ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

Darrel Manson

The Paper Tigers – Kung Foolery

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“When a man’s virtue exceeds his talent, he becomes the superior man.”

Perhaps you think kung fu movies are all about the graceful movements. You may expect great flying leaps and masterful kicks and punches. The Paper Tigers, from director Tran Quoc Bao, goes in a different direction. This comedic approach to the discipline is more about renewing lost friendships and remembering long lost lessons about loyalty and honor.

As teens in the 90s, Danny (Alain Uy), Hing (Ron Yuan), and Jim (Mykel Shannon Jenkins) bonded as friends as they trained under Sifu Cheung, a kung fu master who seemed to be happier cooking in a Chinese restaurant. But now they have grown apart—and into middle aged men.

When their Sifu dies, Hing reconnects with Danny so they can go to the funeral. But Danny is estranged from Jim. At the funeral, as Sifu Cheung’s disciples, they are expected to lead the service and take possession of his ashes. But they have not been involved with him for many years. When there is a question about what really happened to the Sifu, they are expected to seek the truth and vengeance.

They are no longer the fighters they were back in the day. Danny, the senior disciple, now sells insurance and is an absentee father to his son. Hing was injured at work and has a very bad leg. Jim has become an MMA coach. As they seek to set things right after Sifu Cheung’s death, they must first deal with the issues that have separated them over the years. They also must rediscover the gifts their Sifu taught them to defeat younger fighters. It could be that the greatest lessons were not how to fight, but how to live. The importance of honor, discipleship, and loyalty are essential to the three finding the bond they had lost through the years.

The film plays with the kung fu trope, in part by being set in suburban America. Also through bending the racial stereotypes. The most “Chinese” character is Carter. When they were kids, Danny would embarrassingly defeat Carter repeatedly. Now Carter wants to be called Sifu Carter as he trains young fighters. He is most likely to repeat a Chinese proverb. Although there is continued animosity, Carter in many ways gives the trio important lessons along the way.

A side plot involves Danny and his son. Danny is pretty much a failure as a dad. He teaches his son to avoid violence. But Danny also discovers that there may be times that violence is the righteous response. How he passes that on to his son is a lesson in itself.

A key concept is that of discipleship. Disciples do not just soak up the things their teacher gives them. A true disciple becomes an extension of the teacher. That is something the three protagonists had lost track of. And in losing that they had lost a bit of themselves. So it is for any who call themselves a disciple.

The Paper Tigers opens May 7 in theaters and on demand.

Photos courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment.

About Endlessness – Pictures of Life

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“Isn’t it quite fantastic?”

Watching Roy Andersson’s About Endlessness is more like wandering through an art museum than sitting in a theater. This film is not about a story. It is about looking carefully at scene after scene of what may seem like ordinary life, but always just a tad off so that we need to look and consider just what we are seeing.

The film is made up of various tableaux. These are often unusually empty locales with just a handful of people within the frame. There may or may not be action or dialogue in each picture. After we have a few moments to take in this particular scene we hear a woman in voice over (in Swedish with English subtitles) say “I saw a man (or a woman) who….” Such as “ I saw a man who stepped on a landmine and lost his foot”; “I saw a man who didn’t trust banks”; “I saw a woman incapable of feeling shame”; “A woman who had a problem with her shoe”.

There is one recurring story that features a priest who has lost his faith. He dreams of carrying a cross and being crucified. He continues to lead worship, but for him it is an empty gesture. What is worse is that his life is now empty as well.

As we see each scene it is very like looking at a picture in the museum. We have time to notice the background and how each person is placed. In a museum we may look for the title of the painting to better understand it. Here we get the “I saw a woman who…” phrase that gives us a context for interpretation.

And like in a museum we bring our own experiences and understandings to the interpretation of each scene. We may find them humorous. We may think them tragic. They may be filled with hope or with despair. The various tableaux become emotive touchstones.

The evocative and existential nature of this film is certainly a divergence from our expectations of films. Although very different stylistically, this brought to mind the films of Terrance Mallick for the way and their ability to create a version of reality that allows us to think about life in new, and sometimes challenging ways. As with Mallick’s films, this is a celebration of humanity with all its joys and sorrows, with times of loneliness and estrangement, with times of comfort and love.

As with any walk through a museum, we may be drawn to some pictures and repelled by others. But we still come away with the knowledge that we have seen a bit of the truth about life.

About Endlessness is playing in theaters and on demand.

Photos courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

Making Sense – Seeing the Disabled

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Making Sense, directed by Gregory Bayne, strives to make those with disabilities visible. The story is built around those disabilities, but also around the abilities that are also part of those lives. It does so not only with the story, but by using disabled actors in several of the roles.

Jules (Jessi Melton) leads a group of grad students who are trying to create a device to help deaf people “hear” through using their sense of touch. It is a passion project for Jules, whose sister is deaf (apparently through some fault of Jules, but that isn’t really clear). After a demonstration shows the project is failing, she is contacted by Dr. Amberger (Richard Klautsch) who has his own passion project—to connect various disabled people to find a “sixth sense” to find access to a greater awareness.

The film works with the concept of neuroplasticity—that when people lose a sense, their brains create new neuro-pathways to use other senses to fill in what is missing. For example, someone who is blind may be able to tell far more from their hearing than others. The film uses terminology like “sensory enlightenment” to speak of this.

Amberger is a mad scientist character. He tried to do this many years ago, but when it took a bad turn, he had to abandon the project. It also led to him being sought by the authorities. Now with health issues of his own, he sees this as his last chance. When Jules goes along with him to finish his project, she puts her own project in jeopardy. They recruit others (including Jules’s sister) each missing a particular sense. Amberger’s theory is that the way each has rewired their brain will open a pathway to that sixth sense.

Press notes for the film put an emphasis on the way disabilities are treated in society, and especially in the media. They note that fewer characters in films and TV have disabilities than in real life. And of those characters, very few are portrayed by people with those disabilities. Making Sense uses people with disabilities in those key roles. It should be noted that this kind of diversity is being called for in the industry.

This is a sci-fi film that struggles with the science involved. The premise really isn’t fully developed, nor is the plotline featuring the FBI agents in pursuit. The film does serve as a way of providing a visible presence of actors with disabilities.

Making Sense is available on VOD.

Photos courtesy of Freestyle Digital Media

My Wonderful Wanda – Win-Wins?

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“This is a family matter.”

Bettina Oberli’s My Wonderful Wanda is about family—and about the ways families become intertwined without planning to. It also serves as a bit of social commentary of the relationship of the haves and have nots of society.

Wanda (Agnieszka Grochowska) is a Polish caregiver who has come to a lakeside Swiss home to care for Josef Wegmeister-Gloor as he recovers from a stroke. Wanda comes for three month stents while leaving her children at home with her parents. This is perceived (at least by the Wegmeister-Gloors) as a win-win. They get inexpensive care for their husband and father; Wanda makes more money than she could at home. But it is also a strain on Wanda’s family in Poland.

The Swiss family has two adult children with their own foibles. Gregi has been groomed (against his will) to take over the family business, but prefers birds (mostly stuffed). He’s also a bit in love with Wanda. Sophie is married to a lawyer, but is unsatisfied with her life. Elsa, the family matriarch, is controlling, but often in ways that seem very kind. Wanda is skilled at negotiating the various personalities and is especially good at making Josef happy.

When Wanda becomes pregnant, it raises a number of issues in both families. How does this affect inheritance? Is Wanda just trying to extort money from the family? What truths have been hidden through the years that must now be addressed?

The film is a bit uneven in its movement back and forth between comedy and drama, but it does create an interesting look at what makes up family. Even though the Polish and Swiss families are very different in outlook, Wanda has managed to bring them together, even if in an adversarial way. Each family is concerned with its own well being, but also with how Wanda’s child will be incorporated in each.

The rub comes when the child comes to be seen as a commodity. There are solutions to the problem that are proposed that seem like everyone benefits, but as with the idea that the use of cheap Polish labor is “win-win”, it fails to take in the personal cost that these solutions create.

In the end, it is Wanda who must struggle against all the attitudes of both families to decide what will become of her child. And in that decision it may be that many other issues will find new solutions as well.

My Wonderful Wanda is in theaters and available via virtual cinema.

Photos courtesy of Zodiac Pictures

Quo Vadis, Aida? – Helplessness

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“I’m doing everything within my power.”

Quo Vadis, Aida? is a fictionalized story based on true events during the Bosnian War. Directed by Jasmila Žabanić, it has been nominated for an Oscar in the Best International Feature Category. It was submitted by Bosnia and Herzegovina. It recounts the fall of the town of Srebrenica and the resulting genocide carried out by the Serbian army.

Aida Selmanagić (Jasna Đuričić) is a Srebrenica school teacher who is serving as a translator for UN peacekeeping forces. The colonel leading the Dutch military contingent has been assuring the people of the town that they are protected and that the UN is prepared to attack the Serbs if they try to take the city. But when the Serbs come, the UN fails to carry out the threats of their ultimatums. The people evacuate the city, four or five thousand get inside the Dutch compound, but several thousands more are outside the compound seeking safety within. Aida is safe as an employee of the UN, but her husband and sons are outside the walls.

As an insider to the negotiations, Aida has information that the rest of her community does not have. She manages to find a way to get the family inside, but even then, the situation continues to deteriorate as the impotence of the UN forces becomes more and more obvious.

This is a film about helplessness. We especially see it in Aida as she struggles to save her family, but it is also true for the Dutch military leaders. They have been left out to dry by NATO and UN political decisions. When the colonel in charge tries to call up the command chain, he is told no one is available. Many times throughout the film, military people and Aida are pushed to tell people things they know are not true. The colonel admits early on, “I’m just a piano player.” (I.e., he’s only a messenger.) That is often the role that Aida finds herself in as well. Bringing messages that have no real force or meaning.

Aida is stuck in the middle—between her job and her family and the wider community. The Dutch are in the middle, delivering flaccid threats, then having to follow orders and regulations rather than saving lives.

When in school and learning to identify themes in literature, one of those overall themes that frequently recur is “Man’s inhumanity to man”. That phrase seems inadequate to describe genocide. We watch it play out, seeing the faces of so many we know to be doomed, and discovering that even those who care about what is happening are helpless to stop it. The film really doesn’t look at the geopolitical background. That would just be a diversion. The reality is that the world, like Aida, seems to be powerless in the face of the evil of such strife.

Quo Vadis, Aida? is playing in theaters, through virtual cinema, and on Hulu.

Monday – The Price of Hedonism

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Is passion enough for building a relationship? In Argyris Papadimitropoulos’s anti-romcom Monday, a couple quickly connect on a sexual level, but then struggle to find if there can be more to their time together.

Mickey (Sebastian Stan) and Chloe (Denise Gough) are Americans living in Athens. Mickey is musician and DJ who has been here for seven years. Chloe is an immigration lawyer who has been here eighteen months, but is getting ready to return to a job in Chicago. Chloe has just had a bad breakup. When she and Mickey meet at a large party, the sexual energy drives them. The next morning the police awaken them sleeping naked on the beach. It is only in the back of the police car they exchange names. When it’s time for Chloe to fly back to the US, Mickey makes a mad dash to the airport to convince her to stay.

The film plays out in a series of chapters, each beginning with a new Friday. (Only the last scene is labeled Monday). Each chapter shows a bit of change in their relationship. Each Friday brings something new to their relationship—moving in together, trying to do their work at home, meeting Mickey’s ex to talk about his son, etc. In each chapter they are still sexually bound to each other, but in other ways they seem to grow a bit more apart each time. We can sense that they are having a great deal of pain trying to maintain the relationship that has been built more on their sexual passion than on true love.

I call it an anti-romcom because it begins much like a normal romantic comedy might, but rather than following the story that moves towards sharing lives and loves, this story moves really in the opposite direction. We see selfishness and can expect that this will not bring about a happy ending for either the film or the characters. By structuring the film with a series of “Fridays” we see the characters, in metaphorical weekends—those times without responsibilities. And we can tell that when “Monday” comes there will be an accounting to be made.

The film can be seen as a critique of sensual hedonism. Hedonism is the idea that we find the good through seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. It has found many ways of being applied to life, including as a basis for ethics. The kind of hedonism we see in this film relies on physical pleasure about all else. That seems to be Chloe and Mickey’s answer to all their issues—have sex yet again (and they do it frequently in the film). But we see the paradox inherent in such a hedonism—that seeking pleasure is often self-defeating because there are many other motivations that bring goodness and joy.

As viewers we feel the pain of this relationship that needs a stronger foundation—built not on selfish pleasures, but in learning to give of one’s self, not just one’s body.

Monday is available at select theaters and on VOD.

Photos courtesy of IFC Films.

Beate – Socio-Economic Farce

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Never mind politics, economics is where you may find really strange bedfellows. In the Italian film Beate (which translates to “Blessed”), from Samad Zarmandili, two very different groups of women join forces to try to stave off the greed around them.

The first group of women are the workers at the Veronica lingerie factory. When the owner abruptly closes the factory, planning to open a new one in Serbia with cheaper labor, the women, led by their forewoman Armida at first picket, but then sneak out the equipment and fabric to make their own line.

The other group is the nuns of the “Convent of the Holy Mantle”. The nuns are renown for their embroidery skills that were developed by their founder the Blessed Armida (yes, the Armida in our story was named after her) 700 years ago. City inspectors come and announce that the building must be repaired. The Bishop will not promise funds. He and the mayor (who also owns the factory) plan a new resort in the place of the convent. When the women of the factory propose a joint venture using the nuns’ embroidery to enhance the lingerie, the young, inexperienced, temporary mother superior sees it as the only way to save the convent.

This is a film with a fairly simplistic view of social economics. Both groups of women are seen as dispensable. For those who are running the town, it is all about profits. Whether workers or nuns are displaced is of no importance. Such is unbridled capitalism. It would have made the film more satisfying if the final solution to the issues had been based in the value of the people, rather than finding a new way of making money—especially since in this case it is exploitive of religion.

Comedy is something that often doesn’t travel well. I think that is often true with Italian comedy, which tends towards farce. In this film, the characterization of the nuns seems especially stereotyped. The main contact we have with them is Armida’s aunt, who is something of a fanatic about adoration of the mummified body of the order’s founder. Most of the nuns are just background to what is going on. The interactions between the two groups of women was a possibility for some important themes, but wasn’t developed.

Beate is available on virtual cinema.

Photos courtesy of Corinth Films.

Hope – The Possibility of Light in the Darkness

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“You don’t have to love me just because I’m dying. But I need to know that you’ll help me.”

A diagnosis of terminal cancer inevitably brings upheaval and stress into any family. Hope, Norway’s official Oscar Submission for Best International Feature Film (it made the shortlist, but wasn’t nominated), is an intimate and intense look at the dynamics within a family, and especially between spouses in such a troubling time.

Anja (Andrea Bræin Hovig) and Tomas (Stellan Skarsgård) have been together for many years. They have three children together as well as three from Tomas’s first marriage. They have built very separate lives through the years, but have managed to stay together (although not married). A few days before Christmas, Anja learns that she has a brain tumor, likely a metastasis from her earlier lung cancer. Such tumors are invariably fatal.

The film follows Anja and her family through a very difficult eleven day period. They try to keep the diagnosis secret through the holiday, but with Anja’s reaction to the steroids she’s been put on, it becomes necessary to reveal the truth. She is struggling with thoughts of mortality, but also with concern for her children, especially her teenage daughter. Tomas and Anja also must deal with questions within their relationship and how their lives have evolved over the years. All the while they must deal with holidays with friends and with various medical appointments to determine any steps to be taken if there is to be any hope of survival.

At the very beginning of the film is a note that says. “This is my story as I remember it.” The film is based on director Maria Sødahl’s experience of getting such a diagnosis. (Obviously, she recovered.) That is what makes the film such an intimate portrayal of a very trying time in her life. As Anja struggles through such tumultuous times, trying to deal with holidays, family, drugs side effects, and the frustrations of even a good medical system, we can see something of the reality Sødahl lived.

The setting of the Christmas/New Year holidays is interesting because those are days we associate with hope—whether it involves Christmas presents or the dawning of a new year. But for Anja and Tomas, much of what they are seeing is hopelessness. Doctor after doctor tells them there is no hope—only short-term remedies.

That makes the film’s title stand out. This is a film in which hope, while it seems so elusive, is central to the characters’ lives. Hope, as it plays out in the film, is not just about a possible medical outcome. It applies to the future of Tomas’s and Anja’s children. But the real focus of hope that we see here is on healing the rift in the relationship between Tomas and Anja that has grown through years of distraction and routine. If they have only a little time left together, will it be a time of love or only struggle?

The film leaves all its questions unresolved, and in so doing it challenges us to consider our own level of hope.

Hope is available in theaters and through virtual cinema.

Photos courtesy of KimStim Films.

Brewmance – Raise a Glass

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“We’re making liquid art.”

When I got the invitation to screen Christo Brock’s Brewmance, I thought of passing, not because I don’t like beer, but because I’ve seen docs about craft brewing before. They usually lead me to try something new, but I kind of prefer to explore by going to local breweries to see what they have. But then I read that the film was about two groups of homebrewers who were trying to start breweries in my own backyard. That got my attention.

The film serves as a brief history of the craft beer movement starting with the boring US beer world of the 1970s. It was then that a few people started trying to make beer at home and experiment. These people started getting together, sharing recipes and ideas, and spreading new ways of seeing beer. A few of these people began to think that maybe they could do this on a bigger scale and began opening breweries.

That leads us to meet our main characters in the documentary, Dan and Jesse Sundstrom, the father and son beermakers of Ten Mile Brewing Company, and Dan Regan and Eric McLaughlin, two friends who are striving to create Liberation Brewing Company. They are two very different stories, but they both revolve around beer and the problems of making the leap from homebrewer to commercial brewing.

Dan and Jesse went through difficult times through Jesse’s teenage years. But now they have found a way to bond through making beer—a hobby that Dan started years ago and Jesse has followed. One of the revelations that happens in the film is that the Sundstroms are devout Christians and see their beermaking as a part of the ministry to the world.

The friends at Liberation Brewing have led very diverse lives, Regan toured the world with a ska/punk band; McLaughlin has worked for other breweries. They also have brought in a more business-minded friend, Michael Clements for his expertise. Their vision is to have a public house, similar to the places where the idea of the American Revolution “fermented” (that’s from Regan).

The film follows both sets of would-be brewers as they spend about 3 years bringing their dreams to fruition. As with any business start up there are trials along the way. At one point Dan Regan tells the camera, that if they were making a documentary there would be a point where they hit rock bottom. He seems to have felt that several times and then something more happens.

Mixed in with this is also a chance to learn about beer and beer making. Early on it’s mentioned that there are only four ingredients in beer: water, malt, hops, and yeast. As the characters stories play out, there are discursions about each of the ingredients and how each affects the character of different beers. Much of these lessons are led by some of the pioneers in the craft beer industry.

It’s nice to know I have two more local breweries to check out (actually I’ve had some of the Ten Mile beer before). But I’d also recommend this film for people who want to know more about craft beer. It will probably goad you to check out your own local brewers to see what they have for you. I expect there are similar interesting stories you can find out there as well.

Brewmance is available on VOD

Photos courtesy of Brocklamation Films

My True Fairytale – With Superpowers?

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“I can fix you.”

My True Fairy opens with a voice over spoken by Angie Goodwin (Emma Kennedy) in which she tells of her childhood dream of becoming a superhero with the ability to be fly and to be invisible. She would then save the world. As a teen, she still holds on to that dream.

When the action of the film begins, Angie is driving with two friends much too fast on a country road. After an awful accident, the two friends are in the hospital, but Angie is nowhere to be found. Angie is being raised by her grandparents. Her father Dean (Darri Ingolfsson) is off in L.A. following his dreams of being a composer. He comes back to his parents’ home, but when Angie continues to be missing, he returns to L.A. where he finds her in his apartment. She sets out to get her father’s life straightened out. Meanwhile the other teens involved have their own struggles. Is she involved in those lives as well?

The recurring theme in the story is the estrangement between parents and their children. It is not only the teens and their parents, but also involves Dean and his mother. The conflicts are over the usual familial issues: lack of trust, parents who spend all their energies on jobs, emotional abandonment. It should be noted that it seems that all the issues stem from the parents rather than the teens. At times the story becomes a bit soapy, especially as Dean tries to deal with his own life.

Director D. Mitry wrote the film after his daughter’s death in an auto accident. It served as a way for him to continue to feel connected to her. The film is a bit obvious. I knew the twist almost from the beginning. It has something of a Hallmark Channel feel with its feel-good solving of all the characters’ problems.

The film uses butterflies in various ways throughout the film to point to regeneration. But the concept of love finding ways into our lives is strongly put forward so that each conflict metamorphizes into new life. It’s overall concept is that love is transformative—and can even be so when it seems impossible. The true superpower that is discovered in the film is not invisibility or flying, but to feel the touch of love.

My True Fairytale is available in theaters and VOD.

Photos courtesy of Gravitas Ventures.