My Friend Dahmer

Review by Bob Ignizio

It’s funny how a movie adaptation of a book can be faithful in very many ways, and yet still wind up missing the heart and soul of its source material. Such is the case with MY FRIEND DAHMER, adapted from the graphic novel by Clevelander John “Derf” Backderf. It’s an autobiographical tale in which Derf (played in the film by Alex Wolff) recounts his high school semi-friendship with Jeff Dahmer (Ross Lynch), who would go on to become one of the most infamous serial killers in American history.

At the time, Dahmer just seemed like a harmless weirdo whose bizarre antics provided Derf and his friends with a source of amusement. They made Dahmer a mascot of sorts, encouraging his odd disruptive behavior. Eventually, though, the fun came to an end as Jeff's dark side became more apparent. This was most obvious in his level of alcohol consumption, which even in the party hearty era of the seventies seemed excessive, and clearly not done for fun.

Endless Poetry (July 21st and 22nd at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[ENDLESS POETRY screens Friday July 21^st at 9:20 pm and Saturday July 22^nd at 6:55 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

Not so much a sequel as it is part of the same film, surrealist filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s ENDLESS POETRY picks up right where his previous film, THE DANCE OF REALITY, left off. Leaving his childhood behind, ENDLESS POETRY finds Jodorowsky as a young man (Adan Jodorowsky) living in Santiago, Chile.

Although Alejandro’s father Jaime’s (Brontis Jodorowsky) attitude seemed to soften somewhat by the end of THE DANCE OF REALITY, he’s back to being a stern figure as ENDLESS POETRY begins. This is a man who hires a little person to dress up like Hitler and stand outside his store to drum up business, and he definitely has no sympathy for shoplifters. He also wants his son to become a doctor rather than follow his muse to become an artist, a profession Jaime believes is reserved for homosexuals.

Maudie (opens Friday July 21st at the Cedar Lee Theatre)

[MAUDIE opens in Cleveland on Friday July 21st at the Cedar Lee Theatre.]

Review by Pamela Zoslov

The difference between Art and Life is that Art is more bearable.

— Charles Bukowski

"A World Without Shadows” is the title of a stage play and short film about Maud Lewis, a celebrated Canadian folk artist who lived most of her life in a tiny, primitive house in Nova Scotia, covering every surface of the home with vibrant flowers, birds, and butterflies and painting whimsical cats in tulip fields, carriages carrying brightly dressed people, seagulls soaring over seascapes. Bent-backed and increasingly crippled by rheumatoid arthritis, the diminutive self-taught artist sold her paintings for five dollars apiece to locals and tourists who stopped by the house she shared with her husband, Everett. The couple are described in the documentary as having a “childlike, tremendous feeling; no shadows at all. Everything is happy and gay and quick and lively.”

I, Olga Hepnarova (May 18th and 19th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[I, OLGA HAPNAROVA screens Thursday May 18th at 6:45 pm and Friday May 20th at 9:30 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Eric Sever

In 1975, Olga Hepnarova was the last woman executed in Chechoslovakia. To avoid spoilers, I won't mention what she did, but the film I, OLGA HEPNAROVA is more concerned with why she did it.

Michalina Olszanska turns in a nicely restrained performance as the troubled young woman, who grows increasingly isolated from people after attempting suicide.

Olga manages to land a job, starts a fling with a female coworker, and begins to loosen up. For all her quietness, Olga sometimes displays a sexual voracity as naive and inappropriate as her other social interactions. When she is cruelly dumped, Olga again tries to make human connections, despite the fact that socializing is largely torturous for her.

Queen of the Desert (now available on VOD)

Review by Bob Ignizio

It's not hard to understand why famed German writer/director Werner Herzog would have been drawn to the true life story of Gertrude Bell, the subject of his latest film QUEEN OF THE DESERT. Bell was, like many of Herzog's protagonists, a person driven to do things that everyone else said were impossible, or in her case, at least not the sort of things that a woman should do. And her adventures in the same desert locales as T. E. Lawrence gives Herzog, who relishes the challenge of filming on real, often difficult locations, yet another chance to do battle with nature in the course of making his film.

One can also easily grasp why Nicole Kidman would have jumped at the chance to tackle the lead role. In Bell, she gets to play a woman who was a real-life adventurer, not some cartoonish female action hero (which seems to be the only lead role available to women these days outside of Oscar season).

A United Kingdom

Review by Pamela Zoslov

The British film director Amma Asante, a former child actress, has a special interest in issues of race in Great Britain. Her 2013 BELLE told the story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the mixed-race daughter of a Royal Navy Admiral in 18th-century England. Her new film, A UNITED KINGDOM, tells another based-on-truth racial story, that of Seretse Khama, the Prince of Bechuanaland (now Botswana) who, while studying law at Oxford, fell in love with Ruth Williams, a white British office clerk.

Their marriage in 1948 caused conflict and disapproval from their families and the governments of Great Britain (which had colonial authority over Bechuanaland) and neighboring South Africa, which was implementing its terrible apartheid regime, and whose cooperation in the burgeoning Cold War was deemed essential to the British government. Seretse's refusal to divorce Ruth caused a rift between Seretse’s uncle, acting regent of the powerful Bamangwato tribe (a placeholder for the young king while he completed his education) and resulted in the couple being exiled for life from Bechuanaland.

Repost: Christine (January 5th and 6th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[CHRISTINE screens Thursday January 5th at 8:30 pm and Friday January 6th at 7:15 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

A few weeks ago, a film called KATE PLAYS CHRISTINE screened at the Cleveland Cinematheque. It was not-quite-a-documentary about an actress doing research to play the role of Christine Chubbuck, a Florida newscaster who killed herself on the air, in a (fake) dramatized film. While that film was rough around the edges, it made a strong statement on its subject, implicating both the filmmakers and us, the viewers, in exactly the sort of sensationalistic voyeurism its subject railed against just before pulling the trigger.

Now comes CHRISTINE, a more traditional docudrama based on the same events. It stars Rebecca Hall as the title character, and she does an exceptional job of portraying her subject. From what surviving footage I've seen of the real life Chubbuck in KATE PLAYS CHRISTINE, Hall nails both the appearance and mannerisms of the real life Christine. More importantly, though, she gives the character life and depth, showing us a deeply depressed woman who is both sympathetic and difficult to like. Since the film is largely a character study, to a great degree it is the power of this performance that makes it worth watching.

Lion

Review by Bob Ignizio

You know it's awards season when all the serious, adult-oriented dramas hit theaters in one big, oh-so-very important, based-on-a-true-story, cinematic dump.

Case in point: The Australian/British co-production LION, which dramatizes the real life story of Saroo Brierly (Sunny Pawar). At the age of 5, Saroo and his older brother Guddu travel miles away from home, looking for work. Saroo is too tired when they get there, however, and Guddu must leave him at the train station. The older boy never returns, and when Saroo awakes, he accidentally wanders on to a decommissioned train that winds up taking him even farther away.

Loving

By George M. Thomas

Ruth Negga, Joel Edgerton as Mildred and Richard Loving.

Viewing a movie such as LOVING you almost get the feeling that the film and the circumstances that spawned its story are from some medieval time centuries ago.

Then you consider the events that unfolded in 2016 related to minorities and the mainstreaming of white supremacy, and the realization hits that those circumstances might be closer than ever.

Miscegenation ruled the South along with a myriad of other bigoted laws at the time that were meant to maintain white supremacy.  But many people could see past that thinly veiled racism to get to the heart of the matter.

Such were the Lovings, Richard (Joel Edgerton) and Mildred (Ruth Negga), an interracial couple (he white, she black) who committed the crime of falling in love and marrying in 1958. In their small, Virginia county that was verboten. No race mixing, let alone interracial marriage.

Bleed For This

Review by Pamela Zoslov

Maybe the world doesn't need another boxing movie, but the “sweet science of bruising” has provided enough energy, velocity and melodrama for hundreds of films. The newest, BLEED FOR THIS, is based on the true story of Vinny Pazienza (Vinny Paz), a professional boxer from Rhode Island who held world titles in three weight classes. Ben Younger wrote and directed the film.

In 1991, shortly after he won the junior middleweight world title, Pazienza was in a car accident that left him with a broken neck. Doctors told him he could not fight again, and that he might not even walk again, but Pazienza was determined to continue fighting. Refusing spinal fusion surgery, he agreed to wear a metal brace called a Halo, which was screwed to his skull for three months (six months in the film). During that time, he pursued a workout regimen against doctors' advice, and returned to the ring victorious, a mere thirteen months after the accident that nearly crippled him. His triumph is considered one of the greatest comebacks in boxing history.

Christine (opens November 4th at The Nightlight Cinema)

[CHRISTINE opens in Akron on Friday November 4th at The Nightlight Cinema.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

A few weeks ago, a film called KATE PLAYS CHRISTINE screened at the Cleveland Cinematheque. It was not-quite-a-documentary about an actress doing research to play the role of Christine Chubbuck, a Florida newscaster who killed herself on the air, in a (fake) dramatized film. While that film was rough around the edges, it made a strong statement on its subject, implicating both the filmmakers and us, the viewers, in exactly the sort of sensationalistic voyeurism its subject railed against just before pulling the trigger.

Now comes CHRISTINE, a more traditional docudrama based on the same events. It stars Rebecca Hall as the title character, and she does an exceptional job of portraying her subject. From what surviving footage I've seen of the real life Chubbuck in KATE PLAYS CHRISTINE, Hall nails both the appearance and mannerisms of the real life Christine. More importantly, though, she gives the character life and depth, showing us a deeply depressed woman who is both sympathetic and difficult to like. Since the film is largely a character study, to a great degree it is the power of this performance that makes it worth watching.

Denial

Review by Pamela Zoslov

“I don't see any reason to be tasteful about Auschwitz. It's baloney. It's a legend...more women died on the back seat of Edward Kennedy's car at Chappaquiddick than ever died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz.”

With incendiary words like these, in a 1991 speech before far-rightists and neo-Nazis, David Irving established himself as one of the world's best-known Holocaust deniers. The author of nearly 30 books, British self-styled historian Irving has made a career of claiming that Hitler knew nothing about the slaughter of six million Jews, that the Final Solution did not occur on a large scale, and that “there is not one shred of evidence” that Jews were gassed at Auschwitz.

Goat (opens in Cleveland on September 23rd at the Cedar Lee Theatre)

[GOAT opens in Cleveland on Friday September 23rd exclusively at the Cedar Lee Theatre.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

After leaving a party, Brad (Ben Schnetzer) gives a couple of townies a ride. They wind up beating and robbing him, which understandably traumatizes the 19-year-old. Nonetheless, Brad puts on a strong front as he heads off to college. His brother Brett (Nick Jonas) is already a student there, and a member of one of the campus fraternities, to boot. It only makes sense for Brad to pledge the same frat. But when it comes time for his initiation, what the fraternity calls "hell week", neither Brad nor his brother are prepared for the level of brutality and humiliation.

But it's not the goal of GOAT to delve that deeply into the cesspool of Greek life. Its focus is squarely on the hazing, and with regard to that it does a good job of showing just how perverse that can be. Aside from simple verbal and physical abuse, the recruits are forced by their future brothers to engage in a whole lot of homoerotic/homophobic stuff. There's even the threat of having to engage in sex with an actual goat if they can't drink enough in a certain amount of time. At some point, though, it becomes difficult to feel sorry for anyone stupid enough to willingly partake in this kind of abuse just so they can be part of some stupid campus clique and lord it over others.

Snowden

Review by George M. Thomas

Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Edward Snowden.

The debate regarding whether Edward Snowden is a traitor or patriot after he gave The Guardian the scoop of the decade rages to this day.

There is little debate, however, with respect to SNOWDEN the film.  Although not perfect, it represents some of the best work director Oliver Stone has done in eons.   And the subject matter, which falls in his realm of interest given his personal opinions of the government, makes for low-hanging fruit for the Oscar-winner, right?

After all, he’s known for being a provocateur with past efforts such as JFK and NATURAL BORN KILLERS. And while Stone instills the film with his DNA, it’s so likeable for one simple reason – he’s nothing more or less than a storyteller as he directs from a script he wrote with Kieran Fitzgerald based upon the book from Luke Harding and Anatoly Kucherena.

Bleak Street (March 17th and 20th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[BLEAK STREET screens Thursday March 17th at 6:45 pm and Sunday March 20th at 8:40 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

Classical filmmaking aesthetics make BLEAK STREET, directed by Arturo Ripstein from a screenplay by his wife Paz Alicia Garciadiego, feel like a lost 1940’s film noir, albeit one shot and set in Mexico. And like those classic noirs, we know almost from the outset that things won’t be ending happily for the protagonists. Effortlessly living up to its name, seldom has a film been populated by so many desperate fringe dwellers destined for doom.

The glistening black and white photography by cinematographer Alejandro Cantú only adds to the atmosphere of hopelessness and despair, while at the same time imparting a dark beauty to the proceedings. Stop the film at virtually any point and one would have an image suitable for framing, but probably not one most people would want to hang on their walls. But this is not the sort of film generally described as “painterly”, filled with static compositions. Fluid, assured camera movements give the film a vitality that belies its dour tone.

The Revenant (openng in Cleveland on January 8th)

[THE REVENANT opens in Cleveland area cinemas on Friday, January 8th.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

Review by Bob Ignizio

In terms of plot, THE REVENANT is kind of like a cross between a seventies Clint Eastwood western/revenge movie like THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES, and a western survival film of that same era like JEREMIAH JOHNSON. The specifics derive from a novel of the same name by Michael Punke, which was itself based on the true story of frontier scout Hugh Glass. And to be sure, the story of Mr. Glass, both in real life and in this slightly fictionalized version is quite gripping. But as Roger Ebert was fond of saying, it’s not what a movie is about, it’s how it is about it.

Bridge of Spies

Review by Bob Ignizio

Lawyers, especially those defending clients who are almost certainly guilty of serious crimes, tend to get a bad rap both in real life and in the movies. But in the first section of BRIDGE OF SPIES, director Steven Spielberg and screenwriters Matt Charman and Joel and Ethan Coen present what amounts to a defense of the oft maligned defense attorney.

Played by Tom Hanks in full on Jimmy Stewart mode so you know he’s a good guy, insurance attorney James B. Donavan doesn’t really want to defend accused Russian spy Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance). He’s convinced, however, that it’s his patriotic duty to do so, so as to insure that the Soviet Union and the world at large can see that even a Russian spy caught at the height of cold war paranoia is still given a competent and vigorous defense in a court of law. But not too competent and vigorous.

The Walk

Review by Bob Ignizio

Every now and then the world needs a little joyful anarchy. Fortunately, there are people like Philippe Petit who are willing to provide just that. THE WALK tells the story of how Petit, played by Joseph Gordon Levitt, managed to sneak into the World Trade Center shortly before it was finished and, with the help of his accomplices, string a wire between the twin towers. Once this wire was secured and as the sun was coming up, Petit walked back and forth between the towers to the shock and delight of onlookers, an amazing (and illegal) feat for which he was ultimately arrested. His sentence: performing for children in the park.

There has already been an Oscar winning documentary detailing this story, 2008’s excellent MAN ON WIRE. Truth be told, when it comes to real life stories I tend to favor documentaries over dramatizations, and this is no exception. That said, what director/co-writer Robert Zemeckis has accomplished with his scripted version is to present the story in a more emotionally involving and visually spectacular way that audiences will respond to on a visceral level.

Everest

Review by Matt Finley

Books have been written about the 1996 Mount Everest disaster. Like, six of them. Including John Krakauer’s bestselling, first-hand account Into Thin Air. Throw in the made-for-TV movie, a couple documentaries and countless articles, and you may start to wonder: what’s left to say about the tragic  collision of human error and meteorological brutality that claimed the lives of five climbers and three border policeman on the world’s tallest (non-oceanic) mountain 20 years ago this May?

According to Director Baltasar Kormákur’s (2 GUNS) EVEREST, nuthin’… but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still plenty to show.

With an effective pairing of gorgeous, harrowing cinematic spectacle and tense, tearful Hollywood melodrama, Kormákur’s film offers a thrilling and largely respectful step-by-step dramatization of 1996’s well-known tragedy.

Pawn Sacrifice

Review by Candice Lee Catullo

Based on the true story of chess prodigy Bobby Fischer, PAWN SACRIFICE is a calculated portrait of the legend both on and off the chessboard. Bobby Fischer was a chess super star – a rare breed if there ever was one. He achieved celebrity status in 1972, widely considered to be the best player of all time even today.

The movie begins with a young Bobby, living in Brooklyn. He was a natural from the beginning. Just a young boy, he sat in his room playing chess against himself. Bobby played so much and so intently, that his mother took him to a psychiatrist. And that was the foundation for Bobby’s life.