Japanese animation, and one of its master artists, is celebrated in a film series coming up at Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Also this week: new indie releases.
Filmmaker and Studio Ghibli cofounder Isao Takahata (1935–2018), who took animated cinema to new places with his exquisite renderings of the natural and everyday worlds, is the subject of the BAMPFA presentation. The two-month event, “Some Nostalgic Place: The Films of Isao Takahata,” begins Thursday at 7 p.m. with a screening of “Only Yesterday” (1991), Takahata’s tale about a young woman who visits the countryside to connect with the ghost of her childhood. The film screens again on Sunday at 4 p.m.
On July 11 at 1:30 p.m., the series presents “Grave of the Fireflies” (1988), Takahata’s devastating animated drama about two young siblings struggling to stay alive and stay together during the final days of World War II. The terrific anti-war movie also screens on Aug. 23 at 4:30 p.m. Showing on July 18 at 3:30 p.m. is “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya” (2013), Takahata’s charming adaptation of a Japanese folktale about a princess discovered in a bamboo stalk. On July 19 at 5 p.m., look for “Gauche the Cellist” (1982), about a young cellist who gains insight into music from his interactions with anthropomorphized animals. Visit bampfa.org for more information.
Angelina Jolie stands out in the otherwise middling “Couture,” French writer-director Alice Winocour’s wisp of a film about a handful of women whose paths intersect in Paris during Fashion Week. Currently in Bay Area theaters, the self-discovery drama centers on Jolie’s character, a filmmaker named Maxine in Paris to work on a project with an admired French cinematographer (Louis Garrel). Already dealing with personal challenges — divorce, money problems, a teen daughter who has no time for her — Maxine is shocked and shaken to learn that she has breast cancer.
Winocour (“Revoir Paris”) entwines Maxine’s narrative with the stories of other women who are finding their way. Ada (Anyier Anei) is an 18-year-old model from South Sudan who isn’t sure that modeling is her calling. (She can barely walk in her designer shoes.) Angele (Ella Rumpf), a makeup artist seeking a more meaningful livelihood, is an aspiring writer. These and other characters seem superficial, and Winocour doesn’t penetrate the glitzy surfaces of the cosmetically minded fashion scene. The movie risks becoming as shallow as the industry it is depicting. At the same time, Jolie is raw, nuanced and mesmerizing. She and Garrel — whose charismatic characters, predictably, become lovers — share some chemistry. But Jolie is the only reason to see this film.
“Maddie’s Secret,” the directorial debut of actor-comedian John Early, is a comic homage to disease-of-the-week melodramas, with the offbeat Early casting himself as the movie’s heroine. Opening Friday in Bay Area Theaters, the film is set in contemporary Los Angeles — a place of influencer culture where social media numbers tend to define one’s worthiness as a human being.
Sporting a blond wig and faux breasts, Early plays Maddie Ralph, a good-natured dishwasher and aspiring vegetarian chef with a supportive husband (Eric Rahill), a loyal best friend (played by frequent Early collaborator Kate Berlant), and not enough confidence in herself. When a viral video helps Maddie land an on-air job as a recipe developer for a trendy brand, the anxiety surrounding the opportunity causes her long-suppressed bulimia to resurface; it could kill her if she doesn’t seriously address the situation. The challenge requires Maddie to confront her traumatic childhood.
This odd little film with a heart may not be funny, edgy, or charming enough to knock everyone’s socks off, but it’s deeper than it initially seems. Maddie is a sweet and deserving protagonist. For all its contemporary gender playfulness, “Maddie’s Secret” is an old-fashioned melodrama that puts Early on the movie map as a distinctive presence.
Writer-director Rod Davis Lurie, whose credits include the highly watchable political thriller “The Contender” and the acclaimed war drama “The Outpost,” reunites with “Outpost” actor Scott Eastwood in “Lucky Strike,” a patriotic and visceral survival thriller in Bay Area theaters.
Cowritten with Marc Frydman, the fact-based story transpires in 1944 in Belgium’s Ardennes Forest during the Battle of the Bulge, Germany’s final major offensive of World War II. Eastwood (son of Clint) plays Captain John Castle, an American soldier and engineer whose men are killed by Nazi forces during a mission. Trapped behind enemy lines, Castle is struggling to make it home alive. Operating in raw and primal mode, Lurie fills the screen with killing, carnage, corpses and other war-is-hell imagery, with largely credible results. But unfortunately, neither Castle nor his thick-of-the-action heroism is particularly compelling. And with no other actor receiving substantial screen time — Colin Hanks and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor appear in minor roles only — Eastwood doesn’t, on his own, supply the emotional charge that the movie calls for.
A version of this post appeared first on Local News Matters.