His Three Daughters plus Short Takes on some other topics

Sibling Squabbles

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.  However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, though better options may be on the horizon.  (Note: Anything in bold blue [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)

My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”

(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)

9/25/2024—As the Northern Hemisphere's transitioned into autumn I’ll need to note to all present and future readers of Film Reviews from Two Guys in the Dark that my wife, Nina, and I have transitioned into our mid-70s which puts us in the autumn of our years too (winter’s a long way off we’re convinced), which means it’s now taking us longer to do our daily tasks so some changes are now necessary; for me that means putting more time into meals—shopping/preparation—as time management requires me to cut down on the weekly hours I’ve been devoting to this blog.  There will still be postings on a weekly basis (most of the time), but the reviews will need to be considerably shorter, maybe with fewer Musical Metaphors if trying to figure out what to use becomes too much of a challenge.  I’ll focus on successfully getting to the point in what I write, but extra details and tangents will have to be curtailed.  (Damn!)  Comments on this revised format are always welcomed.

               

                     His Three Daughters (Azazel Jacobs)

                                     rated R   101 min.

Here’s the trailer:

        (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size; 

        activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)

If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy).  To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows: 

⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.

 Various cultures of the Western world (maybe the East too, but I’m uninformed on that topic) have produced some marvelous theatrical/cinematic stories about the interpersonal interactions among 3 female siblings (sometimes with their father in their situations as well, like in this film [although here Dad's a minor presence until the very end, despite his seeming-prominence in the title])—including King Lear (William Shakespeare, c. 1603-1606), Three Sisters (Anton Chekhov, 1900), Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman, 1972), Crimes of the Heart (Bruce Beresford, 1986), Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen, 1986)—with this latest narrative properly joining such distinguished company.  

 Set in contemporary NYC's Manhattan, the father in this case, Vincent (Jay O. Sanders), is dying of cancer in his highly-valued, rent-controlled apartment where he’s long been cared for by step-daughter Rachel (Natasha Lyonne), whose biological father was divorced from her mother when Rachel was very young so when Vincent married her mother (after his wife had given him 2 daughters, then died some years ago) he became the only Dad she’s ever known, leading to her willingly caring for him in his demise with the reward being she’ll inherit tenant-ship of this prize dwelling when he dies (soon, according to hospice caretaker Angel [Rudy Galvan], an interesting name given the circumstances here), a point of some concern for Rachel’s step-sisters, Katie (Carrie Coon), who seems to want to impose her will on everything around her—including insisting Rachel take her frequent pot-smoking outside, along with her anger Rachel didn’t insist Vincent sign a Do Not Resuscitate form when he was coherently-conscious more often—despite not visiting ailing Dad much even though she lives just across the city in Brooklyn, and Christina (Elizabeth Olsen), a bit more removed from the ongoing Katie-Rachel feud in that she lives far away with her own family.  With her sisters now in the apartment, Rachel refuses to go into Dad’s room, spends most of her time obsessing over her online-betting addiction, while nursing the assumption Christina must be a drug addict because she took mushrooms when she was younger, continues as a Grateful Dead fan.

 The tensions ratchet up when Rachel invites boyfriend Benjy (Jovan Adepo) over who tears into her siblings for the way they treat Rachel despite all she’s poured into Vincent’s situation, even notes Katie’s forgotten she previously met him a few months ago.  Ultimately, there’s a big fight between Katie and Rachel, Christina intervenes but says she hates both of them, later apologizes even as a shaky peace immerges between the other 2, as they work together on Vincent’s obituary.  ⇒The end scene is odd as Vincent regains consciousness, has his daughters move him to his favorite chair in the living room, from which he rises to tell them all how much he loves them until we realize he’s died, never got up from the chair so it’s unclear if this fantasy projection came from him or any/all of them, but at least the sisters are at peace with each other after his passing.⇐  If you have family situations where discord often erupts between/among siblings, this film may be difficult to watch (for me, as an only child, it was usefully-illuminating), but the end result is a fine collection of great acting, a sense of ongoing-action even within a confined environment, and powerful closeups on each sister, allowing us to better understand/feel what they’re experiencing while their days drag on.

 If you’re interested in this film (I hope you are, despite it being mostly heavy drama, with a little bit of laughter added to occasionally lighten it up) you’ll possibly find it in a few domestic (U.S.-Canada) theaters since its release on September 6, 2024, but it’s most readily-available on Netflix streaming, although you do have to subscribe ($6.99 monthly with ads, $15.49 without), which the CCAL actively encourages you to do, with the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews at a huge 98%, the Metacritic average score at 84% (notably high for them).  With my strong encouragement to seek out this film, I’ll leave you with my usual wrap-up tactic of a Musical Metaphor (this week I was able to find several useful ones, can’t promise that every time), “We Are Family” from the Sister Sledge siblings—Debbie, Joni, Kim, Kathy—a hit from their 1979 album named for the song at https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyGY2NfYpeE (poor video, decent audio) where they’re able to project a family unity that the siblings in our film are often trying to achieve, at least some of the time.

         

SHORT TAKES

            

 One aspect of my new-ish format is that whatever I put in Short Takes will truly be short, not containing official reviews, including mine.  This time, my encouragement is finding/watching From Russia with Lev (Billy Corben), executive produced by popular MSNBC cable TV host Rachel Maddow, a documentary about Lev Parnas, born in Ukraine, raised in the U.S. since he was 4, an active contributor for most of his life to the policies of Russia’s Vladimir Putin and our very own Putin-acolyte, Donald Trump, including some follow-ups to Trump’s so-called “perfect” phone call to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a “quid pro quo” (denied of course by Trump) of trading American weapons for that European’s country’s actions to find political dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden, a situation leading to Trump’s first impeachment (found not guilty by the large Republican presence in the U.S. Senate) and Lev given jail time for related-infractions, leading to his current denunciation of Trump and a heartfelt scene of reconciliation between Lev and Hunter Biden.  As indicated by this trailer much of this doc is directly narrated by Lev (and wife Svetlana Parnas) so you get the inside story first-hand—but if you want to see the whole thing, that’s difficult.  It’s been shown on MSNBC a bit recently, even had some public showing in various U.S. cities, but so far it’s not readily available, nor has it been reviewed much with only 1 citation (positive) in Rotten Tomatoes, nothing in Metacritic, but if you can catch it you’ll find it be very informative, although rather packed with facts within its 2-hour running time (notably less, though, because the MSNBC showings are frequently interrupted by ads).  I guess you could just listen to The Beatles” “Back in the U.S.S.R.” (1968 “White Album”) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhanYixwfSU (or just Paul McCartney in Moscow in 2003) because, despite the song’s intention as a big joke, that seems to be what Lev was all about in helping revive the Soviet era until he came to have a different understanding of the motives of those cretins (including Rudy Giuliani) he spent too much time with.

 And one other thing I’d like to do this week—representing a type of diversion I may well call on somewhat frequently in the future as circumstances arise—is offer an alternative to all of the misery currently going on in our world regarding brutal wars, disgusting political actions, constant murders, etc. by encouraging you to listen to this peaceful song, "Boy From the Country," by Michael Martin Murphey (on his 1972 album Geronimo’s Cadillac, back when he wasn’t using his middle name), a song that got even better recognition from a version by John Denver.  Seemingly, it’s about—or at least inspired by—Saint Francis of Assisi (1181-1226), namesake of the current Pope, a laidback tune that might help turn down the temperature of our troubled times, at least for a bit as you hear it.

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:   

Some options for your invested consideration: (1) IMDb's 5 Things to Watch this week; (2) IMDb's Best of Fall 2024 TV and streaming; and (3) Theater owners to spend $2.2 billion on upgrades.

We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviews for our past posts* (scroll to the bottom of this Summary page to see additional info about your wacky critic, Ken Burke, along with contact info and a great retrospective song list).  Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage.  If you’d like to Like us on Facebook (yes?) please visit our Facebook page.  We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it unto us!  Please also note that to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (which you can easily get at https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post.  You can also leave comments at our Facebook page, although you may have to somehow register with us there in order to comment (FB procedures: frequently perplexing mysteries for us aged farts).

*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problem’s been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.

If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here at the blog please 

use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work.

             

OUR POSTINGS PROBABLY LOOK BEST ON THE MOST CURRENT VERSIONS OF MAC OS AND THE SAFARI WEB BROWSER (although Google Chrome usually is decent also); OTHERWISE, BE FOREWARNED THE LAYOUT MAY SEEM MESSY AT TIMES.

         

Finally, for the data-oriented among you, Google stats say over the past month the total unique hits at this site were 2,679—a huge drop-off from the marvelous 40-50K of some recent months; never overestimate yourself! (As always, we thank all of you for your ongoing support with our hopes you’ll continue to be regular readers.)  Below is a snapshot of where those responses have come from within the previous week (with appreciation for the unspecified “Others” also visiting Two Guys’ site):

Didi plus Short Takes on various other cinematic topics

More Teenage Trauma

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.  However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, though better options may be on the horizon.  (Note: Anything in bold blue [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)

My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”

(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)

                         Didi (Sean Wang)   rated R   93 min.

Here’s the trailer:

       (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size; 

       activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)

If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy).  To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows: 

⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.

What Happens: We’re back in 2008 in Fremont, CA (part of the San Francisco Bay Area, located between Oakland and San Jose, with a large immigrant population—mostly South Asian, but also East Asian as we’ll see here) where 13-year-od Chris Wang (Izaac Wang [no relation to the director]) is called “Didi” (“little brother” in Mandarin) by his family, but to his friends he often goes by “Wang Wang.”*  As a Taiwanese-American kid he lives with his mother, Chungsing Wang (Joan Chen), his slightly-older sister, Vivian Wang (Shirley Chen)—soon to be off to college at UC San Diego—and his grandmother, Nǎi Nai (Chang Li Hua; one of the principle subjects of Sean Wang’s Oscar-nominated Short Documentary called Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó [Grandma & Grandma, 2023]), who constantly hassles Didi’s Mom about the absence of Granny’s son, still working in Taiwan to help support this family (Didi and Vivian don’t get along all that well either).  Didi has aspirations of being a YouTube video influencer, so he makes silly shorts with his close friends Fahed Mahmood (Raul Dial) and Jimmy “Soup” Kim (Aaron Chang), but what really entices him on this early-years Internet is a girl, 14-year-old Madi (Mahaela Park), he’s smitten with.  They exchange texts, go on a date, he lies about movies he hasn’t seen, but when she suggests a game with him he admits he’s nervous (even after watching a video on how to kiss), which puts their possibly-budding relationship on hold.

*This may seem far-fetched, but when I look at Chris’ identities I can’t help but think of "Rocky Raccoon" (1968 The Beatles album [the “White Album”]) where the woman is characterized by “Her name was Magill, and she called herself Lil / But everyone knew her as Nancy.”  Such a confusion!

 Then Didi and Mom have dinner with one of her friends and her academically-successful son, Max (Jayden Chiang), which just makes Didi feel all the more inadequate, so he tries to convince some slightly-older skateboarders—Donavan (Chiron Denk), Cory (Sunil Maurillo), and Nugget (Montay Boseman)—to be the “filmer” of their exploits which he attempts to do.  Then they take him to a party where he’s introduced to alcohol and marijuana, making him sick, which finally helps him reconcile with Vivian before she leaves.  However, when the skateboarders come to see his footage they find nothing to be impressed with (it’s pretty bad); Mom comes into the room only to be chastised by her son as these now-disappointed/failed-potential friends leave for new, beckoning concrete pastures.  Later, Didi’s approached by Max and his friend, Josh (Joziah Lagonoy), with the latter laughing at Didi over his failed date with Madi, so Didi hits him with his skateboard.  ⇒Things get worse as he has a heated argument with Mom, causing him to run away for the night.  When he returns she confides in him how she also earlier had conflicts with Vivian who ran away from home for 3 days when she was 14; she also says she’s had dreams of being a successful painter (no luck so far as she’s just been turned down by an upcoming exhibition), now sees her children as her real dream.  As the plot wraps up, Didi goes to his first day at high-school, tries to re-connect with Madi but she rejects him because of his attack on her friend Josh.  He waves to Fahed and Soup, signs up for a visual arts club, is picked up after school by Mom, whom he now feels more comfortable talking to.⇐

So What? I would never have assumed it, but this SF East Bay city near me, Fremont, is the setting for 2 marvelous films, released almost a year apart, about a place I’d assume those who don’t live nearby have never heard of (yet, it’s been chosen for the 5^th year in a row as America's Happiest City, based on emotional and physical well-being, income and employment, community and environment, so how about a rousing cheer of “Let’s go, Fremont!”).  First, there was Fremont (Babak Jaiali, 2023; 4 stars-review in our November 1, 2023 posting) about an Afghan refugee, Donya (Anaita Wali Zadi), among the ones the U.S. was able to fly out of Afghanistan before the Taliban shut the country down again (August 30, 2021); now she knows no one in her new home, was somewhat shunned before she left as well as now in Fremont for working as a translator to help American forces during our hostilities with those who fought to overthrow that country’s government, re-establish a brutal regime.  Following Fremont, we find ourselves with Didi as another immigrant in a strange land, trying his best to fit in although with little success within/beyond his immediate family.

 In addition, by pure coincidence, I see a dose of resonance of Didi with the current Disney/Pixar global blockbuster, Inside Out 2 (Kelsey Mann; 3 stars-review in our September 3, 2024 posting), in that there we’re also dealing with a 13-year-old trying to fit into a challenging new environment, buffeted by internal emotions (which we see personified within her mind), pushed by puberty into quarrels with her parents, although this animated feature gives us the dual views of what goes on inside of Riley’s consciousness as well as how she reacts to her actual surroundings, whereas in Didi we just see the results of the boy’s inner conflicts without any attempt to anthropomorphize what’s happening inside of his outer persona.  For me, the Fremont-based films (home to both of their directors as well) work better than Riley’s situation in San Francisco, but all of these narratives do share a geographic continuity, even though Didi would now be 39 in 2024 so if he were to meet either of these other protagonists I’ll bet he’d have more in common with Donya than teenager-Riley.

 One other parallel between Didi and Inside Out 2 is how both protagonists break away from their close friends to seek better connections with older, more popular kids, Riley with the high-school ice hockey girls, Didi with the skateboarder guys; especially how these narratives were surely developed in isolation I doubt there was any attempt on the part of either cluster of filmmakers to intentionally copy this plot device, but history—even fictional history—does have a way of repeating itself so that Didi’s actions in 2008 are reasonably repeated by Riley in 2024 (or whenever in that general timeframe her story takes place; may be only 2017 if we’re following the original’s supposed setting) as coming-of-age-stories likely have similar aspects, especially when the teens involved are facing the normal traumas of finding their way in an increasingly-challenging world where all they’d previously depended on is now up for rejection or reconsideration, each day with its new unknowns.  

 One thing Didi (or Riley for that matter … or, even us) didn’t assume he’d have to face was his mother cutting a fart, which she does while driving him home from a bus stop late one night.  He’s shocked it happened, somewhat repulsed (as if adults can’t have the same human characteristics he does), further surprised when Mom just laughs it off, acts like it smells OK to her.  It’s intimate explorations of the interpersonal interactions between teens and peers, kids and adults that are so well explored in this film, especially pulling no punches about how Chungsing has to absorb constant verbal abuse from her irritable mother-in-law, which doesn’t subside much until Grandma becomes sick toward the end of the story, allowing us to finally find some sympathy for her situation.  Didi isn’t as melodramatic, violent—or emotionally impactful—as the James Dean classic, Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955), but it’s just as honest about the frequent gulf between generations or within them as teens try to find ways to manifest some version of a self-defined, acceptable identity.

Bottom Line Final Comments: Didi won the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival (just as Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó won the Grand Jury and Audience Awards for documentary shorts at the 2023 South by Southwest Festival, also won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2023 AFI Fest), so we’ll see later how Didi might fare at the 2025 Oscars.  Following a limited domestic (U.S.-Canada) release on July 26, 2024 it opened wide on August 18, 2024, grew to 435 venues, now down to 87, taking in so far $4.7 million ($5 million globally), with a few still playing it near me (so you might be able to find it on a big screen if you like, but the still-surging new COVID-19 strains still keep me away); however, if you’re interested there’s always streaming where you can rent it for $19.99 at Apple TV+.  Clearly, the CCAL would certainly encourage you to consider it as the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews are at an impressive high of 96%, the Metacritic average score is (quite healthy for them) 78%, which I find myself in easy agreement with, offering my 4 of 5 stars (normally the highest I'll go, except for the rare cinematic achievements worth 4½ or 5 stars).

 Certainly this coming-of-age-story isn’t as magnificent as the French New Wave classic The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959), but, nevertheless, Didi is a marvelous exploration of the inner and outer traumas a budding teenager goes through (yet, like Inside Out 2, the protagonist here is likely going through puberty even though there’s no overt mention of some fundamental body-changes that occur during this time so I guess the R rating is for that party scene and some of the harsh language at the dinner table which gives Nǎi Nai something else to complain to Chungsing about), matching the main character’s attempts at successes with the harsh reality of how others frequently dismiss him for failures, all of which leads me to my standard review-closure-device of a Musical Metaphor; this time, after much deliberation, I’m going with The Beach Boys’ “When I Grow Up (To Be a Man)” (on their 1956 The Beach Boys Today album) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EzEhW1VO9M (a sort of ragged video, so here’s the studio recording if you prefer that) because Didi’s not only immediately concerned with how he’s going to get through tomorrow, like any of us he’s likely wondering what the farther future holds for him (when I was 13 I had no concept that 10 years later I’d be married [seemed like a good idea at the time … but no!], halfway toward a Masters degree, a year from relocation of Texas to NYC [another idea that didn’t pan out too well]), so whatever manifests in the future for this little guy probably will come as a complete surprise for him (like with me), but maybe now he’ll have better support from his family in helping him get there.

                  

SHORT TAKES

             

 When searching for something to watch and review via streaming last weekend I was initially led to consider Breathe (Stefon Bristol; PG-13, 93 min.) by a rather positive review I read in my local San Francisco Chronicle (which I can no longer locate, but of the 13 to be found on Rotten Tomatoes I’ll give you this one from Assignment X’s Abbie Bernstein as it’s the most supportive one of that group, 1 of only 2 that are positive responses), so after seeing those miserable RT positives of a mere 15% (nothing yet on Metacritic which requires a minimum of 4 reviews, but here's the link if you’d like to check back later for a possible update) I dug a bit further, found that Didi’s now available for streaming, so I made a better choice; however, given that Breathe just happened to be on Showtime last Friday night I recorded it out of pure curiosity, then watched it later, found it to not be as horrible as those folks would indicate but not worthy of your view time nor mine for a true review.  

 It’s one of those apocalyptic sci-fi stories, set in 2039, where climate change has robbed Earth of most of its oxygen, all of its plants so in an underground bunker in the remains of NYC live scientist Darius (Common), his wife Maya (Jennifer Hudson—another reason I was intrigued enough to watch this movie, along with some other cast members) and daughter Zora (Quvenzhané Wallis) where he’s constructed some sort of oxygen-retrieval device along with a semblance of spacesuits to allow breathing for a short time out on the planet’s surface.  Sadly, he disappears one day, then some strangers (Milla Jovovich, Sam Worthington, Raúl Castillo) from a survival colony in Philadelphia show up claiming to be friends even though Maya’s not convinced.  From there things plod along until the end, so if I were actually reviewing this I’d probably make do with 2 stars, which would still put me way ahead of RT; if you somehow find the premise intriguing you can rent it from Apple TV+ for $5.99 (here’s the trailer; it was released to some theaters on April 26, 2024 but no domestic sales info, $239 thousand internationally), although I’ll give you the alternative of just listening to an unofficial Musical Metaphor, which I think must be Pink Floyd’s "Breathe" (1973’sThe Dark Side of the Moon album), with its surprisingly-appropriate lyrics such as “Breathe, breathe in the air / Don’t be afraid to care / Leave, but don’t leave me / Look around and choose your own ground.”  Truly, your time is best spent listening to that wondrous album (then listening again … and again).

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:   

Some options for you: (1) Most popular streaming services; (2) Theatrical releases streaming now; (3) IMDb's Fall movie picks; and (4) Variety's opinions of the Best Fall Festival Movies.

We encourage you to visit the Summary of Two Guys Reviews for our past posts* (scroll to the bottom of this Summary page to see additional info about your wacky critic, Ken Burke, along with contact info and a great retrospective song list).  Overall notations for this blog—including Internet formatting craziness beyond our control—may be found at our Two Guys in the Dark homepage.  If you’d like to Like us on Facebook (yes?) please visit our Facebook page.  We appreciate your support whenever and however you can offer it unto us!  Please also note that to Post a Comment below about our reviews you need to have either a Google account (which you can easily get at https://accounts.google.com/NewAccount if you need to sign up) or other sign-in identification from the pull-down menu below before you preview or post.  You can also leave comments at our Facebook page, although you may have to somehow register with us there in order to comment (FB procedures: frequently perplexing mysteries for us aged farts).

*Please ignore previous warnings about a “dead link” to our Summary page because the problem’s been manually fixed so that all postings since July 11, 2013 now have the proper functioning link.

If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here at the blog please 

use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work.

         

OUR POSTINGS PROBABLY LOOK BEST ON THE MOST CURRENT VERSIONS OF MAC OS AND THE SAFARI WEB BROWSER (although Google Chrome usually is decent also); OTHERWISE, BE FOREWARNED THE LAYOUT MAY SEEM MESSY AT TIMES.

        

Finally, for the data-oriented among you, Google stats say over the past month the total unique hits at this site were 2,679—a huge drop-off from the marvelous 40-50K of some recent months; never overestimate yourself! (As always, we thank all of you for your ongoing support with our hopes you’ll continue to be regular readers.)  Below is a snapshot of where those responses have come from within the previous week (with appreciation for the unspecified “Others” also visiting Two Guys’ site):

Rebel Ridge plus Short Takes on other cinematic topics

Southern-Fried “Justice”

Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke

I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.  However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, though better options may be on the horizon.  (Note: Anything in bold blue [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)

My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”

(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the song’s name)

                                Rebel Ridge (Jeremy Saulnier)

                                      rated R/TV-MA   131 min.

Here’s the trailer:

        (Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge its size; 

        activate the same button or use “esc” keyboard key to return to normal.)

If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy).  To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows: 

⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.

What Happens: (Lotta plot here.)  We're in contemporary Louisiana (sadly enough, given the events of this story), as Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre), a former Marine (martial arts expert), is bicycling to Shelby Springs (he sold his car, took some buy-out money from the restaurant he used to co-own in another town) to bring a sack of $36,000 to bail out cousin Mike Simmons (C.J. LeBlanc) who’s been arrested on a drug-possession charge ($10K for the bail, the rest to buy a truck to support a new business for the cousins) when he’s run off the road by a police car driven by Officer Steve Lann (Emory Cohen) who, after some tense verbal exchanges with Terry, confiscates the cash as suspected drug money (even though there’s no clear evidence supporting such action).

 Terry’s allowed to go on his way, so when he gets to Shelby Springs he tries to file a complaint against Lann and get his money back, but the courthouse clerk, Elliot (Steve Zissis), won’t even take the information, although local paralegal Summer McBride (AnnaSophia Robb) promises to help him if he can somehow get the $10K for Mike who will soon be transferred to state prison where he’d be in danger after informing on a gangster.  At the police station Terry tries to report his money as stolen to Officer Jessica Sims (Zsané Jhé), but that just leads to a confrontation with Chief Sandy Burnne (Don Johnson) who tells Terry to come back at 9am Monday morning.  Terry does so, but when he arrives Burnne tells him the bus transporting the prisoners has just left; Terry catches up with the bus on his bike, talks to Mike through a window, tells him to lay low until he gets the bail money which he tries to do from former business partner, Mr. Liu (Dana Lee), although that’s not workable because police recently raided the restaurant due to it being mentioned in paperwork Terry filed.  Terry goes back to the police station to demand Mike's $10K but is refused by Burnne who’s ready, along with Lann, to attack Terry, who subdues them both then takes her gun to force Officer Sims to get him into the evidence cage where he grabs his cash, makes her drive him away.  He goes to the courthouse, posts bail with Summer’s help, but is arrested.  Burnne and Lann then take Terry to a hospital where Mike’s dying from stab wounds (he soon expires) after processing at the state prison.

 Burnne offers Terry the remaining $26K to buy his truck, leave town that night, never come back (he also explains how the local police budget’s been cut so these cops frequently arrest people on bogus charges in order to get their bail money before the charges are dropped by a cooperating judge [James Cromwell], then the money’s spent to aid the local community, so he claims the scam's ultimately justified).  Terry buys his truck, then gets a call from Summer; police injected her with drugs so she’ll fail her next-morning drug test, jeopardizing custody of her young child (she’s been desperate to keep her job after a messy divorce), so Terry comes over to try to help her that night.

 Next morning Terry’s leaving town when he’s stopped by Lann who says Terry faulted on the deal, attempts to kill him, resulting in a bad wound for our guy.  Terry escapes, though, meets up with Summer again; they visit Liu who was a Chinese medic during the Korean war so he patches up Terry who goes with Summer to see the judge who admits there was a large financial settlement against Burnne which nearly bankrupted the town so he’s gone along with the scams to get money from innocent victims because there are no public defenders in Shelby Springs to help these people until their cases are dismissed, yet forfeiting bail.  Terry and Summer go the courthouse basement to get SD cards with phony dashcam arrest footage; he escapes with the evidence, she’s caught by cops who started a fire in the basement while she was trying to destroy her tainted urine sample.  ⇒Terry and Lann agree to meet at Rebel Ridge next morning, exchanging the cards for Summer, but Terry breaks into the police station, subdues Burnne, is surprisingly stopped by Office Sims until many cops return.  Lann destroys the cards, says Summer’s at risk of overdosing, leading to a protest by Officer Evan Marston (David Denman), who was at the original confrontation with Terry; Burnne shoots him in the thigh, orders the other cops to kill Terry, blame Marston’s intended-bleeding-out death on him, but Terry successfully fights off most of them (including Lann).  Marston tells Terry to activate a police cruiser siren which will record dashcam footage of the assassination attempt, helps Terry administer Narcan to Summer, then these 3 drive off in the cruiser, chased by other cops until Sims smashes Burnne’s car, while the remaining cops switch sides, provide an escort to the hospital for Summer and Marston with state police alerted to clean up this mess.⇐

So What? As I began Rebel Ridge (a somewhat title as it refers to a location not even realized for what was seeming to be an important plot point) I though there might be some long-after-the-fact connections—or at least allusions—to the notable 1967 film, In the Heat of the Night (Norman Jewison), which won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor (Rod Steiger), Best Adapted Screenplay where an accomplished Black man (Sidney Poitier) comes to a Southern city, initially treated poorly by local police until his skills as a Philadelphia detective help him solve a crucial local murder, earning him the respect of the Police Chief (Steiger)—a film with a lot to commend it even though it was competing against, for Best Picture, some other heavyweights: Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn; film won for Best Supporting Actress [Estelle Parsons], Cinematography, also nominations for Best Picture, Director, Actor [Warren Beatty], Actress [Faye Dunaway], Supporting Actor [Gene Hackman, Michael J. Pollard], Costume Design), The Graduate (Mike Nichols [won for Best Director], also a contender for Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Actor [Dustin Hoffman], Actress [Anne Bancroft], Supporting Actress [Katharine Ross], Cinematography), and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Stanley Kramer; won for Best Actress [Katharine Hepburn], Original Screenplay, noms for Best Picture, Director, Actor [Spencer Tracy], Film Editing, Art Direction, Scoring of Music)—… Night also won for Best Film Editing, Sound, was nominated for Best Director, so with all of that contention and triumph I was early-elated that something seeming to have a connection with Heat … was my choice for the week, based on encouragement from a syndicated review by Bob Strauss in my local San Francisco Chronicle, along with hefty support from the CCAL (more on that below in this posting).  

 Alas, I soon found out my initial assumptions didn’t play out much at all (except for Terry showing his superiority over the local lawkeepers—or manipulators as the case may be), especially with the character of Shelby Springs head cop Burnne who proved to be nothing like … Night’s Police Chief Bill Gillespie, although Burnne supposedly has the overall good of his community at heart with his illegal tactics (which even some of his subordinates finally rebel against—maybe that’s why Rebel made it into the title of this movie?) and likely wouldn’t have ordered the death of Terry on his own until he realized how much danger to his operation this outsider represented, but it’s clear Officer Lann had no such hesitations in a confrontational situation where he’s learned much from Burnne.

 So, you may ask, why am I spending so much time and review space citing cinematic treasures from yesteryear rather than focusing more on Rebel Ridge?  Essentially, it’s because after the intriguing premise of this movie’s set up with a bit more complexity to the characters than we would initially assume, it rushes to a violent climax ⇒with Terry dispatching many would-be-killer-cops in the midst of much smoke and noise, then leaves us at the end as Terry’s at the hospital, clutching the DVR from the cruiser’s trunk containing the incriminating footage of the previous chaos, giving us no real clue as to how this story will resolve for its primary characters.⇐  Given that this movie’s largely a slam-bang-action-experience, it just doesn’t feel very satisfying to me to lead us to an ambiguous ending more characteristic of Realism’s interpersonal dramas, although here’s one analysis of that closure (8:26, ad interrupts at 5:20, SPOILERS) that compares Terry to Lee Childs’ Jack Reacher character, along with a speculation we’ll get more of what happens next here in a sequel (or maybe even a new franchise).  I don’t know that I’d go that far as a rationale for what we do experience in Rebel Ridge, but I’ll agree Terry’s a very interesting character I wouldn’t mind seeing more of (especially after having read many of those Reacher novels and watching the first Jack Reacher movie [Christopher McQuarrie, 2012] with the improbable casting of Tom Cruise in the title role, although I didn’t see its 2016 sequel [Rotten Tomatoes gave it only 37% positive reviews vs. 63% for the first one] nor the Amazon Prime Video series, Reacher [2022-early 2024 presently]).

Bottom Line Final Comments: If you want to watch Rebel Ridge you’ll have to turn to streaming where it exists only on Netflix (Not a subscriber? You could try it for a month for $6.99 with ads, $15.49 without.), as the CCAL’s being considerably more supportive than I’ve been with the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews at a surprising 95% while the Metacritic average score is also quite high (for them) at 77%.  Don’t get me wrong; I think it’s generally a quite intriguing movie for most of its running time (which does get somewhat long considering its contents), but for me it goes off the rails a bit too much at the end unless you relish seeing a bunch of police being beat up by just one other guy (Bruce Lee would be proud of Terry)—which might be satisfying if you’re sick of hearing about cops killing people during traffic stops or after breaking into their dwellings (don’t get me wrong here, either; I’m fundamentally in support of police—including my late uncle, a detective with the Ft. Worth, TX department—but far too often lately I’m troubled by how many incidents there are of what end up being wrongful deaths at the hands of these supposedly-decent-law-guardians).  

 On the other hand, if you’re upset by radical calls to “Defund the Police” you might appreciate a song I momentarily considered for my usual review-ending Musical Metaphor, the Bobby Fuller Four’s 1965 hit, "I fought the law," because in this narrative “the law won,” but that‘s not really what Rebel Ridge is about so I had to ponder a bit more, could only come up with something I’d used 4 times before (yet it continues to be relevant here), Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” (on his first solo album Full Moon Fever, 1989) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvlTJrNJ5lA as it clearly speaks to Terry’s ordeals from the very first scene of this movie so I’d call it pretty self-explanatory (this video features 2 of Petty’s comrades from the Traveling Wilburys, Jeff Lynne [co-writer of the song with Petty] and George Harrison, both also from the original recording, plus another former Beatle, Ringo Starr).  If you’re not fascinated by the concept of the movie (even though Strauss will tell you: “ ‘Rebel Ridge' is a fascinating revenge thriller that seeks intensity through realism, and sometimes even by de-escalation. [¶] It mostly works, too.”), maybe you’ll at least like these songs.

           

SHORT TAKES

                

Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:

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