Josh Bell
In this week’s fringe VOD releases, tween girls and Franz Kafka both forge meaningful relationships at the beach, rock stars behave badly at a Los Angeles hotspot, and sleazy men get their comeuppance on a Greek island and at a rural cult compound.
The Birthday Party (VOD and select theaters August 14): Willem Dafoe channels a bit of late-period Al Pacino into his portrayal of an Aristotle Onassis-like mogul, but his oddball acting choices (including a bizarre speak-singing rendition of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”) can’t do much to save Spanish director Miguel Ángel Jiménez’s inert drama. Dafoe’s Marcos Timoleon is throwing a lavish 25th-birthday party for his daughter Sofia (Vic Carmen Sonne) on his private Greek island, but it’s really just an excuse to bring together various family members and associates to exert his authority over them. That mainly applies to Sofia, whose recent life choices displease the father who never seemed to want her. There are a lot of hushed, cryptic conversations involving the geopolitics of the 1975 setting, but none of it amounts to anything, and even the heightened conflict between Marcos and Sofia builds to an anticlimax. The international cast often struggle with the English-language dialogue, which just makes the sluggish, somber, and visually drab movie drag even more. Grade: C
The Glory of Life (ChaiFlicks August 15): As Agnieszka Holland’s higher-profile Franz Kafka biopic makes its way into theaters, this German film about the final year of Kafka’s life debuts on Jewish-focused streaming service ChaiFlicks. Kafka’s Judaism is a fairly minor part of this story of his romance with Dora Diamant (Henriette Confurius), a young teacher he meets while recuperating in a German seaside community in 1923. They form an instant, passionate bond, despite their age difference and Kafka’s ill health. The Glory of Life has more in common with swooning terminal-illness romances like The Fault in Our Stars than the haunting absurdity of Kafka’s own work, but it’s engaging and heartfelt, at least before it turns slightly maudlin in its final act. Although he’s dying slowly of tuberculosis, Kafka (Sabin Tambrea) looks like quite the heartthrob for the bulk of the movie, and the stars have appealing chemistry. The Glory of Life is most successful as a period romance, tenderly humanizing a figure whose name has become synonymous with literary surrealism. Grade: B
If These Walls Could Rock (VOD and select theaters August 14): Starting with its cringe-worthy title, this documentary about Los Angeles’ Sunset Marquis hotel tries a bit too hard to advertise how cool it is. That may be because it’s essentially an advertisement, with hotel co-owner Mark Rosenthal as executive producer as well as onscreen interviewee. Still, Rosenthal clearly has plenty of clout, filling the slick movie with an astonishing lineup of celebrities to tell tales of debauchery at the renowned entertainment-industry enclave. Many of those stories make the subjects sound like entitled jerks, but that’s part of the charm. In a movie featuring the likes of Gene Simmons and Morrissey, it’s impressive that Billy Bob Thornton comes off as the most pompous and self-aggrandizing, acting as the movie’s tour guide while attempting to place himself in the rock-star pantheon. It’s easy to spot the real thing, and rockers including Slash and The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson are much more affable, even if their stories eventually blend together, along with the muddy timeline of the hotel’s history. Grade: B-
Blood Shine (VOD and select theaters August 21): The first 15 minutes of this folk horror movie from writer-directors Emily Bennett and Justin Brooks are so ethereal and unsettling that it’s a little jarring to abruptly cut from the title card to douchey filmmaker Brighton West (David Call) sexually harassing an actress at an audition. That’s by design, and Bennett and Brooks spend the whole movie keeping the audience as off-balance as Brighton himself. The story eventually returns to the opening location, a remote farmhouse where Clara (Bennett) kidnaps unsuspecting men and engages in ritual mutilations to indoctrinate them into a messianic cult. Indie horror icons Larry Fessenden and Toby Poser give Bennett and Brooks their symbolic blessing by appearing as cult members, and Blood Shine is worthy of their endorsement. Bennett is mesmerizing as the eerily calm Clara, and the brutality is never gratuitous, even during a blood-soaked, squirm-inducing sex scene that is tough to watch. The cult’s true purpose and message remains vague, but by the end, it’s hard to resist joining up. Grade: B+
Over/Under (VOD August 25): Director and co-writer Sophia Silver does amazing work with child actors in this sensitive coming-of-age drama. The movie hinges on the dynamic between young stars Emajean Bullock and Anastasia Veronica Lee, who deliver nuanced performances that are both exuberant and heartbreaking, playing best friends Violet and Stella from ages nine to 13. That’s a time of massive change for children, and while sticking with the same actors for the entire period can make the growth seem less obvious, Bullock and Lee convey their characters’ development via subtle changes in emotions and mannerisms. Violet and Stella only get to spend time together during the summer, when their families vacation in the same New England beach town, but their bond endures, and Silver follows them as they part and reunite, never quite on the same track through adolescence. The bumps in the friendship are familiar, but Silver makes them feel honest and important, with all the intensity and interconnectedness that can only be forged at that age. Grade: B+
