Just the noteworthy ones over the past couple of weeks:
Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice
What can you say about one of the great pop voices of the twentieth century? This documentary isn’t exactly a warts and all portrayal, but Linda Ronstadt didn’t fall (very far) into the traps that provide juicy details for those Oscar bait biopics. If you love her music, it does cover most of her career (leaving out the Cajun phase late in her career and the bluegrass one early on). It does highlight how important her Mexican heritage really was to her, how sharp and insightful her takes on the music business were (especially given the giggly on-stage persona she had between songs), how genuinely generous she was to her fellow musicians, and how much control she was able to take over her career in an era when the record companies molded, pruned, and exploited artists to a great extent. In the end, the saddest thing was that she is ultimately a singer who was not focused on fame, making a lot of money, or creating “art”. Her entire focus was to be able to sing songs she enjoyed with family, friends, and musicians she admired, and that has been take away from her.
If you’re a fan, the film will reward you with some insights and facts you probably don’t know and if you aren’t a fan, maybe it will show you why we fans raise her up above other pop/rock voices of the 70’s.
Hustlers
Apparently loosely based on actual events, this is a largely by the books slice of life portrayal of the women of the strip clubs, their trials and tribulations, and how they get their payoff. Jennifer Lopez shows what a compelling performance she can give when provided the right character. Constance Wu is ostensibly the star of the picture, but she has a harder time with a character that goes through massive changes from the beginning to the end of the story. Critics have talked about the view of the a strip club through the “female gaze” and this is a strength of the film. For example, the scenes in the Champagne Room don’t arouse so much as they repel and make one uneasy. The movie does suffer from the standard weakness of this type of “Hollywood” portrayal, in that despite the strip club setting, nudity is sparse, and none of the top billed characters ever strip down past bra and panties, yet command thousands of dollars from their clients.
Worth seeing for the performances and the slight twist of view from the performers standpoint. Look for buzz about Lopez come Oscar time, but don’t be surprised if there are no nominations for this film.
Freaks
This year, along with Fast Color, this is an example of what can be done with “small” superhero stories (no spandex, no humongous CGI budgets, no shoehorning of “canon” to appease the fanbase). I enjoyed the orchestration of tension and reveals in a sparse story that still manages some significant worldbuilding. The performance of the child actress that is the center of the story is particularly noteworthy.
Recommended. If you like Logan and especially if you like Fast Color, I’d recommend seeking this one out.
Monos
I’m still absorbing this one. Absolutely recommended. End-to-end tension that just keeps on going. You know where this is going (Lord of the Flies territory) but can’t look away. The cast is uniformly excellent and there are no “background” characters in this ragtag group of rebels(?). I’m not sure there is any overarching lesson to be learned here, and it certainly doesn’t give a damn about where anyone fits on the social justice scale. It is just a superlative story of people whose fate is inherent in their character and how that fate plays out under stress and fear.
Very much recommended if you don’t mind subtitles and don’t need stories without loose ends.