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John Turturro

Self Isolation Film Festival: Fearless

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“We passed through death.”

I think Peter Weir’s 1993 film Fearless may be a very important film for the world to consider in 2021. That will be after we have come through the worst of the Corona Virus pandemic and the social and economic turmoil it is creating. What does it mean to be a survivor—to have gone through a time of fear, death, suffering? Will we see the world through the same eyes as before? Will we mourn all that was lost or celebrate the life ahead?

At the beginning of Fearless, Max Klein (Jeff Bridges) is walking through a cornfield carrying a baby with a small child at his side. We soon discover that an airplane has crashed in the field and he and a few others are survivors finding their way to the emergency personnel. Max’s response to the crash seems very bizarre. He leaves the scene and heads to Los Angeles to reunite with a high school sweetheart. When the airline tracks him down and offers to send him home to San Francisco by train, he opts to fly, showing no fear of another crash. The airline puts Dr. Bill Perlman (John Turturro), a psychologist who specializes in PTSD in the seat next to him. When Max arrives home to his family, he is somewhat distant and brutally honest.

Although Dr. Perlman can’t really connect with Max, he asks Max to visit another survivor, Carla Rodrigo (Rosie Perez), whose toddler son died in the crash. Carla is bedridden with shame and guilt (“very Catholic” according to Perlman). Carla and Max form a connection. Max tells his wife Laura (Isabella Rossellini) that he “feels an overwhelming love” for Carla. (Not the kind of thing Laura is happy to hear.) But Carla and Max are very different. Max is an atheist; Carla is very devout. Max feels energized and invulnerable; Carla is in deep depression. Max and Carla spend time together, but neither makes much progress with reentering the world in a healthy fashion. Max has made it a goal to save Carla. But who will save Max?

This is a film with a great deal of overtly religious image and language. One of the first things Max does after the crash is to eat strawberries, which he is allergic to. He calls it “forbidden fruit”. Max is referred to in the media as “The Good Samaritan” for the way he led some of the survivors out of the wreckage, calling them to “Follow me to the light”. Carla has a bumper sticker on her bedroom door that reads “Jesus es mi mejor amigo”. In a scene where Max and Carla go to church to pray for her son, we note that the crucifix in the chapel has a wound in the side very similar to one Max has. Even though Max espouses atheism, he frequently speaks to and challenges God. The idea of salvation pops up in various ways.

For me the key scene in Fearless as it relates to our current situation is as Carla and Max are in front of a store at Christmas time. He tells her “We’re safe because we died already.” He has her look at the others around them who don’t understand what it means to die in your mind. Then he tells her “We passed through death.” (Coincidentally, I watched this on Easter. These lines resonate very well with Easter themes.)

Is that perhaps what we are doing now—passing through a kind of death? Not just the rising toll of deaths from COVID-19, but also the disruption to education, and an economy that will certainly be seriously damaged, leading to increased unemployment, failed businesses, loss of retirement savings that will affect millions of people. What will 2021 hold for those of us who have passed through this time of trial? Will we be wracked by survivors’ guilt? Will we, like Max, think we have charmed lives that make us impervious to injury? Will we see ourselves as Max describes Carla and himself: ghosts? We will all face grief and loss in some way. Is an unrealistic outlook like Max’s any healthier than Carla’s retreat? I haven’t heard anyone say this yet, but I expect the next pandemic to hit the world could well be PTSD from all the things that we are currently living through.

At some point we will think everything has returned to normal (or some semblance of normal). It would be naïve to think that because we made it through this pandemic that we have not been affected. We are all wounded by this. We are all infected, if not with the virus, with emotional stress and fear. We need to begin now to pay attention to how we will respond to that time when we have made it out of the wreckage of COVID-19. And we will need to continue to care for one another long after we start returning to our lives.

Fearless is available for rent on Amazon Prime for $2.99.

Gloria Bell: Dancing through Life

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Middle age is tough. When you are Gloria Bell, however, you handle it with verve and joy.

In Gloria Bell, the English remake of his 2013 film Gloria, director Sebastian Lelio casts the luminous Julianne Moore in the lead role. Gloria leads a happy life. She’s divorced but on good terms with her ex. She’s involved in the lives of her children and grandchild. She has an office job that she seems to enjoy and girlfriends to confide in and laugh with. She also loves to dance, spending her evenings at dance clubs.

It is at one of these clubs that she meets Arnold (John Turturro). They make eye contact on the dance floor and from there the romance begins. Arnold comes with lots of hurts and complications from his own recently ended marriage and these will play out in sad, yet frustrating ways throughout the movie. We are rooting for both of them and are never really sure whether their lives will come together in a happy way. Both Moore and Turturro give sensitive and true-to-life performances. Youth is a complicated time in life, but Gloria Bell shows that mid life is every bit as daunting. Between Arnold’s needy family and Moore’s sudden change in circumstances (terrible neighbour, daughter moving to Europe, friend losing her job, son unable to stay in his apartment), they find that they have unexpected challenges to cope with. Will their budding love offer strength for these changing situations?

Gloria’s life is also chronicled by her daily drives. Karaoke-style she belts out whatever song is playing on her playlist and the music is always a reflection of her current situation in life. The songs are all golden oldies and add an 80’s vibe to the movie. It was a bit heavy-handed linking the music to her status but Moore looks so convincing as she sings along off key, it’s hard not to find it charming.

Julianne Moore is truly magnificent in this role. Her acting is subtle and nuanced. In the worst of circumstances she keeps her character even keeled and moving forward. These are skills and coping mechanisms that you learn with age. When she needs to make a bold statement she nails it. When she is happy she radiates joy and delight. Other than fitting her with overlarge glasses (to age her?) Moore looks like a woman barely into her forties, rather than mid-to-late 50’s woman that she is portraying. Even with an amazing supporting cast, this movie belongs to her.

So, if you are a fan of Julianne Moore (or have lived through a few crises yourself) this is the movie to see.

Gloria Bell is in theatres now.

The Night Of – When Murder Meets Perception

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Naz Khan (Riz Ahmed, Jason Bourne, Rogue One), a Pakistani-American college student, takes his father’s taxicab to a party but he never makes it there. When a mysterious woman (Sofia Black D’Elia) gets into the cab at a stoplight, he finds himself engaged in a night of danger and seduction. And then the next morning, he finds that the woman is dead and he is the police’s chief suspect. But is he guilty of murder?

Luckily (or not) enough for Khan, beleaguered public defender John Stone (John Turturro) defends Khan in this critically acclaimed, eight-part miniseries. In fact, Stone is the one who proposes there’s something more going on here than something cut and dry. Of course, timing is everything, even in the real world, where HBO originally passed on the show, then picked it up again for James Gandolfini. Ultimately, HBO ended up pushing it through in 2016 where it may be even more appropriate. Written by Richard Price (Clockers) and Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List, Gangs of New York), it delivers a tense, disturbing look at how one night of ‘fun’ can go south quickly – and how the justice system is full of injustices (especially for people of color).

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From a story perspective, this is a murder investigation like several of the shows that have come before it (and occur simultaneously, like Secrets & Lies or How to Get Away with Murder). But while we don’t know immediately whether or not Khan is actually guilty of murdering the woman or not, we know that his life is irrevocably changed – especially after he ends up in prison under the watchful eye of fellow inmate, Freddy Knight (Michael Kenneth Williams). We watch Khan transform – and it’s not pretty.

And then there’s the justice issue. We are inclined to think that Naz Khan is a good (if not naive) man. He understands the words being said to him, by the arresting officer and then by Detective Dennis Box (Bill Camp, Minority Report), but he’s cast around by the system – he doesn’t know what his own rights are. When he does ask for a lawyer, he’s talked out of it – well after saying and doing things that don’t help his case in the premiere – and we’re reminded that this is set in a reality of #BlackLivesMatter and wrongful deaths of minorities at the hands of the police. Is this one-sided? Maybe, maybe not. But it’ll make you think about justice and assumptions – and disturb your sleep just a little bit.

Mia Madre – The Illusion of Control

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“Mama, what are you thinking about?”  “Tomorrow.”

Mia Madre was the winner of the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at Cannes in 2015. Ecumenical Juries often focus on finding stories of the human condition that speak to the spiritual needs that are common to us all. That is certainly the case with Mia Madre.

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Margherita (Margherita Buy) is an Italian film director trying to make a film with American actor Barry Huggins (John Turturro) who seems to be nothing but problems. At the same time her mother’s health is steadily slipping away and her daughter is becoming increasingly distant. The situations lead to both humor and pathos that become interwoven.

For Margherita, this all represents a loss of control. Although as director of her film she is titularly in control, Huggins’s style and shortcomings as an actor is creating chaos in the production. And of course the dying process with her mother is something totally out of her control. As she moves between the worlds of the movie set and the sickroom she struggles to maintain balance.

Shots from "Mia Madre"

There is the wisdom of this film. Much of our lives we struggle to maintain the balance of control without realizing that, like Margherita’s work as a film director, control is often only an illusion we have constructed. In reality there are so many forces that push us and pull us in different directions that we are constantly in danger of losing the balance of our lives. Often it is in the letting loose of control that allows grace to come into our lives. That is clearly the case with the storyline involving Margherita and her mother. Being able to let go is often the first step in discovering something more rewarding than feeling in control. It is somewhat ironic that giving up control may provide strength and power that others bring to us in our weakness. So it is with Margherita and her juggling act of professional and personal life. In there will be sadness, but also there will be great reward.

Photos courtesy of Music Box Films