Quick takes on 5 films

Skin, based on a true story, tells about Bryon Widner, a former neo-nazi with hateful tattoos all over his body and face, who gained some fame about 10 years ago when he had all those face tattoos (painfully) removed (instead of flashbacks, we get “flash-forwards where we see him getting them removed, interspersed throughout the film). Bryon was adopted by a leader in the hate group as a child and has lived within it his whole life. However, he starts to wonder what he’s doing there, and the film lets you come to that conclusion on your own. There are subtle spots you have to notice, like how he gives the new recruit a hard time, asking him why he wanted to join. Things start to change more when he meets a woman and falls in love with her and her kids. She was raised in hate groups herself (her dad was in the KKK) but swore it all off, and Bryon decides to leave his family and marry her and move to a new city. Unfortunately the family won’t let him go that easy, and follow him there. Jaime Bell is solid as Bryon Widner, and Danielle Macdonald is always good (check out Patti Cake$ if you haven’t), but the movie is a bit stale and paint-by-numbers, the same trap a lot of biopics fall into. Like many indie films with star power in the acting roles, the movie may be worthy of a watch by film lovers like myself just to see the performances, but as a movie itself, it isn’t very memorable.

I’ve decided I’m just not a man for comedies anymore. Used to dig them when I was younger and could watch them over and over again. Now, even on good ones, I laugh during the film, but afterwards just shrug them off, and they don’t leave any lasting impression on me. Long Shot is the latest, and it is indeed a very good comedy, but still didn’t do much for me. This one is about the unlikely relationship between a popular and powerful politician, Charlize Theron as Charlotte Field, currently Secretary of State but getting ready to run for President, and a quirky, left-wing journalist, Seth Rogen as Fred Flarsky. They were childhood friends, in fact, Charlotte babysat the slightly younger Fred, and they find each other again years later. At first, Charlotte just hires Fred to write speeches for her, but they quickly find a shared attraction for each other. As romantic comedies go, it is very good. Lots of laughs, though a bit crude for maybe my parents to watch, but like many films of this genre, it is awfully predictable. I did enjoy the gender change from the usual way this kind of film is told, putting the woman in the power role and having the man run to her for a change, but otherwise it is pretty standard fair.

To Dust follows an orthodox Hasidic Jewish man, Shmuel (Geza Rohrig), having a hard time getting over the recent death of his wife. More than her physical loss, he is having nightmares about the decomposition of her body, buried in its pine coffin. Having been raised without science and not knowing how long the decomposing can take, he “sins” by seeking answers from a local college science professor, Albert (Matthew Broderick). Thus embarks a funny yet heartfelt journey about loss, coming to terms, and moving on. At first Shmuel goes simple, burying a pig in the ground with plans to see how long it would take to become dust, but as Albert points out, “If you brought me a pig about as large as your wife, no offense, and buried her like a Jew, no offense, then we’d be cooking, but this is a mockery of science.” They get a bigger pig and bury it in the manner that the wife was buried, and go on to exhume it every month to see how far along it is getting. Along the way, Shmuel goes through his grieving process, saying good bye in his own ways. It’s a lovely film; Broderick mostly provides the comic relief and isn’t bad, but Rohrig is great, as he was in the Hungarian film Son of Saul, released a couple years ago and winner of that year’s Oscar for best foreign film (check this and that one out for some great stuff).

Midsommar was a hit last summer on the Indie circuit. It was billed as a great horror film. It is certainly unsettling and disturbing at times, but I’m not sure I’d call it a horror film, and honestly, I thought it fairly average. It is about a group of American college students who go with a Swedish friend to his hometown, a commune-like group off in the middle of nowhere. You get creepy vibes from the moment they arrive, with pictures on the walls showing rituals and whatnot, but our unsuspecting Americans seem completely oblivious. They don’t even freak out enough when a couple of old adults jump from a cliff in suicidal fashion, hearing the explanation that they were giving their lives to replenish the energies of the youth or some such nonsense. The film mostly follows the lone girl of the group, Dani (Florence Pugh, also known recently as the main actor in Fighting With My Family, and the one bright spot in this film). Dani recently lost her entire family when her sister killed their parents in a murder/suicide. She’s facing those demons as she faces the cult in Sweden, but the film doesn’t do enough to explore the correlations. Outside of some gross-out scenes inserted just for shock value, the film is pretty benign, and a bit long for a “scary” movie at 2 ½ hours. Not worthy of the hype.

In my opinion, Breaking Bad is one of the greatest shows ever made. I was one of the hoards of fans who eagerly anticipated every episode, and so when a new movie was surprisingly announced by Netflix, I couldn’t wait to see it. El Camino resolves the mystery of what happened to Jesse Pinkman, last seen on the final episode of Bad driving off in the eponymous car, being one of the few to survive the blood thirsty show. Rotten Tomatoes describes it as “entertaining if not essential” and I think I agree. We see Jesse dealing with the aftermath of having been tortured and caged for a year, and see some of what he went through in flashbacks. The film is a wonderful walk down memory lane, with many of the original cast returning in the those flashbacks. I was a little worried that I wouldn’t remember important plot elements after all these years (I can’t believe it ended way back in 2013!) but the film reminds you of the important stuff, without holding your hand and re-hashing old tales. It isn’t “necessary viewing,” and the show still stands on its own from beginning to end as a masterpiece all by itself, but El Camino is a fantastic curtain call.