INSIDE (2023)

Written by Ben Hopkins



Directed by Vasilis Katsoupis



Where & When: AMC The Grove 14, Los Angeles, CA. March 19, 2023 4:00pm



Having appeared in well over one hundred feature films, which doesn't even include several short films, numerous stage performances, largely with the experimental theater troupe, the Wooster Group which he co-founded, and voice-over work that ranges from documentaries to video games, Willem Dafoe has been one busy actor. Since his breakout appearance in "To Live and Die in LA" in 1985 which lead to his star-making role in Oliver Stone's Vietnam war drama and Best Picture winner, "Platoon" (and earned the actor his first Oscar nomination), Dafoe has made an impression in a diverse slate of films, ranging from dramas ("The Last Temptation of Christ", "Mississippi Burning", "The English Patient", "The Florida Project"), action flicks, ("Clear and Present Danger", "John Wick"); Wes Anderson comedies ("The Grand Budapest Hotel", "The French Dispatch" and his upcoming, "Asteroid City"), animated features ("Finding Nemo", "Fantastic Mr. Fox") and super-hero movies (appearing in the first "Spider-man" trilogy and "Aquaman").

With his latest, "Inside", Dafoe plays a thief who ends up trapped in the house he's trying to steal priceless works of art. And while the actor, who is nearly all we see during the one hundred- and five-minute running time, is reliably compelling as the corrupt character trying to escape this luxurious prison, the narrow focus of the narrative from first-time filmmaker, Vasilis Katsoupis keeps this film feeling airless and stagnant.

We first see Nemo (Dafoe), disguised as a handyman, breaking into a high-rise penthouse, communicating with his partner-in-crime as they briefly override the security system. Knowing exactly which works of art he plans to take, paintings by Austrian Expressionist, Egon Schiele, he discovers one is missing from it's usual location. Running out of time, Nemo attempts to leave with what he can find but an error trips up the security, locking the apartment down. With his partner ending communication, Nemo is now on his own to find a way out.

For the rest of "Inside", we simply watch Nemo try to escape this expansive dwelling, a sterile environment filled with precious objects and substantial contemporary art, all secured with state-of-the-art technology that includes automated systems to keep what is living (plants, fish) in the home alive. This home has effectively become an impenetrable fortress: no way in and no way out. The refrigerator is virtually empty, a clear sign that no one is coming home anytime soon and that meals are rarely eaten here.

As Nemo's time in this house turns from hours to days to weeks to possibly months, he shifts from fierce determination to extreme desperation, eventually approaching something close to serene acceptance. Nemo suffers severe injuries trying to escape when stacking furniture to reach the skylight. The heating system is broken, going from sweltering heat to frigid cold. After eating all he can from the fridge, he resorts to choking down dog food and fish from the aquarium. And frustrated when he can see the building's housekeeper outside the door through security cameras, but she can't hear his cries for help because she is wearing headphones.

The question is what are we supposed to take away from "Inside"? I suspect we are supposed to feel some sort of compassion for Nemo's dire plight, but he did break into this house in order to steal valuable art, making it hard to feel much sympathy for his situation. We don't learn much about Nemo beyond, through a flashback, that he was acquainted with the home's owner. But we do know that art is very important to Nemo, revealing this at the beginning of the film in voice-over, convinced that art is all that will truly last. During his time trying to escape, left with nothing more than his frayed, deteriorating thoughts, the isolation forces him to consider his mortality which in turn, inspires his own creativity. This gives Nemo a new sense of purpose, using the walls as a canvas and the broken furnishings to create new transformative works that are meaningful and, in a twisted way, leaves behind his artistic legacy.

With "Inside", director Katsoupis, a Greek filmmaker who was inspired by a stay in a similar New York apartment, has crafted a claustrophobic, cerebral experience that leaves behind a feeling of intense discomfort. Spare in dialogue yet visually energized, the film attempts to comment on how art stimulates us creatively, forcing us to think deeply which might help us become a better version of ourselves. But "Inside" manages to take us only on an underdeveloped artistic consideration, never feeling worth the arduous journey.

2023 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

The 76th annual Cannes Film Festival is set to begin on May 16th through May 27th. With the legendary French actress, Catherine Deneuve featured on this year's promotional poster, using a photo from the set of her 1968 movie, "La Chamade (Heartbeat)", there are nineteen feature films selected to be screened in competition. Most of these new works are by an impressive list of international filmmakers who have previously appeared at Cannes: Karim Ainouz ("Firebrand"), Wes Anderson ("Asteroid City"), Marco Bellocchio ("Rapito (Kidnapped)"), Wang Bing ("Jeunesse"), Catherine Breillat ("L’Eté Dernier"), Nuri Bilge Ceylan ("About Dry Grasses"), Kaouther Ben Hania ("Four Daughters"), Jessica Hausner ("Club Zero"), Todd Hayes ("May, December"), Tran Anh Hung ("La Passion De Dodin Bouffant"), Aki Kaurismaki ("Fallen Leaves"), Hirokazu Kore-eda ("Monster"), Ken Loach ("The Old Oak"), Nanni Moretti ("Il Sol dell’Avvenire (A Brighter Tomorrow)"), Alice Rohrwacher ("La Chimera") and Wim Wenders ("Perfect Days").





And making their first major appearance on the Croisette in the main competition are Justine Triet with her fourth feature, "Anatomie d’Une Chute (Anatomy of a Fall)"; Ramata-Toulaye Sy, the French-Senegalese filmmaker will premiere with her debut feature film, "Banel & Adama" and Jonathan Glazer, the British director behind "Sexy Beast" and "Under The Skin", will appear for the first time in competition with his latest, "The Zone of Interest", based on the novel by Martin Amis.

Ruben Östlund, the two-time Palme d’Or winner whose most recent film, "Triangle of Sadness" became a worldwide success, has been picked to lead the Main Competition jury. The rest of this year's jurors will include Moroccan director Maryam Touzani; French actor Denis Ménochet; British-Zambian filmmaker, Rungano Nyoni: American actress, Brie Larson; American Actor, Paul Dano; Afghan filmmaker, Atiq Rahimi; Argentinian director, Damián Szifrón and French director, Julia Ducournau.

The festival opens with "Jeanne du Barry", the new film by Maïwenn, the French filmmaker and actor who won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2011 for her film, "Polisse", who also stars in the title role. Based on the life of King Louis XV’s last royal mistress at the Court of Versailles, the film reveals how du Barry came from a working-class background and worked her way up the social ladder using her charm and beauty. This bio-pic features Pascal Greggory, Melvil Poupaud and Johnny Depp, making his first return to the screen in three years (and speaking French), as the King.



The Closing Night Film will be the latest animated faeture from Pixar , "Elemental". This film is set in the world of Element City where the elements of earth, fire, water and air live together in harmony. But when fire, Ember and water, Wade grow close, things become complicated for them because they cannot touch. "Elemental" will be released in US theaters on June 16th and in France on June 21st.



Out-of-Competition screenings will include the world premiere of Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon". Based on the non-fiction book by David Grann, Leonardo DiCaprio stars in this story about a series of murders in the Osage Nation in Oklahoma during the 1920s, committed not long after oil was discovered on tribal land. Harrison Ford returns for the fifth time as his iconic character in "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny". James Mangold directs this latest adventure with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas and Mads Mikkelsen co-starring. And the Spanish director, Pedro Almodvar makes his second English language project with another short film, "Strange Way of Life". This western focuses on a cowboy (Pedro Pascal) and a sheriff (Ethan Hawke) who were friendly twenty-five years ago when they worked together as hired gunmen. But the cowboy reveals that this reunion is not about catching up on old times.







Quentin Tarantino will attend Cannes Directors’ Fortnight as a guest of honor on May 25th for a special event that will feature a secret screening and a discussion on his views of cinema history that will expand upon his recent book, "Cinema Speculation". And Michael Douglas will receive the Honorary Palme D'Or this year. The American actor, who has been working for over fifty years and appeared in such films as "Fatal Attraction", "The China Syndrome", "Romancing the Stone", "The War of the Roses" and "Basic Instinct", will receive this honor on opening night with a previously unseen documentary, "Michael Douglas, The Prodigal Son" also being screened.

MICHAEL HANEKE: AN AMERICAN CINEMATHEQUE RETROSPECTIVE

For the latest series by the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles, the complete film retrospective of the Austrian filmmaker, Michael Haneke will be presented beginning on May 4th and running through June 3rd. Haneke, the son of actors, Fritz Haneke and Beatrix von Degenschild, began his career working in the German television industry as a director before making his feature film debut in 1989 with "The Seventh Continent", a drama about the last years of an Austrian family told in three parts. 

With his fourth film, "Funny Games" in 1997, Haneke would first become recognized internationally for creating disturbing yet thought provoking cinema. He had originally wanted to set this controversial film in the US but it was not possible at the time. But ten years later, Haneke would do a shot-for-shot remake of "Funny Games" in English and set in America with Naomi Watts and Tim Roth starring. 

His subsequent films would also be intriguing and compelling works: "Code Unknown", "The Piano Teacher", "Time of the Wolf", "Caché", "The White Ribbon" (which won Haneke his first Palme d'or at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival), "Amour" (which Haneke received a second Palme d'Or and the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar in 2012) and "Happy End", from 2017 which is his last film to date.

These films will be screened on selected dates at the Los Feliz Theatre in Los Angeles and the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica. The eighty-one year old Haneke will be involved in a live virtual conversation about his career before the double feature screenings of "The Piano Teacher and "Amour" on June 3rd. Please click below for more information and to purchase tickets:

American Cinematheque: Michael Haneke Retrospective

WARNER BROTHERS @ 100

The fabled movie studio, Warner Bros. will be celebrating one hundred years of creating motion pictures this year. Still located in Burbank, CA, this dream factory has been behind some of the greatest works of cinema since the birth of the commercial motion picture industry. The studio would later expand into music and television with even further success.

Founded in New Castle, PA by brothers Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack L. Warner as Warner Features Company, their first motion picture release was "the Peril of the Plains" in 1912. They soon headed west by 1915 and the brothers had their first major box office hit with "My Four Years in Germany" three years later.

On April 4, 1923, Warner Bros. Pictures was officially established as a motion picture studio. Their very first movie star was a dog: a trained German shepherd named Rin Tin Tin who went on to appear in a series of popular movies, twenty-seven in all, becoming an international sensation. But the studio would find their greatest success by taking a chance on a new innovation: sound. With "The Jazz Singer" in 1927, Al Jolson was "heard" actually singing in sync in the musical-drama which this box-office smash effectively helped bring an end to silent movies and "the talkies" went on to revolutionize the industry. Sadly, Sam Warner passed away suddenly the day before this film's premiere on October 5th from pneumonia caused by sinusitis.

The surviving brothers would carry on, leading Warner Bros. to become one of the most successful and highly influential of the movie studios. Since their early days, the studio produced a broad range of movie styles ranging from backstage musicals, gangster flicks, swashbucklers, and women's pictures. Some of these now classic films include "The Public Enemy", "Casablanca", "The Maltese Falcon", "Dark Victory", "A Streetcar Named Desire", "My Fair Lady", "Bonnie and Clyde", "Blazing Saddles", "A Clockwork Orange", "The Exorcist", "Unforgiven", "The Matrix" and the "Looney Tunes" series of cartoon shorts.

But Jack would have serious conflicts with his brothers and by 1956 he had secretly purchased their shares in the business after convincing them to participate in a joint sale of stocks, gaining full control of the studio. He would continue to run the studio with an iron fist before retiring from the studio in 1969. The studio would soon be sold to investment companies a few times and merged with others over the following years, currently part of AT&T and now known as Warner Bros. Discovery.

And during the month of April, Turner Classic Movies will be honoring this legendary movie studio by screening some of the movies made throughout their storied history with programming highlights that will include pre-code classics, gangster films, Busby Berkeley musicals and their star-contract players. TCM will also showcase ten newly restored films in partnership with Martin Scorsese's The Film Foundation that will feature "The Strawberry Blonde"(1941), "East of Eden"(1955), "Rio Grande"(1959) and "Rachel, Rachel"(1969).

COMING SOON

With only two films under his belt, Ari Aster has already proven to be one of the more intriguing filmmakers working today. Following the wildly offbeat horror dramas, "Hereditary" and "Midsommar", Aster is due back with "Beau is Afraid". And while the trailer seems to reveal that the writer/director has not strayed far from his comfort zone, this film also seems to move in a different direction than expected. Joaquin Phoenix stars as the title character, Beau Wassermann who is just trying to get to his mother after she unexpectedly passes away, leading to a surreal journey that has him looking back on his life, filled with disturbing imagery and dark humor. There is an impressive supporting cast that includes Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Parker Posey and Patti LuPone.

"Beau is Afraid" is due in US theaters on April 21, 2023

2023 OUTFEST FUSION

The Outfest Fusion Film Festival has been focused on highlighting the cinematic work of QTBIPOC storytellers since 2004. This year, the Los Angeles based annual event begins on March 24th and running through April 1st. In addition to films, the fest will offer free community workshops, masterclasses, the One Minute Movie Contest, live music and the debut of Family Day which will feature a short film program for children age 10 and up and their families at DTLA Lupe Ontiveros Cinema Center on April 1st.

The Opening Night Gala, held at the Aratani Theater in the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, will feature a series of shorts that will showcase a wide spectrum of fascinating stories involving queer people of color. Elegance Bratton, the filmmaker who made a great impression last year with his directorial feature film debut, "The Inspection" which was loosely based on his experiences and Bird Runningwater, who heads the Native American and Indigenous Program at the Sundance Institute, will also both be honored this evening.

Two films that made a splash earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival will be screened at Outfest Fusion: The documentary, "The Stroll" examines a stretch of area in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District where trans women of color had survived by doing sex work and supporting each other amidst the constant threats of violence. "Little Richard: I Am Everything" is the long overdue historical exploration on the life of the true "king of rock & roll" from director Lisa Cortés. This riveting documentary follows Richard Wayne Penniman, a musician from Macon, Georgia, who helped give birth to an exciting new form of music. On stage, Richard may have been wild, flamboyant and unapologetically queer yet privately he struggled with this, at one point leaving the world of rock & roll behind to only serve God.



For the complete list of films, events and to purchase tickets, please click below:

2023 Outfest Fusion

THE 95TH ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS

A dark cloud has hung over the Oscars since last year's ceremony after the shocking physical altercation on stage that had left a lingering feeling of PTSD. But as they say, time heals all wounds, and a year later, the 95th annual Academy Awards wants to put all of that distracting unpleasantness behind, shifting the focus back to where it belongs: the celebration of cinema. The first, most important, move was returning to present all twenty-three categories live on the Oscars after eight awards were given out before the telecast last year and later announced throughout the show. The goal might have been an attempt to shorten the length of the Oscars and make the program more appealing to younger viewers, but this misguided act did neither. The show opened with a montage that displayed all the many departments involved in making a movie, as a way to remind viewers why each category matters and should be honored on the show.

The other welcome comeback was to finally have a proper host guiding the show after the last few years without one. On his third outing as host, Jimmy Kimmel kept the atmosphere light and easy, playfully joking about the movies and the nominees. Not all of them landed and a few had the audience groaning (one about the poor box-office of the expensive "Babylon") but he managed to maintain a lively, upbeat mood. And of course, the comedian had to mention the infamous slap that had previously occurred, but the jokes were still relatively tame.

As was predicted due to the film's front-runner status after accumulating many wins in various Hollywood guild awards prior to the show, "Everything Everywhere All at Once" swept the major awards, winning a total of seven including Best Picture. This oddball sci-fi comedy-drama with a warm center created by The Daniels (Kwan and Scheinert) won the team Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Michelle Yeoh, who began her career starring in a series of Hong Kong action films and became better known here due to her role in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", won Best Actress, making her the first Asian actor to receive this award. The Oscar was presented to Yeoh by last year's winner of the award, Jessica Chastain and Halle Berry, who was the first African American actor (and sadly still the only one) in 2002 to win Best Actress. Jamie Lee Curtis, the veteran performer who first found fame in the 1978 horror classic, "Halloween" and fully embraces her nepo status as the child of Hollywood royalty, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, received her first Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for her work in the film. And one of the most heartwarming moments was Ke Huy Quan winning Best Supporting Actor. He had started off as a successful child actor, appearing in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" and "The Goonies", yet had to abandon his career due to a lack of decent opportunities as an adult but Quan managed to come back in a major way with his celebrated performance in this movie.

Another comeback that was warmly celebrated this evening was Brendan Fraser's heartbreaking performance in Darren Aronofsky's "The Whale", winning him the Best Actor Oscar. Fraser had been a popular movie star at one point, appearing in "The Mummy" trilogy, "Gods and Monsters", the 2004 Best Picture winner, "Crash" and "Encino Man" (which co-starred fellow winner, Quan) but his career took a hit after various health problems and the alleged sexual assault that was committed to him by the then-president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Yet his astounding work as a morbidly obese English teacher trying to restore his relationship with his teenage daughter in "The Whale" revealed to audiences that we hadn't really seen Fraser's full potential as an actor.

Another major winner was the German-language remake of "All Quiet on the Western Front" which received four awards including Best International Feature. Based on the 1929 novel by Erich Maria Remarque (and was first made as a Hollywood movie in 1930, winning Best Picture), Edward Berger's WWI set drama is a moving and harrowing depiction on the tragedy of global conflict. The only other feature films that received Oscars were Sarah Polley's adapted screenplay for "Women Talking", Ruth Carter winning her second for Best Costume Design with "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever", "Top Gun: Maverick" taking Best Sound and "Avatar: The Way of Water" obviously getting Best Visual Effects. With so few movies taking most of the prizes, this meant that half of the Best Picture nominees; "Elvis", "Tár", "The Fabelmans", "Triangle of Sadness" and "The Banshees of Inisherin" went home empty-handed.

The only nomination that "RRR" received was for Best Original Song but I think this thrilling Indian epic deserved to be further recognized by the Academy. But "Naatu Naatu" did win the award with the live performance of the song managing to be just as electrifying as it was in the film. The rest of the Original Song nominees were performed on the show by the original artists which included an unannounced Lady Gaga doing a stripped-down version of "Hold My Hand" from the "Top Gun" sequel which ended with a screen tribute to the first film's director, the late Tony Scott.

This year's Oscar telecast ended forty minutes after the planned three-hour runtime which is exactly the same time as last year even with the omitted live categories. And the ratings were up 12% compared to the 94th ceremony with 18.7 million viewers. I'm not sure what this will mean in the long run, as all award shows have suffered ratings decline, but The Oscars have rebounded, revealing that some traditions matter and with the right elements in place, audiences will tune in.

Finally, I have to comment on a moment on the program that really disturbed me: Halle Bailey and Melissa McCarthy, the co-stars of the upcoming live-action version of "The Little Mermaid", came out to introduce the trailer for this upcoming movie. I was highly offended that the Oscars were being used to promote a movie in the middle of the show, made even more shameless by this being done on the Disney-owned station, ABC. I'm sure many studios would love to use this show to plug their next big-budget, extravaganza but the Oscars should not be used for free publicity. Besides, that is exactly what those pricy commercials in between the show are supposed to be for.

Here is the complete list of winners of the 2023 Academy Awards:

Best Picture: "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
Best Director: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
Best Original Screenplay: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
Best Adapted Screenplay: Sarah Polley, "Women Talking"
Best Actress in a Leading Role: Michelle Yeoh, "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
Best Actor in a Leading Role: Brendan Fraser, "The Whale"
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Jamie Lee Curtis, "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Ke Huy Quan, "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
Best International Feature Film: "Im Westen nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front)" (Germany)
Best Animated Feature Film: "Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio"
Best Animated Short Film: "The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse"
Best Documentary Feature Film: "Navalny"
Best Documentary Short Film: "The Elephant Whisperers"
Best Live Action Short Film: "An Irish Goodbye"
Best Cinematography: James Friend, "All Quiet on the Western Front"
Best Editing: Paul Rogers, "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
Best Production Design: Christian M. Goldbeck and Ernestine Hipper, "All Quiet on the Western Front"
Best Costume Design: Ruth Carter, "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever"
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Adrien Morot, Judy Chin and Annemarie Bradley, "The Whale"
Best Original Music Score: Volker Bertelmann, "All Quiet on the Western Front"
Best Original Song: "Naatu Naatu" from "RRR" (Music by M.M. Keeravaani; Lyric by Chandrabose)
Best Sound: Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor, "Top Gun: Maverick"
Best Visual Effects: Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett, "Avatar: The Way of Water"

Academy Honorary Awards:

Euzhan Palcy
Diane Warren
Peter Weir

Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award:

Michael J. Fox