Movie: Shoplifters
Nominated for: Best Foreign Language Film
How I watched: Laemmle
When I fell asleep: A nice early screening, so no.
When it had me: Love and care shown in unlikely settings
When it lost me: I may have lost myself for a bit but the movie held on tight
What I have to say: This movie messed with my head in the most delightful way! The acting was natural and superb across the board. Like Capernaum, this had to do with "found families." And like, Leave No Trace, this had themes of doing your best outside of the expected system. This story won me over to the point where at the end of it I wasn't sure how I wanted to feel, how I did feel or how I was supposed to feel. I didn't know where I stood on issues of right vs. wrong, head vs. heart, hero vs. villain. I was heart-warmed, saddened, lifted up, disappointed and confused! What a gift to get all of that on a Saturday morning!
SPOILERS AHEAD
I hope you went and watched it before you raced ahead! It's worth it. So this about a family of grifters who aren't family at all but lost souls who find each other, love each other deeply and provide each other with a sense of belonging and home. Each has been cast aside, abused, forgotten or rejected but they rebel by finding worth in each other and as a family unit. You get so focused on all the good they are doing for each other that you ignore the things they are not doing strictly above board. There is great tension in the movie as you watch one of their adoptees struggles to navigate his own way through their murky morality and you fear that they can't keep up their shenanigans forever. In the end you find that you have sided with kidnappers, liars and thieves. But you also start to question all the little ways that the "systems" we have put in place to keep our society civil and balanced are completely incompatible with our most basic needs as humans. If connection, kindness and healthy social interaction are denied to us by the acceptable societal norms, does that mean we must accept our fate? Do we give up and just know that we don't fit in and are simply undeserving? Or is it better to break the rules and find ways to experience real human joy? Mmmm, you guys! These questions are kind of delicious! This goes into my top ten, for sure!
Movie: Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Nominated for: Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor
How I watched: Movie Theatre, with Friends, Months ago
When I fell asleep: No sleep this time
When it had me: The cat!
When it lost me: I was in and out
What I have to say: I wanted to love this movie much more than I did. I mostly remember the tension around that damn cat! That was the part of the story that had me most invested by far. Melissa McCarthy played a great and complex character very well and Richard E. Grant was a really fun character study as well. Overall however, the film underwhelmed me a bit.
Movie: Minding the Gap
Nominated for: Best Documentary
How I watched: Hulu
When I fell asleep: Morning viewing, so no.
When it had me: When we see the characters as children
When it lost me: This movie just wound me in tighter and tighter.
What I have to say: What starts out with a group of skater friends quickly delves into growing up, the cycle of abuse, the path to healing and problematic expressions of masculinity. The director, Bing Liu, has known his subjects for most of their lives and this allows him a level of intimacy and vulnerability with these young men that shocks, moves and informs the viewer. I cried openly watching this at home, talking to the screen the whole time. (Don't you wish you could watch these movies with me?) This doc is personal, deep-diving and such an important look at the old ways we did things and the difficulty of healing from the world of shame, control and degradation in relationships that used to be all too acceptable. Bing Liu gives me hope that the new generation is ready to look at these old systems closely and critically and find a better way.
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