Collateral viewing

I’m still tracking down award-worthy films from last year, and also taking a keen interest in the resumption of something like normal baseball for my hometown team (which shall remain nameless, though I hope soon to be rooting for the Cleveland Blues), but around the edges I’ve been watching this and that, mostly documentaries or docudramas, and I collect my responses here.  Usually my viewing is more targeted, but this entry is rather like random channel surfing.  It does, however, begin and end with strong recommendations.
 
Starting with what may be the best of the bunch, I point to the latest on the consistently-rewarding PBS program “American Masters”:  Oliver Sacks: His Own Life (MC-83, PBS).  Even if you are not a fan of Sacks’ writing, or only know him as portrayed by Robin Williams in the movie of Awakenings, you will be fascinated to make his acquaintance in this film by Ric Burns.  Though only shot after Sacks’ diagnosis of terminal cancer, the film contains archival material of his entire life, from obsessive mama’s boy childhood in England, through flight to San Francisco after his mother declared him an “abomination” when he came out to her.  There he became a weight-lifting, speed-taking, leather-clad motorcyclist, before settling into his career as outcast neurologist turned celebrity sage, making a compelling case that wisdom is the best revenge.  His is a life worth knowing, and this film a fine introduction to his personality and thought.
 
On the other hand, I’m not generally a devotee of “Great Performances,” but Romeo & Juliet (MC-92, PBS) drew my attention by starring Josh O’Connor and Jessie Buckley as the doomed pair.  They are indeed excellent, and so is the entire cast.  In a stripped-down adaptation, shot in a warehouse-like setting under Covid lockdown, many qualities of Shakespeare’s play shine through, but for me the performance was something less than great, though not a bad way to spend 90 minutes.  But like Jessie B. without her red hair (though with her Irish accent), there was something just a little off about the whole production.
 
My tangential association to the art world was enough to make me look at Made You Look: A True Story about Fake Art (MC-tbd, NFX).  Barry Avrich’s documentary looks at the fall of Knoedler Gallery, New York’s oldest art dealers, in a scandal of forged paintings.  Almost entirely through talking heads, it tells an absorbing story that raises large questions about authenticity and value in art, as well as the people who buy and sell it.  Chalk this up as one I would be happy to show at the Clark, if I were still programming films there.
 
I thought I’d be one and done with Worn Stories (MC-79, NFX), but I continued to fill the odd half-hour with an episode of this anthology series, about different sorts of people and their individual connections to their clothes.  It reminded me of the Netflix series History of Swear Words in the way it was put together, though I’m inherently more interested in language than in clothes.  Plus this series seemed to foreground LGBTQ stories somewhat disproportionately.  But it grew on me and drew me back for more.
 
Easy to see why I missed Rush (2013, MC-74, NFX), since I’m not a fan of motor sports, nor of the stars and makers of this film, but I was led to it by a NYer recommendation from Anthony Lane.  I was ready to be pleasantly surprised, as I was by Ford v Ferrari.  I knew nothing about the epic competition for the Formula 1 Grand Prix racing crown in 1976, between raffish Brit James Hall and technocratic Austrian Niki Lauda.  And I needed the end credits to determine that the actors playing them were Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brűhl   I recognize Ron Howard more as the child character Opie, than for any of the many films he’s directed, but here he does show a knack for action sequences.  Peter Morgan’s script hews to the facts of the rivalry (as checked on Wikipedia), and conveys the contrast of characters convincingly.  Through the noise and bravado of boys with their toys, a parable of two approaches to excellence emerges.
 
I had contrary reactions to two HBO documentaries.  I imagined Our Towns (MC-tbd, HBO) as the initial program in a series.  I would happily keep puddle-jumping with reporters James and Deborah Fallows in their little plane, from one American town to another, exploring examples of decline and revival in different parts of the country.  It did however work as a 90-minute film as well, quite handsomely filmed by Steven Ascher and Jeanne Jordan. 
 
On the other hand, for all of the brilliance of Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro), I found the four hour-long episodes of Exterminate All the Brutes (MC-83, HBO) excruciatingly protracted.  The thesis of the series – about the historical intertwining of imperialism, capitalism, and racism – was well-taken and intermittently well-expressed and well-illustrated, but repetitive and self-important.  Some animation, graphics, found footage and old movie clips were instructive and illustrative, but most of the historical reenactments were tedious.  Brought in as a film under two hours, this would have been far more persuasive.
 
There are 2½ good reasons to watch the third season of the NatGeo series Genius: Aretha (MC-66, Hulu).  The first is that Aretha Franklin really was a generational genius, spanning the era from MLK to BHO.  The second is that Cynthia Erivo is a stunning performer, perfectly able to carry the weight of Aretha’s artistry.  And Courtney Vance is more than half-good as her father, the irreverent Rev. C.L. Franklin.  The other performers are okay too, but spread out over a mishmash of eight hour-long episodes, their effect is dissipated.  I persisted through the series for the snatches of musical performance, even though I would have been more satisfied with a documentary of that duration.  On stage or in studio, this show rocks; offstage it’s rocky and a bit rock-headed.  I also found ineffective the attempt to arrange episodes around themes, rather than chronology.  It’s one thing to have b&w flashbacks to Aretha as a 12-year old starting out on her father’s gospel music tour (and having a baby), but the jumping back and forth within her adult career just compounds the confusion, and the inability to conceive a clear sense of her life.  This show was created by the woman who wrote the recent Billie Holiday movie, which is an indication not a recommendation.  For better stories of powerful Black female singers, see here.
 
I sampled a couple of Hulu offerings in passing.  Hysterical (MC-76, Hulu) is a documentary about a number of female stand-up comedians, most of whom I had never heard of.  I enjoyed some snippets of material, and respected the film’s arguments about the misogyny women face in penetrating a male-dominated profession, but it didn’t lead me to pursue their work, even if I have been thoroughly engaged by some women in stand-up, notably Hannah Gadsby and Tig Notaro.

Looking for a break from some heavy viewing, I gave the teen comedy/drama Spontaneous (MC-78, Hulu) a chance after the NYT cited it as a hidden gem.  Well, not quite, but still a witty and metaphorical approach to the horror of high school, at least for two-thirds of its duration.  Manic in its movie parodies, and appealing in its leads, Katherine Langford and Charlie Plummer, this splatterfest mixes genres freely, until Brian Duffield’s film becomes all too much, and evaporates in the mind immediately.  Basically, kids start exploding at random in school, and the panic in the corridors calls up intimations of school shootings and other disasters, along with memories of the hellmouth under Buffy’s Sunnydale High.
 
I also stuck with another of those NYT “hidden gems,” even though I again lost patience with its “third act”:  Man Up (MC-69, HBO) is further proof of how hard it is to make a romantic comedy in this day and age.  Simon Pegg and Lake Bell are quite engaging as the leads, and early walk-ons by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Sharon Horgan promise a Fleabag/Catastrophe vibe that never really delivers.  Ben Palmer directed the popular British comedy Inbetweeners (a laugh track prevented me from watching) and the FX series Breeders (MC-65), with Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard (I’m currently watching the second season, but don’t actually recommend it).  Nor do I recommend this film, unless you’re desperate for a contemporary rom-com. 
 
Another film I rather liked till the final third was Beast (2017, MC-74, AMZ), which I watched only to see Jessie Buckley’s film debut (I’ve been a fanboy since her breakout in Wild Rose).  It’s totally apt that the flame-haired Irish actress got her start as a teenage contestant on a BBC talent show called I’d Do Anything, since that seems to be the motto of her career, and certainly her approach to this role, which features volatility and psychological ambiguity.  Is she mad, is she violent, or merely misunderstood?  Is she the beast of the title, or is that her bad boy friend (Johnny Flynn)?  In writer-director Michael Pearce’s debut film, set atmospherically on his native Channel Island of Jersey, the plot and characterizations are twisty, until they spin off into absurdity.  You could pick out different points where the story goes off the rails, but you’ll have to agree it’s a wreck by the end.

To bring this post back to a high note, let me register a ringing endorsement for the latest Mitchell & Webb series, Back (MC-85, Sund), which recently completed its second season.  If you’ve seen Peep Show (and if not, you’re really missing something), you’re aware of the longtime comedy duo of David Mitchell and Robert Webb and their well-honed back-&-forth, and you won’t be disappointed in this new show, created by Simon Blackwell, who wrote for The Thick of It and Veep.  Here the odd-couple pair portray faux-brothers vying to run the cozy family pub The John Barleycorn, a sort of Cheers in a Cotswold village, where a plethora of character types congregate and kibitz.  Mitchell is the rightful heir to his just-deceased father’s establishment, having returned from a failed legal career in London.  But at the funeral, Webb appears as another claimant, having spent with the family the best half-year of his transient life in foster care, and having kept in touch with the father while ricocheting around the globe in a variety of sketchy enterprises.  Is Mitchell a paranoid neurotic, or is Webb a con-man out to take over both family and business?  Or maybe the latter is a genuinely helpful sort that people just naturally like?  Whichever, this show has the hilarious doubleness of Peep Show, with an engaging setting and array of characters, ranking with the best of British comedy.
 
In a 2013 departure that turned out to be a dead end, Mitchell & Webb starred in an odd hybrid comedy-drama, Ambassadors (BCG, Britbox).  In the fictional country of Tazbekistan, Mitchell is the ambitious new British ambassador and Webb is his deputy, a multilingual old hand in the place.  Neither the comedy nor the drama really takes off over the course of three hour-long episodes (instead of the traditional six half-hours), though there are ample rewards along the way.  You can see why it wasn’t renewed, not least because of the impressive but no doubt expensive on-location shooting in Turkey.  This show does not quite make it into the company of comparables like The Thick of It and A Very English Scandal.
 
I took a month’s subscription to Britbox in order to watch 63 Up (MC-89) at last.  I’ve been an avid follower of Michael Apted’s monumental documentary series from 7 Up on, commenting on 49 Up here and 56 Up here.  If you’re not familiar with the series (all available on Britbox), I’m not sure where you should jump in, but I can’t stress strongly enough that you ought to do so, maybe with this latest episode (and likely last, since Apted himself has died since this film’s 2019 release).  Revisiting the same 14 Brits (with some dropouts) every seven years from 1964 on, the series is about many things besides the characters portrayed – British life and history; class, gender, and psychology; work and family; hopes, dreams, and harsh realities; time itself.  I went into this film with sky-high expectations, and they were exceeded.