Ekwa Msangi’s directorial debut, Farewell Amor is a tender story about an immigrant family facing new beginnings.  Essentially a three-hander, the finely fleshed out characters are brought to life by Msangi and the stirring performances of the principal actors.

It’s time for the character’s rediscovery and director Msangi divides the film into three segments to reflect the adjustments each character is trying to make.  The first segment focuses on Walter, amazingly brought to life by Ntare Guma Mbaho. He left his wife and daughter in Angola 17 years ago to escape a civil war.  Since then, he has been working as a cab driver earning just enough money to pay for his claustrophobic Brooklyn apartment, sending whatever is left to his wife.

The time has finally come when all the immigration red tape has been met and his family can now join him. His wife Esther, played by Zainab Jah, embodies the complexities of her character, and arrives at La Guardia Airport with their daughter Sylvia, played by Jayme Lawson.

There is an awkward greeting between them when they meet again almost as strangers, soon finding themselves caught between two cultures. As the newly arrived immigrants take their first ride through the busy streets, Ekwa Msangi and cinematographer Bruce Francis Cole capture both the grittiness of New York and the wonder reflected in the eyes of the newcomers.

At the family dinner, Esther insists that they say grace first, and Walter begins to get a glimpse of how deeply religious she is, which began when she fled to Tanzania.  Confessing that she’s been celibate since they separated, there is an attempt at lovemaking, but Walter is clearly conflicted and turns his back away from her. It becomes also clear that Esther would rather go to church than participate in any spousal intimacies.  He tries to accommodate some of her wishes by attending a church service, but clearly is having difficulties and doesn’t participate in singing any hymns.  Other forbidden things on her list include drinking wine and dancing, both of which he has been enjoying. Osei Essed’s lively soundtrack is a wonderful blend of African roots music as well as popular American selections. Walter grabs a bag hidden in a closet, and we realize that there is another woman in his life.  He subsequently throws the bag in the trash and continues to remain present and distant at the same time. At one point his daughter says, “Poppa do you love us?”

The next segment is from Sylvia’s point of view. On her first day at school, she meets fellow student D.J., nicely portrayed by Marcus Scribner. He grew up in the south without a father, and on discovering that she likes to dance, suggests that she try out for the Step Team. He walks her home, but when Esther sees D.J in their tiny apartment, she forbids Sylvia to have friends or dance, forcing her to kneel and pray for forgiveness.  At school, Sylvia injures her hand and Walter takes her to the hospital.  While waiting, he shares how he and her mother met at university and what great times they had dancing together, adding “This country is very hard for black people and dancing is the one place I can show myself,” encouraging her to dance. Sylvia doesn’t understand why he didn’t send for them sooner, and he explains that it was difficult due to government red tape.

In the segment devoted to Esther, we see her slowly uncovering Walter’s secret when mail addressed to Linda keeps arriving at the apartment. Though she spends most of her time cleaning, cooking, and talking to her sister back home, she finally confronts her husband about Linda and he replies, “She gave me hope.” We begin to understand that although Walter was in this loving relationship, he is committed to his wife and daughter. In an effort to discuss their dilemma, he takes Esther out to dinner in a beautiful restaurant.  She bought a new dress and looks lovely, exuding a softness we haven’t seen before. They discuss their past, and what takes place is surprising; evoking the audience to smile or shed a tear or two.

Farewell Amor could have easily slipped into a soap opera, but the finely honed script and razor-sharp directing, results in an unforgettable family drama, illuminating aspects of the universal human condition and the inherent challenges therein, including sacrifices for the greater good. While all the performances are fully realized, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine’s totally internalized characterization of Walter is spellbinding and we patiently await his next role.

“Farewell Amor”

Release Date:  December 11, 2020

Where: In Theatres and on Digital and VOD Platforms

Language: English

Running Time: 101 Minutes

Rating: Unrated

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Plot Summary:

Pierce plays the Dutch art forger, Han Van Meegeren, an effete bon vivant artist, infamous for his decadent soirees with high ranking Nazis during World War II. The owner of over 500 Amsterdam properties, he had sold forged Dutch paintings to top Nazi officials, including Hermann Göring. While Van Meegeren lived life to the hilt, Bang’s Captain Joseph (Joe) Piller, a Dutch Jew and former tailor, was fighting in the Resistance. His record was spotless and after the war was assigned to tracking down and identifying other stolen works of art, mostly from Jewish people, with the goal of returning them to survivors or families.

It is now May 29, 1945, three weeks after the fall of Hitler’s Third Reich. While Joe searches for stolen treasures, streets crackle with public executions by firing squads for people guilty of collaboration with the enemy. Joe is particularly interested in how Göring came into possession of Vermeer’s “Christ and the Adulteress,” and traces the sale to Han Van Meegeren, with whom he arrests. In a stark jail cell, the arrogant artist requests paints, paintbrushes, and canvases.  He is to be tried and if convicted, will face the firing squad. The stories that Han tells Joe begin to plant doubts that he is guilty. He insists that he painted the Vermeers and sold the fake paintings to the Nazis for exorbitant prices. In the meantime, the Dutch government wants Han in their custody and attempts to snatch him from prison. On hearing this, Joe races back to the prison and takes Han to a loft where he can paint while he continues his investigation.

The artist reveals that despite having art critics spit on his work, he knew he was an excellent painter and decided he would pull off the hoax of the century by painting a number of pieces and then pawning them off as Vermeers. Those transactions made he and his wife incredibly affluent, owning multiple homes and enjoying a lush lifestyle. However, the government agents ultimately track him down and throw him into their prison. Despite being incarcerated, Van Meegeren maintains his elitist demeanor and still insists he painted those Vermeers. Joe enlists his former army buddy Esper, well played by Roland Møller who discovers a treasure trove of photos and cash hidden under the floorboards of Han’s studio, which included pictures of Joe’s wife attending parties where Nazis were in attendance. He confronts her and she insists that although she worked for a German officer, she was able to funnel information that saved the lives of many people. An attraction begins to heat up between Joe  and widowed Minna, played by Vicky Krieps, who has been assisting him in the investigation.

Han is now on trial and all the Vermeers that he claims he painted are displayed in the packed courtroom. Unfortunately for him, the one person who could back up his claim is deceased. With dramatic flair, he testifies that the art world treated him with distain and he deliberately painted the forgeries that fooled some of the best authenticators in the art world, bragging that one of his counterfeits hangs in Washington’s National Gallery of Art.  Experts are called to testify, all of who had authenticated the paintings as being genuine. The accused explains in great detail how he painted the fakes – from the kind of brushes, paints, and canvases he used, as well as the chemicals applied for the aging process. Joe, who is acting as his co-attorney, begs the judges to let him perform an acid test to prove the paintings are fraudulent, but the judges refuse. They convene and in just minutes render a guilty verdict punishable by death. The courtroom explodes in shock and what happens in the closing minutes will have you on the edge of your seat. Yes. It’s an intriguing but true cliffhanger.

Technically, the film is perfect from the settings to costumes to the music but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Remi Adefarasin cinematography, which beautifully captures the changing physical portrait of post-war Holland.

The Last Vermeer

Director: Jonathan Lopez
Screenplay: James McGee, a Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby
Based on the book “The Man Who Made Vermeers” by Jonathan Lopez
Executive Producer:  Ridley Scott, Peter Heslop
Producers: Ryan Friedkin, Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas, Vijay Waghmare
Production Company:  Imperative Entertainment, Mehra Entertainment

Distributor:  TriStar Pictures
Cinematographer: Remi Adefarasin
Edited By: Victoria Boydell
Music: Johan Söderqvist

Language:  English
Running Time:  117 minutes
Release Date: December 4, 2020 (United States)

Principals: Claes Bang, Guy Pierce, Vicky Krieps, Roland Møller

117 minute
Rating:  R
Release date:  November 20, 2020
Opening On-Screen Via TriStar Pictures

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Any career woman, who has been faced with juggling her work with parental responsibilities will relate to French director Alice Winocour’s “Proxima.” Co-written with Jean-Stéphane Bron, the film is basically a family drama centering on a female astronaut in training for a space trip to Mars.  Driven by the impeccable characterization of Sarah Loreau by Eva Green, the film is a pre-blast-off excursion into the delicate balance between Sarah and her seven-year-old daughter Stella, beautifully rendered by talented Zélie Boulant-Lemesle, who makes her film debut.  Unlike the “Hollywoodish” superficial character and relationship development in the Netflix series “Away” starring Hillary Swank, Winocour’s script delves deeply into the changing family dynamic, which is spot on and intriguing, illuminating the roller coaster of emotions that mother and daughter experience during the pre-flight training process.

Sarah sits quietly with Stella, explaining that she has been chosen to be the only female astronaut and that her training will commence shortly, after which she will be gone for a year. In a very poignant moment, her child asks, “Will you die before me?” Sarah tries to skim over the answer and as she’s tucking her in casually says, “That is customary.”  In order to move forward, Sarah must enlist the aid of her ex-partner and Stella’s dad Lars Eidinger to become the primary caretaker. Nicely played by Thomas Ackerman, at first Lars is reluctant to be a full time dad and can’t understand why his “ex” wants to do this.  She tells him that being an astronaut has been her dream ever since she was a little girl and put a lampshade on her head.  Being in the space business himself, Lars agrees and his daughter moves in along with her cat Laika.

Sarah is the only woman selected for this special mission, the training of which will take place at the European Space Agency in Cologne, Germany under the supervision of team commander, and somewhat sexist Mike Shannon, aptly played by Matt Dillon.  On occasion, he tries to pull her off parts of the training that he thinks might be too daunting, citing that she might not have the core skills.  Offended, she insists that she can do it, and does as well as the male astronauts, including the grueling 9G Gravity machine.  The training scenes are intense and beautifully captured by cinematographer by Georges Lechaptois, who lingers on a frame  before cutting to the next shot.  Leisure time is given to the astronauts who, one night, sat around a campfire reciting poetry:  “Give me a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed.”

As the training nears completion, Stella and her dad are moved to housing in Cologne for families of the astronauts.  Supervised by astrophysicist Wendy, played by Sandra Hüller, she takes Stella under her wing and becomes her surrogate mother.  In between training sessions, Sarah spends time with her daughter and there is there is a sweet scene of them ice-skating together.  But, Stella is quite unhappy as being dyslectic, she is having trouble keeping up with the other kids and can’t do the multiplication tables.  Throughout the film we see Sarah’s devotion to her training, as well as her deep concern for her daughter’s well being.  As the time allowed to spend with her daughter shortens, Stella begins to withdraw and forms a strong bond with Wendy.

Blast-off is nearing and reality of the potential danger of the mission is setting in and each astronaut is asked to write a “just in case” letter to their families.  They are also allowed to bring a few mementoes on board to remember their earth connections, such as favorite family photos, shots of water, forests, and even ladybugs.  They can bring enough stuff to fill a shoebox – no more than that. Being so close to takeoff, and to avoid any contamination, the astronauts can now only see their families through a glass partition and you can see the pain Sarah is feeling in not being able to hold her child one last time before she leaves for outer space.  It is about here that she takes what is an implausible dramatic action that endangers not only herself, but also the mission.  Perhaps it was to heighten the drama and to hammer home Sarah’s devotion to her child. However, taking that action flies in the face of all her training and leaves you doubting her commitment.  Not a good message as breaking serious rules doesn’t shine a positive light on Sarah and brings into question the ability of a woman to walk the line between parenting and career.  Despite this contrived dramatic moment, the schedule is maintained and all the astronauts are suited up. But is it a “go?”

“PROXIMA”

A Vertical Entertainment Release
Where:  Digital HD from Amazon Video, iTunes & Pay TV
Genre:  Action/Drama
Running time: 1 hour 47 minutes
Languages:  French, English, Russian, German (sub-titles when appropriate)
Not rated.

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Wonderfully produced and directed by Laura Naylor, this enchanting film presents an intimate look at the daily lives of a group of working class men, some of whom have been showing up for the harvest drive at the Jacques Selosse vineyards for the last twenty-five years.  The film captures the heart and soul of this particular harvest experience, which takes place from August through November, culminating with the bottling of the wine.

Complimenting the excellent direction, the film is exquisitely shot by cinematographer Ryan de Franco, and begins with a series of establishing shots – an outdoor barbeque, men working in the vineyard, a worker tasting a grape, and scenes of women brought in to prepare meals for the workers.  As the men arrive from different parts of France, they greet each other warmly as most of them have known each other for years. Sleeping accommodations have been made and after a slight discussion over the arrangements, everything is settled amicably.  Soon, we are taken into the vineyard where every day the grapes are carefully cut and placed into crates.  It’s backbreaking work, but the men are cheerful, playful, very respectful of each other, and take their work seriously.

These workers are not just pickers.  They are wine experts capable of detecting and identifying the inherent complexities of a particular variety.  On their cigarette breaks, they lie down amongst the vines and playfully joke with each other or share family stories.  The wife of one of the workers is part of the group of women who will be preparing the mouth-watering meals and there are delightful scenes of the cooks comparing recipes, deciding what food items needed to be purchased, and fun shopping trips to the markets. But, with the younger members of the family taking on greater roles in the running of the business, there are occasional culture clashes between the aging pickers and the younger family members who might not embrace all of their traditions. However, at the end of the harvest, they all gather in a beautiful, candle-lit dining room and between the gourmet food, plenty of fabulous wine, and singing, any tensions during the harvest melt away. Brian Bender and Deniz Cuylan’s rousing musical score fully accents the joy and spirit of these people. There are sweet scenes of the workers with their families illuminating their lives away from the vineyard.  Director Naylor was meticulous in painting the crew with a fine brush so that they are multi-dimensional showing how they spend their days away from the vineyard.   A very delightful scene is with one of the workers playing a variation of bocce ball with his wife, who also happens to be one of the fabulous cooks.  At last, with the harvested completed, the dorm is stripped, floors are mopped, pay is handed out, and these dedicated workers, most of whom will return next year, are once more headed home to their families.

For anyone interested in an intimate look at a complicated wine harvest, this film walks you through the process from beginning to end, capturing the humanity of everyone involved as well as the symbiotic relationship between the owners and the workers.  It also reveals the pivotal role Mother Nature plays in the final product, which could impact on the level of success of the harvest.  However, one can see why the Domain Jacques Selosse, now run by the founder’s son Anselme, has earned an excellent reputation for producing very fine champagne, perhaps due in part to using oak barrels for fermentation rather than the usual stainless steel.

The film features: Miguel Delhaye, Samuel Delhaye, Bastien Favier, Léa Favier, Bruno Santiago, Anselme Selosse, Caroline Selosse, Corinne Selosse, Guillaume Selosse, Michel Waret, and Renelle Waret.

*Cinéma vérité or “truth cinema” was a French film movement of the 1960s that captured  people in everyday situations with authentic, unscripted, predominantly  improvised dialogue.

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With Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jamie Foxx in lead roles, how could anything go wrong in this action, sci-fi thriller written by first-time screenwriter ​Mattson Tomlin and directed by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost?  In a word – plenty.

It’s 3:00 am in New Orleans, nicely captured by cinematographer Michael Simmonds. The drug dealers are hard at work selling a shiny new pill which, when taken, endows the recipient with super powers. At $500 a pop, this magic bullet is not stable and while it could gift you with superhuman strength allowing you to lift a car up over your head, or turn you into a super hero where bullets bounce off your cheeks, or render you invisible, or enable you to sprint at almost 50 miles per hour, the pill is unstable and, as Colson Baker, a.k.a. ​Rapper Machine Gun Kelly, demonstrates, after taking the pill he turns into a flaming torch.  I guess you could say you pays the price and you takes your chances.

Frank, a LAPD officer played by Gordon-Levitt, arrives on the scene and busts a young girl named Robin, who is a drug pusher/wannabe Rapper, played by Dominique Fishback.  They then become partners in the pursuit of the major supplier.  Every once in a while throughout the film, she breaks out in a Rap riff germane to a particular situation and becomes a pivotal character in the ensuing silly action.  In order to level the playing field with the bad guys, Frank takes a pill and taps into his hidden strength.  Yes, there are shades of Bradley Cooper’s starring role in the well-done Limitless, which also involved taking a pill – giving new meaning to “on the pill.” Sorry.  Couldn’t resist that. There are also vague, superficial similarities to Marvel and DC Comics super heroes.

Enter now Jamie Foxx as Art, a former army major whose daughter has been kidnapped by the sinister, cartoonish bad guys played by  Rodrigo Santoro and Amy Landecker, leaders in Teleios, the outfit peddling Power. Their creepy plan is to mass produce the Power Pill and create an indestructible militia that could take over the world.  It seems that Art’s daughter Tracy, played by Kyanna Simone Simpson, has special antibodies in her blood that allows her to achieve the same effects of the Power pill without actually taking it.  She is currently being held captive on a cavernous cargo ship turned into a massive floating laboratory with endless winding corridors and secret hatches controlled by a highly intricate set of computers, let’s say on the scale of NASA or the CIA.  Art is determined to rescue his daughter and in a flashback remembers the two of them in a car when his daughter is dragged away by the bad guys thus beginning his unrelenting determination to rescue her.  So, the three of them – Frank, Art, and Robin make their way to the ship and lo and behold, she figures out how to work the unbelievably intricate computer system controlling the doors and hatches, giving Frank and Art blow-by-blow instructions on how to retrieve Tracy without getting caught.

Having rescued her, now the four of them have to get off the ship alive and thus, popping a pill, Art becomes a version of the Hulk and a big punch-out ensues.   And, like any good fairytale, the good guys win, the bad guys are dead, and Robin, the former drug dealer, gets to cut her first rap single.  Other members of the supporting cast include, Allen Maldonado, Casey Neistat, Tait Fletcher, Colson Baker, Michael Thomas, Andrene Ward-Hammond, Yoshi Sudarso, and a cameo guest performance by Courtney B. Vance, who delivers one of the most believable moments in the film.

While it might sound good on paper, the film is weighted down by predictable clichés, and rather absurd plot points.  It’s a wonder that despite the poor script, and intermittent unfocused direction, that the three principal characters gave creditable performances – especially Fox and Fishback.  Gordon-Levitt, who is usually solid in creating characters, did have a bit of a challenge in maintaining consistency throughout the R Rated, 1 hour and 51 minutes of an action film that ultimately falls flat.

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