Tribeca with Abe: Skin

I’ve had the pleasure this year of screening a number of selections from this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, which ran April 24th – May 5th.

Skin
Directed by Guy Nattiv
Spotlight Narrative

It’s an unfortunate reality that hate exists in the world today, as evidenced by the all-too-frequent acts of violence and terrorism rooted in the notion that certain people are inferior to others. One of the ways that perpetrators are led to such horrific expressions of destruction is through indoctrination and being taught a culture of hate, based upon the demeaning of races, cultures, and religions. Through all of the darkness, it is affirming to hear of the all-too-infrequent stories of those who come to see the error of their views and choose to do something more productive to combat the spread of such harmful beliefs.

Bryon Widner (Jamie Bell) lives in Ohio as a high-ranking and respected member of a Viking Neo-Nazi club. Quick to anger and eternally loyal to his adoptive parents, Hammer (Bill Camp) and Ma (Vera Farmiga), Bryon wears what he feels on his body with many tattoos. When he meets Julie (Danielle Macdonald), a mother of three with her own family connections to white supremacy who has decided not to live her life that way, he begins to question what he believes and professes, considering for the first time the possibility of reaching out to Daryle Jenkins (Mike Colter), who works to help those steeped in extremist movements make a break with a community they now find destructive.

Director Guy Nattiv won an Oscar for Best Live Action Short this past year for his film of the same name starring almost entirely different actors, with only Macdonald appearing in both. That extremely disturbing film felt needlessly violent and brutal, and the extra time afforded to this film proves entirely worthwhile, containing unsettling elements wrapped up within a more compelling and accessible story. It is still dark and unnerving, but its characters feel like real people, and its narrative is both frightening and involving.

Bell, who began his career with “Billy Elliot” nearly two decades ago follows up his role from earlier this year in “Donnybrook” with another harsh turn, though this character feels immensely dynamic and watchable. Macdonald, who appeared in “Paradise Hills,” is once again terrific, enhancing a role that wouldn’t otherwise be among the strongest in the film. Camp, from “The Night Of,” and Colter, from “Luke Cage,” both fill their parts well as ideological opposites vying to influence the impressionable. This film has some similarities to “Burden” and “BlacKkKlansman,” painting a picture of a dark world containing a few people capable of difficult, transformative change.

B+

Tribeca with Abe: Skin

Wednesday Oscar Watch with Abe

Welcome to a new weekly feature here at Movies with Abe, Wednesday Oscar Watch with Abe. It’s a bit early to be able to accurately predict the eventual Oscar nominees, but around this time, plenty of likely contenders are being released. I’ll be looking every Wednesday at the awards chances for all of the films released the previous week. Until I begin my official predictions, I’ll be adding and removing contenders as their popularity, buzz, or reviews rise and fall. Chime in with your thoughts on the Oscar chances for these films in the comments section.

This week doesn’t look too promising, but here’s a quick rundown of what came out this week, and why all of it won’t end up with Oscar nominations. Next week definitely has some major contenders, so be here for that next Wednesday!

Michael Jackson’s This Is It
This look at the final months of Michael Jackson’s life has attracted much attention since before its release, and it opened to mostly favorable reviews. It’s an interesting case because it’s not eligible in the Best Documentary race, which has an eligibility period that ends in September, but it is eligible for Best Picture. Tom O’Neil has a post where an Oscar voter declares it a lock and says the reception at an Academy screening was more positive than it was for 2002’s Best Picture winner, “Chicago.” I have a hard time believing that this film can really make it that far, especially considering how “Fahrenheit 9/11” shot for the Best Picture race in 2004 and ended up getting shut out completely. I think this film will have faded into the back of most people’s memories by the time Oscar voting rolls around.

Skin
This small film about apartheid didn’t receive a wide release or overwhelmingly positive reviews. Its one chance at a nomination, which almost definitely won’t happen, is lead actress Sophie Okonedo, who is a previous nominee for “Hotel Rwanda” back in 2004. Her inclusion back then came as a bit of a surprise, but her film had stellar reviews and another acting nominee in Don Cheadle. All this film really has is a thumbs-up review from me.

The House of the Devil
Horror movies never get nominated for Oscars, with four notable exceptions: “Rosemary’s Baby,” “The Exorcist,” “The Silence of the Lambs,” and “The Sixth Sense” (did I miss anything?). This one doesn’t really compare to any of those, but it’s worth noting that it has received an extremely positive reception, and that it’s being cited as a great throwback to classic 80s horror movies. Did those garner Oscar attention? No. Will this one? No. But it’s still got good buzz going for it.

Two films – “Boondock Saints” and “Napoleon Dynamite” – developed cult followings when they were first released but didn’t end up on Oscar shortlists. Their follow-ups, The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, the sequel to the first film, and Gentlemen Broncos, Jared Hess’ latest attempt at making stupidity funny, have been universally maligned and should consider themselves lucky to escape Razzie attention. Don’t expect much for Labor Day or Waiting for Palladin either, if you’re one of the ten people who’s heard of either of them (and not part of the five who despised both).

Be sure to come back next Wednesday for a look at this Friday’s theatrical releases and their Oscar chances. And remember to offer your thoughts on the chances for these films in the comments!

Movie with Abe: Skin

Skin
Directed by Anthony Fabian
Released October 30, 2009

Sometimes there are stories that seem like they can’t possibly be true, and knowing that they are makes their impact all the more staggering. The case of a black girl born to white parents in South Africa during apartheid is just one of those stories, and its dramatization on screen is a harrowing portrait of a person whose life was so shaped and disrupted by societal conventions that she never knew quite what to make of herself. It’s a quietly effective film that, like its protagonist Sandra, doesn’t attempt to make a big show of things. She tries to go along living in an impossibly shifting situation, and the film follows her journey with careful, dutiful finesse.

Most of what makes Sandra’s story believable is the wonderful cast that portrays the people in her life. The role of Sandra is split between two actresses, starting with talented young newcomer Ella Ramangwane, whose face conveys innocence and an inability to do harm, even to those who make her life miserable. Seasoned actress Sophie Okonedo (“Hotel Rwanda”) takes over once Sandra grows up, and she captures the spunk Ramangwane has created but imbues the more mature character with a sense of when to hold her tongue and suffer in silence. Sam Neill (“The Triangle,” “Crusoe”) yields a fierce sense of elitist entitlement due to his race, and the emotive actor displays the pain he feels at both having a daughter who is black and at trying not to accept it extraordinarily. Alice Krige (the Borg Queen from “Star Trek”) shows her equally compelling softer side as Sandra’s initially protective, supporting mother who lets her husband and her prejudices get in the way of being true to her family. The cast contributes immensely to the powerful impact of the film, and they all deserve praise.

In the same way that Sandra was trapped in her body, “Skin” doesn’t offer any fantasy escapes. Sandra’s life is seen exactly as it played out, with no illusions along the way or daydreams to keep Sandra’s spirit alive. Sandra had an indisputably tough childhood, and her persistence and survival is inspiring. The horrors of the South African backdrop aren’t minimized, and it’s a starkly serious experience with few moments of genuine pleasure or anything approaching true happiness. It’s not a devastatingly depressing experience, however, due to Sandra’s function as a remarkably empathetic character whose ability to persevere guides the film along in its portrait of her life. Her drive to investigate a way of changing her life and to reconnect with those who abandoned her is what makes her story worth telling. At its core, “Skin” is a story of survival, and a look back at how apartheid and other forms of segregation can be utterly detrimental to a person’s well-being and very existence. This film doesn’t overstate any of that, but calmly captures and logs it for all the world to see. In many ways, it’s the most fitting tribute to Sandra and those who struggled just like her. In this case, fortunately, the movie is absolutely worthy of the story.

B+