"Lord, What a Mess!"

FIRST REFORMED

Dir: Paul Schrader

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried

"Lord, What a Mess" was never uttered by Ethan Hawke's conflicted pastor as he grapples with his relationship with God when confronted by a future consumed by the irreversible effects of climate change in "First Reformed." But that is what he is thinking throughout this film -- and that is certainly what  I was thinking as I sat through writer-director Paul Schrader's ponderous attempt to call attention to the 21st Century climate crisis.

I sought out this film because of repeated comparisons to Ingmar Bergman's classic "Winter Light" (1963), where a Lutheran pastor questions the existence of God in the face of a suicidal parishioner's (Max Von Sydow) fears of a nuclear holocaust. Aside from the first scene inside a white-washed church, complete with a plain, bespeckled female parishioner (channeling the incomparable Ingrid Thulin) who has a 'thing' for the man of God, that comparison is jettisoned for more of a pale homage to Robert Bresson's "Diary of a Country Priest" (the pastor does indeed keep a diary and is afflicted with a debilitating illness), before it veers inexplicably off course into "Taxi Driver" territory. (!)

Schrader, you may recall, penned that classic film of alienation in the Seventies, so it may be no surprise that he relies on images from his greatest triumph when the story goes off the rails. Here, he attempts to re-imagine Travis Bickel as an alienated Eco-Warrior. As well-intentioned that idea may be, it doesn't make for a believable narrative. And Schrader is no Scorsese.

I will spare you a story synopsis, other than to say First Reformed is the name of the oddly non-denominational church in upstate New York that Hawke's character finds himself presiding over (how he got this gig is never explained). Suffice to say that, as great as Schrader is at story and dialogue, he cannot direct. (Or perhaps Cedric 'the Entertainer' just can't act).  I suppose some scenes are meant to be comic, but I was more inclined to laugh out loud at the preposterous scenes that were intended to be serious.  Don't think by dropping in a few references to Thomas Merton you can convince us you are saying something 'profound.' Give us more credit than that!

THE RIDER

The Rider (2017)

Dir: Chloe Zhao

There is a long tradition in film of employing non-professional actors for leading roles -- in foreign film, that is. Indeed, it is one of the hallmarks of Italian Neorealism: Bicycle Thieves, Umberto D., The Bandits of Orgosolo (to name but a few), are all enriched by the performances of 'real people' (not actors) in the lead roles. It usually backfires when a non-pro is cast against an actor with the star power of, say, Ingrid Bergman (think of the poor fisherman who played her husband in Stromboli.)
But the Italian directors to this day can pull it off: one recent example: the Taviani brothers filmed their adaptation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in a maximum-security prison, and cast the inmates in all the roles! Caesar Must Die (2012). Brilliant!

This practice hasn't caught-on in the U.S., aside from the occasional child actor. One notable exception that brought an unmatched authenticity to the story is the casting of Dwight Henry and Quvenzhane Wallis in Benh Zeitlin's Beasts of the Southern Wild (also from 2012). All of this serves as a long-winded intro into the latest, and most-daring example from indie director Chloe Zhao: The Rider. It tells the barely-fictionalized story of rodeo rider Brady Blackburn, returning home to a South Dakota reservation after sustaining a skull-fracturing fall, a head full of staples holding him together. There, he reunites his father and developmentally-challenged sister: all three leads are played by their real-life counterparts Brady, Tim & Lilly Jandreau. The rest of the movie is spent showing Brady coming to terms with never being able to ride competitively again, which defines him and his rodeo cowboy friends on the reservation (also played by non-pros).

I have seen the movie described as 'docu-fiction'--the easy route would have been to film a straight documentary about these riders on the unglamourous regional circuit who ride because it is in their blood, yet face life-altering injuries pursuing their sport. Instead, Zhao went for something bigger, and it pays off in a big way. She is able to depict the everyday struggles,  determination, and character of these reticent, plain-spoken people that a voice-over, talking-head doc could never reveal.

Two recurrent interactions the self-possessed Brady has during the course of this reflective film are at the heart of this movie: one takes place in a hospital, where he visits a fellow rodeo cowboy whose injuries left him unable to speak or walk. The second shows him pursuing his passion in a slightly less dangerous way: taming wild horses. Kudos to Zhao for letting Brady (who is in every scene) command the movie without any actorly affectation. These near-wordless scenes cannot be scripted: they are as real as the people who inhabit this superb film.

OSCAR PREDICTIONS

As always, I start with CATEGORY; then Who I WANT to win; then Who I THINK will win.

(That's where we got the name "Want/Think List.")

BEST PICTURE           DUNKIRK                                               THREE BILLBOARDS ...

BEST ACTOR              Timothee Chalamet, Call Me ...               Gary Oldman, Darket Hour

BEST ACTRESS          Sally Hawkins, Shape of Water               Frances McDormand, 3 Billboards

Best Supp. Actor           Wm. Dafoe/Richard Jenkins                     Sam Rockwell, 3 Billboards

Best Supp. Actress        Allison Janney, I Tonya                           (same)

Best Director                 Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk                    Guillermo del Toro, Shape of Water

Best Original Screenplay       Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird                Martin McDonough. 3 Billboards

Best Adapted Screenplay James Ivory, Call Me By Your Name   (same)

Best Foreign-Lanuage Film -no pick-                                            A Fantastic Woman

Best Animated Film        LOVING VINCENT                              COCO

Best Editing                    Dunkirk                                                  Baby Driver

Best Cinematography     Blade Runner/Dunkirk                         The Shape of Water

Best Production Design  Blade Runner/Shape of Water             The Shape of Water 

Best Original Score         Phantom Thread                                  The Shape of Water

Best Original Song         "Stand Up for Something" Marshall     "Remember Me" Coco

Best Costume Design    Phantom Thread                                   The Shape of Water

Best Make-Up & Hair    -no pick-                                               Darkest Hour

Best Sound Mixing        Dunkirk                                                 Dunkirk

Best Sound Editing        Dunkirk                                                 Dunkirk 

Best Visual Effects         Blade Runner 2049                               Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Best Documentary Feature  Faces Places                                    Last Men in Aleppo

Best Documentary Short     -no pick-                                         Traffic Stop 

Best Animated Short      -no pick-                                               Dear Basketball

Best Live Action Short     The Silent Child                                 DeKalb Elementary

MY TOP TWELVE MOVIES OF 2017!

Two things any recent followers of this page should know about me: I am always LAST with my Top Ten Movie List, and ... I'm always a little different. This year, for example, I expanded the list to 12 (mainly because I could re-arrange the last six on the list and not be upset). Also, I managed to miss 3 importnat movies: Get Out; The Florida Project; and The Last Jedi (unforgiveable!). For a self-described foreignfilmguy, having only one movie in a foreign language on my list is likewise unforgiveable!
TOP 12 MOVIES
1) DUNKIRK
2) Lady Bird
3) Frantz (FRANCE)
4) Call Me By Your Name
5) All the Money in the World
6) The Shape of Water
7) Wind River
8) The Beguiled
9) Lady Macbeth (UK)
10) Loving Vincent – animated
11) I, Tonya
12) Phantom Thread

Honorable mention:
3 Billboards Outside Ebbing, MO
The Disaster Artist
A Ghost Story
Molly’s Game*
T2: Trainspotting
Wonder Woman

Saw & enjoyed:
Atomic Blonde
Blade Runner 2049
Hostiles
The Little Hours
The Lost City of Z
My Cousin Rachel
Their Finest (UK)
The Zookeeper’s Wife*
An Inconvenient Sequel (doc.)
Kedi (the Turkish cat doc.)

Finally, take a moment to reflect on THE 3 WORST MOVIES I sat through in 2017:
1. Novitiate
2. Kong: Skull Island
3. mother!

OSCAR NOMINATIONS RANT -- 2018 edition

It has become an annual tradition on the third (or fourth) Tuesday in January: the Academy releases its nominations at 5:37 am Pacific Time, and I release my outrage that evening! Only this year, I'm Naming Names!

Here now are four undeserving nominees, and the deserving people from whom they unfairly stole the spotlight:

1. MERYL STREEP -- it is no surprise that Meryl received her 200th nomination for playing Washington Post publisher Katherine 'Kay' Graham in Steven Spielberg's "The Post." It was a good performance...nothing as bad as her ill-conceived turns in "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Doubt" (Lord have mercy). But to deny a spot to either one of these two exceptional actresses is nothing short of unpatriotic (and probably treasonous): MICHELLE WILLIAMS in "All the Money in the World" and the lovely JESSICA CHASTAIN as Molly Bloom in the under-rated "Molly's Game." To add insult to injury, these two fine films received ONE nomination each compared to "The Post's" TWO!

2. DENZEL WASHINGTON -- a Best Actor nomination for a movie no one saw. Just last year, he was nominated for "Fences." It was a craven move by the Academy, to avoid any possible #MeToo unpleasantness by nominating JAMES FRANCO for his exceptional work in "The Disaster Artist." Craven, aka chicken-sh*t.

3. BEST VISUAL EFFECTS -- I saw three movies this year that were so bad I had to resurrect my occasional "Worst Movies" list.  One of those movies was KONG: SKULL ISLAND. For it to receive even one nomination, when all it deserves is eternal scorn, is another outrage. For its schlocky, Grade-B movie visuals to receive recognition instead of the jaw-dropping work in DUNKIRK is laughable.

4. And finally (you knew it was coming) ... JOHN WILLIAMS! Even I cannot be too upset with Mr. Williams receiving his 201st nomination for BEST SCORE for his work on "Star Wars: The Last Jedi." That franchise is his bread-and-butter, after all (unlike the more typical hack-work he mailed-in to "The Post.")  It would not be beneath the Oscars to nominate him twice, but what they SHOULD HAVE done was nominate twice the man who produced the two best film scores of the year: HANS ZIMMER, who provided the scores to both DUNKIRK (nominated) and BLADE RUNNER: 2049 (not nominated).

I will still be watching The Oscars, Sunday, March 4th on ABC!