Diary of a Teenage Girl ****
Short Take: The sexually frank story of a 15 year old girl in 1976 who has an affair with her mother’s 35 year old boyfriend.
Reel Take: Critics are singing the praises for Marielle Heller’s indie darling Diary of a Teenage Girl. The film, based on Phoebe Gloeckner’s semi-autobiographical graphic novel, takes place in 1976 San Francisco. It tells the story of Minnie, a fifteen year old girl who readily and eagerly has an affair with her mother’s 35 year old boyfriend. This is, of course, a terrible idea and has damaging consequences, but make no mistake, this young woman is no one’s victim. And that, more than anything else, is why this film succeeds.
Be assured, this coming of age story is a journey of sexual awakenings unlike anything you’ve ever seen. To say this film is sexually frank is an understatement. To say that it is squirm inducing is fair. Diary of a Teenage Girl makes no apologies for its blunt tone. Instead, it thrives on it. The film is not for everyone. In fact, if you’ve already cringed a bit while reading this, you may want to skip it altogether.
Minnie (Bel Powley) is an artistically inclined young woman with a seemingly healthy curiosity about sex (After her initiation however, it becomes more of an insatiable preoccupation). She lives with her mother (Kristen Wiig) and younger sister (Abby Wait). Since divorcing her uptight father, her mother is letting loose; let’s just say she’s ‘embracing the ‘70s. She loves her daughters but, somewhat adrift in a smoke-filled and/or boozy haze, she’s hardly a role model for Minnie. When Charlotte’s boyfriend Monroe (Alexander Skarsgard) is so easily seduced by young Minnie, this too shows little guidance and a distinct lack of moral compass. And yet all of this unfolds without judgment.
We learn much of Minnie’s story through her diary, an audio diary. Armed with her portable cassette deck and a microphone, she records her thoughts and musings, her insecurities and her epiphanies. A budding cartoonist, Minnie takes inspiration from Aline Kominsky-Crumb. Often accompanying Minnie’s audio diary are animated, almost doodled embellishments, all of which bring warmth, levity and a likeability to polarizing subject matter.
The graphic elements also serve Minnie’s journey of personal and artistic discovery. Working through her personal exploits, Minnie becomes remarkably clear in her sense of self and purpose. I’m thinking Gloeckner’s source material contained this interesting mix of sexual and emotional rawness which Heller and her cast could really dig their teeth into. The result is a refreshingly honest and eye-opening film. I confess I found myself prey to double standards; would I have found it half as jarring if this story had been about a 15 year old boy? Probably not.
Bel Powley as Minnie is a pure and total revelation. Heller could not have made a better casting call there. Wiig also turns in a fine performance and Skarsgard elicits a surprisingly tender performance – something one would not necessarily expect given the circumstances.
The Diary of a Teenage Girl is not for everyone, but it is a cinematic ground breaker. It’s wonderfully raw and real.
Rated R for strong sexual content including dialogue, graphic nudity, drug use, language and drinking – all involving teens.
Review by Michelle Keenan
The End of the Tour ****1/2
Short Take: The five-day interview in 1996 between Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky and acclaimed author David Foster Wallace.
Reel Take: The End of the Tour is surprisingly and wonderfully riveting. However, in the interest of full disclosure, there is a part of me that wonders if people with a penchant for the pen and literary aspirations find this more interesting territory than others. It would make sense. The film is nothing more than the five-day interview between Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky and acclaimed novelist David Foster Wallace. It’s nothing but an ongoing dialogue between two young men — two young writers in very different places. One of whom is in a very enviable position and one who’s doing the envying.
Jesse Eisbenberg plays David Lipsky, the Rolling Stone reporter who scored a groundbreaking interview with novelist David Foster Smith (played atypically by Jason Segel) upon the publication of his much lauded novel Infinite Jest. The interviews take place during the last days of Foster’s book tour. I confess I fully expected The End of the Tour to be a little pretentious, especially with the twitchy and sometimes whiny Jesse Eisenberg; but instead of getting a film that takes itself altogether too seriously, the audience is treated to something so wonderfully done it seems utterly organic.
The two men engage in a wily dance with one another — Wallace not wanting to be perceived as being too full of himself, and Lipsky wanting to get the story, but also wanting Wallace to like him and see him as a peer. The two share great moments of camaraderie, angst and vulnerability, but both remain guarded to a certain degree. Written by Donald Margulies (Dinner With Friends) and directed by James Ponsoldt (The Spectacular Now), the conversation is intelligent and insightful. It is as prodigiously observant as Foster’s writing.
Segel plays way against type here and turns in a pitch perfect performance. His portrayal is tinged with an inescapable sadness due to Wallace’s suicide in 2008. Eisenberg takes his adeptness for playing contorted, conflicted characters to new heights with a simmering resentment and simultaneous admiration for his subject. The End of the Tour really is one this year’s must see movies.
Rated R for language, including some sexual references.
Review by Michelle Keenan
No Escape ****
Short Take: Surprisingly intense action-adventure flick about an American family’s attempt to stay alive after an unspecified Southeast Asian uprising suddenly forces them into hiding.
Reel Take: I fully expected that I would enjoy No Escape despite the lukewarm reviews it has received from some critics. I considered the source of the reviews along with the genre and the performers and figured that it would be money well spent. What I didn’t expect was how surprisingly good and remarkably intense No Escape was.
The opening pre-credits sequence sets the tone right away. A landmark deal between an American company and an unspecified Asian prime minister ends with his sudden death and the brutal demise of an associate. Quick cut to the title No Escape and then to the introduction of Jack Dwyer (Owen Wilson), his wife Annie (Lake Bell), and their two young daughters during a long plane ride to this unspecified country.
Once there, they discover things in their hotel don’t work and that something is definitely wrong. While out to get a newspaper Jack witnesses a rebel mob grabbing foreigners and executing them on the spot. He races back to the hotel to get his family and they try escaping to the roof before an ever growing mob reaches them. Forced to jump to the building next door, they begin a mad scramble to keep “10 steps ahead” as Jack puts it.
Aiding them is a seemingly down and out Englishman (an effortlessly charismatic Pierce Brosnan) who is actually a British operative who explains what the uprising is and why they are caught up in it. Each escape from the mob becomes more and more harrowing until we reach the final showdown that involves Jack, the mob leader, and his children.
Two things raise No Escape above the average action-adventure fare we’ve become used to. 1) The movie is technically accomplished with crisp editing, a skillful and subdued soundtrack and lots of hand held camera footage that adds to the tension without becoming too much as in The Hurt Locker. The solid no-nonsense direction by John Erick Dowdle (who made the effective, low budget horror film Devil) recalls an earlier master of action-adventure flicks, Don Siegel.
2) The characters of Owen Wilson and his family. They are innocents who are suddenly dropped into a world of chaos. We like them and can relate to them and we cheer their resourcefulness even when it is sometimes surprising and brutal. Wilson’s performance is remarkable as he shows an intensity which is very uncharacteristic of him. Lake Bell matches him every step of the way as his wife and Brosnan is sublime.
This brings us to the controversial aspect of No Escape which is its xenophobia. The film was originally called The Coup which is a more accurate title though not nearly as effective hence the change. The original title does help to explain the actions of the mob. People who overthrow governments aren’t nice people no matter what their nationality (check out ISIS) and so their actions should be regarded as such. The film isn’t about ethnicities, it’s about survival for the country as well as for the family.
If you enjoy white knuckle, pulse pounding, edge of your seat excitement, then this movie is a must. If you don’t and/or are swayed by political correctness then give No Escape a wide berth. Is it illogical? Is it short on plot? Of course it is! Remember this movie was designed to be an audience thrill ride and on that score it succeeds brilliantly.
Rated R for violence including a sexual assault and for language.
Review by Chip Kaufmann
Phoenix ****1/2
Short Take: A Hitchcockian tale of mystery and intrigue unfolds when a concentration camp survivor returns home, unrecognized by her husband, in an effort to find out if he was the person who betrayed her to the Nazis.
REEL TAKE: Phoenix is easily one of the best films of the year so far. So intriguing, spellbinding and wonderfully atmospheric, one completely forgets that they are reading subtitles. Nelly Lenz (Nina Hoss) is a German-Jewish chanteuse who returns to post-war Berlin for reconstructive surgery, after being shot in the face and left for dead at Auschwitz. Nelly’s devoted friend Lene (Nina Kunzendorf) sees her through surgery and recovery and makes plans for their future. But Nelly longs to return to her husband Johnny and to the life they knew. Lene believes that Johnny is the person who betrayed Nelly to the Nazis.
Lene roams the bombed streets of the city looking for Johnny. She finds him bussing tables at a bar aptly called Phoenix as it sits glowing atop the rubble. Johnny doesn’t recognize her but thinks she looks enough like his [presumed] dead wife that he can bring Nelly back from the dead and collect on her estate. Nelly goes along with the ruse, but will she win the love of her husband or catch a traitor?
Nina Hoss and Ronald Zehrfeld turn in remarkable performances. Nina Kunzendorf gives a quietly strong performance; hers is probably the most interesting in terms of the aftermath of the war. Regardless of individual mindset and circumstances, all three characters are rather like the city itself; they are shells. They are shadows of their former selves.
Also interesting to note, even though Nelly and Johnny were musicians before the war, there is very little music in the film. What music you do hear is scene specific, not a score. This tact is appropriate and effective.
Writer/director Christian Petzold (Barbara) has crafted a far fetched but engrossing and even poignant story. The characters and the setting make for a unique blend of deception, guilt and suspense. Phoenix is a well paced slow burn, leading to a simple but powerful ending.
At press time Phoenix was playing at the Fine Arts Theatre in downtown Asheville. The film is in German with English subtitles. See it while you can.
Rated PG-13 for some thematic elements and brief suggested material.
Review by Michelle Keenan
The Gift ****
Short Take: Australian actor Joel Edgerton produced, co-wrote, directed, and stars in this tense psychological drama that is being marketed as a thriller.
Reel Take: The Gift is another one of those movies to be added to the list of films that I admire on many levels but did not enjoy (as opposed to films like A Clockwork Orange which I neither admired nor enjoyed). This doesn’t make it an unworthy film just one that I won’t be revisiting if I can help it.
Australian actor Joel Edgerton, who is best known for the first two Star Wars movies along with the recent Baz Luhrman version of The Great Gatsby, pulls off the Orson Welles hat trick of writing, producing, directing as well as starring in this harrowing psychological drama which is being marketed as a home invasion thriller but is much, much more.
Simon and Robyn Cullen (Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hill) relocate from Chicago to LA and everything seems to be ideal. Simon then runs into Gordo (Edgerton), a former high school acquaintance that he can’t seem to recall. Gordo then starts presenting them with “welcoming” gifts that become more and more elaborate. After a dinner at Gordo’s home ends badly, things begin to get out of hand.
The film starts to reveal more and more about the principal characters with each revelation becoming darker and darker. As with all good psychological studies, things turn out to be very different from what we were first led to believe. The ending is very unsettling. To say more would be giving too much away as The Gift is a movie designed to be experienced rather than explained.
Edgerton has crafted a remarkable little film that starts off as something rather conventional and then morphs two or three times into something else while never losing sight of what it started out to be. As has been pointed out elsewhere, the film has a very European feel to it. It delves much deeper into the mindset of its characters than a conventional thriller would. It is these background excursions that raise the movie way above the norm. Think of a home invasion movie as directed by Ingmar Bergman.
All the expected thriller tricks are here from quick edits and barely perceptible camera movements to sinister music and enigmatically menacing performances especially from Jason Bateman who reveals his true self as the movie progresses. Writer-director Edgerton doesn’t overdo his part as the catalyst of the movie’s ever increasing tension. Rebecca Hall, who starts out as the most conventional character, also reveals more layers than we are expecting.
The film is so well made that I’m sorry to report that, in the end, I didn’t like it. It has nothing to do with the mechanics of the movie which are practically flawless, it’s with the storyline. It’s dark and disturbing. The writer O.Henry said on his deathbed, “Leave the light on, I don’t want to go home in the dark.” While I am hopefully not on my deathbed, as I get older I find myself more and more in need of lighter rather than darker endings.
Rated R for language (and that’s it).
Review by Chip Kaufmann
The Man From U.N.C.L.E. ****
Short Take: Guy Ritchie’s reworking of the 1960s TV show has its plusses and minuses but overall it proved to be worth the price of the ticket.
Reel Take: I was in junior high school back in 1964 when the original Man from U.N.C.L.E. premiered on NBC. It was originally in black and white as were the majority of TV shows back then and was designed to capitalize on the recent success of the Sean Connery James Bond films. In fact the original concept was by none other than Ian Fleming himself who came up with the character of Napoleon Solo. The series ran for four seasons (through 1968).
Taking a page from England’s The Avengers series (before the comic book super heroes), U.N.C.L.E. featured a partnership rather than a single spy. Napoleon Solo was played by Robert Vaughan and his partner was a Russian agent named Ilya Kuryakin played by Scottish actor David McCallum (still working today at the age of 82 in NCIS). It was the height of the Cold War and the collaboration between the two men drove the show.
For his reboot, Guy Ritchie wisely decided to set the movie in the era of the original series (the 1960s) which gives him numerous opportunities to evoke that period through fashions, popular music and the like. He does a good job of not overdoing it. The movie is actually a prequel telling us how the organization U.N.C.L.E. (United Network Command for Law & Enforcement) came into being.
The year is 1963. Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) is a former professional thief now working for the CIA. He arranges the successful escape of Gaby Teller (Alicia Vikander) daughter of a Nazi collaborator from East Berlin despite the best efforts of KGB agent Ilya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer). He is then ordered by his superior to join forces with Kuryakin who is ordered by his superior to work with Solo and Gaby in retrieving a stolen computer disc which contains information on how to build a nuclear bomb.
The principal villains are an Italian brother and sister (Elizabeth Debicki and Luca Calvani) and Gaby’s Uncle Rudi (Sylvester Groth) who have already built a bomb and intend to deliver it for deployment. The bulk of the movie consists of the good guys infiltrating the island fortress (of course there’s an island fortress) and keeping the villains from getting away with it. Since this is set in the early 1960s as well as an old school espionage yarn, we know they’ll succeed. That’s not important, what’s important is how they do it.
Young Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki is a cool and stylish villainess with amusing support from character actor Sylvester Groth (his demise is especially memorable). Hugh Grant, in the old Leo G. Carroll role of Alexander Waverly, makes what is essentially a cameo appearance as does Jared Harris as Solo’s CIA boss although both make the most of their limited appearances.
My big problem with U.N.C.L.E. is that the primary element behind the old TV show, the chemistry between Solo and Kuryakin, is missing. Armie Hammer makes for an engaging Kuryakin but Henry Cavill’s Napoleon Solo falls flat. He looks the part but his glibness is ineffective and his scenes with Hammer are easily won by Armie.
Guy Ritchie directs with his usual flair, though not as much as he displayed in the two Sherlock Holmes movies, and keeps the film interesting while moving it along at a decent pace. I enjoyed it, but not as much as I was hoping to, and I don’t see myself paying it a return visit.
Rated PG-13 for action violence, suggestive content, and partial nudity.
Review by Chip Kaufmann