Thursday, February 13, 2025

Failures of ‘The Gorge’ go deep


 Billed as an action/romance, The Gorge is set to bow on Apple TV+. I’ve been hesitant about reviewing movies released exclusively on streaming services. 
My reluctance doesn’t necessarily speak to the quality of such films, but a lingering prejudice about the superiority of theatrical releases has proven difficult to shake, at least for me.
  I nonetheless opted to watch The Gorge. Given the chaos of the moment, I craved a diversion that might contain vertiginous thrills — no matter how obviously delivered. 
   Here’s the premise. Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy play two sharpshooters — one a former Marine, the other a servant of Russian overlords—who are assigned to remote posts in what appears to be an Eastern European wilderness. They are separated by a deep gorge that's home to an ominous threat. 
   Their job: Prevent the threat — dubbed The Hollow Men — from climbing out of the gorge, a task that requires ample amounts of ammunition.
   Don't get too excited. Sure, T.S. Eliot wrote a poem called The Hollow Men and the screenplay includes other erudite references but they play more like Post-it notes than deeply felt revelations.
    A simple story arc emerges. Independent sorts, the sharpshooters must bridge the physical gap that keeps them apart, join forces in a battle for survival, and, of course, fall in love.
   At first, I remained hopeful. Sigourney Weaver turns up as a no-nonsense official who sends Teller’s Levi on his mission. Of course, we don’t trust her; she’s too crisp, too smart to be straightforward. 
   After providing some background about Taylor-Joy’s character, director Scott Derrickson lands the two assassins at their outposts, towers flanking both sides of the wide gorge. They’ve been instructed  to communicate with each other, but Taylor-Joy’s Drassa makes signs for Teller's Levi to read through his high-powered binoculars. She invites him to help her celebrate her birthday.
    Derrickson doesn’t waste time revealing the danger,  mutant creatures that look as though they’ve been assembled from sticks, leaves, slime, and animal parts. 
     Joy-Taylor's boldness gives the movie one of its few highlights carrying us to the moment when the two killers wind up in the gorge. There, Derrickson and his team build a world shrouded in fog and populated by weird creatures.
   Considering that both characters are deadly shots at long distances, it's odd that the movie forces them into so much close-quarters combat, slathering the action with gook and gore.
    When our heroes find an abandoned laboratory, we learn how the creatures were spawned, another letdown. A film made by a long-gone scientist explains the whole movie, but not without a heavy reliance on devices that the scientist and her colleagues conveniently left behind.
   You'll have little trouble finding your own examples of contrivance, so I'll conclude by saying that The Gorge returned me unrewarded to the world I'd been trying to escape. 

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

A new Captain America hits the screen

 

  I'd like to talk about the ending of Captain America: Brave New World. It's borderline crazy, gratuitously overblown, willfully preposterous, and, perhaps, the most enjoyable thing about this latest edition to the MCU canon. 
  I laughed a lot as the movie smashed its way toward a Washington D.C.-based conclusion. The late-picture bombast struck me as amusing, although I'm not sure that was the reaction the creators were hoping for.
   Only the fear of spoilers keeps me from saying more. So on with the review: 
    Captain America: Brave New World spends much of its 118-minute runtime watching Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) justify his ascendance to the role of Captain America, a job once filled by Steve Rogers (Chris Evans). Although Mackie often appears in nicely tailored suits, he dons his uniform when it counts. Mackie earns his shield, which he tosses around like a lethal Frisbee.
   Director Julius Onah balances comic-book bravado and elements that sometimes resemble a conventional hunk of intrigue about how power should be wielded.
   In this outing, Harrison Ford takes over a role previously played by the late William Hurt. Ford portrays Thadeous Ross, a ruthless US president who wants to change his image from warrior to peacemaker. 
  To accomplish his lofty goal, Ross must arrange a treaty under which the world's powers will  agree to share adamantium, a much-desired substance that .... well ... who cares what it does?
   Looking older than he ever has on film, Ford appears throughout the movie; he seems committed to serving the story's serious side while not diminishing its comic-book clout.
    In the early going, President Ross invites Wilson to the White House in hopes that the new Captain America will bring the Avengers back to life. 
   Before an Avengers rebirth can occur, an aggrieved super soldier (Carl Lumbly) -- one of Wilson's warrior pals and a wrongly imprisoned victim of his own government -- takes a shot at the president. 
   The assassination attempt fails, but we're quickly assured that Lumbly's Isaiah Bradley is no revenge-seeking villain; mysteriously, he's being manipulated. Wilson pledges to clear his friend's name.
    Thematically, Brave New World touches on genetic engineering and mind control while making room for an aerial battle over the Indian Ocean when the US tries to prevent Japan from seizing control of the world's adamantium supply. 
    Plenty of well-played additional characters turn up. Shira Haas portrays a former Mossad agent who works as the president's top security aide. Giancarlo Esposito plays Sidewinder, a bad guy for hire. Danny Ramirez adds a welcome light touch as Falcon.
     Tim Blake Nelson does major bad-guy duty as Samuel Sterns, a biology genius with a grudge against the president and the need for a wig. Stern's hair has been replaced by the brain that grows outside his head. 
      The action sequences aren't exactly groundbreaking, and at times, the screenplay slows its roll so that various characters can deliver chunks of exposition.
      I have no idea how much of a splash Brave New World will make, but the movie flirts with topicality as it tries to keep the Marvel torch burning. Yes, the flame sometimes sputters, but like Mackie, Brave New World ultimately holds its own.



Friday, February 7, 2025

'Anora' earns Critics Choice best picture

 

   No single movie dominated the 30th Critics Choice Awards. Wicked, Emilia Pérez, and The Substance led the pack with three awards each.
 Anora won best picture, but earned no other awards. 
  Surprisingly, Jon M. Cho won best director for Wicked, beating directors I saw as frontrunners: Jacques Audiard (Emilia Pérez), Sean Baker (Anora), and Brady Corbet (The Brutalist). 
   The acting awards seemed to follow a more predictable arc with Adrien Brody (The Brutalist) and Demi Moore (The Substance) winning best actor and actress awards. Kiren Culkin (A Real Pain) and Zoe Saldaña (Emilia Pérez) scored victories in the supporting-actor category.
   The Critics Choice Awards sometimes have served as a bellwether for the Academy Awards. This year's awards may help you with Oscar predictions -- but not in the best-director category. Chu (Wicked) won the Critics Choice award for best director. Oscar snubbed him in its best-director category.
   I'll note that I'm a member of the Critics Choice Association and leave you to peruse the list:

Best Picture
Winner: Anora
The Brutalist
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Perez
Nickel Boys
Sing Sing
The Substance
Wicked

Best Actor
Winner: Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
Timothee Chalamet, A Complete Unknown
Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
Daniel Craig, Queer
Ralph Fiennes, Conclave
Hugh Grant, Heretic

Best Actress
Winner: Demi Moore, The Substance
Cynthia Erivo, Wicked
Karla Sofia Gascon, Emilia Perez
Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths
Angelina Jolie, Maria
Mickey Madison, Anora

Best Supporting Actor
Winner: Kieren Culkin, A Real Pain
Yura Borisov, Anora
Clarence Maclin, Sing Sing
Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce, The Brutalist
Denzel Washington, Gladiator II

Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Zoe Saldana, Emilia Perez
Danielle Deadwyler, The Piano Lesson
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Nickel Boys
Ariana Grande, Wicked
Margaret Qualley, The Substance
Isabella Rossellini, Conclave

Best Director
Winner: Jon M. Chu, Wicked
Jacques Audiard, Emilia Perez
Sean Baker, Anora
Edward Berger, Conclave
Brady Corbet, The Brutalist
Coralie Fargeat, The Substance
RaMell Ross, Nickel Boys
Denis Villeneuve, Dune: Part Two

Best Original Screenplay
Winner: Caralie Fargeat, The Substance
Sean Baker, Anora
Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvoid, The Brutalist
Moritz Binder, Tim Fehlbaum, Alex David, September 5
Jesse Eisenberg, A Real Pain
Justin Kuritzkes, Challengers

Best Adapted Screenplay
Winner: Peter Straughan, Conclave
Jacques Audiard, Emilia Perez
Winnie Holzman, Dana Fox, Wicked
Greg Kwedar, Clint Bentley, Sing Sing
RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes, Nickel Boys
Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts, Dune: Part Two

Best Cinematography
Winner: Jarin Blaschke, Nosferatu
Alice Brooks, Wicked
Lol Crawley, The Brutalist
Stephane Fontaine, Conclave
Greig Fraser, Dune: Part Two
Jomo Fray, Nickel Boys

Best Production Design
Winner: Wicked
The Brutalist
Conclave
Nosferatu
Gladiator II
Dune: Part Two

Best Editing
Winner: Challengers
Anora
Conclave
The Brutalist
Dune: Part Two
September 5

Best Costume Design
Winner: Wicked
Conclave
Nosferatu
Maria
Dune: Part Two
Gladiator II

Best Hair and Makeup
Winner: The Substance
A Different Man
Beetle Juice Beetle Juice 
Gladiator II
Wicked
Dune: Part Two

Best Visual Effects
Winner: Dune: Part Two
Gladiator II
Better Man
The Substance
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Wicked 

Best Animated Feature
Winner: The Wild Robot
Flow
Inside Out 2
Memoir of a Snail
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
 
Best Foreign Language Film
Winner: Emilia Perez
All We Imagine as Light
Flow
I'm Still Here
Kneecap
The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Best Song
Winner: El Mai, Emilia Perez
Beautiful That Way, The Last Showgirl
Compress/Repress, Challengers
Harper and Will Go West, Will & Harper
Kiss the Sky, The Wild Robot
Mi Camino, Emilia Perez

Best Score
Winner: Challengers
Conclave
The Brutalist
The Wild Robot
Emilia Perez
Dune: Part Two

Best Comedy Film
Tied Winners: A Real Pain, Deadpool & Wolverine
Hit Man
My Old Ass
Saturday Night
Thelma

Best Young Actor/Actress
Winner: Maisy Stella, My Old Ass
Elliott Heffernan, Blitz
Izaac Wang, Didi
Alisha Weir, Abigail
Zoe Ziegler, Janet Planet

Best Acting Ensemble
Winner: Conclave
Anora
Emilia Perez
Saturday Night
Sing Sing
Wicked


Thursday, February 6, 2025

A searing West Bank documentary





  This is either the worst time or the best time for releasing the documentary No Other Land. It's the worst time if you're sympathetic to Israel's attempts to push Hamas out of Gaza, and the best, if you view Israel as an oppressive power dedicated to keeping Palestinians under control.  
    Filmed over three years beginning in 2019, No Other Land doesn't take place in Gaza and most of the movie was filmed before October 7 when Israel suffered a brutal terrorist attack, but it likely will feed the already widespread outrage about the ensuing war.
   No Other Land deals with Israeli attempts to clear Masafer Yatta, a community consisting of 20 villages that are home to about 1,000 Palestinians. The battle over Masafer Yatta and its inhabitants has been raging for years with Israel claiming the area as an IDF training ground. 
  The Israeli decision, supported by Israeli courts after decades of wrangling, has led to the eviction of Masafer Yatta's residents from their homes and the destruction of many of those same dwellings. 
  The disturbing sight of bulldozers destroying the modest homes of Palestinians makes you think that there must be a better way to resolve a land dispute than forcing the newly homeless to take up residence in caves.
   The film, it should be noted, is the work of a collective composed of two Palestinians and two Israelis.
   The movie focuses on Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist who opposes Israeli attempts to clear an area the Palestinians view as their long-standing home. Israeli operations include the demolition of houses and, late in the documentary, the even more disturbing destruction of a school built by Palestinians.
    During the movie, we also meet Yuval Abraham, an Israeli journalist trying to draw attention to the Palestinian story. He hasn't had much success.
  The movie involves provocative discussions about the divisions that separate the two men despite their shared convictions. Abraham, who speaks Arabic and whose politics are clear, is free to move around Israel and the West Bank while Adra's movements are restricted. 
   Questions arise about whether the imbalance ever can be overcome.
   Violence, of course, proves terrifying and costly. A Palestinian man is paralyzed after being shot while trying to prevent IDF soldiers from seizing the generator that powers his home.
     Equally unsettling are scenes of Israeli settlers -- civilians not IDF soldiers -- attacking Palestinians in what looks like wanton vigilantism. 
     For the record: Masafer Yatta is part of Area C which came under Israeli military and civil control as part of the Oslo Accords of 1993. Israel, however, has been in the territory since the six-day war of 1967.  Palestinians argue that their families have lived in Masafer Yatta for generations.
     Some would argue that the onscreen events speak for themselves and that no further elaboration was needed. I'd say that some broader context would have helped, as would have the addition of a few more Israeli voices. 
   A cautionary note: I wouldn't take the film as a blanket explanation for what's happening in Israel today or for the long-standing enmity between Palestinians and Israelis,  but there’s no denying the movie's power.
   No Other Land, by the way, has been nominated for an Academy Award in the best-documentary category. For the record: The film has been available for free viewing in Israel. No American distributor has acquired the film, which is being self-distributed and thus far, has been seen in film festivals and in smaller venues.

A kickless dud of an action comedy

 

Ariana DeBose's portrayal of Anita in West Side Story earned her an Oscar for best supporting actress in 2022.  Ke Huy Quan won an  Oscar for best supporting actor in 2023, playing a character who vaulted through multiple universes in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
   The two Oscar-winning actors are teamed in Love Hurts, a skimpy action comedy in which Quan gets most of the attention. Director Jonathan Eusebio lands a few bloody high shots (the view through a hole that has been blown in a man's head) but seldom connects when it comes to laughs.
    Love Hurts' major accomplishment involves brevity: It's 83 minutes long.
    The story begins with a cliched premise: Marvin Gable, a ludicrously joyful real estate agent, is drawn back into the assassin's life he believed he had abandoned.
     A poor excuse of a plot kicks off on Valentine's Day after Knuckles (Daniel Wu), Marvin's crime czar brother, tries to punish DeBose's character for taking mob money.
    Marvin, who once did his brother's bidding, had been ordered to kill DeBose's Rose. He didn't follow through. Now, she's back.
    Quan seems to be working way too hard. DeBose has too little to do, and the pair generates little by way of the rom-com chemistry that's supposed to provide heart.
    A gaggle of uninteresting thugs -- one played by Marshawn "Beastmode" Lynch -- doesn't add much either. 
   Some scenes simply don't pay off. Ashley (Lio Tipton) plays Gable's assistant at the real estate office. She falls for the brutal Raven (Mustafa Shakir), who wins her over with his sensitive, if unexpected, poetry. Sean Astin has a nice turn as Marvin's boss. 
   A duo of uninteresting thugs -- Marshawn "Beastmode" Lynch and André Eriksen-- doesn't add much either. 
   Might as well follow the movie's lead and keep things short. Cartoonish and forgettable, Love Hurts  proves a kick less dud.

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

A muddled debut and a school conflict


   Lineage doesn't necessarily matter when it comes to filmmaking, but it's difficult to begin a review of Armand, a stylistically muddled Norwegian thriller from director Halfdan Ullmann Tondel, without mentioning Ullmann Tondel's grandparents, director Ingmar Bergman and actress Liv Ullmann. 
   Safe to say Tondel doesn't seem intimidated by his family's achievements. Mixing straightforward storytelling with surreal touches, Tondel latches onto a subject that's rich with possibility, a clash between parents at a grade school where six-year-old Armand (never seen) has been accused by Jon, another unseen student, of bullying and sexual abuse. 
   Wisely, Tondel focuses on parents not children. The school's publicity-shy principal (Oystein Roger) insists that Armand's mother (Renate Reinsve) meet with Jon's parents (Ellen Dorrit Petersen and Endre Hellestveit). Reasonable adult behavior is supposed to follow. Sure.
   Sounds intriguing, but the movie plays as if Tondel hadn't sorted through the screenplay's thickening web of issues and subtext; he veers away from the story's psychological and social dynamics to  perplexing effect, even including a couple of dance numbers.
    It may not ignite, but Tondel has the necessary kindling to stoke plenty of dramatic fire. 
   An actress by trade, Elizabeth has had a prior relationship with Jon's parents. Turns out Jon's mother was the sister of Elizabeth's late husband, who -- we're told  -- committed suicide.
   Perhaps to add satirical garnish, Tondel also deals with the school's timidity. The principal puts a novice teacher (Thea Lambrechts Vaulen) in charge of the pivotal meeting between parents. She's supposed to smooth things over.
   Eventually, the principal and another administrator (Vera Veljovic-Jovanovic) join the conference, which gets nowhere and is disrupted by the administrator's frequent nosebleeds, a bizarre intrusion that, like much else about the movie, leaves you wondering what Tondel had in mind. 
   It's difficult to fault Tondel for being too cautious; he includes a surprising scene in which Elizabeth goes on an uncontrolled and extended laughing jag. Perhaps she's nervous or maybe she glimpses an inherent absurdity in the idea of a six-year-old boy being capable of sexual abuse. 
   Whatever's happening, Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World and A Different Man) bravely goes along for the ride.
   I lost hope when, late in the picture, Elizabeth and the school's custodian begin to dance. The best I can say about Tondel's effort is that it's interesting watching him try to hit all manner of notes. The resultant head-scratcher of a movie makes you hope Tondel eventually hits his stride.

   

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

She battled a dictatorial regime

 

   In 1970, Brazil was in the midst of a military dictatorship that would continue for another 15 years. Director Walter Salles (Central Station) revisits that time to tell a story in which the unprincipled and murderous exercise of power upends the life of a family. 
   I'm Still Here, Salles's Oscar-nominated movie, offers a deeply moving account of damages wrought by a regime that brooked no opposition.
   When the movie opens, life for the Paiva family seems to be unfolding normally. Mom (Fernanda Torres) floats in the waters at a Rio beach.  Her kids play in the sand. Mom, Dad, and their five children seem to have escaped the worst effects of state-sponsored oppression. It's the Christmas season of 1970.
    Despite some ominous forebodings, these early scenes brim with the warmth and energy of a well-educated family. As he should, Salles encourages us to hope that we're about to embark on an irresistible story about a household made lively by visitors and genial byplay.
     That hope shatters when thugs arrest Dad, a former legislator who's suspected of aiding rebellious dissidents. Mom's arrest and interrogation follows. Released after 12 days, Mom begins the fraught task of keeping her family together. Dad never will be seen again.
   On one level, I'm still Here can be seen as a tribute to the sacrifices and courage of Eunice Paiva, a mother who valiantly struggles against the dictatorial tide. A memorable blend of anxiety, fortitude, grit, and grief, Torres's performance qualifies as one of the year's best.
   But Salles never loses sight of the cause of the distress we're seeing. Every scene strikes at us like an alarm bell about the dangers of unchecked power.
    Viewers can debate whether Salles erred by including a late-picture scene set in 2014.  In this segment, Eunice tries to obtain official acknowledgment that her husband was murdered. 
    In an epilogue, Fernanda Montenegro, Torres's real mother and the star of Salles's much-admired Central Station, plays the aging Eunice Paiva, a nice  bit of casting that honors Salles's actresses, as well as the Paiva family.
    Though softer than earlier scenes, Salles's end-of-picture moves can't relieve the sharp pain of a disturbing story, even as he celebrates one family's capacity for maintaining its humanity while never abandoning hope that Rubens Paiva's fate, and by extension the fates of many others, will be known. 
    Marcelo Paiva, the only son in a family of daughters, wrote the memoir on which the story is based, but it's arguable that the movie's commitment and conviction received a boost from Salles's personal knowledge of a family he often visited as a teenager. 
   With an international rise in oligarchy and authoritarianism, I'm Still Here can't help but serve as a cautionary tale about the fragility of what often are perceived as inviolable rights. That's a point worth remembering: When thugs are unleashed, nothing is guaranteed. 

An Oscar postscript 
I'm Still Here received what has been called a surprise Oscar nomination in the Best Picture category. Moreover, Torres received a nomination for best actress. Some analysts argue that this year's nominations have a decidedly liberal tilt, possibly in reaction to a global tilt toward authoritarianism. Maybe, but I'm Still Here would have been a worthy choice regardless of the current political environment. It's a fine movie.


Monday, January 27, 2025

Notes: David Lynch, the Oscars

    So where was I? 
    I haven’t posted in a while, primarily because I’ve been out of the country on an important mission; i.e., avoiding movies, news, and all the other things to which I usually pay inordinate amounts of attention. 
   But I’m back and ready to roll. More or less.
   First off, David Lynch, one of cinema’s most revered image makers died at the age of 78 on January 15. Much has been written about Lynch since his passing, so I’ll refrain from contributing to the appreciation barrage. Look at any number of headlined pieces and you’ll get the gist about an artist some saw as their personal tour guide through America’s darker side.
    I discovered Lynch at a long-ago screening of Eraserhead in 1977. Footnote: The theater in which I saw the movie no longer exists. I mention this because many theaters have vanished as Lynch's generation of filmmakers wanes.
    I’ve had mixed reactions to Lynch’s movies with Mulholland Drive (2001) emerging as my runaway favorite. I understand why devotes of Blue Velvet are so ardent about that movie, but I’m not one of its fans. We can argue about that some other time.

    I met Lynch once but can’t remember much about him, other than that he smoked at a time when cigarettes were no longer easily tolerated. He also said it was OK for people -- or maybe he meant just me -- not to understand everything about his movies. He wasn't being snide or condescending; he seemed to be saying that he knew that it might not be possible to connect every dot in a Lynchian puzzle. Maybe he wanted that way. 

   Lynch began as an art student; I’ve generally regarded his movies as the work of a painter who became fascinated with moving pictures. An artist with a taste for ambiguity and mystery, Lynch had a gift for creating images that suggested more than they ever spelled out.

     When I think of Lynch, I also remember the Lady in the Radiator singing the song In Heaven in   Eraserhead. “In heaven, everything is fine,'' the lyric went. The song was both sincere, and unsettling. In Heaven teased us with hope and delusion, teetering on the edge of irony without falling into its smothering abyss.

      We’ll probably have to wait a long time before another Lynch appears. Idiosyncratic talent is rare in all fields. Lynch received an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement in 2017, but he remained an independent voice in movies. 

      All of which brings me to this year's Oscar nominations which were announced on Thursday, Jan. 23. 

     Overall, the nominations didn’t offer much to complain about.

     I would have liked to have seen Marianne Jean-Baptiste nominated for best actress. Her performance as the massively embittered Pansy in Hard Truths was more than notable.

     I would have nominated Sebastian Stan, a best actor nominee, for his work in A Different Man, not for his portrayal of Donald Trump in The Apprentice. 

     Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor received no nomination, but her performance in Nickel Boys, though small,  gave the movie its aching heart. 

     In case you've been wondering, India’s All We Imagine as Light wasn't eligible for a foreign-language Oscar nod because it wasn't submitted by for consideration by any of its co-producing nations or by India, where the film is set.

     I shed no tears that Angelina Jolie was bypassed for her portrayal of Maria Callas in Maria or that Nicole Kidman was overlooked for playing a CEO who wanted to be sexually dominated in Babygirl.  Both actresses should continue to thrive.

     One last thought: I'm Still Here received what has been called a surprise nomination in the Best Picture category. Moreover, Fernanda Torres, as a mother trying to protect her family during the Brazilian military dictatorship of the 1970s, won a nomination for best actress. 

    Some analysts argue that this year's nominations have a decidedly liberal tilt, possibly in reaction to a Trump resurgence and European authoritarianism. Maybe, but I'm Still Here would have been a worthy choice no matter what ways the political winds are blowing.  It's a fine movie, and, by the way, it's also nominated in the best foreign-language film category.

    Enough. The Academy Awards  … to use a mildly hollow but appropriate expression — are what they are.

    It's possible that Lynch, to begin where I started, will be remembered long after many of this year's Academy Award nominees are forgotten. 

   So, remember, if your favorites aren't honored or if, you're among those who don't understand the furor over Amelia Perez, or if you think The Brutalist was too long, even with a 15-minute intermission, or if you couldn't quite adjust to the subjective camerawork of Nickel Boys, or you if you haven't seen The Apprentice, or if you puzzle about Wicked being the first film to receive 10 nominations but none for directing or writing (I read it somewhere),  or if you think Edward Berger, who directed best picture nominee Conclave, should have received a best-director nomination, console yourself, and remember these words from Eraserhead.

    “In heaven, everything is fine." Didn't David Lynch say so?

           


        

       

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Covering a tragic Olympics

 

   On September 5, 1972, the Palestinian group Black September began its attack on Munich's Olympic Village. By the time the siege ended, 11 Israeli athletes had been murdered; five terrorists were killed, and one German police officer died. 
   Movies have taken note. In 1999, One Day in September won an Oscar for best documentary. In 2005, Steven Spielberg released Munich, which dealt with fallout from the attack.
   Now comes September 5, a movie focused on how ABC covered an event that presented a real-time challenge for a crew that was ready to cover Olympic competition, not a gripping international news event with life-and-death stakes.
    The strength of Swiss director Tim Fehlbaum's approach rests on the recognition that those covering the Olympics were presented with logistical and ethical challenges for which they had no real preparation. 
   How would an exhausted crew handle the first live TV  broadcast of act of terror? Might such coverage jeopardize the hostages? What standards of confirmation would be employed to ensure the accuracy of ABC's reporting?
    At one point during the 15-hour broadcast, the crew received a report that the hostages were safe. ABC broadcast the news and later aired a correction. The report was false. 
    The incident raises a key issue about journalism conducted on the fly: the conflict between the pressure to be first and the responsibility to be right.
    ABC sports chief, Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), fought to keep the story away from ABC's news division. He thought his crew was up to the task. John Magaro portrays Geoff Mason, the producer who found himself directing ABC's coverage; it was Mason's first day on the job. 
    Leonie Benesch plays Marianne Gebhardt, a German crew member who became invaluable because none of the others spoke German. Ben Chaplin plays Marvin Bader, the executive in charge of Olympic operations. 
    While tensions ripple through the control room, Arledge finds himself jockeying for satellite time. As questions about competition arise, Arledge must decide whether to give ABC's live feed to CBS when that network takes control of the satellite, which was being shared.
   Looking back on it, the events of September 5 seem more significant than the coverage, but for millions around the world, Munich became inseparable from what they saw on TV. Live coverage already had insinuated itself into news, but Munich ratified it, leaving us with a question we still haven't answered: How much do we need to see when the worst things happen? And who decides?