The Boston Globe - 13.09.2019

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2019 The Boston Globe G7

By Mark Feeney
GLOBE STAFF
In person, Molly Ivins
wasn’t quite larger than life,
even if she was 6 feet tall. “It re-
ally does make a difference if
you tower over your editor,” we
hear her say in Janice Engel’s
lively documentary, “Raise
Hell: The Life & Times of Molly
Ivins.” Her persona, though,
sure was larger than life: brash,
funny, smart, colorful. Newspa-
per columnists tend not to get
documentaries made about
them, but newspaper colum-
nists tend not to be anything
like Ivins. At the height of her
popularity, in the late ’80s and
’90s, her column ran in upward
of 400 newspapers; and she cut
an even wider swathe, thanks
to frequent television appear-
ances and best-selling books
like “Molly Ivins Can’t Say
That, Can She?” (1993) and
“You Got to Dance With Them
What Brung You” (1998).
There’s no breed quite like
the Texas liberal, and Ivins was
the species at its most spectacu-
lar. Knowing you’re doomed to
defeat, as any sensible Texas
liberal does, can be wonderful-
lyliberating.“Haveagoodtime
when you’re fighting for free-
dom,” Ivins once said. “We
don’t always win, and it might
be the only good time you
have.” In that advice, shrewd-
ness meets sad experience,
with the wisdom it bespeaks is
anything but sad.
“Freedom’s just another
word for nothin’ left to lose,” or
so Kris Kristofferson (of the
Brownsville, Texas, Kristoffer-
sons) would have us believe.
Those words were most fa-
mously sung by Janis Joplin (of
the Port Arthur, Texas, Joplins).
Ivins was something like a
cross between Kristofferson
and Joplin: part good old boy
(distaff division); part full-
throated, tangle-haired star.
Giving no quarter, she expected

none in return.

More important, she clearly

had so much fun doing it. Ivins

was three parts comedian to

two parts avenging angel. As

ratios go, that one’s hard to

beat. What’s the classic gun-

slinger line, “Smile when you

say that, pardner”? When Ivins

said something — when she

wrote something, too — she

didn’t just smile, she grinned.

The documentary would

seem to labor under a severe

handicap: its subject’s absence.

Ivins died in 2007, of cancer.

Only 62, she had packed an aw-

ful lot of living into those six

decades. That presumed disad-

vantage turns out not to be an

issue. When Ivins was alive, she

was really, really alive; and

there’s so much footage of her

being interviewed and giving

speeches that she is very much

a living presence in the film.

She lights it up, not unlike how

she lit up the printed page.

Along with the many film

clips of Ivins, we hear from

family, friends, colleagues.

There’s also the occasional

here-for-name-value celebrity.

Fellow Texan Dan Rather has

something to add. MSNBC’s

Rachel Maddow doesn’t.

Engel efficiently takes us

along the path of Ivins’s life and

career: growing up in pre-civil

rights Houston, starting at The

Houston Chronicle after col-

lege, moving on to The Minne-

apolis Tribune, then co-editing

The Texas Observer (where she

found her voice and hit her

stride). The New York Times,

Ivins’s next employer, did its

best to quiet that voice — no

one could silence it. Back in

Texas, she found her true call-

ing, as a columnist, first at The

Dallas Times Herald, then The

Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

So much of Ivins’s impact in

the documentary has to do

with her voice. It’s an aural

marvel, the product of Texas

drawl, years of smoking, and

the self-awareness of a born

performer. You might describe

the specific timbre as honeyed

jalapeno with whiskey notes (in

life, her preferred beverages

were beer and wine). Ivins

wrote the way she spoke, and

even the various Texas malefac-

tors and nincompoops she pil-

loried found themselves liking

her — or most of them did, any-

way.

Among the many interest-

ing things to be learned from

“Raise Hell” is what a peculiar

sort of Texan Ivins was. In that

peculiarity, she was, perhaps,

not unlike her great nemesis

George W. Bush, whom she fa-

mously dubbed “Shrub.” Dubya

was the son of a president and

went to Phillips Andover and

Yale. Ivins was the daughter of

the president of Tenneco and

went to Smith (as had her

mother and grandmother) and

studied for a year in Paris at the

Institute of Political Science.

At odd moments, Ivins’s per-

son peeks out from behind the

persona: her unhappy child-

hood and adolescence, a funda-

mental loneliness and apart-

ness made all the more acute

by her gregariousness, a capaci-

ty for self-destructiveness of

which the most obvious sign

was her alcoholism (she did

stop drinking several years be-

fore her death). What’s stimu-

lating and fun about “Raise

Hell” is quite stimulating and

fun. But the more smitten you

become with its subject — and

it’s hard not to be — the more

you feel there’s something

missing or that what isn’t miss-

ing is yet too thin. “I didn’t fit

in at Smith,” she says at one

point, “but I didn’t fit in any-

where, so that wasn’t such an

unusual experience.” There’s a

sense in which Ivins doesn’t

quite fit in the documentary ei-

ther — or rather what fits in is

great, but what doesn’t fit in

(emotionally, personally) —

gets left out, and that matters a

lot.

Mark Feeney can be reached at

[email protected].

MOVIE REVIEW

YY½

RAISEHELL:THELIFE&TIMES

OFMOLLYIVINS

Directed by Janice Engel.

Written by Engel and

Monique Zavistovski.

At Kendall Square.

93 minutes. Unrated (as PG-

13: smokin’, drinkin’, cussin’,

lots and lots of cussin’)

ROBERT BEDELL/MAGNOLIA PICTURES

The late Molly Ivins is profiled in “Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins.”

Molly

Ivins

raises

the roof

in ‘Raise

Hell’

by Driver”) as the adult version,
a smoothly confident young
dealer in antique furniture, and
the gifted Oakes Fegley (“Pete’s
Dragon,” “Wonderstruck”) as
12-year-old Theo, reeling in the
aftermath of a museum bomb-
ing that killed his mother and
left him somehow alive.
Theo has come out of the di-
saster with a ring given to him
by a dying man and a small oil
painting, “The Goldfinch,”
painted by the Dutch master
Carel Fabritius in 1654 before
he himself was killed in an ex-
plosion. To the world, it’s a
theft; for Theo, it’s a talisman of
trauma.
Tartt’s novel is loaded with
deftly drawn characters, many

u‘‘THEGOLDFINCH’’
Continued from Page G1

of them members of the Bar-

bour family, the wealthy Man-

hattan clan that takes Theo in

after the bombing. Mrs. Bar-

bour (Nicole Kidman) is a gen-

tle mother figure; the father

(Boyd Gaines), a WASP blow-

hard. Theo’s friend Andy (Ryan

Foust) is a much-bullied braini-

ac, and there’s a snippy sister,

Kitsey (Willa Fitzgerald), who

will figure later in the proceed-

ings — another echo of Dickens

and of latter-day acolytes like

John Irving.

The mysterious ring, mean-

while, leads Theo to a Green-

wich Village antique shop run

by the sage James “Hobie” Ho-

bart (Jeffrey Wright), whose up-

per floors are home to Pippa

(Aimee Laurence), another sur-

vivor of the bombing. So Theo

has a home, a mentor, and a

crush; all seems well.

His upper-class idyll is inter-

rupted, however, by the reap-

pearance of Theo’s father, Larry

(Luke Wilson), a rambling,

gambling ne’er-do-well with a

chippie girlfriend (Sarah Paul-

son, snapping her gum like a

1930s Warner Brothers hero-

ine) and a home on a dead end

desert road in Las Vegas. There

Theo befriends a Russian class-

mate, Boris (Finn Wolfhard of

“Stranger Things”), and learns

the pleasures of recreational

drugs.

If this sounds schematic, a

stone skipping across the wa-

ters of plot, that’s how it feels in

the playing. “The Goldfinch” is

a series of visual re-creations of

events whose emotional and

even physical interiors were ex-

plored in far greater detail in

the book. The characters shut-

tle by as if on a revolving stage,

and only those performers with

genuine presence — Kidman

and Wolfhard among them; the

actors playing the two Theos

less so — truly punch through

the caul of dutiful intentions.

“The Goldfinch” isn’t great

literature but it is a good read.

By breaking up the chronology

and yanking the audience back

and forth between Theo’s

fraught youth and crisis-ridden

present, though, the film pre-

vents an audience from gaining

emotional traction. This is a

classic example of the way pop-

ular novels have always been

turned into DOA movies, with

tasteful production values, ear-

nest acting, and a patina of lit-

erary respect that subordinates

the themes while remaining at

odds with what makes a movie

work as a movie. Crowley has

given us an expertly designed

bookmark that mostly makes

you want to get back to the

book.

Ty Burr can be reached at

[email protected]. Follow

him on Twitter @tyburr.

MOVIE REVIEW

YY

THEGOLDFINCH

Directed by John Crowley.

Written by Peter Straughan,

based on the novel by Donna

Tartt. Starring Ansel Elgort,

Oakes Fegley, Nicole Kidman,

Luke Wilson, Finn Wolfhard,

Jeffrey Wright. At Boston-

area theaters. 149 minutes.

R (drug use and language).

‘Goldfinch’ doesn’t take wing

MACALL POLAY

Nicole Kidman and

Ansel Elgort in “The

Goldfinch.”

Previouslyreleased

YYYBlindedbytheLightA

Pakistani teenager (Viveik Kal-

ra) in 1980s England finds his

voice and his courage in the

music of Bruce Springsteen.

Sentimental, predictable — and

a thoroughgoing joy, with just

enough rage coursing beneath

the musical ecstasy and com-

ing-of-age tropes to give it bite.

Directed by Gurinder Chadha

(“Bend It Like Beckham”).

(117 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr)

YYYBrittanyRunsaMara-

thonA dyspeptic NYC party girl

tries to turn her life around by

talking up jogging. A crowd-

pleaser that earns its runner’s

high step by sometimes awk-

ward step, it’s saved from over-

earnestness by Jillian Bell’s gra-

ciously caustic lead perfor-

mance. An audience award-

winneratthisyear’sSundance.

(104 min., R) (Ty Burr)

YYYFiddler:AMiracleof

MiraclesFor those who might

regard “Fiddler on the Roof” as

just another warhorse musical

and a favorite of dinner theater

and high school drama societ-

ies, Max Lewkowicz’s rowdy

and informative documentary

might change their minds.

(92 min., PG-13) (Peter

Keough)

YYYTel Aviv on FireUnder-

achieving Salam, a 40-some-

thing Palestinian living in Jeru-

salem, lands a job as a writer

on a soap opera after a chance

meeting with Assi, an Israeli

soldier. When Assi and the

show’s financial backers butt

heads over the season finale,

absurdity ensues. (97 min., un-

rated) (Nora McGreevy)

YYYYToyStory4As hoped

for (but not really expected), a

hugely entertaining and emo-

tionally resonant pleasure for

audiences of all ages. Woody

and company hit the road and

contemplate duty versus per-

sonal autonomy while mixing it

up with an enlivened spork and

an antique store Chatty Cathy.

With Tom Hanks and the usual

gang, plus Christina Hendricks

and Tony Hale. (100 min., G)

(Ty Burr)

MOVIE STARS

IN THEATERS SEPTEMBER 20

This film is rated PG. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Please arrive early as seating is limited and not guaranteed. Pass is

not valid for any other film nor is it exchangeable for cash. SPECIAL NOTE: Pass does not guarantee you a seat at the

theater. Seating is first come, first-served. No recording devices will be permitted.

Visit

http://focusfeaturesscreenings.com/DABostonGlobe

to download your complimentary admit-two pass

INVITE YOU AND A GUEST TO

AN ADVANCE SCREENING OF

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17

AT COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE AT 7:30 PM

focusfeatures.com/downton-abbey/ | @downtonabbey_official | @DowntonAbbey | #DowntonAbbeyFilm

ARLINGTON

CAPITOL THEATRE

204 Massachussetts Ave. 781-648-4340

6I DIG AD

http://www.capitoltheatreusa.com

BRITTANY RUNS A MARATHON(R) (Open

captioning)3:30, 5:45, 8:00, 10:10

LUCE(R) 7:00

OFFICIAL SECRETS(R) 4:45, 7:40, 10:00

TEL AVIV ON FIRE(NR) 4:15, 9:20

THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON(PG-13)

(Open captioning)3:30, 5:40, 7:50, 10:00

WHERE'D YOU GO, BERNADETTE(PG-13)

4:00

YESTERDAY(PG-13) 7:20, 9:50

BOSTON

SIMONS IMAX THEATRE

New England Aquarium, Central Wharf

617-973-5200

58 DIG

http://www.neaq.org

NO FILMS SHOWING TODAY

BROOKLINE

COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE

290 Harvard St. 617-734-2500

56

http://www.coolidge.org

LINDARONSTADT: THE SOUND OF MY

VOICE(PG-13) 10:30, 2:15, 4:45, 7:15, 9:30

OFFICIAL SECRETS(R) 11:15, 2:00, 4:15,

7:00, 9:15

BRITTANY RUNS A MARATHON(R) 11:30,

1:45, 4:30, 6:45, 9:45

ONCE UPON A TIME... IN HOLLYWOOD(R)

3:15, 9:00

THE FAREWELL(PG) 11:00, 1:15, 6:30

ERASERHEAD(NR) G11:59

LEXINGTON

LEXINGTON VENUE

1794 Massachussetts Ave. 781-861-6161

56I AD DOL DSS

http://lexingtonvenue.com/

BRITTANY RUNS A MARATHON(R) 4:00,

6:45, 8:45

THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON(PG-13)

4:15, 9:00

THE FAREWELL(PG) 7:00

SOMERVILLE

SOMERVILLE THEATRE

55 Davis Square 617-625-5700

56I DIG AD

http://somervilletheatre.com/

BLINDED BY THE LIGHT(PG-13) 4:15

IT: CHAPTER TWO(R) 1:10, 4:40, 8:00,

9:00

LINDA RONSTADT: THE SOUND OF MY

VOICE(PG-13) 1:15, 3:20, 5:30, 7:40, 9:45

ONCE UPON A TIME... IN HOLLYWOOD(R)

1:00, 4:30

ONCE UPON A TIME... IN HOLLYWOOD

(R) 7:45

THE FAREWELL(PG) 2:00, 6:45

THE GOLDFINCH(R) 1:20, 4:20, 7:30

INFO VALID 9/13/19 ONLY

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