Issac Cherem's LEONA holds over for a third week at Boca Raton's Living Room Theaters

If you're looking for a love story or a family drama or a Romeo & Juliet-type tale in which the obstacle to love in not simply a squabble between families but one between religion and "community," then LEONA -- the 2018 Mexican movie that is finally getting a limited nationwide release here in the USA -- just might both be and not quite be your cup of tea. The reason for this duality is that these Leonas -- both the film and its title character (who doesn't acquire that name until the very end) -- refuse to conform to the expectations of the above genres.

The movie's writer/ director, Mexican-born-and-bred Isaac Cherem (shown at right), smartly gives us what we might expect to be the usual routine and then has his heroine, Ariela, sabotage most of what's promising in her family-and-religion-controlled life, as well as in her love life. 

That family is part of the relatively small and apparently very closed community of Syrian Jews residing in Mexico. When Ariela (Naian González Norvind, below, left) meets and then falls in love with a Christian young man, she risks expulsion from both family and community. For whatever reason, though she is honest with her family regarding this relationship, she refuses to tell her boyfriend, Iván (played by the appropriately named Christian Vazquez, below, right) the truth of why he cannot meet her family, or even why she has suddenly moved away from that family and into her own apartment.

Why does Ariela refuse to confide in the fellow she loves? Is it from fear, sheer embarrassment, a combo of both, and/or something more? This is not exactly clear, nor does it need to be, since both her family and her community are portrayed as closed-minded and unreasonable enough to be the major villains of the film. 

These people are haute bourgeois in every negative sense of the phrase: striving, materialistic, better-than, and placing their religion and community above that of even the country in which they live. Most telling, perhaps, is the scene in which one of the high-level players in that community meets with Ariela in order to convince her of the horrors that await if she marries out of the faith. She pleads for assimilation, while her adversary pretty much says, "Never."

Still, we hope for the best for our girl because, after all, Iván and his family (all working in the artistic community, of which Ariela, as a mural-maker, is herself a part) are portrayed as just about the perfect choice to marry into. If the movie comes close to cliche, it is in this no-warts-at-all viewpoint. Even when Iván grows angry, that anger easily bests Ariela's continuing refusal to level with the guy.

In technical terms the movie is beautifully shot and edited, with production values quite high, and performances all at quality level. Leona does offers some other unanswered questions, however: How is Ariela managing to live so well? Does her family continue to support her through all this? (It seems doubtful she could be living this well off of only the income from her art.) Finally, though, choices that have been made cannot be unmade, and while some growth is evident here, and a kind of freedom may be on the horizon, the damage that fundamentalist religion (of any kind) can do to the lives of those involved continues to register as appalling and awful.

From Menemsha Films and running a relatively succinct 96 minutes, Leona opened here in South Florida at our Living Room Theaters in Boca Raton two weeks ago, and has proven popular enough to hold over for a third week starting today, Friday, March 26, while playing elsewhere in the area, too. Click here and scroll down to see all current playdates, cities and theaters.

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.

DVDebut for Valerio Miele's his/hers fantasy/memory tale, RICORDI?

RICORDI? translates from the Italian to the English question Remember?, which seems a most appropriate title for this 2018 film about memory, desire, fantasy and lost love. Early on, one character proclaims: "Memories lie -- making things that were bad seem good. Otherwise life would be unbearable."

Fair enough. And that seems to be the point (one of  them, anyway) that the writer/director of this film -- Valerio Miele (shown below), whose terrific Ten Winters  was shown at the FSLC's Open Roads festival of new Italian films some years back -- is making here.

From the moment that Miele's two leading characters, known only as He and She, first meet (below), we experience their view/memory of both the setting and the mood of this meeting, and their recall of these two things could hardly be more different.

She sees it all as a happy, lovely, brightly colored meeting, whereas he experiences the whole thing as something darker -- exciting maybe, as he's clearly quite attracted to her -- but as an event more than little tinged with the glum.

And is there any other actor who plays glum better than Luca Marinelli (above, left, and below)? I doubt it. This actor has one of those unusual hangdog handsome/ugly faces over which the camera consistently creams. Marinelli can play tragic (The Solitude of Prime Numbers), comic (Let Yourself Go) and just about everything in between.

His co-star, the lithe and lovely Linda Caridi (below and at right, two photos up), has a happier job of playing, for awhile at least, the more positive, glass-nearly-full member of the duo. He likes and encourages this, if only to balance out his own negativity, and so their relationship blossoms and even appears to grow.

But memory, though encouraged, also intrudes, and we learn that her life has been anything but idyllic, even though she would rather recall it that way, while his, if not nearly as awful as we'd imagine, has had plenty of low points -- mostly due to his own behavior. Late in the film, he observes, "It's not our fault. It started ending when it began." Well, yes, but doesn't everything, including life itself?

Memories, it turns out, are not quite the same thing as character, and finally, that is what's most missing from Ricordi? He and She prove to be a little too generic to pass muster. They're not one-note, exactly. But they are barely more than two: They're up or they're down.

The memories we see here don't finally coalesce into full or interesting human beings. What saves the film, however, are its often gorgeous visuals. The locations are memorable -- from the seaside (above) and an underwater swim (below)

to the sunlit woods (below) and the several fascinatingly appointed apartments, homes and general architecture seen throughout the film. Finally, it's these visuals, rather than the people, that carry us along.

Giovanni Anzaldo, below, does a nice job playing -- depending on whose viewpoint -- the third wheel, best friend or other man in our duo's relationship. Still, as artfully constructed as is Ricordi?, real, fully-rounded people are what's missing from this otherwise interesting, often beautiful, but incomplete movie.

From Distrib Films US and released here via Icarus Home Video, the film hits the street on DVD this coming Tuesday, April 14 -- for purchase and/or (eventually) rental.

An unusually difficult, painful and very well-acted love story: Harry Wootliff's ONLY YOU

By now we've seen a number of films and cable entertainments that deal with the problems of couples who want children but are unable to procreate these in what we might have once called "standard fashion." (The most recent of these that TrustMovies readily recalls is Tamara Jenkins' fine film for Netflix, Private Life.)

Now comes British filmmaker Harry Wootliff's movie, ONLY YOU, an honest-to-god love story driven by this same engine of reproductive failure and how to handle it.

Ms Wootliff (shown at right; is her first name short for Harriet, I wonder?) begins her film with our heroine, Elena (beautifully played by Laia Costa, of The Time in Between), being told by her friends, as they drink themselves into oblivion, that she absolutely should be in a relationship.

Before you can say "meet semi-cute," she has connected with the character who will fill that bill, her co-star, played in even better fashion by Josh O'Connor, of God's Own Country and this new season of The Crown: he's Prince Charles. (Just this past Sunday evening, in fact, O'Connor won a BIFA award -- not BAFTA, as I unfortunately earlier posted -- for Best Actor of the Year for his role in this film, while Ms Wootliff won for Best Debut Director!) In short order we're confronted with what has the hallmarks of a real love relationship but simultaneously carries with it problems such as age difference (she's considerably older than she initially admits) and then the supposed necessity of pregnancy.

The writing and direction (both by Wootliff), together with the two lead performances, are all good enough to place us firmly on the side of the protagonists and keep us there -- despite some midway longueurs -- throughout. In my own experience and very probably yours, as well, we've seen enough real-life examples of infertility to make this dilemma more than merely believable.

Both parties here want to have a child and are willing to go through the necessities involved in bringing this to fruition. But what happens if and when nothing seems to work? How does our couple respond? You will see, and for the most part you will care and respond as does this pair.

The movie grow deeper and more painful as it moves along, buoyed by the work of its two leading actors, as well as the well-chosen supporting cast, particularly Peter Wight in the role of Jake's father. As love stories go, which Only You most definitely is, this one is worth seeing and savoring.

From 1091 and running a lengthy but worthwhile two hours, the movie arrives on digital streaming tomorrow, Tuesday, December 3 -- for purchase and/or rental. 

New Blu-ray debut for that Billy Wilder delight, THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR

How this film buff and Billy Wilder enthusiast managed to miss THE MAJOR AND THE MINOR -- one of the noted director/ writer's most ebullient and charming films -- remains a mystery to me (did I not realize it was a Wilder movie?), but thanks to Arrow Academy's new Blu-ray transfer of the film, I have now caught up. And what a delightful surprise -- unusual, too, considering that it comes via Mr. Wilder (shown below) -- this made-in-1942 movie turns out to be.

Folk around the advanced age of TrustMovies probably best remember this noted auteur for films that seemed singularly cynical, if often darkly (sometimes downright nastily) funny: from Ace in the Hole and Sunset Boulevard through The Apartment, Kiss Me Stupid, and The Fortune Cookie. His most famous and popular work may be Some Like It Hot, but that dark cynicism adheres to most everything in his oeuvre. Except maybe to The Major and the Minor.

Mind you, this little darling of a movie is perfectly aware of how the world works. Note how the very "connected" fiancee of the one of the leading characters (played by Ray Milland, below) does everything in her power to keep her man from serving active duty during World War II. Not particularly patriotic!

The other lead character (Ginger Rogers, below, in one of the best of her many fine performances) scams just about everybody she meets in the course of the movie. Yet there is such a genuine sweetness -- honesty, too -- at the heart of this film (its co-writer was Charles Brackett) that you'll find it difficult to escape its singular, enticing hold.

I suspect that it's Wilder's wry wit and unending skepticism pressed upon what would seem to be an awfully "cute" tale that consistently keeps the film from turning saccharine. The result is a real and highly original classic comedy of disguise and disinformation (not unlike Some Like It Hot in this regard, but one hell of a lot sweeter).

The story begins with a much put-upon Ms Rogers giving up her try at living and working in New York City and instead returning to her midwest home. Because the train fare has risen since she arrived in the city, however, she doesn't have enough money to buy a ticket. How she circumvents this becomes one of the cleverest, long-running comedic situations in movie history (The moment at which Rogers reappears, after entering the ladies room, is hilarious and magical.)

Her disguise leads her into the life of military man Milland, his fiance (an excellent Rita Johnson, above, left, with the very funny Robert Benchley) and a bevy of smitten military cadets (below).

How this comedy of manners, military and otherwise, resolves proves both surprising and surprisingly smart -- encompassing an unexpected array of emotions and ideas in its final several minutes,

while allowing both Rogers and Milland to demonstrates their rich versatility. What fine actors these two were! Milland in particular is so wonderfully loose and easy here, you may find yourself amazed of what he is capable.

In a wonderful supporting cast, the stand-out is probably young Diana Lynn (below), who absolutely nails her character, the worldly-wise younger sister of that nasty fiancee. The terrifically-written scenes between Lynn and Rogers sparkle like crazy.

From Arrow Video, distributed here in the USA via MVD Visual/MVD Entertainment Group, and running 100 minutes, the Blu-ray -- in a wonderful restoration from the original negativer that makes the film seem new all over again -- hits the street this coming Tuesday, September 24, for purchase and (I hope) rental. The plentiful Bonus Features include a must-see-and-hear, newly filmed appreciation of the movie by critic Neil Sinyard. What Mr. Sinyard has to say -- about so many things -- is very much worth hearing. And he says it all so well.

Love/sex/identity/time mix in Lucio Castro's alluring, beguiling END OF THE CENTURY

If nothing else -- and believe me, this movie does a lot else -- END OF THE CENTURY, the first full-length film from Argentina's Lucio Castro, should increase the tourist trade in Barcelona, Spain (particularly the gay variety), by leaps and bounds.

So gorgeous are the parks, plazas, streets, museums, architecture -- even the single beach scene we see here -- that it is difficult to imagine any viewer not getting up from such a lovely little movie firmly persuaded to visit this remarkable city ASAP.

Señor Castro, pictured at right, and his fine cinematographer, Bernat Mestres, show us all this with so little fuss and bother that it almost seems as though around every single street corner in Barcelona, something beautiful and special awaits. Speaking of beautiful and special, those words equally well describe the film's two leading men and its single leading lady -- the last of whom -- Mia Maestro, shown below -- will be familiar to film fans from movies such as Timecode, Frida, The Motorcycle Diaries and Poseidon (as well as the TV series The Strain).

As for those two leading men -- Juan Barberini (below, left) and Ramon Pujol (below, right) -- TrustMovies should think that after being seen in this film, they'll be more in demand internationally, too. These guys are not simply handsome and sexy, they look surprisingly real, too: no washboard abs, perfect teeth (nor perfect anything, really), yet the way it all works together makes for a very nice package in both cases.

They're excellent actors, as well. Moment to moment, they play off each other like they were some new same-sex pairing of Lunt and Fontanne, Olivier and Leigh, or Cronyn and Tandy. Any time Barberini and Pujol are together on screen, things sparkle and crackle. Alone, for the marvelous scene in which the two dance together after a day spent sightseeing and then drinking, the movie's worth seeing.

What the filmmaker has concocted here is a tale of cruising, meeting, remembering, and falling in lust and love -- maybe not in that order, exactly, but then the film's uniqueness comes from the manner in which our two protagonists come to realize not simply what they want but who they are. Or more likely, who they actually want to be. Or maybe can be. No, already are. Well, you'll see....

GLBT love stories have, over the years, come in a number of varieties -- from the tragic (Brokeback Mountain) to the poetic/pornographic (Paris 05:59: Théo & Hugo) to the comic (The Birdcage) to the simply mainstream feel-good (Love, Simon). Few if any have proven as philosophically oddball, interesting and even moving as End of the Century (the film's closing title moment is a special delight).

I don't want to say too much more for fear of spoiling or overpraising things. The movie certainly has its audience built-in. But I hope that its ambitions and reach might pull in an ever larger, cross-over crowd. Released via Cinema Guild and running just 84 minutes, End of the Century opens tomorrow, Friday, August 16, in New York City at the IFC Center, on September 6 here in Miami at the Tower Theater, on September 20 in Los Angeles at the Landmark NuArt, and then over the weeks to come in another ten cities. Click here and then scroll down to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.