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:


 

Sins of the Father

FOXTROT (A) - This remarkable story sneaks up on you, toying with your expectations and offering devastating insights into how we live. The film opens with a couple being informed that their son has been killed while serving in the Israeli defense forces. It's pretty standard drama, but it's a ruse; the news may not be accurate -- or the plot might be running out of order.

Either way, we eventually meet Jonathan (Yonaton Shiray) helping man a remote roadway checkpoint, where the occasional camel passes through the gate along with random cars full of motorists. Israeli writer-director Samuel Maoz (2009's "Lebanon") fabricates an intricate set-up at the outpost, full of arcane steampunk gadgets straight out of Terry Gilliam's "Brazil." The subtle deadpan humor shares comic DNA with 2015's "Zero Motivation," another sharply observed Israeli military film.

Each of the parents has a compelling story to tell. Michael (Lior Ashkenazi) has his own mother issues. And Sarah Adler is compelling as Daphna, a seriously depressed wife and mother. After the initial sleight of hand in the first 15 minutes, Maoz sets everything into place, and the humanity of this one sneaks up on you.

THE RETURN (2004) (B-minus) - A relentless grind about a father who had abandoned his toddler sons returning 12 years later to take them on a brutal road trip, to either toughen them up, somehow make amends, or just to torture them. It's never really clear. All the boys know of their father is from an old photograph.

The younger son, Ivan (Ivan Dobranravov), has a perpetual scowl on his face in defiance of the prodigal father. Young Dobranravov, though, struggles to make the anger convincing, looking more like Opie Taylor acting against type in a Mayberry school play. Andrey (Vladimir Garin) is more forgiving, but then again, he doesn't feel the sting of his father's wrath as much as Ivan does.

Konstanin Lavronenko is the epitome of the intense, menacing father figure. Thankfully, this one clocks in at under two hours. The plot is nearly as harrowing for the viewer as it is for the boys, as filmmaker Andrey Zvyaginstev ("Leviathan," which we skipped, and this year's "Loveless") never lets you relax into thinking that everyone here -- in particular the boys -- will be OK. The challenges to the kids can be Job-like. (Or Noah-like: It rains a lot.) If you find yourself tempted to give in, then just fast forward a bit. The last 20 minutes are surprising and profound, making this early work of the Russian auteur just worth seeing.

BONUS TRACK
The "Foxtrot" trailer:


  

New to the Queue

Not so hot ...

Alan Rudolph ("Choose Me") returns from a long layoff with a veteran cast and a throwback tale, "Ray Meets Helen."

With trepidation, we revisit Paul Schrader's world, this one about an alcoholic priest (Ethan Hawke) wrestling with a moral conflict, "First Reformed."

The Bouvier-Beale pair pre-"Grey Gardens" in the found footage documentary "That Summer."

Julianne Nicholson, Emma Roberts and Jess Weixler star in a drama about an ex-con fighting to regain custody of her son, "Who We Are Now."
  

Vaudevillian

THE DEATH OF STALIN (B) - This broad farce is suitably silly and foul-mouthed, chronicling the jockeying for power in the aftermath of the unexpected death of the Soviet strongman. From the raunchy mind of Armando Iannucci (the political satirist behind "In the Loop" and HBO's "Veep") -- and a committee of four co-writers -- we get a familiar mix of political intrigue and salty slapstick, like Benny Hill doing "All the President's Men."

Steve Buscemi is the star of the show, stealing scene after scene as Nikita Khrushchev, who we all know will eventually outmaneuver rivals Beria and Molotov for control of the Communist Party and the nation. Khrushchev also begins to marginalize the bumbling heir to Stalin, Georgy Malenkov (a perfectly insecure and bewigged Jeffrey Tambor). Buscemi, padded and balding, channels his Cousin Tony character from "The Sopranos" for a sharp mix of threats and one-liners. And Andrea Riseborough offers a snide female voice as Stalin's daughter, Svetlana. The strong cast also offers small juicy roles to Michael Palin and Paddy Considine.

Iannucci, like he did in the U.S.-Britain farce "In the Loop" and with "Veep," thrives on chaos and vulgar putdowns between rivals. "Stalin" doesn't have the depth or savage zing of his previous efforts, but it's a rollicking good time.

WAIT FOR YOUR LAUGH (C+) - The long-time entertainer Rose Marie sits for an interview shortly before her death late last year and tells war stories from her time in the industry, dating back to the 1920s, when she was a 4-year-old belter, and winding through show business, bouncing from Al Capone to Dick Van Dyke. Some of her stories have the whiff of the apocryphal, but that's not really the point. This is nostalgia for the good ol' days. Ancient talking heads, including an old friend as well as former "Hollywood Squares" host Peter Marshall, indulge her, as does the director, Jason Wise. Hacky re-enactments drag this down to B-movie status. But points for color film clips from the "Dick Van Dyke" set, often featuring Rose Marie and Mary Tyler Moore in babushkas. Rose Marie is fun and saucy, and she led an interesting life. And this one slips in comfortably under 90 minutes.
 

Marxish

THE YOUNG KARL MARX (B) - This serviceable biopic is buoyed by fine performances form under-the-radar actors August Diehl and Stefan Konarske as Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels, respectively, as they toil away on their revolutionary rejection of capitalism. The story is told with confidence by Raoul Peck, the man behind the political documentaries "Lumumba" and "I Am Not Your Negro."

The first half of the 19th century is depicted as a swirl of industrial sweat and high-brow philosophizing. Engels chafes at following in the capitalist footsteps of his factory-owning father, and he uses his relative wealth to help subsidize the struggling Marx, who has a family to support. After a slow start, a hum develops in the narrative, and Peck treats us to an old-fashioned hero's journey. 

Diehl is especially appealing, with his facility across multiple languages and his Che Guevera scruffiness. (Before he was the iconic white-bearded father of communism, Marx apparently cut a rebellious figure.) Hannah Steele is equally appealing as the perky working-class Mary Engels, plucked from the factory floor. The result has an eat-your-vegetables "Masterpiece Theater" efficiency to it.

KARL MARX CITY (B-minus) - Petra Epperlein, with her perpetually knitted eyebrows, digs diligently to expose the ways of the East Germany Stasi (secret police) as she tries to unravel the mystery of her father's suicide in the late '90s? Was he a collaborator? A victim?

Epperlein soberly traipses through Karl Marx City (since rechristened Chemnitz, though the huge bust of Marx remains on prominent display because it was too heavy to move), and spends a lot of times in the Stasi archives. She brandishes a large boom microphone everywhere she goes, as if it is a weapon or a shield to keep her safe. She interviews her mother and brothers; a onetime collaborator; and a few experts (one of whom unfairly questions the accuracy of the beloved feature film "The Lives of Others"). Throughout she seems fearful of what she'll find out about her father.

She also skillfully mixes in oodles of archival footage from surveillance tapes, though at some point it becomes unclear what is real and what is re-enacted (we blame Sarah Polley for the phenomenon). The mood is somber and soulful, but the whole exercise can feel empty and untimely.
 

Cruel and Unusual

OUTSIDE IN (A-minus) - Edie Falco and Jay Duplass slug it out as heavyweights in Lynn Shelton's lived-in drama about a school teacher who has worked to free her former student and his struggle to re-enter small-town life after 20 years in prison. Falco's face teaches a master class in acting, and Duplass is perfect as Chris, the doe-eyed man-child pining for Falco's Carol, who is stuck in a loveless marriage and battling her morose, bratty teenager, Hildy (Kaitlyn Dever, "Short-Term 12").

Chris took the fall for a group crime, involving his brother and a friend, which ended up in a death. He did 20 years without squealing, and now he returns to soggy Everett, Wash., tooling around on his BMX bike, as if he were still a high school senior. He professes his love for Carol, who wisely resists but who also hates her own household. Meantime, Hildy is drawn to the brooding, aimless sad-sack.

Shelton co-wrote the spare, sharp script with Duplass.  She has been doing a lot of mainstream TV work lately to pay the bills, and here turns in her best effort since 2012's "Your Sister's Sister," which featured Jay's brother Mark in a different kind of love triangle. They take the story on a realistic arc, avoiding a pat, conventional ending. Falco -- plain, if not haggard-looking -- runs a gamut of emotions with low-key grace, and Duplass was born to inhabit this bundle of repressed needs. A few scenes slip into trite exchanges involving secondary characters, but this is a gripping slice of life.

YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE (B-minus) - Like life, this is nasty, brutal and dreary. Joaquin Phoenix lumbers monosyllabically through this relentless revenge flick about a hammer-wielding thug whose job seems to be to rescue young girls from human traffickers. Scottish director Lynne Ramsay, the hardcore realist behind "Morvern Callar," "Ratcatcher" and "We Need to Talk About Kevin," offers up a dark, twisted, stylish nightmare that challenges you to sit through it.

Adapting source material by Jonathan Ames (HBO's "Bored to Death"), Ramsay dispenses with extensive dialogue and easy exposition, instead going for mood and id. Phoenix is bulked up and beyond miserable, resembling a psychotic homeless man. His Joe is exorcising childhood demons, mainly through vengeful violence and suicidal ideations. He stumbles on a sex ring that apparently involves a governor and a senator, with the aim of rescuing one little blond-haired, blue-eyed tween in particular (Ekaterina Samsonov). Ramsay adopts a "Mean Streets" urgency to her shots, with effective extreme close-ups, flashbacks, and jump-cut editing that gives the oldies on the soundtrack a menacing staccato effect. Like life, this is a slog. Ramsay and Phoenix are a daunting team. Hang out with them at your peril.

BONUS TRACKS
From "Outside In's" closing credits, Andrew Bird with "By Any Means":



From "Never's" scratchy oldies soundtrack, "Angel Baby" by Rosie & the Originals, from 1961:



And the pure cheese of Charlene's pure '70s cheese, "I've Never Been to Me":


  

Bouts of Depression

TULLY (C+) - Too much of a cheat and a conceit -- and dare I say, even too much of Charlize Theron? -- this harrowing mix of post-partum depression and some old-fashioned delusion sounds promising on paper, coming from writer Diablo Cody ("Juno") and Jason Reitman ("Up in the Air"), who last teamed up on the underwhelming "Young Adult." Theron is a miserable pregnant woman and then disaffected mother of a third child. She already has her hands full with two other kids (the boy seems to fall on the autism scale) and a tuned-out husband (a fine Ron Livingston). When 26-year-old Tully (Mackenzie Davis) shows up as a "night nanny" she seems quirky but a god-send who not only allows for Theron's Marlo to get a decent night's sleep but also cleans the house during the night and bakes cupcakes for junior's class.

The first 10 minutes might drive you mad, and props to Theron for looking less than svelte and stunning, but a significant plot twist turns the viewer's presumptions asunder; it would have been clever but for the requirement of major idiot-plot devices that make you realize, in retrospect, that this just doesn't make sense. I sat through annoying kids and multiple breast-pumping scenes for ... that? Cody can toss out one-liners as if she's writing for a super-smart TV series, but the zingers merely fizzle and pop without leaving much of an aftertaste. This one verges on pointless.

FILM STARS DON'T DIE IN LIVERPOOL (B-minus) - Annette Bening and Jamie Bell are a charming due but director Paul McGuigan and writer Matt Greenhalgh create a disorienting, low-energy narrative about the final years of noir siren Gloria Grahame and her May-December romance with a Liverpudlian half her age. No one here tries for an epic biopic, which is refreshing; but the lack of ambition can make this seem insignificant at times.

Bening is an engaging cougar and she captures the arrogance and insecurity of a washed-up Old Hollywood beauty, living out her final days in denial. (Grahame infamously bedded her teenage stepson and later married him, back in the '50s.) Bell knits his eyebrows a lot, whether the couple is bickering in 1979 or, upon their reunion in 1981, he is tending to a dying former lover. This should jerk a tear or two by the end, and some of the scenes really sizzle. But it too often feels that the extraordinary Bening is working without a net here.

BONUS TRACK
From the "Liverpool" soundtrack, a little Southern soul, "I Haven't Got Time to Cry" by Irma Thomas:


 

Middle Ten

I'm not the only one experiencing a slump. The Onion AV Club (no relation) this week had a run of 10 movies in a row falling into the range between B-minus and C-minus. And it's May, not January or February.

• Beast - C+
• The Day After - C
• The Seagull - B-minus
• Sollers Point - B-minus
• Overboard - C
• Manhunt - B-minus
• Bad Samaritan - C+
• Racer and the Jailbird - C+
• RBG - C-minus
• The Guardians - C+

Some of those sound like parody titles or B-movies from the '70s. Right before that run of clunkers, they gave an A-minus to "Tully." We'll be giving it a ... C+.