So the Oscars are less than an hour away. I’m going to opt not to live blog them because doing the Golden Globes was a lot of work and these are even longer and I sort of just want to sit back and enjoy (and hopefully tick off all my correct predictions). So instead of making another in an endless stream of Oscar posts tonight I thought I’d just quickly recap the two movies I saw this weekend.
The Better Angels is the freshman effort from A.J. Edwards, a protege of the legend Terrence Malick, and his influence really shows. The visual cues, the camera motion, the editing, even the music was all vintage Malick. If you didn’t tell me I would’ve said Malick made this movie. I think the reviews for this film are a little harsh and are too focused on the connection to Malick. Stepping back from that this is really a nice, meditative, and lyrical take on the childhood of Abraham Lincoln. The movie also works even if you didn’t have the connection the mythical figure of Lincoln. The black and white photography is stark and smooth. Only Godfrey Reggio’s innovative black and white photography from The Visitorsoutdid it last year. The cast is great here, especially the women, Brit Marling and Diane Kruger. I’ll dip back into the comparisons with Malick and say how these performances so much evoke that of Jessica Chastain in The Tree of Life in how formative the mother figure is on the young boy and how angelic those mothers are. I rented this film for just $4.99 on iTunes and it just came out on that platform last week. If you have a fiver laying around or some spare change in the couch you should scrounge it up and give this movie a try. This one is definitely more aligned with my aesthetic tastes than mosts but any Malick fan, any fan of black and white cinematography, and any fan of Abraham Lincoln will find this film immensely enjoyable.
The second film I watched was a documentary that just got put on Netflix: The Overnighters. Unfortunately I missed this one at the Milwaukee Film Festival so I’m very glad it’s now readily available on Netflix which does a great job showing great documentaries you’d otherwise not see. This film somehow missed out on Oscar consideration in a year overcrowded with great documentaries. It’s about the oil boom in western North Dakota and the accompanying rush of less than savory men who come clamoring for jobs. It’s a heartbreaking depiction along the lines of The Grapes of Wrath and shows the devastating effects of a housing shortage and a very suspicious community that has no problem profiting from the oil boom but wants nothing to do with the men who would be willing to work for it. Past convictions keep them from getting jobs right away and with housing prices rivaling that of San Francisco and Manhattan there’s no place for them to go. So a pastor at a local church houses these men at his house of worship and even his own home much to the dismay of his congregation, town politicians, and his family. The movie would be an enlightening look at all of this and is very commendable but then there is a lightning bolt of a revelation late in the third act that makes you rethink all of what has been presented before. Any documentary film lover will love this as would anyone who is interested in the economic collapse of late last decade and the conditions that led to people descending upon Williston, ND and the surrounding areas seeking out six figure jobs. Highly recommended.
midwestmovieman 