Tag: natalie portman

MAY DECEMBER – Review

L to R: Natalie Portman as Elizabeth Berry with Julianne Moore as Gracie Atherton-Yoo, in MAY DECEMBER. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

Director Todd Haynes re-teams with Julianne Moore, star of his Douglas Sirk-style melodrama FAR FROM HEAVEN, for another soapy melodrama (complete with emotionally-overwrought score) for Haynes’ new MAY DECEMBER. The story was apparently inspired by the 1990s Mary Kay LeTourneau case, a tabloid scandal about a married, 36-year-old teacher who was convicted of raping her 12-year-old male student, a crime for which she went to jail and where she gave birth in prison. The pair had another child and eventually married when the boy reach adulthood although they divorced years later.

It is a tabloid tale that seems made for Todd Haynes. However, while the couple in the movie have a somewhat similar history, the movie’s story takes place twenty years after the infamous events, when the still-married couple are living a comfortable, quiet suburban life in a small island town near Savannah, Georgia. Gracie (Julianne Moore) and Joe (Charles Melton) are well-liked in the community which seems to have forgotten all about the scandal.

As the couple’s two younger children, boy and girl twins, are preparing for high school graduation, their quiet lives are interrupted by the arrival of a famous actress Elizabeth (Natalie Portman) who is there to research her role as Gracie in an upcoming movie about their infamous past. Hoping the film will put them in the best possible light, Gracie and Joe welcome Elizabeth into their home.

While Gracie is gracious and Elizabeth is polite, the two women have differing agendas: Gracie to keep the perfect surface her family presents to the world intact while Elizabeth gently tries to pry open any secrets hidden there. You know there must be some, which sets off a tense tango of conflicting purposes between the two women.

While some have called MAY DECEMBER a comedy, the overall tone of the film is tension and mystery, as the melodrama unfolds. As Elizabeth looks for ways to gain insights on the real Gracie and hidden details of the past, Gracie spackles over any cracks in the flawless facade they couple present to all.

There are plenty of hints of secrets and juicy tidbits but MAY DECEMBER actually promises more than it delivers on that end. What is does deliver, however, is a nice femme-centric battle of wills story. MAY DECEMBER sets up a tense pas-de-deux duel between these dual female leads, played brilliantly by Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, in this femme-centric story.

The duel between the two women has Portman and Moore playing off each other in a cat-and-mouse dance that is the film’s chief delight, particularly for those who are less enamored by Haynes’ overblown stylistic flourishes.

Still, fans of Todd Haynes’s films will find lots to please them, with dramatic twists (although what is revealed is no surprise) and swelling music to accompany them, and plenty of gossipy details in supporting characters, like Gracie’s ex-husband and children from her previous marriage, and particularly her troubled grown son. Repeatedly we are reminded that the actress Elizabeth, who will play the young Gracie, is closer in age to Joe now, as are Gracie’s grown children, and at times, Joe seems more like one of the kids as well. Gracie is by turns steely and in control, and little-girlish, particularly with Joe. Joe is opaque at first, a rock of reliability and maturity, but as Elizabeth searches for ways around Gracie’s walls, cracks in his front show up.

Not surprisingly, the film’s best scenes are between Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman, as they maintain a polite surface relationship while jockeying for position and advantage to achieve their own goals. Scenes reveal neither woman to be as nice as they want people to believe, to be cunning players in this game, and in some ways more alike than either wants to think they are. Portman in particular shines in her role, showing a darker side as the complex Elizabeth than we usually see. Both characters are capable of a certain ruthlessness to get what they want, which gives their scenes together a special chill.

MAY DECEMBER serves up a Todd Haynes soapy treat for his fans, and a wonderful acting pas-de-deux between Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore.

MAY DECEMBER opens Friday, Nov. 17, in theaters.

RATING: 2 out of 4 stars

THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER – Review

(L-R): Natalie Portman as Mighty Thor and Chris Hemsworth as Thor in Marvel Studios’ THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER. Photo by Jasin Boland. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.

Well, we’ve made it through the soaring temps and the dangerous fireworks displays of the big three-day holiday weekend. I think a reward is in order, perhaps a trip to one of our favorite cinematic “getaways”. I’m referring to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or the ole’ “MCU” as many fans have dubbed it. Sure, it’s been almost two months to the day since our last visit, but don’t you want to be taken away in the cool confines of your local multiplex? A head’s up: unlike the last two entries, our favorite Sorceror Supreme is nowhere to be found, though longtime fans will recognize a supporting player from his comics series (I’m not a spoiler, so that’s all). But we are familiar with this character, dating back to 2011. He’s not the oldest Marvel comics character, even though his roots stretch back thousands of years. Really. Now he’s truly venturing into unchartered territory as the only solo Marvel hero to have a fourth film in his franchise (technically, THE AVENGERS are at that number, though I count INFINITY WAR and ENDGAME as one king-sized epic). Brace yourself true believers, but don’t plug up your ears (you’ll miss some witty quips) for the one-two punch of THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER.

Prior to that logo we love (look for both Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel in the letter windows) we’re taken to a desolate scorched alien planet where a father named Gorr (Christian Bale) struggles to keep himself and his pre-teen daughter alive. After tragedy strikes, he sees an oasis in the distance, a lush haven for the deities he worships. There Gorr exacts his revenge using a special sword, becoming the “God Butcher”. Cut to a cave entrance by the ocean where the towering rock-skinned alien Korg (Takia Waititi) entrances a group of youngsters with the exploits of his BFF, the “Space Viking”, Thor Odinson (Chris Hemsworth). Since we last saw him in ENDGAME he left New Asgard on Earth, handing the governing reigns to “king” Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) to explore the universe with those “heroes for hire”, the Guardians of the Galaxy (Chris Pratt and all the members of the MCU series). During his time with them, Thor loses his bloated belly and gains muscle, more than ever before. And he irks Starlord by becoming a bit of a “showboat. And he gains a rep as a swashbuckling ladies’ man, though his thoughts still turn back to the Earth-born Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman). After receiving a gift of twin giant magical flying goats from a grateful planet (they may have wanted to be rid of the screaming beasts), he learns of a menace that murders god-like beings on other worlds. Further investigation leads him to believe that New Asgard is next on his “hit list”.Meanwhile Dr. Foster faces her own crisis as a deadly disease almost drains her of life. After Earth science has failed her, she is drawn to the same spot hoping for a New Asgard cure. When Thor and Korg arrive at their old home, Gorr and his gigantic spider-like creatures are destroying the “tourist trap”. Thor is stunned when he, Korg, and Valkyrie are joined by Foster, in full armor and wielding the hammer Mjolnir as the “Mighty Thor”. But they’re not enough to stop Gorr and his minions from grabbing the Asgardian children and whisking them off to an unknown world. Will Thor and his friends enlist the help of the “God-world”, Omnipotent City, run by Zeus himself (Russel Crowe)? And just what is Gorr’s real master plan? Most importantly, will Thor and Jane rekindle their passion, if they can survive the powerful Gorr. And if they somehow triumph could her powers be only temporary?

Let’s raise a glass (maybe a magic Uru hammer instead) to the superb comedic skills developed over the last eleven years by Mr. Chris Hemsworth (just being specific as his “bros” Liam and Luke are pretty talented, too). Though he’s stumbled a bit in similar funny turns in the GHOSTBUSTERS reboot along with MEN IN BLACK: INTERNATIONAL (with Ms. Thompson), he’s truly made the Thunder God his own signature role, one that delivers more than laughs and a well-sculpted biceps. He’s got an infectious clumsy charm as he navigates through ordinary worlds and unexpected tenderness in dealing with “lesser mortals” and even the weirdest of creatures. He could be the movies’ most engaging “himbo’ since the glory days of “Arh-nold”. Oh, but there’s his romantic side as he fumbles to keep his ‘cool” around the now “super-charged” Jane. A big “welcome back to the franchise” to Ms. Portman after sitting out the last entry, RAGNAROK (though she did a flashback for ENDGAME). She shows us Dr. Foster’s all-too-human vulnerability as she realizes that all of her intellect can’t delay fate. But there’s also an exhilaration as she taps into her action heroine persona. Luckily the story provides us with a villain truly worthy of an ultimate Viking duo. Once again Marvel strikes cinema gold by casting another Batman (like Keaton in SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING) as a formidable ‘baddie” with Bale bringing intensity and stunning humanity (ala’ Thanos and the recent Scarlet Witch), and a wicked sense of “gallows humor” to the twisted being who will let no one stand in his pursuit of his (kinda’ relatable) goals. Joining the forces of good is the always compelling Ms. Thompson who shows us that Valkyrie is more than a wild “warrior woman”. There’s a dim glaze in her eyes as she deals with the mundane as the royalty of New Asgard. Townhall meetings and public relations (cutting a commercial) have almost drained her spirit. When she teams with her old pals, it’s as if an electrical switch has been flipped, which also jolts her snarky wit back into focus. Waititi is just as fun as the “rock monster” with a “laid back” attitude, content to observe and “back-up” his thunder bro’ will also taking a bit of the p#*s out of him. One of the film’s biggest unexpected delights is Crowe sending up his action hero past (GLADIATOR comes to mind) as the pompous but fairly clueless Greek “God of gods” who seems more interested in mortal-style pleasures of the flesh.

Once again, Waititi establishes himself as an astounding cinema triple threat, doing a superb “mo-cap” as Korg, directing and co-writing the screenplay with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (he had similar duties on JO JO RABBIT and snagged a well-deserved Oscar for the adaptation). In his second Thor outing, Waititi truly makes the franchise his own, somehow going seamlessly from hilarious comedy to bombastic action, then switching from a tentative romance to heart-rending tragedy and even a smidgen of nail-biting horror and suspense. We can even say he’s given us a pretty darn cool mini Guardians of the Galaxy movie (to tide us over till Jim Gunn’s trilogy finale next year). And kudos to the many artisans and craftspeople for creating these incredible worlds of wonder, going from the “eye candy’ of the alien realms (love the crystal-like cities) to the tacky theme-park kitsch of New Asgard (love the multiple cruise ships in the harbor) to the spooky realm of Gorr, recalling the eerie silent cinema sci-fi and surrealist imagery of a hundred years ago. It all works thanks in large part to Barry Idione’s cinematography and the tag team music score from Michael Giacchino and Nami Melumad. During the sequence in Omnipotent City, I wanted the camera to linger a bit longer in order to drink in the imaginative renderings of the deities of different cultures and planets (that’ll be a great BluRay bonus feature). Balancing the action and cosmic journeys are nice bits of playful humor (who knew an ax could be jealous of a hammer). While many franchises will seem to be “running on fumes” by the fourth installment, this series actually feels re-energized, ready to take us on more cosmic capers full of danger and delights. Hopefully, those are in the works (those Marvel magicians are always plotting and planning), but for now, fans of high-flying adventure (and chuckles and swooning passion) will get their multiplex-money’s worth of derring-do with THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER, where it’s always “hammer-time” (and a very good time).

3.5 Out of 4

THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER opens in theatres everywhere on Friday, July 8, 2022

Win One Of 10 Family-Four Packs To The St Louis IMAX Screening Of THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER

BROUGHT TO YOU BY MARVEL STUDIOS’, THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER IS IN THEATERS EVERYWHERE JULY 8TH.

WAMG is giving away 10 family-four packs.

DATE AND TIME:
Wednesday, July 6th, 7pm at Marcus Ronnies Cine 20 on the IMAX screen

Enter for a chance to win: http://gofobo.com/StrangeGeeks

The screening will be filled on a first come first served basis, so we encourage you to arrive early. Seats will not be guaranteed.

No purchase necessary

Tickets on sale now: https://www.fandango.com/thor-love-and-thunder-2022-226754/movie-overview

Marvel Studios’ “Thor: Love and Thunder” finds the God of Thunder (Chris Hemsworth) on a journey unlike anything he’s ever faced – a search for self-discovery. But Thor’s retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi) and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who – to Thor’s surprise – inexplicably wields his magical hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor. Together, they embark upon a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher’s vengeance and stop him before it’s too late.

Directed by Taika Waititi (“Thor: Ragnarok,” “Jojo Rabbit”) and produced by Kevin Feige and Brad Winderbaum.

“Thor: Love and Thunder” opens in U.S. theaters July 8, 2022.

https://www.marvel.com/movies/thor-love-and-thunder

(L-R): Natalie Portman as Mighty Thor and Chris Hemsworth as Thor in Marvel Studios’ THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER. Photo by Jasin Boland. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.

Christian Bale Is Galactic Killer Gorr In New Trailer For Marvel Studios’ THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER

Christian Bale as Gorr in Marvel Studios’ THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.

The brand new trailer and poster have arrived for Marvel Studios’ “Thor: Love and Thunder,” revealing new details about the God of Thunder’s latest adventure – including a trek to Olympus where Zeus (Russell Crowe) reigns supreme.

The film finds Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on a journey unlike anything he’s ever faced – a search for self-discovery. But his retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi) and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who – to Thor’s surprise – inexplicably wields his magical hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor.

Together, they embark upon a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher’s vengeance and stop him before it’s too late.

(L-R): Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie and Natalie Portman as Mighty Thor in Marvel Studios’ THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER. Photo by Jasin Boland. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.
(L-R): Natalie Portman as Mighty Thor and Chris Hemsworth as Thor in Marvel Studios’ THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER. Photo by Jasin Boland. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.

Directed by Taika Waititi (“Thor: Ragnarok,” “Jojo Rabbit”) and produced by Kevin Feige and Brad Winderbaum, “Thor: Love and Thunder” opens in U.S. theaters July 8, 2022.

Marvel Studios Unveils First Glimpse of the Upcoming Cosmic Adventure “Thor: Love and Thunder”

A new trailer and poster are here for Marvel Studios’ “Thor: Love and Thunder,” offering long-awaited clues to what’s in store for the God of Thunder.

The film finds Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on a journey unlike anything he’s ever faced – a quest for inner peace. But his retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi) and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who – to Thor’s surprise – inexplicably wields his magical hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor. Together, they embark upon a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher’s vengeance and stop him before it’s too late.

Directed by Waititi (“Thor: Ragnarok,” “Jojo Rabbit”) and produced by Kevin Feige and Brad Winderbaum, “Thor: Love and Thunder” opens in theaters July 8, 2022.

©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.

LUCY IN THE SKY – Review

Remember Lisa Marie Nowak? She’s the love-crazed astronaut who, in 2007, drove from Texas to Florida armed with a BB gun, plastic gloves, a steel mallet, a can of pepper spray, and six feet of rubber tubing to confront another female astronaut, her rival in a romantic triangle. While nobody was harmed in what the police assessed as an attempted kidnapping, what made the story a late-night comic’s punchline was the (disputed) tidbit that Ms. Nowak was wearing a NASA-issued diaper on her road trip of fury to avoid potty breaks. The new film LUCY IN THE SKY starring Natalie Portman as Nowak (her name changed to Lucy Cola) takes some major liberties with the story, omitting the memorable detail about the diaper. Nowak’s story was the kind of bizarre tabloid headline ripe for juicy satire like I, TONYA, a fascinating subject and a deliciously strange story of an accomplished woman who throws it all away on impulse.  Instead, LUCY IN THE SKY wants to take an arty and serious look at the story and the result is a self-indulgent snooze that will have audiences checking out long before the closing credits appear. It’s a huge waste of time and talent.

With a true story as loopy as this one, it pays to cast intelligent-looking actors who can delude you into feeling as if you’re watching something interesting. With her natural class and beauty, Portman gives a fair imitation of brilliance, but only for about the first 15 minutes. Lucy Cola (if you think that name is awful, her niece’s name is Blue Iris) achieved what few women (or men) have in terms of her career (valedictorian, the cream of the NASA crop). Lucy is introduced floating through the vast void of space, but the character quickly becomes unsympathetic. She’s soon acting out like a spoiled child, staring off into space, experiencing panic attacks, spouting nonsense, irrationally mumbling to herself, and even acting shocked when her grandma has a stroke even though the old woman chain-smoked while wearing an oxygen tank. At her service, she hysterically tears the wallpaper off the walls of the funeral home. Jon Hamm as Mark Goodwin, the manly object of desire, is the nominal villain here. After having his own ‘Big Bang Theory’ with Lucy, he suggests his superiors reject her for the next big mission on the grounds that she’s unstable. He’s right. A bland Hamm isn’t given much to do with the role except look handsome lying shirtless on his sofa, drinking bourbon, and repeatedly watching footage of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Equally handsome is Dan Stevens as Lucy’s cuckold husband Drew Cola but for contrast, he’s given a Ned Flanders mustache and acts like a dork (“Lucy and I met in a cafeteria. She helped me open a catsup bottle. I have weak hands”!). Ellen Burstyn has a few scenes as Lucy’s cantankerous grandma and drops the F-bomb in every one of them. Zazie Beetz (who we just saw in JOKER) does what she can in a small role as the woman Mark dumps Lucy for.

LUCY IN THE SKY does not even work visually, over-directed with ceaseless overhead shots, pointless slo-mo, and the 180-degree camera tilts. Worst is the ridiculously distracting aspect ratio that is constantly changing. The shifting proportions of the black on the sides (and top and bottom) of the frame are arbitrary and non-stop. I suppose this is supposed to reflect Lucy’s shifting psychological state, but that aspect ratio adjusts at least four times in a scene at a bowling alley! It comes off as a gimmick that does but nothing but call attention to itself. Helmer Noah Hawley’s grandiose style plays like a first-time movie director who’s received too much praise for his previous TV work, showing off his new big-screen tools, which is exactly what it is. One gets the feeling the filmmakers started making a straightforward film about Lisa Nowak then got cold feet halfway through when they realized the direction the story was headed didn’t exactly promote feminism or girl power so they padded the script with awkward symbolism about cocoons and butterflies and bees and why the chicken crossed the road. ,

When Lucy is in the hardware aisle at the store buying her kidnapping supplies, she happens to look down and see a blonde wig, which she also needs. It’s unpackaged as if it had fallen right there off the head of a previous customer. If there had been more jaw-dropping bad moments like that, LUCY IN THE SKY may have ventured into so-bad-it’s-good territory, but that’s not the case. It’s deadly dull, its interminable 2+ hours seem far longer. It’s easy to crap on a lame comedy or a dull horror flick, but like its protagonist, LUCY IN THE SKY aims for the stars and therefore has so much farther to fall. By that measure, LUCY IN THE SKY is the worst film I’ve seen this year.

0 of 4 Stars

VOX LUX – Review

 

Review by Stephen Tronicek

Brady Corbet’s Vox Lux feels like something of an artistic confession. The film, primarily about the relation of a mentally unhealthy person (in this case an artist) to a culture that perpetuates that illness, illustrates a deep emotional understanding of its material. Celeste (Raffey Cassidy and Natalie Portman) is a young woman who is shot in a school shooting by one of her classmates (Logan Riley Bruner). Instead of this being constructively dealt with, this event soon makes a celebrity out of her, launching a career that we, in the second half of the movie, will see a day in the life of.

That’s a lot to cover in the 110 minutes, but Corbet is up to it. After starring in films directed by Michael Haneke (Funny Games) and Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene) Corbet exploded onto the screen with a fascinating and scary piece of work, The Childhood of a Leader, a period piece dealing with similar issues of societal traumas and improper care. If anything, that film is a brutally efficient parable, one that tackles its epic themes with a startling confidence. In order to pull such a work off, one must have to be willing to exhaust every tool in one’s filmmaking arsenal and Childhood did that with ease.

The same goes for Corbet’s sophomore effort. Vox Lux goes through a number of themes, tones, and even genres in its frantic, animalistic quest to find some meaning (and even humor) in the numbing horrors of trauma itself and the brutal highs and lows of its aftermath. This is the reason why it feels so much like a confession. Paired with Childhood, Vox Lux plays like Brady Corbet staring you right in the face, giving you the finger and asking you, “Why are you letting me do this to myself?”

What makes Vox Lux interesting though is that it isn’t afraid to be critical of itself. Celeste (more so Portman’s garish troll) isn’t really a good person, just a flawed one making decisions based more on making an impression than actually having anything to say. And at times that is what Vox Lux feels like: a film that uses explicit material to make an impression…and yet that impression might just be part of the sick joke. In one of the most hypnotic scenes of the year, Celeste (Raffey Cassidy) explains to a young lover (Michael Richárdson) that her attacker listened to music that he made. They have a discussion about whether or not it was the music that made him do what he did or himself. The presentation of this discussion draws us to the main theme of the movie: That at the bottom of all of this is not the art itself, but how a sick wider culture allows that art to influence the many of us who are so scared. The joke is that the art is often too distracting, too influential to that sickness, to that fear, to actually help those in need. Brady Corbet might not hate pop music, but he knows that half of the equation is “pop.”

This manifested in my reaction to the film itself. After seeing it for the first time at the St. Louis International Film Festival, I walked away humming the main song at the center of the film, “Wrapped Up,” written and performed by Sia (who has produced some brilliant “pop anthems” for this work). It was only later that my brother pointed out to me that the lyrics to the song itself presented a twisted co-dependent view of the world. I was so wrapped up (pun intended) in the song itself that I forgot to listen to what it was telling me.

On that note, the portrayal of mental illness feels especially potent and real here.  Celeste (and therefore the film) bounces from a weeping, dazed, depressive mood to emotional highs of a startling quality. The final high, a dazzling concert that bookends the film, is immensely satisfying. So much so that you almost forget you’d spent the last 90 minutes suffering.

The actors holding up this crazy vision are almost all pitch perfect. Natalie Portman and Jude Law (who also executive produced this madness) both turn in performances that would be career makers if they weren’t already so prolific, Corbet collaborator Staci Martin finally gets to be in a good movie this year, and Raffey Cassidy (coming off of her perfect performance in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Killing of a Sacred Deer) is shaping up to be a movie star. Much like with the best film of last year, Cassidy is saddled with incredibly difficult material but she handles it with ease, creating a realistic and terrifying portrait of a young artist.

One would be amiss to not mention the technical work as well. Not only are the songs produced perfectly for this film, the concert at the end is choreographed incredibly well. It’s the moment that we’ve been waiting for so it really has to be. Props also must be paid to the technical team of cinematographers, gaffers and camera operators who made that concert, as well as the many insane long takes that populate the film. It is a gorgeous looking movie that could only spring from a technical team as motivated as the creative one.

Vox Lux is something of a masterpiece, a film that is determined to shock you, excite you, drag you across the concrete and leave you conscious of the many factors that built Celeste. Of the factors that built us, our modern culture, and, most of all, our reactionaries. It’s a desperate cry into the void, one that you will hopefully hear.

5 out of 5

VOX LUX is currently playing in St. Louis only at The Chase Park Plaza Theater

Natalie Portman Is VOX LUX In First Preview

Academy Award winner Natalie Portman (JACKIE, BLACK SWAN) stars in the first preview for VOX LUX. Written and directed by Brady Corbet, check out the trailer now.

VOX LUX, A 20th Century Portrait, begins in 1999 when teenage Celeste (Raffey Cassidy) survives a violent tragedy. After singing at a memorial service, Celeste transforms into a burgeoning pop star with the help of her songwriter sister (Stacy Martin) and talent manager (Jude Law). Celeste’s meteoric rise to fame dovetails with a personal and national loss of innocence, consequently elevating the young powerhouse to a new kind of celebrity: American icon, secular deity, global superstar.

By 2017, adult Celeste (Natalie Portman) is mounting a comeback after a scandalous incident almost derailed her career. Touring in support of her sixth album, a compendium of sci-fi anthems entitled, “Vox Lux,” the indomitable, foul-mouthed pop savior must overcome her personal and familial struggles to navigate motherhood, madness and monolithic fame.

Featuring original songs by Sia, an original score by Scott Walker and a transcendent performance by Natalie Portman – VOX LUX personifies the cult of celebrity and pummels the zeitgeist, it’s an original story about the forces that shape us, as individuals and nations.

NEON will release VOX LUX in NY and LA on December 7, 2018, expanding nationwide December 14, 2018.

EATING ANIMALS – Review

Chickens crowded into a confined feeding shed they never leave in their brief lives, in a scene from the documentary EATING ANIMALS. Courtesy of IFC.

EATING ANIMALS has its title slightly wrong. The documentary should have been called “Factory Farming Animals,” because that is its real focus. Factory farming is the production of cheap, fast animal protein, done at a high profit for some big agribusiness corporations and a high price for farm animals, farmers, the environment, and public health. Whether one goes vegan or not after seeing this documentary, one certainly will be put off eating factory-farmed animals after watching this gut-wrenching expose´.

EATING ANIMALS is based on Jonathan Safran Foer’s bestselling book of the same name and it is narrated by Natalie Portman. Portman is vegan and Foer describes himself as sometimes a vegetarian, and both are producers of the documentary directed by Christopher Quinn. The documentary does make a pitch for going meatless at one point but it is not the whole focus of the film. The film does not get into the differences between vegan and vegetarian (vegans don’t eat animal products such as milk and eggs but vegetarians do), but it does offer plenty of food for thought for omnivores and even carnivores. One does not have to be a vegan to be appalled at the treatment of animals this film reveals. Just having a human heart is sufficient, as being eaten eventually is the least of what these creatures suffer. And then there is how this system abuses the people in it, which is also heartbreaking

Anyone who still imagines our modern agriculture system resembles the old model of the independent family farm is in for a big shock watching this documentary. Those family farms do still exist but now those traditional farming methods are called organic. As many will note, this is not the only documentary to spotlight the high cost we (and animals and the environment) are paying for the factory farming system. Several other films, including 2008’s FOOD INC, have made the case about the unsustainable, unsavory mess that CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations), excessive routine use of antibiotic, and extreme selective breeding have made. This documentary sticks to the animal husbandry side of things but other films have focused on the problems with crops also grown under this same big agribusiness system.

This is not a system that sprung up overnight, as this documentary rightly notes, from some sudden conscious decision but one arose step-wise, starting after World War II, in pursuit of increasing yields and hoped-for profits. Unfortunately, the profits increasingly were shifted up the economic chain to big agribusiness corporations, leaving farm families struggling with debt and trapped in an economic loop. The documentary also offers evidence to counter the false claim that factory farming is needed to feed the world. It isn’t really but it does profit a few politically powerful companies greatly.

There is, of course, hope for those who find themselves sickened by this out-of-whack system of food production. More people are choosing organic foods from small farms and locally-grown foods. However, this film mentions those trends only in passing or not at all, and does not acknowledge the public’s shifting attitudes and increasing awareness of where one’s food comes from. Instead, it suggests going meatless as the one solution.

The approach of director/producer Christopher Quinn in EATING ANIMALS is curious at times. He does a good job of focusing on the cruelty and animal suffering under a system so changed from the traditional farm, when chickens ran in the yard, cows ate grass in pastures, and farmers who took pride in breeding and raising healthy animals. Quinn also does well telling the human side of this story. The documentary follows several farmers, people who grew up on traditional farms and have a fondness for both their animals and farm work, but now find themselves caught in a system that dehumanizes and traps them as well as their animals. It also follows the story of a fisherman tracking the source of pollution of the lake he fishes, which he traces to the large collection of hog CAFOs upstream. There is also the heartbreaking tale of a veterinarian, who turned whistle-blower on a government agency that once served farmers and now conducts appalling experiments on animals for large agribusiness corporate interests, a choice that came with a high personal price.

At times, the documentary seems too far-ranging and a bit unfocused. Among the voices heard in the documentary is Dr. Temple Grandin, the famous expert on farm animal behavior and management, who speaks disapprovingly of the abuses seen in the film but then vanishes. There is a long segment on Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame and his well-known criticism of what his chicken restaurant after he sold the idea but the connection to the rest of the film seems tenuous.

It always seemed a little surprising that the Human Society and similar animal protective organizations don’t do more to insist on humane treatment of animals in these facilities, or to stop cruel selective breeding that creates animals unable to stand. We do see a little on the Humane Society’s efforts to expose animal abuse in CAFOs and meat processing facilities, which is some of the most heartbreaking footage in the film. And the documentary does offer a kind of explanation of why we don’t see more, by noting the enormous political power of these agribusinesses giants, and the rise of “Ag-Gag” laws that keep their abuses out of public view.

Periodically, EATING ANIMALS shifts gears to campaign for eating vegan or vegetarian, presenting glowing segments touting going meatless, although many meat substitutes made from wheat leave those who are allergic or sensitive to gluten out of luck. Ironically, the end credits note that one of the agribusiness companies spotlighted for CAFOs is now investing in companies that sell meatless products. Switching to something made with mono-cropped soybeans doesn’t seem like much improvement for the farmer trying to raise heritage breed chickens sustainably.

EATING ANIMALS offers going vegan as an option for reducing demand for meat, as a way to move away from factory farming but it is strangely silent on other options to this kind of food production, such as the public’s move towards organic foods, locally-sourced foods, grass-fed beef, small-farm free-range chickens, and farmers markets. The documentary has little to nothing to say on those topics, which is perhaps its major flaw. Any one-note approach seems unlikely to solve the problem.

EATING ANIMALS makes some good points, although not a lot of new ones, on far-ranging topics all connected to the problems created by factory farming of animals. Where it falls short is a tighter focus and in offering options besides going vegan or vegetarian as to solve it.

RATING: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars

Win Passes To The Advance Screening Of EATING ANIMALS In St. Louis

How much do you know about the food that’s on your plate? Based on the bestselling book by Jonathan Safran Foer and narrated by co-producer Natalie Portman, Eating Animals is an urgent, eye-opening look at the environmental, economic, and public health consequences of factory farming. Tracing the history of food production in the United States, the film charts how farming has gone from local and sustainable to a corporate Frankenstein monster that offers cheap eggs, meat, and dairy at a steep cost: the exploitation of animals; the risky use of antibiotics online and hormones; and the pollution of our air, soil, and water. Spotlighting farmers who have pushed backed against industrial agriculture with more humane practices, Eating Animals offers attainable, commonsense solutions to a growing crisis while making the case that ethical farming is not only an animal rights issue but one that affects every aspect of our lives.

EATING ANIMALS is produced/narrated by Natalie Portman. It opens in St. Louis on July 13.

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Date: July 11 at 7PM in the St. Louis area.

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NO PURCHASE REQUIRED. A pass does not guarantee a seat at a screening. Seating is on a first-come, first served basis. The theater is overbooked to assure a full house.

Visit the official Site: http://www.ifcfilms.com/films/eating-animals