'Okja' A Review

Okja is an adventure/speculative future film about a young girl Mija(Ahn Seo-hyun) raising a Super Pig in rural South Korea, the titular Okja, one of several spread throughout the world as a publicity stunt by Mirando Corporation's head Lucy(Tilda Swinton). After ten years the pigs are inspected by spokesman and eccentric TV zoologist Johnny(Jake Gyllenhaal) and one of them crowned the winner in a celebration in New York. Okja wins the prize and is taken from Mija who chases after her running into Mirando Corp stooges, law enforcement, and radicals from the ALF(Animal Liberation Front).

Seo-hyun is perfectly cast as the young Mija, confident and determined yet vulnerable, driven on her wild quest by her love of Okja. Although a CGI creation Okja herself is startlingly emotive and empathetic. Their duet is the real heart of the film and its portrayed with marvelous nuance and tenderness. Swinton, as always, is delightful however she is a side-character and not exactly integral to the story, any villainous CEO would have been sufficient but Swinton brings some pleasing eccentricity to a role that could have been flat. Gyllenhaal, god bless him, goes for broke in his most wild and over the top turn. Not always a success but fun. Paul Dano as the leader of the ALF is exceptionally Paul Dano, not distracting but nothing too surprising. The film is really about Mija and Okja and all supporting roles serve that, the film only meanders when it strays too far from that central relationship.

All the visuals are striking from the action sequences to landscapes, the way Okja is integrated is incredible, some of the most seamless use of CGI to date. It is a little unclear what the comment of the film is as it starts as more of a straight-up satire then changes to more of a straight-forward coming-of-age adventure. Certainly it is rife with allegory- Monsanto, genetic engineering, political and social unrest- but what comes across the most strongly and what is the most compelling is the love between Mija and Okja and the lengths that love will drive them to reunite. A Netflix original the only improvement would have been seeing it on the big screen.

Surprisingly effecting, potent, and unique.

Don't Miss It.

'Band Aid' A Review

Band Aid is a romantic comedy/drama about a struggling married couple who channel their fights into songs and start a band. Anna(Zoe Lister-Jones) and Adam(Adam Pally) both work dead-end jobs and wrestle with having meaning in their lives and marriage in the wake of failed dreams and a miscarriage. Per the tacit recommendation of their therapist they start a band with their eccentric neighbor Dave(Fred Armisen) and begin to make some tentative progress as a couple and as individuals.

Lister-Jones, also the writer/director, gives a great performance emotional and funny, confident and authentic. Pally doesn't have the depth of his co-star but he does well and his lack is made up for in the magnetic chemistry they share. Armisen although certainly quirky is at his most reserved and plays a pleasant foil to the couple. The supporting cast all do well but the majority of the screen time and the story is, justly, taken up by the marriage at it's center. We get to know them intimately and even if we can't relate explicitly the experiences and feelings conveyed are universal.

A wonderful score is augmented by the actual songs the couple plays you only wish there was more of them because they're so good. The various production elements all blend harmoniously to show a more lived-in intimate LA that most films tend to ignore. The personal aspect of the film is heightened by the various homes and coffee shops it inhabits.

An incredibly compelling comedy about pain, purpose, and love.

Don't Miss It.

Take The Day

Today is my birthday. Nicole and I took the day off and went out for breakfast at Bakin' and Eggs then to the zoo.

And the Lincoln Park Conservatory.

Then to a movie and then met Jimmy and Thomas for dinner at PMU where I got my ceremonial slice of chocolate cake. It was a great day, low key, relaxing, and I did the things I enjoy most.

When I first moved to Chicago I worked on my birthday and got my bike stolen, a couple years later I worked on it again out of obligation and it just felt weird. I'm not one of those type of people who makes a big deal out of it I just think it's important to take a little time for yourself. I don't mind my job now but it already consumes a lot of my time and energy, a birthday should be celebrated if only simply. My advise, never work on your birthday whether its a big deal to you or not. The mental health dividends pay big.

I had a wonderful day, another year down, another year of challenges and potential to look forward to.

'The Hero' A Review

The Hero is a meta drama about an aging actor Lee(Sam Elliot) grappling with the loss of professional relevance, disease, isolation, and purpose. The film opens on Lee recording a voice over for a barbecue sauce clearly frustrated by the quality of the work. He gets high and goes to a doctor's office where he is diagnosed with cancer. We follow Lee as he grapples with this, gets high with his neighbor and drug dealer Jeremy(Nick Offerman), and attempts to reconcile with his estranged daughter Lucy(Krysten Ritter). Along the way he meets Charlotte(Laura Prepon) a comedian and more-than-casual drug user who he develops a tentative relationship with. Interspersed throughout are dream sequences of a movie Lee would like to make.

Elliot gives an incredible performance- nuanced, quiet, deep, complex. An impressive tour de force turn. Unfortunately the story surrounding this inspiring turn is anything but. Offerman plays well off of Elliot, clearly relishing sharing the screen with the long time legend, funny and charming but devoid of any of the cliched pitfalls that can trap actors playing drug dealers. Ritter, with little screen time is striking and authentic, the story is about Lee not his daughter although it would have been nice had she been afforded a little more screen time. Prepon is serviceable but clearly out of her depth and has a clashing style then the other cast members, there is an awareness and presentation about her performance which is especially distracting given how real Elliot feels. To be fair her's is the most illogical and rote part in the already trite script.

There are flashes of real brilliance, long silent meditative moments where Elliot is allowed to do some incredible work, also some interesting dream or fantasy sequences that are largely left for us to interrupt the meaning of. One of the best scenes of the year so far is Elliot running lines with Offerman. However. Those are all moments and taken as a whole the film is strikingly unoriginal and relies upon tired troupes(unnecessarily) to propel Elliot's character's existential crisis. Most off putting is the big C and the older man-younger woman aspects which telegraph PLOT DEVICE.

A fascinating lead performance fails to elevate a thoroughly mediocre script.

Rent It.

What I'll Miss

The hallway most of all, it's bright orange paint
the name of which so tickled us
Circus Peanut.
Other than that
it was just an apartment
I think it's just the time
that makes it hard to leave
it's familiar
and comfortable
our nest
a home we made
over weeks and months and years.

But the things I won't miss
are much easier to name
the list much longer
Spacca Napoli
and there vapid screeching clientele
their raucous early morning deliveries
and power washing
the daily dozen repeated crashing shatter
of a garbage bag full of wine bottles
being thrown carelessly into a dumpster
by the staff who nightly loiter with car speakers blaring,
our neighbors, sweet lord, their idiocy
their stomping toddler
their nightly drunken maddening classic rock serenades
the chalk "murals" the mom would "create"
stoned beyond coherence and parental responsibility
the unapologetic and perhaps oblivious proliferation of all their junk in common areas
the dad, unsolicited, approaching me on the privacy of the back porch, glass in hand, to chat,
the unreliable washer and dryer,
the scribbled rent reminder notes slipped under the door,
the lack of sunlight,

Actually maybe it's just the neighbors.
God they are truly awful.

Foreboding

There's no feeling
like that of waiting
for the other shoe
to drop

that sense of helplessness-
the unexpected knock
the guilt,
perhaps unwarranted,
when someone asks to talk
impending doom
the countdown clock

a meeting with an agenda
unsaid, unset, unsought

it could be something pleasant
or something small-
something inconsequential

but then again
it could be a death
a firing
an eviction

it is this protracted possibility
that makes it so unpleasant

what a gift imagination is
but also
what an albatross

'Beatriz At Dinner' A Review

Beatriz At Dinner is a dramedy about Beatriz(Salma Hayek) an alternative healer/masseuse whose car breaks down at an affluent client's house. Kathy(Connie Britton), the hostess, invites Beatriz to stay for a dinner party she and her husband Grant(David Warshofsk) are throwing for his business partner Doug(John Lithgow), his wife Jeana(Amy Landecker), and an ambitious up-incoming couple Alex(Jay Duplass) and Shannon(Chloë Sevigny). Tensions rise as Beatriz repeatedly confronts Doug about his manipulative and destructive business practices.

Hayek gives one of her meatiest performances since Frida and one of the most subtle of her career. She is quiet and magnetic for most of the film, contemplative and emotional, vulnerable and more drab than we're use to seeing her(although she is always striking). Her portrayal is philosophical but also grounded in the physical nature of the character's profession. There's a stolidness about it which is atypical for Hayek but her usual heart is not sacrificed. A shame the film around her amazing performance isn't nearly as cohesive. The cast is good, Britton and Lithgow specifically are great, but the film seems to waiver on what it is about and how specifically it wants to spell that out preventing the supporting cast from really soaring.

The premise seems kind of like a classic culture clash and we are primed for Beatriz to tell off and correct the rich. This kind of happens but there is no real resolution and no real change. Interspersed with this narrative which we are clearly presented with is another one, where Beatriz is swept up in dreams, memories, and presumably metaphoric imagery that is never really developed. There are two or three angles attempted in the film when only one could be successful. Instead of a class comedy. a meditative environmental commentary, or an interpersonal existential crisis we get none of these. The result is entertaining and compelling, no question, it is just more convoluted than it needs to be.

Ambitious, with a fantastic lead, if somewhat frustrating and problematic.

See It.