ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

Evan Peters

I Am Woman – Raising Her Voice

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♫ “I am strong. I am invincible. I am woman.” ♫

Those words were part of what became the anthem of the Second Wave Women’s Movement in the 1970s. Unjoo Moon makes it the cornerstone of her Helen Reddy biopic, I Am Woman. The film is in part a celebration of her music set within her story amidst the background of the Women’s Movement.

Helen Reddy (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) arrives with her daughter in New York in 1966 thinking she has won a record contract. It turns out the label has no plans for her. She sings in a lounge trying to make ends meet, but it is a struggle. She is befriended by fellow Aussie Lilian Roxon (Danielle Macdonald). At a party, she also meets Jeff Wald (Evan Peters) who is seeking a way into the management business. Jeff and Helen hit it off romantically. They move to Los Angeles where Jeff gets his foot in the door of the industry, but Helen is languishing in the role of housewife. She nags him into doing for her what he does for other clients, eventually getting her a chance to record some covers. That gets her started on her career.

Throughout the first half of the film, the demeaning nature of the male dominated entertainment industry (and culture as a whole) is obvious. She is pigeon-holed in a certain genre of music. Her husband is in many ways just as bad as everyone else in his view of the place of women, but he knows how to help Helen find success. It becomes obvious when she writes “I Am Woman” and wants to include it on her album. The men react to it, thinking it sounds “angry” and “man-hating”. But Jeff convinces them to bury it in the last half of the album because no one listens to that part anyway. But Jeff promotes that song in ways that make it a hit. Helen is one her way.

This is a by-the-numbers biopic. Intro. Struggle. Love interest. Success. Marital problems. Finding a new personal fulfillment. That motif is frequently used to tell stories that are designed to inspire. I Am Woman is a story of a woman who has to overcome both the struggle to find success, and the effects of attaining it.

Playing in the background is the society-wide struggle that women faced during that period. We see bits of the Women’s Movement and the battle for the Equal Rights Amendment. In some ways, Helen Reddy’s story reflects that period. She faces being talked down to because she is a woman. But she also becomes a symbol of a successful woman, with her own TV show, and worldwide fame. But there is also a downside to the life she has tried so hard at achieve. And in the end, like the ERA, perhaps all the success is just for show and there needs to be more done.

I Am Woman is playing in theaters and on VOD.

American Animals: Blurred Lines (of Reality)

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“Do you ever feel like you’re waiting for something to happen but you don’t know what it is? That thing that could make your life special?”

– Spencer Reinhard, American Animals

Written and directed by Bart Layton, American Animals tells the true story of Spencer Reinhard, Warren Lipka, Eric Borsuk and Chas Allen, four friends who feel trapped within their ordinary lives in Kentucky. After a visit to Transylvania University, Reinhard and Lipka devise a plot to steal the rarest and most valuable books from the school’s library. As their heist begins to unravel, the men begin to question whether their attempts to feel the rush of excitement and injecting purpose into their lives were misguided and even potentially dangerous.

With influences ranging from heist films to documentary, American Animals pops off the screen with its fluid movement between genres. Featuring interviews with the real Reinhard, Lipka and many others, Animals bears the weight of authenticity as the four men recount their journey from students to art thieves. At the same time, the film is embedded with a free-wheeling gleefulness as the team dreams big about the future that awaits them. As a result, the film bounces between the energy of Ocean’s Eleven and the gravitas of The Social Network. What’s more, Animals is enthusiastically self-aware of its theft of genre styles, featuring references to multiple pop culture favourites such as Reservoir Dogs, The Matrix, The Shawshank Redemption, and yes, Ocean’s Eleven. While the entire cast do an excellent job of balancing the two tones, Evan Peters’ stand-out performance as Lipka provides the film with its highest dose of charisma and energy.

Since they all come from (mostly) positive home environments and excel in their education, one might find these young men to be unexpected choices for art thieves. However, Reinhard, Lipka and their team are portrayed as simply… bored. These are young men who have lost their sense of self and are looking for that rush to help them feel alive again (especially Lipka). For them, the pop culture references become the gold standard of what they want to achieve. If they pull off this heist, they believe that they get to become the films they idolize.

Besides, no one will get hurt.

Ironically, these are young men who already live the American Dream but their souls have come up empty. Reinhold and his team are lost when they attempt to grasp what it means to have purpose or make a positive impact in the world. In an almost Ecclesiastical revelation, they find that their lives and future are essentially meaningless. As a result, the most important goal to them becomes doing something significant.

They want to leave their mark, even if it means being reckless to do it.

However, as things start to unravel, we see another side of the crew: guilt. As reality begins to seep into their pop culture dreams, we watch as recklessness turns to regret. Unlike other heist films, Reinhard and his team become increasingly aware of the ramifications of their actions as things begin to spin out of control. What if they get caught? Could someone actually get hurt?

Interestingly though, rather than simply present itself as an honest recreation of events, the film is entirely comfortable recognizing that our memories can’t necessarily always be trusted. Several times throughout the film, the real Reinhard and Lipka note that the events depicted may not be fully accurate as even they have difficulty with some of the details. As the lines between truth and lies become blurred, somehow the characters seem to become more honest in their regrets, revealing a subtle humility within them. (Or do they? With morality this murky, it can be difficult to tell.)

In the end, American Animals offers all the thrills you would expect from a heist film, mixed with the weight of regret by disillusioned youth. In many ways, the film becomes a scathing indictment of the American Dream by revealing the sheer emptiness of lives with wealth but no purpose. Regardless of which details of the heist are accurate and which are misremembered, Animals is an intriguing and, at times, unsettling film that offers solid entertainment as well. Though you may not have heard of it, this film is well worth your time and money.

After all, what could it hurt?

American Animals is in theatres now.