and Jason Schwartzman, sister in law Talia Shire, etc.), so it is not surprising that she has a bit of a leg up. Still, at age 80, she is probably the oldest first-time narrative feature film director on record. Family connections aside, however, her movie will be judged on its own merits. So here goes:

If you like France and French culture (or better still, the idea of France and/or French culture) Paris Can Wait is your cup of tea (or glass of Chablis). If you enjoy French cuisine, fine wine, historic country inns, flirting, or just watching beautiful Diane Lane looking exquisite over ninety minutes, this may be the movie for you. I appreciate all of these pleasures, so it worked for me. On the other hand, if an intricate plot or intellectually provocative premise Is what you're looking for, you might be disappointed.

As the movie opens, Anne (Lane) and her husband Michael (Alec Baldwin), an internationally successful movie producer, are preparing to fly to Paris via private jet for a promised, long-delayed vacation. Michael, always on his mobile phone, looks up for a moment to announce that there’s some trouble with his Budapest project, so they will have to go there for a few days first. Anne demurs, saying that she’s got an earache, and would just as soon take the train to Paris, where Michael can meet her when he’s done putting out the fire.  At this point, Michael’s French associate, Jacques (of course) offers to drive her to Paris, as he’s heading there anyway, and just like that, a road trip movie is born. It’s only a seven-hour drive, Jacques assures everyone.

And perhaps it would be if Jacques (Arnaud Viard) weren’t Jacques, the archetype of French joie de vivre: a charmingly flirtatious gourmand and wine connoisseur, for whom it’s the journey not the destination (or any arbitrary schedule) that counts. So as Anne and Jacques head off in his rustic and rusty, sputtering (but cute) Peugeot convertible, we get a sense of what lies ahead. When Jacques insists that they just must stop at a magnifique eatery he knows for a mid-day repast, we realize that Paris Can Wait is a description as well as a title. This picture is all about the journey. And it’s a lovely picture indeed: a cozy room in a comfortable, yet toney restaurant, impeccable service, le cuisine délicieuse, steady pours of great wine; all of this enhanced, perhaps, by Jacques’ running exposition about the French (i.e. his) philosophy of life, and inevitably about the mysterious relations between men and women. Anne observes and accepts all this with a blend of interest, enjoyment and a little trepidation. When Jacques apologetically notes that he left his money at home and requests that Anne pay the tab with her credit card (promising reimbursement later), the trepidation factor increases. After several more stops (for flowers, for cheese), Anne resigns herself to the inevitable, they’ll not make it to Paris this day.

There are further small adventures along the way, along with some touching and mildly revelatory moments, all of which are better discovered en route than described here. The two leads work well together, and Alec Baldwin is fine in a small but critical role as the career obsessed husband, whose inattentiveness provides some justification (of any is needed) for Anne’s temptation. The photography – of food, countryside, interiors – is quite luscious.

All in all, Paris Can Wait is more of a travelogue than a drama or even a romance. I think Coppola wanted to emphasize how Anne found herself stepping out from the shadow cast by her husband's dominating career and personality; and while there's a hint of this, the film is lighter than that - a simple movie really, beautiful and likeable in a luxurious, upper class sort of way; gently reminding us to enjoy the small pleasures of life.

[Incidentally, the story is based, says Eleanor, on a real life experience she had a few years ago]

92 minutes.
B+

Paris Can Wait opens in New York and L.A. on May 12, 2017 and will come to the rest of the U.S. via rolling, sequential release beginning May 19 and continuing over the following several weeks. 


The Exception (2016) is the first feature film by the well-regarded British theater director David Leveaux. It is set in 1940, during the first year of the Second World War, at the Netherlands estate of aging former German Kaiser Wilhelm II (Christopher Plummer) who has been living in exile there for over twenty years, fuming about the injustice of it all. (Yes, he was still alive then – I checked!). The Nazis have concerns for and about the ex-Kaiser – partially out of a retained reverence or nostalgia for him as a symbol of the German state, but more pragmatically out of a concern that he might turn against them and ally himself with the British or with monarchist elements in Deutschland.  So they send a young army captain, Stefan Brandt – played by hunky Jai Courtney [Divergent (2014), Insurgent (2015)] – to keep tabs on Wilhelm for his “protection”.  Brandt promptly gets involved with a pretty Dutch servant on the Kaiser’s staff, Mieke de Jong – Lily James [Lady Rose on Downton Abbey]. Meanwhile, the SS has learned that the allies have a spy in the vicinity, which heightens their concerns for and about the ex-Kaiser, as well as our concerns for Stephan and Mieke, for reasons I shall not explain.  As the film’s website states, “Secrets are revealed, allegiances are tested”.  

All of this raises the question: do we really need yet another WWII Nazi thriller? Clearly we don’t; yet this one is interesting, with a clever (if distorted) twist: it not only pits good (the Allies, Jews) versus evil (the SS and Nazis generally), but also contrasts the moral standards of the old aristocracy against the amorality of Hitler and his mob. So Wilhelm is portrayed (brilliantly in Plummer’s able hands) as a genteel, civilized relatively good guy, while the Nazis, epitomized by the SS chief Heinrich Himmler (a cool Eddie Marsan) who conveniently pays a visit in the third act, are coarse unfeeling brutes.

The characterization of Wilhelm as a good guy in this way is more than a little misleading (if the Wikipedia piece on him is at all accurate). In fact, he applauded the German conquest of Western Europe as a vindication of sorts accomplished by “his” armies and, as a strident anti-Semite, he cheered the German elimination of the Jews from Europe. But hey, we’re at the point where liberties can be taken with history in the interest of a good story, right? Remember Inglorious Bastards?

Anyway, The Exception has a pretty good, if predictable, love story which benefits from the talents of Ms James and Mr. Courtney, both of whom are good looking and quite willing to shed their clothing in the spirit of artistic expression and the public’s prurient interest. The veteran Janet McTeer provides a nice supporting performance, as the devoted wife of Wilhelm, trying desperately to engineer her husband’s return as the German monarch. But Plummer is the main attraction.

Facts aside, the movie is competently made, flows along in a straightforward way, holds one’s interest, and for fans of this sort of thing or fans of Christopher Plummer, it is worth seeing.  

107 minutes.
B+

The Exception is scheduled for theatrical release nationwide on June 2, 2017.










Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Notes from Tribeca 2017, Part 1


Going to a film festival not only affords the cinephile an opportunity to immerse him/herself in new movies often by unknown, first-time filmmakers, as well as the chance to see great foreign films otherwise unavailable. And sometimes, we get to see a screening of a film everyone will (or should) be talking about when it’s released commercially a few weeks or months later. For the last few years I’ve been attending New York’s Tribeca Film Festival for all these reasons.

This year I saw fifteen movies during my week in the Big Apple. Most (not all) were quite good. Some will soon be released, while others (including a couple of the best) are still looking for a distributor and their fate is not known. I want to share my notes about some of these pictures, so you can keep an eye out for them. We’ll do upcoming releases first.

The Lovers (2017), writer/director Azaziel Jacobs’ breakout movie, had its premiere at Tribeca. It’s one of those genre hybrids: a domestic drama/romantic comedy,  starring Debra Winger (Terms of Endearment) and Tracy Letts (August: Osage County) in a story about a middle aged couple, Mary and Michael, whose marriage is coming apart, not so much from conflict as from boredom.  Each has, unbeknownst to the other, taken a lover, each is under pressure from her/his paramour to spill the beans and leave the marriage, and each has reluctantly agreed to make the announcement when their son Joel comes home from college for a weekend visit with his new girlfriend in a couple weeks.  Then, as the fateful weekend approaches, Mary and Michael rediscover - with joy and dismay - a passion for one another. Needless to say, this complicates matters.

Winger and Letts are terrific as the increasingly confused pair. Aiden Gillen and Melora Walters are convincing as the earnest but frustrated new lovers, and Tyler Ross is believable as the annoyingly judgmental Joel, seething with contempt for his stupid parents and their loveless marriage, only to become confused himself when he catches them in the act of being affectionate.

The screenplay, the acting and the pacing are spot on, and The Lovers is, by turns, touching and amusing. The ending is by no means a foregone conclusion.  It is slated for commercial release on Friday May 5.  I don’t know if this will be a slow rollout or everywhere at once.  Keep an eye out; I recommend it.

94 minutes
A-


Take Me (2017) is a comedy directed by the actor Pat Healy, who also stars in the picture along with Taylor Schilling (Orange Is the New Black). It’s about a middle-aged guy named Ray, who’s kind of a cross between a used car salesman, a thug and a likeable nebbish. Ray dreams big though, and he’s got a promising business idea: Kidnapping Solutions LLP.  For a fee, clients hire Ray to abduct them – some with a notion of self-improvement. For example, if you’re an overeater addicted to junk food, Ray can throw you in his van, tie you up, and force feed you whoppers or whatever, until the sight of them makes you ill. Or maybe you just want a thrill? You might enjoy getting kidnapped, spirited off somewhere, handcuffed, gagged and bullied around for an afternoon like a real kidnap victim. Weird to be sure, but why not? That's modern capitalism: something for everyone. In fact, I've read that “simulated abductions”  are a commercially available actual thing! In any event, the concept makes a great premise for comedy.

Ray’s been doing this for a while and thinks he’s rather good at it. But then Anna St. Clair, a, high rolling, good-looking account executive (Schilling) calls him to request something more extended, more elaborate than Ray’s typical run-of-the-mill abduction scenario.  She offers a lot of dough, so Ray goes for it, even though she requires him to violate his usual practices - like the “no slapping” rule.

As Ray, Healy does a great job acting like he knows what he’s doing – although it’s apparent to almost everyone else it’s just an act. When he comes up against the formidable Anna, however, even Ray realizes that he’s in way over his head. Schilling does a fine job balancing on the comic edge of a tough role – sometimes the terrorized victim, other times a manipulative alpha bitch.  

There’s suspense, there’s mystery, but mostly it’s played for laughs. It gets some, too. Although the picture falls short of being great - the twists and turns are a tad too predictable, and the script plays it overly safe and would have benefited from more audacity – it is entertaining throughout. Take Me was financed by Netflix and is due out Friday May 5 in limited theatrical release and streaming on multiple platforms.

83 minutes
B+
  

The Wedding Plan (2016) is a charming and touching Israeli romantic comedy by director Rama Burshtein, whose first film was the beautiful, extraordinarily intimate domestic drama Fill The Void (2012) - which, if you haven’t seen it, should immediately go on your ‘must see’ list.  The Wedding Plan (known elsewhere as Through the Wall) is lighter, a bit more mainstream but also excellent.  It was nominated for nine Israeli Film Academy awards last year (including Best Picture) and won four, including Best Actress and Best Screenplay.

Essentially this is like a ‘marriage plot’ novel in that it concerns a young woman’s need and desire to be wed. The need is social and societal, the desire is personal. I called it a romantic comedy, and it is indeed funny in its own quirky way; but the term ‘romantic’ doesn’t fit quite right and may be misleading. While the story deals with dating, the search for love, and the decision to marry, it’s less about falling in love than about what marriage means to people, most particularly, of course, to our protagonist, the unmarried, thirty-two-year-old Michal, magnificently played by the Israeli actress Noa Koler (aka Noa Kooler).

Michal is an earnest, endearing, warmhearted person, an orthodox Jew in Jerusalem. In her community, being unmarried into your thirties is not only unusual, but it’s quite a social handicap.  With the assistance of a matchmaker, Michal has become engaged to marry Gidi and is happily completing plans for the celebration when he informs her, just four weeks before the big day,  that he does not love her.  So Gidi is out. But Michal decides that, as all the arrangements have been made – the hall, the caterer, the guest list – the wedding date will be preserved; she just needs one more thing: a groom. Being a religious woman of deep faith she believes God will come through for her and supply the right guy. She also admits that after more than ten years of trying, she simply cannot start over from scratch.

Everyone – her family, her friends, the matchmakers – thinks Michal’s idea is crazy; but they’re all pulling for her. And as the movie progresses so are we.

Along with Michal, we meet a progression of potential marriage partners – some comically ludicrous (like the Hasidic guy who would not look at her), others more interesting or hopeful, including the popstar Yos (like an Israeli version of Sting). Some of the meetings are arranged, some are by happenstance. As days and weeks pass, the atmosphere grows increasingly fraught, yet Michal maintains her integrity, if not her composure. She’s not looking for just anyone, it has to be Mr. Right – someone as serious as she is, who shares her religious faith, who will respect her and love her,  and be devoted to family and to having and raising children together. It’s not just a husband she’s seeking, but happiness and fulfillment.

This is a movie not about religion, but about faith. And hope. Still, if it were not for the nuanced, sympathetic, brilliantly charming performance of Noa Koler as Michal, and the picture’s sensitive, deeper than comic script (also by Burshstein), The Wedding Plan might have been a pretty lame movie. But Koler is just fantastic. She’s no fashion plate or supermodel - she is more relatable than that, very appealing, very watchable, very affecting, very human – and accordingly, Michal seems very real.  As she – and we – approach the big day, the question remains – will God provide? Will Michal find the man she deserves?  Well, in this respect it IS a RomCom!

The Wedding Plan (not to be confused with the several Wedding Planner movies) opens in NYC on May 12 and other select cities starting May 19.

110 minutes
A-