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.

Demange, Weiss & the brothers Miller's WHITE BOY RICK: a feel-bad film done very, very well

The only other full-length film we've seen from Yann Demange -- a born-in-Paris-but-raised-in-London filmmaker who has worked mostly in British television -- is the behind-enemy-lines action thriller, '71. His latest work, WHITE BOY RICK, is set in Detroit during the last half of the 1980s and is often as quiet and slow-moving as '71 was fast and slick. It is also a kind of real-life bio-pic about the sort of character most bio-pics might avoid: a not-very-bright kid from a not-very-bright family who makes just about all the wrong choices.

And yet, by the end of this sad and surprisingly moving tale of failure and family, I think you'll be glad you got to know Richard Wershe, Jr., and learned his unusual story. Filmmaker Demange, shown at right, along with his screenwriters Andy Weiss and twin brothers Logan and Noah Miller, take their time building story and characters -- especially that of their main one, the young man who became known as "White Boy Rick" because of his seemingly oddball entry into the Black bourgeoisie of the 1980s Detroit. (He was also a leading cog in the Black drug trade of that time and place, which we see and learn a lot about from this more realistic, less melodramatic film.)

The title role is played by a newcomer to film named Richie Merritt (above center), who offers a nearly affectless performance for much of the film that works surprisingly well. Rick seems like a fairly typical "dumb teenager" who keeps his thoughts and feelings close to the vest, only very occasionally letting them go "public." Because he and his family are borderline poor, always living on the brink, you can understand why Rick is so ready to embrace the drug trade.

Playing against young Merritt's affectlessness is that ever-energetic actor Matthew McConaughey as his dad, and the two make an appealing and believable combo. McConaughey tamps down some of his excesses (the kind that made his performance in Gold so much fun) but still brings "Dad" to vibrant life, never more so than in the sweet and moving scene in which he greets his new granddaughter (above).

The supporting ensemble includes a wealth of well-known and quite capable actors, from Jennifer Jason Leigh (above, center) to Rory Cochrane (above, right) and Bel Powley (shown two photos below, at left), plus a raft of excellent Black actors, each of whom nails his or her role and all of whom ought to be better known at this point.

The movie, however, belongs to its two leads, and to its tale of lower-middle class America, black and white, struggling to simply manage a decent life but being used, mostly ill-used, by the establishment and turning to crime to make ends meet.

This is an old story, which Demange and his writers give new life -- even if they do leave out where our "hero," Rick, resided after the end-credits sequence, which is all the more moving for simply using Rick's voice rather than an accompanying image of the "real" person.

From Columbia Pictures and running 110 minutes, the movie opens tomorrow, Friday, September 14, in a number of cities around the country. Click here to find the theaters nearest you.