A Separation (2011)

The first film I've ever scene from Iran, A Separation is a domestic drama that won the Oscar for best foreign language picture in 2012. Like the similar Oscar winning movie Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears from 1980, A Separation gives western viewers a peak into everyday life behind of the vale of a secretive regime. As with the earlier picture this movie is not hyper focused on politics, which is the lens through which western, especially American audiences tend to view the antagonistic power. Rather A Separation tells a more or less universal story through a very particular cultural context.

Simin and Nader have separated, a successful couple, she a teacher and he a banker, their relationship seems generally strong however they are at an impasse about leaving their country for a time with their 10 year old daughter Termeh. Simin feels this is an experince not to be missed (it is never spelled out but it seems she has an opportunity to teach abroad for a semester or two) but Nader is unwilling to leave his father, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, in the care of others even though the old man no longer knows who he is, nor will he let Termeh go without him. Simin's leaving the home necessities that Nader hire full time help to assist in taking care of his father, he hires a young deeply religious woman named Razieh, and something happens with her that could make the couples reparable rift into something unsalvageable.

A powerful yet simple story excellently staged and very well acted A Separation is an impressive piece of work. If I were to summarize briefly what the film is about dramatically I'd have to say "the stubbornness of male pride", which as the chief subtext of a film made in Iran is almost shockingly forth right, because "the stubbornness of male pride" seems to be the countries chief problem. I'm amazed this movie was even allowed to be made, let alone released internationally to represent that nation.

There are two moments early in the film that to me really drive home the simultaneous normalness and un-normalness of life in Iran, at least as compared to the western nations. First there is the moment where Nader is teaching his daughter a lesson about the value of money by having her pump gas into the family car and then making her go back to the teller to get change when she overpays, after which he allows her to keep the change much to her delight. It's a sweet universal moment. A short time later on Razieh's first day taking care of Naders father the old man pee's himself, so Razieh is forced to call a religious hotline to get permission just  to change the elder gentlemen's pants, so he's not in filth all day, otherwise the act would be a sin which could be punished for. This is something I would have probably never known about had I not seen this movie.

A story of resonance in its own right, wedded to the cultural strangeness of a world mostly isolated from the western experience A Seperation is something of landmark film and one I would heartily recommend. ****

The Fighting Preacher (2019)

I first became aware of Willard Bean and his wife Rebecca when reading through a church history Institute manual on my mission, until recently I think that is the only time I'd ever encountered reference to them which I did not initiate. So this is not a particularly well known story even among faithful Mormons so the fact that prolific LDS film maker T. C. Christensen decided to make them the focus of his most recent film was intriguing. Elder Bean, a former professional boxer, and his much younger wife Rebecca were called on a mission to Palmyra, New York in 1915. Though the cradle of the LDS Church the faith had abandoned upstate New York for various points west shortly after its formal establishment in 1830. With the administration (1901-1918) of the Church's sixth president Joseph F. Smith (1838-1918) concerted efforts were made to procure sites of historic importance to the faith. One of these was the Joseph Smith Sr. farm just outside of Palmyra. The Church sent Willard and his wife to maintain the farm, attempt to negotiate purchase of other sites of interest to the Church such as the 'The Hill Cumorah' and reestablish formal church congregations in the area. Originally envisioned as a 5 year assignment the Bean's would spend 24 years in the area, raising their family their, purchasing various properties for the church, and helping to establish three local branches.

The Fighting Preacher tells the Bean's story as something of a fish out of water tale. They are reverse pioneers, going backwards to go forwards, encountering locals for whom the Mormons are an embarrassing tale from their history and who are not eager to welcome the new comers. However through the power of their personalities, persistence, and good works over the decades the Bean's managed to endear themselves to the local community, despite early struggles to gain tolerance, let alone acceptance. While this must have been difficult, and the film is about these difficulties, its a pleasant watch, a good natured, lite film, where the stakes are refreshing low, it's not a matter of life and death, it's can these people make their neighbors like them, turns out they can.

The film of course simplifies and condenses things, ensuring a positive spin. We don't get an accurate number of the Bean's children for example, and their is a lot of church history name dropping, even when historically out of place. For example future Church president Gordon B. Hinckley is shown stopping by to visit the Bean's on his way back from his mission in England, something he might actually have done as returning LDS missionaries from Europe would often stop by church historic sights on their way back from Europe. However this scene is said to take place in 1921, Hinckley would have been no more then 11 years old the time, he did not get back from his mission until 1935. All that aside however I liked the film, I liked that it wasn't pushy, its message was chiefly centered around being good to ones neighbors, and that would be a hard a message not to like. Though yes its very hokey and kind of cheap, ** 1/2.

Halloween (1978)

The most iconic and influential of the "slasher films" a horror sub-genera that would come to be a dominate force in 1980's American cinema, while Halloween did not invent this kind of movie it did set the template for what was to follow. A film literacy film that had hear to for escaped me, post 1960's horror is largely an undiscovered country for me, I saw it with a friend in a revival showing at the old Tower Theater in downtown Salt Lake, an appropriately creepy venue.

The origins of Halloween as a movie might be said to begin at the 1976 Milian film festival when producer Irwin Yablans and financer Moustapha Akkad approached director John Carpenter after seeing and being impressed by his sophomore film Assault on Precinct 13. The two were interested in commissioning a film about a psychotic killer who stalkes babysitters, inspired so they said by the success of the semi-recent movie The Exorcist. Carpenter agreed on certain conditions, including full creative control and  his then girlfriend Debra Hill producing and co-writing the screenplay with him. Originally to have been tilted 'The Babysitter Murders' the name of the film was changed to 'Halloween' at the suggestion of Yablans.

Filmed in southern California in the spring of 1978 on a budget of between $300,000 and $325,000, Halloween is set in the suburban Midwest in the fall which necessitated being very selective in the locations and angels used in the film, as well as somehow procuring fall leaves, which had to be recycled throughout the movie. It is the story of Michael Myers, or rather the beginning of his story as this would ultimately turn into quite the franchise saga. Six year old Michael would violently murder his older sister on Halloween night 1963 after she had sex with her boyfriend, thus introducing the troupe of pre-marital sexual activity being punishable with death in these kind of movies.

Michael would spend the next 15 years under the care of Dr. Samuel Loomis (top billed Donald Pleasence in his best known role) who remained suspicious of his patients supposed near catatonic state and  repeatedly requested increased security to no avail. Michael escapes from the institution where he was being held on October 30th, 1978, steals a car and travels well over a hundred miles to his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois in time for the 15th anniversary of his original crime.
Hiding inside his abandoned former home he sees  local teenager Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut, cast in part to exploit the parallels with her mother Janet Leigh's casting in Hitchcock's Psycho (1960)) who has stopped by to place a key under the floor mat, her father being a real estate agent trying to sell the old place and with perspective buyers set to stop by later that day, a plot point which now that I think about it was thereafter abandoned, serving merely as a "McGuffin" (Hitchcock again) to allow Michael to see her and become fixated on her.

Michael would stock the straight laced Laurie throughout the day, culminating in a killing spree that night while Laurie was babysitting and resulting (Spoiler!!) in the murders of her two best friends and one of their boyfriends. Dr. Loomis on the trail of Michael would arrive in time to save Laurie from a similar fate, which is not to say her character was merely some damsel in distress, she inflicted some serious damage on Michael throughout their altercations.

Halloween is not a movie in a hurry to get where it is going, it's largely a creepy mood piece with a slow build and many "Lewton bus" false scare moments. This really works for the film so that when the true horror arrives it's able to maintain itself and run on a rather intense momentum. This film has a great energy to it, not as graphic as I had anticipated but with some genuinely scary/tense moments which must have been all the more so in the 1970's when this kind of film making was new. Strong performances from the only two real names in the cast, and satisfactory ones from the supporting players. Extremely effective filmmaking this well made movie plays strong even today, I'd give it ***1/2 but owing to its historical significance its arguably a ****.

Joker (2019)

Setting opening weekend box office records for an October release director Todd Phillips stand alone Joker movie has attracted a fair amount of controversy, and while that is not entirely unwarranted it is perhaps a little overstated. Phillips, a comedy director perhaps best known for

'The Hangover Trilogy' goes pretty dark in this movie, and he definitely had a distinct vision for what he wanted it to be, a vision derived for the most part from the work of Martin Scorsese, who ironically recently let his unflattering feelings towards comic book movies be known in the press. There is a lot of Taxi Driver in Joker, as well as King of Comedy, and probably even some Raging Bull. A significant non Scorsese influence on the film would probably be Network, as the central character in this movie would certainly echo the sentiment "I'm mad as hell and I'm not goanna take it anymore."
 

Set in what appears to be an early 1980's Gotham City, a crime ridden, volatile place in the midst of a weeks long garbage strike, the community is a powder keg ready to go off. Joaquin Phoenix is Arthur Flick, a mentally unstable man working for a rent-a-clown service and living with his mother in a decaying apartment building. Arthur has dreams of being a stand up comedian, only he's not very funny and somewhat debilitated by a mental condition that produces uncontrollable fits of laughter, principally at times when he is feeling stressed or awkward, which is pretty often. He also has something of an obsession with a Johnny Carson like talk show host named Murray Franklin, who played by Robert De Niro works to reinforce all the Scorsese comparisons (though apparently at one point Alec Baldwin was slated to play the part). A video recording of Flick bombing at a comedy club named Pogo's ("Pogo" was the name that John Wayne Gacy the serial murder performed under when he worked as a children's birthday clown) results in his been invited on Franklin's show, needless to say that will not end well.

 

There is a surprising number of plot lines running through Joker leading up to a climatic confrontation on live late night TV. There are Arthurs job problems and deterring mental state, a romantic sub plot, a triple homicide that bizarrely mutates into a mass protest movement, and Billionaire Thomas Wayne's entry into the Gotham mayoral race, believing that only he can save the city. There is also a back story concerning Arthurs mothers previous employment at Wayne Manor. Crowded and homage heavy the film often gives the impression of trying too hard, of being princpily pastiche which is not to say uninteresting, the film really goes a long away towards coming together in its last half hour, and arguably has something to say, though its been said better by those it is imitating.

 

Phoenix gives a strong performance though, and the period look of the film is just great, managing to not seem overstated. Though riffing on the cinematic past it has some topical relevance to the present, including a focus on mental health and a protest movement with echoes of Occupy Wall street, but also overtones of Trumpism, with a beleaguered population so disgusted with the elites, they would seemingly put up with any crime committed by any clown provided he sticks it to them. Joker is unlike any 'comic book movie' I can think of in terms of its overt cinematic pretensions, it doesn't succeed at being anything beyond an imitation, but even as imitation it is heftier then most contemporary cinematic originals. Ironically in its character study it makes one long for a golden age before comic book movies. ***

Tiger Bay (1959)

Taking its title from the name of a rough sea side district in Cardiff, Wales Tiger Bay was the film debut of a young Hayley Mills, playing an 11 year old girl who witnesses a murder. John Mills, Hayley's father and an established actor at the time plays the police superintended looking into the death of a Polish immigrant. Said emergent was killed, semi-accidently by another immigrant played Horst Buchholz (known as "the German James Dean"). Horst is kind of a sympathetic figure, he even managers to befriend the little girl who witnessed his crime, and the character does an interesting back and forth about whether or not he is going to kill the girl, knowing if he does he will likely get away with his crime, but also liking her and not wanting to do it. The film does an excellent job of not telegraphing where its going and I was left unsure if the murder will get away with it or not until the very end of the movie. A nice find of a flick. ***

Ladies in Lavender (2004)

I had heard of Ladies in Lavender before, back when it first came out, I was even kind of interested in seeing it, but if it hadn't have been in a recent mystery DVD pack I likely would never have watched it. Which would have been a shame because this is a wonderful little movie, a small scale charmer, somewhat reminiscent of Downton Abbey. The last comparison has to do with one of the cast members, but also from the tone, pacing, and vaguely the setting. Adapted from a story by William John Locke and directed by Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister on Games of Thrones) of all people, Ladies in Lavender is the tale of two 60 something Cornoish women (Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, both excellent) who find a young man washed up on the beach near their home sometime in the late 1930's. The young man (Daniel Brühl) is kind of a mystery at first, it takes them a while to even figure out what language he's speaking, but he really turns out to be something of a surprise, in a good way. The film chronicles the recovery of the young man, whose name turns out to be Andrea, and what happens to him once he's on his feet again and the effect he has on this small community, members of which include David Warner, Natascha McElhone, and Toby Jones. Charming and subtle Ladies in Lavender was a real nice surprise of a movie, I was grinning throughout. ***1/2