SAVAGE CINEMA REVISITS: "THE SECRET CINEMA" (1966)

"THE SECRET CINEMA"

A Paranoid Fantasy
Written and Directed by Paul Bartel

Dedicated to Liz Sellers, the one who found what was once so long lost... 

I remember when I first saw Peter Weir's "The Truman Show" (1998), his wonderful satirical, science fiction tinged, psychological thriller about an ordinary man named Truman (a terrific Jim Carrey), living a seemingly ordinary life yet unbeknownst to him, his entire life has been a manufactured product, scripted, directed and broadcast to the nation on television. In addition to marveling at the film, which may have been one of my personal favorites of that cinematic year, what I remember the most was a very distant movie memory that I had long forgotten but was undeniably triggered by Weir's film.

I could not remember the title of the film in my memory. Not even one word of it. But I had this vague recollection of a film about a woman who discovers that she is being covertly filmed, with sequences of her life being screened in a movie theater without her knowledge. I vividly remembered where I had seen such a movie as it was a short feature that occasionally aired between feature films on the long defunct Chicago area pay TV channel called "ON TV," a pay service that existed in lieu of cable television as the city of Chicago during those years in the early 1980's had not been wired for that television technology.

Anyhow, it was a film that I had always stumbled upon as it was never in the schedule. It always took me by surprise, and I consistently found myself captivated by its sheer strangeness. And so, as mysteriously as it entered my life, it vanished from ON TV, and well...life happened and I never saw it again or even thought about it until seeing "The Truman Show." From that point, the mysterious movie lingered deeply within my sub-consciousness, emerging here and there as a "Hey...what was that movie I saw?" moment in time that would evaporate as randomly as it appeared.   

Until last week...

Once again, and with no knowledge of how the memory had once again been prompted, I recalled the mysterious movie and this time, I was sitting at the very computer at which I am currently writing to you. I did a few minor Google searches with key words and came up with nothing. Before heading to bed, I wrote a quick Facebook post, primarily directed towards my Chicago friend with whom I grew up, if they had any recollections. 

By morning, my friend, the amazing Liz Sellers, whom I have known since childhood, had the answer...

"The Secret Cinema."

After reading her message, I quickly looked up the title, and then the film itself upon You Tube and yes indeed...the memories and the movie all flooded back perfectly, in all of its strangeness of vision and execution. And now, having made a full reunion, but now seeing it through adult eyes and within an extremely turbulent 21st century context, it is amazing how the power of this short not only remains and has reverberated through time, it has only increased in its deliverance of the surreal. So much so, that it feels to serve as a societal warning rather than the paranoid fantasy of which it describes itself.

"The Secret Cinema" stars Amy Vane as Jane, the film's hapless ingenue, who works as a secretary who, as the film begins, is constantly being sexually harassed by her boss, the portly Mr. Troppogrosso (Gordon Felio). Upon relinquishing herself of that humiliation, Jane quickly faces another as her boyfriend Dick (Phillip Carson) dumps her proclaiming that he never loved her and furthermore, his only love is (cryptically stated)...the movies. 

The following day, a plot to return Jane to Dick's good favors is hatched by her best friend Helen (Connie Ellison) who suggests that Jane accept a date with the "jet setty" Mr. Troppogrosso to a local discotheque that Dick frequents as a means to ultimately make him jealous, thus inspiring him to want Jane back. As Jane mulls over this prospect, and also endures a stressful lunch date with her Mother (Estelle Omens), Jane is subjected to strange moments and disturbing clues that something out of her control is amiss, from discarded tickets stubs to whisperings of a secret movie being screened starring a "dumb girl" who has no idea that she is being filmed who continuously says "dumb, funny things." 

All of the seemingly disparate elements come together as Jane gradually discovers the truth about her increasingly surreal world in which she is the star and unsuspecting victim.

Paul Bartels' "The Secret Cinema," first and foremost, is precisely as it is self-described: a paranoid fantasy in which the life of Jane ventures through the looking glass into a new reality that calls everything she once knew to be true and valid utterly false. While Bartels has made a playful film, its overall sinister nature combined with its whimsy and satire makes it an even ore unsettling tale this shy of something we might view upon "The Twilight Zone." 

There is not a moment, during which Jane, and therefore, we in the audience, are not thrown off balance, and that even incudes when we may be privy to information that Jane is not, simply because Bartels is playing with our own sense of reality just as his characters are playing with Jane's.

From the film noir-ish black and white Cinematography by Fred Wellington, the boisterous film score which veers from Chaplin-esque whimsy to darkly melodramatic, scenes that feature disembodied laughter, the appearance of Mimi Randolph who surfaces in three different roles (as a waitress, movie theater ticket seller, and a nurse, respectively) to lightly antagonize an otherwise clueless Jane, the slightly out-of-sync dubbing of voices to their visual images, moments of betrayal from trusted sources and not one but two twist endings, Bartels creates an experience that feels like a fever dream edging just this close to paralyzing nightmare. And yet, "The Secret Cinema" remains a comedy, just funny enough to keep you chuckling throughout so as to not otherwise feel as if you have fallen into a David Lynch film.  

To achieve this level of a cinematic balancing act so effectively is first-rate, most especially one that is just shy of being only 30 minutes in duration. Seeing this film now as an adult, I was amazed to realize that I remained as captivated as I remember being when I was a pre-teen. It is a creepy kind of film, albeit an inviting one with an unsettling feeling was appropriately paramount and magnetic--you really can't turn away from it. 

But seeing it now through adult eyes made me take note of Paul Bartels' subversive tactics, as he sneakily sprinkles elements (homosexuality and sexual fetishes, for instance) into the film without making major announcements, which also contributes to the film's overall dream-like nature and our own precarious self-perceptions about our own sense of self-worth, acceptance popularity and unending fear of rejection or being forever placed upon the outside looking inwards to our own lives. 

Which leads us to the increased power of "The Secret Cinema" and its themes of surveillance and the battle between our real and virtual lives within our social media driven 21st century. The sense of fantasy at work in the film circa 1966 has steadily advanced towards a larger reality in 2020, as so much of our lives are played out virtually as much as realistically, if not moreso as we are constantly cultivating our on-line personas, no matter how "real" we are wishing that we are presenting ourselves.

 

With the prevalence of our camera phones and our need to document and therefore, present and re-contextualize our lives visually, it is as if we have willingly ventured into the television and movie screens creating our continuous "reality shows" unlike Jane, who is valiantly attempting to keep herself in one reality rather than having it splintered into several for consumption and ultimately, judgment. 

This quandary certainly sets up a new and ever sifting balance of power and control for who is really controlling the image and who has the power to create the personas and lives lived, whether real or virtual? 

Who knows how far Paul Bartels envisioned our lives in front of and behind camera lenses would travel, if at all, back in 1966. Yet, with his character of Jane, it could be pondered that he may have worried a bit about how far, as a culture, would we venture for entertainment and acceptance and how much of ourselves would we be willing to have taken, or even give away, just to see ourselves at all larger than life.    

Or I am just over thinking all of this and I should take it at face value and just be happy with the fact that I have reunited with a movie that has gently haunted me for decades. I sincerely invite you to look up the film, which is still available upon You Tube in its entirety, and screen it for yourselves. 

And when you do immerse yourself in Jane's odyssey, let me know what you thought when you emerge on the other side.

SAVAGE CINEMA TIME CAPSULE: TOP 50 FAVORITE MOVIES FROM 2010-2019: THE TOP TEN!!

Finally!!! 

This installment, the final section of my series compiling my top 50- favorite films (plus a few extra) from the decade of 2010-2019, is at long last at its conclusion as I will now bring you my personal Top Ten! I honestly did not intend to have this series, which I began in the Spring, to have extended itself for this lengthy duration of time. But, with time, as it relates to life during COVID-19, becoming more elastic than normal to say the least, the months passed by in a flash and here we are in November. So, ensuring that the word did not turn to 2021 before I knew it, I am prioritizing this completion.

As always, these are just my opinions and I will post where you may find the full, complete review for each film. Are you ready?

10. "THE SOCIAL NETWORK" DIRECTED BY DAVID FINCHER (2010)
First of all, this is not a film about Facebook. David Fincher's increasingly prescient film that surrounds itself around the creation of Facebook is a film about inspiration, innovation and imagination as well as it is a film about class warfare, race and racism, toxic masculinity, lost innocence, and the pursuit and wielding of emerging power, as filtered through the persona of Mark Zuckerberg (a brilliantly serpentine Jesse Eisenberg) during his Harvard set college years.

Secondly, this is a movie about Facebook, or rather the technological sea change that birthed our still increasing and simultaneous devotion and repulsion of the social media landscape. Structured as a hybrid between a series of Rashomon styled court depositions and Orson Wells "Citizen Kane" (1941), Fincher, aided superbly by Aaron Sorkin's whirlwind, mammoth screenplay and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' debut and Oscar winning film score, cultivates what amounts to a societal warning. To think, the idea of a virtual means to connect and re-connect with other human beings yet was actually created as a means to humiliate women does seem to serve our cultural quandary exceedingly well. The battle between our real and virtual lives and the toll it has taken upon our social core is nothing less than a plea for us to not relinquish our sense of humanity in favor of the instant, yet fleeting, gratification of synthetic rewards and our ensuing addiction to those rewards for what good is feigning inter-connectivity at the expense of our own souls? 

This film is a powerful, still prophetic dark epic about our primal need for acceptance, validation, approval, understanding and empathy...and the lengths to which we will venture to attain it. By forcing us to confront our own instincts with his portrait of Zuckerberg, Fincher never lets us off of the hook.    

(Originally reviewed October 2010)

9. "BLACK SWAN" DIRECTED BY DARREN ARONOFSKY (2010)

In her undeniably deserved Oscar winning performance, Natalie Portman raised her own creative bar by taking herself and all of us on a swan dive into Hell in this astounding psychological thriller set within the unforgiving dance world of professional Ballet Theater. 

As the aging dancer Nina Sayers, who in her desire to attain the coveted dual role of "The Swan Princess/The Black Swan" in her company's production of "Swan Lake," we witness an obsessive quest for ultimate perfection and all inherent confrontations towards realizing her dreams. From the jealous wrath of her peers, the pleasing of her imposing and sexually lascivious Choreographer (an excellent Vincent Cassell), intense competition and fear of replacement from a new dancer (a magnetic Mila Kunis) who exudes greater confidence and sexual energy, the suffocating presence of her Mother and failed former dancer (Barbara Hershey) and the punishing physical demands of her chosen profession and art. Yet, even all of that does not compare to the demons in her mind and her splintering psyche as she desperately attempts to "let go" and tap into her darkest tendencies in order to fully embody the role of "The Black Swan." 
  

Aronosfky has unleashed a superior, hallucinogenic experience, filled with labyrinthine visual and aural juxtapositions, most notably, the motif of mirrors, to insert us directly inside of Nina's fragile mind, allowing us to see and hear only what she experiences and the effect is harrowing. But his cinematic touches would not be enough if not for the performance of Natalie Portman who does indeed "let go" (in a way she previously hadn't, to my perceptions), to the degree that she delivered nothing less than the opera for our nightmares. 

(Originally reviewed January 2011)

8. "SORRY TO BOTHER YOU" DIRECTED BY BOOTS RILEY (2018)

One of the decade's most fearless, incendiary and nearly unclassifiable films was Writer/Director Boots Riley's debut feature, a dense, disturbing satire that fused elements of comedy, science fiction/horror and magical realism together weaving the dark spell of a cinematic bad dream from which our film's hero is unable to awake.

The odyssey of Cassius Green (the terrific Lakeith Stanfield), during which he discovers his "White voice" in order to propel himself up the telemarketing corporate ladder, hurls him and the audience into a tale that openly confronts the brutal dehumanization of capitalism and cultural appropriation, the subjugation and abuse of workers and of the act of passivity itself, which threatens to leave one trapped within a world they never made. Yet, for all of the deadly serious commentary, it is a playful film (although one packed with razor blades), that delivers wildly colorful and inventive perspectives with color schemes, costume design, cinematography, music as well as with the performances and Riley's unrepentant storytelling which flies face first into a surreal plot development that you will either fully accept or not (I thought it was ingenious) with a madhouse fury.

"Sorry To Bother You" is a film overflowing with vehement surprises that batter and bruise and is also a testament to the unfiltered creativity, imagination and originality that we so rarely even see anymore in our cinematic landscape of sequels, prequels, remakes and theme park rides masquerading as movies. Boots Riley's staggering confidence and tenacity produced a film experience unlike most and to which at the screening I attended, inspired one patron to loudly announce once the film concluded, an incredulous "JE-SUS!!" and I myself stood in the theater hallway afterwards wondering just what in the hell I had even seen! 

(Originally reviewed July 2018)

7.  "SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD"  DIRECTED BY LORENE SCAFARIA (2012)

Essentially ignored upon its initial release (it played in my city for two short weeks before it completely vanished), this beautiful, aching, existential apocalyptic comedy, in which a 70 mile wide asteroid is headed for a direct hit to planet Earth ensuring the world's annihilation in three weeks was, and remains, one of the decade's most striking, heartbreaking and memorable films I saw, despite it being so sadly undervalued.

Starring a wonderful Steve Carrell (demonstrating a depth reminiscent to William Hurt or Jack Lemmon) and a dazzling Keira Knightley (fully liberated from period dramas) as neighbors, previously unfamiliar to each other, who join forces to navigate their final 21 days on Earth together (he to re-connect with a lost love, she to somehow find a plane back to her family in England) showcased Lorene Scafaria's masterful sense of tone and empathy via a knife's edge of concepts and styles from satire, thriller, poetry and romantic comedy in a superbly unpredictable fashion while helming a story aiming for a horrifically predictable conclusion. 

I absolutely loved how Scafaria never let the audience off of the hook, so to speak. As her luxurious dialogue, sumptuous character development, building romance between our leading characters and often outrageous humor makes for an invitingly congenial experience, she upends you over and again with shocking  yet skillful tonal shifts that always remind you that the world will come to an end and there is no getting out of it, keeping us all off balance as we, from characters to viewers, ponder existence and mortality. 

"Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World," while often being a grim comedy of manners, is ultimately a warm experience that eloquently presents in a realistic fashion of what humanity ight look like is faced with is impending end. Hedonism, violence, despair and survivalism are as present as people still showing up for work and continuing to mow their lawns (one of the film's finest and most poignant images) for no other reason that we are just programmed to live our lives, makes Scafaria's vision so, well...life affirming. And the film's final moments, where two people finding the significance in each other and themselves just as the universe is set to render them and all living things insignificant is unforgettable.

And even more, I will never hear Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass' "The Guy Is In Love With You" or The Hollies' "The Air That I Breathe" in the same way ever again.     

(Originally reviewed July 2012)

6. "DJANGO UNCHAINED"  DIRECTED BY QUENTIN TARANTINO (2012)

One of our most original, innovative and unrepentantly fearless filmmakers emerged with possibly his most audacious project, and unquestionably, the one with his most openly presented moral outrage.

Quentin Tarantino's three hour epic chronicling the odyssey of the titular Django (a titanic Jamie Foxx) from slave to bounty hunter to slave emancipator as he attempts to find and free his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) from the plantation compound of Candyland as owned and operated by Calvin J. Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), was an outstanding masterpiece of cinematic revisionist history and genre splicing as he magnificently merged the slave narrative, Spaghetti Westerns, 1970's Blaxploitation films, a condemnation of the Hollywood slave opera and even German folktales into a sumptuously filmed and exceedingly, peerlessly written and constructed experience.

For all of the razzle dazzle, Tarantino ensures that the most important, crucial element of the film remains painfully intact, the unforgivable inhumanity of slavery. Unlike most Hollywood filmmakers who are afraid to get their hands dirty or are fearful of making potential audiences uncomfortable, Quentin Tarantino, by contrast, takes us to the wall in all of slavery's brutality, from abusive language to sadistic deeds, culminating in the full, complete and punishing catharsis of Django's unrelenting retribution. 

Yes, much of what we experience within a film like this one is cinematic fantasy but it is wrapped in the reprehensible realities of what slavery was, the African-American Holocaust. where the painfulness and deliverance operated at its most primal. And to that end, Quentin Tarantino utilized the truth of our nation's original sin, and again proved why he is one of most original cinematic storytellers.  

(Originally reviewed December 2012)

5. "GET OUT"  DIRECTED BY JORDAN PEELE (2017)

A film so ingenious that I was stunned that it had not been made sooner, and now that it has been made, it has invented its own cinematic line in the sand, influencing all that will arrive afterwards.

Jordan Peele's masterful debut, in which a young, Black photographer (a richly haunted Daniel Kaluuya) travels to visit the parents of his White girlfriend to terrifying results, completely upended and re-invented the horror genre by unapologetically making the nightmare of "post racial"/post Obama 21st century Americans as filtered through the Black experience the engine in which our story, and therefore, the horror developed and existed, making this film even more potent three years after its original release.

After multiple viewings, I am still amazed and slack jawed at how brilliantly Peele realized and controlled his vision, even when the film flies into its viciously surreal final third. For he never lets his eye off of the cinematic ball, so to speak. That the nightmare of "Get Out" is the nightmare African-Americans face each and every single day living in White America to varying degrees from the prevalence of daily micro-aggressions and undeserved suspicions which rightfully create paranoia to the rise of overt and rampant racism of police brutality and open-season styled hunting and murders of Black people by Whites who "feel threatened," all of which exacerbates the fear, incites the necessity for resistance and/or the submergence into "The Sunken Place" (itself a term now added to our lexicon when discussing race in reality as much as it is in pop culture). 

Jordan Peele's "Get Out" is an honest and unmercifully creative work that fearlessly confronts White privilege, cultural appropriation, enslavement, eradication and emancipation with rapacious satire and the very moral outrage and catharsis that fully validates the on-going racial trauma that exists for Black people in White society.          

(Originally reviewed March 2017)

4. "THE LOBSTER"  DIRECTED BY YORGOS LANTHIMOS (2016)

Breathing the same rarefied cinematic air as the likes of Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" (1985) and Charlie Kaufman's "Synecdoche, New York" (2008), Yorgos Lanthimos' debut English language feature film is a work of palpable existential quicksand filtered through a dystopian future that feels like a Wes Anderson film as filtered through the eyes of Stanley Kubrick. It is one of the decade's most singular, downright original films of which the response will not capture anything within the middleground. You will go with it or you just won't and Lanthimos is resolute and defiant in his unforgiving vision. 

The story, set in an undetermined future during which single people are deemed to check into the Kafka-esque location known only as The Hotel and are given a duration of 45 days to find a lifetime romantic partner or otherwise be transformed into an animal, is a brutal satire about loneliness and the societal constructs of single vs. married people. Lanthimos gives us a world where bisexuality is no longer a viable sexual choice, masturbation is illegal, relationships are forged through matching physical ailments and not through honest attraction and emotinal connections, and singledom for males represents a life doomed to die alone after choking upon a meal while for women, it means they are destined to being raped solely because they have not become attached to the right man.

Colin Farrell elicits one of his most committed performances as a newly unmarried man forced to check into The Hotel and experience an odyssey that will propel him through his current lodgings, a stint with a band of renegades known as "The Loners," the threat of the Orwellian landscape The City and an emotionally white knuckle conclusion where he confronts whether love is truly blind. Lanthimos envisions his film through a nightmare logic as visualized through meticulously designed and framed visual perspectives, repetitive classical music that only grows increasingly sinister, cold and detached atmospherics...and somehow, it is a comedy.

A comedy where the honesty and fragility of the emotional human experience has been drowned in the bathtub.       

(Originally reviewed June 2016)

3. "MELANCHOLIA"  DIRECTED BY LARS VON TRIER (2011)

And this is how the world ends...

The second film upon this list to envision our annihilation is one of the decade's furthest reaching films and for me, serves as a dark twin to the film that will sit just one notch above this one. Lars' Von Trier's devastating masterpiece, which is divided into two distinct halves, stars Kirsten Dunst, in one of her gravest, bristling performances as a woman, undone by crippling depression, destroys her own oppressively opulent wedding and afterwards, takes up a convalescence at her sister's (Charlotte Gainsbourg). Meanwhile, a newly discovered blue planet named Melancholia is on course towards Earth for a presumably wondrous astronomical event, when it is actually doomed to obliviate our planet. 

From the apocalyptic imagery of the eight minute, Wagner scored prologue, to the chilling performances, the terrifying thriller aspect of the film's second half as Melancholia approaches, and the final scenes which left me in stunned silence, Lars Von Trier's nihilistic and empathetic exploration of the human experience and humanity's downfall can be taken both at face value or fully as a metaphor for the excruciating, planet crushing pain of depression, where the end of all existence may indeed bring on a calming effect of sweet relief.

Absolutely unforgettable. 

(Originally reviewed December 2011)

2. "THE TREE OF LIFE"  DIRECTED BY TERENCE MALICK  (2011)

Terrence Malick's esoteric, elegant exploration of essentially life, the universe and well...everything was a majestic work of art with a capital "A," "R," "T," yet it was also simultaneously primal in its sheer profundity. 

While the bulk of the film centers around the birth, evolution, tension and destruction of a Texas family in the 1950's, which Malick covers with piercing intimacy and poetic grace notes, he surrounds that personal story with an imagining of the beginning and end of the universe itself, complete with intergalactic extravagances and prehistoric musings starring dinosaurs. Yes, this film was certainly confusing and confounding to many viewers. But trust me, what I really believe Malick has accomplished was to utilize the the story of the universe and the story of the family to showcase the inter-connectivity that exists between all living things over all of time itself, making "The Tree Of Life" a film about the life cycle--meaning EVERY story of EVERY living organism.

Where Brad Pitt, as the patriarch, gave a performance of towering command and Jessica Chastain elicited supreme grace in her ethereal and nearly wordless performance as the matriarch, the true star of the film is Terrence Malick's cinematic palate which delivered a resplendent, rapturous work of sound and vision from its first frame to its last, where every image could exist as a still photograph, and streaks of sunlight look and feel like the hand of God.  

Mysterious and mystical, obtuse, cryptic and demanding of some seriously heavy mental lifting, "The Tree Of Life" is not a film where you can be remotely passive. It is a film designed to engage you with pondering the meaning of it all and Malick's vision is enthralling. 

(Originally reviewed June 2011)

1. "BOYHOOD"  DIRECTED BY RICHARD LINKLATER (2014)

Exactly like how Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous" (2000) sat at the very top of my list for my favorite films of the decade from 2000-2009, the placement of this film at the very top of this list was my easiest choice of all. In fact, I knew right away and I juts had to work myself backwards as the ambition, majesty and sheer heart of this completely unique film experience stood taller than all others over these past ten years. 

Filmed in piecemeal over a period of twelve years, Richard Linklater's finest cinematic achievement in his illustrious and idiosyncratic career, exists essentially without a plot as we follow the life and times of Mason (exquisitely portrayed by Ellar Coltrane), from perhaps age 6 to all the way until his arrival at college, directly alongside his Mother (Patricia Arquette), sarcastic sister (Lorelei Linklater), and his Father (Ethan Hawke), long estranged from the family. Over three fully mesmerizing hours, the film follows the introspective Mason as he finds his way with his family, his friends, his loves, his experimentations, his expressions, his future and hoe he begins to interact with and view the world in which he co-exists.

Never at any point is there a moment that feels prefabricated or engineered. There is no hyperbole or manufactured drama. There are even no signals to the audience as to what year it happens to be for Mason, making the film flow like the passage of time itself. And of course, as previously stated, there is no real plot, as within our own real lives, our experiences are not scripted and designed to adhere to a pre-conceived follow through. It is a masterful achievement that Linklater has given to us as he asks of us to ruminate over the paths of our own lives just as we regard Mason's--and for those of you who happen to be parents, I believe the experience of watching this film must be something nearly inexplicable as you will be able to regard yourselves and your children along with Mason.

To that end, Linklater's "Boyhood" could have also been easily called, "Childhood," "Girlhood," "Motherhood," "Fatherhood," "Manhood" or "Womanhood" as absolutely ANY viewer from ANY walk of life can view this film and regard the passage of time over all of the film's characters, and therefore, Linklater truly has re-invented what it means when a film can be a "slice of life" to the point where the experience becomes relatively cosmic.

Philosophical, languid, engaging, overflowing with empathy, wisdom, a miraculous sense of time travel and a final moment that completely encapsulates the bittersweetness of simultaneous beginnings and endings, this film is a monument of absolute, transcendent truth and beauty because Richard Linklater's "Boyhood" is a film about what it means to be alive. 
(Originally reviewed August 2014)

SAVAGE CINEMA'S COMING ATTRACTIONS FOR NOVEMBER 2020

This is the only thing that matters right now.

November 3, 2020.

See you on the other side...

US AND YOU: a review of "David Byrne's American Utopia"

"DAVID BYRNE'S AMERICAN UTOPIA"
Produced by David Byrne and Spike Lee
Directed by Spike Lee
**** (four stars)

Years ago, I passed up a chance to see a performance by David Byrne right here in my city at a venue that happened to be easily accessible for me to reach. I remember deciding against going due to the fact that I really was not that familiar with Byrne's musical output since his tenure with his former band, Talking Heads. And for that matter, the show's steep ticket price may have been what tipped me over the edge into not going. Regardless, not attending has long remained one of my "concert regrets" and after having now seen Byrne's latest project, I am really kicking myself!

"David Byrne's American Utopia," his Broadway adaptation of his album "American Utopia" (released March 9, 2018) and his Reasons To Be Cheerful multimedia project, both excursions designed to help bring positivity into out increasingly turbulent 21st century, has now taken the leap into film via the superlative cinematic hands of none other than Spike Lee, and the result is absolutely sensational, exuberant, undeniably joyous and for that matter, is it unmissable! 

The performance of "David Byrne's American Utopia" opens with the remarkable image of David Byrne, barefoot and adorned in a grey suit upon a mostly barren grey stage, seated at a table with a brain as his only company. Byrne, while pointing to different sections of the brain, immediately begins to perform the song "Here," an ode about the brain to the brain and therefore, to the connections between the organ and to all of the actions and emotional responses it produces.

"Here is a region of abundant details
Here is a region that is seldom used

Here is a region that continues living

Even when the other sections are removed  
Put your hand out of your pocket
Wipe the sweat off of your brow
Now it feels like a bad connection
No more information now
As it passes through your neurons
Like a whisper in the dark
Raise your eyes to the one who loves you
It is safe right where you are..."

From this introduction, David Byrne is gradually joined by members of his 11 piece band, all barefoot, adorned in matching grey suits, wireless microphone headsets and instruments, as they engage in a 22 song cycle that is evenly split between Byrne's solo material and his work with Talking Heads, and further augmented by Byrne's spoken interludes directly to the audience, all of which indeed come off as introspective musings designed to forge connections between artists and spectators, and in doing so, human to human, making the entire production a shared emotional experience. 

"David Byrne's American Utopia" is masterful, a downright euphoric concoction that provides a stunning display of musicianship, vocal harmonics, modern dance and choreography (courtesy of , spatial aesthetics, and even the exquisite blending of art with philosophy, logic, reason, science and mathematics as well as our socio/political landscape. 

Certainly, when approaching this production and film, the late Jonathan Demme's landmark document of Talking Heads' "Stop Making Sense" (1984), long and rightfully regarded as one of the finest concert films ever made, will unquestionably invite comparisons as well as cast a mighty shadow. Yes, there are elements of which I felt Byrne devised intentional echoes from this show to the decades old Talking Heads tour, from beginning the show on stage alone with band members slowly emerging to full capacity as well as the multi-ethnic and gendered make up of the musicians. Yet, what makes this performance stand out on its own conceptual feet is how even those familiar elements are then re-contextualized into creating a narrative that can only exist in 2020. 

First things first, the musical performance is splendidly impeccable. At the age of 68, David Byrne remains a magnetic, compulsively watchable performer who does strike a peculiar balance between existing as some sort of out of step hybrid of Bill Nye the Science Guy and Fred Rogers. 

Still physically agile and in possession of his strong voice which sounds as if it has not aged a day in over 40 years, he is superbly assisted by the extraordinary vocals and meticulous, largely percussive musicianship from his band, who simultaneously assert their own personalities while also paying homage to Byrne's former Talking Heads bandmates, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison and Tina Weymouth, all of whom co-created the Talking Heads discography and legacy. Byrne's troupe is magnificently dazzling, creating something that sounds simultaneously orchestral and also akin to a living drum circle as the layers upon layers of percussion serve as the musical engine that is augmented by guitar, bass, keyboards, other synthetic samples and that aforementioned astounding blend of voices that spiral into harmonic convergence from, beginning to end, most notably in the spirit lifting "One Fine Day." 

Thematically, and very much like Sean Evans and Roger Waters' astounding concert film "Roger Waters: Us + Them," I found it remarkable of how Byrne took some songs, which are all now between 30-40 years old and without even changing a word, weaved them together with more recent material, to create an impression of what it means to exist, especially in 21st century America.    

At the film's opening, after the performance of "Here," David Byrne informs us of the massive amount of neural connections we possess as babies and how we lose those connections as we age, making him wonder if we, as a species, are simply growing stupider as we grow older or is there some other meaning to be discerned. Byrne's occasional addresses to the audience throughout serve as a point of introspection designed to begin to forge the connections between himself and the audience, which indeed surprised me, as David Byrne has not typically presented himself as being an ingratiating frontman. 

Speaking about one of the first purchases he made once Talking Heads received a recording contract, we are given "I Should Watch TV," a song about utilizing the worlds depicted inside the machine as a means to try and observe and understand the real world. A mention of German philosopher and poet Hugo Ball, the founder of the Dada movement and the usage of "sound poetry" in order to utilize nonsense as a means to make sense of a world that does not make sense leads up to "I Zimbra." A wondrous sequence featuring "Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)" showcases not only how the song is built upwards instrument by instrument but also to showcase the diversity within the band, which, as Byrne notes, is made up largely of immigrants.

This is also where the performance and film builds vibrantly from what could have remained as esoteric, while already enormously entertaining, and ascends into something more tangible and meaningful as we witness Byrne extending his engagement into the world around him, which does also ask of us to perform the same feat internally. The importance of voting, the prevalence of racial injustice and the Black Lives Matter movement, themes of representation and inclusion ("Everybody's Coming To My House") and even more are all a part of the show yet, most importantly is the theme of self-reflection and self-evolution as a means to build greater connections and hopefully change the world for the better. As Byrne himself proclaims at one point early in the show, "Unfortunately, I am what I am" but later admits, "Maybe I can change too," "David Byrne's American Utopia" rises and rises into a euphoria so infectious that you will rise from your seats...even when watching this film at home.    

And here's where Spike Lee gets involved...

It may seem to be a bit of an odd pairing to merge the sensibilities of Spike Lee and David Byrne together. Admittedly, when I first heard that a film version of the Broadway show would be helmed by Spike Lee, I also felt the same quizzical reaction towards the thought of the team-up...and considerable excitement at having one iconoclastic artist play off of another iconoclastic artist. With this film, the pairing could not have been more perfect as they never once tried to usurp the other, and always supporting each other by allowing each other to just do what they do at their very best. 

For Spike Lee, who has already created a great reputation for documenting live performances which then become excellent cinema as we have already witnessed with the likes of the extraordinary "Passing Strange" (2008) and the somber, sobering and surreal "Pass Over" (2018), capturing "David Byrne's American Utopia" represents a new high watermark...which is even more impressive as this film arrives in the same year during which has already given us "Da 5 Bloods," which I feel is one of the finest "Joints" he has ever made!

With "David Byrne's American Utopia," Lee does provide for us the immediacy of a live performance while also utilizing the language of film to give us a cinematic vision as opposed to a theatrical one. Reportedly seeing the performance multiple times from preview shows to subsequent Broadway outings, Lee has truly studied the narrative of the show from song to song, allowing himself to devise ways to approach the s how on a visual level that is different than to what can be gathered when seeing it within a theater setting. In short, Spike Lee gives us the show in a way that cannot be seen in its traditional setting and the effect is elegant and crisply thrilling as we are seeing the efforts and concepts of Byrne and his band to an even greater effect.

Earlier, I mentioned how the performance showcased a certain marriage between art and mathematics. There is a profoundly geometrical aspect to the show and Spike Lee is able to capture those aspects cleanly and without any sense of forced interjection on his part. 

By definition, according to Oxford Languages, "Geometry" is "the branch of mathematics concerned with the properties and relations of points, lines, surfaces, solids and higher dimensional analogs."  Taking that into consideration, Spike Lee has visualized the concept of Geometry via David Byrne's performance as we witness the points and lines of the dancers and choreography, the positions and placements of the musicians with each other throughout a variety of points and spaces on the stage. Lee  often gives us a bird's eye perspective, again illustrating to a greater degree the geometrical connections between Byrne and his band. And during "Blind," Lee works with and focuses upon the juxtapositions of lights and the giant shadows of the musicians that are created and loom largely over the stage. 

From facial expressions, hand movements, and just being able to get a camera at points where you just are not able to visualize while sitting in your theater seat, the show receives an enhancement that b rings you further inside of the performance itself. To that end, Lee is also able to use his skills to enhance the greater emotional content as well, most notably during the stirring, intense performance of Janelle  Monae's "Hell You Talmbout," which Lee punctuates by images of Black lives cut down violently alongside their living family members as Byrne and his band implore us to "Say Their Names!" 

But, I think was the most illuminating factor of this artistic marriage was how this project brought out a quality that has largely not been associated with either artist: a sense of warmth. This is not to suggest that either Byrne or Lee have watered down their tendencies. Not in the least. But, as we think of their respective artistic histories, Byrne's eclecticism may have kept some rock fans at arms length due to any perceived elitism and Lee's impassioned, unrepentant sensibilities have struck some film goers as being overtly confrontational and combative. Yet, with this film, both David Byrne and Spike Lee arrive at their most inviting and inclusive, creating a party atmosphere that is welcome to any and everyone who chooses to enter, a feeling that extends from the barren physical space of the stage, that in Byrne's words was chosen to house, and therefore represent, "nothing but the things we care about," which is...each other.

Spike Lee's presentation of "David Byrne's American Utopia" opens and concludes with the sounds of birds, which I believe is the peaceful sound of the very utopia we all wish to attain, and the show, particularly by the elation of the concluding number "Road To Nowhere" and a lovely end credits sequence of which I shall not reveal, very nearly reaches! And yet, it is through the union of these two artists and therefore, their union between themselves and to all of us watching, that we arrive with a feeling that is as much urgent as it is filled with a near childlike innocence. 

Perhaps, music, film and art can change the world. Perhaps it really can.

SAVAGE CINEMA'S COMING ATTRACTIONS FOR OCTOBER 2020

I have not set foot within a movie theater since February. This has been the longest time that I have been away from the movies ever since I fell in love with them back in 1977 and as the world is appearing, I really do not believe that I will even be returning for the remainder of 2020, a thought that is as strange as it is saddening. 

For Savage Cinema, it shall continue without question. Last month, I did indeed devote more time to the companion blogsite Synesthesia, but beyond that, responsibilities with life truly took over, leaving me with not terribly much time to watch movies (I still have not yet seen "Hamilton"!) and even further, not terribly much mental energy to devote to the craft of writing the very pieces to the level of which I do pride myself and that which I feel that you deserve if you are going to take the time out of your busy lives to read anything that I have to express. 

That being said, I do have quite a number of films that I wish to spend time watching while at home including...

1. "ANTEBELLUM" The first trailers I saw for this film perhaps maybe last Winter were extremely intriguing, especially as I do tend to veer myself away from horror films. Yet, using race, racism and racial trauma as the engine within a genre setting is indeed the hook and I do wish to see how this one has turned out.  

2. "I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS" There is no way that I will not check out this film, the first live action feature from Writer/Director Charlie Kaufman since his genre defying "Synecdoche, New York" (2008).

3. "ON THE ROCKS" The same feelings apply towards any new film from Writer/Director Sofia Coppola, especially if it stars my main man Mr. Bill Murray and the illustrious Rashida Jones. 

4. "THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO SEVEN" Again, something new from Writer/Director Aaron Sorkin will always attract my attention and I do hope to be able to fit this into my schedule somehow.

And so with this, plus the final installment of my Time Capsule series, in which I will at long last recount my final Top Ten favorite films of the decade between 2010-2019, I have more than enough to keep me busy even while I am not going to the theaters due to the continuing global pandemic. 

Please, dear readers, keep taking care of yourselves as best as able. Wear your masks, wash your hands and remain socially distant, even as painful as it is. I wish to return to the movies just as you do, so let's continue to make these small sacrifices so we can again bask in the beauty of sitting in those darkened rooms sharing the art and artistry of the movies once again.

SELF PORTRAIT: a review of "The Way Back"

"THE WAY BACK"
Screenplay Written by Brad Ingelsby
Directed by Gavin O'Connor
***1/2 (three and a half stars)
RATED R

"It takes time to learn all the things you need to learn. And it also takes time to suffer enough  until at some point there's something inside you that says, 'No mas. I give.' What it really is, personally in me and what I've seen in others, that I want for myself, is a profound sense of humility.  You are not stronger than the thing that you're addicted to. It is stronger than you. It will always be stronger than you."
-Ben Affleck, interview February 28, 2020

Forgive me if I have happened to have made this observation before upon this blogsite, but if so, I do feel compelled to mention it once again. I honestly do not understand the disdain that has followed Ben Affleck around for so much of his career, especially when compared to  his friend and longtime compatriot, Matt Damon. Yes, there was once a time many years ago when I reasoned to myself the following distinction: Matt Damon seemed to be more interested in being an "actor," while Ben Affleck seemed to be more interested in being a "movie star," an opinion I harbored solely based upon the films they were choosing to make. 

With Gus Van Sant's "Good Will Hunting" (1997), which Affleck and Damon both starred and co-wrote the Oscar winning screenplay notwithstanding, there was a time during which Matt Damon performed in nothing less than Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" (1998), Anthony Minghella's "The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) and Steven Soderbergh's "Ocean's Eleven" (2001), to name a few, while Ben Affleck, however, worked in films of a decidedly lesser pedigree, most notably Michael Bay's horrendous "Armageddon" (1998) and even worse "Pearl Harbor" (2001). 

While over the past 20 years, my initial feelings concerning both men have decreased considerably, as they have had hits and misses each, and Damon possesses his own franchise with the Jason Bourne series, it always feels as if Ben Affleck is still the one who has something to prove. Over the years, he has more than demonstrated his considerable acting chops from Kevin Smith's "Chasing Amy" (1997) and "Dogma" (1999) to Roger Michell's "Changing Lanes" (2002) and David Fincher's "Gone Girl" (2014). Additionally, he has more than raised his own bar with his superior efforts as a Director with "Gone Baby Gone" (2007), "The Town" (2010) and the Academy Award Best Picture winning "Argo" (2012). 

Yet, even with those successes under his impressive belt, that disdain continues into more box office driven features and augmented by his hefty presence within tabloid culture, from his past relationship with Jennifer Lopez, the dissolution of his marriage to Jennifer Garner and his private/public bouts with alcoholism.

With the arrival of Gavin O'Connor's "The Way Back," all of the personal baggage that comes with being Ben Affleck as well as our perceptions of him, are firmly weaved into the drama of this film. And, instead of being a distraction, I have the feeling that this was an intentional move on the part of the filmmakers and definitely Affleck himself, who stars in the leading role of a man struggling with his addictions. It was a move that undeniably intrigued me when I first saw the trailers for this film last Winter, making me curious as to what I might see and how much of a reveal Affleck was willing to deliver to us through a character. And the resulting affect was...well...for lack of a better expression...sobering.

"The Way Back" stars Ben Affleck as Jack Cunningham, former high school basketball star and now an alcoholic construction worker, living a largely isolated life after becoming separated from his wife, Angela (played by Janina Gavankar). The dark routine of Jack's life essentially plays out in an endless loop of work, a night at his local bar, being brought home by a watchful barfly named Doc (Glynn Turman) and passing out to just perform the same routine all over again, with constant alcohol at his side--even during his morning showers--and to much concern from his family, including his sister, Beth (Michaela Watkins) as well as Angela. 

One day, upon returning home, Jack receives a telephone call from Father Devine (John Aylward) of his alma mater, the Catholic high school Bishop Hayes, asking him to consider returning to his old school to coach the basketball team after their head coach suffers a heart attack. The team has not won a championship since Jack's school days and perhaps, he might be the one to help the team get themselves back on track. And truth be told, perhaps being of service to others might help Jack rebuild himself in the process.

By this description, Gavin O'Connor's "The Way Back" may certainly sound like an updated version of the inspirational sports drama merged with a tale of personal redemption, and you would not be wrong. Thankfully, it is in how O'Connor tells his story where any sense of lazy formula cliches are wholly circumvented in favor of more muted tones, considerable nuance, a quietness of tone and an unforced sense of inherent drama so as to not invent hyperbolic sequences when absolutely none are needed.    

O'Connor has fashioned a muted, decidedly understated film in "The Way Back," which is formulaic but utilizes the formula to its advantage to ensure the reality and gravity of the story is never discarded in favor of easy sentiments or answers. What O'Connor and crucially, Ben Affleck have delivered is a poignant, internalized self portrait, one uninterested in devising easily packaged conclusions to upending personal traumas. 

Augmented with Cinematographer Eduard Grau's gritty visuals and Composer Rob Simonsen's more ambient score, "The Way Back" is firmly planted as a slice of life film, one that is much closer to Kenneth Lonergan's "Manchester By The Sea" (2016) than David Anspaugh's "Hoosiers" (1986), where the emotions, motivations and overall humanity of the piece is forefront, darker and considerably, sadder.

Most certainly, all eyes are upon Ben Affleck's performance and without question, it is one of the finest, most honest and unguarded of his career. It is a performance given without vanity and is often surprising in its invitation into Affleck's private demons, made public through tabloid and social media. It is a work that is essentially speaking of himself via a character, to which he is closely related existentially.    

Regarding the daily routine of Jack Cunningham during the film's firs third, does indeed make you question if reality was indeed this internally harrowing for Affleck himself. Again, this is not ever sensed as a distraction from the film itself, but one where the film, character and actor all inform each other, making the disease of alcoholism even more tangible as we know going into the film that Affleck is having the same issues personally. 

Additionally, and greater than the actual drinking and alcohol consumption, it is the regret, the pain, the overall withdrawal from life that we witness that packs the considerable punch dramatically. While we are witness as to how much Jack is actually cared for by family and friends, we also witness their fatigue at being his caretaker, something I feel that we are meant to infer that Jack fully understands, thus leading to his isolation. We are witness to Jack's sense of shame and grief, mourning and defeat, which are all waved away, so to speak, with more and more alcohol, which then increases his need to retreat from life.

To that end, all of the sections devoted to his coaching of the team and his ensuring relationships with the teenage players plus Bishop Hays' staff members, including Algebra teacher/Assistant Coach Dan (very well played by Al Madrigal) and Father Mark Whelan (Jeremy Radin), are all fully grounded in patience and quiet. Even when tensions run high, from the basketball game sequences to more confrontational moments between characters, O'Connor never makes the mistake of overselling the moment, and the restraint makes all of the difference in presenting life as it is lived and being otherwise, and in the case of this film, mistakenly melodramatic. 

Returning to Ben Affleck and the depth of his work in "The Way Back," I also commend him for not only allowing himself to being revealing but also, revealing in such a fashion that he is also elevating whatever mystery he owns to our perception of his real world public persona. Yes, he is portraying a character and we are meant to meet the film at face value. 

And yes, I do think we are also meant to wonder just how much of this character is supposed to be confessional. This goes all the way to the casting of Janina Gavankar as Jack's ex, Angela, who bears a striking resemblance to Jennifer Lopez rather than say, Jennifer Garner, which did make me question if perhaps Lopez was the great love of Affleck's life. Now, of course, all of this is speculation but it did indeed add to the somber tenor of the film as a whole as we are meant to regard the pieces that make up a life and how those pieces fall apart and are attempted to being restructured, albeit in a new way as old pieces might not fit in the ways they had once before. 

Maybe think of it like this: What if "The Way Back" is kid of a quasi-sequel to "Good Will Hunting," this time focusing upon the character Affleck portrayed in that film. What if Jack Cunningham is essentially a representation of that character, now an adult, now without his best friend or any of his former friends, who now finds himself within an existential crisis. Not a matter of any sense of arrested development. But of growing from and ultimately, surviving life's disappointments, failures and tragedies and Ben Affleck succeeds with a subdued, knowing grace which you can gather from his sunken eyes, his slouch and his superhero physique gone to seed.

And yet, there is another layer to this experience that I am certain the filmmakers never counted on but does inadvertently make "The Way Back" more universal and perhaps a tad prescient.

It was the weekend of March 6th when this film was originally released to theaters. I almost went to the movies that weekend to see this film but decided against it due to the gradual rise of the coronavirus, which was looming in the background and just one week later would officially be paramount within all of our lives, inspiring the months long quarantine during which our movie theaters closed in a nationwide lockdown. Now, having seen the film, plus also witnessing how the nation at large, including movie theaters, has largely re-opened--coronavirus be damned--I am also regarding how the film has now become somewhat re-contextualized to fit the societal moment, while also existing as a deeply personalized interior drama. 

While "The Way Back" is the story of Jack Cunningham, which mirrors aspects of the personal story of Ben Affleck, in a way COVID-19 has informed the film even further as we are all currently taking stock of ourselves and our lives during a time of constant upheaval, trauma, uncertainty and grieving for the lives we all once had before the global pandemic changed the world as we knew it. We are all struggling in finding our respective ways back to...something. 

Finding the way back to...something...has no clear road maps or guide lines. All we can hope to have is the compassion of others to help us upwards when we do invariably fall, and that we are able to do the same should the need arise. That is what Gavin O'Connor's "The Way Back" represented to me, while being a smart, empathetic film that understands the journey to any sense of recovery is not achieved in one grand gesture or victory but from every moment to moment during which just keep ourselves moving.

SAVAGE CINEMA'S COMING ATTRACTIONS FOR SEPTEMBER 2020

And the movie theaters are now open?

Dear readers, I am honestly fully unaware about the nation as a whole but in my fair city of Madison, WI., the movie theaters have either re-opened or are just about to re-open and I am torn. As bait, Christopher Nolan's "Tenet," long delayed due to trying to wait out the existence of the global pandemic which closed all movie theaters down for the previous six months, has finally been released as extremely provocative big budget bait to attract people back to the move theater experience--an experience that I have reassured for over 40 years of my life. 

And truth be told, as extremely attractive as that bait happens to be, I am admittedly torn but still firmly planted in the camp that feels that it is still all too soon.

During this time during COVID-19, where our country is unquestionably doing the very worst in the world with dealing with this event, we have all been making extremely difficult choices. I won't go into my specific choices at length but in short, I have been keep a fairly strict adherence to remaining within my "pods" of home, grocery & pet stores and of course, school, where my role as a preschool teacher has been "elevated" to that of being an essential worker (ugh). The stress, uncertainty and anxiety we are all dealing with is as real as the trauma of the times and so, the so called "new normal" is a time during which absolutely nothing at all is remotely normal. 

And so, going to the movies, while as desirable as ever, still feels to be so dangerously unsafe no matter what protocols movie theaters are putting in place. Believe me, I understand. Hell...I overstand!!! As with so many businesses and especially within our arts communities, the longer we are unable to engage with the arts and entertainment that sustain all of us, the danger rises that we may lose what we love and most importantly, the human cost of employment and lives lost.

But...for now, I just can't. I can put myself in any additional jeopardy or unintentionally place others in the same. Not just yet. There needs to be more time and greater assurances that safety is in hand definitively.

As for Savage Cinema, I do have a review of a 2020 release in the hopper and I do have my final installment of the Time Capsule series to actually craft for you. I am not worried about this blogsite as I have more than had enough material to sustain it for six months. But, viewing moves from home is not something I ever wish to become the norm.

Even in a world that has become everything that isn't normal.  

I wish for all of you to stay safe, especially if you do go out to the movies. And one day, we will meet again when the house lights go down.