Capone's Art-House Round-Up with ANIMALS, GOOD KILL, I'LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS and IN THE NAME OF MY DAUGHTER!!!

Hey, folks. Capone in Chicago here, with a few films that are making their way into art houses or coming out in limited release around America this week (maybe even taking up one whole screen at a multiplex near you). Do your part to support these films, or at least the good ones…


ANIMALS
Set in the small geographic and emotional pockets of Chicago where people go to hide in plain site, the film ANIMALS (winner of a Special Jury Prize at last year's SXSW Film Festival) tracks a few days in the lives of two young lovers, who also happen to be heroin addicts. Jude (David Dastmalchian, who also wrote the screenplay, based on his personal experiences living in Chicago) and Bobbie (Kim Shaw) are clearly smart, caring and above all resourceful people. The scams they come up with to get money to buy drugs would impress professional con artists; and like most drug addicts, they have big dreams that we feel fairly certain will never come to fruition.

As much as ANIMALS never flinches in its showing just how desperate and dangerous this life can be, first-time feature director Collin Schiffli paints with tones and atmosphere that gives the film a faded beauty that is far from glamorous, but is still undeniably alluring. It doesn't take long for us to realize that Bobbie and Jude's primary addiction is to each other's self-destructive personalities. They are classic enablers, and we soon understand that while it is often quite lovely to watch them together, they are absolutely toxic as a couple. A flashback late in the film shows us the pair shortly after they meet, doing drugs like the world is ending the next day, and while they appear much healthier then the do in the present, the patterns of not being able to say no to each other are already taking hold.

Dastmalchian has made a fledgling career as a character actor specializing in playing creepy dudes (he was a henchman for the Joker in THE DARK KNIGHT, he slinked around the edges of PRISONERS, and he's likely playing a criminal in the upcoming ANT-MAN), but as Jude, he's absolutely charming, friendly, personable, and good boyfriend material; as screenwriter, he's also carved out a role for himself that, not only does he understand intimately, but also he would never get cast to play, even by the most forward-thinking casting director.

Shaw, who has largely played in lighter-weight films and television projects (SHE’S OUT OF MY LEAGUE), is mind-blowing as a pretty girl whose glow is fading fast, like a bright light bulb just before it goes out for good. The performances she gives when she's conning people (almost always men) are convincing, but when she's strung out, her talents as a grifter start to evaporate along with her spirit.

The film's final act separates the couple as they both take radically different paths to getting clean, which in theory sets the stage for a clean-and-sober relationship, which they have never experienced. The film wraps up in an appropriately obtuse and poetic vision of the couple living out one of the many dreams they've talked about as happy junkies, and it's as tragic as it is hopeful. ANIMALS is a film I've seen a few times in the last year or so; the characters have haunted me for all of that time because I cared about them so much and because the way they live their lives frustrates me to know end. They are both so ripe with potential that it hurts to watch them. Somehow, even knowing that the writer dug himself out of this hole in real life doesn't make it any easier to watch him go through it again.

There's another film opening soon called HEAVEN KNOWS WHAT, and much like with Animals, the writer is also the star (although she is a first-time actor), and she has based her story on her real-life experiences as a junkie. And while that film is quite exceptional, it's a vastly different experience, going for ugly, rough, borderline evil versions of these characters. It also reminds us that love can be used as a weapon. ANIMALS never looks away, but its goals are to paint these drug addicts as fully emotional beings who had lives going into this lifestyle and could potentially get back to living once they get out. It's a stunning debut, featuring career-defining performances, and it's well worth seeking out.


GOOD KILL
This surprisingly taut and modern look at the current state of American warfare does a great job of doubling as a character study of a warrior without his weapon of choice. From writer-director Andrew Niccol (GATTACA, GOD OF WAR, IN TIME) comes GOOD KILL, a revealing look at the world of the drone pilot program of the US Air Force, which put its operators in flight suits, put them in small metal trailers in the middle of the Nevada desert, and commited them to hours at a time looking at overhead footage of their prospective targets on the other side of the world (in the case of this film, Afghanistan). The purpose of this style of distanced fighting is simple: fewer American lives lost and, in theory, less collateral damage since the strikes are surgical rather than the wider destruction done by carpet bombing.

At least in the initial stages of this program, the Air Force used former pilots, like Tom Egan (Ethan Hawke), but it didn't take long for Egan to miss the tools of his trade, and rush and fear he felt every time he took his plane up on a mission. Egan is a good soldier, but he can't help but feel like he isn't a real one, killing from 7,000 miles away by basically playing a videogame (it's no surprise that the Air Force began recruiting from a younger, more game-friendly pool later in the program). GOOD KILL slowly slips into a far more psychological exercise, as Tom slips deeper and deeper into his own head, distancing himself from his wife (January Jones) and his commanding officer (Bruce Greenwood), who seems to have made the cultural adjustment better than Egan.

The one person that Tom does seem to connect with is Vera Suarez (Zoe Kravitz, also featured in MAD MAX: FURY ROAD), a young newcomer to the program, who isn't afraid to call bullshit when certain missions don't seem as confirmed as she'd like them to be. The situation is made worse when the team is asked to conduct secret missions for the CIA (represented by the mildly menacing voice of Peter Coyote on speakerphone), an organization that doesn't rely on the same system of checks and balances that the Air Force does in locating targets. To the Agency, if you're in close proximity to a terrorist, you're probably a terrorist as well.

Hawke is quite exceptional in this role. As an actor, he's always had something of a gift for language and making us believe in him through words. But as Egan, he's practically a mute, using his eyes, his posture, his pent-up body language to convey a man in serious danger of losing his soul. At times, the film is paced like a thriller, with images seen on the monitor taking on small dramas of their own. At other points, this is an intimate drama, with Egan fearful of simply evaporating unless he can return to flying again. GOOD KILL is political and personal, and it never lets us forget that war is both the result and expression of both.

The film's ending hedges its bets a little too closely, and perhaps undercuts the sincere and powerful statements it has made up to that point, but that doesn't stop the movie as a whole from being satisfying and quite engaging.


I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS
Wow, did this one sneak up on me and knock me over, with its simple story and absolutely warm and heartfelt performances, especially from Blythe Danner in a rare and much-appreciated leading role. In I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS, Danner plays Carol, a widow and former singer who lives a fairly structured and scheduled life in her quaint California home. She has a regular bridge game with her three best friends (June Squibb, Rhea Perlman and Mary Kay Place), and if the film had just been 90 minutes of the four of them talking, I would have been ecstatic. Put a few drinks in this crew, and they turn into a real hoot.

One day, Lloyd (Martin Starr), a new pool cleaner, arrives at Carol's, and the two strike up a curious but supportive friendship. He's back at home living with his parents and feeling down on himself; she's missing having a man in her life, and is certainly looking at Lloyd as an unlikely candidate. Their relationship isn't exactly romantic, but it isn't completely platonic either. They go out a few times, learn about each other, and part at the end of the day more confused about what this is than before.

The issues at play in I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS aren't simply will they or won't they. Far more significant is watching the effect the two have on each other. Carol decides to allow a degree of spontaneity back into her life, and she starts dating a swarthy older man named Bill (Sam Elliott). The relationship with Bill makes more sense to Carol, and she more than willingly allows the whirlwind nature of it to take her over. During this phase in her life, Carol also manages to find time to reconnect with her daughter, Katherine (Malin Akerman), who comes to visit her and is pleasantly surprised by this new version of her mother.

It's almost startling in this day and age to watch a film with no villain or negative presence; DREAMS is about a group of very cool, sweet people whose only negative influence is the life they led before they met each other. As the film goes on, you could make an argument that time is working against some of the characters as well. Relatively new director Brett Haley (who co-wrote the screenplay with Marc Basch) has an equally great sense of how to present both the younger and older cast members. No one is pretending to be younger or older than they are; everyone seems happy with the age they are, as much as any of us are.

The best part of I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS is watching Danner absolutely own the role of Carol. She's not one thing; she's a complex creature with conflicting feelings about the life she's led and the one ahead of her. And it's her prerogative to change her mind about any of it. It's clear that Carol drinks a bit too much, but attention is never really called to that fact by any of the people in her life. I kept waiting for it, and was thrilled that it never arrived. Much like the film, the role of Carol isn't trying to deliver life lessons on a platter, but you'll find them if you pay attention. The gift of this work is its subtlety, of both the messages and the performances. This is a real winner for audiences of every age.


IN THE NAME OF MY DAUGHTER
One of the great joys of my job is that every so often I get to see Catherine Deneuve in a new movie. In addition to being one of the world's great beauties, she also remains one of its most fearless and impressive actors, and some of her best work in recent years is in the films of André Téchiné (WILD REEDS, THIEVES). The two have made seven films together, including their latest, IN THE NAME OF MY DAUGHTER, which tracks the abrasive and tragic relationship between casino owner Renee Le Roux (Deneuve) and her daughter Agnes (Adèle Haenel) during a period in the mid-1970s when Renee's casino in Nice, in the south of France, is in danger of being shut down after a criminal organization sets it up for ruin. In this based-on-a-true-story tale, Renee leans heavily on her lawyer, Maurice Agnelet (Guillaume Canet), to guide her and the casino back to health, but when she inexplicably treats him like a lacky, their relationship sours, and he begins to seduce Agnes to gain control of her shares in the company and her vote on the board of directors to oust her mother.

The emotional and business intrigue of the film is genuinely interesting, and not knowing the true story, I had no idea that at some point after Maurice essentially cleaned out Agnes of all her money, Agnes mysteriously vanished, never to be seen again. The assumption is that the money-hungry Maurice killed her or had her killed, but without a body or any evidence, he was never convicted. The final chapter of the film jumps ahead about 30 years, and it is revealed that Renee never stopped attempting to prove Maurice's guilt. Voluntarily returning to France after relocating to Panama, Maurice stands trial for hiding the body, and we are given a glimpse into the events that led to Agnes' vanishing act.

Part of the problem with IN THE NAME OF MY DAUGHTER is that it's nearly impossible for us to like Renee. She's controlling, uncaring, and seems more concerned with the future of her casino than those closest to her, including her daughter and her business partner. When she suddenly switches to this caring, grieving mother, we're not sure if we should take her seriously, or is she just angry that Maurice ran away with all the money. I'm certainly not implying that I need a likable character at the center of the film to enjoy the movie, but the Renee's motivations for both her good and bad behavior or confusing and confounding.

So much of the film is spent concerned with the wheeling and dealing concerning the ownership of the casino, and key players switching sides out of pure greed, that the actual crime/disappearance seems almost like a pesky afterthought. It doesn't help that both the filmmaker and the actor seem to pre-suppose Maurice's guilt, which isn't hard to believe but it also isn't proven, and I certainly doubt that Maurice would act so brazenly nasty when he's trying to appear innocent during the trial.

A big part of me was hoping that Agnes would appear as a middle-aged woman through the courtroom doors to explain that she left to get as far away from her mother as possible and really to blow the doors off of Renee's self-righteous mourning. Alas, the real Agnes is still missing, the verdict in this trial has been overturned and appealed time and time again, and the film version of this story feels like a pale imitation of the real events, even with the great acting talent on display. It's a near miss, but it's largely a miss.

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