BEFORE: Well, the film "Manderlay" doesn't seem to be available on Netflix, or Hulu, or even iTunes. Nope, not on Amazon Prime or YouTube, either - that's a bit strange. It might have something to do with the topic of slavery, and possibly the use of blackface, too, I can't be sure. But I'd have to buy the DVD on Amazon to see it, and I don't have that kind of time. I'll just have to make a mental note about it, and maybe try to circle back next year - but it sure seems like a film that's either unpopular, or someone actively does not want me to see it. Instead I can proceed with my schedule, and I don't have to drop another film this way. I do need to make a decision in about a week between two films, but I'll explain that at the proper time.
Chloe Sevigny carries over from "Dogville".
THE PLOT: A holistic medicine practitioner attends a wealthy client's dinner party after her car breaks down.
AFTER: Well, this is another weird one tonight - maybe not as weird as "Dogville", but there are parts where what we're shown on the screen isn't really taking place, as we get to see Beatriz's dreams and in one instance, her wild fantasy, before and during this dinner party that she finds herself at. Also, I think there are some things that she says that are not meant to be taken literally, but I'll get to that in a bit.
From the quotes on the film's poster, critics referred to this film as a "squirm-inducing dark comedy", a "relevant satire" and also "the first great film of the Trump era". I'm not sure about that last one, but a better reason to bring Trump into this conversation is the divisive nature of politics, which goes back decades of course, but has really been brought to light since the 2016 election. If you've noticed, everything in American society has become a black or white issue, and I'm not just referring to racism. We've become incredibly polarized, so on any topic, like abortion, there's the extreme argument for it and the extreme argument against it - it should either be free and available to all, or banned outright. Guns? Same thing - people are either for complete availability of assault weapons and armor-piercing bullets at the corner store, or they should be all be banned, taken away and destroyed. One argument for immigration calls for building a wall and putting kids in cages, and the other calls for open borders for all, as guaranteed by our forefathers and that poem on the Statue of Liberty. NO other answers seem possible, neither side is willing to yield an inch, so naturally no progress gets made. And we all then tend to see these things as simple issues with opposing solutions, when they are in fact complex issues with potential for compromise.
So we often find ourselves saying, "You know, there are two kinds of people in the world..." for many things, whether we want to draw a line between rich and poor, liberal or conservative, religious or non-, smoking and non-, meat-eating and vegetarian, or whatever. I was reminded of this the other day, when I realized there are two kinds of people in the world, those that talk to strangers in line at the post office, and those that don't. I'm in the latter camp, but this guy ahead of me with bright orange hair and a cheap suit was one of the "let's talk to strangers" type, and tried to make a connection with me over my Meat Loaf concert t-shirt. "Hey, that's a nice shirt!" he said, "It reminds me of better times. Remember rock concerts?" But I'd already tuned him out by this point, because I thought he was a complete ass, so I was forced to give him the death stare until he decided that our conversation was a dead-end. (To be polite, I should have pointed to my ears and shook my head, which he would have interpreted as a sign for deafness, but which really would have meant, "I don't want to listen to your B.S.") Minutes later, he was bothering someone else in line who was wearing Sam Ash Music t-shirt - "Hey, that's a nice shirt! It reminds me of better times..." What, are we supposed to be friends now, because you read my t-shirt? Shut the hell up, weird dude.
I bring this up because this film seemed designed to put Beatriz in conflict with someone who is her polar opposite in every way. She's a struggling physical therapist and holistic medicine woman, he's a wealthy real estate executive. She's an immigrant from Mexico (ah, that's why the references to Trump in the reviews) and he's built a few hotels there, but still curious about whether she came into the U.S. legally. She cares deeply about animals, and is mourning the loss of her pet goat, while he goes to Africa and hunts wild game. They end up at the same dinner party because Beatriz's car won't start, and so the woman who she gave a massage to invites her to stay. (They know Beatriz because she was part of their daughter's cancer wellness program, but that's sort of a tangential issue.)
The goal of the film is to get these two very different people in the same room, and watch the sparks fly. You may even be reminded of a family party that you've attended in the last couple of years, when you realized that your uncle or cousin is now a Trump supporter (or if you're a Trump supporter yourself, when you realized your aunt or cousin was supporting Hillary, or Bernie, or Jill Stein...). And now we've cut those people out of our lives, but it didn't help, because we've all got to go through this again, or find more excuses to avoid family functions.
Beatriz can't help but think that she knows this real estate mogul from somewhere - she remembers protesting a hotel being built in Mexico, which ended up destroying her hometown, but was this the same guy? Memory can be unreliable, though, so it's possible that she's conflating some of her memories because she wants to hate this man so very much, and she might be looking for more reasons to do so. When she finally determines "This is the man who killed my goat..." I don't think she means this literally - I think perhaps it's more of a "This is the SORT of man who killed my goat." or "This man has the same lack of respect for animals as the man who killed my goat." Because if she really believed this, then she's either crazy, mis-remembering, or she lives in a much, much nicer neighborhood than we were lead to believe.
I don't want to reveal what happens at the dinner party, partially because it's left sort of open-ended, anyway. Several different interpretations may be possible. But the important take-away is that while we all might acknowledge that our planet is dying, bees are dying, we're all dying, even so there are two types of people in the world - those that are trying to do something about it and effect change, and those that want to give up and use that as an excuse to have a good time. Still, I think that all seems very polarizing, and I maintain that there should be a middle ground. Why can't we make smarter choices, try to save the planet, and still enjoy the time we have left?
Also starring Salma Hayek (last seen in "Filmworker"), Connie Britton (last seen in "American Ultra"), John Lithgow (last seen in "Pitch Perfect 3"), Jay Duplass, Amy Landecker (last seen in "The Meddler"), David Warshofsky (last seen in "Wilson"), John Early (last seen in "The Disaster Artist"), Enrique Castillo, Soledad St. Hilaire, Amelia Borella, Natalia Abelleyra.
RATING: 4 out of 10 possible titles for Doug's memoir
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