Nicole Kidman Tribute: Rabbit Hole (2010)

by Cláudio Alves

For a while, I thought that loss would lead to tears, a general sadness that consumes you whole and leaves behind a husk. Much art and media made it seem so to my adolescent self. The piteous melodrama that the mainstream loves to sell was a convincing lie, and so were the beatific visions of bereavement from which a person learns and grows stronger. But life doesn't obey narrative rules, nor does it seek to satisfy in the ways a Hollywood producer might. The tears do come - and they did - but there was more to it. More that wasn't aligned with ideas of beautiful suffering or an education of the soul. When I found grief, I found anger, too.

Why must it hurt so much? Why must it isolate so strongly? Why does it seem like no one understands? Why must joy prevail in the world? It's obscene, it feels wrong, and it stokes the fires of fury inside. Yet, there's no clear target for the flame. You find yourself full of emotion, wanting to wield it like a weapon and hurt something, anything, maybe yourself, or maybe nothing at all. There is no reason in grief and nowhere to go from there. Often, one finds no path out or through, no answers whatsoever. In this solipsism, recognition may lead the way. If not in the company of others, then in the mirror of the screen – in works like that of Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole…

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Stage Door: The unkillable 'Little Shop of Horrors'

'Stage Door' is our new theater column. We'll review plays and musicals and, because this is a film site, we'll end each column with related movie recommendations. - Editor 

Crystal, Ronette, and Chiffon, the doo-wop chorus of Little Shop, are still a major highlight

The October 2019 Off Broadway revival of the singular scifi-horror-comedy-whatsit musical Little Shop of Horrors is still going strong at the West Side Theater in NYC. Well, minus 18 months off for the pandemic of course. The production has been through five Seymours now in its run (Jonathan Groff, Jeremy Jordan, Gideon Glick, Conrad Ricamora, and Skylar Astin) with a fifth on the way; Rob McClure takes over on July 12th so this is your last chance to see Skylar Astin (Pitch Perfect) in the role. Curiously its original Audrey (Emmy winner and Tony nominee Tammy Blanchard) and Orin (Tony winner Christian Borle) are still recycling their sadomasochistic relationship every night in this iteration of Skid Row.  Why can't the show keep a Seymour!?

Well, it is surely an exhausting role even if the anemia and sore fingers from feeding the bloodthirsty plant is fictional...

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Meryl Streep and Renée Zellweger are up for Grammys...

We don't really cover the Grammys here at TFE as it's rather beyond our wheelhouse but to give you a general sense of that awards landscape, Taylor Swift ("Folklore"), and Dua Lipa ("Future Nostalgia") dominated and Beyoncé, too, despite the lack of a new album. Everyone's fav obsession at the moment, BTS, disappointingly scored only one nomination for Pop Duo/Group Performance for "Dynamite". Insane that that wasn't up for Record of the Year.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

• Black Pumas -Deluxe Edition (Black Pumas)
• Chilombo (Jhené Aiko)
• Djesse Vol 3 (Jacob Collier)
• Everyday Life (Coldplay)
• Folklore (Taylor Swift)
• Future Nostalgia (Dua Lipa)
• Hollywood's Bleeding (Post Malone)
• Women in Music Pt III (Haim)

But as we do we focus on categories that fall more under our umbrella here. So after the jump the categories for visual media as well as actors and composers who work primarily in film and television who are up for Grammys this year...

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Review: The Invitation

A dinner party reunion of estranged friends sets the stage for director Karyn Kusama's unnerving and twisted micro-horror The Invitation. The film's marketing has wisely eschewed going much further than that vague synopsis, for this one is most rewarding when experienced fresh. But don't just expect surprises with what unfolds, but from what's underneath the plentiful chills.

Shot almost entirely within one swanky Los Angeles home, the modest production is deceptive for how easily it gets under your skin and rattles. Its slim budget is hidden by a glossy presentation and a production design that finds the right alchemy of alluring and demonic (paging Daniel Walber!). Kusama treats this house as she does the many characters, all hidden corners of darkness packaged within a polished facade. If you watch The Invitation on VOD, prepare to have home jealousy, for this is pure house porn. And you'll definitely want a glass of wine.

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TIFF: "Himizu," "Lovely Molly," "...Nightmare" and "Union Square."

Paolo here, back with yet more TIFF films from the final weekend.

The first film today is Sion Sino's HIMIZU, using the backdrop of the March 11 earthquake to tell the story of fifteen year old Yuichi Sumida's (Shota Sometani) violent dreams and reality. One of his dreams puts him in the Fukushima rubble, where he finds a pistol inside a washing machine and when he wakes up, he checks his own washer to see if it's true. What ensues is school absenteeism, stalking from a lovesick and excitable girl, abuse from his father (who tells him he should drowned him in a river) and beatings from Yakuza loan sharks. 

At one point he has convulsions, a reaction to his unbelievably painful life. It's a raw and forceful performance from Sometani that might be ignored by larger audiences because of world cinema ghettoization. Sino's approach in telling Sumida's story meanders after the point when Sumida stands up to get revenge from these adults.

I feel snobby when I miss films from TIFF's Midnight Madness programme but fortunately, they play them again days after their premieres. Yesterday brought us LOVELY MOLLY from BLAIR WITCH director Eduardo Sanchez. It starts with the young titular character (Gretchen Lodge) explaning, teary eyed, that the actions that her body is committing is not really her. Her seemingly perfect marriage and childhood home disintegrate because of an incubus that haunts her. It is a competent horror film with the occassional excellent moment, especially those in which Lodge confronts her inner monster or becomes one. Lodge, in a debut performance, commits to the role with both eloquence and ferocity.

The transitions between regular film and video cam equipment are smooth.The scares aren't cheap but the intervals between them are far too long. While we're waiting for either the invisible ghost or Molly to attack, we're left with watching close-ups of furniture while eerie music plays on the background. The film can't rely only on great sound design to make its house look creepy. And why does the house have a security system but not proper lighting?

New Isabelle Huppert and Mira Sorvino movies after the jump.

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