Hi there! My name is Mark Olsen. I’m thrilled to have you join me once again for our regular exploration of the world of Only Good Movies.
We’re buzzing with excitement over the news that our former team member, Justin Chang, bagged a Pulitzer Prize this week for his 2023 film criticism, written during his final full year with The Times.
He was applauded for an impressive collection of work which included commentaries on “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and “Oppenheimer,” in addition to reviews of “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt,” “All of Us Strangers,” “Past Lives,” “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and “The Holdovers.”
“It’s been an incredible honor and privilege to champion the art that I love at the L.A. Times, as well as the art appreciated by movie lovers in Los Angeles,” Chang expressed during a celebratory staff meeting on Zoom. “I know critics at other newspapers and other publications who’ve had to battle relentlessly to cover the things that truly resonate with them. I didn’t have to wage such a battle for a single second at the L.A. Times.”
Sommaire
‘Donnie Darko’s’ enduring impact
This evening, as part of the Academy Museum’s series on late-night movies, a 4K version of Richard Kelly’s 2001 “Donnie Darko” will be shown, with the filmmaker attending the event.
The film sparked a lot of debate and discussion when it was first shown at the Sundance Film Festival. However, its theater release shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, was less than fortuitous given its story about a mentally ill teenager and an aircraft engine that mysteriously falls from the sky wasn’t quite what viewers were seeking at the time. Yet, this film’s unique blend of Steven Spielberg, Stephen King, James Cameron and David Lynch — a fusion of teenage family drama with science fiction — gradually built a fandom that continues to grow to this day.
“I haven’t watched it from start to finish in a while,” shared Kelly, 49, in an interview earlier this week. “All I can see are the things that I want to alter or that still bother me about it.”
Featuring a young Jake Gyllenhaal as the titular character (his real-life sister Maggie plays his sibling in the movie), the story tracks a suburban teenager in the late ’80s who stops taking his medication and may be experiencing time travel.
In the years following “Donnie Darko,” Kelly has completed only two other features, 2006’s “Southland Tales” and 2009’s “The Box,” with numerous potential projects falling through. Kelly revealed that he relinquished all his rights to “Donnie Darko” when he was just 24 years old to be able to direct the film. (He has recently been trying to regain some ownership of the property.)
“I show up at these screenings and travel around the country, all over the world, and continue to promote this movie,” said Kelly. “I’m happy to do it because when you create something valuable, something that people continue to be interested in, I believe the best thing you can do as an artist is to be there in person and to support it.
“When I saw how it was resonating, all over the world, I felt, perhaps there’s something universal about it,” Kelly added. “And maybe, irrespective of the 1988 element, these themes are kind of timeless, whether it’s alienation or confronting authority or conformity or just the angst of transitioning from adolescence into adulthood. So I am kind of amazed that it continues to connect, and very grateful for that.”
While recently promoting the remake of “Road House” (in which he plays the role originally performed by Patrick Swayze), the “Nightcrawler” star spoke with deep affection about Swayze, who has a supporting role in “Donnie Darko.” Kelly pointed out that the infomercial footage scattered throughout “Donnie Darko” was only included in the film because Swayze and his wife, Lisa Niemi Swayze, invited a small crew to their ranch to film prior to the start of principal photography. Swayze’s wife brought out a rack of clothes worn by the actor for various appearances and photoshoots during the ’80s.
“Everyone got really excited because they could already see the vibe of the movie and the essence of the character and the kind of comedic absurdity of those infomercials,” Kelly reminisced. “And it was all thanks to Patrick, because he opened up his house to this first-time director. And he was willing to do that for us. It was incredibly generous of him and of Lisa, his wonderful wife.”
Kelly also reminisced about the first time they filmed the rabbit costume — known as Frank, played by James Duval — that has become such a significant part of the film’s iconography. It was only the second day of shooting and the production was at Loyola High School in Los Angeles. Cinematographer Steven Poster took time to perfect the eerie lighting around the creature’s disfigured face.
“And when Steven lit the rabbit, everyone on set became really quiet,” said Kelly. “And it was like, everyone realized, ‘We don’t know what this is, but it’s working.’ It’s creating a feeling. And it was a sigh of relief because everyone wasn’t sure if it was going to be comical or if it was just going to be laughable or simply ridiculous. And it is kind of all those things, a blend of all those emotions and feelings.
“And I remember Steven approached me as he was lighting it. He was the one responsible for making it look good,” said Kelly. “And he nodded to me like, OK, I get what you’re doing. You 25-year-old little scoundrel, I can’t believe they’re letting you get away with this. But we were in for the long haul. It was a moment.”
‘The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed’
Written, directed, edited by and starring Joanna Arnow, “The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed” is arguably the most audacious comedy of the year so far. The film features Ann (Arnow), a woman in her thirties living in Brooklyn, in a series of BDSM encounters with multiple men, while also juggling her family life and office job as a “clinical e-learning media specialist.” The film manages to unearth an awkward humor from every moment through the meticulous precision of performance, editing and camera placement, as it examines when and how Ann exercises control and influence in her life.
Arnow recently had a Zoom discussion along with executive producer Sean Baker, director of films such as “Starlet” and “Red Rocket” and the upcoming “Anora,” which will be premiering soon at the Cannes Film Festival.
Baker was on the jury of a short film contest that included Arnow’s 2015 “Bad at Dancing,” and although her film didn’t win, Baker reached out to her to express his admiration for it and the two stayed in touch.
Arnow’s past work includes 2013’s “I Hate Myself :)” a documentary about Arnow and a toxic boyfriend that has the same rhythm as her fictional work. In her debut feature with “The Feeling That…” Arnow expands her on-screen persona.
“I proudly label this as auto-fiction because while it draws on aspects of personal experience, it’s not autobiographical,” Arnow stated. “And a lot of that is about intent. It’s not aiming to be a truthful story in any way, but I love calling it auto-fiction because I feel like mining that personal experience and those real details, I hope, contributes more to the authenticity of the piece: casting my actual parents to play the parents, casting myself to play a version of myself.
“I just hope that all these touches of real experience enrich it,” she continued. “Sean’s films inspire me in the way that he includes both professional actors as well as first-time actors. I think this blend of acting styles gives it an exciting and vibrant texture.”
Arnow’s film joins a string of recent works, including “Passages,” “Love Lies Bleeding,” “Challengers” and even more mainstream titles like “No Hard Feelings” and “Anyone but You” that are striving to bring portrayals of sex and intimacy back to movies after a period of relative prudishness.
“To me, sexuality is part of the human experience, so it seems like a very interesting subject to explore on film,” Arnow commented. “I think the vulnerability and comedy of the absurd ways we connect with each other and the ways we grapple with that is just something very interesting to me. Of course, it’s extremely important that they are safe and consensual. But I didn’t really make this film to remedy a lack of sex scenes or for any representational politics.
“I do hope that it broadens the way sex scenes are portrayed,” Arnow added. “We don’t see that many women in their 30s with larger bodies shown nude. So it’s very meaningful to me when people approach me after a screening and say that they feel freer in some way to see a character like them represented in this way on screen. I am also interested in seeing BDSM portrayed in a way that feels more accurate, less sensationalized and presented with a sense of humor as well, since it’s really something that’s about role play and is a game. And I think people in the community see it with humor.”
Baker, who has never been one to avoid sex scenes of explicit material in his own work, including, he hints, his upcoming “Anora”: “Just wait for the new one, man, wait for the new one,” he says with a chuckle when asked about his stance on sex in movies.
“That’s what I really appreciated about Joanna’s approach to it, because it’s so objective and because there’s a real dose of humor,” said Baker. “It can be perceived in different ways by everybody. Somebody may find it incredibly hot, somebody may not. It’s more about how the individual audience member reacts to it. It’s not as if Joanna set out to make the most steamy film ever for everybody. It’s not that. It can mean many different things to many different people.”
It speaks to the balance that Arnow’s film strikes that it’s not entirely obvious how audiences are intended to interpret the sex scenes, as farcically comic or actually hot.
“I think I was more just focused on having the sex scenes in the film being used to tell the story that I was trying to tell,” said Arnow. “And so any hotness or lack of hotness — because I’ve heard both things from audiences — is just a side effect of the story that I was aiming for.”
Additional points of interest
‘The Mother and the Whore’ by Jean Eustache
On Sunday, Jean Eustache’s 1973 film “The Mother and the Whore” will be screened at Chinatown’s Now Instant Image Hall. The event will also feature a conversation between author Rachel Kushner and writer-filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin.
For a long time, Eustache’s work was difficult to access due to protracted rights issues. Thankfully, those have mainly been resolved. Much of Eustache’s filmography is currently available on the Criterion Channel. However, there is something unique and special about settling in for the full 219-minute experience of “The Mother and the Whore.” Featuring Françoise Lebrun, Bernadette Lafont and Jean-Pierre Léaud, the film is a microcosmic portrait of a generation and declining idealism, as a brief ménage à trois tears the main characters apart. (Fans of the recent “Past Lives” and “Challengers” should consider checking this one out.)
In 2022, Kushner recalled her first time seeing “The Mother and the Whore” at New York’s venerable Film Forum in 1997 for Harper’s, “I walked in with no idea of what I was in for. I left drained, too sad to talk, convinced this was the best movie I’d ever seen.”
In his original 1974 review of the film, Times critic Charles Champlin wrote, “It is too demanding for the casual moviegoer, but for those who believe the future and the health of cinema lies in daring to venture into what is, in one way or another, unorthodox and exploratory, Eustache’s film is a mind-blowing and unexpectedly touching experience, recommended to the well-rested, open-minded and strong-backed.”
And for those who are intrigued but can’t make it on Sunday, the movie is also currently available on the Criterion Channel.
Early works of Chantal Akerman
On Saturday, Acropolis Cinema will present a selection of films by Chantal Akerman, who tragically took her own life in 2015 before seeing her landmark 1975 film “Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles” top the 2023 Sight & Sound poll of the greatest films of all time.
The highlight of Saturday’s program will be four 8mm short films shot by Akerman in the summer of 1967, which were only discovered in 2021. These shorts precede 1968’s “Blow Up My Town” (“Saute ma ville”), the first recognized title in Akerman’s established filmography.
Also screening will be Akerman’s 2006 film “Down There” (“Là-bas”), with an introduction by filmmaker Nina Menkes. Made while Akerman was in Tel Aviv for a teaching job, the film transforms an exploration of her rented apartment into a contemplation of identity.
‘Rambling Rose’ / ‘Introducing Dorothy Dandridge’
The fact that I am only now finding space to mention the ongoing series at the American Cinematheque celebrating the work of director Martha Coolidge speaks to how busy things have been in town over the past few weeks. (A screening of “Valley Girl” was introduced by Nicolas Cage!)
This Sunday, there will be a double-feature of 1991’s “Rambling Rose” and 1999’s “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge,” both screened from Coolidge’s own 35mm prints. Coolidge posted online that this will be the first (and possibly only) theater screening ever of “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge,” which was made for HBO.
Star Halle Berry, also a producer on the project, won both a Golden Globe and an Emmy for her performance as Dandridge, star of films such as “Carmen Jones,” “Porgy & Bess” and “Island in the Sun.”
In a detailed 1999 story by Mimi Avins about the production of the film, Coolidge described some of what attracted her to telling Dandridge’s story.
“To me, this was the classic beautiful woman in Hollywood story,” Coolidge said. “Dorothy’s problem was worse because she was Black, but she was a woman who was used up by the system and then discarded. You couldn’t even put in a movie all the pressures those women were up against.”
“Rambling Rose” is also not to be missed. Adapted by Calder Willingham from his own novel, it tells the story of a 19-year-old girl who spends a summer living with a Southern family. The film earned Oscar nominations for Laura Dern and Diane Ladd, making them the first mother and daughter duo to be nominated for the same film or in the same year. The film also won Independent Spirit Awards for best film, for Coolidge’s directing and Ladd for supporting female performance.
Charles Champlin visited Ladd and Dern at Ladd’s West Hollywood apartment for a story in 1992 after their Oscar nominations. In addition to discussing how
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My name is Alex Carter, a journalist with a deep passion for independent cinema, alternative music, and contemporary art. A University of California, Berkeley journalism graduate, I’ve honed my expertise through film reviews, artist profiles, and features on emerging cultural trends. My goal is to uncover unique stories, shine a light on underrepresented talents, and explore the impact of art on our society. Follow me on SuperBoxOffice.com for insightful analysis and captivating discoveries from the entertainment world.