People

starved for social satisfaction
each incremental interaction
moves from banal to benefaction

luscious becomes a loose-lipped greeting
colossal the closed-mouth meeting
each one all too fleeting

embedded in our DNA
the tribe, the group, the human cadre
perhaps the lesson is we not they

'The Vast Of Night' A Review

The Vast Of Night is a period scifi film that takes place in a small town in New Mexico in the 1950's. It follows two teens- a DJ Everett(Jake Horowitz) and a switchboard operator Faye(Sierra McCormick)- as they discover and investigate a mysterious radio signal over the course of an evening while most of the town is at a high school basketball game.

Horowitz and McCormick give wonderfully dimensional performances, conveying the period with an ease in affectation and looseness that bolster the already fluid and immersive feeling of the film. Horowitz, looking a little like Buddy Holly, channels this kind of straight-laced Beat charm and McCormick a sensitive but discerning exuberance. Neither overtly "plays" their age and it is exceedingly more believable because they don't act as if being a teen is synonymous with being obtuse. Although they are the main focus the supporting cast, full of unknowns, all do well and there are a couple stand out monologues from a radio caller and a reclusive old lady. The cast was clearly assembled methodically, with a focus on realism which gives the creeping dread of the unknown outside force even more weight.

Visually the film is stunning, especially for an indie. There are protracted takes where the camera follows Faye as she runs through the town or by itself gliding through fields and streets, it's beautiful but also compounds the tension as the film progresses. A minimal score and diegetic period hits of the time make for an incredibly immersive and surprising piece of filmmaking.

A simple exceedingly effective throwback science fiction yarn. Reminiscent of a quality Twilight Zone episode.

Currently streaming on Amazon.

See It.

Uncertainty

What comes next?
I don't know either.
But whatever it may be
it is certain
that it will come.

The Earth has spun 4 billion years
and it will spin for billions more.

'The Lovebirds' A Review

The Lovebirds is an action/romcom about a couple on their last legs who reignite their spark after getting drawn in to a baffling criminal plot. The movie opens on Jibran(Kumail Nanjiani) and Leilani(Issa Rae) the morning after a one night stand, the spend the day together and begin a relationship. Flash foward four years and they are fighting and truculent. On their way to a friend's dinner party they hit a bicyclist and then are accosted by a strange man chasing the aforementioned bicyclist. They flee the scene and begin a night of careening from place to place in a baffling inept attempt to uncover the mystery they find themselves in.

Nanjiani and Rae are very funny and have incredible presences and charm, their chemistry is decent, but the script fails them again and again forcing them for the majority of the run time to be a hectoring, virtually insufferable couple, throwing themselves into preposterous situations in which they act absurdly. There are moments of actual heart in which the two excel and in which you can see the potential the movie had but their charm alone cannot surmount the banality of the story in which they are confined.

A clear knock off of the far superior Game Night there is no real life in the movie save for that of the leads injected by sheer force of will and talent. The premise that starts the couple off on their journey is so absurd as to be completely disconnecting and that trend continues until it is too late. By the time the movie finally finds it's stride, in the latter third, it's too late and most of the interest and good will has been squandered.

Nanjiani and Rae have some wonderful improvisational flurries at points but the humor and the action are pretty much a failure to launch.

Available to stream on Netflix.

Stream It.

'The Painter And The Thief' A Review

The Painter And The Thief is a documentary about Czech painter Barbora and Norwegian thief Karl-Bertil. At the beginning of the movie we learn that during a showing of Barbora's two of her prized paintings were stolen in broad daylight. The suspects are quickly apprehended and at the trial Barbora approaches Karl-Bertil and asks him to sit for a portrait which he agrees to. What then follows is an unlikely, as well as co-dependent and clearly unhealthy, friendship.

The conceit of the movie is certainly interesting, this exceedingly unlikely meet-cute, and the two main subjects compelling human beings but the result is rather a gross portrait of two messy struggling people, more voyeurism verging on exploitation than compassionate portrayl. Not that they are gross people but both Barbora and Karl-Bertil are so clearly and transparently unwell and destructive that there is no real insight to be found, no real transformation, no real story save for the utterly common and mundane condition of suffering. Not to minimize either of the subjects however there is nothing new or revelatory about what's happening and without some light, without hope the movie ultimately offers not much more than the morbid fascination of a car wreck.

Karl-Bertil is an addict, there is no fascinating darkness to him, no hidden depth to be primed. Not to say he isn't a complicated interesting man but for the majority of the movie he is simply hitting bottom, the desperation and pain of an addict is sad, heartbreaking even, but what it is not is fodder for fascination. Thankfully he seems to, eventually, come out clean but there is little time spent on this part of his story, there seems to be little to know awareness about what addiction even is especially from Barbora herself. She repeatedly asks him about the paintings, why he stole them, what he did with them, and his response is he was blacked out, which she can't accept. The movie doesn't really question this, but the simple truth is he is a drug addict, that is the answer, there is no hidden allure to her art, some hidden magnetism between the two, which the movie tends to imply. He was high, he saw them, he stole them, that's it.

Barbora also clearly has some mental health issues of her own with a traumatic past that the movie refers to. Her relationship with Karl-Bertil is meant to be sweet but the reality is it's co-dependent, enabling, and almost vampyric. It's not interesting it's sad and sometimes gross. That doesn't mean that these two aren't good people but they are in a very bad place during the course of the movie and it is struggle and suffering that shouldn't be recorded because its questionable that it actually offers anything to them in the way of clarity or epiphany or we as audience members for that matter.

Towards the end of the movie Barbora's boyfriend attempts to have a couple conversations with her about her behavior, her relationship with Karl-Bertil, we see them in couples therapy and he asks some remarkably pointed but also empathetic questions and she has no real answers. Towards the end Karl-Bertil seemingly changed, clear headed, sees Barbora again and attempts in a fumbling way to encourage her to keep going to therapy and work on herself which she struggles to accept. The end of the movie should have been it's jumping off point.

Similar to 2015's Amy The Painter And The Thief exploits it's subjects suffering, conflating pain with insight.

Available to stream on Hulu.

Don't See It.

PuzzleMaster

I use to doubt
the sincerity of the oft repeated platitude
"the children are our future"
but watching my not yet four niece
plow through five puzzles sequentially
with systematic alacrity
I am not only convinced
but filled
with gentle waxing hope.

A Balm

Perhaps this is Gaia's revenge
Mother Nature's answer to Man's cruelty
even so
what a balm Her cool green quiet be