Happening (L’evenement - 2021)

I was moved by this powerful and eventually harrowing story of a 1960s college student in France who needs an abortion when it was a jailable offense to provide or receive one. Annamaria Vartolomei's Anne is a hard-working young woman determined not to let her studies and career be derailed. Sandrine Bonnaire, the only name in the credits that I recognized, plays her mother.

Director/co-writer Audrey Diwan and co-writer Marcia Romano, with collaboration from Anne Berest and Alice Girard, adapted the 2000 novel/memoir by Annie Ernaux.

I noticed very little music during the movie, but what there was was composed by brothers Evgueni and Sacha Galperine. Here's a YouTube video with the music from the closing credits.

Among its 25 wins and 46 more nominations, the movie won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival and had been on my list for a while.

Bonnaire was last blogged for Queen to Play and the Galperines for The Family. Vartolomei has ten other acting credits. This is Diwan's second feature directing but has written or co-written eight altogether and Romero has written dozens of feature films.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics gave it a near-perfect 99% but its audiences, not so much at 76. I watched it on Hulu on August 24.

Happiness for Beginners (2023)

Fluffy and uneven, this story of a woman on a hiking adventure after a breakup isn't a total waste of time––sort of a Hallmark/Nancy Meyers mashup with beautiful scenery––but not on anyone's top ten list. We picked it because we like Ellie Kemper (in the lead), because something we were planning on streaming that day turned out to be as yet unavailable, and because Netflix was promoting it heavily. Kemper's co-stars include Luke Grimes, Nico Santos, Blythe Danner, and Gus Birney.

Vicky Wight directs and adapted the screenplay from the 2015 novel by Katherine Center. I must admit that the method by which beginners can find happiness (second act) did resonate with me as something we can all stand to remember. If you want to know without sitting through the whole thing, just write me and I'll tell you!

A pleasant half hour of music by composer Sherri Chung is streamable on Apple Music and is accompanied by a bunch of songs, one sung by Danner and two by Birney. Cinematography, including lovely location shots, is courtesy of Daniel Vecchione.

Kemper was last blogged for Laggies, Santos for Crazy Rich Asians, Danner for Hearts Beat Loud, and Birney for Plan B. Jack recognized Grimes from the TV series Yellowstone. This is the third feature for Wight, the ninth for Chung, along with lots of shorts and TV, and the 20th for Vecchione.

Rotten Tomatoes' experienced critics are not pleased with an average of 33%, while its audiences are only slightly more contented at 53. We watched it on Netflix on August 17.

Hit the Road (Jaddeh Khaki - 2021)

This highly-reviewed Iranian movie about a family's road trip is amusing with beautiful pictures of the countryside but left me confused about the purpose of their travel. I had some guesses but didn't figure it all out (more on that in a moment). The parents and two sons (a rebellious six year old and a taciturn young adult) all have well-defined characters, as played by Pantea Panahiha (mother), Hassan Madjooni (father), Rayan Sarlak (little brother), and Amin Simiar (big brother).

Director/writer Panah Panahi, whose father Jafar Panahi is evidently an acclaimed filmmaker, makes his feature debut inspired, according to Wikipedia, by Panah's and others' exiles from Iran. Wiki also says they're driving to the Turkish border to smuggle their older son out of the country and this New Yorker review explains why. New Yorker reviews are usually rife with spoilers (so I read them only after watching) but, this time, there's an actual warning.

A Spotify playlist has about a half hour of music, none of which is by the composer Peyman Yazdanian.

As I mentioned above, Rotten Tomatoes' critics are riding high with a 95% average (so far it has 11 wins and 16 other nominations) while its audiences are cruising more slowly at 75. I watched it on Showtime (it's also available on Paramount+) on August 9.

Rye Lane (2023)

Jack and I loved this delightful, smart rom-com about a young British couple getting to know each other in South London. Vivian Oparah and David Jonsson are terrific as Yas and Dom, with excellent comic timing in the sparkling script written by Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia and directed by Raine Allen-Miller. I jotted down one favorite line: "I was snoozing through the alarm bells." Watch for Colin Firth's cameo selling burritos.

The locations of the Peckham and Brixton neighborhoods (I should spell it neighbourhoods) are wonderfully colorful and there is a real Rye Lane Market there. Like so many movies set abroad and even at home, it shows the viewer places we might not have seen otherwise.

Apparently the soundtrack by Kwes is due to be released in November but six songs can be streamed from this link. 

This is Oparah's second feature and Jonsson's first but with three more in post-production. It's the third feature for Bryon and first for Melia and Allen-Miller (all five have worked on TV shows). Firth was last blogged for Empire of Light.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are loafing this (sorry!) with a 98% average, while its audiences have sliced off a bit at 88. We watched it on Hulu on July 25 and kept the TV on for the blooper reel at the end.

Showing Up (2022)

I loved this dreamy story of an angry sculptor preparing to show her work while juggling an administrative job, working for her mother, at the Oregon College of Art and Craft in Portland. Michelle Williams is brilliant, as always, with body language to convey Lizzy's frustrations. Hong Chau plays a more successful artist who is Lizzy's selfish landlord, Maryann Plunkett and Judd Hirsch are Lizzy's parents, and John Magaro appears as her brother in the third act. There are plenty of other fine actors on screen, too numerous to mention.

Directed by Kelly Reichardt from a script by her and Jon Raymond, it does not move fast. In fact, Vanity Fair calls Reichardt "the American slow-cinema maestro" and Jack is not a fan of slow cinema so he was less enthused than I. But I was transfixed by the long sequences of artists making art, shot at the actual school. Portland sculptor Cynthia Lahti was about to retire when Reichardt hired her to create Lizzy's pieces.

Ethan Rose is credited for the  soundtrack but I can't find it streaming. However, someone has created an Apple Music playlist of songs from the movie, many of which I've had to skip because the lyrics interfere with my composing sentences.

Williams and Hirsch were last blogged for The Fabelmans, Chau for The Menu (I didn't mention her in the cast of dozens in Asteroid City), Plunkett for The Family Fang, and Magaro, Reichardt, and Raymond for First Cow. This is Rose's fifth feature.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics made appearances with an 88% average, while its audiences preferred not to, at 45. We rented it on Apple TV/iTunes on July 29, and kept watching for more sequences of artists making art over the end credits.

Sharp Stick (2022)

Jack said it was "extra" but I liked, and we both had some laughs with, this story of naive 20-something Sarah Jo (Kristine Froseth) who is eager to become sexually active while living with her worldly sister Treina (Taylour Paige) and mother Marilyn (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Lena Dunham writes, directs, and has a part as the wife of Jon Bernthal, who hire Froseth's character to babysit their Down syndrome son. Scott Speedman figures into the plot as online porn star Vance.

I just paused writing to read this essay Dunham wrote about her hysterectomy at age 31 (six years ago), because the character Sarah Jo had a hysterectomy as a teenager. 

The on-set production company, including an intimacy coordinator, was all female.

Dunham's husband Luis Felber (AKA Attawalpa)) co-composes the score with Matt Alchin (affiliated with the band Florence and the Machine) but I can't find it streaming. There are 26 songs credited at the end, some of which are listed on this spoiler-ridden list. 

Paige was last blogged for Zola, Leigh for Annihilation, Dunham for directing and writing Catherine Called Birdy and for (voice) acting in My Entire High School Sinking into the Sea, although she had a small part in Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood, and Bernthal for King Richard.

Froseth (Frøseth) is Norwegian and formerly a model with nine other features, including The Assistant, to her credit. After I wrote about Speedman in Barney's Version he was in 32 episodes of Grey's Anatomy as Dr. Nick Marsh, and he's been in 27 other features and 84 episodes of Felicity, which I never saw. Felber and Alchin were Executive Music Producers for Catherine Called Birdy

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences found it dull, averaging 49 and 40%, respectively. We watched it on Hulu on July 14.