ScreenFish

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Private Desert – Love and Loneliness

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“Remember when we talked about being alone in the world?”

Aly Muritiba’s Private Desert is a story of a man’s search for a way out of his loneliness and isolation. Much of that solitude is self-imposed and the result of being in a very conservative masculine world. His journey will push his understandings about love and about who he is as a man. [Note: In the film, the story reveals things slowly. This review will include information that might be considered spoilers.]

Daniel (Antonio Sabola) is a police academy instructor on suspension for the brutal beating of a rookie. He is also the caregiver for his father (retired police) with rapidly failing health. Already feeling isolated from his colleagues, he has also been ghosted by the woman he has fallen in love with online. He sets out to drive 2000 miles across Brazil to find Sara, whom he has never really met.

What he is to discover is that Sara (Pedro Fasanaro) is genderfluid, with two personas: Sara, who Daniel has fallen in love with, and Robson, living out his birth-gender as a blue-collar worker who lives with his grandmother. Sara has seen videos of Daniel’s violence, and is unsure if she would be safe with him.

This is a meeting of two worlds. Daniel, from the cold south of Brazil, is very conservative. He has learned that men are to be self-contained. Even in a crowd he seems to be totally apart. Yet, when we see him with his father, we see tenderness and kindness. The constraints of Daniel’s life seem to be symbolized by the cast he has on his wrist through most of the film.

Sara/Robson, in the sunny north of the country, has struggles in a world that is not welcoming. He and his mother attend an Evangelical church (The Church of God’s Will [!]) that would see him as sick and sinful. At the church he is told, “salvation and happiness don’t always walk hand in hand.” He sees both Robson and Sara as his real identity.

The conflict that Daniel and Sara face is not just about gender, but about what it means to live and love in ways that society may not approve of. Sara/Robson has had to find a path to joy throughout their life, but it has been difficult. Daniel faces having to see the world in a much different manner. He would need to see himself in an entirely new way. The question is whether he can love the Sara he discovers. Can love help him to open from the constraints of the world he has inhabited his whole life? Is there more to love than the passion between two bodies?

The film uses the song “Total Eclipse of the Heart” to emphasize the struggle between the two worlds/loves/futures. As the song talks about “falling in love” and “falling apart”, we see that the meeting of these two people and worldviews will be a mixture of both.

Private Desert is rolling out in select theaters.

Photos courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The Walk – Desgregating the Deep North

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School desegregation reached Boston in 1974. It turned into violent confrontations, especially in South Boston. It was a time of racial animus and tension. It was disruptive to both White and Black families. The Walk, from director Daniel Adams, is a story of two families who are brought together by those events.

Bill Coughlin (Justin Chatwin) is a Boston police officer who lives in Southie. He is kindhearted, as we see when he stops a thief who needed food for a baby. His daughter Kate (Katie Douglas) is looking forward to her senior year at Southie High School. When the news comes down that busing will begin in the fall, the summer is spent waiting for news of who will be sent to what school. Bill is teamed with a black officer to escort black students into the school, because he’s local and that might carry some weight with his neighbors. Wendy Robbins (Lovie Simone) is looking forward to her senior year at the Roxbury High in her Black neighborhood. Her father (Terrence Howard) works as an EMT.

When the letter from the schools arrive, Kate is delighted that she will be going to Southie (although her best friend will be bussed to Roxbury). Wendy learns that she will be sent to Southie. She would prefer to stay at her old school, but is determined not to show her fear when the time comes to go to the school.

Most of the film is set in the summer between school years. Bill is faced with many people (including colleagues in the police) who are vehemently opposed to bussing. His Southie neighbors want to keep things as they have always been. That is especially true of the local hoods, led by McLaughlin (Malcom McDowell). As part of the backstory, Bill helped put away one of McLaughlin’s crew for a killing. That person has just gotten out of prison. As the summer progresses, Kate becomes connected to the son of the man Bill arrested (something Bill opposes). One night they stone a car with Black passengers driving through the neighborhood. The passengers are Wendy and her father.

When the first day of school arrives, Bill is at Southie to do his job as the bus arrives. Wendy’s father is there as well with the ambulance in anticipation of violence. The crowd is angry and vicious. But Bill will do what he must to protect the children, even if his neighbors (and perhaps his daughter) are opposed.

Too much of the film is built around the animosity between the local hoods and Bill. While there is racism involved in all this, the film fails to really delve into the way racism manifests in people who may well see themselves as good. Instead, when the most violent act occurs, it is only using the racial situation as a way of settling an old grudge. It is important that we see that racism is not something that is from the past or is pushed by people with some other agenda. It comes from within each of us. The film tries to show the evils of racism, and the difficulty finding answers to that problem. But it never quite makes us look at ourselves.

The Walk is in theaters.

Photos courtesy of Vertical Entertainment.

Chauvin Verdict Reaction; Race & Policing

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Derek Chauvin is found guilty of murdering George Floyd. In this episode of the Your Sunday Drive podcast, we talk about the trial, the verdict and the related issues: race, racism and justice in America; the influence of politics and media; policing and how race is related; what this event could mean for the future.

Most importantly, we try to approach the topic from a Christian perspective, asking how we might respond to and participate in this moment of change.

Come along for Your Sunday Drive – quick conversation about current events, politics, pop culture and more, from the perspective of a couple of guys trying to follow Jesus.

Hosts: Matt Hill and Nate Polzin. Presented by the Church in Drive of Saginaw, MI, as often as possible. Please visit churchindrive.com and facebook.com/thechurchindrive

The Hate U Give – Discovering a Self and a Voice

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In Hamlet, Polonius tells his son Laertes, “This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as day the night, thou canst not be false to any man.” In The Hate U Give, a young African-American girl must struggle not just with being true to herself, but with which of her personae is her true self.

Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) lives in two worlds. Her parents, Maverick (Russell Hornsby) and Lisa (Regina Hall), have opted to live in Garden Heights, a working-class black neighborhood, even though they could afford to live in a more upscale area. Mav and Lisa are from Garden Heights and want to be part of the community there. In Garden Heights, Starr Version One fits in perfectly. She speaks the slang and wears the right shoes. She knows the people there. They are her people.

Amandla Stenberg stars in Twentieth Century Fox’s THE HATE U GIVE. Photo Credit: Erika Doss.

But Mav and Lisa want more for Starr and her brothers, Seven (Lamar Johnson) and Sekani (TJ Wright), so they send them to a predominantly white prep school across town. At school, Starr Version Two also fits in. She leaves the slang behind. (Her friends use it to sound cool; she would just sound “hood.”) Her best friends at school, including her boyfriend, are all white. Every day she goes back and forth between these worlds, but she is two very different people in each.

L-R: Megan Lawless, Amandla Stenberg, and Sabrina Carpenter in Twentieth Century Fox’s THE HATE U GIVE. Photo Credit: Erika Doss.

When she goes to a party in the Heights one night, a fight breaks out and her childhood friend Khalil helps her escape the violence as they drive off in his car. When Khalil is pulled over by a police officer, the traffic stop escalates into a confrontation that ends up with Khalil being shot and killed. Starr is the only witness. How that role plays out in her two separate worlds forces her to come to grips with who she is and how she must act.

Starr struggles under the weight of her responsibility. Many want her to testify against the officer to bring justice for Khalil’s death. But there are others who want her to stay silent, including King (Anthony Mackie), head of the neighborhood gang (to which Mav once belonged). King does not want anything to come out about Khalil dealing drugs for him. At school, Starr doesn’t want it known that she is the witness because of what her friends might think. She also encounters those there who side with the police officer, assuming nothing was wrong with the killing.

Amandla Stenberg and Algee Smith in Twentieth Century Fox’s THE HATE U GIVE. Photo Credit: Erika Doss.

How can Starr be true to herself (and her family, her friendship with Khalil, her community, and the concept of justice) when she has not yet learned who she really is?

Identity is a key concept in this film. Starr and her brothers have names that their parents gave to them for specific reasons that reflect who they are to become. The film also shows how shoes can be a part of one’s identity. What shoes someone wears may speak loudly to those around them. It may seem like a minor bit of life, but within the context of the film, one is what one wears. For Starr, her growing sense of justice and seeking her voice means she must come to terms with all the ways her identity has been fragmented. It is of note that in the voice over we hear of Starr’s testimony to the grand jury, we do not hear about what happened but about who Khalil was to her. To share Khalil’s identity is key for her.

The film opens with Mav and Lisa giving “The Talk” to nine year old Starr and her brothers. They try to explain the injustice they will inevitably encounter. They teach them how to behave when stopped by police in hopes of staying alive. Then Mav gives them the Black Panthers’ Ten Point Plan and demands that they memorize it. “Know your rights. Know your worth”, he tells them. There is something bordering on the sacred in these moments. To be sure, it lays out a very scary reality, but it is also clearly an act of love and nurture.

Amandla Stenberg stars in Twentieth Century Fox’s THE HATE U GIVE. Photo Credit: Erika Doss.

That tone of near sacredness recurs often throughout the film, often in small ways, such as when Starr looks through her box of childhood memories, and at time in more profound ways, as when Starr addresses the crowd at a protest. It is a reminder of the many times in lives that we encounter the sacred, not because we are looking for the presence of God, but because the divine in always close at hand.

It would be an oversimplification to call this a Black Lives Matter film, although it most certainly fits that description. But it is also a far deeper examination of not only African-American identity, but of the importance of finding oneself in order to know one’s place in the world and how that fulfills what one is meant to do with their life. Starr has been shaped by many competing forces including the systemic racism of society. In this film she begins to come into her own—to find her voice and her future.

Available now on 4K, Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD, the film comes with several special features: “Maverick and Seven Protecting Their Home,” “Uprising,” “Seven’s Graduation” extended scenes; “Starr: Shine Your Light,” “Starting a Conversation,” “The Talk,” “Code Switching,” “The Heart of Georgia,” and “Thank U Georgia” featurettes; “and audio commentary with director Tillman with select cast and crew.

Photos courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

Beauty and the Dogs – Persisting in a #MeToo World

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“And yet she persisted” is a political statement in the US. It speaks to women seeking a voice to speak to power. But a woman’s persistence takes on a much deeper importance in the Tunisian film Beauty and the Dogs.

University student Miriam (Miriam Al Ferjani) goes to a party where she meets Youssef (Ghanem Zrelli). They go off for a walk. Next, we see her running, with him behind her. In time we see he is trying to comfort her and help her. While they were walking, policemen drove up, took Miriam and raped her.  Moving between clinic, hospital, and police stations, Miriam and Youssef try to document what happened to file a complaint. The night turns into an ever-greater nightmare as Miriam must face bureaucratic hurdles and hostility from those who we think should be her protectors.

The first third of the movie reminded me a bit of the Romanian film The Death of Mr. Lasarescu.  Like the character in that film, Mariam wants help, but faces proper procedures that override simple compassion. First, she is told she can’t be treated because she has no identification (her purse was taken by the rapists), then that there is no one who can examine her, then when the proper doctor is found, she’s told she must first go to the police to report the rape (which, of course, she is afraid to do.)

Her encounters with the police take this into even darker territory. There she is met with disbelief, indifference, hostility, and eventually physical and emotional threats. The first reaction of the police to an accusation against other officers is to circle the wagons. But when the police involved in the rape find her at the station, it becomes even more dangerous for both Miriam and Youssef. The police do everything they can to prevent her from moving forward with this complaint. As the night wears on, Miriam faces exhaustion along with the trauma of rape. Yet, she is not willing to let the police put this aside. She is determined to demand justice for what she has been through.

This story, based on actual events, but with significant artistic license, is a reminder that victims of rape often face all the trials that Miriam faces here. We also know that this is a story that is not limited to far away places. We live in a #MeToo world. For many women justice has been delayed or denied for terrible things they have had to face. It is only now that women are banding together to persist, as Miriam does here, to demand that their voices be heard, their pain acknowledged, and justice be done.

Photos courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories

Let It Fall – Anatomy of a Riot

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It was twenty-five years ago this month that Los Angeles erupted in a violent civil disturbance. Many people remember it as a response to the acquittal of four police officers who were involved in beating Rodney King. While that verdict was an important component of the anger within the African American community, there is much more that led up to the violence that broke out. In Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992 John Ridley (Oscar winner for his screenplay of 12 Years a Slave) lays out the broader history of those events.

It should be said that I have lived most of my life in the Los Angeles area. The situations that are chronicled in this film aren’t new information for me. But the film is valuable in showing the way things built up over this ten year period to reach an explosive situation. (It could be argued that there were left over issues from the 1965 Watts Riots at play as well, but that would likely be too long a history to distill into a film. Even with the ten year spread, this documentary runs nearly two and a half hours.

The story is told with both archival footage and with interviews of people who were involved. This includes people of various races and ethnicities. It includes police officers (including the lieutenant who made the decision to pull out of the 71st and Normandie area when the uprising was beginning.), community members, victims and their families, and even some of those who committed violent crimes during that time.

As noted, this is the culmination of many years of problems in Los Angeles. About the first third of the film deals with the police culture under then-Chief Darryl Gates. But it was not just policing that created the situation. There were issues between the Black and Korean communities that came to a head not long before the King beating with the killing by a Korean shopkeeper of African American ninth grader Latasha Harlens. The shopkeeper was found guilty of manslaughter and given probation.

The middle third deals with the King beating (referred to in the film as “The Foothill Incident”) and the trial of the police officers. This section includes the remembrances of the prosecutor of that case. The final third focuses on the civil disturbance itself. This is the part that most people will be familiar with from news reports, but because it includes interviews with some of those involved (both law breakers and those who stepped in to rescue people) it provides insights and perspectives that we might not otherwise know.

Of course, this is not just a history lesson of a turbulent time. The film never mentions more recent issues that have led to Black Lives Matter, but one cannot watch this film and not see today’s world. Certainly, there have been changes in law enforcement (at least in L.A.) since that time, but the underlying issues of race and justice continue to be in the forefront of our national and local contemplation. It may remind us how close we may still be to the possibility of those who feel oppressed rising to seek the justice that has been denied. It may be through protests or through other more violent means.

Photos courtesy of Lincoln Square Productions

Zootopia – Can Diversity Work?

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Zootopia568c69e6a12faI think one of the most impressive things about Zootopia is not its animation quality (which is very good) or its storyline (which is certainly worthy of the Disney trademark), but the prescience of the filmmakers to have this film coming out when it does. Animated films take a long time to make, so in reality the filmmaking team led by directors Byron Howard and Rich Moore couldn’t have known just how timely the film’s release would be, but it seems like just the right time.

Zootopia is a world in which anthropomorphic animals have learned to live in harmony—no more predator/prey dichotomy. It is a place where lions and lambs dwell together in peace. (There’s something biblical about that vision.) Yet, there are still vestiges of mistrust especially between rabbits and foxes. It is also a place that claims “Anyone can be anything.” Young bunny Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) takes that to heart. It is her dream to be a police officer. Her parents counsel against the idea. (Mother (Bonnie Hunt): “It’s good to have dreams.” Father (Don Lake): “Just so you don’t believe in them too much.”) Through an affirmative action program, Judy becomes the first rabbit police officer for Zootopia. All the other cops are large, tough animals. Chief Bogo (Idris Elba) doesn’t want a rabbit on the force and assigns her to parking duty. Soon, though she pushes herself into a missing animal investigation. Bogo gives her 48 hours to solve it or resign. She enlists the help of Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), a con-man fox to help her through the seamier side of Zootopian life. Of course, the mistrust that Judy has learned all through her life makes it hard at times to trust Nick.

ZOOTOPIA – Pictured: Judy Hopps. ©2016 Disney. All Rights Reserved.
©2016 Disney. All Rights Reserved.

It is essentially a police/buddy movie. Judy and Nick are both outsiders, but they are very different in temperament. Judy is an optimist who believes she will make the world a better place as a police officer. Even when she is assigned to parking duty, she writes 200 tickets before noon to prove what a good officer she is. Nick is a cynic. He trusts no one because he understands that animal nature is not as rosy as Judy seems to think it is. But as they work together to solve the mystery, the two come to respect each other and will each be willing to sacrifice to save the other.

One of the key themes of Zootopia is diversity. The film features 64 species of mammals from shrews to elephants, including weasels, otters, a yak, sloths, lions, sheep, rhinos, hippos, wolves and many more. Yet although Judy starts off seeing this world as a utopian society, she learns that some prejudices and biases that are hard to overcome. It also shows how some are willing to use those biases and fears to gain power.

©2015 Disney. All Rights Reserved.

This is what makes Zootopia so timely. In a world in which we proclaim #BlackLivesMatter and had an awards season defined by #OscarsSoWhite, this film celebrates a diverse society as an ideal, but also recognizes that such diversity is not easy to maintain. It sees that we often bring prejudices we don’t recognize. It sees that those fears can be exploited by those who would manipulate people for their own advantage. And it sees that if we are going to live together that we must work hard to know and respect one another. The film creates a world in which we can look at the sin of racism and the possibilities of reconciliation in a non-threatening way.

The commitment to diversity is not limited to the story. One of the things I noted when the credits began was the number of people of color who were part of the cast. Others not already mentioned include Olivia Spencer (Mrs. Otterton), Tommy Chong (Yax the Yak), and Shakira (Gazelle, the hottest singer/dancer in Zootopia). Although we don’t see this diversity onscreen, it is impressive that the filmmakers seem to have been intentional in making this a cast that represented that vision they were trying to convey.

Photos courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures