"Pieces Of A Woman" -- Movie Review

 

This week at The Museum of Modern Art’s Virtual Cinema, I streamed the drama, “Pieces Of A Woman”, starring Vanessa Kirby, Shia LaBeouf and Ellen Burstyn. 

Synopsis

When a couple experience a family tragedy, will they be able to hold together their relationship?

Story

In the late summer, Martha (Vanessa Kirby) and Sean (Shia LaBeouf) are a Boston couple anxiously awaiting an addition to their family:  Martha is expecting a daughter any day now.  They have decided to forego the hospital and instead have a home delivery.  When Martha’s water breaks and contractions begin, they call their midwife, Eva (Molly Parker), to come to their home immediately.  Upon her arrival, Eva sees that Martha is having trouble, but the baby initially seems to be doing well.  Further into the process, all of that changes – once Martha gives birth, the baby’s heartbeat is weakened and an ambulance is summoned. 

Tragically, the baby does not survive.  This initiates an increasing series of problems for the couple.  For one thing, Martha’s relationship with those closest to her begin to deteriorate; this includes Sean, her sister and her mother Elizabeth (Ellen Burstyn).  Both Martha and Sean are devastated by their loss and frustrated that the doctors cannot give either of them a simple answer as to the exact cause of death for their baby.  This anxiety results in a mutual loss of romantic interest with each other and extramarital relationships ensue. 

Elizabeth, who has plenty of money she isn’t afraid to spend, tries to use that leverage to manipulate her daughter.  After buying Martha a car during her pregnancy, she offers to pay for the baby’s funeral.  Later, Elizabeth uses her financial influence over the couple to get what she wants.  For one thing, she insists Martha take Eva to court in order to get justice.  Also, never a big fan of Sean, Elizabeth offers him a significant amount of money to leave her daughter forever so that she can get on with her life.  Once in court, Martha is called as a witness.  Upon cross-examination, Eva’s lawyer attempts to make Martha the villain in this case.  Will Martha have what it takes to see Eva get punished?   

Review

It seems that “Pieces Of A Woman” is actually pieces of a movie – in fact, pieces of several movies, to be precise.  “Pieces Of A Woman” is at times confusing – and the film itself seems deeply confused.  At times, it appears to be a family drama – which much of the time, is the case.  Occasionally, it seems as though it’s about how a couple overcomes tragedy (or not).  Other times, it hints at being more of a courtroom drama (which to some extent, it is – at least at the end).  It might best be characterized as a film in search of a genre.  Good luck with that.  Despite some solid performances – especially Ellen Burstyn and Vanessa Kirby – the motion picture cannot be elevated above what seems to be a schizophrenic melodrama. 

The filmmakers rely a bit too much on having the audience figure out either what is currently happening in their story or what has happened previously, leaving the viewer a bit confused.  A number of people will tell you that this is done because the filmmakers are treating the audience as intelligent people who don’t need to be told every detail.  An argument to the contrary could be made, however – it is just lazy storytelling.  They didn’t want to write or shoot the scenes that would fill in the gaps.  Either that or they did write and shoot those scenes, but didn’t like the way they turned out so they got excised from the film.    

Any one of the themes that “Pieces Of A Woman” touches on would have made a good movie.  If only the filmmakers had concentrated on only one of those things, the result would be a more focused story and a more rewarding experience for the viewer.  Instead, the filmmakers were overly ambitious and the end result is that their reach exceeded their grasp.  Also, a note about the character of Elizabeth:  As the controlling mother, an attempt is made to make Burstyn’s character the antagonist whom the protagonist must try to defeat by the film’s end.  However, it turns out she becomes nothing but a doting mother who simply wants the best for her daughter. 

"Devil Between The Legs" -- Movie Review

 

This week at The Museum Of Modern Art’s Virtual Cinema, I streamed the Mexican drama, “Devil Between The Legs”. 

Synopsis

When a long-time married couple begin cheating on each other, will their marriage survive?

Story

Is it possible to be married too long?  If so, maybe Beatriz and her husband have been married too long.  Their relationship is the textbook definition of dysfunctional.  Decades ago, she was open and honest with him about her past – her romances were both capacious and capricious.  He has never forgotten this.  And now, in their later years, he is holding this against her.  They no longer sleep in the same bed.  In fact, they no longer sleep in the same room.  Both sleep alone.  He daily reproaches her about her past indiscretions and constantly accuses her of cheating on him – details of which she documents in a diary. 

Thankfully, Dinorah is there.  Dinorah is their maid – a young woman who cares for both of them since their adult children have moved away and no longer see them.  Although Dinorah must suffer shabby treatment from Beatriz, she remains loyal to this couple – especially The Old Man.  An observer of their behavior, she makes every attempt to refuse to be dragged into their drama so she can simply do her job.  But there are things she has observed – most notably, the fact that Beatriz periodically sneaks away claiming to go to the gym.  In truth, she is attending tango lessons; she wears high heels and a fancy dress to dance flirtatiously with a married man. 

The Old Man also has his own follies.  In the afternoon, he skulks off into town to meet with a woman who runs a beauty parlor; despite the fact that she is also married, the two have been enjoying their trysts with her cuckolded husband’s knowledge.  Quite by accident, Dinorah learns of this, but doesn’t readily reveal it to Beatriz, who has suddenly been thrown out of her tango class due to complaints from her dance partner.  With no outlet left in her life, Beatriz threatens to leave The Old Man.  Can Dinorah somehow solve this problem or will the couple finally divorce?      

Review

“Devil Between The Legs” is an extraordinarily odd and compelling movie about the debilitating effects of both aging and marriage.  What does it mean to still have an exuberant libido in your advanced years?  Is it a blessing?  A curse?  Or maybe a little bit of both?  Whichever it may be, it seems as though this couple’s foreplay takes the form of emotionally torturing each other.  By this time, it seems as though the two take delight in making their mate miserable – but at this point, they realize they are stuck with each other.  With no better options, they are forced to remain together.      

Like seeing any kind of unusual video clip on social media, you can’t summon the discipline to look away once you start watching “Devil Between The Legs”.   Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is somewhat up for debate.  The movie starts out seeming to be just an observational drama – a slice of life, or perhaps more accurately, slice of a couple of really bizarre lives.  But after a while, you come to realize that the film truly does have a three-act structure – maybe the only thing about it that could be considered the least bit conventional – with a twist ending that’s a doozy.     

As far as technical aspects are concerned, the entire film is shot in black and white.  One might speculate that the reason for this is that like the couple in the movie, black and white is “old school”.  Regardless of what the reason is, this makes it difficult to read the subtitles which, of course, are in white.  Another challenge to reading the subtitles is that many of them flash by so quickly, they’re off the screen before you can finish reading them.  Being a speed-reader may not necessarily be a prerequisite for watching this motion picture, but it definitely wouldn’t hurt.     

 

"Feels Good Man" -- Movie Review

 

This week at The MoMA Film Virtual Cinema, I streamed the documentary, “Feels Good Man”. 

Synopsis

How did a lovable cartoon frog become a symbol of white supremacists and the alt-right?

Story

Matt Furie is a San Francisco based cartoonist.  Back in the day when My Space was a thing, he would make drawings of a frog he named Pepe, scan them, then post the drawings on his My Space page.  The character of Pepe was that of a laid-back, fun-loving frog – but he was a bit of a slacker.  Not ambitious by any stretch of the imagination, he is basically a construct of its creator’s own id; Pepe is proudly an under-achiever who appears to have essentially dropped out of society in pursuit of his own simplistic pleasurable experiences.  But he was social, not a sociopath. 

Pepe’s catchphrase was “Feels good man”.  Soon, this caught on – not only in other ranges of My Space, but also throughout the internet as a whole.  One of those areas was 4chan, a message board where Pepe was quite popular and “Feels good man” thrived; this was a place where the concept of the Meme was born and Pepe with his “Feels good man” attitude was turned into a Meme.  What could not have been predicted, however, is that darker corners of 4chan would hijack Pepe and transform what some saw as a smug countenance as a way of conveying racial superiority – and eventually, as a means by which to elect Donald Trump president in 2016. 

Once Pepe was picked up by the Trump movement, Furie found himself engaged in an intellectual property lawsuit with of all people Alex Jones of InfoWars.  Jones chose to integrate Furie’s Pepe character into his own show as a way of displaying support for Trump.  Furie objected to this not only because he opposed the views set forth by both Jones and Trump, but also because he owned the character of Pepe was the image was being used without his consent and without financially remunerating Furie.  Could Furie’s lawyers force Jones to stop using Pepe and pay Furie damages?

Review

The story about how Pepe The Frog went from an innocent character for children to a horrifyingly transgressive symbol of bigotry is truly complicated and multilayered.  However, “Feels Good Man” does an excellent job of explaining this complicated tale.  Despite the fact that it is a documentary, the film manages to have a three-act structure with a deeply satisfying – not to mention quite surprising – ending.  As the cartoonist who created Pepe, Matt Furie comes across not only as the victimized hero but also as the simplistic idealist who allowed a system to take advantage of him and his creation.

From a technical perspective, one of the wisest decisions in “Feels Good Man” was to animate many of the still cartoon images of Pepe.  This adds a deeper layer of understanding to the story but also makes the documentary more filmic.  Had the filmmakers not chosen to do that, then the movie is simply talking heads and views of static drawings, which can prove to be boring even in a short film.  The use of the animation is judicious because it engenders a variety of emotional responses at different points in the story and truly winds up bringing the character of Pepe to life.     

Following the screening, there was a stream of an interview with the filmmakers, director Arthur Jones and producer Giorgio Angelini.  They discussed the use of animation in their movie; Angelini said that they hired animators in order to provide a new context and a new canon for the character of Pepe.  Jones added that they wanted to bring the character to life because fans of Pepe tend to have an emotional response to Pepe and he saw an opportunity to do this in film.  In a documentary, Angelini says that while it needs to contain information, it also needs to entertain simply by virtue of the medium being used.   

"The Father" -- Movie Review

 

This week at MoMA Film’s Virtual Cinema, I streamed the drama “The Father” , starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman. 

Synopsis

When an elderly man suffering from dementia refuses the assistance of a nurse’s care while at home, will his besieged daughter have to consider institutionalizing him?

Story

Anthony (Hopkins) is a retired engineer who has not been able to hold it together as he’s aged.  Showing his senility at every turn, he forgets where he lives, believes his younger daughter Lucy is still alive (she died years ago in an accident) and can never find his wristwatch.  Other than that, it’s all good – except for the fact that he’s been a drain on his daughter Anne (Colman), on whom he relies for care.  She’s tried any number of times to get home attendants to watch after him, but they’ve quit because he’s too difficult to deal with.  This is having an impact on Anne’s personal life – she wants to leave London and move to Paris so she can live with her boyfriend … but she must make sure her father is well taken care of first.

Finally, Anne thinks she may have found the perfect fit:  Laura (Imogen Poots) is a home aid who seems to have the right temperament to deal with Anthony.  Upon first meeting her, Anthony becomes irresistibly charming and Laura agrees to take the job.  Not long into her assignment, she finds that it's not as easy as it initially appeared; Anthony is regularly irritable and angry at her for a variety of reasons.  Laura finds that Anthony tests her patience at every turn – and when he becomes abusive, it’s just too much to bear. 

Anne now finds herself at a turning point:  can she trust her father to hold on to this home aid or will he wind up driving her away, too?  When she takes Anthony to a doctor for an evaluation, it seems that his condition is only worsening.  He’s increasingly disoriented and having trouble clinging to reality, having delusions and imagining everyone is out to get him.  Once it is recommended that Anthony be put in a nursing home, Anne is forced to make a decision:  should she sacrifice her personal life for her father or take off to Paris and leave him to be taken care of by strangers?

Review

A major conceit of “The Father” is that many of the scenes are designed to confuse the viewer.  This is done intentionally so as to bring you into Anthony’s world in order for you to experience the sense of ongoing disorientation he’s constantly having.  Whether you find this technique to be courageously artistic or just plain annoying may depend on how much you want to see a work of art or to simply be told an interesting story.  If you fall into the latter category, then you will likely wind up being infuriatingly frustrated. 

There is no doubt that Hopkins gives an incredible performance here, elevating most of the rest of “The Father”; ultimately, if anything will cause you to hold on to the movie, it is this.  Olivia Colman’s performance is sympathetic to the extreme, given how much patience she needs in order to tolerate her father’s frequently cruel and curmudgeonly outbursts.  Having said all of that, it’s a bit wearisome to sit through when you feel that the filmmaker is merely trying to gaslight the audience for an hour and a half.  If the constant attempts at manipulation don’t grind your gears, then you may actually appreciate this film.        

Following the screening, there was a stream of an interview with screenwriter/director Florian Zeller, who also wrote the stage play on which this movie is based.  Although, this is Zeller’s feature film debut as a director, he has been writing for a long time.  When he was 20 years old, he had a novel published; it was a success and critics declared him a wunderkind.  While in his 20’s, he discovered the theater and began to write plays.  This play was one of his greatest successes and went on the road (he’s French and when it was translated to English, Frank Langella was one of the actors that played the lead).