Los Angeles Times - 13.03.2020

LATIMES.COM/CALENDAR FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2020E3

AT THE MOVIES

LATIMES.COM/MOVIES

Movie recommendations

from Times critics Justin

Chang (J.C.) and Kenneth

Turan (K.T.). All titles are in

general release unless oth-

erwise noted.

First Cow

Kelly Reichardt’s captivat-

ing, beautifully acted west-

ern stars John Magaro and

Orion Lee as strangers who

become unlikely friends and

business partners in the

Northwest, circa 1820. (J.C.)

PG-13

I Lost My Body

As inventive a piece of ani-

mation as you’re likely to

see, this extraordinary film

is about a hand with a mind

of its own, and if that sounds

a little crazy, this dark,

strange and altogether

wonderful feature will make

you believe. Directed by

France’s Jérémy Clapin.

(K.T.) NR. Netflix

The Invisible Man

Led by a superb Elisabeth

Moss, this Universal reboot

of a classic horror title is a

gaslighting thriller expertly

retooled by writer-director

Leigh Whannell for the era

of #MeToo. (J.C.) R.

The Irishman

Its possibly true story of the

life and crimes of a Mafia hit

man, starring Robert De

Niro, Al Pacino and Joe

Pesci, is a revelation, as

intoxicating a movie as the

year has seen, allowing

director Martin Scorsese to

use his expected mastery of

all elements of filmmaking

to ends we did not see com-

ing. (K.T.) R. Netflix

Knives Out

Rian Johnson’s deliriously

entertaining country-house

murder mystery brings

together a splendid cast

(led by Daniel Craig and

Ana de Armas), an ingen-

ious script and a razor-

sharp indictment of class

inequality and moral rot in

contemporary America.

(J.C.) PG-13.

Little Women

As written and directed by

Greta Gerwig and starring

a transcendent Saoirse

Ronan, the latest big-

screen version of Louisa

May Alcott’s novel is a pip,

with its strong, unmistak-

able message and even

stronger emotions reinforc-

ing each other to splendid

effect. (K.T.) PG

Marriage Story

An emotionally lacerating

experience, a nearly flaw-

less elegy for a beautifully

flawed couple played by

Adam Driver and Scarlett

Johansson, both in peak

form. Writer-director Noah

Baumbach, a peerless

observer of domestic petti-

ness and passive-aggres-

sive behavior, puts every

unflattering detail under

his dramatic microscope.

(J.C.) R. Netflix

Parasite

Winner of the best picture

Oscar and Canne’s Palme

d’Or, Bong Joon Ho’s devi-

ously entertaining thriller

about two very different

families is an ingenious

weave of domestic dark

comedy, class allegory and,

ultimately, devastating

tragedy. (J.C.) R. Limited

Portrait of a

Lady on Fire

Looking and seeing become

quietly radical acts in Céline

Sciamma’s rapturously

intelligent love story, star-

ring Noémie Merlant and

Adèle Haenel as an 18th-

century portrait painter

and her subject. (Justin

Chang) R. Limited

Uncut Gems

Adam Sandler gives the

performance of his career as

a jewelry dealer and gam-

bling addict pinballing from

one bad decision to the next

in Josh and Benny Safdie’s

relentlessly tense thriller.

(J.C.) R. Limited

The Whistlers

An ancient whistling lan-

guage from the island of La

Gomera sets in motion this

playful, razor-sharp genre

exercise from Romanian

director Corneliu Porum-

boiu. (J.C.) NR. Limited

Big galoot though he may be, the legendary 1933 “King Kong” has been careful to keep his

distance from a national theatrical release for quite a while. So it is very much news to find

him back where he belongs for the first time in 64 years on Sunday at 1 and 4 p.m.

Playing in hundreds of theaters nationwide, including many in the Los Angeles area,

“Kong” is being presented by Fathom Events as part of its TCM Big Screen Classics series, al-

lowing viewers to understand one more time how it came to pass that “it was beauty killed the

beast.”

Though the film costars solid citizens like Robert Armstrong and Bruce Cabot as well as

assorted prehistoric monsters, the focus is always going to be on the gifted Fay Wray and
Kong himself, a spectacular piece of stop-motion animation by the brilliant Willis O’Brien.

It’s a film that thrills today as much as it ever did.
— Kenneth Turan

“King Kong.”fathomevents.com/events/tcm2020-king-kong-1933

CRITIC’S CHOICE

Warner Bros. Entertainment

“IT WAS beauty killed the beast”: Fay Wray gets a lift in 1933’s “King Kong.”

‘King Kong’ back in big way

When swept up in the
events of history, families
can coalesce or crumble, but
they’re rarely unchanged.
In his steadily unfurling
documentary “Heimat Is a
Space in Time,” East Berlin-
born filmmaker Thomas
Heise uses letters, photo-
graphs and original black-
and-white footage to build a
mosaic of stories detailing
how Germany’s upheaval
affected three generations
of his family, from World War
I through Nazism, life under
the Stasi and after the Berlin
Wall’s collapse.
If that sounds like a col-
ossus of a subject, it is — at
more than 3^1 ⁄ 2 hours, it’s a
commitment for your con-
science. And yet the family
prism of Heise’s approach
— as experienced through
correspondence he reads
in the measured tone of

someone next to you, careful

not to disturb others — gives

the work an abiding inti-

macy, of something shared,

not merely shown.

When the voice of Heise

is coupled with pictures of

his ancestors, images of

nature in tranquility or

present-day sites where his

ancestors once walked, or

shots of trains rolling across

the frame, the effect is eerily

calm and austere. There’s

a sense of reckoning with

the country’s turbulent

past, as you might method-

ically deal with a proble-

matic relative.

From the beginning, it’s

a disciplined excursion. Af-

ter some curious opening

shots in a wooded area

marked by two-dimensional

painted cutouts of Red Rid-

ing Hood, the grandmother

and a wolf — like mythic fore-

shadowing for the tales of

peril and family to follow —

Heise segues to a blistering

antiwar homework essay his

grandfather Wilhelm wrote

as a schoolboy in 1912. His

ancestor’s prescience and

assurance at such a young

age are remarkable consid-

ering the collapse of social

ethics and morals that lay

ahead, with leaders who

wouldn’t care how many

wars they created.

The next section is a

story of ambition and

courtship, as gentile Wil-

helm falls for Jewish Edith

Hirschorn, a budding artist,

while Heise shows us rainy,

modern-day Vienna through

the back window of a trolley.

It’s for us to piece together

information from the frag-

ments Heise reads to us

from this time period — the

filmmaker never comments

himself, so we listen for

clues. The picture that de-

velops is of a strong mar-

riage destined to be targeted

by the Nazis.

This leads to this episto-

lary documentary’s most

gripping sequence, in which

Heise slowly pans down

typewritten Nazi lists of

Viennese Jews sent to Polish

ghettos while he reads

from a series of letters, filled

with increasing anxiety

yet heartbreaking opti-

misim, between members of

Edith’s family.

The observations and

sentiments — her parents

and siblings struggle to rec-

oncile their hopes with re-

ality — become, in Heise’s

flat narration, cumulatively

devastating, like a spoken

dirge. Sentences as simple

as “If we can, we’ll write

again” become impossibly

sad remnants.

When Heise turns to life

under Communism for his

father, Wolf, a philosophy

professor (Wilhelm and Ed-

ith’s son, who spent time in

a labor camp) and mother,

Rosie, a literature teacher,

idealism and betrayal feed

off each other, whether it’s

the oppressiveness of party

officials keeping tabs on

ideological purity or his par-

ents’ extramarital dalli-

ances. Some details still

shock: Wolf and Rosie were

under surveillance by the

Stasi, and a report on the

pair has a list of “sources”

that’s almost comically long,

as if informing was every

East German’s second job.

Other pieces paint a pic-

ture of bonds miraculously

held together in adversity,

as when an entry from

Rosie’s diary speaks of an

outing with her husband,

who chose a sunlit pine

grove to remind her that the

East German state was no

different than any other —

“an instrument of domina-

tion” whose weapon is “false

consciousness.” When Rosie

asks what they’re supposed

to do then, Heise’s father

answers, “Remain decent.”

There isn’t much in

“Heimat” (home or home-

land in German) that’s eas-

ily categorizable, as person-

al essay or documentary. In

its extreme length and pre-

cise technique, it’s decided-

ly not for everybody. But

although it is at times dis-

tractingly opaque, occa-

sionally, Heise’s family’s

words, juxtaposed with his

sounds and images, crystal-

lize into something singu-

larly wise about the nexus of

place, history and trauma.

Rough journey through time

Thomas Heise follows his family through turbulence of 20th century Germany

Icarus Films

THE FILMMAKERuses photos, original footage and letters in his documentary about how Germany’s upheaval affected his family in “Heimat Is a Space in Time.”

‘Heimat Is a

Space in Time’

In German with English

subtitles

Not rated

Running time: 3 hours,

38 minutes

Playing:Lumiere Music

Hall, Beverly Hills

REVIEW

By Robert Abele

The movies “Ride Like a

Girl” and “Tuscaloosa” also

open Friday in limited re-

lease and are available on

VOD. The reviews can be

found at latimes.com/enter

tainment/movies.

Reviews online