Not extraordinary, but ‘I Want You Back’ has its moments

By Tom Jozwik

The humor in “I Want You Back,” as is the case with most movie comedies, falls somewhere in that vast region between the utterly sophisticated and The Three Stooges.

Not exactly an extraordinary accomplishment, in other words. And yet the Jason Orley-directed, 111-minute film with a very competent ensemble cast headed by Charlie Day (Peter) and Jenny Slate (Emma) thoroughly entertained me. It offers a number of LOL moments, its storyline is uncomplicated and quite interesting and almost every one of its prominent characters is the kind of person with whom anyone could easily be friends.

At the outset, Peter and Emma are summarily dumped for new love interests by their significant others, Anne and Noah (played respectively by Gina Rodriguez and Scott Eastwood—Clint’s son). Peter and Emma work in the same large office building and they happen to meet there, for the first time, on a Monday morning, still tearfully reeling from their weekend breakups. Soon they’re friendly enough to begin plotting to sabotage the new relationships of their old flames. The story’s ultimate result appears predictable about 10 minutes in. Subsequent developments, however, serve to cloud the predictability.

A brief but delightful “I Want You Back” subplot has Emma mentoring a melancholy middle schooler named Trevor (Luke David Blumm).

Excising some rough language as well as one kinky episode would’ve been a good idea and might’ve altered this film’s R rating.

'Tender Bar’ engaging but needs closure

By Tom Jozwik

“The Tender Bar” describes the place where central character J.R. does much of his growing up under the tutelage of his tavern owner uncle and the uncle’s customer buddies.

J.R. (Daniel Ranieri as a child, Tye Sheridan as a young adult) may be this movie’s protagonist, but, as his Uncle Charlie, Ben Affleck steals the show. The film, based on journalist J.R. Moehringer’s similarly titled memoir from 2005, is directed by George Clooney who, rather uncharacteristically for the veteran director-actor, does not also appear in it.

Even without Clooney, the acting in “The Tender Bar” is more than satisfactory (never mind that none of its adult characters seems to age an iota over the movie’s 15-year span). Although too much time is spent on a moribund affair between J.R. and an egocentric Yale University classmate (Briana Middleton), the plot is decidedly engaging—if derivative and incomplete. One derivative aspect is a soundtrack loaded with period hits. The sense of incompleteness may owe to Clooney’s attempt to produce a very faithful adaptation of Moehringer’s set-in-the-1970s-and-’80s memoir, but I haven’t read the book and can’t say for sure.

In any case, the film left me with several nettlesome questions:

How does J.R., rejected for a New York Times reporting job, rebound to win a Pulitzer Prize and pen the bestseller on which this movie is based?

What becomes of the relatives with whom J.R. has shared a ramshackle Long Island home en route to adulthood—his grandfather (Christopher Lloyd), by turns eloquent-affectionate and crass-caustic; his ever-supportive mother (Lily Rabe), who’s battled kin as well as thyroid cancer; his worldly wise father figure Charlie, the gruff but golden-hearted barkeep and bibliophile with a health issue or two of his own?

And what about J.R.’s boozing blood father (Max Martini), whom J.R. knows—fortunately—far better as a radio voice than as a physical presence? When we last see this human time bomb he’s being arrested, apparently for battery; how is this sordid business resolved?

These questions could’ve, and should’ve, been answered in a brief epilogue. Even the most interesting stories need closure.

Rated R and running 1:44, “The Tender Bar” opens Dec. 22 in theaters and premiers Jan. 7 on Amazon Prime.                                

‘French Dispatch’ an inventive film—but maybe too much so

By Tom Jozwik

“The French Dispatch,” opening Oct. 29, is nothing if not inventive. Wes Anderson ‘s (“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “Moonrise Kingdom”) latest film blends comedy with drama, color with black and white footage, cartoons with live action, stage techniques with cinematic ones.

With its death of a newspaper executive framework and a body consisting of stories compiled by associates of the deceased, “Dispatch” evokes “Citizen Kane,” the inventive motion picture par excellence.

Ask any film scholar—Orson Welles’ 1941 presumed take on the life of William Randolph Hearst is a true work of art. Could Anderson’s movie be a work of art as well? Perhaps, but works of art can be dense and not especially entertaining. Melville’s novel “Moby Dick” is one case in point. “Dispatch” might be another.

Some film professionals have suggested “Dispatch” should be viewed more than once. Time is valuable, however, and movie tickets can be expensive. While, at the preview screening I attended, a number of folks at applauded as if they’d be happy to watch the film once more, a single “Dispatch” viewing sufficed for me (although I’d rather see the movie a second time than attempt to wade through “Moby Dick” again). I found a good deal of the film to be … well, dense and not especially entertaining.

Anderson’s inventive film, set in a fictional French city in 1975, concludes inventively—with an homage to the New Yorker (on which the movie’s magazine appears to be based) in the forms of an onscreen list of star New Yorker contributors (humorist James Thurber is one) and a series of cartoonish New Yorker-like covers. I liked that.

I was impressed that Anderson was able to assemble a cast laden with name actors, several of them in cameo roles, and I particularly appreciated the measured performances of principals Bill Murray as the magazine’s quirky expatriate editor seen primarily in flashback; Frances McDormand as one of his quirky expatriate writers; Timothee Chalamet as the student revolutionary McDormand’s character writes about—and falls for, despite her repeated spouting of the phrase “journalistic neutrality”; and Benicio Del Toro as a tortured artist profiled in another “Dispatch” article (“story,” in journalistic jargon).

I give writer-director Anderson an A for effort in the making of “The French Dispatch.” But I do believe a simpler, more linear approach would’ve made for a more palatable production.

The R-rated film runs for 1:47.

Hit Broadway musical now streaming on Apple TV+

By Tom Jozwik

Dramatic yet lighthearted, instructive yet entertaining, a true 9/11 story—and a decidedly endearing one.

That’s “Come From Away,” a “filmed version of the award-winning Broadway musical” streaming as of today on Apple TV+.

“Come From Away” takes place in the remote Newfoundland town of Gander, where dozens of United States-bound airplanes and several thousand airplane passengers are grounded in the wake of the 2001 catastrophe. On a simple set (the main element of which is a collection of straight-backed chairs), clad in everyday clothes, such Broadway luminaries as Petrine Bromley, Jenn Colella, Q. Smith, Joel Hatch and Jim Walton assume multiple roles as they convincingly relate a parable of kindnesses extended and reciprocated, inhibitions discarded, friendships formed.

For the few days of the story, small-town Gander is a snapshot of diversity—ethnic, cultural, religious. My favorite scene, in a church, begins with the singing of Sebastian Temple’s hymn “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace,” which neatly morphs into prayerful Jewish and Muslim chants.

Gifted “Come From Away” songwriters David Hein and Irene Sankoff served as executive producers for the film, which Christopher Ashley (who helmed the original Broadway production) directed. The movie runs 1:46, carries a TV-14 rating … and now heads my unreservedly recommended films for 2021 list.

Poignant ‘CODA’ brings deaf community into focus

By Tom Jozwik

It’s been some time since I’ve seen a movie I’ve enjoyed as much as “CODA,” poised for its theatrical opening in Milwaukee Aug. 20, one week after its debut on Apple TV+.

The title of the movie, directed by Ms. Sian Heder and starring 19-year-old Briton Emilia Jones and still-lovely-at-age-55 Academy award winner Marlee Matlin, is both an abbreviation for Child of Deaf Adults and a term for a musical composition’s conclusion. Not coincidentally, music and deafness are key topics in “CODA,” the unprecedented winner (this past winter) of all four of the top Sundance Film Festival awards. Golden Globe and Oscar kudos may well be in the offing.

Unlike its Sundance feat, “CODA’s” premise is not without precedent. Ruby Rossi (Jones), on the cusp of adulthood, has a dilemma: does she stay home and hold a job, or does she go off to college?

Complicating her decision is the fact that high school senior Ruby—who has no hearing impairment whatsoever—already has a job, the main duty of which is to serve as interpreter for her deaf parents (Matlin and Troy Kotsur) and co-worker brother (Daniel Durant) in the family fishing business. The idea of Ruby’s matriculating in Boston rather than remaining with the three other Rossis in Gloucester terrifies mom Jackie and dad Frank, although brother Leo plumps for Ruby to accept a vocal scholarship from the Berklee College of Music.

But what does the young lady want to do? And will there ultimately be a meeting of the four Rossi minds?

Sidebar “CODA” stories involve a romance between Ruby and another member of her high school chorus (Irish actor Ferdia Walsh-Peelo) and Ruby’s interactions with her mentor, chorus conductor Bernardo Villalobos (acclaimed Mexican thespian Eugenio Derbez).

One of “CODA’s” Sundance awards is for best ensemble cast—and “CODA’s” international group is a good one! The cast member last mentioned, Derbez, is as “Mr. V” a delightful mixture of student-directed wryness and physicality. Winningly, Matlin, Kotsur and Durant--none of them hearing individuals--verify the old saw that good acting is largely nonverbal.

Jones, who was tutored in American Sign Language for her role, performs most credibly. She has a lovely voice and, for me, the highlight of the film is her singing, and simultaneously signing, the 1960s Joni Mitchell classic “Both Sides Now.” Even more poignant are scenes featuring Ruby with each of her parents; equally memorable is another shown from Frank’s point of view, a remarkable soundless scene wherein Ruby’s father takes in a high school concert and surveys the reactions of others in attendance. Ever so briefly, the viewer is able to enter Frank’s orbit—a microcosm for the world of all who cannot hear.

Adolescent filmgoers, in particular, will relate to Emilia Jones’ Ruby Rossi. The guess here is that the teens are going to really like “CODA.” And that their parents and grandparents will, too.

‘Summer of Soul’ recalls 1969’s other Woodstock

By Tom Jozwik

In 1969, summer of the iconic Woodstock festival in rural New York state, another music fest played out about 100 miles away, in New York City’s Mount Morris Park.

The former festival gave rise to the Academy Award-winning documentary “Woodstock” the following year. The latter, officially called the Harlem Cultural Festival and nicknamed “the Black Woodstock,” is now, after five decades, the subject of a doc as well. “Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” will open in theaters, and begin streaming on Hulu, July 2.

Its publicists describe “Summer of Soul,” helmed by first-time director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, as “part music film, part historical record created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture and fashion.” The Harlem Festival consisted of six free Sunday afternoon concerts. The concerts were videotaped by TV professional Hal Tulchin, who tried subsequently to sell his handiwork to moviemakers. There was little interest in a cinematic counterpart to “Woodstock,” however, and Tulchin’s videotapes languished for some 50 years in the basement of the home he shared with his wife. Recovered after Tulchin’s 2007 passing, the footage (already of surprisingly good quality for 1969 tape recordings) was enhanced by colorist Yohance Brown and edited by Joshua L. Pearson. (Kudos also to “Summer of Soul” music supervisor Randall Poster and sound man Jimmy Douglass.)

The result is a crisp, contemporary look to a two-hour PG-13 movie combining celebrity performances/crowd reactions with interview excerpts and newscast snippets. Those snippets and comments by interviewees—Festivalgoers, performers and latter-day celebs—effectually bring back 1969 and earlier years of the ’60s. It was an era of great hope as well as great despair, an era of space exploration and political and civil rights heroes like the Kennedy brothers, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, yet an era which saw the assassinations of those same heroes and warfare raging not only in far-off Vietnam but on the streets of cities across America.

Viewers hear from the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Chris Rock, and they revisit the Harlem Festival presentations of numerous groups and individuals. Personal favorites include The 5th Dimension’s “Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In,” The Edwin Hawkins Singers’ “Oh Happy Day” and David Ruffin’s “My Girl” (although I prefer the earlier rendition by David Ruffin and The Temptations). Among the other performers shown are Stevie Wonder, Mahalia Jackson, Gladys Knight & the Pips, B.B. King and Sly & the Family Stone.

More than 300,000 people, the great majority of them people of color, attended the Harlem Festival and listened to what one “Summer of Soul” speaker calls “a cross section of the music that was happening at the time”--blues, jazz, gospel and Latin, among other genres. Finally, folks of all races can see and hear at least a fraction of what those audiences did.

We wouldn’t be surprised if, after another several months, “Summer of Soul” follows “Woodstock” as a documentary Oscar nominee. The film whose subtitle recalls an old Black Power slogan won a couple of prizes at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.

Brazilian, Dutch movies vastly different MFF fare

By Tom Jozwik

Filmed in  2019 and directed by Iuli Gerbase, “The Pink Cloud,” a 105-minute Brazilian entry in this year’s Milwaukee Film Festival (MFF), might be labeled a precursor of the coronavirus pandemic. But an even better description of the cinematic story would probably be “COVID-19 on steroids.”

In a contemporary time frame, without apparent warning, a lethal pink cloud materializes and encircles the earth. A dogwalker drops dead on a Brazilian pier. Soon, people are advised to close their doors and windows and sequester inside their homes or whatever buildings happen to be closest at hand. In the midst of sequestration, supplies are delivered (via “the tube”) to the citizenry, school classes are conducted remotely, relatives and friends are forced to limit contact to cellphone calls (sound familiar?).

On the positive side, as somebody in the movie points out, car crashes are nonexistent and the crime rate is way, way down. Perhaps the suicide rate is down as well, although one high-rise window jumper is seen from a distance in “The Pink Cloud.”

This is a dark film, figuratively and literally, a dystopian drama in the tradition of “Testament” (1983), a claustrophobic motion picture along the lines of “Room” (2015). Still, “The Pink Cloud” is undeniably intriguing in a world that, of necessity, has become much more virtual since the movie was made. “We’re fine,” positive thinker Yago (Eduardo Mendonca), the male lead, tells his fellow characters after several years of confinement. Maybe they aren’t, really. But viewing “The Pink Cloud,” COVID-19 veterans will realize that we, comparatively, certainly are.

                                                                            ***

A much lighter movie is “Jackie & Oopjen,” a Dutch offering in the MFF’s Rated K: For Kids category, directed by Annemarie van de Mond. The 90-minute film is a fun fantasy in which Oopjen Coppit (Sarah Bannier), female subject of a Rembrandt painting displayed in an Amsterdam museum, returns to life and befriends Jackie Meyer (Frouke Verheijde), 12-year-old daughter of the museum’s curator.

Recommended for viewers aged 8 and above, “Jackie & Oopjen” is a Disneyesque picture, capably acted, quick-paced and good-humored, with a dash or more of poignancy. Its plot has the adult Oopjen bent on finding her long-lost sister, who has been memorialized in a portrait by another artist. Jackie introduces the 17th century visitor to 21st century life as she joins in Oopjen’s quest. Oopjen’s bemusement with electricity and electronics, conveyances and colloquialisms—and her regenerated interest in beer after some 400 years—provide plenty of levity along the way. 

                                                                             ***

The 2021 Milwaukee Film Festival runs online through May 20. Individual films can be viewed  for $8 ($5 for Milwaukee Film members), and more information can be obtained, at mkefilm.org/festival.

‘Some Kind of Heaven’: A He-Said, She-Said Film Review

By Tom and Marilyn jozwik

SHE: “The Villages” in Florida has been described as Disneyland for seniors. The 55-plus community, which boasts some 100,000 residents (about the number of residents in Kenosha) and lies about 50 miles from Orlando, features everything its golf-cart driving citizens need … and lots more.

In “Some Kind of Heaven” director Lance Oppenheim focuses on a couple, a recently widowed woman, and an 81-year-old gold digger who lives out of his van that he parks in The Villages when he prowls for female prospects.

Early in the show, we see people enjoying the many amenities – golf, bowling, dancing, water sports, a women’s group, live music and dancing, shopping, dining and so much more. It appears to be like living permanently on vacation.

Some describe the safety—lack of ghettos and crime—in addition to the comfort at The Villages.  Others say the place is “not reality.” Oppenheim chooses to display situations which don’t seem to be typical of the community’s residents. Nonetheless, the stories are compelling and offbeat in some cases, sad in others.

As “Some Kind of Heaven” goes on, you see less and less of The Villages and more on these three situations playing out on this adult playground. It becomes more a film about aging than about “The Villages.”

Grade: B+

Barbara, a recent widow, tries to combat her loneliness though surrounded by people in The Villages in “Some Kind of Heaven.”

HE: I think you’re right on target here. Stuff I read prior to viewing the documentary led me to believe I’d be seeing a portrait of America’s largest retirement community … and a rather negative portrait at that, I might add. While the last part of that sentence may be true, given the widow’s melancholy, the unlikability of the 81-year-old leech and the kookiness of his male co-star (a sometime doper whose long-suffering wife readily admits that his “sense of reality … is out there”), the film is driven more by character than by setting.

In the early going its denizens provide words of praise for a community wherein live entertainment is available every single day: “This is nirvana”; “They have everything”; “When you move here it’s like going off to college.” But the praise is tinged with gloom after a while, as when a Bermuda shorts-clad pastor points out that The Villages “is like God’s waiting room for heaven,” or when a live wire senior insists that “If you can’t enjoy your life now, you’re never going to do it.”

 One “Some Kind of Heaven” background song is “Laughter in the Rain,” but neither rain nor laughter is the biggest motif in this 83-minute movie. Which is not to say the documentary, even if it didn’t deliver quite as much info on The Villages as this septuagenarian would’ve liked, was less than compelling. 

Grade: B+

'Mank'" A He-Said, She-Said film review

 By Tom and Marilyn Jozwik

HE: “Mank” is the relatively long but quick-paced story of Herman Mankiewicz, who shared screenwriting credit with Orson Welles for the 1941 classic “Citizen Kane.” But “Mank” is less about its eponymous character penning “Kane” than it is a representation of Herman spouting witticisms and insults, charming lovely women (including his two-timed wife) and drinking like a severely parched trout. Gary Oldman is outstanding as Mankiewicz. David Fincher directs, from his father, Jack Fincher’s, script.

SHE: “Mank” shines a light on one of Hollywood’s most gifted writers, but it also covers some interesting periods in Tinseltown. We see MGM chief Louis B. Mayer asking his employees to take a pay cut during the Depression, and out-of-work actors; silent film stars segueing to talkies; Hollywood actors in faux political campaign interviews denouncing writer Upton Sinclair, a former Socialist Party member, in the 1934 California gubernatorial race. “Mank’s” present is 1939 as Mank is holed up at a desert location after breaking his leg in an auto accident. He is working on a script commissioned by Welles, which turns out to be for “Citizen Kane.”

In flashbacks we see Mank’s trademark sarcasm and wit on display as he interacts with Hollywood’s elite like Mayer, producer Irving Thalberg and actress Marion Davies (girlfriend of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, on whose life “Kane” is believed to be based), deftly portrayed by Amanda Seyfried. Hearst himself is, in fact, a Mank sparring partner.

HE: “Mank” flashes backwards as well as forwards, creating a little confusion in the process. Yet “Mank” manages to maintain the viewer’s attention. It was filmed in black and white, appropriate in depicting an era when B/W movies were still the norm.

The Mankiewicz name will be familiar to many readers. Herman was the father of Robert F. Kennedy’s press secretary, Frank Mankiewicz, and the grandfather of television movies host Ben Mankiewicz. Still, the question arises: How worthy a movie subject is this father-grandfather, quick-witted character or no, decades after whatever prominence he had? There are, after all, so many other stories to be told.

Grade: B

SHE: Mankiewicz was a quite a character and wit, so I think he is a worthy subject for the film. The story is told with the look of the 30s but with modern pacing to keep it moving briskly. Plus, the era in which Mank toiled was also brought into focus, giving us insights into the early days of Hollywood in this smart, sophisticated, R-rated film.

“Mank” is available on Netflix.

Grade: A-

'76 Days': A He-Said, She Said Film Review

By Tom and Marilyn Jozwik

HE: “76 Days” serves to document the January 23-April 8, 2020, lockdown of Wuhan, the Chinese city of 11 million, as the coronavirus pandemic began. The 1 ½-hour documentary film is now available on virtual cinema.

SHE: Before seeing the opening moments of “76 Days” I pictured Wuhan, China, as being a rural village. Instead, what I saw was a big city with sparkling high-rise buildings and a beautiful gleaming bridge spanning the Yangtze River. The insides of the four hospitals shown reflected the same modern feel. The film’s directors, including New York’s Hao Wu, tell this story through nurses, doctors, patients and their families, in real time as they deal with the early days of COVID-19.

HE: I don’t believe I’d ever even heard of Wuhan before the 76-day period this movie depicts. Unlike many other documentaries, this one does without a narrator. There is plenty of conversation. But no narration as such. Factual information is displayed onscreen from time to time, along with subtitles; these and the pictures tell the tale. There is no music. All of the above somehow gives the production a heightened realism.

SHE: Indeed. The axiom “One picture is worth 1,000 words” is apt here. In the early days we see would-be patients banging on a hospital door as hospital staff scrambles to find beds (“Too much chaos,” somebody comments). All staff are covered in bulky, protective gear that audibly swooshes as they scurry down hallways. Staff is upbeat in the midst of it, drawing slogans and pictures on the backs of co-workers’ gowns even as death surrounds them. There are moments of joy—as when a COVID mother gives birth by C-section to a beautiful girl (but must quarantine for two weeks before seeing her again). There is the staffer who must call family members to pick up the belongings of their late loved ones. “76 Days” is a story told with humanity and compassion.

Grade: A-

HE: We witness the humanity and compassion of which you speak as we become acquainted with the new and quarantined parents you’ve mentioned and their daughter, affectionately compared to a penguin by parents and nurses alike. There is also the happy vignette of a cooperative, beloved—and eventually released—senior patient and the not-so-happy one of his polar opposite, an elderly dementia sufferer who hopes against hope to escape his perceived hospital prison. Additional focus on these three segments would’ve narrowed the fuller (if more generalized) picture presented here, but might’ve made for a more relatable, and ultimately more memorable, piece of cinema.

Grade: B+

'Let Him Go': A He-Said, She-Said film review

By Tom and Marilyn Jozwik

HE: The best part of director Thomas Bezucha’s R-rated “Let Him Go” is the musical score by Michael Giacchino, particularly sweet as it accompanies the closing credits. The cinematography, conveying at once the beauty and vastness of the Dakota plains (except, of course, when the screen is damnably dark), would be the second-best feature. Considerably less interesting are the far-fetched storyline and the violence (albeit not quite sickeningly sanguine) that highlights it. “Let Him Go” is an example of a motion picture where you frankly do not want to identify with the two main characters, portrayed by Diane Lane and Kevin Costner. They may be selfless individuals, but they are recklessly so—to a point that goes well beyond stupidity (and credulity). As for their antagonists … could there be a more evil grouping this side of hell?

Grade: C

SHE: This movie reminds me of a car commercial that includes the line: “When you’re in a horror movie, you make bad decisions.” As I’m watching the crime thriller “Let Him Go,” the story of Montana rancher couple George and Margaret Blackledge (Lane and Costner) who set off into the Dakotas to find and bring back their grandson, I could apply the same line. In the movie, the Blackledges’ son dies in an accident, leaving behind a wife, Lorna (Kayli Carter), and young son. Lorna remarries in what appears to be a simple and hastily arranged ceremony and soon splits, unannounced, from town, sending George and Margaret on their search, which leads them to foreboding country and sketchy characters. Lane and Costner convey their desperation in the situation with solid performances, but the real star is Lesley Manville, who is deliciously wicked as Blanche Weboy, the mother of three contemptible sons. Manville exudes a Betty Davis vibe, her words dripping with a smug dominance as the manipulative matriarch. While Lane and Costner blandly trudge along through the movie, Manville, unfortunately, has too little to do. The movie, however, did hold my interest with a sort of “Deliverance” ambience.

Grade: B-

'I Used to Go Here': A He-Said, She-Said film review

By Tom and Marilyn Jozwik

HE: It helps if a movie has a hero or heroine, a figure truly worth emulating.

Conversely, it can hurt when a movie does not. And that, I think, is the case with “I Used to Go Here,” the comedic story of an author who returns to her college alma mater to do a public reading from her first book. She’s been invited back to campus by her onetime mentor, a popular English professor for whom she once carried the torch.

Fifteen years have passed since Kate Conklin’s (Gillian Jacobs) college days, but neither she nor the prof (New Zealander Jemaine Clement) seems to have matured a bit. The visiting author improbably jumps right into the carefree life of a collegian, while her old mentor carries on an adulterous affair with a real undergrad. (This isn’t “Animal House,” thank goodness, although there is a character named Animal.)

The waning minutes of this Kris Rey-directed, Milwaukee Film Festival entry suggest that Kate, at least, has begun to grow up … but who cares by this time?

May-September romance is an “I Used to Go Here” motif that gives off some rather creepy vibes. Then there are the incidents of predictability, the stereotypes. But it is decently acted (the preeminent  stereotypical character is quite enjoyable, actually) and the story idea offered a sturdy base on which to build.

Too bad the building process wasn’t entrusted to different hands.

Grade: C

SHE: Seeing that I’m a writer, I really wanted to like and admire Kate, who has just published her first book. I, too, was hoping for a more mature character and to see some growth throughout the film. She doesn’t ever seem like a thirtysomething on the cusp of something big in her life.

Granted, the whole idea is that being in her old college town – even her old sorority house – brings single Kate back to those carefree days. She’s also undergoing some big changes in her love life, while watching her friends with husbands and babies. Yet, the swiftness in which she returns to her old, irresponsible habits (drinking, smoking pot, flirting with college boys) is astounding.  

There was something fresh about the humor in the film: “I Used to Go Here” didn’t have to resort to the crude, totally sophomoric situations seen in recent similar movies to be funny. While Jacobs’ Kate is sometimes pathetic, she’s also likable. Clement’s character, the English professor, does lean toward stereotype, but his portrayal is spot on, as are the classroom and other scenes around town, giving this film a good sense of place.

Although Kate does snap out of her brief fling at reenacting her college days, it would have been better if she started a little sooner in the film to give the viewer time to appreciate her struggles.

Grade: C+

'The Tobacconist': A He-Said, She-Said film review

By Tom and Marilyn Jozwik

HE: A German-Austrian adaptation of novelist Robert Seethaler’s bestseller, “The Tobacconist” stars the late, great Swiss actor Bruno Ganz as Sigmund Freud and the very competent Simon Morze as adolescent smoke shop clerk Franz Huchel.

Against all odds, Franz becomes one of the legendary psychoanalyst’s closest friends. The cigar-smoking Freud dispenses advice concerning the young man’s tempestuous love life with Anezka (Emma Drugunova), a Bohemian dance hall girl, in the Milwaukee Film Festival entry.

If all this sounds like a winning comedy flick … it isn’t. The setting is Vienna in the early days of the Anschluss, the Nazi occupation. Freud is Jewish, but his international acclaim spares him much of the mistreatment experienced by fellow Viennese Jews like Otto Trsnyek (Johannes Krisch), employer of Franz, a Catholic, as owner of the tobacco store. Otto, who lost a leg in combat long ago, endures vandalism at the hands of Nazi-sympathizing neighbors and physical abuse at the hands of Nazi officials. Young Huchel protests in various ways, to little avail.

“The Tobacconist” is a winning film, decidedly—but not a winning comedy. Director Nikolaus Leytner (who co-wrote the screenplay) and cinematographer Hermann Dunzendorfer have deftly captured both late-1930s metropolitan Vienna and the Austrian countryside, while a talented cast has richly animated the personages of Seethaler’s book. On the negative side, mini-dream sequences, of which there are many, somewhat confused me and the story left me rather depressed (to be expected, I suppose, given the sad facts of history and man’s sometime propensity for inhumanity).

Grade: B+

SHE: The dark look to the film (I’m not sure the sun ever shone upon the characters), the 1930s Vienna setting and its mostly dour characters left room for precious little comedy in “The Tobacconist.”  At first it looks like our young protagonist, Franz (Morze), will lighten the mood of the story when he meets and falls in love with a pretty Bohemian girl, Anezka, at a carnival in the small town.  Even the carnival, however, looks bleak on a sunless day. Franz’s desire to grapple with love fills his head with strange dreams that prompt him to seek Freud’s advice.

The coming of age theme is nicely done and Morze and Drugunova are wonderful as the young couple wrestling with love and survival in their ever-changing world. As the love story ascends, it reaches its pinnacle when the two end up in bed in Franz’s little apartment behind the tobacco shop, and then race out into the snowy night without a stitch of clothing to make snow angels. It’s like that was the end of their youth.

Adding Freud to the story was an interesting choice (though I did enjoy Ganz’s take on the Father of Psychoanalysis), but I thought it unnecessary with an already strong story featuring Franz and Anezka, the shopkeeper, occasionally Franz’s mother and the horrors of Nazism looming throughout.

Grade: B

'Made in Bangladesh': A He-Said, She Said film review

By Tom and Marilyn Jozwik

HE: Compelling from opening to closing credits … that’s my “CilffsNotes” evaluation of “Made in Bangladesh.” 

I can supplement the above by stating that “MIB” is the best movie I’ve seen at a Milwaukee Film Festival in I don’t know how long. 

Released in 2019, reality-rooted “MIB” has been labeled “a Bengali ‘Norma Rae’” as it tackles the topic of workers’ rights with a female lead. Bangladeshi actress Rikita Nandini Shimu portrays Shimu Akhtar, counterpart to the title character in the aforementioned Sally Field film. Shimu is catapulted into organizing a union among her garment factory co-workers after one of their number dies in a fire on the job. Scenes of workers scurrying from the blaze to safety early on and scenes of primitive working conditions throughout the film will put historically inclined viewers in mind of New York City’s infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Company.  

Rikita Nandini Shimu is outstanding as the outspoken leader of the fledgling factory union. So are Mostafa Monwar as her traditionalist husband, Joyraaj as her autocratic boss and Novera Rahman as the good friend Shimu forfeits to activism. Also to be commended are “MIB’s” 39-year-old director Rubaiyat Hossain (an American-educated woman who’s a native of Bangladesh) and cinematographer Sabine Lancelin (who manages to make the severe existence of the denizens of Dhaka, Bangladesh, almost visceral). 

Grade: A 

SHE: I agree, this film was captivating from start to finish watching our heroine, Shimu, overcome so many obstacles – including a patriarchal culture -- as she tries to achieve her goal of unionizing the clothing factory she works at. Filmmaker Hossain immerses the viewer in the fascinating sights and sounds of Bangladesh – old narrow, muddy, livestock- and humanity-filled back streets, vehicles as disparate as rickshaws and scooters, buses and cars in a noisy stream on city thoroughfares, even a wedding where women are pictured in a whirl of ethereal, gauzy gowns in a celebration of beauty and happiness. We see Shimu and her husband as they gather around a little fire while Shimu slaps a small fish on the ground complaining that it won’t die.   

This creates a colorful, intriguing background for Shimu, who transforms from a shy, unassuming factory worker into a staunch defender of the rights of female workers. We see her and other women losing a month’s pay after a fire shuts the factory down. Safety is not addressed, nor is worker welfare while the factory owners line their pockets. Shimu, whose husband is not working, is the family breadwinner, as are other women. When a lawyer approaches Shimu about the laws and her rights, she realizes she has the stuff of a leader in her. 

“Made in Bangladesh” features wonderful performances with a message that cuts through cultural differences.   

Grade: A 

'Scotch Tension': A He-Said, She-Said film review

By Tom and Marilyn Jozwik

HE: “Scotch Tension boasts camera work that brings out the beauty of rural Wisconsin. Unfortunately, the Milwaukee Film Festival selection, written and directed by Grant Brown and Samuel Kasper, also “boasts” a maddeningly meandering storyline that features some unlikable characters and unintelligible symbolism. If there was a definitive point to this production, I have yet to figure it out. 

Plotwise, a pretty but very moody (“I’m not in a good head space right now”) young seamstress with a decent steady boyfriend takes a puzzling shine to a taciturn handyman. Seamstress and handyman become a couple; subsequently uncouple; eventually reunite. Considerable booze consumption contributes to characters’ dissatisfaction along the way. (Could the evils of alcoholism be the movie’s theme?) 

“Scotch Tension” (the title names a spinning wheel component) stars Erika Sorenson as seamstress Em and Logan Scott as handyman Noah. The acting is satisfactory, but the characters are less than that. A sometimes eerie soundtrack, and a hard-to-listen-to guitar solo at closing credits time, contribute precious little. 

Grade: C- 

SHE: I think you were a little harsh. This film had a lot going for it, but suffered from an uneven story and editing. 

The opening is promising. It feels like the start of a PBS Masterpiece Theatre series as the camera lovingly focuses on a spinning wheel from all angles. You see a sneakered-foot working the pedal, spokes of the wheel whirring around and the wheel’s operator, a young woman named Em, played by Erika Sorenson, who has a sweet, gamine look that the camera loves.  

Cinematographer Derek Schmitt has created a wonderful atmosphere around the spinning wheel and coaxes the camera into another lovely scene as Em explains to the enigmatic Noah, a handyman who lives in a shack nearby to whom she’s attracted, how the wheel works. But the story about Em and her restlessness and confusion with her love life – steady buddy Nathan or unknown Noah – and her career path – the limited income hobby or a steady city job – put her in a near constant state of angst. The angelic look of her at the wheel is short-lived as she wrestles with life’s decisions that take her from the small-town world of northern Wisconsin to an unsatisfying stint in “the city”. 

Again, the best part of this movie is Schmitt’s keen eye for atmosphere, including scenic country roads, snowy woods and a midnight dip in a Wisconsin body of water. 

Grade: B-

'The Personal History of David Copperfield': A He-Said, She-Said Film Review

By Tom and Marilyn Jozwik

HE: I’ve never read the novel “David Copperfield,” so I can’t say how closely the new movie “The Personal History of David Copperfield” resembles Charles Dickens’ tale of a somewhat autobiographical protagonist and his quirky associates.

I can say that Armando Iannucci’s dramedy moves along briskly and entertainingly as it follows David (played mostly by Dev Patel) from cradle to literary renown. Copperfield’s cohorts include such heavyweights of literature as the slippery Mr. Micawber and the unctuous Uriah Heep; respectively, actors Peter Capaldi and Ben Whishaw do those characters proud. Ditto Hugh Laurie as Mr. Dick and Tilda Swinton as Betsey Trotwood. As for Patel, the non-comedian handles his heavy-on-comedy role deftly.

In short, “The Personal History’s” well-rendered characters represent a fitting offshoot of the creativity that first produced young David, old Micawber, et al. in the 1800s.

A remarkable feature of the film is its so-called colorblind casting. Patel (“Slumdog Millionaire”; “Lion “), a London-born actor of Indian origin who plays a character created by Dickens as a Caucasian, is the preeminent—but not the only—example. Such a casting system, which has become rather prominent on our stages, remains uncommon in the cinema. But it works rather well in “The Personal History” and its producers are to be commended for it.

Dev Patel and Hugh Laurie star in “The Personal History of David Copperfield.”

SHE: I, too, had never read Dickens’ “Copperfield,” though I have read other Dickens works and seen other derivative movies. Iannucci doesn’t get bogged down in soaring music, sweeping panoramas, weighty drama like these sorts of period pieces often do. While there is a decidedly Victorian patina, there is a light and whimsical quality about “The Personal History of David Copperfield” that is character-driven, with outstanding performances throughout. It at times looks like a Victorian carnival fun-house with more than a few demonstrations of wry wit and humor.

Patel as writer Copperfield appears from the beginning, even as a narrator at his own birth, and then pops in at times during his childhood to provide more commentary. Young Copperfield endures a brutal stepfather (Mr. Murdstone), a stint in Murdstone’s factory, his mother’s death (hidden from him by his stepfather) and a short stay with the debt-riddled Micawbers – who soon find themselves on the street. Throughout these and other trials and tribulations – his relatives moving into his small apartment, losing his job – Copperfield never loses an almost childlike optimism that is buoyed by Patel’s expressive, wide-eyed and often humorous view, of his character’s world. Iannucci’s characters are well-defined – Capaldi’s likeably bemused, concertina-playing Micawber; Laurie’s off-kilter, Charles I-obsessed Mr. Dick; Darren Boyd’s horribly mean Murdstone;  Whishaw’s Uriah Heep; Rosalind Eleazar’s steady, sensible Agnes.

Scenes tumble quickly into one another, the lows are balanced by the highs – David’s loving relationship with his mother and his nanny, Mrs. Pegotty (Daisy May Cooper), his dream-like visits to Mrs. Pegotty’s family’s upside-down boat on the seashore, his success in school and work.

Among my favorite scenes in this two-hour, PG-rated film are those with Copperfield’s love interest, Dora (ironically played by the same actress who plays Copperfield’s mother, Morfydd Clark). Those scenes play out like a quirky modern comedy with the somewhat dim Dora and the tongue-tied Copperfield playfully bouncing lines off each other. In one moment, Copperfield lovingly tosses a bouquet of flowers at her, and Dora affectionately responds.

“The Personal History” meanders, yet moves with the action, taking our modeled-on-Dickens protagonist quickly through his young life and the people who came and went and made a difference. The screenplay, co-written by Iannucci and Simon Blackwell, successfully distills a rambling autobiographical story and at one point a character (who had a much bigger role in the novel) simply announces she is removing herself from the story.

It’s unfortunate during this time of the pandemic that Iannucci’s take on Dickens’ famed novel may not be able to be seen by large theater audiences, which is what it deserves.  

B+

Dev Patel, Rosilind Eleazar and Hugh Laurie stare in “The Personal History of David Copperfield.”



'Irresistible': A He-Said, She-Said Film Review

By Tom and Marilyn Jozwik

He: Reminded that Jon Stewart, the old “Daily Show” host, directed the factual film “Rosewater” several years before directing
“Irresistible,” I tracked down my review of the 2014 movie and discovered I thought it mediocre. Stewart’s fictional follow-up isn’t any better. “Irresistible” is definitely resistible.

She: Steve Carell stars as Democratic political consultant Gary Zimmer in the new film. Even though Carell has shown time and again that he is far more versatile than his one-dimensional character in “The Office” TV series, there is a lot of Michael Scott in Zimmer. In “Irresistible,” Zimmer woos retired Marine colonel Jack Hastings (a nicely done portrayal by Chris
Cooper) after a video of Hastings championing undocumented workers at a Wisconsin town hall meeting goes viral. Zimmer seems to be the perfect face of the party to attract rural America. After Hastings agrees to run for mayor, Zimmer comes to town with a well-oiled machine to run the campaign, and gathers thousands of dollars in campaign contributions. Soon Zimmer’s Republican counterpart, Faith Brewster (Rose Byrne), brings an equally sophisticated crew to campaign for Hastings’ rival (Brent Sexton). The mud starts flying as each consultant ups the ante trying to come out on top.

He: I’ve liked Carell in other movies, but I find absolutely nothing endearing about his character, or Byrne’s, in this one (and that sure didn’t motivate me to appreciate “Irresistible”). I think it’s their X-rated talk more than anything else that’s resulted in an R rating for this 101-minute movie. “Irresistible” is interesting enough for a while, but it loses its steam soon enough … and even loses its, arguably, most likable character—Cooper’s Colonel Jack—for a sizable chunk of time. For whatever reason, the political neophyte who begins the flick center stage takes a mid-film hiatus.

She: The film highlights just how absurd our nation’s political campaigns have become and the exorbitant amount of money poured into them. It also has a very satisfying twist ending. But Zimmer and Brewster turn into such far-fetched characters—caricatures, actually—that it’s hard to stay interested in them. Hastings and his daughter, Diana (Mackenzie Davis), are far
more appealing.

He: Jon Stewart wrote the script, as well as directing. “Irresistible” didn’t strike me as literary gold, but there are a couple of
pretty good lines. Diana Hastings shows she’s on the same page as you when she says, “The system, the way we elect people, is terrifying—and exhausting.” Then there’s the description  somebody offers of candidate Hastings, “Like Bill Clinton with impulse control, like a churchgoing Bernie Sanders.” The movie is to be digitally released June 26. Truth be told, it’s not a flick that’ll have folks clamoring for theaters to reopen. Grade: C.

She: “Irresistible” isn’t without its funny moments, although they sometimes seem contrived and/or stereotypical—such as Zimmer’s attempts to pose cows for a Hastings press conference. Certainly the issue of campaign finance rules is a timely one and worth a cinematic moment. “Irresistible” just wasn’t the right candidate. Grade: B-

'Richard Jewell' a gem of a movie

By Tom Jozwik

Published Dec. 17, 2019

In an email the other day, a friend kindly asked if I had any recent-film  recommendations. I haven’t responded as yet, but I’m going to share two words with him. “Richard Jewell.”

Directed by Clint Eastwood, this 2:09, R-rated movie is not flawless, but it is riveting from start to finish. Paul Walter Hauser (“Late Night,” “7 Days to Vegas”), who plays the title character, the rotund hero-turned-wrongly-accused-Atlanta-Olympics-bomber, is outstanding. Sam Rockwood is even better as Jewell’s utterly uncowed attorney, Watson Bryant.

Kathy Bates is well-cast, although uncharacteristically unfunny, as Jewell’s doting and doted upon mother. The villains of the drama (which is punctuated with minimal yet just the right amount of comic relief) are John Hamm as an FBI agent named Shaw and Olivia Wilde as newspaper reporter Kathy Scruggs; they are quite satisfactory, as is Nina Arianda as the attorney’s winning assistant and love interest, an unswerving Jewell proponent even when boss Bryant has his doubts.

Turns out the real-life, security guard Jewell (who died in 2007) was indeed a heroic bomb discoverer rather than a bomb planter, but you already know that if you know the narrative in which Eastwood’s movie is rooted. And that’s another excellent feature of “Richard Jewell” … although you enter  the theater cognizant of how the film is going to turn out, the film manages to keep you in suspense—not unlike, say, the wonderful reality-based  “Apollo 13” did some years ago.

Reportedly the paper for which Scruggs covered the 1996 bombing, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is up in arms about the reporter’s onscreen depiction here. The Scruggs character sheds a few tears of repentance near the end of this occasional tearjerker, but generally comes off as a biased journalist as unlikable as she is unethical. Hamm’s agent Shaw and his sidekick (Ian Gomez) are made to look even worse. One is left with the feeling  the filmmakers just might have stacked the deck.

Ultimately, of course, “Richard Jewell” is a feature film and not a historical tome. It’s an exceptional feature film at that. I give it an
A.

'Little Women': A He-Said, She-Said film review

By Tom and Marilyn Jozwik

Published Dec. 26, 2019

HE: I have no problem recommending “Little Women.” Highly.
About the only negative I can think of—and it’s not a major negative—is that, at 2:14, the movie’s a bit longer than average, and than necessary, kind of dragged out at the end. The familiar, somewhat reality-rooted Louisa May Alcott yarn from 1868 is one that suffers not at all from retelling—not from director Greta Gerwig’s (“Lady Bird”) retelling, anyway.

SHE: I’ve seen stage and screen versions of “Little Women,” but this is the most enjoyable. The story is classic and just the sort of celebration of family that we need to be often reminded of. This version is edited in such a way that it tells each sister’s story with clarity, showing how each of the four fits into the family dynamic. While all the elements of the period are kept—costumes, settings, etc.—these women often seem like they could easily step into the 21st century.

HE: Just wondering whether Gerwig might not get the Oscar for Best Director. Timothee Chalamet, as neighbor “Laurie” who loves, and is loved by, a couple of the March sisters, is a talented and likable performer, but he comes off as immature for his part. Saoirse Ronan, who, like Chalamet, has worked with Gerwig previously, is probably my favorite among the actors. She plays Jo, the writer sister and protagonist. It’s about Oscar time for Ronan, to my way of thinking; she’s already had two Best Actress nominations
and another for Best Supporting Actress, and she’s excellent in this. “Little Women” also stars Emma Watson as traditional sister Meg, Florence Pugh as artist sister Amy, Laura Dern as selfless mother Marmee, Meryl Streep as irascible Aunt March, Bob Odenkirk as the March girls’ minister father, a not easily recognized Chris Cooper as old Mr. Laurence, and Tracy Letts, one of my favorites, as a stereotypical editor.

I agree that this is a worthwhile (if perhaps overly idealized) “celebration of family” and I always enjoy seeing classic literature come to new life through an excellent motion picture. I like how the movie hit the ground running, got down to the business of characterization and plot development right away while moving among the four sisters’ individual stories.

SHE: What really impressed me about the show is its energy in the family/sister scenes, the lovely scenery of the countryside and the general pacing. Gerwig seems to have had a very clear vision of what she wanted here. The messages come through loud and clear, especially of how women had to work so hard to be recognized—some just gave up on their dreams, like Amy, who realized that marriage was “an economic proposition” and would have to depend on a husband for financial survival. Jo, on the other hand, would not be deterred in her quest for independence through her writing. The dynamic between those two characters is marvelous, made even more interesting by the traditional Meg and the charitable Beth (Eliza Scanlen). With its first-rate cast, marvelous storytelling and editing I’d give “Little Women” an A rating.

HE: I can readily grade “Little Women” A as well. Few movies
I’ve seen in 2019 (two or three, maybe) are its equal.