ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

allison janney

Breaking News in Yuba County: The Affirmations Run Out

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He’s missing! Then again, so is a slice of my birthday cake…

I think it’s safe to say that most of us have had days where it seemed like nothing seemed to go right. The car ran out of gas; a coworker received a promotion instead of you; a stain appeared on your outfit that couldn’t be easily disguised; and many more situations that have already come to your mind. 

In the case of Sue Buttons (Allison Janney), her life seems to consist of nothing good. At the beginning of Tate Taylor’s Breaking News in Yuba County, she picks up a birthday cake for herself while muttering affirmations to herself (“I am good”; “I am special”). The cake is misspelled and she is unable to do anything about it. She drives to her job at a call center and her first call is demeaning. She thinks her workplace remembered her birthday, but their celebration was for another person.  These are only the beginning of her issues thanks to a completely dysfunctional family and a latent desire to be known and respected.

In theory, this sounds like a fantastic premise for a film. Add in an extremely talented group of Hollywood actors (Wanda Sykes; Juliette Lewis; Ellen Barkin; and Dominic Burgess among others) and actresses and you’ve got a verifiable winner.  The problem is that Breaking News in Yuba County starts off wonderfully before devolving into a muddled mess that leaves more questions than answers. How did it go so wrong?

The problems begin as soon as Sue gets home. Her husband Carl (Matthew Modine, who gets woefully little screen time) is caught up in a bad situation involving millions of dollars and a tryst in a seedy hotel. Thinking the flowers he purchased were for her, Sue follows him and discovers more than she bargained for. Catching him in the middle of an affair was bad enough, but watching him fall over dead was worse. Suddenly, the film takes on a dark Weekend at Bernie’s feel except she buries Carl and the money in the hotel playground.

This triggers a flood of cops, confusion, and a trio of Mafia-ish characters (including Awkwafina) that are geared up to inflict damage in cruel ways. There’s more, but I’ll focus on Sue’s attempt to increase her popularity as a result of a missing person case not unlike those Nancy Grace episodes on CNN. Her sister Nancy (Mila Kunis) is a local reporter and gets the word out that Sue’s husband is “missing,” but Sue wants to go higher and piggybacks on a national missing person case. At this point, the plot completely unravels and becomes a gore-fest – both in its ending and in a number of grisly deaths that would’ve made the director of Saw proud.  Will Sue be able to finally affirm herself?  You’ll find out if you can make it to the Crash-like ending.

It is important to recognize that a common thread throughout Breaking News in Yuba County involves Sue’s constant attempts to affirm herself.  She starts off talking to herself in the grocery store and is heard recounting the same phrases as she goes from nobody to pseudo-star.  It becomes a catalyst that transforms her into someone who is desperate to do anything to get seen in a popular light (at least in her eyes) by the public. The issue here is not the affirmations themselves, but where the words point her to. They give her ego a massive boost that, once triggered, is near impossible to get rid of.  Conversely, as a Christian, I believe that our affirmations should come from the Bible and the words God tells us. He loves each of us with an everlasting love and has drawn us with lovingkindness (see Jeremiah 31:3).  If that’s good, there’s a whole lot more of these God has to share.  By finding our value and worth in Him, we won’t have to resort to being a part of a racket (knowingly or unknowingly) as Sue horrifyingly discovered. Instead, we can relate to One who sings songs over us (see Zephaniah 3:17)

Breaking News in Yuba County is available on VOD.

Step Up to the Booth: 1on1 with Sue Kramer (BE DOPE. VOTE.)

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I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but there’s an election next week.

Even if you haven’t, director Sue Kramer certainly has.

With the 2020 Presidential election finally here, it is time once again to head to the polls and share your dream of what America truly values. However, despite the overwhelming need for people to get out and vote, many people choose not to do so (or worse, feel that their opinion doesn’t matter). Concerned that people may miss such an important opportunity, Kramer developed Be Dope. Vote., an online campaign devoted to encouraging people to use their political voice. Asked where she got the idea for Be Dope. Vote., Kramer begins by pointing out that the word ‘dope’ jumped out at her due to its ties to current social conversations.

“I love the word ‘dope’. I’m a wordsmith and a screenwriter… I always get real connected to certain words. I love certain words and I also love the origins of certain words so I started looking up how ‘cool’ was this word that was used by jazz musicians, [who were] almost predominantly musicians of color. Then, [the word] got taken over by the Woodstock revolution and became gentrified within language. There’s this slang word that… became this word used by all. ‘Dope’ is very similar in that [the word] was used predominantly by people of color. Now, it’s become cool to use the word dope because being dope is also being woke. These are two things that are at the top of the agenda in terms of our lives right now in terms of the global stratosphere. So, I thought… what would be the phraseology to get people to vote? And I came up with Be Dope. Vote. and it just worked.”

With an emphasis on diversity, Kramer’s hope is that the Be Dope. Vote campaign will reach as broad an audience as possible.

“I specifically cast everyone from a nine-year-old to [former West Wing stars] Richard Schiff, who’s in his sixties [and Allison Janney],” she explains. “I cast men, women, children, teenagers, black, white, Asian to really represent the diverse culture that we live in. This video is a representation of faces and ages and gender [within] our global community and of our United States community where the vote is at stake right now. So, I am actually not just going after the youth vote. But the truth is this election has three groups of people that need to get out and vote. One of them, surprisingly is the white male. If 1% more voted democratic, then that could change the entire election automatically, which is shocking. I’m going after the 20 to 30 something because they did not come out in the last election and they need to come out in this election. So, I went after people who they love and also the black vote, which is important. So, Billy Porter, Miss J and ASAP Ferg being in the video and Brittany O’Grady (who’s biracial) and Ryan Destiny, who’s black, all of these faces of beautiful color are needed. Everyone’s needed to really speak to all the people that need to get out and vote.” 

As the election draws nearer, Kramer feels that the sense of urgency to get to the polling booths increases as well. While each federal election seems important, she also believes that people believe that voting in this year’s campaign may be more critical than others in recent years. 

“I think that people are appalled at what our country has become,” Kramer argues. “I think that we’ve never been more divided because of the current president. I do say ‘because of him’, even though I made a very bipartisan video that can be shared by anyone to go out and vote. You should use your voice, whatever it is, you should vote. But I think that people are fired up that they want change. I do think that there’s a lot of people on the president’s side that think possibly that he’s doing an okay job or might be thinking about a bigger picture of different beliefs. But I think that the tide needs to change and I think that people want to be part of this tidal wave… There’s a lot at stake here, so I’m willing to do anything it takes in terms of using my creative power to try to make an impactful, passionate plea to get people to vote.” 

Having been involved in political campaigns before, Kramer was initially unsure about stepping into the ring with this election. However, after reading a discouraging message online, she felt called to speak out about the importance of speaking your mind through the polling station.

“I hope Be Dope. Vote. has legs to last for decades and becomes a campaign that is used for every big election,” Kramer claims. “[I want to] put some type of creative spin on that helps ignite and fire up people to use their voices. The real reason I came up with this is because… after the Brianna Taylor ruling, I saw a tweet by a football player saying [that] he was throwing in the towel and that he wasn’t going to vote purposely. He’d just given up. Then, thousands of people responded saying the same thing: ‘I’m with you. I’m giving up. I’m not voting.’ That day was the day that I said I have to do something. I have to figure this out. I can’t let people throw in the towel, or I can at least do my best to try to convince them otherwise. So, I came up with Be Dope. Vote.” 

Because of the pandemic, Kramer viewed this as an opportunity to take a different approach with her celebrity guests. Rather than gathering together in physical space, Be Dope. Vote. is a refreshingly honest video that lets people be themselves over Zoom.

Says Kramer, “I brought in a friend and a colleague named Michael Rankin who has a show on LinkedIn called You Are Dope [where] he interviews people in this kind of Ed Sullivan radio style and he asks really wonderful questions and people are their authentic selves. Michael has a great new voice. And so that was a new fun factor.” 

“Then, I thought I’ve got to go all in with what we have, which is [that] we’re all talking on Zoom. We’re not doing hair and makeup like last time where my stars came in with agents and managers, hair and makeup and publicists. I [just wanted to] talk. So, we got on Zoom with all these wonderful people and it was just talking. I really pulled out these gems and Michael became the host and it was born. We put it together in basically a little over a week and then released it on Friday the ninth. I just hope that it has impact. That’s my biggest desire.” 

Since the Be Dope. Vote. campaign has launched in early October, Kramer has been overwhelmed by the support that it seems to have garnered from both celebrities and the general public. While success may be difficult to measure, she considers it a victory if anyone who sees their video changes their mind and gets to the polls as a result.

“I can’t quantify success,” Kramer points out. “I don’t have people calling me saying I saw your video and now I’m going to vote. But I can already call it a success by ASAP Ferg being one of the only rappers to come out. Snoop Dogg came out and said, we’ve got to vote. When these rappers come out and speak to their audiences, that makes a difference because they’re the voice of their people. So… if any of those people [in our video] hit their audience and somebody saw the video and thought, ‘Oh, I was thinking about not [voting] but, you know what? I’m going to do it.’ Then, it’s success. No matter who I hit around the country, it’s a success.”

“We’re trying everything that we can to just keep the fire going [and] spread the passion,” she continues. “I’m a filmmaker. I own an agency called Connecting Dots Guru, which is my branding agency seeing through a director’s eye and a screenwriter’s pen. I put my agency on hold for nine days and spent my own money on this to just get people to not throw in the towel. I’m not going after to be clear. I’m not going to change the minds of somebody who’s completely pro-Trump and was voting for Trump. Those people are still going to vote for Trump. I’m trying to change the complacent people who feel as if they’ve been too beaten down by COVID, isolation, Black Lives Matter, or by everything that’s gone on in this country over the past four years. But more importantly, over the past year and specifically after George Floyd, those people feel so beaten down that they just don’t have it in them. And I’m trying to say, come on, you can do this. You can do it.” 

With Be Dope. Vote., Kramer wants everyone to be reminded that each vote matters and allows people to have their say. While the political world is often frustrating, she also believes that that’s no excuse to simply abdicate one’s freedom of speech when the opportunity to express themselves is given.

“Hillary Clinton won the election in terms of votes, but lost the election on the electoral college,” she mourns. “Why? Because enough people didn’t get out and vote. And that is the reason, even though she won it in terms of the popular vote so that everyone was shocked. I, myself was shocked. Everyone I knew was looking at the CNN screens [and asking], how did this just happen? We cannot let that happen again. We cannot have regret that we did not get out. We cannot have a moment where we’re shocked that this happened, because if anyone thinks that they’re going to be shocked if Trump wins, then they better get out there. Get involved, bring a friend with a map and get out and vote because you don’t want to have regrets this time.” 

In addition, she contends that one has little right to complain about an outcome if they don’t participate in the process.

“Miss J says in my video that, ‘If you don’t vote, you can’t complain.’ So, we might not win this,” Kramer acknowledges. “I’m clearly on one side, but if you don’t get out there and try, you cannot complain. Everyone’s complaining and everyone’s tired. Rightfully so but you have to just pick your bootstraps up no matter how tired you are. No matter how much you wanted Bernie or Elizabeth Warren or anyone else to win the nomination, it doesn’t matter because that’s what happened with Hillary Clinton. All the millennials bowed out because they were upset that Bernie didn’t win. If they do that again, this time they will be ruining their entire future in terms of an endless amount of rights and an endless amount of ripples that, in my humble opinion, are catastrophic.“

To follow Be Dope. Vote., click here.

For full audio of our conversation with Sue Kramer, click here.

I, Tonya – Whose Truth?

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“I was loved for a minute, then I was hated.”

Figure skating is all about elegance and grace. So when in 1994 the sport took on a violent aspect with an attack on a top skater before the Olympics, it became one of the early examples of TV tabloid journalism. I, Tonya tells the story of Tonya Harding who was at the center of the controversy because her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly masterminded the attack on a rival skater. In the days and weeks that followed the story became more sensationalized by the day. Screenwriter/producer Steve Rogers has crafted a dark comedy from the strange, almost absurdist, true events. It is based in part on interviews Rogers did with Harding and Gillooly, now in their 40s. The widely different stories each told became the structure for the film.

The story follows the life of Harding (Margot Robbie) from childhood to the present day. Even before “The Incident”, she never really fit well into the skating world, in spite of her talent and skill. She came from an abusive household. Her mother LaVona Golden (Allison Janney) was both physically and emotionally violent. Her escape was to marry Gillooly (Sebastian Stan) at an early age. This too turned into a violent, abusive relationship. It should be pointed out that Harding was not just a victim, but could be violent herself. All of this contributed to a low self-image. At times, she felt like she deserved the abuse. And much of her competitiveness was an attempt to be loved.

Much of the humor of the film comes from the personalities. LaVona Golden is an especially over the top character (and played to the hilt by Janney). It’s hard to image a mother so cruel and crude, yet we can’t get enough of her on screen. Likewise, the relationship between Harding and Gillooly, often with sudden explosive violence, may seem too dark for humor, yet we can’t help but follow along because the story is told in such an appealing style.

The film takes its time getting to The Incident, but when it does make it into the story, it is the beginning of one of the all time great comedies of errors. When we speak of the media circus that developed because of it, circus is the appropriate word because the clowns take center stage. Again here, the story is told from different perspectives, so there is more than one version of what happened.

Since there are multiple versions of the same story, this becomes a study on how we can know the truth. The memories of what happened are so different that it is impossible to piece them together to form a clear picture of who was or was not involved. The tabloid journalism that latched on to this story only made the search for truth murkier. The 24-hour news cycle and its need to keep a story alive may actually make the truth harder to find. In a world where “fake news” is frequently charged and even outlandish ideas are given coverage in the name of “balance”, this story serves as a challenge for us to seek truth amid all the hoopla and distraction.

When I saw this film at AFI Fest, it played to a packed house. It wasn’t one of the films I was especially looking forward to but I found it enjoyable in the absurd humor and the idiocy of the characters. Though, when a few weeks later I saw a trailer in the theater, I thought to myself, “I wouldn’t want to see that.” So, perhaps if you’re put off by the trailer, you may want to consider that there is more here than the trailer suggests.

Photos courtesy of Neon.

Thursday at AFIFest

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The final day at AFI Fest gave me a chance to finish off with two more films before I made my way home to a more reasonable schedule and eating habits. Both films played before good sized crowds for a Thursday afternoon.

Claire Denis’s Bright Sunshine In (aka Let the Sunshine In) (World Cinema section) featured Juliette Binoche as a woman who thinks love may have passed her by. She has an active sex life with married lovers and her ex-husband, but she has no one to truly share her life with. Hers is an empty, sad, and at times desperate existence. A brief ray of hope comes at the end with the thought that what she is really looking for is within her.

The ice skating soap opera that played out before the 1994 Winter Olympics is visited in I, Tonya (Special Screening) from director Craig Gillespie. The dark comedy is based on interviews with Tonya Harding, her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly, and Harding’s mother. As such it often gives conflicting views of what exactly happened. The film centers on Harding and those around her. It reflects the violent and abusive life that started in her childhood and continued throughout this period. This is one of those movies that may make you think, ‘why would I want to see this?’ There is amazing acting from Margot Robbie as Harding, Alison Janney as her mother, and Sebastian Stan as Gillooly. The film brings us a humorous way of seeing some very dark parts of life, especially around domestic violence. And yet the humor in no way treats it as an acceptable option.

Next up, putting together my favorites and comparing my list to the award winners.

 

The Girl on the Train: The Lies We’re Told & The Lies We Tell Ourselves

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To be clear, I had not read Paula Hawkins’ thriller before seeing the stories of three suburban women unfold onscreen in Tate Taylor’s (The Help, Get on Up) cinematic version of The Girl on the Train. Like Gone Girl, I had the sense early that the gradient versions of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ would filter differently as the events played out in front of me, but even greater themes were at work here. As I unpacked the story of Rachel Watson (Blunt) and her voyeuristic view from the passenger train, I realized that much more was at stake here than a simple thriller.

For those who haven’t heard the story, let me simply say that it revolves around Watson. She’s the ex-wife of Tom (Justin Theroux) and still bears the marks of his affair with his new wife, Anna (Rebecca  Ferguson). But she comforts herself by imagining the perfect life of Megan Hipwell (Haley Bennett) and her husband, Scott (Luke Evans), who are next-door neighbors of Tom’s. This is unfortunately complicated when Tom and Anna hire Megan to be their nanny. All of this is watched by Rachel as she commutes to the city each day.

We recognize that all is not right in the world of Anna – she wants to be a mother but lacks the necessary mindset to put her child above herself. We see that Megan wants more for her life, but plays the part that each of the men in her life want from her, whether it’s subservient or aggressive. We watch Rachel’s life revolve around drinking herself into oblivion, both in the present and in the past, presented in flashbacks. All of these women are flawed, but the way that the women are presented pales in comparison to the way that we’ll see the men by the end of the film.

But as the film unravels, mirroring Rachel’s own mental unravelling, we see that we can’t necessarily believe what we see, or hear, or understand about the narrative in front of us. This is a net result of the way that alcohol clouds Rachel’s judgment and memory; in fact, her alcoholism carries with it blackouts that require her to rely on others to know what happened to her or what she did herself. (This seems to be the kind of warning narrative we might show to those wondering how alcohol is harmful, but the impact of the drinking is overshadowed.)

The other impact on the narrative and our understanding of truth is the sheer amount of lying that each of the people in the story participate in. With each other, to others. While Rachel is our protagonist (we think), she begins to involve herself in the lives of the other major characters and lying about her whereabouts, motivations, and perceptions. Even while she appears to be aimed at doing something good, she continues to lie, spinning a spirit of deception that extends throughout most of the film.

But when the crime that serves as the catalyst occurs, one person’s actions are ended, even as the deception continues. At this point, the film switches from psychoanalyzing Rachel to exploring the mystery of the crime. And honestly, the switch led to a mindset that seemed motivated in a battle of the sexes.

While none of these characters end up being Noble Peace Prize winners, the women lie and the men are violent, manipulating, even psychopathic. Ultimately, Rachel’s resolution of the situation comes about when she resorts to engaging in ‘male’ behavior as depicted in the film; the violence she must resort to is the way we’ve been shone that healing must happen. It is not enough for to take back her life and kick addiction to the curb; she must dive into the masculine world and invoke violence as her right.

Ultimately, I found The Girl on the Train entertaining and provocative. But I found myself disturbed by the fact that the plays for sexuality by the women, manipulating and powerful, were given the nod for acceptable behavior, and the men’s verbal and physical violence was evil. I would say that both genders did violence to each other, through manipulation physically, emotionally, and mentally, breaking down a world of love and trust that should occur in marriage and loving relationships. The downfall was widespread – and even the liberating factor proves that the cycle is broken by more of the same.

Special features include deleted and extended scenes, a look at The Women behind The Girl, “On Board the Train,” and a feature-length commentary by director Tate Taylor. Now available on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD.