The AFI Film festival has ended and it was another solid event filled with amazing films from around the world, screening right in the heart of Hollywood where I was able to conveniently stroll to the theater right from my home. I have always loved this fest as it offers the first opportunity to see international films that have received awards and critical praise at previous film festivals while also delivering world premieres of intriguing Hollywood movies that are vying for award attention. With the fest being condensed down to only five days, this made it even more challenging to see all the movies I had wanted. Scheduling was certainly a complicated task for me by having to choose between which movie I really wanted to see, with many either playing at the same time or a movie would be starting while I was in the middle of watching another film. But I managed to do okay, seeing six films including the red carpet premiere of "She Said".
I have been attending AFI Fest for many years and it just occurred to me to I had never written about the movies I saw there. So here is my first time with a few reviews of films from the fest.
The first movie I saw was "Nanny", a haunting, psychological thriller that cleverly merges family dysfunction, West African folklore and a hint of the supernatural. Aisha (a mesmerizing Anna Diop), a Senegalese immigrant, begins a new job as a domestic care worker for the daughter of a wealthy New York family. Things begin well with the mother, Amy (Michelle Monaghan) but tensions build between them as they clash over what to feed the child and Amy's failure to pay Aisha on time. And the arrival of Amy's photographer husband (Morgan Spector) from a business trip only creates more stress in the household. Aisha is willing to endure this privileged family because she is trying to save up money to bring her young son over from Senegal. While Aisha is focused and determined on achieving a better life for herself and young son, she does allow her guard down long enough to tentatively begin a relationship with Malik (Sinqua Walls), the doorman of her employer's building. But she is soon being haunted by an eerie presence that begins in her dreams before spilling over as surreal visions in her waking life.
Writer/director, Nikyatu Jusu makes her feature film debut with "Nanny" which went on to receive the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance fest and capturing the attention of Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions, home to several horror franchises, who went on to executive produce the film. Jusu has more on her mind that creating a creepy atmosphere, thoughtfully touching on the complications of the Black experience while trying to navigate through white society and the many indignities that domestic workers have to suffer through in order to survive. "Nanny" is further enhanced by the exquisite camerawork by Rina Yang and a powerfully captivating performance by Diop. There is a shocking twist which is absolutely heartbreaking, leading to a finale that comes across feeling rushed and obscure. But "Nanny" is still an outstanding, accomplished debut feature by a promising new filmmaker.
The winner of Silver Lion Grand Jury prize along with the Lion of the Future award for director and co-writer, Alice Diop at the 2022 Venice Film Festival and France's official selection for Best International Film for this year's Oscars, "Saint Omer" is a courtroom drama based on a real-life French case that occurred in 2013 involving the unimaginable crime of a young mother accused of murdering her fifteen-month old baby. But what makes this even more chilling and highly unusual is that Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanga), who came from a middle-class family originally from Senegal, claims that it was witchcraft that caused her to commit this horrific offense. Rama (Kayije Kagame), a professor and novelist, has traveled from Paris to Saint Omer to watch the trial for research on a book about the case. As she learns more about Laurence, Rama, a few months pregnant and also Senegalese, finds herself making a personal connection with her, particularly regarding the complicated relationships each has with their mothers.
Diop, French-born to Senegalese parents, had previously only made documentaries but after attending the court case of Fabienne Kabou, the woman who was ultimately convicted of this crime in 2016, she was inspired to try and recreate the experience as a feature film, reflecting on how her home country views her African heritage and the difficult challenges that can come from motherhood. Taking place largely in the courtroom, we learn about Coly's background through her testimony, with her being raised to be a proper Frenchwoman and the conflicted bond between mother and daughter. Deftly penetrating and emotionally devastating, Diop has artfully reimagined the standard true-crime melodrama, focusing less on the lurid crime and more on the accused, exploring her trauma as a tragic motivation and possibly provoke some sense of sympathy. And hearing the world-weary voice of Nina Simone on her version of "Little Girl Blue", effectively used as a coda near the end of the film, left me completely wrecked.
And even though we know the eventual outcome, director, Maria Schrader has managed to create plenty of suspense and tension in "She Said", a riveting drama that looks into the investigation of the long history of allegations involving sexual misconduct by film producer Harvey Weinstein against many women, leading to the start of the #MeToo movement. Sexual harassment and abuse is hardly specific only to Hollywood yet from the very beginning it had become a consistent arrangement for the powerful men in the industry to prey on young, aspiring women just looking for an opportunity to work and has remained an accepted open secret until recently when Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan), a reporter for the New York Times began exploring the whispers of these crimes. After teaming up with fellow journalist, Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan), they had no difficulty finding several women who were victimized by Weinstein yet they refused to speak on the record, either due to NDA settlements or the fear of not being believed. The team also discover that they are not the first to take on this story but once Weinstein ever got word of an investigation, the reporting would mysteriously end. Luckily, their editors (played by Patricia Clarkson and Andre Braugher) give their full support, helping to play defense against the powerful movie mogul.
What makes "She Said" stand out from other films involving investigative reporting is that it's told from a feminist perspective; women working together to help and support each other by pushing back against the male dominated, systemic structures of power. And while Kantor and Twohey's gender certainly gave them some advantage, displaying empathy and a willingness to listen without judgement, it was still a considerable struggle to get these women to feel comfortable enough to risk allowing their names to be revealed to the world for this story. The pacing of the film can be sluggish at times and while I know a big part of a reporter's job is to investigate, the many scenes of the women having conversations on their phones can feel a bit monotonous. Mulligan and Kazan make a great team, capturing the fierce determination by these reporters to get answers. But also the women's exhaustion and guilt of dedicating long hours to their work while sacrificing valuable time away from their families, nothing at all like what Redford and Hoffman had to cope with in "All The President's Men".
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