Christopher Schroeder

Tag: movies

  • More From Moore

    More From Moore

    I can appreciate that Natalie Moore was able to watch both Prada movies with her mother but question the relevance of her most recent column.

    The sequel might have coincided as Moore suggests with a new Media Insight Project report, but it offers less about the future of media in the United States than she suggests. Rather, the movie relegates journalism, “Capital J” or not, to the setting for a continuing story that was started in the first movie.

    Corporate raiders might appear in the second to dismantle legacy publications, but the “page views” emphasis for example predates Andy’s return as the new features editor. Rather, the movie focuses primarily upon the relationship between Andy, who in her time away has become an award-winning journalist, and her former and future boss Miranda.

    This relationship, which occupies the center of this story, says more about time and aging, and the effects of these upon working relationships among women. Andy, who now trusts learned her instincts and advocates for herself, discovers that the world could be less vicious than she otherwise believed. Miranda in turn finds in Andy a former and perhaps future version of herself, someone who if they can collaborate will enhance both Miranda’s legacy and her life.

    This focus is not only established by the new working relationship between Andy and Miranda, but it is reinforced by the newfound friendship between Andy and her erstwhile rival Emily. Emily, who is working for Dior at the start of the movie, agrees to use her boyfriend Benji to buy the company and unbeknownst to Andy to install her in Miranda’s position, which Andy and Miranda subsequently prevent by finding yet another buyer, which nonetheless doesn’t prevent Andy and Emily from becoming friends.

    In this and other ways, this sequel is more about corporate relationships than the future of journalism, which makes this op-ed seem more like a vanity opportunity that allows Moore to reminisce about her mother and her career without offering much of substance to readers. This condition becomes even clearer in contrast with the only other op-ed in that Sunday newspaper.

    That reveals a larger concern, one that is actually about the future of journalism in Chicago. The Sun-Times seems to have generally reduced its op-eds, and some days offers none to its readers. Such circumstances can only increase the pressure for more from Moore, and from her editors and publisher.

  • Reality For Few

    Fantasy Life, which is a new movie written and directed by Matthew Shear, is a more substantial story than some critics seem to think.

    Sam (Shear), a law-school dropout, agrees to babysit his psychiatrist’s (Judd Hirch) granddaughters and soon thereafter finds ways to spend their mother Dianne (Amanda Peet), an unemployed actor. Dianne, who does little to discourage Sam’s attention, nonetheless ends the affair almost before it begins but uses it to needle her estranged, and increasingly inebriated, husband (Alessandro Nivola) and their parents over dinner in her parents’ summer home.

    Dianne’s husband, who drives away and then crashes his car, recovers in his parents’ home, but she eventually invites him home. Dianne later encounters Sam between sessions in another psychiatrist’s office, and asks him to meet her in a nearby coffee shop after hers, and they discuss their lives and split dessert before going their separate ways.

    Most credible critics seem satisfied with this movie, which some nonetheless consider “slight” or even unoriginal. I however found it perhaps more subtle and refreshing, which made it even more satisfying.

    The directing and acting are accomplished enough to support this unconventional plot. Dianne, who initiated their meeting and later hears the limitations of her belief after her new psychiatrist mirrors it back to her, seems incapable of expressing herself, and retreats into the less challenging topic of Sam’s missing money. Sam for his part seems relieved that Dianne doesn’t challenge his account of his life since he left after that disastrous dinner and in return accepts Dianne’s retreat.

    Both in other words recognize, and resign themselves to, unfinished realities, and neither pushes for more, which are choices only mature people, however messy, could make. Such lessons are ones many of us could learn, which is why it is a more substantial, and significant, story.

  • Towed Too Far

    Credible critics think well of think well of Tow, but I think it’s misfocused, and thus a middling movie.

    This movie tells the trust story of Amanda Ogle (Rose Byrne), a Seattle woman living in her old Toyota Camary that is stolen while she is interviewing for a job and then towed and sold. She discovers that she needs more than the court order she obtains, so she accepts the offer from a non-profit lawyer named Kevin (Dominic Sessa) and the kindness of Barb (Octavia Spencer), a homeless shelter manager, and others who are staying there, and eventually succeeds.

    The predictable focus of the movie, as written by Jonathan Keasey and Brant Boivin and directed by Stephanie Laing, is Amanda’s persistence. She is called a hero near its end by a reporter who wants to write about her experiences and efforts.

    This focus is reinforced by a successful ensemble, which enables Byrne to make the most of this character. It is reiterated by the apparent replacement of these actors by the people whom they’ve been portraying in a closing scene, which lasts longer than expected.

    The problem is that the Amanda’s efforts are less engaging than her need for connections and community. Amanda is reluctant when her car is towed to rely upon anyone, and must learn how to trust, and be trustworthy, again.

    This process starts in the shelter where Barb tells Amanda for example that her failures are familiar, and thus ones she can overcome, and where Amanda in turn mirrors this tough love to Denise (Ariana DeBose) and supports Nova (Demi Lovato), who is pregnant. Beyond the shelter, she forms semi-functional connections to her lawyer Kevin and even a tow-yard employee named Cliff (Simon Rex).

    Amanda admits to others in one of the support group sessions that she is an alcoholic and an addict who cannot without her car even see her estranged daughter (Elise Fisher). This admission initiates the emotional resolution much as if not more than the successful verdict.

    These moments however aren’t enough to dislodge the hero narrative at the center of this movie, which makes it messy, and not one that can ultimately hold the attention of its audience.