The American Film Institute’s annual film festival is arguably Los Angeles’ best and most comprehensive annual fete of feature, documentary, short, animated, domestic and foreign cinema. Here are capsule reviews of two productions.
Woody Allen’s films have sometimes been criticized for their dearth of Black characters, even if most of the Manhattanite’s movies have been set and shot in New York City. This despite the fact that, according to the 2006-2008 US Census, 25.1% of NYC’s 8.5 million residents are Black – somehow the Woodman consistently managed to miss the estimated 2,086,566 Black people residing in New York City. Toronto-born writer/director Stella Meghie may not be American, but she is of African ancestry and her new rom-com, The Weekend, is a sort of all-Black Woody Allen type of comedy.
However, that being said, The Weekend takes place mostly in rural California, apparently near the town of Agua Dulce, which is located north of the City of Los Angeles in L.A. County and where less than 2% of the population is Black, according to the 2010 US Census. Nevertheless, stand-up comic Zadie’s (Sasheer Zamata, who was a minor – token? – cast member on SNL, 2014-2017) mother (sitcom veteran Kym Whitley) owns a bed and breakfast located in California’s countryside, where Zadie goes to spend the eponymous weekend.
Rather strangely, and stretching credulity, the single and relationship-challenged zany Zadie does so with her ex Bradford (Tone Bell), who she still hasn’t gotten over, and rather improbably along with his new girlfriend Margo (DeWanda Wise, who plays Nola Darling in the Netflix version of Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It). The plot becomes Woody-esque when Aubrey (Y’lan Noel of HBO’s Insecure, which gratuitously uses the “N” word more promiscuously than a Klan rally), checks in at the B&B for the weekend. Like in Allen’s movies, the comic implications of relationship fluidity and shifting sexual/romantic pairings becomes the basis of the plot. Who will – or won’t – sleep with who? Inquiring minds want to know.
The Weekend, which was screened during AFI Fest at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres on Hollywood Blvd., is mildly amusing. Although he’s handsome, personality-wise Bradford is a huge drip as a character, and it’s hard to see what zippy Zadie, who is a firecracker, ever saw in this bore, and worse, why she wasted three years pining after him when Bradford broke up with the too-hot-to-handle comedienne? There is a stupid scene where Zadie is in bed with a male partner and refers to herself as being naked, when she is actually wearing a shirt and shorts.
Listen filmmakers, if you are too cowardly to use the constitutional right to depict nudity onscreen – an anti-censorship right artists fought for for decades – then simply do NOT include these scenes. Who are we supposed to believe? Our ears, when Zadie refers to herself as being nude, or our lying eyes when we can clearly see she’s clothed? Truly stupid puritanical nonsense. (Then again, the off-kilter Zadie has a wacky fashion sense – after expropriating a fancy dress from her mother’s wardrobe she wears a T-shirt beneath it. What a fashion nerd – but perhaps that’s meant to be part of her charm?)
Despite its implausible premise and some irrational behavior, I found the 86-minute The Weekend’s denouement to be satisfying and real. Black audiences may be delighted to watch a rom-com featuring characters who look like them and are petit-bourgeois professionals, as opposed to being stereotypical lumpenized thugs, hoods and hos. Non-Black theatergoers are likely to find The Weekend to be reasonably entertaining fare for a weekend outing to the picture show.
First of all, this 97-minute period biopic about Laurel and Hardy is peerlessly acted by Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly, who is especially outstanding immersed in a fat suit, makeup and prosthetics by Mark Coulier and team, to make him look like Oliver Hardy. As a film historian I relished the opportunity to see a biopic about one of the silver screen’s most dynamic comedy duos. But alas, there is scant footage depicting their Hollywood heyday, as Laurel and Hardy act on a 1937 set and clash with Hal Roach (Danny Huston, a canny choice to depict a figure from Tinseltown’s Golden Age, given his pedigree as the son and grandson of John and Walter Huston), who is portrayed as an exploitative producer squeezing profits out of his players. At issue and at stake is the notion of creative control, which Stan is willing to fight for while Ollie is more conciliatory.
Most of this partial biopic takes place 16 years later, when Stan and Ollie are washed up in pictures and embark on a grueling tour of playhouses and various venues in Britain, where Stan Laurel hailed from (Oliver Hardy was actually from Georgia). The film focuses on the team’s personal dynamics and we see a number of their film and Vaudeville routines reenacted, which of course is good fun.
Jon Baird’s direction is right on the nose and this is basically a very conventional narrative film. Jeff Pope (who wrote 2013’s Philomena also co-starring Coogan) misses the mark in this biopic that largely ignores Laurel and Hardy’s screen work. Although I personally enjoyed Stan & Ollie, I’m a film historian and critic – this is mainly a movie for Laurel and Hardy buffs, comedy and film fans and the like. But if one’s not interested in these subjects you’re likely to agree with Ollie: “That’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into.”
In any case, it was great seeing Reilly, Coogan, other members of the cast and crew and descendants of Stan at the AFI screening at the Egyptian (an ideal venue for a film such as this). But movie buffs are, to paraphrase Mel Brooks, likely to want to extend a hardy handshake and laurels to the filmmakers and relatives.
Stan & Ollie opens Dec. 28.
For more info: http://www.afi.com/afifest/.
Ed Rampell is a film historian and critic based in Los Angeles. Rampell is the author of Progressive Hollywood, A People’s Film History of the United States and he co-authored The Hawaii Movie and Television Book, now in its third edition, available at: https://mutualpublishing.com/product/the-hawaii-movie-and-television-book/.
From The Progressive Populist, December 15, 2018
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