FILM REVIEW: JENNY'S WEDDING

Jenny (Katherine Heigl) and Kitty (Alexis Bledel) in Jenny's Wedding.

Wind between the ears

By Miranda Inganni

Jenny (Katherine Heigl) is tired of dodging questions from her parents and siblings about her romantic life. After being pushed to lie one too many times, she finally decides to tell her parents that not only is she a lesbian, but that she wants to marry Kitty (Alexis Bledel), her “roommate” of five years. Predictable reactions from her family ensue.

Mom and Dad (Linda Emond and Tom Wilkinson) are disappointed and confused; what did they do to cause her to be like this? But like all of their concerns, Dad tries to sweep it under the rug, or covers as the case may be with the parents’ many bedtime talks, and Mom gossips with her best friend, Ellen (Diana Hardcastle). Essentially, both Mom and Dad feel like Jenny is trying to change their lives by being gay. They cannot accept that Jenny wants a big wedding and would prefer that she just keep things quiet (initially not even telling her siblings). Her parents perpetuate the lie about Jenny’s romances to their friends and colleagues, but continue to blame themselves and each other for this “failure.”

Meanwhile, Jenny's sister, Anne (Grace Gummer), having convinced herself that Jenny has always been mom and dad’s favorite, distances herself even more from her sister now that she knows her unspeakable truth. Big brother Michael (Matthew Metzger), on the other hand, couldn’t care less about who his sister marries and has known since high school that Jenny wasn’t into boys. (Why, oh why, then does he continually force awkward introductions between her and his single friends)

In the scene that proved to be cathartic for Jenny, she and her father finally have words. Loud words. In a funeral home. Jenny draws a line in the sand. It does not end well for familial ties, but Jenny asserts her independence and (finally!) realizes that she has to live her life the way she wants to.

Written, directed and produced by Mary Agnes Donoghue -- perhaps best known for having penned that 1988 tearjerker, Beaches --it’s as if Donoghue cannot get out of her own way and tell the story in a more organic way. It feels at times that Donoghue was trying to make a lesbian coming out movie aimed at Middle America, which is why it ends up diluted on impact. All of the acting is fine (though Bledel is underutilized), but the heavy-handed soundtrack is overused to dictate emotion -- and also reassure viewers that everything will be just fine.

 

 

 

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FILM REVIEW: ON BEAUTY

Sarah Kanney in On Beauty.

Face forward

By Miranda Inganni

 

Joanna Rudnick’s 31-minute documentary, On Beauty, follows Rick Guidotti, a former fashion photographer who now takes portraits of kids with visible genetic conditions.

 

Frustrated with the restrictions of the fashion world, and thanks to a chance encounter with a young lady with albinism, Guidotti decided to challenge convention and turned his lens on boys and girls who were not always shown in a favorable light. As he started to consider genetic conditions, Guidotti found himself disgusted by the so-called black bar images found in medical textbooks and wanted to humanize the kids who are so often depicted as their condition rather than a person. Thus Positive Exposure was created to help change the restrictions of conventional beauty.

Once such person to benefit from Positiv Exposure is Sarah Kanny. Kanney was born with a large birthmark on her face and brain caused by Sturge-Weber syndrome. Many of her classmates were not kind. Eventually it was too much and Kanney dropped out of high school in the 9th grade due to incessant bullying. Her adolescent years were a lonely time.

These days Kanney has a job and an apartment and is working toward her GED. She speaks at high schools – in front of the very types of kids who caused her so much pain – about her experiences in the hope of fostering inclusion and acceptance.

Another force for change, Jayne Waithera, lives in Kenya where she was raised by her grandmother after her mother abandoned her due to Waithera being born with albinism. Having been photographed by Guidotti, Waithera is now working on Positive Exposure Kenya to bring awareness and understanding to a community that deeply, occasionally fatally, misunderstands albinism.

Guidotti’s exuberance is infectious. He greets everyone with an abundance of glee and that joy is returned by those whom he encounters. The images he captures are filled with radiance and beauty – smiles of children happy to be seen yet not scorned.

 

 

On Beauty opens in Los Angeles this Friday.

 

 

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OUTFEST 2015: NASTY BABY

Mo (Tunde Adebimpe) and Polly (Kristen Wiig) in Nasty Baby.

Population disconnection

By Miranda Inganni

Polly (Kristen Wiig) really wants to have a baby. So does her friend, Freddy (Sebastián Silva). Unfortunately, Freddy’s sperm ain’t cutting it, so his partner, Mo (Tunde Adebimpe) has to step in.

Unlike Freddy’s sperm, the three friends get along swimmingly, even when their bohemian Brooklyn life is interrupted by the local mentally unstable, quasi-homeless, sometimes-violent, homophobe who calls himself “The Bishop” (Reg E. Cathey).  In the meantime, when not having hip dinner parties and getting high, Freddy is working on a new video installation entitled “Nasty Baby,” which features him and his friends acting like babies.

Starting out as a sweet buddy study, Nasty Baby takes an unexpected turn for the violent. Perhaps Silva took on too much in this film (for which he wrote the screenplay, directs and stars in – as well as featuring his brother, cat and apartment in the film), as it feels like it lacks a definitive voice and focus. The film is overshadowed by a sense of subtlety, with the threesome casually chumming it up, until it is aggressively not subtle. Things escalate so very quickly in a non-realistic way.

Why would Polly lie about being pregnant? Does no one have any common sense? Has Polly’s medical training taught her nothing? What does neighbor Richard (Mark Margolis) actually do other than show up at convenient times and own a vehicle?

Nasty Baby’s inconsistency is a detriment to what would otherwise be an exploration of a lovely, if unconventional, family origin story.

 

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OUTFEST 2015: THAT'S NOT US



Alex (Sarah Wharton) and Jackie (Nicole Pursell) in That's Not Us.



Three pairs to find

By Miranda Inganni

Early fall, Fire Island, New York. Three couples head to a beach-side cottage to ostensibly enjoy the fading sunlight. In reality, the six 20-somethings discuss their relationship problems in director William Sullivan’s That’s Not Us.

Alex (Sarah Wharton) and her girlfriend, Jackie (Nicole Pursell), have hit a sexual impasse -- as in, they aren’t having any. Jackie’s sister, Liz (Elizabeth Gray), and her new husband, Dougie (Tommy Nelms), are having plenty of sex, but are not completely open with each other. Spencer (David Rysdahl) and his boyfriend, James (Mark Berger), might as well be newlyweds with the amount of sexy times they are enjoying, but are not sure how much longer it will last with Spencer’s recent acceptance to school in Chicago.

Though all six are more than comfortable talking -- all the time -- about their problems, they are not so good about actually communicating. What should be a fun weekend getaway quickly turns to tension and trouble. Dougie seriously injures himself while learning to ride a bike at Liz’s near-dictatorial insistence. Spencer finally admits that he wants to head to Chicago for school, leaving New York and the fate of his relationship with James in question. Alex tries to reignite the passion between her and Jackie with a rainbow dildo, but the gesture falls flat as their romance limps flaccidly along. All three couples seem to live by the idea that they can potentially fix their problems by talking about them repeatedly. At least they have very pretty scenery around them in which they can do all this talking.

Shot over eight days with improvised dialogue based on a loose story co-written by Sullivan and director Derek Dodge, That’s Not Us stays true to the romantic comedy formula of happy endings. The acting is commendable and the improvisation impressive.

 

 

That's Not Us screens at Oufest, tonight, 9:30 p.m., DGA 2. For more information: TNU.

 

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OUTFEST 2015: BARE

Sarah (Diana Agron) and Pepper (Paz de la Huerta) in Bare.

A spice in life

By Miranda Inganni

Sarah (Diana Agron) is bored townie in a sleepy, desert town in Navada until a seductive drifter enters the picture in Bare.

Freshly fired from her job at the local supermarket, Sarah spends her time hanging out with her friends, making out with her boyfriend, Hayden (Chris Zylka) and trying to decide what to do next. Being a bit invisible to her family, she spends time at her deceased father’s place, where she watches old nature programs on VHS tapes.

Enter Pepper (Paz de la Huerta), a mysterious, sexy, uninhibited woman with a bit of a drug habit. The two unlikely pals quickly hit it off and escape to Reno for a weekend. Pepper exposes Sarah to a whole new world and soon Sarah is exposing herself, having taken to the pole at the local strip club, the Blue Room.

Though Pepper told Sarah that she is a bartender at the club, Sarah soon finds out that Pepper is dealing drugs to the dancers and, more upsetting to Sarah, gets a fee for recruiting new girls. It turns out Pepper has some secrets, too, and a big debt. But the women become more than just friends with drugs.

During an overnight trip out in the desert, the ladies take peyote and spend the night hallucinating and having sex. Sarah discovers a new world and a new side of herself: sensuality.

Both Agron and de la Huerta perform admirably, even if their characters are familiar. Writer-director Natalia Leite's Bare has that cliché of a good, quiet girl going rogue after her sexual awakening, but she also does a commendable job depicting Sarah’s boredom in her boring town with all the boring people around her.

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LAFF 2015: WHAT LOLA WANTS

Lola (Sophie Lowe) in What Lola Wants.

Bad parenting

By Miranda Inganni

It requires a good 20 or so minutes to get used to the teeth-gritting/whispering dialogue delivery in writer-director Rupert Glasson's What Lola Wants; but once you do, you will be glad you toughed it out.

After faking her own kidnapping, Lola (Sophie Lowe) has run away from her Hollywood celebrity parents in hopes of making it to Mobile, Alabama. Somewhere along the way, in a dusty, desert diner she comes across Marlo (an excellent Beau Knapp), a slick, young pickpocket, escaping his own demonic mom (played to the  twisted hilt by Dale Dickey). The two quickly find that they are more than compatible -- having sexy times and their own crime spree across the southern desert. Marlo soon figures out whom Lola is, and that there is a million dollar reward for her safe return. He must decide if he wants to save his tail or hers. At any given moment, however, if spoiled (or is it desperate?) Lola doesn’t get what she wants, she can simply start screaming that she is being held by her captor.

Reminescent of films like Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers, Terrence Malick's Badlands, and even Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde, the very-impressive What Lola Wants is hyper-stylized both in the dialogue and the images. The film is wound tight and highly detailed -- thanks in large part to Glasson, cinematorapher Eric Leach and art director Monique Dias.

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LAFF 2015: LOVE BETWEEN THE COVERS

A scene from Love Between the Covers.

Inquiring minds want to know

By Miranda Inganni

Romance writers are often described derogatorily as silly women writing silly books for silly readers. Yet those authors, and the multi-billion dollar industry they create for, are paying the bills for the publishing world.

Laurie Khan’s documentary Love between the Covers focuses on individual authors and the tightknit community that envelopes the romance industry.

While romance authors may write about different subjects (AKA subgenres) -- from Amish Romance to Paranormal Romance and nearly everything imaginable in between -- the one consistent factor about the romance writing industry is the authors’ (and publishers’) desire to give the readers what they want. In particular, happily ever after tropes are a must.

In return, readers are loyal and voracious. So many of the writers are avid readers and many readers are filled with the hope of publishing their own novels. And the women -- both those supplying the product and those consuming it -- are extremely supportive of one another.

Realizing that the infrastructure didn’t already exist in a way that made sense for them, some authors, such as Len Barot (aka Radclyffe) created their own publishing houses. Others, such as Beverly Jenkins, could not find the kind of romance novel she wanted to read (in this case, historical African-American narratives), so she began writing them. Superstar romance writers Mary Bly and Nora Roberts are featured heavily as well.

Presented without great depth and emphasized by goofy graphics, Love Between the Covers almost feel like a few friends got together to chat about their naughty books over a glass of white wine. (In truth, there is nothing wrong with that.) It’s interesting, but the documentary feels aimed more at the existing folks who partake in this particular indulgence than convincing bystanders, let alone detractors, to read about the love between the covers.

 

 

Love Between the Covers screens again at LAFF: June 16, 5:25 p.m., Regal Cinemas. For more information: LBTC.

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LAFF 2015: NO MÁS BEBÉS

A scene from No Más Bebés.

Population control

By Miranda Inganni

During the 1960s and 70s low-income Latinas seeking to have birth via cesarean section at Los Angeles County USC Medical Center got a lot more than they bargained for: tubal ligation, otherwise known as sterilization.

Director Renee Tajima-Peña’s No Màs Bebès (No More Babies) takes an in-depth look into this harrowing chapter in Los Angeles' history. Focusing on the women who were subjected to this unexpected, unwanted (unwarranted) and life-altering treatment utilizing interviews and archival footage, No Màs Bebèspoints out how there was no plan or policy to take care of indigent or low-income patients at the public teaching hospital.

Frightened women who were in pain and often didn’t speak English, or at least comprehend what was being said to them, either agreed without understanding the meaning of what was happening, or never agreed to it (to their recollection). Names were hastily signed, often with a nurse’s guiding hand. Sometimes the meaning of the procedure was misunderstood -- the tubes are going to be tied, but that implies that they can be untied. Was this a calculated process targeting poor women of color to help keep the population boom in check? Was there another even more nefarious explanation?

Then-intern Bernard Rosenfeld discovered the nasty occurrence and began writing everyone he could think of, from political organizations to women’s magazines. Fortunately, Antonia Hernandez at the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice paid attention to the letter they received.

A recent law school graduate, Hernandez was young and ambitious. She agreed that the scandal needed not only to be exposed, but those in charge held responsible and the victims given their day in court. Armed with medical records, she began scouring East LA trying to track down the former patients. Her task was gargantuan: locate victims, explain what had happened (some of the women had no idea they had been sterilized) and then convince them to be the faces of what would be a very public court case.

She found ten women and took the case to court. Known as Madrigal v. Quilligan went before a judge. If you do not the history, just looking at the amount of male doctors/former defendants who participated in the documentary, coupled with the economic surroundings of the involved women who were interviewed, gives you a pretty good idea how the case was decided.

While both parties believe their side of the story to this day, the case at least brought about a change in policy.

 

 

No Màs Bebès screens again at LAFF: June 16, 6:10 p.m., Regal Cinemas. For more information: Babies.

 

 

 

 

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LAFF 2015: MISSING PEOPLE

A scene from Missing People.

Murder and memory

By Miranda Inganni

After Martina Batan’s brother, Jeffrey, was stabbed to death at the age of 14 in 1978, she stopped trying to sleep.  

Thirty or so years later, director David Sharpiro focuses on Martina and her obsession with a relatively unknown artist and her need to delve back into her brother’s unsolved murder in his moving documentary, Missing People.

Martina tries not to sleep for fear of nightmares, suppressing the trauma of losing her youngest sibling. Once an outgoing, upbeat, if off-beat, vibrant young woman, she now distracts herself with building a large Lego cube and caring for her dogs. She is also obsessed with the works of Roy Ferdinand, a prolific artist with no formal training. Ferdinand drew what he saw in the poor African-American neighborhoods of New Orleans, especially a lot of violence.

Having died from cancer in 2008, Martina wants to curate a collection of his work and donate it to an American institution, bringing him the attention she believes he deserves. Before she can do that, however, she wants to learn as much as she can about Ferdinand and find more of his art.

Martina meets Ferdinand’s sisters. While seemingly from very disparate backgrounds,  the three women find commonality in familial sorrow and loss. Whatever hesitations and mistrust may have been present, eventually vanish as the three continue to talk about their relationship to Ferdinand, plus her brother.

Perhaps due to this new found friendship, Martina is spurred on to hire a private investigator to look into her brother’s murder. Despite the fact that the original detectives are dead, PI Conor McCourt uncovers some new and disturbing information. These new discoveries prove to be too much for Martina to handle.

Shapiro and his crew intertwine Martina’s narrative with old footage of Ferdinand and his sisters’ stories of the various personas he invented, as well as commentary from some of Martina’s friends and coworkers. Martina’s quiet hurt, confusion and profound sorrow is presented without judgement and backed with a score -- featuring several new songs from different composers -- that is thoughtful and respectful. (And the soundtrack includes Wire's "Strange" and Buzzcocks' "Why Can't I Touch It?"!)

 

 

Missing People screens at LAFF: June 12, 8:45 p.m.; June 14, 8:55 p.m. For more information: Missing.

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DWF 2015: YOU SEE ME

A scene from You See Me.

Stroke of fate

By Miranda Inganni

Linda J. Brown wanted to learn more about her father, a man to whom she was very close, but who could fly into rage-filled outbursts at the drop of a hat. Then he had a stroke. Assisted by Super 8 films and VHS tapes her father had recorded, she tries to discover what caused him to lash out and what may have lead him to this point.

When Stanley Brown had a stroke at age 79, his family gathered around for the long recovery process. Linda, her sisters, Susan and Nancy, and their brother, Paul, pulled together to help their mom, Natalie, deal with the fallout. And there was plenty.

Linda had always been interested in what made her father tick (documenting part of their relationship in a much earlier film, Your Favorite) and while they did many things together, she felt like she never really knew her father. Linda, her siblings and her mom had lived their lives with a man who was physically abusive, but they never knew what the reasoning was behind his anger.

Over the course of the following 18 months or so, Linda documented Stan’s progress and his failures. Upon his initial return home, Stan breaks down in tears and tells his wife how much he loves her, something very uncharacteristic for him. Linda wonders if the stroke has somehow altered his brain chemistry, despite what the doctors have said. Sadly, his fits of rage return and he wreaks havoc on everyone’s emotions once again.

During this time, Linda discovers secrets of Stan’s upbringing that surely impacted him – a little boy yearning for his mother’s love and his father’s identity. (As a side note, this part of Stan’s story is fascinating and disturbing and could make an entirely separate movie.) Stan’s insecurities plague his relationship with his wife. Meanwhile, Natalie carries on like the dutiful partner. She only knows this life.

With a short running time of 70 minutes, You Tell Me is not only about her father's fate, but relates how a daughter came to know, love and forgive her father, while giving her mother a precious gift and learning to see her parents as people.

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DWF 2015: SUPERIOR



Charlie (Thatcher Robinson) and Derek (Paul Stanko) in Superior.

Spokes in the wheels of history

By Miranda Inganni

Prior to heading off to their respective futures, look-alike best friends Derek (Paul Stanko) and Charlie (Thatcher Robinson) agree to one last adventure: biking around Lake Superior. With little preparation, and fewer supplies, the boys hang on to the handlebars of their youth while riding head on into adulthood.

Setting out from Calumet, Michigan, the boys have two weeks to circumnavigate the massive lake before Charlie heads to Michigan Technological University and Derek enlists in the Army. Neither guy is excited about their chosen path, but both act like it has been preordained and they have no say in the matter (which, at this point, they still do).

Derek, a self-proclaimed loser and the jokester of the duo steers them onto the path of mischief, while practical Charlie pays too much mind to their schedule. But the boys have a balance and it’s clear that they have been playing these roles off each other for their entire lives. The closer they get to their destination, however, each guy acts more and more in his own best self-interest and the anxiety regarding their return causes them to choose their own path in life. Unfortunately, this is where Superior takes a schmaltzy turn to sentimental town.

Based on writer-director-producer Edd Benda’s uncle’s real life adventure (and shot by Benda the younger’s partner Alex Bell), Superior is a coming-of-age story set in 1965. Derek and Charlie meet a number of characters along the way (over the top caricatures, really) who each have an effect on the travelling pair. With the exception of an out of place bonfire scene (are they suddenly at a music festival?), Superior takes the boys on a trip around the lake and into the next phase of their lives.

 

Superior screens at Dances with Films tonight, 9:30 p.m. For more information: Superior.

 

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DWF 2015: IN STEREO

David (Micah Hauptman) and Brenda (Beau Garrett) in In Stereo.

Shifting shades

By Miranda Inganni

New York City. David (Micah Hauptman), an up and coming photographer and Brenda (Beau Garrett), the actress who he is dating, are not perfect for each other -- at least not at this point in their lives. Brenda is ready to cohabitate with David, but he is not there yet. Yes, he loves her, but he seemingly loves his space more.

Flash forward. David is living with his new girlfriend, Jen (Melissa Bolona), an impetuous, immature model. Things aren’t looking so hot for David’s chances with Jen, as she is having an affair with his lifelong best friend, Chris (Kieran Campion).

When they were together David and Brenda could not make things work, but apart things are even more difficult for them. Brenda is facing eviction and David is self-destructing.  Will their chance encounter reunite them and put them back on a track for personal, if not romantic success?

In Stereo is a story of four beautiful, crazy people who come across as rather narcissistic. David’s guerilla-style portrait photography causes him physical harm and may not lead to the success his potential warrants. Brenda’s career is on a downward spiral and, based on how she treats her agent (and “regular” people, too), she deserves it. Jen’s need for sexual-gratification and/or her desire to use other people leaves her truly alone –- no matter who she is with at the time. Chris is a materialistic bore, having more money and free time than he knows what to do with it.

Despite the leads characters’ moments of despicability, the four main characters have redeeming qualities, too. They are more than just their bad behavior and self-loathing. And that is what keeps them interesting.

Written, directed and edited by Mel Rodriguez III, In Stereo is a fun and nuanced film that keeps you rooting for David and Brenda in spite of their shortcomings.

They are human, after all.

 

 

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DWF 2015: ACTOR FOR HIRE

Jessie (Jessie O'Neill) in Actor for Hire.

Lost in Los Angeles

By Miranda Inganni

Jessie (Jessie O’Neill) is a young, conventionally attractive, ostensibly talented white actor who just can’t seem to land a role, much less catch a break in Marcus Mizelle’s Actor for Hire. Whether it is due to his baldness or his acting skills is up for debate, but Jessie dons a wig and immediately lands the next role for which he auditions. Upon discovering that his live-in girlfriend (Hollie Shay) is cheating on him, he quickly finds a room in an apartment with the casting director from his most recent, successful audition. What follows is a whole bunch of silliness wherein truth is obfuscated to one degree or another.

Why do so many people lie in Hollywood? What is it about the entertainment industry that causes people to falsify their appearances/ages/backgrounds/etc.? These questions are not ever considered, yet Actor for Hire satirizes many of these aspects of the industry. Jessie’s new do so transforms the man that his new best friend, major film star, Joel (Joel Hogans – perhaps a long-lost Hemsworth brother) does not realize that his hirsute bud is the same as the bald cocktail server at Joel’s house party. (A party, by the by, where lies are further perpetuated by the many champagne flutes filled with what appears to be water – a classic and cheap film fib.)

Where the film -- written, directed and co-produced (with Jillian Longnecker) by Mizelle -- succeeds in furthering the subterfuge (intentionally or not) is in the exterior shots with Los Angeles as the backdrop. Those unfamiliar with the scenery might not realize just how long it would take to walk from Downtown Los Angeles to Hollywood to Chinatown, but it is shot like it would be a matter of minutes; the fact they visit KJ’s diner in Westerchester when they live over 50 miles away in a Los Feliz neighborhood also raises an eye.

While there are some clever moments, Actor for Hire sometimes feels like it is unsure of its own identity as a film. It could have gone a little bit further in feeling like a low budget, high camp flick. Or swung in the opposite direction and taken itself more seriously. But the moral of the story remains the same: you have a better chance of success if you are true to yourself.

 

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LAAPFF 2015: MARGARITA, WITH A STRAW

Laila (Kalki Koechlin) in Margarita, With a Straw.

Drink up at LAAPFF Closing Night

By Miranda Inganni

It’s not often that a movie depicts a female protagonist exploring her sexuality the way she wants to and learning what she wants from life. We do not usually see women in charge of their own sexual agency portrayed in a positive manner. Fortunately, that just what happens in director Shonali Bose’s film, Margarita, With a Straw.

Laila (Kalki Koechlin) loves her friends at Delhi University and the band for which she writes lyrics and composes. Sadly, she loves the lead singer, Nima (Tenzing Dalha), more than he loves her. When her feelings are rebuffed, the shame of rejection is too much for her to return to classes. Fortunately, a scholarship and acceptance letter from New York University arrives and she soon has other plans for her higher education.

Leaving her middle class Delhi neighborhood, Laila and her mother (Revathi) head to New York where Laila goes about settling into her new collegiate life, under her mother’s watchful, but trusting eye. Laila’s broken heart is soon mended, or at least distracted, when she meets Jared (William Moseley), a blond Brit assigned to help her with her classwork. She also meets activist Khanum (Sayani Gupta), who happens to be blind, at a local protest and the two become fast friends. The two young woman quickly become more than friends and explore their new home city -- and each other’s bodies -- with cautious excitement.

Did I mention that Laila is wheelchair-bound due to her Cerebral Palsy? If not, it is because Laila does not allow herself to be restricted. She does not see herself as someone “less” than an able-bodied person, and rightfully so. Unfortunately, not everyone else feels the same way.

The color palate utilized in Margarita, With a Straw heightens both the sensuality and the sweetness of the movie and the acting is fantastic. The family dynamic between Laila and her mother is wonderfully touching. Though the ending feels a bit rushed (especially considering the pacing of the first act), Bose does a lovely job hitting the right notes and not pandering to stereotypes or social “norms.” Laila falters and fumbles through her sexual awakening, just like every other young woman learning to love herself.

 

LAAPFF screens Margarita, With a Straw today, 7:30 p.m., DGA. For more information: LAAPFF CLOSING NIGHT.

 

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NBFF 2015: ART HOUSE

The Wharton Esherick House in Art House.

Space by de/sign

By Miranda Inganni

Many artists strive to construct a safe and stimulating space in which they can freely create. Director Don Freeman captures nearly a dozen of such places in his film, Art House.

Based on the book Artist’s Handmade Houses by Michael Gotkin, Freeman travels through the US -- and through the past 100 or so years -- documenting places like Byrdclife Arts Colony in New York (the oldest arts colony in the States), to Eliphante, Michael Khan and Leda Livant’s home built over the course of nearly 30 years in Cornville, Arizona. Some of these residences have been lovingly preserved and/or are still being used as workshops. Meanwhile others, like the Wharton Esherick Museum in Pensylvania with its seemingly living staircase, have been converted into museums. Whether open to the public or gifted with National Historic Landmark status, Art Housegives viewers a glimpse into these infrequently-viewed locales.

Freeman uses vintage photographs throughout, as well as interviews with surviving relatives or disciples of the artists and commentary by writer Alastair Gordon. So many of these artists were looking to bring other artists back to nature and to integrate nature into everyday life. And so many of their abodes seem to do just that very successfully!

Unfortunately, the music is a distraction to the images more often than not, and the cross fades from one still shot to the next happen too quickly for the viewer to fully realize what object or scene she or he is seeing.

As Gordon states in the beginning of the film, “It’s about making a perfect life.” Exploring these eleven dwellings all in one film, despite its distractions, allows one to imagine for a moment that perfection each of the designers were trying to create.

 

 

Art House screens at the Newport Beach Film Festival April 29, 5 p.m., Edwards Big Newport. For more information: Art House.

 

 

 

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NBFF 2015: REPARATION

 

Bob (Marc Menchaca) and Lucy (Virginia Newcomb) in Reparation.

Charlotte sometimes dreams

By Miranda Inganni

Bob (Marc Menchaca) has recently found his way out of a military mental hospital, partially thanks to a young boy, Ralph (Brody Behr), his imaginary friend and initially constant companion. Having forgotten the last three years of his life, Bob wanders through farms and vales. During his first job, he meets Lucy (Virginia Newcomb), a free-spirited gal whose favorite treatment for anything uncomfortable and/or unfamiliar is to yell at the problem and then quickly hush it away. Suppression at its best!

Speaking of suppressed, Bob and Lucy hit it off, but not without completely ignoring the fact that they never bother to share any personal information about themselves to each other. Eventually, they settle down in a quaint farming town where they raise their daughter, Charlotte (Dale Dye Thomas). Their idyllic life is irreparably interrupted when Jerome (John Huertas) shows up claiming to be Bob’s best friend from their Air Force days where they were Security Police. This unexpected and uninvited guest throws the family off-kilter. Bob’s forgotten memories begin to appear in Charlotte’s nightmares. Charlotte in turn expertly sketches the images which jolt Bob’s amnesia.

So, is it better or healthier to sometimes let sleeping dogs lie? Should one risk physical and/or mental trauma from recalling what one’s own brain has blocked one from remembering out of self-preservation? While the concept of daughter assuming father’s horrific memories utilized in Reparation is an interesting one, the movie never attempts to ask why Charlotte might be the receptacle for Bob’s repressed thoughts. What DNA trickery is this?

Although the dialogue could be stronger in certain places, Reparation does a nice job of building suspense and the script, co-written by director Kyle Ham and Steve Timm, includes a few refreshingly unexpected twists and turns, albeit not necessarily coming to a satisfying conclusion.


Reparation screens at the Newport Beach Film Festival April 30, 8 p.m., Regency South Coast Village. For more information: Reparation.

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LAAPFF 2015: THE CHINESE MAYOR

A scene from The Chinese Mayor.

A different cultural revolution

By Miranda Inganni

Geng Yanbo, the newly-elected mayor of Datong, China wants to transform the city into a tourist-attracting cultural center. Datong, the most polluted city in China, thanks to its coal mining history, has a massive ancient city wall that Geng envisions containing museums and meeting spaces. The problem is that at least 30 percent of the residents of Datong, many of them poor and their housing illegal, live around that city wall. These residents must be relocated and their dwellings demolished in order for Geng’s reconstruction of the city to take place.

Despite the fact that demolition and construction are very slow and behind schedule, the government wants the residents out. But there is no place for many of them to go. People who cannot afford to move are told that they can apply for low-rent housing, but they know the reality is that there is a long waiting period. Some residents protest by simply not leaving their abodes or by blocking the heavy machinery. A few residents who refuse to move face forcible demolition and threaten suicide.

We follow Geng, in Zhou Hao’s The Chinese Mayor, as he inspects the progress of destruction and construction throughout the city, as he attends meetings in his official capacity, and as he is scolded by his wife who thinks he is working himself to death. He appears tough when he deals with contractors who have put in sub-par paving, taken other shortcuts or are not performing their jobs to his satisfaction. But when the affected residents appeal directly to Geng, he is sympathetic and tries to right the wrongs -- helping folks find housing, ensuring the children of rural residents who gave up their farmland for development have access to the city schools, and even trying to move a woman from her 6^th floor apartment to one on the ground floor as she can no longer walk up the stairs (what the hell happened to the elevator anyway?).

Geng wants to leave the reinvented and revitalized Datong as his legacy. Will he be able to oversee all of the construction through to completion before his mayoral term is up? Is he simply a megalomaniac bankrupting a city for his own status? Director Zhou does a masterful job of not getting in the way of the story. Clearly the residents are the one’s suffering in this scenario, but Geng is not without sympathetic sensibilities. He believes so strongly in “cultural industry” that even if he cannot bring his vision to fruition in Datong, the viewer gets the sense that that will not stop him. He will give this city, or any other, his masterful cultural makeover. Even if it kills him.

The Chinese Mayor screens at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival April 26, 4 p.m., CGV Cinemas. For more information: Mayor.

 

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SXSW 2015: CREATIVE CONTROL

David (Benjamin Dickinson) in Creative Control.

I see hipster doom

By Miranda Inganni

Director Benjamin Dickinson’s slickly styled Creative Control is, at its heart, an old fashioned love story set in the near future Brooklyn, New York; but it is also a cautionary tale about our dependence on technology.

Ad exec David (Dickinson) has been given the chance to play around with a new high-tech product, Augmenta. It’s a virtual reality platform that his company is trying to figure out how best to sell to the masses. David must perform! Added to the pressure David is experiencing at work, he is also going through a rough patch with his live-in girlfriend, Juliette (Nora Zehetner). David finds inspiration in the form of Sophie (Alexia Rasmussen), the girlfriend of his best pal, Wim (Dan Gill). As he spends more and more time with “Sophie,” thanks to the technology of the Augmenta glasses, David withdraws from the rest of his life.

Creative Controlis quite impressive to watch. It is beautifully shot by Adam Newport-Berra in black and white, with just a hint of color here and there. The technology depicted in the film is believable and the special effects are never a distraction. And there is an excellent vomit scene.

However, the four lead characters come across as somewhat boring hipsters for whom it is hard to care. David is bored in the bedroom, so he crushes on another woman. Juliette is frustrated with David, so she practices yoga with another man (Paul Manza). Wim is a self-absorbed philanderer, who only decides to commit to Sophie when he thinks he might lose her. Sophie…well, Sophie is just kind of dull. She is very pretty and stylish, but she doesn’t really do anything.

Winner of the Visual Excellence Award at SXSW, Creative Control is a pleasure to watch and a decent story (co-written by Dickinson and Micah Bloomberg). While mine may not be the popular opinion, I find the characters not quite fleshed out enough. This is apt considering David’s retreat to spend time with his virtual reality sex toy. When the people around you don’t feel fully formed, perhaps all you can do is create your own special friend.

 

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SXSW 2015: BIKES VS. CARS

A scene from Bikes vs. Cars.

Roads to ruin or rejection

By Miranda Inganni

Director Fredrik Gertten’s latest documentary, Bikes vs Cars, travels to various cities around the world to examine the issues and some of the causes surrounding the titular feud. In Sao Paulo, Brazil we meet Aline Cavalcante, a bike activist, who wonders why the city’s public transportation is so expensive and terrible, and if the city really has the worst traffic jams in the world. Another city vying for that unfortunate award is Los Angeles, CA, where Dan Koeppel is trying to make a difference for bike riders, while delving into the city’s history and exposing the ugly truth about the ever expanding freeway system.

These two cities used to have fantastic infrastructure for bicycling enthusiasts, but now they stink (literally and figuratively) thanks to the oil, construction and auto industries. The car-centric cultures that these industries have created, have stripped away bikes lanes, increasing the risks bicyclist face each time they ride.

The facts are terrifying. From how often bicyclists are killed in various cities, to the amount of people suffering from air pollution around the world, to the expected increase in automobile sales in the next five years (double what it is today). But people love their cars. There is, of course, the socioeconomic status that car ownership bestows upon the driver. But why cannot the same be afforded to lovers of the environmentally friendly bicycle? And beyond the bourgeois status of car ownership, what is the point of being able to buy a car if all you can do is sit in traffic?

However, there is some good news beyond the smog. As exemplified in Copenhagen, Denmark and The Netherlands, biking in a big city can work! And everyone breathes a little better because of it.

A call to action, Bikes vs. Cars is not so much about two wheels vs. four wheels, per se, the real battle here is between the status quo versus the possibility of a better future.

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SXSW 2015: A WOMAN LIKE ME

A scene from A Woman Like Me.

Alternative reality

By Miranda Inganni

In 2011 director Alex Sichel (All Over Me) was informed she had a terminal disease. As a way of facing her fears and processing the information, she, along with A Woman Like Me co-director Elizabeth Giamatti, decided to make a film about a woman who is given the same prognosis. She also decided to direct a documentary about her life post-diagnosis, including the making of the movie. It’s not exactly a movie-within-a-movie, or a movie about a movie, but rather a hybrid thereof.

As Sichel described it when she got her diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer, she felt like she was watching a movie about a woman with cancer. And so she set about making that movie with (the fantastic) Lili Taylor playing the lead role of Anna Seashell in hopes that Anna’s reactions would be more optimistic that Sichel’s real life ones. The movie gives Sichel the chance to control the outcome: direct the disease or redo “scenes” that she thought she should have performed differently in real life. Sichel practices her reactions to the grim news (even her own death scene) and gets a chance to recreate chapters from her life via Anna. But both the fictionalized character’s life and the life Sichel presents in the documentary are manipulated by Sichel and at times A Woman Like Me feels selfish. But it also feels tender.  (I cannot imagine making a movie, let alone while undergoing cancer treatments and reconciling one’s own end of life.

Sichel’s life in A Woman Like Me is hectic with her family. Erich, her husband, and Anastasia, her daughter, are both featured heavily, as are other family members. She undergoes holistic treatments and explores non-Western ways of dealing with the disease, exploring a “Buddhist experience of cancer.”  She coaches Taylor through scenes and rehearsals. Faced with a death that she knows will come too soon, Sichel often presents a surprisingly upbeat persona in A Woman Like Me, her legacy.

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