New releases include two very different indies—a serious-minded political drama and a wildly over-the-top romcom. Also this week: a celebration of 20th-century food writer and Northern California resident M.F.K. Fisher.
“Shoshana”: Prolific and chameleonic Michael Winterbottom, whose films have ranged from Steve Coogan comedies to realistic stories of conflict and strife, returns to the latter terrain with this fact-based thriller set in Tel Aviv during the British Mandate for Palestine.
In a 1930s climate where disagreement abounds over how the Jewish state of Israel should be brought into being, British police officer Tom Wilkin (Douglas Booth) and his more brutal boss, Geoffrey Morton (Harry Melling), are part of an antiterrorism unit aiming to quash the militant Zionist group Irgun, which fiercely advocates violence as a political means.
Zionists who oppose Irgun include Shoshana Borochov (Irina Starshenbaum), a progressive newspaperwoman who dreams of living in a country where Jews and Arabs live together peacefully.
Shoshana and Wilkin fall in love, but the intensifying conflict, which includes bombings and assassinations, puts their relationship, and their lives, at risk.
In different directorial hands, the film might have delivered more romantic heat. Winterbottom, however, is more interested in grittier things.
While there are nearly overwhelming historical details, Winterbottom presents the Jewish-Arab-British situation with a welcome complexity. He depicts the chaos in the streets compellingly. His actors’ faces convey anxiety resonantly.
This is a solid thriller, still relevant today, that intelligently illustrates how violence and extremism devastate lives.
Opens Friday at the Smith Rafael Film Center, San Rafael; not rated.
“Oh, Hi!”: Filmmaker Sophie Brooks depicts the confusing world of modern relationships in this psychocomedy. It delivers some wild juicy fun before simply going too crazy.
The story involves a romantic getaway gone insanely wrong.
Iris (Molly Gordon) and Isaac (Logan Lerman), who have been dating for four months, are the picture of romantic bliss as they drive through a picturesque countryside, stop at a roadside strawberry stand, and settle into a quaint lake house. They enjoy a home-cooked dinner (scallops!). They have lots of hot sex. At one point, this involves kinky bondage devices Isaac finds in the closet.
Trouble begins when Iris learns that Isaac doesn’t share her expectations regarding openness and commitment. Figuring that he’s just befuddled, she refuses to uncuff him from the bed until he agrees that the two belong together.
Disaster results when two friends (Geraldine Viswanathan; John Reynolds) try to help Iris troubleshoot the legally problematic situation.
Brooks is an original and colorful storyteller, and for a while, we’re happy to be on board as she outrageously captures the miscommunication dating can involve.
Gordon and Lerman have substantial chemistry. Gordon, operating on Brooks’ over-the-top wavelength, gives a terrifically deranged performance.
But the plot, which takes on a witchcraft element, becomes ridiculous and implausible, and Iris begins acting like Kathy Bates in “Misery.” A real kick at first, the movie loses its charm and relatability.
Opens Friday in Bay Area theaters. Rated R.
Celebrating M.F.K. Fisher: On Thursday, at Mill Valley’s Sequoia Cinema, CAFILM hosts a screening of “The Art of Eating: The Life of M.F.K. Fisher,” Gregory Bezat’s 2022 documentary.
Via archival footage, photos and interviews with food-world and local notables such as Chez Panisse’s Alice Waters, food writer Ruth Reichl, and novelist Anne Lamott, the film profiles Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher (1908-1992), from her youth in Southern California to her career-blooming years in France, to her final decades in Napa and Sonoma valleys.
Fisher wrote 27 books and cofounded the Napa Valley Wine Library. Known for her personal and sensual essays and her passionate appreciation for food and eating, she is credited with transforming food writing into an art form and inspiring women to savor life and be independent.
Thursday’s presentation coincides with a Fisher-inspired art exhibition, “Consider the Oyster” (titled for Fisher’s first book), on view at the Anthony Meier Gallery (next to the Sequoia). Works by 14 female artists (Ruth Asawa, Tabitha Soren, Yayoi Kusama and Rosie Lee Tompkins, among them) are on view.
A 5 p.m. gallery walk-through precedes the 6:30 p.m. screening. A live conversation with Bezat, Kennedy Golden (Fisher’s daughter), and others follows the film.
July 24 at the Sequoia Cinema and Anthony Meier gallery, Mill Valley. Tickets are $10-$15 at sequoiafilm.org/art-of-eating/.
Roxie news: The Roxie Theater released some exciting news last week: The 1912-founded theater, thanks to early donations, has officially bought its building.
This is a major development in the mission of the Roxie — an oasis of independent cinema in San Francisco — to ensure the Roxie’s survival into the future.
At the same time, the Roxie still needs to raise about $700,000 in order to reach its $7 million fundraising goal, according to the theater’s website.
These remaining funds will go toward expanded programming, technology upgrades, structural renovations, and other essentials.
To learn more or to donate, visit roxie.com/forever/.
“The Ride Ahead”: Twenty-one-year-old Samuel Habib, who has a rare genetic disorder that causes epilepsy and impairs movement and speech, tells his story and sets a course for himself in this engaging and informative documentary about disability and pride. Samuel and Dan Habib (Samuel’s father) co-directed the film. It premieres today, July 21, on PBS stations and pbs.org.
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