ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

coming-of-age

The Whaler Boy – Looking for love

by Leave a Comment

Perhaps the grass is always greener on the other side of the Bering Sea. That seems to be the basis for Phillipp Yuryev’s premier feature film The Whaler Boy.

Teenaged Leshka lives in a remote whaling village on the edge of the Bering Straits. He and the other men go out to kill whales, that they use to feed the whole village. This is a village without girls. His friend Kolyan invites him to come with him to the next village to find some girls, but their motorbike breaks down on the way. The only chance he has to even see a girl is an erotic chatroom online. He becomes infatuated with an American girl, HollySweet_999.

Leshka spends a lot of time watching HollySweet_999, trying to talk to her through the computer screen. Even trying to learn English. He becomes jealous of others who pay attention to her. After he gets into a fight with Kolyan over her, Leshka decides to take a boat and cross the straits into the US and begins walking until he gets to her, where he’s sure he’ll win her heart.

This is a hazardous crossing, not only the sea, but he must also deal with poachers and ICE. Even after all that, he doggedly sets off across the tundra on his way to Detroit. Yeah, he doesn’t seem to understand geography in the least.

The film has some very interesting visual aspects, especially when he comes to what seems to be a whale graveyard in the midst of the tundra. The storyline, however, never quite comes together. Leshka’s naivete is endearing, but is not enough to keep the film consistently engrossing. But the film does at least end with a revelation for him. The grass may be greenest where there are people you know and love. For that you don’t need to brave the ocean and another continent.

The Whaler Boy is in select theaters, on virtual cinema, and available on VOD.

Photos courtesy of Film Movement.

The Tender Bar – Learning “the male sciences”

by Leave a Comment

“Grandpa’s house was a revolving door of cousins and aunts, with a full complement of laughter and tears, with an occasional nervous breakdown. But above all, it’s where Uncle Charlie lived.”

The Tender Bar, directed by George Clooney and based on a memoir by J.R. Moehringer, can be characterized as a coming-of-age story, but it veers a bit into the philosophy of masculinity. While the film is very male-oriented, its story is appealing enough that women should find it enjoyable as well.

LILY RABE and DANIEL RANIERI star in TENDER BAR Photo: CLAIRE FOLGER © AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES LLC

It begins in 1973 when nine year old, J.R. Maquire (Daniel Ranieri, later Tye Sheridan) moves with his mother (Lily Rabe) into her father’s house, an event she views as a sign of failure, but J.R. finds exciting. His father abandoned them long ago. He is a semi-nomadic radio DJ who J.R. refers to as The Voice—after all, that is about all J.R. knows of him. Grandpa (Christopher Lloyd) is a curmudgeon who seems to resent having his adult children back in his house. (But at least he is willing to help support them.)

J.R. finds an important role model in his Uncle Charlie (Ben Affleck). Charlie is a bar tender at a local dive, The Dickens. It is there that Charlie (and some of the barflies that are always there) teach J.R. what Charlie refers to as the “male sciences”, simple rules of how to live and especially how to treat women. (The prime directive in these sciences is “You don’t hit a woman, ever, up to and including if she has stabbed you with scissors.”) Charlie is something of an autodidact philosopher. He seems to have read everything, and makes sure that J.R., who wants to be a writer, reads it as well.

CHRISTOPHER LLOYD and DANIEL RANIERI star in TENDER BAR Photo: CLAIRE FOLGER © AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES LLC

J.R.’s mother is laser-focused on him going to an Ivy League school, even though there’s no way she could afford it. In time he is accepted to Yale on scholarship, and the film explores his life there, and continues to build on Charlie’s life training. At Yale he falls in love with a beautiful and bright young woman (Briana Middleton). The relationship with her is something that teaches J.R. about trials that he cannot control.

J.R., with the help of family (which includes the patrons of The Dickens) and friends, slowly negotiates life without his father, life at Yale where he feels out of place, and entering adulthood with confidence—enough to face his father and to assert himself.

BEN AFFLECK and TYE SHERIDAN star in TENDER BAR Photo: CLAIRE FOLGER © AMAZON CONTENT SERVICES LLC

For all the “male science” aspect of Charlie’s mentorship of J.R., the philosophy that he teaches is applicable to all people. It can be summed up is a few important concepts: kindness, honesty, and honor. I don’t think Charlie ever uses those words, but through the instructions he gives J.R.—and through his actions—those ideas are clear. Such a view of life is certainly in line with Paul’s comment: “…Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Philippians 4:8 NRSV)

The Tender Bar is in theaters and is streaming on Prime Video

Photos courtesy of Amazon Content Services.

The Pit – Assumptions and secrets

by Leave a Comment

How often do we try to judge based on assumptions that may not be true? In The Pit, Latvia’s submission for Best International Feature consideration, there are many assumptions that lead the characters to make judgements that may or may not be justified.

Markuss, a ten year old boy who’s been sent to live with his grandmother after his father’s death, is quiet and sullen. He doesn’t want to be here. He’d rather draw than be with people. As the film opens, he’s left a playmate in a pit. She isn’t found until later that night. This immediately turns the community against Markuss and his grandmother. The girl’s mother is pushing for the boy to be deemed dangerous, based on the pictures he draws. Much of the community’s ideas are based on what they know about Markuss’s father, although we don’t really know much backstory until later—including the backstory of the girl being left in the pit.

In avoiding the judgement of the community (and trying to avoid a beat down from the girl’s brother), Markuss discovers the reclusive Sailor, who lives a bit out of town. Sailor was a friend of Markuss’s grandmother in their youth. It turns out that Sailor makes stained glass windows—or at least is working on one. Markuss’s father was Sailor’s assistant at one point, so Markuss feels a connection, and is soon learning about stained glass. But then Markuss is shocked to discover Sailor’s secret.

Various other secrets are revealed as the story works its way to an ending that may be redemptive for Markuss and the community. Each secret reveals the dark sides of the community that is struggling with its vision of itself in the wake of Markuss’s actions.

The film is a combination of three stories by Latvian author Jana Egles. While we may easily separate out the three stories, the combination of the three create a broader picture of the life of this community. The darkness that seems to define the town is not really based in Markuss, but he seems to be carrying the blame for it. Rather, we learn that Markuss may be the one character who will bring something good to the community.

The Pit is available on Film Movement Plus.

Photos courtesy of Film Movement.

Audible – Teen Angst in Silence

by Leave a Comment

The teen years can be a challenge. It is a time when people struggle with their identity and their place in the world. Even for the most “normal” of teens, these years can be a struggle. Add to that having to deal with a disability. In Matthew Ogens’s documentary short Audible, we meet a young football player at a school for the deaf as he struggles with teen angst, deafness, and the loss of a friend.

Amaree McKenstry-Hall plays for football for the Maryland School for the Deaf. At the beginning of the film we see the team losing its first game against a deaf school in sixteen years. It also breaks the 42-game winning streak against all teams. For regular high school athletes, this would be a difficult time. We watch as Amaree and his schoolmates deal not only with the defeat, but with the struggles of facing a world as a deaf person. When school is over Amaree and his classmates will face discrimination and isolation.

As we get to know Amaree, we learn that his father left when he became deaf, and the two are working on rebuilding a relationship. His father, a onetime drug dealer, is a minister in a local church. He also is a bit unsure of his relationship with a girlfriend. Amaree’s biggest emotional challenge is dealing with the suicide of a classmate.

All of these are issues that many teens face. As such this is very much a look at coming-of-age in America. But when you include the challenges of getting ready to move into living fully in a hearing world, it all becomes multiplied.

Because it is a short (running time:39 minutes), it doesn’t have a chance to go very deep into Amaree’s stuggles, but we do see enough to understand that like all teens, he has many pressures. But we also see that he has qualities that may be helpful as he moves on in life.

AUDIBLE/NETFLIX © 2021

Audible streams on Netflix.

Photos courtesy of Netflix.

Spring Blossom – Young Love

by Leave a Comment

One of the rites of passage in the teenage years is to fall in love. In Spring Blossom we watch a young woman who doesn’t feel at ease with her peers begin an infatuation with an older man, who has his own issues about fitting in. Together they enter into a relationship that we know is doomed in the long run, but we marvel at the tenderness of it.

Suzanne (Suzanne Lindon, who also wrote and directed the film) is sixteen years old and something of a wallflower. Even when she goes to a teen party (which is rarely) she finds it all boring. School is much the same. One day walking between home and school, she notices a man at the small theatre. Each time she sees him she is a bit more interested, and in time he notices her as well.

Raphaël (Arnaud Valois) is part of a small acting company. He is becoming bored with the repetition of doing the same play night after night. When he notices Suzanne’s attention, it serves as a break in the monotony. At 35 we know he’s much too old for Suzanne, but she feeds something in his ego, and their combined boredom becomes the basis of their relationship.

As the relationship develops, we may expect Raphaël to take advantage of the young naïve girl, but throughout he acts with tenderness. The growing intimacy we see between them is shown through a series of dances. The first is a solo dance by Suzanne that exemplifies the joy of the first flush of young love. Then there are three dances involving the two of them: first sitting at a table at a café and moving in unison to music, then a brief pas de deux, and finally a slow dance in a club. Those dances serve almost as pseudo sex scenes, which tempers our fears about the age difference.

The film’s superb sense of reality is based in the fact that Lindon began writing the screenplay when she was fifteen. (She’s now 21.)  This is a time in life when one often falls in love with the idea of being in love more than actually falling in love.  That is captured very well in this film.

Spring Blossom is playing in select theaters and on virtual cinema.

Photos courtesy of KimStim.

Days of the Bagnold Summer – Nothing Important, Just Life

by Leave a Comment

For most of us life isn’t like the movies. We seem to go day by day without a great deal of drama. And yet those days that seem so ordinary are what life is made of. Days of the Bagnold Summer, directed by Simon Bird, is that kind of movie. The drama and the comedy are just the kinds of things that may not seem like much at the time, but they are bricks of life.

Sue Bagnold (Monica Dolan) is a single mom raising her 15 year old son Daniel (Earl Cave) in the English suburbs. Daniel is your typical metalhead wannabe. He dreams of being in a band, but he’d have to be the front man since he doesn’t play an instrument. He’s scheduled to visit his father and his pregnant young wife in Florida that summer, but when his dad decides it’s not a good time, Daniel is left with an open summer. Daniel, the personification of ennui, is set to sleep the summer away, but Sue isn’t having it. She sends Daniel out to apply for jobs (which he does in a manner that is doomed to failure). And she tries to do things with him to rekindle the fun they had together when he was younger. Daniel just wants to listen to Metallica.

Sullen teenagers just don’t want to have fun, though do they? Daniel is at an age where he hasn’t really discovered who he is or even who he wants to be. That metalhead persona is really just a form of holding pattern. And so the summer goes, through “early days”, “salad days” and “dod days”. Along the way Sue gets asked out on a date by Daniel’s former teacher, which only complicates things for both of them. But basically, the two struggle to find a way to coexist in the new world teen nihilism.

It’s interesting the way Bird has found to show the distance between the two visually, like the clothesline with black on one side and pink on the other, or Daniel in the foreground eating and Sue in the background a room away eating separately). But as the summer moves forward, they come together more often, even though each is also finding a new understanding of themselves in the process.

There is not big event or blowup that summarizes the summer. And yet, we seem to understand that this summer is in its own way an important time in their lives. As such, this is a movie that captures the kind of lives most of us live. Little by little all these days add up into a life.

Days of Bagnold Summer is available on virtual cinema through local theaters and on digital platforms.

Photos courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment.

1982 – Love and War

by Leave a Comment

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.

Uncle Frank – The Person You Decide to Be

by Leave a Comment

Family can be a place of pain or a place of healing. It can be the place we try to escape from or the place we need to return to. It is where we hear words that are like a knife in the heart or like the warmth of a hug. In Alan Ball’s Uncle Frank, it is all of those things.

The story is told from the perspective of Beth (Sophia Lillis), in high school when we first meet her. But the focus is really her Uncle Frank (Paul Bettany). During one of his rare visits to their southern family, Beth is fascinated by Frank and how different he is from the rest of the family. He lives in New York City where he teaches. Beth has no idea why her grandfather (Frank’s father) is so rude to him. When Beth talks with Frank he tells her, “You get to be the person you decide to be or the person everyone else tells you you are. You get to choose.” That conversation changes her life.

(L-R) Sophia Lillis and Paul Bettany star in UNCLE FRANK Photo: Brownie Harris Courtesy of Amazon Studios

Beth heads off to New York for college. When she crashes a party at Frank’s apartment, she discovers that he’s gay and has a long-time partner, Walid (Peter Macdissi). When Frank gets a call to tell him his father died suddenly, he and Beth drive down to South Carolina for the funeral. Frank doesn’t want Walid to come because he doesn’t want his family to know he’s gay. Walid, knowing that Frank will need his support, rents a car and follows them. In time the three of them are on a road trip.

As Frank talks with Beth on the trip, he recalls his youth and the discovery of being gay. It was young love, but it also carried a great deal of condemnation from church and home. After the death of his first love, Frank has carried guilt and shame all these years, even though outwardly he seems comfortable with his life (at least while he is in New York). But when his father’s will surprisingly and cruelly outs him, his emotional turmoil overwhelms him.

SOPHIA LILLIS, PAUL BETTANY and PETER MACDISSI star in UNCLE FRANK

It all goes back to that conversation between Frank and Beth about choosing who you will be. In New York, Frank is the person he has “decided to be”, but does not live that out when he comes home. His father has always looked at him with shame and loathing—that is what society says Frank should feel. When at home, that is who he becomes. That serves as a kind of demonstration of the way pride and shame often play out for LGBTQ people. They may go to gay pride events, but remain closeted to the people closest to them.

(L-R) Lois Smith and Margo Martindale star in UNCLE FRANK Photo: Brownie Harris Courtesy of Amazon Studios

However, Frank may be surprised by how his family responds to his sudden outing. The revelation may be hard for them, but these are people who have loved him his whole life. They may not be able to put that into words well, but it comes through clearly. There is a nice supporting cast that makes up this family, including Margo Martindale and Stephen Root as Frank’s parents, Steve Zahn as Frank’s brother and Beth’s father, Judy Greer as Beth’s mother, and Lois Smith as Frank’s Aunt Butch. While not everyone is welcoming to this news about Frank, there is grace that comes out in various ways.

Uncle Frank is available on Amazon Prime.

Photos courtesy of Amazon Studios.

Cuties – Growing Up Fast

by 1 Comment

Yes, Maïmouna Doucouré’s Cuties (Mignonnes) has created a great deal of controversy. I wouldn’t categorize that controversy as a tempest in a teapot, because the film does revolve around the sexualization of young women, but in a reflective and critical manner, not in an exploitive or abusive manner. In fact, the film suggests an outrage about this just as strong as the Twitterverse’s demands of boycott. The film, however, addresses the issue by asking us to empathize with the young characters, rather than turning away and ignoring what is happening.

Amy (Fathia Youssouf) is a Somalian immigrant living with her mother and two brothers in a poor section of Paris. They are observant Muslims, going to the women’s service at the mosque, hearing how evil it is for women to bare their bodies. Her father has returned to Somalia with plans to bring home a second wife. The planning for the wedding falls to Amy’s mother and the family matriarch. Amy is expected to participate, even though she feels abandoned and rejected.

 New in her middle school, she is attracted to a group of girls (Médina El Aidi-Azouni, Esther Gohourou, Ilanah Cami-Goursolas, and Myriam Hamma) who want to win a hip-hop dance contest. Amy begins to work her way into the group, and eventually begins dancing with them. Yes, the dances are mildly suggestive, but as Amy and the others begin to see other more risqué dancing videos online, Amy instigates making their dances even more so. When they begin posting their videos on social media, the affirmations are intoxicating. Here, Amy finds the kind of attention she misses at home.

Cuties is a painful coming-of-age story. At home, Amy has learned that in her world women are disposable. Even though she and her mother will still be in the home with her father and new wife, it is obvious that they are not enough. They are being relegated to second-class status. The worlds of the mosque, home, and society are acutely at odds.

A large part of that conflict involves the meaning of being a woman. At home Amy gets two lessons on womanhood. The first is when she has her first period, she is told she’s now a woman. The other lesson is when the matriarch tells her that the way to become a woman is to prepare the food for her father’s upcoming wedding. But society has many ways of teaching that women are sexualized, and the way to get approval and love is through that route. It is a lesson that young girls see often.

There are parts of this film that are hard to watch. The increasingly sexualized dancing is the film’s way of rubbing our noses in a culture that may not officially promote that behavior in children, but certainly is willing to tolerate it, possible even think it’s cute that they want to be so grown up. When Amy gets approval and affirmation along the way, she wants more. Eventually she will push too far.

It is also hard to watch the way Amy must deal with a life at home that will never be fulfilling. The place of women in her ethnic world is belittling. We don’t want that world for her any more than we do the sexualized world she is entering.

The film is about a world in which children (especially girls) are encouraged in many ways to grow up to fast. What “to grow up” means varies within cultures and societies. But adolescence is always a challenge for these children who face challenges of identity and belonging. Can we really expect eleven year olds to make the proper choices when faced with so many voices and images? The film serves as a strong reminder that left to their own choices, calamity is near at hand.

Finally, I want to address the widespread denunciation of the film by those who haven’t seen it. It’s my understanding that what created the controversy was an ill-advised publicity poster used by Netflix (which Netflix later apologized for and admitted was inappropriate). Certainly that poster gave an impression of the film that would suggest it would be offensive. But often posters (or even trailers) do not capture the reality of a film. The way the condemnation of the film went viral suggests that we live in a world in which people don’t want to make their own decision, but will just pass on what people who yell the loudest have to say. Cuties is actually a very clear indictment of a society that sexualizes children. That is the voice that needs to be heard.

Photo courtesy of Netflix.

The Tobacconist – Becoming an Adult

by Leave a Comment

“We’re not in this world to find answers, but to ask qestions.”

Nikolaus Leytner’s The Tobacconist is a tale of looking for love, finding wisdom, and becoming an adult. As with many coming-of-age films there is movement from innocence to facing harsh realities. How one faces such realities has major consequences.

The film opens with 17 year-old Franz (Simon Monzé) sitting on the bottom of a lake. When he sees lightning flashing, he surfaces and runs home through the forest, past his mother and her lover having sex against a tree. Franz climbs into bed to hide. His mother’s lover decides to take a dip in the lake and is struck by lightning and dies. (A bit Oedipal?) His mother sends Franz off to Vienna to apprentice with Otto (Johannes Krisch), her former lover who runs a tobacco shop.

Otto, who lost a leg in World War I, is cynical, especially now that the Nazis have occupied Austria. Otto’s shop is welcoming to all, even Jews and Communists. (Although Otto is somewhat cold to a Nazi customer.) Otto begins to teach Franz about business, and dealing with people. The first lesson is that the shop is more than a place of business, it is a “temple of pleasure and spirit”. He also begins to help the naïve Franz see what is happening in the world around him.

One of the customers in the shop is Sigmund Freud (Bruno Ganz). When Franz asks the renown psychologist about love and women, Freud admits to being as confused about that as Franz. But he tells Franz you don’t have to understand water before you jump in to a lake. So Franz heads off to meet a girl and chooses Anezka (Emma Drougunova), a beautiful Bohemian who is a bit older and experienced. When she abandons him after a fun evening, he tracks her down to discover she lives in squalor and is a fan dancer. He tries to kindle a relationship, but it never quite takes off.

Meanwhile, the Nazi are beginning to crack down. Everyone is faced with choices to make for how they will survive. Otto is arrested. Freud’s family wants him to emigrate to London. Franz wants to have Anezka run away with him to some place peaceful. Suddenly Franz must take on maturity. But what will that mean? And what will it cost him?

An interesting part of this film, in light of Sigmund Freud being one of the key characters, is possible psychological images: begin underwater, dead animals, a spider that lives in the tobacco shop, and Franz’s many dreams, which Freud encourages him to write down. It might make for an interesting project to watch the film with Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams at hand. But in this film Freud never psychoanalyses Franz or his problems. Rather he serves, along with Otto, as a mentor to a young man who must grow up quickly.

The film tracks Franz’s growing maturity in a variety or ways. One subtle way is through clothing. For the first part of the film, Franz is always wearing short pants or knickers. After Otto’s arrest, when he must now run the shop himself, he begins to wear trousers. But the real coming-of-age moment is when Franz has taken Freud a gift of Havana cigars, Freud shares one with Franz who has not smoked prior to this. In that scene, Freud recognizes Franz as an adult, and perhaps Franz recognizes that for the first time.

As Franz makes his journey from naïveté to maturity, he grows through the wisdom imparted by his two mentors: Otto and Freud. Wisdom is something valued in scripture. But it is never seen as an easy path. In Proverbs, we are reminded that many follow after the siren call of Folly. In Ecclesiastes, the biblical cynic philosopher calls his search for wisdom “an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with.” In his time in Otto’s “temple of pleasure and spirit” Franz learns many new things. Through the words and actions of his two mentors, Franz begins to see that he must put away the childish part of his life. The world needs him to be involved and to act properly and courageously.

The Tobacconist is available on Virtual Cinema through local art houses.

Photos courtesy of Menemsha Films