Hayek & Lithgow shine in Miguel Arteta & Mike White's timely triumph, BEATRIZ AT DINNER

Maybe it's simply a matter of these deadly and trying times, but so many movies suddenly seem to address this era of our would-be dictator Donald Trump and his slovenly, bought-out Congress -- either obliquely, in tales that deal with how the refusal to take responsibility for one's actions results in terrible pain and tragedy for others, as in the film I covered this past Saturday (Moka) and the one I will cover tomorrow (Harmonium), or directly, as with the documentary my colleague Lee Liberman posted on yesterday (Get Me Roger Stone) and today's dynamite offering, BEATRIZ AT DINNER, brought to us by a continually expansive and growing pair of filmmakers, director Miguel Arteta and writer Mike White (shown below, with White on the left, Arteta at center, and the star of their new film, Salma Hayek, on the right).

Mr. Arteta has given us so many good and interesting movies and television work -- from Chuck & Buck through The Good Girl and Getting On -- while White continues to amaze via his own deceptively deep and not-so-easy-to-pigeonhole humor, versatility and commitment (Chuck & Buck, The Good Girl, School of Rock, and especially that amazing HBO series, Enlightened). With Beatriz at Dinner, which has not a little in common with Enlightened, the two come together with one of their finest, most elegant and on-the-nose collaborations yet.

What White and Arteta have done is to set up a near-perfect situation involving -- if you chose to see it this way -- class, race, economics and politics, resulting in an, again, near-perfect showdown of, well, good versus evil. Good comes in the form of our heroine, Beatriz, played with such clear-hearted concern for humanity together with quiet fire and determination by Ms Hayek, that her character becomes instantly classic. When the name Beatriz is uttered henceforth, it'll be of this character that most moviegoers will immediately think. (For a quick but surprisingly full look at the versatility, not to mention beauty and talent, of Ms Hayek, I'd recommend a viewing of this film, together with Everly and As Luck Would Have It: two movies that show quite different sides of this actress.

Once the filmmakers set up their situation -- a dinner party whose wealthy, entitled guests include the kind of genuinely successful and powerful businessman that Donald Trump has long aspired (but failed utterly) to be. That's right: No bankruptcies and consistent loses for this guy. And yet, this powerhouse, quite properly named Doug Strutt, has also consistently despoiled the environment and caused various unwelcome diasporas around the globe. Strutt is played by John Lithgow (above), giving yet another of this actor's remarkable performances, and he is a fine and uber-nasty/intelligent example of major evil in today's world, as well as exactly the right foil for Hayek's Beatriz

How these two meet, match and go at it is set up so efficiently, cleverly and quickly that before we know it, we're neck-deep in the kind of situation and question that is on the mind of anyone who has considered the world at large, the haves and have-nots, climate change, and the continuing polarization of wealth and poverty in the western countries (it's always been there in those third-world spots).

The dinner party's host and hostess (David Warshofsky and Connie Britton, above, left and right, respectively) are initially welcoming (she much more than he) but as tempers rise and truth faces down power, they must honor their own needs above all else. Also present is the developer (Jay Duplass, below, center, right) who has put together an important project that Strutt is bankrolling, his date (a high-level PR person played by Chloë Sevigny), and Strutt's current significant other (Amy Landecker). Plus, of course, the hired help on the host/hostesses' staff.

Each actor has the chance to shine a bit, given White' cleverly unshowy but pungent dialog that never stoops to the kind of cheap and obvious laughs in which another recent popular and critically acclaimed rich-white-people-as-hosts movie, Get Out, indulges. And while the filmmakers hand us their situation all wrapped in a beautiful box with ribbon and bow, they choose not to solve this great world problem for us.

Oh, they certainly offer a couple of options, one of which you will not be able to nay-say too strongly, given how the movie develops. They make that particular option seems awfully inviting and, in fact, maybe the only legitimate way to proceed. Or not. One of the frustrating strengths of Beatriz at Dinner is that it forces us to consider all this in a manner that proves much more than mere "movie fodder." The film brings us face to face with a question most of us would prefer not to have to answer: What responsibility do we have as individuals for what is happening to our country and to our world?

Via the character of Beatriz, together with Ms Hayek's fine performance, we get a strong glimpse of believable and genuine spirituality of the sort seldom encountered on screen. (How White & Arteta set up Beatriz's character so eloquently and immediately in the movie's initial scene is exemplary.) Yet it this very spirituality that, in the end, probably prevents the kind of action necessary to counter the evil on display. As my friend and co-writer Lee Liberman asked at the end of yesterday's post:
Other suggestions? 

From Roadside Attractions and running a sleek and highly serviceable 83 minutes, the movie, after opening last weekend in our nation's cultural/entertainment centers, hits others cities in the days to come. Here in the South Florida area, it will open in the Miami areas at Regal's South Beach 18, the Landmark at Merrick Park 7, AMC's Aventura Mall 24 and Sunset Place 24; in  Ft. Lauderdale at The Classic Gateway; and in Boca Raton at the Cinemark Palace 20 and Regal Shadowood 16. On Friday, June 23, it will hit Miami's O Cinema. To see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters, click here and then click on GET TICKETS.

DVDebut: Russell Brown's ANNIE AND THE GYPSY gives Cybill Shepherd a good role

One of those dinner parties from hell -- if indeed it ever actually takes place -- is the event around which Russell Brown's new film centers. In that center, as the hostess of said party, is an actress of some renown (multi-Golden Globe awards and numerous Emmy nominations, among other honors), Cybill Shepherd. This actress' fan base from two major Emmy-winning television shows alone should haul in a lot of viewers. TrustMovies would have imagined that this might have guaranteed the film at least a small theatrical release, but the rules of the game are so strange, if not outright screwy, these days, that any guarantee of anything seems permanently off.

Mr. Brown (the very youthful-looking filmmaker shown at left) has himself given us a couple of interesting movies over the past decade -- Race You to the Bottom and an even-better The Blue Tooth Virgin -- that deal with slightly oddball people trying to work out their place in the world. This is also the case with Brown's latest work, even if its protagonist is a good deal older than those of his earlier films. What makes ANNIE AND THE GYPSY (which was earlier known as White Camellias, as it toured the festival circuit over the past year or so) particularly strange is how it morphs from a will-it-happen-or-won't-it? kind of movie into a compelling character study of a woman (the titular Annie, played by Ms Shepherd, shown below and further below) who is stuck in her past and is trying to break through to some kind of healthy present.

To that end, she has planned a major dinner party that will introduce her guests to a man she has recently reconnected with and who might just be the love of her life. Annie has a lot riding on this dinner party -- way too much, really -- as her friend and culinary helper....

a gay young man (played with sweetness and charm by David Burtka, above) who's having trouble with his own companion but is on hand to help Annie prepare for her big evening, tries to tell her. Complications ensue.

If, for awhile, it looks like the movie will degenerate into the obvious, hold on. Once some guests arrive, in the persons of Peter Paige, below, as that not-so-nice companion (Mr. Paige is excellent, as always)...

and a rather dim fellow played by David Franklin, below, who starts out a little crazy if not creepy, but slowly wins us over...

and an absolutely riveting Gia Carides, below, as his alpha mate -- remember her delicious turn as the Gennifer Flowers figure in Primary Colors? -- the energy level rises noticeably and we get some crackerjack scenes that keep us suspended.

The above actors are so good that, for awhile, they seem to steal the movie. Not to worry, the filmmaker knows what he is doing and soon brings us back into the Shepherd fold. Along the way, we've learned of Annie's past in Spain, of her art aspirations and of the man she loved.

All these come back during and after the dinner party, as does that titular gypsy (Eliezer Ortiz, above) who stands for.... well, you interpret this one. Toward the end we see, if not meet, the dream man (played by Lenny von Dohlen) and also witness a few mo-ments in which Annie talks with someone special. This scene, to my knowledge, is a film "first," in which Brown provides us something strange and intimate to ponder. Ms Shepherd here, as elsewhere in the film, does a lovely job with a role that offers little of her usual snark and tamped-down anger. Together with the writer/director, she makes Annie -- and her movie -- special and moving.

Annie and the Gypsy, from Osiris Entertainment, hits the street this Tuesday, March 12, on DVD and will probably be available via VOD, streaming or cable TV, eventually.