Posts Tagged ‘SXSW’

Holland (2025) Prime Video

Dir: Mimi Cave | Cast: Nicole Kidman, Matthew Macfadyen, Jude Hill, Gael García Bernal | US Comedy drama 108′
Andrew Sodroski

A kitschy toy-town love story that seems trite to begin with. But Martin Macfadyen and Nicole Kidman soon make it compulsive despite all the absurdity.

Kidman is Nancy Vandergroot (Nicole Kidman), a naive housewife and teacher with too much time on her hands and a tendency to jump to conclusions. This lack of a meaningful existence, leaves ‘Nan’ clinging to her son Harry (Hill) and the small-town agenda in Holland, Michigan (the tulip festival looms large in her diary). On VoiceOver, Nancy expresses deep contentment in this picture-postcard lakeside town where she has founded a family and ultimate satisfaction. Yet scratch the glossy surface and we discover a deeply unhappy, frustrated woman in denial of her vacuous marriage to Alan Partridge-style husband Fred (MacFadyen) the town’s (on the face of it) respectable optician.

Searching for a missing earring one day in her twee suburban home, Nan jumps to the conclusion that her son’s tutor (Sennott) is responsible, and gives the poor girl her marching orders. Fred then announces another trip ‘for work reasons’ and Nancy imagines an affair, and she does the following week. Recruiting her work colleague Dave (a convincing Gael Bernal) the two soon-to- be lovers investigate Fred’s agenda. What they eventually discover is mind-blowing.

Script-writer Andrew Sodroski comes up with a compelling but confused comedy mystery about female loneliness and loss of agency with an ultimate reveal that completely derails the carefully concocted slow-burn suspense, turning Holland  into an absurdist, sensationalist and non-sensical thriller.

Cave directs in ‘too good to be true’ technicolor that screams  ‘something is wrong’. Kidman gives a febrile turn as the insecure Nancy. She is not unlike ‘Romy’ the character she played in Babygirl who is forced to acknowledge and submit to unwelcome and illicit desires. This isolated woman’s state of mind in Holland’ss soulless backwater should actually be the crux of the narrative; far more worthy of exploration than her husband’s, albeit outlandish, activities which erroneously steal the thunder.

Forced to surrender to her feelings for Dave, Nancy finds it uncomfortable to front up to the sham of her public and private persona and this dichotomy is where the film should lead us. And for a time Sodroski certainy heads in this direction; the obsessed Nancy experiencing nightmares about her son’s wellbeing as she plunges into an affair with the honest and well-meaning Dave.

Of course, she has no intention of pursuing this in any meaningful way and Dop Pawel Pogorzelski’s feverish visuals and Alex Somers’ edgy score underline the tension. Nancy has hinted at a backstory, early on, but her character is never explored further and so we are left empty-handed and disappointed. Instead we’re plunged into a cop-out involving Fred. Rather a waste for the talents of Kidman, Bernal and MacFadyen. Ultimately not even they can make sense of this implausible film with more potholes than the A13. @MeredithTaylor

SXSW ahead of its March 27 release on Prime Video,

The Garden Left Behind (2019) *** SXSW 2020

Dir.: Flavio Alves; Cast: Carlie Guevara, Ed Asner, Michael Madsen, Miriam Cruz, Tamara M. Williams, Anthony Abdo, Alex Cruz; USA/Brazil, 88 min.

Brazilian-born first time director/co-writer Flavio Alves, granted asylum for political reasons in the USA, has created a moving but structurally erratic portrait of a Mexican transgender woman, who lives with her grandmother as an undocumented immigrant in New York. Shot elegantly in the Bronx and Brooklyn by DoP Koshi Kiyokawa with support of the local transgender community, The Garden is carried by debutant Carlie Guevara in the central role.

Tina (Guevara) is walking along a deserted street at night when she is accosted by a carload of belligerent men shouting insults. Walking towards the camera, we sense trouble for Tina, but Alves cuts to tell her story in flashback. Tina lives with her grandmother Eliana (Cruz) in a small apartment, making money as a Uber driver. Her gender reassignment has been an expensive process, psychiatrist (Asner of ‘Lou Grant’ fame), supporting her through the different stages of the treatment. Tina has a longstanding boyfriend, Jason (Kruz), who is still ashamed to be seen with her in public, particularly in their favourite bar, tended by Kevin (Madsen). Her best friend Carol (Williams) drags Tina into the local activist scene which becomes the main focus of the feature. Support characters include a strange young man, Chris (Abdo), he seems to be negatively obsessed by Tina, scowling angrily at her during shopping trips to the local supermarket. The day-to-day scenes are strongest, we see Tina buying Eliana a new hoover, and her lovemaking scenes, to which grandma listens attentively. Both Guevara and Cruz give understated, naturalistic performances, newcomer Guevara is particular convincing, looking backwards to a past she hardly remembers, whilst being afraid of the future. Unfortunately, Alves decides on a shock-horror ending, and one which is amply telegraphed at that.

Raising the profile of escalating violence towards the transgender community, features like the The Garden Left Behind are certainly worthwhile, if not vital. In times of unrest,  these vulnerable members of society often suffer disproportionately, along with other minorities, and Alves succeeds by only featuring local members of the community – which should be a given, but is not part of the Hollywood standard. It is therefore disappointing the filmmaker lets everyone down with a melodramatic ending, attempting to tug on heartstrings in a double whammy of “revelation”. Guevara and the transgender community deserve a more subtle approach that feels real in today’s developing crisis. AS

SXSW AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER 2020
     

Gimme The Loot (2012) ***

Director: Adam Leon

Cast: Tashiana Washington, Ty Hickson, Zoe Lescaze

80min     Drama

A spunky urban adventure that focuses on two non-actor ‘dudes’ from the Bronx, Malcolm and Sofia who make it their business to up the ante on some punks from Queens who have invaded their territory on the graffiti turf wars in the Big Apple. Their goal is to write all over a well-known and important New York landmark and in order to do this they need to raise USD 500.  Director Leon was assisted by real time Polilce Officers for ‘health and safety” reasons in his endeavour.

Although these two are mouthy street-fighters they still often get the rough end of the deal and everyones’ tongues in this warm-hearted ‘gangland’ debut low-budgeter from Adam Leon, which took the Grand Jury prize at SXSW last year (2012).

With a score that’s fun and unexpected, Gimme The Loot is a fresh and colourful feel-good film that tells it like it is and doesn’t take any prisoners. MT

 

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