Indie Focus: Getting really real with ’99 Homes’ and ‘He Named Me Malala’
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Hello! I’m Mark Olsen, and welcome to your weekly field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.
This is a busy, busy time for those of us on the movie beat and for anyone trying to make sense of what's hitting theaters, as each week seems to bring a more exciting and varied crop of movies. The year-end frame is coming into focus, and there are lots of movies to see, discuss, be confounded by, figure out, live with and make your own.
And there’s lots going on in these parts regarding upcoming screenings and events, including some special things for the impending awards-season brouhaha. Keep an eye out for more details.
You can listen to our recent podcast series here.
And check here for more info on future events: events.latimes.com/indiefocus/
’99 Homes’
Ramin Bahrani has long since gone from promising newcomer to one of the most fully formed filmmakers working today. His work is humane, filled with empathy and compassion and a desire for understanding, in ways matched by few others. His films pulse with the drama of everyday life, but in his new “99 Homes” there is an additional quickening from the beats of a more conventional movie thriller. A story set amid the tumultuous world of Florida real estate, the film finds a young man (Andrew Garfield) making a deal with the devil by working for the broker (Michael Shannon) who oversaw the foreclosure on his family’s home.
Andrew Garfield stars as Dennis Nash and Michael Shannon as Rick Carver in the film “99 Homes.”
Andrew Garfield stars as Dennis Nash and Michael Shannon as Rick Carver in the film "99 Homes." (Hooman Bahrani / Broad Green Pictures)
Shannon’s performance may turn out to be one of the most electrifying of the year, even more terrifying than his turn as an actual super-villain in “Man of Steel.” Bahrani’s story also smartly finds the flipside to the character as well, letting audiences in on how a man seemingly made of nothing but cruel greed became that way.
In his review, Kenneth Turan noted Shannon’s performance by saying, “While a lesser actor might have turned Carver into no more than the devil in a tropical weight suit, the nuanced Shannon is capable of making him unavoidably human. Amoral, yes, but also a creature of the system who does what he does because those are the avenues that are open to him."
Amy Kaufman profiled Shannon, who added this on playing a character at once despicable and painfully relatable:
"I think it will probably be hard for some people to understand, but every character I play, I love," Shannon said. "I'm playing them because I'm trying to understand them. There's a lot of broken people walking around this world."
‘He Named Me Malala’
It’s easy to become jaded about awards season, but one of its biggest upsides is that it gives us all an added opportunity to focus on documentary and foreign-language films that might not otherwise get the attention. One doc arriving in theaters on a huge wave of expectation is “He Named Me Malala,” Oscar-winning director David Guggenheim’s look at Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who survived a vicious shooting attack to continue her work on behalf of education for young women that would earn her a Noble Peace Prize.
Malala Yousafzai in the documentary "He Named Me Malala." (Fox Searchlight / Fox Searchlight)
In her review, Rebecca Keegan says, "Moviegoers hankering for a female superhero film needn't wait for 'Wonder Woman.' A big screen heroine of astounding power swoops into theaters this week, caped in a hijab, a backpack full of books slung over her shoulder, a crooked smile the reminder of her fearlessness."
She also called the film, “Both an intimate portrait of the young activist and a sweeping antidote for cynicism."
Yousafazi herself said in a recent interview with The Times’ Jeffrey Fleishman, "I am fighting against an ideology that stops and denies women's rights. Criticism will always be there if you're thinking of politics or bringing change to your country.... It doesn't matter what people are saying. I am following on my mission to see that every child gets a quality education."
‘Addicted to Fresno’
Our own Kenneth Turan has said, “As a critic you’re a gang of one or you’re nothing at all,” and so I will here take a stand on behalf of Jamie Babbit’s “Addicted to Fresno” despite the fact that critic Gary Goldstein in The Times called the film “scattershot… desperate and slapdash.” In the New York Times, Neil Genzlinger called it “one of those comedies that seem not to care whether you laugh” — as if that were a negative. Sounds like fun to me.
Personally, I laughed as much at “Fresno” as just about anything I’ve seen recently. The film features two of my favorite actresses, Judy Greer and Natasha Lyonne, both of whom are rarely given the opportunity to open up the throttle as they do here.
“Addicted to Fresno” stars Natasha Lyonne, left, and Judy Greer. This comedy tells the story of two sisters, a lesbian and a sex-addict, who work as maids at a hotel in Fresno.
"Addicted to Fresno" tells the story of two sisters, a lesbian and a sex-addict, who work as maids at a hotel in Fresno. (Gravitas Ventures)
In the film, the duo plays mismatched sisters, with each actress playing the role somewhat against their typical screen personae. Greer is a caustic sex addict struggling to get her life on track, while Lyonne is a bubbly optimist who is always trying to make things right.
I recently talked to Babbit about the film and how, as in her breakthrough film "But I'm a Cheerleader," she finds emotional nuance and authenticity even amid a wild comedic premise. In "Fresno," that means combining a look at codependency with the difficulties of disposing of an inconveniently dead body.
“It’s something I’ve always struggled with in my work because I don’t want to just do broad comedy. I want to get a tiny bit of emotion in there,” Babbit said. “I used to say in the '90s that my work was a feminization of the camp aesthetic, but I don’t know what that means. It’s just adding a little bit of emotion to something that’s kind of crazy.”
TCM’s "Trailblazing Women"
Whether by DVR, VCR or some technology I haven’t heard of yet, however you capture movies off the TV, get ready to do a lot of it all through October. Turner Classic Movies is presenting a series called “Trailblazing Women” that will feature 47 women directors over nine nights, from the silent era up to today. It is a stellar lineup; among the films being featured are Claudia Weil’s “Girlfriends,” Julie Dash’s “Daughters of the Dust,” Barbara Loden’s “Wanda,” Kathleen Collins’ “Losing Ground” and films by Nora Ephron, Euzhan Palcy, Susan Seidelman, Elaine May, Dorothy Arzner, Shirley Clarke and many, many more.
Actress Illeana Douglas spoke to Rebecca Keegan about the series.
“Women were quite powerful in early Hollywood, and we show how things shift,” Douglas said. “It reminded me of the joke they say about the pioneers — they’re the ones with all the arrows in their backs. Oftentimes these women blazed the trail, and they were pushed aside and forgotten about.”
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