ZOLA (2021)

Written by Janicza Bravo and Jeremy O. Harris



Directed by Janicza Bravo



Where & When: TCL Chinese Theatres, Hollywood, CA. July 6, 2021 5:35PM



It all started with a tantalizing Tweet: "Y'all wanna hear a story about why me & this bitch here fell out?????? It's kind of long but full of suspense" and the world became transfixed on Aziah "Zola" King's story. The filmmaker, Janicza Bravo has taken King's collection of short ruminations and expanded them in to a thrilling feature film that takes us on a wildly irreverent, hilariously dark journey. And even though we are told that the events in this story are "mostly true" during the opening credits, there is never a doubt for a moment that what we see happening in this film has been wildly embellished.

Zola (Taylour Paige) was working at her dead-end job at a Detroit diner when everything changed once Stefani (Riley Keough) entered the restaurant and her life. Their connection was immediate and intense with these two women becoming fast friends. Aware that she dances occasionally to supplement her income, Stefani invites Zola to join her on a road trip to a Florida strip club where they will earn a huge payday.

But once the car door closes, Zola feels this might be a big mistake. Along for the trip is the driver, Stefani's roommate who will only be known as "X" (Colman Domingo), an imposing figure that will make one uncomfortable even when he's smiling and Derrek (Nicholas Braun), Stefani's boyfriend, a gullible dimwit who worships the ground she walks on.

Once the group reaches Tampa, Zola's instincts prove correct. After dumping Derrek off at filthy motel, the girls head to the club. At the end of the shift, Zola didn't make anywhere near the amount of money she was promised. But the evening is far from over. It turns out that Stefani lured Zola on this trip under a false pretense; "X" is Stefani's pimp and the girls are expected to turn tricks all night in a luxury suite. And "X", whose actual Caribbean accent comes out when he's angry, will not take "no" for an answer.

Trying to build a movie around a Twitter thread was always going to be a bit of a challenge so Bravo and Jeremy O. Harris (the award-winning playwright of "Slave Play" who was a promising student dramatist at Yale when he came on board) also used the 2016 Rolling Stone article, "Zola Tells All: The Real Story Behind the Greatest Stripper Saga Ever Tweeted" by David Kushner to help them flesh out their screenplay. The tone remains largely light and comedic despite the dark undercurrent of the harrowing lives that sex workers have to endure. Race and privilege is also touched upon with Zola being made clear, implicitly and explicitly, that Stefani holds more value as a commodity due to her being pretty, blonde and white.

As we know, there are two sides to every story and "Zola" is King's version of events, which paints her out to be a streetwise and far too classy for these people. As Zola, Paige lets her expressive face reveal the annoyance and frustration of the situation she finds herself trapped in. We will have to take King's word about what really went down but the woman who Stefani is based upon plans on suing for defamation, unhappy with how she has been portrayed. 

Keough delivers a brave and compelling performance as Stefani, a chatterbox speaking in her idea of an African-American dialect. The film doesn't make it clear if she's just a ruthless manipulator or a victim of her circumstances yet she was fully involved with seducing Zola. There is a brief mini-movie that's supposed to give Stefani a chance to tell her side, with her trying to be viewed as a virtuous woman who fell victim to the dirty dealings of a devious Zola, with hay in her hair and wearing trash bags. That's not exactly believable either but like many hustlers, they are far more interested in a great, juicy story than the boring, exact truth.

Ms Bravo began her career writing and directing several short films before making her feature debut, "Lemon" in 2017. I saw this film, a quirky comedy that starred Bravo's then-husband, Brett Gelman as a theater director who becomes unhinged after his blind girlfriend dumps him while he's trying to put on an unusual production of Chekhov's "The Seagull". And while I found "Lemon" to be largely tedious, I did think that the novice filmmaker actually showed promise. With "Zola", Bravo was able to tap in to her offbeat instincts with a narrative that would benefit from her distinctive storytelling, expanding a dark and twisted story with surreal visual flourish and pitch black humor. 

I enjoyed this movie, greatly admiring the remarkably inventive approach Ms Bravo has taken to tell Zola's outrageous story and laughed out loud several times throughout (the biggest laugh for me was when a white patron tells Zola while she is dancing that she looks like Whoopi Goldberg . I'm still chuckling days later at that one). But I can also understand how "Zola" might be too bleak and disturbing for some viewers. At it's core, "Zola" is tragic and sad; two abused and exploited sex workers exploiting each other for the service of men and the almighty dollar. It is really hard to completely escape this fact no matter how humorously or stylishly this entertaining story is told.

WINNERS OF THE 2021 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

Even though Jury president, Spike Lee accidently revealed the winner prematurely, that did not take away from the excitement that the French filmmaker, Julia Ducournau would receive the top prize of the Palme d'Or for her feature, "Titane" at the close of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. This remarkably outlandish drama is about a young woman who gets a metal plate in her head after a terrible car accident that leads her to some pretty wild and crazy situations. Ducournau became only the second female director to receive this honor following Jane Campion for "The Piano" in 1993. 

The Grand Prix or runner-up for best film was a tie between "A Hero", the latest from Iranian director, Asghar Farhadi, about a man imprisoned for failing to repay his debt and trying to work out a deal with his creditors and "Compartment No. 6", a drama from Juho Kuosmanen, is an offbeat love story set on a train between a Finnish student and a Russian miner. And the highly anticipated musical fantasia, "Annette" which had opened the fest, helped Leos Carax win the Best Director prize. 

Here is the list of winners from the 74th annual Cannes Film Festival:

Palme d’Or: "Titane"



Grand Prix (Tie): "A Hero" and "Compartment No. 6"



Best Director: Leos Carax, "Annette"
Best Screenplay: Ryusuke Hamaguchi, "Drive My Car"



Best Actress: Renate Reinsve, "The Worst Person In The World"
Best Actor: Caleb Landry Jones, "Nitram"

Jury Du Prix (Tie): "Ha'berech (Ahed’s Knee)" and "Memoria"

Camera d’Or: "Murina"
Short Film Palme d’Or: "All The Crows In The World"
Special Mention: "August Sky"

RICHARD DONNER (1930 - 2021)

Richard Donner, the director behind such classics as "Superman", "The Goonies" and the "Lethal Weapon" film series, passed away on July 5th at the age of ninety-one. The filmmaker, along with his wife of thirty-seven years, Lauren Shuler Donner, formed the production company, The Donners' Company (formerly Donner/Shuler Donner Productions) and brought to the screen, "Free Willy" and the "X-Men" franchises.

Donner, born Richard Schwartzberg in the Bronx, NY, began his career wanting to be an actor. But after appearing in a bit part on a television show, the director, Martin Ritt thought he might be better working behind the camera, later hiring him as an assistant. Donner began shooting commercials before moving on to TV, directing episodes of everything from the western, "The Rifleman" to "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." to the comedy series, "Gilligan's Island" to "The Twilight Zone".

In 1961, he got his first opportunity to direct a feature film, "X-15", a story about the X-15 rocket aircraft progrm that starred Charles Bronson and Mary Tyler Moore in her first feature film role. It was not a big success and it took seven years before his next film, a modest comedy with Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford called "Salt and Pepper".

But Donner's real breakthrough happened in 1976 with "The Omen". This supernatural-horror film with Gregory Peck and Lee Remick as the adopted parents of a child who is the spawn of the devil became a box-office hit that helped launch his career as a go-to-director. His next film was "Superman: The Movie" which brought the Man of Steel to the big-screen in 1978. With a budget of $55 miliion dollars, this all-star, super-hero adventure was one of the most expensive films made at the time due to the cast (Marlon Brando was paid $3.7 million for two-weeks work) and state-of-the-art visual effects. But the film became an international sensation, earning $300 million dollars at the worldwide box-office (which would be an incredible 1.2 billion dollars today).

Some of the other popular films Donner went on to direct include the Bill Murray Christmas classic, "Scrooged"; the film adaption of the television western, "Maverick" with Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster and James Garner (who starred in the series); Gibson and Julia Roberts in the 1997 political action-thriller, "Conspiracy Theory" and the 1985 medieval romantic-fantasy-adventure, "Ladyhawke" (featuring Matthew Broderick and Michelle Pfeiffer in early film roles) that was a box-office disapointment yet has gone on to become a cult-fan favorite. The last feature Donner directed was "16 Blocks" in 2006, a real-time, action-thriller that starred Bruce Willis and Mos Def.

SUBLET (2021)

Written by Eytan Fox and Itay Segal



Directed by Eytan Fox



Where & When: Laemmle Royal, West Los Angeles, CA.  June 19, 2021  4:10 PM

The Israeli filmmaker, Eytan Fox was introduced to audiences with his 2002 breakthrough feature, "Yossi & Jagger". At only seventy-one minutes, this moving film, which tells the story of two soldiers stationed at the Israel–Lebanon border who are having a clandestine romance, brought the director international acclaim with an infrequent drama at the time involving a gay relationship. The openly gay Fox would focus on queer themes in his subsequent work in film and television, including his latest, "Sublet". The focus of this compelling drama is on two very different gay men -- culturally, socially and generationally -- who unexpectedly develop a profound friendship that is built without lustful desire or romantic passion but through mutual trust and intimacy.

Michael (John Benjamin Hickey), a middle-aged travel writer for The New York Times, has just landed in Tel Aviv for an assignment. He arrives at the apartment he has arranged to stay in for five days when Tomer (Niv Nissim), an aspiring filmmaker who is subleting his place, has completely lost track of time and unprepared to welcome his guest. Michael offers to find a hotel but the young Israeli man insists that he stay, confessing he really needs the money. After Tomer rushes out, Michael tries to settle in to the cluttered rental. He has a husband (Peter Spears) back in New York and during a video chat, we get a sense there is some unresolved tension between this long-term couple.

The next morning, Tomer returns to the apartment to pick-up something he left behind and the two begin to chat. Michael explains that he has come to write about his experiences visiting interesting places in the city, mentioning a few. After informing him that those places are hardly the best in Tel Aviv and knows of far more appealing destinations, an intrigued Michael asks Tomer to escort him to them. This begins their days-long journey involving discovery and self-discovery.

Carefree and fiercely protective of his independence, Tomer is a modern queer man who refuses to be clearly defined or tied down to anyone. He finds Michael's aspiration for a heteronormative lifestyle curious and a little sad. But as he gets to know more about Michael, this opens him to understanding the possibilities of a deeper connection with just one person. And watching Tomer's relaxed approach to living his life, a fussy, uptight Michael begins to reconsider what he really wants and needs in his own life and relationship.

The plot of "Sublet" may be slight and predictable yet the film still manages to charm and be completely engaging due to the intimate moments between these two men, sharing their dreams, fears, desires and disappointments. This the first film role for Mr. Nissim and Mr. Hickey is a recognized and celebrated character actor of stage and screen. The actors deliver wonderfully honest, lived in performances as these two strangers hesitantly begin to open up to trust each other.

"Sublet" is a safe yet fascinating character study set in a time post-marriage equality. The film gently touches on the rarely discussed conflict between domesticated gays wanting to be seen as "normal" by society and others continuing to embrace being proudly queer which means not following societal expectations. While there have been several gains made since the fiery explosion of the Stonewall riots, we certainly still have very long way to go before there is true equality for all in the LGBTQIA+ communities.

2021 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

After COVID brought down the 2020 edition of the Cannes Film Festival, the 74th annual event is moving forward this year. Instead of the usual May dates, the fest has been pushed to July 6th to the 17th. This will be an in-person festival but with safety protocols in place which will include daily health pass checks that must show full vaccination or a negative test result issued no more than 48 hours prior and masks are to be worn during indoor screenings.

"Annette", the first feature film from Leos Carax since 2012, will be the Opening Night film. This is the fanciful French director's English-language debut and first actual musical which he co-wrote with Ron and Russell Mael of the art-rock band, Sparks. Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard star as a creative couple who give birth to a daughter, Annette who has a special gift. This dramatic musical has also been selected in the main competition for prizes.



Spike Lee, who was selected for the 2020 event before it was cancelled, will be President of the jury who will determine the winners of the awards. The impressive list of jurors who will be joining the American filmmaker (whose image also graces the 2021 Cannes poster) this year will be French/Senegalese director, Mati Diop ("Atlantics"); French-Canadian musician, Mylène Farmer; American actor, Maggie Gyllenhaal; Austrian filmmaker, Jessica Hausner; French actor/filmmaker, Mélanie Laurent; Brazilian filmmaker, Kleber Mendonça Filho; French actor, Tahar Rahim and South Korean actor, Song Kang-Ho ("Parasite").

Twenty-four films will be vying for these prizes and the competition is heavy with new works by some familiar names of international filmmaking; Mia Hansen-Løve ("Bergman Island"), Paul Verhoeven ("Benedetta"), Ildikó Enyedi ("The Story of My Wife"), François Ozon ("Tout s'est bien passé (Everything Went Fine)"), Joachim Trier ("The Worst Person in the World"), Sean Baker ("Red Rocket"), Jacques Audiard ("Paris, 13th District"), Asghar Farhadi ("A Hero"), Apichatpong Weerasethakul ("Memoria"), Sean Penn ("Flag Day") and Wes Anderson ("The French Dispatch").





There is a new section added to the fest called Cannes Première which will focus on putting a spotlight on the films they want to give special recognition but cannot accommodate due to limited space in the competition section. Some of the films featured include the latest from cinematic provocateur, Gaspar Noé with "Vortex" which is about the last years of a couple suffering from senility, "Cow" from British filmmaker, Andrea Arnold, "Hold Me Tight", a new feature from French actor/filmmaker, Mathieu Almaric and Arnaud Desplechin's "Tromperie (Deception)".

"OSS 117: From Africa With Love", the latest in the French spy comedy series starring Oscar-winner, Jean Dujardin, will be shown as the Final Screening of the fest. And Jodie Foster will receive this year's Honorary Palme d'Or for her outstanding contributions to cinema as a performer and filmmaker. The two-time Oscar winner plans to attend the event in person to accept the honor during the Opening Night cermony.

THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW (2021)

 

Written by Tracy Letts

Directed by Joe Wright

Available to stream now on Netflix

Back in 2018, Joe Wright, the adventurous British filmmaker behind such creatively thrilling works such as "Pride & Prejudice", "Atonement", "Hanna" and "Darkest Hour", was signed on to bring to the screen the number one best-seller, "The Woman in the Window" by A. J. Finn with Amy Adams and an impressive line-up of actors to co-star. And then the finished film was test-screened for audiences. It did not go well. 

This mystery-thriller had additional scenes added and was re-edited which ultimately did not help. "The Woman in the Window" was delayed several times and then the studio behind the film, 20th Century Fox was bought by the Walt Disney Studios. The pandemic caused the film's release to be delayed again with Disney deciding to have a fire sale and unloaded "The Woman in the Window" to Netflix.

After this long, sad road for the film, I wish I could say that it's really not that bad. But this story of an agoraphobic woman who thinks she has witnessed a murder in the building next door is really, really bad especially considering all of the A-list talent in-front-of and behind the camera involved. "The Woman in the Window" is a muddled thriller that is badly executed, lacking in a steady narrative structure and any clear logical sense.

Living in a large, Manhattan brownstone, Anna Fox (Adams) was a child psychologist before going through a terrible trauma, leaving her suffering from agoraphobia, deeply afraid to venture outside of her home. Separated from her husband (Anthony Mackie) and daughter (Mariah Bozeman) for an unknown reason, she regularly communicates with them. She has a tenant, David (Wyatt Russell) who lives in her basement and tries to help her out whenever he can. Trapped indoors, Anna spends her days watching old movies, taking meds, drinking heavily and observing (some might say "spying") her neighbors living their lives out of her window.

One evening, Ethan Russell (Fred Hechinger), a teenager who has moved in with his family directly across the street, arrives with a gift. Reluctantly, Anna lets him in, with the two bonding over movies and her cat. The next night on Halloween, Ethan's mother, Jane (Julianne Moore) pays her a visit. They spend the evening chatting and drinking. The next day, Alistair Russell (Gary Oldman) comes knocking on Anna's door, asking if anyone from his family had been over to visit. Feeling uncomfortable with his aggressive manner, Anna lies to him. Later, Ethan confesses to her that his father has been abusive to him and his mother.

Then one night, after hearing a scream, Anna looks out her window and sees Jane being stabbed in her home. After calling the police, two detectives (Brian Tyree Henry and Jeanine Serralles) arrive to question Anna who is convinced that Alistair has murdered his wife. However, the Russell family are with the police and that includes Jane (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh) who is very much alive and has never met Anna. Since we know that liquor and anxiety medication probably shouldn't mix, there is the possiblity that Anna is hallucinating that she met Jane and could be the cause behind the other disturbances that have left her feeling jumpy and disoriented. As she begins to believe what she saw must be her imagination, a photo that Anna took of her cat reveals that something sinister is really happening.

Alfred Hitchcock looms large over "The Woman in the Window" with Wright paying direct homage to the influential director by attempting to recreate his style of suspense, even going so far as using clips from some of his celebrated movies throughout. Yet this move only serves to remind us that what we're watching is a poorly conceived imitation of the great work done by the Master of Suspense. What Hitchcock did to create his feature films was thoughtfully and meticulously planned out. And while it is certain that what finally ended up on screen with "Woman" is not what our director had originally envisioned, what exactly was his grand plan is also not clear. It seems that Wright had wanted to elevate the common psychological thriller with artful elements much like he did (with mixed results) in his 2012 boldly, stylized adaptation of the oft-revisited literary classic, "Anna Karenina". We see brief moments of surrealistic imagery throughout this film yet they feel oddly out of place when merged with the standard mystery-thriller tropes. Whatever the true intentions were by Wright with "The Woman in the Window" will remain unknown but I suspect that the director was attempting a more impressionistic approach to the film which probably would explain the confusion by viewers.

Another mystery involves actor/writer, Tracy Letts (appearing briefly in the film as Anna's psychiatrist) and the screenplay he wrote for this film. What we have is a fairly simple story that has been written in a way to make it become unnecessarily complicated and extremely confusing. The story is oddly paced, the dialogue is stilted and the characters' motivations are not sharply drawn. But I would still be very curious to read the original completed script by this Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright because I'm sure it had to be somewhat compelling in order to have attracted all of the talent involved.

One positive thing I can say about the film is that it looks great thanks to the stunning camera work by Bruno Delbonnel and production design by Kevin Thompson. Wright is usually a brilliant and confident filmmaker, always willing to push boundaries and never settling for an obvious approach in handling material, even if it's a revered classic. But with "The Woman in the Window" he seems to have lost his way, trying to push a slight narrative too far while also failing to keep the mystery reasonably intact.

2021 TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL

The 2021 Tribeca Film Festival will be the first major US fest to have in-person events since the pandemic began as well as continuing with online screenings for those more comfortable watching from home or anyone unable to attend living in the USA. This year will mark the 20th anniversary of this New York celebration of indie cinema and will be held June 9th to 20th. The festival will also feature Tribeca Immersive which explores the art found in the virtual world; Tribeca Podcasts will deliver the best of audio-storytelling; Talks will have discussions on the business of entertainment, TV will showcase the best of the small screen on the big screen and the welcome return of live events. 

The fest will open with the world premiere of the big screen adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda's award-winning musical, "In The Heights". The film, directed by John Chu, will be screened at various sites in outdoor venues across all five of New York's five boroughs and also indoors at the recently restored United Palace theater in the Washington Heights neighborhood where the story is set. "In The Heights" will be released on June 11th in theaters and HBO Max.

Another Warner Bros. film, "No Sudden Move", the latest from director, Steven Soderbergh, has been selected as the Centerpiece Gala with an outdoor screening taking place at the Battery on June 18th. Set in 1954 Detroit, a group of small-time criminals get in over their heads when a planned job goes terribly wrong. Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro, Jon Hamm and Ray Liotta star in this crime-thriller that will be in theaters and HBO Max on July 1st.



There will be several retrospective outdoor screenings including the 25th anniversary of the Coen brothers', "Fargo"; "The Royal Tenenbaums", "The Five Heartbeats" and the Charlie Chaplin classic, "The Kid". A restored version of "Raging Bull" will be screened followed by a pre-recorded conversation about the film's lasting legacy with star, Robert De Niro and director, Martin Scorsese.







The Closing Night film will be the new documentary which is being referred to as "Untitled: Dave Chappelle Documentary". Inspired by the difficulties of the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd, the film follows Chappelle as he performs a series of outdoor, socially-distanced comedy shows done in his neighbor's cornfield last summer. The documentary, directed by Steve Bognar and Julia Reichert, will make it's world premiere at Radio City Music Hall which will be the first time the venue has been opened for an event since last March.

And after having their planned 2020 Tribeca screenings cancelled due to the pandemic, those selected fifty-six feature films will be making in-person theatrical premieres during this year's event.

For the complete listing of films, additional information and purchase tickets, please click below:

2021 Tribeca Film Festival