BEFORE: Donald Sutherland carries over from "The Eagle Has Landed" as I rocket forward 43 years to something much closer to the present, a film from 2019.
Maybe this is the year of more refined subject matter, because I've watched a few films lately about art, like "Mortdecai" and even a few films about writing and poetry, like "Howl", "Shirley", "The Last Word", "After Class" and "The Kindergarten Teacher". OK, so those aren't all GREAT movies, but at least it's good to have a break from war, politics and pandemic-related stuff. (Oh, but those pandemic-themed movies are on the way, can't you just FEEL that?)
THE PLOT: Hired to steal a rare painting from one of the most enigmatic painters of all time, an ambitious art dealer becomes consumed by his own greed and insecurity as the operation spins out of control.
AFTER: This film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2019, and I JUST entered a short film in the 2021 edition of that - it's a bit of a strange process, entering film festivals, this one in particular. While many festivals have joined these little collectives like FilmFreeway (and formerly, WithoutABox) to make it easier to enter (and pay entry fees), Venice seemed to delight in making things more difficult. I nearly gave up halfway through, because of how many hoops they made me jump through - first filling out a form to start the entry process, then getting an e-mail with instructions on how to pay the fee and start Part 2, then getting another e-mail with instructions on how to upload a copy of the film, with more forms to fill out and documentation to provide. Plus I've been keeping track of our entries, and since Venice demands a world premiere screening, if this short should be selected, it means we'd have to cancel on at least one festival we already entered. I hate doing that, but I suppose that Venice is such a high-profile festival that it would theoretically be worth damaging our professional relationship with another smaller festival, but that smaller festival is an Academy-qualifying one, meaning that if the film should win an award there, we can skip a lot of the steps in getting the film closer to an Oscar-nomination. Theoretically, of course. Most other major festivals we've entered, even Toronto, aren't so strict when it comes to the premiere status for short films.
After playing in Venice, this film, like many others, had a run of bad luck - it was supposed to be released in theaters on March 6, 2020 - then all theaters were forced to close a week later due to COVID-19. So Sony Pictures Classic held the release back until theaters could open up again, which was in August in many places around the U.S., so that means this film didn't play in the major markets, like NYC and L.A. Finally it aired on the Starz channel, and folks finally got a chance to see it. Hey, we've all had to re-adjust over the last year, and even now, as the statistics in the U.S. are quite promising, and New York's just about to lift all the pandemic restrictions, it still feels a bit weird, like we're all playing catch-up and trying to figure out our new schedules, what's our life going to be like now that we can come and go as we please?
Movie theaters, libraries, museums and art galleries - what are the new rules? New hours? I'm transitioning over to the night shift myself, my new part-time job started yesterday, working 5 pm to 2 am. And, so far, I hate it. All I was doing was sweeping up theaters and emptying trash cans, and that's not really what I signed up for. Now I'm back home after an 8-hour shift and about 6 hours of sleep, but I'm still exhausted because I'm not used to physical labor. For months during the pandemic, all I wanted was to get a job, get out of the house more, and get active again - now that it's happened, I kind of want to go back to the way things were. But it's too late, unless I admit that I'm in over my head, and quit. But I JUST started, so now I don't know what to do. I've got today off, but I'm supposed to show up again tomorrow night, after 6 hours working at my day job - I don't even know how long I can keep this up, or even if I should.
Enough about my problems, I should get back to discussing the movie. There's an art critic who is NOT a very likable guy, he's willing to deceive people during his art apprecation lectures in order to make a point. He comes together with this young attractive, umm, art lover (honestly, they didn't give her much to do here...) and then gets the opportunity, offered by a wealthy art collector, to interact with an reclusive artist named Jerome Debney, who hasn't been seen by anyone in years, after his studio burned down. It turns out he's been living in a small cabin on this wealthy art collector's estate. The critic can't pass up the opportunity to interview the artist, only there's a catch - the collector wants one of Debney's paintings, and he wants the art critic to get it for him. Now, you may ask, why doesn't the collector just ASK for one? Or charge the artist rent, in the form of a painting? And these are very valid questions, unfortunately. In fact, they're a bit troubling and bothersome, because they are both easy solutions to this problem that is then created, just because the collector can't seem to see the obvious solutions.
But let me move on - the critic and his girlfriend interact with Debney, and things seem to be going well - only remember, the art critic is not very likable, in fact he turns out to be downright deplorable. He can't seem to ask for the painting either, or demand it in exchange for, let's say, a profile in the critic's magazine. So he likewise avoids the very obvious solutions to the problem, and resorts to very desperate, very bad measures to get what he wants. And the cost, in human terms, turns out to be very high indeed. I don't really want to say much more because spoilers. But actions have consequences - and bad people do bad things, and then maybe they don't get what they deserve in the end. But who's to say?
Also starring Claes Bang (last seen in "The Girl in the Spider's Web"), Elizabeth Debicki (last seen in "Tenet"), Mick Jagger (last seen in "ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas"), Rosalind Halstead (last seen in "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason"), Alessandro Fabrizi (last seen in "Inferno"), Obada Adnan with a cameo from Lewis Dodley.
RATING: 6 out of 10 art gallery patrons
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