Depression brought to life in Craig Roberts' one-of-a-kind "comedy," ETERNAL BEAUTY

Yes, it's being billed as a comedy, but anyone who suffers from depression or is in close contact with one of those sufferers will probably see ETERNAL BEAUTY as real a movie about this subject as has yet come to pass. Oh, it has its very funny moments (any movie that stars the great Sally Hawkins would have to), but overall the film's exploration of this particular world of Jane, its depressive main character, is equal parts shockingly unsentimental and carefully, artfully conceived and executed.

Writer/director Craig Roberts, shown at left and better known perhaps as an actor (Submarine, Becoming Human), has taken his tale at least in part from the life of a good friend of his (his dedication during the end credits is to "the real Calamity Jane"), and this real-life situation seems to have inspired Roberts to create something unlike anything TrustMovies can recall seeing on this subject, filmwise. 

Mr. Roberts refuses to revel in the usual; instead he looks at the life of Jane (Ms Hawkins, below) from as many angles and in as many different situations as are manageable in a 95-minute running time. We begin with therapy and a flashback to her wedding then move on to dysfunctional family, fantasy, what socializing she can manage, a major love interest and more.

To my eye and mind, nothing here is played for comedy, though some of it is indeed darkly humorous. But it is unfailing real and all too believable. Roberts and Hawkins capture incredibly well the mindset of the depressive and the skewed perspective from which this person views so many events.

At the same time, the filmmaker explores what Jane's parents -- uber controlling and somewhat vicious mother (the fine Penelope Wilton, second from left, above) and weak father (a vulnerable, sad Robert Pugh, above, left) -- have taken and/or added to her life, how her conniving, narcissistic sister (Billie Piper, below and second from right, above) plays and betrays her; 

and even how her most "normal" relative (married sister Alice played by Alice Lowe, at right, two photos above, and below) does seem, as Jane describes her, a bit "boring." Yet next to Jane herself, Alice is someone you'd want to hang onto for dear life. 

Eternal Beauty portions out blame (if you can call it that: more likely just reasons) for Jane's behavior in a manner that seems to me pretty fair and square. Therapy, too, takes its licks here. The point, in any case, is to somehow get through it all. For a time, it seems as if the man Jane meets (or re-meets) in the waiting room might just do the trick, as he seems equally disturbed and somehow a good match for our heroine.

As brought to amazing/funny/scary life by the wonderful David Thewlis (above, left, and on poster, top), one of the few actors who can actually steal a sene from Ms Hawkins (or anybody else), this oddball character actually fits into and helps expand Jane's own delusional world.

So thoroughly does Roberts and his cast engulf us in Jane's strange mindset that the experience quickly becomes sui generis, one-of-a-kind. How different (and so much less mainstream/feel-good) is this depiction of schizophrenia from that which we viewed just last month in Words on Bathroom Walls. Eternal Beauty won't be for every taste, but once it grabs you, you're hooked.

From Samuel Goldwyn Films and running just 95 minutes, the movie makes its VOD and digital debut this Friday, October 2 -- for purchase and/or rental.

Our May Sunday corner With Lee Liberman -- GOD'S OWN COUNTRY: The Grace of Kindness

This post is written by our 

monthly correspondent, Lee Liberman

On 5/20/20, IndieWire reported on the censorship of Francis Lee’s film and it has already been pulled from the Amazon Prime free lineup. The original is still available to rent or buy from Amazon. Lee writes below that the culprit was Goldwyn Films not Prime Video: 

 “After investigation, ‘God’s Own Country’ was not censored by Prime Video (Amazon USA) but by the US distributor Goldwyn Films who butchered the streaming version without consultation to get more ‘revenue.’ Prime Video were incredibly supportive in rectifying. The rental version of ‘God’s Own Country’ on Prime Video is the correct version of my film. I would like to thank Amazon Prime for being supportive and I would caution any filmmaker of working with the aforementioned ‘distributor.’  

Thank you everyone for all your support.”

We are in present-day Yorkshire, northern England, during the sheep foaling season of early spring, where a single day will dispense snow, wind, sun, and rain that slices raw through the body, on a rural sheep farm that struggles for survival on the moor. (Yorkshire, in the shadow of the Pennines mountains, has been affectionately called ‘God’s Own County’ for hundreds of years.)

Actor-turned-writer-director Francis Lee (at left) grew up on these moors and filmed his first full-length feature (2017) here near his birthplace. It has been lauded in England (nominated for BAFTA film of the year), hugely popular in Europe, scored 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, and prized at many film festivals, but passed over by the Oscars. See it now via Amazon to get lost in its brutal magic.

The solitary Johnny Saxby (Josh O’Connor, below: The Crown, Only You), lives with his ailing father Martin (the self-effacing, nuanced, wonderful Ian Hart, two photos below, left: Harry Potter, The Last Kingdom) and grandmother (enduring actress, Gemma Jones, two photos below, right: Bridget Jones' Diary, Gentleman Jack) — the three tasked with the relentless demands of their farm.

Johnny‘s classmates are in college, but he grumpily carries on with the burdens of animal husbandry and crumbling stone walls, chided by his father and Nan ( below). He doesn’t think or let himself feel; he’s so well-defended he comes off as a dolt, working vacantly, having furtive sex at the pub, home to vomit the nightly binge, sleep, rinse, and repeat.

Johnny isn’t really love-starved (although his mother left the farm when he was a child), rather this family is starved of emotional intelligence and expression. They bark and grunt at each other, admonish and never affirm — the trio as dour as the climate. Martin’s masculinity is draining away as he struggles with mobility and worry, Nan perpetually scolds, and Johnny wears his defenses like a hair shirt— ‘I’m a fuck-up’.

Into this scene is imported a change agent, an immigrant farm worker, Gheorghe (Alec Secareanu, above, right, up-and-coming Romanian actor from PBS’s Baptiste and the lead in Romola Garai’s new Amulet, opening July 2020), hired to replace Martin’s labor during the busy lambing season. Gheorghe is Romanian like the actor, his story arc quietly invoking the plight of ubiquitous immigrant outsider. He laments the abandonment of his home country by its youth, but unlike Johnny, his glass is half-full. He is intuitively in harmony with the rhythms of the farm and models to Johnny how to function and survive in a demanding landscape.

A runt that would have been abandoned at birth (above), is brought back to life with Gheorghe’s ministrations; he clothes it in the skin of an already dead lamb (rear of picture), coat-sweater-like.

Then he nurtures it until the mother takes it back. He uses disinfectant on animals’ injuries, assesses Johnny’s bruised hands, and is proactive about repairing the farm’s boundary wall, leaving Johnny perplexed and unnerved by Gheorghe’s instinctive good will.

Johnny’s uncomprehending reaction is to goad him, calling him ‘gyp’ (gypsy), until Gheorghe erupts furiously and pins him to the ground.

With a combination of limit-setting and kindness, Gheorghe makes a dent in the hollow affect of the three Saxby’s — especially Johnny’s, who begins to take on the running of the farm with new purpose and even a little good will.

It’s a bit of a fairy tale, a Cinderella story in which kindness is the transforming gift, but here is the less ordinary: This is a romance between two men with a happy ending. There’s no rejection by family, no death from AIDS or unrequited love — just the prospect that two people might make something more permanent of a transcient hookup and live ever after— well, if not happily, then giving it a go. It’s as though films about gay characters have begun, under Francis Lee’s stewardship, to catch up with old-style Hollywood romance where the couple walks off into the sunset — no problem. The two call each other ‘faggot’ affectionately, investing the slur with the caring between them.

Led by its art-makers, is our era beginning to move past the rejection of gay life and embrace at least a modicum of civility? Mr. Lee is chipping away at the ice. For all its parts combined, his movie has struck a note of grace in which God’s Own Country is both gorgeous Yorkshire and rich subject matter to a mainstream audience that is being dragged kicking and screaming into a more nuanced present. This is a film about two people coming to terms with emotions and environment. It features two young gay characters, but the truth of their relationship, and of the family including father and grandmother, is more universal — it is about the transformative nature of kindness and self-acceptance.

Senior trip: Sheila Hancock does a title-role star turn in Simon Hunter's sweet movie, EDIE

Thank goodness for Sheila Hancock and Kevin Guthrie, the two stars of the 2017 film EDIE (just now getting its U.S. theatrical release). Without them and their sterling work -- moment to moment, they play off each other just perfectly -- this sweet but-always-threatening-to-grow-saccharine -- movie might have become intolerable.

The writing and direction are not the culprits; instead, it's the use of the musical score -- credited to Gast Waltzing and featuring a lovely major melody -- which has been allowed to be beaten into the ground so heavily by the finale, which itself provides the heaviest moments, that you'll wish you had brought your own mute button to the theater.

Director Simon Hunter (pictured, right, who also provided the idea for the story; the screenplay is by first-timer Elizabeth O'Halloran) has worked most often in the horror genre, so this aged-senior-decides-to-do-her-own-thing tale must have proven a nice change of pace for the guy. No zombies or mutants to contend with here!

Mr. Hunter has managed a very nice build-up, along with excellent pacing, and the two fine performances he's coaxed from his leads. Actually, I doubt much coaxing was needed, as both Ms Hancock (shown above and below) and Mr. Guthrie (two photos down) have proven themselves more than capable  -- the former since the early 1960s and the latter since the beginning of this century.

Still beautiful at age 83 (when Edie was filmed), Hancock has a remarkable face, which she uses with both subtlety and force (when needed). Her Edie, thankfully, is a nicely rounded character: prickly, sweet and alternately closed and open to at least some degree of change.

In the role of Jonny, the fellow who initially knocks her off her feet (along with his ever-rushing girlfriend, played by Amy Manson, below), Guthrie, above, is Hancock's equal at winning us over without using anything but his skill, charm and good looks. That Edie and Jonny will bond is of course obvious from the get-go. But the smart, funny little pas-de-deux in which they consistently engage proves as engaging as it is believable.

The plot, such as it is, has to do with Edie's need/desire to climb a certain mountain in Scotland (seen below) -- no Everest, mind you, but a real jaunt -- and Edie, just like Hancock, is 83 years of age. Little wonder the locals do not expect this old woman to manage it.

Does she? Does it matter all that much? And why? Or is simply trying the main accomplishment here? You'll find out, as the film builds (so does that music, unfortunately) to its inspirational, feel-good finish. And thanks to these two wonderful actors, you'll happily note that -- as we've often been told -- it's the journey that matters much more than the destination.

From Music Box Films and running 102 minutes, Edie opened this past Friday, September 6, in New York City at the Angelika Film Center, and in Los Angeles at several Laemmle theaters. Here in South Florida, it opens this Friday, September 13, at the Bill Cosford Cinema, Miami, and the Living Room Theaters, Boca Raton. Click here and scroll down to click on Theatrical Engagements to view all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

Richard Billingham's odd, memorable, yet off-putting biographical endeavor, RAY & LIZ

UPDATE: the 
Digital/On-Demand 
release of this film, 
via 1091, will be 
available on 
April 14, 2020

There's a scene in RAY & LIZ, the new autobiographical movie from photographer/ artist/teacher Richard Billingham, in which a member of the extended family named Lol, marvellously played by Tony Way (below), stops in for a visit, after which the title characters Ray and Liz (Billingham's utterly incompetent parents -- he's an alcoholic, she's grossly overweight and problemed by fuck-all), go shopping and leave Lol with the care of their very young son.

Lol has been warned to leave alone the booze in the apartment, but soon arrives a new character -- a nasty young man, either a tenant, relative or supposed friend -- who brings out that booze, get Lol roaring drunk, and then....

This scene, arriving maybe a quarter way into things offers the suspense of Hitchcock, the possibilities inherent in the most awful of any current horror movie, and a growing sense of a dreadful injustice that is about to befall an innocent character (or two). The filmmaker, shown below, could hardly have crafted a more riveting scene had he been making full-length movies over an entire lifetime (he's known mostly as a photographer, I believe).

Mr. Billingham's skills, as writer and director, seem to TrustMovies both legion and limited, in that he is able to visually offer up a truly horrible story of an abusive childhood, due more to utter neglect than anything else -- the movie may remind you, thanks to its lower-working-class setting and child abuse, of the work of Terence Davies, though in style, it is light years away from Davies -- that is artful, often very effective, but in the end lacking in much depth-of-character.

This is due to a screenplay and to writing that is simply missing (though it is made up for, to an extent, by the acting on view). We do not really get to know these people much at all. They exist as one-note creations: alcoholic, overweight, mean-and-nasty, and in a couple of cases caring-and-helpful.

The children, thanks mostly to their age and lack of experience, also come across in this way: One seems fascinated with the natural world and animal life (Joshua Millard-Lloyd, above); the other, a teenager (playing the younger Mr. Billingham, I presume), seems typically self-involved and absent, though his plea toward the end of the film, "Can I get foster parents, too?" is moving and certainly understandable, given his circumstances.

Fortunately, the film has been cast very well. Every character, older or younger version (Ray & Liz takes place over three time periods, with the most recent one acting as a wrap-around frame), seems dead-on, usually giving us at least a taste of what the little, sometimes undecipherable dialog leaves out. The title characters are played by Justin Salinger and Ella Smith (shown above, right and left, respectively), and both fill their roles with as much specific behavior as they are able (she is given much more dialog than he).

Overall, while the movie captures neglect, along with despair, repressed anger and near-squalor with remarkable zeal and thoroughness, we never really know these people much. Nor, maybe, would we want to. Still... Knowing, understanding... isn't that the point?

I did enjoy the short scene in which young Jason feeds a giraffe, and wondered at how he managed to collect an array of pet snails without mom tossing them out (ah, neglect has its benefits!). And the nighttime scenes are captured with the eye of the artist, while other moments -- the bunny rabbit in the baby carriage -- offer surprise, charm and wit. I think you'll remember Ray & Liz for certain scenes and moments, even if you're not completely taken with its British miserabilism whole.

From KimStim and running a long, harrowing 108 minutes, the movie has its U.S. theatrical premiere this coming Wednesday, July 10, in New York City at Film Forum. Upcoming playdates include the Zeitgeist Theatre and Lounge in Arabi, Louisiana, and the Vancity Theatre, Vancouver, both on July 12, and Laemmle's Royal in West Los Angeles on July 19. Click here, then click on Playdates, to see if others have been added subsequent to this post.

TrustMovies apologizes for earlier posting 

one of Mr. Billingham's photos above, 

under the guise of its being 

the photographer/filmmaker himself.  

That mistake has now been corrected.

ALL IS TRUE: Kenneth Branagh's Will Shakespeare "take" does the Bard proud

As both actor and director, Kenneth Branagh (shown above, center, and below, has by now done so much filmed Shakespeare that it seems somehow only fitting that he should himself play the great guy in a movie. And so he does -- as Shakespeare during his final years -- in the splendid new ALL IS TRUE. The title seems immediately ironic on a number of levels, as we are told via info offered at film's beginning that this title was given initially to the Bard's play now known as Henry VIII, during a production of which, the Globe theatre, in which it was being performed, burned to the ground.

The irony is echoed again in a wonderful scene in which Will's intelligent and angry daughter Judith tells her father directly and unequivocally, "Nothing is true." (This would seem even more appropriate in our own age and the full-bore falsity of Donald Trump.)

And yet, in its own sweet and unhurried manner, Branagh's movie seems to this Shakespeare fan a  remarkable achievement in that it captures so beautifully time and place, character and event, and finally the utterly splendid and remarkable poetry the man was capable of in a scene of such perfection, it will probably be vimeo-ed and/orYouTubed into eternity. (More about that scene later.)

We meet our Will as he returns to the home and family he has cared for mostly at a distance during his long (for the times: most of his contemporaries are, or soon will be, dead) and successful career. That family includes his distant wife (the sublime Judi Dench, above)

and two daughters: the smart and angry Judith (Kathryn Wilder, above, left) and the loving and more submissive Susannah (Lydia Wilson, below). The Bard has given up playwriting -- writing of any sort, really -- and decided to create and tend a garden (he's not very good at it). But of course he becomes most involved in the family matters -- marriages, in-laws, and mostly past mistakes -- that continue to distance him from those he's supposed to love and care for.

The biggest of these matters has to do with the life and untimely death years ago of his son, Hamnet (Judith's twin), and what this finally means to him and the rest of the family. Nothing is hurried here, yet all of the events and themes are worked through believably, humorously and/or movingly, resulting in a work that celebrates the most significant writer (and probably mind) in world history in a manner that does him as much justice as could be managed in a 101-minute movie.

All is -- if not true -- quite wonderful. Yet two scenes stand out above the rest. One, as mentioned earlier, captures the beauty of the writing, as Branagh and Ian McKellen (left, playing the Earl of Southampton) chat and reminisce. Here, poetry, love, loss, class and position all merge so perfectly, with the two actors at the absolute tip-top of their form, that I suspect this perfect scene will survive as long as there's anyone left who appreciates great art.

The other scene involves Will's surprise visit by a younger fan, played with a gentle combination of sweetness, strength and sincerity by Phil Dunster (below). This fellow simply wants to meet the great writer and try to tell him how much his work has meant to him. But of course, in the presence of "greatness," he fumbles and meanders and finally asks, "How did you know? "How did I know what? Shakespeare asks back. And then the answer comes: "Everything."

Indeed. That's the question that's been asked over and over by so many other great minds -- as well as by all of us lesser souls who revere the Bard's work. How did he know people and politics, greed and ambition, love and lust, youth and age and everything in between so very well that it does seem as though, yes, he did know it all? And women, too (who befuddled even Freud). While Shakespeare wasn't much of a feminist, perhaps, he was surely forward-thinking for his time.

Mr. Branagh has given us quite a little gift here, and Shakespeare fans ought to partake. For those afraid that perhaps the language used will be "old English" and beyond their ken, worry not. Branagh and his fine screenwriter, Ben Elton, have made it all perfectly accessible. All Is True is a quiet joy.

From Sony Pictures Classics, the movie, after opening on our cultural coasts, is now expanding elsewhere around the country. Here in South Florida, it opens this Friday, May 24, and will play various theaters in the area, among them the O Cinema Miami, the Classic Gateway in Fort Lauderdale and the Movies of Delray in Delray Beach. Wherever you live, click here and then click on GET TICKETS to discover theaters near you.

Ralph Fiennes & David Hare's excellent bio-pic of Rudolf Nureyev, THE WHITE CROW, opens

What a fine and fascinating entertainment, as well as one of the better bio-pics of recent times, is THE WHITE CROW -- the very welcome collaboration between director/co-star Ralph Fiennes, screenwriter David Hare, and the very impressive newcomer actor/dancer taking the title role, Oleg Ivenko, who plays the young adult Rudolf Nureyev.

What these three have given us is a portrait of Nureyev that seems nuanced, detailed and believable factually, psychologically and especially emotionally.

Fiennes (shown at right) and Hare go back and forth in time near constantly, and this works surprisingly well, TrustMovies thinks, because the pair concentrates less on connecting the specific what-happened-and-why dots than on the emotions these events raise in both the child and the young adult Nureyev. Thus we are consistently placed within both the heart and mind of the character, and this helps us understand the talented, gorgeous and highly self-centered man at the core of this film.

Mr. Ivenko, below, handles both the dance and the acting with aplomb. Perhaps Fiennes understood how to capture and make best use

of this young man's talents -- which in so many ways mirror those of Nureyev -- without asking him to do too much. In fact, Ivenko's is a paired-down performance -- he is most often shown simply "thinking" -- relying in good part of his handsome face, terrific body and dance skill to bring to life the international ballet idol of the 1960s and 70s. It works.

Aside from the childhood flashbacks, The White Crow concentrates on Nureyev's ballet training, particularly that under the tutelage of his chosen teacher, Pushkin (played with great restraint and a fine undercurrent by Fiennes, above, right), mixed consistently with his traveling in the Russian troupe to Paris, where he first became rightly famous.

There he meets and bonds with the young woman, Clara Saint (Adèle Exarchopoulos, above, right) and the French dancer/choreographer Pierre Lacotte (Raphaël Personnaz, below, right), both of whom prove instrumental in the Parisian life of our dancer, as well as in the choice he must finally make.

Thanks to the ever-invasive Russian officials assigned to chaperone/guard the dance troupe, our narcissistic hero champs harder at his bit until the exceedingly suspenseful climax of this first-rate film, which -- if the details of the finale are maybe not completely as-they-were -- can be forgiven because of the filmmakers' skillful handling of this scene.

Those of us old enough to remember and appreciate Nureyev's talent and beauty -- his famous bisexuality is clearly shown here, too -- will probably revel in how closely Ivenko achieves all this, while younger audiences will at least be given a good taste of what this dancer/icon was all about.

The movie's dance scenes (as above and below), though not so very many, are plenty good enough to convince us of why this then-unknown dancer rose so quickly and permanently to fame. Mr. Hare's screenplay, by the way, is so appropriate and smart that you are mostly unaware of it as the film rolls along.

From Sony Pictures Classics and running a rich and not-a-moment-too-long 127 minutes, The White Crow opened on the coasts last month and is now expanding nationwide. Here in South Florida, it begins its run this Friday, May 10, and will play the Miami area at the AMC Aventura 24, Regal's South Beach 18, and the Coral Gables Art Cinema; in Fort Lauderdale at the Classic Gateway 4; in Davie at the Cinemark Paradise 24; in Boynton Beach at the Cinemark 14; in Boca Raton at the Regal Shadowood and the Cinemark Palace; and at the Movies of Delray and the Movies of Lake Worth. Wherever you live across the country, click here and then click on GET TICKETS (badly designed but to be found hidden in Ivenko's forehead) to view the theaters nearest you.