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.