Movie Nation

Danish director Lone Scherfig throws half a dozen Manhattan lives together, using infamously callous New Yorkers to try and make a point about “The Kindness of Strangers.”

It doesn’t wholly come off, with back stories too thinly developed, pathos and cruelty blending with the whimsy of a New York con. But she filmed “An Education,” “Italian for Beginners,” and “Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself.” So even if we’re doing some of the work for her, she can be relied on to make certain we get more than a little something out of the trip.

Andrea Riseborough plays an ER nurse who has let her job get to her. Nurse Alice hasn’t gone down the “Nurse Jackie” route. She’s not doing drugs. But she’s filling her days and nights with extra work at a soup kitchen or running a self-help group called “Forgiveness.”

It’s just the ER that makes her weep and slip out back to throw up.

Zoe Kazan is Clara, a young mother of two boys (Jack Fulton and Finlay Wojtak-Hissong) who stuffs them into their old station wagon and flees to the city “for a vacation.” She’s in a troubled marriage but struggling to put a smiling face on this trip — broke, just a few clothes, a car and the most expensive city in North America in winter.

“Are we homeless? ” the oldest wants to know. “No more homeless than anybody else here.” As Mom says this in a soup kitchen, well.

Caleb Landry Jones is hapless Jeff, a “slow” and clumsy young man who cannot keep focus or keep even the most menial job.

“Firing me is all you can ‘do for’ me?”

And Jay Baruchel and Tahar Rahim play a sensitive attorney and a client who has just gotten out of jail. John Peter (Baruchel) drags Marc (Rahim) to “Forgiveness” meetings, each expecting the other to get something out of the “learn to forgive yourself” (a little hazy) ethos of Alice and the group.

In this little corner of Manhattan, pretty much everybody stumbles across the proud old Russian tea-room/restaurant where Timofey (Bill Nighy) presides. It’s an ineptly-run place that doesn’t measure up to the Czarist decor and Timfey’s mild-mannered if sketchy accent.

Marc, it turns out, has restaurant running experience. “Tim” can drop the “fey” and the phony accent. Marc can save the place.

Scherfig’s inter-related stories fold in on each other through the restaurant, the soup kitchen, the ER and the streets. Needless to say, it is Clara’s plight that drives “The Kindness of Strangers.”

Their dilemma is compounded by the home life they’re fleeing. The abusive husband/father (Esben Smed) is a cop. If they get identified in a shelter or hospital, if they get parking tickets, he will be able to track them.

Kazan, of “The Big Sick,” “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” and “Ruby Sparks,” plays a tour-guide to DIY out-of-towner survival in the big city. Yes, she cadges drinks and leftovers from a wedding at the Russian eatery. She wanders the halls of a hotel picking up room service leftover trays as well. They duck into libraries, Grand Center Station and churches to get warm.

“What do other people do?” her oldest asks. “Where do they go?”

“Other people have folks. We don’t.”

Most desk clerks, shelter admissions officers and hotel security folks are New York stereotypes — won’t get involved. But ducking into the church where Alice’s group meets changes their fate.

The little slices of street life, restaurant trickery and ER grind are familiar. The story takes the occasional melodramatic turn for the worse.

But Jones makes an affable, perhaps “on the spectrum” goof — good-hearted, with a temper. Baruchel does the hangdog thing well, and Nighy is the most effortlessly charming presence in any movie he turns up in.

Zazan is marvelous at playing desperation that Clara most desperately wants to hide. And Riseborough, most recently seen in “The Grudge” but famous for “Birdman” and “Battle of the Sexes,” makes Alice the hollowed-out rock here, a broken soul whose deep wound we can only guess at, but who wears her humanity on her care-worn face.

“Why can’t you just be kind?” she pleads, at one point. Some hear her, others turn a deaf ear.

This isn’t on a par with Scherfig’s best films, but the milieu and situations are immersive and the characters just colorful enough to hold our interest.

If you’re a non-New Yorker like myself, maybe it’ll remind you of your first trips to the city and how lucky you felt if you got through the visit without depending on “The Kindness of Strangers.” It’s always in short supply there.

MPAA Rating: unrated, one scene of violence

Cast: Zoe Kazan, Andrea Riseborough, Caleb Landry Jones, Tahar Rahim , Jay Baruchel and Bill Nighy

Written and directed by Lone Scherfig. A Vertical release.

Running time: 1:52

I have seen “JoJo” and “Little Women” twice. Think I’ll hit a second run house showing “Ford v Ferrari” late today.

Win or lose, they are worth seeing on the big screen.

The countdown has begun.

“Richard Jewell” is about to vanish until it turns up on streaming, same with “Bombshell,” “Beautiful Day” (already gone from most screens) and “JoJo” and “Little Women.”

These films will disappear from screens in a week or two.

If you didn’t think “Parasite” was the likely best picture winner, you probably didn’t think Bong Joon Ho was going to win best director.

But that was the give away. That old Oscar saying, the one that doesn’t hold true most years in this millennium, “Best Directors direct Best Pictures” called it.

First Best Picture winner in a language that isn’t English. Even “Crouching Tiger” didn’t manage that.

It was a movie about something — global income inequality, one of a handful of best pic nominees that could make that claim.

It was also one of the two or three best films of last year, according to critics, even those who might not think it was the Very Best. It was the Hollywood consensus pick on a night that a lot of pictures picked up an award or two –“Judy” and “Bombshell,” “JoJo Rabbit”and “Ford v Ferrari,” with “1917” and “Little Women” and “Once Upon a Time” and even “Marriage Story” collecting a little Oscar glory.

Netflix won best documentary, and not much else. “Honeyland” was the better film in category, in my opinion.

Laura Dern finished a well deserved victory lap, Renee Zellweger had another moment.

Do you expect that to lead to a comeback? Doubtful.

Dern had the speech of the night, Joaquin was appropriately out there, Zellweger did the last laundry list of agents and managers — ever.

Elton John almost croaked/sang his way OUT of an Oscar, a musical low of the night. The clock is ticking on Jillian Michaels going after Diane Warren.

Eminem didn’t show up to collect his Oscar way back when. Now that he’s as “over” as his pal Moby, he gets a pointless spotlight performance…of that same song?

Hildur Gudnadottir won the best score Oscar, for “Joker.” First time a woman has won that combined category.

“Toy Story 4” was the worst call of the evening, I thought. Lazy.

Scorsese got to take a bow as the most graceful of losers, “no host” moved the show along faster, “In Memoriam” left out TV star Robert Conrad, Luke Perry, Cameron Boyce and Sid Haig and others.

Loved the “Recap the Show in Rhyme.” The “Frozen” multilingual thing fell flat.

Joaquin rambled, although not as much as Renee, Laura gushed and Brad got emotional.

Whenever “Oscar so white,” the Oscars compensate with a vigorously diverse telecast.

Best presenters? Maya and Kristen. Aced it.

Worst. Well, leaving your costar out to dry like that wasn’t a good look for Shia.

The costumes, the celebrity appearances, the sea of vendors, the crowd that lets you know you’re in your tribe, and those lines — those endless lines.

Fan conventions, nothing like’em, right? They’re famous for the army of fans — and we’re not just talking about the 501st Legion — but what about the army it takes to put on a show for them?

“Surviving SuperCon” is a behind the scenes gander at the “mom and pop” operation that puts on the fast-growing, franchising Miami gathering of fans of sci-fi, comic book, anime and animation, wrestling, basically “anything you can think of in the geek genre,” as its co-founder, Michael Broder describes it.

It’s not as big as the New York Comic Con, or the San Diego one that dominates the sci-fi, fantasy, comic-book and horror film and TV calendar. But as it spreads out across the Southeast (Raleigh, Louisville) and beyond, here’s a look at how it all comes together, and the sort of things that can go wrong.

It’s not fan-focused, so while there’s footage of fans dressed as their favorite imaginary character (cosplay), enthusiasts gathered for panel discussions, “How to be a Voice Actor” workshops and star appearances from the likes of William Shatner and John Wesley Shipp (“The Flash”), what filmmaker Steven Shea was interested in was the folks pulling the strings, arranging the celebrity appearances and making this massive undertaking not a complete pain to the 50,000 or so who annually visit the South Florida event (in the Fort Lauderdale Convention Center in 2018).

The film focuses on the couple who founded and run the Miami event, Sandy Martin and Michael Broder. We hear them explain the undertaking and their attachment to it.

He was an indie film producer who needed to find a new money-making outlet. She was the organizer who made the trains run on time.

From angry phone calls to sighs of disappointment when this or that “special guest” is hired for an acting job and can’t come, or “sprained his wrist” (No autographs, kids!) to the comically inept “official” security company used by the center, “Surviving” tries to take it all in.

“Check badges, keep people safe, keep the line moving,” Sandy counsels the inexperienced security team at the gates. Just getting that simple task managed, training “people hired, at the last minute, through Goodwill” to “wand” guests, to know the difference between a weapon and a costume or “prop,” eats up a lot of “SuperCon.”

“Wooden bats are allowed. Most often, they’re with 15 year-old girls dressed as Harley Quinn.”

The backstage emphasis robs the film of much of its flavor. Still, the whole addition of wrestling to the festivities — Fantasy Super Cosplay Wrestling — is a fascinating avenue to explore.

The “big names” who attend such events don’t stand still for interviews (or didn’t sign wavers) aren’t really the focus. And there’s only so much that’s interesting about a lot of people fretting over video cables that aren’t long enough, thieves stealing passes or the new T-shirt vendors.

And a third act intrusion of real world events — the Parkland shooting — seems necessary, but off-topic and a tad self-serving. Yes, the company gives to charity.

The entire film, for all the flashes of temper, still feels “officially sanctioned” to a higher degree than you’d like. That’s the price you pay by leaning so heavily on two main interview subjects.

But if nothing else, “Surviving Supercon” makes a fine primer on the million things that have to be solved to make such an event come off, the scores of things that can go wrong and the commitment it takes to pull it off and make those lines move along.

Just don’t call it their “passion.”

“It’s not a passion,” Sandy Martin declares. “I’m obsessed. Obsession is what moves mountains!”

MPAA Rating: Unrated, lots and lots of profanity

Cast: Michael Broder, Sandy Martin, Terry Cronin

Credits: Written and directed by Steven Shea. An Abyssmal Entertainment release.

Running time: 1:34

“Goldie” isn’t easy to like. Not based on first impressions.

She’s brash, delusionally confident as she Instagram’s her latest update.

“I’m ’bout to BLOW UP! Goldie ready for TAKE OFF!”

As embodied by model/actress Slick Woods (“Love Advent”), Goldie is a teen tyro, all saffron buzzcut, tats and teeth — buck and gapped — big earrings, showing skin and blasting attitude.

A little talent show for the NYC shelter where she and her family live turns into a cheer-leading self-love/self-advertisement for “a music video, soon!”

“Chutzpah” isn’t just for the Jewish, because Goldie has a shtetl’s worth.

And when we see her dance in Sam de Jong’s character portrait, we shrug. Just turned 18, and there is nothing here that screams “STAR” or comes anywhere near the dream of “bout to BLOW UP.”

But as we follow her and see her story, we get an adult-sized dose of the desperation that makes her this way. Her mom (Marsha Stephanie Blake) did something to cost them their home. The lowlife (Danny Hoch) Mom is living with, in a SHELTER mind you, has no job save for selling drugs.

Goldie has two little sisters, Sherrie and Supreme (Alanna Renee Tyler-Tompkins and Jazmyn C Dorsey), that she dotes on and pulls into her dreams.

And she’s got a hook-up. Jay (Khris Davis) is going to get her into a music video for his friend, a rapper of some repute. All Goldie needs is that shot, and a bright yellow fur coat and ultra-revealing hot pants onesie she sees in store windows around the neighborhood.

When Mom gets arrested, the desperation spikes and Goldie drags us into the delusion — shoplifting, lying, bragging and hustling as she drags her siblings from friend to relative to friend “so Child Services doesn’t get them.”

Fired from the retail job she’s always late for?

“I’m not goin’ NOWHERE!”

Shunned by the shopkeeper who (wisely, it turns out) won’t let her try the coat of her dreams? Don’t MAKE her come back and bust a window to get it!

Woods rarely softens Goldie up for the viewer. But every now and then we see the bravado drop and her “hear” what the adults she consults and storms away from are telling her — “Child Services could help…What’s your PLAN?”

It’s all pinned to that video, “so me and my sisters can get out.”

The confrontations she storms out of, the risks she takes and the extremes she goes to make for an intimate tragedy. And Woods makes our heroine someone we warm to — if not right away — and more importantly, someone we won’t forget.

MPAA Rating: unrated, drug content, sex, theft, profanity

Cast: Slick Woods, George Sample III, Danny Hoch, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Alanna Renee Tyler-Tompkins and Jazmyn C Dorsey

Credits: Written and directed by Sam de Jong. A Film Movement release.

Running time: 1:28

Here it is, thanks to Sony Animation. Adorable.

Pitch a tent, put on a show.

Formal, but cabaret loosey goosie.

Drinks? A gay men’s chorus, love fests for nominees, surprises, without all the time limits and Gravitas.

Aubrey Plaza hosting and covering a Judy Garland hit?

There’s more wit and warmth in this opening than the Oscars have managed in decades.

Look at the last post of video with Laura Dern being celebrated in song and tell me you wouldn’t rather be in the tent!

A little Laura Dern love at the Indie Spirit Awards

“The Farewell” tookbest feature and best supporting actress.

“Uncut Gems” took best directors for the Safdie Brothers and best actor –Adam Sandler.

“Booksmart” won best first feature for Olivia Wilde.

Renee Z won best actress for “Judy.”

“The Lighthouse” won cinematography.

Noah Baumbach won best original screenplay for “Marriage Story.”

Willem Dafoe got best supporting actor for “The Lighthouse.”

“Parasite” won best international feature.

“Uncut Gems” took best editing.

“American Factory” won best doc.

I’m a sucker for a good Cold War thriller. A middling one? Yeah, I’ll sit through one of those, too.

“The Coldest Game” falls in the latter category, a fictional Cuban Missile Crisis/”Bobby Fischer vs. The World” mash-up that hurls many a spy movie cliche and every paranoid terror the American chess champ Fischer had about the Russians — from poison and hypnosis to neck-snapping murder — into the middle of real history’s closest call with World War III.

Bill Pullman plays an alcoholic mathematics professor, sometimes card-counter at poker and former chess champ kidnapped from boozy Brooklyn just as the Cuban Missile Crisis begins in 1962.

Joshua Mansky is a bit of a wreck, but an American champ has died, suddenly, and they need somebody to play the Soviet champ (Evgeniy Sidikhin) in a goodwill match in Warsaw. Because the world could use a little good will.

American agents (Lotte Verbeek, James Bloor, Corey Johnson) pour the guy into the basement of the American embassy in Warsaw and size him up.

“THIS is the guy you want to win the Cold War for us?”

But a medico on duty finds that just giving the alcoholic a drink makes him functional. He’s a damned genius, after all. He needs something to tune out distractions.

The whole ploy here is setting up a handover of information from a Russian/Soviet double agent, microfilm that will reveal their state of preparations in Cuba and their intentions.

So, no losing the match quickly. No wiping the floor with the Bolshevik bastard, either.

Mansky blacks out, is manipulated by hypnotist tricks from Russian plants in the audience and is overwhelmed — at least at first.

“What happened with the game?”

“You WON professor!”

But there’s a Polish Palace of Culture manager (Robert Wieckiewicz) who recognizes a fellow dipsomaniac in Mansky, and hides bottles all over the hotel, in addition to sneaking him out for a boozy night on the town.

Meanwhile, the murderous Soviets cheat and kill to win at any costs, meeting in Russian (Not subtitled, you will have to turn on closed captioning.), and taking their marching orders from General Krutov (Aleksey Serebryakov).

Again, turn on closed captioning if you’re not able to understand the Russian. Because in this Polish co-production, the Russian has the best lines. Krutov is a true believer, and his explanation of the difference between capitalism and communism could convert a lot of folks to Bernie Sanders voters.

“We believe in the value of a man, while they only care about his price.”

Serebryakov’s Gen. Krutov makes the best threats, too. “From this moment you can be afraid for the rest of your short life.”

The whole affair — again, fictional — is a jumble of U-2 flights and intrigues, “quiet” rooms (bugs are everywhere) and booze. Pullman keeps up with it all, but it lost me here and there, and long before its “Here is the message of our movie” epilogue, about new dangers brought to the world by Trump and Putin and the collapse of treaties.

But the Mid-Century Soviet fashion, furniture and design is properly gloomy and crumbling. The performances are solid even when the story is at its most convoluted.

And there are third act twists that atone for some of what’s lacking in the first two.

But let’s give the Russian the last word on this “draw” of a drama — “Defeat is not defeat if you share it with your enemy.”

MPAA Rating: TV-MA, bloody violence, alcohol abuse

Cast: Bill Pullman, Lotte Verbeek, Aleksey Serebryakov, James Bloor, Corey Johnson and Nicholas Farrell

Credits: Directed by Lukasz Kosmicki, script by Lukasz Kosmicki, Marcel Sawicki. A Netflix release.

Running time: 1:43