Bull (2019)

Jack and I liked this story of unlikely buddies in Texas: a white adolescent girl punk and and an aging, down-on-his-luck Black rodeo bullrider. For the role of Abe, Rob Morgan is nominated for the Best Actor Spirit Award and won Special Jury Recognition at the SXSW (South by Southwest) Festival. Amber Havard is no slouch either as Kris/Crystal. 

Director/co-writer Annie Silverstein is nominated for the Someone to Watch Spirit Award, among other accolades. The movie was co-written by Johnny McAllister with story consultant Josh Melrod.

Music by William Ryan Fritch isn't available online.

 

Cinematographer Shabier Kirchner is also nominated for a Spirit Award, shooting in Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado. 

Morgan was last blogged for Mudbound and Kirchner for the five part anthology Small Axe. This is the feature debut for Silverstein and Havard, though not McAllister nor Melrod. Fritch is new to me, too, though he has scored several dozen projects, many of which are documentaries and/or shorts.

No bull from Rotten Tomatoes' critics, averaging 90%, though its audiences are stepping in it at 63. We tend toward the former assessment, and watched it on Hulu April 7.

I Carry You with Me (Te Llevo Conmigo - 2020)

This beautiful story is really a docu-drama, with Mexican lovers Iván and Gerardo playing themselves at 40-something in Brooklyn and actors Armando Espitia and Christian Vasquez portraying them twenty years earlier in their homophobic hometown.

It is the first feature for documentarian Heidi Ewing and she is nominated as such for an Independent Spirit Award. Alas, the soundtrack by Jay Wadley isn't available online, but I blogged about him for his work on Indignation.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics carry this one up to 96%. There aren't any audience reviews because it has not been released. I got to watch it April 8 on a screener from the Spirit Awards so that I could vote the following day. The filmmakers are hoping it will be released in late May of this year.

Time (2020)

This excellent documentary has earned its nominations for the Oscar and Spirit Award, and won at Sundance. With lots of actual footage, it tells the story of the ever-upbeat yet determined Fox Rich working for the release from prison of her beloved husband.

Directed by Garrett Bradley, it is well paced. The music is by Edwin Montgomery and Jamieson Shaw. The filmmakers are all new to me.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are up to the minute with an average of 98, while its audiences are running late at  48%.

It's a co-production of, among others, the New York Times and Amazon Studios so I watched it on Prime video on April 9, my eighth movie in eight days, hours before voting for the Spirit Awards.

Spirit Awards ballot

As a card carrying member of the Independent Feature Project I'm entitled to vote for their awards. Below are my votes in the categories in which I watched every nominee. Since I procrastinated, I watched an average of one movie a day from April 2-9 (Jack saw most of them). I just updated my running list of selected awards and will finish after the Spirit Awards April 22 and Oscars April 25. Links below are to my posts about each movie.

Awards have been awarded. My picks are the first listed below in each category and the winners have asterisks*.

BEST FEATURE: Nomadland*
Other nominees:

First Cow

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Minari

Never Rarely Sometimes Always

BEST FIRST FEATURE: Sound of Metal*
Other nominees:

I Carry You With Me
The Forty-Year-Old Version
Miss Juneteenth
Nine Days

BEST DIRECTOR: Lee Isaac Chung, Minari
Other nominees:

Kelly Reichardt, First Cow
Eliza Hittman, Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Chloé Zhao, Nomadland*
Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman

BEST SCREENPLAY: Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman*
Other nominees: 

Mike Makowsky, Bad Education

Alice Wu, The Half of It

Lee Isaac Chung, Minari

Eliza Hittman, Never Rarely Sometimes Always

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY: Noah Hutton, Lapsis
Other nominees:

Kitty Green, The Assistant
Channing Godfrey Peoples, Miss Juneteenth
Andy Siara, Palm Springs*
James Sweeney, Straight Up

BEST MALE LEAD: Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal*
Other nominees:

Rob Morgan, Bull
Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Steven Yeun, Minari
Adarsh Gourav, The White Tiger

BEST FEMALE LEAD: Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Other nominees:

Julia Garner, The Assistant
Nicole Beharie, Miss Juneteenth
Sidney Flanigan, Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Frances McDormand, Nomadland

Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman*

BEST SUPPORTING MALE: Orion Lee, First Cow
Other nominees:

Colman Domingo, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Glynn Turman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Benedict Wong, Nine Days
Paul Raci, Sound of Metal*

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE: Yuh-jung Youn, Minari*
Other nominees:

Valerie Mahaffey, French Exit
Yeri Han, Minari

Alexis Chikaeze, Miss Juneteenth
Talia Ryder, Never Rarely Sometimes Always

BEST DOCUMENTARY: Crip Camp*

Other nominees:

Collective

Dick Johnson Is Dead

The Mole Agent

Time

Didn't get to around to watching She Dies Tomorrow (and I really don't like the horror genre), but I was blown away by the magic hour shots in Nomadland so I cheated and voted for it. 

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Nomadland, Joshua James Richards*
Other nominees:

The Assistant, Michael Latham

Bull, Shabier Kirchner

Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Hélène Louvart

She Dies Tomorrow, Jay Keitel

The IFP added some TV categories and I want to give a shout out to these wonderful nominees for

BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE IN A SCRIPTED SERIES. It was a tough choice, but I voted for Abby McEnany (“Work in Progress”).

The other nominees:

Elle Fanning (“The Great”)
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (“Never Have I Ever”)
Shira Haas (“Unorthodox”)*
Jordan Kristine Seamón (“We Are Who We Are”)

Sadly I did not get to any of the foreign movies in time. FYI here are the nominees.

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM 
Bacurau (Brazil)
The Disciple (India)
Night of the Kings (Ivory Coast)
Preparations to be Together for an Unknown Period of Time (Hungary)
Quo Vadis, Aida? (Bosnia and Herzegovina)*

The Half of It (2020)

This whip-smart modern Cyrano dramedy is about a brilliant Asian impoverished high school girl who sells term papers to her white classmates and is hired to write love letters from a boy to a girl and develops feelings for the girl. Director/writer Alice Wu's script is nominated for a Best Screenplay Spirit Award. Jack and I both loved it.

Leah Lewis is wonderful as the frustrated writer Ellie, Daniel Diemer sweet as the smitten boy Paul, and Alexxis Lemire delightful as Aster, the third side of the love triangle. Becky Ann Baker has a few scenes as Ellie's sympathetic teacher Mrs. Geselschap, which is the name of Wu's favorite high school teacher.

Anton Sanko's soundtrack is, for a change, available to stream by subscription on Apple Music and for free on Spotify.

Wu was told that she could not use the name of Venmo for Ellie's transactions, so she called the app Hushmo, though she found out later Venmo would have been fine with it. The movie takes place in the fictitious town of Squahamish, Washington, but was shot in upstate New York.

Sanko was last blogged for co-composing The Seagull. This is Wu's second feature after one in 2004. Lewis, Diemer, and Lamire are new to me though not to acting, but Baker is very familiar from, among others, 18 episodes of Freaks and Geeks, 20 of Girls, four of Brockmire, three of Big Little Lies, and two of Younger.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are fully behind this one, averaging 97%, while its audiences are roughly a fifth off at 81. We saw it on Netflix on April 6 as part of my personal Spirit Awards film festival. More on that later.

Straight Up (2019)

I liked a lot this movie about Todd, a young man with OCD, unsure of his sexuality, who begins a relationship with a straight woman who is happy with just the way they are. Director/writer/star James Sweeney has been nominated for the Best First Screenplay Spirit Award. Imdb calls it "a love story without the thrill of copulation."

Katie Findlay, as the friend Rory, is well-suited for the witty repartee that earned Sweeney the nomination. Also seen are Tracie Thoms as Todd's therapist and Betsy Brandt and Randall Park as his parents.

The music by Logan Nelson isn't available online, but here is a list of songs. This was the third movie of the eight I saw in eight days last week, so forgive me if I have even less than my usual sense of recall. I was preparing to vote for the Spirit Awards on April 9 and I will publish my ballot once I post about all eight movies.

Sweeney was inspired by a college class that examined the limitations of sexual identity.

Park was last blogged for Always Be My Maybe. Sweeney has previously made some short films and Findlay was in 16 episodes of How to Get Away with Murder and more. Thoms is best known to me for Rent (2005), ten episodes of Love, and a couple of Station 19. I've enjoyed Brandt's work in, among others, 62 episodes of Breaking Bad, seven of Masters of Sex, seven of Parenthood, and 79 of Life in Pieces.

 

Rotten Tomatoes' critics average a straight up 93%, while its audiences are bent down to 68. Many distributors refused the movie because it is shot in the 4:3 aspect ratio (like old school television), but Netflix took it and you can see it there. I streamed it on April 5.

French Exit (2020)

Jack and I liked a lot this story of an eccentric American widow who moves to Paris with her grown son and their cat. There is a supernatural element to it but I think it's a spoiler to tell you (though no other reviewer does). Michelle Pfieffer is just divine in the leading role and apparently ranked this movie highly in her career, even before her Golden Globe nomination. Lucas Hedges is the son, Imogen Poots his girlfriend, Valerie Mahaffey their American acquaintance in Paris, and Danielle Macdonald a psychic they meet on the ocean crossing. Tracy Letts makes an appearance in flashback as Pfieffer's character's late husband.

Azazel Jacobs directs with a steady hand from a script adapted by Patrick DeWitt from his own 2018 novel.

DeWitt's brother Nicholas deWitt (different capitalization intended) makes his screen debut as composer, but I cannot find the soundtrack online.

In our house, we refer to the "Irish goodbye," and the "French exit" is the same thing, is sneaking away from a party without bidding farewell. In French, however, the expression used is "Filer à l'anglaise" or "English leave."

I have a list of rules in movies and this one breaks the second rule by not including a shot of the Eiffel Tower.

Pfeiffer  was last blogged for Ant-Man and the Wasp, Hedges for Let Them All Talk, Poots for The Art of Self Defense, Macdonald for Patti Cake$, Letts for Little Women, Jacobs for The Lovers, and Patrick DeWitt for Terri (also directed by Jacobs). Mahaffey won an Emmy for a role in five episodes of Northern Exposure in the 90s, and I enjoyed her work in seven of The United States of Tara, six of Dead to Me, and many more. She's nominated for a Spirit Award for her supporting role in this movie.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences have their eyes on the exit sign, averaging 62 and 43%, respectively. We disagree.

We watched it on March 9 via a screener from the Independent Feature Project Spirit Awards. I've been waiting to post this until it's available to stream, even though it opened in bricks and mortar theatres in early April. If Jack and I aren't ready to go back to the theatres, I figure my audience isn't, either. That said, this draft is weighing me down so I'm hitting "Publish." The movie has a Facebook page and an official website, so if you want to see it, follow one of those links.

Lapsis (2020)

Jack and I loved this sci-fi dramedy about a naive man struggling to make money, in a world somehow both futuristic and backward, by physically laying internet cables in American forests. When it ended I said to Jack, "I have never before thought a movie was too short!" There are twists and turns and it's all clever and timely, even as the production design mixes modern hand-held mobile devices with old-fashioned tube televisions.

Scrolling through the comments of a Reddit article by the filmmaker once again reminded me why I do not read reviews before watching movies. They bring me down. It was not a documentary, folks! Soon I'll be posting about the ballot I cast for the Independent Feature Project Spirit Awards. I voted for this one for Best First Screenplay.

Our hapless hero is played to perfection by Dean Imperial; his ailing little brother by Babe Howard; the sardonic blonde in the forest by Madeline Wise; and the doctor by Arliss Howard.

Noah Hutton, son of Debra Winger and Timothy Hutton, directed, wrote, edited, and composed the score. After Hutton, Winger married Arliss Howard and Babe Howard is their son and therefore Noah Hutton's half-brother.

I'm streaming Hutton's 20 minute soundtrack on Apple Music. It's also for sale on Amazon and other outlets but doesn't appear to be free anywhere.

Imperial had a role in one short film (and was a staff writer for the series Imposters) and Babe Howard makes his acting debut. I probably saw Wise in the series Crashing but don't remember (I'll probably remember her now). Arliss Howard was just seen playing Louis B. Mayer in Mank and has dozens of other credits. Hutton, making his feature debut, has directed five documentary features and three shorts and has no acting credits.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics, averaging 93%, are more aligned with us than its lapsing audiences at 78. You can rent it on iTunes or Prime, as we did April 6.

Miss Juneteenth (2020)

We liked this one: a story of a former beauty queen (Fort Worth Miss Juneteenth scholarship pageant) turned single mother and waitress preparing her teenage daughter for the same prize. It is nominated for a lot of awards and has won some already. Nicole Beharie and Alexis Chikaeze do fine work as the mother named Turquoise and the daughter named Kai, as does Kendrick Sampson as Kai's father Ronnie.

Channing Godfrey Peoples grew up in Fort Worth, and she attended several Miss Juneteenth pageants there. Juneteenth, if you didn't know, is the holiday celebrating the day, June 19th, 1865, when slaves finally got word that President Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation September 22, 1862. 

The music is credited to Emily Rice but I can't find any online. There are several playlists available, on Apple Music and SoundtrackMania, among others, but I haven't listened to them because I can't write while listening to lyrics.

Beharie was last blogged for 42 and Chikaeze makes her acting debut. I knew Sampson looked familiar with his handsome face and blue eyes. He played Nathan in Insecure and was in four episodes of White Famous, among a number of credits. Peoples makes her feature directing and writing debuts.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics have crowned the winner with an average of 99%, while its audiences do not make the finals at 58.

We watched this on April 2, and you can, too, by renting it on iTunes or Prime.

The Mole Agent (El Agente Topo - 2020)

This sweet documentary about a Chilean octogenarian widower going undercover at a nursing home to see if a client's mother is being mistreated is, as advertised, warm and funny, but it has its sad moments as well. It's nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, Best Documentary Spirit Award, and more, with some wins already.

Sergio Chamy is the star, a kindly gentleman who takes the job and enchants the ladies. The movie was directed and written by Maite Alberdi and the music, not available online, is by Vincent van Warmerdam. Here's a song list, however.

Alberdi embedded her crew in the facility before Chamy's arrival, telling everyone, even the staff, merely that they were documenting daily life in the home. Imdb says, however, that certain liberties were taken, and some have doubts that it's a true documentary.

Alberdi has directed five other feature documentaries, two shorts, and one episode of the PBS series P.O.V.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are out in the sun for this, averaging 95 and 90%, respectively.

As a voting member of the independent Feature Project's Spirit Awards, I watched this April 4 on an IFP screener, but you can stream it anytime on Hulu.

Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020)

Funny, warm, and poignant, this movie was conceived by an experienced documentarian who decided to film her affable octogenarian father pretending to die (in the trailer a stuntman dressed as Dick falls down the stairs) in order to help her deal with her eventually losing him. Jack and I loved it. The Oscar-nominated documentary category is a close race this year! My running list of nominees and winners has the docs at the end.

Kirsten Johnson and her father are a delight as they deal realistically and affectionately with his aging, including some fantasy sequences. Her co-writer is Nels Bangerter.

My interest was piqued when I spotted the name of filmmaker Ira Sachs in the credits. Though Kirsten mentions her children's "two dads," she doesn't go into detail. Apparently she bore twins Viva and Felix (who are in the movie) with an egg donor and sperm from Sachs, who is married to painter Ben Torres. Here's a 2016 article about them.

There's no composer credited but here is a list of songs.

Sachs directed Love Is Strange, about an aging gay couple. Kirsten Johnson has worked as a cinematographer on many docs and director on one other documentary feature. Dick Johnson is still alive (as of today!), though he has long retired from his career as a psychiatrist and now lives in a memory care facility.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are vibrant with a perfect average of 100%, while its audiences are slightly more moribund at 78.

Jack and I both commented several times about the apparent big budget. Well, that's Netflix! We streamed it on that platform on Tuesday March 30.