Tag: movies

Movie review: Sing Sing

Unlocked

Since I saw the trailer months ago, I’ve been eager to see the movie Sing Sing. “Divine G (Colman Domingo), imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn’t commit, finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men in this story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art.” My wife and I attended a Monday night showing at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany.

From RogerEbert.com: “Writer-director Greg Kwedar and his script partner Clint Bentley developed the project after buying the rights to the 2005 Esquire article ‘The Sing Sing Follies,’ by John H. Richardson. But they didn’t just shrink-wrap a true story in Hollywood cliches. They did what good journalists would do and re-reported the entire thing by interviewing people from the story as well as various participants in the Sing Sing correctional facility’s theater program.”

Acting!

One interview of the directors of Ghostlight [a movie I highly recommend] and Sing Sing on their cinematic explorations of empathy via theater notes: “{Sing Sing] revolves around an original production called Breaking the Mummy’s Code, most closely following founding member John ‘Divine G’ Whitfield (Domingo) as he prepares for an upcoming clemency hearing. Divine G soon finds himself challenged, then befriended by newbie Clarence ‘Divine Eye’ Maclin (as himself), a lone wolf selling drugs who can intimidate someone in the yard one minute, then casually quote King Lear the next.” Mummy’s Code, BTW, is a wildly fascinating production, evoking, among others, Robin Hood, Freddy Krueger, Hamlet, and a Roman citizen.

The movie had the opportunity to be a canned feel-good story, but it didn’t because of the persona of the Domingo character and verisimilitude of the theater director (Paul Raci from Sound Of Metal); Divine Eye (Maclin), a newbie would-be actor in the play; and the other actors.

RTA

Hmm. Maclin’s IMDb includes Unlocked: The Power of the Arts in Prison, which “captures the unsparingly honest stories of formerly incarcerated men and women who participated in RTA’s prison arts program. The film offers a different model for criminal justice, emphasizing life skills that lead to success after prison.”

What is RTA? Rehabilitation Through the Arts. “RTA helps people in prison develop critical life skills through the arts, modeling an approach to the justice system based on human dignity rather than punishment.” Oh and here’s the Unlocked short film, which features Maclin and others I recognized from the movie Sing Sing! 

“Founded at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in 1996, RTA has provided arts-based workshops to thousands of incarcerated men and women, transforming lives and breaking the cycle of incarceration with proven results: less than 3% of RTA members return to prison, compared to 60% nationally. To learn more about our work, ask questions, or provide support, please contact us.”

The fact that this is based on a true story – clips from the original Breaking the Mummy’s Code shows up in the end credits – makes this even more compelling.

Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 98% positive rating with critics, 93% with audiences. One of the three negative critics’ takes misses the point completely: “The story itself presents a flawed notion of ‘serving time’ and becoming ‘reformed’ as a result of incarceration without unpacking the institutional violence that lands Black men behind bars at a disproportionate rate.” It’s just not THAT movie. The one that it is suffices.

Sunday Stealing: plans for August

Sing Sing

Another Sunday Stealing quiz.

1. What are your plans for August?

My family is going on another trip. I’ll tell you about it after the fact. I will note that my wife and I returned yesterday from the Chautauqua Institution. We were away for a week during its 150th anniversary. I’ll write about it in dribs and drabs in the coming weeks. Also, some major housecleaning is required due to an unexpected development.

2. Your mid-year resolutions or goals

 Do more genealogy. My sister Leslie was in our hometown of Binghamton, NY, for a reunion this month, and she got a lot of info from a third cousin (I think) on my mother’s side and my father’s first cousin. Oh, and I plan to do LESS of some other things.

3. Are you good at taking care of plants?

Absolutely not. I have no plants; I’ve never been good with them. My wife has a few, but we must keep them out of reach of our cat Stormy, who will otherwise chew on them and then throw up.

4. What makes you feel nourished?

Interesting question. It depends on what one means by “nourished.” It could be oatmeal or music.

5. Which animals do you see most in your area?

Cats. Lots of cats are in our backyard, so many that our neighbors mistakenly think they are ours.

6. Books on your summer reading list

When folks come to the Friends of the Albany Public Library and present an author talk, I usually buy one of their books. Currently, I have more than a dozen unread. I’ll pick one AFTER the projects are done, which is to say, probably in the autumn.

Hanging like the sword of Damocles

7. Projects you want to tackle this summer

I am editing someone’s book, which I MUST return to; I haven’t touched it all month. Getting our back porch replaced.

8. Do you have weddings, graduations, summer celebrations

We went to the Olin family reunion in July. It’s my MIL’s people.

9. Which summer snacks are you excited to enjoy again?

I can’t think of a thing I eat only in summer.

10. How much time do you like to take for vacations

A minimum of a week. Three-day jaunts can be okay, but it’s not vacating enough.

11. Where are your favorite picnic locations?

Random roadside stops. There’s a nice one on I-86 about a half hour west of Binghamton.

12. Something that would be out of character for you

Not singing.

13. Which summer movies are you excited to see?

I went to the Rolling Stone list of The 44 Most-Anticipated New Movies of Summer 2024. So far, I’ve seen Ghostlight, Inside Out 2, Janet Planet, Thelma, and Daddio, all of which I have reviewed in the links; I liked them all except Janet Planet. Sing Sing is the only movie on the list I know enough about that I would like to see.

14. Your favorite free/cost-effective ways to have fun

Lots of free concerts in Albany

15. Who do you trust most to house & pet sit?

My daughter’s friend Kay

Movie review: Janet Planet

the Berkshires

After seeing a rather endearing trailer, my wife and I went to the Spectrum 8 Theatre in Albany to see the movie Janet Planet on a Tuesday evening.

It’s weird. After we shared our impressions afterward, we pointed out some interesting things about what the movie set out to do in depicting a single mom (the title character played by Juliana Nicholson) and her tween daughter Lacy (Zoey Ziegler) in 1991.

Yet, seeing the film in real-time, the revelations unfolded too slowly and possibly obliquely for our taste.

Early during the movie, an older gentleman in the audience pulled out his phone. I thought it strange until I realized that he was turning up his hearing aid. The first section, the one featuring Janet’s brusque boyfriend Wayne  (Will Patton), was almost all long shots and difficult to hear.

The next section involved the troupe of performers, which was interesting enough, as Janet reconnects with old friend Regina (Sophie Okonedo). This section is at least slightly more interesting. The third act involves that group – is it a cult? – Guru, Avi  (Elias Koteas).

Lacy, meanwhile, is largely observing her mother’s life, making sometimes pointed comments. But mostly, she is alone in her thoughts except for her increasingly interesting doll house characters. She has no friends except, briefly, one. Her piano lessons seem a chore for both the student and her instructor.

Reviews

The Rotten Tomatoes critics’ reviews were 84% positive. One compared it favorably with the mother/daughter piece Lady Bird. I LIKED Lady Bird.

One negative review by Rich Cline reflected our thoughts: “The mannered approach means that story only comes to life in brief spurts of insight, especially as the excellent cast adds details to characters who are somewhat undefined. But much of the film involves watching nothing happen at all.”

I generally agreed with the audience reviews, which were only 40% positive. While I don’t think it was “pointless” or “the worst film in decades,” which I read more than once, “this is a very, very slow film in which little happens. If the characters were the least bit engaging, this might have worked.”

I was bored and impatient, and my wife wished she had not gone.

It does have some nice western Massachusetts scenery, which we were familiar with. The story is by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker. It supposedly “captures a child’s experience of time passing, and the ineffability of a daughter falling out of love with her mother, in this singularly sublime film debut.”

It just didn’t work for us.

Also, the title kept reminding me of Van Morrison’s first wife. 

Movie review: Daddio

two people in a taxi

The movie Daddio is about two people driving around and talking. More specifically, a young woman (Dakota Johnson) arrives at the airport and gets into the back seat of a yellow taxi. The cab driver (Sean Penn) heads towards Manhattan, and they talk. That’s pretty much it.

The cabbie, Clark, or whoever he wanted to be, is a fairly astute judge of people. As he generates conversation with his last fare of the night, she’s willing to put away her cell phone for a few moments in response. They discuss the nature of romantic relationships, sometimes as a competition.

The critics like it, 77% positive, and the audience response is 86% thumbs up. wrote: “The pair’s conversation only grows in unexpected specificity and fiery intensity from there… While I never fully bought that the two characters would engage as intimately as they do, their conversation still kept me glued to my seat…” While I agree with the latter half, I found strangers in a taxi talking entirely credible. When I used to take the train to Charlotte, NC, and elsewhere regularly, I was initially shocked at what total strangers would share with me.

The cabbie’s motives

Fetters also notes: “Is Clark attracted to her? Does he look at the woman as a daughter? Is he bored and just happy to have someone in his cab willing to chat with him? As for her, does she need this conversation right now? Does Clark spark something inside her that makes her willing to open up to a complete stranger about so many ins and outs happening in her life at the moment?”

But Rex Reed’s negative assessment is NOT wrong. “Every woman I’ve ever known would start looking for an escape from a cabbie who turns as embarrassingly intimate as this one does.” 

This is Christy Hall’s directorial debut and also her first script for the cinema. Dakota Johnson was an executive producer.

In some ways, I wondered how this would play out as a two-person play. It would require something to display what she is surreptitiously texting.  

I think it is a good but not great film. My wife and I saw it on a Tuesday night at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany. 

Movie review: Thelma

families are complicated

My wife and I saw the new movie Thelma at the Spectrum  8 Theatre in Albany on a Thursday afternoon. This is the first starring role for nonagenarian Jane Squibb, who I first remember seeing in the 2013 film Nebraska, for which she was rightly nominated for an Oscar.

The story was written by director Josh Margolin, who based the story on his own mother, also named Thelma. IRL, some folks tried to scam Margolin’s mom with a fake call from her “grandson” who was in “trouble,” but she didn’t fall for it.

The cinematic Thelma adores her 24-year-old grandson Daniel (Fred Hechinger), and the feeling is mutual, as he gives her help with her computer, and she offers him confidence. A phony telephone ploy takes her in. Once she realizes that Daniel is all right, she plans to get her money back.

This is complicated by Daniel’s parents, Thelma’s daughter Gail (Parker Posey), and Alan (Clark Gregg, who you may recognize from oodles of Marvel movies). They believe the older woman is experiencing cognitive decline since being widowed a couple of years earlier and may need to move into assisted living.

Our protagonist is having none of this. She borrows a vehicle from her old friend Ben (the late Richard Roundtree), who somewhat reluctantly comes along for the adventure.

Review

There were only ten people in the theater, none of them under 50, I surmise. There were laugh-out-loud segments, and not just by my measure.  One particular action cliche is particularly funny.

A lot of truth is here about listening to what older people say, especially about their own lives. Daniel’s parents learn things about their son’s skill set.

Josh Margolis has already won some minor awards, including at the Desertscape International Film Festival, where he was the 2024 festival award winner for Best Action Movie. Seriously.

Professional reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes were 99% positive. Kylie Bolter of the Chicago notes: “This action-comedy leaves room for plenty of nuance about aging and autonomy.” The audience score was 83% positive, with the most common complaint being that it was “boring.” No. Just no.

Ramblin' with Roger
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