More highly recommended flicks from this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.
But first, a couple more shout outs to some terrific performance in films that didn’t quite make my best.
Ronit Yudkevich delivers a wonderfully subtle, moving performance in Ruthy Pribar’s What is to Come.
The mesmerizing Melora Walters (Magnolia) dives deep into the whacky skin of a waitress turned murderess in Mickey Keating’s pulpy, evocative but maddening Crooks.
Zach Braff and extraordinary newcomer Esther McGregor lay themselves bare in Jake Allyn’s heartbreaking look at addiction, Clean Hands.
In Memoriam
Here’s a pitch: a movie about a self-centered ass of an actor who finds out he only has six months to live and goes on a quest to makes sure he will be part of the next year’s Academy Awards “in Memoriam’ montage.
Silly nonsense?
Actually, it’s a very odd blend of dark comedy, and deeply affecting drama that works. I was shocked at how moved I was by this film—which ended too abruptly—but that’s really my only beef. Okay, one more, it underuses the so many talented actors crammed into this gem. I want a limited series!
Marc Maron, in a performance that should be in the awards conversation later this year, plays Langston Stanfield, an egotistical, vain mess of a man (6 marriages? A daughter he’s never bothered to meet?), who made a few decent films early in his career, but who sold out and did a stupid sitcom—his only real claim to fame. Now 60, he’s doing TV guest stints and, out of nowhere, he learns he has “ass cancer” and has about six months left, unless he does chemo—which he refuses to do (lose his hair, no way!).
But he does become obsessed with being included in the Oscar’s In Memoriam segment. Alas, certain forces are against him—the dude in charge of the selections, Jeremy Marvin (Alan Ruck, a hoot), was once his good friend but that was before Langston slept with and then married his wife!
His therapist (a marvelous Lily Gladstone) talks him into meeting and trying to get to know his daughter (an excellent Talia Ryder) and that’s where the heart of this story lies.
Writer-director Rob Burnett has a keen sense of the industry he’s hilariously satirizing, but he also knows his story tropes and how to invert them when necessary. And as crazy as things get (and they do) nothing ever feels inauthentic.
The assembled cast all do great work including Sharon Stone, Justin Long, Michael McKean, Judy Greer, Megalyn Echikunwoke and Mila Degray as a sweet street performer.
The Leader
Michael Gallagher’s look at ‘Heaven’s Gate’ the UFO cult that ended in the largest mass suicide in American history—not the Michael Cimino debacle — The Leader, is a true horror film.
How are people so swayed by what to most would appear to be ludicrous ideas, that they would give up everything including, ultimately, their lives? And why is it that so often these charismatic leaders are downright skeevy looking?
The writer-director spent over a decade researching the story and it pays off, as disturbing and disquieting as the film is to sit through, it’s also a riveting look inside the minds of people who feel they don’t belong anywhere—society’s discards. What is most troubling is, who hasn’t felt that way at one time or another?
Nurse Bonnie Lu Nettles (Vera Farmiga) meets Marshall “Herff” Applewhite (Tim Blake Nelson) in the early 70s and leaves her family for him, despite the fact that he has no interest in her sexually. But they form an intense bond which leads to a movement based on a wacky notion that they’ll all be called back to their home planet at some point and need to prepare. As the cult grows we are privy to their wacky prep which includes desexualizing themselves, even if it means castration.
All of this leads to the tragedy that happened in 1997 when all 39 members committed suicide.
Farmiga and Nelson are scarily immersive. They gave me genuine chills. This is one of Farmiga’s best performances. Ditto, a chilling Jim Parsons as a loyal believer trying to escape his prurient demons. Grace Caroline Currey does excellent work. I was really impressed with Simon Rex who has a key supporting role and nails it. We don’t get a lot of backstory to his character, but his face tells a nuanced tale of desperately needing to belong
It’s more than hinted at that the mentally unstable Herff’s internalized shame stems from his closeted homosexuality. So many of the members seemed to have repressed and/or mal-developed sexual natures which Herff took complete advantage of, often breaking his own rule and having relations with them.
The Leader is not an easy sit by any stretch. I don’t know if I’d ever want to see it again. But it is a gut-punch true story that speaks to the dark and desperate side of human nature and society.
Caity
Writer-director Lindsay Calleran creates a bizarre yet moving character study with her absorbing debut feature Caity. Chiara Aurelia fascinates as the titular character, a 16-year-old girl who helps manage her family’s upstate New York haunted house extravaganza along with her troubled father, Paul (an excellent Morgan Spector), who is trying to hold onto his sobriety.
Calleran shoots her film in a singular style, so we see everything through Caity’s watchful, curious and sometimes pained eyes as her father relapses. She is also crushing on a new employee, Hannah (Jordan Hull) and finding herself charmed by a pair of twins (Jonah and Christian Lees).
Aurelia anchors this evocative gem, loaded with wonderful moments and performances. And the haunted house sets quite the creepy mood as well. But, as Caity too quickly learns, there are very real demons lurking, very often, in our own homes and within ourselves.
Never Change!
For some people the idea of retuning to high school is exciting—imagine being able to right some wrongs and take some risks you were too afraid to way back when. But, for others, going back to a time where you were bullied or invisible or miserable can be a stress-filled, anxiety-inducing nightmare.
In Marty Schousboe’s deranged, wackadoodle comedy, Never Change!, an entire graduating Class of 2008 must return to high school for two weeks to complete their degree thanks to a bureaucratic snafu. Let the outrageous antics ensue!
The flick is a mix of silly, savvy, pretentious, sly, absurd and, sometimes, even warm and fuzzy–and is stacked with fabutastic performances by a stellar ensemble that includes John Reynolds (who co-wrote the film with Schouseboe), Sofia Black-D’Elia, Jackie Cruz, Rudy Pankow, Billy Bryk, John Early, Jo Firestone, Carmen Christopher, Gary Richardson, Topher Grace and the warped but wonderful Ana Gasteyer.
Strap in, down a gummy, and watch these folks put themselves through all the aches and pains and highs and lows and humiliations and delights of high school all over again—while you relive some of your own experiences.
Zejtune
Maltese-American director Alex Camilleri’s sophomore feature, Zejtune, dives into the interesting culture of għana, which is an improvised form of songwriting/singing, similar to hip hop, where the performers go back and forth about one another. The vocals are in a strained-throat style.
Camilleri brings together two very different characters and explores themes of loneliness, identity and belonging, all against the gorgeous island landscape backdrop in and around Malta.
Mar (a captivating Michela Farrugia) is a young woman who just lost her estranged mother and inherits three plots of Maltese land. But they come with complications and she’s in a rush to sever ties with her homeland and family ASAP. In trying to figure out exactly where the land is, she enlists an elderly local Nenu (Nenu Borg), who knows the area and is also a rather famous għana troubadour. The two go on a road trip of sorts and she’s coaxed into learning the art form and, in doing so, discovers some truths about herself.
I wouldn’t at all be surprised if this deeply affecting character study ends up being Malta’s International Feature Oscar submission.
Time Warp
Allison Berg’s Time Warp is a mostly engaging, inclusive documentary that shines a light on an intrepid drag theater company is a small lackluster mining town in Rock Springs, Wyoming, who, under the leadership of a young and charming performer, Kenny Starling, set about to stage a shadow cast Rocky Horror Picture Show weekend. Rock Springs isn’t the worldliest place on earth, it’s a town where gun and liquor stores are everywhere, but acceptance is not.
For many gay people, the state of Wyoming is synonymous with the horrific torture and crucifixion murder of out gay student Matthew Shepard. It is for me. It also happens to have one of the highest state suicide rates.
Set mostly in 2022, before the latest onslaught of terrifying attacks on LBGTQ people all over the country, the doc features the diverse players as they venture to engage community members in attending the show. They must also deal with the homophobia from a few of the townsfolk who would rather the event not happen. But Berg keeps most of the focus on these spirited thesps and the contagious joy they feel performing—and on Starling, a dynamic presence. My minor beef is that the film could have used some trimming.
With the acclaimed, Tony-nominated revival of The Rocky Horror Show currently running on Broadway, Linus O’Brien’s recent doc debut, Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror, centering on his father Richard and the creation of Rocky Horror as well as a stunning 50th anniversary release of the film on 4K, interest in the cult stage show and film has only increased.
Berg gives us a loving and vital addition to queer doc cinema and to the Rocky canon.
Iconoclast
Gabriel Basso, so good in the Netflix thriller, The Night Agent, wrote, directed and stars in Iconoclast, and ambitious character study/psychological thriller about a loner obsessed with an Influencer who live-streams a rather tame webcast.
Connor (Gabriel Basso) is an odd duck. He works at a used appliance store that no one patronizes. And most of his non-work time is spent either glued to Influencer Nika’s (Courteny Eaton) live-stream or lifting weights and shooting guns because those things are what Nika likes in a guy.
The arduous, slowwww-burn first three quarters of Iconoclast seem to be setting us up for some Travis Bickle mayhem and it’s in that final quarter that the film takes off and becomes truly dark and disquieting. The film could have been edited down to a tight 90 minutes and been a lot more engaging.
But Basso’s performance keeps things interesting, along with a winning Rain Spencer as a girl who crushes on Connor. God help her.
I Spy With My Little Eye
Alisa Kolosova’s poetic feature debut, I Spy With My Little Eye centers on the friendship of three childhood besties (Saskia Rosendahl, Svenja Jung and Soma Pysall) and what happens when one of them takes her own life, leaving her 5-year-old daughter behind. As the remaining two relive past memories and confront hidden secrets, they must also decide the child’s fate.
Kolosova uses non-linear narrative storytelling to great effect here, allowing more and more character nuances to emerge as we go back and forth in time. All three actresses do superb work. This German-language film is ultimately a meditation on female friendship, grief, loss and healing.
