Arts and Entertainment Archives – Page 173 of 346

Review: ‘From the Vine,’ starring Joe Pantoliano, Paula Brancati, Marco Leonardi and Wendy Crewson

November 10, 2020

by Carla Hay

Joe Pantoliano in “From the Vine” (Photo courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films)

Directed by Sean Cisterna

Some language in Italian with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Italy and Canada, the comedy/drama film “From the Vine” features a predominantly white cast (with one African American) representing the middle-class and working-class.

Culture Clash: Feeling guilt and sentiment about the death of his grandfather (who passed away in the 1960s), a lawyer/auto executive who’s close to retirement age upends his comfortable life in Canada to re-open a vineyard in Italy that was owned by his grandfather.

Culture Audience: “From the Vine” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind seeing predictable movies that are filled with broad stereotypes of Italian machismo and men who go through a midlife crisis.

Wendy Crewson, Tony Nappo, Paula Brancati, Tony Nardi and Franco Lo Presti in “From the Vine” (Photo courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films)

At times, there seems to be a misguided school of thought that the older someone gets, the ruder and more selfish that person is allowed to become, and people are just supposed to excuse obnoxiousness from a senior citizen. The reality is that there should be no age limit on politeness. But don’t tell that to the filmmakers of “From the Vine,” who try to make all the unpleasant old and middle-aged men in the movie look like charming eccentrics. It’s a weak premise for a movie that has a very anemic plot. Unlike the vintage wine that’s supposed to be in the movie, the film’s moldy humor does not get better with age.

Directed by Sean Cisterna, “From the Vine” was written by Willem Wennekers as an adaptation of Kenneth Canio Cancellara’s 2010 novel “Finding Marco.” The story in the movie is essentially about a man going through an “approaching retirement” crisis who decides to turn his life upside down, travel to Italy to rediscover his Italian roots, and re-open a vineyard that used to be owned and operated by his late grandfather. The man at the center of the story is Marco “Mark” Gentile (played by Joe Pantoliano), who gives a brief summary of his life in the first few minutes of the movie.

Mark, who is in his early 60s when this story takes place around 2010, was born in Acerenza, Italy, and moved to the United States with his widowed mother in the mid-1960s, when he was an adolescent. Mark’s father died before he was born. Mark got a law degree and married a Canadian graphic artist named Marina, who convinced him to permanently move to Canada. “Big fucking mistake,” Mark says bitterly in the movie. Mark and Marina have one child together named Laura.

Even though Mark has a law degree, he’s been working for the past seven years as a management executive at a corporation called Santius Automotive, which was owned by a somewhat bombastic mogul named Gordon Welsh (played by Frank Moore), who is dead but is seen in one of Mark’s many flashbacks in the movie. Mark calls Gordon a “friend and mentor.” It was Gordon’s decision to promote Mark to president/CEO of Santius Automotive.

Before Gordon died, Mark made a promise to him to make Santius automobiles more environmentally responsible, even if it would cost the company more money to do it. At a presentation meeting with investors to make the company’s annual projection plans for the coming year, Mark has prepared a presentation that would have these environmentally responsible goals and budgets. However, a sour-faced lower-ranking executive named Barbara Cavendish (played by Sonia Dhillon Tully) informs Mark shortly before the presentation that his plan is unacceptable because his proposed changes are too expensive.

Barbara gives Mark another presentation that was prepared for him, without his approval and without the environmental changes. Mark is heartsick over presenting this plan that he did not approve, because he knows it would break his promise to Gordon. The movie shows Mark at the podium going through the dilemma in his head over which plan he wants to present.

And then, the next scene is of Mark at his home in the kitchen making a romantic meal for his wife. What happened at the presentation meeting? Although it’s not shown in the movie, Mark couldn’t go through with the plan that was prepared for him, and he quit on the spot. His wife Marina (played by Wendy Crewson) is wondering why Mark is home so early, and when he tells her that he quit his job, she’s understandably upset.

Mark tries to smooth things over with Marina by presenting her with a gift: a first-class, open-ended plane ticket to southern Italy, where Mark’s side of the family is. Mark tells Marina that he’s been thinking a lot of about his late grandfather Canio Gentile, who lived in Italy. Mark lost touch with Canio when Mark was a law student. Sadly, Canio died before Mark could reconnect with him. And so, now that Mark has a lot of free time on his hands, he wants to go to Italy to rediscover his Italian roots.

Things are already rocky in Mark and Marina’s marriage. The passion has gone from their relationship (they sleep in separate bedrooms), and Mark doesn’t respect Marina enough to discuss making big decisions, based on the impulsive way that he quit his job and decided to gallivant off to Italy for an undetermined period of time. Marina is dead-set against the idea. She refuses to go on the trip with Mark and tells him that he shouldn’t go and should instead look for another job. (It’s a big change from the novel, where Mark’s wife gave her blessing for him to go to Italy by himself.)

Mark ends up going to Italy by himself, and it’s revealed later in the story that he just callously up and left Marina without telling her when he was going. She came home to find him gone, with no note or communication over where he would be staying. The only reason why Marina didn’t report him missing was because she knew that Mark had plans to go to Italy. Regardless of the problems in their marriage, it’s an incredibly selfish thing to pull that kind of disappearing act on a spouse. But that isn’t the last self-centered thing that Mark will do in his marriage to Marina.

Meanwhile, Mark’s relationship is also strained with his daughter Laura (played by Paula Brancati, who’s one of the producers of “From the Vine”), who’s in her late 20s or early 30s. Mark has made it clear to Laura that she has disappointed him, ever since she dropped out of his alma mater McGill University in Montreal, and she didn’t tell her parents for about a year. Mark has never really forgiven Laura for that deception, because while she had secretly dropped out of college, he kept sending her money that he thought was going toward her college education.

A flashback to a bitter argument between Laura and Mark shows that, to this day, Laura has never told her parents what she did with her life in the year that she secretly dropped out of college. But now, the tables have turned, and Laura and Marina are the ones angry at Mark for his irresponsible and deceptive actions. Mark eventually contacts Marina and Laura to tell them where he is in Italy, and he asks his wife and daughter to join him there. Marina and Laura adamantly refuse because they don’t want to drop everything to be at Mark’s beck and call for his aimless life in Italy.

In his first few days in Italy, Mark reconnects with a few people he knew in his childhood: Luca (played Marco Leonardi) is a very goofy police officer. Amelia (played by Rita del Piano) works as a manager of a local restaurant. Mark eventually makes his way to Canio’s vineyard, where he had many happy childhood memories.

At the vineyard, Mark meets the groundskeeper for the first time: Marcello (played by Tony Nardi), a gruff-natured man who slowly warms up to Mark over the course of the story. Marcello tells Mark that Canio was like an uncle to him. The vineyard has a middle-aged, unemployed, disheveled squatter named Enzo (played by Tony Nappo), whose only purpose in the movie is to be as annoying as possible. Marcello has unsuccessfully tried to evict Enzo, who reveals later in the story that he’s homeless because he lost his job at a wine barrel factory and his wife dumped him.

Mark visits a church, where he goes to confession and opens up about his hopes and fears about his future. The priest tells Mark to “get over himself” and advises him to do something that’s in service of something other than himself. And faster than you can say “corny plot development,” Mark announces at Amelia’s restaurant that he’s re-opening the vineyard.

The area where Canio used to live is now economically depressed and unemployment is high. And so, even though he has no experience running a vineyard, Mark decides to re-open the vineyard, so that he can help the locals and hopefully make some money if the vineyard is successful. The word gets out around town, and the next time Mark is at the vineyard, several local people (about 25) are waiting outside to ask for a job.

Mark’s way of starting the business is to hire as many local people as he can, even though none of them has experience working at a vineyard either. When Marcello protests and says it’s a bad idea, Mark just dismisses Marcello’s concerns and announces his plan to learn how to operate a vineyard: “We’ll Google it!”

The vineyard has been shut down because the property is 20 years behind on taxes. So what does Mark do to bring the vineyard out of this financial hole? He withdraws all the money from his and Marina’s retirement account and closes the account without telling Marina about it. She only finds out when a bank official contacts her to tell her what happened.

This is the last straw for Marina and Laura, who arrive unannounced in Italy to try to talk some sense into Mark. While Laura has a realistic reaction to her father going off a selfish deep end, Marina’s reaction is ultimately troubling because she lets Mark off too easily. In fact, most of this movie’s problem is that Mark is acting very unstable, but it’s laughed off by most people as Mark just being quirky.

The movie gets worse. Ever since Mark arrives in Italy, he starts hallucinating. He sees his grandfather Canio (played by Dino Becagli), who’s nicknamed Nonno, in the vineyard, as Mark starts having flashbacks to his childhood in Italy. (Michele Stefanile portrays the young Marco.) Mark also starts imagining that inanimate objects are talking to him. For example, the leaves in the grape crops taunt Mark and question his competency.

It’s all supposed to make Mark look sympathetic. It actually makes him look pathetic. People watching this movie will have a hard time getting past the fact that, despite Mark’s hallucinations, he was lucid enough to blow all of his and his wife’s retirement money on this run-down vineyard without even discussing it with her. This self-centered act of deception is essentially glossed over in the movie, which makes constant excuses for the men who behave badly in the film.

Meanwhile, the women in the movie try to act sensibly, but they end up just reacting to whatever the men do. It should come as no surprise that Marcello has a hunky nephew named Gio (played by Franco Lo Presti), who makes eyes at Laura as soon as they meet. You know exactly where this is going to go, since Mark is realistically too old to be operating the vineyard for the next 20 years.

Pantoliano has been playing the kind of “no filter” character who says and does pretty much whatever he pleases, so this role isn’t that much of a stretch for him. He seems to be going through the motions in this role, with no real emotional investment. Because Mark treats his wife like a doormat and not as an equal partner to be respected, a lot of people watching “From the Vine” won’t find a lot to like about Mark, who’s not as good-natured and smart as he likes to think he is.

Brancati is the only one in the cast who brings some realism and depth to her character. Everyone else in the movie is a vaguely written caricature with a lot of cringeworthy dialogue. And the issue of Mark’s mental illness is played for laughs as a cheap gimmick with tacky visual effects. The “jokes” in this movie aren’t very funny, and the movie’s pacing often drags. Even the most die-hard fans of Pantoliano would agree that “From the Vine” is a forgettable blip in his long career as an impressive character actor. The only thing that comes out looking good in the movie is Italy’s gorgeous landscape.

Samuel Goldwyn Films released “From the Vine” on digital and VOD on October 9, 2020.

Review: ‘Chasing the Present,’ starring James Sebastino Jr., Sri Prem Baba, Gary Weber, James Sebastino Sr., Zelda Hall, Russell Brand and Graham Hancock

November 10, 2020

by Carla Hay

James Sebastino Jr. (far left) and Sri Prem Baba (far right) in “Chasing the Present” (Photo courtesy of 1091 Pictures)

“Chasing the Present”

Directed by Mark Waters

Some language in Portuguese and Spanish with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in New York City, India and Peru, the documentary “Chasing the Present” interviews several people (mostly upper-middle class/wealthy and predominantly white males, with some people of color) who advocate for reaching a higher consciousness through meditation and therapy.

Culture Clash: The documentary’s subject is a successful but anxiety-plagued entrepreneur named James Sebastino Jr., who says he’s a “drug free” recovering drug addict, yet he takes the psychedelic drug ayahuasca as part of his “higher consciousness” therapy.

Culture Audience: “Chasing the Present” will appeal primarily to people who like New Age documentaries where privileged people act very self-indulgent and hypocritical while preaching about reaching outside oneself to find a “higher consciousnesses.”

James Sebastino Jr. in “Chasing the Present” (Photo courtesy of 1091 Pictures)

We’ve seen this tone-deaf hypocrisy before: A privileged person, who has the time and resources to frequently go on month-long meditation trips to exotic countries, comes back from those trips with a self-righteous and smug attitude that they’ve figured out the meaning of life because they know how to tap into their higher consciousness. Their “altered” outlook on life usually depends on how many psychedelic drugs they took during those retreats. They usually babble on about reaching outside of themselves for a deeper meaning beyond material things and finding a purpose in life beyond their own self-absorbed problems.

The irony is that they spend so much time talking about themselves and doing activities centered on themselves that they usually don’t do much to make the world a better place beyond their own self-absorbed bubbles. And they sure aren’t giving up their money and material comforts for the “greater good of humanity.” If they gave most of their money to charity and lived a humbler life, as preached by the overrated and often-questionable gurus they consult with, how else would these privileged people be able to fund their frequent over-priced therapy retreats that they love to brag about later to people who don’t go to these retreats?

This type of tiresome hypocrisy is the epitome of the documentary “Chasing the Present,” which is essentially a dull slog of a vanity project that shows a 34-year-old self-pitying, New York City-based entrepreneur going through various therapies because he says he’s not really happy with himself and all the comforts and material success that he’s achieved in his life. James Sebastino Jr. is the pretentious whiner who’s the subject of this documentary, which is basically just a film of him talking about himself in different locations around the world, with a few of his therapy sessions and some New Age talking heads included in the movie. Sebastino is one of the producers of this documentary. In other words, he’s one of the people who paid to get this movie made.

When it comes to people who preach about how to live your best life, there’s nothing worse than someone who tells everyone how altruistic and high-minded they are, but they don’t actually do anything substantial to back up those claims except talk about themselves some more. That’s exactly the awful repeat loop that “Chasing the Present” (directed by Mark Waters) is on for the entire movie. Sebastino is shown in sessions with people whom he’s no doubt over-paid to tell him self-help advice that anyone can find for free on the Internet.

At least Sebastino acknowledges in the documentary that almost all the teachings and meditations touted in the film have existed for centuries and originally came from continents such as Asia, Africa or South America, even though these enlightenment beliefs have often been co-opted and repackaged by “gurus” of white European descent. The filmmakers seem to want to fulfil their “ethnic credibility” quota but having a smattering of footage of Indian gurus and Buddhist temple monks, without actually interviewing any of them except for one: Sri Prem Baba, who is described in the documentary as a “spiritual master.”

Likewise, there’s the predictable footage of indigenous South American people preparing the psychedelics that are ingested by the entitled tourists who go on these psychedelic retreats, but only one “token” person from the indigenous South American community is interviewed in the film: Peruvian “ayahuasca healer” Jose Lopez Sanchez. The rest of the talking heads in the movie are Americans and Europeans, almost all of them men, who wouldn’t be caught dead giving up their incomes and comfortable lifestyles to lead a financially disadvantaged existence in a so-called “underprivileged” country that they use as a prop for their “higher consciousness” preaching.

Sebastino says in the beginning of the documentary that he spent much of his teens and 20s abusing drugs, including LSD, alcohol and cocaine. He says he became so addicted to drugs that he would spend hours holed up in his home, doing cocaine and having paranoid and suicidal thoughts. Sebastino also mentions several times throughout the movie that he’s had lifelong problems with anxiety. It’s not mentioned if he ever went to rehab for his drug addiction, or how many times he might have been in rehab, but Sebastino says the turning point in his life was when he became a vegetarian.

“I felt like it was the first time in my life where I started to be more aware of what I put in my body,” Sebastino says of becoming a vegetarian. “It didn’t make sense to do a juice cleanse and then the next day go to the bar and get hammered.” Sebastino turned his life around and opened up vegetarian/vegan restaurants and a vegan hotel, which thankfully aren’t promoted in this movie, because “Chasing the Present” is already just one big self-promotion for Sebastino. He says in the documentary that he’s been “drug-free” for years, and yet he takes the psychedelic drug ayahuasca as part of his “therapy” that’s documented in this movie. More on that self-deluded hypocrisy in a moment.

One of the most ridiculous “therapy” sessions that Sebastino has in “Chasing the Present” is with Gary Weber, who is described in the documentary as a “non-duality author and speaker.” Most of these so-called “experts,” who make money off of vulnerable people who are looking for life’s answers, don’t actually have any legitimate psychotherapy credentials or university training as psychotherapists. In “Chasing the Present,” Weber rambles to Sebastino by insisting that Sebastino isn’t one person but are actually different people who exist in the world.

“Which [James] do you believe is real?” Weber asks Sebastino with an intense crazy-eyed stare. “You can look at your brain. James is just an ad hoc entity created as waves of energy sweep across the cortex. Scientifically, we can show there is no James there. You are only now. There is no past.”

So which is it? There’s no James, several Jameses, or only one James who lives in the present? Any sane adult would catch on right away that some of these platitude-spouting “gurus” contradict themselves in their preachings. Sebastino doesn’t ask questions about these contradictions, because he sits in these therapy sessions like a gullible kid who believes everything that he’s told, even if they sound like lies that make no sense.

Although Weber says in the documentary he’s never taken psychedelics in his life, you have to wonder what else is going on in his mind or what other drug experiences he might have had to sit there and preach these things with a straight face, because it all sounds like a bad parody of real meditative philosophy. You almost expect Weber to tell Sebastino that the mothership from outer space is coming soon and they better get ready because their Earthly bodies don’t really exist as they know it, or some other such nonsense.

Another “guru” that Sebastino meets with is Baba, an Indian Brazilian “guru” who counsels Sebastino in India. Baba’s schtick is to basically tell people that they shouldn’t worry about their problems. Problems are a state of mind, says Baba. “So, suffering isn’t real?” asks Sebastino like a child who’s been told that there’s no Santa Claus.

Baba says yes and replies, “Darkness doesn’t have a real existence. It’s just the absence of light.” According to what Baba preaches to Sebastino, suffering isn’t real and you’re weak-minded if you worry about your problems. Tell that to people who are homeless, starving or dying from a terminal illness. Oh, the privileged entitlement of it all.

Other pundits who regurgitate second-rate and unoriginal “life advice” in the movie are comedian/actor Russell Brand, meditation teacher/author Joseph Goldstein, non-duality teacher Robert Spira, author Graham Hancock and artist Alex Grey. It’s not exactly a diverse group preaching about “world views” in this documentary. Avant-garde performance artist Marina Abramović was announced in this documentary’s press materials as being part of “Chasing the Present,” but the footage that she filmed didn’t make the final cut of this documentary. She’s better off not being part of this pretentious bore of a movie.

British comedian/actor Brand (also known as the ex-husband of pop singer Katy Perry) is a recovering drug addict who’s trying to reinvent himself as a spiritual/meditation expert, now that his career isn’t as hot as it used to be. He has this to say in the documentary: “There’s an aspect of spirit that’s being neglected. If you ignore it, then fear will happen.” Again, it’s very easy for people in comfortable, privileged lifestyles to be this self-righteous when they have luxuries that most other people in the world do not have.

Sebastino is also seen getting counseling from Zelda Hall, who’s described in the movie as a “psychologist and integrative therapist,” but she acts more like a hack psychic reader. She asks Sebastino a lot of leading questions about what he’s thinking, so she can figure out what trite advice she can give, based on his responses. And she spouts vague “touchy feely” comments such as, “It’s okay to feel your heart.” She eventually makes Sebastino do some primal scream therapy. Viewers watching this dreck might feel like screaming themselves because almost everything in this documentary looks staged.

The last third of “Chasing the Present” is essentially an infomercial to take ayahuasca, with the predictable ritual-type footage of Sebastino taking ayahuasca in a remote part of Peru. The people who are in the business of selling ayahuasca as a “therapy drug” don’t even like to use the word “drug” to describe ayahuasca. They call it “medicine.” But whether a psychedelic drug is plant-based or a manufactured chemical, it’s still a psychedelic drug with all the risks from side effects that come with it.

These damaging side effects are never mentioned in “Chasing the Present,” which fails miserably when it comes to presenting any medical/scientific evidence and medical/scientific points of view about taking this potentially dangerous drug. You don’t have to be a doctor to know that one of the worst side effects of taking any psychedelic drug (plant-based or chemical) is that it causes anxiety and paranoia, sometimes in “flashbacks,” long after the drug was ingested. Unlike alcohol, which can leave a body through urine within 24 hours, psychedelic drugs can stay in a body for days after being ingested. And yet, none of these medical facts are mentioned in “Chasing the Present,” which has anxiety-plagued Sebastino taking a psychedelic drug that causes more anxiety, with no medical supervision from any medical professionals.

In one part of the documentary, Sebastino says that the first night he took ayahuasca, he was disappointed because it didn’t really have an effect on him. (In other words, he felt like he didn’t get high enough from the drug.) And so, the next time he took even more ayahuasca than he did the night before. Sebastino says that he felt like he had a “breakthrough” on the second night, because he upped his dosage.

These “testimonials” need to be taken with a huge grain of salt because they’re not coming from medical professionals, but from people who usually have an agenda to sell or endorse these psychedelic “treatments” with no real medical supervision. The documentary interviews two such people with this agenda: Peruvian “ayahuasca healer” Sanchez and Temple of the Way of Light founder Matthew Watherston.

The documentary’s one refreshing dose of a common-sense reality check from all the self-indulgent psycho-babbling is when it shows Sebastino talking with his father James Sebastino Sr. while they have a meal together at a diner. Sebastino Sr. clearly loves his son, but the no-nonsense elder Sebastino does everything but roll his eyes when his son continues to steer the conversation back to himself and his “enlightenment.”

It’s not that Sebastino Sr. doesn’t believe that his son should pursue happiness wherever he can find it. The father just doesn’t tolerate the guilt trip that his son tries to put on him for raising him to have high standards and a work ethic in a non-abusive environment. Sebastino Jr. tries to make it sound like his father caused him “trauma” and made his anxiety worse, just because his father encouraged him to be the best person he could be and not become a lazy bum who contributes nothing worthwhile to society.

Sebastino Jr. also makes it sound like he turned to drugs to cope with all the pressure to achieve certain goals in his life. Cue the violin “sob story” music. It’s all very annoying whining from someone who probably grew up not fully understanding his privilege and advantages he had in life. Now that he’s an adult, all of his “therapy” clearly isn’t helping him if he still wants to blame his misery on his father.

Sebastino Sr. has some great offhand snide remarks to make it clear that he thinks his son sounds like a brat, but Sebastino Jr. doesn’t take the hints. For example, when Sebastino Jr. tells his father about his ayahuasca “therapy” during his trip to Peru and how he lost control of his sense of self, Sebastino Sr. quips, “You’re lucky you didn’t piss yourself in front of all those people.”

In another part of the conversation, while Sebastino Jr. talks about all the soul-searching he’s been doing in his travels around the world, Sebastino Sr. comments, “Millions of miles later…,” as if to say, “I get it. You love to brag about how many long-distance trips you’ve taken for all of this self-indulgent therapy.”

The main takeaway from “Chasing the Present” is that people like Sebastino Jr. will never truly be happy with themselves because they keep turning to drugs and questionable gurus to give them some sense of inner peace. They waste time being self-absorbed, humorless bores who don’t practice what they preach. And sometimes they make documentaries about themselves to film all of their pretentious unhappiness and show that they don’t live in their heads as much as they live in their rear ends.

1091 Pictures released “Chasing the Present” on digital on September 29, 2020, and on VOD on October 6, 2020.

Review: ‘Entwined’ (2020), starring Prometheus Aleifer and Anastasia Rafaella Konidi

November 8, 2020

by Carla Hay

Anastasia Rafaella Konidi and Prometheus Aleifer in “Entwined” (Photo courtesy of Dark Star Pictures)

“Entwined” (2020)

Directed by Minos Nikolakakis

Greek with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Greece (primarily in the fictional village of Alytis), the horror flick “Entwined” has an all-white cast of characters representing the middle-class and working-class.

Culture Clash: A doctor moves to a rural area and gets entangled with a mysterious young woman who is a social outcast and who is believed to be cursed.

Culture Audience: “Entwined” will appeal primarily to people who like horror movies that focus more on psychological terror and supernatural scares than on bloody gore.

Prometheus Aleifer and Anastasia Rafaella Konidi in “Entwined” (Photo courtesy of Dark Star Pictures)

“Entwined” is a “slow burn” supernatural movie that entices viewers into a mystical yet suffocating world, much like the seductive actions of the mysterious young woman who is at the center of story’s mystery and intrigue. The movie is a great example of how a film doesn’t need to have a large cast to be effective. “Entwined” also has an underlying message about the ongoing debate of science versus superstition, as well as which belief system should be trusted more. There’s also a more obvious theme about the power of nature and how it can turn on people if the environment is not respected.

Directed by Minos Nikolakakis (in his feature-film debut), “Entwined” is set in present-day Greece, but the story takes place mostly in a part of rural Greece that might as well be stuck in a previous century. A 35-year-old doctor named Panos (played by Prometheus Aleifer) is grieving over the death of his father, who passed away from cancer. The opening scene is of Panos and his older half-brother George (played by John De Holland, who wrote the screenplay for “Entwined”) at their father’s funeral.

Panos is feeling a certain level of guilt that his medical expertise couldn’t save his father, whose chemotherapy treatments weren’t enough to get rid of the cancer. George comforts Panos by saying to him, “You’re going to be a fine doctor. Don’t beat yourself up … Science doesn’t have all the answers, as much as you might want it to.”

Perhaps in an effort to get away from it all, Panos (who is a bachelor with no children) moves from a big city to the rural village of Alytis. (“Entwined” was filmed on location in Mountain Parnonas in the Peloponnese peninsula.) It’s never explained why Panos chose Alytis as the place to relocate. But it’s clear from his first day in the village that he’s really not welcome there, since he’s considered an outsider from a big city.

There are two elderly people who seem to be the village’s unofficial leaders, and they seem to know everyone else’s business in the village: Mrs. Makri (played by Anna Kozadinou) and an unnamed police officer (played by Manos Vakousis). When Panos arrives, he doesn’t get a warm welcome. Mrs. Makri gruffly tells him that he is Alytis’ first doctor. And when he tries to talk to villagers, they usually turn away and ignore him.

While driving through a deserted forest area in his first day as an Alytis resident, Panos almost has a terrifying car accident when a young woman in her late teens or early 20s (played by Anastasia Rafaella Konidi) suddenly appears in front of his car. He screeches to a halt before he can hit her. She’s lying on the ground and appears to have fainted.

While he tries to revive this stranger and asks if she’s okay, she suddenly wakes up and runs off into the woods without saying a word. Is this the last time that Panos will see this mystery woman? Of course not. This is a horror movie.

Alytis is so small and behind-the-times that the people don’t seem to have televisions or computers. That’s why Panos is lucky enough to at least get cell-phone service. He and his older brother George check in with each other by phone. Panos has a very small medical office in the village, but he has no patients and it doesn’t look like he will get any patients anytime soon because the villagers would rather trust their centuries-old superstitions instead of modern medicine. However, when Panos talks to George over the phone, he lies to George by saying that his medical practice is a big hit in the community.

Out of boredom and curiosity, Panos decides to look for the mystery woman whom he almost hit with his car. He finds her at a small wooden house tucked away deep into the woods. She lets him into the house without hesitation—perhaps a little too quickly, if Panos really thought about it.

Panos introduces himself as the village’s new doctor, and she tells him that her name is Danae. She has an aura of both innocence and worldliness that Panos finds intriguing. Danae tells Panos, “I don’t trust motorcars or their drivers.” (Then why did she let him into her house so quickly?)

Panos makes a sincere apology for almost hitting her with his car. Danae responds by saying that she prefers horses for transportation. He asks to examine her at his office to make sure that she’s not physically hurt. Danae seems very reluctant to venture outside of the woods. Panos also notices that Danae has strange scars on her body.

There’s some eerie moaning and grunting in the house, which Danae explains is her elderly, overprotective father. She pushes Panos toward the front door and tells him in an urgent and fearful voice to leave before her father wakes up and sees Panos. But just as Panos is making his way back through the woods to his car, the house’s old man (played by Kostas Laskos), who is skeletal with a white, unkempt mane of hair and beard, chases after Panos and breaks a wine bottle near Panos.

Panos is unnerved by this incident. And when he arrives back in residential part of the village, he is frantically approached by a villager named Mrs. Sevasti (played by Aleka Toumazatou), who asks him if she’s seen her missing son. She hold up a picture of a man in his late 20s or early 30s. Panos walks past her in a dismissive manner because he’s got something else on his mind: finding out more about Danae.

The village has a social gathering area where Panos’ doctor office and other business are located. Panos asks about Danae and mentions the scars that he saw on her body, because he’s convinced that she needs medical treatment. Panos overhears the police officer say that Danae is the “cursed girl” in the forest. Mrs. Makri also says, “It’s not our place to help,” while the police officer adds, “God marked the evil ones so we might tell them apart.” Mrs. Makri scolds Panos for thinking that “science has all the answers.”

Within a few minutes of this discussion, Mrs. Savasti appears with a serious, bleeding head wound. Mrs. Makri and the police officer attend to her. Panos tries to help too, by applying some iodine. But the villagers are too suspicious of Panos’ modern medical techniques for him to be allowed to help much more.

The villagers’ warnings about Danae aren’t enough to keep Panos away from her. The suspicion they have toward Danae probably makes him more curious. And so, he goes back to Danae’s house (always unannounced, because it’s not as if Danae has a phone so he can call ahead), and this time he sees something even more disturbing: The old man is having sex with Danae.

Panos confronts the old man, who lunges at him, they get into a physical fight, which ends when Panos pushes the old man, who hits his head on concrete. Panos rushes the old man to his doctor’s office and treats his head wound. When the old man reaches a stable condition, a very distressed Panos goes back to Danae’s house to once again plead with her to get help and report the abuse. He also asks Danae to corroborate that Panos acted in self-defense in the fight.

The rest of the story is about Panos being increasingly drawn into Danae’s world. She has an enchanting effect on him. And she also has some strange quirks, such as insisting that the house’s fireplace remain lit. Panos gets so wrapped up and obsessed with Danae that he cuts himself off from the outside world, much to the dismay of older brother George, who finds it increasingly difficult to get in touch with Panos. George frets to his wife Athena (played by Maria Eglezaki) about this decrease in communication from Panos.

Is Danae some kind of witch? And what about the mysterious disappearance of Mrs. Savasti’s son? Those questions are answered in the movie, which takes a chilling turn in the last third of the film.

Most of “Entwined” consists of scenes of only Panos and Danae together. In these roles, Aelifer and Konidi play well off of each other, as their characters go through various personality arcs and power struggles in their relationship. “Entwined” cinematographer Thodoros Mihopoulos infuses a sense of menace amid the beauty of the forest, since the movie has more than a few hints that the forest might have a life of its own.

“Entwined” is an impressive feature-film debut from director Nikolakakis and a screenwriter/actor De Holland, because the movie takes a concept that has been done before in many movies (a mysterious young woman seduces an older man) and puts a unique spin on it, by setting it a remote, enigmatic forest in Greece and making the forest almost like another character in the film. The dialogue of “Entwined” isn’t as compelling as what happens in the movie. Rather than cramming the movie with predictable killings from beginning to end, “Entwined” is an alluring story about the type of horror that sneaks up on people who make the mistake of being fooled by outward appearances.

Dark Star Pictures released “Entwined” in select U.S. virtual cinemas on August 28, 2020, and on digital and VOD on September 8, 2020.

Alex Trebek dead at 80; longtime ‘Jeopardy!’ host battled pancreatic cancer

November 8, 2020

by John Larson

Alex Trebek, who was best known for hosting the trivia game show “Jeopardy!,” died at his Los Angeles home on November 8, 2020. In 2019, he announced that he had advanced pancreatic cancer, but that he would continue to host the show. The Associated Press reported that Sony Pictures Television, the production company behind the syndicated “Jeopardy” announced that Trebek was with family members when he died.

Born in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, on July 22, 1940, Trebek graduated from the University of Ottowa in 1961. He began his career that year as an employee for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He became a news reader for CBC national radio news and then became a correspondent for CBC Radio and CBC Television.

Trebek moved into the entertainment television as the host of the Canadian music program called “Music Hop” in 1963. In 1966, he began hosted his first TV game show: quiz show called “Reach for the Top.” He continued to work for CBC for the remainder of the 1960s and through the early 1970s. During this time period, he hosted the game show “Strategy” and the morning radio show “I’m Here Til 9.”

In 1973, Trebek moved to the United States, where he hosted several game shows over several decades, including “To Tell the Truth,” “The Wizard of Odds,” “Double Dare,” “High Rollers,” “Battlestars” and “Classic Concentration.”

The original incarnation of “Jeopardy!” was on NBC from 1964 to 1975, with Art Fleming as the host. Trebek began hosting a revival of “Jeopardy” in 1984. Trebek’s last episode as host of “Jeopardy!” is set to premiere in December 2020.

Trebek, who became a U.S. citizen in 1998, was married twice. His marriage to first wife Elaine Trebek Kares lasted from 1974 to 1981, and ended in divorce. During their marriage, Trebek adopted Kares’ son Nicky. Trebek married his second wife Jean Currivan-Trebek in 1990. They had two children together: Matthew and Emily.

Trebek is survived by his three children and widow Jean Currivan-Trebek.

Review: ‘Mortal,’ starring Nat Wolff and Priyanka Bose

November 8, 2020

by Carla Hay

“Mortal”

Directed by André Øvredal

Some language in Norwegian with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Norway, the sci-fi thriller “Mortal” features an almost all-white cast of characters (and one Indian) representing the middle-class.

Culture Clash: A mysterious young man is hunted by authorities because he has a lethal ability to conduct energy and electricity through his body.

Culture Audience: “Mortal” will appeal primarily to people who like formulaic sci-fi flicks that put more emphasis on visual effects than in crafting a good story.

Priyanka Bose in “Mortal” (Photo courtesy of Saban Films)

“Mortal” starts off as a run-of-the-mill sci-fi flick before it turns into a ludicrous off-the-rails story. Even before the plot twist is revealed in the last third of the movie, “Mortal” had too many weak links for it to be strengthened by the “surprise” ending. This plot twist actually makes the movie worse, because the ill-conceived, drastic turn in the story looks very tacked-on and rushed. It’s as if the filmmakers were desperate to come up with an ending to bring “Mortal” out its repetitive rut.

Directed by André Øvredal (who co-wrote the screenplay with Norman Lesperance and Geoff Bussetil), “Mortal” is essentially a sci-fi chase movie that doesn’t really go anywhere. The movie centers on an American man in his mid-20s named Eric Bergland (played by Nat Wolff), who is in Norway looking for his relatives. The details of his family aren’t revealed until toward the end of the movie, because it’s part of the plot twist.

And so, for almost the entire movie, viewers don’t know anything about Eric except that he’s homeless in Norway and he has a very strange and deadly power: He can conduct and transport energy (especially electrical energy) through his body, giving him the ability to start fires and cause electrical storms. In the beginning of the film, Eric is by himself, looking like he’s a dirty and disheveled vagrant who’s trying to hide from the world.

He trespasses into a home to steal some scissors, medicine, bandages and candy. He eats the candy as if he’s been starving for days. He uses the scissors to cut his hair. And he uses the medicine and bandages to treat a festering wound on his leg.

It’s revealed later in the movie that Eric can get burns on his body when he’s at his peak of energy-conducting power. Viewers will have to suspend disbelief that Eric can be burned everywhere on his body except his face, because nothing bad ever happens to his face except for the unfortunate straggly beard that Eric has at the beginning of the film.

At a gas station in the municipality of Odda, Eric catches the attention of four teenagers (three boys and a girl) in a car. A bullying guy named Ole (played by Arthur Hakalahti), who’s the leader of the group, taunts Eric for looking like the dirty transient that he is. The car then happens to follow Eric to an open field.

Ole gets out of the car, while the other teens follow him and Eric into the field. Ole continues to harass Eric, who warns Ole in an ominous voice: “If you touch me, you will burn.” But of course, Ole touches Eric. And when he does, Eric stares at Ole intensely, while Ole appears to be suffocating without Eric touching him. Ole then immediately collapses and dies.

Eric is quickly apprehended by authorities, who don’t find out much about Eric except for these three things: (1) He’s a backpacker from the United States, but he’s of Norwegian heritage; (2) He’s in Norway to look for his relatives; and (3) He was seen at a farmhouse in Årdal, a municipality in Norway’s Vestland county, where three years before, a fire killed five people at the house. Eric is suspected of starting the fire, but he’s not talking to law enforcement about what happened at that house.

The sheriff of Odda is Henrik Jondal (played by Per Frisch), who’s in charge of the investigation into the death of Ole. The police aren’t making any progress in interviewing Eric, because he refuses to say much to them, so Henrik has the idea to call someone who has experience counseling teenagers and other young people. The hope is that this counselor will be able to break through to Eric and get him to open up about the death of Ole.

The counselor’s name is Christine Aas (played by Iben Akerlie), and she looks like she’s approximately the same age as Eric. And as soon as she appears on screen, it’s easy to see that she’s going to be Eric’s love interest because she has the stereotypical physical appearance (young, blonde and pretty) of a love interest in a formulaic movie like this one.

Even though Christine looks young enough to only be a few years out of college, the movie has made her a whiz at diagnosing medical conditions because she figures out very quickly what Alex’s superpower is. Not long after Christine is put in a police interrogation room with Eric to ask him some questions, he goes from being mute to gasping remorsefully about Ole, “I tried to tell him not to touch me.”

Meanwhile, Henrik is in another section of the police station, where he’s dealing with the parents of Ole, who want answers about what caused Ole’s death. Ole’s father Bjørn (played by Per Egil Aske) is very angry because he knows that the police have Eric in custody as a suspect. (The arrest has been all over the news.) Bjørn demands to be in a room alone with Eric, but Henrik refuses. It’s pretty clear at this point that this won’t be the last we see of Bjørn, who might as well have worn a T-shirt that says “Vigilante Justice,” because that seems to be the only purpose for his character in this movie.

Back in the police interrogation room, Eric reaches for a glass of water, and Christine sees that he’s able to lift the water out of the glass, just by putting his hand above the glass. This gives him such electrical energy force throughout his body, that when Eric places his hands on the wooden table, it scorches the table. And then, Eric gets so upset, the entire room lights up with an electrical storm caused by Eric.

Christine tells Eric the obvious: The energy comes out when he’s experiencing negative emotions, such as fear, anger or anxiety. She tells him that he can control the energy if he just breathes and calms down and gets to a relaxed emotional state. Now that Little Miss Expert has diagnosed Eric’s problem in a matter of minutes, you almost expect her to say, “I’ll be right back. Let me get a yoga mat for you so we can do some breathing exercises.”

Henrik rushes in and witnesses the “electrical storm” in the room, and everyone rushes out before more damage can be caused. The authorities sedate Eric with medication. And a U.S. Embassy official named Cora Hathaway (played by Priyanka Bose) is summoned to take Eric by helicopter to a place that isn’t made clear in the movie because this movie’s screenplay is kind of a sloppy mess. However, viewers can assume that he’s going somewhere for scientific tests.

Eric is strapped to a gurney during the helicopter ride. But when he wakes up and sees that he’s essentially being imprisoned against his will, he goes crazy and creates such a big electrical storm that it causes the helicopter to crash into the ocean. Everyone on the plane dies except for Cora (who ends up in a hospital) and Eric, who has temporarily disappeared. Cora eventually gets released from the hospital and makes it her mission to track down Eric so he can be put back into the custody of the government.

Meanwhile, Eric shows up in the outdoor parking lot of the apartment building where Christine just happens to be at that moment. Somehow, in the short time that Christine and Eric have known each other, Eric has managed to find out where Christine lives. Viewers will have to assume that he was able to look up that information in between causing electrical storms, surviving a helicopter crash in the ocean, finding his way back to land, and then showing up at Christine’s place in the hopes that she’ll want to hang out with him while he’s a fugitive.

It turns out that Christine does want to hang out with Eric and help him elude capture by law enforcement. She tells him, “I’m going take you to my friend’s cabin, and we’re going to figure it out.” The rest of the movie is basically Eric and Christine going on the run together. There’s only one moment when Christine doubts her decision to help Eric, but she shows the kind of immediate loyalty to him that makes it obvious she’s romantically attracted to him. Eric and Christine’s inevitable “big moment” kiss comes later in the movie.

Wolff is serviceable in this poorly written role. He tries to infuse a “lost soul” persona into Eric’s character, but the character is so vague that it’s a wasted effort to try to bring gravitas to the role. The problem is that “Mortal” tells almost nothing about Eric and his background until toward the end of the film, which makes it hard for viewers to root for Eric while he tries to evade capture. The other actors in the film are mediocre, while Bose is just plain awful with her emotionless, wooden delivery of her lines.

And speaking of the U.S. Embassy official Cora, it doesn’t make sense that she would be heading up the task force to find Eric. Embassy officials are political diplomats, not law enforcement or part of a government’s military defense. Based on all the destruction that Eric causes in the movie, the Norwegian military would be the ones to take over if a seemingly crazy guy was out there causing electrical storms that are bad enough to burn bridges, roads, buildings and people.

Even though Cora has seen firsthand how dangerous Eric can be, she wears no protective gear the entire time that she’s trying to hunt him down. She’s dressed as if she’s about to go for a nature hike. And the only indication that she survived a traumatic plane crash in the ocean is that she has a small band-aid on her forehead. Yes, this movie is that stupid.

As for Eric’s big “secret” at the end of the movie, it looks like a blatant cash grab to latch on to the popularity of a certain blockbuster movie franchise. It’s too bad that the filmmakers of “Mortal” couldn’t come up with a more original story. The visual effects and cinematography in “Mortal” are fairly good, but because of the moronic way that this story is told, it doesn’t matter how good the movie’s visuals might look if the dialogue and basic storyline are of such low quality that it’s embarrassing. All the electrical storms and fires concocted for this movie still can’t ignite the film’s very dull and unimaginative plot.

Saban Films released “Mortal” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on November 6, 2020. The movie’s Blu-ray and DVD release date is November 10, 2020.

Review: ‘Proxima,’ starring Eva Green and Matt Dillon

November 6, 2020

by Carla Hay

“Proxima”

Directed by Alice Winocour

French, Russian, German and English with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Russia and Germany, the sci-fi drama “Proxima” has an all-white cast of characters representing members of the middle-class scientific community.

Culture Clash: A French female astronaut, who will be the only woman in an international team of astronauts going to Mars, has difficult coping with how her year-long absence from home will affect her underage daughter.

Culture Audience: “Proxima” will appeal primarily to people who like movies about astronauts and their missions in outer space but with the added gravitas of how these missions affect the family members who are left behind on Earth.

Eva Green and Matt Dillon in “Proxima” (Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment)

Whenever there’s a movie about astronauts and a journey they take in outer space, people usually expect the movie to have some thrilling scenes of the astronauts in space or landing on another planet. “Proxima” is not that movie. Although the film is about an astronaut mission to land on Mars, “Proxima” takes a close look at a far more emotionally perilous journey: how an astronaut prepares to leave behind loved ones for several months. There’s always a possibility that something could go wrong with the mission and people might not make it back alive. And in the movie, it’s mentioned that the astronauts on this mission will experience a major physical toll on their bodies: Their body cells are expected to age 40 years in six months.

Directed with graceful aplomb by Alice Winocour (who co-wrote the screenplay with Jean-Stéphane Bron), the heart and soul of “Proxima” are centered on the relationship between French astronaut Sarah Loreau (played by Eva Green) and Sarah’s daughter Stella Akerman Loreau (played by Zélie Boulant), who’s about 8 or 9 years old. Sarah, who has a background in engineering, is ambitious, determined and someone who has dreamed of being an astronaut ever since she was a child.

At the beginning of “Proxima,” Sarah is seen testing out hi-tech artificial limbs at work and being a dutiful mother at home in Germany with Stella, her only child. Sarah is separated from Sarah’s father Thomas Akerman (played by Lars Eidinger), who also works in the scientific field, but it’s not specified in what type of science. Sarah has primary custody of Stella, who is a bright, inquisitive and emotionally empathetic child. Thomas, who lives several miles away, has weekend visitations.

But at the beginning of the movie, Sarah has already been selected for an important outer-space endeavor called the Proxima Mission, which will be the first time that humans are expected to land on Mars. The entire mission will take approximately one year for the chosen astronauts to live on Mars. And so, Sarah has to make arrangements with Thomas for Stella to live with Thomas while Sarah is away.

There’s some mild tension between Thomas and Sarah, because he seems a bit resentful that he suddenly has to make major adjustments to his life as a single parent with temporary full custody of his child. But overall, Sarah and Thomas have a cordial relationship and seem to be handling co-parenting responsibilities in the best way that they can.

Luckily, Stella is a kind and obedient child who doesn’t give her parents any trouble. She’s very proud of her mother’s accomplishments as an astronaut. However, Stella doesn’t yet seem fully aware of any long-term impact that Sarah’s absence might have on her and the rest of the family. Stella is more curious than angry about Sarah having to be away from home for a long period of time. Boulant does a good job in her role as Stella.

Sarah has to enroll Stella in a new school that’s close to where Thomas lives. During a meeting with that Sarah and Stella has with an administrator at this new school, Stella mentions that she’s dyslexic, dyscalculic and dysorthographic. Sarah worries that Stella might not be able to adjust to the standards of this new school. Meanwhile, Stella is worried about their female tabby cat named Laika because Stella’s father Thomas is allergic to cats. Sarah keeps reassuring Stella that everything will be fine and that Thomas will get used to having the cat in his home.

Spending a year away from Stella is a decision that weighs heavily on Sarah. Because although no one really comes right out and says it in this story, women who have to spend a lot of time away from their loved ones because of work responsibilities are judged more harshly than men who make the same decisions. Sarah might be feeling guilt or trepidation about how her absence will affect her relationship with Stella, but Sarah is not going to pass up this rare opportunity to not only go to Mars but also to be the first woman on Mars.

The majority of “Proxima” is about Sarah’s preparing herself and Stella for this long separation. Sarah often keeps her feelings bottled up inside, but Green gives an impressive performance where she is able to convey a lot of Sarah’s emotions through her eyes and facial expressions. “Proxima” is not a big adventure story with a bunch of astronauts flying through the universe in a spacecraft. This is a much more specific psychological portrait of someone who’s rarely seen on screen as the main character of a movie: a female astronaut who also happens to be a mother.

Before Sarah goes to Russia, where she and the other Proxima Mission astronauts complete the final phase of their intense training, a conference meeting is held at the space facility to introduce her as the newest member of the team. Members of the press have been invited. And making the introduction is Mike Shannon (played by Matt Dillon), an American astronaut who considers himself to the “alpha male” of the Proxima Mission group.

Mike makes it clear from the get-go that he has a sexist attitude toward women who are astronauts. When he introduces Sarah at this event, Mike makes sure to mention that Sarah is a “last-minute crew member,” implying that she wasn’t a first-choice candidate. And he comments that he’s glad that Sarah is French, “because French women are apparently really good at cooking.”

There are a few groans from the audience when Mike makes these micro-aggressive comments. Mike’s snide remarks, which he tries to cloak in a joking manner, are obviously meant to belittle Sarah, her accomplishments and her earned place on the astronaut team. Sarah is gracious about the backhanded insult and doesn’t confront about Mike about it, because she knows that she’s going to be stuck in outer space with this guy for a year. And given Mike’s attitude that men are superior to women when it comes to being astronauts, Sarah wisely figures it probably would not be a good idea to start off on Mike’s bad side.

Later at an outdoor party for the space-facility employees, Mike introduces Sarah to his wife Naomi Shannon (played by Nancy Tate), and they mention that they have two sons who are close to Stella’s age. When Naomi and Sarah are briefly talking alone together at the party, Sarah mentions her separated marital status and that her estranged husband will be taking care of Stella while Sarah is away. Naomi comments that it must be an special challenge to be a single parent and an astronaut.

Aside from her marital status and whether or not she has any children, Sarah reveals very little of her personal life to her colleagues. In a scene that happens later in the movie, Sarah and Mike are alone in a locker room together, and he tries to get her to reveal her sexual orientation and what’s going on in her love life. Mike asks Sarah if she has a boyfriend or a girlfriend. She plays it cool and doesn’t really answer his questions, while he tells her that he’s just trying to get a handle on who she is.

Astute viewers can see that the only reason why Mike is asking these questions is to see if Sarah has an vulnerabilities that he might be able to exploit. That’s because although Mike acts as if Sarah is inferior to him as an astronaut, he still sees her as a threat because she’s mostly been excelling in the training sessions. During one of the final training sessions in Russia, Mike gloats when it looks like Sarah might fall short of expectations. And Mike openly smirks in the rare occasion that Sarah is late for a training session (because she was on the phone with Stella), and the instructor curtly punishes Sarah for her tardiness by sending her away and not letting her participate in the session.

The other Proxima Mission astronauts whom Sarah meets when she arrives in Russia are Anton Ocheivsky (played by Aleksey Fateev), who’s a compassionate Russian, and Jurgen (played by Trond-Erik Vassal), a German whose personality is hard to read since he doesn’t have much dialogue in the movie. Anton and Jurgen are minor supporting characters whose main purpose in this story is to show that not all of the men on this astronaut team are sexist jerks.

Sarah has a quiet determination to prove herself to everyone on the team. Mike acts more like a rival than a team member. And although he doesn’t blatantly do anything to sabotage Sarah, he does make little digs here and there to try and irritate her on a psychological level. Almost everything that Mike does to get on Sarah’s nerves to to try to make her feel inferior, just because she’s a woman.

For example, when Stella comes to visit Sarah during the final training sessions, Mike expresses irritation (and perhaps some jealousy) that Stella can be seen around the training facility. In a condescending tone, Mike tells Sarah that she needs to “cut the umbilical cord” and get Stella used to the idea that she won’t be able to see her mother for a long time once they’re in outer space. Aside from the fact that Mike doesn’t really have a right to tell Sarah how much time she should spend with her daughter before this momentous trip, the “cut the umbilical cord” comment is completely misogynistic. Obviously, Mike wouldn’t use those words with a man in the same position as Sarah.

Fortunately, “Proxima” doesn’t turn the tension between Mike and Sarah into a ridiculous melodrama. After all, these are professionals who are largely focused on common goals for this mission. “Proxima” also realistically shows that Sarah doesn’t act too shocked by Mike’s sexist attitude, because in her very male-dominated profession, she’s probably used to dealing with men who have the same misogynistic mindset that Mike does. There are also indications that Sarah has a strong sense of self and won’t compromise who she is, such when she rejects a male colleague’s suggestions that she cut her hair or take hormones that would suppress her menstrual cycle while she’s in outer space.

What has more of an emotional impact on Sarah is the fear of not knowing if her year-long absence might permanently damage Stella and her close relationship with Stella. No relationship is perfect, but the love between this mother and daughter is genuinely the most important thing in both of their lives. Amid all the intense training that Sarah has to go through for this mission, “Proxima” shows this mother/daughter love in a way that is touching without being overly sentimental. (Viewers who watch the movie should stay for the end credits, which features a photo montage of real-life female astronauts with their children.)

As a drama set in the world of astronauts, “Proxima” can be considered very low-key if compared to the way astronauts and their work are portrayed in other fictional movies. However much “Proxima” might lack in action scenes, it more than makes up for in its realistic depiction of humanity and relatable emotions. It presents the point of view of a woman astronaut in a male-dominated profession, without taking the cliché route of making gender discrimination the primary focus of the story. “Proxima” is inspiring and effective without being a heavy-handed and preachy movie.

Vertical Entertainment released “Proxima” on digital and VOD on November 6, 2020.

Review: ‘Let Him Go,’ starring Diane Lane and Kevin Costner

November 6, 2020

by Carla Hay

“Let Him Go”

Directed by Thomas Bezucha

Culture Representation: Taking place in Montana and North Dakota in the early 1960s, the dramatic thriller “Let Him Go” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with one Native American) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A retired sheriff and his wife in Montana travel to North Dakota to rescue their grandson and their former daughter-in-law from an abusive and violent family.

Culture Audience: “Let Him Go” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in well-acted, well-written dramas where family issues intersect with crime.

Lesley Manville in “Let Him Go” (Photo by Kimberly French/Focus Features)

Movies about child-custody issues usually focus on the parents of the child, but “Let Him Go” is a well-made, taut thriller whose protagonists are grandparents who want to rescue their grandson from an abusive home and raise him in their own loving and safe home. Written and directed by Thomas Bezucha, “Let Him Go” is adapted from Larry Watson’s novel of the same name. It’s a very good cinematic interpretation of the book, because the movie adeptly shows the contrasts of the wide open landscapes with the almost-suffocating anxiety that the grandparents experience as their quest to rescue their grandson becomes increasingly dangerous.

The story takes place in the early 1960s, before mobile phones, email and the Internet would make it easier for the couple at the center of the story to track down the violent clan members who have control of the child. It was also in a time and place (the rural Midwest) when custody battles weren’t very likely to go to court by people who didn’t have the money for legal fees and who preferred to take the law into their own hands. The beginning of “Let Him Go” shows what life was like for the grandparents before this family feud turned their life upside down.

George Blackledge (played by Kevin Costner), who’s a retired sheriff, and his wife Margaret Blackledge (played by Diane Lane) are living a tranquil life on their rural Montana ranch. Also living in their home are George and Margaret’s 27-year-old son James (played by Ryan Bruce), who is their only child; James’ wife Lorna (played by Kayli Carter); and James and Lorna’s infant son James Jr., also known as Jimmy.

George and Margaret have been married about the same amount time (30 years) that George was in law enforcement. Even though George is retired and probably has a pension, the family has an additional household income because Margaret and James have a business where they break/train horses. Lorna is a homemaker, but there’s tension between her and Margaret, because Margaret tends to do things (such as take care of the baby) in the way that Margaret thinks is best.

One day, Margaret and George notice that James has not come back from a horse ride that wasn’t supposed to take very long. George goes out looking for James, and he tragically finds James lying dead on a creek embankment with the horse nearby. James has a broken neck, apparently because he was thrown off by the horse.

The movie then fast-forwards three years later. George, Margaret and Jimmy are the only witnesses to a small wedding ceremony between Lorna and a local man named Donnie Weboy (played by Will Brittain), whose last name is pronounced “wee-boy.” The Weboy surname can be interpreted as an interesting play on words, since Donnie and his three siblings are brothers who live in the shadow of their domineering mother.

It’s never explained in the movie how Donnie and Lorna got to know each other, nor is it mentioned what Donnie does for a living. At the wedding ceremony, Donnie’s personality is indiscernible, and his family is not mentioned until George and Margaret have an urgent reason to find Donnie’s relatives. Even though George and Margaret don’t seem to know much about Donnie’s side of the family, George and Margaret attending this wedding ceremony is a sign that they approve of Lorna and Donnie’s marriage on some level.

After Donnie and Lorna get married, Lorna and Jimmy move out of their comfortable home on the spacious ranch and into a small apartment with Donnie in the closest big city. It’s a move that hits Margaret especially hard emotionally, because she has raised Jimmy as if he were her own son, and she won’t be able to see Jimmy as often as she would like. Margaret and George don’t live close to the city, but they live close enough that they can take a trip by car to visit.

One day, Margaret has driven to Donnie and Lorna’s apartment for a surprise visit. Before she can get to the apartment, Margaret sees Donnie, Lorna and Jimmy walking down a nearby street. She’s shocked and dismayed to see Donnie angrily hit Jimmy in the face and then do the same thing to Lorna. Donnie also grabs Lorna and Jimmy in a forceful and abusive way.

Margaret is so upset that she drives away. When she gets home, she tells George what she saw, but they do nothing but worry about how Jimmy (played by twins Bram Hornung and Otto Hornung) is being raised. It’s a sign of the times, when domestic abuse was a lot less likely to be reported than it is now. Margaret and George also didn’t report the abuse because it’s possible that Lorna and Jimmy would deny the abuse happened, out of fear, and then it would be Margaret’s word against Donnie’s.

After witnessing the abuse, Margaret goes back to the apartment on another day. And she’s in for another shock. A neighbor tells Margaret that Donnie, Lorna and Jimmy abruptly moved away to stay with Donnie’s family in North Dakota. It’s at that point that Margaret makes up her mind to not only track them down but also to get Jimmy and possibly Lorna to move back in with Margaret and George.

At first, George is reluctant to interfere, and he expresses concern that he and Margaret are too old to raise Jimmy. But when George sees that nothing will stop Margaret from this mission, he goes along with her because he thinks that she will need protection. And so, George and Margaret go on a road trip to find Jimmy and rescue him from what they’re sure is an abusive household. “Let Him Go” has several impressive panoramic scenes of the open roads and land during this journey.

The first order of business is to find out where the Weboy family lives in North Dakota. George gets help from his connections in law enforcement. Through this investigation, George and Margaret discover that the Weboy clan is a family of troublemakers with a history of illegal violence. Early on in the trip, George got upset when he found out that Margaret brought a loaded gun. But later on, that gun might come in handy.

During their travels on the open road, George and Margaret meet a young Native American man named Peter Dragswolf (played by Booboo Stewart), who’s in his late teens or early 20s, and has been living on his own for the past three years due to some problems in his family. Peter has a stallion as his only companion. Margaret and Peter bond over their love of horses, and it brings back bittersweet memories of Margaret and George’s son James.

George and Margaret eventually continue on their journey and part ways with Peter. But is this the last time that Peter will be in the story? Of course not.

During many parts of this movie, George and Margaret, who both have very stoic and strong-willed personalities, share silent moments that are neither awkward nor out-of-place. George and Margaret are people who are used to living simple, uncomplicated lives. And their longtime marriage has given them a comfort level where they don’t need to be chattering nonstop to be in tune with each other.

It isn’t long before George and Margaret track down the Weboy relative who will introduce them to the rest of the clan: Billy Weboy (played by Jeffrey Donovan) is one of Donnie’s older brothers. When Billy first meets George and Margaret, Billy comes across as smarmy and deceptive and as someone who likes to play mind games. George and Margaret tell Billy who they are, but don’t tell him about their plans to take Jimmy away. The grandparents just pretend that they only want to visit Jimmy and Lorna.

George is immediately suspicious of Billy and doesn’t try to hide his wariness. Margaret has a different approach because she figures that if she’s nice to Billy, he is more likely to cooperate with them. Margaret’s tactic works. Billy takes them to the Weboy family home, where George and Margaret have a very brief and uncomfortable reunion with Jimmy and Lorna, who appear to be very afraid of living in the Weboy home.

Why was this meeting so awkward? Because the Weboy family’s widowed matriarch Blanche (played by Lesley Manville, in full villainous mode) insists that they stay for dinner, but she sternly orders Jimmy to go to bed because he didn’t finish eating something. Blanche makes it very clear to George and Margaret that she expects all of her sons (and any of her son’s children) to live in her home and abide by her overbearing rules.

Blanche also reveals that she holds a grudge because she and the rest of the Weboys weren’t invited to Donnie’s wedding. Even when George and Margaret explain that Donnie never mentioned his family, and they didn’t know about the Weboy family until recently, Blanche still acts resentful toward George and Margaret. This menacing grandmother also suspects the real reason why George and Margaret have come to town.

Blanche is one of these villains who tries to mask her wickedness with smiles, but her hateful personality can still be seen underneath the fake politeness. Her late husband Henry is briefly mentioned in the movie, but not much else is said about Henry except that he’s dead. In addition to Billy and Donnie, Blanche’s other children are Elton (played by Connor Mackay) and Marvin (played by Adam Stafford).

Donnie is the youngest brother, and he’s the only brother who seems to be married with a child. Donnie definitely acts like a control freak with Lorna and Jimmy, but the one person who has control over Donnie is Blanche. Considering the very restrictive lifestyle imposed on Lorna, it might be a little surprising to some viewers that Donnie has let Lorna take a job outside of the home (she works as a sales clerk/cashier in a clothing store), but that might be out of necessity since it’s never made clear what Donnie does for a living, if he works at all.

Movies about adults fighting over custody of a child tend to be argumentative and at times overly melodramatic. “Let Him Go” avoids the usual stereotypes of making this family feud play out in the court system or in public shaming. Instead, the grandparents want to keep this battle as private as possible. The issue of domestic violence is handled in a way that it’s expected to be handled in a story that takes place in an era when survivors of domestic violence didn’t have shelters and assistance programs to the extent that these resources exist now.

There are moments of rage and gripping suspense in “Let Him Go,” but that emotional turn in the movie doesn’t really come later until Margaret and George come to the conclusion that the Weboys are irredeemably abusive and evil. Writer/director Bezucha skillfully brings a “slow burn” quality to this film that leads up to a gripping showdown by the end of the movie.

A lot of the beauty of “Let Him Go” is in how Lane and Costner express the internal resolve of these very determined grandparents. Manville has a fairly predictable villainous character in Blanche, but Manville portrays Blanche as someone who truly believes that what she’s doing is what’s best for her family. What most people would see as abusive, Blanche would describe as “tough love.”

Carter’s portrayal of Lorna character isn’t always the domestic-abuse stereotype of being constantly fearful and meek. She has moments of wanting to assert her individual identity, but she’s usually shut down by an older person (usually Blanche or Margaret), who tells her what she should do instead of asking her what she thinks. Lorna’s background as an orphan is mentioned, and it gives viewers some context over why she doesn’t have any biological relatives who can help her. Later in the story, Lorna and Margaret have an emotionally touching scene where they come to terms with their tension-filled relationship. It’s one of the highlights of the film.

“Let Him Go” has moments that might be a little too quiet or slow-paced for people who expect thrillers to have a lot of non-stop action. But just like Margaret and George in the movie, “Let Him Go” has a steady and deliberate pace that people should not mistake for weakness. Underneath is the type of grit and courage that won’t back down from a fight.

Focus Features released “Let Him Go” in U.S. cinemas on November 6, 2020.

Review: ‘A Rainy Day in New York,’ starring Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Selena Gomez, Jude Law, Diego Luna and Liev Schreiber

November 5, 2020

by Carla Hay

“A Rainy Day in New York”

Directed by Woody Allen

Culture Representation: Taking place in New York City and in upstate New York, the romantic comedy “A Rainy Day in New York” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Latinos) representing the upper-middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A college student and his schoolmate girlfriend spend the day in New York City and experience unexpected entanglements with other people.

Culture Audience: “A Rainy Day in New York” will appeal primarily to die-hard fans of writer/director Woody Allen and star Timothée Chalamet, because this movie is clearly not their best work.

Timothée Chalamet and Elle Fanning in “A Rainy Day in New York” (Photo by Jessica Miglio/MPI Media Group)

“A Rainy Day in New York” is writer/director Woody Allen’s very misguided attempt at making a teenage romantic comedy, but the results are as phony and pretentious as many of the characters in the film. Movie aficionados who are familiar with Allen’s work already know that he sticks to certain formulas and themes in his movies. His movies are usually about privileged people in a big city who are preoccupied with their spouses or lovers cheating on them. There’s usually at least one much-older man in the story who makes sexual advances toward a much-younger woman—or the older man at least makes it known that he’s sexually attracted to her. And there’s always jazz in the soundtrack because Allen is a big fan of jazz music.

And even though Allen’s movies usually take place in the racially diverse city of New York, he excludes African Americans and Asians from being in his films in any significant speaking roles. Occasionally, as he did in “A Rainy Day in New York” and in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” he might have a few Latinos in his films. The elitist and pseudo-intellectual worlds that Allen has in his movies are usually filled with people whining about personal problems that they create for themselves because they are addicted to self-sabotage.

You don’t have to see the poster for “A Rainy Day in New York” to know exactly who’s going to end up together by the end of the story. But until viewers get to that point, they have to sit through about 92 minutes of college-age people in their late teens and early 20s talking as if they’re about 10 years older, with very affected mannerisms. Unfortunately, much of the movie’s screenplay sounds exactly like what it is: dialogue written for young people by a senior citizen who doesn’t know how today’s young people really talk. Even though these young people are supposed to be privileged and well-educated, they still sound like an old person wrote their words for them.

All of the actors in “A Rainy Day in New York” are very talented, but they perform in this movie as if they’re all too self-aware that they’re in one of Allen’s films. And so, they all act is if they’re trying to conjure up the same neuroses and quirks of characters that were in classic Allen films, such as 1977’s “Annie Hall” and 1986’s “Hannah and Her Sisters,” which are considered two of Allen’s best movies.

“A Rainy Day in New York” follows the usual Allen formula of having the male lead character act like how a young Woody Allen would act, by being neurotic and showing some kind of intellectual snobbery. In this case, Timothée Chalamet plays the Allen surrogate with a character whose name is as pompous as his personality: Gatsby Welles.

Gatsby sees himself as quite the rebel because he dropped out of an unnamed prestigious university (presumably an Ivy League university) and is now enrolled in a small liberal-arts college in upstate New York called Yardley College. He likes to sneak off on a semi-regular basis to gamble with older men of dubious occupations. In reality, Gatsby isn’t that rebellious. He’s spoiled, a bit wimpy, and way too impressed with himself for someone who really hasn’t accomplished much and doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life.

Viewers can immediately see how self-absorbed Gatsby can be, but there’s no subtlety at all in this film. Allen over-amplifies Gatsby’s personality because he makes Gatsby have a constant stream of voiceover narration every time Gatsby is on screen. Other characters talk out loud to themselves when they wouldn’t need to do that if Allen trusted the actors enough to express emotions with their faces and body language.

In the opening scene, which takes place on the Yardley campus, Gatsby says in a voiceover: “This is Yardley, which is supposed to be a very good liberal college, which is supposed to be tony enough for my mother, which is total bullshit, because you get ticks [from] walking in the grass.” Gatsby further comments about his mother: “She says I have a high IQ and I’m not living up to my potential, even though last weekend I made 20 grand playing poker.”

Viewers will hear quite a bit about Gatsby’s domineering mother, because Gatsby can’t stop talking about her, even as he tries to avoid her. Gatsby’s parents (played by Cherry Jones and Jonathan Hogan) don’t have names in the movie, but viewers soon learn that Gatsby’s parents and his older brother Hunter (played by Will Rogers) live in New York City. Gatsby’s mother is a high-society influencer who’s presenting her big annual charity gala that Gatsby desperately does not want to attend.

There’s a scene in the last third of “A Rainy Day in New York” where Gatsby and his mother have a heart-to-heart talk, and it’s the best scene in the movie. Jones is fantastic in this role. Her performance is one of the few highlights of this meandering and often-dull film that recycles a lot of the same love-life problems and dilemmas that have been in other films by Allen.

Gatsby has a girlfriend named Ashleigh Enright (played by Elle Fanning), who also attends Yardley. On paper, Gatsby and Ashleigh both seem like a great match for each other. They both come from well-to-do families (Ashleigh’s father owns several banks in Arizona) that are politically conservative and white Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Gatsby and Ashleigh are both very intelligent and curious. However, Ashleigh tends to be very giggly, forthright and effervescent, which is in contrast to Gatsby’s more brooding, secretive and angst-filled personality. Ashleigh is a movie buff, while Gatsby is more of a literature enthusiast.

Gatsby and Ashleigh have been dating each other for a few months. He says in a voiceover that he’s in love with Ashleigh and she’s perfect for him. Gatsby also says that Ashleigh is the type of girlfriend his mother would approve of, which is why he plans to introduce Ashleigh to his mother for the first time at the big gala event.

It just so happens that Ashleigh, who’s a journalist for the Yardley student newspaper, has landed an interview with a famous New York City-based film director named Roland Pollard (played by Liev Schreiber), and she couldn’t be more ecstatic about it because she’s been a longtime fan of his. Ashleigh tells Gatsby that she’s going to New York City to interview Roland, so Gatsby decides the time is right to go to the city for a couple of days with Ashleigh and make a romantic trip out of it.

Gatsby takes charge of their trip. He tells Ashleigh that they’ll be staying at the Pierre Hotel, and he’s made plans for them to have dinner at Daniel, an exclusive, five-star French restaurant. It’s implied that Gatsby is so well-connected that he can easily get reservations at Daniel, which is a restaurant that’s known to take reservations weeks in advance. Gatsby also wants to possibly stay at the Carlyle Hotel, or at least have lunch there, during the trip.

Ashleigh’s meeting with Roland isn’t really an interview as much as it is a talk session where she nervously gushes over him like a fangirl. Based on how Roland’s movies are described, he’s an “auteur” who prefers to direct creatively challenging films instead of crowd-pleasing blockbusters. Roland is flattered that this young reporter knows a lot of about his work, but he’s wracked with insecurities about his latest film. He also mentions to Ashleigh that his ex-wife’s name was Ashley and she also went to Yardley.

Because Ashleigh is so nervous around Roland, she starts babbling some “too much information” personal details to him. For example, she tells him that she starts to hiccup when she’s anxious. “When I’m sexually anxious, I’ll hiccup indefinitely,” she adds. And, of course, that’s a signal that this nervous tick will definitely happen later in the film.

Ashleigh is such a neophyte journalist that when Roland tells her that he’d like to give her a scoop, she naïvely asks, “A scoop of what?” When Roland explains that a “scoop” is a journalist term for exclusive information, she can’t believe her luck that he chose her. Roland says that the “scoop” he wants to give Ashleigh is that he’s not happy with the film he’s working on, and it might be the last film he directs because he’s thinking of quitting the movie business.

Ashleigh is shocked and tells Roland that he shouldn’t quit. Roland invites Ashleigh to go with him to a private screening room to watch a rough cut of the film and to tell him what she thinks of the movie. The only problem for Ashleigh is that the time it would take to watch the movie would conflict with the lunch date that she made with Gatsby.

The offer from Roland is too good to pass up, so Ashleigh apologetically cancels her lunch date with Gatsby and explains why. Gatsby is disappointed, but he understands why Ashleigh wants this opportunity to get a great interview with one of her idols. And so, Gatsby and Ashleigh make plans to meet up later.

Gatsby now has unexpectedly a few spare hours of time where he’s free to do what he wants. He wanders outside the hotel and happens to see a former classmate from high school: a gossipy jerk named Alvin Troller (played by Ben Warheit), who is an elitist snob yet he has no manners. Gatsby isn’t too enthusiastic about seeing Alvin, but they make some small talk where they give updates on what they’ve been doing with their lives and why Gatsby is visiting in the city. Alvin tactlessly insults Gatsby and some other mutual acquaintances who are mentioned in the conversation.

Alvin tells Gatsby that a mutual former classmate from high school is directing a student film outside on a nearby street and that Gatsby should check out what’s going on with this movie if he’s curious. Before they part ways, Alvin tells Gatsby that if he were Gatsby, he’d be nervous about having his girlfriend alone in a room with a powerful movie director. It plants a seed of doubt in Gatsby about what might happen during the interview with Ashleigh and Roland.

When Gatsby arrives on the film set, the former classmate, whose name is Josh (played by Griffin Newman), is happy to see him. Josh convinces a reluctant Gatsby to make a cameo in the movie. Gatsby doesn’t feel comfortable about being in the movie because he tells Josh that he’s not an actor, but Gatsby agrees to the role only because it won’t take long and he won’t have to say any lines. All Gatsby has to do in the scene is kiss a young woman in a car.

And who is this young woman? Her name is Chan (played by Selena Gomez), and she happens to be the younger sister of Gatsby’s ex-girlfriend named Amy, whom Gatsby briefly dated when he was 16. Chan, who is a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology, is dryly sarcastic and comes from the same well-to-do type of family that Gatsby has. Before Gatsby and Chan start filming their kissing scene, Gatsby and Chan exchange the kind of teasing banter that makes it obvious that they’re thinking, “I’m attracted to you but I’m not going to admit it.” And you know what that means for a romantic comedy like this one.

Gatsby and Chan’s kissing in the scene starts off being very awkward. But then, eventually Gatsby and Chan become more relaxed with each other before the director tells them that he has the footage that he wants. Gatsby and Chan go their separate ways. But what do you know, they happen to see each other again when it starts raining and they both end up hailing the same taxi for their second “meet cute” moment. Gatsby and Chan decide to share the taxi ride, and then they have more banter filled with sexual tension.

During their conversations, Gatsby tells Chan that he’s in New York City with his girlfriend Ashleigh because Ashleigh is interviewing Roland Pollard for the Yardley student newspaper. Gatsby somewhat brags about Ashleigh coming from a wealthy family, but Chan shows some East Coast snobbery when she hears that Ashleigh and her family are originally from Arizona. Chan then proceeds to mock Ashleigh, whom she hasn’t even met, with jokes that imply that Chan thinks Ashleigh is an unsophisticated hick, even if Ashleigh’s family is rich.

It should come as no surprise that for the rest of the day, Chan and Gatsby find themselves spending time together, while Ashleigh gets more caught up in hanging out with Roland and his associates. Various hijinks ensue as Gatsby and Ashleigh make plans to meet up multiple times, only to have those plans changed because of a variety of circumstances. It’s all very predictable and formulaic because people who’ve seen enough romantic comedies know exactly what’s going to happen at the end of this movie.

At the screening room to watch the rough cut of Roland’s latest movie, Ashleigh meets Ted Davidoff (played by Jude Law), the screenwriter of the movie. Roland gets so distraught by what he sees in the rough cut that he storms off. Ted and Ashleigh take off in Ted’s car to try and find Roland. During this hunt for Roland, Ted sees his wife Connie (played by Rebecca Hall), who appears to be on a date with Ted’s best friend Larry Lipshitz. Connie told Ted that she was going to be hanging out with one of her female friends, and now Connie has been caught in a lie.

And so, Ashleigh finds herself tagging along and observing some of this marital drama, as Ted tries to find out if Connie is cheating on him or not. And speaking of infidelity, Ashleigh gets caught up in a situation where she has to decide if she’s going to be faithful to Gatsby or not. During the search for Roland, Ashleigh goes to Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, where she meets and is immediately dazzled by a sex-symbol movie star named Francisco Vega (played by Diego Luna), who’s almost twice the age of Ashleigh.

Francisco, who is in Roland’s latest film, doesn’t waste time in asking Ashleigh out on a dinner date. Francisco says he’s recently broken up with his actress girlfriend Tiffany (played by Suki Waterhouse), and when he and Ashleigh go outside together, they’re surrounded by paparazzi and news cameras. You don’t have to be psychic to know who will eventually see this footage.

During the time that Gatsby and Ashleigh are apart, there’s a minor subplot of Gatsby visiting his older brother Hunter and Hunter’s fiancée Lily (played by Annaleigh Ashford) in their spacious home. The wedding invitations have already been sent out, but Hunter confides in Gatsby that he doesn’t want to marry Lily. Why? Because Hunter says he doesn’t like Lily’s laugh, which Hunter describes as “a cross between Dad’s sister Betty and Lenny from ‘Of Mice and Men.'”

It’s yet one of numerous examples of how superficial, status-conscious and image-obsessed so many people are in this story. And it’s why this so-called romantic comedy isn’t very romantic when almost everyone in the story does not seem capable of loving anyone but themselves. Anyone who doesn’t meet their standard of wealth just isn’t worthy enough of their time.

Chalamet and Fanning do their best to bring some relatable humanity to their roles. But Gatsby is just too conceited and Ashleigh is just too fickle to go beyond the “spoiled rich kid” caricatures that writer/director Allen has constructed for them. Gomez doesn’t have much to do with the character of Chan, whose personality is just an empty shell that only exists to lobby semi-insults back and forth with Gatsby as they pretend they’re not attracted to each other. A good romantic comedy will have audiences rooting for the protagonists, but most of the characters in “A Rainy Day in New York” are so insufferable that audiences will wish these people would just shut up and go away.

MPI Media Group and Signature Entertainment released “A Rainy Day in New York” in select U.S. cinemas on October 9, 2020. The movie’s digital, Blu-ray and DVD release date is November 10, 2020. “A Rainy Day in New York” was released in several countries outside the U.S. in 2019.

Sean Connery dead at 90; Oscar-winning actor was the original James Bond

October 31, 2020

by Carla Hay

Sean Connery, the Oscar-winning Scottish actor who was best known for being the first James Bond in the movies, died of natural causes at his home in the Bahamas. He was 90. According to the Associated Press: “Connery’s wife and two sons said he ‘died peacefully in his sleep surrounded by family’ in the Bahamas, where he lived. Son Jason Connery said his father had been ‘unwell for some time.'”

Born on August 25, 1930, in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, Scotland, Connery had working-class roots. His father Joseph was a factory worker and truck driver, while his mother Euphemia (also known as Effie) was a house cleaner. After a stint in the Royal Navy as teenager, Connery had various jobs, including being a truck driver, a lifeguard and a model. In the early 1950s, Connery became a bodybuilder who competed in the Mr. Universe contest, before he decided to try acting on a whim.

With no formal training, he landed a role as a chorus boy in a British stage production of “South Pacific.” He first film role was a small part as a gangster in the 1957 movie “No Road Back.”

Connery’s most iconic role was as James Bond, a British playboy spy, based on the character of Ian Fleming’s novels. Connery was the first actor to portray James Bond in movies, beginning with 1962’s “Dr. No” and continuing with 1963’s “From Russia With Love,” 1964’s “Goldfinger,” 1965’s “Thunderball,” 1967’s “You Only Live Twice,” 1971’s “Diamonds Are Forever” and 1983’s “Never Say Never Again.”

Other notable films featuring Connery in a starring or co-starring role include 1964’s “Marnie,” 1974’s “Murder on the Orient Express” and 1989’s “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” He won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in 1987’s “The Untouchables.” It was first and only Oscar nomination. He was also the recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award for career achievement at the 1995 Golden Globe Awards. Connery’s last role in a live-action film was in 2003’s “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.” His last role as an actor was in the 2012 animated movie “Sir Billi.”

Connery was married twice. His first marriage to Australian actress Diane Cilento lasted from 1962 to 1973 and ended in divorce. Their son Jason, who was born in 1963, became an actor and a director. Connery married his second wife Micheline Roquebrune in 1975, and they remained married until his death. Connery is survived by his wife Micheline. brother Neil and son Jason.

Review: ‘The Prey’ (2020), starring Gu Shangwei, Vithaya Pansringarm, Byron Bishop, Sahajak Boonthanakit, Nophand Boonyai and Rous Mony

October 31, 2020

by Carla Hay

Rous Mony and Gu Shangwei in “The Prey” (Photo courtesy of Dark Star Pictures)

“The Prey” (2020)

Directed by Jimmy Henderson

Cambodian and Mandarin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Cambodia, the action flick “The Prey” features an almost all-Asian cast (with one white person) representing law enforcement, criminals and the wealthy.

Culture Clash: An undercover cop from China is arrested and sent to a Cambodian prison, where he is selected with other prisoners to be part of a deadly game for wealthy men who want to hunt humans.

Culture Audience: “The Prey” will appeal primarily to people who like pulpy action movies that are very formulaic and don’t do anything original.

Pictured in front, from left to right: Nophand Boonyai, Byron Bishop and
Sahajak Boonthanakit in “The Prey” (Photo courtesy of Dark Star Pictures)

The good news about “The Prey” is that it’s an action film with a plot that’s very easy to understand. The bad news is that the plot is so simplistic, it’s dumbed down to the lowest common denominator and it becomes yet another generic action movie that does nothing to progress the genre. Even with the usual suspension of disbelief that’s required for movies that rely heavily on flashy, choreographed stunts, “The Prey” is very unimaginative and predictable, as it recycles ideas and concepts of movies that have done these gimmicks before and done them better.

“The Prey” (directed by Jimmy Henderson), just like any movie about rich people who hunt humans for sport, is loosely based on “The Most Dangerous Game,” the 1924 Richard Connell novel that was made into a 1932 movie of the same name. Henderson wrote the unimaginative screenplay for “The Prey” with Michael Hodgson and Kai Miller.

The protagonist of “The Prey” is Xin (played by Gu Shangwei), a cop from China who’s doing undercover work in Cambodia to bust a Mafia phone scam operation that’s targeting Chinese citizens. Xin is apparently so good at his job that he’s mistaken for a real criminal, and he’s arrested and thrown in a prison in Phom Penh City, Cambodia. The obligatory prison fight scene with Xin and another prisoner then ensues.

The prison warden (played by Vithaya Pansringarm), who doesn’t have a name in the movie, is a sadistic and corrupt tyrant who doesn’t hesitate to torture any prisoner who shows signs of rebellion. As soon as there’s a scene with an announcement blaring to prisoners over the public-address system that anyone who doesn’t follow orders will be “reformed,” you just know that Xin will do something to get punished, so that the movie can have the inevitable prisoner torture scene. Xin is hung upside down and given electroshocks, as the warden gleefully oversees this punishment.

An unintentionally laughable scene in the movie is when all the prisoners are gathered in a courtyard, and instead of getting some exercise, they all break out into choreographed fights. It looks like this prison has locked up a bunch of stunt men, not real criminals. This fight sequence is contrived for the movie because it’s the scene where a group of wealthy men, who’ve been invited by the warden to the prison, can observe how the prisoners fight.

Unbeknownst to the prisoners, they are being evaluated because the rich guys want to choose the prisoners who will be taken to a remote jungle and hunted by the wealthy men. The warden gets paid a hefty fee to hand over these prisoners for this deadly game. Some of the warden’s closest prison cronies know about it too. According to the warden, the location where the men will hunt has about 30 kilometers of wilderness in every direction.

There are about 10 of these wealthy men who are participating in this killing spree, but three of the men consider themselves to be the best hunters in the group. Of the three men, Mat (played by Byron Bishop), who’s in his 40s, is the one who knows the warden the best and has participated in this hunting game before. Mat introduces the warden to two of the other members of the hunting team who are also very competitive about which one of the group will kill the most prisoners.

Payak (played by Sahajak Boonthanakit) is a middle-aged guy who tends to be a bit pompous, while T (played by Nophand Boonyai) is Mat’s cocky nephew who is in his 20s. T has recently inherited a fortune from his late father, who was Mat’s brother. Mat and T don’t particularly get along because Mat thinks T is an entitled, spoiled brat. It’s also revealed later in the movie that T’s own father didn’t respect T either. T is determined to “win” this game by killing the most prisoners because he wants to show his uncle Mat how tough he can be.

It should come as no surprise that Xin is one of the approximately 10 prisoners who are chosen for this homicidal game. The prisoners are taken to the jungle, where they are lined up and told to run away. One by one, all of them are shot to death by the hunters, except for Xin and another prisoner named Mony (played Rous Mony), who gets injured when he is shot in the leg.

Xin and Mon escape deeper into the jungle, and the rest of the movie is a life-and-death battle between the hunters and the hunted. Of course, Xin and Mony don’t stay unarmed for long, so there are the inevitable shootout scenes between the hunted and the hunters. This movie is so filled with stereotypical tropes, you can easily predict that the story’s hero is the one who’s the least likely to get shot.

The hunters split up to find their prey, and T accidentally falls into a deep hole, and he can’t get out on his own. A local man named Chay just happens to be walking nearby with his mute son Sambath (played by Nget Kakada), who’s about 12 or 13 years old. T shouts for help, and Chay rescues T from the hole.

T asks Chay if he would like to help him find some people in the jungle. Chay is reluctant to help, until T flashes a wad of cash to offer to Chay, who changes his mind when he sees how much he’s getting paid. T says that he can pay more money after they find the people he wants to find.

Meanwhile, two of Xin’s law-enforcement colleagues at China’s Ministry State of Security have noticed that he’s gone missing and they try to find him. Inspector Wong (played by Jai Ling) and Detective Li (played by Dy Sonita) have figured out that something probably went wrong with Xin’s undercover work. Through GPS tracking and some investigating, they discover that Xin was taken to the prison. But when they interview the warden and show Xin’s photo to him, the warden lies and says that he’s never seen that person before and that Xin was never in the prison.

The action sequences in “The Prey” are nothing special. And no one in this movie seems to have a distinctive personality, except for possibly rich kid T, who’s very insecure about proving himself in trying to be the most ruthless killer in the hunting group. A movie like this doesn’t have to go deep into character development, but it should at least make more effort to have action sequences that do something unique and don’t insult viewers’ intelligence.

One of the worst sequences is when Xin is cornered by one of the armed hunters near a waterfall. Instead of shooting Xin, the hunter puts aside his gun and decides to do hand-to-hand combat with Xin. It seems like the filmmakers knew that if all the hunters acted the way real hunters would act, everyone would be dead too quickly and there wouldn’t be enough time for a feature-length movie. The most violent scenes in the movie are utterly generic.

“The Prey” also has the same outdated stereotypes of action films that only have one woman in the entire cast. Detective Li just happens to look more like a model than a police investigator. And when Detective Li and Inspector Wong end up in the jungle too, she’s dressed like an office worker who’s about to have lunch with some corporate colleagues rather than someone who’s prepared to spend time in the rough terrain of the wood.

If you want an embarrassingly cliché action flick that has no memorable characters and an extremely derivative story, then “The Prey” should fulfill those expectations. But if you prefer action movies with people who have actual personalities and a compelling plot, then don’t waste your time with “The Prey.”

Dark Star Films released “The Prey” in select U.S. virtual cinemas on August 21, 2020, and on digital and VOD on August 25, 2020.