SUNDANCE 2015: Capone pulls a James Franco double-feature with TRUE STORY and I AM MICHAEL!!!

Hey everyone. Capone in Park City, Utah at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. Here are a few things I’ve seen recently on this particular festival circuit…

TRUE STORY
Like throwing cold water on your face after spending the day walking through the desert, there’s something of a sobering shock seeing THIS IS THE END co-stars James Franco and Jonah Hill now working together in this real-life story of the tentative friendship between fallen journalist Michael Finkel (Jonah Hill) and Christian Longo (James Franco), a man who murdered his wife and two young children. The two men are thrown together when Longo pretends to be be Finkel briefly before his capture in Mexico, and Finkel is determined to find out why.

Positioning itself as something of a modern-day version of IN COLD BLOOD, TRUE STORY begins with Finkel getting busted by his editor (Gretchen Mol) for fabricating material for a New York Times Magazine cover story. After leaving New York humiliated, he heads to his girlfriend Jill’s house in Montana to regroup and start looking for another job. Then work gets to him about Longo’s crimes and attempt at an alias. In a bit of desperation, Finkel pitches the story of this family man turned killer as a book idea to HarperCollins and arranges a series of meetings with Longo.

If this were a purely fictional, Hollywood film, the potential for some truly outrageous exchanges and life intrusions into Finkel’s life might have occurred, but respected theater director (and first-time feature helmer) Rupert Goold attempts to keep things more or less based in reality (or at least it feels that way, and the film is based on Finkel’s memoir). I have no idea if the facts of these exchanges are represented accurately here, and I don’t really care. Their conversations are fascinating, and keep us guessing exactly what Longo is up to, since we assume it’s some variation of No Good.

Both actors are quite strong here in comparatively dialed-back performances, but Franco is mesmerizing as he shifts from mildly charming and naive to something far more intelligent and conniving. Even from behind bars, Longo finds ways to manipulate people, from Finkel (who’s practically asking for it) to his dead wife’s family, whom he forces to listen to a version of the story of their killing that is pure cruelty. It doesn’t take long before Finkel starts to realize that Longo could feasibly destroy his already fractured writing career, and panic and a search for the unfiltered truth becomes critical.

A minor subplot concerning Finkel getting approached by the FBI to give over correspondences from Longo to help in the trial doesn’t really amount to much, and maybe it didn’t in real life, but it certainly doesn’t make for gripping storytelling the way it plays out in TRUE STORY. Oscar-nominee Jones is quite good as a woman who is clearly used to being placed second in Finkel’s life to his work, and now that his career is on the line, she’s been marginalized more than ever. But she still rallies to her man’s cause when she is directly contacted by Longo in one of the film’s best executed sequences.

With only a 100-minute running time, TRUE STORY might be one of the few films I’ve seen recently that I wish had gone a little longer and allowed us to spend a bit more time with these interesting characters. As it is, the movie occasionally skims through or over certain key moments that might have benefitted from lingering a couple extra minutes. Still, what is there is often a powerful and always intriguing character study of two men (still friends to this day) that were thrown together in history—whether by fate or design is still not certain.


I AM MICHAEL
I saw two films starring James Franco this year at Sudance, and perhaps the most fascinating of the two was I AM MICHAEL, based on the life story of gay activist and magazine founder (chief among them XY Magazine and YGA Magazine) Michael Glatze, who rediscovered his faith after a health scare and transformed himself into a soldier on the forefront of gay rights to a hardcore Christian who claimed he was cured of his homosexuality and attempted to then do the same for other gay men.

As the film begins, Glatze is in a fulfilling, long-term relationship with lover “Bennett” (Zachary Quinto playing a renamed version of Benjie Nycum), living together in San Francisco. In addition to successful publishing outlets (including a well-known guide to coming out), he’s a sought out speaker at various conference dealing with gay rights and a mouthpiece in the media. The film’s first half is actually a bit stilted and dry, like a history lesson of a period we’ve seen covered in other films. Much of it seems very entry-level, and the script isn’t one of the stranger elements of the film. But as Glatze’s struggle begins and his fear that he’ll go to hell when he dies begins to consume him, the film takes some truly dark and remarkable turns, and Franco’s talent as an actor really saves the film from mediocrity.

I can’t express enough how much Franco anchors and transforms this film, especially in the scenes in which he is pulling himself away from Bennett as the nature of their relationship (and the one they share with Tyler, a much younger man they’ve pulled into their life, played by Charlie Carver) slowly begins to trouble him. It’s heartbreaking to watch Glatze talk himself out of all that has made him happy for so long and commit himself to a life that would have him live a life of complete denial. While attending bible camp, Glatze meets Rebekah Fuller (Emma Roberts) and they slowly begin to fall in love. She’s troubled when she finds out about his past, and her confusion and conflict results in one of the film’s best sequences.

This is Franco’s first venture into exploring the lives of gay men, from MILK to HOWL, and he returns to this territory the way some actors return to certain types of genre filmmaking. He has complete respect for his subjects to the point where these roles have become some of his finest and most memorable works.

First-time feature writer-director Justin Kelly, although lacking any skill as a visual artist, is smart enough to keep the telling of this complicated story free from judgement; every audience member is going to respond differently depending on what they bring to the movie, as it always should be. And to portray Glatze as either hero or villain would have been a mistake. He’s clearly a man in a great deal of pain, whose decision caused others just as much suffering, and it’s sometimes tough to decide who you feel worse for. There are bigger issue at play in I AM MICHAEL as well. The long passage dealing with the role of gay members in various religions is still be discussed, as is the role of God and faith in the gay community, all things Glatze wrote about long before his committing to his straight life.

I AM MICHAEL ends with a couple of the most heart-breaking scenes I’ve seen lately, including a call from Michael to Bennett that had many in my audience in tears. If Glatze’s life is somehow lesser for his decision, it’s because he’s lost his best friend. The film also isn’t a condemnation of religion, although it does acknowledge the potential it holds to corrupt minds in times of vulnerability. I AM MICHAEL is about 60 percent a really powerful and piercing film, once you get past a really stagnant opening act. But if you need a reminder just how staggeringly good Franco can be when he has to be, look no further.

Still a whole lot of Sundance reviews on the way, folks. Stay tuned…

-- Steve Prokopy
"Capone"
capone@aintitcool.com
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