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The 2nd: Bearing Arms with Brutal Results

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The 2nd follows Major Vic Davis (Ryan Phillippe), a former Green Beret who has walked away from his life in the military and trying to take care of his family. When he arrives to pick up his teenage son from school for a weekend to reconnect, Davis immediately senses that something is wrong when a group of suspicious strangers invade the campus. Led by the mysterious Driver (Casper Van Dien), the unknown visitors turn out to be a squad of Black Ops mercenaries hired to kidnap the daughter of a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Thrust into action, Davis must fight to rescue

Directed by Brian Skeba, The 2nd feels like it has the right ingredients to create something wild and fun yet it simply doesn’t deliver. Though it contains a few memorable set pieces, the film ultimately becomes a paint-by-numbers actioner that fails to excite. While the young cast seem interested in their storylines, few other cast members seem particularly engaged, especially Phillippe. While some actors (read Cage, Nicolas) have been able to transition freely between serious drama and ‘straight-to-video’ efforts, Phillippe simply doesn’t bring the same sort of energy when he’s involved in these types of projects and his apathy shows onscreen. (Although, admittedly, Van Dien does seem to be enjoying the opportunity to play the villain, even if there’s little for him to work with in the script.)

At its heart, The 2nd wants to prove the value of the Second Amendment (more widely known as the ‘right to bear arms’). However, the script is often so muddled that even that is hard to understand for the majority of the film. For such a complicated issue, one would hope that there was some earnest discussion from both sides at various points within the film. Instead, the extent of the conversation surrounding the 2nd amendment boils down solely to the argument that ‘you’d better be ready in case you’re caught in the revolution’. Youth are handed guns with barely any consequence. One teen survives the final battle due to their skills at fencing. And, of course, Davis kills without remorse. (In fact, at one point, when his son points out that his father has just murdered a man in front of him, Davis flippantly responds by stating that ‘He was going to kill you’ and immediately moves on.) 

If there are reasons to consider the value of the right to bear arms in today’s culture, The 2nd simply isn’t interested in exploring them. Instead, Skeba’s film decides to show you the dangers of living a life unarmed in a world where no one can be trusted. This is a film which quite literally suggests that friends are foes and government conspiracies require average people to be prepared to engage. While that can work in some films (read Willis, Bruce), The 2nd uses this argument to recklessly create scenarios of paranoia and violence. Given last week’s shocking uprising at the Capitol Building, the release of The 2nd at this time feels particularly insensitive. (Admittedly, you can’t really fault the film itself for this sort of poor timing but this feels like the kind of film that everyone is just hoping goes away.)

There will be some who can revel in The 2nd for some relatively fun fight scenes and over the top acting. (For example, the fight in the gym and the final battle between Phillippe and Van Dien would be among the most noteworthy.) However, for most others, when it comes time to decide what to stream this evening, The 2nd should probably be last on the list.

The 2nd is available on PVOD and in select theatres on Tuesday, January 19, 2021.

1982 – Love and War

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Oualid Mouaness’s 1982 is a story about fear and courage, love and war, innocence and maturity. The film is Lebanon’s official submission for Best International Film consideration.

For fifth grade student Wissam (Mohamad Dalli) the end of year exams aren’t a problem; he’s a top student. What he is worried about is if he will be able to tell classmate Joanna that he loves her. He doesn’t understand the import of what is going on in the world—that Israel has invaded his country.

His teacher, Yasmine (Nadine Labaki) is fully aware of the dangerous times. Her brother is going south to fight with the Christian militia. She has an ailing father. She is in the middle of the political conflict that is represented by her brother on one side and her fellow teacher and boyfriend on the other. As the school day goes on, the contrails and sound of planes are a constant reminder of what’s happening. In time the sound of explosions rumble in the distance, then nearer. Plumes of smoke rise out of Beirut where the students live. Dogfights happen in the sky above.

The story moves back and forth between Wassim’s attempts to get the courage to talk to Joanna and the adults in the story trying to deal with their own worries and at the same time keep calm in the classrooms. It makes for a useful contrast between the innocence of childhood and the dangers and troubles of the adult world. But in time, the film wants us to understand that relationships—and love—are a key to being resilient in the times of trouble.

The childhood storyline is really the more compelling one. As he talks with his friend about his desire to make himself known to Joanna, and Joanna talks to her friend about who could have left the anonymous note in her locker, the sense of the power of childhood love is very clear. It is at once both scary and something we crave. It is a reminder that even in the midst of terrible and fearful events love has the power to transform us. It has the power to save us. For Wassim, we see that power come forth in the end with a bit of magical realism to save not just his love for Joanna, but his city.

The film triggers in me a touch of a contrast between scriptures. The Apostle Paul wrote, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, and I reasoned as a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.” That thought fits well with the adults in this story as they must deal with the realities of the war drawing close. But there is also the story, “[Jesus] called a child, whom he put among them, and said, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”  1982 captures both of those perspectives. And it calls us live in the light of both.

1982 is available on VOD and via virtual cinema through local arthouses.

Photos courtesy of Utopia.

One Night in Miami: History for Today

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Regina King flexes her incredible directorial skills for the first time in a feature film by bringing Kemp Powers’ stage play, One Night in Miami to the big screen (or little screen, as it were).

One Night in Miami is a fictional take on a meeting between real life friends, Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir), Cassius Clay (Eli Goree), Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), and Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) as they celebrate Clay’s title victory in 1964. At this time, these four very successful and world-renowned black men were at pivotal moments in their lives and careers.  Despite their stature, they continued to witness and experience the racism that was rampant in the 60’s, and still plagues us to this day.

Malcolm X was at a crossroads with the Nation of Islam and was in the process of pursuing his own branch of the Muslim faith.  As adversity continued to rise, he was growing weary from oppression, including numerous death threats.  Even so, he continued to be as passionate as ever about his activism and was invested in helping Cassius Clay transition to the faith.  

Clay, a confident and free-spirited man, was now a world champion boxer, and was quietly practicing as a Muslim under the teachings of Malcolm X.  He initially seemed timid about going public with his faith, and seemed to struggle when he finds out about Malcolm’s tribulations.

At the peak of his football career, Jim Brown was in the process of transitioning to acting.  We see a shocking hypocrisy with Jim’s backstory when he meets with a benefactor who is kind and welcoming to his face but then admits that they don’t welcome black people into their home.

Sam Cooke was the ultimate 60’s pop star who, according to Malcolm X, seemed to have his foot in the door of the white man.  Malcolm took issue with the fact that Sam wasn’t using his platform to speak on the civil rights issues facing the black community.

When these four men are in a room alone together, it sparks deep and passionate conversations about faith, civil rights, racism, and freedom.  As this was a stage play, we are blessed with numerous impressive monologues from each character.  This is an extremely emotionally driven piece and it certainly makes you think and compare the world they were living in with today’s culture.

One thing that Malcolm X said that struck me was that there is no reason for anyone to be on the fence anymore.  There are literally people dying in the streets everyday.  Black people are dying everyday and a line has got to be drawn in the sand.  This is so shockingly relevant to society today.  This is unfortunately the world we continue to live in and the world that we must change. 

One Night in Miami was a very impressive film that is not only entertaining but extremely relevant and important.  Each performance was incredible.  From the footage I have seen of these men in real life, the acting was spot on.  They had great chemistry on screen.  You believed their friendship but you also believed their disagreements.  And perhaps we can take a note from these men in the way that they support each other, yet don’t hesitate to call it out when there’s an issue and a potential for growth.

One Night in Miami is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

Darrel’s Dozen (or so) 2020

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What a strange year for films. Most of the blockbuster films planned for the summer and awards season are hiding out from COVID-19. Maybe they’ll find their ways to open theaters sometime this year. Many films wound up going straight to streaming services. In some ways that’s good—it means that people who don’t have an arthouse nearby have had a chance to see non-megaplex films at home through virtual cinema, Netflix, Prime Video, HBO, Disney+, Apple+, etc. etc. All those streaming services represent the downside. Who can afford to subscribe to all of them? And since films go to one exclusively, it means that there are films we would love to see that aren’t really available for us. No telling what the situation with theaters will be in the post-pandemic world. Perhaps there will be some sort of synthesis of theaters and streaming that will be available for us all.

Also this year, film festivals had to go virtual, which meant that you could take part even if you lived far off. People from all over the US could watch films at AFIFest without traveling to Hollywood. (Also, I didn’t have to commute for that week or stand in lines.)

I have to admit that because so many streaming platforms were hungry for content, there are a lot of smaller films that found their way to the general public. Again. That’s both good and bad. It means some good films found audiences that they wouldn’t have reached. It also means that there was a lot of crap that made the cut. It doesn’t seem fair to give this year a grade, so I’ll just give it an incomplete.

Now to my top films for the year. You’ll notice there are a lot of docs. I’d have thought it would be a year to embrace fiction, but these looks at the real world rose to the top.

  1. & 2. A double feature of docs of youth and political involvement. Boys State takes us to one of the annual week-long camps run by the American Legion that focus on the American political process. Divided into two teams, the campers elect a state government. Political gamesmanship reflects real world politics. Crip Camptakes us back to the 1970s and a camp designed for kids with disabilities. The freedom they found there led many of them to become involved in rights for disabled people.
  2. Lovers Rock, the second “episode” of Steve McQueen’s Small Axeanthology. The film takes place at a all-night party of West Indian immigrants in London in the 70s or 80s. This film doesn’t have the social justice focus of the other films in the anthology. It is a celebration of the living. Note the ten minute (!) long scene built around the song “Silly Games.”
  3. The Social Dilemma, another documentary, this one about the ways social media platforms manipulate us as individuals and as a society. We meet some of the key people who have helped this to happen, like the inventor of the “like” button. The film issues a warning for us all to pay attention to what we are doing when we are looking at those screens.
  4. Da 5 Bloods, Spike Lee’s look at the bond of a group of African-American vets who return to Vietnam to recover a treasure they stashed. Times change, people change. Perhaps the real treasure is the memories of their friendship. But that too may be buried in the jungle.
  5. Rebuilding Paradise, a Ron Howard documentary about the town of Paradise, California, that was destroyed in a wildfire. We see the cell phone videos that the people of the town made as they evacuated, then we see the trials they face in trying to reestablish their lives in the aftermath. It is a story of community, resilience, and ultimately hope.
  6. Wolfwalkers,Cartoon Saloon’s third in a Irish folklore trilogy. A young wannabe huntress encounters a girl her own age who can transform into a wolf. Meanwhile Cromwell’s army is determined to eliminate all the wolves. Beautiful hand animation that captures the Irish culture and a sense of their struggle against the English.
  7. Mangrove, another of the films in the Small Axe anthology. It tells the story of the trial of the Mangrove Nine, the court case that made the UK judicially recognize racial prejudice in the police and legal system against West Indian immigrants.
  8. News of the World, the story of a country divided in many ways. A travelling news reader strives to take a young girl, captured and raised by the Kiowa, back to her relatives. It becomes a story of what has been lost and what can be found.
  9.  I’m Thinking of Ending Things, a Charlie Kaufman film, which means it twists around on itself more than a snake swallowing its own tail. A young woman on a trip to meet her boyfriend’s parents. But she isn’t sure she wants to stay in the relationship. Sort of.
  10. Never Rarely Sometimes Always, a story of a teen seeking an abortion. She and her cousin journey from small town Pennsylvania to NYC. Although care is available, it is not easy to navigate the system, making this a wearying journey.
  11.  Another doc double feature, this time focusing on journalists facing down government power. Collective takes place in Romania as the press calls the government to task for corruption in the health care system. A Thousand Cuts shows the struggle in the Philippines to bring out the truth about a brutal and lying President. (Since that puts me over the titular limit, I may as well add in Bellingcat about a whole new model for searching for the truth.)

And sense you deserve even more good movies in this difficult year, I have a bonus double feature for you to consider. Both these films revolve around drinking—and the meaning of life. Last Call recalls Dylan Thomas’s purported day in a bar downing 18 double whiskeys before he returned to his hotel room and went into a coma. But each drink had a name—an aspect of life he wanted to consider. Another Round involves four friends who test a hypothesis that life is better with a constant alcohol level in the blood. Will they find happiness or trouble?

There are some films that might well have made the list, but they have only played festivals to this point. I hope you get a chance to see a couple films that played as part of the AFIFest. Nine Days, a story of not-yet-born souls trying to be selected for “the amazing opportunity of life”, is tentatively scheduled for a summer release.  There Is No Evil isan Iranian film about making moral choices (built around capital punishment) in an authoritarian society. It has no release date yet. Both of these films would have made my list this year.

The best older film that I viewed for the first time or revisited is one I reviewed as part of our Self Isolation Film Festival, Groundhog Day. It just seems to capture the day-after-day sameness of this year (especially the early months of the pandemic). For those who want an edgier version of that concept, you should check out Palm Springs on Hulu.

And since we all spent so much time binging everything on Netflix, Prime, HBO, and anything else we might have had access to, I think it’s appropriate to name my favorite binge viewing of the year, Money Heist on Netflix. The multi-season story of a band of criminals who execute an elaborate invasion/theft at the Spanish National Mint. Great cat and mouse cops and robbers adventure.

Another Round – Just a Little Buzz

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The ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes is credited with saying, “Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.” Those of us who drink may recognize that concept. A touch of alcohol can make us just a bit more outgoing, more witty, more entertaining. Of course, too much alcohol can lead in the opposite direction. In Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round (original title, Druk), that idea is central.

Martin (Mads Mikkelsen) is a teacher who is feeling a bit of middle-aged ennui. He’s just going through the motions at school and in his family. He’s afraid that his life has become boring. When he goes out to celebrate of his friend’s fortieth birthday, the discussion comes around to a theory propounded by Norwegian psychiatrist Finn Skårderud, that people need a constant blood alcohol concentration of 0.05% to be at their best. (For reference, most states have a 0.08 BAC limit for driving.) Martin and his three friends (played by Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang, and Lars Ranthe), also teachers, set about to test this hypothesis. They even treat it as a psychological experiment, making notes about their experiences.

Martin begins to want to connect with students, his wife, his sons. All of the friends find that sneaking that drink from time to time during the day has improved many aspects of life—even during the times they aren’t drinking. Since that 0.05 BAC did so well, they decide to step it up, to see if there’s an upper limit. That, of course, is when the troubles begin. What started out as making life better, turned into a nightmare.

In press notes, Vinterberg says, “We want to create a tribute to alcohol but it goes without saying we also want to paint a nuanced picture. Embedded in our examination of the essence of alcohol lies an acknowledgement that people die from – and are destroyed by – excessive drinking. An existence with alcohol generates life, but it also kills.” The film is full of examples of people from history who were known for their drinking, such as Winston Churchill and Ernest Hemingway. But even there, the film reminds us that the former led Britain in winning World War II, while the latter, in spite of great literary success, committed suicide.

I find it worth noting that the film opens with a quote from Søren Kierkegaard, and Kierkegaard comes up again later in the film as a student goes through an oral exam. Maybe it’s just because the film is Danish, but bringing a proto-existentialist theologian into the equation calls us to think in deeper terms than just watching a group of men drink. The film really asks (but knows it cannot answer) the question of if such drinking brings happiness or destruction. It holds both scenarios and reminds us that, like other aspects of life, we are in constant tension between the two.

Another Round is available on VOD

Photos courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films.