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Diane Keaton in 'Mack & Rita'
Diane Keaton in 'Mack & Rita'
Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
(Film Movement Classics Blu-ray)
It’s Carnival time in a rundown Brazilian town, raucous with costumed figures dancing through the streets to Afro polyrhythms. Suddenly one reveler, Vadhino, falls dead. The celebration continues as the wake begins.
Bruno Barreto’s Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (1976) was a sensation on the international art house circuit and it’s easy to see why. The comedy transports viewers to a specific time and place—Bahia in the 1940s. Steamy erotic scenes transpire in the sweltering heat. At the wake, memories are shared about Vadhino, many of them unflattering. He pawned his wedding ring for a lottery ticket. He drank and gambled and was abusive to his wife, Flor. The film is essentially a flashback of their marital life.
The cinematography is virtuosic as it swerves among characters. Vadhino is intended as a loveable rogue, interpreted as a free spirit at the time of the film’s release. Nowadays he’d be busted for sexual harassment. The new release is digitally restored (in bright colors!) and includes commentary by the director and a booklet with an essay. (David Luhrssen)
Jesus Kid
(IndiePix Films DVD)
In this 2021 film by Brazilian director Aly Muritiba, Eugenio is a veteran author of western thrillers whose career has dead ended. Commissioned by an advertising videographer-turned-film director, he’s installed in a hotel with the mission to pen a screenplay about a writer undergoing “creative agony.” At the same time, the country’s heavy-handed president (a fan of westerns) is after Eugenio to ghostwrite his autobiography.
A clever mashup of Barton Fink and Play It Again, Sam, Jesus Kid follows what happens when Eugenio’s fictional protagonist, a laconic cowboy modelled after a young Clint Eastwood, comes to life and advises him on how to proceed. The film satirizes Brazilian problems that will look familiar to U.S. audiences: collapsing civility, the impoverishment of the creative class, anger and violence, the rise of militant evangelical Christianity, the drift toward authoritarianism. Jesus Kid also spoofs a movie industry saturated with demands for product placement with many strings attached to every dollar (or real). (David Luhrssen)
Mack & Rita
(In Theaters Aug. 12)
At 74, Diane Keaton appears as Aunt Rita, the older version of Mack (played at 30, by Elizabeth Lail). Mack feels she’s an older woman trapped in a girl’s body. She visits a “sound regression pod” on a lark and emerges as her 70-year-old future self. Initially dismayed, her cover story is she’s Mack’s Aunt Rita. Shy and awkward as Mack, she’s amazed to learn she feels free in her older body.
Aunt Rita’s also an overnight success as a social media influencer, a position Mack long sought. But she struggles over the mutual attraction between Rita and a young dog-sitter (Dustin Milligan). Having confessed all to her friends (played by Taylour Paige, Loretta Devine and others), Mack wants to reclaim her younger self, but the traveling hippie (Simon Rex) and his magical pod are nowhere to be found. That we believe in the virtues of being Aunt Rita versus being the younger Mack, results from Keaton’s vigorous sense of wonder. It’s a special magic few actresses possess at any age. (Lisa Miller)
Whisper
(Limited Theatrical Release and Streaming on Apple, Aug. 12)
Held tightly under wraps, Whisper, formerly known as No Way Out, casts Joey Bicicchi as talented young photographer Nick. Hoping to catch a break in Los Angeles, Nick takes in the club scene where he meets Tessa (Australian singer Maia Mitchell). She introduces him to the city’s high fashion world fueled by sex and drugs. Nick falls hard for Tessa but is devastated when she reveals a trio of thugs are out to kill her and Nick will have to kill them to protect her. This feature debut from London filmmaker Azi Rahman has neither screened at film festivals nor been made available for preview. Hopefully some earth-shattering twist requires guarding because other reasons for secrecy bode poorly. (Lisa Miller)
