Bequeath the Wind

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND (B) - Part curiosity, part lost would-be masterpiece, this hunk of '70s art-shlock -- obsessed over for years by the legendary Orson Welles -- is finally seeing the light of day courtesy of Welles acolyte Peter Bogdanovich. Welles famously liked to shoot endlessly, hoping for happy accidents to happen. Here he is in late career, often in European exile, telling a story that he insisted was not autobiographical -- the last day in the life of a famous film director, played here by John Huston.

The film itself is such a scattershot melange of scenes that it is hard to follow, which seemed to be the intent of Welles, undisciplined as he tries to pour his cluttered mind onto celluloid. Working at the height of the next generation's American New Wave, Welles channels Godard and Altman, finding experimental brilliance here and there. But whether it was the original shooting, Welles' original cut as a template, or Bogdanovich and crew's modern edit, the final product is jumpy, uneven and discordant. At times that provides a jolt of energy; at other times, merely confusion.

Huston is magnificent as Jake Hannaford, reminding us of his epic personality on screen, whether he is piercing the ego of an actor or wrapping a creepy avuncular arm around a teenage girl on set. Norman Foster holds things together as his loyal producer. No one else stands out. (Bogdanovich famously replaced Rich Little after Welles turned on the young impersonator.)

Welles is liberal with the nudity (especially with his muse and co-writer, Oja Kodar), and a bathroom orgy scene is cut wonderfully frenetically, but the result seems like a '60s acid-washed anachronism even back then. One highlight is Kodar seducing a young passenger in a car they are riding in, her necklaces and chains rhythmically clanking against her bare, tanned chest as she straddles him and grinds away. Overall, the narrative barely holds together, and you might not care about the original idea. It's a wild ride and an appropriate tribute to a director who vainly tried his whole career to surpass his first masterpiece ("Citizen Kane").

THEY'LL LOVE ME WHEN I'M DEAD (A-minus) - The documentary about the making of the movie is better than the movie itself. At one point you get the sense that Welles' decade-long effort to make "The Other Side of the Wind" had turned into some perverse practical joke. He hints at as much toward the end of this documentary, but he's likely putting us on about that.

The frustration of working with Welles -- mad genius or over-the-hill hack? -- is captured by those still around to tell the story, as well as longtime Welles cameraman Gary Graver, seen in clips before his death in 2006. (During the frustrating down times between shoots with the boss, Graver earned a buck directing pornos.) Welles famously had trouble raising money, and here we get insights into the ill-fated Iranian connection (interrupted by the Ayatollah's revolution) and Welles' sad begging for cash while accepting a tribute award from the American Film Institute.

The man just got sadder and heavier until he died in 1985. This documentary is full of life, though, and it has a vitality and energy that the final cut of "The Other Side of the Wind" lacks.
 

The Blessed of 2018

It is by now gospel that we here in the boonies do not rush into our year-end list. We're still catching up with the 2018 releases, and some of them don't trickle into town until January something. For now, here is a list of the year's releases that earned a B+ or higher (mostly B-pluses in here) and will be competing for the top spot, around a month from now:

• The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling
• Mr. Roosevelt
• Let the Sunshine In
• Foxtrot
• Outside In
• The Rider
• Won't You Be My Neighbor
• The Endless
• Skate Kitchen
• Fahrenheit 11/9
• Dark Money
• En el Septimo Dia
• Three Identical Strangers
• Burning
• Dark River 
• The King
• A Star Is Born
• Izzy Gets the Fuck Across Town
• Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.
• The Rape of Recy Taylor

And there are a few more ringers waiting in the wings. Stay tuned.

  

Look in the Mirror

IZZY GETS THE FUCK ACROSS TOWN (A-minus) - Mackenzie Davis goes all-in for this classic tale of a spurned millennial on a hero's journey to win back her true love. Or something like that. Here she is the title character trying to venture across Los Angeles to crash the engagement party of her ex-boyfriend and ex-friend. Davis brings depth and nuance to this familiar role, and she is ably assisted by a strong supporting cast of actors who pop in for memorable cameos.

Lakeith Stanfield and Haley Joel Osment get mowed down by this force of nature in a blood- and wine-stained tuxedo from last night's catering gig. Davis, who was about the only good thing in this year's "Tully," can do no wrong carrying the picture on her shoulders. One of her pop-ins turns up Annie Potts as a sympathetic mother figure. And then there is the force of nature known as Alia Shawkat, who takes a throwaway role and turns it into a riveting character study. And we haven't mentioned the gravitas bequeathed on the production by Carrie Coon (HBO's "The Leftovers") as Izzy's sour sister and former bandmate.

This is a debut feature -- and a labor of love -- from Christian Papierniak, and it buzzes with sharply observed character interplay and well honed lines of dialogue. It's Davis who carries it over the finish line, though, with her determination to bring a fresh perspective to a classic millennial lament.

PERSONA (1966) (B) - I don't know what this has left to add to a conversation in 2018, but Ingmar Bergman's classic is concise and less aggravating than many European art films of the 1960s. Liv Ullmann's near-silent performance -- as a mute actress tended to by a young nurse -- is a cavalcade of expressions. Bibi Anderson does the heavy lifting as the chatty attendant. We also hear Bergman's own silent wail bookending the film in the person of a young boy longing for his absent mother.

Typical art-house philosophy is espoused. The black-and-white cinematographer is sharp and unforgiving. This two-handed morality play zips by in 83 minutes, holding up well as a curiosity piece.

BONUS TRACK
A centerpiece of "Izzy," both by Corin Tucker and by Davis and Coon in a memorable scene between the sisters, "Axemen":


 

Doc Watch: Justice

DEADLINE (B) (2004) - This bare-bones documentary is surprisingly effective in chronicling the process by which Illinois' lame-duck governor at the time, George Ryan, decided whether to end the death penalty before the end of his term. Ryan set up a sort of Peace and Reconciliation commission to hear the arguments of those on Death Row and the families of victims. Filmmakers Katy Chevigny and Kirsten Johnson ("Cameraperson") capture compelling testimony and build a sense of intrigue over what Ryan will do. Most folks will remember the outcome, but if you don't know or have forgotten, let the drama play out.

THE STAIRCASE (A-minus) (2004) - This eight-part TV production launched a thousand true-crime series and podcasts with this French crew's examination of Durham, N.C., writer Michael Peterson and mysterious death of his wife in a pool of blood at the foot of a staircase in their home. TV veteran Jean-Xavier de Lestrade leads a French film crew with a fresh perspective on American jurisprudence.

This is one of the best legal procedurals you will find, as Lestrade gains an all-access pass into the defense strategy of trial lawyer David Rudolf, who has his hands full with an unappealing client, who happens to have been in Germany with his ex-wife when a neighbor woman just happened to die in a very similar manner about 17 years earlier. Peterson's online dalliance with a male escort provides a juicy dramatic twist and comedic relief in the form of the sex worker's animated testimony.

Again, if you either never knew the story or have forgotten the outcome, let it play out without revealing the verdict via Wikipedia. One of the final shots, winding through the bowels of the courthouse, way beyond normal security limits, is a great coup for the film crew. In addition, the psychological profile of Peterson's children, most of whom support him, thanks mainly to a healthy dose of denial. This certainly laid the foundation for the true-crime craze that remains in full flower.
 

New to the Queue

Cold, hard stare ...

A young Iranian man seduces the women of Denmark, looking for a ticket to stay in the country, in "The Charmer."

Barry Jenkins follows up "Moonlight" with an adaptation of James Baldwin's "If Beale Street Could Talk."

A documentary about survivors of the Chinese Communist Party's purges of 1957, "Dead Souls."

John C. Reilly and Will Ferrell look like they are having fun in the latest from the writer of "Tropic Thunder," Etan Cohen's "Holmes and Watson." 

Pawel Pawlikowski follows up "Ida" with a postwar love story, "Cold War."
 

Doc Watch: Outsider Art

MATANGI/MAYA/M.I.A. (A) - This mix of contemporary video and home movies by the rapper M.I.A. creates a swirl that is the life of a modern, insurgent artist. With a slight nod to the Kurt Cobain fever dream "Montage of Heck," newcomer Stephen Loveridge curates an intimate portrait of the talented Sri Lankan refugee immigrant who refuses to shut up about the plight of the people she left behind.

M.I.A, aka Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka Maya, shot home video going back to her time in her homeland (where her father was a founder of the Tamil rebel group) around the turn of the millennium. She also was developing her beats and raps on cassette tapes. She was "disovered" by Justine Frischmann of Elastica and before you know it was performing before thousands at Coachella by 2005 on the heels of songs like "Galanaga" and her debut album "Arular." She eventually broke huge with "Paper Planes" on the "Slumdog Millionaire" soundtrack, and before you know it, she was hanging with Madonna and Nikki Manaj at the Super Bowl, infamously giving America the middle finger.

Loveridge does not shy away from either the controversy or the accusations of hypocrisy against an entertainer who celebrates the underclass while luxuriating in the billions of the Bronfman family that she briefly was married into. But we never lose sight of the young girl who grew into the truth-telling woman still pushing to champion people of color. Loveridge plays with the chronology like a pro, and the result is a burst of energy and primal scream, urging us to listen to this voice.

HERE TO BE HEARD: THE STORY OF THE SLITS (B-minus) - This is a fun but somewhat sluggish celebration of the female punk band the Slits, who gained popularity alongside the Sex Pistols and the Clash but who quickly devolved into a noodling reggae band and soon faded into obscurity.

The archival clips are fairly extensive, and the middle-age surviving members are mostly in good spirits as they reminisce. The production values are a little cheap, and the history of the band itself is rather thin, but this helps fill in some of the blanks in the history of punk.

SEARCHING FOR INGMAR BERGMAN (B-minus) - You get the feeling that the filmmakers merely scratch the surface in psychoanalyzing the groundbreaking Swedish director of the New Wave era. His greatest hits are on display here, and the women who indulged him over the years, now wrinkled, wax nostalgic about working with the man who did his best to harsh the vibe of the hippie generation with his heavy films. A move to Germany in the '70s for tax reasons feels under-reported. One of his sons offers an analysis of dear old dad. In the end, we might not know much more than a few Rosebud moments that shaped a man who left his mark on cinema.

BONUS TRACK
From the closing credits of "M.I.A.," "Reload":


 

Holiday Doldrums

The Onion AV Club (no relation) just unleashed another string of mediocre grades for the latest releases. Ten reviews in a row range from B-minus to C:

• Mowgli
• Vox Lux
• Ben Is Back
• Aquaman
• Capernaum
• Bird Box
• Mortal Engines
• Mary Poppins Returns
• The House That Jack Built
• The Mule

The string was broken by last night's A-minus review for Barry Jenkins' "If Beale Street Could Talk."
  

Doc Watch: Women in Peril

THE RAPE OF RECY TAYLOR (B+) - This quiet, methodical documentary brings a modern-day sensibility to the harrowing story of the gang-rape of a young mother and wife in Alabama in 1944. Nancy Buirski ("The Loving Story," "Afternoon of a Faun") by now has developed a style that is more dry than flashy. Here, she marches through the narrative, mixing the news reports of the day in black publications with present-day recollections, including by Taylor's brother. We also hear Taylor's voice on an audio recording. (Buirski uses video of Taylor herself sparingly and to powerful effect.)

Buirski also takes the opportunity to celebrate Rosa Parks, who was the NAACP investigator assigned to Taylor's case. That storyline adds depth to the tale and helps bridge the generations from World War II to the civil-rights achievements of the '60s through to the present-day plight of the African American struggle.

DE PALMA (B) - It isn't easy to defend Brian De Palma's film oeuvre. He was baptized in schlock, he made his name stealing Hitchcock's moves to create stylized violence, and his legacy has not aged well, especially '80s noir-porn like "Dressed to Kill" and "Body Double." But he is a really good storyteller, and he was present at the dawn of the American New Wave, so he's an engaging subject for a documentary.

Next-gen directors Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow pay homage by curating loads of movie clips and simply plunking down De Palma in front of a camera (Errol Morris-style) and having him spin stories about his movies and famous pals. The takeaway here is that, say what you will about a director who liked the idea of impaling an actress with a three-foot-long drill bit or dumping a bucket of pig's blood on poor Carrie, he worked hard at his craft and he had an old-fashioned appreciation for things like mise en cine and narrative structure. And he entertained a lot of people with "Carrie," "Scarface," the very first Tom Cruise "Mission Impossible," "Blow Out," "The Untouchables" and Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" video. Hanging out with the old guy, you'll learn a few things and have some fun along the way.
 

Doc Watch: Secrets

SCOTTY AND THE SECRET HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD (B) - This fascinating character study follows Scotty Bowers, a super-spry nonagenerian, as he looks back on his postwar glory as pimp to the stars, mostly closeted gay men. Matt Tyrnauer ("Studio 54") brings Bowers' memoirs off the page and onto the big screen, and he is an engaging subject, full of stories, most of which seem corroborated by contemporaries.

Bowers was sexualized by men when he was a boy (he doesn't see it as abuse) and then had a romp-filled stint in the military, emerging from World War II with a gas station in Hollywood, where he set up shop procuring buff young men for randy actors looking for $20 action. Bowers, boyishly handsome and long married to a woman, comes across as either the most well-adjusted pansexual libertine or the most deluded victim of delusion ever.

We watch his hoarder lifestyle take over his house, as the stories pour out of him, whether it's pornographically gay romps, orgies, or feeding women to Katherine Hepburn. Tyrnauer shrewdly scrutinizes America's views of sex and the power of pop-culture tropes. It's a fantasy world wrapped in a fantasy world. While you pity some of the stars who were trapped in the closet, you have to tip your hat to the old folks -- they sure had a wild time back then.

RUNNING FROM CRAZY (C-minus) - This disappointing profile of the haunted Hemingway clan comes with a major red flag -- it is brought to you by Oprah Winfrey's fawn factory. Turns out that fatally counteracts the power of legendary documentarian Barbara Kopple ("Harlan County U.S.A.").

Mariel Hemingway anchors this examination of the clan descended from legendary writer Ernest Hemingway, who famously took his own life in 1961 at his home in Idaho. Very little illumination is shed on a family that has suffered through nine suicides over the generations. Mariel's daughters seem fairly well adjusted, but there really are no deep insights that delve into the family history. Mariel is treated with kid gloves, and we have to slog through scenes of her yoga routine and bickering road trips with her boyfriend.

Kopple captures it all with the production values of a church video from the '80s. Truly a lost opportunity.

Bonus Track
The trailer for "Scotty":


 

Class struggle

KES (1969) (A) - Ken Loach broke through with this raw, brutal examination of the life of the underclass in rural northern England. Working with mostly non-actors, Loach (most recently "I, Daniel Blake," "The Angels' Share") lucked out with David Bradley as Billy, an earnest adolescent who sees falcon training as his escape from the dead-end life of his coal town around Yorkshire. He is bullied by his lunkhead older brother and ignored by most everyone else, but when he discovers a nest of kestrels and learns how to train them, his world explodes with possibilities.

Working class indignities abound. A soggy soccer practice and a locker-room humiliation become just one in a series of daily horrors that befall Billy and his mates. There are no easy answers here and no simple, logical resolution to this story. In fact, the ending is gut-wrenching. The Criterion edition includes insightful extras about Loach and the film. A milestone in British cinema.

SUPPORT THE GIRLS (B) - Andrew Bujalski never puts the pieces together in this blue-collar dramedy about women asserting their rights at a divey breastaurant of the Hooters variety. Bujalski, the godfather of Mumblecore, was on a roll -- and a path to the mainstream -- with "Computer Chess" and "Results," but he takes a sideways slide by losing his focus on storytelling. A top-notch cast, led by Regina King as Lisa, the mother hen of a den of young women, captures its share of moments. But the story -- there's a carwash fundraiser for one of the workers who is some sort of legal predicament -- is confusing.  As a series of vignettes, it's satisfying. And actresses like Haley Lu Richardson and Shayna McHayle (aka Junglepussy) bring alluring energy as they lead a crew of appealing (and we're not talking about the push-up bras) characters. But by the end, I wasn't sure just what all had transpired on Lisa's very trying day. With James Le Gros, always welcome, as the creepy boss.
 

Drama Queens

Two from our gal Alia Shawkat:

DUCK BUTTER (B) - Just a lovely love story between two young women who decide to take on the grand arc of a long-term relationship squeezed into 24 hours of intense bonding. It's a gimmick but a fun one. Alia Shawkat here writes the script with Miguel Arteta ("Beatriz at Dinner") and stars as Naimi alongside the appealing Laia Costa as Sergio in this roller-coaster comic drama.

With the hint of the artificiality of a theater exercise, Shawkat and Costa are all-in for this one. The dynamic alternates between intense and droll. They vow to have sex every hour on the hour. Naimi, in a nod to the conceit, complains during the second half of the experiment, as the bickering begins, "We haven't had sex in two-and-a-half hours!"

The result feels both workshopped and lived-in. It would not work without the dedication of the two actresses and the steady hand of Arteta.

PAINT IT BLACK (C) - Shawkat stumbles here in the awkward directorial debut of actress Amber Tamblyn. This is yet another drama about a mother and girlfriend distraught over the death of a young man. The great Janet McTeer tries her best to bring sense to the role of the grieving, conniving mother, but even she cannot find the right tone.

Shawkat, looking unnaturally skinny, also can't hit the right pitch of this pseudo-horror melange. Tamblyn exhibits a flashy style, and she has an eye for visual hooks. But her story (she co-wrote it with two others, including the author of the source material) is hollow. We don't know enough about the young man to appreciate why Shawkat's character would be so aimless and his mother would attack her. (Except that they both seem to do a lot of drugs and alcohol.) Throw in a nonsensical ending, and you have a missed opportunity from Tamblyn.

BONUS TRACK
From the opening of "Duck Butter," the band Hinds with "Garden":


 

Bleak Is Beautiful

BURNING (B+) - A slow, lovely meditation on yearning. Farm-boy Jong-su (Ah-in Yoo) pines for Hae-mi (Jong-seo Jeon), who has gone off to Seoul, the big city, and, after sleeping with her once, he agrees to watch her cat while she takes a trip to Africa. When Hae-mi returns, she has Ben (Steven Yeun) on her arm, a slick playboy-type with a fancy apartment. The three hang out together, most memorably back at Jong-su's farm, where Hae-mi entertains the troops with a topless dance to a Miles Davis song at twilight.

But when Hae-mi disappears, Jong-su grows suspicious of Ben. But it's not clear which one of the men is the sane one and which one is the paranoid one. Chang-dong Lee, who wrote and directed the equally quiet and compelling "Poetry" in 2010, returns with a true slow burn of a tale. This laconic mind-game (a surprisingly perky 148 minutes) crescendos with a violent ending, and whether or not you feel tricked by the filmmaker, you almost certainly will be drawn in by the performances and the gorgeous look of the scenery.

DARK RIVER (A-minus) - Clio Barnard ("The Selfish Giant," "The Arbor") adapts this brutal, grueling slog of a story about a damage woman named Alice (Ruth Wilson), who, after the death of her father, returns to her rural northern England village for the first time in 15 years vowing to claim the tenancy to the rundown family farm she believes is rightfully hers. But she is stymied at every step by her drunken, hirsute brother, Joe (Mark Stanley), and haunted at every turn by visions of the father (Sean Bean in flashbacks) who molested her when she was a girl. (The only knock on the film is Barnard's horror-story over-use of those incessant glimpses of the past.)

Barnard knows how to tap into the grit and grime of life in North Yorkshire, and Wilson and Stanley wallow in it, surrounded less by the loveliness of nature than by the blood and guts of the rats, rabbits and sheep they live among. The siblings do battle as Alice, a sheep-shearer by trade, strives to fix up the grounds to appease the banksters while Joe resists change. Things get ugly, and it all builds to a horrific -- yet oddly cathartic -- tragedy, though with a coda that reveals the true beauty of the environment these two scarred souls were raised in. The film is bleak and devastating at times but absolutely compelling.

  

New to the Queue

Coast to coast ...

Alfonso Cuaron ("Children of Men," "Gravity") revisits his childhood and the domestic worker who helped raise him in "Roma."

A documentary explores George R.R. Martin's curiosity shop and arts/entertainment center in Santa Fe, "Meow Wolf: Origin Story."

I gave up on Clint Eastwood's bloated movies long ago, but something is drawing me to his drama about an elderly drug-runner, "The Mule."

A pair of Catholic sisters query passersby on the street in the restored 1968 documentary "Inquiring Nuns."

Hirokazu Kore-eda ("Nobody Knows") returns with another family drama, "Shoplifters."

A documentary about the discovery of bizarre industrial musicals from the business world, "Bathtubs Over Broadway."
 

RIP, Ricky Jay

Magician and actor Ricky Jay has died at 72. Here is our July 2013 review of the documentary about him.

DECEPTIVE PRACTICE: THE MYSTERIES AND MENTORS OF RICKY JAY (B) - This was highly enjoyable, with an entertaining subject and clever framing device. I would give it a higher grade -- because it's definitely worth seeing -- but for two reasons: 1) You need to be a little bit of a fan of Ricky Jay and/or his card tricks. 2) Grading this too high would suggest that this is the ultimate profile of Ricky Jay and his magician mentors; it's not.

But at times, it's true joy. Jay was a child star in the '50s and grew up to be the Penn Jillette of the '70s, perfecting his card-tossing routine as a long-haired hippie of the now generation. You may know his face from David Mamet's films opposite Joe Mantegna in the '80s, such as "House of Cards," "Things Change" and "Homicide." He's also the author of numerous books on magic and various oddities.

What this documentary brings to light is Jay's role as a historian in the world of magic. Because he was already an established performer in the 1950s (urged on by his amateur-magician dad), he provides a key link to the artists going back to the turn of the last century. His library is comprehensive.

Director Molly Bernstein stretches the soup a few times when she's stumped for footage, but she employs a simple but effective framing device: Jay sitting in front of a mirror at a felt table shuffling a deck of cards and occasionally showing off his sleight of hand. She introduces us to the elders: Al Flosso, Slydini, Cardini and others. She shows respect for the secrets of these men.

We also get clips of Jay hamming it up with Dinah Shore on her talk show. And we see closeups of the face of a man easing into old age, his hands still quicker than the eye.

The trailer: 

King of America

THE KING (A) - Eugene Jarecki continues to battle for the soul of America, with this examination of our nation's original sin as viewed from the backseat of Elvis Presley's Rolls-Royce. Did Presley embody the American dream as a poor boy from Tupelo, Miss., to international superstar, only to die on the toilet at age 42?

Jarecki, the meticulous chronicler behind "Why We fight" and "The House I Live In," captures dreamlike images of a diverse group of participants floating along America's back roads in the lap of luxury, ruminating on the rock 'n' roll icon and how he may have symbolized everything good and bad with our country. Filming mostly during the 2016 presidential campaign, the result is a profoundly moving gumbo of ideas.

Celebrities like Alec Baldwin, Ethan Hawke (a producer) and Ashton Kutcher (surprisingly warm here) act out the ups and downs of celebrityhood, while sharp observers like Van Jones and Public Enemy's Chuck D (author of the classic line "Elvis was a hero to most, but he never meant shit to me") offer a wider perspective. Mike Myers, representing the level-headed Canadian counter-balance, is not only quite funny but rather insightful in his analysis of Britain's conjoined-twin nations.

Random musical acts are sprinkled throughout and are lovingly recorded. Old-school artists like John Hiatt (who breaks down weeping in the presence of the spirit of the King) and Emmylou Harris share the spotlight with alt-hipster M. Ward, teenage yodeler Emi Sunshine, and acidic rapper Immortal Technique. The Handsome Family croons a patented murder ballad while gliding through the Southwest. Presley himself is a very real presence, through generous archival footage, following him from rags to riches.

Jarecki shares an aesthetic, as well as actual clips, with Thom Zimny's two-part HBO documentary "Elvis Presley: The Searcher," finding the complexity and layers to the man-child who embodied the hopes and dreams of popular culture for decades. The road trip as metaphor works wonderfully, as the Rolls breaks down a few times, perfectly encapsulating a nation (and its founding philosophy) growing long in the tooth. One man's American dream is another American man's nightmare; and sometimes that contradiction is embodied in one iconic soul.

GARRY WINOGRAND: EVERYTHING IS PHOTOGRAPHABLE (B) - A fascinating, if scattered, study of the work of one of the leading street photographers of the 1960s and '70s. His contemporaries and art critics have studied the hell out of his pictures, and sometimes it feels like they are overthinking and overanalyzing the work. But the images are undeniably compelling.

One ex-wife is on board to examine the man himself, who, if you piece this all together, appears to have been a bit of a sexist pig, but perhaps no more so than most men of his era. One of the hooks here is that Winogrand left tens of thousands of rolls of film undeveloped when he died in 1984 at age 56

BONUS TRACKS
From the closing credits of "Winogrand," early R.E.M. with "Catapult"



From "The King," Immortal Technique spitting "Rich Man's World":



Also from "The King," the angelic crooning of Loveful Heights, "Train Song":

Regards to Broadway

LOVE, GILDA (B) - This by-the-numbers, fawning biography of "Saturday Night Live" star Gilda Radner offers an unsatisfying mix that underplays the funny (her brilliant comic acting) and overplays the sad (death from ovarian cancer in her 40s). Maybe a running time of more than 88 minutes would have balanced things out. A fully formed artist never emerges from the sympathetic direction of newcomer Lisa Dapolito and an army of producers. (Too many cooks?)

Dapolito dwells on Radner's childhood as a fattie but then mostly glosses over adult eating disorders. Too few "SNL" clips are included and they are way too short here. The comedy has no room to breathe. A lot of time is spent on her rather uninteresting post-"SNL" career, and her relationship with Gene Wilder is told mostly through longtime pals and a nephew of Wilder's.

Radner's diaries are used to good effect, but that device sits in stark contrast to Judd Apatow's extensive examination of the psyche of Garry Shandling for HBO (which has the luxury of being three times as long); not that such over-indulgence would have necessarily worked here. Maybe there just aren't as many neuroses and noodlings to sift through when it comes to Radner. But you leave with the sense that you don't really know her all that better than you did before, and you didn't get to laugh as much as you wanted to.

THE SUNSHINE BOYS (1975) (A) - One of the great Neil Simon screenplays, this one starring Walther Matthau and George Burns as estranged vaudeville partners asked to reunite for a TV special. Richard Benjamin steals scenes as the nephew/agent of Willie Clark (Matthau), the frustratingly irascible dotard who harbors petty grudges against Al Lewis (Burns). In classic "Odd Couple" fashion, Willie lives in a messy hotel room in Manhattan while Burns idles away at his daughter's house in New Jersey. Zingers and malapropisms fly past at an impressive rate, and all three actors are at the top of their game. Besides the corny depiction of a bygone era -- filmed in Gerald Ford's New York -- there is a lot of heart on display here, both between Willie and his nephew and between the two old cranks. Still as funny as any word with a K in it.
 

New to the Queue

Thinly veiled ...

A documentary about a filmmaker tracking down the man who stole the first movie she shot 20 years ago, "Shirkers."

Peter Bogdanovich and others finally complete Orson Welles' final film (and film within a film about a filmmaker), "The Other Side of the Wind."

The Welles movie comes with a companion documentary from Morgan Neville ("Won't You Be My Neighbor," "20 Feet From Stardom"), "They'll Love Me When I'm Dead."

Patrick Wang ("In the Family") gets mopey with a delayed-release drama, "The Grief of Others."

A shallow documentary about the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, "Daughters of the Sexual Revolution."
  

Born This Way

A STAR IS BORN (A-minus) - Bradley Cooper rediscovers the power of one of Hollywood's original cautionary tales. And he inhabits the role of the drunken, over-the-hill country rocker who discovers a young woman brimming with talent.

Lady Gaga is prodigiously watchable as Ally, a bit of a Plain Jane who can belt 'em out. She and Cooper's Jack fall in love, and we wince as he falls apart and her career rockets straight to the Grammys. Their chemistry is solid, the dialogue feels lived in, the songs are authentic, and the story arc always remains plausible. For mainstream movie-making, that's quite an accomplishment.

Both actors can tug at the heart strings. A strong supporting cast includes Sam Elliott as Jack's older brother (who manages Jack's career and deflects their daddy issues) and Rafi Gavron as Ally's no-nonsense svengali. This clocks in at an epic 2 hours, 16 minutes, but very few frames seem wasted. This is a labor of love by two artists -- Cooper and Gaga -- who, like their characters, crossed paths at just the right time to help erase the cheesiness of the '70s version of this iconic Everyman tale.

OH LUCY! (B) - This curiosity has charm to burn, even if it meanders too often and doesn't leave much of an aftertaste. Shinobu Terajima stars as Setsuko, renamed Lucy at an English class she attends in Tokyo in place of her niece. When the teacher, John (Josh Hartnett), and the niece disappear to California, Lucy and her sister head after them. What follows is a sloppy, sweet road movie with a twist of culture clash. The mood is often melancholy and fatalistic, but Terajima is so winning that you don't mind.

BONUS TRACK
Cooper's opening track, with Lukas Nelson, the grungy "Black Eyes":


  

The Public Image

FAHRENHEIT 11/9 (B+) - Michael Moore somehow maintains his equilibrium for his strongest polemic in years, this time taking on both sides of the political system that collapsed in 2016. He makes powerful lucid points about where we are as a country and how democracy gets thwarted in so many ways. (Follow the money.)

He embeds with the Parkland students, and he listens to them instead of lecturing to them. Oddly, he spends nearly half the film talking about Flint, Mich., the hometown that launched his career (in "Roger and Me"). The water crisis there was a metaphor for corporate rule and the blueprint for Trumpism. Moore is still not above cheap gimmicks, like spewing Flint water from a firehose onto the lawn of Gov. Rick Snyder. He hasn't lost his playful sense of humor.

Moore hammers President Obama and the Democrats nearly as often as he rails against his true enemy, the Republican establishment. He still could use a healthy dose of fact-checking. He famously issued a wake-up call in early 2016, warning that Trump was likely to win Michigan and even the national vote. His blue-collar spidey-sense was depressingly accurate. We didn't listen to him then; will we listen to him going forward?

THE PUBLIC IMAGE IS ROTTEN (B) - This is a surprisingly tender and thoughtful biography of John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, who surveys his irascible career with the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd. The documentary is essentially a reunion of grouchy middle-age men who somehow harbor little bitterness toward each other.

Bassist Jah Wobble is on hand to explain how he stole PIL master tapes to make his own solo album in the '80s. Drummer Martin Atkins (PIL, Ministry, Pigface) is stoner hilarious as the most insightful talking head. Lydon, a lifelong contrarian, returns repeatedly to his rough childhood as an explanation for his fussy public behavior (including being famously petulant on the old Tom Snyder talk show) and his strict oversight of the band.

The music is a true delight. From the band's thumping eponymous anthem to the many howls of outrage from Lydon, now thick around the middle but still passionate. We see him mellowed by the duty of raising grandchildren and proud to have carried out his career on his own terms.

BONUS TRACK
The title track from "Rotten":


 

Daddy, Bright and Dark

LEAVE NO TRACE (B) - Sluggish but affecting. A man takes his daughter off the grid, and it's clear that he's got some serious mental health issues, requiring his daughter to step up. This is from Debra Granik, still finding her voice after "Down to the Bone," "Winter's Bone" and the palate-cleansing documentary "Stray Dog." Ben Foster is positively chilling as the father who gets caught by authorities and relocated to civilization with his daughter (a solid Thomasin McKenzie) before he quickly starts plotting another escape to the wilderness.

This might not need to be 1 hour 46 minutes, but Granik builds toward a positively heart-breaking conclusion, and the familial bond that shifts in power dynamics is fascinating. Patience pays off here.

THE WEEK OF (B) - Mock me if you will, but there's a place every once in a while for Adam Sandler. Whether he's somehow plumbing dramatic depths with top-notch directors in films like "Punch Drunk Love," "Reign Over Me" and "Funny People," or just yukking it up with his comic pals, as he does here, he can be entertaining. Here, Robert Smigel ("SNL," "Conan") writes and directs this cute and funny take on a Billy-Joel-loving Long Island schmo cheaping out on his daughter's wedding to the son of a doctor. Disaster is inevitable.

Chris Rock is the doctor, who could write a check for everything and not even notice the rounding error. Rock just mostly wanders through this in a state of exasperation. Rachel Dratch is the secret weapon here as the always-on mother of the bride, and her shouting matches with Sandler heard from behind closed doors are a true highlight. Steve Buscemi has a lot of fun playing broad as Sandler's cousin, who sends ahead a surprise -- Uncle Seymour (Jim Barone) who now has two amputated legs.

It's all a made-for-Netflix mess, but Smigel packs it with sight-gags and amusing caricature. Sandler finds the seam between silliness and actual emotion. This one pushes two hours, so consider breaking it into two episodes.

New to the Queue

Keep hope alive ...

A drama about a blossoming romance complicated by a cancer diagnosis, "After Everything."

A South By Southwest favorite, the offbeat debut dramedy about a cop struggling to express his feelings, "Thunder Road."

A harrowing documentary about a teenage gymnast berated by her coach, "Over the Limit."

A documentary about the influential bluesman from the 1960s, "Horn From the Heart: The Paul Butterfield Story."

From Denmark, a suspense film about a cop on desk duty who gets wrapped up in a kidnapping, "The Guilty."

Documentary legend Frederick Wiseman ("Ex Libris," "In Jackson Heights") goes rural for "Monrovia, Indiana."
  

Follow the Money

DARK MONEY (B+) - A smart move to focus this on Montana politics drives this powerful polemic about the flood of untraceable contributions to political campaigns in the wake of the Supreme Court's landmark Citzens United decision of 2010. The filmmakers also luck out by latching on to John Adams, a dogged reporter for the Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune who faithfully "follows the money," as Woodward and Bernstein (and Deep Throat) taught us two generations ago.

Director Kimberly Reed (producer/editor of "Paul Goodman Changed My Life") maintains her footing and perspective over the course of 99 riveting minutes. Reed and co-writer Jay Arthur Sterrenberg do their homework, delving into the history of Montana politics and Montanans' century-long fight against the corrupting influence of money in its local politics. All of that history (mainly the longtime influence of the copper mines) -- and the state's constitution -- suffers repeated body blows from the right-wing zealots pushing a corporate-friendly that includes "right to work" bills and other anti-worker provisions.

Reed at one point, her frustration evident, bursts into a back-room bill-writing session at the legislature, where fat-cat politicians are literally allowing corporate lobbyists to draft legislation. Elsewhere she focuses on local and state-wide political races -- including that of incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Tester -- inundated with racy mailings paid for by right-wing billionaires.  Reed follows the money and lays out the process by which non-profits hide behind shell entities and slither around reporting requirements.

Adams is the hero of the story. He won't quit even when Lee Enterprises downsizes him and others from their capitol bureau; instead, Adams downsizes his own life and launches a underdog watchdog blog that hounds a Republican legislator out of office. Reed also focuses on an un-retired prosecutor to dramatize that key corruption trial. She plods year by year from 2010 to 2017 until her story reaches a natural conclusion. The fight is not over, she suggests, but it can be won. 

"Dark Money" is streaming on "POV" at PBS.org. 
  

Urban Warriors

EN EL SEPTIMO DIA (A-minus) - Jose is a hard-working bike delivery man for a chi-chi Brooklyn restaurant and is the star of his local soccer team. The team has a big game coming up next Sunday, but the boss tells Jose on Monday morning that he'll need Jose for a big event on Sunday. Jose is struggling to establish himself in America, hoping to bring his pregnant girlfriend over someday. Does he endanger his job or will he let his close friends and teammates down by skipping the big match?

This sharply observed film never overreaches and quietly oozes charm, thanks mostly to the earnest performance by Fernando Cardona and the attention to detail by writer/director Jim McKay, a TV veteran. The Anglos here can be a bit clueless about the struggles of immigrants, but they are never rendered as cartoonish. Jose and his compadres have a natural bond (they all seem to be non-actors who might actually play soccer together in real life), and Jose never tips over into a trope of the nobel worker.

This is just a keen slice of life and a thoroughly entertaining and heartfelt film, gracing us with the tale of life among the under-class. And just when you think you're in for a sappy ending, McKay offers a slight twist that swerves past yet another potential cliche.

THE RAT FILM (B) - This documentary about the rat population in Baltimore is pretty bizarre, and not in a good way. There is a point made here about rat infestations being viewed as a metaphor for the treatment of blacks in Baltimore for the past century. "There's never been a rat problem in Baltimore, it's always been a people problem," we are told by Harold, the grizzled ratcatcher who is undeniably the magnetic star of the film. Newcomer Theo Anthony throws a lot of info and images at us, but his experimentalism undermines his attempt to tell a story and drive home his thesis, given the 82 minutes that he squeezes this into.

Anthony uses robotic narration and antiseptic lab images to try to create a clinical approach to his subject. It's a distraction. He might have wanted to stand out as avant-garde, but too often he seems to be getting in his own way. Images of a pair of Baltimore residents fly-fishing for rats in an alley speak for themselves. But such moments don't get enough of a chance to breathe. Still, this is, at times, fascinating.
 

New to the Queue

Slipping through ...

A documentary about the talented and influential hip-hop artist and provocateur, “Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.” 

Another entry in the Real People category of documentaries, two grandsons conduct an archeological dig into their grandmother's cluttered home after her death, "306 Hollywood."

God help me, but maybe ... "A Star Is Born."

Tamara Jenkins ("The Savages," "Slums of Beverly Hills") recruits Kathryn Hahn and Paul Giamatti for a tale of 40-something child-bearing angst, "Private Life."

A documentary about the debauchery of the iconic coke-fueled club of New York's disco era, "Studio 54."
  

Personality Types

THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS (B+) - This is a fantastic subject, and filmmaker works his ass off telling the story of three identical triplets separated at birth when put up for adoption and who improbably found each other at age 19, having grown up within 100 miles of each other. There are layers to this story, and we won't ruin the twists and turns. But you can tell early on that something wasn't right with the adoption agency involved in the placement of Jewish children in the 1960s.

Two of the brothers appear in present day to help unravel the tale. Wardle walks a fine line between delving deep and beating a dead horse. He repeats key visuals (the rhymes among the triplets), straining for effect and threatening to wear out his welcome (though the film, at 96 minutes, is never sluggish). This plays like an old-fashioned whodunit, and the boys have personality to burn, both in their giddy youth and now in their slump-shouldered and baggy-eyed middle age.

Many interesting characters pass through, and it's often a hoot, even if, by the end, you're troubled by the picture of humanity you are left with. The movie normally would have rated a bit higher, but points off for overuse of dramatic re-enactments.

BAD REPUTATION (B) - A fun but fawning trip back to the '70s with Ur-Riot Grrl Joan Jett, whose tenacity helped her break through the male-dominated world of rock 'n' roll and set her up as a mentor for future generations of alt-rockers. Don't expect big revelations or a deep dive into what makes her tick. This covers the greatest hits, starting with the Runaways, the groundbreaking all-girl rock group in the '70s. But don't expect an expose into the antics of creepy manager Kim Fowley; here he's just a colorful character, not a predator.

The best parts feature younger musicians like Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna and Minor Threat's Ian MacKaye praising her and thanking her for her inspiration. We also get plenty of cute scenes between Jett and Kenny Laguna, the masterful bubblegum popmeister whose songwriter helped propel her most fertile period and who now serves as her nagging housemate. (There's no mention of Jett's private life or romantic partners, though she and Laguna bicker like an old married couple.)

This is a fun romp, and homage is paid, but we never get to get more than skin deep with this swaggering legend.

THE WORKSHOP (C) - Chatter and menace mix poorly in this French study of disaffected youth. In particular, it's an alt-right young man peeing in the punch at a gathering of students at a writing workshop. The kid is overly sullen and deliberately provocative. For some reason, this appeals to his teacher, who indulges him at the expense of his diverse classmates. The talk is endless, yielding diminishing returns. If this were an American movie from the last century, teacher and student would have banged by the end of the first act. But this is a French film, so they chit-chat instead. I've said it before, but young men are not interesting; young women have far more to offer the plot of a movie. This one spins its wheels.

BONUS TRACK
Joan Jett with her cover of the Replacements' "Androgynous":


 

Shenanigans

GAME NIGHT (B-minus) - If you find Jason Bateman as funny as I do, then this will be worth it. He rescues scene after scene of this average suburban caper movie with his classic comedic timing. The premise revolves around a group of dorky adult couple friends who geek out playing party games.

Bateman's Max bristles whenever his wife, Annie (Rachel McAdams), compares him to his brother, Brooks (Kyle Chandler), even more so when Brooks insists on crashing Game Night with what he considers the ultimate stumper of a premise. Things get wacky, and it's hard to tell what's real and what's not, when it appears that thugs have hijacked the game.

There's a creepy neighbor, Gary (TV actor Jesse Plemons), who has been disinvited from Game Night because his wife left him, leaving him the odd man out and forcing the others to come up with elaborate ways to sneak around to avoid him. Gary is a dorky law enforcement officer, and if you think he'll figure out a way to play the hero, you're only halfway to the series of plot twists.

But too often the comedy feels forced and the gags obvious. A running joke involving one couple's squabble over which celebrity the wife once slept with grates and fails to pay off. The other couple involves a randy bachelor, notorious for bringing very young, dim-witted dates to Game Night, instead pairing with an age-appropriate woman with a brain. That plot string goes nowhere, either. But there's Bateman, crushing it in the clutch just when you think it's time to bail on this lightweight effort.

THE APARTMENT (A) - Billy Wilder's masterpiece (at least one of them) coasts on Jack Lemmon's energy and charm as a insurance company nebbish, C.C. Baxter, who lets the higher-ups use his apartments for their extramarital dalliances, with the promise of a corner office near the morally bankrupt boss, played by Fred MacMurray (from Wilder's early noir "Double Indemnity").

And Shirley MacLaine, in her debut, is adorable and incorrigible as Baxter's love interest, Miss Kubelik. There's the classic Wilder snap to the dialogue (written here with partner I.A.L. Diamond), including the patented adoption of the slang of the day -- here the overused suffix -wise, as in my favorite line, "That's the way it crumbles -- cookie-wise."

The plot thickens, as Baxter is more and more put out by the shenanigans, and his landlady and neighbors are more and more appalled by his misbegotten reputation as a playboy. A complicated love triangle ensues, but while the pathos builds, the comedy keeps an even keel. There's not a false move here.
 

New to the Queue

Coasting ...

A documentary about about the bad-boy behind the Sex Pistols and PIL, "The Public Image is Rotten."

Nicole Holofcener ("Enough Said," "Lovely & Amazing") makes a welcome return with another slice-of-life drama, "The Land of Steady Habits."

A debut documentary walks in the footsteps of photographer Walker Evans in small-town Alabama, "Hale County This Morning, This Evening."

Watching a Michael Moore film has felt redundant the past decade or two, but, with fond memories of hustling to see "Fahrenheit 9/11" on opening day, we're game for the bookend, "Fahrenheit 11/9."

Talented French Director Jacques Audiard ("A Prophet," "Dheepan," "Rust and Bone") teams John C. Reilly with Joaquin Phoenix and a few other ringers for the comic western "The Sisters Brothers."
 

This Modern World

WHAT LIES UPSTREAM (B+) - Cullen Hoback, who calls himself an investigative filmmaker, broke bread with me more than a decade ago at the Santa Fe Film Festival when he was still in the feature-film biz, pitching a wonderful little hourlong romp called "Freedom State," about a group of mental patients navigating life after the apocalypse. He was a friendly guy and an earnest filmmaker. He has since embraced the documentary format and went on to solid success with "Terms and Conditions May Apply" in 2013, and now this thorough examination of the horrors that have befallen our nation's water supply.

Hoback focuses on a chemical spill in West Virginia in 2015 that nearly went unnoticed. He is meticulous in following the science and in holding public officials to account, in particular a local director of Public Health who later graduates to the same position with the state and starts to back off his straight talk, giving in to the system. Hoback befriends a rather clueless director of the state's environment department, a frat-boy type in the mold of "Heckuva job, Brownie." Hoback walks in on a back-room legislative meeting where the manufacturers' association -- water suppliers, chemical companies -- are literally drafting an industry-friendly bill to hand to a dim-witted and mean state legislator for him to put his name to.

This is compelling and diligently reported. Hoback connects this one incident to the lead-pipe catastrophe in Flint, Mich., and to the dangers lurking in the water lines from coast to coast.

IN PURSUIT OF SILENCE (B) - A languorous examination of the noise in society that inundates us constantly and the ways in which silence can calm the mind. There are zen acolytes and other experts in silence who use their indoor voices for the crisp 81-minute running time, as well as a young cross-country traveler who has taken a vow of silence. Peaceful nature shots abound, rudely interrupted by buzzsaws and subway trains. Another reminder to slow down and shut up. Try to sit still for it in its entirety.
  

Street Punks

SKATE KITCHEN (B+) - Crystal Moselle, who embedded herself with unnaturally sheltered siblings for her breakthrough documentary "The Wolfpack," cozies up to some real-life New York skate punks, fictionalizing their lives for this hybrid film about teen girls getting by. Bespectacled Camille (Rachelle Vinberg) is a lonely 18-year-old who escapes a nagging mother on Long Island and falls in with a ragtag gang of girls in Manhattan. 

Camille slowly falls for a co-worker (played by Jaden Smith) who has a history with one of the other girls in the group. Some of the drama feels a little forced, but Moselle has a way of humanizing these teens, not unlike Eliza Hitzman's intimate portrayal of teen hookup culture, "It Felt Like Love." And the hand-held camerawork around New York feels fresh and urgent.

The interaction between the diverse group of girls seems relaxed and natural, and they are fun to be around. Little of it seems forced.

BONUS TRACK
From the closing credits, Khalid with "Young Dumb & Broke":


 

New to the Queue

Real life intervenes ...

A documentary about New York City cops fighting the injustices of the policing system, "Crime + Punishment."

Robert Greene ("Actress," "Kate Plays Christine") looks to be back on his game with the story of labor and immigration unrest during World War I, "Bisbee '17."

A documentary about one of the great filmmakers of the 1970s, Hal Ashby ("Harold and Maude," "Shampoo," "Being There"), "Hal."

Another doc, this one about the postwar New York street photographer, "Garry Winogrand: All Things Are Photographable."

And a loving look back a the sweetheart of the original "Saturday Night Live," "Love, Gilda."
 

Polemics

BLACKkKLANSMAN (B-minus) - This disappointing missed opportunity is a scattershot attack at racism, yet another Spike Lee joint that makes you miss the '90s. What are we to make of the cartoonish depictions of bumbling klansmen in Colorado Springs in 1972, or of a racist couple canoodling in bed, romantically rhapsodizing about realizing their dreams of defeating the inferior races? Such scenes are lost in the gulf between parody and ham-handed revisionist history.

Lee's heart is in this, but he undercuts his polemic with amateurish flourishes. The screenplay (by Lee as part of a committee, interpreting a memoir by officer Ron Stallworth) could have been written by a college freshman overdosing on Wikipedia entries, as clunky as the historical references get. The echoes between past and present are notable, but Lee, never one for subtlety, nudges the viewer in the ribs constantly. He does himself no favors with a final flourish of real-life news clips from the 2017 Charlottesville riot instigated by white supremacists; his quaint period piece looks simplistic by comparison.

John David Washington is rather drab as Stallworth, a black police officer who engages none other than David Duke over the phone, seeking to infiltrate the klan. The department sends in a fellow detective (Adam Driver) to stand in for Stallworth. Driver struggles to find the right tone as a Jew tossing around the n-word with this basket of deplorables. A trite love story also ensues -- gee, will the cute gal get peeved when she finds out Stallworth infiltrated the Black Power movement, too? Everyone involved here looks like they are grappling with Lee's shifts in tone, like a jazz combo without enough practice. Lee might want to just acknowledge that his greatest strength during the second half of his career lies in documentary filmmaking ("When the Levees Broke," "4 Little Girls") and not in two-hour-plus features overstuffed with undercooked ideas.

AMERICAN SOCIALIST (C+) - This paint-by-numbers biography of turn-of-the-century lefty Eugene V. Debs is useful if you don't know much about the man. This is what you would expect to see in a freshman survey course of socialism. Director Yale Strom frames the story with Debs' stints in prison, early on for trade union activities and later for speech violations during World War I. The diehard ran for president several times, peaking at 6 percent of the vote in 1912. Strom hits the highlights here.
  

The Uplift

WON'T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR (A-minus) - It's just a matter of timing as to how and when you'll be brought to tears by this faithful examination of the life of Fred Rogers, the mastermind behind the beloved PBS children's show. Director Morgan Neville, who last yanked our heartstrings with "20 Feet From Stardom," packs an emotional punch with this examination of the too-good-to-be-true children's show host.

Members of the "Mr. Rogers" troupe have nothing but positive things to say. Credit to Neville for at least including the fact that the pioneering black cast member was kept in the closet by the host's fear of exposing kids to homosexuality. Sweet and bittersweet.

DON'T STOP BELIEVIN': EVERYMAN'S JOURNEY (2012) (B) - This is the heartwarming story of Arnel Pineda, who was an obscure cover-band singer in the Philippines before being discovered on YouTube by the members of Journey, who invited him to become an arena-rock legend. PBS veteran Ramona S. Diaz turns in a workmanlike biography of Pineda, exploring his roots (singing for his supper on the streets of Manila) and studying the effects of American superstardom on her sensitive subject.

A trip back to Pineda's hometown doesn't deliver the zip it should. There's nothing deep about this tale. The founders of Journey took a chance on a YouTube sensation, blessed him with riches, and the band is enjoying a resurgence in popularity. It worked out well for everyone. Pineda seems grateful, and he proved he belongs in the big show. Good for him.
 

Noir Chronicles II

A couple more from the Guild Cinema's annual Film Noir fest, plus a bonus track:

ON DANGEROUS GROUND (1951) (B) - Ida Lupino actually co-directed this noir classic with legendary director Nicholas Ray, and she stars as a woman caught between the cop investigating a murder and her brother, a suspect. Robert Ryan is solid as Jim Wilson, a big-city cop, suffering from burnout, who gets sent upstate to the boonies to investigate a local murder. There he falls for Lupino's Mary Malden, a blind woman seeking to protect her brother. A warmth slowly develops between Jim and Mary. A few corny touches detract from Ray's gritty camerawork, but Ryan and Lupino make it work in the end.

Spotted:  Nita Talbot (later the green-eyed guest star on "The Fugitive," "Mannix" and "Hogan's Heroes") as a drunken flirt in a bar.

CHOOSE ME (1984) (C+) - This artsy wank from Alan Rudolph ("Trouble in Mind") has not aged well. Early '80s poodle cuts clash with smooth Teddy Pendergrass slow jams, while Lesley Ann Warren and Keith Carradine age out of their '70s precociousness. The only things that qualify this as noir are the constant smoking, the movie-set hookers and neon signs outside of the hangout bar, and the incessant saxophone swirls (which apparently escaped from an old Billy Joel song) slithering around the soundtrack.

The plot is a combination of confusing and boring. Genevieve Bujold plays a radio sex therapist. One of her regular callers is Eve (Warren), the bar owners. One barfly is young flirty Pearl (Rae Dawn Chong, another key '80s marker), who struggles as a poet and fails in a marriage to an older man. Keith Carradine shows up as Mickey, a greaser with a shady past. He serially seduces the women to various degrees.

The artificial sets and the excessive chatting (often over the phone and mostly women whining about relationships) spill from Rudolph's male ego. What might have seemed edgy or avant-garde in 1984 now feels tacky.

Spotted: John Larroquette (on the brink of "Night Court") trying to be dramatic as a bartender named Billy Ace.

BONUS TRACK
THE LOST WEEKEND (1945) (A-minus) - Ray Milland is powerful in this classic from Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett about a failed writer plumbing the depths of a weekend bender. The usual Wilder snap to the dialogue is present, including some slang of the day. The banter between Milland's Don Birnam and his beleaguered gal-pal Helen St. James (Jane Wyman) also has the familiar crackle.

Wilder shoots in the streets and hallway of wartime New York City for a story that was ground-breaking at the time and still reverberates with the authenticity of addiction. A scene in which Birnam lands in a hospital's dry-dock with others suffering from the DTs is harrowing. The supporting cast is strong, too.  Doris Dowling (bearing a strong resemblance to Kathryn Hahn) smolders as the love-sick barfly lonely enough to give a drunk a pass just to cure her own loneliness  and desperation. This is another timeless picture from one of the all-time great filmmakers. 

Spotted: Frank Faylen (the father on "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis") as the wise and wise-cracking nurse Bim in the DT ward.
  

New to the Queue

Coasting ...

Spike Lee's latest provocation looks like a fun romp through the 1970s, "BlackKklansman."

A slow-paced drama from Norway studies love and loss, "Gavagai."

Andrew Bujalski ("Computer Chess," "Results") returns with a slice of life about the working class, "Support the Girls."

A study of teens hanging out on the streets, the fact-fiction hybrid "Skate Kitchen."

A full-on documentary about skateboarders in Rockford, Ill., "Minding the Gap."
  

Family Reckonings

THE ENDLESS (A-minus) - This is the best philosophical time-travel buddy-movie mind-fuck since "Primer." Two brothers, who as teens had escaped from a cult their parents had dragged them to, receive a mysterious videotape from the cult and, at the urging of one of them, return to the cult's bucolic playground.

Justin Benson writes, stars and directs, along with co-star Aaron Moorhead, and the pair pull off a clever debut film. They play with time loops and sci-fi tricks. The ordinariness of the Heaven's Gate-like cult brings to mind the idea of the banality of evil. As IMDb puts it succinctly: "As the members prepare for the coming of a mysterious event, the brothers race to unravel the seemingly impossible truth before their lives become permanently entangled with the cult." This is a smart thriller.

IN THE FADE (C+) - Quite a mess and a disappointment, this is a run-of-the-mill revenge flick teaming striking lead actress Diane Kruger ("Farewell, My Queen") with onetime wunderkind Turkish-German director Fatih Akin, who has shown diminishing returns from "Head On" in 2004, to "The Edge of Heaven" in 2007, and "Soul Kitchen" in 2009.

Hopefully this is the bottom for Akin. He has little new to offer on the idea of a woman whose husband and child are killed and who goes on a mission to exact justice after being let down by the justice system. Akin blandly breaks this into three parts -- the love affair and family bliss interrupted by tragedy; a Farhadi-Lite court procedural; and then a stalker's revenge fantasy.

Kruger is stone-faced throughout, and she brings nothing fresh to the role of a wronged woman. Akin strains to create moods. A compelling quick-cut from the court verdict to the widow getting violently tattooed only serves to highlight the dull throb of the rest of the film. Not even a shock ending rescues it.
 

New to the Queue

Down in the groove ...

Desiree Akhavan ("Appropriate Behavior") finally follows up her perfect debut with a story of a teen in 1993 going through gay-conversion therapy, "The Miseducation of Cameron Post."

A family interview turns into a documentary about activism in Serbia (and the former Yugoslavia), "The Other Side of Everything."

Lauren Greenfield continues to explore the themes from "The Queen of Versailles," with a documentary about enthusiastic capitalists, "Generation Wealth."

A late '70s documentary tracing back the socialist labor movement back to the turn of the century, "Prairie Trilogy."

A documentary about the prototypical gay gigolo of Hollywood's golden era, "Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood."

The Noir Chronicles

Another summer festival at the Guild Cinema, from postwar nuggets to that '70s drift:

THE LATE SHOW (1977) (A) - Modern noir from Robert Benton ("Kramer vs. Kramer," "Nobody's Fool") has Art Carney, in the gritty L.A. footsteps of Elliott Gould in Robert Altman's '73 classic "The Long Goodbye," limping around as over-the-hill Ira Wells, who gets odd-coupled with young new agey Margo Sterling (a perfectly manic Lily Tomlin), ostensibly to help find her cat.

Character actors Bill Macy ("Maude") and Eugene Roche (you'll recognize him) help zip this along, spitting out Benton's one-liners that are by turn clever and kitschy, homage with a twist. Carney is grizzled, grumpy and living on Alka Seltzer. Tomlin meditates, designs her own clothes and trusts in the universe. When Ira's old colleague shows up on his doorstep gutshot, Ira is determined to track down his killer and unravel the mystery involving Roche's slick-talking fence, a cheating wife, and a stolen stamp collection.

The dialogue sparkles, and Carney and Tomlin have undeniable chemistry, two talented comics bringing depth and heart to their characters.

Spotted: Joanna Cassidy ("Blade Runner," TV's "Buffalo Bill") as the femme fatale with the great gams. 

D.O.A. (1949) (B) - Edmond O'Brien is solid as a poisoned man determined to solve his own murder in the hours before he succumbs. He combs the streets of San Francisco and L.A., interacting with thugs and dames, as he slowly falters from the poison coursing through his system. Femmes fatale like Lynn Baggett and Beverly Garland (later of "My Three Sons") contrast with the secretary who pines for the hero, a perky turn by Pamela Britton (later TV's Blondie). Sharp dialogue emanates from the typewriters of Russell Rouse and Clarence Greene (they also wrote "Pillow Talk") in Rudolph Mate's moody gem.

Spotted: Jerry Paris ("The Dick van Dyke Show") as a bellhop.

RED LIGHT (1949) (D+) - Absolutely ridiculous, this revenge thriller plays like a parody of classic noir tropes. The plot literally makes no sense. Raymond Burr proves that he has little range beyond criminal-defense lawyer and disabled private eye. And George Raft might have been a star in his day, but here he's an unreconcilable ham as a businessman trying to solve the mystery of his war-hero priest brother's death.

Spotted: William Frawley ("I Love Lucy"), who elicited snickers throughout the audience when he confronts someone he suspects of being a detective with the question, "Are you a dick?"
  

Missing the Mark

SORRY TO BOTHER YOU (C+) - A lot of good ideas here fail to find traction or go off on tangents, and the cast often seems to work at cross-purposes.

It's as if Spike Lee, having never been to film school, tried to meld "Get Out" with "Idiocracy" for his debut feature. Lakeith Stanfield was quite the discovery in "Short Term 12," but he was forgettable in "Get Out," and he strikes the wrong tone here as a telemarketing employee tempted by corporate riches, falling short as a leading man. He can be forgiven for failing to grasp the gestalt in this mess, though Tessa Thompson ("Creed," "Dear White People") is electrifying, as usual, as the subversive artist girlfriend. Armie Hammer, playing the face of corporate evil, is a dud, as usual.

Hip hopper Boots Riley (The Coup) never corrals his big ideas about capitalism, greed, race and class. He's directing with boxing gloves on. A bizarre twist midway through the film is, frankly, preposterous, and it's hard to take any of this polemic seriously. Maybe that's the point, but I don't think it is. There's visual panache, but that's what music videos are for.

VALLEY OF LOVE (B-minus) - Worth it for the pairing of screen legends Isabelle Huppert and Gerard Depardieu, this story of a son's suicide bringing back together his long-estranged parents to, of all places, Death Valley in California, suffers from a slow pace and a lack of a payoff.

But there's something about this slow grind that keeps you hooked. It's certainly not the sight of Depardieu's enormous, hideous gut, which is often on prominent display. It's more the volumes that Huppert speaks through simple casual glances and imperceptible arches of an eyebrow. There is sadness here but also healthy nostalgia for those fulfilling, captivating relationships of your 20s and 30s that launched your adulthood.

BONUS TRACK
The Coup, featuring Stanfield, with "OYAHYTT" from the "Sorry" soundtrack:


 

Heart of Darkness

FIRST REFORMED (B) - Ethan Hawke is solid as a depressed alcoholic priest in Paul Schrader's latest journey into the darkness of the heart. Hawke's Rev. Toller is haunted by personal demons from his past and in despair over the viability of the quaint, historic church he oversees in upstate New York.

Amanda Seyfried has a deft touch with the role of Mary (major symbolism flying around here), a woman who goes to the Reverend concerned that her husband is planning to carry out eco-terrorism. Meantime, fossil-fuel bigwigs donate blood money to the little church on the eve of a major anniversary. Cedric (the Entertainer) Kyles is perfect as the head of a nearby megachurch, a man with good intentions who sees no need to crush its dying rival, which has more tourists than parishioners.

The mood is puritanically grim. Toller scrawls rants in a diary while keeping a steady pour from the hard stuff. Things bog down about halfway through, and a 20-minute trim would have been helpful. But the final 15 minutes are harrowing, as Schrader knits together subtle horror/suspense elements and visual shocks that might haunt you for days afterward.

THE PARTY (C) - A decent ensemble case fumbles around with a wisp of a story in Sally Potters arch art film in which the slaughter rule should be invoked as style wins over substance. Potter ("Orlando," the galling "Yes") shoots in crisp black-and-white for this expanded ensemble ripoff of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Kristin Scott-Thomas draws a blank as an ambitious British politician seemingly weighed down by her sickly pathetic husband (Timothy Spall). Patricia Clarkson is annoying as her annoying, sycophantic, stuck-up friend who spars constantly with her German lover (Bruno Ganz). Cherry Jones and Emily Mortimer have a spark as a bickering lesbian couple. But soon Cillian Murphy shows up as a coked-up businessman whining about his missing lover, the Godot of the story that everyone seems to be waiting for.

There is little chemistry among all of the permutations here. Rarely has so much talent gone to waste. Even at a slim 71 minutes you'll be tempted to fast-forward through the pretentious dialogue and the theatrical buffoonery.
 

Pulp Fiction - Summer Edition

DEADPOOL 2 (B) - Ryan Reynolds is a charmer, even when being a nihilistic smart-ass in a super-hero movie.  The original "Deadpool," which we recently caught up with as show prep, required some fast-forwarding through the violent scenes, and I wish I'd had that option at the megaplex for the sequel. But this zips by fast enough in right around two hours, and if you are inured to cartoon violence you might not mind it.

Reynolds besieges the viewer with randy one-liners, fleeting pop-culture references, and obscure Marvel call-backs (and loopy call-backs to call-backs).  T.J. Miller has a bigger role, and he and Reynolds have a verbal sizzle together. The story is far-fetched, as you'd expect. Characters die but come back via the after-life. Leslie Uggams' blind lady character walks the line between offensive and hilarious.  Reynolds seems all in (he gets a screenwriting credit), and a CGI scene that gives him "baby legs" (complete with "Basic Instinct" leg-crossing) is one for the ages, certain to give teenage boys a go-to reference decades hence in a way that "Caddyshack" once did for us. (And I never tired of his quaint exchanges with the super-perky Yukio (Shioli Kutsuna).)

The self-mocking swagger takes the air (the piss?) out of the usual Marvel bloat, and I alternated between laughing out loud at some of the gags and rolling my eyes as the stupid battle scenes. It's all embarrassingly good, raunchy fun.

OCEAN'S EIGHT (B) - A great cast elevates a clever script that tries a little too hard to be clever in this female counterpart to the Steven Soderbergh's tripartite tribute to the Rat Pack, back at the turn of the millennium, when Harvey Weinstein's boys had all of the toys. Sandra Bullock, whose comedic chops we discovered in "The Heat," is more muted than she's been in the past, but she's generous with her co-stars. 

Gen X and Millennial uber stars like Cate Blanchett and Anne Hathaway savor their juicy bad-girl roles. Dame Helena Bonham Carter is charmingly daffy. The single-named Rihanna and Awkwafina bring a punk freshness to the genre. And Sarah Paulson and Mindy Kaling solidify the middle of the lineup.

The plot is clever. You can spot a few holes, but for Hollywood summer fare, the plausibility ranking is unusually high. Director Gary Ross does his usually workmanlike job behind the camera, with a writing assist from newcomer Olivia Milch. Celebrity cameos whiz by. Bullock wisecracks like Barbara Stanwyck. The 110 minutes fly by pretty quickly, and you end up more entertained than insulted. Good enough for summer.
 

New to the Queue

A change of scenery ...

A documentary about three men reunited in adulthood as triplets separated at birth, "Three Identical Strangers."

Debra Granik ("Winter's Bone" and "Down to the Bone") is back with a drama about a father and daughter living off the grid, "Leave No Trace."

Clio Barnard ("The Selfish Giant") contributes another gritty drama, about a family farm in Yorkshire, "Dark River."

Hip-hopper Boots Riley casts Lakeith Stanfield ("Short Term 12") as a telemarketing sales rep in Riley's debut feature "Sorry to Bother You."

A dark comedy about a suburban feud between neighboring families, "Under the Tree."
  

Dark Days

I DON'T FEEL AT HOME IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE (B-minus) - Melanie Lynskey barely salvages a bizarre story about a woman seeking revenge for a simple home burglary. Coming off like Columbo stepping in for Charles Bronson in "Death Wish," Lynskey's beleaguered Ruth bumbles her way through the first two acts with the help of dorky Tony (Elijah Wood), a twerp who dreams of ninja warriorhood.

The final act falls apart in an onslaught of violence and bloodshed. The early charm and quirkiness are decimated by the sloppy, ugly finale. A few supporting performances stand out, including Christine Woods and Robert Longstreet as the parents of the teen burglar, and David Yow (lead singer of the Jesus Lizard) as the creepy leader of the burglary ring. The jangly small-town weirdness has a pleasing pace, and there are just enough offbeat moments to make this charming. Until that charm disappears.

This is the directing debut of Macon Blair (he wrote it, too), who starred in the similarly gritty "Blue Ruin" in 2013.

BONUS TRACKS
The soundtrack also comes to the rescue of "I Don't Feel at Home."  Here is Fern Jones with "The World Is Not My Home":



And an early '60s nugget from Bob Fryfogle, "Six Feet Under":


  

Ideas

EX-LIBRIS: THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY (B) - Toggling between dull and fascinating, the latest fly-on-the-wall epic from legendary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman is a three-plus-hour insider's examination of the grand and the mundane of New York's public library system.

The endless board meetings -- mostly about the financial future of the library system -- should be skipped, and the rest can be hit and miss. (I'm glad I saw it on DVD, not in the theater.) But Wiseman seems to be sending a simple, radical message: facts still matter; the truth still matters; ideas and diversity are our lifeblood. Brilliant minds can still draw an audience; ordinary folks can still change others' lives, often simply by volunteering their time. It's the power of the local community, far away from the politics of Washington and beyond.

We watch, nearly hypnotized, at trivial tasks -- the sorting of photos, books returning on a conveyor belt, patrons scrolling through page after page of microfiche. It's numbing but fascinating when taken as a whole. (Even if you watch it in 2 or 3 sittings.) Some of the recorded presentations flop (an overlong overview of the history of Jews in New York) and others are profound, including a hip-hop slam poet spieling a powerful rant about manhood. It is at that latter moment that Wiseman's genius -- for recognizing other forms of genius -- shines through.

BONUS TRACKS

Elvis Costello, promoting his memoir at a library event, offers a full-throated defense of his anti-Thatcher screed "Tramp the Dirt Down":



Costello introduced this wacky video featuring father, Ross McManus, and band cavorting through "If I Had a Hammer," and Wiseman's camera captures Costello's arched eyebrow as he sips from a glass of water -- a scene you can only get from "Ex Libris":



Here, Costello recounts his father's band of the '50s and '60s in England:


 

New to the Queue

A beautiful day in the neighborhood ...

A documentary (from the director of "20 Feet From Stardom") about legendary children's-show host Fred Rogers, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?"

A low-wage worker must decide between his soccer league championship and a Sunday shift in "En el Septimo Dia" ("On the Seventh Day").

Eugene Jarecki ("The House I Live In," "The Trials of Henry Kissinger") wrestles with Elvis and race in his latest documentary, "The King."

Mackenzie Davis and Carrie Coon anchor a debut feature about a messed-up woman on a journey, "Izzy Gets the Fuck Across Town."
  

Trailer Trash

I, TONYA (C) - A cartoonish account of the fascinating trailer-trash tale of Tonya Harding, the hard-luck figure skater whose husband and associated thugs knee-capped Nancy Carrigan during the 1994 winter Olympics.  Margot Robbie is passable as Harding; Allison Janney chews scenery unconvincingly as the mean mother. Others are mostly forgettable, cast mostly for their resemblance to key players. Broad caricatures and historical liberties abound.

The CGI gymnastics endeavor to place Robbie's head on the bodies of real figure skaters, and the trick is noticeable at times; a silly choice by director Craig Gillespie ("Lars and the Real Girl"). The scattered soundtrack is mostly annoying. Any number of documentaries on the subject are preferable to this Lifetime-level effort, reminiscent of that 1970s Evel Knievel movie starring George Hamilton.


A SONG FOR YOU, THE AUSTIN CITY LIMITS STORY (C) - A rather flat and fawning look at the venerable PBS concert series that dates to the 1970s and was launched by a pre-braids Willie Nelson. The hero here is Terry Lickona, who joined in season four and is now the executive producer, nearly 40 years later. Drab staff meetings drag this down and distract from the performances. With so many great artists (Ray Charles and Lyle Lovett) to choose from, a clip job would have sufficed. Sometimes the story behind the story just isn't that interesting. A bunch of hippies in Austin decided to fill air time, and the show grew from a little hoedown to a cutting-edge showcase for the likes of Wilco and Radiohead. The music speaks for itself.

BONUS TRACK 
Jeff Tweedy, covering Doug Sahm's "Give Back the Keys to My Heart":


 

The Human Pain

THE RIDER (A) - Nonprofessional actors pack a wallop here in a the thinly fictional tale of a local rodeo star struggling to recover from a serious injury in the Badlands of South Dakota. Brady Jandreau turns in a devastating slow burn as Brady Blackburn, first seen tending to a huge stapled gash in his scalp. He battles brain damage that affects the grip in his right hand, and he is forced to take a demeaning gig in a dollar store.

Brady lives with his gruff, bitter dad Wayne (Tim Jandreau) and mentally challenged sister Lilly (Lilly Jandreau), a real family acting naturally together. Brady visits a pal who resides in an assisted-living facility, brain-damaged Lane (Lane Scott), a former rodeo star trapped in his body, with eyes that still shine.

Brady defies the doctors and is determined to ride and rope, but heartbreak seems determined to dash his dreams. He aches for the adrenaline rush and camaraderie of his favorite sport. Chinese director Chloe Zhao, in her second release, has an innate feel for the American heartland, crafting somber but humbly joyous images from the stark landscape. This has the grit and heft of a great American novel. Few films are more moving.

BONUS TRACK
The trailer:


 

Macho Men

THE PROFESSIONALS (1966) (B) - A pretty cool '60s-era western stars rugged men and a voluptuous woman, in a gripping adventure featuring a band of misfits. Lee Marvin and Burt Lancaster team up with two others (Robert Ryan and Woody Strode) to form a gang hired by a Texas millionaire to find his kidnapped wife across the border of Mexico.

The screenplay adaptation is by the legendary Richard Brooks ("Key Largo," "Elmer Gantry," "Looking for Mr. Goodbar"), and his macho dialogue crackles. Samples:

"Go to hell."
"Yes, ma'am. I'm on my way."

"You bastard."
"Mine was a mistake of birth. You, sir, are a self-made man."

Jack Palance shows up as the gruff bad guy, and Claudia Cardinale ("Once Upon a Time in the West") smolders as only she could 50 years ago. This clocks in a few ticks short of two hours, but it packs in a lot of action and suspense.

THE STUNT MAN (1980) (C+) - This one has not aged well at all. A hackneyed directing effort by Richard Rush ("Freebie and the Bean"(!)) and starring Steve Railsback (from the "Whatever Happened To" files) as a fugitive who stumbles on a movie set and lucks into the job of stunt man. It's full of corny camera tricks and embarrassingly outdated (even at the time) musical flourishes. This plays like a classic porno without the (explicit) sex.

Presumably celebrating the remnants of the old studio system, "The Stunt Man" wallows in traditional gender conceits, as well. Peter O'Toole is on board as the cliched eccentric director, and Barbara Hershey is wasted as the love interest. The script is sloppy and the plot meanders. I remember liking this one when it came out, but I was a teenager then. This time through, I winced a lot.
 

Venus and Mars Are All Right Tonight

LET THE SUNSHINE IN (B+) - Juliette Binoche carries this sly, amusing drama about middle-aged woman frustrated by her own dating choices. Claire Denis crafts a truly adult-themed film about the tensions and emotional duels between men and women. The result is a refreshing, if occasionally slight, examination of the war between the sexes.

Binoche easily sheds her glamour as Isabelle, jumping out of the gate with a topless sex scene with her boorish, grunting (and married) lover, a pompous banker. She efficiently cycles through a series of louts and emotionally retarded and immature candidates. Whether it's low self esteem or a mild mental illness, Isabelle cannot rationally process the signals she gets and is too eager to jump into bed and fall in love with the next guy who comes along. (An actor is particularly swaddled in red flags.)

There is smart dialogue throughout. (Denis ("Beau Travail," "Friday Night," "White Material," "Bastards") collaborated on the screenplay with newcomer Christine Angot, adapting a book by Roland Barthes.) You may laugh out of discomfort as much as anything here. A French legend's cameo at the end, as a therapist putting this all in perspective, is the perfect mix of denial and farce. This is a quiet gem from Denis and Binoche.

THE HAIRDRESSER'S HUSBAND (C-minus) - An anachronism that is often cringe-worthy now in the Me Too era, Patrice Leconte's 1990 breakthrough features Jean Rochefort as a lustful middle-aged man acting out his childhood fantasies by scoring young, beautiful Anna Galiena as his devoted wife.

Rochefort, awkwardly bewigged and made up to appear to be much younger than his age (around 60), portrays the leering, monosyllabic, puppy-eyed Antoine, who as a boy had a crush on a plump hairdresser, got a glimpse of her ample bosom, and was determined to marry a coiffeuse someday. As an adult, he has a meet-creepy with Mathilde (Galiena, 20 years Rochefort's junior), who inexplicably dates and quickly marries him. She doesn't mind being the object of his odd fetish.

Leconte (who hit his stride in the early aughts with "Man on the Train" and "Intimate Strangers") uses soft focus and random flashbacks to confusing effect. It's all style over substance. It wouldn't be surprising if he has disavowed this early work.

BONUS TRACK
Our title track, the ad for Paul McCartney's mega-release from 1975, the "Venus and Mars" album: