“Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution”
Camp Jened’s location, way up in the Catskills, was not too far from Woodstock, and this summer camp for the handicapped, run by hippies” was fueled by an ideology and idealism that had much in common with that iconic music festival. The idea was to remove them from the rest of the world, put them with kids facing similar challenges, and let them just be themselves – and make, for just a few short weeks, the kind of place they wanted the rest of the world to be. But even more than their counterparts at Yasgur’s Farm, these kids did, in fact, change the world. James Lebrecht and Nicole Newnham’s moving, informative, and funny documentary is, if anything, more about the last half of the title than the first, less about the camp itself the activism it inspired. The kids’ and counselor’s memories of the relationships they formed and the things they learned give the film its backbone, but the most inspiring (and educational) sections are about the actions they took in the years and decades that followed and the ramifications of those actions. It becomes a detailed and inspiring history of their activism (particularly the long and tough process of making the Americans with Disabilities Act happen), and the story is well told with crackerjack archival footage, recent interviews, and plentiful context. They fought these battles, and continue to fight them, and the ongoing struggle is the ultimate message: “We had to empower each other,” we’re told, “that the status quo was not what we needed it to be.” [Review]
“Da 5 Bloods”
Spike Lee’s latest is an epic (in length and scope), and something of a return to the territory of his underseen 2008 film “Miracle at St. Anna” – a pressing reminder that, contrary to the majority of traditional “war movies,” Black soldiers fought and died for this country, to preserve rights for others that their own country would not grant them. His focus is a quartet of Black Vietnam vets (Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Isiah Whitlock Jr., and Norm Lewis) who go back “in country” to retrieve the remains of their squad leader (Chadwick Boseman), and a giant case of war gold they buried alongside him. Lee spins his yarn with a potent mixture of discourse, action, humor, and heartbreak, much of the latter via Lindo’s extraordinary central performance, while Newton Thomas Sigel’s bravura cinematography creates an energetic multi-media mashup aesthetic that meshes well with Lee’s tone- and genre-hopping style. He’s been on something of a hot streak lately, his righteous anger and bemused absurdity activated in equal measure by “President Fake Bone Spurs,” and the chaotic times seem to have caught up with the messiness of his style; these days, it feels more and more like we’re living in a Spike Lee Joint, and this is the finest film of his recent output. [Review]
“Ema”
Pablo Larraín’s latest opens with a shot of a traffic light on fire, and the images that follow in the ensuing 107 minutes are no less arresting. This is appropriate – it’s a film about dancers and dancing and all that those labels entail, which means it’s the most overtly musical of Larraín’s pictures, fusing Sergio Armstrong’s stunning cinematography with a transporting score by Nicolas Jaar. But the film’s greatest asset is star Mariana Di Girolamo, an absolute dynamo in the title role; she casts a spell on everyone around her, including the viewer, with her wonderful, specific, post-punk ambiance. Ema is a somewhat broken woman, trying to recover from a failed adoption and failing marriage by throwing herself into her art (dance) and her new approach to life (hedonistic). Gael Garcia Bernal has something of a thankless role as her choreographer and husband, but he makes the most of it, digging out the dynamics of humiliation and longing inherent in the messiest breakups. Unapologetically sexual, disturbingly candid, it’s a work that seems utterly unhinged, until it arrives at a conclusion that seems, in retrospect, inevitable. [Review]
“First Cow”
Kelly Reichardt’s slow-moving minimalism through the Northwest Pacific is so gentle and genteel, its nuance and control can be nearly imperceptible. But there is so much poetic power in her films as evinced by the Western—or North Western, really—“First Cow,” an insightful, tender and moving story about friendship and as a by-product, the tyranny of capitalism. In “First Cow,” John Magaro and Orion Lee, play unlikely allies and friends, a cook working with fur trappers in the Oregon Territory and a Chinese immigrant on the run from mobsters. Together, these two struggling, unwanted misfits start a business, surreptitiously using the milk of a cow owned by a wealthy landowner, to create delicious oily cakes that delight everyone in the region. The tranquil film and their compassionate comradery, however, is soon interrupted by the wealthy men incensed at the exploitation of their property—the realities of consequence soon close in. Reichardt’s film, keenly observed, dispassionate, but still empathetic, takes nature, fellowship, and cruelty, to craft a layered, affectionate and melancholy look at life and fate. [Review] – RP
“The Invisible Man”
Were we not hoping to arrive at one for the film industry itself, the comeback story of the movie-going year might’ve been Universal’s unexpected resurrection of their classic monster properties, rebounding from the comically quick implosion of their ill-conceived Dark Universe by teaming with Blumhouse to craft stripped-down, modern reconfigurations of those classics. They also wisely chose not to lead off with icons like Dracula or Frankenstein, but with the more malleable James Whale classic. Writer/director Leigh Whannell discards the story’s typical gauze wrapping and empty clothes in favor of dread, fear, and inventively deployed negative space; he also discards the male protagonist, focusing not on a mad scientist but his traumatized wife, turning the story into an up-to-the-minute meditation on paranoia and gaslighting (“This is what he does: he makes me feel like I’m the crazy one”). And then Whannell delivers the thriller goods, using simple but jaw-dropping special effects to deliver his bluntly efficient action and terror set pieces. It all works, and works well, thanks to Whannel’s narrative efficiency and yet another stellar performance by Elisabeth Moss. [Review]
“Lucky Grandma”
Tsai Chin (from “The Joy Luck Club”) is a no-two-ways-about-it delight as the title character, a chain-smoking, no-nonsense gambling grandma who ends up on the wrong side of the Chinatown mob. Her impatient deadpan is a comic weapon, and the story of this character getting in over her head would be enough to satisfy most moviegoers – but then it becomes, unexpectedly enough, a buddy comedy with her big, goofy bodyguard, Big Pong (the wonderful Hsiao-Yuan Ha). That relationship begins as your typical “Odd Couple” riff but becomes something delicate and charming, lending this seemingly lightweight crime comedy unexpected (but welcome) emotional weight. Sasie Sealy’s direction is tight and entertaining, and Andrew Orkin’s brassy store gives the whole picture a boost. It’s not a must-see, and perhaps that’s the point; this is the kind of funky, pay-cable-friendly fun that there’s not much room for in the current marketplace, and it’s a joy to watch a young filmmaker hitting these particular, enjoyable notes.