“Clemency”– Movie Review

 

This week, I attended the opening night of the 2019 New Directors/New Films festival, screening the New York Premiere of “Clemency”, a drama, starring Alfre Woodard, Wendell Pierce and Aldis Hodge

Synopsis

When a long-time prison warden becomes overwhelmed by executions, can she prevent the next one when she suspects the inmate may be innocent?

Story

After years of overseeing her prison’s executions, they are beginning to take its toll on Warden Bernadine Williams (Woodard).  Comforting friends and family members of the inmates destined for capital punishment is draining, as is the execution process itself.  Following a prisoner’s particularly problematic death by lethal injection, Bernadine finds herself haunted by this experience; she reacts by hanging out in bars after work in order to self-medicate.   In addition, the relationship with her husband Jonathan (Pierce) is collapsing as a result. Her home life is just as troubling as her professional life.

Due up next is Anthony Woods (Hodge).  All during his trial as well as his incarceration, Woods has been adamant about the fact that he is innocent.  Given that his execution date is soon approaching, he and his lawyer Marty (Richard Schiff) have been accelerating their efforts to get him exonerated.  At the very least, Woods seeks clemency from the governor’s office in order to avoid execution. Marty decides to try the case in the court of public opinion -- he takes to the media in order to get Woods’ story some much needed publicity, hoping that enough advocates can influence the governor’s opinion.

The more Bernadine learns about Woods’ case, the more she begins to question whether the decision to execute him is correct.  Agonizing over this situation, she tries to be of as much assistance and support to the inmate as possible. Bernadine meets with Marty to discuss Woods, but she insists that her hands are tied in this matter.  Marty refuses to take this as an answer and vows to both Bernadine and his client that he will fight back as much as possible in as many ways as possible. On the day the execution is scheduled, Woods is ushered into the execution room with witnesses observing.  Can Bernadine go through with this or will she refuse to allow Woods to be executed?

Review

The main reason to see “Clemency” is its cast; there are top-notch performances here.  Having said that, however, the presence of these actors and their performance (both individually and collectively) cannot elevate a screenplay that has some obvious weaknesses here.  As a director, Chinonye Chukwu tends to linger on certain shots a little too long, almost to the point of creating an awkward moment. This script was somewhat ill-conceived. For one thing, it has an inconclusive ending that provides no clear resolution to the story.  Also, the protagonist, while a sympathetic character, is not necessarily designed in a way that lends her to be rooted for in a dramatic narrative.

This last point merits further attention.  The character of Bernardine is essentially drawn as a passive heroine; she has no arc.  In other words, we can see her conflict (albeit somewhat internal) and the audience can understand what she wants (or doesn’t want).  Yet, she effectively does nothing about either resolving her conflict or getting what she wants. We are given to understand that Bernardine is in turmoil and that it impacts her both professionally and personally -- but when her husband leaves her, it is temporary and he conveniently returns just as quickly as he moved out.  From a dramatic standpoint, this is all a bit too tidy; if he was really that disturbed by her behavior, he would not have moved out in the first place. Making this a throw-away story beat is a disservice to both the movie itself and its viewers.

Following the screening, there was an interview with writer/director Chinonye Chukwu.  She recalled her involvement began back in 2011 when she first heard about a real case of an execution being protested.  Due in part to a small budget, the film was shot in only 17 days.  When shooting the execution scenes, she retained a warden to help her block the scenes and make the process look as realistic as possible.  In fact, there were some other special considerations that had to be addressed when shooting those scenes:  A therapist was kept on set for these scenes in order to provide emotional support for the cast members and crew; some people who were cast as extras found themselves being triggered. 

“Diane”– Movie Review

This past week at The Film Society Of Lincoln Center, I attended a sneak preview of the drama “Diane”, written and directed by Kent Jones and starring Mary Kay Place in the title role.

Synopsis

Can an aging woman bond with her substance-abusing son despite a past indiscretion that has divided them for years?

Story

Diane (Place) is a giver.  She always has been and she always will be.  But she’s a human being so, by definition, she’s not perfect – and she’s well aware of this.  Nowadays, she works at a food kitchen with her friend Bobbie (Andrea Martin) where they feed the indigent.  When she’s not busy there, Diane spends her time visiting and caring for other people.  One of them is her cousin Dottie (Glynnis O'Connor), who has been hospitalized with cervical cancer.  The other is her adult son Brian (Jake Lacy), a drug addict. 

Shortly before Dottie passes away, she confesses to Diane that while she forgives her for something that happened twenty years ago, she clearly hasn’t forgotten it either.  It turns out that Diane stole Dottie’s boyfriend Jess and ran off with him, leaving Dottie to care for Brian all by herself.  It is only shortly before Dottie’s death that Diane learns she has been holding this against her all this time in spite of the fact that it has all been unspoken for a long time.  After Dottie’s death, Diane starts to lose other close friends in seemingly quick succession and she finds herself mostly alone. 

When Diane is unable to locate Brian for some period of time, he suddenly reaches out to her and informs Diane that he’s been in a rehab facility all of this time.  What she eventually learns is that through his rehab, he has become a member of a cult-like Christian church where he has met and eventually married a woman who shares his religious obsession.  While Diane is quite disturbed by this, she believes that the best thing for her at this point is to distance herself from Brian and his wife.  But when Brian subsequently visits Diane and confronts her about the incident from twenty years ago, will they finally be able to find a peace with each other? 

Review

About a year ago, “Diane” was shown at the Tribeca Film Festival here in New York City; it wound up winning awards for Best Narrative Feature, Best Screenplay, and Best Cinematography at that festival.  Based on that, and some degree of success in other festivals, it was fortunate enough to find a path to distribution.  All of that having been said, it is something of a slog to get through, despite the fact that it is only about an hour and a half in length.  This is due to two factors:  one thing is that it is totally absent of  any humor, which causes it to feel a bit painful to sit through.  The other is the fact that it lacks forward momentum that pushes the story forward. 

While many of the kudos for “Diane” go to the performances by the cast, this is largely due to it essentially being a character-based movie; it is an episodic slice-of-life style with very little in the way of a traditional narrative three-act structure.  In “Diane” it is difficult to discern the act breaks because many of the scenes feel as though they could be relocated to other points in the film without the viewer noticing very much.  Without a sense of the story propelling towards a conclusion, the viewer doesn’t get the impression the motion picture is going in any particular direction; instead, it is just meandering.       

Following the screening, there was an interview with writer/director Kent Jones, who said that “Diane” was shot in only 20 days.  Although the story takes place in western and central Massachusetts, he shot it in upstate New York because of the tax breaks the state offers.  There are quite a few shots of driving; while the obvious assumption is that it was done for transitional purposes, that’s only part of the reason for their inclusion.  The other reason, Jones stated, is that in western/central Massachusetts, people do in fact spend an inordinate amount of time in their car driving in order to get from one location to another. 

“Keep An Eye Out!”– Movie Review

This past weekend, I attended the closing day of The French Film Festival at The Film Society Of Lincoln Center, for the New York Premiere of the new comedy, “Keep An Eye Out” (aka, “Au poste!”).

Synopsis

When a suspect in a murder is interrogated by police detectives, can he convince them of his innocence?

Story

Fugain (Grégoire Ludig) stumbled upon a dead body outside his apartment building.  Being the good citizen that he is, Fugain immediately reports his findings to the local police department.  When brought in for questioning, he is surprisingly viewed as a possible suspect. The case is assigned to Inspector Buron (Benoît Poelvoorde), who is particularly fastidious when it comes to his sui generis interviewing technique (to put it mildly).  But after taking an unusually long period of time to conduct the interview – and to ask seemingly irrelevant questions – the Inspector decides to take a break. It is at this point he assigns Philippe (Marc Fraize) to make sure Fugain doesn’t try to escape while he’s away.

Philippe is an interesting choice to stand guard.  This is mainly because he only has one eye. Suspicious of Fugain – who’s becoming increasingly hungry since it is now well-past his usual dinner time – Philippe sets forth the idea that he may be a dangerous character who might try to kill Philippe in order to escape.  When Fugain voices his skepticism – especially because he has no access to weapons – Philippe demonstrates that Fugain might grab the triangular ruler on the Inspector’s desk to attempt to slit the officer’s throat with one of its sharp edges. Proud of being on the force, Philippe offers to show Fugain his badge; having trouble locating it, he begins scavenging about the office – but when Philippe trips, he accidentally impales himself in his remaining good eye with the ruler.  Philippe is now not just completely blind, he’s also completely dead.

Understandably, Fugain begins to panic.  When Inspector Buron returns, will he assume that Fugain murdered Philippe?  If so, will this lead the Inspector to believe that Fugain may have committed the murder that he is already investigating?  With all of this running through his mind, Fugain then proceeds to hide Philippe’s body and clean up the mess before Buron gets back.  Upon the Inspector’s reappearance, he resumes this tortuous, excruciating interrogation of Fugain, who is now considerably more nervous than before Inspector Buron left.  Once Buron notices Philippe is missing, will this cause Fugain to be charged with dual murders?

Review

The surreal, absurdist dark humor of “Keep An Eye Out” is what makes this film stand out, but the heavily stylized manner in which the story is presented causes watching the movie to be something of a chore, despite its short length (it clocks in at less than an hour and a half).  There is a scene at the start of the motion picture that is used as a device for the opening titles; while this may plant the thought in the mind of the viewer that the subsequent story will spring from this, it actually turns out to be something of a non-sequitur (ore perhaps more accurately, a comedic MacGuffin), as it is never referenced again and is otherwise irrelevant.

For those sensitive to graphic violence, it should be noted that this movie is rather sanguinary, albeit in a way that attempts to be comedic.  The scene where Phillippe accidentally stabs himself, while funny, can be a little brutal when you’re shown the result. That and a shot of a man lying on the ground in a pool of blood outside of Fugain’s apartment complex are pretty much the only bloody scenes, so if you’re able to handle that, then you should be able to watch the movie without too much trouble (except, of course, when it comes to trying to make sense of all the mayhem, but that’s another matter altogether).

As mentioned, there’s a surreal and absurdist nature to the film – you either go with it or you don’t (and if you don’t, you may be completely lost).  For one thing, why would a police department hire someone missing an eye? Also, what is a police department doing with a triangular ruler (also known as a set square), which is typically used almost exclusively by architects?  Why is Fugain having these hallucinations in his flashbacks? What is a human eye doing on the floor of the detective’s office? The answer, presumably, could be, “Because absurdism”. And for some, that may be a sufficient justification. If interested, a good piece on the nature of absurdism may be found here.    

“When Margaux Meets Margaux”– Movie Review

This past weekend, I attended another screening at The French Film Festival of The Film Society Of Lincoln Center, attending the New York Premiere of the comedy, “When Margaux Meets Margaux” (aka, “La belle et la belle”). 

Synopsis

When a young woman meets an older version of herself, will either of them benefit from this improbable encounter?

Story

Margaux (Agathe Bonitzer) is a young woman who is doing her best to enjoy life in her twenties -- she has a steady rotation of young men with whom she sleeps and always looks forward to meet other men to share such pleasures.  On the other hand, there’s also Margaux (Sandrine Kiberlain), a career woman in her forties, who never married or had children. When the mature Margaux has to leave town for a funeral, she takes the opportunity during her visit to attend a party held by a friend’s relative -- the only problem for her is that the overwhelming majority of the other guests are significantly younger.

While at the party, she happens to run into the younger Margaux; when they begin to chat, they learn that they have an incredible amount of things in common above and beyond merely their first name.  In fact, when each find out exactly how much they know about the other, it becomes downright spooky. Quite by coincidence, they wind up on a train going back to the same town. They take advantage of this by spending an inordinate amount of time together to sort everything out; once they exchange information they determine that they must be caught in some kind of rip in the space-time continuum. 

As they spend time socializing, the younger Margaux is introduced to the older Margaux’s long-time friend Mark (Melvil Poupaud) -- a former lover of hers.  Future Margaux tries to impress upon present Margaux that he is the one that got away; she made the mistake of not valuing their relationship, which is why she finds herself alone to this day.  The three go on a ski trip together where mature Margaux tries to impart a good bit of wisdom and advice to her younger version -- whether she’s receptive to it or not. During the trip, the younger woman incurs a severe head trauma as the result of a fall, resulting in amnesia.  Will this cause the “spell” to be broken when the young woman no longer remembers who Margaux is?

Review

“When Margaux Meets Margaux” is one of the truly remarkable women’s films because it touches on multiple themes within the same story:  motherhood, sisterhood, friendship, romance and of course personal life choices which you may or may not foresee yourself making in the future or past choices which you come to regret later on in life.  So many themes are not easy to balance all at once, but the filmmaker somehow manages to pull it off quite nimbly. The movie is for, about and by women; as such, it views the world through a feminine prism (young Margaux is played by Agathe Bonitzer, who is writer/director Sophie Fillières’ daughter in real life). 

As far as the performances are concerned, Bonitzer comes off as perpetually sad or angry or frustrated (which apparently is not distinctly different from her real-life persona, as evinced in the post-screening interview).  By far, however, Sandrine Kiberlain as the older Margaux stands out; the portrayal of her Margaux emanates humanity and wisdom that only comes from surviving life experiences. What is curious about watching these two women interact is that although Kiberlain is “future Margaux” and Bonitzer is “present Margaux”, they sometimes relate as big sister-little sister and at other times you feel more of a mother-daughter type of relationship. 

Following the screening, there was an interview with writer/director Sophie Fillières and the movie’s star, Fillières’ daughter Agathe Bonitzer.  Fillières said that when she began writing the screenplay, she started out with a very simple idea:  What if two women had the same name?  The longer she thought about the idea, the more she was convinced that the concept needed to be expanded:  these two women must be the same person but with a substantial age difference.  She didn’t want the story to veer off into science fiction, which is why she didn’t cast the same actress in dual roles.   

“The Trouble With You”– Movie Review

This past week, I attended the opening night of The French Film Festival at The Film Society of Lincoln Center for the New York Premiere of the comedy-drama, “The Trouble With You” (aka, “En liberté!”).

Synopsis

When the widow of a legendary police detective learns the truth about her late husband, can she correct his wrongs and get on with the rest of her life?

Story

The past few years have been difficult for Yvonne (Adèle Haenel).  A young widow, she is living under the memory of her late husband Jean (Vincent Elbaz), a captain at the local police precinct in Francemwhere she also works as a lieutenant.  Jean was hailed as a great hero and after his death while serving his community, a statue is erected in his honor.  Every night, Yvonne tells their son bedtime stories about his father’s heroics so that he will grow up to have fond memories of him.  Sadly, all of this comes to an end when Yvonne learns that Jean was a crooked cop who profited from helping to plan a jewelry store robbery which sent Antoine (Pio Marmaï), one of the jewelers, to prison.

Learning that Antoine is soon to be released, Yvonne pledges to help him integrate himself back into society and rehabilitate.  This will be tricky, however, because she doesn’t want him to know that her husband was the man who wrongly had him incarcerated.  Initially, Antoine returns to his old girlfriend, Agnes (Audrey Tautou), with the expectation that they can both pick up from where they left off.  However, it turns out that imprisonment changed Antoine – and not necessarily for the better.  With this being the case, he realizes that he and Agnes no longer have anything in common and he must now leave her. 

Soon, Yvonne discerns that one of her coworkers, Louis (Damien Bonnard), as a crush on her.  This complicates matters considerably – not only because they work together closely, but also because she has developed an attraction to Antoine after she “saved” him from what she perceived as his attempted suicide.  Alternating between Antoine and Louis, Yvonne has difficulty sorting out her feelings.  When she finds out that Antoine is now planning his own jewelry heist, Yvonne now realizes that it is her duty as a police officer to prevent this crime.  But will she be able to stop Antoine from robbing the jewelry store and in so doing, turn the corner and get over her thoughts of Jean?

Review

The trouble with “The Trouble With You” is its outlandish premise.  As we know well, the French are different from the rest of us. That can be great.  Vive la France! Problems arise, however, when we find that their perspectives clash with our own and it becomes difficult to stay with a given story or cast of characters.   Such is the case with this movie. French films embrace romance and sex (note that the two have been separated), which can be titillating. But sometimes, as in the case with “The Trouble With You”, it can take matters too far and render the tale a bit on the ridiculous side. 

There is no doubt that this movie contains funny moments.  But Yvonne, our heroine, can present a bit of a challenge to root for at times -- largely due to the fact that she is so flighty.  She cannot make up her mind as to whether she wants Louis, Antoine or no one at all since she has been so turned off to Jean. Which one is she in love with?  It doesn’t appear Yvonne even knows, that’s how mixed up she is at this point in her life. At times, the film is charming and amusing, but it can also be a bit grating, too -- this is especially true when trying to resolve the story and things take a turn for the madcap and slapstick. 

Whether you like “The Trouble With You”, hate it or simply leaves you feeling nonplussed, what just about everyone could agree on is that it’s strange.  At this screening, the movie was introduced by director Pierre Salvadori and one of its stars, Pio Marmaï (Antoine). During the introduction, Salvadori shared his experience from the previous screening.  While waiting in line in the men’s room, he overheard two guys talking about his motion picture. “So, what did you think?’, the first one asked; the second responded, “It’s unusual”. The director decided to take that as a favorable review.