Here’s what we caught yesterday, and what films you can look forward to today at the fest.
From yesterday:
Five Flights Up
Does not repeat
Grade: C
A heartfelt tribute to marital longevity and domestic stability, this romantic trifle from British director Richard Loncraine (Wimbledon) benefits from having esteemed pros Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton along for the ride. He plays a painter, and she’s a retired schoolteacher, and their quiet routine gets thrown into turmoil during a weekend in which they contemplate moving out of their apartment after four decades, their dog suffers a spinal injury, and a terrorist might be on the loose in Manhattan. There are some half-hearted observations about the cutthroat New York real-estate scene, but despite some touching moments, the overall impact is slight and forgettable. — Todd Jorgenson
Red on Yella, Kill a Fella
Repeats Noon April 12, Angelika 4
Grade: C-
This low-budget Western borrows heavily from Sergio Leone’s playbook, but that style is a mismatch for its central horror story. A gang of outlaws make their way across Texas, leaving a bloody trail in their wake while a unseen killer begins to hunt them. I wish the director had culled rather than include superfluous elements that undermine the sense of mystery and foreboding necessary to making this a truly frightful tale. Instead we get too many lapses of logic, extraneous characters, and laughable dialogue. —Jason Heid
This Isn’t Funny
Repeats: 2:45 p.m. April 12 Angelika 6
Grade: C
That bold title fits the self-deprecating vibe of this romantic comedy that nevertheless crumbles under a series of cliches and contrivances. Eliot (Katie Page) is a fledgling stand-up comic with anxiety issues who accidentally meets Jamie (Paul Ashton), a juice-bar manager originally from Australia. They form a bond in part as a coping mechanism for their respective dysfunctional families, but eventually grow closer. There are some scattered big laughs and offbeat charm in the script by Page and Ashton (who also directed), with Page’s actual stand-up routine providing some of the material. Yet it’s too predictable and the territory ultimately feels more familiar than fresh. — Todd Jorgenson
Today’s films:
Margarita With a Straw
12:15 p.m. April 11, Angelika 7 | 10:30 p.m. April 18, Angelika 6
Grade: B
The premise might sound sappy, but this gentle coming-of-age story from India about a young woman with cerebral palsy is more charming than cloying. Laila (Kalki Koechlin) lives a relatively normal life for someone with such limited speech and motor skills, even earning a scholarship to NYU. That’s where she befriends a tutor (William Moseley) and gets in touch with her sexuality after meeting a blind lesbian (Sayani Gupta). The production is rough around the edges, but thanks to smart writing and a terrific performance by Koechlin, the sympathy for Laila feels genuine instead of forced. It might even cause viewers to change their perspective. – Todd Jorgenson
Shorts 1
Repeats 2 p.m. April 11, Angelika 4
Grade: B+
As usual, the mini-films rank among the best things showing at DIFF. In Oasis, a woman desperate to keep her job as a building super (and the apartment that comes with it) finds herself forced to confront the difficulty of doing the right thing when it requires you to sacrifice yourself in the process. Cutaway succinctly, uniquely, and nearly wordlessly tells a heartbreaking story exclusively via shots of the actor’s hands in close-up. Love Me Tinder is about an amusingly bad enouncter enabled by a hook-up app, and it ends on an oddly somber note. In Sweep a friendly encounter with a stranger at a city dump ends up demonstrating the limits of one man’s empathy for another. I found Adjust-a-Dream — about a gay couple mattress shopping — a bit of a dud. Likewise, the Fort Worth-produced Melville seems way too convinced of its own emotional power, in its overwrought telling of a man dealing with a cancer diagnosis. Pink Grapefruit starts out as a fun and truthful look at a blind-date couple uncomfortably brought together for a weekend in a posh desert home, but the turn it takes at the end is inconsistent with what comes before. And The Little Deputy, about a man taking another crack at a photo he posed for with his dad at a mall almost 30 years ago, neither moved or amused me — but it is the most experimental (or rather, gimmicky) of the bunch. — Jason Heid
The Jones Family Will Make a Way
2:30 p.m. April 11, Angelika 6 | 7:15 p.m. April 12, Angelika 7
Grade: B-
If you’ve never heard of the Jones Family Singers, this crowd-pleasing documentary aims to change that. The gospel group hails from a blue-collar background along the Texas Gulf Coast, where patriarch Fred is a longtime Pentecostal preacher trying to gain fame and fortune for his family’s considerable vocal talents. What results is a rather shallow portrait of the family members themselves, but a more compelling study of how reputation influences gospel’s fit in the commercial music landscape. Still, nobody doubts their talent, and it’s easy to root for the resilient Jones and his offspring to succeed even if the creative odds are stacked against them. – Todd Jorgenson
She’s the Best Thing In It
7 p.m. April 11, Angelika 4 | 12:15 p.m. April 12, Angelika 7
Grade: B
You might recognize Tony-winning actress Mary Louise Wilson from a handful of noteworthy roles on stage and television, and you might appreciate her longevity as a character actor. The latter seems to be the goal of this documentary directed by screenwriter Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia) that focuses both on Wilson’s career highlights and on a late-career slump that led to her returning to her hometown of New Orleans to teach acting classes. The film’s compassion for the 82-year-old Wilson is obvious, although the film is more valuable for the insight gleaned through interviews with several actresses who’ve achieved the fame that somehow eluded her. – Todd Jorgenson
The Amina Profile
Repeats 3 p.m. April 11, Angelika 8
Grade: B+
This documentary recounts the fascinating story of the “Gay Girl in Damascus” blog that captured the attention of major media outlets in the midst of the uprisings throughout the Arab world in 2011. Sandra Bagaria, of Montreal, carried on a six-month online relationship with a woman she believed to be the blog’s author — a Syrian named Amina Arraf. It’s through Bagaria’s eyes that director Sophie Deraspe traces the trail of Amina’s rise to worldwide attention and the shocking revelations that followed. I found some of Deraspe’s filmmaking choices overcooked, but it’s hard not to feel for what Bagaria had to go through. — Jason Heid
Playing It Cool
7:30 p.m. April 11, Angelika 6 | 4:30 p.m. April 17, Texas Theatre
Grade: D
A strong cast is squandered in this clichéd romantic comedy that feels strained in its stabs at both romance and humor. It follows a screenwriter (Chris Evans) struggling with ideas for a romantic comedy because, he figures, he’s never truly been in love. Then he meets a woman (Michelle Monaghan) who’s engaged but nevertheless strikes up a friendship, and before long his life turns into a romantic comedy so, you know, art imitates life and all that. Despite a few amusing diversions, the film consists of endless relationship discussions without any meaningful insight to show for it. The ensemble includes Topher Grace, Anthony Mackie, and Luke Wilson.– Todd Jorgenson
Closer to God
11:59 p.m. April 11, Angelika 7 | 10:15 p.m. April 12, Angelika 8
Grade: C+
At times Closer to God’s Frankenstein story about the birth of a human clone aims to ruminate intelligently about the ethical quandaries involved in scientific advances: whether man should play God in the name of genetic research. However, it soon becomes instead a run-of-the-mill horror story, employing the well-worn trope of the monstrous family secret literally locked away in the attic. The antihero, Dr. Victor Reed (Jeremy Childs), begins as an intriguing character — driven to give all his attention to the invention of new life while ignoring his own biological daughters — but he becomes as plodding and preachy as the rest of the film. — Jason Heid
