Feb 15, 2021
Make no mistake about it this is Diane Lane’s film as a woman – both defiant and determined – fighting for what is hers.
It’s a slow-paced life in Montana, or Wyoming, or whatever mountainous God’s country that retired sheriff George Blackledge (Kevin Costner) and his wife, Margaret (Diane Lane) reside in. They have their share of daily tragedies, where they own a horse farm, but their mountain folk, living off the land, and far simpler than Costner’s character of wealthy land owners with attitudes and egos from his hit series Yellowstone. This story is based on the book by Larry Watson so we learn that George and Margaret don’t mess with the law and they don’t deal with legalities either; they take matters into their own hands.
George doesn’t offer much in the marriage. A pleaser, a dutiful husband who hides pain behind his sullen blue eyes. Instead, it’s Margaret who’s the boss, making demands but not hen pecking. She’s affirmative, solid, a woman who knows what she wants, and her husband respects that.
When the death of their son causes an unexpected turn of events, they must do whatever they can to get their grandson back…
Off they go, with a cooler of handmade sandwiches and Margaret sitting shotgun, a revolver under the seat. Immediately we know the way it might have been handled back east, in say, Boston or Manhattan. But this is Indian territory, and land with pride, life where family is everything at all costs. There are no lawyers and courtrooms. There are only guns and brawls.
Lane’s performance might just be the performance of her lifetime. Not since Unfaithful has she commanded such a film; because this isn’t a wife getting caught in an affair and eventually turning to her husband. This is a wife turning to her inner strength, wisdom and tenacity, her seasoned senses of right from wrong, and what must be by her own accord for the sake of her family. Her performance is in the vein of Sally Field or Sissy Spacek.
This is also a film for any woman who has had to fight for something against all odds. And when the credits roll, what Margaret endures to get it stays with you for a long while after.
Feb 13, 2021
What begins as an urgent and necessary little film about a woman’s right to choose, soon turns into a plot that will send any frightened, confused and pregnant girl running to a corner in her room and determined to keep her unborn baby.
The story opens with the awkwardness of high school. How dare you believe in yourself? How dare you be talented or mainly be different. If you stand out, the average kids will be mean…attempting to strip your self-esteem down to silence. And then there’s teenage boys. Relentless. Perverted. Sex hounds.
It’s not easy for seventeen-year-old Autumn (Sidney Flanigan) who scans her body in her bedroom’s full length mirror. Glitter eye makeup…check; beaded necklace…check; polka dot sports bra…check; protruding belly…Oh dear.
At the local clinic in small town Pennsylvania, Autumn tests positive. Pregnant. They insist she should have the baby; insist she should opt for adoption The counsellors go so far as to show her a stunning and frightful film about the realities of pregnancy termination.
While most teens might turn to Mom instead, Autumn goes silent, self-piercing herself, almost punishing herself. And as a parent – if you are a parent – you pick up the subtle signs early on of who the man is that impregnated her. So perhaps, going to Mom is not an option.
Feeling misplaced, Autumn turns to Skylar (Talia Ryder) her BFF. Together they steal the funding to seek a pregnancy termination from friendly educated women in Manhattan. Autumn finally feels welcome. But getting there is exhausting. Trains, buses, walking, sleeping in subways as well as the angst of what she’ll soon discover, once she arrives…
The film’s title comes from the Q/A that’s unloaded on her at the clinic check-in. “Have you ever been abused by your sexual partner?” Answer: Never, rarely, sometimes, often.
So, what is this film’s message? Stay home? Keep the baby you don’t want and ruin all your lives? Because it seems this could have been a smart story with a gigantic message that somehow missed the opportunity. Once the filmmaker neglects to tie up a better ending, female viewers will instead be deterred by the politics of pregnancy termination. It’s never made clear that it would have been easier to have the procedure in Autumn’s hometown if only those services were made available.
Look, nobody actually advocates for abortion. But sometimes and under extraordinary circumstances like with Autumn… keeping the child is not an option.
Flangian’s performance is delivered with frightening precision. Oscar-worthy, really. With barely any dialog, we can feel her fear, her ignorance, confusion, and her uncertainty when she just wants to turn to her family. She just wants to lie her head down and rest. We feel that nervous thump in the pit of our stomach that travels those hots jolt up our spine, spreading to our shoulders. We are infuriated for Autumn. Yes, the movie succeeds to rattle our cage.
But it’s the maternal that kicks in for me, too – and as the mother of two daughters – this feels like a painful voyeuristic documentary that might be required viewing for teen girls in health class. Catholic health class. In no way – message delivered or not – does the movie leave one feeling entertained or uplifted for the price of a ticket and popcorn. And in no way does it shine like Eighth Grade or even Lady Bird, where teenage angst in unraveled and explored. This is just painful on so many levels.
2 tiaras
Feb 7, 2021
When we think of Robin Wright, we think of that perfectly coifed blonde head of hair styled in a ‘bob.’ We think of powerful films like Wonder Woman, Blade Runner and most certainly House of Cards where Claire Underwood click clacks the White House hallways in 6-inch stilettos. But in this, Wright shows a softer side. As if Jenny from Forrest Gump has grown up and gone sad.
In Land, directed and starring Robin Wright as Edee, the film opens on Edee in a therapy session. Cut to her packing it all up and heading to the hills. Literally. The middle of nowhere, on top of a mountain where the evergreens meet the sky – God’s country – a place where she thinks she can lose not only her cell phone and car (for good) but hopefully lose too, the grief that tortures her. We don’t know why or who, but we know her life has had a tragedy. She’s lost someone or some ones.
There’s been success in these one-woman-conquering-the-wilderness films with broken souls. Wild was successful as was this year’s Nomadland, already nominated for a Golden Globe. Wright’s Land is beautifully directed especially when there’s no one to direct but yourself. That is until Miguel (Demian Bichir) shows up and saves her close to frost-bitten life. She had to go to the brink, practically to the other side, before she can feel again…before Edde might choose to live again.
So, this becomes a film about human kindness. About being there. To fish, hunt, or just chop wood. To believe in the sounds of the living again. Kindness is so often under estimated.
But since we don’t know why Edee’s there – though flashbacks lead us to believe she’s lost her child and husband – the film could be compared to real life Outback scenarios, where wayward kids are tossed into the wilderness with little more than a flashlight and a Bic lighter. To come to terms with nature, and what exists beyond the noise of this life.
Albeit, the sad part is when it comes to grief, we can only go so far. No trip to China, Australia or even the moon can change the circumstances. Even an escape to the ‘land’ won’t necessarily help, though the mind can always allow for hope. The same mind that created the pain can create the happiness, too. There is something to be suggested by deliberately inhabiting a new place, a new life – as in witness protection – to escape former realities.
The tragedy of this brilliant little movie is that in a time of COVID we won’t get the grand sensation of aloneness and silence when streaming the film from our sofas with family, pets and pauses. This is a film that should fill the space…watched slowly, not in haste…not fast-forwarded. But to lasso all of our senses as the panoramic and majestic mountains take over our souls.
When we finally do discover why this woman has cashed it all in, it truly reflects the reality of our society and the need for gun laws. ‘Nuf said. A brilliant small film about a very big reason.
Feb 2, 2021
Based on a 2015 Esquire article written by Matthew Teague, this ‘Debbie Downer’ of a film that shows you really can feel more doom and gloom on top of COVID.
It’s fall of 2013 when the tide turns, the autumn arrives and life seems fine until we cut to Matt Teague (Casey Affleck) unable to handle the news that his wife Nicole Teague (Dakota Johnson) is dying. She’s got six months to live. She tells her husband that before he opens the hospital door to their children, she has to think on three ways to tell their daughters. Option one: Mommy’s going to sleep. Option two: Mommy’s going on vacation or… Option three: Mommy’s going away for a while.
As a mother of two daughters myself, all the options, well, suck. Going to sleep means she’ll wake up. Going on vacation means she went and they didn’t get to go. What? Option three means they’ll wait for her to return. But nothing is as bad as the way the film plays out, intercutting the back and forth of healthy couple to dying wife. How I longed for the unfolding of a classic movie like Love Story or Terms of Endearment. Instead and what we get is a depressing and confusing mess from start to finish. A feeling that sadly Teague’s private diaries turned article, should have stayed there. Not turned into a film.
There are times in life when we feel on top of the flat tire, the spare has gone flat, too; we double down on embarrassing and mounting atrocities (can this really be happening all at once?) but I’m not sure a movie is intended to take us down that dark rabbit hole and leave us there. (spoiler alert: The dog has cancer and so does mom, and so on and so on.)
Perhaps the filmmaker Gabriela Cowperthwaite, intended us to feel that cancer is one big blur of years as cancer makes us feel, but as a movie-going experience even from the comfort of my sofa, I had nothing to sink into except the voyeurism of someone’s atrocities.
For what it’s worth, the acting is excellent. Casey Affleck reminds us (since Manchester by the Sea) that he’s the man to call for an incomparable performance of a real guy in a real town going through real problems. His raspy monotone voice adds to his acting. He himself, haggard from that of a combat journalist traveling from country to country while juggling a dying wife back home, couldn’t be peformed by anyone else.
So with a dying wife and a depressed husband, the film falls on ‘the friend’ like it’s title. And it’s the performance of Jason Segel as Dane Faucheux that steals the movie. From cut to ‘2012 the year of diagnosis’ to various years back/forth to ‘2008 four years before diagnosis’ it’s clear he’s all ‘in’ to upend his life and be the Mrs. Doubtfire to the two little girls.
Segel’s performance is something to be admired. He’s gone from Finding Sarah Marshall goof ball performances…to this.
But sadly, like stage four cancer the big screen couldn’t save us. It’s an intimate film that was best left private. There is no rising to the occasion, no reveal, nothing that alters us except knowing in times of trouble friends are there. But didn’t we already know that? Sorry, I wanted lift-off! Or at least a story told in a better and emotional configuration. We know she’s going to die, but get us there differently.
Dec 26, 2020
(reviewed by our Guest Critic: The Movie Knight) If any year needed a superhero, 2020 would be it. Ordinarily the cinemas would be flooded with them. In February we got Birds of Prey: (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). A movie that proved once again that not only can a female driven picture succeed in this genre, one rated-R can too. Then Covid happened and that was the end of comic book movies and all others as well, or so it seemed. Then, Warner Brothers announced Wonder Woman 1984 would be released, after multiple delays, on Christmas Day both in theaters and HBO MAX, to some controversy regarding the latter.
The DC Universe was in shambles until Patty Jenkins directed Wonder Woman. Before then, according to both fans and critics, there was no real good, quality film in the group. There was no other choice but to bring her back for this next adventure which takes place in 1984. Diana Prince (Gal Gadot), who has yet to be called Wonder Women, is now working at the Smithsonian, where she and a new co-worker, Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig) come across a strange artifact that grants one big wish. Con-artist businessman Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) also has great interest in this object for his own nefarious purposes.
No matter how excited you are to see this new adventure and how much you want to like it, you might feel disappointed in the final product. The opening sequence is fun, but not exciting enough to draw the audience in. Later, at a mall that has been included many times in trailers and commercials, the action too falls short. Another heavily previewed sequence involving a convoy in the desert also fails to live up to its potential. Not every scene is a dud, the ones involving Diana and Barbara, as she starts to take on her Cheetah persona, are the better ones to watch.
The running time is two-and-a-half hours, which ends up being too long. Patty Jenkins certainly set out to really develop her two villains. Antagonists are often underdeveloped characters, no more than two-dimensional at best. Here, we not only fully understand the motivations of the two, some of us can even identify with them. It still could have been done in a shorter time, so it would not feel so slow moving.
Some of the best scenes are between Diana and Steve Trevor (Chris Pine). While Steve perished at the end of World War I and now is back, we are left with a classic “fish out of water” subplot. Gadot and Pine had perfect chemistry the last time and it carries over again here. Jenkins takes full advantage of the decade by giving us bright colors, bizarre fashion and hairstyles, and the sights that would leave anyone who just came from 1918 to the 80s totally bewildered.
It is certainly unfair to expect one franchise to save the entire box office year. You may think Wonder Woman would be the one to do that, but that is too much to ask any motion picture. Twenty-twenty (2020) was like no other time in the history of the business. In the end, the fans will bring the final verdict. In the meantime, we all hope for a better 2021.
2 Tiaras
