Transit, Giant Little Ones, Hotel by the River and The Oscars on Monday Morning Diary (March 4)

Screen cap from German “Transit”

by Sam Juliano

A late night wintry mix and snowfall brought on the cancellation of area schools for Monday morning, though the appearance of the sun at around 10:00 A.M. and the meltdown made this decision seem foolhardy.  In any event an unexpected and welcome day off for a number of us.

Last week’s Oscar telecast ended too late for me to include it in the previous Monday morning Diary, but I will list my general thoughts here:  Nothing in last night’s surprisingly breezy and well managed Oscar ceremony was as moving as Olivia Colman’s adorable, charming, humble and earthy acceptance speech for her stunning Best Actress win. Certainly this mighty great actress gave as titanic a performance by a female lead as any other thespian this year -including Glenn Close’s turn – but few of us thought this marvelous woman would prevail after she was passed over by SAG. Yay for Olivia Colman! THE FAVORITE is one of my “favorite” films of 2018. I am sad for Glenn Close of course, but who can contest Colman’s glorious win, really?  Todd Sherman must be smiling this morning as well he should!  Also: Loved Spike Lee’s screenplay win and his rowdy speech.  I wasn’t a fan of “A Star is Born” but Gaga and Cooper were electrifying as they crooned “Shallow.”  Rami Malek’s win was a celebratory moment (my own fave was Dafoe, but I still loved the Egyptian-American’s epic turn as Freddy Mercury.  Yay to Regina King, Mahershala Ali (I was rooting for Richard Grant, but fair enough) and the stellar showing by African-Americans across the board.  Yes Roma was absolutely the very best film of the eight nominated for Best Picture (and one of my own Top 5 or 6 films of the year), (The Favourite was the only other MASTERPIECE of the 8) and yes I was surprised it didn’t win the Best Picture award, but it did win those three major prizes for Alfonso Cuaron including Best Foreign Film and Best Director. As to Green Book winning Best Picture, I do like the film, and have it in my Top 20 of the year, so I will say I do not and will not criticize the win, even if I liked a good number of other films more. I suppose Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s brilliant takedown of the criticism hit home with AMPAS members. Don Haumant my friend, you knew all along Roma would not win in the prize. Take a bow.  No I did not ever imagine Bohemian Rhapsody would end up the night’s top winner in number of awards with four. Amazing.  “Skin” was one of the most brilliant and disturbing short films I’ve ever seen, and the bold win in Live Action short should be applauded.  I preferred the masterpieces NEVER LOOK AWAY or COLD WAR in foreign and also would have gone with the stupendous CAPERNAUM or THE SHOPLIFTERS but I still love Roma and fully expected it to win in that category.   Thinking of my Chicago-area friend and movie fan Brian Wilson, who sponsored Free Solo all year. Brian no doubt was very pleased this superb documentary triumphed.  The show itself? Yeah I know some are saying it was a bore until the last quarter, but you can’t have everything. No host means a streamlined show, and largely it all worked quite well and ended at an acceptable time. I doubt we’ll ever have a single host again!

Photos of our Oscar party are at bottom:  So fantastic to have John Grant head in from Hewitt with his wife Pam for the third consecutive year and Adam Ferenz from Flint, Michigan for his maiden appearance.  The showing of 54 was the highest ever for any of our annual parties!!

Co-WitD editor Jim Clark’s latest essay on Let the Sunshine In is wholly brilliant and J.D. Lafrance’s review of Bright Lights Big City is masterful.  Both posted this past week at the site.

Lucille, Sammy and I took in the existential, meditative and other-worldly German film “Transit” by master class director Christian Petzold on Friday night at the IFC Film Center in Manhattan. Embracing the film vocabulary of the 1940’s the era when the novel was written, the post-modernist “Transit” features Georg (Franz Rogowski), who heads to Marseille during fascist incorporation, assuming the identity papers of a writer who committed suicide. Distinguished by a voiceover point-of-view the film’s tone and refugee depiction is present-day and the narrative is enshrouded in mystery and populated by specters. Paula Beer who plays Marie was previously captivating in “Franz” – a film with which ‘Transit’ bears thematic kinship- and in Von Donnarsmarck’s “Don’t Look Away” where she played Ellie Seeband. My absolute favorite Petzold film is “Phoenix” but “Transit” is extraordinary, a triumph of mood and menace.

Lucille, Sammy, Jeremy, Angelo, Broadway Bob and I saw the Canadian high school drama “Giant Little Ones” at the Angelica Film Center on Saturday night and remained for a comprehensive Q & A afterwards, one which included the director Keith Behrman, the producer Allison Black, the film’s two young stars Josh Wiggins and Darren Mann, female co-star Taylor Hickson, and renowned acting veteran Kyle MacLachlen. The acclaimed film, centering around the life-changing consequences after two male best friends engage in a sexual act after a party when everyone is drunk leads to revelations, violent homophobia and common understanding with the family patriarch (MacLachlan) who has left the family for another man. Nuanced and perceptive, this independent deserves all the praise it has been getting. 

Lucille and I watched the South Korean Hotel by the River by acclaimed director Hong Songsoo this afternoon at Manhattan’s Quad Cinemas. The melancholic black and white drama centers on a measure of existential waiting staged by a poet who believes he is about to die. He invites his two estranged sons, who like him have their own familial issues, but their arrival changes little in the static dynamic. Bittersweet humor is dominant in an oddly enveloping work which is superbly lensed, edited and helmed, and builds to a wrenching emotional climax.

Transit     **** 1/2   (Friday)  IFC Film Center

Giant Little Ones  **** 1/2  (Saturday)   Angelica Film Center

Hotel by the River  ****    (Sunday)     Quad Cinemas

Kyle MacLachlen

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