MONOS

Moises Arias     Julianne Nicholson     Sofia Buenaventura    Julian Giraldo

Karen Quintero     Laura Castrillon     Delby Rueda     Paul Cubides     Sneider Castro

     

     Filmed in the lush countryside of Colombia by the artistic Jasper Wolf, Monos’ story perplexes and shocks against the backdrop of green mountains, dense jungles, and rushing waters or clear lakes and streams.  Some of the water scenes are breathtaking in capturing its myriad beauty while filming the chases and conflicts among the characters beneath the surface.  These scenes are in direct contrast to the typical roaring chases in most action films; the silent struggles taking place here are much more suspenseful and jarring.

     Director Alejandro Landes co-wrote the script with Alexis Dos Santos from a story he conceived.  It’s a disturbing account of a group of rebels in an unnamed South American country who are attacked repeatedly by the militia, necessitating frequent maneuvers to hide their location.  But as in any group, conflicts arise, sometimes based on competition either in love or war—or even by accident--but these are perhaps more striking and moving because this is a group teenagers.  An overseer comes by now and then to shape them up and strengthen their resolve, and they have frequent contact with leaders via radio communication.

     The first leader of the small group designated by the overseer is Wolf (Giraldo), who has also gotten permission to “partner” with Lady (Quintero), e.g., sleep together.  [Landes has named his characters with some humor; i.e. Wolf, Lady, Rambo, Bigfoot, Smurf, Dog, and Boom Boom.]   Perhaps this is intended to help us keep track of who is who, but I think most viewers will have to make some effort to remember all of them and their personalities and roles.

     At any rate, an eventful moment—perhaps an accident—results in tragedy, and consequently Bigfoot (Arias) is then put in charge.  

     In addition to fighting the militia, the group is charged with keeping a prisoner, a woman called La Doctora (Nicholson), an engineer who has been kidnapped by the rebels, but is persistent and courageous in trying to escape in the mountains, in the jungle, and in the rivers.  

     Sprinkled into a story with high tension, there are moments of humor, admirable skill and courage shown, as well as honesty.  During radio communication, members of the group are asked to comment, sometimes with surprising candor, but mostly glossing over truths.  

     Altogether, Monos is a photographic wonder, with a sometimes haunting, sometimes melodic, score by Mica Levi.  The plot by Landes and Dos Santos is intriguing and astute about humankind, but occasionally takes a fill-in-the-blanks approach, leaving the viewer to sort out the players and speculate about the plot.  This is especially true at the end, when significant threads are left hanging.

     Despite this, I applaud the movie’s creativity, beauty, and truth, and its presentation of colorful characters that are highly entertaining.

A picture about a group of colorful young rebels doing what they are known to do against the backdrop of war and abounding nature.

Grade:  B                                    By Donna R. Copeland

NOVITIATE

Margaret Qualley     Melisso Leo     Julianne Nicholson     Dianna Agron     Denis O’Hare

      If you feel like you’ve sacrificed too much in your life, go see Novitiate and you’ll probably feel better by thinking you didn’t have it so bad.  (This excludes, of course, those who have been abused.)  Unless you are a Catholic since the before the ‘60’s, you may be surprised (as I was) at the stringencies young nuns had to experience in going through their training.  They’re required to efface themselves in every way one can imagine, following strict rules for every second of the day, and suppressing most of their human emotional experience.  I hope this has changed in the meantime.

     Young Cathleen (Qualley) seems perfectly suited for it, even though her family is not religious, but she is enrolled in a Catholic school, and after her father abandons the family, Christ seems like an ideal husband to her.  Where her sister novitiates struggle with ambivalence, she remains confident until…

     A parallel theme of the film about the novitiates is that of the Mother Superior (Leo), a woman who has been a nun for 40 years, and revels in her status as head of the convent.  She keeps very strict rules, and appears to take a bit of pleasure in the degradation of those who commit even slight infractions.  Decisions are easy for her in her black-and-white world; either there has been a sin that needs to be punished or—well, there is little of anything else, except actions that bore her, in which case, small penances are required.

     But Mother Superior is having a difficult time right alongside her novitiates; Vaticon II is being handed down by Pope John XXiii, in which major changes are decreed, such as that priests must face their congregation during the liturgy, there will be increased religious tolerance, nuns will be able to dress as they wish, etc.  Mother Superior resists these changes for three years, not letting anyone in her convent know about them, and believing until the end that they will not come to place.  When they do, she is devastated.

     This is a film about disillusionment—Cathleen’s early on, the Mother Superior’s, and several of the novitiates and those training them, but it’s also about change, and how adaptable people are in accommodating to it.  It’s understandable that someone who has achieved her identity in a specific system and then gets continually reinforced for it will resist any change in the order.  It’s also understandable that someone who buys into a system sincerely, then finds out that forces beyond her control go against it presents a major dilemma for her.  This is the beauty of the film; that it dramatizes real human dilemmas that come about as a result of decisions made, sometimes early in life.  And it doesn’t necessarily take a stand one way or another; it leaves that decision up to the viewer. 

     The focal point here is Margaret Qualley as Sister Catherine, the young woman trying to find answers to life through a system that promises hope.  It helps, of course, that she is gorgeous, but she is able to back that up with solid acting skills that convey the agony/puzzlement/irritation/naïveté of her character.  Beneath her Mother Superior garb, Melissa Leo proves herself once again a superior actor whose face tells all.  A nod should be given as well to Julianne Nicholson, who plays Catherine’s clueless mother who never gives up on her, even though she understands so little about how her actions brought her to this point with her daughter. 

     I congratulate Margaret Betts, writer/director, for her feature film debut.  Her awards at the Sundance Film Festival (Special Jury Prize, Grand Jury Prize) do not surprise in the interesting/educational/suspenseful script and direction of the film that moves at an ideal pace and utilizes the talents of the actors to the fullest extent.

This film about religious belief lets the viewer decide about issues.

Grade:  B+                                    By Donna R. Copeland 

I, TONYA

Margot Robbie     Allison Janney     McKenna Grace     Sebastian Stan     Caitlin Carver     Paul Walter Hauser     Julianne Nicholson

      This film could fit into that category of “Truth is stranger than fiction.”  If I weren’t so sad about the bad parenting and its disastrous effects, I could have giggled a lot about the ludicrous reasoning  and lack of judgment used by so many of the characters.  I did end up having more sympathy for Tonya Harding than I did at the time she was skating and this scandal broke out in the news, seeing (at least in the movie) first-hand how little positivity she got from her mother and few opportunities to learn sound judgment.  Her two coaches seemed to be the only helpful people around her.

     In brief, this is the story about a U.S. figure skater in the Olympics in the 1990’s, Tonya Harding (Robbie) who was the first woman to perform a triple axel in competition.  It starts when she is four years old and her mother takes her to a skating rink wanting to show her off.  The coach (Nicholson) tries to dismiss them, saying that she doesn’t coach beginning skaters who are four years old.  The mother (Janney) brazenly continues to smoke a cigarette (against the rules), use the f-word, and later tells her daughter to go ahead and start skating.  This is a perfect introduction to the kind of parenting Tonya received her whole life.  But…the coach does in fact pick up on the child’s talent and begins coaching her.

     The rest of the story is about the hardships Tonya encounters in navigating the figure-skating world (she doesn’t fit the “model” in dress or in behavior, and judges tend to be biased against her), trying to work through a destructive, abusive relationship with Jeff (Stan) (who sabotages her career at every turn), and managing to support herself while keeping up her training regimen.  The value of the film is in shedding light on this particular story, but just as much, in its depiction of life for children in this country who grow up with few values and little education.  As in Sean Baker’s current film, The Florida Project, we get a picture of what happens to children growing up in impoverished circumstances whose parents don’t have the slightest idea about how to nurture their children and build character with a good set of values; all of this is within a culture that has little sympathy or understanding of the problem.

     In addition to the fine direction by Craig Gillespie and script by Steven Rogers, the acting is superb, with standouts being Margot Robbie as Tonya, Allison Janney as her mother, Sebastian Stan as her husband, and Hauser as her bodyguard.  Accompanying music by Peter Nashel and cinematography by Nicolas Karakatsanis help make the picture come alive and command your attention.

A docudrama that elucidates the infamous story about Tonya Harding, a major figure skating competitor in the 1990’s.

Grade:  A                                    By Donna R. Copeland

AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY

Meryl Streep     Julia Roberts     Chris Cooper     Margo Martindale     Ewan McGregor     Sam Shepard 

Julianne Nicholson     Benedict Cumberbatch     Juliette Lewis     Abigail Breslin

       August:  Osage County is a rip roarin’ study of a family in Oklahoma that is perpetually on a tinderbox.  The slightest disagreement can erupt into a major battle, and the only way they see to keep the lid on is to hide all their secrets.  Of course, this is a strategy that always fails, but like the good neurotics they are, they keep using it, thinking it will work.  As the story proceeds, we learn that the cruel parenting we witness stems from troubled childhoods, and we see it spread like an infection from parent to child across generations.  As each secret is uncovered, it has an explosive effect on all involved.

     On a more elegant note, the ensemble cast is a study in streamlined acting that continually hums along as if they had worked together for years and filled out every detail.  At the center of the story—and the cast—is the consummate award-winning actress Meryl Streep, who plays the damaged matriarch in a family with three grown daughters who have come home to “comfort” their mother after a crisis.  Her sister is present as well, with her husband and son in tow.  Present as well is the recently hired cook/housekeeper who is a beacon of sanity in the dysfunctional, turbulent group.

     The screenwriter Tracy Letts (Killer Joe) has based the script on his play with the same title, which premiered on Broadway in 2008.  The transition from stage to screen is not always smooth, but Letts has achieved it without a hitch.  Most of the action takes place in the family home, a beautifully landscaped colonial mansion in the countryside near a lake, or in the cars of the arriving family members.  Clues about the underlying conflicts are seen from the beginning in the interactions between Violet (Streep) and her husband Beverly (Sam Shepard), followed by the arriving sister Mattie (Margo Martindale) and husband Charles (Chris Cooper) and each of the daughters’ families.  In the process of the unfolding drama, the viewer experiences the trapped feeling that each of the characters suffers from; at one point, a character says to another who is running away, “Where are you going?  There is no place to go!”  And we feel trapped as well because the action is so powerful.  Also because, in a larger sense, we identify with the fact that we are always a part of the family to which we belong; there is not ever, really, any escape. 

     John Wells, the director, has performed his function of creating a work of art from all the components of the film, with the actors and other crew, such as the cinematographer Adriano Goldman and musician Gustavo Santaolalla, whose work illuminates the ongoing drama. 

Clearly August:  Osage Country will be prominent in the upcoming award circuit soon to take place.

Grade:  A                                   By Donna R. Copeland