The last of the film festivals (for now) ended last night with the Savannah Film Festival, and I managed to squeeze in a few more movies! I did get let down by one screening, but I suppose it was my fault. I bought a ticket for a movie that was only available in Georgia…where I do not live. Fail. Oh well, hopefully I get the chance to watch that film sooner than it is available to the mass public. So with that disappointment out of the way I got to watch two others that were very different from each other.
First up was the comedy-drama thriller, Black Bear. Now, for those of you at home, all of those genre labels are very loose for what Black Bear actually was, which I would say was more of a black comedy laced with some thriller elements. It follows Allison, a former actor and filmmaker, who rents a room in a remote cabin from a young couple. Allison is odd and perhaps a compulsive liar, but the couple, Blair and Gabe, are almost equally strange when it comes to public interactions. Conversation comes to a head, then there might also be some cheating before a car accident involving a black bear turns the screen dark.
From there, the movie seemingly resets with the same characters, but an almost completely different set-up. Everyone’s roles are different, and there is an extremely meta situation taking place. This movie has become a movie about a movie about making a movie. Once the climax of this section comes around, somewhat similar to the first part, I thought there’d be a third part that either answered what this was or introduced us to a whole new section. It did neither. I rewatched this film twice to see if I could wrap my head around what happened, but it was no use. Sure, there were parallels, but even according to the director, there was no neat answer to this film. That ambiguousness made me both like and hate this film, but it was definitely worth my time. Very creative!
I know readers are going to hate me for this next review, which was of Regina King’s cinematic directorial debut, One Night in Miami. This film is based off a play of the same name, which recounted a real night that happened in 1964 in Miami, but whose in-between parts were fictionalized. The meeting took place with Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown on the night that Ali had s surprise title win over Sonny Liston. A somewhat subdued drama, this movie focused on racism of that time. While all four men were rising in popularity, it was jarring to see them interact with it individually throughout the film.
While the acting was superb and the visuals were sharp, I just found myself a little bit bored watching this. The subject matter was not the problem here, but similar to The Boys in the Band, I think this suffered from a similar thing in that I could tell it was based on a play. A lot of the action took place in a hotel room, and sometimes that’s just boring. I think this would have been more impactful seen as a play rather than a film, but this will also reach a wider audience. I see that it’s getting a lot of love everywhere, so expect to see at least King get a director’s nomination when the Oscars roll around. Worth your time if only for the message that it tells.