Very Semi-Serious
Released: April 19th,
2015
Starring: Bob Mankoff, Adam Salky, Roz Chast, George Booth, Liana Finck, Ed Steed
Directed by: Leah Wolchok
Personal Bias Alert: doesn’t read the New Yorker
8 of 10
A
documentary about the inner workings of the cartoon department of the New
Yorker will ostensibly seem aimed at a very particular kind of person. The cartoonists themselves certainly seem of
a type (i.e. white, Jewish men), but just as editor Bob Mankoff is shown making
an effort to expand that voice, so does director Leah Wolchok broaden this film
to appeal to a much larger audience. She
present a cavalcade of the offbeat, twitchy cartoonists who peddle their wares
to Mankoff each week, only for him to brutally lay out what he thinks of their
work and send them skittering back to their caves. The dichotomy of this phenomena, of the
painfully introverted showing up week after week only to get beaten down is
where much of the intellectual interest derives from, but largely Wolchok is
content to parade out the cartoonists and let them do their stuff, namely win
you over with their humor. Wolchok
brings a matching wry tone to the film, editing their punchlines into some big,
belly-laugh moments. This is
lighthearted fare, a dip into an oddball community that lives on the fringes of
society while making it a much better place for everyone else.
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Barash
Released: October 22nd,
2015
Starring: Sivan Shimon, Jade Sakori, Divr Benedek, Bar
Ben Vakil
Written and Directed by: Michal Vinik
Personal Bias Alert: likes coming-of-age flicks
7.2 of 10
Barash is a tale of first love that’s
both traditional and subversive, dreamily evoking the wonder and the pain that
inevitably comes with this situation.
Set in Israel, Naama (Sivan Shimon) falls for the more experienced
Hershko (Jake Sakori), who introduces her to the lesbian community in Tel
Aviv. It’s a familiar story, but
writer/director Michal Vinik makes it seem immediate, drawing you in with
excellent music choices, lilting camerawork, and natural lighting. Although the lead actresses were novices,
there’s never a moment when they appear to be reaching for something or fading
into themselves. They’re always these
two characters, continually facing us head on.
There’s also a B plot where Naama’s sister goes missing which confronts
the heated Jewish-Arab relationships in Israel with a certain amount of honesty
and wit, but the storyline always seems like a distraction and never connects fully
to the main love story. With the
exception of this aside, Barash proves
to be an expressive entry in the gay coming-of-age genre.
_______________________________________
Cemetery of Splendor
Released: March 4th,
2016
Starring: Banlop Lomnoi, Jenjira Pongpas
Written and Directed by: Apichatpong
Weerasethakul
Personal Bias Alert: not familiar with Southeast Asian cinema
It’s
easy to acknowledge that other cultures can have a radically different outlook
on life than your own, but until you encounter a piece of art that comments on
a worldview that’s entirely foreign to you, you really won’t understand how
deep that divide can be. Enter
Apichatpong Weerasethakul of Thailand, who is most prominently known for Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Like that film, Cemetery of Splendor is laconic and drifting, evoking mood and
theme in the same obscure way as a Terrence Malick film. If you are from a Western culture like
myself, Malick would be a good barometer for Weerasethakul’s work. If you can stomach Malick, then proceed with
caution into Cemetery of Splendor. If not, then run far, far away. To be honest, I didn’t understand Cemetery of Splendor at all, hence the
lack of numerical rating. It’s
beautiful, but I never had a clue what was happening or why I was watching a
man poop for a solid minute. I’ll stop
wasting your time now.
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Girls Lost
Released: October 16th,
2015
Starring: Emrik
Öhlander, Olle Wirenhed, Louise Nyvall, Mandus Berg
Written and Directed by: Alexandra-Therese
Keining
Personal Bias Alert: excited by the acceptance of gender fluidity
7 of 10
Following
three tomboy/lesbian/general outcast girls who find a flower that temporarily
turns them into boys, Girls Lost is modern-day
fable about the concept and ramifications of gender fluidity. It starts as a tender introduction to the
idea, an excited game changer for the put-upon group, but as one of them
embraces their masculine side more firmly than the others, the once tight-knit clan
quickly begins to unravel. Girls Lost takes big risks, which I vigorously
applaud, and it gets a tantalizing amount of things right. The young actors dig deep into their complicated
roles and emote the hell out of them, complimented wonderfully by writer/director
Alexandra-Therese Keining lush visual style.
The film grabs you and takes you on this journey with the girls, and
early on that is enough to circumvent the provocative subject matter. Unfortunately, the film loses its way a bit
as it barrels towards its finale, sidestepping or over-simplifying some ideas
it had previously handled so well. Still,
it keeps you invested in these characters, and you’ll find yourself cringing as
their glee goes to hell. Also, this has one
of the best face morphing effects I’ve ever seen.
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