RIP, Agnes Varda

The great New Wave filmmaker Agnes Varda died this week at age 90. Variety has an obit. We reviewed two of her films in recent years.

In "Jane B par Agnes Varda," we lauded a scene in the 1988 documentary (released in 2016) as "a magnificent celebration of female beauty and power, so fundamentally human yet posed and mannered."  The following year, we considered "Faces Places" as a "charming and touching" rumination on her life as she collaborates with a young photographer.

Here's a clip from her latest film, "Varda by Agnes":



And a clip from her masterpiece, "Cleo From 5 to 7":


 

Doc Watch: Peril

LAST TRAIN HOME (2009) (B) - This fascinating documentary follows one family as they take part several times in the annual new-year's migration of urban workers returning to China's rural areas. Filmed a decade ago by Lixin Fan -- who takes a fly-on-the-wall approach without narration -- we settle in with couple Changhua and Suqin, their two children, and the grandmother who raises the kids while the parents work in a clothing factory.

The sheer volume of people trying to make the same trip -- during last decade's great economic expansion in China -- creates harrowing scenarios of nightmare attempts to score a train reservation back home. Eventually, older daughter Qin drops out of school and joins the parents in the workforce. The final year's trek, by Qin and her parents, finally exposes raw nerves, provoking an outburst back home that would make the Kardashians blanch. It is that scene, around the one-hour mark, that makes for compelling viewing, just as we've settled into the cadence of the family dynamics and their annual migration.

I AM JANE DOE (C) - Filmmaker Mary Mazzio tries too hard to tell the story of victims of sex trafficking, and she ends up taking a story that tells itself and filling it with distractions. Randomly, Jessica Chastain narrates. We meet several victims now trying to get on with their lives. But Mazzio spends an inordinate amount of time talking to politicians (like John McCain and Claire McCaskill) who are seeking to plug the loophole in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which lets websites off the hook for the content supplied by third parties.

The villain here is Backpage.com, a corporate relation to the venerated Village Voice, which looked the other way in the face of blatant evidence that teenage girls were being sexually exploited through classified ads. The chronicle of a court case against Backpage drags on too long, offering little intrigue. Mazzio continuously cuts to footage of innocent girls -- completely unrelated to the actual sex trafficking -- frolicking in different settings, tugging at our heartstrings. Meantime, the victims' stories get chopped up and lose their emotional impact. This mix of outrage and empowerment just falls flat.
 

Out of Sorts

A SUMMER IN GENOA (2008) (B) - Michael Winterbottom simmers in his mid-career malaise of a decade ago with this serviceable but inessential study of a father and daughters mourning abroad after the tragic death of the girls' mother. Fine performances rescue this from being merely average.

Colin Firth carries the ball here as the stunned widower looking for solace and escape during a summer in Italy with the girls, one of whom is a curious teen flirting with adulthood. Catherine Keener offers an additional layer of sorrow as his hang-dog platonic pal. The younger daughter (Perla Haney-Jardine) is traumatized not only by sudden loss but also by guilt, and Winterbottom captures that trauma well.

Winterbottom was coming off a spectacular run -- "Wonderland," "24-Hour Party People," "In This World," "9 Songs," "Tristram Shandy" and "A Mighty Heart" -- and you wonder if he needed a break. His output since has featured minor-key dramas and some disjointed narratives (with the "Trip" movies as outliers). Here he is writing with occasional collaborator Laurence Coriat, and they manage to capture the horror of the ordinariness of loss. This slow burn is the cinematic equivalent of watching a wound slowly heal, though not completely.

GAS, FOOD, LODGING (1992) (C) - This mother-daughter companion story has not aged well, if it was even good 25 years ago. Allison Anders, a wunderkind who never caught on as a film director, stomped onto the scene with this story of a single mom and her two daughters eking an existence in a fictional New Mexico town.

Little of the story and the scenery ring true. Brooke Adams is a weak lead, and Ione Skye struggles to find her voice as the slutty, bratty older daughter. A young Fairuza Balk is a revelation as the younger, brighter daughter, but she has little to work with in Anders' adaptation of a Richard Peck novel. The outfits look fussed over, reminding us that we're not really hanging out with a trailer-park mom working in a roadside diner. Even the music by J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.) is rather uninspired.

Anders would further explore artificiality a few years later in "Grace of My Heart" before settling in with blander TV work the past two decades, her own dreams of being an auteur put in their place.

RIP, Dick Dale

Dick Dale, the legendary king of surf guitar, died this past weekend at 81. Here's an obit. And below are the opening scene and opening credits from "Pulp Fiction," which introduced him to a new generation of fans of his unique guitar music. We saw him a couple of times, most recently in 2016; here's that write-up.

He was a true pioneer and an electrifying performer.





And here's a recent live show in L.A. Check out "Amazing Grace" at the hour-ten mark.


 

New to the Queue

Surging into the past ...

The latest from the great Chinese director Jia Zhang-Ke, "Ash Is Purest White."

We're curious about the droll comedy of Whitney Horn and Lev Kalman ("L for Leisure"), so we'll check out "Two Plains & a Fancy."

Jafar Panahi ("Jafar Panahi's Taxi") continues to produce films surreptitiously in Iran, and the latest is "3 Faces."

The understated documentary on the 50th anniversary of the mission to the moon, "Apollo 11."

A documentary about the pioneering journalist, "Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People."
  

Now & Again: Holmes & Yo-Yo

We look at the team of Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly and ask, were they ever that funny together?

HOLMES & WATSON (D+) - Limp and lazy, this forgettable comedy lacks any discernible inspiration or sharp wit. Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, coasting on their previous accolades, give it the old college try, but writer-director Etan Cohen gives them little fresh material to work with in the picked-over history of Sherlock Holmes.

Most of the funniest bits are in the trailer. Cohen strains to turn 19th century situations into modern gags, like a "Make Britain Great Again" cap and a selfie with a tripod camera. Several people in recent days have mentioned that they prefer Ferrell in small doses -- such as in his vintage "Saturday Night Live" sketches -- and this film would be Exhibit A in their argument. He and Reilly wring some laugh-out-loud moments here and there (like dropping a Victrola needle of "Unchained Melody" for a "Ghost" spoof), but this whole production comes off as half-assed and dashed off to make a buck. Cohen, a disciple of Mike Judge, usually writes as part of a team, and maybe this exposes him as the weak link in those collaborative efforts. Even talented folks like Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon and Hugh Laurie seem confused about where to find the funny. And Rebecca Hall, Laura Lapkus and Kelly Macdonald are often used as props.

STEP BROTHERS (2008) (B-minus) - Eh. Again, this one has its moments. It's not as embarrassing as the new film. But it takes one joke and stretches it to movie length. This must have been fresher a decade ago, during a simpler time. Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins come off as both good sports and embarrassed as the fish-out-of-water parents of two 30-somethings who act like children. This runs out of gas pretty quickly. But at least Ferrell and Reilly are trying harder here to be faithful to the comedic premise

BONUS TRACK
"Holmes & Watson" was, unfortunately, our annual Christmas Day Mainstream Movie. It barely avoids the basement in the rankings of our longtime tradition:

  1. Up in the Air (2009)
  2. Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004)
  3. Dreamgirls (2006)
  4. Charlie Wilson's War (2007)
  5. The Fighter (2010)
  6. American Hustle (2013)
  7. The Shape of Water (2017)
  8. La La Land (2016)
  9. The Wrestler (2008)
10. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
11. Young Adult (2011)
12. This Is 40 (2012)
13. Holmes & Watson (2018)
14. Into the Woods (2014)