Stress Positions

Terry is a bit of a mess, but he now needs to keep it together to care for his 19-year-old nephew Bahlul, who has a broken leg. Surely he can do so for a little while, right?

Well, first step is to get rid of all the sex-party stuff from the house—his ex-husband’s aging townhouse, by the way; the only thing Terry can afford to live in, because Terry hasn’t worked in years. And did I mention that Bahlul’s mom/Terry’s sister is disgusted by Terry’s gayness? Covid is striking, too, and none of this is stopping Terry’s friends from wanting to meet the “little brown-boy” male model that is Bahlul.

Welcome to Stress Positions! It is wit, heart, and cringe that’s hard to summarize, but fun to watch!

We follow Terry as he spins around his house trying to maintain a calm and care for Bahlul. It is comically stressful and charming. Disinfectant sprays will choke people, kitchen messes will break people, and banter will bite people.

Balancing out the high nervous energy is calm, patient narration from Bahlul and Terry’s friend Karla. Everyone is trying to live together, it seems, while also carving out a space all their own.

The moviemakers hint strongly that fiction can be freeing; that you can think of yourself the way you want to. For Terry, this might be the root of his unhappiness, but for Bahlul, it might be the path to a healthier life. Who knows? Let’s get some food delivered, drink too much, and talk about it.

Can’t clink pots; dirty hands.

Wonka

Please share Wonka with someone you love. Not only does it capture the excitement that chocolate can bring, it reminds us of the deeper truth behind the feeling: It is a gift to share moments with your special people.

The story is that Willy Wonka finally has a chance to sell chocolate in the big city! He’s poor, young, and illiterate, but the lad has a heart of gold—and well, the most incredible chocolates the world has ever seen! Made with fantastical ingredients, these chocs can somehow create a feeling that the eater needs, right then.

Of course, small print and big business want to take advantage. They make it difficult for Wonka (and his new friends) to live their dreams.

What to do? Give up, or use creativity and hard work and friends to make the day brighter? Become greedy, or sing songs to express your emotions, because you’re too important not to be yourself?

Folks, take notes and enjoy. Wonka is the best of cinema: both entertaining and meaningful.

Leo

Leo follows the fifth-grade pet lizard as he observes this year’s group of kids. Though it starts at surface-level, at some point it blasts through itself with such pure heart, again and again, that it becomes a real tear-jerker. Both sweet and meaningful.

Unexpected! Because everyone expects an ordinary year this year. Same teacher; bully; clown. Then a substitute arrives and forces each student to take home gross old Leo for the weekend. Until this point the movie is just an onslaught of gags (which sometimes are hilarious and sharp, like the piranha-esque kindergarteners causing mayhem, and which are other times eye-rollingly cheap); but soon, it’ll transform.

Another year; another batch.

As Leo learns at the students’ homes, these kids have problems. Instead of helicopter parents, a drone. Instead of hugs, a deceased loved-one. And so on. So Leo, who has seen it all before, decides in his old age to do something meaningful with his up-until-now-oh-so-meaningless life. And to do it he breaks the biggest rule there is.

What follows is a series of funny and deeply tender interactions, about as realistic as you could expect it to be when a benevolent lizard speaks human. With some coaxing the kids sing about their problems, and Leo, all wobbly and phlegmy, sings back.

Teaching. An art and a science.

Sure, the pacing can be jerky and uneven. And sure, we could do with quite a few less jokes. But the way the moviemakers capture real concerns—and real solutions to them—is as patient and beautiful as kind old Leo is.

Tótem (Totem)

Totem is a masterpiece, and a masterpiece of simplicity. It’ll transport you to childhood and all its feelings.

In it we follow Sol, a calm little girl who needs to keep herself busy. As her family bustles around the house preparing for Sol’s father’s birthday celebration, each member is in their own universe.

Will we see him soon? Maybe; but for now, like always, he needs to stay in the back room to rest. Dad just needs to rest, OK?

As Sol follows her boredom and curiosity around the property; as she’s shuffled from room to room by a different nervous wreck this time; as the camera shows her daydreaming face and stays low with her eye-line, we can’t help but feel her feelings. The picture, writing, and acting—from the entire ensemble, truly—are so naturalistic that never once did I think of this as fictional tale. I still don’t.

Sol, sola.

Together, we’ll stress about cake; give up on vacuuming; and gossip instead of preparing. We’ll live, we’ll cry happy and sad, and we’ll feel some deep truths of life.

Totem is beautiful, and a totem in itself.

No words.

The Survival of Kindness

I too want kindness to survive, but The Survival of Kindness is frustrating.

It follows BlackWoman (you read that right) as she tries to survive in a terrifyingly inhospitable world. It’s barren; there’s a sickness going around; and people in masks violently isolate or eliminate the non-masked. Maybe because of the sickness, but maybe because of their skin-color.

This scene made me thirsty.

It’s bleak stuff. And yet for the majority of the movie, BlackWoman is nice. She’s journeying through this scary place, to find what, it’s not clear, but maybe someone else who’s nice? The actor’s performance is contained and raw, creating a Christ-like presence for us to consider. With just the clothes on her back she finds a way to be generous with others.

The production quality is also impressive. Soft dissolves and artistic direction highlight how simple the world can be: beautiful here, harsh there. But most of all the movie frustrates.

On this journey we never learn about BlackWoman or this world or how things came to be this way. The dialogue-less writing is somehow both on-the-nose and cryptic, and its moral is arguably that being kind is antithetical to surviving. Or maybe not? It’s hard to enjoy a movie that either stands for that idea or is this confusing.

Searching for meaning in this movie.

Once Within a Time

Once Within a Time is a hazy, twisted fairy tale—that’s somehow instantly recognizable.

Its moviemakers are scared about how now, within our time, technology hijacks our every thought and action. So as a sort of prayer and last laugh, they’ve created an hour-long play for us to consider.

The images are nightmarish and lush, but we get the picture. Our story began with mother nature’s song; then a face appeared, one that smiled and engaged us and offered us something shiny. And of course, we took the bait.

Now we spend our time watching grotesquely-shaped characters dance. Adults (in age only) wither away in digital cages, too scared to interact with the tangible world that gave them life.

And so, this movie is a trip. It’s an uncomfortable and sobering and striking incarnation of what we’re all feeling these days: Something is wrong.

Killers of the Flower Moon

Killers of the Flower Moon is the kind of movie that you can’t help but watch, even as it breaks your heart. It is a towering and overwhelming creation.

The short story is that a simpleton named Ernest moves to Osage County. This place is flat, harsh land on which only the Osage people had lived, but now that oil has been discovered, everyone and their mothers are coming to see if they can strike it rich, too.

The long story is that, with the Osage now rich, non-natives have become bitter and resentful. As we follow Ernest on his odd jobs and drunken adventures, splitting time between his influential uncle Bill and his darling Molly (an Osage), we learn a heck of a lot.

World 1. Ernest and Molly; land and love.

Then Osage begin to die. High in number but low in age. It’s suspicious, it’s terrifying—and it’s probably about money. Might Bill know something about it? Or might Ernest, straddling two worlds?

Mixed montages; rolling music; exquisite production and set design all create these worlds for us. And superb acting throws us into the thick of them.

Filled with love and loss, Killers of the Flower Moon offers drama and intrigue, yes. But also, an ode to an entire people.

World 2. Ernest and Bill. Another lesson.

L’Été dernier (Last Summer)

Last Summer some shit went down. It was indecent and frustrating and I’d rather not talk about it.

So here goes: Anne is a seemingly level-headed person who does something terrible. Though she oh so calmly succeeds at maintaining a house, two children, and a job defending young women from sexual predators, she changes tack after her underage stepson moves in. Apparently, the kid has things that her corporate-bellied husband simply cannot provide . . .

Yes, it’s gross. And yes, you can guess the plot of this movie.

Though the direction is thoughtful and the performances leave nothing to be desired, real-life talent is wasted on this story. It is an unexplained, uncomfortable, and gratuitous affair.

Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer can be too much.

It is, of course, wildly interesting and exciting. It follows (i) a brilliant theoretical physicist (ii) as he’s recruited by his nation (iii) during wartime (iv) to lead a team of geniuses (v) who must ideate and construct the first ever atomic bomb—(vi) before the enemy does. If you aren’t intrigued by this set of facts, I don’t trust your judgment.

First-half scenes move with gusto, launching all this in our direction at the same time as they establish what sort of person this J. Robert Oppenheimer can be; perhaps just as likely to daydream about the quantum or learn another ancient language as he is, say, to sleep with your partner . . . And so, there’s a fair amount of instability in this (based on a true) story. Oh, and politics.

Looking? Seeing? Feeling?

For three straight hours the movie builds, exhaustingly, to two separate climaxes. Tension always as all actors involved nail their parts. Some scenes—heck, even some storylines—seem gratuitous, and the average scene-time feels maddeningly short. But in the end, it is an impressive and meaningful movie.

Forget the science the fidelity the bureaucracy; this one is about choice. When you have the brain you have; when you find yourself where you find yourself; what’ll you choose to do and who’ll you choose to surround yourself with?

And once you’ve made your decisions, will you choose differently next time? Will others even allow you to?

The whirring of life, or the dust of death?

BlackBerry

Oh, BlackBerry.

I wanted to like you! You’re an underdog story inspired by true events, in which nerds get rich and change the world! Oh, how I wanted to like you.

You were too much like your subject, though. You became pompous and focused on the wrong things.

To be fair, things weren’t all bad; kudos to the good stuff. While two nerds wonder if they’re on to something with this idea they’re calling a “smartphone”, we the audience know they are. The movie’s early scenes are therefore fun for us. Energetic, even. Pretty cool to be in the room where this world-changing idea was born.

And even better, fun becomes funny! When our nerds can’t get their idea off the ground, it seems that only a narcissistic, offensive megalomaniac can help them. This guy—his screaming at unsuspecting people—is equal parts magnetizing and comical. The actor’s portrayal of him? Impressively, scarily good.

So that’s the story. A revolutionary idea grows around these three, from diner booth to corporate powerhouse, with intrigue and legal trouble along the way.

Just a few nerds, in motion.

Lovely. But as the real BlackBerry company can attest, good parts do not guarantee a great product.

Take the camerawork. It’s a shaky, zippy, disorienting mess trying to convince us that we’re watching a documentary—which makes no sense, because in the beginning, the movie tells us that we aren’t. And despite the suit, nerd #1, and a couple of other folks delivering convincing performances, nerd #2 is so childlike and oblivious that he feels more like a movie character than a human being.

The most difficult part to overlook, though, seems to be why the movie was made in the first place.

Yea yea, it’s fun to see corporate intrigue and visionary nerds being socially incompetent, but why does this failed-company movie dumb down the failures? If these three people are important enough to center a movie around, then why aren’t we learning more about where they came from, or what motivated them as the years passed? Is corporate all the audience cares about?

In telling us a story of a company, BlackBerry fails to tell us a story about the people who built it. It is a hollow product that doesn’t live up to its potential.

A moment of contemplation. Or rage. It’s hard to tell with this guy.

Mamacruz

Grandma’s feelin’ frisky!

Hey, if that makes you uncomfortable, you’re not alone. Cruz herself is ashamed and confused about feeling sexual urges after all these years.

Don’t ask her to ask what Jesus would do; she tried that and it brought her face to face with a life-size, tall young thing. His beard was so thick . . . his torso, so toned . . .

Agh! Cruz’s church-going friends are no help either. Almost as bad as her husband’s snoring. Anyways, we begin to wonder whether abuela is destined to suffer in silence.

And yet, God always gives us a sign, doesn’t God? I mean, the flyer was right outside church!

Soon we see Cruz attending a new kind of service. It’s called sex therapy, and though its devoted are also trying to live better lives, there is no judgment here for confessing fears and desires. Until this point the movie had been delicate, funny, and interesting, but from now on the goodness compounds. Smart moviewriting dissolves witty jokes with touching tales; balances heavy stuff perfectly with light.

Without a doubt Mamacruz would upset a few of Cruz’s old friends. They’d be overreacting, though. Even if ever-so-mildly explicit, it’s a wholesome movie about a person trying her best. Whether by edits or imagery, breathing or focus, it knows just how to build. And release!

Cruz somehow turning a bland moment into a peep show.

All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt

Hands, I think. This one is about hands.

I’m joking mostly, which means I’m serious a little bit. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt looked like it’d be a folksy and powerful tale about connection in rural Mississippi, but its extreme focus on details (like hands) hurts the experience.

I think it’s supposed to be about Mack’s life, of which we can see only moments. Of which she can live only moments. So for now we watch her learning fishing from dad or party manners from mom. And we care about all this because how Mack learns is pretty interesting.

When trapping fish, for example, she’ll take time to look at the water. She’ll caress it with her fingertips before squeezing the mud at its base and staring into the depths of her catch’s eyes. Stuff like that—sights and sounds that are beautiful and beautifully caught on camera for us.

Got it. Mack is a watcher more than a doer, sensitive and tactile. Problem is, the moviemakers not only fuel the story with these scenes (which can be emotive and thought-provoking), they make the whole movie about them. Any charm or meaning they carry gets bogged down by repetitive and lengthy close-ups. How long do we need to watch a person hugging to feel the feelings? How long do we need a close-up of hands touching other hands to think about what might be happening between them?

The movie’s structure tugs us out of the story, too. Mack is a young girl in one scene, riding bikes with her friends; then in the next, she’s a grown woman, hugging someone. In the one after that she’s young again, we’re looking at hands again. And so on. This jumping around might show us the different interactions that have made Mack who she is, but it doesn’t make for much of a story until the very end of the movie, when things finally begin to get comprehensible.

Heck, maybe that’s the point, that life is nothing but moments, and that these moments can’t truly be described or weaved together in a coherent way. I think we all feel that way sometimes. But do we need an hour and a half of repetition to remind us?

Mack at peace with Momma and Mississippi.

Mami Wata

The screen drowns in it, a squid-ink dark so dark it almost hurts my eyes. It’s making me think danger.

It’s also a good way to spotlight something. And so we can see a woman standing alone where the waves crash—decorated, like them, with flourishes of white. Ah! Light can live in this darkness, can pierce it.

Artsy, right?! So begins Mami Wata. Its masterplays of light, positioning, sound- and costume-design never end, guaranteeing gorgeousness throughout. But the movie isn’t just pretty. It’s also a gripping small-town drama and allegory, filled with twists.

At its center sits Mama Efe. She’s the intermediary, the one who can (supposedly) channel the power of Mami Wata, the spirit of the water. Kid sick? Take ‘em to Efe. Crop good? Sacrifice it by giving it to Efe. Some of the villagers are fine with this, but a few are not. They ask loudly and often: How come Mama Efe lives in luxury while we still have no hospitals, schools, or roads? Why do we allow her to lie to us? Even Efe’s two daughters struggle with believing.

Eventually, tensions break like waves. Again and again the spiritual folk can’t answer questions about the practical. Will Mami Wata let them down after all these years? And are the alternatives any better? If the movie draws us in with its visual/aural beauty, then it keeps us interested with a cycle of tension and surprises. Think spirits, daughters, warlords.

Moviemakers, I am impressed. For a while I even believed.

Mama Efe, concerned.

The Menu

The Menu is big-time saucy. As slick and entertaining as it is . . . discouraged and disappointing.

The idea is that Margot goes to dinner. She’s wondering why Tyler is so excited about it, but the restaurant’s boat takes them to its island where the staff lives. Other diners include food critics and movie stars. Margot, if you don’t want your rez, I’ll take it!

The intro to all that is a bit bland and choppy, but next comes the meal, when things really get tasty.

Course by course, the chef explains what’s happening. This dish is this, but also, it means that. Moviewriting like this pokes fun at fancy restaurants and their diners just as often as it plays with our expectations. This is smart and funny stuff.

And horrific. To give more detail would spoil the fun, but basically, the diners get way more than they paid for. I have changed my mind about that rez.

The casting, acting, and editing (like almost every aspect of this movie) illustrate professional execution of a distinguished variety. Well done!

And yet . . . I am disappointed. It feels like the moviemakers wanted to say nothing matters in the most beautiful, cinematic, opposite way. What’s the point in that?

Ah yes, the meat and scissors course.