Guest blog: What a year for women's films!

This is a guest blog written by my wife, Elizabeth Rosado. 

Oh boy, 2016 was truly a rollercoaster of a year – the highs include Adam Howard and I getting married at the Museum of the Moving Image and welcoming a new niece into our family. As for the lows, well, we all know what happened on November 9^th.

Even though that highest glass ceiling remains unbroken, women are still making progress, and one silver-lining to 2016 can be found by looking to Hollywood.  2016 had quite a crop of woman-centric films that were both critical and commercial successes.  Below is a list of my favorites – if you haven’t seen these, do yourself a favor and check them out.

SIDEBAR: It’s pretty obvious that Adam and I watch A LOT of movies, but there’s always something that slips by. So I’ll caveat the list below by noting that I haven’t seen Elle (Isabelle Huppert just won a Golden Globe for her lead performance), Nocturnal Creatures (starring Amy Adams, who I think has a unique talent for making characters subtly complicated), or Moana (whose heroine has been described as “Disney’s most unapologetically feminist princess yet”).  Without further ado, here are my top 10 lady movies of 2016!

1. The Fits. Odds are you haven’t heard of this movie, which is a shame because it is a beautiful and touching film. It’s a “coming of age” story that centers on a young tomboy, Toni, finding her place in a tight-knit dance troupe. While most male-focused “coming of age” movies are about finding a path to independence, Toni’s journey is about finding her place in a community. The film also captures the ways in which women “learn” to be women – how we absorb the trappings of femininity (the ways we dress, the ways we move our bodies) by observing and replicating. The Fits is also visually compelling  - a dance movie with a documentary feel – and I’m excited to see what director, Anna Rose Holmer, does next!

      2. Zootopia. Yes, Zootopia is a “kids movie”, but it carries a message that grown-ups need now more than ever – to “[embrace] diversity, even when there are people in the world who want to divide us by using fear”. Its lead character, Judy, is a rookie bunny cop who won’t let anything stand in her way, not her size and certainly not her gender. But what I found particularly refreshing is that Judy is not a perfect character – for all of her ambition and pluck, she also makes mistakes, and learns from them. A great role model for young girls and boys.

      
     3.  The Neon Demon. I might get some heat for including this one on the list – some feminist did not care for the film – but the deceptively simple story (young woman movies to LA to become a model and gets chewed up by the industry – literally) is just the first of many layers.  It’s a morality tale, both about our culture’s obsession with beauty (and the very narrow definition of beauty that women are expected to conform to) and about the ways in which women are often pitted against each other. Elle Fanning delivers a note-perfect performance as the lead character – she begins as an innocent, but when she eventually buys into the beauty-industry bullshit, it leads to her corruption and demise. This movie has lots of style, but lots of substance too.

      4.  The Handmaiden. Ummmmm, this movie is sexy AF. Some might think the girl-on-girl action is salacious and gratuitous, but I liked that the two main characters (one a young con-woman and the other a seemingly naïve heiress) relished in their sexuality and sensuality, taking ownership over their bodies as they also take control of their lives. This movie took twists and turns that I didn’t see coming, and also had a healthy dose of humor. It’s long (almost 2.5 hours) and has subtitles, but I hope that doesn’t keep you from giving this movie a shot. Just don’t watch it with your parents – those sex scenes are no joke.
         
      5. Rogue One. How did Princess Leia get the plans to the Death Star? Turns out it was a rag-tag team of heroes, who rally around Jyn Erso as she leads them on a mission of certain-death. I was moved to tears to see a heroine that was depicted as a leader, one who could command loyalty and devotion from her (male) followers. My nieces are big Star Wars fans, so I’m glad that Jyn gives them an example of a woman as a leader. Because if you can’t see it, you can’t become it.

6. Arrival. Amy Adams is quickly becoming one of my favorite actresses. Her choices are interesting and diverse – I can’t think of a single Adam’s performance that was bad or boring. In Arrival, a surprisingly philosophical “alien invasion” movie, Adams’ character saves the day, not by rushing in with guns blazing, but by finding common ground and understanding.  It’s a hopeful movie, one that presents humanity as it could be – tolerant and open-minded. I hope we keep holding ourselves up to those ideals.

      7. 20^th Century Women.  Annette Bening is a revelation in this movie. Her performance - as a single mom who creates a makeshift family of quirky characters – is natural, unselfconscious and “lived-in” and she deserves all of the nominations this awards season. All of them. Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning also get meaty roles as fully-fleshed, complicated women. These women are not “shrinking violets” or “damsels in distress” or any other trope that women actors are so often confined to.  They have struggles and behave “badly” but also exude warmth and charisma. These are the kinds of women we all see in our own lives – real women.
       
         8. Hidden Figures. I’m so excited that a film led by three women of color is a box office success. Since Hollywood follows the money, I hope this means we’ll see more movies like this in the future. The truly inspiring story of a team of African-American women who played vital roles at NASA, the movie is funny and touching, without ever crossing the line into hokiness or sentimentality. It doesn’t shy away from the sexism and racial barriers that these women overcame, and really highlights how passivity in the face of discrimination can be just as bad as the discrimination itself. But it never stops being entertaining either - a very hard feat to pull-off.

      9. Jackie. I have to admit that I’ve never fully bought in to the “Jackie O cult”, but this movie went a long way to helping me understand it. While I can’t vouch for the factual accuracy of movie, the film portrays Jackie as a woman with an astute (and shrewd) understanding of how to build a legacy. She knew that image was everything  - not just the Chanel suits or the perfect hair, but the image of the presidency as royalty, our very own Camelot. The film focuses on the days after JFKs assassination, as Jackie plans the details of the funeral and lays the groundwork for enshrining her husband’s legacy.  It captures a woman who endured a great tragedy and trauma with grace and grit. And Natalie Portman is Jackie – she nails the looks, the voice, the mannerisms. A truly transformative performance.
 
     10. Ghostbusters. Okay, okay – this wasn’t exactly a critical or commercial blockbuster. And many ask why a remake of the beloved Ghostbusters was necessary. But this movie was a noble endeavor – why can't the Ghostbusters be an all-lady team? The movie was so-so, but I was delighted to see young girls dressed up as Ghostbusters. It may not have been the greatest of barriers, but it was nice to see this one knocked down. 

I hope 2017 continues this trend of female-led movies that dare to present multi-faceted, complicated and fascinating women. Our stories deserve to be told.

Words can't express how much I love '20th Century Women'

In what has been a truly standout 12 months for Hollywood, there have been a handful of films that I took an instant liking to, where as the credits rolled I just knew I'd watched a master class of acting, writing and direction. This happened for me with Moonlight, with Fences, with Green Room and now, the gloriously funny and moving 20th Century Women.

I found myself wanting to tell everyone I knew about the movie, I want it to be a hit. I want it to be a movie that becomes a part of the American lexicon. It spoke to me that much.

There are traces of peak Woody Allen and Robert Altman in this movie, and maybe a little Wes Anderson too, but for the most part director Mike Mills has discovered a rhythm and playful style all his own as a filmmaker and he's found a flawless cast that can execute this subtle material (set in the uniquely distinct summer of 1979) with grace, warmth and gravitas.

In what has been a remarkable year for women's roles, this film presents three of my favorite: Annette Bening, Elle Fanning and Greta Gerwig all get to play complex, flawed, charismatic and ultimately triumphant women, at very different stages of their life, all at interesting moments of self discovery.

Bening plays the kind of mom I think we wish we all had and perhaps some of us do. She is inquisitive and open-hearted, she is a little old fashioned (she adores Casablanca) but also eager to understand the world as it is today (she tries, valiantly, to understand punk). Bening has always been terrific but this may be my favorite performance she's ever given. She comes across so real, so naturally, and her character is someone I wanted to hang out with, to sit up late talking to.

I appreciate the way she thinks, the way she carries herself. If Bening is not nominated for Best Actress later this month it'd be a travesty.

Gerwig, whose ticks and mannerisms have occasionally irked me in the past, is a revelation here. Perhaps, liberated from her normal look, she breathes real life into a character who could have been a caricature, making her utterly sympathetic, awkward and somehow devastatingly cool at the same time.

And Elle Fanning, with this and The Neon Demon, has demonstrated that despite her cherubic appearance she has incredible range and depth as an actress. I have been so impressed by her choices so far -- this is someone who is willing to really bare her soul on screen and take risks. She too creates a powerful piece of this ensemble, which also includes terrific supporting work from the men on the periphery but it is first and foremost about women -- and to some extent how they try to relate to and understand men, but also how they make sense of themselves.

The somewhat episodic film has a simple, strong thread about Bening trying to reach out to her teenage son (played by Lucas Jade Zumann, in a marvelously unaffected performance). She has already formed this ragtag pseudo family with the tenants in her boarding house (including Gerwig, Fanning and a charming Billy Crudup as a handyman with delusions of being a deep thinker). A single mom, Bening earnestly seeks this quirky coterie's help in raising her son, and the results are both heartbreaking and hilarious.

I had no idea until after the fact that the film is semi-autobiographical, drawing from elements of director Mills' own childhood. But now that I know, it makes perfect sense. There is a specificity to this movie that I really appreciated (including the time period details, which are never overstated) and a depth of feeling that seems to come from a very personal place.

I like movies about people who could actually exist, whose stories illuminate aspects of my own life and the lives of the people I care about. 20th Century Women is one of those movies. It's a celebration of life -- in all its messiness, and it's an ode to the women who make life so interesting, cause let's face it, they are the most compelling sex.

I will never stop singing this movie's praises. It really hit me in a personal way that I don't think I can even appropriately put into words. All I can say is that I loved it and that I hope you see it.

Why the backlash to Meryl Streep's speech is way off the mark

Before I weigh in on the substance of what Meryl Streep said at the Golden Globes last night I want to take a look at how President-elect Donald Trump and his top advisor Kellyanne Conway reacted. Keep in mind, the future Commander-in-Chief initially claimed not to have even watched her speech, in which she disputed the notion that Hollywood performers are somehow un-American and criticized Trump's infamous imitation of a disabled reporter earlier last year.

Trump first pointed out that Streep was a Clinton supporter and then went on to highlight that fact that many of the prominent figures in attendance at the Globes are "liberal movie people." In other words, because they have fundamental political differences with him, their opinions have no value.

Later, our future president went on Twitter to attack Streep even more personally, and label a woman widely recognized as the greatest actress of her generation as "over-rated."

Conway's reaction, was even more explicit:

Well my initial reaction is I’m glad that Meryl Streep has such a passion for the disabled, because I didn’t hear her weigh in and I didn’t hear her even use her platform last night to give a shout out to the mentally challenged boy, who last week was tortured live on Facebook for half an hour by four young African-American adults, who were screaming racial and anti-Trump expletives and forcing him to put his head in toilet water. So I’d like to hear from her today if she wants to come and continue her platform on behalf of the disabled and Donald Trump is absolutely right he has debunked this so many times ... she sounds like 2014. The election is over. She lost and he’s absolutely right about something else too, which is everybody in that audience—with very few exceptions—was of a single myopic mind as to how they wanted the election to go and how they expected the election to go.

Not only is this answer a rather inartful bit of race-baiting -- but it is also troubling on a number of fronts. Conway seems to suggest that since Streep did not speak to any and all acts of disrespect for the disabled that her remarks are somehow less credible. She also doubles down on an assertion, wildly popular with some Trump supporters, that because the election is "over" and Streep's side "lost," that she has no business expressing her political views, and certainly not in a public forum.

Had Trump narrowly lost instead of narrowly won (contrary to his claims of a blowout, his victory was assured by roughly 80,000 voters in just three states), it's hard to believe that he and his supporters would have immediately acquiesced to the results and remained silent.

But regardless, as Republican Sen. John Cornyn said today, Streep, like any other American citizen, is entitled to express herself, and not be attacked for it.

The reason Streep's speech was so powerful was the it made plain a reality that some Americans simply don't want to accept -- that Hollywood and liberals are part of this country, too. And the reason the 'imitation' of the disabled reporter still resonates, is that it was such a blatant example of how cruel we are capable of being if we eschew empathy -- a quality that great art often aspires to evoke.

You don't have to like Streep or even what she said, but as an American you ought to support her right to say it. And if you think you don't like what she said, it's worth exploring exactly what she said that was particularly galling to you.

She simply elevated the very human and complicated histories of people in that room, and dared to suggest that even though they may enjoy elite status now they may not all have had auspicious beginnings and now have dedicated themselves to our entertainment and enrichment.

Are there people who contribute more to society? Obviously. And of course, there are those who will understandably see any speech at any awards show delivered by any celebrity as inherently self serving and obnoxious.

But the backlash Streep is already receiving in some circles is a sad testament to how warped people's perceptions have become of free speech and how easily even our most talented and intelligent professionals can be vilified, simply for being true to themselves.

'Never Seen It' - Episode 12: Why we are scared of 'Fear'

My wife Elizabeth Rosado and I are back with our "Never Seen It" podcast -- and in this episode we take on the Mark Wahlberg-Reese Witherspoon thriller Fear.

I don't know  if it's quite fair to call this a cult classic, I'm not sure it's that beloved. But twenty years and some change since it first came out, it does appear to have hung around in the minds of a lot of viewers.

This is definitely one of the most ludicrous movies we've done to date -- I had to break out my notebook for this one -- but I think it's a fun back and forth between Liz and I, since neither of us had ever seen it before and discussed it for the first time here:

'Hidden Figures': A crowd-pleaser with the audacity to be sweet

There is bit of a maddening genre of Hollywood movies that attempt to portray inspirational stories on the subject of race. They tend to be very well-intentioned, and even sometimes boast powerhouse performances, but more often than not they collapse under the weight of their own self-congratulatory self-importance -- think The Butler, or The Help.

When I first heard about Hidden Figures -- which pays homage to the tireless work of three, largely unknown African-American women who were vital members of the team at NASA in the early days of the space program -- I was intrigued, but also wary. Was this going to be another cheesy civil rights highlights film?

Now, having seen Hidden Figures, I can safely say it is not. Sure, it is a very sweet movie, even arguably a sentimental one, but it also doesn't condescend to its audience, it's very well acted and its gives so-called "feel good movies" a good name.

The movie looks great, sounds great (thanks to a buoyant soundtrack featuring Pharrell), but what really makes this very enjoyable film soar is its performances.

Taraji P. Henson finally gets a lead role worthy of her talents here. Although she has the least flashy role of the three stars, she is incredibly sympathetic, warm and believable. Octavia Spencer turns in yet another one her solid, stirring turns. But for me the real find here is singer Janelle Monae, who in this film and earlier in Moonlight, really lights up the screen and proves to be a formidable actress. She seems poised to be a real movie star, as long as Hollywood wakes up and takes notice.

Also, I can't say enough by how much I appreciated Kevin Costner's supporting work here. Unlike some films that purport to be about black characters but shoehorn a white lead in to placate audiences (again, The Help), Costner's role is very clearly in the background here. But, he is riveting in a part that should remind audiences of why he was once a leading A-list movie star, and a truly underrated, naturalistic actor.

And while the film itself certainly isn't groundbreaking from a filmmaking perspective, the story itself is so intriguing and illuminating that its high points feel well-earned and truly touching. There are no mustache-twirling, over-the-top racist villains here.

Instead, the film wisely and subtly portrays the kind of benevolent, passive-aggressive bigotry that these women experienced because they were black and because they were women. And their victories, while compelling, were small in the grand scheme of things.

Of course, I have no idea how accurate the movie is -- there are moments that feel a little too cinematic to be true, but I've always felt the best biopics make you want to go out and learn more about the subject matter on which they're based, and that certainly in the case with Hidden Figures.

I left this movie with a smile on my face and a song in my heart -- and the conviction that this film deserves to be a hit. If it ultimately is, and it ought to be since it truly is as good as mass appeal dramas get -- it will be a great blueprint for how 20th Century-set historical films can be, and proof that stories headlined by women of color need not be whitewashed.

'Jackie' is a beautiful portrait of a formidable first lady

Last year I praised the under-seen Danny Boyle film Steve Jobs for revitalizing a genre that had become tiresome and predictable -- the biopic -- and now the new film Jackie builds on that film's promise, by presenting a gorgeous pastiche centered on former first lady and cultural icon Jackie Kennedy.

This was a film that could have been crude and exploitative -- it takes place largely in the immediate aftermath of President John F. Kennedy's assassination -- but instead of dwelling on the more morbid aspects of that tragedy, the movie is more of a tribute to a powerful woman's resolve and intuition.

This knockout of a movie has already got me wanting to revise my top 10 list for 2016, and it has also restored my faith in potential of Natalie Portman, as actress who can be mercurial with her choices from time to time, but I can't think of anyone better suited for this film and role.

With Black Swan I thought she was reaching a new peak of performance, allowing her pristine facade to bend and break in new and exciting ways. But then, inexplicably she opted for paycheck roles in movies like Friends With Benefits and Thor, and her tendency to deliver wooden work (as evidenced by the Star Wars prequels) threatened to undermine some of the good will she'd started to engender, even from skeptics.

I am happy to see her back in fighting form in Jackie, a high wire act that requires incredible poise, vocal control and intensely emotional heavy lifting. Part of the reason this film succeeds is that it avoids so many pitfalls it could have easily stumbled into (and that other recent films about the Cold War era, *cough* J. Edgar *cough*, have).

Instead of camp and cliche, we get a very raw, believable portrayal of Jackie Kennedy. I am not sure how accurate the film is, and I don't really care. As pure storytelling, this movie is assured -- at its best moments it conjures up memories of a Terrence Malick tone poem. My only quibble is a framing device of a print interview that smacks of a more traditional movie.

But on the whole this is a viscerally satisfying movie and a thought-provoking one. Not since Oliver Stone's much more histrionic (and yet, still genius in my mind) JFK, has a film better captured the promise and the disappointment inherent in the Kennedy mystique.

And the film also is slyly feminist and liberating for the former first lady, who comes across as far more flinty and astute behind closed doors than the public perhaps ever gave her credit for.

Without a doubt, this is a real comeback for Natalie Portman, who almost certainly will be in the Best Actress race this year. And I think after watching it, I will never view the Kennedys or Jackie the same way again.

I'm back! Here's my tentative top 10 list for 2016 movies

Despite some very unsettling and disappointing developments in my life and the world at large over the past twelve months -- it was a truly fantastic year for cinema.

I saw several movies that deeply touched me, felt fresh and invigorating, and there are still many worthy works that I haven't had a chance to see yet.

So this is, at best, a tentative list, a snapshot of where my head is at right now at this particularly moment. For instance, I am seeing Jackie tomorrow -- which as a history buff and Kennedy fanatic -- I really expect to enjoy.

There's also Silence, which by virtue of the fact that it's made by my favorite filmmaker -- Martin Scorsese -- is high up on my list. I desperately want to see the James Baldwin documentary I Am Not Your Negro, and I could go and on.

I could also construct a very long list of movies that I adored this year that just barely missed the cut or got squeezed out at the last second by something I've seen more recently. I'd be remiss if I didn't give shout outs to the wonderful throwback action comedy The Nice Guys, the great chiller 10 Cloverfield Lane, the new stoner classic Keanu, one of the best blockbusters -- Captain America: Civil War -- and The Neon Demon, which was over-the-top in the best way.

I have some more close calls, also rans, and honorable mentions. 2016 was just that good. And in my top 10 I have one cheat tie, only because the film's themes are so interwoven. But without further caveats, here is my top 10:

10)  The Fits - I just saw this unique and documentary-like coming of age story, so it's still sitting with me. At just 72 minutes, it could have been slight, but instead this at-times-ominous portrait of a young tomboy making inroads into the drill team world is a visual tour de force and a really strong statement from its director, Anna Rose Holmer. It's a hard movie to describe or pin down, but I will say it's a unique and fascinating viewing experience. And it is also the third film in my top 10 not to feature a single white cast member. More on that later.

9) Don't Breathe - This movie really took me, and I suspect a lot of audiences and critics, by surprise. We have all seen home invasion thrillers and yet this one felt so intense and riveting from start to finish. The premise (the 'victim' is blind) seemed so simple I can't believe someone hadn't thought of it before. Plus, the choice to have our loyalties shift and fluctuate lent real gravitas to what otherwise could have been a fun B-movie. In a really strong year for genre films, this one was among the best.

8) Hunt for the Wilderpeople - I don't think I laughed harder at any film this year than this wacky adventure out of New Zealand, which pairs a grizzled mountain man with a funky know-it-all, hip-hop loving kid (the rotund and adorable Julian Dennison in one of my favorite performances of the year, hands down). Another film which avoids the cuddly cliches, and whose offbeat humor is note perfect. I never was quite sure where this movie was going, but it really has a lot of heart and a wonderful sense of fun about it.

7) Hell or High Water - Although this crime film came out earlier in the season, it has stubbornly hung around, in part because it feels very timely and realistic. It shares some of the same DNA as No Country for Old Men, but perhaps stripped a little of that films existentialist flair. It's a bit of western, mixed with a bank heist movie, but it also really has something to say about communities in the heartland that have been fleeced over several decades and have never quite recovered. A film far more sophisticated than it appears to be on the surface.

6) La La Land - I wanted to hate this movie and I suspect many people will -- but I found myself succumbing to its sense of infectious joy. This movie is an unapologetic valentine to Hollywood and old fashioned movie-making and it's a fun romp from its bravura opening sequence to its final one. I can't help but feel its multicultural utopia seems better suited for an America where Hillary Clinton was president or when Barack Obama still was, but the charm of Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone is irresistible when all is said and done.

5) 13th/OJ: Made in America - Two flawless documentaries approaching issues of race and the criminal justice system from very different yet totally profound perspectives. Ava DuVernay's 13th is righteous in its anger at decades of both political parties passing the buck on a prison industrial complex which exploits and dehumanizes people of color at an alarmingly disproportionate rate. It's the movie that will make you want to write your Congressman. O.J.: Made in America, the multi-part opus on not just the infamous murder case but the culture of L.A. and the media that were integral to it, may force you to look inward and wonder why we like to chew up celebrities and then spit them out.

4) Rogue One - I have come to accept the fact that any new Star Wars film will come with quibbles from diehard fans, and some are legit with Rogue One, a sidebar story looking at how the Death Star plans were stolen prior to a A New Hope. Still, for me, this was a remarkable feat of mainstream sci-fi movie making. Visually flawless -- with the last 20 minutes ranking among the saga's best -- it made me feel like a little kid all over again. With this and The Force Awakens, we now finally have a prequel-proof supermajority of Star Wars films, with the two latest serving as perfect bookends to the original trilogy. I now feel certain that the legacy of those three masterpieces is in good hands with the folks at Disney.

3) Green Room - When I first watched this bloody, gritty thriller months ago I knew it would be in my top 10 and maybe be at the top (it remained there a long time). This one brought me back to the Pulp Fiction days, where you are watching a filmmaker at the top of their game, with material that is relentless and breathtakingly original. Oddly prescient, this movie about a punk band being terrorized by white supremacists, never got much of an audience when it was released but I am convinced will become a cult classic, thanks in part to the lead performance of the late Anton Yelchin and the truly scary one from Patrick Stewart as his nemesis.

2) Fences - I was just emotionally pulverized by this movie. And as a huge, lifelong Denzel Washington fan, this movie (based on the acclaimed August Wilson play of the same name) felt like the culmination of all his prior work. Although he remains one of our most endearing movie stars, he strips himself bare of all vanity here and delivers a volcanic, lived-in performance as a fundamentally damaged, but in denial, man. And the invaluable Viola Davis (who deserves every award possible for this performance) matches him step by step with a heartbreaking portrayal of his long-suffering wife. This is dramatic acting of the first order in a film that bowls you over with its simple elegance. It also (like my #1 film) features only people of color, and in doing so, shows that working class angst is not just the dominion of whites; it is universal.

1) Moonlight - When the credits rolled on Moonlight, I vividly remember telling my wife, "Well, that was a masterpiece." It's another difficult film to quantify -- it feels alive in every frame. Yes, it's nominally a coming-of-age story told in triptych form, but that doesn't do it justice either since I have never seen a character study quite like this. Yes, it has an LGBT theme, which feels relevant and even urgent right now, but it's also gorgeous to look at and listen to and the acting ensemble (made mostly of newcomers and rising stars) is peerless. It was without a doubt the best movie of the year, regardless of what the Oscars say.

UPDATE: My revised top 10: 1) Moonlight 2) I Am Not Your Negro 3) Fences 4) 20th Century Women 5) Green Room 6) Rogue One 7) Hell or High Water 8) 13th/OJ: Made in America 9) Elle and 10) Hunt for Wilderpeople and honorable mentions to: La La Land, Hidden Figures, Jackie, The Nice Guys, Captain America: Civil War, The Founder, Michael Moore in Trumpland, The Neon Demon, Southside With You, Keanu, Doctor Strange, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Don't Breathe, The Fits, Hail Caesar and The Witch.