JT LeRoy (J.T. LeRoy, Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy - 2018)

Thanks to a New York Times article on "offbeat streaming suggestions," Jack and I thoroughly enjoyed this story, based on a memoir, of a shy young woman playing a part for her flamboyant sister-in-law. Kristen Stewart and Laura Dern are fabulous as Savannah and Laura, respectively, as is Diane Kruger as equally flamboyant actress/director Eva. Supporting power comes from Jim Sturgess as Laura's partner/Savannah's brother and Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Savannah's friend.

Justin Kelly directs and co-wrote the script with Savannah Knoop, from whose 2007 book Girl Boy Girl: How I Became JT LeRoy was adapted.

Eva's character is based on actress/director Asia Argento, who did make the movie within the movie. Musicians Courtney Love and (Mick's son) James Jagger have cameos.

I can't find Tim Kvasnosky's score online, but he does have a soundcloud page.

Production values are high, with great locations (their names spelled out on screen).

Stewart was last blogged for Happiest Season, Dern for her Oscar-winning performance in Marriage Story, Kruger for Welcome to Marwen, Sturgess for One Day, and Harrison for Luce.

This is Kelly's fourth feature and Kvasnosky's third score after dozens of other music department credits. Kvasnosky composed for both of Kelly's previous features. Knoop, and artist, dancer, and clothing designer, has just completed a directing a short film from their own script.

Rotten Tomatoes's critics must not read the Times, as their average is a rotten 56%, with its audiences' even lower at 40. We liked it when we watched it on Netflix May 21.

Luce (2019)

From what I recall, Jack and I thought this was good. Octavia Spencer is a teacher, suspicious of her upstanding African-born student (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), who was adopted as an infant by wealthy white parents, played by Naomi Watts and Tim Roth. Imdb categorizes it as drama and mystery. It earned a handful of festival nominations and wins.

Julius Onah directs from a screenplay co-written by him and JC Lee, the latter of whom wrote a 2013 play on which the script is adapted.

I'm streaming the eerie and lovely score by Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury on Apple Music as I type.

Spencer was last blogged for The Shape of Water, Harrison for JT LeRoy, Watts for The Last Castle, Roth for The Hateful Eight, Barrow and Salisbury for Annihilation. Onah has co-written one other feature and directed that one and one other, and this is Lee's feature debut.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics liked this a lot, averaging 90%, while its audiences were looser at 77.

We saw this in a theatre the second half of 2019 but I forgot to write about it at the time and was reminded just yesterday. You can stream it with your Hulu subscription or rent it on iTunes.

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020)

This farce isn’t very good, but Jack and I had some laughs as Will Ferrell, playing his usual clueless man-child, and Rachel McAdams are Icelandic musicians dreaming of participating in a prestigious competition. The song contest is a real thing, a pop-culture televised event with each European Union country submitting one act. Pierce Brosnan plays Ferrell's father and Dan Stevens and musician Demi Lovato two of the Eurovision competitors. 

David Dobkin directs from a script co-written by Ferrell and Andrew Steele.

The score by Atli Örvarsson is overshadowed by the songs (available on Apple Music and elsewhere). Erik Mjönes' awesome bass voice dubs for Stevens' vocals and apparently McAdams sang in every take but Molly "My Marianne" Sandén took over in post production. The song Husavik was Oscar-nominated but didn't win.

Ferrell was last blogged for Elf, McAdams for Disobedience, Brosnan for Love Is All You Need, Stevens for Her Smell, Dobkin for The Judge, and Steele for Casa di Mi Padre.

Eurovision Song Contest 2021 was about to start (it ran May 18-22) when we streamed the movie on Netflix May 15.

Together Together (2021)

As a big fan of Ed Helms, I was excited to see his latest feature, and Jack and I both liked it a lot. Helms plays Matt, a 40-something straight man who hires Anna, a 20-something surrogate (Patti Harrison) to have his baby, and it's reliably cringey and funny. Tig Notaro, herself no stranger to cringe, has a small part as a counselor, and Nora Dunn and Fred Melamed make appearances as Matt's parents.

Here's how much I like Ed Helms: I own a T-shirt with a picture of him playing the ukulele, in character as Andy Bernard from The Office, with the caption, "Here comes treble!"

Nikole Beckwith directs from her own script, and the awkwardness of the two main characters is endearing. The casting is perfect--I can't imagine anyone else in the main roles. It's not one bit relevant to the plot that Harrison is, in real life, a transgender woman. When her (hilarious) character in the series Shrill defined herself as trans I had had no idea. I think it's pretty great that she has been cast as a pregnant woman in this.

Alex Somers' nice indie score seems to be available only on YouTube, though he has scored many other projects.

Helms was last blogged for Penguins, Beckwith for 3 Generations, and Somers for Honey Boy. After I wrote about Notaro and Melamed in In a World..., she created and starred in her autobiographical comedy series One Mississippi and was in six episodes of Transparent, among others, and he has been busy with a few movies and a lot of TV, notably eight episodes of Casual and two of The Morning Show. Nora Dunn's hundreds of credits start with 88 episodes of Saturday Night Live from 1985-1990 (apparently she played a recurring character named Babette! Who knew?) through eight of The Nanny, six of Entourage, four of New Girl, and four of the current series Home Economics.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are together with us, averaging 91%, while its audiences, at 77, are pulling away just a bit.

This is one of the few releases that did come out first in bricks-and-mortar theatres, but we waited a couple of weeks to rent it at home on iTunes on May 19.

Cruella (2021)

I eagerly awaited this release and both Jack and I loved this prequel to 101 Dalmatians, in which the young Cruella (birth name Estella) comes of age in prim 1960s England and 70s glam rock London, complete with a kick-ass soundtrack and wardrobe to die (and dye) for. Emma Stone is magnificent in the title role and is rapidly joining Emma Thompson (who plays the Baroness) at the top of my fan-girl list.

The two Emmas chew up the scenery and, oh! what scenery it is, but there are plenty of others in the cast, including Joel Fry as Jasper, Paul Walter Hauser as Horace, Mark Strong as John the valet, John McCrea as Artie, and Tipper Seifert-Cleveland as young Estella.

Craig Gillespie directs from a screenplay by Dana Fox and Tony McNamara, with story credit by Aline Brosh McKenna, Kelly Marcel, and Steve Zissis, all based on the 1956 novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith. The previous versions of her novel were the animated One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) and the live action 101 Dalmatians (1996) with Glenn Close. Thanks to Wikipedia, I'm reminded that the plots of those two movies revolve around Roger and Anita and their dogs Pongo and Perdita. Anita has a small part and Roger's is even smaller.

Nicholas Britell's score is outstanding, and I'm streaming it on Apple Music as I type, but I suspect I'm one of the few who will remember it, because of the aforementioned song list, below. I'm sure it cost the Disney budget a lot of green to license this classic list. The original motion picture soundtrack, as published by Disney, has only sixteen of those songs. Here it is on Apple Music.

Jenny Beavan's costume design is amazing and there's an "eyewear designer" credit for Tom Davies. In fact, I commented during the movie how good Stone looks in her glasses, with tons of makeup on her saucer eyes.

Typical of a Disney joint, the production values are over the top, and the head of that department is Fiona Crombie. Then there's the cinematography by Nicolas Karakatsanis. I must mention the awesome long tracking shot that I'm going to guess was done by drone. Watch for it.

It's my opinion that this is not for young children, with its length of over two hours, the featured petty criminality, and the threat of dog-icide. The dog Buddy, however, is played by an adorable rescue.

Stone was last blogged for Zombieland: Double Tap, Thompson for Late Night, Hauser for the title role in Richard Jewell, Strong for The Brothers Grimsby, Gillespie for I, Tonya, Fox for How To Be Single, McNamara and Crombie for The Favourite (Stone was Oscar-nominated and more for playing another conniving woman in that one), McKenna for Annie (after which she was series co-creator and co-writer on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), Marcel for Saving Mr. Banks (in which Thompson played another prickly character, the writer of Mary Poppins), Britell for If Beale Street Could Talk, and Beavan for A United Kingdom. I've seen few of Fry's many credits, and enjoyed him in Yesterday and ten episodes of You, Me, and the Apocalypse. Zissis was series co-creator, co-writer, and co-star of Togetherness, and Karakatsanis shot I, Tonya for Gillespie.

Rotten Tomatoes' audiences agree with us, averaging 97%, while its critics aren't as nice at 73. Disney can afford the music rights and production values––this cost $30 to rent for 30 days above and beyond a Disney+ subscription. But I couldn't wait to watch it and we did so on May 28, its opening day.

Don't skip the credits. Two minutes after they begin, there's another sequence that sets us up for the Roger-Anita-Pongo-Perdita story. After which, if you're watching at home, the screen will shrink to urge you to watch something else, a common streaming practice that always has me cursing and fumbling for the remote.

Song list (I took pictures of the screen during the credits and added to a web-published list)

Bloody Well Right – Supertramp

I Am Woman – Helen Reddy
Inside - Looking Out – The Animals
Whisper Whisper – Bee Gees
She’s A Rainbow – The Rolling Stones
Watch the Dog that Brings the Bone – Sandy Gaye
Time of the Season – The Zombies
I Gotcha – Joe Tex
Five to One – The Doors
These Boots are Made for Walking – Nancy Sinatra
Feeling Good – Nina Simone
Fire – Ohio Players
Whole Lotta Love – Ike and Tina Turner
The Wild One – Suzi Quatro
Hush – Deep Purple
Livin’ Thing – Electric Light Orchestra
Stone Cold Crazy – Queen
Car Wash – Rose Royce
Boys Keep Swinging – David Bowie
One Way or Another – Blondie
I Get Ideas (When We Are Dancing) – Tony Martin
Should I Stay or Should I Go – The Clash
I Love Paris – Georgia Gibbs
Love is Like a Violin – Ken Dodd
Theme from a Summer Place – Norrie Paramour and His Orchestra
Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps – Doris Day
You’re Such A Good Looking Woman – Joe Dolan
I Wanna Be Your Dog – John McCrea
Smile – Judy Garland
Nightmares – The J. Geils Band
Eternelle – Brigitte Fontaine
Come Together – Ike and Tina Turner
The Wizard – Black Sabbath
Sympathy for the Devil – The Rolling Stones
Gettin' Out – J. Geils Band 

Cruella De Vil – Mel Leven
Call Me Cruella – Florence + The Machine

Bacurau (Nighthawk - 2019)

Not for everyone, this story of mysterious events threatening the inhabitants of a rural Brazilian village, including its disappearance from maps, made Barack Obama's list of favorite movies of 2020, and Jack and I had some laughs watching it, as well as cringes from violence and man's inhumanity to man.

The usually glamorous Sonia Braga is almost unrecognizable as an elderly mystic with long orange hair and white roots. Udo Kier's face and white buzz cut are recognizable, though perhaps not his name, as a villain. None of the other players are known to me.

Directed and written by Juliano Dornelles and Kleber Mendonça Filho, the story has political-social overtones combined with the supernatural. It was nominated for the Best International Film Spirit Award but did not win.

Mateus Alves and Tomas Alves Souza's soundtrack can be streamed on Apple Music and Spotify.

The movie was shot in Barra (population around 80), near the central western coast of Brazil. Most of the villagers worked on the movie, either as extras or on the crew. A bacurau (translation from Portuguese: nighthawk or nightjar) is a nocturnal bird.

Filho also directed a "making of" documentary called Bacurau no Mapa, released the same year.

Kier was last blogged for Melancholia. Among her dozens of roles, Braga may be best known for Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (1976), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), Moon Over Parador (1988), and the three 2001 episodes of Sex and the City in which she played Samantha's lesbian lover. This is the fourth scripted feature for Filho (his third time writing) and second for Dornelles. Souza has scored eight other features and four shorts and Alves has scored three other features and three shorts. All four worked on Bacurau No Mapa.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics' average of 93%, its audiences' of 85, and the President's accolade added to many nominations and wins keep the movie on a steady flight path. We saw it on Netflix April 29.

I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020)

On my list for quite a while, this story of a woman meeting her new boyfriend's parents wasn't worth the wait. Director/writer Charlie Kaufman's work can be brilliant but sometimes the quirkiness is too much. Despite my fondness for the cast (Jessie Buckley, Jesse Plemons, Toni Collette, David Thewlis–and Jack correctly identified Oliver Platt's voice in one scene), I thought of ending (watching it) several times.

The main character has no name, or she has several names. She and other characters change wardrobe, hair, and backstories from time to time. Oh yeah, and time does not go in a straight line. That's quintessential quirky Kaufman. And, for some reason, I was convinced before watching it that "ending things" meant suicide. It's just a breakup, and not even that important to the plot, such as it is.

Kaufman based his script on the 2016 award-winning novel by Iain Reid. Maybe if I had read the book I might have been more impressed.

The music by Jay Wadley is good, though, and you can hear a track on his soundcloud site.

The Art Directors Guild gave production designer Molly Hughes a well-deserved nomination but she and her team didn't win. There were plenty of other nominations in many categories.

Plemons was last blogged for Judas and the Black Messiah, Collette for Knives Out, Thewlis and Kaufman for Anomalisa, and Wadley for I Carry You with Me. After I wrote about Buckley for Wild Rose she played the wildly eccentric nurse in the last season of Fargo (the one with Chris Rock).

Rotten Tomatoes' critics don't want it to end, averaging 82%, while its audiences are more in line with Jack and me at 48.

We watched it on Netflix April 20. My regular readers know I dislike panning movies, so this and another got pushed to the bottom of the list.

Black Bear (2020)

Here's another one that did not move me nor Jack. In the first part, Aubrey Plaza plays a filmmaker who has just arrived at a bickering couple's lake house to find inspiration. But roles change in the second and final act. Plaza's acting is good (we like her a lot), as is Christopher Abbott's and Sarah Gadon's as the couple. 

Lawrence Michael Levine writes and directs, and was nominated for the Sundance NEXT Innovator Award for this project. Apparently he said the movie is based on his dreams. We have to be careful with whom we share our dreams, because most people just do not care.

Giulio Carmassi & Bryan Scary's soundtrack can be streamed on Apple Music, if you care.

If you watch this, you may want to know that "room tone" is a recording that is needed for editing a movie. Everyone must be still and quiet while the sound person makes the recording, usually after shooting a scene.

Plaza was last blogged for Happiest Season and Gadon for Indignation. Abbott has dozens of credits, including Martha May Marcy Marlene, A Most Violent Year, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, and thirteen episodes of Girls. Levine directed three other features before this, two of them under the name Lawrence Levine, and got some nominations and a couple of wins for this and the one before.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics can bear this, with an average of 90%, but its critics are in the woods with us at 61%. We watched it on Netflix May 11.

Oscar shorts 2021

Jack and I like to watch these programs of Oscar nominated short films every year and this year's crop was as good as always. We rented them in April before the Oscars (with a portion of the proceeds going to our favorite neighborhood movie theatre) but I forgot to finish writing about them. There are three programs: animated, live action, and documentary, all between one and a half to two plus hours. If the entries aren't long enough, the series pads the program with "honorable mention" shorts.

Jack and I usually like the animated ones best and this year was no exception.

Burrow, 6 minutes, from the USA, is about a cute bunny trying to make a home for herself.

Genius Loci, 16 minutes, France, is overly trippy and I have no idea what it's about.

If Anything Happens I Love You, 13 minutes, USA, goes from sad to tragic, with parents in mourning flashing back to their child's life. It is pretty hard to watch and won the Oscar.

Opera, 9 minutes, S Korea/USA, is so dense with content and busy that you may want to watch it again. Definitely need a big screen to see all the stuff going on.

Yes-People, 9 minutes, Iceland, is funny. Over and over, people say "yow," which means "yes" in the Icelandic language, as they go about their daily lives.

The honorable mentions were even better than the nominees.

Kapaemahu, 9 minutes, USA (Hawaii) is lovely and spiritual, narrated in the Hawaiian language, about some healing stones in the region.

The Snail and the Whale, 27 minutes, UK/Germany, is poetic and the one I liked best, as I recall. A little snail rides on the tail of a whale to see the world.

To: Gerard, 8 minutes, USA, has an old man livening up a little girl's life through magic.

Occasionally there is a comedy in the live action shorts but not this year. All had complete plots and were well scripted and acted.

The Present (Al Hadiya), 25 minutes, Palestine, is the story of a Palestinian man and daughter harassed while buying an anniversary gift (hadiya) in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Feeling Through, 19 minutes, USA. A young homeless man meets a deaf and blind man in need of assistance. I thought this should win.

Two Distant Strangers, 29 minutes, USA, is a “Groundhog Day”-like fantasy about a white police officer’s violence against a Black man. It's terrific and did win the category.

White Eye, 21 minutes, Israel. A Tel Aviv resident accuses an Eritrean immigrant of stealing his bicycle.

The Letter Room, 33 minutes, USA, has Oscar Isaac playing a kindly corrections officer assigned to sort through and censor mail addressed to death row prisoners. Directed/written by Isaac's wife Elvira Lind, it's the one I thought would win but I was wrong!

We did not watch the documentaries. I'm sure they're wonderful. 

From this link you can pick your favorite independent theatre to benefit from your rental.

The One I Love (2014)

In this clever story, Elisabeth Moss and Mark Duplass go to a country retreat recommended by their marriage counselor and then some supernatural things happen. It's funny, especially in its use of therapy catch phrases and learned behaviors. It's leaving Netflix on May 29, according to a New York Times article, so get it while you can.

Charlie McDowell, son of Mary Steenburgen and Malcolm McDowell, makes his feature directorial debut and his mother does one of the voices in a sequence of voicemails. He is the voice of "Madison" in that sequence. Ted Danson, Steenburgen's husband since the mid 1990s, plays the marriage counselor. This is also the first feature for screenwriter Justin Lader.

The retreat location, shot in Ojai, California, is gorgeous. Well, well, it's Mary and Ted's house. See the guest house here on houzz.

I won't tell you which one, but there was a horror movie released recently with a similar supernatural gimmick. I avoided that one because its supernatural threat was deadly. This has absolutely no blood.

I'm streaming the mostly eerie music by Danny Bensi & Saunder Juriaans on Apple Music and it's also on Spotify and more. Dedicated to the One I Love (stream it on Spotify) by the Mamas & The Papas plays over the credits, and I will sing Cass's alto harmony every time.

Actress Rooney Mara, whom McDowell was dating at the time, served as costume designer under a pseudonym. According to the internet, McDowell is currently engaged to actress Lily Collins.

Moss was last blogged for Shirley and Bensi & Juriaans for The White Tiger. After I wrote about Duplass in Tully, he was in Bombshell, eleven episodes of The Morning Show, and more. Danson was most recently in these pages for Hearts Beat Loud, followed by the series finales of The Good Place and Curb Your Enthusiasm, and the titular role of Mr. Mayor.

Since this came out in 2014 McDowell has directed one other feature (Mara was in it) and a few episodes of some serieses that we like a lot (Silicon Valley, Dear White People, On Becoming a God in Central Florida), and has another feature in development (Collins is set to star). Lader is the screenwriter for the other two McDowell projects as well.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are in like with this, averaging 82 and 76%, respectively. It's not Oscar material but Jack and I enjoyed it.

Standing Up, Falling Down (2019)

We loved this comedy about Scott, a failed comedian returning to his parents' Long Island home and befriending an alcoholic dermatologist. It may not sound funny, but the sparkling script benefits from the comic timing of Ben Schwartz's Scott and Billy Crystal as the doctor. Grace Gummer as Scott's sister (they constantly insult each other), Debra Monk as his sweet mother, and Kevin Dunn as his taciturn dad also add to the fun. Earlier this year, some writer predicted an Oscar nomination for Crystal for this. He didn't get one but it's excellent work for both him and Schwartz.

This is director Matt Ratner's feature directorial debut and the second feature screenplay for writer Peter Hoare.

The only part of the soundtrack that I can find online are two songs on Apple Music and/or Spotify. The credited composer is David Schwartz (no relation, as far as I can tell).

Ben Schwartz has been working since I wrote about him in This Is Where I Leave You, but I haven't seen any of it. The same goes for Crystal, who was last blogged for Parental Guidance. After I wrote about Gummer (one of Meryl Streep's daughters) for The Homesman, she was in ten episodes of The Newsroom and three of Good Girls Revolt, among others. Monk has had dozens of roles, notably to me as Katie Sipowicz in 17 episodes of NYPD Blue, seven as Louise O'Malley in Grey's Anatomy, and 21 as lead oboist Betty Cragdale in Mozart in the Jungle, as well as a part in This Is Where I Leave You. Dunn is also a prolific actor who credits include the movie Nixon (1995), 35 episodes of Samantha Who?, and 54 with the Emmy-winning ensemble of Veep. David Schwartz has scored lots of TV, some of which I've seen.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are remaining on their feet, averaging 87 and 86%, respectively. In the mood for a comedy, Jack and I rented it on iTunes on May 4 and it's available on other outlets as well.

Zappa (2020)

This documentary about the seminal rock musician Frank Zappa thrilled me on many levels (Jack loved it, too). First, I've been a fan since the 1960s and saw his groups live many times before his death at almost 53 in 1993. Second, it focused on his musicality--his compositions and orchestrations. Third, I lived one block away from his family's Hollywood Hills compound from 1985-2001.

Zappa's music is not for everyone. One wag once wrote that Zappa's music would cause some people to run screaming from the room. Clearly, I'm not one of those people. When I saw him perform I loved, among other things, watching him conduct, as the music changed time signatures quickly and often. And then there was his melding of rock, soul, and classical genres. You will learn a lot about Zappa's musical influences in the movie.

Director Alex Winter convinced Zappa's widow Gail to allow access to Frank's archives, which she had not given to anyone else, because of Winter's promise to concentrate on the complex musicality of Frank's work. And his work is complex, for which he was harassed pretty much his entire career. The vintage and new footage are well-chosen and beautifully edited by Mike J. Nichols.

Veteran composer John Frizzell is listed as composer but it's likely that you won't remember his score. Not sure where to send novices to listen to Zappa's music. Write me if you want a playlist (babetteflix at gmail) and I'll make one up.

As a die-hard Frank Zappa fan, I and my compatriots follow the career of his elder son Dweezil (born 1969), an accomplished guitarist, composer, and producer. We were saddened to learn that Gail and the two younger siblings Ahmet and Diva had been taking to the courts to try to prevent Dweezil from profiting from his own last name. I had met Gail in the late 1990s, as we both were involved in a project to preserve a nearby mountain for wildlife migration when developers wanted to build on it. A nice word would be that she was protective of Frank's legacy at the time. And when we saw Dweezil's band perform this century, he was bitter, to say the least. 

I'm glad to have found notice that Ahmet and Diva reconciled with Moon and Dweezil in 2018, spurred, no doubt, by their mother's death in 2015. But Dweezil is nearly absent from the movie, and Moon appears only in relation to her vocals on 1982's Valley Girl (here's a video of her performing with dancers and a recorded background track).

My favorite gig of Frank's was at the Circle Star Theatre in northern California. A little research tells me that it was July 19, 1974, when I was living in the Bay Area. I remember Ruth Underwood's prodigious percussion stylings and Frank's rude remarks about her breasts (he famously did not use drugs, but sex and cigarettes were his addictions). Napoleon Murphy Brock provided the soulful vocals. Both are in this movie, along with dozens of other musicians, many of whom I recognized. Underwood had a child at my daughter's elementary school in the 1990s and I was able to tell her in person that I was a fan. Her scenes in the movie are lovely.

I have too many Zappa stories to tell here, so I will stop. Winter played Bill in the Bill & Ted movie series, and this is his sixth documentary feature. 

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are bobbing their heads with an average of 96%, while its audiences are glancing at the exit sign at 78.

There's no explanation for why I waited so long to see this, but we finally streamed it on Hulu April 27. It is available on other platforms as well.