How to resolve AdBlock issue? Arts & Life
Anyone remembering sex scandals of the late Nineties (not involving Monica Lewinsky) may recall the tabloid fodder story of Mary Kay Letourneau, a 35-year-old teacher convicted of child rape in a sexual relationship with a sixth-grade student.
The Netflix film “May December” is an unsettling reminder of a case of pedophilia that should not be normalized under any circumstance. The characters here are fictional, with the Letourneau story merely a twisted premise for a fraught history of predatory scandal.
Natalie Portman’s Elizabeth is a Hollywood actress preparing for some method acting by exploring first-hand the story of the older woman Gracie (Julianne Moore) having an affair outside her marriage with a 13-year-old co-worker at a pet store.
The child who had sex with Gracie in the store’s stockroom is now 36-year-old Joe (Charles Melton). The scandal happened more than 20 years ago, and even though Joe and Gracie are married and living in Savannah, Georgia, the couple may never escape the opprobrium of the townsfolk.
Embedding herself with the family, Elizabeth took interest in the script of an indie film to take the starring role, thinking aloud that in Gracie she sees “a woman with a lot more to her than I remember from the tabloids and our cultural memory.”
Elizabeth sits down with Gracie’s ex-husband Tom (D.W. Moffett), and discovers that to this day he has not gotten over the shock of being married to a then 36-year-old woman having an affair with a seventh-grade student.
As the affair led to pregnancy, Joe and Gracie have three children, the oldest being Honor (Piper Curda) coming home from college with a chip on her shoulder, while the younger twins Mary (Elizabeth Yu) and Charlie (Gabriel Chung) are about to graduate from high school.
“May December” moves at a laborious pace, seemingly entreating the viewer to savor the dialogue and parse the words for hidden meaning, while figuring out whether the emotions and feelings of the characters reveal some sort of truth.
Throughout the movie, it seems all too often that family members from Gracie and Joe to their three children say things are “fine” when one senses the expression cloaks a deeper sense of anguish bubbling under the surface.
As the film closes with Elizabeth on set with a young lover, I am at a loss on the symbolism of the garden snake she holds, but then the supposed edgy, dark humor also doesn’t resonate in a meaningful way for me. Viewers will need to arrive at their own suppositions.
Even though the focus is apparently Natalie Portman’s Elizabeth analyzing the essence of Julian Moore’s Gracie for her film role, “May December” belongs in great part to Charlie Melton’s Joe, a man-child at a crossroads in processing the reality of life.
‘ARCHIE’ ON BRITBOX
The four-part series “Archie” on BritBox is about the life of Hollywood leading man Gary Grant, who was born in Bristol, England in 1904 with the given name of Archibald Alexander Leach.
Tracing his troubled childhood in a family living in extreme poverty, Archie’s story as a child had to deal with his father’s adultery and the loss of his older brother John that tore the family apart and sent his loving mother into a downward spiral of grief and depression.
At 14, Archie auditioned for the music hall act of the Bob Pender Troupe, a band of acrobats, stilt walkers, clowns and comedians after seeing them perform at the Bristol Hippodrome.
Lean and athletic, Archie learned the art of stilt walking, and when the troupe went on tour to the United States, teenage Archie was intoxicated by the land of opportunity. Believing he had no family to return to in England, he decided to stay in America to try to make his way in show business.
With no thoughts of acting, a chance meeting with the comedian George Burns helped him find his first footing on the acting ladder and a contract with a movie studio who felt he needed to change his name, and Cary Grant was born.
The drama intercuts with scenes from 1961 when at the height of his fame, living in Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles, the legendary actor (Jason Isaacs) was breaking all box office records, but desperately unhappy in his private life.
With two failed marriages behind him, Cary began to woo an actress he’d seen on a TV show, Dyan Cannon (Laura Aikman). Thirty-three years his junior, Dyan didn’t initially fall for his charms, turning down his attempts to meet, because she didn’t feel they could ever be a match.
Dashingly handsome, suave and sophisticated, Cary continued to pursue her, with introductions to his famous friends, until they eventually wed in Las Vegas in 1965. The marriage didn’t last long but the couple had a daughter.
With the blessing of Cary Grant’s daughter, Jennifer Grant, and ex-wife Dyan Cannon, the pair serve as Executive Producers of “Archie.” Dainton Anderson, Calam Lynch, and Oaklee Pendergast pay young versions of Archie Leach.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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‘SILENT NIGHT’ RATED R
“Silent Night” is a well-known Christmas hymn dating back to the early 19th century. The movie of the same title might be considered a Christmas film in the same vein as “Die Hard,” only it is even more violent.
Legendary director John Woo, known for his operatic style of action sequences and rarefied imagery, made his mark on schematized action thrillers with his Hong Kong hits “A Better Tomorrow,” “Hard Boiled,” and “The Killer.”
Imagining John Woo directing a “John Wick” film is not a giant leap, considering his style would seem to have influenced that franchise, and with this film one of the production companies, Thunder Road, is best known for producing the franchise that Keanu Reeves made so thoroughly entertaining.
The holiday season informs the film mainly because on the night before Christmas, a traditional suburban American family is preparing to spend a pleasant day together, unaware of a brewing tension between two rival gangs that will change their lives in a horrifying and desolate manner.
As Brian (Joel Kinnaman) and Saya (Catalina Sandino Moreno) Godlock enjoy playing in the front yard with their young son, local gangs are racing down the street firing automatic weapons at each other, never mindful that a stray bullet would harm someone uninvolved with a turf war.
Struck by a stray bullet, the young boy is collateral damage in a city seemingly rife with out-of-control crime sprees. The child does not survive and the mourning takes an irreversibly harmful toll on the parents.
With the notable exception of empathetic Detective Dennis Vassel (Scott Mescudi), Brian finds the flawed policing system seemingly indifferent to bringing deserved justice for the premature death of a boy. Not surprisingly, Brian vows to take revenge.
The main villain is gang leader Playa (Harold Torres), whose tattooed face and bald head make him look as vicious as any MS-13 gang member that terrorizes rivals and innocent civilians alike.
While Brian immediately hunts down and locates a handful of the culprits, his confrontation with Playa leaves him severely wounded and on the brink of death. Yet, his will for revenge becomes unstoppable.
Spurred to violent action, Brian’s desire to avenge the death of his son recalls what the fathers in “Death Wish” and “Taken” endured to overcome their pain to punish the criminals.
A good deal of the film is focused on Brian’s training regimen, given that he’s just a regular guy until he hones lethal skills. While there is brevity in the dialogue, violent retribution does all the talking and that is enough for action fans of a brutal revenge story.
‘BYE BYE BARRY’ ON AMAZON PRIME
One thing certain in this year’s season of pro football is that the Carolina Panthers have been eliminated for a spot in the National Football League playoffs.
Usually, the Detroit Lions are also-rans, as they have not won a 1991 season playoff game since they won the division game by beating the Dallas Cowboys in a lopsided victory.
One of the star Lions players at the time was running back Barry Sanders who played for ten seasons with the team and is now the subject of Amazon Prime’s documentary “Bye Bye Barry.”
This feature-length documentary reveals in intimate detail the unprecedented journey of the running back who led the league in rushing yards during four seasons. One of the giants of the sport, Sanders displayed a style and flair that has arguably never been replicated.
His record-breaking career at both Oklahoma State, where he won the Heisman Trophy in 1988, and with the Detroit Lions created a standard that will be celebrated forever, and maybe not emulated by others with much success.
Ten years into his Hall of Fame career, it was only a matter of time before he broke Chicago Bears running back Walter Payton’s record for most rushing yards. Sanders gained 15,269 rushing yards, the most ever by any NFL player in a 10-year span.
But in his prime, at the peak of his game, Sanders did the unthinkable. At age 31, in the summer of 1999, he walked away from the game, never to return. Few retirements have ever been so shocking. And none with more intrigue.
Twenty-four years after the surprising decision to depart from the sport, NFL Film joined the 55-year-old Sanders and his four sons on a trip to England to explore his career, revisit his upbringing, and tackle one of the greatest mysteries in sports history. Why did he retire when he did?
The documentary reveals the controversy over Sanders’ retirement, which came abruptly with a faxed statement and a departure for London right before the start of training camp. It would not have been his style to hold a press conference.
Football fans should enjoy “Bye Bye Barry” for the great footage of his amazing speed and agility on the field, and the interviews with teammates, his family and cameos of celebrity fans like Tim Allen and Jeff Daniels, among others.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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