Los Angeles Times - 23.08.2019

E4 FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2019 S LATIMES.COM/CALENDAR

AT THE MOVIES

LATIMES.COM/MOVIES

Movie recommendations

from critics Justin Chang

(J.C.) and Kenneth Turan

(K.T.). In general release

unless otherwise noted.

American Factory

A complicated, multifaceted

story that deals with very

different cultures in combi-

nation and collision, a story

that both understands

global economic issues and

has the sensitivity to involve

us intimately in the daily

lives of the people involved.

(K.T.) NR Limited and

Netflix

The Art of

Self-Defense

Riley Stearns wrote and

directed this unnerving,

exacting dark comedy

about masculinity and

violence, starring Jesse

Eisenberg as a socially

awkward young man who

gets much more than he

bargained for when he

starts learning karate.

(J.C.) R

Blinded by the Light

A high-spirited, unabashed

mash note to the power of

popular music in general

and the life-changing an-

thems of Bruce Springsteen

in particular, it uses them in

the irresistible manner of

India’s popular Bollywood

musicals. (K.T.) PG-13

The Farewell

Lulu Wang’s tender, funny

and melancholy dramedy

about an elaborate family

deception is personal film-

making at its most incisive,

with superb performances

from a cast that includes

Awkwafina, Zhao Shuzhen,

Tzi Ma and Diana Lin. (J.C.)

PG

The Last Black

Man in San

Francisco

Jimmie Fails plays a fiction-

alized version of himself in

director Joe Talbot’s gor-

geous Sundance prize-

winning debut feature,

which tells a deeply person-

al story of friendship, com-

munity and the yearning for

home. (J.C.) R Limited

Maiden

A potent documentary

about the first all-female

crew to compete in yacht-

ing’s grueling Whitbread

Round the World Race in

1989, it tells a mighty tale

about the majesty of the

human spirit and the power

of women. (K.T.) PG

Limited

Midsommar

Starring a terrific Florence

Pugh as a young woman on

an ill-advised Scandinavian

holiday, Ari Aster’s latest

grief-soaked horror film

isn’t quite as terrifying as his

earlier “Hereditary” but

may be even more auda-

cious in the way it pushes its

moody story beyond the

conventional grammar of

horror cinema. (J.C.) R

Toy Story 4

It will blow you away in ways

you won’t be expecting. As

directed by Josh Cooley and

written by Stephany Folsom

and the veteran Andrew

Stanton, the film surprises

with the amount of genuine

emotion it generates with its

focus on love, loyalty and

what matters most in life, to

humans as well as toys.

(K.T.) G

JESSE Eisenberg in

“Art of Self-Defense.”

Bleecker Street

“The Souvenir” and “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” both prize-winning stand-

outs at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, are also both exquisite models of semi-autobio-

graphical storytelling. In “The Souvenir,” now available for home viewing, the English direc-

tor Joanna Hogg revisits her early years as a filmmaker in 1980s London. Her younger self,

Julie (a remarkable Honor Swinton Byrne), confronts the challenges of her artistic medium

even as she falls into a love affair with an older man (Tom Burke) that is passionate, funny and

ultimately heartbreaking.

In “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” which will be released Tuesday on DVD and

Blu-ray, the director Joe Talbotpulls off a remarkable collaboration with his lead actor and

longtime friend, Jimmie Fails. The story, about a beloved home, a lost legacy and a city over-

run by sweeping gentrification, happens to be Fails’ own, told here with great visual beauty

and melancholy humor. You may emerge from these pictures unsure of what did or didn’t

really happen, but you will have little doubt that you’ve seen something true.
—Justin Chang

CRITIC’S CHOICE

Nikola DoveA24

HONOR SWINTON BYRNEin “The Souvenir” as a version of its director.

Their truths brought to life

The exuberant Mexican
drama “This Is Not Berlin”
opens with a quote from
Proust and a blast of rau-
cous misfit energy: It’s like a
promise that we are about to
see a memory broken open
and poured out onscreen,
raw and unfiltered. In the
opening scene, boys from ri-
val schools are locked in an
afternoon brawl, while Car-
los (Xabiani Ponce de León),
a 17-year-old with a magnetic
gaze and a resplendent
mane, stands looking bored
in the middle of the action.
He doesn’t really belong
here, in a world where so
much unruly masculine en-
ergy can only express itself,
tediously, through violence.
He’ll soon find another
way. Inspired by the memo-
ries of its director, Hari
Sama (who wrote the script
with Rodrigo Ordóñez and
Max Zunino), “This Is Not
Berlin” is both a sensitive
coming-of-age story and a vi-
brant, affectionate ode to
Mexico City’s burgeoning
counterculture. The year is
1986, not long after a major
earthquake devastated the
city and stirred widespread
opposition to the corruption
and ineptitude of the ruling
government. A heady new
wave of artistic and political
experimentation is just
emerging, and Carlos, the
prototypical naive outsider,
becomes our point of entry
to this world of avant-garde
aesthetics and righteous
protest.
That might sound a
touch formulaic, but Carlos
is a more interesting cin-
ematic guide than most. He
and his best friend, Gera
(José Antonio Toledano),
who live in the suburb of Lo-
mas Verdes, do a lot of the
usual boys’ stuff: They
smoke, sneak out their bed-
room windows and swap
pornographic magazines
with friends. They come
from financially comfort-
able, socially conservative
families: Carlos has a little
brother, a depressive mom
(Marina de Tavira, a recent
Oscar nominee for “Roma”)
and a pot-toking black
sheep of an uncle, Esteban
(warmly played by Sama
himself), from whom Carlos
has inherited his musical
tastes and a lesson or two in
electronic engineering.
Ironically, it’s Carlos’
knack for tinkering that gets
him noticed by Gera’s awe-

somely cool, Patti Smith-

loving sister, Rita (Ximena

Romo), when he repairs her

boyfriend’s broken synth.

Carlos and Gera are re-

warded with a one-night-

only invitation to join Rita

and her band at the Azteca,

an underground temple of

forbidden delights. Vi-

brantly shot in hot hues and

swirling camera movements

by the cinematographer Al-

fredo Altamirano, the

Azteca shocks, unnerves

and thoroughly intoxicates

the two teenagers. (“Is this a

gay bar?” one of them asks,

to which Rita replies, “This

is an everything bar.”)

Both Carlos and Gera

know that they must return

to the Azteca immediately,

though not necessarily for

the same reasons. Although

Carlos is taken under the

wing of a gay artist, Nico

(Mauro Sánchez Navarro),

who’s clearly attracted to

him, the question of his own

sexuality is trickier to parse,

at least initially. One of the

picture’s sharper observa-

tions is that what keeps Car-

los coming back to the

Azteca is something less

tangible and more elusive

than sexual desire. It’s the

booze and the drugs, of

course, and also the

thrilling, liberating sense of

community, with its implicit

promise of a political and in-

tellectual awakening. A styl-

istic one too, judging by the

boldly asymmetrical haircut

that Carlos is soon sporting

at school, where he draws

raised eyebrows and homo-

phobic jabs.

Carlos is especially

drawn to the confronta-

tional performance art of

Nico and his friends, much of

it aimed at raising AIDS

awareness and calling out

anti-LGBT discrimination.

Whether that means screen-

ing pornographic movies on

the wall of a crowded sta-

dium or marching naked

through the streets covered

in blood-red war paint, Car-

los, like his collaborators, is

unafraid to strip down and

experiment in a movie that

is, among other things, an

unapologetic riot of male

flesh.

Sama, whose previous

features include “The

Dream of Lu” and “Awak-

ening Dust,” stages these se-

quences with a joyous punk

verve and impressive veri-

similitude (the homemade

porn is shot with a juddering

black-and-white camera).

But he also notably captures

the power of the Azteca’s

spell without entirely suc-

cumbing to it. When Rita

and her band land a gig at a

much rougher outdoor ven-

ue, or when someone calls

into question the sincerity of

Nico’s activism, we catch

glimpses of a Mexico whose

tough realities cannot be

concealed or mitigated by a

seductive illusion.

It’s clear that the high

won’t last, in any case. The

drugs will wear off, the music

will stop and the party will

come to an end. Carlos and

Gera’s fast-changing friend-

ship lends the movie some

emotional ballast, and so do

their respective families —

even the underdeveloped

parental figures, who, as

Carlos’ mother wryly notes,

once acted out themselves in

similar ways.

Somehow existing both

inside and outside the mo-

ment, “This Is Not Berlin” is

clear-eyed enough to see

that rebellion has its joys as

well as its limits, and that

coming of age — which is to

say, coming into one’s own —

means learning to recognize

the difference.

An ode to a boy’s awakening

Youths explore the counterculture of 1986 Mexico City in ‘This Is Not Berlin’

Samuel Goldwyn Films

”THIS IS Not Berlin” follows Carlos (Xabiani Ponce de León) through his political and intellectual awakening in 1986 Mexico City.

‘This Is

Not Berlin’

Not rated

In Spanish with English

subtitles

Running time: 1 hour,

55 minutes

Playing:Landmark’s Nuart

Theatre, West Los Angeles

JUSTIN CHANG
FILM CRITIC

REVIEW

The live action family film

“Overcomer” opens Friday

in general release but was

not screened for critics.

The review will appear as

soon as possible in Calendar

and online at latimes.com/

entertainment/movies/

reviews.

‘Overcomer’

review delayed