"PASSING" // SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2021

BY MATEO MORENO

The phenomenon of "Passing," a light-skinned African American person who is "passing" in life as white, was quite prominent in the early 1900's and may not be familiar to all. Though several projects over the years have told stories surrounded by it, including the musical Showboat which features an African-American character passing as white. The 1929 novel "Passing" by Nella Larsen laid out a tale that was very fresh and familiar to many: it told the story, in three parts, of a pair of old friends reunited in New York City. One occasionally "passes" when they can, but the other is passing for white every day, even married to a wealthy white man. Rebecca Hall has now adapted it and shot it in a luscious Black and White frame. PASSING narrows the scope of the novel, but only barely and still includes most of the powerful bits. Sadly, it also seems to keep you at arm's length, insisting on some sort of privacy as it unspools its story.

It's the 1920's New York City and Tessa Thompson plays Irene, a young African American woman who skin tone is light enough to sometimes pass as white while shopping or moving through Midtown Manhattan. She does so not with both feet in the water, but with trepidation, always with one eye over her shoulder. One day, while spending some time in the Drayton Hotel, a very fancy place and filled with well-to-do white people, she catches another woman's eye. That woman is Clare (Ruby Negga) and she heads straight for her, insisting that she knows her. Turns out she does, as they are old friends. Clare is also a light skinned black woman and while catching up, she reveals that she has been passing for years as white, climbing the social ladder and even got married to a rich white man (Alexander Skarsgård). Clare takes Irene back to her home where the rich husband enters the picture. He's a pompous man, but more than that he's terribly racist and while he makes horrible comments the two women are forced to simply laugh as to not give either of them away.

Irene returns to her home in Harlem, which she shares with her husband Brian (André Holland) and two children. Clare wants to meet up again, but Irene tosses the idea to the side, thinking that its best to simply move on. But Clare is insistent, desperately needing a friend but also still curious of the life she left behind her. The pair become close and Clare starts to attend functions with Irene and her husband. Irene is envious of how comfortable Clare straddles both worlds and Clare is envious of how comfortable Irene is simply living in hers. Yet along the surface simmers a quiet unease and unsteadiness between the two. A feeling of dread and jealousy seems to follow them. The film moves with a deliberate slow burn, revealing slowly a world that seems almost ready to crumble apart. Director Rebecca Hall is herself biracial and has had her own family members in the past pass for white. With that invested interest, one would hope for PASSING to fully embrace the troubled past of the 1920's, the fears of these woman if they are found out and the often unasked questions about racial identity.

It does, but does so at a distance. Both actresses, Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga, have strong turns in the film. Thompson is quietly reserved and hurting, while Negga is sharp and whimsical and they both support each other's performance with ease. Yet Hall, who moves her film through a slow, uneasy pace, seems to lose us somewhat in the middle, ending up on a slightly repeated pattern. The emotions are often kept at bay, making the final act feel a bit rushed, though it does still arrive with a powerful effect. Yet it leaves you wanting more from the moment. If the characters had more to say, or at least more to share with us, perhaps the emotions would feel more lived in, more heartbreaking. It's a solid, good film, one that's striving to be great but held back by its own coldness within.

GRADE: B

BASED ON THE NOVEL BY Nella Larsen SCREENPLAY AND DIRECTED BY Rebecca Hall STARRING Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga, André Holland, Alexander Skarsgård, Bill Camp SELECTED AS PART OF THE 2021 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL. FOR MORE INFO: PASSING

"KILL TEAM" // TRIBECA 2019 REVIEW

BY MATEO MORENO

Based on the 2013 documentary of the same name, THE KILL TEAM is a harrowing and cautionary tale of unbridled machismo, and a team of U.S. soldiers out of control. Writer-Director Dan Krauss’ retells his story for a feature, enlisting commanding performances by Alexander Skarsgård, playing a sociopathic squad leader, and Nat Wolff as the soldier whose point of view we see the world through. It’s not an easy watch, especially when you know it’s based on a true story, and if you’ve seen the documentary (which we reviewed HERE), then you know it’s sadly all true.

Wolff plays Andrew Briggman, a solider who’s completely taken aback by their new Staff Sergeant Deeks (Skarsgård). He’s not a warm type in the least. He’s worried about taking out anyone he deems a threat to him or his team, whether that person is on the enemy’s side or their own. Since Deeks is a calm, cool and collected he makes the awful things that he has his team do almost seem justified. Or perhaps it’s just the cost of war. He commends their actions with comments like, “Good hunting” and tells Briggman, “We kill people. That’s what we do.” Right and wrong start to mix, but there’s a constant nagging in the back of his head, telling him that the way they are treating the people in Afghanistan isn’t right, and the very dangerous and bloody ways that Deeks sees the world is something that has to be stopped.

The Kill Team is intense and horrible, but the filmmaking is fairly straight forward, so it doesn’t quite have the emotional impact that the documentary did. But it still does pack a punch, and just how the actual case created a real-life scandal, knowing that this behavior definitely exists is enough to make you sick. War is hell, and sometimes creates demons to do its bidding. This is the story of such a squad, and the disturbing turn of events that dug them out.

VERDICT: SEE IT

GRADE: B+

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Dan Krauss STARRING Nat Wolff, Alexander Skarsgård, Adam Long, Jonathan Whitesell, Brian "Sene" Marc, Rob Morrow. Playing as part of the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival. For more information: http://www.tribecafilm.com/filmguide/kill-team-2019

SHADOWS OF THE NYFF part 1 // Film reviews of Melancholia, Carnage, A Dangerous Method, & Goodbye First Love

BY MATEO MORENO

Being able to sit in a darkened theater, awaiting the magic to come (or lack thereof) is one of my favorite things in the world. I love going to the movies, and especially love being able to see them before a trailer has been released into the world. Without the trailer, you might be granted huge spoilers or plot developments. I’d much rather read a non spoiler review or updates online and let the film breathe its life into me itself. That’s one of the great things about film festivals; being able to see a film ahead of it’s intended release date. The latest festival I attended was the 49th annual New York Film Festival, and I saw a flood of great, not so great, and somewhere in between films. Below is a selection of the ones that stuck out in my head the most, for better or for worse.

Lars von Trier (Dancer in the Dark, Antichrist) is an enigmatic filmmaker, to say the least (witness his “Nazi” comments that got him booted from this year’s Cannes Film Festival). He helped create the “Dogma 95” collective with fellow Danish filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg (The Celebration, It’s all about love) but Trier doesn’t attend to the Dogma ideals in his latest film, Melancholia (now in limited theatrical release and available on VOD), as it is a very polished film with ample special effects, something that Trier himself has now strangely “regretted.” In a recent director’s statement, he essentially apologized for making such a polished film but hoped that it still had flaws to make it interesting. Luckily for Trier, the film does indeed contain several flaws and disjointed moments, however that’s not to say that it isn’t fascinating and beautiful as well. After the initial screening, and for weeks after really, I was literally unsure of how I felt about the film, so I’m glad that I’m just now writing the review for it. Melancholia is a film that may be occasionally frustrating, but more often than not is fascinating and beautiful, and it’s lingered with me since the moment I walked out of the theatre.

It opens with a “prelude,” set to Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Islode and in a breathtaking ten minutes or so, details a planet heading towards earth and the reactions that it causes. It’s staged with unbelievably beauty.  We then jump back in time, far before this epic event.  The movie itself is split into two “acts,” the first following Justine (Kirstin Dunst) and the second following her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg). Both characters appear in each act, but the focus heavily shifts onto one or the other. We meet Justine as she’s arriving late to her own wedding reception with her new husband Michael (True Blood’s Alexander Skarsgård). Once there, the evening almost unfolds in real time, and we see how depression and sadness has begun to overtake Justine. Her sister Claire and her husband John (Kiefer Sutherland) try to be supportive but as the evening progresses, she seems to push them farther and farther away. The second act features Claire and her family, wondering if the news of an impending planet barreling toward earth, is indeed true or if it will change course at the last moment, as many scientists (including John) has predicted. Dunst digs into the role with fearless abandon, and was awarded the Best Actress prize at Cannes this year. She fully embodies the depression of the character; however Justine herself is quite impossible to like or to relate to. You don’t necessarily feel for her, and I don’t think the director really wanted you to, as she is relentlessly cruel to everyone around her. So as a performance, it’s great to watch but as a character it’s sometimes quite annoying. Gainsbourg is equally good but quite relatable and sympathetic as her frustrated sister Claire. Especially in the second act, she really shines and though Claire keeps trying to help her sister, with each time she realizes more and more that perhaps she never truly will. The rest of the supporting cast pull in strong performances, though several remain only caricatures (this is represented most in Charlotte Rampling’s bitter and angry mother Gaby). And though things like the back and forth nature of act one and Justine in general do indeed bother me, the film is indeed a haunting, gorgeous film that had me in tears for the final moments. Do yourself a favor and see it on the big screen instead of VOD. The visuals demand it.

God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza was a hugely successful play, first presented in Zürich and Paris before being translated in English by Christopher Hampton and became a smash in both London and New York. It won the Olivier awards in London, as well as three 2009 Tony Awards, including Best Play. From Isabelle Huppert to Ralph Fiennes to Marcia Gay Harden, actor after actor jumped at the chance to perform in this four person dark comedy to show off their acting chops. Now it has become a film, directed by another enigmatic filmmaker Roman Polanski, and dropped part of its title just to become Carnage (in US theatres 12/16). The story follows two sets of parents: buttoned up Nancy and Alan Cowan (Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz) and the on the edge of quietly exploding Penelope Longstreet (Jodie Foster) and her more relaxed husband Michael (John C. Reilly) as they meet at the Longstreet household to discuss a matter regarding their children. Seems that their boys had a fight on the playground and what starts as a polite conversation with the goal of the boys apologizing turns verbally aggressive and combative as each parent fights for their own opinions about their children, how to raise them, and their own marriages.

Polanski, though a polarizing person himself, is a wonderful filmmaker and he faithfully adapts Reza’s bitingly funny play into a fully realized film (it helps that Reza co-wrote the screenplay with Polanski). The camera shots alone are a testament to both Polanski and his DP Pawel Edelman’s talent. Its shot beautifully and never seems crapped or condensed (the entire film takes place in real time and in one location). Tearing apart the screen are four highly skilled actors who never overshadow each other, but shine and then step aside to let the others do the same. Winslet’s slow burning character provides quite a roller coaster ride indeed, as we watch her go from sympathetic to apathetic and finally boil over in rage. There’s a reason why Winslet is one of the best actors working today, and witnessing her performance here, you don’t doubt that talent one bit. Waltz again proves what a great actor he is here in a role that is completely opposite of his star making turn in Inglorious Basterds. He is relentlessly funny and his barrage of sarcasm and lack of interest in anything but leaving the house plays fantastically against the much more “dealing with this now” attitude of Foster’s character, whose clipped speech pattern and constant “corrections” for everyone will have you in hysterics. Last but not least is Reilly’s way too easy going father who has probably been run over for far too long by Foster’s character and finally starts to let loose here. He add a wonderful touch of the everyday man who seems to think he knows a lot, but just doesn’t quite grasp everything he’s saying himself. It’s a simply fantastic cast, with stellar direction and should end up on most everyone’s “must see list” this year.

A Dangerous Method (in limited release 11/23) marks the third collaboration between Director David Cronenberg and Actor Viggo Mortensen (the first two being Eastern Promises and A History of Violence). It details the historical account of Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender), Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and Sabina Spielrein’s (Keira Knightley) interactions throughout World War I and beyond. We meet Jung as he’s beginning his career, married and expecting his first child. Much of his inspiration comes from Freud, who he develops a turbulent friendship with throughout his life, and bases his treatment of Sabina Spielrein on Freud’s own experimental treatment known as “psychoanalysis.” She herself has been diagnosed with “hysteria” and finds herself finally getting better through her interactions with Jung. But soon, Jung’s own sexual feelings for Spielrein deepen and he’s forced with the decision of giving into his impulses or pushing them to the side. Unknown to him, his ultimate decision will mark the course of the rest of his life.

Michael Fassbender is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors, showing his range in films like Inglorious Basterds, Jane Eyre, & X-Men: First Class. His portrayal of Carl Jung is a very layered one, as it should be; Jung was not an easily understood man, and he lets you into his fractured psyche while never alienating you with his less than complimentary choices. As his mentor and friend, Mortensen plays a very different role, portraying the stubborn but brilliant Sigmund Freud. His performance is more nuanced and delicate, and it matches the tone perfectly. Knightley’s take on Spielrein is both haunting and effecting, yet I do feel that she’s sometimes a bit out of her element and wonder what a more “seasoned” actress would have brought to it. Still, I do like Knightley, and her recent performances in both this and Last Night suggest a stronger developing of nuance when needed and explosion only when asked for. Cronenberg loves to approach his film choices in very different manners, and his taken on a historical time piece (adapted from Christopher Hampton’s play The Talking Cure) is quite good, though never truly remarkable. It shows what a turbulent relationship these three had, yet doesn’t quite fully delve into the true nature each of them are being conflicted with. It’s a hard thing to deliver, and at many moments he reaches for it, only slightly missing the target seemingly by an inch.

First love will always remain one of the most vibrant and illuminating moments in your life, and that decidedly makes for a great story.  And that's the basis of Mia Hansen-Løve’s new film.  So why then is  Un amour de jeunesse (Goodbye First Love) (in limited theatrical release 12/9) such a bore? Lola Créton plays Camille, a young teenager who’s madly in love with her first real boyfriend Sullivan (Sebastian Urzendowsky). When he decides to take off on a trip, with no discernable return date, she is heartbroken. Her mother (Valérie Bonneton), knowing that this is just her first love, urges her to move on, but even when Camille does, he seems to come back in and out of her life and she doesn’t ever truly get over him, even after falling for an older man Lorenz (Magne-Håvard Brekke). Writer/Director Mia Hansen-Løve may be a good filmmaker (she certainly can make a picturesque movie), but her storytelling is severely lacking in this excruciatingly plodded film. It doesn’t tell us anything that we haven’t already experienced in any other “first love” film, nor does it ever let us fall for these characters. Créton’s portrayal of Camille seems to run in circles of “Smile, be sensitive, cry, rinse, repeat” while Urzendowsky’s “lost love” Sullivan is just an annoyance. It’s not a terrible film, but even worse, it’s a mediocre one, and not even a good one at that.

MELANCHOLIA Written and Directed by Lars Von Trier Starring Kirstin Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourgh, Alexander Skarsgård, Kiefer Sutherland Rated R (for adult language, adult situations, violence, nudity) Mateo’s Grade: A-

CARNAGE Based on the play God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza Screenplay by Yasmina Reza, Roman Polanski Directed by Roman Polanski Trier Starring Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly Rated R (for adult language, mild violence) Mateo’s Grade: A-

A DANGEROUS METHOD Based on the play The Talking Cure by Christopher Hampton Based on the novel A Most Dangerous Method by John Kerr Screenplay by Christopher Hampton Directed by David Cronenberg Starring Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen, Keira Knightley Rated R (for adult language, adult situations, violence, nudity) Mateo’s Grade: B

UN AMOUR DE JEUNESSE (GOODBYE FIRST LOVE) Written and Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve Starring Lola Créton, Sebastian Urzendowsky, Valérie Bonneton, Magne-Håvard Brekke Rated R (for adult language, adult situations, nudity) Mateo’s Grade: D

Bottom Line: Three out of four ain’t bad now is it?