Cultural Mining

Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

The summer’s nearly over, but they never stop making movies, so with that in mind, here are three more films they recently churned out. There are four friends who go to a spa, four other friends who go for a drive, and a larger group of friends who want an obscure writer to join their club.

 

Late Fame

Dir: Kent Jones (Hitchcock/Truffaut, )

Eduard Saxeberger (Willem Dafoe: The Legend of Ochi, Poor Things, Daybreakers, Antichrist, The Florida Project, Hunter, The Lighthouse) — Ed to his friends — is a man of letters. That is, he sorts the mail at the local post office. He’s lived in New York since he was 17 when he dropped out of high school in a small mill town in Pennsylvania and came to the big city. He lives alone in a rent-controlled apartment in a brownstone and walks to work each day. On his free time, he hangs out at a local bar, playing pool with his work buddies. Nothing much changes. Until a stranger approaches him on the street. He’s been waiting outside his apartment for hours now. “Are you Saxeberger” he asks. “The Saxeberger who wrote Way Past Go?” Ed is baffled at first. He vaguely remembers a book of poetry he wrote as a young man which nobody read and is long since out of print. He couldn’t support himself as a poet, so he got a job at the post office and has worked there ever since. Who is this smartly-dressed young stranger? Myers (Edmund Donovan: Your Monster) is a writer, committed to the craft, with a Masters in Fine Arts. He speaks in a clipped and mannered voice. He and fellow members of the Enthusiasts Club, a small and exclusive group of intellectuals, are in awe of Saxeberger’s poetry, and they would be ever so pleased if he would pay them a visit. 

The group is diverse — a playwright, a novelist, a poet — but consistent: they forbid cell phones from meetings and use “film cameras” to capture their images. They come from impeccable backgrounds: very wealthy, and with multiple degrees. Like Myers they only use their last names… and they are all men. Except Gloria (Greta Lee). This band of brooding intellectuals offer Ed a glass of absinthe and pepper him with questions. Were you friends with Ginsberg? Corso? Saxeberger is baffled by the new attention, but starts to like it. After a successful first meeting, the Enthusiasts serenade him from the street below his apartment window, to show their devotion to their new authentic mentor. Myers promises to set up a meeting with a well-known agent, and insists he write new poems in time for their upcoming book reading (or “recital” as they call it.) 

Ed likes it even more when Gloria starts paying attention to him, showing up at his apartment uninvited. She shares magic mushrooms and takes him to a cabaret. He asks her if she’s a writer. No, I’m an Ingenue. He adjusts to his new status, but his old friends just laugh at the silk scarf he’s wearing around his neck. You’re a poet now? Write us a dirty limerick. Is it time to abandon his old friends and make new ones, more in line with his rapid rise in status? 

Or is fame a fleeting thing?

 

Late Fame is a gently satirical look at divisions in age and class. Maybe too gently. While watching this movie, I found it somehow dated or anachronistic, about a yearning for a long-gone era that may never have existed. It wasn’t till the closing credits that I realized it was based on a novella by Arthur Schnitzler, the fin-de-siecle Viennese writer. Suddenly, it made sense that Gloria sang a Kurt Weill song in a cabaret, or that Saxeberger is a plodding civil servant… it’s adapted from a 19th century story, changed just enough to almost fit in the present day. Making it much cleverer than I first thought. Last year there was a Canadian feature called Young Werther (interview here) based on the book by Goethe. Maybe this is a new trend: adapting 19th century, middle-European books for the present day? 

While Late Fame is far from perfect, it provides much food for thought.

It Ends

Wri/Dir: Alex Ullom

Tyler (Mitchell Cole) is giving three friends a lift to grab a bite to eat to celebrate the end of their year at college. Tyler dropped out of high school; and has a job now that paid for his Jeep Cherokee. He turns off the highway onto a country road — paved tarmac with a thick forest on both sides —  for a short detour to the diner after the first exit. Fisher and James (Noah Toth, Phinehas Yoon) are always arguing, usually over hypothetical situations, like who would win in a fight, 10 eagles or a 100 rats. For them, arguing is like a competitive sport. Day (Akira Jackson) is more of a peacemaker, always trying to calm her friends down. Meanwhile Tyler, the sane one, is following the GPS, but for some reason, the arrow keeps pointing straight ahead. Where’s the exit? They should have passed it miles back. James blames Tyler — you missed the exit! No, Tyler insists, he definitely did not miss anything. And after a few more miles, he realizes they’re not going anywhere so he does a u-y and turns back the way they came. Until the road just stops, like it has disappeared into the woods. And when they look around, dozens of rabid screaming people, running out of the woods, attack them and their car. They manage to shake them off and zoom away back down the highway. 

But no matter how far they go, nothing seems to change. And whenever they stop, the screamers quickly emerge from the trees. They drive by day and by night taking turns at the wheel. Strangely, they don’t feel hungry or thirsty, no sexual desire, and they never seem to run out of gas. The men don’t grow beards, and they can still use their phones — for games or recordings — but not for calls or texting. Is this a dream? Did they fall down a wormhole? Are they already dead and trapped in purgatory? Should they keep driving forever or just give up?

It Ends is a quasi-horror movie about a trip to nowhere. It starts out interesting and compelling, but that soon turns into endless dreck. I could be generous and compare it to Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit, but I think that’s giving it way too much credit. This is mainly just people driving around. It’s like a highway with no scenery, no billboards. It’s not scary, it’s just boooo-ring, with a disappointingly shaggy-dog finish.

Spoiler alert: yes, It Ends does end, but not nearly soon enough.

Spa Weekend

Wri/Dir: Jon Lucas & Scott Moore

It’s a beautiful day in LA, and a group of friends are driving to an exclusive coastal resort for a weekend spa experience. They have known each other since junior high and are still close. Sophie (Anna Faris: Scary Movie, The Dictator) is always upbeat. She juggles taking care of her kids with her job, as a personal assistant for an obnoxious but helpless billionaire. Today her boss is screaming at her for not being there to change a lightbulb that burned out in one of his multiple beach houses. Coco (Michelle Buteau: Babes) is a hard-ass who channels her anger issues at anyone who crosses her. She’s recently divorced, sharing custody of their two kids. Her ex keeps urging her to talk to a therapist to deal with her vicious temper. Jane (Leslie Mann: Knocked Up) is a single mom with two kids, and an elderly father who needs constant medical attention. She’s also a successful lawyer famous for fighting corporations and winning countless settlements for her clients. But when another lawyer asked her on a date, she had no self-time for the next 3 months. And then there’s Mel (Isla Fisher: Strays, Now You See Me) a fabulously wealthy financial adviser who deals in unintelligible sectors, like “reverse crypto” options. She’s like a bull in a china shop, wreaking havoc wherever she goes.

The friends want to do something special for Jane’s birthday, so they decide to go to a spa. It’s a luxury suite overlooking a pristine beach, staffed by blonde women with oddly South Asian names like Ayurveda and Shanti (Erika Heynatz). They sign up for all the amenities: Mud baths, meditation, and Nigerian dwarf goat yoga. Jane even flirts with the shirtless Aussie yoga instructor. They just want to have a peaceful weekend, so they don’t tell Mel about their plans. But she shows up anyway, and starts making trouble. She brings takeout burritos to a two-star Michelin restaurant and shouts profanities in quiet zones, leaving a trail of destruction and mayhem wherever she goes. Will this weekend prove to be a relaxing one for the four friends, or a train wreck ready to happen?

Spa Weekend is a low-brow comedy about the misadventures of four middle aged women at a luxury resort. Think lots of facials, champagne, and male strippers in golden trunks snorting coke. What it’s not full of is laughs. It’s cute but not clever. There are a few funny bits and the four very talented comic actresses stick with their characters, but the script is totally unoriginal and entirely predictable. My eyeballs were rolling so often I was getting dizzy. I realize I’m not the target market for this film, but even so…

Spa Weekend feels like White Lotus for Dummies.

Late Fame, It Ends, and Spa Weekend all open this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings.

This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website  culturalmining.com