Join Cinema Arts Centre and silent film accompanist Andrew Simpson for a live stream presentation of four short films from the silent era with live musical accompaniment on Wednesday, March 10 at 7 p.m. This program will present a showcase of comedies featuring stars Harry Langdon and Charley Chase.
‘Too Many Mammas’
TOO MANY MAMMAS (1924, 8 min, with Charley Chase)
Charley agrees to serve as the alibi for his philandering boss, but things soon get out of hand.
‘The First 100 Years’
THE FIRST 100 YEARS (1924, 14 min, with Harry Langdon)
From romantic hero to domestic hubby, Langdon stars in a domestic comedy turned old-dark-house mystery.
‘The Poor Fish’
THE POOR FISH (1924,10 min, with Charley Chase)
Charley has a crash course in housework when he and his wife agree to trade jobs for a week.
‘Soldier Man’
SOLDIER MAN (1926, 32 min, with Harry Langdon)
Langdon plays double roles as the last American soldier left in Europe after World War I and the (usually-inebriated) King Streudel XIII.
Andrew Simpson
Andrew Earle Simpson is an acclaimed composer of opera, silent film, orchestral, chamber, choral, dance, and vocal music based in Washington, DC. His musical works make multi-faceted, intimate connections with literature, visual art, and film, reflecting his own interest in linking music with the wider world, an approach which he calls “humanistic music.”
General Admission is Pay-What-You-Want! Visit www.cinemaartscentre.org to register.
Ticket-buyers may register in advance any time prior to the start of the event. A private YouTube link to the live stream is provided in an email order confirmation sent to the customer’s email address on file immediately upon completing your order. Be sure to check your spam or junk mail if you do not see it.
CAC recommends using the most updated version of the Google Chrome browser to stream online content. This program may be streamed on a computer, mobile device, or a smart TV with an HDMI cable connection.
Thank you for your support of the Cinema Arts Centre at this time. If you need assistance with any step of your ticket purchase, please reach out to [email protected] and a customer service representative will be in touch.
Henry Golding in a scene from 'Monsoon'. Photo courtesy of Dat Vu
Reviewed by Jeffrey Sanzel
Writer-director Hong Khaou made his feature film debut with the critically acclaimed drama Lilting. It is the story of a mother’s grief after her son’s untimely passing, along with her attempts to communicate with her son’s lover, even though they don’t speak the same language. His beautiful sophomore outing, Monsoon, focuses on a different kind of loss and addresses the barrier not just of language but also of culture.
The film opens with a bird’s eye view of traffic, with cars and motorbikes flowing in and around each other, paying no heed to lights or lines. This world is a strangely organized chaos into which Kit (Crazy Rich Asian’s Henry Golding) steps.
Parker Sawyers and Henry Golding in a scene from the film.
Kit has traveled to Vietnam, having left at the age of six. His family had escaped and sought refuge in England after the Vietnam War, and now he has returned to scatter his parents’ ashes. The plot is simple, but his burden runs deep: Thirty years later, he realizes that he no longer feels a part of his home country. He is incapable of speaking his native language and does not recognize so much of the changing landscape.
Along the way, he reconnects with a childhood friend, Lee (David Tran), whose happiness to see him is muted by wariness. Lee reveals that Kit’s mother had lent Lee’s family money to set up a small business. Lee is afraid that Kit will ask for a repayment of what Lee perceived as a loan. While trying to find his bearings, Kit’s one-night internet hookup with an American entrepreneur, Lewis (Parker Sawyers), turns into a romance.
Kit decides that he doesn’t want to bury his parents’ ashes in the Saigon family home because it seems on the verge of being torn down. So, he ventures to Hanoi, his parents’ birthplace. He takes the thirty-eight-hour train trip to see if it would be a more appropriate resting place. On the train, he briefly encounters a traveling Frenchman, Stephane (Edouard Leo), who mistakes him for a native. Once again, Kit feels that he is a man out-of-place. (Whether or not they hook up is left open-ended.)
The film consistently shows and does not tell with moments of tempered joy. Lee brings Kit to the location of the pond where they used to play. Long gone, now it is the site of a half-finished building, with stacks of bricks and scaffolding. And yet, there is a faint glint of happiness in Kit’s eyes as he remembers the bridge that spanned the pond. It is a small moment and shows a modicum of hope.
A scene from the film.
He strikes up a friendship with Linh (Molly Harris), a curator/guide who gives Hanoi’s art tours. She brings him to her family home, where he partakes in the scenting of lotus tea, her family’s business for generations. It is a scene of great charm and simplicity and one that gives Kit another opportunity of belonging.
Monsoon is an intimate movie. It is about inward reflection and searches for identity. Much of the film watches Kit try to take in the new Vietnam to understand his roots. Across from his upscale hotel are barely livable shacks. Great wealth lives side-by-side with crushing poverty. Kit stands in the center of this whirling metropolis — in the eye of the storm. He feels the pulsing of the city in all its relentless intensity. The story is more episodic than linear, a series of experiences where Kit tries to bring past and present together.
For much of the film, the dialogue is minimal; the narrative relies upon Kit’s reactions. It is a quiet film but not told in silence. There is the constant cityscape of noise and traffic that underscores almost every moment.
Monsoon only touches on the Vietnam War, but it is always looming. Lee speaks of it and its devastating aftermath but does so in hushed and tacit tones. Lewis shares his father’s eighteen months in the War and twenty confirmed kills. Years later, he committed suicide. Whether these two things are related is never made clear.
Sawyers makes Lewis likable and slightly enigmatic. His ability to convey his understanding of Kit enriches their relationship. Tran is a bit stiff as Lee, but this could be intentional; he never seems at ease, making his interactions with Kit appropriately uncomfortable. Harris is delightfully outgoing, and her engaging brightness gives energy to her brief scenes.
But the film is entirely Kit’s, and Golding is remarkable. He looks; he walks; he touches; he stops; he explores. Golding makes each moment count. His Kit is complicated, often incredibly warm, and almost absent at the same time. He conveys Kit’s sense of being more tourist than someone returning home, with his refrain, “I hardly recognize this country anymore.”
Monsoon is not so much a movie of plot or even character. It is more a study of what it is to have lost your roots and the desire to find them again. It is a film of observation and alienation. But it is also a story in which there is a deep and satisfying sense of awakening. While there is no full closure and much is left unanswered, there is a sense that Kit has taken his first steps towards understanding his journey. And, with Monsoon, it is a journey worth taking.
Not rated, Monsoon is currently streaming on demand.
Kyle Allen and Kathryn Newton in a scene from the film. Photo courtesy of Amazon Studios
Reviewed by Jeffrey Sanzel
The premise of a time loop has long been a staple of science fiction novels and movies. The most notable example is the 1993 fantasy Groundhog Day, in which a narcissistic television reporter (Bill Murray) is trapped in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where he repeats February 2. Rightfully, it has become a classic comedy, relying on Murray’s performance of edge-to-awakening and a first-rate script by director Harold Ramis, collaborating with Danny Rubin.
Based on the Japanese novel All You Need Is Kill, the less memorable Edge of Tomorrow (2014; marketed appropriately as Live Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow on home media) utilized a similar structure. Here, Tom Cruise is a military officer learning how to defeat alien invaders.
Both Groundhog Day and Edge of Tomorrow are referenced in The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, a light comedy-drama, with Lev Grossman’s screenplay, based on his well-crafted short story.
The film follows high school senior Mark (Kyle Allen) already well into his live-repeat of a summer day in Lexington, Massachusetts. His day follows the same sequence of waking up just after his mother pulls away from the house and continues with his interaction with his sister (Cleo Fraser) and slightly lost father (Josh Hamilton).
The breakfast scene shows Mark anticipating everything from the popping of the toaster to speaking simultaneously with his sister as she snidely calls him a loser to his knowing all of the answers to his father’s crossword puzzle. Mark then wanders the town, slightly shifting a range of moments in the world but not growing much from his experiences. His isolation has the feel of the last man on earth. No matter what he tries, every day resets at midnight, as if he is snatched by “some cosmic nanny.”
Mark’s universe shifts with the introduction of Margaret (Kathryn Newton), whom he encounters at the local pool. Quickly, she admits to being locked in the same pattern. What ensues is his pursuit of this mystery figure and their burgeoning friendship. Beginning with Margaret sharing with him an eagle swooping over a lake and capturing a fish, they embark on a quest to search out “tiny perfect” moments. The map they create of these events becomes pivotal in the resolution.
Once they commit to the undertaking, there is a montage — a perfectly executed ride by a skate rat; angel wings on a truck lining up perfectly with a man sitting on a bench; an older woman’s victory dance after a perfect hand of cards; a girl creating an enormous soap bubble; a traffic stop to allow a turtle to cross the road; a cloud in the shape of a question mark. While this is happening, Margaret takes the odd phone call and rushes off without an explanation.
They have a date “on the moon,” which culminates with a bicycle ride through the school hallways. (The score indicates much of the film’s emotion, either smart or a cheat, depending on which way you look at it.) The closer they become, the more she pulls away. This conflict is the heart of the story, which resolves near the end.
Tension rises between them as he falls for her. In turn, he wants their odd existence to mean something. She is inexplicably hesitant and pulls away. With this, he accepts that his problem is a lack of awareness of the struggle of the people around him; his downward spiral into loneliness sets him on a new and more positive course.
The film finds standard but entertaining ways to harness the gimmick. They give away money to random strangers. They stuff themselves with ice cream and junk food. A wonderful sequence is the near misses involving a beach ball and a girl at the pool. Another running joke shows Mark stopping a man (cameo by author Grossman) from being the victim of bird droppings.
A major change from the short story’s first-person narrative is the introduction of Mark’s sidekick, the video game playing Henry (Jermaine Harris). As there is no voiceover, this gives Mark a chance to public his thoughts. While a facile solution, it works because of Harris’s command of Henry’s understated patter and dubious puzzlement over Mark’s strange musings. Henry being locked on the same level of the alien-themed video game adds another layer (and a nod towards Edge of Tomorrow and the overall thematic metaphor) to the story.
For the most part, the film is a two-hander, relying on the charm of its leads. Allen has a bland, all-American charm that works for Mark. His realizations are believable, and his shift from passive to active drives the last third of the film. Newton manages not to overplay Margaret’s quirkiness. She is off-beat but grounded, with a playful veneer masking the pain underneath. She makes a line like “I’ll call you tomorrow … today … tomorrow,” both humorous and melancholy. They have good chemistry, which makes them sharing this existential problem convincing and saves the growing romance from becoming saccharine.
The Map of Tiny Perfect Things is a sweet if predictable diversion. The idea of fixing what we can and accepting what we cannot is certainly not an original concept. Nor is the idea that growth comes from facing challenges. But in its telling, the film is a pleasant if obvious look at how we move forward.
Rated PG-13, The Map of Tiny Perfect Things is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
A scene from 'Bagpipes Are Calling!' Image from CAC
Photo from CAC
In anticipation of St. Patrick’s Day, the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington will present a virtual screening of “Bagpipes Calling!” on Thursday, March 4 at 7 p.m. Less than a year ago, the cinema hosted the world premiere of the short music documentary celebrating the Celtic spirit as it lives on through the members of a Long Island cultural institution, the Northport Pipe and Drum Band. They are now partnering with filmmaker Andrea Wozny and the Northport Pipe and Drum Band once again for this special live screening and a post-film discussion with director, cast, and crew!
Watch host Andrea Wozny and the Northport Pipe & Drum Band as they celebrate St. Patrick’s Day at their favorite pub in Bayport-Bluepoint, Long Island – the legendary Grey Horse Tavern. Weaving together music, history and culture, the film captures a behind the scenes experience of life in the band during this festive piping season.
Featuring the extraordinary talents of Luke Powers on the Uilleann pipes and the Great Highland Bagpipes, Tom Falco on guitar, Long Island’s own Northport Pipe & Drum Band, and Linda Ringhouse, beloved owner of the Grey Horse Tavern.
The post-film Q&A will feature panelists Andrea Wozny, Luke Powers, Tom Falco, Linda Ringhouse, and Kate Best.
Fee is $12, $10 members. To register, visit www.cinemaartscentre.org. For further information, email [email protected].
Are you a movie buff? Think you know more showbiz facts than everyone else? Test your knowledge and enjoy a fun night of film trivia at a Virtual Movie Trivia Night with the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington on Monday, Feb. 22 at 8 p.m. Hosted by Dan French, the winning team will get up to four CAC Gift Cards (1 per team member).
To purchase tickets, register at this link with a valid email address. You’ll receive a Zoom meeting code and password in the order confirmation that will be delivered to that email. You can also find information about the event and links to ticket ordering on the Cinema Art Centre’s Facebook page.
Tickets are $10 for the public and $7 for Cinema Arts Centre members. Tickets are limited to one per order. Registration for virtual trivia is per team, not per player. Your team will be whomever you will be physically with at your location.
Playing requires two electronic devices – preferably a computer/laptop/iPad and a smartphone. They will use the computer to stream the trivia over Zoom and the smartphone will be used to answer the questions with the program Aha Slides. The details will be explained before the game begins.
The Cinema Arts Centre (CAC) showcases independent and international films year-round and is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit community cinema. It is located at 423 Park Avenue in Huntington.
Gabriel Afolayan in the role of Kossi the Bear in a scene from the film. Photo from FilmOne
Reviewed by Jeffrey Sanzel
Released in 2019 and now available on Amazon Prime, Coming from Insanity is the true story of Kossi the Bear, the notorious currency counterfeiter.
The film was much anticipated and is considered a major addition to the Nollywood film world. (The controversial term “Nollywood” was coined in the early 2000s, traced to several possible New York Times’ origins. While there are several meanings, it most specifically refers to the film-making activity in Lagos, Nigeria.)
In 1995, Kossi, age twelve, was trafficked from Togo to Lagos, a common fate for thousands of children. The majority of these victims became servants, with approximately one percent involved in criminal activity. Sold into domestic slavery by his parents, Kossi serves as a house boy for the Martins, whose treatment ranges from disinterestedly kind to emotionally brutal. The film quickly jumps fifteen years to his ejection from the house. The family gives him severance and a plane ticket back to Togo, where he knows no one and has no connections.
Instead of returning to his birthplace, he embarks on a career as a counterfeiter. His obsession with making money leads him to the actual concept of “making money.” He masters the ability to create almost undetectably realistic American one hundred dollar bills. He sets up shop in a well-appointed apartment with three ragtag assistants and begins to produce huge quantities of the faux cash. At the same time, they begin living the high life, with drinking and clubs and partying of all sorts. Eventually, they run afoul of both Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and a dangerous and violent band of illegal moneychangers.
After the extended exposition, the simple plot kicks into high gear. The characters are fairly broad sketches, with the most depth reserved for Gabriel Afolayan’s Kossi, whose focus and genius contrast with immaturity and an almost painful innocence. Watching him try to find the right paper for printing the false bills is one of the stronger stretches in the film’s earlier parts. “Practice makes good,” he states. “Obsession makes perfect.” And yet, his limited life experience leads him into cavalier and, ultimately, deadly choices. His passion for Sonia, whom he calls Mama Bear, is more high school crush than an adult connection.
Most of the actors have been given one tonal quality, but they make the most of this. Udoka Oyeka’s Detective Toye is described as being brilliant but having a personal life on-the-rocks. The latter is only revealed through him occasionally drinking from a hip flask; it is more indicating than inherent. But he has an ease and clarity that reads strongly in his drive to bring down the counterfeiters.
Adeolu Adefarasin is gentle and wise as an older house boy who comes along and is often the voice of logic and wisdom. Entering later in the film, Bolanle Ninalowo brings depth to the bouncer-turned-bodyguard Rocky. Sharon Ooja, as Sonia, the object of Kossi’s affection, manages to balance the mercenary with the kind. Odunlade Adekola has a brief but memorable scene as a loquaciously aggressive cab driver. As a whole, the cast does its best, but the film leans towards plot rather than character-centric.
Writer-editor Akinyemi Sebastian Akinropo makes his directorial debut with this feel which feels like a sketch for a more complicated and deeper exploration of the topic in some ways.
While it has the feeling of a low-budget film and multiple plot holes must be overlooked, Akinropo has created an intriguing and entertaining crime thriller; he tells the story with sympathy and humor and a true sense of humanity. The gritty reality juxtaposed with some surprising and almost eccentric touches raise the film above the average.
Coming from Insanity is a fascinating story told unevenly but with honesty and just enough originality to keep the viewer engaged. The film is rated PG-13.
Above, the remnants of an Anglo-Saxon ship burial from the 6th century are unearthed in a scene from the film.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Sanzel
Perhaps it is odd to explain a film as methodically heartfelt, but that best describes The Dig. Based on the 2007 novel by John Preston and the true story of the 1939 excavation of Sutton Hoo (outside of Woodbridge, in Suffolk, England), the film explores the personalities involved with the undertaking and the quest for the truth. It also addresses both the purist of and the validity of credit.
With a lifelong interest in archeology, widow Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan) hires local Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes) to excavate the burial mounds on her estate. Brown, self-taught and self-effacing, first rejects the position because of the amount of money offered — the same small fee that the Ipswich Museum had paid him. It is less about small sums and more about the value that he sees in the work. She immediately relents, raising the salary by 12% to two pounds a week.
Carey Mulligan in a scene from The Dig.
What follows is a painstaking project that leads to an extraordinary discovery. Given Brown’s lack of formal education — he left school at twelve — his initial claims that the mounds are Anglo-Saxon and not Viking are easily dismissed. His uncovering proof of his supposition results in outside interest, first from the Ipswich Museum and then the British Museum. Throughout, Brown is praised for his work and then pushed aside.
His true champion is Pretty, dealing with a heart-related illness and caring for her son, Robert (Archie Barnes). The young boy is fascinated by the dig but caught up in the skies above. He is obsessed with both the Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter pilots training nearby and a world of fantasy in the stars.
Like the work they have undertaken, the film is focused but with a rich and rewarding purpose. Brown digs with shovel and pick and spade; he covers the area in tarps when it rains. He jots in his notebook. Pretty reads of archaeology in her library. Robert plays. It is a film of landscapes, sunrises and sunsets, and slow and purposeful work done with great care as the British nation prepares for war.
Soldiers gather on the roads as the planes become more frequent. The looming war drives an immediacy to finish, but the process and progress cannot be rushed. It is all measured, but it is grounded in the breathing of the world.
One of the most interesting moments comes when a small shift in the soil buries Brown. His two helpers and the manor staff, along with Pretty, claw in the mud and dirt to get him out. It is a perfect synthesis of tension and cooperation as they resurrect him from a burial site.
A scene from ‘The Dig’
Once it is clear that the unearthed treasures are significant, the battle is over control of the site. Pretty is reluctant to turn it over and brings in her cousin, the untrained Rory Lomax (Johnny Flynn). Lomax’s introduction provides a sliver of romance to the story, as he becomes involved with Peggy Piggott (Lily James), the wife of archaeologist Stuart Piggott (Ben Chaplin). The Piggotts, both respected in their field, are caught in a repressed and possibly sexless marriage. It is a diversion from the main plot that only finds its strength when Lomax is called-up for service
The journey relies on a strong cast and Mike Eley’s lush cinematography. Stefan Gregory’s beautifully melancholy score elegantly punctuates the highs and lows. It soars appropriately but, for the most part, remains as a subtle heartbeat in the background of the action.
Mulligan is luminous is Mrs. Pretty. Both gentle and tightly wound, she bears her pain with great dignity, all for love for her son. Another actor would most likely fall into a maudlin caricature; Mulligan is real, sad, but not without humor. It is a delicate, thoughtful performance, an extraordinary contrast with her bolder, edgier, and dynamically impressive work in the recent Promising Young Woman.
Fiennes is equally gentle, his simplicity masking a more enigmatic individual. At fifty-eight, there is no trace of his breakout performance as Amon Göth, the Nazi monster of Schindler’s List. His Brown is all softness, bringing deep honesty to a man frayed around the edges but whose center is strong. Mulligan and Fiennes don’t so much spark as join as a single flame.
Johnny Flynn and Lily James in a scene from the film.
Lily James turns in a small, subtle performance. Unlike her vivacious Lady Rose of Downton Abbey or her energetic Cinderella, this is a delicate, introspective performance. She wears her pain and hope hidden behind large spectacles.
Monica Dolan is strong as Brown’s supportive and shrewd wife. At first, she comes across as vague and disconnected, but she has a true understanding of who her husband is and, even more importantly, his potential. Flynn’s Lomax is likable but a bit of a cipher. As the British Museum’s Charles Phillips, Ken Stott skirts the blustery; he brings a touch of humanity and wonderment to the final breakthroughs.
The Dig is not Howard Carter and the discovery of King Tut’s tomb. (And those looking for Brendan Fraser in The Mummy should seek elsewhere.) It is not grand discoveries that make headlines. Director Simon Stone and screenwriter Moira Buffini have worked seamlessly to tell an intimate story that shows how a small discovery can make a big difference, both to the individuals and the world. In the end, The Dig’s moral is not about who finds the answers but that the answers are found.
Rated PG-13, The Dig is currently streaming on Netflix.
The Staller Center for the Arts’ much anticipated Spring 2021 Film Series goes virtual on February 11. This year’s series features thirteen independent films you won’t see anywhere else and presents award-winning and record-breaking films from around the world.
Inspiring and often challenging, the films explore family and social conflict, health and healthcare issues, social justice issues, drug addiction and abuse, and so much more.
The Staller Center’s entire spring season will be virtual and will be available for viewing from the comfort of your living room using the IndieFlix Festivals app. The full schedule is listed below.
Patrons and households can view all films with one $50 season film pass which includes access to three bonus films. Single tickets for $6 each are also available for purchase. The series is 12 weeks long and will feature ten new premieres and three bonus films from previous Stony Brook Film Festival events. All movies will be available on-demand to watch and re-watch from Thursdays at 7 p.m. through Sundays at midnight.
To purchase, please visit stallercenter.com/movies.
FILM SCHEDULE
‘Days of Bagnold Summer’
February 11 to February 14
United Kingdom (86 minutes)
‘Asia’
February 18 to February 21
Israel. In Hebrew with subtitles.(85 minutes)
‘The Subject’
February 25 to February 28
United States. (119 minutes)
*Bonus screening, only availableto passholders.
‘Higher Love’
February 25 to February 28
United States. (80 minutes)
*Bonus screening, only availableto passholders.
‘Louis Van Beethoven’
March 4 to March 7
Germany. In German withsubtitles. (120 minutes)
‘Yalda, A Night for Forgiveness’
March 11 to March 14
Iran. In Persian with subtitles.(89 minutes)
‘Rose Plays Julie’
March 18 to March 21
Ireland. (100 minutes)
‘Citizens of the World’
March 25 to March 28
Italy. In Italian with subtitles.(92 minutes)
‘Night Shift’
Thursday, April 1 to Sunday, April 4
France. In French with English subtitles. (98 minutes)
‘Blizzard of Souls’
April 8 to April 11
Latvia. In Latvian with subtitles.(104 minutes)
‘To the Edge of the Sky’
April 15 to April 18
United States. (118 minutes)
*Bonus screening, only available to passholders. Will be followed by a Q&A with directors.
‘Thou Shall Not Hate’
April 22 to April 25
Italy. In Italian with subtitles.(96 minutes)
‘Needle Park Baby’
April 29 to May 2
Switzerland. In Swiss German with subtitles. (98 minutes)
Films have not been rated. Viewer discretion is advised. Closed captions or subtitles available for all films.
Carey Mulligan in a scene from the film. Photo from Focus Features
Reviewed by Jeffrey Sanzel
Writer-director-producer Emerald Fennel makes her feature film debut with the bold and disturbing Promising Young Woman, currently streaming on Amazon. This hybrid of a revenge thriller, psychological drama, and black comedy is one of the most relentless and riveting films of the past year.
Cassandra Thomas (Carey Mulligan) is a friendless thirty-year-old who hates her job and, seemingly, everything in her life. She lives with her parents (Jennifer Coolidge and Clancy Brown) in a home that seems never to have moved on from her adolescence.Having dropped out of medical school seven years earlier, Cassandra has become the most reluctant and abrasive of baristas. She is absent in her own life to the point that she forgets her thirtieth birthday, revealed in a strangely hilarious and disturbing scene with her parents. Their gift is a suitcase, a less than subtle signal that they want Cassandra to move on or, at least, out.
Unbeknownst to her parents, Cassandra goes to clubs and bars, pretending to be drunk and allowing herself to be taken home by random men. As they are trying to taking advantage of her, she soberly confronts them with their behavior. She keeps track of them in a notebook hidden under her childhood bed.
Cassandra’s life derailed after the rape of her friend Nina by a fellow medical school student, Al Monroe (Chris Lowell). Nina and Cassandra had been friends from childhood, both the “promising young woman” of the title. Nina was both top of her class and a “party girl.” Her claims against Monroe were dismissed both by the other students, including friend Madison (Alison Brie), and the college itself. The case never came to trial due to the machinations of a vicious lawyer. While it is never specifically stated, Nina committed suicide shortly after the incident.
Things shift when a former classmate, Ryan (Bo Burnham), happens into the coffee shop. Now a pediatric doctor, Ryan recognizes Cassandra from school and asks her out. Ryan remains connected to the soon-to-be married Al. Cassandra is awakened to the possibility of real revenge and begins to set things in motion.
At the same time, she realizes that she is developing feelings for Ryan. After a chance encounter and a complication, what ensues is a rom-com with all common elements, including a montage set to a Paris Hilton song, and an uncomfortable meet-the-parents dinner. It is a clever diversion that skillfully boomerangs with the surfacing of a video of the rape. This change in course drives the remainder of the film.
Promising Young Woman is an intentionally messy film. Everything is skewed, from its saturated bright blues and cotton candy pinks to the soundtrack that provides startling commentary. The use of The King & I ballad “Something Wonderful” is hideously memorable. The constant off-centeredness makes for a tense, enthralling ride. The action is wound so tightly that the unraveling is all the more engaging, vacillating between deadly earnest and poisonously funny.
The film’s ensemble is first-rate. While most have only a single scene, there is a focus, detail, and reality in every performance. Coolidge and Brown hit just the right/wrong notes as the exasperated parents, a comic mix of disparity and depth. Gradually, they reveal that they are not as oblivious to their daughter’s struggle. Alison Brie’s Madison becomes the catalyst of a good deal of the later action. Brittle and self-absorbed, she is handily maneuvered during a drunken lunch, one of the ugliest and best-crafted scenes.
As beau Ryan, Bo Burnham has that aw-shucks quality that masks hidden regrets and responsibilities. His genuine quality makes certain revelations all the more acute. Connie Britton is the dean who refused to validate Nina’s accusations; when the table is turned, Britton’s fears are palpable. Laverne Cox finds her usual easy charm as Cassandra’s boss. Molly Shannon has only the briefest appearance. As Nina’s mother, she tells Cassandra, “Move on, please … for all of us,” as she closes the door. (It is interesting to note that both Coolidge and Shannon are known for their broad comic portrayals; Fennel has drawn out beautifully understated performances.)
Alfred Molina plays Jordan Green, the perpetrator’s lawyer whose guilt over this case and many others like it has driven him to the edge. “On sabbatical” after a psychotic break, he is looking for redemption or at the very least forgiveness. It is an excruciating scene, both unique and resonant.
But the heartbeat of the film is Mulligan. In her gifted hands, Cassandra is a spectrum of anger, hurt, and wry humor. It is a performance of unusual and awe-inspiring dimension. She finds the damage and the pride, never neglecting the smallest moments or details. She brings out the arch manipulator but does not neglect Cassandra’s underlying desire for some peace. Mulligan’s Cassandra is not so much a puzzle to be assembled but a shattered mirror:even in its unlikely reconstruction, it is forever scarred and distorted.
Fennel skillfully keeps the violence off-camera until the last possible moment, never resorting to graphic imagery. Instead, the brutality lies in our imaginations. Fennel’s restraint heightens the moment when the visual savagery is unleashed.
Throughout the film, there are the horrifying refrains of “I did nothing wrong” and “boys will be boys” and “we were both drunk.” Fennel eviscerates the blame-the-victim culture. Promising Young Woman is a #MeToo treatise that never references the movement. Instead, it brilliantly tells its story with the darkest of humor and the cut of the sharpest scalpel.
Promising Young Woman is rated R for strong violence, language and drug use.
Helena Zengel and Tom Hanks star in the film adaptation of Paulette Jiles's 2016 novel. Photo by Bruce Talamon/Universal Pictures
Reviewed by Jeffrey Sanzel
Set in 1870, Paulette Jiles’s 2016 novel News of the World is the story of a ten-year-old girl released after four years in captivity. Kiowa raiders had murdered her family, and she had been taken hostage, with the girl raised as one of the tribe. A freedman, entrusted with the girls’ return to her family, turns her over to his acquaintance, seventy-one-year-old Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd. Thus begins Kidd’s journey of reuniting the girl with her only remaining relatives.
The screenplay, by the film’s director Paul Greengrass, in collaboration with Luke Davies, follows the basic premise. However, in the film, Kidd comes upon an overturned cart. The freedman charged in taking the girl back is hanging from a tree, a victim of a lynching in the still roiling post-Civil War Texas. Kidd attempts to shelter the girl with an army comrade until the Bureau of Indian Affairs representative can deal with the situation. After this fails, he takes it upon himself to see the girl home.
Helena Zengel and Tom Hanks star in the film adaptation of Paulette Jiles’s 2016 novel. Photo by Bruce Talamon/Universal Pictures
In the novel, Kidd was a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War. One of the major changes from page to screen is that Kidd is now a guilt-ridden veteran of the Civil War, plagued by what he had seen and what he had done. This shift gives immediacy to the story as well as lowering Kidd’s age to in his 60s. In both book and film, Kidd travels from town to town giving live readings from newspapers, working for nickels and dimes.
The drive of the film is the unlikely pair finding common ground and understanding. The girl, whose given name is Johanna, was given the Kiowa name Cicada. She speaks no English and is almost feral. Having been orphaned twice, she is appropriately wild and untrusting. Throughout their time together, Kidd and Johanna strive to communicate, and a growing understanding arises. Ambivalence gradually gives way to a deep bond.
The narrative becomes a series of encounters, each one bringing them closer together. When three ex-Confederate soldiers offer to buy the girl, it sends the action into high gear. It is a chilling moment.(It would have been stronger had it not been present in every single promo for the film.) This horrific offer culminates with an extended shootout that is well-staged if a bit too long. What is revealed in this deadly encounter are the girl’s ingenuity and resourcefulness.
There are further confrontations, including a radical band of militia working to “cleanse” the country from “outsiders.” In addition to keeping the tension high, it shows Kidd’s more liberal and healing view of the world. This element, along with a handful of other moments, are more than a nod towards current political divides.
Tom Hanks is one of American cinema’s most beloved actors. His name is aguaranteed box office success and, most of the time, critical praise. His career is a roster of exceptional performances — Cast Away, Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, and many others. His recent portrayal of Fred Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood showed him at his best. Much like Jimmy Stewart, allowing Hanks’ persona to come through is what has made him an enduring star. It is the ability to see Hanks through whatever role he is playing that gives him uniqueness. Even as the child in a man’s body in the comedy Big, we were aware of Hanks, the actor, and embraced that awareness.
However, with Kidd, something more is required. As the damaged Confederate Civil War veteran, there is a sense of the dress-up about his performance. He is, as always, thoroughly engaging, but somehow it seems superficial. He is watchable but never quite transcendent. One must wonder if the producers, the director, and the writer didn’t just say “let Hanks be Hanks” and called it a day.
Tom Hanks in a scene from the movie.
Part of the problem lies with the character itself. He is a struggling but inherently good man. He never once flinches from taking on the responsibility of returning this girl to her family. A more interesting choice would have been some vacillation or even resentment with the charge or that his primary interest had been fiscal rather than altruistic. This would have provided contrast and allowed for more arc and texture. Hanks is never less than very good, but he doesn’t achieve the level of greatness we have seen in so much of his work.
Helena Zengel, as Johanna, is remarkable. Both rough and insightful, willful and cowed, we watch her watch the world. With a tragic history, she is as wounded as Kidd. There is the spark of fire that never masks the deep pain. Greengrass has brought out a range of shades in her performance, enhancing a remarkable and burgeoning young talent.
Elizabeth Marvel is the hotel owner Mrs. Gannett who turns in a sensitive performance. She makes the most of her two brief scenes, reflecting both Kidd’s past and the world in which they live now.
The rest of the cast is not given a great deal to play. As Almay, who attempts to purchase the girl, Michael Angelo Covino represents pure evil. Likewise, Thomas Francis Murphy’s racist Mr. Farley makes a clear statement. Both do well in what are one-note roles.
In many ways, News of the World is a traditional western with all the standard expectations. It is episodic, stringing scene after scene, event after event. It is entertaining, but the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts. The journey is predictable, leading to a conclusion that mostly satisfies the need for a happy ending.
Rated PG-13, News of the World is now streaming on demand
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