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The Book Keepers – Journey in grief

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“The most powerful words in English are ‘Tell me a story,’ words that are intimately related to the complexity of history, the origins of language, the continuity of the species, the taproot of our humanity, our singularity, and art itself.”

Phil Wall’s documentary The Book Keepers opens with a title card of the Pat Conroy quotation above. It is very appropriate for this journey through a family’s grief, love, and the healing power of storytelling.

Carol Wall (the filmmaker’s mother) wrote popular essays in Southern Living and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for many years. When she wrote her memoir, Mister Owita’s Guide to Gardening, about finding beauty in life that is fleeting, she suffered a recurrence of breast cancer, and eventually died from it. The book was a critical success, but she never really got to enjoy that. So her husband Dick heads off on a promotional book tour, doing the things that Carol would have so loved to have done. As Dick travels the country, Phil documents the journey and the stories that Dick shares not only about the book, but about Carol and their family. Much of the film is Dick and Phil in the car as they drive between events, talking about the family.

For Dick this is a way of fulfilling Carol’s dream. It is also a way of working his way through the grieving process. I don’t know if it was planned as a way to deal with grief, but by constantly telling and retelling her story, his life begins to come back together. That applies a bit to Phil as he makes the film of his father’s journey—that is another story being told. So the film tells a story about telling a story about telling a story. Each level is in its own way a healing process.

As a retired pastor, I know that such storytelling, while it may be difficult at times, opens doors to allow peace and grace to enter into lives that struggle with loss. As the film continues over a span of a year, we hear many of the same stories at different promotional events, but that kind of repetition is a part of the way that storytelling heals in such a situation. Even stories that are painful can become a thing of beauty.

The Book Keepers is in theaters.

Photos courtesy of Phil Wall.

Drive My Car – A Story of Stories

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“If we hope to truly see another person, we have to start by looking within ourselves.”

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car is built around the power of storytelling—imagined stories, dramatic stories, and personal stories. The film is based on short stories by Haruki Murakami, but also includes a good deal of Anton Chekhov’s play Uncle Vanya, with which the characters in the film have emotional parallels. Drive My Car, Japan’s official submission for Best International Feature Film, has been shortlisted for Oscar consideration.

The film opens with actor Yasuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) listening to his wife Oto (Reika Kirishima) tell an evolving story in their post-coital revery, a story that he will tell her in the morning when she has forgotten it. Theirs is a complex relationship, but is clearly built on love for each other. Kafuku does multi-language productions of plays, Oto makes tapes that he uses to run lines. One day when he returns home unexpectedly, he discovers a secret. It is one that he seems to be able to live with, but when Oto dies suddenly, it leaves that part of his life unresolved.

The film moves ahead two years. Kafuku travels to Hiroshima to direct Uncle Vanya. When he arrives, he discovers that because of legal reasons, he must have a driver. A young woman, Misaki Watari (Toko Miura), is assigned to him. He is reluctant to entrust her with is beloved bright red Saab 900, but gives in. He has an hour commute each day (at his request), he continues to use the tapes of his wife running lines for the play. Only occasionally do Kafuku and Watari interact at the beginning, but they slowly get to know one another and tell each other bits of their stories.

Much of the film is set in the rehearsals for the play, in which Kafuku has cast a young actor to play Vanya—an actor he suspects had an affair with Oto. His process for doing plays in several languages at once is challenging for the cast, but we watch as the play begins to come together.

Some may be put off by the three hour running time of the film, but whereas many films fill up time with special effects and amazing stunts, this is time that is filled with story. This is a film that peals the layers of story back like an onion. As Kafuku and Watari spend the hours in the car, they open themselves to speak of their traumas and sense of guilt and pain. Finally, they must undertake a road trip that will allow them each to see that life goes on in spite of suffering and sorrow. This is, in fact, the same conclusion that Uncle Vanya comes to. (And when we see the troupe perform the final scene from the play on stage, it is captivating and powerful in the way it is done.)

The sharing of stories, not just in the car, but among actors during and after rehearsals, is not small talk. They are the characters “looking within”, and in so doing discovering their own pain and the pain of others. That allows them to find healing.

It is interesting that filming had to be shut down for eight months. There is a coda to the film in which we see Watari in a supermarket in which everyone is masked. That scene continues to give us an ambiguous vision of how this story ends, but by setting that scene in the midst of the pandemic brings the film’s stories into our story. We too may find ourselves dealing with grief, pain, or guilt. But we too have life to live.

Drive My Car is in select theaters.

Photos courtesy of Janus Films.

Hudson – Odd couple road trip

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“Try not to run away from stuff that isn’t there.”

Hudson, the first feature film from Sean Daniel Cunningham, received a fair number of awards from film festivals. It is certainly the kind of film that festival audiences like to find—a sweet, feel good story from a new filmmaker. One of the pleasures of going to festivals is finding such nice films that most people will not get a chance to see. But Hudson is now available on Amazon. Apple TV, and VOD. That gives more people a chance to see the kinds of things that festivals provide.

Ryan (Gregory Lay, who also co-wrote with Cunningham) leaves New York City to go upstate a bit, ostensibly because of a film he’s going to be in. So he stops in to visit his cousin Hudson (David Neal Levin), whose mother recently died. Hudson is reclusive and morose. He shows Ryan a room that hasn’t been cleaned up and says, “What’s the point?” That is what his life has become.

But since Ryan can drive, Hudson asks him to take him to a special tree from their childhood to scatter his mother’s ashes. And the odd couple road trip begins. Before long, they have added a flaky, but very kind-hearted hitchhiker name Sunrise (Mary Catherine Greenawalt), who knows exactly where they want to go. A series of small adventures unfold, allowing the characters to discover their common connections. Eventually, when they are lost in the woods, they share their failures, which allows them to look ahead to what new life they can find.

This film combines road trip and odd couple (or in this case, trio) genres to offer viewers a window into lives that are beginning to find healing from their brokenness. But that healing only begins when they open themselves to their brokenness. They also find the hope of healing in this small community that they have become.

Uncle Frank – The Person You Decide to Be

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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.

I’m Thinking of Ending Things – And Thinking and Thinking

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How best to describe I’m Thinking of Ending Things? The easy answer is that it’s a Charlie Kaufman film. (He both writes and directs.) His scripts (cf. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and Synecdoche, New York) are always mind games (not only for the audience, but for the characters as well). He leads us through a twisted perception of reality. He challenges us to think about what identity means. He challenges us to think about what reality means. He challenges us to think about what life means. I would categorize him as an existentialist, but one who might befuddle Jean-Paul Sartre.

Jessie Buckley as Young Woman, Jesse Plemons as Jake in Im Thinking Of Ending Things. Cr. Mary Cybulski/NETFLIX © 2020

The story centers on a young woman (Jessie Buckley) and her boyfriend Jake (Jesse Plemons) on a road trip to his childhood home to introduce her to his parents (Toni Collette and David Thewlis). The young woman (in voice over) speaks of a thought in her mind of ending things—specifically, her relationship with Jake, which she thinks is going nowhere. As they drive through the snow, they talk about many things, sometimes in great depth.

Jesse Plemons as Jake, Jessie Buckley as Young Woman, Toni Collette as Mother, David Thewlis as Father in Im Thinking Of Ending Things. Cr. Mary Cybulski/NETFLIX © 2020

Perhaps you’ve noticed I haven’t told you the young woman’s name. It keeps changing. At various times she is called Lucy, Louisa, Lucia, and possible Amy. Her clothes change from time to time as well. And she is studying painting, quantum psychics (or physics), neurology, and/or genealogy. The disjointedness of her identity is just one part of the intentional confusion of the film. The young woman also sees the characters at different times of their lives. There is a bit of a dream/nightmare quality to what the young woman is experiencing.

As all of this plays out on the road, at the house, and on the road again going home, the discussions touch on poetry, musical theater, physics, cinematic history and criticism, and David Foster Wallace. People deliver very long quotations from a wide range of sources. And finally, we arrive at an empty school in the midst of a blizzard where we see a pas-de-deux based on Oklahoma in the hallways while the janitor (is it an old age Jake?) cleans the floors.

Guy Boyd as Janitor in I’m Thinking of Ending Things. Cr. Mary Cybulski/NETFLIX © 2020

Yes, that is a lot of input for a film. There are lots of moving parts in this invention. If I were to try to look at this film in depth, it would require a dozen or so viewings, plus various trips to the library to search out some of the quotations and people who are mentioned or alluded to. It would end up a term paper (or maybe a dissertation) with several chapters. But of course, most of us won’t be going down that rabbit hole. Instead we can just enjoy the rabbit hole that is this film.

Jessie Buckley as Young Woman in Im Thinking Of Ending Things. Cr. Mary Cybulski/NETFLIX © 2020

Like I said, it’s a Charlie Kaufman film. We know going in that things will get strange—that we may not know what is really happening. And what we experiencing and how we interpret what is happening is really what Kaufman is trying to get at. Our reactions are the real point of watching a film such as this. Our perceptions, our feelings, our sense of self are really what this film is ultimately about.

I’m Thinking of Ending Things is available on Netflix.

The Saint of Killers Speaks: 1on1 with Graham McTavish (PREACHER)

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Photo Credit: Pari Dukovic/AMC

AMC’s Preacher has returned… but the Saint of Killers is right behind him.

As the second season of the supernatural dramedy is unleashed, actor Graham McTavish is excited about the opportunity to for the audience to reconnect with some of the the most unique characters on television.

“[Preacher] is based on a series of comic books that were written in the late 90s into the early 2000s,” he begins.  “It concerns a Texas preacher named Jesse Custer (played by Dominic Cooper), who becomes host to an entity called Genesis, which is a product of a union between an angel and a demon.  His girlfriend is a female assassin, his best friend is an Irish vampire and he’s pursued across America by a sort of beast from Hell, a relentless killing machine, [named] the Saint of Killers (who I play).  It’s quite the ride… There’s no other show quite like it.”

Photo Credit: Skip Bolen/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

Though Preacher has become known for its dark, brooding tone and graphic violence, McTavish also insists that the show also carries a dark sense of humour and energy to it as well.

“It’s also really funny.  There are things we can do on Preacher that you can’t seem to do anywhere else.  There’s a sort of style and flare and it’s very true to the comics both in its content and in the way [that] it’s shot.  As a fan of the books, it’s been a fantastic privilege to be working on it.”

Interestingly enough, one of the key participants responsible for bringing Preacher to the screen is executive producer, Seth Rogan.  Known primarily for his comedic roles in films like The Pineapple Express and Neighbors, Rogan’s involvement might be considered somewhat of a surprise.  However, McTavish assures the fans that Rogan’s vision for Preacher comes out his deep love of the source material.

“[Seth] is a huge fan of the books, like me.  This is a passion project for [him and co-producers Sam Catlin and Evan Goldberg],” he explains.  “They’ve been wanting to make this for years and years and years.  When you bring that kind of fanboy passion to a show like this, it’s actually important that it’s in the hands of people like that.  They guard the integrity of [comic creators] Garth [Ennis] and Steve [Dillon’s] work while bringing their own special style.  It is a different medium so it has to be told a different way but they’re very, very faithful to the content and the spirit of the books.  Like the comics, you never quite know what’s coming next with those two… It’s great!”

BTS, Executive Producer Seth Rogen, Graham McTavish as The Saint of Killers, Executive Producer Evan Goldberg – Preacher _ Season 2, Episode 1 – Photo Credit: Skip Bolen/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

In Preacher, McTavish plays the vicious Saint of Killers, a cowboy assassin unleashed upon Jesse (literally) from the pits of Hell.  Though one might assume that a character like this is consumed by a deeply rooted sense of vengeance, McTavish argues that the character is far more complex, motivated by his own sense of justice and even love.

According to McTavish, “He was a cowboy who, like all the main characters, who is struggling with that inner conflict between good and evil.  He’s trying to be a good man.  That is taken away from him and he almost becomes an Old Testament, Biblical vengeful character and he’s recruited by Heaven and Hell to get Genesis and Jesse happens to be the host of that entity.  So, he doesn’t have anything personal against him at this time.  He’s a means to an end.  He’s in the way.  Just like anyone that strays into the Saints path…  If the Saint gets Genesis back from Jesse, the deal is that he gets to rejoin his family in Heaven.  So, in that sense, his journey is, in a very tortured and violent way, motivated by love.  I think anyone with a family can imagine themselves going through any kind of hell to protect them.  That’s how I see him.”

“I think certainly in Season One, he is inspired with justice.  I mean, it’s very extreme.  It’s got that sort of Old Testament feel to it: ‘You do this to my family.  I’ll do this to the whole town.’ I mean, that’s pretty dark stuff.  There’s no half measures in that sense.  He has a sense of justice.  He does.  And, when he goes back to the town, he does so with the best of intentions… I guess there’s a mixture of both [justice and vengeance].”

Graham McTavish as The Saint of Killers – Preacher _ Season 2, Episode 2 – Photo Credit: Skip Bolen/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

A long-time fan of the Saint himself, McTavish says that the opportunity to play him was simply too exciting to pass up.  As a result, he has little trouble getting into character, despite the Saint’s vicious demeanour.

“It’s enormous fun to do it.  There are different ways to get into a character like this.  In this case, when I put on the dusty coat, the hat, strap 10 lbs of iron to my waist and ride a horse into a western town, that does a lot of the work for you, believe me… There’s this anger, this rage.  We all have different approaches.  When I have to turn on that feeling, I think of my family and my young children.  If anything even remotely happened to them like what happened to the Saint’s family, I mean that would be a motivation for some pretty extreme behaviour.  I think that’s how I relate to him.  He appeals to a lot of fans to the book.  I think he kind of represents the purity of that justice.  We’re not going to hear that point of view. You’re simply going to be punished.”

Deeply rooted within Christian mythology, the show’s tone is unlike anything we’ve seen before on television.  Both reverent and irreverent at times, Preacher seems bent on exploring the concept of religion in unconventional ways.  Although it’s set against a spiritual background, McTavish believes that, ultimately, the show is focused on exploring the nature of humanity and our battle between good and evil.

Photo Credit: Skip Bolen/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

“For me, what is really being explored in the story… is those characters who are struggling with this eternal conflict between good and bad, or good and evil if you want to call it that,” he states.  “People try and do good things, and they screw it up.  Now, in some examples with these characters, they do that in the most extreme ways but, essentially, it tells a human story set against a supernatural–maybe spiritual–background.  But the story is universal and that’s what I think appeals to me about it is that there are no neat answers in Preacher.  It’s not something you read for comfort.  It’s not like the typical procedural dramas… it’s much murkier.”

Interestingly, Preacher is merely one of many shows on television right now that seek to explore man’s relationship with the spiritual.  With titles like Supernatural, and American Gods ranging in style and tone, the common thread between them seems to be their interest in spiritual conflict.  In light of this, McTavish agrees that these shows tend to reveal a deeper longing for answers that lies rooted in the heart of our culture.

“I think particularly post second World War, maybe a little more recent than that, there’s something in the collective identity among people, not just in America,” he reflects.  “The rise of individualism against community.  All of those things.  I think they all play towards giving an appeal to shows that explore an alternative to that solution that try to resolve that in kind of a communal way, some in a more spiritual way, of finding answers. But, at the same time, not delivering those answers in kind of a sort-of easily spoon-fed way. It reflects the complexity of our time post-war.  I think, to some degree, thinking of my own parents, life was a lot simpler… In the case of the Second World War, you were faced with a very obvious enemy.  ‘This is fascism.  It needs to be defeated.’  Nowadays, conflicts are never-ending and it all seems very murky.  I think it’s very difficult for people to understand what’s going on with politics and different cultures.  In some ways, we know more about the world than ever before but I think that frightens us. Television at least partly reflects that.”

Photo Credit: Marco Grob/AMC

As Season Two unfurls, McTavish insists that the show will feel a lot more like the original source material than the previous season.  With last year serving as almost a prequel to the comics, Season Two sets out with Jesse and Co. on the open road, searching for God.

“It’s very much more the road trip and really where the comics begin,” McTavish explains.  “Anyone who’s read the comic will recognize the world that they all live in now in Season Two.  We’re introducing the audience to all sorts of unusual situations [and characters].  I won’t spoil it but they are great.   In true Preacher form, I would read every script.. and there would be moments where you say I cannot believe they’re going to do that.  And yeah, they do!  It’s totally unpredictable… I think that’s one of the huge strengths of the show where there’s a moment in every show where the audience says ‘I did not see that coming!’  And that’s rare.  We’re so familiar with the conventions and the language of television that surprising the audience is hard and I think we did that very well.”
Preacher: Season Two premiered on AMC on Sunday, June 25th and resumes in its regular timeslot on Monday, June 26, 2017.

Graham McTavish as The Saint of Killers – Preacher _ Season 2, Episode 2 – Photo Credit: Skip Bolen/AMC/Sony Pictures Television

 

Is That You? -Dreams and Regrets

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“Everyone has a path that leads them to wherever they need to go. All you can know is if you were brave or scared in your life.”

is-that-you1

Dreams and regrets are at the heart of Is That You?, an Israeli film set in the U.S. After losing his job as a projectionist in Israel, Ronnie (Alon Aboutboul) comes to the U.S. to try to find Rachel, his girlfriend from forty years ago. Her birthday is near, and when they were young they had promised that no matter what, for her sixtieth birthday, they would be together. But he really has no idea where she is. Putting a few clues together, he sets off in a rental car to find her. When the car breaks down he meets Myla (Naruna Kaplan de Macedo) a young filmmaker making The Road Not Taken, a documentary about people’s regrets in life. She wants to interview Ronnie and hearing his story offers to go with him on the journey.

Ronnie and Myla are very much a yin-yang couple: old/young, male/female, cynical/dreamer. When Ronnie learns of her dreams of being a documentarian, he points out that you can’t really make a living doing that. Myla says she believes dreams should shape our realities, not the other way around. Yet their differences make them a perfect couple for their travel and the search for fulfillment of dreams.

is-that-you2

Along the road, they meet a wide range of people whom Myla films as they talk about their biggest regret. The film-within-a-film provides a chance to reflect on the connection between dreams and regrets. Some of those documentary interviews are serious, some frivolous, but they set the stage for Ronnie’s seeking to undo the big regret in his life, and for Myla to face the real reason behind her film about regrets. Perhaps one of the gifts this film has to offer is that as we watch we may wonder what we would say if Myla were to ask us about our biggest regret.

In the end we know that life is filled with dreams and regrets. Ronnie has lived with his regret for decades and now seeks to see if his dream can be restored. Myla wants to push her dream so she won’t have regrets (yet she fears that regret has already become a heavy weight in her life). Each of the thousands of roads and paths we journey along in life will carry the possibility of regret. Perhaps the way to finding happiness is never giving way to regret—just as Ronnie never gives up on the possibility that his regret may be overcome.

Photos courtesy of Hey Jude Productions