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."