Le Anne Lindsay

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LAST CALL (co-written/directed by Paolo Pilladi w/ co-writer Greg Lingo) is a movie about Philly! Set not far from where David O. Russell (Bradley Cooper/Jennifer Lawrence) beloved Silver Linings Playbook was filmed in Upper Darby. It stars Jeremy Piven (Entourage) as Seamus “Mick” McDougal a kid from the neighborhood, whose mother was a saintly housewife; his father (Jack McGee) runs The Bucket, a favored watering hole; and his brother (Zach McGowan) is a good looking, good for nothin. He grew up with a group of guys (Jamie Kennedy, Jason James Richter, Garry Pastore and Peter Patrikios – Yay Peter! I kinda know him ) who are basically the exact same people they were when they were 10 years of age, still just hanging out and being bros. Mick wants a little better for himself, so he gets educated, gets a job in real estate and moves to Center City Philadelphia to experience a little more of the finer things in life – great restaurants, theater, museums etc… And I totally get it. I grew up in Abington, 45 minutes outside the city, it’s far more upper-class than Upper Darby, but still, too suburban for my taste. I was so happy when I landed a job in Center City in my 20’s and could move into town. Made me feel like I was doing something, even though I was so close to home I commuted every day until I saved up enough for a deposit on that first apartment on the corner of Spruce & Juniper. The death of Mick’s mother brings him back into the neighborhood to stay for a couple of days and for the most part he’s enjoying himself. He finds out a girl he had a crush on, Ali (Taryn Manning Orange is the New Black) who moved away in Junior High is back living with her Grandmom, so he tentatively starts making moves in her direction. I gotta give props to the costume designer when it comes to Ali’s wardrobe. It really fits the vibe. She dresses like someone who thinks they’re looking professional or chic, but nothing is of quality and just a little too Dress Barn, if you know what I mean. And really, it’s small details like this, going down the shore, Bruce Dern as the ancient retired coach with a daily spot at The Bucket, and other local shop owners, which makes the movie work as a tone piece about a particular place that hasn’t really changed in 40 years or more. Unfortunately, Last Call tries too hard to be a comedy and to weave in a plot involving dirty dealings in getting the Casino zoning passed, and this is where it loses momentum and authenticity.

Tinsel & Tine #MiniMovieReview OVER THE MOON – (directed by Glen Keane). The story centers around a young girl in China, Fei Fei (Cathy Ang ) whose mother loved to tell her stories of a Mythical Moon Goddess named Chang’e (Phillipa Soo) who pines for her one true love Houyi. I re-watched the very beginning when the myth is explained because I thought maybe I’d missed something as I don’t understand why she took two immortality pills, one meant for Houyi; what the urgency was to take them; or where the immortality pills came from in the first place. None of it is ever explained. However, this is why Chang’e ends up on the moon separated from her love for eternity. When Fei Fei’s mother dies from what looks like MS (why does a parent always have to die in these animated stories!) 4 years later Fei Fei’s father is looking to remarry, and Fei Fei feels he should stay true to her mother until they can meet again, the way of Chang’e for Houyi. The father of course, is like even if that was a real story, I need someone in my life now. Still, Fei Fei feels if she can prove Chang’e existence perhaps her father will change his mind about remarrying. So she sets about learning Physics and Aeronautics in order to one day make it to the moon. I’m all for stories that encourage young girls to have STEM skills. And the animation/illustration combines a colorful array of styles that makes a lovely, extremely lively visual. Not authentically Chinese, but culturally Asian. They casted socially correct, with the actors voicing the characters all of Asian Ancestry. As tragic as it is that the screenwriter Audrey Wells passed away before ever getting a chance to see this film come to fruition, I still have to say the story needs work. the “MacGuffin” the gift for Chang’e isn’t logical at all. The film is looking to pull your heart strings like last year’s ABOMINABLE, another movie set in China that felt more Asian American, it wasn’t a great animated feature either, but its characters were infectious. I wasn’t particularly drawn to anyone in “Over the Moon” and on first listen, I didn’t hear anything catchy in the songs.

First I just wanna highlight a fun fact about the Director, Luke Greenfield, his mother wrote a letter to Amblin Entertainment when he was 16 years-old, hoping it would reach Steven Spielberg, her son’s idol, asking Spielberg to please watch her son’s two student films to see if he had enough talent to pursue a career as a filmmaker. She forgot to include a return address, but by some crazy, angel on this kid’s side miracle, Spielberg not only watched the movies, he tracked Luke Greenfield down and sent him a 2 page handwritten note of encouragement. That’s an auspicious start! However, Half Brothers is not a “Greenfield film” as it was conceived and written by Eduardo Cisneros and Jason Shuman. It stars Renato (Luis Gerardo Méndez, also an Executive Producer) who lives in Mexico with his fiancée, Pamela (Pia Watson). Pamela has a young son with some emotional problems that Renato doesn’t have the patience to deal with – as under the surface of his successful life as an Aviation Mogul, he’s still traumatized by the fact that his own father Flavio (Juan Pablo Espinosa) abandoned he and his mother when he was about his soon to be stepson’s age. Not having heard from his absentee padre in many years, he’s not thrilled to get a message from his father’s American wife asking him to come to the States to say goodbye to his dying parent. Yet, Renato’s fiancée convinces him it’s the closure he needs to start their new lives together. Arriving at the hospital he discovers his father has a second son, Asher (Connor Del Rio) his half-brother. The two take an immediate dislike of one another, but it’s their father’s dying wish that they take a journey together to discover Eloise. The backstory involving their father’s journey and reasons for not having returned to Mexico is notable. It speaks to the tensions of the US/Mexico relationship and the dignity of immigrants. In many ways Half Brothers also celebrates and acknowledges the importance of telling stories of all races, not in as grand a manner, but in the perspective of Black Panther and Crazy Rich Asians. At the same time, Half Brothers aims to be a crazy, buddy road trip comedy in the vein of The Hangover or Planes, Trains and Automobiles, with a little taste of Greenbook, it isn’t on the level with any of these movies, but it is far better than Robert Downey Jr and Zack Galifianakis in Due Date. Some of the stupid stunts Asher pulls along their journey rightfully would drive anyone insane and want to make you leave him on the side of the road and never look back. Thankfully, it’s the moments when Renato and Asher start to bond that really brings the film home and makes you warm to the entire adventure.

The Rampart Division of the Los Angeles Police Department serves communities to the west and northwest of Downtown Los Angeles including Echo Park, Pico-Union and Westlake. Its name is derived from Rampart Boulevard. During the late 90’s allegations of extreme police misconduct and dirty cop scandals plagued the department. The television show “The Shield” was originally called “Rampart,” and the LAPD asked them to change the name. The movie “Training Day” was also originally called “Rampart”, again the LAPD asked them to change the name. This Rampart, featuring Woody Harrelson, directed by Oren Moverman and originally scripted by one of L.A.’s most respected crime-writers, James Ellroy, received no complaints from the LAPD. In fact, Bernard Parks, the Chief of Police during that time, asked to meet with Moverman to offer his first hand knowledge of the events. Information that could become useful for perhaps yet another movie with the title of “Rampart”, as Moverman’s film really only uses the Rampart scandals as a backdrop. Harrelson’s character, Dave Brown, is just a sketch or composite of the kind of egotism and corruption that can be found here and there among those who wear the badge. Brown is a Vietnam Vet, on the force 24 years. In the opening scene he intimidates a female rookie cop by forcing her to eat a side of fries she wants to discard. He puts a perp’s head through an interrogation room window and basically drives around LA like he owns the place, surveying everything from behind his cop shades. Then we see Dave Brown at home, or should I say at home(s), as it’s actually two neighboring houses; in each one lives an ex-wife (Cynthia Nixon & Anne Heche) with each ex he’s had a daughter (Sammy Boyarsky & Brie Larson). The daughters are both half siblings and first cousins (Nixon/Heche characters are sisters). Everyone seems comfortable with the communal living situation, although it’s obvious Dave doesn’t rule the roost in either household. His eldest daughter greets him by his department nickname “Date Rape”, a name he got for killing an alleged serial date rapist. And he simply says “Don’t call me that” without any real menace. Brown embroils himself in two back to back offenses that lands him under investigation with the department. One case involving police brutality caught on tape and the other involving a card game robbery and shooting. But even before these infractions, hand held camera shots give the impression that Brown is being watched or tailed. This effect intensifies as Brown starts to feel more and more persecuted, with camera angles shot through openings and from a distance. But is it only in his mind? In truth the film isn’t a crime drama or police exposé, it’s a character study of a man who is both extremely articulate and seductive and at the same time, ridiculous and immoral. In many ways we learn most about this character which Harrelson brings expertly to life, through his relationships with his family of women, and a recent sexual affair with a lady lawyer (Robin Wright) than we do from his identity as a cop. In an interview Moverman said he had to take Ellroy’s original script and make it manageable. I have a feeling that script was more your traditional crime drama, dirty cop shakedown scenario, something I’ve seen enough of to last me a lifetime; but I feel others may be looking for that and be disappointed by Rampart’s more indy edge.

You know that famous picture of the much missed President of the United States, Barack Obama, bending over so a little boy can touch his hair? Well, it was White House Chief Photographer and Archivist Pete Souza who took it and so many other memorable and defining moments of the Obama Presidency. Which is at the heart of this doc, The Way I See It (Focus Features) directed and produced by Dawn Porter, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival 2020. Photographer Pete Souza spent most of his career behind the camera as a freelancer for several different news outlets, but much to his surprise he was recommended to be President Ronald Reagan’s Official White House Photographer. Souza at the time, wasn’t a political person. If pressed he probably would have said he wasn’t onboard with a right leaning administration, but this was back when most of us didn’t feel the strains of division so heighten in the last four years. Souza set about doing his job which is to be like a fly on the wall, as unobtrusive as possible while capturing the mood, emotions, context of both the monumental and tiny moments in the life of a President. Yet in doing so, he struck up deep, trusted, warm relationships with both Ronald and Nancy and Obama and Michelle. Some of the photo highlights of President Obama include time spent playing in the snow with his daughters and coaching Sasha’s basketball game; to squatting down next to a General in the War Room during the taking down of Osama bin Laden; to reaching out to the son’s of his right hand advisor on Obamacare when she had to be away from her children, putting in 60-80 hour work weeks. You also see the genuine care he gives the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. Just so many photos that show the humanity instilled in our 44th President. And then darkness falls upon the land in 2016 and Souza goes back to being a normal citizen. Until one day he posts an Instagram picture of the new gaudy Trump chosen drapes in the Oval Office with a simple caption of “Don’t you think the old drapes where better?” or something to this effect, and it goes viral. Next thing you know, Souza’s Instagram has thousand and thousands of followers eager to love photos which throw shade on Trump, by posting a photo of Obama in beautiful, upstanding contrast to Trump’s latest divisive tweet or asinine, racist decision making. Of course, anytime something takes off with the popular masses a book must ensue: The bestselling 2018 photo-book, Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents. Officially changing Pete Souza’s status from being a non-political person to a photo-activist! It is obvious Pete’s enjoying his celebrity status, but it’s also obvious that he feels a great sense of concern and mourning for what we have lost in the last four years. Gone are the senses of dignity and compassion his former bosses had. They took the office seriously and attempted to do right by the American people. Souza talks about what he sees as the negative impact of a sitting president not caring to maintain the decorum that is a necessity for the job.

We get to see Superman’s parents from Man of Steel teamed up again. Diane Lane and Kevin Costner have locked in mature & sexy, both singularly and together. They’ve aged so gracefully and continue to be actors that can immediately pull you into a story. This story, written and directed by Thomas Bezucha (I looked at his IMDB and have never seen any of his other films) Adapted from a Larry Watson novel of the same name, is a Western, family drama, which heads into pulp/thriller territory. Margaret (Lane) and George (Costner) Blackledge own a horse farm. She breaks horses with their son James (Ryan Bruce) and George is a retired lawman. James is married to an insipid, plain faced girl, Lorna (Kayli Carter). She seems below their station. He could have done much better. You don’t get a back story, but in my head, I picture James gallantly stepped in while she was being harassed by some local boys and they got to talkin, he finds out she’s alone in the world and feels immediately protective. Next thing you know, she’s pregnant and of course he does the right thing and marries her. The parents don’t dislike Lorna, and raised their son to do the honorable thing, but you know they pictured him with a lovelier, brighter girl. At any rate, they are a family of 5, with little baby James, Jr. all living on the farm in relative harmony, until tragedy strikes, and James Sr. is killed. A little time goes by and Lorna ups and marries a new guy in town Donnie Weboy (Will Brittain). You get the impression that Lorna wants space from the under current of disapproval she feels from Margaret (especially) & George, both of her and her abilities as a mother. Of course, Lorna’s now former in-laws have no choice but to bless this new union, and hope they still get to see their grandson as often as possible. Well, no chance of that, cause Donnie whisks Lorna and little Jimmy off to parts unknown, without a word to Margaret and George, but not before Margaret in town on errands, witnesses Donnie abusing both Lorna and little Jimmy. Now comes the Western part as Margaret convinces her husband to drop everything and travel from Montana to North Dakota in search of their grandson who she fears is not safe in the care of Donnie. He knows she’s determined enough to go without him so, with little time wasted, off they go. The open sky and prairie cinematography are beautiful, this is when you miss seeing things on the big screen. As the movie slides from uneasy foreshadowing into outright thriller, you’re glued, but at the same time, what they encounter seems a bit over-the-top without enough provocation, but then again, North Dakota is MAGA Country so…

Madeleine (Martine Chevallier) and Nina (Barbara Sukowa) live across the hall from one another in the same building. For all intense of purposes they look like two women in their mid-to-late 60’s who go from being neighbors to best friends, kinda like the iconic duo Mary and Rhoda. But in truth, Madeleline and Nina are lovers and life partners, and have been for many years. It’s not exactly clear on the time line of just how long, they show two little girls playing together in the same park the women frequent, at the beginning of the film, so you assume that’s them as children, but then through photographs, it’s mentioned they met in Rome, while Madeleine was still married. Regardless, they seem happy now with keys to each others places, seeming to spend more time at Madeleine’s cause it’s far cozier and nicely decorated. But they’re not truly happy. They want to move to Rome and live out in the open as a couple for their remaining years. Only, Madeleine’s not ready to upset her daughter, son and grandson with this revelation. She hesitates too long and circumstances drastically change which makes their plans impossible. Much of the film is beautifully French (subtitles) burnish film coloring and warmly romantic, but it also keeps the viewer on edge full of anxiety over the circumstances and feeling hopeless for them both.

THE FORTY-YEAR OLD VERSION written/directed/produce and stars Radha Blank it’s a semi-autobiographical film which screened at this year’s Virtual BlackStar Film Festival in August. And will be on Netflix starting this coming Friday Oct 9th. Radha is a black playwright who was once a notable recipient of a “30 Under 30 Award, but somewhere along the way her 30’s didn’t turn out to be as promising as was predicted. Now she’s approaching 40 in a few short weeks and feels a desperate need to do something with her stalled career. She’s written a play about Harlem gentrification which she’s shopping around with the help of her GBFF from High School turned successful manager, Archie (Peter Y. Kim) who has far more high profile clients than Radha, but works hardest for her out of friendship and belief in her talents, yet she never seems appreciative. Radha is also teaching theater to a group of youths in a urban high school. Where she’s gotta deal with teenage drama on and off the stage. Her mother has recently died and she’s avoiding grieving and meeting up with her brother to make decisions about her mother’s apt. And then she starts writing and rapping and calling herself Radhamusprime. She reaches out to a DJ named D (Oswin Benjamin) who sells beats in exchange for weeds. D plays it low-key but is impressed and surprised by both Radha’s words and style. Too bad when he gives her a chance to spit in front of an audience, she chokes. The film is Produced by Lena Waithe, shot entirely on 25 mm in black and white by Eric Branco (Clemency) it's off-beat, humorous, relatable and well-done. With the exception that it could be about 20 minutes shorter.

THE NEST is a slow burn, we’ve got to be introduced to the family’s regular routine in the States, so we can be more cognizant of the things unraveling after their move to the UK. At the crux of everything is Rory (Law), a guy you can’t help but root for although he’s more or less a prick. But more than anything he’s hungry for the good life and he wants so desperately to prove to himself and his family that he’s good enough to be of the manor born. But his son (Charlie Shotwell) and stepdaughter (Oona Roche) couldn’t care less, they just have normal kid wants. His wife Allison (Coon), seems to have come from an upper middle class American background, and just wants to approach life upfront with integrity, so it’s kinda hard to see how they’ve managed to keep a marriage going for the last 10 years, which included Rory uprooting the family with 4 moves to pursue one business opportunity after another. While watching The Nest, I wasn’t entirely certain I was enjoying it. Yet, for days after, scenes and dialog would come to mind. Sometimes with a more atmospheric movie, I either need to see it twice or take a step back from it to appreciate. This one definitely grew on me.