film festivals Archives

Review: ‘Harbin,’ starring Hyun Bin, Park Jeong-min, Jo Woo-jin, Jeon Yeo-been, Park Hoon, Yoo Jae-myung, Lily Franky and Lee Dong-wook

January 13, 2025

by Carla Hay

Hyun Bin in “Harbin” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

Directed by Woo Min-ho

Korean, Japanese and Russian with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Korea, Japan, China, and Russia, from 1908 to 1910, the dramatic film “Harbin” (based on true events) features a predominantly Asian group of people (with some white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Ahn Jung-geun, a leader in a Korean army resisting Japan’s takeover of Korea, vows to assassinate Japanese prime minister Itō Hirobumi at the Russian-controlled Harbin train station, with help from others in Korea’s resistance movement.

Culture Audience: “Harbin” will appeal primarily to people who like to watching well-made historical dramas about war and politics.

Jeon Yeo-been in “Harbin” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

“Harbin” gives a suspenseful depiction of the 1909 plot by Korean fighters to assassinate Japanese prime minister Itō Hirobumi during Japan’s takeover of Korea. The movie drags in the middle, but is overall a well-made historical drama. The cast members give skillful performances, while the brutal action scenes are realistic.

Directed by Woo Min-ho (who co-wrote the “Harbin” screenplay with Kim Min-seong), “Harbin” had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Although the movie has scenes taking place in Korea, Japan, China and Russia, “Harbin” was actually filmed in Latvia. “Harbin” takes place from 1908 to 1910.

“Harbin” begins with this caption explaining the political turmoil that led to the chain of events portrayed in the movie: “In 1905, Japan forced Korea to sign the Eulsa Treaty, which abolished its diplomatic rghts and established a Residency-General. This treaty nominally turned Korea into a protectorate, but in fact, it lost its sovereignty and became a Japanese colony. Some Koreans, unable to contain their fury, resisted, killing themselves in protest or taking up armed struggle.”

As shown in the movie, one of the people in the Korean resistance movement is Ahn Jung-geun (played by Hyun Bin), lietenant governor of the Korean Independence Army. In the beginning of the movie, Jung-geun is experiencing an army that is divided: some in th army are loyal to him, while others are suspicious. Jung-geun also has conflicts with army member Lee Chang-Sup (played by Lee Dong-wook), an ambitious and quick-tempered rival who disagrees with Jung-geun on just about everything.

“Harbin” jumps around in the story’s timeline and has several flashbacks. In December 1908, the Korean Independence Army had a vicious battle against the Japanese Imperial Army in Kyonghung, in Korea’s province of North Hamgyong. Korean Independence Army won the battle and took several members of the Japanese Imperial Army as prisoners of war, including Mori Tatsuo (played by Park Hoon), a Japanese army major.

Jung-geun—against the objections of some of his soldiers, including Chang-Sup—decided to follow universal law in not killing these prisoners of war. Jung-geun is partially motivated by this decision after Tatsuo tells him that Tatsuo is married with children. Jung-geun decides to release the prisoners of war but take away their weapons because he assumes that these prisoners of war will act on an honor system and not get revenge.

It turns out to be a wrong assumption. A group of Korean Independence Army soldiers, who broke off from Jung-geun’s command after his controversial decision, are slaughtered by Tatsuo and other Japanese army fighters. Feeling tremendous guilt and despair, Jung-geun wanders around a frozen Tumen River by himself as he contemplates what do next.

An early scene in the movie shows members of the Korean Independence Army in a January 1909 meeting and debating of what could have happened to Jung-geun during this disappearance. Some believe that Jung-geun could have died or could have been captured by the Japanese army. Others believe that even if Jung-geun comes back, he could be spy for the Japanese.

Some of the people in this tension-filled meeting include Chang-Sup, Kim Sang-hyun (played by Jo Woo-jin), Woo Duk-soon (played by Park Jeong-min) and Choi Jae-sung (played by Yoo Jae-myung), who is the army’s chief of staff. Chang-Sup is quick to think the worst of Jung-geun. Duk-soon, who is very loyal to Jung-geun, cautions: “Don’t go framing someone without proof.” Others in the meeting seem to have a “wait and see” attitude.

The people in the meeting don’t have to wait long for Jung-geun. He shows up and is remorseful about the massacre but he tells the people in the meeting: “I didn’t come for forgiveness. I came because there’s still work to do.” To atone for his strategic mistake, Jung-geun vows to assassinate Japanese prime minister Itō Hirobumi.

The rest of “Harbin” shows the elaborate planning of this assassination. On October 17, 1909, Prime Minister Itō is scheduled to go to Russia to meet with government officials about the Korea-Japan “merger.” He is traveling by train and is scheduled to stop at the Russian-controlled Harbin station at the China border.

The Korean Independence Army enlists the help of a an arms smuggler Ms. Gong (played by Jeon Yeo-been), who has a pivotal role in this plot. It should come as no surprise that things don’t go as smoothly in this assassination plan. There’s a power struggle between Jung-geu or Chang-sup over who should lead this operation. And there some unexpected setbacks.

“Harbin” has artful cinematography, especially in the outdoor scenes that show the majestic landscapes where many of these battles and struggles take place. All of the cast members capably handle their roles, although some of the supporting characters are underdeveloped. The pacing gets a little sluggish in the talkative middle of the movie, but the last third of the film gets “Harbin” back on track to being the impactful political thriller that it intended to be.

Well Go USA released “Harbin” in Los Angeles on December 25, 2024, with a wider release to select U.S. cinemas on January 3, 2025. The movie was released in South Korea on December 24, 2024.

Review: ‘Emilia Pérez,’ starring Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña and Selena Gomez

January 5, 2025

by Carla Hay

“Emilia Pérez”

Directed by Jacques Audiard

Spanish with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place from 2018 to 2023, mostly in Mexico (and briefly in Thailand, England, Israel, and Switzerland), the musical film “Emilia Pérez” (based on the operetta of the ame name) features a predominantly Latin cast of characters (with some black people and white people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A ruthless drug cartel leader enlists the help of an attorney to get gender affirmation surgery as a woman named Emilia Pérez, but things get complicated when she has her unsuspecting former wife and kids live with her.

Culture Audience: “Emilia Pérez” will appeal primarily to fans of the movie’s headliners and unconventional movie musicals that have better performances than songs or screenplays.

Selena Gomez in “Emilia Pérez” (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

“Emilia Pérez” (about a transgender former drug trafficker) is a musical but it’s more like an artsy telenova. The performances are the main reason to watch this uneven movie that has a messy screenplay and mediocre songs. “Emilia Pérez” is not even close to being the masterpiece might be hyped up to be some of the movie’s biggest fans. However, the dramatic parts of the film are watchable enough for viewers who are curious to see how the story is going to end.

Written and directed by Jacques Audiard, “Emilia Pérez” is based on Audiard’s operetta of the same name, which was inspired by Boris Razon’s 2018 novel “Écoute.” The word “écoute” means “listen” in French. “Emilia Pérez” had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where the movie won the Grand Jury Prize (the equivalent of second place); Best Soundtrack; and Best Actress, with the prize shared by “Emilia Pérez” co-stars Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz. “Emilia Pérez” is also France’s official entry for consideration for Best International Feature Film for the 2025 Academy Awards.

“Emilia Pérez” (which takes place mostly in Mexico) begins in 2018, by showing a 36-year-old defense attorney named Rita Morena Castro (played by Zoe Saldaña), who was born in the Dominican Republic but has been living in Mexico for years because she was educated in Mexico. Rita is having conflicted feelings as she prepares for a murder trial in Mexico City. Her client Gabriel Mendoza (played by Emiliano Hasan) is accused of murdering his wife. Rita suspects he is guilty, but her supervisor/lead defense attorney Berlinger (played by Eduardo Aladro) has decided that their strategy is to say that Gabriel is not guilty because Gabriel’s wife committed suicide. Gabriel ends up being found not guilty by a jury.

Rita is feeling unfulfilled in her life. In the musical number “Todo y nada” (which means “everything and nothing” in Spanish), Rita mentions she’s becoming disillusioned with her work, and she’s tired of people asking her why she’s not married and has no children. Rita also wants to start her own law firm, but she doesn’t have the money and thinks she’ll experience obstacles because of her race. (She identifies as Afro-Latina.)

Shortly after this verdict, Rita is in a courthouse restroom when she gets a strange phone call from an unidentified man, who tells her if she wants to become rich, she needs to go to a nearby newsstand in 10 minutes. It’s under these circumstances that a curious Rita goes to the newsstand. She is kidnapped on the street while waiting at the newsstand. Rita is taken in a van, where she meets her kidnapper while she has a hood over her head.

The kidnapper is a drug cartel boss named Juan “Manitas” Del Monte (played by Karla Sofía Gascón), who has a very unusual request. Manitas has been living as a man, but Manitas really identifies as a transgender female and has felt this way since childhood. Manitas wants Rita’s help to find a safe place to get gender-affirming surgery, and then fake Manitas’ death, so that Manitas can start a new life living openly as a woman with a new name.

Rita knows about Manitas’ reputation for being a ruthless criminal. However, she relates to Manitas feeling “stuck” and wanting a drastic life change. The money that Manitas wants to pay Rita would also make her a millionaire, so she accepts this offer with little hesitation. Of course, being kidnapped and pressured into this taking this offer is a big reason why Rita says yes to Manitas.

Manitas has a wife named Jessi (played by Gomez) and two sons: Diego (played by Lucas Varoclier) and Angel (played by Théo Guarin, who are about 4 and 6 years old at the time of Rita’s kidnapping. Jessi (whose full name is Jessica) was born in the United States and still has several family members living there. Jessi is a loving parent to the children, but she remains a bit of a hollow enigma throughout the story.

Manitas plans to have Jessi, Diego and Angel live in Switzerland, where Jessi doesn’t really know anyone. Rita has been tasked with telling Jessi that Jessi and the children have to go into hiding in Switzerland because Manitas’ criminal enemies want to harm them. Manitas death will then be faked, so that Manitas can start a new life as a woman.

“Emilia Pérez” (which has a total running time of 132 minutes) takes an awfully long time before Manitas gets gender affirmation surgery, which doesn’t happen until about 40 minutes into the movie. Before that, there are some very contrived-looking scenes of Rita going to the Thai city of Bangkok and the Israeli city of Tel Aviv to find the place that will give the surgery. She decides to choose a surgeon named Dr. Wasserman (played by Mark Ivanir) in Israel to give Manitas the procedure. The musical scenes for this search for a surgeon have the weakest songs in the movie.

After the surgery, Manitas has been reinvented as a bachelorette named Emilia Pérez (also played by Gascón), although she uses the title Señora (Mrs.) for her name. Four years later, Emilia and Rita see each other again at a dinner party in a London restaurant. Rita is surprised to see Emilia there but soon finds out that Emilia planned for Rita to be there.

Emilia wants Rita’s help again: This time, Emilia wants Rita to bring Jessi, Diego and Angel over from Switzerland to live with Emilia in Mexico. (Gaël Murguia-Fur has the role of older Angel. Tirso Rangel Pietriga has the role of older Diego.) Emilia explains that she misses her children and she wants Rita’s assistance in telling Jessi, Diego and Angel that Emilia is a distant cousin of Manitas, who gave her some inheritance money to take care of them financially.

For a while, the plan works. At first, Jessi is a little suspicious over how Emilia is overly affectionate with Diego and Angel. And at times, Emilia slips up when she describes Dego and Angel as her kids. (The children call her Auntie.) Overall, the family is harmonious but this wouldn’t be telenova-type of story if things continued to go smoothly.

Because Manitas is supposed to be dead, Emilia doesn’t mind that Jessi has a lover named Gustavo Brun (played by Edgar Ramírez), whose occupation is unclear. However, it’s implied that whatever he does for money is suspicious. What Emilia doesn’t know is that Jessi and Gustavo were secret lovers when Jessi and Manitas were married. Although Jessi says that she loved Manitas, she apparently married Manitas when they were very young, and she wasn’t sure if Manitas still loved her.

Emilia feels guilty about all the murders she was responsible for when she was a drug cartel boss, so she reinvents herself as a philanthropist who has started a nonprofit charity to find missing people whose disapperances are believed to be related to drug cartels. Rita works as Emilia’s attorney for this charity and is morally conflicted when Emilia solicits donations from rich criminals. It’s during this charity work that Emilia meets Epifanía Flores (played by Paz), whose missing husband’s body was found by Emilia’s workers. Emilia and Epifanía have an instant attraction and become intimately involved with each other.

“Emilia Pérez” has moments that are thoroughly engaging, especially in the scenes where Emilia and Rita are interacting with each other. But the first third of the movie is somewhat confusing because it looks more like Rita’s story. For a movie called “Emilia Pérez,” it’s a bit of creative misstep that the title character appears so late in the movie.

Another flaw in the movie is the relationship between Jessi and Gustavo is not shown enough for viewers to understand what Jessi sees in him. All that viewers will see about the romantic part of their relationship is that Jessi likes to talk dirty to him over the phone, they’re definitely in lust, and they like to have sexy dances with each other when they go out to a nightclub. Gomez is adequate in her role as Jessi, who is an underdeveloped character.

“Emilia Pérez” is also sketchy with details over why Emilia has so much financial control over Jessi and the kids. As the “widow” of Manitas, Jessi would be entitled to a lot more that what she gets, in terms of an inheritance and financial independence. Viewers can only conclude that Jessi must be less-than-smart if she believes everything that Rita tells her and willingly goes to live with a “cousin-in-law” whom Jessi has never met before and knows almost nothing about. Jessi’s financial dependence on Emilia is crucial to a major plot development in the last third of the film.

Gascón (who is a transgender woman in real life) and Saldaña are the obvious standouts with their committed performances. Saldaña’s song-and-dance number of “El Mal” during a charity event is a highlight of the movie. Gascón also excels in her dual roles as Emilia and Manitas. “Emilia Pérez” blends romance, action and drama into a poutpourri that isn’t thoroughly appealing because of some plot holes, unanswered questions, and songs that are underwhelming. However, the personalities of Emilia and Rita are interesting enough to keep viewers engaged in story that isn’t often seen on screen.

Netflix released “Emilia Pérez” in select U.S. cinemas on November 1, 2024. Netflix premiered the movie for streaming on November 13, 2024.

Review: ‘Memoir of a Snail,’ starring the voices of Sarah Snook, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Eric Bana, Dominique Pinon, Tony Armstrong, Nick Cave and Jacki Weaver

January 3, 2025

by Carla Hay

“Memoir of a Snail”

Directed by Adam Elliot

Culture Representation: Taking place in Australia, from the 1970s to the 1990s, the animated film “Memoir of a Snail” features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: An eccentric girl, who collects snails, become separated from her twin brother after their widower father dies, and the twins experience various difficulties during their childhood and adult years.

Culture Audience: “Memoir of a Snail” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s voice actors and unconventional animation that is geared more to adults than children.

Young Grace Pudel (voiced by Charlotte Belsey), Percy Pudel (voiced by Dominique Pinon) and Young Gilbert Pudel (voiced by Mason Litsos) in “Memoir of a Snail” (Image courtesy of IFC Films)

Quirky and inventive, “Memoir of a Snail” is like no other animated film. The movie is not as lighthearted and family-friendly as it first appears to be, but there are moments of hope in this occasionally rambling story of a misfit who collects snails. This is a movie that is best enjoyed by people who consider themselves to be open-minded and can enjoy animation that doesn’t have a formulaic plot.

Written and directed by Adam Elliot, “Memoir of a Snail” had its world premiere at the 2024 Annecy International Animation Film Festival and its U.S. premiere at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival. The movie, which takes place in Australia from the 1970s to the 1990s, has stop-motion animation that looks a lot like it was influenced by animated films by director Tim Burton. However, “Memoir of a Snail” is more offbeat than most of Burton’s films.

“Memoir of a Snail” begins in the 1970s in Melbourne, where twin siblings Grace Pudel (voiced by Charlotte Belsey) and Gilbert Pudel (voiced by Mason Litsos) are being raised by their widower father Percy Pudel (voiced by Dominique Pinon), a native of France who used to be a juggler in Paris. Grace is the narrator of this movie, which as a flashback when Grace is an adult. Sarah Snook voices the role of adult Grace.

Annie Pudel, the mother of Gilbert and Grace, died during childbirth in 1972, when she was 22 years old. Annie, who was originally from Australia, met Percy when she was visiting in Paris and he was a street busker. After Percy and Annie fell in love, Percy moved to Australia to be with Annie.

As a widower, Percy is addicted to alcohol and uses a wheelchair because he has paraplegia. “Knitting and jelly beans were his other addictions,” Grace says in the narration. From an early age, Grace developed a fascination with squirrels and became somewhat obsessed with collecting snails and snail memorabilia.

Grace and Gilbert adore each other and are very close. n hindsight narration, Grace describes Gilbert as this way when they were growing up together: “He was like Holden Caulfield, James Dean and Charlie Brown rolled all into one.” Gilbert was a pessimistic worrier who was often bullied at school, but he wasn’t afraid to fight back.

Grace also says that Gilbert loved animals so much, he became a vegetarian. She adds, “But the thing that made Gilbert really unique was his love of fire. He’d spend hours playing with fire.” Gilbert’s dream was to become a street performer in Paris, just like his father Percy was. “Despite our hardships, there was plenty of joy,” Grace says of her childhood being raised by Percy.

However, as shown in the flashback scenes, that joy came to crashing halt when Percy dies. Grace and Gilbert are separated in the foster care system and are sent to live on opposite sides of Australia. Grace is placed with a married couple who are accountants in urban Canberra (on the east coast), while Gilbert is placed with a married couple who live on a rural farm near Perth (on the west coast). The twins don’t see each other for several years, but they keep in touch by writing letters to each other.

Grace and Gilbert also grow up in opposite foster homes, when it come to the people who are raising them. Grace’s foster parents are Ian (voiced by Paul Capsis) and Narelle (also voiced by Capsis), who are friendly but often neglectful because they are swingers who are frequently absent from their home. By contrast, Gilbert’s foster parents Owen (voiced by Bernie Clifford) and Ruth (voiced by Magda Szubanski) are religious conservatives who are very abusive to Gilbert.

Not much more can be described about “Memoir of a Snail” without giving away too much of the plot. However, it’s enough to say that adult Grace and adult Gilbert (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee) have ups and downs in their lives. As an adult, Grace becomes addicted to “buying, hoarding and stealing.”

Grace also befriends an eccentric older woman named Pinky (voiced by Jacki Weaver), who is legally blind and becomes a maternal figure to Grace. Grace also has two love interests: one named Ken (voiced by Tony Armstrong) and one named Bill Clarke (voiced by Nick Cave), with both romances being very different from each other. Gilbert also has a romance that takes a heartbreaking turn. A magistrate named James (voiced by Eric Bana) as a small but pivotal role in the film.

“Memoir of a Snail” is not going to be to everyone’s liking. There’s a lot of dry and dark comedy in the movie that is handled quite capably by the voice actors, who give memorable performances. The parts of the story that are depressing might catch some viewers off guard and be a turnoff for the rest of the movie. The movie’s visuals are striking, and the story clips along at a good pace, although some of the narrative tends to wander. Viewers with patience will be rewarded with an ending that makes “Memoir of a Snail” a uniquely poignant movie experience.

IFC Films released “Memoir of a Snail” in select U.S. cinemas on October 25, 2024. The movie was released on digital and VOD on November 26, 2024. AMC+ will premiere the movie on January 17, 2025.

Review: ‘Chasing Chasing Amy,’ starring Sav Rodgers, Kevin Smith, Joey Lauren Adams, Riley Rodgers, Guinevere Turner and Scott Mosier

December 31, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Chasing Chasing Amy”

Directed by Sav Rodgers

Culture Representation: The documentary film “Chasing Chasing Amy” (filmed from 2018 to 2022) features a predominantly white group of people (with a few African Americans, Latin people and Asians) discussing the culture and personal impact of the 1997 film “Chasing Chasing Amy” (written and directed by Kevin Smith), a comedy/drama about a heterosexual man who falls in love with a sexually fluid/queer woman.

Culture Clash: “Chasing Chasing Amy” director Sav Rodgers, a “Chasing Amy” superfan went through his own sexual identity journey while making the documentary when he got engaged to a queer cisgender woman and when he came out as a transgender man.

Culture Audience: “Chasing Chasing Amy” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of “Chasing Amy,” filmmaker Kevin Smith and documentaries about the intersections between pop culture and LGBTQ personal stories.

Riley Rodgers and Sav Rodgers in “Chasing Chasing Amy” (Photo courtesy of Level 33 Entertainment)

“Chasing Chasing Amy” is more than just a fan tribute for the 1997 comedy/drama “Chasing Amy.” This charming and insightful documentary has layers of meaningful perspectives of LGBTQ on-screen representation and off-screen dynamics in love and filmmaking. “Chasing Chasing Amy” might take some viewers by surprise by how deeply personal some people are in telling their stories in this documentary.

Directed by Sav Rodgers, “Chasing Chasing Amy” is his feature-film directorial debut. “Chasing Chasing Amy” had its world premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Festival and subsequently screened at several other film festivals in 2023, including the Frameline Festival and BFI London Film Festival. “Chasing Chasing Amy” was filmed from 2018 to 2022 in various parts of the United States. Rodgers appears in “Chasing Chasing Amy” and is the movie’s narrator.

“Chasing Chasing Amy” begins by Rodgers explaining that when he was a child growing up in Kansas, he became obsessed with watching “Chasing Amy,” written and directed by Kevin Smith. Rodgers says that at one point, he was watching “Chasing Amy” every day including a period of time when he watched the movie very day for a month. Rodgers was bullied at school for being queer. He says “Chasing Amy” helped him stay alive during dark periods of his life when he was feeling suicidal.

In “Chasing Amy,” a comic book artist named Holden McNeil (played by Ben Affleck) meets aspiring writer Alyssa Jones (played by Joey Lauren Adams), and they begin dating each other and fall in love. What makes their relationship complicated is that at the time Holden and Alyssa met, she identified as a lesbian. In her relationship with Holden, Alyssa isn’t quite so sure she wants to continue to identify as a lesbian, but she knows she’s not heterosexual either. Adams was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her role in “Chasing Amy.”

Nowadays, Alyssa would probably identify as queer, bisexual or sexually fluid. But in 1997, it was rare to for a mainstream movie to have a main character who was experiencing what Alyssa was feeling. Rodgers says that he connected immensely with “Chasing Amy” because it was the first movie he saw at the time where he saw a character who was neither gay nor straight but defining sexuality on their own terms. It was a something that Rodgers could relate to but he couldn’t express himself about it at the time.

In 2019, Rodgers gave a TED Talk about how “Chasing Chasing Amy” changed his life for the better and helped him come out of the closet as a queer person. Footage from this TED Talk is in the documentary. By this time, Rodgers had already decided to make a documentary about his love of “Chasing Amy.” After the TED Talk, “Chasing Amy” director Smith reached out to Rodgers on social media and arranged for Rodgers to meet and interview Smith at Smith’s Los Angeles home. It was a turning point for Rodgers and this documentary, as Smith eventually became a mentor of sorts to Rodgers.

“Chasing Amy” is a movie where art imitated life in more ways than one. Smith (who is described by colleagues in the documentary as a constant jokester and highly creative) and Adams (who is described by colleagues in the documentary as intelligent and grounded) dated each other from 1995 to 1997. Smith and Adams have both said in many interviews that the characters of Holden and Alyssa were partially based on Smith and Adams, except that Adams did not identify as a lesbian in real life. Adams is one of the people interviewed in “Chasing Chasing Amy,” which was released in April 1997, about six months before she and Smith broke up.

What many people might not know, but which is included in the “Chasing Chasing Amy” documentary, is that the queer aspect of Alyssa and Holden’s romance was based on a real-life relationship that “Chasing Amy” producer Scott Mosier had circa 1994 with filmmaker/actress Guinevere Turner, who identifies as a lesbian. Mosier and Turner, who both had small roles in “Chasing Amy,” are interviewed separately in “Chasing Chasing Amy.” Mosier and Turner both describe their relationship at the time as a “romantic friendship.” Smith decided to write “Chasing Amy” based on that relationship, but he made the Alyssa character have a personality that was a lot like Adams’ real personality.

“Chasing Chasing Amy” admirably acknowledges that although the low-budget independent film “Chasing Amy” was a critically acclaimed hit (“Chasing Amy” had a $250,000 production budget and $12 million in ticket sales), some people consider it problematic that a movie about an unconventional romance with a queer woman was written by a heterosexual man and told from a very hetereosexual male perspective. In “Chasing Chasing Amy,” Smith says that he understands how people have that opinion, but he can’t change who he is and how he made the movie.

The documentary also points out that the issue isn’t just about “cultural appropriation.” It’s also about the hierarchy in the film industry where cisgender men still get the best opportunities as filmmakers, compared to people who aren’t cisgender men. Turner comments that when she and Smith were at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival, they were peers starring in separate buzzworthy movies filmed in black and white: Turner was at Sundance for her lesbian comedy/drama “Go Fish” (a movie she co-wrote with “Go Fish” director Rose Troche), while Smith was at Sundance for his feature-film debut “Clerks,” a comedy/drama written by Smith. Looking back at what happened after that fateful 1994 Sundance Film Festival, Turner says bluntly: “What emerged was Kevin got an empire, and we were just some dykes.”

“Chasing Chasing Amy” also peels back the curtain in how making “Chasing Amy” was a very different experience for Smith than it was from Adams. In “Chasing Chasing Amy,” Adams and Smith are interviewed separately and together. The interviews that Smith and Adams do together are jovial, but they get more somber in their separate interviews. Their experiences are reflections of larger issues of gender and power dynamics in filmmaking.

In his interviews for “Chasing Chasing Amy,” Smith seems to be basking in the praise that he gets from Rodgers at how “Chasing Amy” changed Rodgers’ life. However, Smith says he now has mixed feelings about “Chasing Chasing Amy” being distributed by Miramax, the company co-founded by Harvey Weinstein, who later became a disgraced mogul/convicted rapist in the late 2010s. Smith notes in the interview that the Miramax deal for “Chasing Amy” started at the 1997 Sundance Festival, where actress Rose McGowan says Weinstein raped her. Smith says he was “naïve” and the time didn’t know at the time about Weinstein’s criminal acts behind the scenes.

In her separate interview in “Chasing Chasing Amy,” Adams is visibly uncomfortable and gets emotionally tearful a few times. Adams makes it clear that she’s grateful for the opportunity of making “Chasing Amy” and says she’s happy that the movie helped save Rodgers life. However, making the movie brings up bittersweet memories of her that are still painful. Smith says that Adams was his “muse” at the time, but she remembers their relationship falling apart over similar issues that plagued “Chasing Amy” characters Alyssa and Holden: He was insecure that she was more sexually experienced than he was. He also constantly questioned if she loved him less than he loved her.

Adams also says that her filmmaking experiences as an actress who was forced to have meetings with “old men” and getting rejected for roles is different from Smith’s experiences where he can get a laugh out of these types of meetings. Adams doesn’t come right out and say it, but it’s obvious that what she means to say that when a man like Smith goes into these types of meetings with predatory people like Weinstein, Smith never had to worry about possibly being sexually harassed or worse. Adams says about the “Chasing Amy” filmmaking experience, “Kevin’s truth is not my truth. It wasn’t a cathartic thing [for me] for me as it was for Kevin.” Adams adds, “I was dating this guy [Smith] who was making me feel bad about myself.”

“Chasing Chasing Amy” also has an “art imitating life” storyline with Rodgers and his love partner Riley, who have been a couple since they were in their late teens, when they met online through Tumblr. The documentary was filmed during the evolution of their romance— from long-distance dating to getting engaged to getting married—all before, during and after Sav came out as a transgender man and later went through his hormonal transition. (The couple’s marriage proposal and wedding are shown in the movie.)

Riley Rodgers, who describes their relationship as being “soul mates,” is interviewed in the documentary and asks Sav some candid questions at the end of the film. Riley mentions that—just like “Chasing Amy” character Alyssa—she identified as a lesbian until she found out that she was in love with a man. It’s briefly mentioned that Sav and Riley’s parents are supportive of their relationship. Sav’s mother Natalie Giannakis is seen toward the end of the film.

Other people interviewed in the documentary are “Chasing Amy” casting director Shana Lory, Outfest executive director Christopher Ractser, writer/lesbian culture critic Trish Bendis, film critic Teo Bugbee, pop culture writer/editor Princess Weekes, “Chasing Amy” associate producer Bob Hawk, filmmaker Andrew Ahn, AFI Festival senior programmer Eric Moore, Film Threat founder Chris Gore, filmmaker Kevin Willmott, “90s Bitch” author Allison Yarrow, writer/filmmaker Carlen May-Mann, filmmaker Dana St. Anand, University of Kansas bisexuality studies professor Dr. Sarah Jen, and “Chasing Amy” co-star Jason Lee. Rodgers also visits some of the New Jersey locations associated with Smith, such as Jack’s Music Shoppe (where Rodgers interviews manager Tim Cronin) and Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, where Rodgers interviews manager Mike Zapcic.

“Chasing Chasing Amy” tends to go off on little tangents when talking about other movies or when Sav geeks out about seeing “Chasing Amy” memorabilia, but the film mostly stays on course. The documentary has a fairly good balance between telling commentaries about “Chasing Amy” and telling Sav’s personal story about what was going on in his own life. In its purest form, “Chasing Chasing Amy”—just like “Chasing Amy”—is a celebration about finding true love wherever you happen to find it and not necessarily being restricted by gender labels.

Level 33 Entertainment released “Chasing Chasing Amy” in select U.S. cinemas on November 1, 2024. The movie was released on digital and VOD on December 17, 2024.

Review: ‘Avicii — I’m Tim,’ starring Klas Bergling, Anki Lidén, Ash Pournouri, Flip Akeson, David Guetta, Per Sundin and Aloe Blacc

December 30, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Avicii — I’m Tim”

Directed by Henrik S. Burman

Culture Representation: The documentary film “Avicii — I’m Tim” features a predominantly white group of people (with a few African Americans and Asian people) who are friends, colleagues or family members talking about life and career of Avicii, the Swedish electronic dance music (EDM) artist whose real name was Tim Bergling, died by suicide (cutting himself with glass) in 2018, at the age of 28.

Culture Clash: Avicii was one of the top EDM artists in the world, but he struggled in with mental health and addiction issues at the height of his fame.

Culture Audience: “Avicii — I’m Tim” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Avicii and 2010s EDM/pop music.

Tim Bergling, also known as Avicii, in “Avicii — I’m Tim” (Photo courtesy of Netflix)

“Avicii — I’m Tim” is a bittersweet documentary about this talented artist but it omits a lot of details about his life, even with rare archival interviews. It’s ultimately a cautionary tale about how fame and fortune cannot erase mental health struggles. Through archival recordings, Avicii (whose real name was Tim Bergling) is the narrator of the documentary, which gives the movie a haunting quality but serves as a vital voice for an overall conventionally made but effective biography film.

Directed by Henrik S. Burman, “Avicii — I’m Tim” had its world premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Festival. Netflix is releasing the documentary on the same day (December 31, 2024) as the Avicii concert film “Avicii — My Last Show,” which was filmed in 2018 at Ibiza’s Ushuaïa. “Avicii — I’m Tim” is told in chronological order and has the expected mix of archival footage mixed with interviews that were done exclusively for the movie.

Avicii (pronounced ah-vee-chee)/Tim Bergling was born on September 8, 1989, in Stockholm, Sweden. As he says in previous interviews, he had a very sheltered childhood, which was centered on just a five-block radius in his Stockholm neighborhood. He was the son of Klas Bergling (a manager of an office supply business) and actress Anki Lidén. Avicii’s mother and father provide some of the commentary in the documentary. Avicii’s three siblings—David Bergling, Linda Sterner and Anton Körberg—are not interviewed in the movie. In 2019, Avicii’s family established the Tim Bergling Foundation, to help with suicide prevention and people struggling with mental health issues.

“Avicii — I’m Tim” begins with a montage of Avicii’s career highlights. He can be heard saying in a voiceover: “I’ve always wanted to make timeless music. I feel like I’m filled with music. It’s my life’s biggest passion.” As a child, he says he was a class clown to avoid getting bullied. He also says he became nicer to people after a teacher told him that he had a reputation for being a snitch.

Tim began making music by remixing songs when he was 8 years old. He had diverse tastes in music, but eventually was most attracted to electronic dance music (EDM) because the technology gave him more freedom to experiment on his own. However, even before he became famous, Tim/Avicii knew he needed to find collaborators because he had no aspirations to be a singer.

In his teenage years, one of his earliest music collaborators was his best friend at the time: Flip “Philgood” Akeson, one of the people interviewed in the documentary. Akeson says that teenage Tim was “shy” and “very anxious. We were polar opposites.” Akeson adds, “He was a geek, to be honest.” Bergling chose the stage name Avicii (respelling of Avīci), which means “the lowest level of Buddhist hell.” Akeson says that he and Avicii drifted apart as Akeson went into a self-described “downward spiral” of drug addiction.

It was during these formative years that Tim developed his “night owl” lifestyle because less people bothered him at night. Tim soon caught the attention of Arash “Ash” Pournouri, who became Tim’s manager and is one of the people interviewed in the documentary. By all accounts, Pournouri becoming Tim’s manager was the turning point for Tim, who was too introverted to be a self-promoter. Pournouri’s unshakeable ambition and confidence to make Avicii a rich and famous artist, combined with Avicii’s prodigious talent, proved to be an unbeatable combination.

The rest of “Avicii — I’m Tim” chronicles Avicii’s rapid rise from EDM star to mainstream celebrity who could sell out arenas and festivals as a headliner DJ/artist. (His best-known hits are 2011’s “Levels” and 2013’s “Wake Me Up.”) He also became an in-demand producer and remixer with a reputation of not being afraid to experiment musically. But with success came enormous pressure to work as much as possible and continue making several hits.

Akeson says that when he knew Avicii, Avicii was very much against drugs, even marijuana. Toward the end of his life, Avicii had gone public about being in rehab for alcohol addiction and pills. Avicii’s anxiety also got worse in dealing with the demands of fame. As he says in an archival interview: “I was a lot happier before I was famous than after I was famous.” On April 20, 2018, Avicii committed suicide (cutting himself with glass) in Muscat, Oman, while he was on vacation.

Although “Avicii — I’m Tim” has a lot of talk about Avicii’s personal struggles and his career achievements, there’s not enough information in the documentary about what was really done behind the scenes to get him the help that he needed. Pournouri (who parted ways with Avicii in 2016) makes vague comments about people trying to do the best they can to help Avicii. Jesse Waits (a Las Vegas nightclub entrepreneur) says of Avicii: “He was very fragile and insecure. He was like a little brother to me.”

The movie, without explanation, also never talks about Avicii’s love life or how he dealt with fans/hangers-on who wanted to date him. Someone in Acivii’s position obviously gets this type of attention. (Waits tells a brief story of how he met Avicii when Avicii and two women used Waits’ home as an overnight crash pad.) But the documentary refuses to even mention any former lovers he had who might have known about his personal challenges and who possibly tried to help him. Did Avicii ever fall in love? That’s a question the documentary won’t answer.

Most of the people interviewed in “Avicii — I’m Tim” are people who knew Avicii because they had a business relationship with him. They include Per Sundin, CEO of Universal Music Nordic Region; singer Aloe Blacc; DJ/artist David Guetta; Neil Jacobson, A&R executive at Interscope Records; Chris Martin, lead singer of Coldplay; country singer Dan Tyminski; music producer songwriter Nile Rodgers; Sony Music Publishing executive Johnny Tennander; songwriter/producer Carl Falk; musician/songwriter Mike Eizinger; music journalist Katie Bain; musician Salem Al Fakir; and singer/songwriter Joe Janiak.

In 2016, Avicii announced that he was taking a hiatus from touring because he was exhausted and wanted to work on his mental health. When people experience this type of burnout, they often feel like they are being treated like workhorse robots in their life. By refusing to show a full picture of who was in Avicii’s support system at the lowest points in his life, “Avicii — I’m Tim” sidelines some of his humanity. But with his voice as the narration, some of that humanity is retained instead of being drowned out by the documentary’s talking heads who profited from knowing Avicii in some way.

Netflix will premiere “Avicii — I’m Tim” on December 31, 2024.

Review: ‘Music by John Williams,’ starring John Williams, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, J.J. Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy and Chris Columbus

December 29, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Music by John Williams”

Directed by Laurent Bouzereau

Culture Representation: Filmed in 2023, mostly in the United States, the documentary film “Music by John Williams” features award-winning music composer John Willams and a predominantly white group of people (with a few African Americans, Latin people and Asians) who are his friends, colleagues or family members talking about Williams’ life and career.

Culture Clash: Williams started off as a jazz musician and classical music orchestra player but transitioned into become the most famous and most-awarded movie composer of all time.

Culture Audience: “Music by John Williams” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Williams and the movies he composed music for, including “Star Wars,” “E.T.,” the “Indiana Jones” films, and the first three “Harry Potter” movies.

John Williams in “Music by John Williams” (Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm/Disney+)

The tribute documentary “Music by John Williams” gives an admirable career retrospective of the world’s most famous movie composer. John Williams and his colleague friends provide most of the commentary in a formulaic but educational and delightful film. Even the most ardent fans of Williams will see or learn something new from seeing this well-researched documentary. “Music by John Williams” had its world premiere at the 2024 edition of AFI Fest.

Directed by Laurent Bouzereau, “Music by John Williams” is the type of documentary that would be hard get wrong, considering the subject matter and the participation of all the immensely talented people (including Williams) in this film. Born in New York City in 1932, Williams has an extraordinary body of work that includes composing the iconic scores for numerous high-profile films, including “Star Wars” movies, the “Indiana Jones” movies, 1977’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” 1982’s “E.T. the Extraterrestrial,” 1993’s “Schindler’s List,” 1998’s “Saving Private Ryan” and the first three “Harry Potter” movies.

Williams has won every major award for film music composing (including several Oscars and Grammys) and has earned the description of being a “legendary” composer. “Music by John Williams” has the expected descriptions of Williams’ most famous movie scores with clips from these films and some anecdotal stories. As such, “Music by John Williams” is very much a nostalgia documentary, but it’s also an inspirational story of someone who refuses to follow the conventions that most people follow when it comes to aging and retirement.

“Music by John Williams” tells Williams’ story in chronological order and includes personal photos of Williams in his youth. Williams is candid about his experiences but mostly talks about his career, his compositions and the fondness he has for his colleague friends. He came from a family of musicians and creative people: His father Johnny was a drummer/percussionist, his mother Esther was a dancer, and his younger brothers Jerry and Don and older sister Joan also had musical talent and became musicians. Williams’ three children—daughter Jenny, son Mark and son Joe—also became musicians. (For the purposes of this review, John Williams will be referred to as Williams.)

Williams describes having a happy childhood, which is when he taught himself a lot of what he knows about music through constant practicing. By the time he was in high school, he was writing music for the school’s orchestra. Williams describes this accomplishment in such a modest way, it’s almost easy to forget that most high schoolers wouldn’t be able and wouldn’t be asked to write music for their school orchestra.

In his late teens and 20s, Williams studied music while he attended the University of California at Los Angeles, Juilliard, and the University of Rochester. For a brief time, he was in the U.S. Air Force. When he relocated permanently to Los Angeles, Williams became a session musician for many movies and TV shows from the mid-1950s onward. He worked with mentors such as Harry Mancini and André Previn. Some of Williams’ film credits during this time included 1956’s Carousel, 1959’s “Peter Gunn” and 1961’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”

Williams also became known as a jazz musician. And it wasn’t long before he was composing and conducting his own film and TV scores. Some his TV credits in the 1960s included “Gilligan’s Island” and “Lost in Space.” His first movie score as a composer was the 1958 forgettable flop “Daddy-O.” It’s an example of how Williams didn’t let any early career failures deter him.

Because so much of Williams’ best-known music is in movies directed and/or produced by Steven Spielberg, it should come as no surprise that Spielberg is one of the producers of “Music by John Williams” and is one of the enthusiastic commentators in the documentary. As Williams says in the documentary, the “luckiest day” of his life was meeting Spielberg, who has worked with Williams for all of the feature films directed by Spielberg so far. In the documentary, Spielberg gushes about Williams’ music: “It’s the purest form of art I’ve experienced from any human being.”

Other filmmakers who are interviewed for the documentary are “Star Wars” creator George Lucas, J.J. Abrams, Ron Howard, Kathleen Kennedy, Chris Columbus, Lawrence Kasdan, James Mangold and Frank Marshall. Musicians who pay homage to Williams in this documentary include Chris Martin (lead singer of Coldplay), Branford Marsalis, David Newman, Thomas Newman, Alan Silvestri, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Gustavo Dudamel, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Thomas Hooten and Master Sergeant Karen Johnson of the U.S. Marines Chamber Orchestra. Other interviewees include actress Kate Capshaw, actor Ke Huy Quan and journalists Alex Ross, Elvis Mitchell and Javier Hernandez. Williams’ daughter Jenny and her singer/musician son Ethan Gruska are also interviewed.

The commentators for the documentary have nothing but praise for Williams as an artist and as a person. Spielberg says his first impression of Williams is who Williams remained for all of these years: “He was an elegant man—always has been—but very warm.” Williams gets absolutely no criticism in this movie, which makes him look almost too good to be true.

However, observant viewers will notice that if there’s one major flaw that Williams seems to have is that he’s a workaholic who has often put his career above his personal life. This not-very-surprising revelation comes directly from Williams. He describes how although he was a happily married father during his marriage to actress/singer Barbara Ruick (his first wife, whom he married in 1956), when their three kinds were young, he deliberately spent more time at the music studios of 20th Century Fox than he did at home because being around his kids at home was too much of a noisy distraction for him.

Williams’ daughter Jenny is the only one of his children who is interviewed in the documentary. She doesn’t mention how her father’s absences affected her childhood but she does say that she had to become a mother figure for her younger brothers after their mother tragically died at age 41 of an aneurysm in 1974. Williams says in the documentary that her sudden death is still hard for him to talk about, and he admits he had problems handling being a widowed father of teenagers. Williams and photographer Samantha Winslow (who is not interviewed in the documentary) got married in 1980, and he briefly mentions their happy marriage in the documentary.

One of the most poignant parts of the documentary is when Williams says that he believes that his music improved during this widower part of his life because he felt that Ruick (in spirit) was helping him be a better composer. The phenomenal success of the 1977 “Star Wars” score soundtrack catapulted Williams to a new level of fame. He has been performing at the Hollywood Bowl every year since 1978 and has been a Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor at Tanglewood Music Center every year since 1980, except for 2024, when he could not attend for an undisclosed health reason. As for his prolific career as a composer and conductor, Williams says that he has no intention of retiring.

“Music by John Williams” has scenes (exclusively filmed for this documentary) of Spielberg and Williams happily reminiscing about their collaborations. Spielberg repeats a well-known story about how he was skeptical at first when he heard the shark theme for “Jaws” because Williams had first played it on a piano, and Spielberg didn’t think it sounded menacing enough. However, Spielberg was convinced nce he hear the entire musical sequence in orchestra form.

Speaking of orchestras, Williams is one of the few major film composers who still records entirely with an orchestra and writes out his music by hand. He admits that this way of writing and recording film music is “dying,” as more film composers turn to digital technology. Williams doesn’t seem snobbish about it, but he does express some concern that some of the art form might be lost with new generations of film composers relying only on digital technology to make and record music.

At 105 minutes, “Music by John Williams” skillfully packs in Williams’ entire robust career so far in a well-edited compilation of archival footage and exclusive new interviews. There are very few surprises, except for Williams’ confession that he rarely watches movies and has never been that interested in being a moviegoer. What isn’t surprising is Williams saying that music will always be his biggest passion. Whether or not you’re the type of person to buy classical music scores, “Music by John Williams” makes his passion for music very infectious in the best ways possible.

Disney+ released “Music by John Williams” in select U.S. cinemas and on Disney+ on November 1, 2024.

Review: ‘Lake George’ (2024), starring Shea Whigham, Carrie Coon, Max Casella and Glenn Fleshler

December 28, 2024

by Carla Hay

Shea Whigham and Carrie Coon in “Lake George” (Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing)

“Lake George” (2024)

Directed by Jeffrey Reiner

Culture Representation: Taking place in California, the dramatic film “Lake George” features an all-white group of people representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A recently paroled fraudster gets pressured to kill a woman in a murder-for-hire plot, but she convinces him let her live so that they can steal from the person who ordered the murder.

Culture Audience: “Lake George” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and are interested in watching a crime thriller that is darkly comedic.

Carrie Coon and Shea Whigham in “Lake George” (Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing)

“Lake George” is a topsy-turvy crime thriller that has touches of dark comedy and is mostly watchable because of compelling lead performances from Shea Whigham and Carrie Coon. Some of the movie’s dialogue is a little forced but the story is engaging. “Lake George” has a familiar concept of two people with opposite personalities who go on a road trip and have conflicts with each other but find a way to work together toward a shared goal.

Written and directed by Jeffrey Reiner, “Lake George” had its world premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Festival. “Lake George” has a total running time of nearly two hours, which seems a little long for a compact story where the ending can easily be predicted. The same story could’ve essentially been told in 90 minutes or less because a few of the scenes in “Lake George” tend to wander a little bit. The movie takes place in California (mostly in the Los Angeles area), where “Lake George” was filmed on location.

Despite certain predictable plot developments, “Lake George” can still maintain viewer interest because of the movie’s characters, who aren’t exactly upstanding people, but nevertheless might get viewers intrigued about what will happen to these characters. “Lake George” begins by showing protagonist Don (played by Whigham) waking up in his motel room and having a mild panic attack. Don is a recovering gambling addict who has recently been paroled for insurance fraud and is trying to find a legitimate job.

A montage shows that Don hasn’t been having much luck with his job search. In phone call after phone call, Don gets bad news. People who promised him a job after he got out of prison no longer have the job available. In one case, the person who promised the job is now deceased.

It’s later revealed that Don is divorced and on his own. Don’s wife divorced him because of his criminal activities, and he is estranged from his children. The reason why Don spent time in prison is also revealed much later in the movie. Don is the most realistic character in this movie, which has a tendency to make other characters a little bit on the cartoonish side.

One day, when Don is in his motel room and trying to figure out what to do next, he gets an unannounced visitor: a thug named Harout (played by Max Casella), who forces himself into the room, points a gun at Don, and says, “Armen wants to see you.” Harout works for a wealthy criminal named Armen (played by Glen Fleshler), who has a nefarious job offer that Don is forced to take.

When Don arrives at Armen’s mansion, Armen says that he and Don owe each other a favor. “You pay me for your fuckup, and I’ll pay you what I owe you.” It’s later revealed that Don used to be an insurance agent, and he got pulled into Armen’s criminal activities when Armen paid Don to create false insurance claims. Don took the money to support Don’s gambling habit.

Eventually, Don and Armen got arrested for their insurance fraud. Armen was acquitted because he could afford better legal representation, while Don was the one who was sent to prison for their insurance fraud crimes. Armen is still bitter about the arrest and blames Don for both of them getting caught.

And now that Don is out of prison, Armen tells Don that he wants Don to kill Armen’s ex-girlfriend Phyllis (played by Coon) because, as Armen says: “She’s a dirty cunt. She knows too much.” Armen explains that he met Phyllis when they were in rehab together for cocaine addiction.

After they both got of of rehab, Armen made Phyllis his assistant, and she found out about all of his dirty dealings but stayed with him. Phyllis is no angel: It’s revealed later in the movie that she’s spent time in prison for cocaine trafficking. Now that Armen and Phyllis have had a bad breakup, Armen wants her dead because Phyllis knows a lot of his secrets.

Don immediately refuses to become an assassin because he says he’s not a murderer. Armen insists that’s exactly why Armen wants Don for this murder-for-hire job—because Don would be an unlkely suspect. After some arguing back and forth, Armen gets impatient and tells Don that Don will be murdered if Don doesn’t kill Phyllis.

Armen supplies Don with the .45 caliber gun and a 1983 Mercedes-Benz diesel station wagon that Don is supposed to use to commit this murder. Don is also given a photo of Phyllis and is tasked with stalking her and killing her wherever Don thinks is best, within a 72-hour period. It’s a crucial mistake for Armen to let a nervous and reluctant amateur do this type of planning on his own because too many things could go wrong. No one ever said that all criminals are smart.

Don carries out the stalking part of this plan and eventually kidnaps Phyllis in a parking garage where there are no other witnesses. Phyllis is talkative and sarcastic. As already revealed in the “Lake George” trailer, Phyllis convinces Don not to kill her when she tells Don that she knows where Armen keeps a fortune worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, locked in safes in his various homes (which she calls “stash houses”) in California. Phyllis says she knows how to open each safe, so she persuades Don that they should steal this fortune, split the money, and then go their separate ways.

Don agrees to this idea because he never wanted to kill Phyllis. The rest of “Lake George” is a “race against time” for Phyllis and Don to steal this fortune without getting caught. Don has been dreaming of retiring and living in a remote house near Lake George in Mammoth Lakes, California, which is about 311 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Getting an instant fortune would allow Don to live out that dream.

“Lake George” is more than a crime caper. Much of the movie is about the tension-filled relationship between “sad sack” Don and “firecracker” Phyllis. In order to pull off this audacious robbery spree, they both need to have some trust in each other, but it’s easier said than done. Even though Phyllis and Don take fake death photos of Phyllis to send to Armen, other things don’t go quite like how Don and Phyllis thought they would.

The prickly banter between Phyllis and Don keeps “Lake George” rolling along at a fairly even pace, although some parts of the dialogue tend to drag. The best parts of the movie are seeing how Don and Phyllis handle unexpected occurrences. It should come as no surprise that Phyllis is much more trigger-happy than Don. “Lake George” won’t be considered a classic movie, but it’s better than the average film of this type because the talented principal cast members keep this somewhat formulaic story afloat.

Magnet Releasing released “Lake George” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on December 6, 2024.

Review: ‘2073,’ starring Samantha Morton

December 27, 2024

by Carla Hay

“2073”

Directed by Asif Kapadia

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2073 in the fictional U.S. city called New San Francisco, the docudrama film “2073” features a racially diverse group of people (white, black, Latin, Asian and Indigenous) who portray apocalypse survivors (in the drama scenes) or who are real-life political activists.

Culture Clash: The politically liberal activists who make comments for the documentary predict that an apocalypse will happen in the 21st century due to environmental, socioeconomic and political issues.

Culture Audience: “2073” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of director Asif Kapadia and “end of the world” movies that place almost all the blame on politically conservative people.

A scene from “2073” of the Golden Gate Bridge in California affected by wildfires (Photo courtesy of Neon)

Pretentious and derivative, “2073” is a doomsday docudrama that combines dreary apocalypse scenes with left-wing political lecturing. There’s too much whining and not enough talk about practical solutions. The “end of the world” warnings in this movie just add up to a lot of annoying hot air. The so-called experts interviewed for this movie just want to blame the world’s problems on people who don’t share their liberal political beliefs.

Directed by Asif Kapadia, “2073” had its world premiere at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival. The movie made the rounds at several other film festivals in 2024, including the BFI London Film Festival and DOC NYC. Kapadia won an Oscar for the 2015 Amy Winehouse documentary “Amy.” Unfortunately, “2073” is a low point in his filmmography.

Although “2073” is undoubtedly a film that has noble intentions, it has a heavy-handed approach. The movie has an obvious political agenda, but that agenda’s credibility is lowered with the movie using fictional, scripted scenes as examples of the gloom and doom predicted in the movie. Kapadia and Tony Grisoni co-wrote the “2073” screenplay.

The concept of “2073” isn’t very original. According to the movie’s synopsis, “2073” is inspired by Chris Marker’s “iconic 1962 featurette ‘La Jetée,’ about a time traveler who risks his life to change the course of history and save the future of humanity.” As explained in the beginning of “2073,” the scripted portions of the movie take place in 2073—37 years after “the event,” which obviously means an apocalypse. In other words, this apocalypse happened in 2036, which is just 12 years after the release of this movie.

The scripted drama scenes in “2073” are in a fictional city called New San Francisco, which is described as the capital of the Americas. In this bombed-out city, there’s an electronic billboard showing news reports about Chairwoman Ivanka Trump. What entity has Ivanka Trump as a chairwoman? Don’t expect this ridiculous movie to answer that question. The “2073” filmmakers’ obvious intention is to provoke viewers who would get upset at the thought of Ivanka Trump being chairwoman of anything.

The movie’s drama scenes follows the depressing and solitary life of an apocalypse survivor (played by Samantha Morton), whose name is listed in the end credits as Ghost. Ghost, who is a voiceover narrator for these drama scenes, is seen living in a dark and destroyed building while avoiding being seen by other people as much as possible. According to Ghost, her memory was “slipping through [her] fingers, like sand.”

Ghost also says she’s in hiding because one day “they” came for her. “I ran. I’m still running. My life is turning into one of those sci-fi comics I used to read. There are others here—survivors, renegades.” Other scenes in the movie show that the Americas—or at least New San Francisco—is being run by an oppressive government that rounds up “renegades” and tortures them.

Ghost is trying to avoid detection from an artificial intelligence being called Jack. “He listens and watches everything,” Ghost says about Jack. “You can’t trust anyone anymore. People thought the world would end, but the world goes on. It’s us who’ll end.”

It’s all so tedious to watch this watered-down ripoff of Big Brother from George Orwell’s doomsday “1984” novel, which was published in 1949 and predicted a dystopian future. In “2073,” Naomi Ackie has a small and ultimately inconsequential role as a professor character. Morton’s acting as Ghost is adequate by can’t overcome the weak screenplay.

As for the “talking heads” interviews in the documentary sections of “2073,” these comments are presented as voiceovers, presumably not to distract from the movie’s dramatic images of Ghost suffering in a decrepit place where food and water are scarce. In the documentary parts of the movie, the people commenting are politically liberal activists from Europe, North America, and Asia. The documentary doesn’t explain why, in a movie about the “end of the world,” there is no commentator representation from other largely populated continents, such as Africa, and Australia.

Almost all of the activist commentators are also journalists and/or writers, such as Maria Ressa, Carole Cadwalladr, Rana Ayyub Ben Rhodes, Rahima Mahmut, Silkie Carlo, Cori Crider, George Monbiot, Nina Schick, Douglas Rushkof, Carmody Grey, James O’Brien, Anne Applebaum and Antony Lowenstein. The other commentators are Amazon Labor Union founder Chris Smalls, computer scientist Tristan Harris and environmental activist Alessandra Korap.

The problem with “2073” is that the documentary parts of the movie are just soundbite compilations that recycle whatever rants these people have already said or written in other movies or media reports. Want to know about Ressa’s crusade for freedom of the press in her native Philippines? There was already an excellent documentary about it: 2020’s “A Thousand Cuts,” directed by Ramona S. Díaz. Labor union leader Smalls is the star of the 2024 documentary “Union,” (directed by Stephen Maing and Brett Story), which chronicles Amazon Labor Union becoming the first union at corporate giant Amazon.

The “2073” doomsday warnings about the environment are very “been there, done that” and were already well-presented by Al Gore in the Oscar-winning 2006 documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” (directed by Davis Guggenheim), as well as in many other documentaries and news reports about climate change. And that why it’s so boring and basic to hear political strategist/security expert Sherri Goodman say in “2073” commentary: “We are truly in a climate emergency.”

Other concerns brought forth in the documentary parts of “2073” have to do with government surveillance, civil rights and the erosion of democracy. The essential messaging of “2073” is that (1) anyone who’s involved in conservative politics is contributing to the end of the world; (2) only progressive political liberals are smart enough to tell you that; and (3) if you don’t believe the commentators in the movie, then you must be an idiot. It’s a very condescending tone that can be an absolute turn-off to people (even liberals) who are open-minded and intelligent enough to make up their own minds about how they feel about world issues.

It’s appalling that so many journalists are interviewed for “2073” but their comments in the movie are not really about investigative journalism but are just soundbite rants that say nothing new. By not presenting anything substantial to prove that opposing viewpoints are wrong, “2073” fails at being balanced and is actually quite didactic in its “political liberals are always right” messaging. For a more informative look at the world’s problems and effective ways to deal with these problems, progressive liberals can watch MSNBC or read Mother Jones and don’t need to watch “2073,” a misguided movie that is unrelenting in its paranoia and political divisiveness that don’t give any logical and hopeful solutions.

Neon released “2073” in select U.S. cinemas on December 27, 2024.

Review: ‘Union’ (2024), starring Chris Smalls, Angelika Maldonado, Derrick Palmer, Natalie Monarrez, Jason Anthony, Brett Daniels and Madeline Wesley

December 26, 2024

by Carla Hay

Christian “Chris” Smalls (center) and Derrick Palmer (third from right, in pink shirt) in “Union” (Photo courtesy of Level Ground Productions)

“Union” (2024)

Directed by Stephen Maing and Brett Story

Culture Representation: Taking place in New York City from 2021 to 2022, the documentary film “Union” features a racially diverse group of people (African American, white, Latin and Asian) who are connected in some way to corporate giant Amazon.

Culture Clash: Several past and present employees at Amazon’s JFK8 Fulfillment Center (located in the New York City borough of Staten Island) take action to have a union for the center’s employees, but the union activists get pushback and criticism from Amazon’s management, other Amazon employees, and within the activist group.

Culture Audience: “Union” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in documentaries that take a behind-the-scenes look at a “David versus Goliath” story in corporate business, from the perspective of the underdog.

A scene from “Union,” pictured from left to right in middle row: Jason Anthony (with beard and red shirt), Brett Daniels, Christian “Chris” Smalls, Natalie Monarrez (in sunglasses and bandana) and Madeline Wesley (Photo courtesy of Level Ground Productions)

“Union” is a cinéma vérité film that is minimalist almost to a fault. This pro-activist documentary (about the controversial formation of Amazon’s first worker union) is a feel-good underdog story. However, the story is one-sided, has drab pacing, and doesn’t tell enough about union members who aren’t leader Chris Smalls.

Cinéma vérité filmmaking is non-fiction storytelling without narration, re-enactments, animation and other contrived characteristics that are frequently in other documentaries. “Union” barely has a musical score, and there are no “expert” talking head interviews. This “no frills” approach to “Union” works in some ways but doesn’t work in other ways.

Directed by Stephen Maing and Brett Story, “Union” had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it won a U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Art of Change. The movie also made the rounds at other film festivals in 2024, including the New York Film Festival and DOC NYC. “Union” was one of the 15 documentaries selected for the 2025 Academy Awards shortlist (eligible for the final nominations) for Best Documentary Feature Film.

“Union” is told entirely from the point of view of the activists who were involved in creating Amazon Labor Union (ALU), which in 2022, became the first employee union for Amazon, a notoriously anti-union corporate giant. ALU was created for employees at Amazon’s JFK8 Fulfillment Center, located in the New York City borough of Staten Island. The “against all odds” official sanction (by employee voting) for this union to exist was a historic business event that received significant media coverage. Most people who will be interested in watching “Union” already know that this outcome happened. Therefore, there’s not a lot of suspense in watching “Union,” which was filmed from 2021 to 2022.

When a documentary is about an event or conflict that has a fairly well-known outcome, it behooves the documentary filmmakers to present some fascinating behind-the-scenes insights into how this outcome was achieved. In that respect, “Union” mostly delivers if you want an admittedly biased “root for the underdog” approach to this story. However, the movie falls short in giving viewers a deeper understanding of who the key players were in this battle that took place during the time the documentary was filmed.

Early on in “Union,” the movie juxtaposes two types of footage: (1) the Amazon warehouse employees arriving by bus and (2) news footage of the first suborbital space flight for Blue Origin, the space flight company from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Bezos reportedly spent around $5.5 billion for this four-minute flight.

The contrast is obvious: These Amazon warehouse employees (who probably barely make above minimum wage) can’t afford to travel to work by car, while Bezos spends more money on a four-minute space flight than most people will ever earn in their lifetimes. It should be noted that Bezos stepped down as CEO of Amazon in July 2021, so that he could focus mostly on Blue Origin. Bezos (whose current Amazon title is executive chairman) is still the largest shareholder in Amazon, which has made him one of the richest people in the world.

Even though Bezos’ name is mentioned several times in “Union,” and he’s vilified as the chief corporate villain to Amazon employees who want to unionize, the “Union” documentary leaves out the fact that Bezos was no longer Amazon’s CEO during the making of most of this documentary. It makes “Union” look biased by omitting crucial facts. A epilogue hastily mentions that Amazon officials declined to answer questions for the documentary, but it’s not that hard to include publicly known information about Bezos’ role at Amazon during the time that this documentary was filmed.

It should come as no surprise that “Union” has relentless messaging that Amazon’s management officials are greedy and heartless villains, while the employees who want to form a union are brave and oppressed heroes. The only footage that shows Amazon’s management officials speaking is footage (usually from undercover audio/video taken at Amazon employee meetings) where Amazon’s management tries to squash support for anything related to union activities. Even viewers who agree with the union activities can see that this documentary goes a little too far with its bias.

And that’s why it’s disappointing that “Union” does not go “all in” by showing more of who these union activists really are as people. “Union” is about ALU but keeps most of the ALU members at a vague distance—seen mostly as nameless people at protest rallies or in group meetings. The exception is ALU leader Christian “Chris” Smalls, the only ALU member whose work experience is discussed and his personal life shown in the documentary.

Smalls (a married father, whose home life gets several scenes in the documentary) used to be a mid-level manager at JFK8 until he was fired. “Union” gives no details about the work history of the people who were current Amazon employees at the time this documentary was filmed. After getting fired from Amazon, Smalls put all of his work efforts into forming ALU. The documentary doesn’t give details on how ALU gets funding.

Smalls is talkative, often abrasive, and sometimes arrogant. But in his own foul-mouthed way, he can be a great motivator of people and has above-average persistence. In ALU meetings, Smalls says things such as: “We have to match Amazon’s intensity and power … Right now, Amazon is on their high horse. We need to punch them in the face.”

He is also a better strategist than most of the people who think they are more knowledgeable than he is in how to make this union official. Even with a strategy that ended up working, Smalls makes some mistakes that probably affected people’s perceptions of him as a leader. There are also indications that he’s gotten a bit conceited from the media attention he gets as ALU’s leader.

“Union” does a lot to show that Smalls has a “big personality” but the documentary skimps on a lot of details about the resources needed for this ALU battle. Smalls mentions several times in the documentary that he’s financially struggling because he’s not getting paid enough before the union becomes official. The documentary needed details about ALU’s fundraising and where the money was going during this period of time.

Smalls also mentions that ALU has help from attorneys, but these attorneys are nowhere to be seen in the documentary. And that’s why “Union” is perhaps too narrow in its focus. “Union” has an obvious agenda to make ALU members look like “scrappy, inexperienced underdogs” as much as possible. But as soon as Smalls mentions that the ALU has attorneys, you know this group is getting a lot more help from corporate professionals than what’s shown in the documentary.

All of these are unanswered questions that many viewers might have when there’s scene after scene of ALU trying to get Amazon employees to sign ALU petitions by offering the employees free fast food (such as pizza and hamburgers), free drinks, and free marijuana at makeshift booths stationed in or near the JFK8 parking lot. One of these questions is: “Who’s really paying for all of these giveaways? And how much of that money is from ALU’s budget?” Don’t expect the documentary to answer those questions.

“Union” gets a bit repetitive with multiple scenes of Zoom meetings where ALU members complain about enduring unsafe work conditions; being overworked and underpaid; and getting threats of job termination or job demotion for wanting to join a union. The repetition doesn’t have to do with the complaints themselves. It has to do with the fact that “Union” doesn’t really explain who these disgruntled employees are. If the documentary told us more of about their personal stories, then “Union” would have been a much more impactful movie.

These are the Amazon employees who get more screen time than most of the Amazon employees in “Union”:

Angelika Maldonado, the chair of the ALU Workers’ Committee, occasionally clashes with Smalls, but is mostly loyal to him.
Derrick Palmer, another Smalls loyalist, was voted ALU’s external vice-president during the making of this documentary
Natalie Monarrez was initially a ALU member but quit and became opposed to ALU because she disagreed with ALU’s leadership and strategy.
Jason Anthony, who appears to be on the autism spectrum, had an anxiety-ridden meltdown over all the time spends on ALU and threatened to quit when he started to give up hope.
Brett Daniels, ALU’s director of organizing, is laid-back and doesn’t try to be the “alpha male” of the group.
Madeline Wesley, an optimistic college graduate, is a key organizer for ALU.

Many of the ALU group meetings shown in the documentary are surprisingly bland, except for one meeting that devolves into petty arguing because Smalls scolds a member for being 15 minutes late, even though he frequently excuses himself for being tardy to meetings. The more interesting ALU member interactions are the ones that aren’t official group meetings.

For example, at an ALU recruiting booth, Monarrez confides in Wesley about her concern that ALU leadership is turning into a “boys’ club” where only men get to be at the top. Monarrez also thinks ALU should be led by more experienced union leaders, such as the Teamsters, and ALU should wait for these more experienced leaders to step in and help. Wesley disagrees and says these more experienced leaders aren’t going to arrive in time for ALU to get what they want by ALU’s deadline goals.

Much of “Union” shows ALU members getting petitions signed, planning their next move, and trying to recruit Amazon employees to join ALU or at least vote for the union. ALU has the additional challenge of getting enough petition signatures by people who will still be Amazon employees by the time the petitions need to be submitted and ratified. It’s mentioned that Amazon has a high turnover rate for warehouse employees. And after the peak seasons, the majority of these warehouse employees are almost certain to be laid off and then rehired if they choose to join the company again for the next peak season.

Other information is noticeably absent from “Union.” A few ALU members mention getting wrongfully terminated from Amazon, but the documentary doesn’t follow through to get more details on these terminations. There’s a scene where Smalls and Anthony get arrested because Smalls refused to leave an Amazon parking lot, and Anthony got into a physical confrontation with a cop over it. Smalls and Anthony were obviously bailed out, but the documentary never mentions what happened to these arrest cases.

“Union” gives so much screen time to Smalls and his personal life, while telling almost nothing about the backgrounds and lives of his ALU teammates, the documentary could almost be subtitled “The Chris Smalls Show.” ALU is much more than one man’s vision and truly was a team effort, but the documentary doesn’t give enough proper acknowledgment to Smalls’ subordinates, which is ironic for a documentary that wants to look like it’s a champion for underrepresented and overlooked people.

“Union” acknowledges some of ALU’s internal conflicts but doesn’t adequately explore or examine them. For example, observant viewers will see that Monarrez starts off as one of ALU’s most vocal and active supporters. And then she’s not seen for a great deal of the movie. And then, toward the end of the documentary, Monarrez is abruptly seen again in an interview where she says she quit ALU and will be voting against ALU. After this documentary was filmed, ALU has had even more internal problems, which have been documented in several media reports.

“Union” can be commended for getting exclusive access to filming these activists during the formation of ALU. However, the documentary is more anecdotal than educational, with many questions unanswered or details glossed over or sidelined. Viewers won’t learn anything interesting about the lives of any ALU member after watching “Union.” The documentary is about a “movement” but seems to forget that viewers should know more about the crucial people who made this movement possible.

Level Ground Productions released “Union” in select U.S. cinemas on October 18, 2024. “Union” is available for paid streaming on the movie’s official website and on Gathr.

Review: ‘Babygirl’ (2024), starring Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Sophie Wilde and Antonio Banderas

December 24, 2024

by Carla Hay

Harris Dickinson and Nicole Kidman in “Babygirl” (Photo by Niko Tavernise/A24)

“Babygirl” (2024)

Directed by Halina Reijn

Culture Representation: Taking place mostly in New York City, the dramatic film “Babygirl” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A high-powered CEO, who’s married with kids, puts her marriage and career at risk when she enters into a secretive dominant/submissive sexual relationship with a younger man, who’s an intern at her company

Culture Audience: “Babygirl” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and are interested in dramas about people with sexual dilemmas.

Antonio Banderas and Nicole Kidman in “Babygirl” (Photo courtesy of A24)

The lifestyle of bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism (BDSM) has always been controversial when it comes to being a choice for sexual fulfillment because the definition of “consent” is often confused or misunderstood in these contexts. The ending of “Babygirl” will largely determine how much a viewer will like this erotic drama. Nicole Kidman gives a memorable and raw performance as a married mother coming to terms with her BDSM desires that are ignited by her affair with a younger man.

Written and directed by Halina Reijn, “Babygirl” had its world premiere at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival, where Kidman won the award for Best Actress. “Babygirl” had its North American premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Reijn is also one of the producers of the movie.

In “Babygirl” (which takes place mostly in New York City, where the movie was filmed on location), Kidman portrays Romy Mathis, the CEO of an unnamed company that is making a product called Harvest, which is the company “emotional intelligence” answer to artificial intelligence. It’s somewhat of an irony, since much of “Babygirl” is about Romy masking her real emotions with artificial emotions, in order to play the part of a high-powered business executive who has her whole life in order.

Romy is married to a kind of loving husband named Jacob (played by Antonio Banderas), who is a successful director of stage plays. Jacob, just like Romy, has a tendency to be absorbed by his work. But it doesn’t get in the way of the passion he still has for Romy.

The movie’s opening scene shows Romy and Jacob having sex, but viewers soon see that Romy isn’t really sexually fulfilled by Jacob. She wants to BDSM role play during sex, where she plays the submissive role. However, she’s afraid to tell Jacob about this desire. Later, it’s revealed that Romy has never had an orgasm when she’s had sex with Jacob.

At work, Romy is a well-respected and productive leader. The company’s business is doing well financially. At home, things aren’t running so smoothly for Romy. And it’s not because she’s unfulfilled by her sex life with Jacob.

Romy and Jacob have two teenage daughters. Older daughter Isabel (played by Esther McGregor), who’s about 15 or 16, is rebellious and disrespectful to Romy, while younger daughter Nora (played by Vaughan Reilly), who’s about 13 or 14, is obedient and respectful. Isabel rudely insults Romy for a variety of things, including Romy’s physical appearance, by taunting Romy for looking “old.”

Romy is hurt by these types of insults because Romy is self-conscious about looking as young as possible. A scene in the movie shows her getting Botox treatments on her face. The movie implies that Romy is also hurt by Isabel’s disrespectful treatment because Romy and Isabel used to be close, but their relationship has changed. It’s left up to interpretation if it’s just teenage rebellion or something else.

One day, Romy is walking on a street when she sees a German Shepherd running loose after getting away from its owner. She also sees that a young man in his mid-to-late 20s is able to calm down the female dog before handing the dog back to the owner. After this stranger gives the cookie to the dog, he says, “Good girl.” It’s a sentence that Romy will hear again from this same man in a dominant/submissive flirtation.

Later that day, a group of about 10 to 15 new interns are given a tour of the company’s headquarters. Romy’s intelligent assistant Esme Smith (played by Sophie Wilde) is giving the tour and has the interns briefly stop by Romy’s office. After a brief introduction, one of the interns asks a business question that makes Romy slightly uncomfortable because she doesn’t want to answer the question in that moment. Seeing Romy’s discomfort, Esme quickly ushers the interns out of the office.

Romy notices that this inquisitive intern is the same man whom she saw placate the German Shepherd earlier that day. It isn’t long before she finds out his name: Samuel (played by Harris Dickinson), who immediately tests Romy’s boundaries on sexual flirtation. Samuel is skilled at sizing people up psychologically, so he is quickly able to detect Romy’s vulnerabilities.

Shortly after meeting Romy, Samuel notices a Botox bruise on her forehead that Romy has tried to hide underneath her hair. Samuel comments to Romy about the bruise: “It looks good on you.” Romy looks startled but pleased by this unexpected compliment. However, she then covers up the bruise with makeup. Later, Romy asks Samuel how he was able to calm down the German Shepherd that was running loose on the street. Samuel tells Romy that he gave a cookie to the dog, and he flirtatiously asks Romy if she wants a cookie too.

Samuel also tells Romy that she was signed up to his personal mentor during this internship. It’s an excuse for Romy and Samuel to have private meetings inside and outside the office. At first, Romy doesn’t believe that she was signed up to be Samuel’s mentor without her knowledge. But when she asks Esme about it, Esme says the internship program will make Romy look more accessible.

And so, Romy agrees to have a 10-minute meeting with Samuel, who continues to test her boundaries. There is an unspoken attraction between Romy and Samuel that heats up the more that they see each other. Samuel’s seduction of Romy starts off gradually but then it ramps up fairly quickly when he figures out that she wants to be a submissive to a dominant sexual partner.

A pivotal scene to this revelation is when Samuel sees Romy with some colleagues at a restaurant/bar during a work get-together. Samuel orders a glass of milk for Romy, and she drinks it all. As seen in the movie’s trailer, after Romy drinks the milk, he whispers to her, “Good girl.”

“Babygirl” has the expected erotic scenes showing domination and submission, with obvious parallels in how Samuel was able to control the German Shepherd to how he is able to control Romy in this BDSM relationship. And if these parallels aren’t obvious enough, there’s a non-sexual scene with Samuel and the dog in a hotel room that mirrors a scenario that Samuel had with Romy. For example, Samuel makes Romy eat food from his hand, just like someone might do to a dog.

However, there are other layers to Romy’s life that show who she is outside of her sexual desires. Esme sees Romy as a mentor and wants a promotion, but things get complicated when Romy notices that Samueland Esme have a flirtatious attraction to each other. Although Samuel and Romy by no means have an agreement to be “exclusive” with each other, Romy can’t help but feel jealous and insecure that she could have competition with a younger woman who is also her subordinate.

Isabel is openly lesbian or queer, and her sexuality is not a problem or issue with her parents. Isabel has a girlfriend named Mary (played by Gabrielle Policano), who is known and accepted by Isabel’s immediate family. However, when Romy, Jacob and their kids are spending time at their second home in suburban New York City, Romy notices Isabel kissing a 17-year-old neighborhood girl named Ophelia (played by Tess McMillan) in the home’s backyard swimming pool.

When Romy asks Isabel about it later, Isabel responds by saying: “I’m in love with Mary. I’m just having fun with Ophelia.” It’s the first sign that Isabel and Romy are more alike than they think they are. Later, Isabel is the first person in Romy’s family to notice that something is “off” with Romy when Romy’s affair with Samuel gets more intense. Fans of 1980s pop music will appreciate hearing INXS’s “Never Tear Us Apart” and George Michael’s “Father Figure” in two of the movie’s memorable seduction scenes.

As the secret affair between Romy and Samuel heats up, they both start to take more risks. Romy meets Samuel for a steamy tryst at a nightclub, even though there’s a chance that anyone they know could see Romy and Samuel together in this public place. In another scene in the movie, Samuel shows up at Romy’s house unannounced and uninvited to return her laptop computer, but it’s really a way for him to test Romy’s reaction. The main suspense in “Babygirl” is in seeing if anyone will find out about Romy’s secret affair. And if so, what will happen?

One of the flaws of “Babygirl” is that the movie doesn’t give too many details about Romy’s background to explain why she is the person she is. In a conversation with Esme, Romy mentions that she was named Romy by a guru because Romy grew up in a commune. Esme jokes that she thought Romy was raised by robots. Romy mentions in a separate conversation with Samuel that she graduated summa cum laude from Yale University. Samuel replies that he thinks she likes being told what to do.

Before Romy began her affair with Samuel, a scene shows her trying to persuade Jacob to be “dominant” with her during sex, by asking him to have sex with her while he covers her face with a pillow. He awkwardly grants her request but he stops because he says he can’t do it because it makes him feel like a villain. Romy is disappointed but she doesn’t fully explain to a confused Jacob why she made this request.

Sex workers who are paid to dominate people sexually often say that their clients are usually powerful leaders who are secret submissives because the clients feel like it’s freeing to be in sexual situations that are the opposite of the responsibilities and burdens that they have in their work life. It would be easy to assume that Romy might have developed her BDSM desires after she became a CEO, but there’s a scene in the movie where Romy confesses that she’s had these dominant/submissive thoughts going back to her childhood.

Even less background information is revealed about Samuel, although his pursuit of Esme at the same time he pursues Romy is certainly an indication that he’s a serial seducer. As such, Dickinson’s performance as Samuel is effective but intentionally mysterious about who Samuel really is. All of the cast members give believable performances, but none of the performances can come close to the myriad of emotions that Kidman portrays in Romy’s complicated feelings of shame, liberation, arousal and denial.

“Babygirl” doesn’t pass judgment on people who make BDSM choices in their sex lives. Instead, the movie tells one woman’s personal journey in exploring her previously repressed BDSM fantasies. The sex is a manifestation of other issues that are left open to interpretation but can be ascertained as Romy’s desperation to express a part of herself that she can’t share with most people. The movie keeps viewers guessing until the very end if Romy’s choices will ruin her marriage, but the true intention of “Babygirl” is showing how Romy can save herself from self-deception.

A24 will release “Babygirl” in U.S. cinemas on December 25, 2024.