This is my kind of movie.
It may not be yours.
It played for two weeks in theatres.
I don't know why anybody would go.
All the action is in streaming television.
But the media keeps focusing on films, most of which go unseen.
Distribution is king but everybody still thinks it's content.
You can do something great and no one can see it/hear it these days. Once upon a time the great surfaced by itself, but today something can be really good and get no traction. The question is how do you put something great in front of the public such that people see it.
You put it on Netflix.
And you don't decry Spotify, you embrace it.
Or as Sam Kinison once said about starving people in Africa...send them suitcases, not food, they need to move where the food is!
But I feel like a lone voice in the wilderness. Because the aged Boomers and Gen-X'ers need to feel superior to the young 'uns, so they keep trumpeting foreign and indie films in the theatre, abhor anything to do with the smartphone and for reasons of status, displaying their ignorance, pooh-pooh anything with a hint of the mainstream.
But this us vs. them paradigm is dead. We're all foraging for content. It's a journey through the Sargasso Sea, and one must not be afraid of jumping in and swimming.
And now back to the movie...
I guess I just get angry. You just can't change conventional wisdom, which is controlled by those who don't know what is going on. The same people who missed Trump the first time around, the people who keep telling us they know better, who are in a bubble but don't even realize it, never mind admit it.
The most powerful device you own is your smartphone. Get the latest and the greatest, keep it for a couple of years and get a new one. You want the power and the features.
And assuming you're not a young 'un who watches everything on that same small device or a laptop, buy the largest, highest quality flat screen television for your abode, this is the heart of today's long form entertainment. The script has flipped. You needed a good stereo in the seventies, today you need a good television.
Finally the movie...
Felice thought Natasha Lyonne always plays the same character, and the entire film was too stagey.
I'll agree on both counts, but it did not detract from my enjoyment of the movie.
What we've got here is siblings, in the apartment of their youth, waiting for their father to die.
I'm not sure someone without siblings will have the same experience. But if you've got two or more brothers or sisters, and the second parent is on their way out, you'll get it completely.
It's usually the older sibling who demands control. Who becomes exasperated with the inadequacies of the youngest sibling. Who ponders the future of this youngster and says they must face the future themselves and but still meddles.
Meanwhile, the youngest was the last person to leave the nest, if at all. He or she has a special relationship with the parent. The dynamic is different once the other two are gone. The parents are usually tired, there is largesse with the youngest sibling, whereas they were strict with the oldest, placed all their hopes and dreams upon them.
Carrie Coon is exceptional in this movie. I'm not saying you'll like her, I'm just saying she nails the character. She believes if she doesn't do everything, the whole thing will fall apart. Meanwhile, she is not happy that she's carrying the weight of the enterprise on her shoulders, and she keeps telling you so.
As for the youngest... She has been denigrated, pushed aside for so many years, that she alternately stays quiet or yells out.
Meanwhile, the person in the middle is lost in the shuffle.
Elizabeth Olsen is the child in the middle. Her character is not wholly believable, she's always upbeat, followed the Grateful Dead but appears to be straight out of a Lululemon ad. She wants to make peace. She's invested in her daughter. She is so fearful of being overwhelmed that she lives a circumscribed life. And although she can get overloaded, she refuses to dominate, although she will blow the whistle.
The eldest, Carrie Coon, thinks her sh*t doesn't stink. She thinks she knows and everybody else does not. She doesn't even think of questioning her beliefs and actions. She's the oldest, she's the most together, she's right. Period. And when confronted with facts she has overlooked, she fights back.
That's what you rarely see in movies, characters doubling-down. Usually when someone is confronted with the truth, they immediately go into self-doubt, they admit they're wrong and there's a kumbaya moment, a coming together. But in real life, the one in power doesn't do this at all, he or she amps it up, becomes emphatic, is intense and oftentimes employs a scorched-earth strategy. When Benjy tells Katie (Carrie Coon) that Rachel (Natasha Lyonne) has been there all the while, doing all the work, taking the father to the bathroom, that even he spent a lot of time watching sports with the father... Katie/Carrie doesn't buy it, and insists that he leave the house, immediately.
Family dynamics, they don't comport with the rest of the world. It's a world unto itself. And he or she who yells loudest often wins.
And then there's the money. I've got a friend who says you never really know your siblings until you share an inheritance.
Katie and Christina (Elizabeth Olsen) don't like it that Rachel will inherit the rent-controlled apartment, that her name is on the lease.
Doesn't matter how much Katie and Christina have, that their lives are richer in many ways, especially economically, than Rachel's, they're unhappy that they're not getting more, at heart they believe they're getting screwed.
And Rachel refuses to accept this dynamic. Two sisters are playing a game that Rachel doesn't. Rachel has checked out, and the sisters deride her for it and insist she must play their game.
But Vincent is Rachel's father too.
Katie can't see emotions, even though she thinks she does. Everything is viewed through a prism of math. What she's done, what she's entitled to. And no one has as much responsibility as she does, NO ONE! You could never convince her otherwise.
A nice evening's entertainment.
Now despite the festivals, despite some of these films playing in art houses, indie cinema, as an exhibition form, is in the doghouse. Because no one wants to go. The Boomers, who grew up on it, know that it's a bad economic proposition. You've got to go on the theatre's schedule, overpay for a ticket and maybe parking too. Meanwhile, at home you can watch nearly whatever you want whenever you want. Movies in a theatre are an ancient paradigm. In order to work the theatre must be right next door and the film needs to start as soon as you get there. But that's not how it works.
Don't equate this with music. A show is a one time event. A film is static, it's the same wherever you see it. Why not see it at home?
The major studios have realized this, so it's all about event pictures, sequels and superhero movies, mostly attended by youngsters who need to get out of the house.
But what if you're looking for a bit more from a visual experience. What if you're looking to be touched internally, to still be thinking when the credits roll...
For that you need to go to your streaming outlet, and Netflix is king. If you don't have a subscription, you're completely out of the loop.
But many feel superior. Many of the educated don't have an account, still think television is the idiot box.
But the joke is on them.
Do I think the general public wants to watch "His Three Daughters"?
No. Just a certain subsegment of the public. That's the key to winning entertainment today. Don't try to appeal to everybody, that is death.
I see Sabrina Carpenter and Travis Scott are battling for number one on the chart. I don't care to listen to either of them. And I'm in the majority here. But rather than try to assess what the majority is interested in, which is a cornucopia of offerings, choice, traditional record labels and major media still keep trying to corral us into one pen, listening to the same songs and watching the same movies as if it's still 1985. But the internet blew that world apart.
I'm hipping you to "His Three Daughters."
And when "intellectuals" boast about going to the movie theatre, laugh at them. Who has that much time to burn? To get in the car, sit through all those trailers? I certainly don't. In a world of so many offerings, I want to partake of as many as I can.
Unfortunately, it's hard to wade through and find what stimulates and satiates.
If you're fascinated by family dynamics, identity and behavior, I highly recommend "His Three Daughters." Sure, it could almost as easily play on a stage, the cinematography is nothing special, but the humanity, the essence of life, the questions are right there in front of you.
You'll identify.
Or you won't.
But I did. And maybe you will.
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