ROUND UP OF NEW AND RECENT FILMS PART SIX

John C. Reilly and Steve Coogan 

ROUND UP OF NEW AND RECENT FILMS PART SIX. Here are some short notes on some more recent movies of interest.

STAN AND OLLIE (2018). Director: Jon S. Baird. This is an affectionate look back at what was in my opinion the Comedy Team Supreme, Stan Laurel (Steve Coogan of Philomena)) and Oliver Hardy (John C. Reilly of Dark Water). Both of these two actors do superb impersonations of the men they're playing (with Coogan's Laurel having, perhaps, a slight edge) and their spouses are also well-played by Shirley Henderson and Nina Arianda. Rufus Jones is also notable as the smarmy manager of their late-career London tour, which is the focus of this movie. This is a well-produced and absorbing comedy-drama which besides being entertaining in its own right, will hopefully have viewers taking a first or second look at the boys' wonderful films, such as their masterpieces Our Relations and Babes in Toyland, among others. ***.

BILLIONAIRE BOYS CLUB (2018). Director: James Cox. In a true story, two friends, Joe Hunt (Ansel Elgort) and Dean Karney (Taran Egerton), embroil some of their much wealthier friends in financial schemes, unaware that they are being played themselves by one Ron Levin (Kevin Spacey). This is a remake of a 1987 mini-series of the same name, wherein Hunt was played by Judd Nelson (who plays his father in this remake). The movie portrays Hunt in a very different light from the way he was portrayed in the mini-series. But although the acting all around is excellent -- I'm glad they didn't edit out Kevin Spacey because he really scores as Levin -- the movie just never comes to a full boil. **1/4.

Melissa McCarthy

CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? (2018). Director: Marielle Heller. The true story of Ms. Lee Israel (Melissa McCarthy), a writer who had hit the New York Times bestseller list with a biography but has now hit hard times, and who happens to be a lesbian. To support herself, she cooks up a criminal scheme to forge letters from famous people for profit. and employs gay pal Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant) to help her, until it all falls apart. This is an absorbing study of an interesting if not especially likable individual. Although McCarthy could easily have played this in her usual fat-girl-goes-nutso persona, instead she gives a real and very good performance as Israel. Grant is also excellent, and Jane Curtin is notable as Israel's agent. Israel is not the most positive or sympathetic representative of the LGBT community, but the movie is quite entertaining in spite of it. ***.

Emma Thompson

LATE NIGHT (2019). Director: Nisha Ganatra. A long-time talk show hostess named Katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson) is told by the network president that her ratings have been steadily slipping and she will be replaced by a jackass of a young stand-up comic. Katherine, a self-absorbed and not terribly likable person who loves only her husband (John Lithgow) decides to fight back, hiring her first female comedy writer, Molly (Mindy Kaling, who also wrote the script), an Indian-American, to join the white guys on her staff. Irreverent, absorbing and quite well-acted, especially by Thompson and an appealing Kaling, Late Night has some very amusing moments, although one could argue that there's a little too much white-bashing, which is just prejudice-in-reverse. (The use of a swishy gay character tells you that, in Hollywood, despite all the political correctness, some things never change.) The script never quite rises above a sitcom level, but on that level it has its moments. **3/4.

Frank John Hughes with Rick Gomez in the background

LEAVE (2011). Director: Robert Celestino. Writer Henry (Rick Gomez), a cancer survivor, has been enduring a terrible recurring nightmare for months, so he kisses his wife goodbye and goes off to their country house to finish a book. Along the way he encounters a stranger, Chris (Frank John Hughes), who turns out to be someone he knows quite well. The suspenseful Leave is beautifully-done, well-directed and shot and superbly acted by the two leads -- who also did the story and script -- but it just isn't very original. (I can't even name its two primary sources because that would give the game away immediately.) However, the picture, not exactly intellectual, works on the purely emotional level and is quite moving, even if some might find it exploitative as well. ***.

GONE: THE DISAPPEARANCE OF AEYRN GILLERAN (2011). Directed by Gretchen and John Morning. This affecting if very imperfect documentary features a lengthy interview with Kathryn Gilleran, a former cop in Cortland,  New York whose openly gay son Aeyrn disappeared while working in Vienna. Gilleran came up against sexist and homophobic attitudes from the Austrian police, and there were strange stories from both them and eyewitnesses. There are hints that the police may have covered up a crime committed at an exclusive gay bathhouse in a tony part of Vienna, and that Aeyrn may have witnessed something (possibly confronted a closeted politician?) that sent him literally running out naked into the streets. Police say he committed "spontaneous suicide"  by jumping into the Danube canal! You don't expect this film to come up with the ultimate answers as to what may have happened to the man, but so much else goes unexplored. Admittedly, this is the mother's story, but the fact that Aeyrn had a long-time partner is only mentioned in passing and we learn virtually nothing about him or about his relationship with Aeryn -- such as how did he feel about Aeryn going to a bathhouse, where undoubtedly hook-ups for sex took place? As one viewer noted, this documentary leaves you with more questions than answers. You feel great sympathy for the mother but you also wonder what the partner was going through, something this film never even bothers to explore. **1/2.