Here to help: Alexis Knapp as the HR director in ‘Another Day in America’.
ANOTHER DAY IN AMERICA **** (112 minutes)
What starts out as a dark-edged workplace comedy-drama promptly morphs into an excoriating, angry social critique about toxic office politics where WokeThink and Old School collide.
Written and directed by Emilio Mauro with razor-sharp focus, the film feeds on how the weaponisation of words, twisted logic and the evaporation of critical thinking have infected modern working life.
The bods toiling away in a deliberately ill-defined organization seem so pre-occupied with inter-personal interactions and issues they barely seem capable of getting any real work done. Their chief means of communication are rumour, accusation and outright conflict.
The centre of the storm is Tracy Anderson (Alexis Knapp, outstanding), the HR director from the Ninth Circle of Hell who seems intent on single-handedly waging the culture war from her desk.
She fires people for ancient tweets and lashes out at WrongThink as she pushes her trident of agendas into the face of anyone who dares challenge her progressive values.
There is pushback, of course, mainly from senior employees who resent her tactics, verbosity and general attitude, which signals deeply embedded misandry, with particular emphasis on white men and their – wait for it – privilege.
Chief among these is Sam (Paul Ben-Victor), a no-nonsense businessman who likes calling her out on what he openly perceives to be politically correct BS.
The film clearly points to the negativity and abuse of social media as the main accelerant in the devolution of modern life, its deliberate misuse and exploitative nature being the primary cause of the degradation in human relations.
Where all this leads is illustrated in a powerful final reel.
The ensemble deliver excellent, intense performances, with Knapp – best-known as Stacie from the Pitch Perfect films – being so convincing you want to reach through the screen and throttle her. She’s that good.
The only real quibble is that the film has so much on its mind and is so eager to articulate its arguments, themes and, well, rage the dialogue can sometimes feel like rants from the screenwriter rather than the characters.
A case in point is when one heart-broken sod breaks through the fourth wall to deliver a particularly vicious diatribe direct to camera.
Pungent as it is, it does have the feel of a passionate screed that didn’t quite fit anywhere but was deemed too good to be excised. It should have found voice organically rather than having to break form.
That sole barb aside, Another Day in America registers as a dynamite, hot-button workplace drama likely to leave you reeling after its shock finale. Great stuff and a film that gains on a second viewing, something your humble reviewer couldn’t resist.
Footnote: Curious to know how he managed to get such strong performances from his ensemble cast, Emilio Mauro offered these valuable notes via email, all punching the primacy of preparation.
“We couldn’t afford rehearsals or a bunch of takes, so I leaned into what was free: time. I spent hours with each actor in prep (calls, Zooms), coaching, tweaking, and rewriting to find their wheelhouse.
“By the time we hit the set, they were ready. Every actor genuinely wanted to be great, and they came in prepared — which made all the difference.
“Once I was actually shooting, I didn’t have much to do except tweak things. And I did tweak a good amount, but I never over-directed. I knew where I was going to cut and what I was going to use.”
Echoes here of the approach favoured by Alfred Hitchcock, wherein the director enters production with the film in his head and sticking to that vision through any modification or revision.
It’s a method deserving of more traction locally.
On Apple, YouTube and Google Play (US only)
DEATH LETTER BLUES *** (78 minutes)
In a potently atmospheric slice of Southern noir, a pair of inscrutable mysteries – one public, one personal – consume the life of Father Moss (Sherman Augustus), the holy man of a remote backwater Mississippi town that looks as though it has been left to decay back into the landscape.
One involves the killing of a teenager known as Feral Boy (Layton Miller), so named because he was found as a child, lost and alone without anyone reporting him missing. Adopted and raised by a childless couple, his slain body is discovered in the woods after a party.
The other sees Moss receiving a “death letter” from a local who has left him a swish car and confessed to a killing decades earlier.
The tragedy of these events play on the priest’s mind, already in the throes of reassessing his faith and the way God works, even in the all-but-forgotten ramshackle township Moss lives.
Toying subtly with genre conventions, writer/directors Strack Azar & Michael Stevantoni weave an intriguing, beguiling scenario in which questions raised by the measured pace of the narrative prove far more captivating than the quest for answers, some of which prove elusive.
Contemplative at heart, the film takes full advantage of its ominous locale, evoking the sense that a weird sort of spirituality is at play, and is playing on the holy man’s mind as he navigates through the puzzle he finds himself in.
Very good performances, especially from Augustus (Stranger Things), set off this off-road drama that features stormy skies that suggest something dark is brewing.
On Apple TV, Google and Amazon.
A STRANGER IN THE WOODS *** (83 minutes)
What fun as film student Edith (Laura Ellen Wilson) heads into the woods with her nifty array of digital cameras to document the lifestyle of eccentric loner hermit Victor (Bill Oberst Jr).
With the found footage feel of The Blair Witch Project, director József Gallai unashamedly embraces every trope within reach of an obviously low budget, gleefully exploiting the pseudo-documentary format for all it’s worth, especially when it comes to creepy night vision.
The two leads play off each other very well. Oberst is gifted with a visage that requires no adornment to instill fear and suspicion while Wilson proved especially impressive given the arc Edith traverses from academic curiosity to dread.
Nicely done.
The film is available free on Amazon, Tubi, Vudu, Roku and Flixfling. (US only)
LIVE AND DIE IN EAST LA **1/2 (83 minutes)
Long, bitter and often painful experience has taught us all that it is of no consequence if a movie with a message is well-meaning or well-intentioned.
What matters – nay – all that matters is that it is well-made. So well-made, in fact, that whatever polemic it seeks to impart is suffused into an engrossing narrative that puts story before everything else.
With Live and Die in East LA, a tough-minded cautionary tale set in the urban badlands of a crime-ridden Los Angeles, we get a bit of both – a strong story that would have been stronger without all the bells and whistles about its unquestionably worthy message.
In a nutshell, the story follows two decent, upstanding citizens who reluctantly choose to veer across the line into the crime world.
Eager to keep his airhead sister from going to prison, emergency room doctor Attila (writer/director Attila Korosi) needs to raise lots of money. He teams up with his best pal Ishaan (Ishaan Bahri), a dedicated teacher, to do a one-off job for local drug lord Tony (Robert LaSardo).
While Korosi pulls off some good scenes with punchy, realistic dialogue the film, brief as it is, is a clear case of biting off more than it can comfortably chew.
Intending to air out the theme of how actions have consequences, the film is hobbled by a muddled “sliding doors” device, where two versions of the same event are played out after one key change. It’s an ambitious ploy that, unfortunately, doesn’t come off.
The story is also weighed down by some all-too-obvious symbolism, with the portentous presence of snakes, predatory cats and dead birds labouring points that are sufficiently clear from the drama.
More troubling is the animated fable that frames the film, telling of a caterpillar whose fate is determined by the choices it makes. Arguably, the film would have been better without it.
Common to many indie films is the strong sense the cameras rolled before the story had been fully refined, excising elements that got in the way of the telling.
Some of the messaging clicks, such as the value education can have in allowing teens to rise above their circumstances.
There’s certainly no issue with the force of the film’s anti-gang theme, with LaSardo delivering a frightening performance that includes a graphic scene in which his goons deprive somebody of a limb. (Might this scene have had more impact had it gone the Hitchcock route by implying the violence rather than explicitly showing it?)
As a debut feature, Korosi clearly has passion and a lot to say, only he appears to have tried to cram too much into a film that would have benefitted from being more streamlined and less tricked up.
Also, the film’s title could have done with a rethink. Why go with something that is so close to the famous 1985 William Friedkin film To Live and Die in LA? (News just in: The film’s production office has kindly passed on that the original title was Maze of Fate, but was changed by the distributor. What a pity. Maze of Fate is a much better title!)
With all that said, the film has apparently had a positive effect, with gang reduction officers and youth workers endorsing the film as a tool that could help dissuade teens for going down the wrong road.
For that alone, the film deserves kudos.
Check out this testimonial clip.
THE BOY AND THE SWORD *1/2 (92 minutes)
Sorry to say, this ambitious, multi award-winning independently made Turkish animated feature was tough to sit through.
Set in first-millennium Mesopotamia it tells of Karen, a boy who survives a massacre ordered by a sadistic sultan who grown to complete his father’s mission of justice for his people as well as exacting a bit of revenge.
Way too talky and slow, the film features a standard of animation that is simply below the standard expected of those conditioned by the super-high quality of most mainstream animations.
The backgrounds and locales are all beautifully rendered and richly detailed, but the human figures are stiff and hard on the eyes, especially when the action kicks in, some of which is violent.
A poster for the film – originally titled Sword and Sorrow – is also a little troubling with its Pixar style and suggestion that it’s suitable for kids. Neither is the case. Seems like an attempt at rebranding that has misfired.
Still, there’s no denying the plaudits the film has received. Check them out here along with where to see it and other assorted info.
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