The Last Survivors
The Last Survivors
Set in Oregon “a few years from now,” The Last Survivors is an impressively dramatized, tautly acted and written story of a world without rain. Haley Lu Richardson stars as a resourceful, resilient teen surviving in the dust-covered desolation of a land that resembles Australia’s Outback after an ecological catastrophe of mammoth scale. She struggles against a lunatic cult leader determined to monopolize the water supply (and cleanse the world by murdering the infidels).
The Encore of Tony Duran
Elliot Gould turns in a nicely wrought supporting performance as a retired actor helping a friend in trouble. And that friend, the titular Tony Duran (Gene Pietragallo), has tons of trouble, starting with a washed-up career and an inability to find work in the Great Recession. Despite an overreliance on the voiceover narrative of the protagonist (Duran), The Encore is an interesting look at America’s declining middle class. Fred A. Sayeg directed this 2011 indie.
I Am Evel Knievel
Evel Knievel seized the spotlight in 1967 with a motorcycle jump across the fountains at Caesar’s Palace. He broke many bones but rose to jump again—and again. In the documentary’s old footage and new interviews with his children and crew, Knievel emerges as a broncobuster on a motorcycle. He described himself as a “professional daredevil,” tempting death with every ride, living with physical pain while trying to pump faith in his own prowess.
Knifed Up
Cosmetic surgery had usually been the preserve of white women, but in the 21st century, black women have increasingly undergone the knife, Botox injections, buttocks augmentation and breast implants. Many African American academics and commentators interviewed in Knifed Up blame social media and hip-hop for peer pressure and pushing a “Black Barbie” image on women with fragile self-esteem. One fashion photographer points out that models are usually Photoshopped—the women emulating them are chasing chimeras.
