Welcome to another belated film review round-up, where I catch up on some older releases that I didn’t review in full but still want to share my thoughts on! Today is a unique edition as we have two documentaries, a docu-series and a stage play recording among our lineup, but hey, 2020 is a unique year for many reasons so I’m willing to break the rules a bit. Here are my thoughts on some 2020 releases: Driveways, Dick Johnson Is Dead, All-In: The Fight For Democracy, The Last Dance, and Hamilton!
Driveways
Driveways debuted at the 2019 Berlin Film Festival over a year and a half ago, and only recently saw a VOD release in the United States. This is a tiny drama from filmmaker Andrew Ahn, starring Hong Chau as a single mother who takes her 9-year-old son with her to her late-sister’s old residence to clear it out and prepare it for sale. This shy young boy must spend the summer in an unfamiliar town, and he strikes up an unlikely friendship with his lonely next-door neighbor, elderly Korean War vet Del (played by the late Brian Dennehy). It’s really hard to describe why this film works as well as it does: it’s tiny in scope, features no A-list actors and a bare-bones plot, yet it’s one of the most affecting and emotional films I’ve seen all year. There’s something so heartwarming about the major relationships, which play out in a naturalistic manner to lend credibility to the story and characters…the comparison has to be made to Chloe Zhao, whose upcoming film Nomadland uses similar tactics. But at the same time the film has a strong foundation in its screenplay to provide structure and thematic resonance to its relatively small moments.
At its heart, this is a coming-of-age tale about the difficulty of forming connections with others in the digital age. Our young protagonist is often glued to his video games and gets anxious in simple social situations with his peers. Only with Del does he find any kind of kinship and feel comfortable to come out of his shell. Similarly, Del learns how to open up instead of living the rest of his life as a cranky, lonely old man; he learns to reconnect with his daughter and maintain relationships rather than let them fall by the wayside. The fact that Andrew Ahn accomplishes all of this in a mere 83 minutes is astounding and a testament to his abilities as a storyteller. The performances are solid all around; Hong Chau is believable as the distressed single mother, while Brian Dennehy (RIP) gets some powerful emotional moments that I’ll definitely remember for end-of-year awards consideration. Also: quick shout-out to Jay Wadley for his gorgeous score, which was a big highlight! He also did the scores for I’m Thinking of Ending Things and the upcoming I Carry You With Me, proving that he’s a new name to remember as a composer. Hopefully he continues to get work after strong work like this! Seek this film out if you enjoy powerful indies in the vein of Columbus or Paterson, because this is the latest in a long line of big emotional experiences in a small package.
VERDICT: A-
All image rights belong to FilmRise.
Dick Johnson Is Dead
This documentary follows a filmmaker and her elderly father as they seek inventive and entertaining ways to portray his death on screen. This is a film that lives or dies on its ability to strike the proper balance between humor and tragedy, making light of a difficult subject matter while also giving it the serious treatment it deserves. There is an underlying idea that the best way to deal with death is to laugh at it, to turn it into something mundane that we accept as part of the natural cycle of life. The film discusses the shortcomings of various ways to deal with death, from religion to denial and more. But in reality it comes for us all, and I appreciate the way the film embraces that rather than try to hide from it like many people do. It’s especially impactful as we learn more about the Johnson family history, as Dick’s wife died of dementia years ago – a horrible experience that nobody should have to face. Yet they manage to make the most of an awful situation and use her tragedy as an opportunity to make a statement on how we can manage such heartbreak with a dose of the most powerful medicine: laughter.
The pacing suffers a bit in the middle as the film struggles to create a cohesive throughline for the film’s story. It speaks to the lack of overarching plot as the film isn’t really working towards anything. It puts the cart in front of the horse a little bit as it becomes more about creating these death scenarios for their own sake, rather than using them to complement an existing story. The subplot featuring the late-mother is powerful, but again, it ends up playing a load-bearing role when it should be in support of something greater. I wanted to learn more about Dick Johnson’s psychiatry efforts and his work with those with mental health problems, or more about the family history of dementia that is briefly touched upon. Generally speaking the filmmaker is the main character when her father should have been moreso. Still, there are enough powerful and emotional moments that this still works in spite of the film’s flaws. The ending is absolutely perfect, at once providing an outlet for the audience to laugh at the audacity while also delivering some tear-jerking moments of reflection on the power of life and legacy. I enjoyed myself, but the film didn’t quite reach its full potential in my opinion. I’ll remember it fondly but see it as a bit of a missed opportunity.
VERDICT: B
All image rights belong to Netflix.
All-In: The Fight for Democracy
I caught this documentary as part of NYFF’s digital lineup, and I’m so glad I did because it infuriated me. And when I say infuriated, I don’t mean I was upset at the poor quality of the filmmaking, but because this is a doc designed to make you mad, to highlight the injustices of our nation’s history that persist to this day. I was unaware of the long history of voter suppression, and I think many people just assume that black people got the right to vote after the Civil War and that was that. But for nearly 100 years thereafter, black voters were subject to some disgusting practices of open racism, mostly in the South but all over the country to varying degrees. Some were intimidated, some were denied, some were outright murdered for trying to exercise their Constitutional rights. If you ever wonder why many black Americans don’t vote, here is your answer: generational fear of retribution. I also like how they tied in this history lesson to the modern-day with the story of gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who experienced similar underhanded tactics to deny her the victory. It’s important to reiterate that while we’ve come a long way since the slavery days, the fight for justice and equality is NOT over. White Americans cannot stick their heads in the sand and pretend that racism ended in the 1960’s…this shit is still happening right under our noses!
If you still believe America is not a racist nation, I encourage you to watch this. Voter suppression is still a very real thing, starting as an unapologetically-racist practice and morphing into a thinly-veiled political strategy in the present day. Whatever your political beliefs, the idea that our votes are being manipulated is a horrifying one that evokes images of absolute corruption and dictatorship. Republican or Democrat, it’s completely unacceptable for an election to be decided because a small group of operatives use underhanded tactics to deny voters’ rights. And if you think that era is over, just look at the news already as Texas’s governor reduces the number of ballot drop boxes and our own President continues his smear campaign against absentee voting (which I myself have done for the past 10 years with no trouble). If this doesn’t scare you into voting, I don’t know what will. Please watch this on Prime Video today, but more importantly, GO VOTE on November 3rd! Most people don’t realize what a privilege it is to vote because they’ve never experienced a system that denies them that right. This is one of the most important documentaries I’ve seen in some time: an important history lesson and call to action that we should all heed the warnings of.
VERDICT: A
All image rights belong to Amazon Prime Video.
Hamilton
Is Hamilton a film? I’m sure that debate will continue to rage on as we get to the end of the year, but the fact remains that it is one of the best pieces of media I’ve seen in all of 2020. I’d been dying to see this ever since it debuted on Broadway way back in 2015 and the crazy hype surrounding it kicked into overdrive. You can certainly argue that the film takes its own creative liberties with the material as they use multiple camera angles (including some the live audience would never be able to see), so as of now I’m considering it a feature film. In any case, I absolutely loved this story! The hype is well-deserved, and this is not only a highly-entertaining story but an important one with something to say about patriotism, immigration and the American Dream. I was among the skeptical when I first heard that a story about an obscure Founding Father was drawing such raves, but it makes sense given the naturally-dramatic nature of Alexander Hamilton’s life. As the opening song suggests, the fact that this “bastard orphan son of a whore” was able to have such a profound impact on American history is a testament to the American spirit and the importance of making one’s voice heard in a system very much in flux.
I was on board with everything this was doing from minute one all the way through to the end. The highlights for me were Jonathan Groff as the wonderfully-hammy King George III and Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr. The only real weakness I can point to is Lin-Manuel Miranda himself…while is songwriting process is on full display, his acting in the lead role leaves something to be desired. But it’s tough to fault him for taking the role, which no doubt took him forever to get made in the first place as not many people were leaping at the chance to play a rapping Founding Father in 2015. Everything else is just top-notch: every song is a banger, every supporting performance is flawless, and the story is consistently entertaining. I would recommend this even to people who don’t care much for musicals, because I’m one of those people and this was still awesome! If you haven’t seen this yet, you’re missing out on one of the most important pieces of entertainment media of the past decade. Hamilton will continue to be talked about for decades to come as a staple of musical theater, and the fact that we got to experience it with the original cast from the comfort of our homes is truly remarkable.
VERDICT: A
All image rights belong to Disney Plus.
The Last Dance
If we’re already stretching the definition of a film with Hamilton, we might as well talk about the other powerhouse piece of media from this year: the ESPN docu-series about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. This is quite simply one of the most engrossing stories of 2020 so far, if not the best. The filmmakers implement a unique story structure, starting with the Bulls’ 1997 championship and telling the story of the ’98 run while also flashing back throughout all of Jordan’s career along the way. On paper this should have been an utter disaster, but it wound up complementing the story of the final season perfectly. Every episode takes a new character or theme and examines how it/they affected the team during both that final run and the team’s history. For instance, it’s impossible to understand the Scottie Pippen salary controversy without being filled in on his up-and-down history with the team. It also helps that the story is already so chock-full of drama…the filmmakers could have told this story in a straightforward manner and still wound up with an excellent story. The fact that they took the risk of chopping it up and telling it out-of-order elevates this to legendary status.
It certainly helps that I’m in the perfect demographic to enjoy this story to the fullest extent: a huge basketball fan who didn’t know all the details of the Bulls dynasty. But I’d venture to say that this is a doc that would work for everyone, even those with only a passing interest in basketball. It touches on ideas of leadership, teamwork and greatness as it follows Michael Jordan’s ascension to rarified air. We had never seen such celebrity status for an athlete before and we may never again. I’m a big Lebron James fan, but after watching this doc I will never again claim that he’s the greatest of all time – MJ holds that title now and forever. I also appreciate the film’s willingness to get controversial; it doesn’t attempt to paint its subjects in a positive light at all times. We get the full picture: all the sordid details, all the controversy, and I loved every minute of it. Again, it remains to be seen how much liberty I take with qualifying stories like this as films at the end of the year for my Top 10 Films of 2020 list. But if I do wind up including this in my lineup, as of right now it is my #1 film of the entire year, hands down.
VERDICT: A+
All image rights belong to ESPN Films and Netflix.
Conclusion
Thanks for reading! I plan on watching all the major awards contenders this fall if/when they get released, starting next week with Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7! I also plan to “cheat” further on my film reviews with Steve McQueen’s anthology series Small Axe when that releases on Prime Video…that may seal my decision further to include non-feature films in my eventual Top 10 of the Year list! In the meantime, check out the home page for more “film” reviews and musings like this one. More importantly, VOTE ON NOVEMBER 3rd!!! Whatever you believe in, democracy is at its best when everyone has a say.
-Austin Daniel
Scriptophile 