Week two of this local autumn film fest includes the expected slate of Oscar bait, animation, world cinema and documentary but also some bizarre gems, a few of which likely won’t hit screens until next year.
The Debut
Julianne Moore’s rarely been better (which is saying a lot given everything she’s done from Safe to Gloria Bell) and Paul Giamatti (in his buzziest role since The Holdovers) is dependable as always. Writer/director Jesse Eisenberg has made a musical of sorts about community theater, emphasis on both of those words. I can’t fully determine whether this is meant to be a parody as it’s far from realistic and turns increasingly ridiculous in the second half. Still, Moore (as a housewife/novice performer) is so winning as is the notion of finding one’s self on stage that I can mostly forgive such flaws.
Rehearsals for a Revolution
Pegah Ahangarani’s overview of Iran from the late 70s through today is documentary-as-memoir to a degree that I thought of Jonathan Caouette’s Tarnation, of all things. It does lack that film’s pop-culture references because they really don’t have an equivalent in this story. “You never really know another person (or culture) until you step inside their shoes” is a cliche, but here it’s a profound one conveyed with power and urgency, despite a few questionable stylistic choices (I’d nix all the music except for the unexpected, effective use of “Greenfields”.)
La Gradiva
A gradually percolating 145-minute account of a school trip where seemingly nothing, then everything consequential happens, unspooling with the agility and tightness of a 90-minute feature. The non-professional cast is terrific, especially Gotham-nominated Colas Quignard (a troubled student) and Antonia Buresi (his exhausted teacher) but for a feature directorial debut, Marine Atlan (also the writer and cinematographer) is the MVP here, drawing on the conversation-heavy tradition of Rohmer and Linklater and making it her own.
Ashes
This adaptation of a novel that spans from Mexico to Spain and back has all the elements of something potentially great (in particular, lead Anna Diaz); sadly, the execution’s all wrong, favoring narrative ellipses without understanding how to make them mean something. Like Jonah Hill with Mid-90s, Diego Luna comes off as an artist whose acting proficiency far exceeds his filmmaking ability.
Everytime
Well, Sandra Wollner’s curious tone poem about family and grief is equally dramatic and comedic. It’s also absolutely bonkers (particularly in its even more unclassifiable third act) but refreshingly subdued in that it doesn’t scream at the viewer or implore them how to react; rather, it just puts the weirdness out there and says, “Take a look”—an often compelling kind of peculiarity where one’s not entirely sure of rhyme, reason or destination but gleefully follows its twisted path anyway.
Tangles
An adaptation of Sarah Leavitt’s 2010 graphic memoir, director Leah Nelson’s feature debut immediately scans as a clear descendant of Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis (and also Alison Bechdel comics, maybe even a little Bojack Horseman.) So, not groundbreaking in any sense but it excels mostly because it feels genuine and affecting and it puts an excellent ensemble voice cast (especially Abbi Jacobson, Bryan Cranston and Samira Wiley) to good use.
The Dreamed Adventure
I honestly couldn’t tell you entirely what this lengthy Bulgarian film was about but I don’t think that matters much as I could say the same of something like Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell from a few years back or at least half of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s oeuvre. Yana Radeva and Syuleyman Letifov are both such striking presences, for one thing; for another, the accumulating details of this world give off a vivid sense of what it’s like to be there even if the stakes are often low (until they’re not.)
Behemoth!
Contrived—that’s the word I couldn’t get out of my head while watching this overbaked soufflé despite performances nuanced (lead Pedro Pascal), noteworthy (musician/newcomer Kaya Ralls) and marvelously nutso (a jump-scare prone Olivia Wilde in her third great role this year) or a mesmerizing score or even the occasional inspired moment (the dogs!) Alas, if it’s not genuine or believable (even while striving for such), it just won’t rise.
