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More on movie reviews: Ira Deutchman on “Seven Ways The New York Times Could Help Save Theatrical Moviegoing and Its Own Bottom Line.”

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     Last month we pleaded with the L.A. Times to restore its film section to greatness by again reviewing all theatrical releases instead of just the latest Hollywood blockbuster and occasionally one foreign, indie or documentary feature. The Times is, after all, our city’s paper of record. To earn and hold that title means thorough coverage of arts and culture, and the Times cannot claim to be a serious major daily if it gives short shrift to Los Angeles’ main artistic and cultural export.
     Since we spoke out, the Times has published some reviews of under-the-radar titles (like She Will and Murana) but ignored others that were just as worthy of serious critical attention (Olga and A Man of Integrity, for example). Film reviews are an essential aspect of film marketing to bring attention to movies released by distributors that don’t have the money to compete with major studio releases for people’s attention. The end result will be indie movie theaters like Laemmle going the way of small record shops and bookstores, diminishing cities’ cultural vibrancy. The Times has a major role to play here.
     Unfortunately, it looks like the problem is spreading to an even higher profile outlet, the New York Times. Ira Deutchman just posted a piece on his blog that’s worth a read. It’s headlined Seven Ways The New York Times Could Help Save Theatrical Moviegoing and Its Own Bottom Line. Ira is a long-time indie film executive who is also a filmmaker (Searching for Mr. Rugoff) and an associate professor of film at Columbia University so he has a unique and authoritative perspective on this topic and goes into much more detail with ideas beyond just maintaining the role of film criticism. We hope you’ll read Ira’s piece and share it with the L.A Times editors. It’s good food for thought and perhaps will instill in them a sense of civic responsibility.

Jewish Journal: “MY NAME IS SARA Depicts Jewish WWII Refugee in Ukraine.”

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This Friday at the Royal and Town Center, we open My Name is Sara, a drama based on a true story from the Second World War about a young Polish Jew who survived by taking refuge with farmers and passing as a Christian. The director, Steven Oritt, and leading actress Zuzanna Surowy will participate in Q&As Friday, July 22 after the 7 PM at the Royal; Saturday, July 23 after the 4 PM show at the Royal and after the 7:10 PM show in Encino; and on Sunday, July 24, after the 1:10 PM in Encino and the 4 PM show at the Royal. Executive producer Mickey Shapiro (the real-life Sara’s son) will join them for the Friday Q&A.

The filmmaker recently spoke with Brian Fishbach of the Jewish Journal:

Three dead people hang from a tree with a sign that reads “We hid Jews.” It’s a scene that encapsulates the fear tactics the Nazis used to deter anyone from assisting the Jewish people during World War II.

The film My Name Is Sara tells the true and arduous story of a Jewish girl who survived by pretending not to be Jewish. It shows how Sara Góralniak (Zuzanna Surowy), a 12-year-old living in Poland, took refuge on a farm in Ukraine for two years while hiding every aspect of her Jewish identity. Every second that she was there she knew that if she were found, she and the family that protected her would be murdered.

“She was constantly living on eggshells that entire time, which is an obviously awful environment to have to live under,” said director Steven Oritt.

Throughout the film, Sara endears herself to the family who allows her to work on their farm: Pavlo (Eryk Lubos), his wife Nadya (Michalina Olszańska) and their two young sons. Sara proves herself to be a capable farmhand and a non-Jew by reciting the Lord’s Prayer, eating pork, saying she’s 14 and even assuming a new name. She endures skepticism from the family that has taken her in, while also slowly proving herself useful and not threatening their safety.

There are scenes of animals being slaughtered, as is normal on any farm. But there’s humanity in those moments, which is in contrast to the graphic and sadistic threats and murders of the townspeople at the hands of the Nazis.

The ensemble is strong, making every peril Sara and the family confront vivid and poignant, their eyes and body language expressing the characters’ fear and determination. No moment illustrates this better than Sara, riding a horse drawn buggy into town with Pavlo and Nadya’s family, sees three townspeople hanging from a tree for hiding Jews. Both Nadya and Sara cover the two little boys’ eyes. Sara’s dreams of reuniting with her family turn to nightmares when their reunion is discovered by Nazis.

Surprisingly, the starring role of Sara was Surowy’s first time acting. Thrust into a movie set and working in English, which is not her first language, Surowy’s experience mirrors Sara’s. There’s a fear, a wariness, to her performance, that’s most effective when Sara, who had never worked on a farm or been away from her family, is forced to adapt to her new world.

“We weren’t going to make the film if we didn’t find somebody that we felt as though could pull it off,” said Oritt.

While the two previous films he directed were documentaries, this is the first scripted film Oritt’s directed. “When I first interviewed [the real] Sara, the first question I asked was ‘How does a child, a 12-year old, survive such a thing?’ Because it was an unimaginable event. How could she do this constantly, making the right choice happen? And she said immediately, ‘by listening and not talking.’”

Read the full piece on the Jewish Journal site.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40UnffwvrP4

Winning Australian sex comedy HOW TO PLEASE A WOMAN opens July 22 at the Monica Film Center.

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How to Please a Woman stars the brilliant comic actress Sally Phillips, who was killed as the Finnish prime minister Minna Häkkinen on Veep. A funny, heartwarming liberation story for women who have been afraid to ask for what they want – at home, at work and in the bedroom. Phillips plays Gina, how has lost her job and feels stuck and frustrated in a passionless marriage. She has always lived life on the sidelines – that is, until she is met with a groundbreaking business opportunity of converting a team of well-built moving guys into well-built housecleaners.

“Arriving like a horny bus to a public transport orgy, this is the second comedy in a matter of weeks, after Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, about women hiring sex workers. Be that a happy coincidence or the start of a trend, it’s cheering that both films are so entertaining, body positive and upbeat but still entirely different experiences.” ~ Leslie Felperin, The Guardian

“This is a rare film that makes you feel lighter, fresher, and fully revitalized after watching it.” ~ Andrew F. Peirce, The Curb

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epOhZZBIW6k

“Why would I add anything? It will not improve the wine.” Meet the organic vinters of LIVING WINE.

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Living Wine follows the journeys of natural winemakers in Northern California, during the largest wildfire season on record. Equal parts farmer, winemaker, and artist, they stay true to their ideals of creating exceptional wines made through innovative sustainable and regenerative farming and without chemical additives. Eschewing the industrial agricultural practices of the corporate wine industry – our winemakers are healing the very environment they are surviving, i.e., a changing climate marked by rising temperatures, shorter growing seasons, and more frequent and virulent wildfires.

We delve into farming techniques, philosophies, and spirituality: Darek has developed a unique form of compost which eliminates the need for irrigation and commercial fertilizers, while capturing carbon and increasing crop output. Megan farms and makes wine from lesser-known materials not pushed by the corporate industrial wine complex, and we see Gideon teach and make wine with a group of interns, as he is devoted to passing his knowledge and craft onto the next generation. All three find spiritual meaning through their work – through farming the land and making a product with a greater purpose.

As summer and harvest arrives, conditions take a dangerous turn. Following a damaging heatwave, fire erupts throughout Northern California, the result of record high temperatures and unending drought. All of our winemakers are forced to harvest early under difficult conditions. As they pick grapes from sunrise to sunset, and throughout the night to avoid smoke taint and remove grapes before they “raisin” too early, we feel their exhaustion and determination. After harvesting, they stomp, taste, press, and taste again, and we witness both the joy and heartbreak of making wine the all-natural way.

Living Wine is virtual only starting Friday, but we’ll also screen it at the Monica Film Center July 22-28 with the filmmaker in person for Q&As on the 23rd and 24th.

The New York Times wine critic recently published a piece about the film headlined “In ‘Living Wine’ Documentary, Natural Wine Transcends the Clichés: Forget funkiness. The focus here is farming, culture, the environment, climate change and, yes, great-tasting wine.” Here are the opening paragraphs:

“When the polarizing subject of natural wine arises, the discussion generally spirals to the stereotypes: flawed and funky wines, hippie producers and the debate over definitions. But a new documentary film, Living Wine, hopes to change that trite discussion.

“The film, which opens in selected theaters July 15, focuses on a small group of natural wine producers in California. It examines, with far more nuance than is typical, the myriad reasons they choose to work in natural wine, along with the many rationales for consumers to drink it.

“In this context, natural wine is presented neither as a trend nor a generational emblem. Involvement is a conscious choice. Though their reasons may overlap, each of the producers in the film has a different point of emphasis.

“Gideon Beinstock and Saron Rice of Clos Saron in the Sierra Foothills make wine without additives because they believe that method makes the best wines and offers the best expression of their vineyard.

“’The fact that we don’t add anything is not because it’s natural,’ Mr. Beinstock said. ‘It’s because, why would I add anything? It will not improve the wine.’”

EatDrinkFilms also posted two terrific articles about the film, Living Wine – Land to Bottle by Risa Nye and Deep Diving into Living Wine by Fred Swan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONFBEEHrF1Q

Eat, Bray, Love? Best Actress Award-winning French romantic comedy MY DONKEY, MY LOVER, & I opens July 22.

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Perfect light fare for the season, the French romantic comedy My Donkey, My Lover, & I follows delightfully zany schoolteacher Antoinette (Laure Calamy of Call My Agent, who won the Best Actress César Award for this charming, funny performance). Antoinette’s vacation plans with her married lover, Vladimir (Benjamin Lavernhe), are ruined when his wife (Olivia Côte) books a surprise hiking trip. On an impulse, Antonette heads to the same mountainous region of the Cévennes National Park where Vladimir and his family are headed, with a hiking itinerary inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic 1878 memoir Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes. Completely unversed in the ways of the wilderness, Antoinette forges quick bonds with her rental donkey, Patrick, and several offbeat fellow travelers, as she poignantly and uproariously stumbles towards self-revelation and independence. Take a vicarious summer vacation to the south of French at the Royal and Town Center starting July 22 and the Claremont and Newhall starting July 29.

“In a Paris primary school, a class of eight-year-olds sit behind their desks, eyes squeezed shut, counting to 20. At the back of the room their teacher, Antoinette (Laure Calamy), is getting undressed, slipping into silk frock for the school concert. “It’s not too much?” she asks the pupils. She’s having an affair with one of the dads – he’s married. Thus, with unparalleled Frenchness, begins this easygoing, warm comedy following Antoinette as she accidentally-on-purpose goes on the same donkey-trekking holiday as her lover’s family. As Antoinette bonds with her donkey, the movie evolves from gentle farce to journey of emotional growth. You might call it Eat Bray, Love – except it’s European, so there’s less pseudo-spiritual self-discovery and more drunken snogging…Calamy really grounds the movie with her funny, generous performance.” ~ Leslie Felperin, Guardian

“Calamy’s performance has rightly been awarded for its superb shading, but let’s not forget the donkey, brilliant as her straight man. Who says nobody likes a smart ass?” ~ Paul Byrnes, Sydney Morning Herald

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PJppz7vDAs

“Heartfelt charmer” COSTA BRAVA, LEBANON opens July 22 in Santa Monica.

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Costa Brava, Lebanon is the directorial debut of Lebanese actress and filmmaker Mounia Akl, starring Nadine Labaki (Capernaum) and Saleh Bakri (The Band’s Visit). A keen and darkly comic commentary on Lebanon’s waste crisis and unsettled political landscape, Costa Brava, Lebanon won the prestigious NETPAC Prize at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Audience Award at the BFI London Film Festival. We open the film July 22 at the Monica Film Center.

The film captures the joys and frustrations of a close-knit family with an intimacy that feels startlingly natural, and sets them against a sharply drawn backdrop of environmental crisis. In the not-so-distant future, the free-spirited Badri family have escaped the toxic pollution and social unrest of Beirut by seeking refuge in an idyllic mountain home. Without warning, the government starts to build a garbage landfill right outside their fence, intruding on their domestic utopia and bringing the trash and corruption of a whole country to their doorstep. As the landfill rises, so does tension in the household, revealing a long-simmering division between those family members who wish to defend or abandon the mountain oasis they have built.

“A heartfelt charmer. The gentle wisdom it contains is attuned to country, family and lifestyle choices as abstract concepts, as all the things we mean by the word “home,” which is where Akl’s heart is.” – Jessica Kiang, Variety

“A stellar near-future family drama. Mounia Akl’s feature debut comfortably occupies a space between Beasts of the Southern Wild and Honeyland. Her film is partly magical, partly real, but total fiction, because fiction is the best way to capture the tragicomic clown show that unfolds throughout.” – Andrew Crump, The Playlist

“Something uniquely special and a perfect, alluring example of all that is wrong with the world we’re living in.” – Hanna B., Film Threat

“A terrific feature debut… works both as a compelling domestic drama and an elegant political allegory.” – Wendy Ide, Screen Daily

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXEWqGJne2o

Claire Denis, Juliette Binoche and Vincent Lindon’s BOTH SIDES OF THE BLADE opens July 8.

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The new erotic thriller by Claire Denis Both Sides of the Blade follows Sara (Juliette Binoche), who finds herself caught between two men: her longtime partner and an old flame (Vincent Lindon and Grégoire Colin). Before long, everything is in danger of spiraling out of control as the three find their lives intertwined years after meeting. We open the film at the Royal on July 8, the Glendale and Town Center July 15, and Newhall, Claremont and NoHo on July 22. (We also have Denis’ Stars at Noon to look forward to later this year.)
Praise for the Both Sides of the Blade:
“The silences that overwhelm the movie’s confrontational rages and the suppression of backstory details, underplaying motives and emphasizing action, thrust [the film] out of the realm of psychological drama and into shocking emotional immediacy.” ~ Richard Brody, New Yorker
“The studied ambiguity of what’s going on in Both Sides of the Blade doesn’t keep it from often achieving the suspense of an accomplished erotic thriller.” ~ Pat Brown, Slant Magazine

“As is often the case with Denis’ films, Fire grows more illuminating as it gets hotter; what starts like a constrained and unusually jagged French drama is eventually forged into an incendiary portrait of three people.” ~ David Ehrlich, indieWire

“Binoche, typically, is on commanding form, working once more with a film-maker who seems intuitively aware of how to harness her every glance or grimace. ~ Kevin Maher, Times [UK)]
“Denis is a masterful director who always knows exactly what she’s doing.” ~ David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

“In this simultaneously small and cavernous love story, even a whisper echoes for days.” ~ Guy Lodge, Variety

“A rambunctious mixture of the bawdy and the sublime,” TAMPOPO 35th Anniversary Screenings Wednesday, July 6, at Laemmle Glendale, Newhall & Royal.

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Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present 35th anniversary screenings of writer-director Juzo Itami’s delectable comedy, Tampopo, which has developed a strong cult following in the years since it first captivated audiences. The basic story is simple enough. A truck driver and his friends come to the aid of a noodle shop owner’s widow and help her to refine and perfect her ramen dishes. But several quirky subplots and other tasty asides interrupt and enrich the central narrative.

As in other classic movies about food, the noodle dishes themselves are lovingly photographed to whet the audience’s appetites. Beyond that, puckish humor and eroticism add flavor to this savory melange. As Hal Hinson declared in the Washington Post, Tampopo is “a rambunctious mixture of the bawdy and the sublime…perhaps the funniest movie about the connection between food and sex ever made.”

Indiewire’s David Ehrlich added, “Itami’s fiercely beloved film unfolds like a prix fixe tasting menu of strange comic delights.” Writing in Film Comment, Michael Sragow said, “Tampopo creates a culinary empire of the senses while entertaining an audience like crazy.” And the Los Angeles Times’ Justin Chang wrote, “Tampopo is above all about the romance of food, and the joyous, agonizing devotion and hard work required to tease out its manifold mysteries.”

Tsutomo Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto, Koji Yakusho, and Ken Watanabe star. The movie will screen on July 6 at the Royal in West L.A., Glendale, and Newhall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RtXSon0yMw