All about art, architecture, storytelling, owner-ship, sharing and love: Jill Magid's one-of-a-kind THE PROPOSAL opens

Are you aware of the work of the late Mexican architect, Luis Barragán? I was not until I saw the new documentary, THE PROPOSAL, in which what we view of Barragán's architecture reminded me quite a bit of the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico: full of beauty, simplicity and solitude. The film was conceived and directed by visual artist and writer Jill Magid, pictured below. Since this is the artist's first film, I am linking her name to her Wikipedia page rather than to the IMDB. For a first film, however, this is one whoppingly good and original piece of work.

From what we learn and see in this documentary, there is a limited amount of Barragán's work (the architect is shown below) available to be appreciated by the public, thanks to ownership of his archives and "brand" by a corporation located in Switzerland. Ms Magid wants to visit that archive and explore what's there, but the corporation -- via a woman named Federica, who is in charge of the archives -- says no. Ms Magid is a persistent little thing, however, and this one-of-a-kind, funny, provocative, unsettling documentary tells us the story of what happens after this request is refused. And -- oh, boy-- Magid is a very good storyteller.

Storytelling, in fact, is part of what this doc is all about. In it, we meet the artist, of course, along with quite a few members of the Barragán family (one of whom is now in memoriam, as we learn via the end credits) and see that they, as well as the Mexican government, want the archives returned to Mexico. So we travel from the USA to Mexico to Switzerland and back, as Magid attempts to help this process along. To talk a lot about content here would simply give away too many spoilers, and the movie is really so much fun that we oughtn't do that.

We do learn that Magid has her "artistic" quirks -- a mystical side, that includes includes leaving a plate of Barragán's favorite cookies by the bedside in the room he used to sleep. If that provokes, an "Oh, please" response, just remember that all artists (human beings, after all) have their quirks -- Picasso on down (or up, depending on your taste). Artists are crazy, right? And Magid often proves crazy like a fox. How she has organized her documentary, so that viewers learn just what we need to know, and in the way and time we need to know it, proves exemplary storytelling.

Along the way the architect's ashes (well, some of them, anyway) are turned into something quite wild and wonderful, and what happens to what-they-become is paramount here. We follow along as Jill chases the elusive Federica, and all this is like a marvelous mystery somewhere between Hitchcock and Nancy Drew. And by movie's end, its title takes on enough delight and irony to have you leaving the theatre walking on air.

That titular proposal is quite something. We learn part of it, but Magid wisely leaves all of it until the finale -- which could hardly be more mouth-agape perfect if some storied, award-winning filmmaker had done this work. By the end of The Proposal, you will have confronted art and ownership, morality, the meaning of provenance and control, seen and heard greed and hypocrisy in action, witnessed an art installation that you suddenly become part of, and been treated to some unusual ideas about love of art (and artists), plus so much more. And you'll have viewed a documentary that TrustMovies thinks is one for the ages. It's that special.

Distributed via Oscilloscope Films and running 86 minutes,  the doc opens theatrically on Friday, May 24, in New York City at the IFC Center, and the following Friday, May 31, in the Los Angeles area at the Monica Film Center. As of now, it will also hit a few other cities and theaters; click here to view currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

Our May Sunday Corner With Lee Liberman -- THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: American Crime Story

This 9-part FX series (which follows the celebrity of The People vs OJ Simpson of 2/2016) has considerable depth despite initially not comparing favorably with the starry OJ saga, the first in the American Crime Story series produced by Brad Simpson and executive produced by Ryan Murphy, both of whom helmed Glee. It ended up winning an Emmy for best limited series, beating Picasso, Patrick Melrose, and Godless (my favorite) among others. Now on Netflix (the OJ story is too), the Versace case probes issues that merit attention: the role of ‘nurture’ in causing mental illness and the comparatively secretive (except in major cities) gay world of the 1990’s.

Versace, at the height of his fame, was murdered on July 15, 1997, age 50, at the door of his palatial South Beach, FL, villa by Andrew Cunanan, then 27 (Darren Criss, below), who killed himself 8 days later to prevent being taken by police.

The malignant narcissism of this young killer screams for notice in 2019, his mental disorder being flagrant in the person of Donald Trump, whose own version of compulsive lying, self-aggrandizing, and denial of reality is as toxic and and likely more murderous (if not one-on-one with a gun) than Cunanan’s. (Below, Darren Criss, l, Andrew Cunanan high school photo, r.)

The series title deceives in that The Assassination of Gianni Versace is not a biopic of the designer; it is Andrew Cunanan’s story ending in five murders during a several-month killing spree. Screenwriter Tom Rob Smith (London Spy) used journalist Maureen Orth’s 1999 book, Vulgar Favors, about Cunanan, as a source. Smith, however, used the life and career of Versace to contrast the youth of the two men, providing the viewer with a thought-provoking scenario that works harder than just the seedy tale of a narcissistic desperado. The screen story makes the implicit case here for ‘nurture’ or ‘environment’ as a main ingredient in the failure of one life versus the success of another.

Here were Versace (Edgar Ramirez, immediately above) and Cunanan (behind him), two gay men with wildly different trajectories, both having had to accommodate before homosexuality gained the degree of equality and acceptance that exists today. Versace was helped through youthful bullying by his dress-maker mother who affirmed his talents, supported, and taught him the value of hard work. As an adult we meet him in a committed relationship, and although HIV positive from the random-sex the partners engaged in with others, Versace was nevertheless imbued with the joy of his own creative process and enormous success. (Below, left, Ricky Martin, playing Antonio D’Amico, shown at right, Versace’s partner for 11 years).

In contrast, Andrew, with a genius IQ, the most promising of his siblings, was adulated and spoiled beyond common sense by his parents; they filled him with outlandish dreams of his own perfection until he became unable to tolerate rejection or failure — he was an exhibitionist and prolific liar by his teens (below, Cunanan, r., Criss, l). In the last year of his life he began to lose it — the world was not adoring him, the man he loved was afraid of him, and others saw through his lies. “Andrew was beaten by things other people overcame” said Smith —“it became a very interesting counterpoint” portrayed on screen with contrasting views of their childhoods.

Born to an unhappily married Filipino father (Jon Jon Briones) and pious Italian-American mother (Joanna Adler), it was Andrew, the youngest of four, awarded the master-bedroom of the family home in San Diego, sent to an exclusive private high school, and indulged with a sports car.

His father, Modesto, was a fabulist, seeing in Andrew the genius he attributed to himself, the child who would bring him glory. He succeeded as a stock-broker until he failed, having robbed clients and avoided arrest by fleeing to Manila, abandoning wife and children and leaving them destitute. Andrew’s disastrous visit to Modesto must have been a turning point in dealing with life-as-it-is. Seeing his father’s degraded circumstance in Manila (below) in contrast to the pretense of success in the states, worsened Andrew’s downward spiral in an already peripatetic life; he grew needier, more manipulative, and directionless. Obsessed with fame, he supported himself as a prostitute/drug dealer in which he courted older gay men who bought him the appearance of wealth he craved, the success Modesto falsely role-modeled.

If there are diagnoses for Modesto or his wife’s mental status in some doctor’s file, they do not figure in this telling; Andrew’s parents are shown having raised a pampered prince, unfit for life’s vagaries. And as he reckoned with the contradiction between his sense of entitlement and the cards life was dealing, he began to murder.

First was his friend, Jeffrey Trail (Finn Wittrock), a former U.S. naval officer, who was in recovery from the difficulties of being a gay officer in the service, the episode offering a deeply embarrassing look at don’t-ask-don’t-tell exigencies in the navy. Andrew’s former lover, architect David Madson, was next (below, Cody Fern). Madson was then achieving success as an architect and rejecting Andrew, but still easily manipulated by him. Madson was free to run but imprisoned in a no-escape Stockholm syndrome.

Then 72-year-old Lee Miglin (Mike Farrell), a Chicago property developer who paid Andrew for sex, was stabbed and throat slit after which Andrew stole his car (below with insert of Miglin). Next to last and most random, he shot a 45-year-old man in New Jersey for his red truck. Andrew then hid in plain sight in Miami for two months, stalking Versace whom he had once met, the most enviable target he had chosen to punish for his own failure; Versace was not just rich and famous but an artist. 

Andrew had eluded arrest thus far because of the relative secrecy of gay life in fly-over country. By the time Jeff Trail and David Madson were found in Minnesota and Miglin in Chicago, Andrew was long gone. Death of the beloved icon in Miami, however, focused the mind of law enforcement and Cunanan was found — dead.

The series begins with Versace’s murder and then unfolds in reverse order until the childhood influences on Versace and Cunanan come into focus as unsurprising ‘aha’s’ near the series conclusion. Criss, a product of Glee and half Filipino like Andrew, has blazed into stardom with this heavy-weight lead role, winning an Emmy and Golden Globe last year. Criss’s Andrew dazzles, charms, and mesmerizes his prey and us, his audience.

A few other actors were memorable: Australian Fern’s deer-in-the headlights affect as Cunanan’s lover-cum-victim, David Madson, stays with you, and Judith Light’s portrayal of Lee Miglin’s wife, for which she received an Emmy nomination. Marilyn Miglin never knew what hit her, that her marriage was not peaches-and-cream, or that her husband hid a secret sex life that would lead to his being bound with tape and stabbed to death. Marilyn was the oblivious, blond-helmeted business-woman who sweet-talked her own line of ‘pheromone’ perfumes on a TV home shopping network. Ms Light created Barbie doll’s perfect grand-mom in a perfect pink suit until Andrew Cunanan fowled the whole picture perfect.

On team Versace, Penélope Cruz does a compassionate, loving Donatella (below, top r). Some Spanish language undertones to the Italian-accented English of the Versace entourage were perceptible — never mind, one still followed with interest the glamorous but day-to-day ordinaries of the family business and relationships. But no hedging the obvious — this was multi-talented Darren Criss’s show, fulfilling every fantasy of success that his character dreamed of. He carries the entire star-filled tragedy like a dazzling quarterback. He is one to watch.

The above post was written by 

 our monthly correspondent, Lee Liberman

In Celia Rico Clavellino's JOURNEY TO A MOTHER'S ROOM, a daughter bonds even as she pulls away from mom

The multi-award-winning Spanish drama, JOURNEY TO A MOTHER'S ROOM, walked away with many Gaudi awards (the main film awards of Catalonia) but didn't win any of its four nominations in the yearly Goya awards (the premiere film awards of the entire country of Spain). The film, written and directed by Celia Rico Clavellino (shown below), is a small, intimate and I am guessing quite low-budget tale of the relationship between a nearly adult daughter and the single mother who clearly loves her offspring but maybe "mothers" her a bit too much.

This is a fairly simple tale, simply told (via stationary camera in front of which the actors and any action moves), and it is also, I must say, very slow-paced. But -- and this is a fairly big but -- the film is buoyed by two excellent performances: from famed Catalan actress, Lola Dueñas, (below left, as mom), and Anna Castillo (below, right) as the daughter.

The slow pacing has to do most with lack of incident to fill up the film's 95-minute running time. There is some, of course, but an awful lot of time is spent with the camera focusing on Ms Dueñas or Ms Castillo pondering. Both actresses do this very well, and Ms Clavellino, as filmmaker, is skilled enough to make certain we know what it is the characters are most likely thinking about. But a little of this goes a long way.

The film's theme would seem to be the moving of that daughter away from mom and toward her own life and career (if indeed a career is even available anymore to the youth of Europe and the West, given globalization and automation). But everything the daughter does -- supposedly going to London and getting a "nanny" job" -- we learn via phone conversation. And since the daughter is shown to be not very good at her old job in a garment manufacturing plant, gotten we assume by her mom's connection (mom was a much-loved seamstress there), and she lies to her mom about smoking, we do wonder if maybe she's telling the whole truth about London.

Well, probably, mostly, she is, but it is mom who registers strongly here. During daughter's time away, she must come to terms with loneliness and her place in the world, and she does blossom just a bit before reunion occurs. (A job creating costumes for a would-be talented dance troupe provides some incident and energy.)

In its way the movie is like a small but telling chapter in the lives and relationship of these two women. It's probably no turning point, and not much of anything is resolved. But there's enough character here, provided via the filmmaker and her actors, to make the viewing worthwhile. From Outsider Pictures, Journey to a Mother's Room opens here in South Florida today, Friday, May 17, in Miami at MDC’s Tower Theater, in Fort Lauderdale at the Savor Cinema, In Hollywood at the Cinema Paradiso (Select showings only), and in Boca Raton at the Living Room Theaters.

Personal Appearances! 

The writer/director (above, left) and one of the stars of the film, Lola Dueñas (above, center) will attend the events listed below:
 
Savor Cinema, 503 SE 6 Street, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 on Friday, May 17 at 6:30pm for the reception and 7:30pm screening with a 9:00pm Q&A.

Living Room Theaters on FAU Campus 777 Glades Road, Boca Raton, FL 33431 on Saturday, May 18. Q&As will take place late afternoon/early evening. Click here for showtimes. Or call theater for further information: 561-549-2600.

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.

Beauty and budding feminism combine in Ash Mayfair's gorgeous 19th Century tale of rural Vietnam life, THE THIRD WIFE

It has been awhile since we've seen quite so much beauty and elegance -- all of it seeming more off-the-cuff natural than overly planned -- in a movie coming out of Vietnam. The Scent of Green Papaya (from all the way back to 1993) comes to immediate mind, though there may have been other films TrustMovies has missed or forgotten.

In any case, viewers attuned the world's natural beauty, as well as to what I'd call an Asian penchant for subtlety and grace, will want to take in THE THIRD WIFE, a new film -- her first full-length, after several shorts -- from the Vietnam-born, NYU film-educated Ash Mayfair, pictured at left. This is as lovely, graceful and finally full-bodied feminist a work of art as I've seen in some time.

For all its beauty and seemingly peaceful elegance, the movie left me not a little surprised and oddly uplifted by the strong, firm finale which is, in its own way, every bit as elegant and subtle as what has come before.

It may seem almost amazing to us westerners how pre-determined were the lives of women at the time the movie takes place (the late 19th Century), as well as how easily the women we see made themselves fit so securely and completely into the groove of patriarchy, while still discovering their own ways of rebelling and/or satisfying their needs. And yet, there is maybe not so much difference between what we see here and what we saw in a movie like the recent Lizzie, that offered up the kind of closed-off-to-women life that resulted in the infamous Lizzie Borden murders. The place and the culture may differ, but patriarchy still rules.

The tale Ms Mayfair tells in The Third Wife is of a 14-year-old rural girl named May (the lovely and quietly cryptic Nguyen Phuong Tra My, above) who is made to wed a wealthy landowner. The movie begins as she is carried via boat (below) to her new home, and then meanders along as May learns how to deal with her place in the hierarchy of the life of her new husband.

Wives number one and two make their place known, and yet they do not seem actively against our newcomer, as we might expect, were the film made by westerners. There is a grandfather and grandchildren, too, and both male and female servants who are probably as close to slaves as can be imagined -- and still not matter so much. Except to the slaves, of course.

Performances are on the quiet side but very real from all concerned, and the filmmaker (as both writer and director) takes care to let us see the ways in which our women manage to circumvent standard mores, whether sexually or, finally, appearance-wise. (The finale, when mulled-over post-viewing, practically begs for a sequel.)

The film's most potent sequence involves an arranged marriage in which the husband is not at all happy -- for good reason, yet it is his bride who must suffer the consequences. Even as the strictures of the patriarchy pile up, so obedient and subservient seem the women, and so quiet and even-handed is the work of the filmmaker that when resistance finally arrives, simple and even mild as it might elsewhere appear, here it packs a punch that any of our ham-handed super-hero movies might envy. I'd love to learn what happens to these women, but whatever Ms Mayfair chooses to do next, I'm on board to view it.

From Film Movement and running 94 minutes, the movie opens this Wednesday, May 15, in New York City at Film Forum, and will then play another 30 cities around the country, including the Los Angeles area on May 24 (at Laemmle's Royal and Playhouse 7) and here in Boca Raton on June 7 (at the Living Room Theaters). Click here, then scroll way down, to see if and when the film will be coming to a theater near you.

Blu-ray debut for John Farrow's delightful genre-mashing original, THE BIG CLOCK

Anyone who's never seen THE BIG CLOCK, the 1948 film that, while successful enough it is own time has since become what one might call a second-tier classic, should avail him/ herself of any opportunity. It's a keeper -- under just about every criteria. And just because you might have seen the so-so would-be remake from 1987 titled No Way Out, don't think you've even begun to  have discovered the genre-jumping/mashing charm of the original.

As directed by the under-rated journeyman filmmaker from Australia, John Farrow (shown right), with a screenplay by Jonathan Latimer (from the novel by Kenneth Fearing), the film begins with what TrustMovies thinks is an unnecessary prolog in which we learn that our hero is a man on the not-quite-run (only because he can't escape his surroundings).

Had the film simply begun at the beginning and moved along as it soon does, the audience might have imagined they were in for -- not the thriller it partially is -- but either a workplace satire or a comedy of manners, morals and art appreciation.

The Big Clock is all three of the above, as well as a lot more, too, mashing and jumping genres in a manner that would spin the heads of many of today's moviemakers. Plus, it offers a plot that has our hero (Ray Milland, above, right) forced by his evil boss to investigate himself for the very murder that boss has commited. (No spoilers here: most of the fun and multi-surprises come as that "investigation" occurs.)

As the hero, Milland proves his usual adept self at garnering our sympathy, even as he holds us back from fully embracing this somewhat flawed and slightly distanced man, while the great actor Charles Laughton (above) makes a magnificent meal out of the villain, a nasty media mogul named Earl Janoth. Watch the subtle (then not so) changes in Laughton's amazing face in the memorable murder scene for a lesson in fine film acting.

The supporting cast is full of familiar faces, with the wonderful Elsa Lanchester (above, left, and Laughton's real-life wife) a hoot-and-a-half as the artist whose work and bizarre personality figure heavily into the plot machinations. If everyone else were not so splendid, Ms Lanchester would have walked away with the movie. The unveiling of her portrait of the murder suspect is one of the film's highlights -- as is her final line.

A nice surprise, too, is the use of famed character actor Harry (Henry) Morgan, above, playing a masseuse/right-hand man you definitely would not want manhandling your vulnerable body. But then everyone here, including an uncredited Noel Neill as a smart and sassy elevator operator, is first-rate.

Director Farrow's handling of the plot and the melding of genres are also classy indeed. Note how swift and shocking is the murder scene, and how deft and fast-paced is the climax. These days, a filmmaker might drag out scenes like these well past their believability or entertainment quotient. Oh, and that titular clock is used well, too.

All in all as old movies go, this one's a don't miss. From Arrow Academy (distributed here in the USA via MVD Visual) and running just 96 minutes, The Big Clock hits Blu-ray (the transfer seems adequate but nothing to shout about) -- along with several worthwhile Bonus Features, including an appreciation of actor Laughton by Simon Callow, and a fine analysis of the film by Adrian Wootton -- this coming Tuesday, May 14, for purchase and I would hope rental, too.

Want to learn about the life of J.R.R. Tolkien? Try Dome Karukoski's quietly compelling film

I think by now we know, when we watch a bio-pic (about almost anyone at all) that facts are going to be fudged and events and characters telescoped into whatever needs the filmmakers think they face. So it is with the new movie about the life of fabled author, South African-born J.R.R. Tolkien, who was educated in and lived most of his life on British soil.

Prior to the actual screening of the film, as the audience at a preview event sat waiting, on the screen flashed the history of this man in maybe a dozen or so individual written installments. But then, of course, the movie that followed this did not always adhere to the historical timeline we were given just moments before that movie began screening.

Still, TOLKIEN, written by David Gleeson and Stephen Beresford and directed by Dome Karukoski (shown at right, of Tom of Finland fame), proves consistently interesting and, as it slowly moves along, finally pretty compelling. Tolkien's real-life tale is mostly quiet and rather sad, with he and his younger brother orphaned at a relatively early age and placed in the care of a Catholic priest. And though the movie is being billed as rather a love story, it's the relationship between Tolkien and his three much-loved school chums (below) that finally raises the movie's temperature and major emotions.

Tolkien is played -- quite well, too -- by Nicholas Hoult (above, left, and below), while those chums are essayed by Anthony Boyle (center left), Patrick Gibson (center right) and Tom Glynn-Carney (right), each of whom makes his character specific and as memorable as possible, given their limited screen time.

The love interest is played (as an adult) by Lily Collins (below), who is pretty but a bit wan here (she registers much more strongly in Netflix's new Ted Bundy movie, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile). The romance is shown to be important in Tolkien's life, yet the movie comes to strongest life in the scenes between Tolkien and his mates,

and in the marvelous entry of Derek Jacobi, below, right, as the Oxford professor who mentors our hero (according to what we see here, the two men seems to have mentored each other). Jacobi's lengthy and delicious monolog about trees proves the movie's consummate treat -- as intelligent and witty as it is germane to Tolkien and his work.

The movie is at its weakest whenever the filmmakers decide they must show us the connections (as below) between the man and his writing, with really pretty silly images of dragons and monsters (which of course will bring to mind The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings). Yes, World War I was awful and, yes, the man was influenced by it, but what we get here is obvious, clunky and unnecessary.

Visually, the movie is often quite verdant and lovely (as below), and Karukoski and his cinematographer (Lasse Frank Johannessen) also capture some images of the war that are startling and darkly memorable.

Overall, the slow pace of the film probably means it will appeal mostly to folk who don't mind this lack of action and of course to those fans of Peter Jackson's hit films who might like to know more about the life of the interesting guy who created the initial work.

In any case, Tolkien, via Fox Searchlight and running 112 minutes, opens nationwide tomorrow, Friday, May 10. To find the theater(s) nearest you, simply click here.