LAFF 2015: OPENING NIGHT WITH GRANDMA

Sage (Julia Garner) and Elle (Lily Tomlin) in Grandma.

Just for the Elle of it

By John Esther

For its 21st year, the Los Angeles Film Festival begins tonight with writer-director Paul Weitz's Grandma.

A considerable hit at this year's Sundance Film Festival, the 80-minute Grandma tells the story of Elle Reid (Lily Tomlin), a woman navigating her life after her longtime lover has passed away. Afraid to ever get close to another lover again, Elle cruelly, somewhat abruptly, ends her four-month relationship with Olivia (Judy Greer).

That same day, Elle's granddaughter, Sage (Julia Garner) shows up at Elle's doorsteps unannounced. Sage is pregnant and needs the money to terminate the pregnancy.

Having just paid off her credit cards, Elle is short on cash. Not to be defeated, Elle grabs Sage and together they go hunting for the money needed for Sage's doctor's appointment that very day. While finding $600 will be difficult, Sage and Elle know it is easier to ask friends -- old and new -- for the money than asking it from Sage's mom and Elle's daughter, Judy (Marica Gay Hayden).

Quick, sharp and superior to the similar Juno, Grandma runs with fresh humor, biting satire, a little craziness and feminist politics (now, on the other hand, that mysterious cab fare...). Considering the tropes of too many movies (and TV) about unwanted pregnancies, the fate of Sage and Grandma can prove to be a bit unnerving, but it does not disappoint in its conclusion.

Tomlin's name is already being thrown around as a year-end contender (about time!) for best performance, but I would also suggest keeping an eye on Sam Ellot's performance as Karl, a man who was deeply betrayed by Elle many years ago.


Grandma screens tonight at LAFF. For more information: Grandma.

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SUNDANCE 2014: OBVIOUS CHILD

Donna (Jenny Slate) in Obvious Child.

Laugh now in the lake of fire

By Don Simpson

A bookstore clerk by day and comedian by night, Donna’s (Jenny Slate) life is sent into a tailspin when her boyfriend admits to sleeping with one of her close friends; but at least that event provides Donna with some fresh material for her bluntly autobiographical stand-up routine.

Donna turns to alcohol to drown her sorrows, totally giving up on life. When the righteously indie bookstore that employs her loses its lease, Donna’s life seems all the more hopeless. Even her gig as a comedian could be at risk if she does not learn how to curb her emotionally driven binge drinking.

On one fatefully drunken night, the snarky Jewess makes cute with a WASPy guy, Max (Jake Lacy). Sensing that his values will dissuade Max from wanting to date a vocally rebellious Jewish woman, Donna perceives this night as a fun, one-night stand. Unfortunately for Donna, the repercussions of their night together haunt her until Valentine’s Day.

Obvious Child is a well-paced comedy packed with a steady stream of hilarious jokes, yet the film also carries a strong and unwavering opinion on its subject matter. While the subject of this film may chase some potential audiences away, Obvious Child does such an admirable job of presenting its case that it could actually change some minds if audiences would just give it a fighting chance.

The strongest tension within director Gillian Robespierre's  Obvious Child is its relentless rebellion against American cinema’s representation of this subject matter. We anxiously await the all too standard redemption trope, for Donna to listen to the old white men who attempt to legislate away her inherent rights to her own body. Few filmmakers are bold and brazen enough to discuss this subject with such openness. Everything is laid out on the table in such a way that Donna’s one and only choice seems like an obvious one. There is absolutely no valid excuse for her mistake and Donna knows that, but there is also no reason for her to punish herself or anyone else involved. Ill-equipped and immature, Donna is by no means emotionally prepared to make any other decision. Our society, thanks in no small part to Hollywood’s representation of this subject, seems to think Donna is in the minority, but this is actually an all too common scenario. Donna makes the same life-changing mistake that so many others have made, including her mother.

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FILM REVIEW: AFTER TILLER

A scene from After Tiller.

When choice is not just a word

By John Esther

On May 31, 2009, while serving as an usher at his church in Wichita, Kansas, 67-year-old Dr. George Tiller was shot through the eye and killed. One of a very few doctors who performed late-term abortions in America, Tiller was killed by an anti-choice activist.

(In 1993, Tiller had been shot five times by another anti-choice activist. Tiller's murderer received a life sentence plus 50 years.)

Since his death there are only four doctors in the U.S. who provide third trimester abortions and they are the subjects of co-directors Martha Shane and Lana Wilson’s informative documentary, After Tiller.

Constantly terrorized, confronted with moral dilemmas, and constrained by legal requirements, Dr. Leroy Carhart, Dr. Warren Hern, Dr. Susan Robinson and Dr. Shelly Sella perform what seems a rare, usually revered, occasionally reviled, public service.

What late-term abortion critics do not understand (among many other things) is that women and couples come to these doctors under very dire circumstances. The women or couple is at a point in the pregnancy where the fetus is unwanted, usually not because it was unplanned or the result of incest or rape, but because after its birth the child is destined to live under unbearable circumstances due to some horrific fetal anomaly. Why bring a child in this world if his or her future is predetermined to do nothing else but suffer – especially for the child, but for the mother or parents, too?

The patients come to these doctors because they are at wit's end. They do not come here lightly. It is a painful decision and not a pleasant procedure if the good doctors agree (which is hardly a given response). If the doctors agree to terminate the pregnancy the mother must deliver a stillborn. There are no happy endings here.

Addressing an issue many Americans are uncomfortable with, After Tiller sheds light and humanity on reproductive rights in this country. For these doctors, choice is not just a word or a political meme, but an action to be taken with the utmost seriousness, sincerity and solemnity.

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