P.S. A Column On Things

Neal Vitale Reviews: The Brutalist ****

[after only 16 years, I welcome my former editor and long-time friend Neal Vitale back to PSACOT]

I've found myself going less often to see films in theaters, preferring the pause and rewind buttons on my video equipment at home over a half-hour of on-screen commercials and trailers. I made an exception, though, for The Brutalist, and I'm glad I did. This is a 220-minute cinematic experience that calls out for theatrical presentation. 

The Brutalist presents thirty years in the life of Hungarian-Jewish architect László Tóth, He has survived the Holocaust but was forcibly separated from his wife, Erzsébet, and niece, Zsófia. He emigrated to America to live with relatives and to strive for the American Dream. Stunningly-produced on a budget of less than $10 million, the film tells an epic story weaving power, money, jealousy, abuse, desire, addiction, bigotry, sacrifice, and pain.

The key players -- Adrien Brody as Tóth, Guy Pearce as his pompous and mercurial benefactor Harrison Lee Van Buren, and Felicity Jones as Erzsébet -- are riveting to watch on screen. A thundering score is paired with gorgeous cinematography. It is fascinating to watch the construction of a massive piece of Tóth's brutalist architecture and witness the beauty of the finished structure.

If there is a shortcoming with The Brutalist, it is the lack of empathy developed for most of the characters in the film - these are not likeable individuals. But the rich narrative development, echoing - dare I say - Citizen Kane, makes for a gratifying theatrical experience well worth the investment of time.

Neal Vitale Reviews: A Complete Unknown ****

[after only 16 years, I welcome my former editor and long-time friend Neal Vitale back to PSACOT]

This is an entertaining and enjoyable recounting of Bob Dylan's early career, from his arrival in Greenwich Village in 1961 to the legendary "Dylan goes electric" performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Though the film doesn't attempt to be painstakingly accurate, it seems to capture many of major events in Dylan's evolution quite well. 

There is excellent acting in the film. Timothée Chalamet makes a convincing Dylan, as does Ed Norton as Pete Seeger. The key women in the film - Joan Baez and Sylvie Russo (Suze Rotolo IRL) - receive somewhat short shrift, with far less film time devoted to understanding them and their relationships with Dylan. The film is bookended with lovely, bittersweet interactions between Dylan and his hero (and, ultimately, fan) Woody Guthrie.

In terms of helping understand Dylan, though, the film is less successful. Unless, of course, the point is that he is moody, exploitative, intentionally opaque, and, in all likelihood, a fabulist and trickster who invents chunks of his past to serve his needs. Answering a few of the “whys” would have been nice but probably too much to ask. 

(Chalamet has suggested that he would be open to a "Bob Dylan trilogy," carrying on to the various Dylan incarnations that followed what is presented in A Complete Unknown. I, for one, am a fan of that idea!)

Next Week: A Review of The Brutalist

Movie Review: Babygirl ***

There is a lot to unpack in this arthouse film about adultery and desire. If you dislike loud simulated female orgasms, this film is not for you. Other than that it raises interesting questions, including, how could a woman (a 50-year-old Dutch woman no less) write and direct this? I am a huge fan of female centric movies, but this film reminds me that women can make barely good films the same as men.

Click here to discover every thought in my mind on the subject, as well as my wife's.

A Real Pain *****

I have been sitting on this review for weeks, because I allowed the perfect to be the enemy of the good. Since you need to see it, here is a review that is not quite as good as the movie. A Real Pain was beautiful. I was laughing and crying the whole time. This review won't have the same effect on you, but I hope it will tell you why I reacted the way I did.

Derek Zemrak, manager of the Orinda Theater, smells Oscar in the air. Me too.

The mood swings, the total lack of self-awareness, the frequent inability to read the room. This movie is basically my brother’s biopic. He, like Benji (Kieran Culkin) in the film, could also sometimes be charming and read the room like a book.

Like me, David (Jesse Eisenberg) is clearly embarrassed by the brother that he clearly loves. Well in this case, the cousin, but it’s the same idea

The "sibling" dynamics and Benji’s mental health ups and downs were compelling, as was his relationship with his grandmother, and the plot driver, a trip to the ancestral home in Poland.

Jesse Eisenberg is clearly a genius. There was no part of this film that wasn’t done well. It was as cringeworthy as an episode of I Love Lucy, which you don’t see often in a movie.

Some people get producer credits for just hanging around. Eisenberg has the letters PGA after his name, which means he is a member of the Producers Guild of America. Which means he actually did something as the producer. Since he wrote, directed and starred in the film as well, he is a quadruple (non-threating) threat.

With regard to the acting, Kieran was brilliant in his ability to play a self-unaware person without so much as a wink or a nod. Real commitment to the character. Benji was expressing pain, mostly hidden from the audience at first. In perfect conformance to the Hollywood rule “Show us, don’t tell us,” Eisenberg gives the lie to almost every film or television show ever feature a narrator or a journalist asking all the questions the audience has. He just shows us.

Find Me Falling *****

When pale, stale males write and direct all the movies, story telling stagnates. Let a few women in and things change.

Stelana Kliris wrote and directed Netflix’s Find Me Falling. I am a connoisseur of Rom-Coms, and I found Falling a perfect mix of love and laughs.

If for no other reason, I’d like it because is an Early Rom-Com. Late Rom-Coms save the kiss for the last scene. Early Rom-Coms show the kiss in the first scene. Generally, I find the latter more interesting.

Movie Review: Lee *****

It took Kate Winslet seven years to make this female-centric bopic of Lee Miller, a WWII combat photographer for British Vogue magazine. Who was, incidentally, a woman.

I was thrilled to see women everywhere in the credits: director Ellen Kuras, producers, writers, cinematographers. You go girls. You go, audience.

Almost all the reviews mention this real incident from Miller’s life: when she joined the troops in Hitler’s Munich apartment, she had her picture taken soaking, disrespectfully, in his bathtub. It’s a great scene in a great movie, even though you know it is coming.

Many of the handful of men in the movie with speaking roles don’t start out well, although most eventually come around. This film blows the Bechdel Test out of the water.

There is a framing device: Lee being interviewed. The last scene exposes two classic tropes of American film-making, but if I told you, that would be a spoiler. If you’re a regular film goer, prepare not to be surprised.

There are 20 producer credits, of whom five are women, including both the "real" producers from the PGA (Producers Guild of America). One PGA producer, to my surprise, was Winslet. How many guilds does this woman belong to? Two of the three screenwriters are women.

Movie: Blink Twice*****

An entertaining look at toxic masculinity if such a thing is possible. Both comedy and tragedy in unequal measure.

This movie is too easy to spoil so technical notes only. Heartily recommended.

• It has a very satisfying  ending. 
• Just over 90 minutes. Good length.
• Women everywhere. Director and co-writer Zoë Kravitz. Definitely passed the Bechdel test. Lots of women who talk about things other than men.
• As I have said before, plays deal with issues and entertain, movies generally just entertain.  Blink Twice is an exception.

Humor: Scary Movie Remakes

Here is the July 18 Top5 List (https://www.top5list.com/top5-for-7-18-24/).

My winner:

* Dr. Lecter’s Missing Hearts Club Band

My losers:

* Dead Side Story

* A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The House on Elm Street

Fabulous Four ****

Written by women, directed by women, only 90 minutes long (minus credits)! I love it when women of a certain age get their own movie, where the men are, for the most part, accessories. This film meets the Bechdel test 100%: women talking to each other about something besides men. Lifelong friendship is explored. And the move is hysterical; I didn’t know Susan Sarandon or Sissy Spacek had it in them; I knew Bette Midler did.

Deadpool and Wolverine ******

I am not much for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, even though I camped outside Beaumont Pharmacy every Thursday until I owned the first 100 issues of the Fantastic Four, X-Men, Avengers and so on... 60 years ago. (All destroyed in a basement flood while I was away at MIT). I've seen a few MCU movies, but I'm far from a completist. And so it is that I gingerly bestow six stars.

I have tried to learn over the years not to review a film's budget, but I have rarely had occasion to try to avoid reviewing a film's box office. If you're alive and alert you know the basket of records this film has already broken.

I did see and enjoy the previous Deadpool movie. This one is bigger, louder and more impressive. If, like me, you're not great on the whole pantheon, sit next to an MCU expert, who can help you understand the more obscure inside references and the more obscure cameos. Of course, you don't need to know much to laugh at a Deadpool line, aimed at a fellow superhero, whom he refers to as "Mr. PG-13," in comparison to Deadpool's R rating.

In short: Run don’t walk to see Deadpool and Wolverine. Hysterically funny, unbelievably foul-mouthed, ultra violent, exploding heads. A laugh riot. And a 100 Deadpools from throughout the multiverse.