Los Angeles Times - 23.08.2019

E6 FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2019 LATIMES.COM/CALENDAR

“Adam,” Rhys Ernst’s su-
perbly acted feature direct-
ing debut adapted for the
screen by Ariel Schrag from
her own novel, travels back
to 2006, a time when George
W. Bush governed and
YouTube was in its infancy,
for a queer drama about a
straight boy.
In New York for the sum-
mer, shy high school student
Adam (Nicholas Alexander)
enters his sister Casey’s
(Margaret Qualley) circle of
friends composed of trans-
gender people and cisgender
lesbians. Mistaken for a
trans man by Gillian (Bobbi
Salvör Menuez), he appro-
priates the trans identity
and gains illegitimate access
to women-only spaces.
Even if the experience
transforms Adam forever,
he’ll get to go back to his un-
threatened heterosexual ex-
istence while trans women
and men continue to be mur-
dered. Acknowledging that
privilege and educating oth-

ers is the minimum he must

do as reparation. That’s

what the story subtly de-

mands of him, a teachable

and remorseful individual

blindsided by ignorance.

Alexander’s androgy-

nous appearance and soft

demeanor enable the plot to

function, as does Ernst’s

mind-blowing commitment

to period specificity. Trans

actor Leo Sheng defies out-

dated notions of masculinity

as Adam’s role model, and

“Pose’s” MJ Rodriguez en-

chants in a stirring cameo.

Though 2006 might not

seem far removed from our

present, in terms of LGBTQ

visibility the distance is con-

siderable. “Adam” reminds

us how much society has

changedand yet how far we

are from real change.

—Carlos Aguilar

“Adam.”Not rated. Run-

ning time: 1 hour, 35 min-

utes. Playing: Laemmle Mu-

sic Hall, Beverly Hills

Outfest Los Angeles

ATEENplayed by Nicholas Alexander, lower right,
is mistaken as a trans man, and an education begins.

‘ADAM’

He acknowledges

his privileged life

First-time feature film-

maker Mike Gan excels at

the setup for his intense

drama “Burn,” a twisty char-

acter piece featuring the

confined locations and rich

performances of a stage

play. The movie runs out of

gas way too early, but its first

half is impressive.

Ostensibly a hostage

thriller, “Burn” stars Tilda

Cobham-Hervey as Melin-

da, a lonely convenience

store clerk who gets unusu-

ally excited when amateur-

ish robber Billy (Josh Hutch-

erson) assaults her and her

coworker Sheila (Suki

Waterhouse). Early on, Gan

shows Melinda forcing her-

self on customers, anxious

for some human connection.

Being some man’s captive is,

in a way, her dream come

true.

In those early scenes,

Gan lets the audience know

who else is in play. Sheila has

a boyfriend who’s going to be

dropping by the store, and

Billy’s pulling this heist

under orders from a biker

gang. This dead spot just off

the highway is also patrolled

by a friendly trooper (played

by Harry Shum Jr.).

So the plotting in “Burn”

is clever ... at least until Gan

trips all the wires he’s set, at

which point the simplistic

motivations for Melinda and

Billy become a liability.

Their behavior is driven by

the story’s demands, so

when it starts winding down,

so does their raison d’être.

Still, this is mostly a

strong debut film, making

good use of a single set and a

talented cast. Cobham-Her-

vey is especially great, con-

veying the deep alienation of

a young woman who’d

rather have a gun in her face

than not be noticed at all.

—Noel Murray

“Burn.” Not rated. Running

time: 1 hour, 28 minutes.

Playing: Arena Cinelounge,

Hollywood; also on VOD

Momentum Pictures

ACLERKat a convenience store, played by Tilda

Cobham-Hervey, is wholly engulfed by loneliness.

‘BURN’

Rather too eager

to be in this mess

Steve Coogan plays a

mean-spirited right-wing ra-

dio host and Taylor Russell

is his plucky mixed-race teen

niece in “Hot Air,” a politi-

cally charged dramedy that

strands two terrific actors in

a shapeless story. Director

Frank Coraci and screen-

writer Will Reichel have

made a movie that aims to

bridge some of American’s

current social divides but is

so focused on its destination

that not much of note hap-

pens during the journey.

After an opening se-

quence that paints Coogan’s

Lionel Macomb as the most

extreme, clichéd example of

a Rush Limbaugh/Sean

Hannity type — sarcastic

and self-indulgent — the

movie softens him consider-

ably once he meets Russell’s

Tess, the whip-smart

daughter of his estranged,

drug-addicted sister.

What follows is fairly pre-

dictable: Tess charms Lionel

and pushes back against

some of his more extreme

opinions; Lionel opens up

about his hardscrabble past,

earning Tess’ respect and

(in the eyes of the filmmak-

ers at least) justifying his

daily rants about personal

responsibility.

While it’s admirable that

“Hot Air” doesn’t simply

make Macomb the villain

(nor does it neuter his ideol-

ogy, which remains pretty

hard-edged), it would have

been nice if Coraci and Re-

ichel had taken more advan-

tage of their very funny lead-

ing man. Everyone is so busy

making pronouncements

that they rarely get around

to saying anything witty or

insightful. That’s what tends

to happen when characters

are reduced to the positions

they represent.

—Noel Murray

“Hot Air.”Not rated. Run-

ning time: 1 hour, 43 min-

utes. Playing: Laemmle Mu-

sic Hall, Beverly Hills; VOD.

Walter ThomsonFreestyle Releasing

STEVE COOGANlearns a thing or two from his

niece (Taylor Russell), and vice versa, in “Hot Air.”

‘HOT AIR’

Humanizing but

without humor

AT THE MOVIES: REVIEWS

Fairy tale roars at the drug war

trella has little reason to

doubt the neighborhood

kids who tell her she was ab-

ducted and possibly killed

by the cartel.

The rest of this fleet, fero-

cious movie will follow Es-

trella’s quest to find her

mother, an adventure she

undertakes with the help of

those other children, who

have also been violently

separated from their fam-

ilies. Their ringleader is El

Shine (Juan Ramón López),

atough kid who recently

swiped a gun and a phone

from a local cartel thug

named Caco (Ianis Guer-

rero). This sets in motion a

turf war, in which Estrella

plays a prominent role. Like

many a fairy-tale protago-

nist, she has been granted

three wishes, a gift that will

reveal itself to be something

of a curse as none of her des-

perate, well-intentioned re-

quests plays out as she’d

hoped or expected.

Something similar could

“Tigers Are Not Afraid”
unfolds in a world of hellish
incongruities. It is both a
war zone and a playground,
a blood-spattered land-
scape of shadowy streets
and rooftop hideaways
where children run, laugh
and play, even as they seek
shelter from — and, ulti-
mately, fight back against —
the very bad men who have
turned them into orphans. If
you’ve followed the reports
that have emerged from
Mexico since 2006, when the
government initiated its mil-
itary crackdown on the drug
trade, this violent fictional-
ized dispatch from the front
lines might initially strike
you as all too grimly familiar.
But writer-director Issa
Lópezis a fantasist as well as
a realist.She has the inspira-
tion to refract the brutal
atrocities of the drug war

through the prism of a fairy

tale. Winged insects and

slithering reptiles burst

forth from the nooks and

crannies of Ana Solares’ pro-

duction design. The graffiti

on the walls has a habit of

leaping to life, especially the

growling tiger invoked by

thetitle and dialogue. A thin

trail of blood flows down

streets and up stairs, wend-

ing its way through the story

with supernatural stealth

and purpose.

The story’s young hero-

ine, Estrella (an excellent

Paola Lara), first notices

that blood trail creeping

across the walls of her home

after an especially violent

day at school. Estrella has

already heard gunshots ring

out near her classroom and

passed by a fresh corpse on

her way home, and the blood

feels like a warning of more

horrors to come. The worst

may have already happened:

Her beloved mother is no-

where to be found, and Es-

be said of “Tigers Are Not

Afraid,” a nervy and imagi-

native piece of filmmaking

that, on a scene-by-scene

basis, has troubleliving up

to its obvious ambition. The

fusion of historical trauma

and magical realism owes a

clear debt to Guillermo del

Toro — those insects might

have fluttered in from “Pan’s

Labyrinth”— and its pur-

pose, in this context, is not

all that different: to blur the

boundaries between reality

and myth, and to illuminate

a dark chapter of human his-

tory using the storybook

archetypes of good and evil.

Like “Pan’s Labyrinth,”

“Tigers Are Not Afraid” is a

child’s fable that is itself far

too graphic and grim to be

appreciated by children. Far

from being a problem, this

contradiction is evidence of

a certain integrity, a deter-

mination to use a young

girl’s perspective to amplify

rather than soft-pedal the

horrors of war. On an el-

emental level, it is hard not

to be affected by the clash

between these kids, who

have had to grow up far too

soon, and the gun-toting

monsters in their midst.

Both the emotion and the

horror might have taken still

deeper root if the world of

the movie felt less hectic and

more coherently realized, if

the supernatural touches

and occasional jump scares

welled up organically from

within rather than feeling

smeared on with a digital

trowel. In pacing this thriller

at breakneck speed, López

never quite gives it the

dreamlike flow and propul-

sion it needs. The filmmak-

ing, with its fidgety editing

and wobbly handheld cam-

erawork, often suggests a

self-conscious approxima-

tion of gritty intensity rather

than the real thing.

Lara is a remarkable

young actress, with a gaze

that magnetizes even the

camera’s easily distracted

attention. Even at Estrella’s

most fearful, her underlying

courage is never in doubt,

and she rightly occupies this

movie’s moral center of grav-

ity. Your heart can’t help but

go out to her, even when you

are left feeling more like a

sympathetic observer of her

journey than a wholly en-

gaged companion.

Shudder

THE GRAFFITI ONthe streets of the Mexican town that is the setting of “Tigers Are Not Afraid” has a habit of coming to life, this growling wildcat in particular.

‘TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID’

‘Tigers Are

Not Afraid’

In Spanish with English

subtitles

Not rated

Running time:1 hour,

23 minutes

Playing:Alamo

Drafthouse, downtown

L.A.; Laemmle Monica Film

Center, Santa Monica;

Laemmle Playhouse,

Pasadena; Laemmle Noho,

North Hollywood; Frida

Cinema, Santa Ana

Grim, surreal and reminiscent of ‘Pan’s Labyrinth,’ it blends fantasy and reality

JUSTIN CHANG
FILM CRITIC