Unexpected Animations & Old Favorites
This is a slow time of year for movies, so I have just one new film to recommend below, which I think is worth seeing in theaters if it’s playing in your area. The rest of these you can find on your streamers, or in the case of my first pick, with a search engine . . .
“Seeing Sound” Animations
Short films created by Mary Ellen Bute in the 1940s and 50s
A couple of weeks ago I went to The Whitney Museum and came across a video by the pioneering animation artist, Mary Ellen Bute. I don’t usually gravitate toward video art but hers was so mesmerizing that I stood and watched the whole thing. When I came home, I checked for more of her work online and found “Tarantella”, “Abstronic,” and “Spook Sport.” She pairs classical music with abstract animation, sort of like Fantasia but with sharper edges. Her animations are short, about 5-7 minutes each and are like a window into the past.
One Fine Morning (Un Beau Matin) 2023
Written & Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve
1 hour 52 minutes; In theaters now
I loved this portrait of midlife and daily life. Sandra (Léa Seydoux) is a widowed single mother who finds herself in the sandwich generation as she cares for her elderly father and school-aged daughter. Her father, a lifelong academic, is suffering from a neuro-degenerative disorder and she needs to find full-time residential care for him. Meanwhile, she’s falling in love with a married friend. The convergence of these two psychically seismic events, which bring big emotions into Sandra’s day-to-day activities, give this film a dramatic texture that feels remarkably true to life. I saw it twice and loved it even more the second time. IMDB * REVIEW * TRAILER
River of Grass (1994)
Written and Directed by Kelly Reichardt
1 hour 16 minutes; streaming on Kanopy, AMC, Mubi
This recommendation is for people who are already Kelly Reichardt fans. If you know her later work (Old Joy, Wendy & Lucy, Certain Women, First Cow) it’s fascinating to see her first feature, which takes place where she grew up in Dade County, Florida — not in the Pacific Northwest, the region with which she is most closely associated. When the film debuted in 1994, the NY Times called it “a hate letter to the climate, architecture and people of south Florida” which doesn’t feel totally fair, though there is a certain amount of youthful contempt in this movie. It’s very 90s indie with hard-bitten, aimless characters who are bored beyond belief. The performances are somewhat flat and the script is sketchy, but Reichardt has a great eye for landscape and takes us on a tour of her home county, a place she ultimately left behind. IMDB * REVIEW * TRAILER
Herself (2021)
Directed by Phyllida Lloyd
Written by Clare Dunne and Malcolm Campbell
1 hour 37 minutes; Streaming on Amazon Prime
This movie went under the radar when it first came out, and I don’t think it found the audience it deserved. Produced by Irish actor/writer Sharon Horgan (who you know from Catastrophe and Bad Sisters), this indie drama is set in Ireland and centers on a single mother, Sandra, who needs help starting over after leaving an abusive marriage. Her employer, friends, and acquaintances quickly come to her aid, volunteering to help her build a house for her and her two young children. Yes, it has the beats of a TV movie, but it’s a psychologically astute one as Phyllida Lloyd makes room for the complexity of abusive relationships. This isn’t a story where everything is okay in the end, but it is one where people are decent and kind to one another, and do their best to fix what is broken. IMDB * REVIEW * TRAILER
Enough Said (2013)
Written & Directed by Nicole Holofcener
Streaming on Hulu
If you saw this when it came out, you’re due for a rewatch. If you didn’t, you’re in for a treat. Julia Louis-Dreyfus stars as a divorced massage therapist whose only daughter is about to go off to college, leaving her alone for the first time in years. In this emotionally vulnerable moment she meets a single dad (James Gandolfini in his last role) who is also on the verge of an empty nest. Rewatching it, I was surprised by how sharply funny it was, almost satirical at times, because I remembered it as a sad movie. The truth is, it’s both, but the relationships between the characters seem so real that what remains in your mind is their loneliness. (I really love A.O. Scott’s review, linked below, he says better than I can what I’m trying to get at.) Holofcener has a new movie coming out later this year, also starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, so this movie will also prepare you for their reunion. IMDB * REVIEW * TRAILER