SUNDANCE 2016: Reviews of MORRIS FROM AMERICA and WHITE GIRL!!!

Hey everyone. Capone here, freshly returned from Park City, Utah, where I once again attended the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. This year, I had a little coverage help from one Mr. Matt Hoffman, who picked up a few reviews and interviews that my schedule didn’t allow me to get to. So over the next few days, I’ll be alternating between my reviews and Matt’s, with the interviews to come later. Please enjoy…

MORRIS FROM AMERICA



On its surface Craig Hartigan’s MORRIS FROM AMERICA seems to be the kind of film dismissed as Sundance-y that come along in hordes at the festival each year. In classic Sundance fashion, the film examines the relationship of Curtis (Craig Robinson) and his thirteen-year-old son Morris (Markees Christmas). What gives this film a leg up over the standard familial drama is its setting. The film finds Morris and his father uprooted from their native USA to Heidelberg, Germany, where the two black men are outsiders in every way.

While his father works, Morris splits his time between taking German lessons from Inka (WETLANDS’ Carla Juri) and spending time at the youth center. An outcast from the “German Dickheads” at the youth center, Morris quickly falls in love with fifteen-year-old Katrin (Lina Keller) and returns each day with hopes of wooing her. When at home, Morris hones his skills as an amateur free-style rapper.

The film takes a very interesting and fresh look at racism in many forms. It takes the obvious approach, having one of the counselors at the youth center pull Morris aside after finding a joint on the grounds. Hartigan also explores the seemingly innocent racism faced by black men when Katrin asks Morris why he doesn't dance or play basketball. Hartigan knows how to explore this theme in a lighthearted manner, using a more serious scope only when absolutely necessary.

Though he has an array of interesting characters at hand, Hartigan keeps the film focused tightly on Morris. He gives the audience snippets of the other characters lives, just enough to show that they are fully realized without taking away from the focus, Morris’ journey. Hartigan makes a point to highlight the loneliness of his film’s characters. While the film continues to see Morris’ ostracization, it also shows Curtis mourning his long-deceased wife, and Inka’s loneliness in her own country while her boyfriend lives abroad in New York.

MORRIS FROM AMERICA provides a breakout performance from not only the charismatic Christmas, but also for Robinson, in a sense. Robinson has had a lively screen presence for years in comedic films, but MORRIS FROM AMERICA allows the actor to try something completely different. While the film is a comedy, Robinson act as the dramatic and emotional core as a father struggling to move on from the death of his wife and reconnect with his son. It is Robinson who miraculously brings the audience to tears in a performance that duly won him a special jury prize at the festival.

On the surface, MORRIS FROM AMERICA may seem like an easy film to dismiss, due to its levity and interpretation of a well-explored story. Yet Hartigan’s unique voice and the superb performances by Christmas and Robinson remind us that this is not your typical fish-out-of-water story. Fresh, realistic and fun, MORRIS FROM AMERICA is not one to miss.


WHITE GIRL



Easily one of the most divisive films at this year’s festival is Elizabeth Wood’s directorial debut WHITE GIRL. Morgan Saylor—who played one of television’s most hated characters, Dana Brody in Showtime’s “Homeland”—stars as Leah. Young and seemingly innocent, Leah has moved to Queens, NYC, the summer before she is to return to college for her sophomore year. Leah’s true naïveté is revealed as she attempts to buy drugs from one of the Puerto Rican men who loiter across the street from her apartment. She forms an instant connection with drug dealer Blue (Brian ‘Sene’ Marc), but their courtship of sorts is disrupted when Blue is busted by an undercover cop. With the man she claims to love behind bars, Leah goes to extraordinary lengths to secure his freedom.

WHITE GIRL may fool viewers with its tame opening minutes, but an afternoon at Leah’s magazine internship soon shows that Wood is not going to allow viewers a peaceful 90-minute viewing experience. After being called into her boss’s (Justin Bartha) office, Leah is offered a couple lines a coke, within seconds this gesture erupts into an on-screen blow job. Thus begins Leah’s feature-length journey of explicit sex and cocaine snorting.

Wood makes no attempt to hide her message in subtleties. Titling the film WHITE GIRL, Wood forces viewers to examine Leah’s privilege as a pretty white woman in New York by contrasting her experiences with those of Blue’s. While Blue gets kicked out of a club for holding coke, Leah thrives in that exact same establishment as she rips her shirt off and dispenses cocaine across the dance floor.

Wood’s film is sure to sure to remind viewers of the works of Larry Clarke, specifically KIDS, but with WHITE GIRL, Wood seems to be getting at something more than Clarke’s often needlessly exploitative films. To call WHITE GIRL provocative would be a vast understatement. Wood gives viewers little time to breathe between the countless scenes of indulgent sex and drugs. The challenging content is essential to Wood’s confrontational style and themes. The non-stop madness is what sweeps viewers up into the film, taking us on a physically and emotionally draining ride.

With WHITE GIRL, Wood does so much more than simply shock and titillate. This is an important film, an essential film of its time. It forces viewers to confront their notions of race and privilege and re-evaluate what it really means to be white in today’s America. Beautifully shot and frustrating as hell, Elizabeth Wood’s WHITE GIRL is kind of glorious, and dare I say it, magnificent.

-- Matt Hoffman
Follow Me On Twitter