***

Beatiz At Dinner-rm

A very plain but beautiful, young Mexican woman (Salma Hayek) who is a spiritual masseuse who believes in the holistic approach to healing, is finishing up with her last client who is a wealthy woman (Connie Britton) living on a fancy estate in Southern California, when she finds that her car would not start to go home. She is invited to join the woman and her husband (David Warshofsky), along with two couples (Chloe Sevigny, John Lithgow, Amy Landecker, Jay Duplass) who have come to visit for an evening dinner party.

In this movie, there is no mention of American politics whatsoever. However, this film becomes a clear metaphor for the current political scene in the United States. One of the men (Lithrow) is a very wealthy real estate mogul. The contrast between Beatriz and this guy is crystal clear. He feels that his destiny is to live his life to the fullest with no real regard if he tramples other people’s lives and for sport he chooses to hunt and kill a large powerful animal. She would protect people if their land was being taken away for business ventures and could even bring a goat into her house if doing this would save its life from the elements. There are clear allusions as to how some people question other people’s citizenship and would also put the outdoor environment in jeopardy just for their own pleasure. There are references to how some people collude for their own benefit and do not really care about the less affluent. In a metaphoric way, the question is raised as to how angry will the oppressed really get? So angry that they might fantasize killing the oppressor, but in the end might sadly drown into self-annihilation.

Director Miguel Arteta did a magnificent job with the story written by Mike White. You will not see this movie on the list of current thrillers, but it is a chilling contemporary satire of the modern political debate in America. (2017)

 

**

The One I Love- sp- This is another example of an Independent movie put together by a small creative team. In this case it is Mark Duplass (co-star of the movie)  who co-produces with Charlie McDowell (who also directs the film) with other co-producers, brother Jay Duplass along with Mel Eslyn and of course writer Justin Lader. This is part of new wave of films which pays all the cast and crew $100/day but gives everyone a certain amount of points which will determine how they will share the profits from the film which in this case will be through a game plan involving combined theatrical releases with television, Netflix and Video on Demand. They used a detailed script that had everything but the dialogue which the actors improvised within the framework of the story. There were essentially only two actors on the screen and that was Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss (known best for Mad Men). We shouldn’t give away the storyline which has a twist. Suffice it to say that Ethan and Sophie are having trouble with their marriage and they go to see a therapist (a brief role by Ted Danson) who sends them to an isolated vacation retreat where they are supposed to find out who they really are and fix their marital relationship. They and the audience are in for a confusing surprise. The problem is that we didn’t feel it really worked. We got a few smiles out of the story but felt that the story behind the twist could have been developed much better than it was done. We appreciated the creative attempt, You may end up seeing this one night on TV but we can’t recommend it. (2014)

* *
Cyrus – sp – Brothers Jay and Mark Duplass are the screenwriters/directors of this movie which is their first relatively big budget independent film and it has been picked up by Fox for distribution. This skillful duo has a knack for providing interesting characters with very realistic dialog. They discourage rehearsal and let their actors work using the script but improvising to bring out their interpretation of the their characters. In this case they had John C. Reilly and Marisa Tomei playing two somewhat awkward people in their mid 40s who seem to be falling in love shortly after meeting and hopping into bed. Tomei’s character has a 22 year old son, Cyrus well captured by Jonah Hill who appears to be a regressed mama’s boy who is joined at the hip with his mom but yet has a cold calculating almost evil side who will do whatever he can to prevent John played by Reilly from taking her away. This is essentially the plot . As John gradually becomes aware of the intense relationship between his new girl friend and her son he seeks the advise of his ex-wife played by Catherine Keener . He ultimately tries to confront Cyrus which leads to some intense and comedic moments. The Duplass brothers acknowledge that they do not provide much back story so we see these weird but appealing characters as they are, without knowing how they got to be this way or why they undergo some change. Therefore the result is a “Johnny one note” film with a simple story. Despite the talented expressions and sensitivity of the actors, we are not greatly moved or enlightened. There were a few somewhat disorienting brief scenes in the movie where the characters were talking without moving their lips but yet it did not appear to be a representation of internal thinking. When we asked the directors about this, they acknowledged that in one case they were trying to correct and shift the dialog which they were doing in the editing room. They then decided to use this motif in a few other scenes. While we did not feel the net result of this film merited our recommendation, we will look forward to future work by these talented brothers. (2010)