Afternoon Delight

The premise of Afternoon Delight has some seedy elements because it is about a wife and mother befriending a young stripper. A review I read called it an "uneasy comedy" and I agree about the uneasy part which relates equally to the stripper character as well as how the main character sees her.

The story is about a 30-something Jewish wife and mother who has become uninterested in sex with her husband. Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) has had a dry spell for some months and sees a shrink (Jane Lynch) for her problem. Her husband, Jeff (Josh Radnor), has created some popular apps so they are pretty comfortably set--not "rich" but above a normal paygrade, that's for sure. Rachel's lifestyle among some other Jewish wives is one where they do charity work and go for massages while their kids are in school, but Rachel considers herself a step or two above them intellectually as she once had aspirations to be a war correspondent (an intelligence we see little of, frankly).

A friend suggests the couple go to a strip club to get their juices going. Rachel and Jeff do so, and Rachel gets a lap dance from McKenna (Juno Temple), a young stripper. Although we can tell Rachel is somewhat and reluctantly aroused it does not solve her problem. Later Rachel sees McKenna by chance in the street and pretends to bump into her and starts a conversation.

McKenna is pretty open about her way of life and non-judgmental and Rachel likes to think that she herself is too. She invites McKenna back to the house and tells her friends she is the new nanny, and Rachel's husband is not sure where she is going with this. McKenna is physically more confident than Rachel as well. She touches her in friendly ways that makes Rachel, as in the strip club, both uneasy and aroused, yet not wanting to admit she has these sexual appetites because that would mean her marital problem is hers and nothing to do with sex. Rachel appears to think McKenna needs some salvation and she, Rachel, is the one to provide it, and this setup proves poisonous, mostly due to Rachel's misguided actions. Due to a badly phrased and probably condescending comment about her, McKenna purposely does something which breaks Rachel's social circle apart, but forces Rachel and her husband to come to terms with the larger meaning of their marital problems.

Cloudburst

This is a gay themed film about two older lesbians going to Canada to get married when one's family tries to separate them. Based on a play.

The two women, Stella (Olympia Dukakis) the butchy one, and Dot (Brenda Fricker) the gentler female, live together in Maine. Stella is brassy, drinks and swears. Dot is more of a homebody and is slowly losing her vision, making her pretty dependent on Stella although they are both in their 70s. Dot's granddaughter doesn't like that her grandmother's quality of life is not good (she apparently has no real knowledge of what a real lesbian is like and doesn't see the signs that her grandmother is one; she believes the pair are just good friends). The granddaughter tricks Dot into signing over power of attorney, then puts her into a senior home.

Stella is incensed and breaks Dot out of the home, then remembers she read somewhere that gays can get married in Canada. They go on the road and, suspecting the police are after them, pick up a young hitchhiker to change their M.O., even taking him home to see his sickly mother, and eventually he helps Stella and Dot also.

Free event: Solar Mamas

Who needs a film festival?  Free movies abound in Chicago!

This next pick, Solar Mamas, is a documentary taking place in Jordan about the Bedouan woman, Rafea.  She has the unusual distinction of being the first Jordanian woman to join a edcuation program to create solar energy engineers.  This program was created for women of poor and third world countries to help educate them and offer economic support to their families.

This part of PBS' Independent Lens series.

Solar Mamas
November 17, 2012
2:00 p.m.
Cultural Center
Claudia Cassidy Theatre
77 E. Randolph Street

Olympic Dreams--The Winning Season

This is a typical underdog sports story starring Sam Rockwell in a type of role he is good at, the loveable loser. It's a sort of a comedy version of Hoosiers (that movie is referenced in The Winning Season, which also takes place in Indiana). The writer of this movie (also from Indiana) wrote Lonesome Jim and Grace is Gone and so you can see the "sad loser" feeling seems to be a theme.

Rockwell is Bill, a divorced, alcoholic, middle-aged dad working as a busboy. He seems to have had some promise as a high school basketball player, but that dream didn't evolve. The principal of a local school who was a friend of Bill's asks Bill to coach the team. Bill is excited--until he finds out it is the girl's team. While Bill and the girls learn about each other, both don't think the other can do the job.

Bill seems too laid back but his training is smart, although it depends on the girls working hard, which is something he has trouble motivating them to do. Like his own first reaction, many think the girls are not worth very much.  Most of the players (one is Rooney Mara, the new Lisbeth Salander) have some kind of trait or storyline so you can tell them apart. Bill also has trouble relating to girl problems, so hires the female schoolbus driver (Margo Martindale) as assistant coach to help him in this aspect. She becomes both a mother hen as well as a pretty good legitmate assistant coach.

Olympic Dreams--Whip It!

A Texas teen (Ellen Page) discovers roller derby, but her mother (Marcia Gay Harden) would prefer her to be a beauty queen. Bliss sneaks out of the house to attend a match, meeting a cute musician (Landon Pigg). She has found her true calling and is encouraged by one of the pros (Kristen Wiig) to get a spot on the team. Bliss becomes "Babe Ruthless," and soon becomes very good despite her amateur status. This helps the team because they've never won a championship.

Bliss continues to sneak out, juggling her waitress job, pageant duties, lying to her family, as well her budding romance. Rival skater "Iron Maven" (Juliette Lewis) later finds out a fact about Bliss that jeopardizes her place on the team as well as the success of the team.  Also, her family finds out about her extracurricular activity, which also forces Bliss to choose between the loves of her life--her family or her sport.

Daniel Stern is Bliss' dad; Drew Barrymore plays another teammate (she also directed and co-produced); Jimmy Fallon gives additional humor as the play-by-play announcer; Andrew Wilson is Bliss' team coach; Alia Shawkat plays Bliss' loyal friend.

Meet: WIGS

Although WIGS is a new venture by two male filmmakers, Jon Avnet and Rodrigo Garcia, the focus is on women.  It is an online film organization with content on YouTube, featuring short films and long series with a strong focus on female lead characters.  Many of the noted actresses have starred in big budget films, but also have a healthy independent film career as well:

Virginia Madsen (Sideways, The Number 23, Ghosts of Mississippi)
Dakota Fanning (The Runaways, Coraline, Hounddog)
Jennifer Beals (Lie to Me, The L Word, Roger Dodger)
Maura Tierney (Rescue Me, Diggers, Scotland, Pa.)
Jena Malone (Into the Wild, The Ballad of Jack and Rose, Donnie Darko)
Rosanna Arquette (Silverado, Baby It's You, Desperately Seeking Susan)
Catherine O'Hara (A Mighty Wind, Beetlejuice, Home Alone)

Your Sister's Sister

The story begins a year after Jack's brother has died. Jack (Mark Duplass) hears his friends revering his brother at a gathering but angrily insists they didn't really know him as he knew the whole picture and said he was a bully too. His best friend Iris (Emily Blunt), who was the brother's ex girlfriend, says he needs some space so tells him to go up her family cabin to be alone, which he does.

 There he meets her sister Hannah (Rosemarie Dewitt) who also decided to go there to be alone, to nurse the pain of a breakup. That evening they commiserate, mostly about her, and end up having drunk sex, even though Hannah is a lesbian.

The next day Iris decides to visit on a whim and the threesome spend the weekend together in the cabin and many sibling emotions, good and bad, come to the surface.

Meet: Barbara Vancheri

Meet Barbara Vancheri, film critic and reporter for the Pittsburgh Gazette.

I ran across Barbara's reporting and film blog, Mad About the Movies, in a news alert.  I like that her reporting covers a range of movies from blockbusters to smaller films or those that might fall in between, and especially that she always points out when a film has a Pittsburgh connection, whether it was filmed there or if the story takes place there or if an artist grew up in the area.  Recently she reported about the renovation of a local theater and a couple of new indie films.

Her columns also appear to be syndicated to other papers, so her work is not just shown to a local audience.

Here is her bio from the Pittsburgh Gazette website:

Pittsburgh native Barbara Vancheri learned to love the movies at the Bellevue and North Hills theaters, McKnight Cinemas and Wexford Drive-In, now all fodder for a "Things That Aren't There Anymore" documentary. A journalism graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, she worked at newspapers in Ashtabula and Columbus, Ohio, Beaver County and Rochester, N.Y., before joining the Post-Gazette in 1984 as a feature writer. She has chronicled a wide range of subjects, from the recovery of two brothers badly burned in a fire and Fred Rogers' puppet diplomacy to the end of "Seinfeld," the opening and closing of local movie houses and Pittsburghers with Hollywood connections. She previewed Universal Studios theme park in Florida before its 1990 opening and has reported on the Academy Awards from the fabled red carpet and the independent-minded Spirit Awards from a tent at Santa Monica Beach. Vancheri also attends the Toronto International Film Festival and keeps readers apprised about Pittsburgh's many homegrown film festivals.In 2005, Vancheri was named movie editor of the Post-Gazette.

Miss Representation

Miss Representation is a documentary made by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, an actress who was dismayed by the lack of quality roles offtered to her, and who speaks frankly about her own issues of self-worth (eating issues, compensating for early death of a sister, sexual abuse).

The film talks about how views of women--on film, in the media, as politicians and business leaders--are for the most part formed by men--male decision makers, male politicians, men who own media conglomerates, talk shows dominated by male trash talk hosts, and perceived male buying power in advertising. The documentary is made for women, by women, and only gives a shade of thought to how it affects men/boys (mostly in the attitude that "we," i.e. women, need to teach them better).

Many women in power positions (business leaders, journalists, politicians, activists, actresses) were talking heads, with a few men (a couple politicians, a filmmaker, some writers who have written on these issues). Some high school aged students, male and female, talk about their personal experiences, with the girls' stories obviously more forthcoming and troubling.

Lipstick & Dynamite

I was in a documentary kick recently and watched a few on DVD all at once. I like the ones about interesting human characters more than those that are promoting a social agenda. This one certainly falls in the former camp.

Lipstick & Dynamite tells the history of professional female wrestlers from the 1930s and beyond. Many of the ones who were interviewed for this documentary still have big egos and are braggarts about their past exploits, as well as their romantic rivals among the other women. Many even still have pretty foul mouths at 80 or 90 years old.

Some mentioned abuse by families or managers, and the really low paychecks they got despite being equal box office draws than men. These ladies are still characters and have very strong memories about events that took place fifty years ago.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is another movie based on a book. The filmmakers elected to add a modern day storyline to complement the historical story that takes place in the book. The plot involves two sets of women, played by the same two actresses (Li Bingbing as Nina/Lily and Gianna Jun as Sophia/Snow Flower), whose lifelong bond is tested when life's bad times affects them.
In the modern story, Nina's just found out her troubled friend Sophia was in an accident. As Sophia recovers Nina reads a manuscript Sohia has written that is based on her ancestor's life (Snow Flower). We travel back and forth between the modern story showing a falling out between Nina and Sophia, and the historical one, where two young girls Lily and Snow Flower are bonded and grow up as "litao," sort of like soul sisters. Although they spend much of their adult lives apart due to their different economic and social situations, they write each other using fans as their communication medium.

Supporting roles include Vivian Wu as Sophia's aunt and Russell Wong as Nina's boss.  Directed by Wayne Wang from a book by Lisa See.

The Help

I am not enamored of movies based on books, especially if I know that fact beforehand. The nature of movies is that they allow so much less time to depict the story that a lot of the book it is based on is not used. It is rare that a film measures up to or retains the sensibilities of the book it is based on. Also, films based on books are often of the top ten variety and that is not my normal reading material.

The Help is based on a book that I haven’t read. If you don’t already know what the topic of The Help is, in the mid-century Southern U.S., a young white woman Eugenia aka Skeeter (Emma Stone) is on her way to a “journalism” job—taking over a household cleaning advice column in the local paper. Among her circle of friends, Skeeter is the only one that is unmarried, despite her mother’s (Alison Janney) and friends’ attempts to set her up. Her friends include two married mothers, Elizabeth with two young children, and Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard), the queen bee of their social circle. There is an outcast among them, Celia (Jessica Chastain), a sexpot the women believe stole Hilly’s lover and subsequently married him.

Women authors into film

Women authors have been adapted in a lot of great films, and no, I don’t mean JK Rowling or Stephenie whats-her-name. Check out some of the adaptations of these great women!