JASON AND SHIRLEY: A PORTRAIT OF A GREAT PRETENDER ON THE LGBT FRONTIER

JASON AND SHIRLEY LAYS BARE THE TORTURED SOUL OF AN EMOTIONALLY HAMPERED GENIUS

Reviewed by Dwight Casimere

Theatrical Premiere: The Museum of Modern Art, October 19, 2015

Jason and Shirley is a cinematic recreation by NYC-based filmmaker Stephen Winter (Chocolate Babies). Based on  Oscar-winning avant garde filmmaker and director Shirley Clarke’s groundbreaking documentary, Portrait of Jason, released in 1967 and premiered at the New York Film Festival that same year, winter’s version shows all of the stuff that may or may not have happened behind the scenes while the camera was rolling. It’s an intriguing concept that takes the old ‘fly on the wall’ concept to new heights.

 Jason Holliday, the central character, is black and gay at a time when the legitimacy of both hung in the national balance.  At times hilarious, and alternately desperate and heartbreaking, the film is a brilliant reincarnation.  Veteran downtown New York actor and filmmaker Jack Waters is superbly cast as Jason and renowned writer and activist Sarah Schulman is spot-on as director  and sometime adversary Shirley Clarke (we later learn in the film that her real name is Sarah Brimberg. That her father was a manufacturing scion, and that she grew up on Park Avenue in the lap of luxury). 

 Shirley Clarke was an anomaly of her time and was on the short list of groundbreaking female directors working in the 1960s ; Ida Lupino, an actress (often with husband Howard Duff) and pioneer of the ‘film noir’ genre, Mai Zetterling, another actress-turned-director, Sara Aldredge, an innovator in experimental film, and Carolee Schneemann, who pioneered films dealing with the issues of sexuality, power and gender.  Clarke won an Academy Award in 1963 for Robert Frost: A Lover's Quarrel With the World, and was co-nominee for Skyscraper (1960). Clarke made Skyscraper with two other documentary filmmakers. In 1964, The Cool World became the first independently-made film to be screened at the Venice International Film Festival.

Sketch of Jack Waters as Jason Holliday by Bizzy Barefoot 

The genesis of Jason and Shirley is almost worthy of its own atmospheric film, evoking the free-wheeling era of the 1960s. The original documentary was filmed on the evening of  Saturday, December 3, 1966. Director Shirley Clarke and her crew, consisting of her unwilling son, Nico, who needed the practical experience for film school ( she filmed Jason for twelve straight hours. The shoot started at 9pm. To say that it was exhaustive is an understatement). I saw the restoration of the original at the IFC film center in the Village last spring. In it, the only person you see on-camera is Jason Holliday (who we learn is actually named Aaron Payne (1924-1998) of Trenton, New Jersey). This was the ‘60s. Yet, in spite of The Beatles, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement, free love, drugs and the Hippie Culture, it was still a time when it was illegal to be gay in the US.

In the original film, we hear the director and others commenting off camera, but we never see them. Here, director Winter fills in all the blanks and fleshes out the imagined drama behind the scenes, which is only hinted at in the original film.

Director Stephen Winter (r) on the set at the Chelsea Hotel with actor Gordon Beeferman 

The film is set primarily in the claustrophobic world of Clarke’s penthouse apartment in the Hotel Chelsea. Before you get too carried away with an image of unbridled lavishness and wealth, consider that the ‘penthouse’ has beaded curtain room dividers between the living room and the kitchen (a totally hippy-ish glamour touch) and, by her own admission, wrinkled bed sheets on a pull-out bed covered with Madras-print pillows in the living room. The nicest thing in whole apartment is the faux fireplace mantle with its fake lilacs in a vase and an African mask on the wall.

A director friend who loaned her the camera equipment, who turns out to be a virulent racist and homophobe, first suggests throwing it all out, but once he learns the drill, feels the tacky backdrop may be just right. Too bad he couldn’t stick around, he might have made an excellent source of running conflict throughout the film, but the tension between Jack and Shirley proves to be enough.

Early on, the director has to practically beg her son and boom mike operator, Nico, to straighten up the place (played with appropriate reluctant uneasiness by Eamon Fahey, who is, at times, the queasy object of Jason’s wandering gay eye “Ohh! You cookin’ up some juicy chicken meat up in here!” he declares upon entering Clarke’s apartment and spying her young son). 

Bryan Webster is absolutely delightful as the dope dealer friend Candy Man, whose long-awaited arrival propels the film to its denouement. He does his best to look like a barefoot Ray Charles, delivering the much-demanded dope that Jason says he needs in order to relax and ‘be real’ on-camera.

In the film, Jason, in his exaggerated manner of speaking through his alcohol and drug fueled haze, spins extraordinary tales about his a career as a quasi-drag nightclub entertainer, which appear to be more imaginary (especially when he’s high) than real.  In real life, there’s only one known performance of his cabaret act in a one-night-only performance in the theatre district.

His confrontations with his father; growing up in Trenton is at the center of his internal conflicts. He describes in creepy detail one encounter with his father as a toddler that may or may not reveal the origins of his sexual preferences. He is similarly vague about the sexual encounters that occurred later in life when he was arrested and imprisoned at Rikers Island and was, presumably, raped and driven to the point of attempted suicide.

The one thing he is perfectly clear about is that he is a hustler, who is not above sex play-for-pay and who willingly lowers himself to work as a sex slave/servant to wealthy white women who are thirsting for companionship.

“We’re all ‘niggers’ Jason declares more than once, taunting director Clarke because of her Jewish heritage and wealth. In his derision, he also makes his point about the role-playing and masquerading that everyone does in one way or another to keep the grist in their mill.

Along the way, he reveals some harsh truths by way of raw, entirely classless humor. “What do you call a nigger whose been shot 14 times?!  A botched suicide attempt!” presciently referencing the present day ‘black lives matter’ protests over the unlawful killings of young black men.

Another ‘Bon Mot;’ ‘Niggers are constantly in pain. They won’t open an aspirin bottle because they refuse to once again pick cotton,” referring to the cotton ball enclosures in aspirin bottles of the time. In it’s own way, the comment makes a sort of lame social statement.

Jason repeatedly avoids director Shirley Clarke’s probing questions. “Tell me about your old man,” she asks repeatedly, asking him to address his obviously rocky relationship with his father. He finally remits, after his good friend and dope dealer Carl Lee, a fellow would-be actor caught up in his own snake-pit of sexual identity and drug addiction belatedly arrives on the scene.

When he finally arrives on the scene, Clarke enlists his help in breaking Jason down to finally reveal his true self, sans the posturing and the bullshit. Even when Jason finally crumbles in tears at Lee’s incessant prodding, we still wonder if he’s is leveling with us, or just embarking on another of his charades.

Sadly, Jason Holliday died a pauper in 1998 at the age of 74. He was cremated and there was no funeral service or memorial and no relatives of record. His burial place is unknown.

 Jason and Shirley is, as was the original, an important film in the LGBT film lexicon. The brilliant acting and meticulous recreation of historic and psychological time and place alone make it worthy of attention.

Director Stephen Winter does a masterful job of recreating the shoot-from-the-hip style of the original, groundbreaking documentary by the Oscar-winning Shirley Clarke, with terrific performances by Jack Waters in the title role and Sarah Schulman as director, Clarke. It’s a short, but highly engrossing film.

There’s a lot packed into its slight 79 minutes and the viewer isforced to pay attention to every spoken word and nuance of meaning.  Jason/Waters provides plenty of quotable lines, all laced with dry humor and a hint of simmering rage. I’ll leave you with one of the more delectable ones. “I’m tri-sexual. Which means I’ll try anything!” And there you have Jason Holliday and the lingering impression of Jason and Shirley in a nutshell.

MOMA PRESENTS

JASON AND SHIRLEY.A NEW FILM BY STEPHEN WINTER

DRAMA, COMEDY, HISTORICAL RE-IMAGINATION

79 MINUTES

PREMIERE ENGAGEMENT-NEW YORK MUSEUM OF MODERN ART  OCTOBER 19-27 CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR FUTURE DATES AND THEATRE LOCATIONS NATIONWIDE

FINDERS KEEPERS A DOCUMENTARY THAT PROVES TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION

Finders Keepers in select theatres and now available on iTunes and Video On Demand

                                  

by Dwight Casimere

Perhaps the most bizarre and, paradoxically, redemptive documentary to be seen this year is directors Bryan Carberry and J. Clay Tweel's "Finders Keepers." The film is proof that truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

"It's a funny story," asserts Peg Wood, the mother of the principal protagonistk, John Wood, "but it was born of tragedy." Not even the Cohen brothers could have invented this one. "Finders Keepers" is the story of John Wood and Shannon Whisnant, two men thrown together by the fickle finger of fate and pitted against each other of possession of a mummified amputated leg. That's right, a mummified amputated leg. Set in the microscopic town of Maiden, North Carolina, the circuitous odyssey of this taxidermal McGuffin goes all the way from Maiden, to the TV talk show studios of Europe and back to the U.S. syndicated TV courtroom of Judge Mathis, where it is finally resolved. For a time, the story captures the imagination of the entire world and dominated social media, then in its infancy. 

"Finders Keepers is a Sundance 2015 selection and winner of "Best Comedy" at the 2015 Traverse City Film Festival. So, in spite of its ridiculous premise, it is not with pedigree or merit.

The original owners of said leg is John Wood, lost it in a plane crash a few years ago, in which, tragically, his father died. His father was a pillar of the community and an idol to John, who always felt dwarfed in his shadow. John could never live up to his father's expectations growing up and now that his father is gone, John felt it only appropriate that he keep his severed leg as a fractured tribute to his father's memory. 

John Wood and Shannon Whisnant square off in a pivotal scene of "Finders Keepers"



An unfortunate turn of events ensued post-accident. John was thrown out of the house by his mother because of his drug addiction. He was subsequently evicted from his apartment and all of his belongings, including the precious leg which John stowed inside a rusted out barbeque grill in a storage unit, which eventually went to auction for non-payment of rent.

 Enter  Shannon Whisnant, a John Goodman-type low-level entreprenuer who makes his living by seemingly usely bric-a-brac and selling it to unsuspecting oafs with a good deal of showmanship and a steady line of B.S. Whisnant harbors desires of becoming some type of celebrity and suddenly he sees this dried up remnant of human existence as his ticket to fame.  "He thought he was gonna be the next Billy Bob Thornton," one interviewee says of him. Like I said, no one could make this up.

 John Wood's nemisis in the fight for possession of his amputated leg, Shannon Whisnant, makes an appearance via Sype at a preview screening for journalists at the time of the New York Film Festival

 The story behind "Finders Keepers" unfolds like a long-running joke, with folks like his sister, in-laws, and mother chiming in at intervals. Buot the center of the story clearly focuses on the rivalry between the two men, Whisnant and Wood, and they're bizarre obsession with gaining possession of the foot.

 Directors Bryan Carberry and J. Clay Tweel address the media along with Shannon Whisnant

 News clips interspersed throughout the film portray it as a kind of freak show, but clearly, from the standpoint of Wood and Whisnant, this is no laughing matter. There's a particularly riveting scene in which Wood and Whisnant meet following a news conference in the parking lot outside the local Dollar Store. The scene firmly roots the film in reality as the men go toe-to-toe. 

As eccentric as it all seems, there's a go-for-broke quality behind the entire quest by the two men. Whisnant eventually gets fed up with the hypicracy of the whole reality tv game and Wood learns that life can hold hidden lessons, even in the most adverse of situations. 

As crazy as it all seems on the surface, "Finders Keepers" is a film with a lot of heart that will give you renewed faith in humanity and a truly warm feeling of hope, even when presented with the most absurd and futile circumstances. 

John Wood, the protagonist in "Finders Keepers," determined to gain custody of his amputated leg at all costs


FINDERS KEEPERS
A FILM BY CLAY TWEEL AND BRYAN CARBERRY
RATED R FOR LANGUAGE
82 MINUTES
AVAILABLE NOW ON iTUNES AND ALL VIDEO ON DEMAND PLATFORMS

"IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE: A FAMOUS RAPPER'S JOURNEY TO FIND HIS FATHER

THE SON BECOMES THE FATHER IN AWARD WINNING DOCUMENTARY

OPENING FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, IN AMC THEATRES NATIONWIDE (see listing
at end of article)

IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE

Reviewed by Dwight Casimere

World Premiere-2015 Tribeca Film Festival

WINNER: Southwest Airlines Audience Award Overall Winner-, Documentary Competition2015 Nashville Film Festival
Honorable Mention, Best Original Song, "Found You," performed by Rhymefest-2015 Nashville Film Festival

Brian Che "Rhymefest" Smith is an Oscar  Winning (Best Song "Glory," from the motion picture Selma, with fellow Chicago rapper Common) and Grammy Award-winning rapper ("Jesus Walks" with Kanye West). Not bad for a kid from the South Side of Chicago. But there was one important piece missing from his life. He didn't know his father, and the thought haunted him. An odyssey of events, that would end his 25 year old estrangement, began with a single act that became the turning point in his life.

By happenstance, he stumbled upon the childhood home of his father and decided to buy it, and thus began a chain of events that ultimately became a story of personal discovery and redemption from Tribeca Independent Spirit Award-nominated filmmakers Ricky Stern and Annie Sundberg (The Devil Came on Horseback,  The Trials of Darryl Hunt, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, Knuckleball!).

Award-nominated film directors Ricky Stern and Annie Sundberg

"Be careful what you ask for," the old folks always warned, and Rhymefest learned that time-worn chestnut's meaning in spades when he finally did meet his father, whom he discovered living homeless in a park not far from the house he had purchased and only a few blocks from the high school where his wife worked. The two had probably passed him by every day without knowing. The irony of it all is stunning.

Rhymefest is currently the featured principal of Kenneth Cole's Fall 2015 Ad Campaign, "The Courage Class." Perhaps you've seen it on the subway already. Now you know who he is.


There are no free gifts, and Che's father comes with a 'sh...tload of emotional baggage and a drinking problem to boot. The first job, was to get him cleaned up; out of the homeless shelter and into his own apartment and, most importantly, into alcohol abuse counseling.

Mission accomplished on the physical transformation of estranged father Brian Tillman.  The real Jesus-carpentry work to be accomplished was on his father's  broken insides, and the painful stitch-by-stitch healing of Che's open wound resulting from his abandonment and estrangement. That is the crux of the film and the gateway to the road to self-discovery that both father and son journey upon.

Rhymefest's dad, Brian Tillman, laughs it up with the filmmakers at the premiere

Besides the challenges of the turn-around relationship of practically 'raising' his new-found father, Rhymefest has his own personal challenges; trying to grow a new family of his own with wife Donnie, while simultaneously blending in   this new-found entity. At times, the synergy is rocky, at best. (At one point, Che has to take complete control of his father's runaway drinking habit, forcing his father to sign a pledge/contract to end his wanton ways and re-enter counseling, or be thrown out of his apartment.)

The film deals with a very touchy, but pervading issue; that of the horrendous number of black men in America who grow up without any knowledge of or connection to their fathers. Even our very own African American president is a victim of this syndrome.  "In My Father's House" is a powerful documentation of one  man's effort to wrestle with his difficult past, overcome his emotional shortcomings,  and find a source of personal redemption for the future. Along the way, he mends the torn fabric of his family and repairs, not only his father's ruptured soul, but his own.

Shooting on the fly, as Stern and Sundberg did, creates its own set of challenges, and gives the film a kind of gritty, almost news video look, and that's just fine for this film, because the events seem to unfold in real time, and we're right there on the gritty streets of Chicago, right at Rhymefest's elbow through it all.

This is an extremely important film that should be seen by the entire family. Below is the listing of AMC Theaters and cities where the film can be seen. Most AMC theaters have discounts for seniors and the disabled and special days with bargain prices for all, so there's no excuse.

IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE OPENS ON OCTOBER 9  AT THE FOLLOWING THEATERS NATIONWIDE ATLANTA – AMC Southlake 24 BOSTON – AMC Boston Common 19 CHICAGO – AMC River East 21 DALLAS – AMC Firewheel 18 DENVER – AMC Westminster Promenade 24 HOUSTON – AMC Studio 30 Houston KANSAS CITY – AMC Town Center 20 LOS ANGELES – AMC Burbank 8 MIAMI – AMC Sunset 24 MINNEAPOLIS – AMC Southdale 16 NEW YORK CITY – AMC Empire 25 NEW YORK – AMC Palisades 21 ORLANDO – AMC Disney 24 PHOENIX – AMC Deer Valley 17 PITTSBURGH – AMC Waterfront 22 SAN DIEGO – AMC Fashion Valley 18 SAN FRANCISCO – AMC Metreon 16 SEATTLE – AMC Alderwood 16 TAMPA – AMC Veterans 24 WASHINGTON, DC – AMC Hoffman 22 MORE INFO The filmmakers, Che “Rhymefest” Smith, and a coalition of partner organizations will launch the #ShareYourTruth social impact campaign surrounding the theatrical release of the film. The initiative encourages audiences to share their own stories, struggles, and triumphs, much like Che, as a means to spark conversation, empower individuals, and unite communities nationwide. Stay informed by signing up at www.InMyFathersHouseFilm.com and join in by sharing your truth on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr and tagging it with the hashtag #ShareYourTruth. Official Movie Website & Trailer: http://www.inmyfathershousefilm.com Trailer https://tribecafilm.com/filmguide/in-my-fathers-house-2015 Social Media Sites: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/inmyfathershousefilm Twitter: @IMFHfilm Instagram: @InMyFathersHousefilm CREDITS Directors: Ricki Stern, Annie Sundberg Screenwriters: Ricki Stern, Annie Sundberg, Pax Wassermann Producers: Ricki Stern, Annie Sundberg, Charles Miller Editors: Pax Wassermann, Tim K. Smith Co-Producer: Jameka Autry Cinematographer: Charles Miller Composer: Paul Brill Cast: Che "Rhymefest" Smith, Brian Tillman, Donnie Smith a BREAK THRU FILMS production

Goodman "Feathers and Teeth" Kicks Off 2015/16 Owen Theatre Season

Bone-chilling Dark Comedy by Charise Castro Smith will set your teeth on edge

Get Your Halloween on early with Charise Castro Smith's deliciously dark comedy "Feathers and Teeth" which kicks off Goodman Theatre's 2015/2016 season in the Owen Theatre. Developed in Goodman's 2014 New Stages Festival of new plays by established and emerging playwrights in American theatre, the play is directed by Resident Artistic Associate Henry Godinez, the pioneer in  programming works by Latino artists at Goodman. Feathers and Teeth runs in the Owen Theatre through October 18. For ticket information, visit GoodmanTheatre.org/Feathers.

Feathers and Teeth is a theatrical homage to 1970s horror films through the filter of the revenge play.  The play opens with father Arthur's (Goodman veteran Eric Slater, Smokefall, Revenge of the Space Pandas) new live-in fiance-from-hell,  Carol (Jeff Award nominee Christina Hall), making a disastrous attempt at preparing the family pot roast meal. Father Arthur pulls into the driveway, running over a mysterious creature, which he brings in squirming and moaning inside Carol's discarded roasting pot, which turns out to be the only remaining heirloom left by his deceased wife, Ellie (Ali Burch, in her Goodman debut). Her daughter, 13 year old Chris (who appeared in the New Stages Festival reading and workshop productions of  Feathers and Teeth) is convinced her father's fiance is ill-intentioned and may have even had something to do with her mother's death, but Dad isn't hearing any of it. Enter Chris's dorky would-be suitor Hugo (Jordan Brodess, another New Stages production alum), and you have all the makings of a mad-cap horror comedy.

Carol (Christina Hall) is the new, live-in  fiance of Arthur (Eric Slater)

Olivia Cygan as daughter Chris, is perplexed over the cause of her mother, Ellie's death (Ali Burch, seen as a shadowy figure in the background, in her Goodman debut)

The laughs, the quirkiness and the gore build steadily over the next intermission-less 90 minutes. The pacing is masterfully orchestrated by director Godinez. In spite of the mayhem, the laughs are side-splitting. (There's plenty of that onstage too!)

One stroke of genius is the addition of a Foley Artist (so-named for radio drama sound effects artist Jack Foley), Carolyn Hoerdemann, who can be seen in a balcony alcove just above the stage wielding any number of  props and injecting  sounds to give voice to the play's creature and audio texture and nuance  to the scenes as they unfold. Seen in an eery half-light, she's a treat to watch in her animated pursuit of the perfect sound effect for the moment. Although practically off in the rafters, she's just as much a part of the production as the actors on stage.

Besides being a terrific play that somehow touches on the delicate subject of death and a family's     dysfunctional ability to cope with ensuing grief, it also blends that underlying theme with a horror story that is a hoot every step of the way. Credit the  skills of playwright Charise Castro Smith, who was one of the bright lights of last year's New Stages Festival, with credits both as a writer and actress (plays include Estrella Cruz/The Junkyard Queen at Ars Nova ANT Fest/Yale Cabaret/Upcoming:Halycon Theatre), Boomcracklefly (Miracle Theatre in Portland, Oregon) and, acting credits in Royal Shakespeare Company/Gable Stage/The Public Theatre Antony and Cleopatra and TVs The Good Wife and Unforgetable.  Castro Smith is one of the bright new voices among Latino writers. Director Henry Godinez is credited with spearheading Goodman's first Latino Theatre Festival in 2003, which showcases Latin theatre artists from Chicago and around the world, including Barcelona and Mexico City. Before Godinez directed the Goodman/Teatro Vista co-production of Cloud Tectonics by Jose Rivera in 1995, Goodman had never produced a play by a Latino writer. The Goodman has hosted five more Latino Theatre Festivals over the next decade and has simultaneously included more Latino works in its regular season.

 This staging of Feathers and Teeth is proof positive that works by Latino artists are not only an integral part of Goodman's programming, but provide for a delightful theatrical experience that everyone can enjoy.

BECOMING BULLETPROOF DOCUMENTARY CHALLENGES VIEWS ON THE DISABLED IN FILMS

Becoming Bulletproof in select theaters nationwide September 25th

by Dwight Casimere

The Documentary film-within-a-film "Becoming Bulletproof" challenges our ideas on the viability of disabled actors in film and raises the question as to why we don't see more of them in mainstream films.  Winner of several major awards at film festivals around the country, including Best Documentary, Hollywood Film Festival, Audience Favorite, Heartland Film Festival, it is probably one of the most engaging and thought provoking films you will see this year. 

The brainchild of brothers Will and Pete Halby of the Zeno Mountain Farm film project in Vermont and directed by Michael Barnett with producer Theodore James the film goes behind the scenes in the making of a Western entitled "Bulletproof," which is filmed on vintage Hollywood sets (the final shootout takes place on the actual set of the landmark film Gunfight at the OK Corral), complete with authentic Western wardrobe and a plot filled with saloon brawls, poker table showdowns and, of course, a final, defining gunfight.  The film combines the talents of both disabled and non-challenged actors and is a sometimes hilarious and often poignant examination of the interaction between society and the disabled and the power of film to level the playing field,  prompting personal revelations on both sides.

The project is an annual film camp conducted by the brothers, using a cast of disabled participants from around the country. 30 year old A.J. Murray, from Atlanta, who has severe cerebral palsy, requiring him to have complete round-the-clock care, plays the town mayor. Jeremy Vest, 27, born with Williams Syndrome, a rare neurodevelopment disorder,  is the film's hero, Bulletproof Jackson. Zach Gottsagen, 20, who has Down's Syndrome, is the local gambling mogul Gar Vunderson and 51 year old Judy Moscariello, who has cerebral palsy is a woman emotionally devastated by her lover's murder.

The film masterfully interweaves scenes of the making of the film set in the 1890s Old West with real-life present day challenges the actors face in their day-to-day lives and the heroism it takes to meet the challenging rigors of making a film, often against physical and emotional obstacles. The arduous process of film-making is taxing, even to those who are not physically or emotionally challenge and the 'actors' here are often pushed to their limits. Along the way, there's a journey of self-discovery, a great deal of tears and more than a few laughs. There's even a marriage proposal. "We're not trying to teach anything," project founder Will Halby explains on camera. "This is all about making an awesome movie. We're not making a statement." We quickly learn that there's much more than that simple declaration afoot. The actors are forced to meet their challenges head on and push beyond them for the good of the project. In stretching beyond their physical and emotional disabilities, they learn a vital lesson in self worth. Their lives take on new meaning and purpose. 

"I feel so useless and such a burden to everyone the rest of the time. Here, I feel I'm significant. I have dignity! " A,J, declares tearfully at the conclusion of filming. After hours of rehearsal, he is finally able to deliver the film's concluding dramatic line. It is a defining moment, not only for the film, but for A.J.

The film really gets the viewer uncomfortably up close and personal with its disabled subjects, particularly A.J., who is the most challenged of all. He requires constant care, with someone having to perform the most elemental tasks for him, including washing and feeding him. Its uncomfortable to watch at first, but, as the film progresses, you look beyond his limitations and start rooting for him to nail his lines.

"Becoming Bulletproof" is a film that challenges everyday assumptions about the ability of the disabled to become full participants in society and challenges our pre-conceived notions about them. Bullletproof also shows how the creative process can lift  the human spirit to surprising heights of attainment.

Becoming Bulletproof

A SuperFilms Production

Director Michael Barnett

Producer Theodore James

Cast Will Halby, Peter Halby, Vanessa Halby, Jeremy Vest, Peter Lazarus, Dominique Dauwe, A.J. Murray, Zach Gottsagen, Judy Moscariello, Amy Brenneman.

Richard Gere "Time Out of Mind" Now In Select Theatres Nationwide

Reviewed at the 2014 New York Film Festival
by Dwight Casimere

NEW YORK--"Handsome." "Homeless." Only one of those words would be the first thing to come to mind in a word-association test in relation to the actor Richard Gere. However, in Director Oren Moverman's (The Messenger, Rampart)  observational film "Time Out of Mind," the "silver fox" of leading men (The Cotton Club, Pretty Woman, Arbitrage) manages to devolve himself to the status of a befuddled homeless man, whom it takes us almost half the film to learn is George Hammond, a man formerly of some means and a stable family life, who, as the result of an unspecified set of circumstances, finds himself homeless. I found the film troubling to watch and a bit unsettling perhaps because given today's precarious social and economic times, George could be you or me in the blink of an eye.

We meet George, who at this moment is nameless, sleeping in the bathtub of an abandoned apartment somewhere in Manhattan's East Village. The building manager, played by Steve Buscemi (Tv's "Empire Boardwalk") is trying to uproot him, because, apparently, the heretofore abandoned and dilapidated building has been sold to new owners and is in for a facelift and George, along with any other squatters, who may have occupied the premises, have to hat up and head out. George emerges from his fog long enough to protest and vaguely mumble that he's awaiting the return of someone named "Sheila," who we surmise may be his estranged wife, who we later learned has died from cancer. When George arises to stumble his way out, he eventually stands erect and we see him dressed in the remains of what was a formerly a quite nice business suits, and to click open the roller bag extension handle of one of those pieces of hard-bodied Samsonite luggage that road-warrior business store in the overhead bins on business flights. Its a brief glimpse into George's now distant past.

Dwight Casimere with Director Oren Moverman (l) at the 2014 New York Film Festival

There's quickly another clue. On his way on the road to oblivion, in which he'll be sleeping in subway trains, hustling spare change for cheap beer and a sandwich or wondering where his next warm bed is for the night, he spots a beautiful young girl and her Reggae-looking hip black boyfriend. He follows them through the East Village's storied Tompkin's Square. It quickly becomes evident that this is his estranged daughter, Maggie (Jena Malone), a bartender in a local pub. There are several tense scenes in that pub between the two as the film unfolds and we see George at various stages of devolution. The daughter/George sparring  is sort of a plot touchstone that brings us to the films touching conclusion.

Director Moverman's style of shooting the film with his long-time collaborator, cinematographer Bobby Bukowski has the look and feel of a narrative or documentary, almost bordering on the exhaustive work of Frederick Wiseman. There's good reason for that comparison. The film itself has been in gestation for thirty years, with Gere and Moverman picking up the baton in the past decade. We see Gere looking at life through windows and screens, acting  as if he were struggling to touch the beings inside, but being blocked by an invisible barrier at every turn.

Richard Gere in an unguarded moment following a news conference at the 2014 NYFF


The film immerses the viewer in George's world. Shadowy figures swirl around him as New Yorkers go about their daily business, oblivious to the struggles and inner conflicts he endures. We hear snatches of conversations a the drama of other people's lives play out just outside the range of his peripheral vision. The random sounds are deliberately left in the film, according to director Moverman, in order to heighten its sense of reality. "Every director wants 'clean sound.' We decided to leave all the distracting noise in the film, because the reality is that while George is going through his troubles, other people's real-life dramas are also being played out." The sense of encroachment is everywhere. The sirens, the off-camera arguments between couples. George can't get a good night's sleep in the streets because of all the noise. Selling his good suit and overcoat, he's able to scrape up enough money for a handful of loose cans of beer, that he quaffs down at daybreak in order to drown out the pain of his misery.

Richard Gere (l) and Director Oren Moverman field reporter's questions at the 2014 NYFF
The technique of shooting Gere from afar was actually a device employed by Moverman in creating the film.  In a news conference following the press screening for the New York Film Festival, Moverman shared how he got shots of Gere panhandling from afar with a hidden camera from inside a Starbucks almost a block away. The interactions between Gere and the passersby were real and palpable. Most ignored him. A few acknowledged him and some even recognized the star beneath the scruffy exterior. "It was kind of a Rorschach test for people. One was a French tourist, a woman who thought I was really a homeless guy and tried to give me some food.  The other two who recognized me were African American and when they just passed me they went, 'Hey Rich. How you doin' man!?' There was no question about what I was doing or  'Have you fallen on hard times?' and 'What happened to your career?' Just 'Rich, how you doin' man,' and they just continued on their way."

For the most part, people barely looked at him and that is precisely the theme that recurs throughout the film. Gere makes the point several times as the character Geoge. "Nobody sees us. We're invisible," he tells a hyperactive wanderer he befriends in the Bellevue homeless shelter, played with exquisite
high-wire pirouettes by veteran stage and screen mega-star Ben Vereen. "We're cartoon characters," he says, doing robotic moves with Vereen in the middle of the street. The rest of the time, George spends his time drinking or repeating cryptic pharases absent-mindfully. His delirium speaks more to his sense self-loathing and denial  than it does to any real cognitive loss. Oh, about that handsomeness. Reference is made several times in the film and brought home in multiple utterances by a case worker who is screening him prior to admitting him to the homeless shelter. "I'll give you your pass to get a bed tonight if you'll answer my questions, 'handsome," she says, bribing him into cooperation.

George/Gere has a tryst with a homeless woman, who he mistakenly calls Sheila, played with relish by Kyra  Sedgwick. Apparently it was enough to get her attention. The two have a tete-a-tete at a picnic table overlooking the East River, then indulge in a roll in the hay in a knapsack in a back alley. Love among the ruins.


I know, it's hard to imagine Richard Gere as a disheveled homeless person, no matter how much research he does and how much he adorns himself in sack-cloth and ashes, he will always be one of this era's most potent leading men. It's to his credit as both an actor and as a human being, that he is able to immerse himself in a character and give him breath and life and make you want to reach to touch him with empathy. "I think we all have a yearning to be known and be seen," he told the news conference assemblage at Lincoln Center. "I come her and you want to hear what I want to say. But, I'm the same guy that I was on the street, and no one wanted to hear his story. I could see how quickly we can all descend into this scary territory when we're totally cut loose from all our connections to people."

The title for the film is gleaned from a Bob Dylan studio album of the same title. Moverman also cowrote the 2007 Bob Dylan curiosity "I'm Not There," on the set of which Moverman and Gere met. "There was a book, "Land of Lost Souls," by a guy named Cadillac Man, a homeless man. It was a very unschooled autobiography, but it was by someone who was able to communicate his world," Gere explained.  "I knew this was the way it should feel....that point of view.

"What I wanted to convey is the sense of the process being the movie. Going through the bureaucracy is enough plot. You don't need to pump it up. Life itself, without any dramaturgy, is enough."

Goodnight Mommy An Unsettling Bedtime Story

by Dwight Casimere

Open Friday, September 11 in select theaters

                                                            

It begins withe Brahm's famous lullaby and shots of sandy- blond twins, Lukas and Elias (Lukas and Elias Schwarz) frolicking in the Austrian countryside, doing all the things that pre-teen boys do when no one else is looking. (There are plenty of belching and flatulence jousts as the film progresses). It's only after we enter the realm of their stark, ultra-modern home in the middle of nowhere, that we get a hint that something is about to be gravely amiss. Their mother (Susanne Wuest) suddenly enters the house, her face awash in bandages. Was it elective plastic surgery, or something necessitated by tragedy? There are few clues, save for flashes of a blood shot eye, or a brief glimpseof the mother examining her face sans bandages and inspecting her breasts (were they surgically lifted?). A muffled phone conversation reveals that she's some type of television interviewer or news presenter, but that's not central to the plot development. What is is the growing suspicion between the boys that the mummy-wrapped person they see before them isn't really their mother at all, but some malevolent imposter.

                                              

The story, written and directed by Veronica Franz and Severin Fiala, with glossy cinematography by Martin Gschlacht, unfolds with Hitchkock-ian suspense. As the boys fashion crude weapons from their toolbox of childish toys; a crossbow is outfitted with  No. 2 pencils, honed to pygmy-dart deadliness. A swarm of cockroaches raised as pets in terrarium are enlisted as a battalion of predators. The boys eventually overpower their mother and imprison her, turning her bed into a torture chamber where super glue is used in the film's most graphic, squeel-producing scene. 

There are hints throughout that something is not quite right as the film unspools like the tight wire springs of a fine antique clock. Gschlacht does an excellent job of contrasting the pastoral scene outside the home with the mounting bleakness and horror inside. Along with that is the 'sixth sense' that everything shown before us, is not as it seems. Although we've heard the leitmotif of this film before, somehow it plays out differently in Goodnight Mommy, and leaves an unsettled feeling in its wake. The original Austrian title of this film was  Ich Seh Ich Seh (I see, I see). It's apparent that in Goodnight Mommy, not everything you see on the screen is reality.

Goodnight Mommy

Director: Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala

Runtime: 99 minutes

Rating: R

Cast: Elias Schwarz, Lukas Schwarz, Susanne Wuest (in German w/ English subtitles)

Availability: Select theaters September 11