Dogs Bark

Bare Trees - - The Father (2020, UK/France, Color, 97 min) - - 29 March 2021

Recommended. The Father certainly deserves any Academy honors it receives next month. I would strongly recommend it except for the pain of watching it; in a sense, this is the necessary trigger warning. And it’s the quality and originality of The Father that creates this terrifying experience. It was tyro director Florian Zeller’s explicit desire to translate his play into a film structured to seem like actual dementia . . . confusing, repetitive and fundamentally disorienting. He also cast two actors - - Anthony Hopkins (Silence Of The Lambs) and Olivia Coleman (The Favourite) as father and daughter - - who were up to the challenge. Their awful dance of sadness, their love for each other devolving into a curse, is brilliant. There have been several recent, very hard-to-watch, movies illustrating this terrible descent, e.g.., Away From Her. Are they worth the fear and pain they engender? Do they help?

La Vraie Marianne - - Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1959, France, B/W, 111 min) - - 27 March 2021

Recommended. I fell in love with Jeanne Moreau (Elevator To The Gallows) - - like most of us - - in college during a first viewing of Jules Et Jim. It’s clearly the choicest role an actress ever was given and say what you want about Doc Golighty’s wife . . . the most iconic. But unlike a lot of other young men, I never wanted to make Ms. Moreau smile. I just wanted the excuse to look at her, to watch her, to be the object of her passion. I wanted to be a character in a Jeanne Moreau movie. Since I didn’t speak French, that never happened. By the way, Moreau is in Les Liaisons Dangereuses but rather miscast. Way too complex for this lightweight offering of serial husband Roger Vadim (Barbarella). Also appearing are Art Blakey and the Jazz Messangers and a lovely score by Thelonious Monk. Jazz and Moreau . . . that’s all I need.

Lady Of The Lowland - - Audrey (2020, USA, Color/B/W, 100 min) - - 17 March 2021

Recommended. "No one has ever really said anything bad about Audrey Hepburn," says her son, Sean Ferrer, in Helena Coan’s (Chasing Perfect) new Netflix documentary, an attempt by Coan to explore the mystery of such a unique icon. It’s sad that in our cruel times there would be such a hunger to destroy and demean, but don’t count on this remarkable documentary for any dirt. Of course, Hepburn cultivated her public image; it was both her source of income and the reaction of a deeply insecure person, damaged by childhood trauma and abandonment. Her late-life turn from glamour to caritas as a public image is explained in this film as a longing for the affection not received from Hollywood or marriage. This is voiced through Ferrer and his daughter, Emma, who never met her grandmother but well channels her beatitude. Audrey doesn’t reveal a dark side to Hepburn . . . only sadness.

Green Acres Is The Place To Be - - Minari (2020,USA, Color, 115 min) - - 15 March 2021

Strongly recommended. It’s hard to imagine someone not liking Lee Isaac Chung’s (Munyurangabo) new film Minari. This is not a remarkable movie except for it’s simple, uncomplicated good heartedness and six Oscar^©-nominations. Steven Yuen (The Walking Dead), after years bashing zombies, gets to speak in his native Korean, settle down on a farm in Missouri and get a Best Actor nod. His family includes an urban-loving wife, a son with a heart defect, and a foul-mouthed mother-in-law, also Oscar^©-nodded Youn Yuh-jung, The Bacchus Lady). Yet, Minari is neither an ethnic sitcom nor a screed on Southern xenophobia. Yuen’s Jacob and wife, Monica (Yeri Han, Sea Fog), have their foibles and arguments. But they make good, despite hardship. Will Patton (Wendy and Lucy) plays a delightfully loony, tongue-talking hired hand. Minari is also nominated for Lee Isaac Chung’s script, direction and score (Emile Mosseri, The Last Black Man In San Francisco)        

Evicted - - Tenet (2020, USA, Color, 150 min) - - 7 March 2021

Not recommended. Perhaps, as Christopher Nolan’s (Inception) most ardent fans claim, there’s a masterpiece buried in the heart of Tenet. Also a fan of Mr. Nolan, I searched but found only a black hole. Past works did have heart, a universe where love conquers even the laws of astrophysics. Tenet takes up such a seriousness . . . the paradox of time. Unfortunately, its mentality is possessed by a silly James Bond-like battle. The dialogue - - essential to viewer comprehension - - is impossible to make out, bombarded by terrible sound effects and editing  (Richard King, Wonder Woman 1984). Even the score (Ludwig Göransson, Black Panther) is wiped out. John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman) is miscast as the hero . . . his careful, still acting also getting buried. Kenneth Branagh (Dunkirk) didn’t damage himself and Michael Caine (Batman Begins) shows up, as usual. In the end, any profound message in this totally confusing film seemed better served by Twitter.