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The Nest: A House but Not a Home

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Written and directed by Sean Durkin, The Nest is a powerful and unflinching look at the emotional termites that can eat away at the foundations of a marriage. After bursting onto the scene with his Sundance darling Martha Marcy May Marlene in 2011, Durkin has remained relatively quiet as a filmmaker. With The Nest, Durkin yet again proves his skill at delving into the psychology of his characters, especially as they begin to unravel. Stars Carrie Coon and Jude Law are simply incredible as a couple who watch as the intimacy that they once enjoyed together gradually erodes at the hands of selfish ambition and pride.

Set in 1986, The Nest follows Rory (Law) and Allison (Coon), a married couple who love their kids and enjoy a solid relationship built on intimacy and trust. Living in a New York suburb, they are the picture of middle-class success. Even so, when Rory receives an invitation to take a higher profile (and potentially higher paying) job back to his hometown of London, he convinces Allison that this will be best for them all. Renting an extravagant English country manor, everything starts out well for the family as they are excited to start their new lives. However, as time marches on and debt piles up, Rory and Allison’s unspoken frustrations begin to bubble to the surface and threaten their entire relationship.

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Though the emphasis of the film is on the marriage between Rory and Allison, their elaborate English manor plays an equally important role within the film. Set in a 16th century home, the titular ‘nest’ is an exquisite piece of historical architecture that is stunning to behold yet ominous to be in. Decorated with an endless amount of ornate decor, Durkin manages to make the manor’s spacious walls and landscapes feel suffocating and claustrophobic. The home’s imposing structures and endless lines of crown molding and windows feel increasingly like a prison. Increasing shadows and filtered light gradually swallows them whole. Due to Durkin’s use of set design, every backhanded compliment between Rory and Allison seems to make the manor grow colder and more threatening.

At the heart of their conflict lies a power struggle over personal ambitions and unfulfilled dreams. While Rory may say that he believes that returning to his home country will provide greater opportunities for them all, he is ultimately more concerned about his next big deal than his family’s well-being. Constantly overspending, he lives for a paycheque that never seems to arrive. Convinced that his financial gain will translate into happiness, Rory immerses himself into his work, gradually creating an identity of success based on self-delusion. Meanwhile, the formerly empowered Allison struggles with the gender inequality that has seeped into her home as a result of London’s circles of high society. Though she goes along with things at first, her spirit slowly begins to die as her life feels increasingly empty. Eventually, Allison retreats emotionally from her marriage and family, seeking solace with her beloved horse.

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In much of Durkin’s work, the most terrifying aspect of his stories is how naturally darkness lurks under the veil of innocence. In The Nest, Rory and Allison’s marriage begins as one of intimate love and support. However, as things unravel between them, both Rory and Allison lose sight of that humility and attempt to fill the void within them with power and dominance over one another. (One particular dinner at a restaurant where the two attempt to order for each other is particularly uncomfortable.) Like many couples that lose their spark, Rory and Allison focus increasingly on themselves and their own interests and steadily lose hope that they’re family will survive. However, by choosing to bookend his film with similar images, Durkin reveals that there is an eb and flow to all relationships that may offer some comfort to those who choose to fight through their struggles.

In only his second (!) feature, Durkin yet again demonstrates his remarkable skill at creating honest windows into the soul of his characters. As he slowly eats away at the foundation of Rory and Allison’s relationship, Durkin shows how good intentions can quickly turn to vanity when left unchecked by humility. When that happens, any relationship can feel as lonely as an empty house, regardless of how many people live within its walls.

For audio of our conversation with writer/director Sean Durkin, click here.

The Nest is available on VOD on September 18, 2020.

TIFF20: I Care a Lot

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I Care a Lot follows Marla Grayson (Rosamund Pike), a highly successful legal guardian who takes responsibility for the elderly and then exploits them for their vast fortunes. Sensing a huge potential windfall, she takes on a seemingly innocent new client named Jennifer Peterson (Dianne Wiest), immediately placing her in a nursing facility and strips her of her financial assets. However, when Jennifer’s ruthless benefactor Roman (Peter Dinklage) hears of her plight, Marla and her partner (Eiza Gonzalez) must go to war to protect their investments and potentially, save their lives.

Written and directed by J Blakeson (The Disappearance of Alice Creed), I Care a Lot is an energetic dark comedy that commits to its wicked machinations and never looks back. Bursting with fire and entertaining from start to finish, Blakeson’s script pops with devilish glee as it highlights the malicious nature of corporate greed at the expense of the poor and oppressed. 

By unleashing its inner darkness, I Care allows greed to become the soul of Darwinian business practices. Ferociously attacking each other’s livelihood, both Marla and Roman exemplify the very nature of ‘survival of the fittest’. 

Though the heart of I Care a Lot may sound bleak, the film’s style and enthusiasm are hard to resist. Featuring solid performances across the board and a brutally fun script, Blakeson’s film breathes satirical fire that demands attention. As the stakes continue to rise and the inner darkness of his characters is unleashed in all its fury, Blakeson never loses sight of the damages caused by their carelessness.

Even if they seem completely unaware.

I Care a Lot is currently streaming on the TIFF Bell Digital Theatre during the Toronto International Film Festival.

God of the Piano – An Ambitious Tale

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Is ambition a good thing or a setting for disaster? Certainly it can challenge people to great things, but it also may lead to our downfalls. In the Israeli film God of the Piano, directed by Itay Tal, we see the darker side of ambition as it plays out in the life of a woman and her child.

Anat (Naama Preis) is a concert pianist (part of a very musically inclined family). The film opens with her at the piano in a concert hall. Her water breaks. When she delivers the child, it is discovered he is born deaf. How will such a child ever become the great musician Anat is planning on him becoming? After switching bracelets with another baby, she takes home a hearing child. In no time at all he son Idan (Andi Levi) is becoming an excellent pianist, and moving into composing. At 12 years old, he is seeking to be accepted into a prestigious music program.

Anat has become the musical version of a pushy stage mother. She has abandoned her own career to make sure that Idan has every advantage. And she will stop at nothing to advance his possibilities. Idan seems to go along with this, but he also wants some of the other things in life that 12 year olds enjoy. What will happen to Anat’s dreams if Idan just isn’t quite good enough? Does that bring new guilt to the act in the hospital when she swapped babies?

One of the comments made during the film is that there are composers and musicians, and then there are technicians. There are those who can achieve greatness. Others may have great skill, but lack the little bit that will make them artists. When Anat’s father tells her this, he adds, “You know who he inherited it from.”

That last line hints at issues of nature versus nurture. Is musical ability something in the genes or is it learned? Both perspectives could be seen as an inheritance. For Anat, those words certainly trigger guilt. Her actual child would never have had the abilities Idan had. (We never see just what abilities he might have, although in the end, Anat is becoming curious.) And the abilities she has nurtured in Idan may not be enough either. Her father’s comment cuts at her from both directions.

Anat’s life has been centered in ambition. Her talent was adequate, but not exceptional. Probably even before the birth of her son, she had plans for what his life in music would be like. That the gods of fate had stepped in to dash those dreams at the very beginning, did not stop her. But even then, she is still in danger of having the goals of her life blocked. Her ambitions have become the cause of her unhappiness. It seems very like a Greek tragedy.

What makes this even more tragic is that it is so centered in music—something that brings joy to most of us. Often we feed our souls with music. We use it as an act of celebration. Yet for Anat, and others in this story, music is only a tool to be mastered and used for self. So music, and the ambition it drives in these characters, is not something of joy, but of pain. Perhaps it would be better to be deaf.

God of the Piano is available on Virtual Cinema through local arthouses.

Photos courtesy of Film Movement.

TIFF20: Shadow in the Cloud

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Set during WWII, Shadow in the Cloud is an action-packed horror movie that stars Chloe Grace Moretz as Maude Garrett, a flight officer who embarks on a secret mission to deliver a confidential package. As a woman alone in a group of men on a rickety aircraft, Garrett finds herself forced to take the ride in the worst seat possible, the bottom glass turret located on the belly of the plane. Soon after, strange things begin to happen on this aircraft and Garrett’s position on the plane forces her to come face to face with a mysterious, unexpected passenger. 

Set in the 1940s, this was a time filled with sexism and toxic masculinity. Though she’s an incredibly accomplished and well-trained soldier, Garrett remains at the very bottom of the social ladder due to her gender. Symbolic of the social hierarchy of men and women of the 1940s, Garrett is forced by the men to stay down in the glass turret located in the bottom of the aircraft. Meanwhile, as she languishes in the most terrifying and cramped area of the ship, the egotistical—and less talented—men undeservingly get to relax in the comfort of the cabin area. Even so, Garrett bites her tongue and, as the film progresses, she helps fight off enemy fighter jets and, yes, even gremlins, in order to save the same men who were belittling her initially. (Incidentally, it’s worth noting that the ‘gremlin’ was an imaginary scapegoat in the 1940s for pilots to blame if they ever made a mistake while flying.) In doing so, Garrett’s bravery symbolically takes her from the bottom of the plane to its highest position, the pilot’s cockpit. 

One of the most unexpected and spuriously badass scenes of the movie comes as Garrett is confronted with one of the gremlins. As Garrett battles the creature with her bare hands, with the supposedly brave men watching from the sidelines. In this moment, the gremlin becomes more than a beast to fight as it also represents the stupidity and sexist attitudes of the male pilots. In doing so, Cloud suggests once again that, despite the social inequalities set into place by our culture, women continue to show strength and perseverance.

Writer/director Roseanne Liang does a great job in utilizing Moretz in the lead role. Personally, I think that Shadow in the Cloud is an excellent example of how directors can create strong female roles in other action movies. As Garrett, star Chloe Grace Moretz oozes confidence as a strong, independent women in this film. Often times, I have found that female-driven action films and tv series include moments that focus too much on addressing its agenda through poor writing. (I’m looking at you, CW…) In doing so, while well meaning, these moments try too hard to prove why women are equal to or better than men. By directing attention to the issue in this way, this style of writing can undermine their agenda by emphasizing differences over gender equality, despite their well-meaning intent. In doing so, these moments can unintentionally create a gender gap where women are required to ‘step it up’. However, in Shadow in the Cloud, Moretz isn’t trying to prove anything to the sexist men or constantly trying to validate why she is strong like them. She simply is. Through her actions, perseverance, flight abilities, combat skills, and ingenuity, Garrett embodies female strength and courage in a way that inspires. 

Shadow in the Cloud is an adventure that will thrill you and surprise with its twists and turns. Personally, I never expected to see Chloe Grace Moretz in such a serious and empowering role as she sets an example for all female action heroes going forward. I highly recommend it.

Shadow in the Cloud is currently streaming at Bell Digital Cinema at the Toronto International Film Festival.

TIFF20: Good Joe Bell

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Directed by Renaldo Marcus Green, Good Joe Bell tells the true story of Joe Bell (Mark Wahlberg), a loving husband and father from the American Heartland. The picture of traditional manhood, Joe’s conservative worldview is threatened when his son, Jadin (Reid Miller) tells him that he’s gay. After Jadin is bullied mercilessly at his high school, Joe sets out on a mission across America to speak to school groups, communities or anyone who will listen about the corrosive dangers of bullying. However, as he sets out on his journey, Joe must also confront his own inner demons in an effort to be fully transformed by his experience. 

Good Joe Bell is a timely look at what means to be truly changed from within. By telling the story from Joe’s perspective, the film effectively delves into inner biases that create a dangerous culture of oppression, as opposed to merely citing examples. Known for action blockbusters and comedic roles, Wahlberg is not generally known for subtly within his work yet his performance as Joe feels both personal and authentic. As Bell, Wahlberg offers an honest portrait of a man searching the very depths of his soul for new understanding. 

For this reason, the beauty of Good Joe Bell is that it feels so much larger than Joe himself. Structurally, the story may be a tale of one man’s attempt to confront his own prejudices out of love for his son, it also serves as an example of a Conservative culture in dire need of doing the same. Moving and sincere, Green’s story of a man who understands the need for change within his own life comes at a time when Joe’s voice needs to be heard.

After all, though his walk is his own, Joe’s journey to redemption could be anyone’s.

Good Joe Bell is currently streaming on the TIFF Bell Digital Theatre during the Toronto International Film Festival.