The latest film releases include The Taste of Things, Lisa Frankenstein, Skeletons in the Closet, and Suncoast. Weighing in are William Bibbiani, film critic and co-host of the podcast Canceled Too Soon and The Critically Acclaimed Network, and Monica Castillo, freelance film critic and senior film programmer at the Jacob Burns Film Center.
The Taste of Things
Juliette Binoche stars as an esteemed cook who has a long relationship with her boss (Benoît Magimel).
Bibbiani: “Although there were a lot of amazing films last year, this is the one that left my soul feeling completely nourished, fittingly enough. … She, early in the film, gets sick, and they don't know how serious it is. And the majority of the movie is him realizing that he's never cooked for her. And so he decides to show her how much he loves her food.
It is an absolutely enchanting film. The cinematography is luscious and it makes all the food look extra delicious. It is full of incredible detail for people who do care about culinary delights. It's romantic. It's a bit sad. It has a truly wonderful ending.”
Castillo: “The word that I use to describe this film is scrumptious, every little bit of it, because from the food to the exchanged glances, everything just makes you feel something. You're really alive when you're watching this film — the golden cinematography, the setting, the costumes, the details. I finished watching the movie and already wanted to go back into that world again. It was that delicious.”
Lisa Frankenstein
This love story follows a teen and her corpse crush, written by Diablo Cody (Juno, United States of Tara). It’s inspired by a mashup of Lisa Frank’s cute animal neon designs of the 1980s and 1990s and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. It is directed by Zelda Williams.
Castillo: “I wish there was a little bit more Lisa Frank-ness in it, but it is very colorful and very kitschy. It's a very strange, offbeat, Winona Ryder in the 80s-esque coming-of-age story. It's actually billed as a coming-of-rage story because Lisa is a misunderstood teen who when mourning the death of her mother, finds herself in a really not great situation with a new evil stepmom and not quite fitting in in school. And then she really longs to be with this long-dead 19th century bachelor. … It is making fun of those John Hughes teen comedies, but also taking a little fun at Twilight, because you're falling in love with one of the universal monsters. I overall had a lot of fun with it. I know it's not going to be everybody's cup of tea. Diablo Cody may not be everybody's cup of tea. But this is maybe her nicest movie.”
Skeletons in the Closet
This low-budget horror flick stars multi-award-winning actors Terrence Howard and Cuba Gooding Jr.
Bibbiani: “Skeletons in the Closet, despite a very good cast — Terrence Howard even co-wrote the thing — it is weirdly incompetent. The visual effects are embarrassing. The editing isn't very good. The acting is all over the place. The story is simultaneously way too simple and weirdly confusing. It is not an effective chiller in any meaningful way. This might be a good irony watch. Like if you want, ‘Ah, they tried.’ But it's unfortunately not entertaining on its own merit.”
Castillo: “I'm looking at my notes right now and it says, ‘Not sure why this movie exists.’ I'm not sure the movie knows why it exists. … It was interesting that they were trying to bring in the legend of Santa Muerte but ended up not really doing too much with it, and that was a very weird, tacked-on aspect. It just really felt thrown together. And yeah, how do you misuse Udo Kier? That seemed like you dropped the ball.”
Suncoast
This is a coming-of-age debut film by writer-director Laura Chinn, starring Laura Linney, Woody Harrelson, and Nico Parker. It’s set in the early 2000s and follows a teenager (Parker), who’s at odds with her strong-willed mom (Linney), and her brother is in hospice.
Bibbiani: “It depicts people who have been pushed beyond their limits by circumstances that they are willing to undertake because they have to care for someone they love, but it also takes a toll, especially over time. The way that Laura Linney's dedicated her entire adult life for many, many years to caring for a child who is this ill, and the way that Nico Parker's character has had to sacrifice her childhood for that purpose, and how they are not really meeting anywhere in the middle, is really genuine and really, really tragic. The way that the movie incorporates Terri Schiavo — and one can argue that it's a bit crass, that it is a bit of a backdrop — I think it exists to try and put the audience in a position where they can, if they don't have any personal experience with this kind of end-of-life care, to remind them of a situation in which they probably did have a strong opinion and maybe put a human face on all angles of that."
Castillo: “I love the personal story aspect of Suncoast. I don't know … [if] it gels as well with the overarching things that [are] happening. The media circus that's going around with Terri Schiavo and the activist played by Woody Harrelson, that feels a bit odd. Whereas I was fully plugged in for Nico Parker versus Laura Linney in their scenes because they're so emotional and they're so good together. And I would have just watched the whole movie from their perspective without having to engage in the larger cultural argument about it, because it seems like it gets brought up and then gets pushed back away for the personal stuff.”