What I’m watching: an audacious satire that will make you thinkDate: 7/26/2018
What I’m watching: an angry, funny political film, a terrible sex comedy and an outstanding horror film.
In theaters: Sorry for Bothering You
I will drive quite a distance to see a good movie and I didn’t hesitate for one moment to go to Hartford’s Bow Tie Cinema complex to see a film that had been very highly recommended to me.
“Sorry to Bother You” is a film with many different approaches and genres tied up into one cohesive package.
This is a very audacious film and one that is even more impressive as it’s a first time writing and directing effort for musician Boots Riley.
The film is set in a time that may be the future or an alternative universe. In Oakland, CA, poverty is everywhere and Cassius Green (Lakeith Stanfield) is so strapped for a job, he creates a false “Employee of the Month Award” just to try to get a telemarketing gig.
He gets the job but can’t make much progress until an older employee Langston (Danny Glover) tells him the secret is using a “white” voice. Green, an African-American, finds out quickly his nasally “white” voice is what he needs to sell the books his company offers.
I like the visual device showing Green and his desk literally falling into someone’s home when they answer his phone call. The first time it happens it’s jarring, but then one realizes this is Riley’s way of showing how intimate Green sees what he is doing.
His rise is very quick and he promoted to the top levels of the company where major international deals are made. His promotion gives him the money he needs but it alienates his friends who are trying to unionize the company as well as his artist girl friend.
What he discovers in his new job is darkly funny and profoundly disturbing. It would be a disservice for me to say much more other than the film takes a direction that couldn’t be anticipated.
Let me just say, you will recognize it when it happens and I guarantee your jaw will be resting in your lap.
I can say, though, a core plot point involves WorryFree, a company that supplies workers to industry. The workers and their families sign a contract and in exchange for their labor they get uniforms, a place to live and food. In the film, WorryFree is seen as the savior of American industry.
The top rated TV is “I Got the S#*@ Kicked Out of Me!” the show simply features everyday people getting beat up. I thought that was not too far from what passes for reality TV today.
Yes, this is dark, dark satire, but it works so well tapping into a number of modern fears and expressing the growing differences between the economic classes.
Stanfield makes for a great Everyman, a person just trying to get along but has a painful but necessary awakening. He carries the film and does it very well.
“Sorry to Bother You” is heady stuff and significant filmmaking. It’s well worth a drive to see it.
From Redbox: Blockers, A Quiet Place
“A Quiet Place” is an original horror film with a great premise. In the near future, alien beasts will invade Earth, killing millions. They are fast moving and hunt their prey through sound. The film centers on one resourceful farm family who has figured out how to survive living in the same area as the creatures.
The film stars real-life husband and wife John Krasinski and Emily Blount as the parents of three children. They have soundproofed their lives as best as they can. They live mostly underground. They communicate through American Sign Language. They only speak when there is a louder noise that would block out their voice.
They have installed as many warning devices and distractions into their farm as they can in case of an attack. Still, though, they live in near constant fear.
When a series of unrelated events adds up to the concluding third of the film I guarantee you will be on the edge of your seat.
Krasinski co-wrote and directed this film and he understands the nature of suspense and how to build it.
This is a tightly written and well-executed film. Sure I had two quibbles: from where do they get their electricity, as they can’t use a generator and how were they managing to plant huge fields of corn without using a tractor – but these are very minor.
Krasinski keeps away from the blood and gore and we see the monsters sparingly – all good approaches.
Even if you’re not a horror fan, I bet you’ll enjoy the roller coaster ride of “A Quiet Place.”
Blockers
“Blockers” is in the same genre of sex comedy as “Porky’s” and “American Pie,” but unlike those two films I doubt there will be a sequel, largely because the subject matter is kind of icky – yes that’s a preview movie reviewer’s term.
Three parents have dedicated themselves to preventing their 18 year-old daughters – the film stresses that point – from having sex on their prom night. Along the way the daughters in question learn something about
themselves and the parents have moments of revelation as well.
Not one moment of this film rings true. The mixture of the sex comedy with the earnest moments doesn’t jell at all.
Avoid this film. Your time is too valuable to waste.
|
