Notes From The Program Director | Week of April 5th, 2024

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Notes From The Program Director

Week of April 5th, 2024

Melissa Tamminga

Rich Text

April 5-11, 2024

The delightful Problemista -- which is “quirky, and fun, and very sweet,” to borrow the perfect wording of one of our Pickford volunteers -- continues for one more week, and we have two brand new films, which are getting passionate raves from film lovers and critics alike, to add to the mix: Love Lies Bleeding and Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World.

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World is the newest film from Romanian master filmmaker Radu Jude. Some of you may remember Jude's previous film, Bad Luck Banging or Looney Porn, which we played back in 2021, and this new film displays the same mad genius of Jude’s earlier work. Jude is known for his off-kilter, brilliant satire, his ability to skewer the realities of modern life in the most unexpected ways.

The film's basic storyline is relatively easy to sum up (although nothing about the way Jude approaches the subject matter is ever ordinary). Here's Marya Gates's summary of the film in her recent terrific interview with Jude in Ebert:

"Romanian writer-director Radu Jude's latest dark comedy Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World takes a sharp satirical swipe at the bleak realities of modern life under neoliberal capitalism. Through the story of an overworked and underpaid production assistant, his film explores the perils of exploitation, death, and the new gig economy."

The major portion of the film, then, follows Angela, the production assistant, who, working on very little sleep, must travel around the city filming the stories of injured workers for a workplace safety video. But that basic storyline is punctuated by two other wonderfully unexpected elements: 1) interludes where Angela films her own TikTok videos, in which she rather hilariously plays the part of a vulgar masculine alter-ego "Bobita," who comments on the world, and 2) portions of another Romanian film from 1981, Angela merge mai departe, about a taxi driver also named Angela. All of the elements of the film overlap and resonate suggesting connections that are both poignant and funny.

So while always having one through-line, Jude's films are gloriously complex and interesting in structure, full of bits and bobs, and various elements of the different mediums, from poetry and other films to Instagram videos -- lots of elements that suggest ideas and connections and invite the viewer to engage in surprising and powerful ways. But there's always so much cheeky humor in his films, too, that it doesn't matter if a viewer gets every reference -- Jude is clearly having fun and invites viewers to do the same, even when the satire bites sharply.

It's one of the funniest and most unusual films of the year and certainly one of the best.

Love Lies Bleeding, the new film from writer-director Rose Glass (Saint Maud), created a sensation at Sundance, where it premiered, making instant fans of critics and audiences alike, delighted by the “gleefully maximalist” (Dana Stevens, Slate) approach, and eventually earning a rare high score among critics on Rotten Tomatoes of 93% and resulting in lots of great writing about it. (Dana Stevens and Michael Phillips have written a couple of my favorite reviews.) I suppose I am most interested, however, to hear what our projectionists think of the film as it just might be one of their most anticipated films of the year, and it is in no small part due to their wonderful and passionate advocacy that I made doubly sure we were able to find a spot for it at the Pickford.

It’s a film I personally admire a bit more than I love, and that may have something to do with my own preconceived expectations for it; I love a good erotic crime thriller, and I went into it perhaps expecting something a bit more akin to the erotic noir of Body Heat or Gun Crazy and a bit less of the gleefully visceral gore, but bold choices are always welcome in the world of film, and Love Lies Bleeding is nothing if not exhilaratingly bold. Rose Glass fans, too, will certainly love how much it has in common with the director’s first feature film, the much-admired Saint Maud, with its blend of body horror and psychological thrills. Those who are in sway to the charms of Kristen Stewart (I am certainly not immune to them) will also find much to adore about the film, as well as much to love about her co-lead, the extraordinary and magnetic Katie O’Brien.

The story follows Lou (Stewart), a gym manager, who falls in love with Jackie (O’Brien) when Jackie stops at the gym on her way to Las Vegas, her destination for fulfilling her dream of entering the women’s body-building competition held there. But, as the title suggests, the “love” in this film is fraught and bloody, and Lou and Jackie’s relationship is quickly complicated by Lou’s mob boss of a father (played by an extraordinary, grimy Ed Harris) and by Lou’s brother-in-law (Dave Franco), who is in the habit of brutally beating Lou’s sister (Jena Malone).

Whatever my own feelings, ultimately, about the film, and while not for the faint of heart, it is, deservedly, one of the most-talked about of the year so far and well worth a spot on our screens. It’s impossible not to admire its over-the-top audacity, its superb performances, its commitment to truly stunning hairstyles (I’m still marveling at Dave Franco’s magnificently grody rat tail and Ed Harris’s bald head paired with impossibly stringy long hair), and its eclectic mix of genres--pulp, noir, body horror (a la Cronenberg)--and its sort of Cohen-esque tone (akin to Blood Simple). And I did truly love one moment near the end, which I won’t give away, but it involves a leap into the surreal, and it made me gasp with surprised delight. Rose Glass is, truly, a director to watch.

In addition to a second showing of National Theatre Live’s Dear England on Sunday at 10:30 am, we also have several special events this week:

Cinema East returns this month with Ann Hui’s Boat People (1982). Watch out for Cinema East curator Jeff Purdue’s newsletter, arriving in inboxes this Sunday, but in the meantime, here is the film description from the Criterion Collection: “One of the preeminent works of the Hong Kong New Wave, Boat People is a shattering look at the circumstances that drove hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese refugees to flee their homeland in the wake of the Vietnam War, told through images of haunting, unforgettable power. Three years after the Communist takeover, a Japanese photojournalist (George Lam) travels to Vietnam to document the country’s seemingly triumphant rebirth. When he befriends a teenage girl (Season Ma) and her destitute family, however, he begins to discover what the government doesn’t want him to see: the brutal, often shocking reality of life in a country where political repression and poverty have forced many to resort to desperate measures in order to survive. Transcending polemic, renowned director Ann Hui takes a deeply humanistic approach to a harrowing and urgent subject with searing contemporary resonance.” Join us on Tuesday, 7:45 pm, for Jeff’s in-person introduction and a screening of this extraordinary film.

Many of you, like me, perhaps watched the powerful, Oscar-nominated documentary Food, Inc. in 2008 (and committed to free-range chicken forever after), and Food, Inc. 2, here for a one-night-only screening this week, is the welcome follow-up to that earlier film. This new film posits that “individual purse-string choices can go only so far to build an ecosystem of kinder, gentler and more sensible proportions,” and a larger, more comprehensive system overhaul is necessary. As Sheri Linden notes in her Hollywood Reporter review, “Food, Inc. 2addresses issues of the utmost urgency, key among them unchecked business consolidation, the hegemony of multinational corporations, and an aggressive indifference to what’s healthful and sustainable for people, animals and the planet. The subject is food, yes — not in the sense of lifestyle choices but of life itself, in all its interconnected potential and vulnerabilities. The film’s closing credits include a Call to Action list, and among the uplifting and not unexpected exhortations for involvement and change is a dire warning that goes to the heart of the matter: ‘Monopoly power is a threat to our freedom.’” Join us on Thursday, 7:45 for this urgent and all-too-timely documentary.

Finally, the much-anticipated new film from British writer-director Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Annihilation, 28 Days Later, Sunshine), Civil War, arrives on our screens for a preview screening on Thursday, 8:30 pm. I’ll have much more to stay about this film in next week’s newsletter when it begins its full run, but for now I’ll just say two things: the trailer does not do the film justice (it’s much deeper, more interesting, and more unsettling than the trailer implies) and I have not been able to stop thinking about it ever since I saw it.

See you at the movies, friends!

Melissa