This Saturday, September 3rd will be National Cinema Day, a day when you go to participating theaters across the country and see a movie for $3.00. That's right: Every movie, every showtime and every format for just three bucks.
The non-profit organization, The Cinema Foundation, a group dedicated to promoting the cinema exhibition industry and growing movie-going communities, was inspired to thank audiences who had returned to the movies to help make a record-breaking summer box-office and serve as a major push to help lure those who still have not been back to theaters. The studios will use this day as an opportunity to let viewers in on the upcoming movie slate for this fall and winter with sneak-peek trailers.
One of the biggest and oldest film festivals in the world is almost set to begin: the 79th annual Venice Film Festival will begin on August 31st and running through September 10th. The 2022 edition will open with the latest from Noah Baumbach with "White Noise". The director's last feature, "Marriage Story" in 2019 made it's world premiere in Venice, going on to receive critical accolades and award recognition including six Academy Award nominations. Adam Driver (who received an Oscar nod for "Marriage Story") and Greta Gerwig (returning to acting after making a big impression as a director) star in this dark horror-comedy based on the 1985 novel by Don DeLillo about a college professor who has made his name with a course on Hitler studies and has to deal with a toxic chemical accident that creates havoc in his small town.
"White Noise" is one title that will be in competition for prizes this year with Julianne Moore presiding as president of the jury. Other films that have been selected to compete will be new works from important figures of international cinema that includes Darren Aronofsky ("The Whale"), Luca Guadagnino ("Bones and All"), Alice Diop ("Saint Omer"), Martin McDonagh ("The Banshees Of Inisherin"), Joanna Hogg ("The Eternal Daughter"), Alejandro G. Inarritu ("Bardo, False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths"), Laura Poitras ("All The Beauty And The Bloodshed"), Andrew Dominik ("Blonde"), Florian Zeller ("The Son") and Todd Field who returns with his first film in sixteen years (following "In The Bedroom" and "Little Children") with "Tár" starring Cate Blanchett set in world of classical music.
Some highlights of world premieres that will be screened out of competition will be actress, Olivia Wilde's directorial follow-up to "Booksmart" with "Don't Worry Darling"; "Pearl", Ti West's prequel to his slasher hit, "X" from earlier this year will make it's world premiere before hitting US theaters on September 16th; two veteran American directors will be on hand with "Nuclear", a documentary by Oliver Stone and Walter Hill's feature film, "Dead For a Dollar". And two Danish filmmakers will be presenting their television series at Venice; the notorious Lars von Trier with "The Kingdom Exodus" (which is it's third and final season) and Nicolas Winding Refn with "Copenhagen Cowboys".
Special Lifetime Achievement Golden Lions will be presented to French actress, Catherine Deneuve and American writer/director, Paul Schrader. The seventy-eight year old acting icon, who suffered a mild stroke in 2019, has made well over one hundred feature films over her lengthy career which includes "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg", "Repulsion", "Belle de Jour", "The Hunger" and "Indochine". After writing the screenplays of "Taxi Driver" for Martin Scorsese and "Obsession" for Brian DePalma, Schrader made his directorial debut with "Blue Collar" in 1978, going on to write ("Raging Bull", "The Mosquito Coast", "The Last Temptation of Christ") and direct ("American Gigolo", "Cat People", "First Reformed") over thirty films. The latest from the seventy-six year old filmmaker, "Master Gardener" will make it's world premiere at the fest.
Where & When: Nuart Theatre, West Los Angeles, CA. August 3, 2022 5:20 PM
Back in 2010, Lena Dunham released "Tiny Furniture", her debut feature film she wrote and directed. This semi-autobiographical, indie dramatic-comedy gave us the first taste of her quirky, self-referential voice. Dunham spoke with caustic humor about how her generation feels unsteady trying to maneuver through this modern world as a young adult. This low-budget film, which featured her mother, Laurie Simmons, a New York artist who was the big name at the time, received plenty of critical acclaim and awards, leading Dunham to collaborate with Judd Apatow and create the HBO series, "Girls" two years later.
This urban comedy expanded upon characters and ideas from "Tiny Furniture", focused on addressing the challenges facing a group of aimless, twenty-something women. After six captivating seasons, "Girls" made Dunham a bigger name, introduced us to a future star (Adam Driver) and helped open the door to shows built around unconventional female protagonists who are deeply flawed and not necessarily likable.
Now Dunham has just made her second feature film, "Sharp Stick", an offbeat, coming-of-age story of an awkward young girl who treats her sexual awakening as if she's a determined student trying hard to get a top grade in school. There are certainly some interesting, funny ideas at play here yet they are muddled due to a narrative that falls uneasily between a strange, dark comedy and an uncomfortably creepy satire.
Sarah Jo (Kristine Froseth) lives in the Hollywood area of LA with her mother, Marilyn (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a new-age, Earth mother type and her sister, Treina (Taylour Paige) who is focused on finding success through being a social media influencer. Although she's in her twenties, Sarah Jo comes across as much younger due to her sweet, Pollyanna nature. Yet underneath lurks a lustful, passionate woman with burning desires that wants to be noticed. Sarah Jo decides to set her sights on Josh (Jon Bernthal), the married, stay-at-home dad of Zach (Liam Michel Saux), the special needs child she tutors, to lose her virginity with. And while this good-natured goofball tries to resist, Josh ultimately gives in to Sarah Jo's seduction, especially after she informs him that she had a hysterectomy at fifteen.
This one-time encounter soon evolves into an actual love affair. Later, Josh introduces Sarah Jo to the world of digital pornography with her far more fascinated than aroused. But Sarah Jo is unceremoniously dumped after Josh's pregnant wife (Dunham) discovers their affair. Lost and despondent, she tries to mend her heartbreak by focusing on her favorite porn star, Vance Leroy (Scott Speedman), writing him pages of long letters seeking guidance through his sexual wisdom to help her win Josh back. Then, as a way to impress Josh, Sarah Jo makes a cute, homemade poster board listing all of the sexual acts she plans to perform with random men from A to Z, with a place to check off when completed.
Dunham has finally moved away from relying so heavily on a fictionalized version of her life in her work, moving towards characters outside of her comfort zone. But with this film, she doesn't push far enough into the absurd that feels necessary, lacking clearly defined characters and creating a false sense of female empowerment. "Sharp Stick" also doesn't have much of a cinematic scope, never feeling more than an enhanced, expanded television episode.
Froseth plays Sarah Jo as child-like and very naïve, an unbelievable trait with her growing-up in this fast-moving, modern city of Los Angeles living with her worldly mother and sister. She also comes across as a bit dim which could explain some of her behavior yet her motivations remain unclear. Dunham adds race into the story with Treina being African-American and taken in as a baby to be raised by this family due to sad circumstances. Yet there is no commentary or development from this addition with the character sidelined for much of the film, leaving a feeling that this was too much of a calculated after-thought.
"Sharp Stick" seems to be making a statement about our society's obsession with sexuality and gender politics. But Dunham's use of oddball characters, provocative comedy and feminist ideology is not clearly conceived to make this film entirely compelling or enjoyable. Yet I am glad that Dunham has returned to the big screen and that it will not be over ten years until her next feature (she has written and directed an adaptation of the children's book, "Catherine Called Birdy" for Amazon Studios due out in September). While I have not always been won over by her work, I greatly appreciate what Dunham tries to achieve, offering a bold challenge to conventional themes utilizing a commanding female perspective.
The 40th edition of Outfest L.A. has come to an end and there were prizes that were handed out. "Please Baby Please", Amanda Kramer's avant-garde, queer journey that explores gender, obsession and lust, received the top prize from the Grand Jury for Outstanding Narrative Feature.
Here is a partial list of winners from the 2022 OutFest L.A. Film Festival:
Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding North American Narrative Feature: "Please Baby Please"
Honorable Mention for North American Narrative Feature: "Youtopia"
Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding Screenplay in a North American Narrative Feature: Juan Pablo González, Ana Isabel Fernández and Ilana Coleman, "Dos Estaciones"
Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding Performance in a North American Narrative Feature: Matthew Jeffers, "Unidentified Objects"
Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding International Narrative Feature: "Mars One"
Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding Screenplay in a International Narrative Feature: Mariano Biasin, "Sublime"
Honorable Mention for Screenplay in a International Narrative Feature: Gabriel Bier Gislason, "Attachment"
Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding Performance in a International Narrative Feature: Aamu Milonoff, "Girl Picture"
Honorable Mention for Performance in a International Narrative Feature: Raphaëlle Perez, "My Emptiness and I"
Paul D. Lerner and Stephen Reis Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding Documentary Feature: "Sirens"
Honorable Mention for Documentary Feature: "Jeannette"
Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding U.S. Narrative Short: "Work"
Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding International Narrative Short: "Warsha"
Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding Documentary Short: "Love, Barbara D"
Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature: "Unidentified Objects"
Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature: "Stay on Board: The Leo Baker Story"
Audience Award for Best Narrative Short: "Troy"
Audience Award for Best Documentary Short: "CANS Can’t Stand"
SPECIAL PROGRAMMING AWARDS:
Emerging Talent: Yusuf Shadeed Nasir, "Regret To Inform You"
Freedom: "UÝRA: The Rising Forest"
Artistic Achievement: Mohammad Shawky Hassan, "Shall I Compare You To A Summer's Day?"
Now for some movies I saw at the fest. "Crissy Judy" is a fierce dark comedy from Todd Flaherty who wrote, directed, edited and stars in his debut feature film. Judy (Flaherty) is part of NYC drag act with his best friend, Crissy (Wyatt Fenner). Referring to themselves by their performer names, even out of drag, they do everything together but one day, Crissy announces that the man he has been dating has gotten serious and plans on moving to Philadelphia to live with him. Lost and devastated, Judy tries to carry on with the act and life on his own, struggling every step of the way. With stunning, crisp black & white photography by Flaherty's brother, Brendan, "Chrissy Judy" brings to mind the mid-career era of Woody Allen's comedy-dramas with Flaherty's Crissy even feeling like a variation of Holly (played by Dianne Wiest) in Allen's "Hannah and her Sisters", a person struggling to make a creative career happen but whose life is a mess, abusing alcohol and making bad choices, particularly regarding men. But Flaherty has made a delightfully charming film that displays his own distinctive style and rhythm with well-developed characters, deeply felt drama and hilarious comedy.
For young gay men growing up in the '80's and '90's, the International Male mail-order catalogue, with it's pages filled with impossibly handsome men modeling fashion-forward clothing (and much less), helped open the door to explore and fantasize privately at home at a time when there were not many outlets for them to do this. And the fascinating documentary, "All Male: The International Male Story" from directors, Bryan Darling and Jesse Finlay Reed does a deep-dive into the history of the company started by Gene Burkard in 1974. After leaving the military, a closeted Burkard from the Midwest headed to San Diego where he found a chance to live openly and an opportunity to start a business. Creating a variation of the jock strap and calling it "jock sock", Burkard put an ad in adult magazines to purchase by mail and the product exploded almost immediately, evolving into mail order business with fashions for men with the catalogue created to evoke a worldly, lifestyle magazine. With narration by Matt Boner, the film interviews Burkard (who passed away in 2020), several former employees, celebrity fans and some of the models who describe their struggles with trying to look comfortable in the more extreme looks they were given to wear. My only minor issue with the film is that even at eighty-three minutes, "All Male" feels padded, with a hour probably being plenty of time to effectively tell the International Male story. What I found really interesting was Burkard's insistence that gay men were not the target audience for International Male. I still find this hard to believe yet he did prove that there was an awareness for his clothing outside of the community, successfully luring women into selecting items for their men to wear, many who certainly would never have purchased on their own. This catalogue came to a sad demise in 2007 but International Male will always be remembered for helping to redefine masculinity and open up how men could creatively express themselves through their clothing.
And while "Please Baby Please" was selected the Outstanding Narrative Feature, I was not a fan of this convoluted drama. Set in 1950's New York (but looking more like the 1980's), British actors Andrea Riseborough and Harry Melling play a newly married American couple, Suze and Arthur who witness a street gang brutalizing an innocent victim. Although they are both terrified, this act of violence also opens up for each a desire to explore their gender identities. Demi Moore and Karl Glusman make appearances as an odd neighbor and the gang's sexy leader who Arthur is obsessed with. It is clear that the director Kramer had found inspiration from David Lynch and other offbeat filmmakers yet unlike Lynch's mysterious, erotically-charged journeys into highly stylized otherworlds, Kramer's film feels tedious and incomprehensible, with a sense of trying too hard to just be weird. The script does not help with the characters having a lot to say but their ramblings are all meaningless, devoid of actual sentiment. "Please Baby Please" is an empty exercise into the avant-garde, never succeeding in creating a compelling, dreamlike adventure.
