The Hater

Posted on March 17, 2022 at 12:30 pm

B-

Lowest Recommended Age:	High School
Profanity:	Strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Alcohol, vaping marijuana
Violence/ Scariness:	Tense confrontations, oblique reference to suicide
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters:	March 18, 2022

Newcomer Joey Ally takes on the challenge of writing, directing, and starring in her first film, “The Hater,” the story of a far-left political speechwriter who ends up running in a Republican primary in her a right-wing community. She is better as a writer than a director and better as a director than an actor, but the screenplay is strong enough to overcome some rookie mistakes.

Ally plays Dorothy, as in Oz, who is fired in the film’s first few minutes after a viral video appears to show her burning a flag at a demonstration. She has to leave Washington to return to a place she could not wait to get away from, her home town in Texas. Her grandfather (Bruce Dern in grumpy mode) is not happy to see her, but she reminds him that she is half-owner of the house, and he lets her in.

She tries to find a job with a progressive candidate or cause, but no one wants her. Then she sees that there is a primary coming up, and her childhood nemesis, Brent Hart (Ian Harding), is running unopposed. His father is a Senator. He twice took the local high school football team to State. He is handsome and personable. The Democrat who will run against him is a woman who has already lost three times. There seems to be no way to beat him.

Unless.. .If Dorothy runs against Brent and defeats him and then withdraws, according to local rules the Republican party cannot nominate anyone else, and so the Democrat could win. So, she goes out to collect some signatures to get on the ballot. It does not go very well until she accidentally goes viral again, this time for defeating an armed robbery in a convenience store. She looks like a gunslinger, but really it was just muscle memory from color guard in high school.

Dorothy’s one-time high school friend (Meredith Hagner), whose husband is deployed in the military, opposes Brent because he plans to tear down the community center where she works. So, she signs on as Dorothy’s campaign manager. And Glenn (D’Angelo Lacy), Dorothy’s best friend and roommate from Washington, shows up for a Red State make-under. Off with the nose ring. On with clothes from her late grandmother, picked from boxes in the attic.

The best thing about the movie is its refusal to make any character one-dimensional or completely unsympathetic, especially when we find our own expectations challenged.

NOTE: I have a connection to this movie because my daughter, Rachel Apatoff, was the costume designer. Needless to say, the costumes, which are an essential element of the film, are brilliant.

Parents should know that this movie has very strong language, discussion of abortion, and some drug use.

Family discussion: How did Dorothy shade the truth in her campaign comments? How did her father’s death affect her choices? Which character would you vote for?

If you like this, try: “Dick” and “In the Loop”

The Mustang

Posted on March 28, 2019 at 5:45 pm

B +

Lowest Recommended Age:	Mature High Schooler
MPAA Rating:	Rated R for language, some violence and drug content
Profanity:	Very strong and crude language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drug dealing and drug use
Violence/ Scariness:	Peril and violence, animal abuse, discussion of domestic abuse
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	March 29, 2019
Date Released to DVD:	June 10, 2019

Prisoner Roman Coleman (Matthias Schoenaerts) uncomfortable in his orange Department of Corrections jumpsuit, uncomfortable in a room with another person, uncomfortable in his own skin, does not answer when the other person, Connie Britton as a counselor, asks him a hypothetical question about how he would respond to seeing a woman he loved kissing someone else. She tries something less hypothetical, asking for his thoughts about his years in isolation and how he feels about being re-integrated into the general prison population. “I’m not good with people,” he says, and we can see he is right.

And so, Roman is assigned to shovel manure. The prison participates in the federal government’s program to train wild horses so they can be sold. As we see in the film’s opening scenes, it is thrilling to see the wild horses race across gorgeous natural settings, the embodiment of the American spirit of freedom and like a whole verse of their own from “America the Beautiful.” But there are too many of them even for the 29 million acres across ten states, and so some are captured every year. Many of them are put down. But some are given to prisoners so they can learn skills that will help them after they leave. The prisoners tame the horses, which are then sold, many to the government itself for border patrol.

Nothing could be more natural than prisoners relating to angry, terrified wild horses in cages. Because he is so uncooperative, insisting that he does not get along with people, he is assigned the job of shoveling manure. But that brings him to where the horses are, horses that once were wild and are now confined to cages. Roman is drawn, naturally, to the angriest and most terrified of all.

Henry (Jason Mitchell of “Straight Outta Compton”) is one of the inmates who works with the horses, his superior status indicated in the privilege of wearing denim instead of prison orange. He and the civilian head of the horse training program, Myles (Bruce Dern in full grizzle mode) decide to give Roman a chance. But that means Roman will have to learn patience and gentleness. A man whose body and soul have been clenched for as long as he can remember has to learn to relax his shoulders to encourage the horse to calm down.

And that means he has to actually be relaxed, because the horse will know. You can’t pretend. Just as Roman gentles the horse, the horse gentles him. And he goes from being a man who almost sat down at the wrong table when his daughter came to visit because he had no idea what she looked like to someone who for the first time is able to tell her how he feels.

Actress turned first-time director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre has a real eye for lyrical images and a gift for casting actors of exceptional skill. Schoenaerts, a Belgian actor who has shown a rare gift for supporting performances of quiet power in films like “A Bigger Splash” and “Far from the Madding Crowd” shows a great deal by seemingly doing very little. He is extraordinary in the emotional scene with Roman’s daughter (an excellent Gideon Adlon), but he is just as extraordinary in the scenes with the horse and when he is at last permitted the honor of wearing denim. Mitchell, in a small role, continues to be one of the most appealing performers of his generation with enormous charm.

The script wavers at times, and audiences should know that despite the involvement of Robert Redford, who played the horse whisperer, this is not the Hallmark movie version of the story. But Clermont-Tonnerre is a gifted filmmaker and the performances she whispered from her cast make Mustang an impressive debut.

Parents should know that this film has very strong language, drug dealing and drug use, description of violence, including domestic violence, animal abuse, peril and violence.

Family discussion: Why was Roman drawn to Marquis? How did working with Marquis make Roman want to talk to his daughter?

If you like this try: “Greenfingers,” starring Clive Owen and Helen Mirren, also based on the true story of prisoners who find purpose in a special program, this one gardening and the documentary “Dogs on the Inside” about a prisoners training guide dogs.

Bruce Dern and “Nebraska” at the Middleburg Film Festival

Posted on October 25, 2013 at 8:24 am

The opening night of the first Middleburg film festival was held at the spectacular new Salamander Resort and Bruce Dern was there to present his new film, “Nebraska,” directed by Alexander Payne (“Sideways,” “Election,” “The Descendants”). Dern and the film’s producers answered questions following the screening. They told us it took ten years to get it made. Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa, the producers, told us that when they received the script from first-time screenwriter Bob Nelson they immediately thought of Alexander Payne and invited him to be executive producer. He said he wanted to direct, but that he had to do another project first, and that turned out to be the multi-year effort on “The Descendants.” They went through several different studios and a budget that “fell through the floor” when they insisted on making it in black and white.

Dern, whose daughter Laura starred in Payne’s first film, “Citizen Ruth,” got the script early and “read it faster than I ever read anything in my life.” Woody, the main character in the film, keeps talking about how much he wants a truck, so Dern sent Payne a red toy truck in a shoebox with a note: “I am Woody.” The character captivated him and he wanted to play it. He said, “It was an at bat for me. I’ve had at bats before, but this one was in the bottom of the ninth.” It was not clear at first that he would get the role. “Every **** in America over 70 they had to look at.”

But then Dern was cast as Woody and he told us how moved he was by what Payne told him. “He said, ‘For the first time in your career, let us do our jobs. Don’t show us anything. Let us find it.'” Payne put his effort into the casting, spending more than a year finding the people, some who had never acted before. Dern got choked up as he described what he said was the hardest scene he had ever filmed, when Woody walks through the now-abandoned house he grew up in. Although, like Woody, he grew up in the Midwest, his background was very different. His family was filled with high achievers in politics, law, and literature and he was told to raise his hand before speaking at dinner because he did not have anything interesting to contribute. Like Woody, he felt a mixture of wistfulness and triumph in thinking about the past.

Dern loved working with Payne, who inspires such loyalty that out of 82 crew members, 47 had been with him on every day of every film he has ever made. “He never gave a specific piece of direction to anyone. When you fall, he goes down where you are, picks you up from the edge, and says, ‘Let’s make magic.'”

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The Astronaut Farmer

Posted on February 3, 2007 at 4:34 pm

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	Kindergarten - 3rd Grade
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG for thematic material, peril and language.
Profanity:	Brief strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Some social drinking
Violence/ Scariness:	Character in peril with some injuries, sad death
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	2007
Date Released to DVD:	2007
Amazon.com ASIN:	B00005JPLE

Once upon a time there was a farmer who wanted to build a rocket ship and orbit the earth. And there were some evil ogres who wanted to stop him.

That’s the best way to describe this slight fairy tale of a film, where each shot is lovingly framed to show the golden light playing over the pastoral landscapes, set in a small town that makes Mayberry seem unfriendly and featuring a family so unconditionally loving and devoted that we seem to have come upon them mid-Hallmark commercial.

That is not to say that it is anything but warm-hearted and captivating. It is just to say that you can’t take it too seriously. In other words, don’t try this at home.

Billy Bob Thornton plays a farmer actually named Farmer. That is his last name and many people call him that, including his wife Audie (Virginia Madsen). He rides a horse in his astronaut uniform — the ultimate mash-up of American male icons. When he gets up to a small bit of vandalism he is sent for a psychological evaluation — to the local school nurse, who was once his prom date. Everyone in the town knows everyone else and knows everything about everyone else. But even his good friend at the bank can’t stop foreclosure proceedings when Farmer spends all his money on the rocket. And when he orders rocket fuel over the internet, he attracts the attention of some people outside the community. They are people from places that are very big on initials, like NASA and DOJ and WMD. They are people who are very big on laws like the Patriot Act. And they are people who have no imagination and no sense of humor when it comes to having private citizens launch rockets.

The good guys are cute and cuddly and believe in their dreams. They have family dinners where everyone talks about what should be packed for the mission. The children are devoted to their parents and have beautiful manners. The two little girls (real-life daughters of the twin brothers who made the film) are the most natural and appealing young performers since “In America.” Virginia Madsen is radiant as always as Mrs. Farmer. And there’s an adorably grizzled old grandpa (Bruce Dern) to tell Farmer what a great dad he is.

It works because of the conviction of its actors (including a surprise third act appearance by a major movie star) and its gentle, unassuming Capra-esque air. Its takeoff and flight is more butterfly than rocketship, but it’s a lovely ride.

Parents should know that there are some tense and scary moments. A character is in peril and is injured. There is a sad death. Characters use brief strong language and drink and there is a brief sexual reference.

Families who see this movie should talk about why Farmer’s dream was so important to him and why his family supported him. Why didn’t he accept the offer to go in NASA’s space shuttle? Was the government right to try to stop him? Why?

Families who enjoy this movie will also enjoy films about the U.S. space program, including Apollo 13, From the Earth to the Moon and The Right Stuff. And they might enjoy the made-for-television movie “Salvage 1” with Andy Griffith, which became a series.