Little Woods

2019’s Little Woods, written and directed by Nia DaCosta.

Starring Tessa Thompson, Lily James, Charlie Ray Reid, James Badge Dale, Lance Reddick, and Luke Kirby.

What is it about?

Set in present day North Dakota, Ollie (Tessa Thompson) is currently on probation after being convicted of smuggling pain killers from Canada for her dying mother. Ollie makes ends meet working odd jobs as she tries to not have her deceased mother’s house get foreclosed, while reporting to her probation officer, Carter (Lance Reddick). With Ollie’s probation period almost up, her sister Deb (Lily James), already fully taxed from the challenges of raising her young nephew Johnny (Charlie Ray Reid), discovers that she is pregnant. With Deb needing money to not get evicted from her trailer, she needs to figure out what to do regarding her baby in a country where it costs 8 thousand dollars to pay for pre natal care, while living in a state where abortion is illegal. Will Ollie be able to resist temptation so she can help her family, or fall into a vicious cycle and become another victim of America’s War on Drugs?

Why is it worth seeing?

Little Woods is writer/director Nia DaCosta’s debut feature. Her story, about a poverty ravaged North Dakota town and its limited economic prospects, inspired enough confidence that newly minted Marvel star Tessa Thompson not only agreed to headline, but also executive produce. It’s nigh impossible to not refer to it as a middle class version of Winter’s Bone (to which few films can compare to). That’s not a slight, and its familiar setting of desperate poverty (it may set a cinematic record for most wood paneled interiors), intergenerational hard luck (it compares a little to Hell or High Water as well), and great work from its lead produce a promising start to DaCosta’s career.


Lead actor Tessa Thompson in her role as Ollie is memorably great, as the scrappy family prioritizing but now criminal record possessing woman who wants to start a new life, but has to help her less capable family first. Proving herself situationally fluid whatever she’s speaking with her investigative parole officer (the rock solid Lance Reddick), blue collar fracking workers (a great turn by James Badge Dale), or her hard luck relations, she still projects her insecurities at more vulnerable times but is able to walk a tightrope when job interviewing shortly after a rough encounter with a drug dealer. It’s luminous stuff that only the best movie stars can pull off.


The North Dakota town depicted here is appropriately placed in the metaphorical centre of present day America. We share the experience of a character, now technically a criminal due to America’s so called War on Drugs, trying to help a woman, who can’t afford to be pregnant (this is before the baby is even born), who lives in a state where abortion is illegal. Is it any wonder that a character gazes longingly at the prospect of living in another state (or Canada for that matter)? That relatable possibility, combined with the film’s proliferation of temporary workers in its margins, may be where Woods’ sense of geography ends. Its citizens (understandably) may not have plans to plant roots into soil of questionable value.


Given the stakes and lack of predictable outcome, DaCosta’s script produces some moments of high tension, aided by the grim desperation of its setting. It makes its more humane moments shine all the more brighter. However, it also features some choices that are more difficult to relate to its characters, hopefully a product of a developing auteur. Those transgressions are easier forgotten when it comes to an open ended conclusion that has as much optimism as it does uncertainty. Even if it’s not morning in America like we were promised, we can still see the sun through the trees.

Rating:

3.5/5

Trailer: Click Here.

Relaxer

2019’s Relaxer, written and directed by Joel Potrykus.

Starring Joshua Burge, David Dastmalchian, Andre Hyland, Adina Howard, Amari Cheatom, and Mahfuz Rahman.

What is it about?

Set closely around New Years Eve 1999, early 20’s adultescent Abbie (Joshua Burge) survives on a steady diet of video games and juvenile challenges issued by his brother, Cam (David Dastmalchian). Buoyed by a dare from Cam, Abbie agrees to not leave his couch until he passes level 256 of Pac Man. Checked in on by select friends and unfortunate landlords, Abbie endures and develops various levels of psychic traumas and potential powers. Will he be able to complete his challenge before his body and soul atrophy into an embodiment of pre-millennium tension?

Why is it worth seeing?

Writer/Director Joel Potrykus specializes in single location, small cast films where the protagonists are driven into the mouth of madness. As in his previous The Alchemist’s Cookbook, it’s unknown (or at least vague) what exactly drives our protagonist to pursue their goals- they’re just in it to win it. A quest to finish the final level of a video game that is unconquerable? Of course I can. It’s juvenile male wish fulfillment fantasy at its most potent.


As in most fantasies, actual satiation is impossible when it comes to satisfying one’s urges. Relaxer demonstrates how our younger selves’ parading their respective Id’s around leads to some hardcore lessons. Some of them are about the value of compromising our post infantile scaffolding to create personal growth so you can do stuff referred to by some as, “adulting”. Others are bed sores. However, there is no word about the value of toilets installed in couches.

Potrykus and his student budget focused production are able to expand on a perspective that is unfolding in a space no larger than a bachelor suite- the ultimate nightmare bottle episode. Like most nightmares, there is no relief- except here, the relief is begged for from oppressive escapism (and our hero’s patina of grossness). Working within the limited budget and location, reality and fantasy start to blur together, and the introduction of 80’s based themes such as telekinesis further enforce the film’s hilariously cautionary message towards overactive imaginations and unproductive competitive urges.


Featuring a hilariously ironic title, Relaxer is anything but, but it will make you glad you didn’t spend Y2K eating pellets in a maze while being chased by ghosts.

Rating:

4/5

Trailer: Click Here.

Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood

2019’s Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, written and directed by Quentin Taratino.

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Margaret Qualley, Al Pacino, Timothy Olyphant, Kurt Russell, Luke Perry, Bruce Dern, Clifton Collins Jr, and not Tim Roth.

What is it about?

Set in 1969 Los Angeles, fading television star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) is struggling to adjust to his flatlining Hollywood career. With his stunt double and friend Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) in tow, the two of them have to adjust to the changing landscape of the political culture of the time as they grapple with aging. Further complicating matters is Rick’s neighbour, a pregnant Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), is targeted by members of Charles Manson’s cult. Will Rick and Cliff become footnotes in an historical tragedy, or finish like a fairy tale?

Why is it worth seeing?

Quentin Tarantino (QT) has never been accused of being subtle. His films are typically shocking, in your face, adrenaline infused, and always a pastiche of his bizarro but cult informed movie taste. Once Upon… features scenes of all of those qualities, in a loving homage to the end of the flower power decade, but it also features something not as often witnessed in QT’s oeuvre- surprises, conducted through a type of patient craftsmanship.

I still remember the first time I saw Pulp Fiction- its loving tribute to loser hitmen, gangster fixers, and juking palookas featured spectacular left turns that I didn’t see coming. Nobody did. It just wasn’t the status quo for mainstream art house pictures to feature both washed and legit movie stars interacting with leather clad gimps participating in torture below pawnshops. But after that, (and eight other films that have started to feel similar), you began to expect a certain kind of perverted rhythm, ending in something like a Mexican stand-off where a lot of people (or everybody) don’t walk away from the carnage. Maybe throw in a pop song in the background for good measure. All this was done in the service of setting up genre pieces grounded by QT’s love of exploitation films and schlock- a gangster film here, a ninja revenge western there. But more recent period QT has began to mine history for the settings of his stories, and here, his take on the Manson’s Cult murders of California, and what would happen to the key players, fooled me yet again. It’s conclusion goes to a similar place for the always provocative auteur, but the choices in how to get there are so unprecedented. There’s nothing like a master who is at the top of his craft pleasantly surprising his audience.


It sounds simple, but the reason The Hateful Eight didn’t work as a suspense thriller as well as it could have, was because of QT’s decision to not chronicle the events taking place at the haberdashery in a linear fashion (perhaps he was trying to copy Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and Kill Bill Pt.1’s disjointed narratives). Once Upon… doesn’t make that mistake, and one is reminded of Titanic (and not because it also featured Leo) in that the audience knows what’s coming, dreads it, and tries to pray for a way for history not to play itself out. QT’s films are too long and indulgent (no exception here), but the initially nagging (followed by urgent foreboding) sense of upending tragedy, fueled by periodic calendar and clock updates, funnels the film to its surprising and furious conclusion.


QT relishes few things more than movie stars. His film catalogue is a cinephile’s dream list of both stars (and cult figures) of yesteryear, and this year, and Once Upon drills even deeper into his love of Hollywood. Penetrating deep into a world of film sets, slick agents, stuntmen culture, and a meta structure where a film shoot is almost imperceptible from the real world, it’s almost surprising it took QT this long to make a film set entirely in Tinseltown (like the fever dream of True Romance fans). In Leonardo DiCaprio’s fading star, who is given a wake up call regarding his career aspects, he has to deal with a sense of unmet expectations and disappointment that mirror the 1970’s eventual death of hippie culture (and burgeoning of eventual 80’s yuppies). Besides booze, the only constant in his life is Brad Pitt’s character, the ex stunt man who really just handles his friend’s life with no complaints. With all due respect to Leo, it’s Pitt who steals the show as the mysteriously gorgeous handler, with an unknown past full of murderous questions, and whom is as capable at handling any situation (no matter how under the influence or how bizarre), as he is at nonchalantly drifting through life. It’s as if his Ocean’s 11 character got really good at kung fu and started wearing moccasins. But they’re the entrees in a succulent feast of actors, and it’s delight trying to keep up with the amount of people who stroll through the movie.

Good times described, for the quibbles it’s tough to not have a nagging feeling that QT just doesn’t care for women and how they’re at times portrayed in his films. While he clearly has a fetish for feet, I’m not sure he feels the same way for the humans attached to them. While his script shows love in Margot Robbie’s portrayal of Sharon Tate’s fateful character, it certainly doesn’t for anyone else of the female persuasion. But at the risk of sounding like he’s off the hook- that’s just not QT’s bag. You can hear him cackling maniacally behind the screen as he sets fire to our expectations. In fact, Once Upon also features zero utterances of racial epithets, although that may be more reflective of the setting and the lack of opportunity for minorities, than an actual wake up call to our raconteur. And don’t ask QT how he seems to feel for hippies- the film’s final scene will provide a litmus test towards your funny bone’s tolerance for pain and suffering to those who had long hair and promoted love and understanding. Just let it be known that Once Upon’s sense of sentiment and irony understands that the death of hippies preceded society starting to look like the very thing it claimed to hate so much.

Rating:

4/5

Trailer: Click Here.