Sweet, smart, feel-good fun: Jeremy LaLonde/ Jonas Chernick's JAMES VS HIS FUTURE SELF

Can a sci-fi premise, already a tad unbelievable simply by virtue of its being science-fiction, succeed via the strength, intensity and just-plain-earnestness of its performances? Yes: If it has all that plus some very good writing and direction. JAMES VS HIS FUTURE SELF -- a smart, sweet, witty combo of sci-fi, rom-com and important life lessons -- is on my best-of-year list already. It left me in tears, not of sadness but outright delight, due to how well-handled, in every way, it so thoroughly is. Movies that succeed this beautifully often get that reaction from me, and this one managed it in spades.

Sci-fi films, historically, have been replete with life lessons -- though many of the bigger would-be-blockbusters tend to offer those of the apocalyptic, end-of-humanity-in-one-way-or-another sort. The absolute joy of James Vs His Future Self comes via its small-scale, just-one-guy-and-his-problems premise: the eponymous James, played by the film's co-writer and co-star, Jonas Chernick (below, left of another marvelous Canadian movie, My Awkward Sexual Adventure). Oh, the film does have humanity headed for a not-so-nice time, but this is used predominantly for toss-away humor (oh, god -- the end of tomatoes!). What Chernick and director and co-writer Jeremy LeLonde (shown above) make certain we care about most is James and those very few but vital folk who surround him.

These would include BFF and maybe more, played with complete, fall-in-love-with-her charm, sex appeal and beauty by Cleopatra Coleman (above, right) and an actor we just don't see enough of anymore, Daniel Stern (below).

Stern plays the other part of the eponymous title, and he plays it so damned well that the fact that he and Chernick possess completely different faces and body types doesn't matter in the slightest. Both actors are so alert, incisive and in the moment that they carry us along like a river run wild.

Time travel is the sci-fi theme here, and the fact that we've seen this more times than can be counted on fingers and toes matters not one whit. The filmmakers bring such spontaneity and wit, along with charm and surprise, to their mix that I suspect, from first scene onward, you'll be hooked.  (That's Frances Conroy, above, who does a bang-up job with her two or three scenes.)

Four of the five leading characters in the film are physicists; only James' sister, played by Tommie-Amber Pirie, above) is not among the uber-intelligentsia, but she's a nice addition, in any case. This is such a genuinely delightful movie, I can fully understand why, as of now, it's at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

From Gravitas Ventures and running just 95 minutes, James Vs His Future Self has been available on VOD since the beginning of the month. Check your local service provide or go to the usual suspect to find it fast.

If you haven't seen LONG SHOT, you're missing one of the best rom-coms of recent years

Further, if you imagine that you won't or can't buy the purported chemistry between leads Charlize Theron and Seth Rogen, forget it. From the very first scene of LONG SHOT, that chemistry clicks -- thanks to the actors and the work of director, Jonathan Levine (below) and writers Dan Sterling and Liz Hannah (of The Post) -- and it's soon going into overdrive.

The script is cogent, funny and timely, and the movie's full-drive feminism is bracing, as well.

That Mr. Rogen commits so thoroughly to his role and what it means is particularly commendable (the film's closing scene is wonderful), and both his and Ms Theron's performance go a long way toward covering the minor credibility quibbles you might have.

Mr. Levine (at left, of The Wackness and Warm Bodies) does a fine job of pacing (with the help of his editors Melissa Bretherton and Evan Henke), while drawing neat performances from the entire supporting ensemble, which includes the likes of June Diane Raphael and Bob Odenkirk.

The funny and quite politically savvy plot has to do with a U.S. Secretary of State (Theron) considering a run for President when the sitting Prez (Odenkirk, above, left) decides to abdicate for a hoped-for movie career (his was formerly only a TV star,  you see). Theron then hires Rogen (below, left), playing a noted left-wing journalist, to do her speech writing.

The pair are so very good together you'll want them to make more movies (like we once did Myrna Loy and William Powell in that Thin Man series), but for now, this one ought to suffice our longing for smart, funny rom-coms that might help bring America back into intelligence and, hell, even caring.

Sure, the movie's nowhere near as satiric, nasty and funny as Veep, whose characters are consistently self-involved, putting themselves above all else, including everyone around them and their country itself. Yes, Long Shot might be a fairy tale about what might happen if a few people stuck to their guns. But if so, this is one fucking fairy tale we desperately need.

A word must be mentioned about Alexander Skarsgård (above, left), playing the goofy Canadian Prime Minister, while showing another side of his enormous versatility (see Netflix's bizarre Mute for yet another side of that versatility).  There is finally so much in this movie to delight and entertain, while cleverly reminding you of a lot of things that need fixing in our current state of political and man/woman affairs. Don't let Long Shot get past you, either now, in its theatrical release, or when it finally hits home video.

From Lionsgate and running a full two hours and five minutes that never seems at all lengthy, the movie is playing now at a theater near you. Click here to find one (or more) of those.

Sunday Corner With Lee Liberman -- On Netflix, two different views of World War II: THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL SOCIETY and THE RESISTANCE BANKER

This post is written by our 

monthly correspondent, Lee Liberman

“Perhaps there is some secret sort 

of homing instinct in books that 

brings them to their perfect readers…..” 

Spun from honey (which has food-value unlike sugar), this delicious rom-com of a war romance is not an oxymoron. A WWII story has finally arrived driven by the full-on form of romantic drama rather than embattled war film. THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL SOCIETY, by the director of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Mike Newell, is a sparkling, irresistible pastiche of friendship, love, mystery, and travel excursion, a perfect date-night entertainment. It’s based on a best selling novel of the same name by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (2008). Newell (below) filmed in Dover and Cornwall, as the British channel island of Guernsey itself does not offer 1946-worthy locations — too polished, painted, and updated, he said. (And on the beautiful craggy coastline he chose, Poldark might just be galloping around a bend.)

Downton Abbey’s cast is well-represented by Guernsey’s quirkily pretty and appealing lead, Lily James, plus Penelope Wilton, Jessica Brown Findlay, and Matthew Goode (the big-screen DA film version is due 9/19). Add more talent including Tom Courtenay, Michiel Huisman, Katherine Parkinson, and two children, to make a winsome and idiosyncratic Guernsey Island ensemble, offset by dashing American, Glen Powell.

Juliet Ashton (James), a fetching young writer in 1946 London, has had an exchange of letters with Guernsey pig farmer, Dawsey Adams (Huisman, “Game of Thrones”), who owns a book by Charles Lamb, essayist and critic, with Juliet’s name and address penned inside (she had sold it once in need of cash). He asks her to direct him to a London bookshop as there isn’t one left on Guernsey so he can order Lamb’s Shakespeare’s tales for children. He tells her of his reading group called The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, formed during the war in a precarious moment when they were caught out after curfew, and which offered camaraderie and comfort in the face of the punishing Nazi occupation.

Expecting to find the plight of British islanders during the German occupation of interest to readers of The London Times, Juliet travels by boat to Guernsey (above) for the next meeting of Dawsey’s group. There she finds quietly scarred, reticent residents and a mystery: the organizing force of the Society, Elizabeth (Findlay), has been missing since her arrest in 1944, having left her tiny daughter Kit with Dawsey, who now calls him ‘daddy’ (below, Elizabeth and Dawsey before her arrest).

Elizabeth’s story is doled out in morsels as Juliet extends her stay searching for answers, gradually coaxing information from Dawsey (below) and the circle of friends, war records housed on the island, and eventual aid from Juliet’s fiancé in London, American officer, Mark Reynolds (Powell), who agrees to research what happened. Through flashbacks to the Nazi occupation, we see snatches of its harshness, concentration camp victims being worked and starved to death building fortifications on island and the indignities of British citizens being forced into submission with unthinkable rules and deprivations.

Dawsey explains that after its gaudy arrival (below) the German army forced them into isolation — telegraph cables cut, radios taken, mail stopped, curfews imposed. Island animals, including his pigs, were confiscated to feed the German army on the continent and he himself ordered to grow potatoes.

Guernsey residents were literally hungry and also starved for fellowship. Their book society became their refuge, says Dawsey, “a private freedom to feel the world growing darker all around you but needing only a candle to see new worlds unfold…..” They savored it together with trays of Amelia’s tea, nips of Isola’s (Parkinson) home-distilled gin, and Eben’s (Courtenay) tasteless potato peel pie (potatoes, peel, no butter or flour).

By and by, Elizabeth’s fate is told and resolution of the Juliet/Mark/Dawsey triangle is calculated to charm. The story would have been richer for more reveal of Elizabeth’s life, her relationship with a German soldier, and her stubborn defiance of the occupation. Reminiscent of Sybil Crawley’s rebellious spirit in the Downton Abbey saga, Jessica Brown Findlay surpasses herself in very little screen time, her emotions and actions making you want more of Elizabeth’s story, while a bit less of Juliet’s earnest dithering would have balanced the film’s rom-com-ness with more solemnity. Penelope Wilton (below, third from r) is the weight and grief of the drama, compelling as grandmotherly Amelia who has suffered much loss during two world wars. Wilton’s rich acting chops get far more reveal than the writing of her character allowed in many seasons of Downton Abbey.

But most pleasant of all, The Guernsey Society itself speaks to the pleasures of reading and in particular, its sharing.

 “What is reading but silent conversation.” 

 “A book reads the better which is our own, 

and has been so long known to us, 

that we know the topography of its blots, 

and dog’s ears, and can trace the dirt in it 

to having read it at tea with buttered muffins.” 

                                          .....Charles Lamb

************************************

A traditional cloak and dagger WWII story (Netflix, subtitled) THE RESISTANCE BANKER is the true account, set in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, of banker-brothers Walraven and Gijs van Hall, who used their financial expertise and positions of authority to rob their German occupiers blind, Robin Hood style, stealing from the Nazi-run Dutch central bank in order to fund the Dutch resistance. The brothers mustered funds through forgery and fraud to help fund the Red Cross, pay railroad strikers, resistance fighters, spy, and sabotage groups, and to buy printing and ID making equipment and supplies; they carried the underground on their shoulders. Proud of fighting smart, they used ingenuity and gumption to outwit a much weightier opponent. The Resistance Banker is the Dutch entrant into the Best Foreign Film category of the 2019 Academy Awards. It was a big hit with the Dutch public and is joined by other nations entering WWII-related films into the U.S. premier awards contest. (Russia has Sobibor, Austria: The Waldheim Waltz, Slovakia: The Interpreter, Switzerland: Eldorado.)

The film is helmed by movie and tv director, Joram Lürsen (at left). The 'Resistance Banker’ and ring-leader, Walraven van Hall, is played by Barry Atsma, who must have relived his role of a few years ago as Johan de Witt, prime minister of the democratic Dutch republic in the mid-1600’s, who guided the Netherlands during its Golden Age. He was butchered like Braveheart by political opponents in the Dutch film, Admiral. While Johan de Witt and his brother were both martyred in particularly gory fashion in 1672, the van Hall brothers fared both good and bad in 1945. Wally van Hall was betrayed, arrested, and shot more antiseptically in a lineup just weeks before the end of the war. Upon the arrest, Brother Gijs (Jacob Derwig) took Wally’s wife and children and his own family into hiding while Wally’s fate played out. Following the war, Gijs had a successful political career, eventually becoming Mayor of Amsterdam.

The saga began for Wally (above) in 1942 when he discovered the murder-suicide of a Jewish client and family that was precipitated by Nazi orders to vacate their home and submit to deportation. In a second rude-awakening, on a train halted for another, he witnessed cattle cars pass by filled with screaming prisoners. (These brief moments are the viewers only contact with the scale of atrocities perpetrated by the Nazi regime other than their brutality to the resistance members they arrest.) Van Hall’s resolve to proceed consumed his life and he coaxed his more cautious older brother, Gijs, to join him in an underground bank scheme proposed by resistance members. The film lingers on the internal conflict of risk to life, family, and financial ruin before the brothers committed wholeheartedly to the dangers. But together they went on to engineer a variety of schemes, starting with raising legitimate loans and proceeding to outright theft and forgery. Below they check out fake currency, hot off the press.

They reportedly conjured up the modern equivalent of over a half billion Euros, called the largest bank fraud in Dutch history. But van Hall was a meticulous record keeper: he tracked and noted the intake and outgo of every amount and left a history of transactions as anal as Nazi record-keeping of its evil doings.

The tale does not progress smoothly; the frauds being committed under the noses of the Germans develop at a snail’s pace and the nature of the actual schemes somewhat difficult to follow, but the suspense ramps up midway to a thrill ride. Do hang on as the Nazi’s close in on Wally while money transactions are in high gear. Their work was almost done when Wally was caught near war’s end (below); Gijs, however, was able to continue distributing funds until the actual end of the war and offer exact accounting to legitimate authorities when the Dutch government reassembled.

Not until 2010 did the Dutch create a monument to their heroic steward — ‘the premier of the resistance’. Located opposite the Dutch Central Bank, it is an unusual bronze sculpture of a fallen tree (below) symbolizing their fallen giant. Both the film version and the family’s original black and white home movies (run over the credits) show Wally and his children tree climbing — the fallen tree sculpture resonates. But I’d like to think that a tall standing tree clouded in a perpetual mist would have been a more inspiring eternal metaphor for Walraven van Hall.

She is risen! CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND's third season brings Rachel Bloom/Aline Brosh McKenna's brilliant show back to former glory

After the usual sophomore slump of a second season (not bad, mind you, but just a little "less"), CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND has bounced back to all of its buoyant glory, creativity and entertainment that knocked our socks off during season one. TrustMovies' spouse declares it his favorite television series of all time, and if I can't quite go that far, I must admit that it is up there with the very best.

The brainchild of its star Rachel Bloom (above) and writer Aline Brosh McKenna (shown at right), the series is comparable to The Mary Tyler Moore Show -- with which it has a surprising amount in common: the workplace and a bunch of wonderfully goofy and memorable characters, and a young woman heroine negotiating career and love. The differences are (1) a much more modern, internet-age time frame and all that entails and (2) a heroine who, rather than being re-active to all the people around her, is absolutely pro-active (or pro-negative) so that all those around her become satellites.

Plus -- and this of course is the clincher -- the show is dotted, episode after episode, with its own fabulously funny and entertaining musical numbers that comment trenchantly on all the characters, while giving each one the chance to perform and shine.

From their handling of one musical number after another, it seems clear that Bloom and McKenna must have an encyclopedic knowledge of musical theater (and a bunch of other musical genres, too), for their riffs and take-offs are simply and delightfully on-target.

Has there ever been a heroine quite as simultaneously enchanting and appalling as Rebecca Bunch? I doubt it. The word crazy in the title proves absolutely on the mark. Toward the end of season two, it sometimes seemed that our girl was going too far over the top. The particular beauty of season three is that it finally addresses Rebecca's craziness and even allows her to -- at least try -- to address it, too.

As with all the best series, the supporting characters grow and change in ways that make them ever more precious to us. And this show treats almost all its characters as something special -- whether they're friends, work-mates, love objects or blackmailing stalkers.

How Crazy Ex-Girlfriend movies its plot along so handily is another of its miracles. Eventually, you quit wondering and/or worrying about who is going to end up with whom and simply lean back and enjoy these wonderfully crazy (and just real enough to make you identify and quiver a bit) folk for who they are and what they might become.

I had thought perhaps season three would be the capper and finale. But no, there will be more. If the creators can keep their next season up to this level, we're in for a continuing and rare treat.

Originally shown on The CW (the cable channel owned jointly by CBS and Warner Brothers) and now streaming now on Netflix, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend can be seen -- binged or doled out in pleasurable mini-doses -- in all its three-season glory. 

Fun from Mexico -- no kidnappings, minimal drugs -- in Manolo Caro's screwball rom-com, TALES OF AN IMMORAL COUPLE

If one purpose of movies is to take us away from the horrors and drudgery of reality -- all too evident these days -- young Mexican filmmaker Manolo Caro is certainly doing his job to a "t." His latest work, the first to find theatrical release here in the United States, TALES OF AN IMMORAL COUPLE  (La vida immoral de la pareja ideal), is quite the little charmer. In it, ex-lovers who first bonded during high school, meet again 25 years later and, sure enough, romance blooms anew, even as screwball comedy quickly rules the roost.

Señor Caro, shown at left, has created a trifle as adorable and pixie-like as he himself seems to be: full of fun and amusement, even as it probes themes as everlasting as love, sex and the meaning of fidelity -- with dollops of satire tossed in, the welcome objects of which are religion and politics.

His movie, while breaking little new ground, manages to cover the ground it trods with energy, sparkle and enough wit to keep us with it all the way. Its introduction into the kids' lives of heterosexuality, as well as homo- and bi-sexuality is handled well, too. Of enormous help to all this is the near-constant inter-cutting of past and present, as we see the couple as youngsters and then as adults.

The smart flashback-and-forth conception (by Caro) and on-the-mark editing -- from Yibran Asuad (Güeros and We Are the Flesh) and Miguel Musálem -- helps keep the pacing swift and fun, while the excellent ensemble cast (pictured on poster, top, and above) help bring each character to amusing life.

As the two love-struck kids, Sebastián Aguirre (above, right, from A Monster With a Thousand Heads) and Ximena Romo (above, left ) prove lovely, sensitive and youthfully ignorant, while Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (below, left) and Cecilia Suárez (below, right) bring the pair to more hesitant, suspicious and cynical adult life.

Supporting characters -- kids to adults -- are specific and funny, as well, while Caro's plotting brings us pleasantly and fairly speedily to a close, at last solving the mystery that will be foremost in viewers' minds: How come these two "seahorses" remained apart for so long? You'll find out, and I suspect the answer will satisfy you every bit as much as has the fun leading up to it.

From Hola Mexico and running a just-right 91 minutes, Tales of an Immoral Couple opens this Friday, August 25, nationwide in limited release. In the Los Angeles area, look for it at Laemmle theaters and elsewhere. Click here (and then click on THEATERS on the task bar midway down) to see all currently scheduled playdates, with cities and theaters listed.  But be careful and maybe check with your local theater before heading out, as some of these supposed playdates appear not to be happening....

FOOTNOTES: Paul Calori and Kostia Testut's musical rom-com about employment opens

If you're going to view a modern musical rom-com, and you found La La Land a little too full of narcissists hoping to make their mark on tinsel town, you might want to consider a French version in which the leading characters just want to either find a decent job or hang on to the very precarious one they've already got.

Such a movie hits one theater in New York City tomorrow and will open in a few more venues in the weeks to come. It's called FOOTNOTES (Sur quel pied danser is the French title), and if its so-so melodies will not set the world on fire, it is at least peopled with performers who can sing, dance and act reasonably well. Plus, it's got a social conscience -- and then some.

Filmmakers Paul Calori (shown at right) and Kostia Testut (below), who both wrote and directed this little trifle-with-a-mind-and-heart, have imbued their movie with a kind of careless, free-form, improvisational feel that can be quite charming from time to time. Their movie is feminist, anti-corporate, and a shoe-in for folk who love footwear.

And while the personal may indeed be political

(or is it vice-versa?), in this film the personal finally bests both the social and political. In La La Land, there's little but personal ambition and obeisance to moviedom driving the protagonists onward. Here, there is some social conscience, a bit of solidarity, feminism and anti-corporate stance, but -- perhaps to the filmmakers' credit -- individual character trumps political theory. Good theoretical Communists these two fellows would not, I think, make.

In the leading role is an actress, Pauline Etienne (above, from Eden and 2 Autumns, 3 Winters) who proves adept at everything the filmmakers demand of her (singing, acting, dancing, the works), and her co-star is an attractive, believable fellow named Samy (played by Olivier Chantreau, below, right, and most recently seen in Moka). Interestingly enough, these two, although they are the film's would-be stars and despite their attractiveness and charm, do not command the movie.

Instead it is the ensemble, the workers at the footwear factory -- as well as the villain of the piece, the corporate boss -- who are the most fun and interesting to view. In that villain role is is an actor -- Loïc Corbery (below) --  whom, I am guessing, has had some dance background, for he moves with finesse and dances with such aplomb that he pretty much dusts the floor with the rest of the ensemble.

The movie makes clear from the outset that its leading character, Julie, simply wants a job that will earn her a living wage and be "secure." Samy, has this already, and wants to hold on to it and so will do whatever that requires.  These two may not be all that admirable, but they are indeed human. So are the many workers we meet and watch agitate (as they both demonstrate and dance).

The song lyrics are pointed and (at least in the translation we get) serviceable, but the music they are set to is so similar from song to song that you may think you've regressed to Michel Legrand territory (a la The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, but without even something as nice as that film's popular and pretty love song). La La Land also had not much particularly winning music, but Footnotes' songs seem even more ordinary.

Yet, given its subject matter, along with the charm of some of the nicely choreographed numbers, the film may win you over. Not only is it worthwhile to see a modern musical that's about something more than love and personal ambition (pussyfooting around instead as "dreams"), it's very good to see one that tackles subjects so important to the well-being of today's citizens. Even if, in the end, rom-com-amour triumphs over all else.

From Monument Releasing and running just 85 minutes, Footnotes, opens tomorrow, Friday, July 14, in New York City at the Village East Cinema and then at a few more theaters and cities. (Here in South Florida, the film will open on August 18 at Miami's Tower Theater.) Click here and scroll down to see currently scheduled playdates.