This is a (presumably) fictionalized dramatization of William Shakespeare’s romance, marriage and relationship with his wife, Anne Hathaway, and the loss of their son, Hamnet. The film dramatizes how Shakespeare, in dealing with the family’s grief, may have partly inspired him to write “Hamlet.”
I found the film unengaging—while the film opens with Shakespeare at odds with his father about becoming a playwright, we see none of his journey to success. While this may partly be because the film is primarily focused on Hathaway, it nevertheless creates a hole in the film. Indeed, while it’s clear Shakespeare and Hathaway genuinely love each other, due to his focus on his career, in the film, Shakespeare nevertheless is an absentee father whose live in London we never see.
Marty Supreme
In truth, it’s about a somewhat unlikable but laser-focused Marty Mauser (Timothy Chalomet), who’ll do whatever it takes to achieve his dream of competing in the table tennis British Open championship for personal glory and to bring American attention to the sport. And this often includes crossing moral (and legal) boundaries. The film’s saving grace is Marty occasionally showing some humanity and, at the end, once he’s achieved his goal, seemingly ready to get on with life.
One Battle After Another
I saw this film at its release, at Quentin Tarantino’s Vista Theatre in the L.A. neighborhood of Los Feliz, partly because it was one of two theaters in the country showing it in VistaVision.
While the film seems to have been roundly praised, I frankly didn’t know what to make of it. It seemed tonally all over the place and I was not sure whether it was intended to be taken seriously or not, and whether or not it’s a drama or a Roadrunner and Wylie Coyote cartoon. It made a little more sense after I learned that the film is based on a Thomas Pynchon novel which made the film’s reception even more surprising since I doubt most moviegoers aren’t familiar with the book.
Fackham Hall
Fackham Hall is a parody of British period shows of the Masterpiece Theatre variety, particularly Downton Abbey, in the same way Airplane was of disaster films. It definitely was a “throw everything against the wall and see what sticks” sort of a comedy. That said, while I chuckled a few times, and the name cast was generally game for anything, I thought there were more misses than hits. The best running gag for me was that J.R.R. Tolkien was one of the guests at the manor where a murder occurs (while still in the process of writing The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings), resulting in several amusing references and shout outs to the books.
Nouvelle Vague
Directed by Richard Linklater, Nouvelle Vague is a charming French language dramatization of the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s groundbreaking French new wave film, Breathless. Filmed in black and white, and told in a cinema verité style that mimics the original film, it takes you behind the scenes as Godard directs his film with no script and in guerrilla style, sometimes to the consternation of his actors and crew. Actress Zoey Deutsch is particularly luminous as American actress Jean Seberg.
Blue Moon
Also directed by Richard Linklater, Blue Moon was released just a few weeks after Nouvelle Vague. Set in a single night at a bar, it stars Ethan Hawke in a rare bit of character transformation as musical lyricist Lorenz Hart, as he reflects on his life and career during the opening night party of the musical Oklahoma!, written by his former colleague Richard Rodgers with his new partner, Oscar Hammerstein (a terrific Andrew Scott in an otherwise small role). Like a play, the evening unfolds as Rodgers struggles with the state of his life (obsessing over a young ingenue he has befriended played by Margaret Qualley), fearing that Rodgers and musical theater is moving on without him (as it did). While the film was a little talky at the beginning, the film hits its stride as it marches to a sad and tragic conclusion.
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