Week Ending 3/15/24
Rose Glass is back
A ton of new films hit Buffalo theaters this weekend, none more buzzed about than Rose Glass’s SAINT MAUD follow-up, LOVE LIES BLEEDING. You never know which A24 films will show locally, so it’s nice to see this one pop up. I might have to make it my first trip to the theater in 2024 instead of DUNE 2.
Then again, it might not be up long enough to do so. This week is probably out of the question (which is fine since I have a line on 4 or 5 screeners that look interesting, if I can even get to those), so I will have to hope Kristen Stewart holds enough star power to keep it rolling through the end of the month.
And, since I’m no longer doing my Oscar tweet recaps, I guess I’ll say a little about last weekend’s ceremony here: It was pretty boring. They started an hour early only to end up coming in on time to the point where they should have just started at 8pm anyway. The lack of bits (minus that quick Guillermo tequila skit) was welcome, but everything else played so lifelessly in their absence. If you’re going to do a speed run with the show and presenters (to the point where you don’t recap the nominees for actors, song, or picture before announcing the winner), the least you can do is let the winners talk. That’s why we watch!
The worst part, though? Forcing the presenters on deck for after the commercial break to stand in the hallway before the commercial break so they can get in the way of the winner(s) trying to leave the stage. What an awkward scene every single time since no one knew what to do or where to go. A logistical nightmare that should have been vetoed the moment it was suggested.
What I Watched:
KNOX GOES AWAY
(limited release)
I’m not sure why Michael Keaton decided to shoot the first half of his latest directorial effort KNOX GOES AWAY like a black and white noir, but it makes the first hour a bit of a slog. It’s all very stilted with long fade-to-blacks and brief scenes cobbled together in a messy edit that propels the plot without any polish. I think it’s meant to mimic how lead character John Knox (Keaton) is gradually losing his memory from dementia and thus everything he does must occur with a sense of clinical objectivity so that the time wasted from making things feel more organic doesn’t risk screwing up his plan, but it is somewhat exasperating.
Things do finally settle to deliver a final hour that works a lot better than you might initially believe considering the pacing and atmosphere don’t change. Looking back, I wonder if my problems with the first hour stemmed more from expectation than execution. Because you want this thing to pick up. You want to feel the suspense in John trying to help keep his estranged son (James Marsden) out of jail despite his failing health “accidentally” making it so he’s actually tying a bow on the lead detective’s (Suzy Nakamura) case. Keaton not allowing us to feel might therefore be a conscious decision.
Because the film isn’t about the crime. It’s about John’s final act. What is his plan? Is he screwing it up? The number of times his friend (and the only other person who knows what’s happening) Xavier (Al Pacino) calls to keep him on target makes us question whether those mistakes aren’t mistakes at all. And because John’s story exists in that uncertainty, Keaton isn’t able to manipulate things in ways that would normally supply action and excitement. Doing so would tip his hand one way or the other by either giving away the game or steering us in the opposite direction too forcefully to be believed. The monotony is key.
It’s still frustrating, though. No matter how smart you may think Gregory Poirier’s script is or how effective Keaton’s direction to obscure the truths within, you can still wish the whole were better. I do, however, think the way it unfolds and the ways in which John achieves his closure (albeit unorthodox and sometimes extremely lucky) make the journey worthwhile regardless. I honestly didn’t realize just how invested I was in these characters until the pieces start falling into place and Marsden, Pacino, and Marcia Gay Harden (as John’s ex) begin to really humanize what’s happening.
This is a meticulous man who rarely slips up. John Knox does not get caught nor does he do anything he didn’t mean to do … until now. So, how does he stay true to his character while being unable to maintain that precision? He must turn this disadvantage into an advantage. He must weaponize that which is currently making him vulnerable. Is it convenient that he’s able to do so with his final weeks of clarity for the son he hasn’t seen in two decades? Yes. Of course. So is the detective landing two cases that we know connect and therefore will soon know it too. But Keaton and Poirier do enough to render those conveniences into backdrop. What John does to outrun them is what matters.
- 6/10
ONE LIFE
(in theaters)
When looking back at his work during World War II, stockbroker Nicky Winton (Anthony Hopkins) could only really think about the 250 children that didn’t make it out of Czechoslovakia on the ninth train he organized decades prior. It’s understandable since it’s always easier to focus on one’s regrets than achievements no matter how important the latter prove by comparison. Only upon making the decision to ensure the work wasn’t forgotten would circumstances force him to alter that vantage point. Because while situations outside his control may have prevented those 250 children from surviving the Holocaust, actions that Winton himself put in motion ultimately saved 669 others.
Anyone who knows the story (there was a documentary back in 2011 called NICKY’S FAMILY that saw through the eyes and words of those Nicky saved as well as their children) knows what James Hawes’ ONE LIFE is working towards. Yet knowing still won’t stop it from hitting as hard emotionally as it did back in 1988 on an episode of THAT’S LIFE! Reuniting this hero with the boys and girls he saved is surely centerpiece of his life, so screenwriters Lucinda Coxon and Nick Drake have their work cut out for them as far as making the lead-up to its inevitability equally compelling. With help from Barbara Winton’s (Nicky’s daughter) book If It's Not Impossible …, they reenact both the act and the recognition.
We therefore go back and forth through time. Hopkins plays Nicky in the “present,” tasked by wife Grete (Lena Olin) to clean the house of his charity files and potential donations so there’s room for the impending birth of their first grandchild. Johnny Flynn plays Nicky in the past as his elder counterpart’s quest to find a suitable home for his scrapbook remembers what he did alongside Doreen (Romola Garai) and Trevor (Alex Sharp) in Prague and his own mother (Helena Bonham Carter’s Babi) back home in London. We watch as Winton gains the refugees’ trust to compile children’s names and ages and as turns that catalog into an inventory with which to pitch British families willing to both pay for and foster those who made the long journey to safety.
It’s an important historical record that earns its immortalization through cinema. The result isn’t flashy or wholly unique beyond the content itself (neither was that aforementioned documentary), but Winton’s life is simply too compelling to not captivate regardless. One could argue effective serviceability is exactly what is needed to tell it without distracting from its simple message. Ask Nicky and he’d call himself a simple man who did what anyone should in his place. So, why not deliver his legacy through that same humble lens while allowing his deeds to prove on their own just how special he was. It helps to have actors like Hopkins and Flynn bringing him to life, but the real success comes from Winton himself.
- 6/10
SNACK SHACK
(limited release)
It may not take place at an amusement park like ADVENTURELAND or THE WAY, WAY BACK, but Adam Rehmeier’s (writer/director of the great DINNER IN AMERICA) latest film SNACK SHACK contains the same sort of teenage hijinks and first love that serve as a staple of the summer-job-meets-coming-of-age genre. The difference is that A.J. (Conor Sherry) and Moose (Gabriel LaBelle) don’t need the locale to cause trouble. Working the snack counter at their neighborhood pool circa 1991 is merely their latest scheme—a quasi-punishment for getting caught within their many other schemes. It soon teaches them money isn’t everything.
The opening prologue perfectly encapsulates the vibe of what’s coming with the fast-talking, almost affected dialogue between BFFs A.J. and Moose as they decide to risk missing their school bus so they can let their afternoon’s winnings ride on one more dog race happening at the across-state-lines OTB they’ve marked as their new summer headquarters. The way they talk to each other, manipulate their teachers, and fall to pieces in front of A.J.’s parents (Gillian Vigman and David Costabile) provide the rhythm while their easy nature with an older friend (Nick Robinson’s Desert Storm vet) and naïveté with girls (namely Mika Abdalla’s summer transplant Brooke) sets the narrative stage.
This is a pivot point for these boys. Despite being inseparable troublemakers until now, the divide between responsibilities (A.J. generally relegated with the “work” while Moose glad-hands and schmoozes) is becoming more and more glaring as their plans grow more complex. Will A.J. stand-up to Moose and realize his brains are what bring the latter’s ideas to life? Will Moose’s uninhibited demeanor and charisma make it so he “steals” everything A.J. covets but is too shy to pursue? It’s a profanity-laced, unlikely success story that positions its orchestrators to receive everything they could possibly want just as those wants simultaneously diverge or, worse, target things that cannot be shared.
While SNACK SHACK has its moments of sentimentality and familiarity, it never falls prey to bringing its conventions to life conventionally. Robinson is the “sage” purveyor of wisdom and de facto bodyguard for his young friends, but he’s also a cautionary tale insofar as portraying how doing things “the right way” might not always be “the right way.” He admires A.J. and Moose for their ingenuity as much as they idolize him for being their hero. Abdalla is the love interest fated to create a triangle that will pit these “brothers” against each other, but she’s also the catalyst for waking them up to the fact that they aren’t kids anymore. Their dynamic must evolve to remain friends into the future.
It’s a fun ride that works best when it’s unhinged (LaBelle is fantastic as the smooth-talking con man who swears at children and bribes delivery drivers), but it’s more dramatic moments still pack a punch as a result. And just because the plans that are hatched and romances that are born may end up being permanently relegated to the memory of this one summer, don’t presume it means A.J. and Moose end up in the exact same place as they were at the start. These boys go through the emotional wringer to become indelibly changed even as they decide to play it back and do it all again next year.
- 7/10
Cinematic F-Bombs:
This weekend sees BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT (2009), CITY ISLAND (2010), THE NANNY DIARIES (2007), POSSESSION (2010), and READY TO RUMBLE (2000) getting added to the archive (cinematicfbombs.com on Sunday, Twitter on Monday).
New Releases This Week:
(Review links where applicable)
Opening Buffalo-area theaters 3/15/24 -
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MAGICAL NEGROES at AMC Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
ARTHUR THE KING at Dipson McKinley, Flix & Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
FRENCH GIRL at Regal Transit
KNOX GOES AWAY at Regal Transit, Galleria & Quaker
Thoughts are above.
LOVE LIES BLEEDING at Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
MANJUMMEL BOYS at Regal Elmwood
ONE LIFE at Dipson Amherst & Capitol; AMC Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit & Quaker
Thoughts are above.
THE PEASANTS at Regal Elmwood
“Besides the gorgeous time-lapse transitions between the seasons, the whole simply looks like a rotoscope pass of an already shot live-action movie. What does that layer of paint therefore add?” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
THE PRANK [1977] at Regal Transit
THORNS at Regal Transit
YODHA at Regal Elmwood & Galleria
Streaming from 3/15/24 -
IRISH WISH – Netflix on 3/15
MURDER MUBARAK – Netflix on 3/15
TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR – Disney+ on 3/15
Thoughts at Letterboxd.
TROLLS BAND TOGETHER – Peacock on 3/15
STORMY – Peacock on 3/18
ANSELM – Criterion Channel on 3/19
FREAKNIK: THE WILDEST PARTY NEVER TOLD – Hulu on 3/21
ROAD HOUSE – Prime on 3/21
Now on VOD/Digital HD -
DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS (3/12)
DRIVING MADELEINE (3/12)
INSHALLAH A BOY (3/12)
“Amjad Al Rasheed's debut feature INSHALLAH A BOY is very good. Unfortunately, however, it also falls prey to a desire to not take its issues to their true (possibly nightmarish) ends [while] playing both sides as if nothing is actually wrong.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
ORIGIN (3/12)
“It's an ingenious approach to simultaneously educate and entertain. Some of it works better than the rest, but you cannot deny the power of the whole when [its] more lecture hall passages are put into context with the authentic human drama of the rest.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
OUR BODY (3/12)
SILVER HAZE (3/12)
SOMETIMES I THINK ABOUT DYING (3/12)
“The dry humor of [Fran and Robert's] insecurities is entertaining enough to endure the pacing, but it's the supporting cast like Garrett and especially Marcia DeBonis' Carol that truly resonates.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
THE ANIMAL KINGDOM (3/15)
ESCAPE (3/15)
PREY (3/15)
STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS (3/15)
STOPMOTION (3/15)
THE THROWBACK (3/15)
YUNI (3/15)
From the press kit archive:
