REBEL RIDGE

This was better than I expected it to be! When I saw the trailer a few weeks ago I was completely turned off. It looked like raceplay fanfiction. That is absolutely not my thing. I’ll never be a fan of directors using Black people to push some cringey nonsense. I’m also just not a big fan of Jeremy Sauliner’s films. Green Room was fine for what it was but I haven’t revisited it. Blue Ruin was “ok” but I never understood the hype/push behind it. I thought Hold The Dark was very bad. The ingredients were there for a potentially good movie but when everything was put together it was just a big nothing-burger. So it took a lot for me to watch Rebel Ridge. Yes - I absolutely prejudged this movie. That’s on me. But can you really blame me? It seems like now more than ever when a Black lead is cast in a film it’s done for some type of disingenuous political statement. Casting Black people in films simply to annoy people that already don’t like them is so empty & childish to me. I know this sounds like a broken record on this blog but I don’t like movies that look like they were made for cringey political twitter discourse: A lone stoic Black marine taking down a corrupt small town police system. At the end of the day that is essentially what Rebel Ridge is about, but Jeremy Saulnier managed to make it enjoyable & entertaining. Had this been in another young/young-ish director’s hands this would’ve been more of an insufferable political statement and less of a movie. This felt like a Craig Zahler movie made for people that don’t have the same political & social views as him (I do find his movies interesting but at the same if they didn’t exist it wouldn’t make any difference in my life). Rebel Ridge is so S. Craig Zahler-esque (on a surface level) that Jeremy Saulnier even casted one of Zahler’s regular actors (Don Johnson) in a very Zahler/modern-day Don Johnson-type role (evil redneck sheriff with an angry southern drawl).

Obviously, any & all comparisons to First Blood are fair (Rebel Ridge also comes from the same school as the Reacher series where the lone badass details every way he’s going to hurt every one around him before actually doing it, but it’s more First Blood than any thing else).

First Blood was in my lookbook – Jeremy Saulnier, GQ Magazine

First Blood / Rebel Ridge

The Billy Jack series is another major visual inspiration...

My production designer said, "Oh, this is like Billy Jack," and then I watched it. I was like, "Oh, fuck yeah." - Jeremy Saulnier, GQ Magazine

Billy Jack / Rebel Ridge

The Born Losers / Rebel Ridge

But the First Blood comparisons are deeper than surface visual similarities. *SPOILER ALERT* Like First Blood, Rebel Ridge has plenty of blood shed (I guess) but very little actual deaths. If I’m not mistaken, the only deaths in Rebel Ridge are either offscreen or non violent. This is where the Zahler comparisons stop. Had this been an S. Craig Zahler movie – the murders would have more than likely been very graphic (racial tension does obviously loom over the film but there isn’t any racist name-calling or anything like that). I imagine Saulnier & Netflix didn’t want to present a film where a large Black man is murdering white police officers. But there’s still a decent amount of violence in the movie with an emphasis on close hand-to-hand combat (strangely enough, this is one of his most non-violent films when compared to Green Room or Hold The Dark). There’s always a close-up or an emphasis on our lead character whenever he disarms someone and makes a point to empty the bullets out of whatever gun he gets a hold of...

The trailer (and the opening scene) might mislead some folks that are expecting nonstop action from start to finish. There isn’t. This movie plays off of tension more than anything else. The big action doesn’t even really take place until the very end. This might not be for everyone and I do think Saulnier played it safe in the end by redeeming one of the corrupt police officers and sort of kind of redeeming another one (making the lead character former military also makes it easier to digest the violence towards police instead of him just being some guy off the street). But at the end of the day I had very low expectations about this one and ended up being pleasantly surprised.

DA SWEET BLOOD OF JESUS

This was originally published for cutprintfilm.com back in January of 2015. But since the site has apparently vanished - I'm posting it here with a few updates. Enjoy...

 

Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus is not as bad as critics made it out to be. It's far from perfect and I think late period Spike Lee will always be a bit tone-deaf and somewhat out of touch, but I respect him for the ambitious undertaking of remaking a cult classic that is kind of out of his wheelhouse. Sorry, but these days if I have the choice between something “safe”/non-threatening versus something imperfect & ambitious – I’m going to go with the latter.  Much like how A Most Violent Year is a non-gangster GANGSTER film, Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus is a non-vampire VAMPIRE film. The story centers around “Dr. Hess Green” – a lawyer & collector of ancient African artifacts who comes under a mysterious spell that makes him addicted to blood. He’s not exactly a vampire (he doesn’t have long sharp teeth and isn’t allergic to sunlight) but his thirst for blood (and what he does to attain it) would make you think he is a vampire. Like most vampire (…or vampire-ISH) films, Dr. Green’s curse becomes too much for him to handle and things spiral out of control.

In some circles Ganja and Hess is looked at as a low-budget cult film. But beyond that, it went on to influence the next generation of Black American filmmakers. If anything - Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus gave the original a momentary spotlight for rediscovery...

My tree scene was an homage to Bill Gunn's Ganja and Hess. I figured it's all part of the continuum of the Black aesthetic - Julie Dash

Ganja and Hess /
Daughters Of The Dust

Between Only Lovers Left Alive & A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, vampire films were a “thing” again within independent/art-house cinema between 2013-2015. In some ways, Spike’s latest reminded me of Claire Denis’ Trouble Everyday (another modern non-vampire vampire film where you never actually see any sharp teeth, but there’s plenty of blood & murder). There’s even a painful scene in Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus where our protagonist Dr. Green murders a woman during sex that kind of mimics the disturbing finale of Trouble Everyday where Vincent Gallo literally “eats out” his poor victim.

There are quite a few levels to this film yet no one seems to be looking deeper. Putting aside the noir-ish/thriller aspects of this movie, it obviously touches on issues like addictions, gender, racism & class. Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus also clearly acts as a metaphor for the transmission of STD’s (specifically HIV & AIDS) among people of color. Is this Spike Lee doing his iteration of Abel Ferrara's Addiction?

I found myself getting incredibly frustrated at people (specifically so-called Spike Lee fans) dismissing Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus upon seeing the trailer (I honestly thought the trailer was great). Unfortunately, whether Spike Lee fans realize this or not, he’s held to a strange (unfair?) high standard where people are still expecting him to make another Do The Right Thing or Malcolm X (I guess that’s what happens when you’re one of the very few talented black filmmakers working in the mainstream). Some of you may disagree with that statement but that’s the way I see it. Perhaps some folks forgot Lee’s indie/D.I.Y. roots (Joe’s Bedstuy Barbershop & She’s Gotta Have It). From the subjects & characters in Shirley Clarke’s films to the work of Melvin Van Peeples, the origins of black people in independent film has always been a little against the grain, “left field” & grass roots-based. Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus is no exception. Plus, not every Spike Lee film is going to be a game-changer. I think some people have a hard time accepting that. If you aren’t expecting a 40 acres & a mule classic and just looking for an interesting film to kick back with (it’s now streaming on Vimeo), Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus is certainly worth your time (although I don’t think it needed to be 130 minutes long).

No matter how problematic this movie is, it represents Spike Lee’s ability to still step outside of his comfort zone and do something different. It shares strands of the same DNA as his previous work. Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus definitely takes place in the same cinematic realm as Redhook Summer. The opening sequence feels like a scene out of He Got Game, there’s a touch of She Hate Me in there, and the supporting cast features long-standing Spike Lee repertory actors like Joie Lee, Cinque Lee & Thomas Jefferson Byrd.

There’s been a tiny black cloud looming over Spike’s head (and his career) for quite some time. That’s partially his fault. His last film Oldboy (a remake of the popular Korean film) felt a little flat, and his film before that, Redhook Summer, might be the worst thing he’s done since Girl 6 (sorry, just my opinion). Lee caught a lot of heat for crowd-sourcing his latest project and I understand that on some level. Back in 1992 he reached out to a few famous celebrities & athletes (Michael Jordan, Bill Cosby, Janet Jackson, etc) for additional funding in order to finish Malcolm X when he went over budget. That was in 1992. What stopped him from reaching out to his famous (wealthy) friends/peers in 2014? Why does he need our money? Maybe that’s none of my business. I certainly don’t want to be in other people’s pockets. I just find it peculiar when rich people take to crowd-sourcing to fund a project. Spike’s recent rant about gentrification in New York City also didn’t sit well with some folks, even though he was right in what he said for the most part.

Because of all this, I feel people are going unfairly judge and/or dismiss Lee’s new work (possibly before even seeing it). Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus has a lot working against it. It’s being released with its back against the wall which is unfortunate because it really isn’t that bad. Had Ava Duvernay or Lee Daniels made the same exact film, I’m sure people wouldn’t be so harsh.

PHOENIX

This was originally published for cutprintfilm.com back in July of 2015. But since the site/publication has apparently vanished - I'm posting it here with a few updates. Enjoy...

On one hand, Phoenix is a callback to certain specific cinematic elements that I appreciate very very much. It has the spirit of a lesser-praised German New Wave film from the late 70’s (The Left Handed Woman, The Last Days Of Katarina Blum, The American Soldier, The American Friend, etc) combined with the noir-ish qualities of a Neil Jordan film (The Crying Game, Mona Lisa, etc). Phoenix also falls in line with other semi-recent German-based WW2/Post-WW2 films like Carlos, Sophie Scholl  & The Baader Meinhof Complex (some of you might be scratching your head at the Carlos namedrop but the main motivation behind the misguided radical German leftists that we saw in Olivier Assayas’ film was based on extreme anti Nazi-ism that came about from the second world war which ended up backfiring).

Some might find Phoenix to be a little tedious or, dare I say, a little boring (and if not tedious and/or boring, possibly deceptive?). Within the first act it’s more than obvious that we’re in for some kind of a psychological drama but nothing traditionally “thrilling” or “startling” happens for quite some time, yet we’re almost led to believe otherwise (early on there’s a very potentially cryptic scene that takes place in a hospital that builds up to something that might be seen as anticlimactic or disappointing). It should also be noted that the performances (especially in the first half) are intentionally cold and slightly tense (highlighted particularly by co-star Nina Kunzendorf who plays Nelly’s friend “Lene”). Again – these are aspects that some might appreciate while others might be turned off by. Personally, I don’t mind it. I appreciate slow build-ups and I’m also more interested in things being conveyed through a look, hint or an implication rather than drawn-out dialogue. But I imagine this film was made for an audience larger than just myself so hopefully folks will appreciate what Christian Petzold was trying to do.

In Phoenix we follow “Nelly” (Nina Hoss) – A concentration camp survivor/lounge singer living in post World War 2 Berlin. At the very beginning of the film we learn that her face has been disfigured from her time at the concentration camp and she requires extensive reconstructive surgery. And to make things worse, it’s quite possible that her mysterious husband “Johnny” is the cause of it all. Nelly’s new post-surgery face gives her a new identity (her face is pretty unrecognizable to those who knew her before the surgery) and she uses this to her advantage. Nelly, now posing as a different woman, tracks down her husband Johnny to find out if he really sold her out. The two old lovers strike up a new relationship (Johnny doesn’t realize it’s Nelly although he does acknowledge the similar facial features) and Nelly finds herself taking the place of her old self (the identity switching draws an obvious comparison to films like Vertigo and Lost Highway). Both parties have ulterior motives with each other.

Christian Petzold is no stranger to referencing Hitchcock...

At the beginning of making Yella, I’d seen Hitchcock’s Marnie again. We ordered very expensive tracks that stretched one hundred meters on a train platform, and Nina Hoss had to stand on this platform like Tippi Hedren - Christian Petzold, Criterion.com

Marnie / Yella

And Phoeinx is just another example with this scene right out of Vertigo...

Vertigo / Phoenix 

The Wrong Man / Phoenix 

Phoenix can be seen as an obvious take on issues ranging from trust to the idea of “rebirth”. It’s also a comment on the self worth that women have of themselves and the sometimes strange loyalty they show for their unworthy male counterparts.

Some might look at Phoenix as a response to something like The Night Porter. In the Night Porter, Charlotte Rampling plays a concentration camp survivor that strikes up a relationship with her former Nazi overseer. In Phoenix we see a female holocaust survivor start up a similarly complicated/detrimental relationship with a man who is the possible cause/source of her pain. The female protagonist is an understated fixture within modern German-based cinema. Besides some of the aforementioned works I referenced earlier on (Katarina Blum, Sophie Scholl, The Left Handed Woman, etc), films like Coup De Grace, Barbara (another collaboration between Petzold & Hoss), The Marriage Of Marina Braun & Lola are further examples. Although not as prolific as most films from the German New Wave movement, Phoenix does come from the same school of thought 

If you appreciate modern German cinema (with a complex female lead) or personal/intimate stories with a historic backdrop, Phoenix might just be up your alley.