Capone's Art-House Round-Up with THE DARK HORSE, THE INVITATION, THE ADDERALL DIARIES, IN HARMONY, and THE FIRST MONDAY IN MAY!!!

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…


THE DARK HORSE
In many ways, supreme character actor Cliff Curtis has been the leading face of the New Zealand film industry. I know many of you assume that title belongs to Peter Jackson, but I’m talking about films shot in New Zealand that are actually meant to be set in that island nation. He’s been in such works as THE PIANO, ONCE WERE WARRIORS, WHALE RIDER, and even produced one of Taika Watiti’s early works as a writer-director, BOY. In addition, his Maori roots give him a look that has allowed him (for better or worse) to play a range of ethnicities in film and television, from Middle Eastern, Latino, Indian, you name it. He’s also currently a lead in the AMC series “Fear the Walking Dead” and he has worked with some of the greatest living directors today.

But when he signs up to make a New Zealand production, I get excited because I know he’ll be throwing his heart and soul into the work. Never has that been more true than in his portrayal of the real-life chess champion Genesis Potini, who went from prodigy to mental patient with a bipolar disorder diagnosis. THE DARK HORSE picks up Gen’s story after his release from the hospital, taking meds, but still fragile and skittish, unsure what his place in the world will be from this point forward. He lands up on the doorstep of his older brother Ariki (Wayne Hapi), the leader of a street gang. Seeing that his nephew Mana (James Rolleston, the much grown up star of BOY) is on the verge of following in the violent gang life of his brother, Gen attempts to recruit Mana into a chess club that Gen is organizing with other local youths.

The film tells two stories: one about Gen attempting to stabilize his mental health, despite living on the streets and not always liking the person he becomes on meds; the other part of this film is about the kids and their Eastern Knights Chess Club, who Gen whips into good enough shape to go to a chess championship. Curtis gives a career-best performance in THE DARK HORSE (not to be confused with the horse-racing doc DARK HORSE coming out in a couple weeks), with a stammering speech pattern, enhanced with Gen’s sense of guarded purpose of giving these kids a chance that he simply didn’t have. Genesis’s story was not well known throughout New Zealand, so in many ways this film speaks for him (he died in 2011) and other unsung heroes in the lives of struggling kids.

In another filmmaker’s hands, THE DARK HORSE could have easily been overly sentimental, but actor-turned-director James Napier Robertson keeps the edges of this story jagged and dangerous. The gang that Gen’s brother belongs to is downright scary and is a real danger to both Gen and his nephew. Also worth noting are the great child actors who make up the chess club, many of whom I’m guessing are first-time performers, which only adds to how authentic and honest their work here is.

THE DARK HORSE isn’t meant to be only a feel-good movie, although odds are you’ll feel somewhat more at ease about the future of these kids than you do when you meet them. Nor are we entirely sure that Gen’s struggles are done. But everyone seems to be pointed in the right direction by the time the film ends and a title card informs us of the future of the kids and the chess club. This is just a great, untold story about people whose stories are almost never seen on the big screen, and thanks to riveting work by Curtis, Genesis Potini’s legacy is secure, and hopefully it will inspire others to give of themselves they way he did. Move this one to the top of your must-see list.


THE INVITATION
Some filmmakers know how to scare you, and others know how to build tension to such a heightened level that you start to feel like a nervous energy is rising up under your skin, desperate to escape in a scream. I’m of a school that believes the longer a director can sustain that feeling in a viewer, the better the film. A scream is a release of tension, which defeats the purpose of building it in the first place. Allow me to introduce you to director Karyn Kusama’s THE INVITATION, an exercise in knowing that something isn’t quite right, but rather than simply playing a waiting game with her audience, Kusama (GIRLFIGHT; JENNIFER’S BODY) allows her characters some breathing and growing room for us to get to know them and discover what makes them tick.

Working from an assured screenplay from Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, The Invitation tells the story of a group of about a dozen old friends who gather for the first time in years at a dinner party hosted by Eden (Tammy Blanchard) and her new husband David (Michiel Huisman of “Game of Thrones”) in their lavish home in the Hollywood Hills. We are introduced to the group through Eden’s ex-husband Will (Logan Marshall-Green), who reluctantly comes to the gathering with his new significant other, Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi, most recently seen in MILES AHEAD).

Initially, we’re not quite sure what the purpose of the party is, but we assume that Eden, who seems almost disturbingly happy, has come to terms with whatever blew the group and her marriage apart in the first place and is attempting to rekindle these friendships. But Will still seems inherently unhappy, perhaps even angry, about his ex-wife having moved beyond a personal tragedy they shared, and he makes no secret about his dis-ease at the entire situation. Coming late to the party is a new face to most of the group, Pruitt (John Carroll Lynch), whom Eden and David met at a recent “retreat,” where their lives seemed to have been made easier by a spiritual awakening. Eden learned to release her pain, and Pruitt gives a deeply moving speech about an equally awful experience in his life that he learned to overcome.

Not to get too punny, but Lynch is the lynchpin upon which the mood of THE INVITATION begins to shift. He can be a teddy bear in some roles, but he’s also the actor who played the likely Zodiac killer and Twisty the Clown, so his entrance into the film is a serious red flag. It’s best that I don’t delve any deeper into the plot of the film, because the pacing of the film is so important and the way it reveals its true self is remarkable. You’re neck deep in its waters almost before you realize you’re standing in it.

The movie is not just about building anxiety and a few payoff moments; it’s also very much about the different, sometimes conflicting, ways that people grieve and express their emotions, and the manner in which we move beyond pain or allow it to nearly cripple us. There are times when Will is the guy we like the least because he stirs up so much shit during the course of the night, and is often wrong about accusations he lobs at his hosts, the result of uncontrollable paranoia. Kusama disguises the deep threat of the film behind the tasteful opulence of the setting, and the masterful production design of the house is a key ingredient to the success of establishing atmosphere for the entire work.

To its credit, THE INVITATION is about jump scares and loud noises; it’s about slowly but surely ramping up the uncertainty, the mystery, and ultimately the danger. And although the film spent most of 2015 on the festival circuit, I suspect it will land on a few Best Horror Films of the year lists, although I think it fits more comfortably in the category of “horrific drama.”


THE ADDERALL DIARIES
Well, a month has gone by, so it must be time for a new James Franco film to land in theaters. This one is about the life of author Stephen Elliott (Franco) while he was desperately stuck in a perfect storm of terrible events in his life. Suffering from writers block, attempting to unblock with drugs, a new relationship falling apart, and charges that his popular memoir “Happy Baby” had a great number of made-up material in it to make him sound like he had a tougher life than he did, Elliott was on the verge of total collapse, especially when his publisher and agent are breaking down his door looking for any pages that might count as progress on an overdue new novel.

Although he’s promised them more of the same disturbing stories form his life, Elliott becomes obsessed with the trial of master programmer Han Reiser (Christian Slater), who was accused (land later convicted) of murdering his wife in 2006, and somehow saw a connection between Reiser’s situation and his own abuse at the hands of his father, especially after his mother died.

THE ADDERALL DIARIES is a loopy, twisted tale that bounces from Elliott entering into a seemingly healthy relationship with Lana Edmond (Amber Heard) to multiple confrontations with his aging, dying father (Ed Harris), to his visiting a dominatrix, and sitting in on the trials because it’s the only thing in his life that truly captivates him, and he’s hoping that finding a new way to cover it will make him the new Truman Capote or Norman Mailer.

We’ve seen countless films about substance-abusing writers, and I’m not sure this one adds anything new to the mix beyond the trial element. Franco is so good that he makes just about anything he’s in watchable, even if the material isn’t quite up to snuff. Writer-director Pamela Romanowsky (THE COLOR OF TIME) captures the narcissistic nature of artists fairly accurately, but THE ADDERALL DIARIES is both fractured and sometimes sloppy (and not in an interesting way).

But the film does occasionally find ways to be compelling about the nature of memory, and how the same instance can be seen quite differently by two different people. Who is the hero and who is the villain in Elliott’s childhood? He thinks he knows, but his father offers up an alternate viewpoint that is not easy to dismiss or forget. The scenes between Franco and Harris are easily the best in the movie, as they bicker but somehow find a way to return to the key questions about their heated and traumatic past. I make a point to see as much as I can in the ever-expanding Franco playlist, just because he’s always making interesting choices, even if he’s not always making the best films. THE ADDERALL DIARIES is a mixed bag, but it’s not essential in the Franco filmography.


IN HARMONY
There is something about the Belgian-born actress Cécile De France that makes me believe that anything is possible. That’s not me saying she’s my favorite actress or a comment on her talent (she’s quite good in everything I’ve seen her in); there’s just something about her the conveys possibility, and it’s a feeling I don’t get from many actors, even the most talented. In her latest film, IN HARMONY, from writer-director Denis Dercourt (A PACT; THE PAGE TURNER), De France plays Florence, an insurance adjustor who has been assigned to handle the case of a French stuntman, Marc (Albert Dupontel), who specializes in horses and is paralyzed in an on-set accident. Florence represents the production’s insurance company, who is attempting to come to some financial arrangement with Marc, who is being told he will never ride a horse again.

At first, her approach is all business, and Marc bristles and threatens to sue the company for trying to lowball him. After a sexist co-worker jokes about Florence using her looks to calm Marc down, she decides to pay him an informal visit, talking not about the settlement but about horses, a subject that opens up a much more sensitive side to him and reveals just how devastated he is at the prospect of never riding again. Florence is married with children, so for her this isn’t meant to be a seduction but more a way of being less formal and stringent; but Marc is vulnerable, and he begins to have feelings for her that in turn open up the emotional floodgates in her, since her husband is something of an insensitive dweeb. Before long, everyone is drowning in feelings.

Based on equestrian trainer Bernard Sachsé’s memoir, “On My Four Legs,” IN HARMONY gets a bit messy in the final act, and while many may paint this as a love story, it’s more about how a new person can enter one’s life and open up a world of possibilities (there’s that word again). I never thought for a second that Marc and Florence would end the film together, but I did believe their lives would be changed substantially, particularly when the film’s coda jumps ahead a full year. In Marc, Florence sees how far from the life she’d imagined for herself she had strayed; meanwhile, Marc is reminded what his true passion is and does everything in his power to rediscover it.

Meant to be more inspiring than romantic, IN HARMONY still paints a convincing portrait of a poignant and motivating love affair. But most importantly, it reminded me that if I’m ever in a horrible accident to contact Cécile De France to help me recover.


THE FIRST MONDAY IN MAY
I have no problem admitting that I get caught up in documentaries about the fashion industry, probably because they tend to focus on a specific designer who had an impact on, not just the world of fashion, but on the clothes that people wear day to day. Each designer is a little bit insane in their own way, which only makes them more interesting. So the idea that every year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute celebrates and concentrates on a specific area of fashion with its Met Gala (held on the first Monday in May, thus the title) isn’t much of a surprise to me, nor do I need convincing that fashion and art have a great deal in common, despite the fact that some believe the commerce aspect of fashion distances it from the art world.

The curator of the annual special exhibition is the Costume Institute’s Andrew Bolton, who focuses primarily on the exhibition itself, while his partner and event chair, Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, primarily takes care of the gala, although her input into the exhibition is highly regarded. In 2015, which ended up being the museum’s most highly attended fashion exhibition, the theme was “China: Through The Looking Glass,” and THE FIRST MONDAY IN MAY captures every detail of piecing together both the many galleries that made up the exhibit and the controlled chaos that is the opening night gala. The event features one of the single most impressive gatherings of pretty and/or famous people in one place in New York City all year.

The “China” exhibition had artistic guidance from the likes of filmmakers Wong Kar Wai and Baz Luhrmann, as well as a delegation from China, who seemed more concerned about there being very little representation of modern China. When pressed by Bolton about what exactly modern Chinese fashion looks like, the delegation admits that it’s a work in progress. Committee members of the Met itself are concerned that the art pieces that are being used as part of the exhibition are being pushed to the background too much and their significance downplayed. The micro-decisions that are being made on a daily basis, especially in the final weeks of planning and construction, are agonizing to watch, but nothing appears more headache-inducing than Wintour fine tuning the seating chart with its 500-600 guests, all needing to be seated in just the right spot.

Director Andrew Rossi (PAGE ONE: INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES; IVORY TOWER) also takes time to talk to a host of fashion designers, including John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, and others, all of whom have at one point developed a Chinese-themed line, often based on designs they saw in films (especially those by Wong Kar Wai). Karl Lagerfeld is even allowed to voice his contrary belief that fashion is not art; he considers himself simply a dressmaker. Rossi’s access to both the planning process and the resulting show and gala is all encompassing. When we finally get to explore the finished exhibition (often looking over the shoulders of a host of famous folks), it’s like walking into the most beautifully designed theme park in the world—elegant, accessible, informative, tasteful and awe inspiring.

THE FIRST MONDAY IN MAY also gave me an impression of Wintour as a employer and overseer that even the film about Vogue, The September Issue, didn’t. She’s seen here, still enduring questions about THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, and about her reputation as a stern boss that no man would ever be asked. But for the good of the benefit gala, she accepts and answers these questions with far more dignity than those asking them.

From meeting about the politics of an exhibition about Chinese and Chinese-inspired fashion to a closing concert by Rihanna, THE FIRST MONDAY IN MAY surprised me with how much I learned about art, fashion, Chinese culture, museum curating, and even party planning. Star gazers will get an eyeful, but so will those genuinely interested in the artful eye being the clothing. It’s a genuinely entertaining and even educational movie.

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