Anomalisa (Brockway)

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

Anomalisa

Charlie Kaufman (Synedoche, Being John Malkovitch, Adaptation) is the prince of eerie cinema. His pair of directed films hit upon the eye with hard to define sensations and some surely think of him as an acquired sight.

Kaufman's latest film surprises again. In "Anomalisa," Michael Stone (David Thewlis) is a famous self-help writer in a rut. He is bored with life. Nothing delights him. Stone has no energy.  Worse still, the people seem invariably the same, no matter male or female.

Stone is at a loss; he is more depressed than anxious. He checks in to the Hotel Fregoli in Cincinnati. His attending a conference. Stone can't relax. He is restless. Stone resolves to go down the hall convinced he hears an unusual cadence

He discovers two girls Emily and Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh).  He is hooked.

This film might seem the stuff of Woody Allen or Todd Solondz. This comparison would be right were it not for the fact that the film is composed of animation made from a 3D printer, creating characters of quirky pathos and spookiness---as heartfelt as they are unearthly.

Everywhere  we gaze, we see people marching to and fro, going to work, walking and eating all in identical manners. In every face there is a disturbing crack. As if only one bad day will have your face fall to the ground like disintegrated leaves.

Though it has its Orwellian thrills, the film more thoroughly startles you with the poignant delicacy of its stop action characters. Every detail is handled with the grace of a calligraphist. Loneliness is explored. Human anatomy is found and revealed along with the hunger of desire and what it feels like to want and not be able to have. Michael and Lisa are no mere creatures of light and color, but actual people.

The couple is trapped in a sci-fi fever dream, but this is only a plot device to propel us to another question: as we essentially live in a technologically immersive world, how close are the animations to us, and vice versa. More to the point, what is makes us "human" or can it all be mapped and produced?

Both the story and the medium used to convey it, speak in tandem and contain duplicate questions.

"Anomalisa" oddly sweet and melancholy with a touch of fear will have you questioning just what is actually genuine or real, giving a feeling not unlike the 70s era "The Stepford Wives," or the more recent "Black Swan."

Write Ian at ianfree1@yahoo.com

Week of February 26 - March 3 (Rhoades)

Tropic Overview

Count ‘em! Seven Films on Tropic Screens…

Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

Film Critic, Key West Citizen

As we get caught up in Oscar fever, Tropic Cinema is squeezing even more Academy Award nominated films onto its four screens. By skillful scheduling there are seven movies playing at the Tropic this week. Wow!

“The Revenant” is still playing if you want to catch Leo Dio (that’s Leonardo DiCaprio to the less hip) in the role that may bring him an Oscar. This gritty Western gives us Leo as Hugh Glass, a hunter left for dead after an encounter with an enraged grizzly. But Glass refuses to give up the ghost, seeking revenge on the man who left him behind. Dark Horizon says, “Equal parts beautiful and brutal, it’s easily one of the most unsettling films of the past few years. It’s also one of the best.” And Cinencuentro calls it, “a visceral experience, starring actors at its best, and filmed in a very spectacular way.”

New to local screens is “Mustang,” the story about five young orphaned sisters growing up in a conservative Turkish village. Irish Times tells us, “Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s brilliant, affecting Academy Award-nominated drama, loosely based on her own upbringing, initially resembles ‘The Virgin Suicides’ only to swerve into nail-biting thriller terrain.” And Reforma finds it to be “a shocking portrait about the role of women in modern societies still governed by sexism.”

Another Middle Eastern film is “Theeb,” a “Bedouin Western” that follows a young boy trying to survive in the Wadi Rum desert of Southern Jordan. The New Republic describes the Oscar-nominated film as “an inversion of ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ -- a film told from the perspective of Arab Bedouins rather than colonial adventurers, a scrappy coming of age story rather than a grand tale of epic, colonial ambitions.” And Los Angeles Times adds that this is “a disarmingly complex boyhood adventure with no shortage of tension or harsh beauty.”

Also new is “Anomalisa,” a film from the fetid brain of Charlie Kaufman. Here, animated stop-motion puppets portray an antisocial writer and the woman who brings him out of his shell. Voiced by David Thewlis and Jennifer Jason Leigh, this is the first R-rated animated film ever to be nominated for an Oscar. Mlive.com calls it “charmingly odd and disarmingly funny.” And The List says, “Achingly melancholic and philosophically ambitious, ‘Anomalisa’ molds reality into something genuinely magical.”

A different kind of satire is “Hail, Caesar!” -- Joel and Ethan Coen’s comedy about Hollywood in the ‘50s. Josh Brolin and George Clooney headline this wry romp about a studio fixer trying to retrieve a kidnapped star. Urban Cinephile tells us, “A burnt out Hollywood Executive, a kidnapped movie star, a tenacious gossip columnist and a study group with communist tendencies are some of the scrumptious characters in this latest Coen Brothers jewel.” And Blog de cine sees it as “A film that knows how to laugh at itself and those things it represents without being coarse or easy.”

Michael Moore’s “Where to Invade Next” may surprise you as it enumerates the successful ideas in foreign countries that got their start in America. Sure, this documentary pushes Moore’s liberal agenda, but that’s what we expect with him. The Young Folks calls it “an important message on the social, political and economic state of our country.” And Rolling Stone sums it up: “A crazy-like-a-fox documentary hell-bent on seeing the best in people. Other people. Not us Americans. Turns out we suck at practicing what we preach. It’s classic Michael Moore.”

And you can catch your breath with "The Lady in the Van,” a “mostly true” story about an elderly woman who parks her van in a British author’s driveway … for 15 years. Maggie Smith is perfect in the role. Spirituality and Practice describes it as “a vibrant dramedy about the idiosyncratic relationship between a homeless elderly woman and a lonely playwright.” And The Film Stage adds, “Without slipping into mushy sentimental overtures, the movie has something real and immediate to say about the power of compassion.”

With the Oscars at hand, you’ll want to spend a lot of time at the Tropic.

srhoades@aol.com

Anomalisa (Rhoades)

Front Row at the Movies

“Anomalisa” Questions Reality and Identity

Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

Leave it to Charlie Kaufman to give us a movie about a self-help author who can’t help himself. You remember Kaufman, the guy who wrote “Adaptation,” “Being John Malkovich,” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” Also he wrote and directed “Synecdoche, New York.”

All strange movies that play mind games.

Kaufman returns to that familiar (for him) territory with “Anomalisa” – currently playing at the Tropic Cinema. This is the only R-rated animated film ever nominated for an Academy Award.

Oh, did I forget to mention that it’s animated (his first ever)? The stop-motion puppetry adds to the film’s off-center nature. As does the lead character, a man unable to interact with other people.

Did I mention he hears voices in his head?

It’s kinda weird, an animated character who hears voices in his head voiced by an off-screen actor.

David Thewlis (those “Harry Potter” movies, “The Theory of Everything”) speaks for the anthropophobic writer. Kaufman’s guy Michael has severe problems relating to other people, even his own wife and son. He hears them speaking in a male voice (Tom Noonan). But his social awkwardness begins to change when he meets an interesting woman (Jennifer Jason Leigh) during a book signing in Cincinnati. However, the voices in his head keep interfering.

This follows Kaufman’s usual themes of reality and identity. His prototypical protagonist is a man with self-doubt and frustration facing a fantasy world.

Animator Duke Johnson helped Kaufman direct this movie.

If you have any questions about Charlie Kaufman, I think you can sum him up in the title of another movie he penned: “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.”

srhoades@aol.com

This Year’s Top Ten+ Oscar Predictions (Rhoades)

This Year’s Top Ten+ Oscar Predictions

Reviewed by Rhoades

Film Critic, Cooke Communications

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be presenting its awards on February 28th. Yes, it will be hosted by comedian Chris Rock. This year’s theme is “We All Dream in Gold,” a reference to the golden statuette that goes to winners.

Hopefully, you’ve already bought your tickets to Tropic Cinema’s gala “Oscars at the Tropic” celebration. General admission includes two drinks and hors d’oeuvres. A limited number of VIP tickets are available. These include a champagne reception, food, swag bag, and watching the Red Carpet interviews and Oscar presentations in the comfortable Carper Theater.

As a film critic, folks expect me to pick the best pictures and actors each year. But there’s often a difference between “best” and “winner.” So here’s my prediction of winners of the main categories at the 88th Academy Awards.

• Best Picture -- “Spotlight” is my favorite, but “The Revenant” has a good shot to win.
• Best Actor -- No question, this is Leonardo Dicaprio’s year. He’ll pick up an Oscar for “The Revenant.”
• Best Actress -- Brie Larson will win it for “Room.” But I have to admit Saoirse Ronan gave a great performance in “Brooklyn.”
• Best Supporting Actor -- The sentimental favorite, Sylvester Stallone will no doubt get the prize for “Creed.”
• Best Supporting Actress -- Alicia Vikander is an up-and-comer who could win for “The Danish Girl.” But many bets are on Kate Winslet for “Steve Jobs.”
• Directing -- At his advanced age, George Miller is a last-chance contender for “Mad Max: Fury Road.” But Alejandro G. Iñárritu is the likely winner with “The Revenant.”
• Animated Feature Film -- “Inside Out” has the inside track.
• Documentary Feature -- You can rest assured that “Amy” will walk away with an Oscar.
• Foreign Language Film -- Most likely, “Son Of Saul” will grab this one.
•  Best Cinematography -- I’d vote for the lush, visually stylistic “Carol,” but the gritty realism of “The Revenant” might claim it.
•  Original Score -- That old maestro Ennio Morricone definitely should win for “The Hateful Eight.” But if he doesn’t, John Williams will take it for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”
•  Original Song -- Smart money is on “Earned It” from “Fifty Shades Of Grey.” But “Til It Happens To You” from “The Hunting Ground” has many fans too.
•  Visual Effects -- C’mon, you have to give this award to the futuristic “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” 
•  Adapted Screenplay -- A no brainer, “The Big Short” will win this one.
•  Original Screenplay -- “Spotlight” should win, but this is the Academy’s opportunity to lessen all that OscarsSoWhite criticism by handing it to “Straight Outta Compton.”

How well did I do? Tune in to the Oscars on Sunday night and find out.

srhoades@aol.com

The Revenant (Rhoades)

Front Row at the Movies

DiCaprio Gets Gritty In “The Revenant”

Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

As a boy I used to wear my coonskin cap and sing about how Davy Crockett “killed him a bear when he was only three.” But in “The Revenant” -- the new Leonardo DiCaprio movie playing at Tropic Cinema -- we meet a grizzled frontiersman who nearly gets killed by an angry grizzly.

As it turns out, getting mauled by a bear is the least of Leo’s problems.

Based on “The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge” by Michael Punke, this film introduces us to Hugh Glass (c. 1780 - 1833), a real-life fur trapper who joined an expedition into the Louisiana Purchase wilderness. After being attacked by a tribe of Arikara, Glass meets up with the aforementioned grizzly. Then, betrayed by a member of the hunting party, he is left for dead.

But “revenant” refers to a person who refuses to give up the ghost.

Bent on revenge (as foretold by the book’s title), Glass crawls out of his grave and stumbles through the snowy woods on an arduous 200-mile trek to Fort Kiowa in South Dakota. Along the way he must fight off more Arikara, escape dangerous Frenchmen, and survive the freezing cold. He’s that determined to find the villain who tried to kill him.

Leonardo DiCaprio (“The Wolf of Wall Street,” “The Great Gatsby”) takes on the role of vengeful Hugh Glass, generating Oscar buzz for this physically challenging performance. Tom Hardy (“Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Legend”) is cast as his murderous nemesis John Fitzgerald. And ubiquitous Domhnall Gleeson (“Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “Ex Machina) portrays Captain Andrew Henry, leader of the belabored hunting party.

DiCaprio cited “The Relevant” as one of the most demanding films he’s ever undertaken. “I can name 30 or 40 sequences that were some of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do. Whether it’s going in and out of frozen rivers, or sleeping in animal carcasses, or what I ate on set. I was enduring freezing cold and possible hypothermia constantly.”

Scheduled to be shot entirely in Canada, warming temperatures forced the film crew to chase snow to 12 different locations in three different countries, wrapping up the last scenes at the tip of Argentina where snow still lay on the ground. The budget mushroomed from $60 million to $135 million.

Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu shrugs off the film’s high price tag. “We all knew what we wanted, we knew how to get it, but every obstacle was in the way of what we needed.”

So the studio gave him leeway -- allowing the $75 million overrun. “Every other film of mine has been on budget,” he says defensively. “But nobody will go to a film because the guys were on schedule and on budget. It’s how good the film is.”

Iñárritu has a point. At last year’s Academy Awards he won Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Picture for “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).” And no one cared whether it came in on budget or not.

srhoades@aol.com

Oscar Night 2016 (Brockway)

Oscar Night at the Tropic

by Ian Brockway

The Oscars are upon us and it is time for Tinsel Town once more. Yet again, Leonardo DiCaprio is up for Best Actor, this time for his role as hairy fur trapper Hugh Glass with blood on his beard, bent over double with revenge. Will DiCaprio get the golden man that he so works to receive, or will he have to enact more Passion Plays and cinematic sufferings?

Find out at the Tropic Cinema, 416 Eaton Street---the place to see the stars and peep at the paparazzi in Key West!

The Tropic Cinema is having its iconic Oscar Gala on Sunday February 28th at 8:30 pm. VIP tickets are available $100 for members, $125 for non-members which entitles you to sensational snacks, a sparkling swag bag of goodies, velvet roped early access into the spacious Carper Theater and a bubbly champagne reception from 6 to 7 pm.

Dress to the nines or be as anonymous as you like, but remember that everyone is exclusive at The Tropic.

If you do not wish to have the VIP experience, tickets are $35 for members and $40 for nonmembers, with seating in the lovely screening rooms, two drinks and complimentary hors d'oeuvres.

And...Don't let Kate Winslet upstage you this year. Prizes will be given for the Most Fabulously Dressed.

See you at The Tropic, the Southernmost bridge to our brightest stars!

The Lady in the Van (Brockway)

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

The Lady in the Van

Alan Bennett is the groundbreaking comedian and playwright who collaborated with Dudley Moore and Peter Cooke in "Beyond the Fringe" a revue in the 1960s. In 1987, Bennett did a series of monologues for British television, titled "Talking Heads."

"The Lady in the Van" directed by Nicholas Hytner and written by Bennett concerns a bizarre relationship that the author had with an eccentric pianist supposedly named Mary Shepherd that ran from the seventies to the mid-eighties.

Mary Shepherd (Maggie Smith) is a cranky but likable seventy year-old who happens to be homeless. She resides in her van which she parks wherever she can. As she is running out of undetected places, Shepard parks in front of the residence of Alan Bennett (Alex Jennings) He reluctantly agrees to let her park in front for a few days. Bennett, who has writer's block, takes to peering at Shepherd in the front lot as a source of welcome distraction. He gradually gives her more and more leeway, to a point, giving her bathroom and garage access while asking her questions.

While actor Maggie Smith does not stretch her acting muscles all that much here---once again she is fretful and antisocial--- she does a fine limber job in juggling both comedy and dramatic weight.

The strength of the movie is in the adept and mysterious story that unfolds bit by bit. Just who is this nationalistic lady named who gives her name as Mary? Is it all true or all fiction? A piano is the only singular thing that can bring her out of her shell.

While the tone is predominately light through most of the film, there are some wonderful strains of darkness. On occasion, the van is attacked and pummelled upon like a besieged sub from WWII, which gives the occupant night terrors. The oft-recognizable Jim Broadbent plays a smarmy ex-constable who would make Patricia Highsmith proud.

Excellent as well is Alex Jennings who surrealistically plays Alan Bennett as a pair: one Alan is a playwright, the other, a hasselled, domestic fret-fly and worry wart.

Humorous indeed are the Monty Python touches here and there that spin wildly at a certain point in the film. This keeps one on his/her toes as well as in stitches.

The transfixing element about "The Woman in the Van" is that it doesn't show its hand all at once. What starts out as a grouchy lady story ends up as something of a suprise with enough gallows humor and heart to keep you guessing.

Write Ian at ianfree1@yahoo.com