Movie Nation

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The film was supposed to premiere at SXSW. Now, you can see it at home instead and help out local businesses as well.

OK, there’s a chuckle or two in this trailer for the Quibi Original “Dummy.”

Love that Anna. But hey…

Now that the Academy has seen to it that Julianne Moore and Viola Davis have Oscars, perhaps they can turn their attention to a new “best actress to never win an Oscar.”

That would be Maggie Gyllenhaal, the always provocative, endlessly inventive, empathetic even at her edgiest Queen of Memorable Performances. It would be nice if the star of “Secretary,” “Sherrybaby,” “Away We Go”and  “Crazy Heart,” America’s answer to Helen Mirren in the fearless-fierce-sexy lead or character lead, won that recognition before she’s Mirren’s age.

We can’t call “The Kindergarten Teacher” her masterpiece, because she’s dazzling, even in pedestrian films. But this nuanced Netflix Original should have led to an Oscar nomination, at the very least.

In this remake of an Israeli film, Gyllenhaal has the title role, that of an artistically-minded woman, a devoted kindergarten teacher of 20 years whose after hours passion is poetry. But she’s just good enough, with effort, to recognize genius when she hears it.

And she hears it out of a five year old boy in her class.

Lisa Spinelli lives on Staten Island, relatively content with her still-attentive husband (Michael Chernus) and two teenage kids. But she’s been going to a night school poetry class taught the ever-enthusiastic Simon (Gael Garcia Bernal).

But the first poem that has him enthusiastic about her work is one she overheard tumbling out of the tiny tyke Jimmy (Parker Sevak) in her kindergarten class.

Jimmy paces, stares at the floor, and the words pound out with every footstep — rhythmic, allegorical, cryptic. Gyllenhaal lets us see the full flood of emotions in Lisa’s reaction — wonder and awe, envy and resignation.

“The Kindergarten Teacher” makes it her mission to get down Jimmy’s words, to enlist his young and distracted nanny into doing the same. She’s committed her favorite poems (Robert Frost’s “Lodged”), so she knows talent when she hears it. She tries to reach the boy’s bar-owner father, to get across to him “how rare this gift is.

She devotes down moments in class — naptime and playground time — to Jimmy, prodding him to do it again.

And she starts passing off Jimmy’s work as her own to her once-dismissive night school teacher and classmates.

The genius of this script is where it takes us from there, into places too predictable and occasionally, disturbing. Gyllenhaal’s “dangerous” vibe — a career-long attribute — make us fear for the child and fear for her as this obsession, her mania for nurturing Jimmy’s talent, takes over.

It spills over into her home life, the disappointments her promising kids are turning into.

We can see where this is going, but so can Lisa. It’s fated, operatic. All she can hope to do is get someone — the world — to focus on this ephemeral miracle she’s stumbled upon in the brief time she is sure it will last.

“The Kindergarten Teacher” is a great performance, the latest from an actress with a reputation for giving them. Watch it on Netflix and see what the Academy missed.

MPAA Rating: R for some language and nudity

Cast: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gael Garcia Bernal, Parker Sevak

Credits: Directed by Sara Colangelo, script by Sara Colangelo, based on the Nadav Lapid script to the Israeli film of the same title.  A Netflix release.

Running time: 1:37

There’s an added poignancy, the wince of too-familiar recognition in seeing “I, Daniel Blake” in the midst of a pandemic-caused global depression.

This Palme d’Or winner from Cannes a couple of years back is a sort of ultimate UK “kitchen sink” melodrama. A working man with 40 years experience in construction and woodworking, sidelined by a heart attack, trapped in a hostile Catch-22 of conservative social safety net destruction.

Dave Johns buries himself in the title role, all thick Newcastle-on-Tyne working class accent, a bluff “Don’t cry for me” widower who is told by one doctor he can’t go back to work, and is undercut by another faceless medical bureaucrat that he must go back.

But to where? Pushing 60, listening to one doctor’s advice, unable to draw disability because of another, unable to draw unemployment unless he’s computer savvy enough to fill out all the forms and meticulous enough to document and “prove” every application for work, Daniel is Exhibit A in what’s been done to “the welfare state.”

He’s stuck grousing with short-tempered guards at social services, the “good cop” counselor Ann (Kate Rutter) and the “bad cop” Sheila (Sharon Percy).

And that’s after he’s gone through the on-hold hell of trying to get a bloody appointment.

Circular logic attacks him at every turn — humiliating interrogations covering the same facts that he’s filled out on forms.

“It’s me f—–g heart!”

Every manner of “I can’t help you unless you fill this out online…”

“Give me a plot’a land and I can build you a HOUSE,” he gripes. Computers? “I’m dyslexic, where they’re concerned.”

He has too much time on his hands, yelling at neighbors who don’t clean up after their dogs, good-naturedly ribbing the knock-off sneakers-dealing neighbor (Kema Sikazwe) who has packages left at Daniel’s door and not his own.

Daniel collects scraps from his old workplace to carve into decor or saw into shelving. But his real purpose doesn’t arrive until he sees the even greater outrage heaped on poor Katie (BAFTA nominee Hayley Squires), a single mom new to town and getting the “I’m sorry” runaround from the same functionaries who are driving Daniel mad.

He makes himself useful, fixing up her apartment, watching her kids as she struggles to find work.

Ken Loach has made a career out of these working class/underclass stories, films from “Kes” and “Bread and Roses” to the recent “Sorry We Missed You.” Films on leftist themes such as Republicans fight in the Spanish Civil War, Irish struggling against British occupation and the like pepper his resume as well.

“Daniel Blake” is simple right to the edge of simplistic, but never crossing that line, focusing on the man struggling to his feet against a faceless system.

We only see the functionaries Daniel must contend with, dogmatic “Just doing my job” types. He never gets his day with the doctor and bureaucrats who gummed up his legitimate disability claim. He never gets past the cubicle clones.

It’s a touching story, and a deflating one. And Johns (“Fishermen’s Friends”) makes Daniel Blake Everyman and Everywoman, stoic and hard-working, overwhelmed by a system that’s been rigged to prevent claims, to make the “safety net” not all that safe at all.

MPAA Rating: R for language

Cast:Dave Johns, Hayley Squires, Kate Rutter, Sharon Percy and Kema Sikazwe

Credits: Directed by Ken Loach and Laura Obiols, script by Paul Laverty. A Sundance Selects release on Netflix, Amazon etc.

Running time: 1:40

“FX” and “First Blood,” “Cocoon” and “Silverado.” Loved that guy.

A great gruff villain, a grand grandfatherly sort, hale fellows well met and working men, Brian Dennehy played Clarence Darrow and Bobby Knight, acted in Chekhov and for Terrence Malick.

A Tony winnig tyro of the stage, a Golden Globe winner, an actor’s actor.

I chatted him up a few times over the years and he always came off as the real article. He always ended the chats with “When’re we gonna go get that beer?” What a sweetheart.

What a character. Rest in peace, big guy.

The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) Tweeted: “Larger than life, generous to a fault, a proud and devoted father and grandfather, he will be missed,”: #BrianDennehy ‘s oldest daughter, actress Elizabeth Dennehy, wrote in a heartfelt Twitter post https://t.co/oGk3EcQli7 https://twitter.com/THR/status/1250871159203258370?s=20

I’d lost track of those filmmaking Carolina siblings, Josh and Jonas Pate, since they transitioned from movies (“Deceiver”) to TV (“Surface”).

Born in N.C., they’ve made Charleston, S.C. and environs their stomping grounds. So they may title their latest venture “Outer Banks” and set it on the barrier islands of North Carolina, but nobody should be surprised that they shot this 10 episode series in and around Charleston and the South Carolina Low Country. The landscape is similar enough — beaches backing on marshes and estuaries (SC), islands backing up to shallow water sounds (NC) as to not be worth quibbling over.

But the series? Well, let’s quibble. It’s “Bloodline” with its training wheels on, “Scooby Doo” with swearing, “Siesta Key” with a plot.

It’s a tale of a shipwrecked treasure, a “lost at sea” father, mansion-living rich kids (“kooks”) vs. working class/working poor (“pogues”) fishing shack dwellers and “marina rats.”

The drug smuggling trade made infamous in Florida — “square groupers” (named for bales of pot dumped overboard by smugglers) — figure into this, as do corruption, surfing, a concerned sheriff and “It’s my DAD’s handwriting” clues sending our intrepid quartet and their Mystery Machine (OK, it’s a ’60s VW Microbus.) out, one step ahead of guys with guns and bad intent.

The whole affair is kind of laughable, but the milieu — coastal country in the aftermath of a hurricane — and cliffhangers may pull in the youth vote. It has potboiler/”page-turner” qualities, and an absurdly attractive cast to build and audience with.

John B.  (Chase Stokes) is our orphaned hero and incessant narrator (BAD Filmmaking 101), our tour guide and storyteller, the kid who lives in Dad’s old fishing shack,  joyriding in Dad’s old fishing skiff, working on the docks for a rich boat owner and [pining for the guy’s almost-attainable “queen of the kooks” blonde daughter (Madelyn Cline).

Which is a pity, because the fair Kiara (Madison Bailey), daughter of the owners of a popular local restaurant, is one of his crew and cute, too.

Then there’s hothead JJ (Rudy Pankow) and “the brains” of the outfit — college bound Pope (Jonathan Daviss).

A carefree “We do what we want, when we want” lifestyle is barely established when Hurricane Agnes blows through (surfing during a hurricane, totally a thing). And in the detritus left in the storm’s wake, they stumble across a wrecked fishing boat with cash and clues on board.

Cops, including the sheriff (Adina Porter) are suspicious. Tough out of towners are, too.

And we’re off on an adventure that anyone who’s ever seen any “found money/treasure/treasure map” story will be two episodes ahead of, start to finish.

Setting is almost everything on “Outer Banks,” as it figures into the lifestyle, the architecture and the value systems we sample. The sunken boat they found was a Grady White — the Caddy of inland and coastal fishing boats. How did the poor, drowned local they knew have the cash for that?

“Salt life” is everything — fishing, diving, surfing.

The local lighthouse has been turned into a museum and is thus a resource on all manner of wrecks and local sea lore — a common occurrence all along the coast of the Southeastern U.S., from Maryland to Texas.

And the aftermath of that hurricane is impressively rendered — boats hither and yon, some sunk, some washed inland. Buoys washed ashore, wreckage everywhere making this the perfect time for a bonfire/kegger of the storm-littered beach.

The story, on the other hand, is on the very cusp of “childish.” That lowers the stakes, lessens the drama, removes the surprises and narrows the demographic appeal of “Outer Banks.”

Leave this one to the kids.

MPAA Rating: TV-MA, violence, drug content, teen drinking, profanity

Cast: Chase Stokes, Madison Bailey, Jonathan Daviss, Rudy Panko, Adina Porter and Austin North.

Credits: Created by Jonas and Josh Pate, and Shannon Burke. A Netflix Original.

Running time: 10 episodes, @50 minutes each

“A Champion Heart” is a bland, harmless little nothing of a “girl and her horse” tale, predictable family-friendly comfort food with little that’ll impress or surprise anybody over the age of eight.

Mandy Grace plays Mandy, a teen who’s moved to Sunset Valley after losing her mother. Her Dad (director David de Vos) was laid off after that, so it’s time for a fresh start in a tony locale — horse country. Yeah, they live in a trailer, but the school’s full of rich kids.

And they seem friendly. Mandy’s invited into a study group with pretty rich girl Zoey (Isabella Mancuso). A little group four-wheeling at the rich girl’s house leads to some spirited competition, and that’s how Mandy crashes into a fence and shed at a local farm.

Winds of Grace is an “equine sanctuary,” where people leave horses they can’t keep or don’t want any more (#whitepeopleproblems), a non-profit.  Temperamental, dodge-blame Mandy has enough character not to run out on her responsibility for this.

So the owner (Donna Rusch) and her dad come to a — say it with me — “She’ll work if off” solution. None of this “I’m not giving up my Saturdays to pick up horse poop!” That’s exactly what she’s doing.

That’s how she comes to bond with the “impossible” pinto she names “Tuxedo.” That’s how she gets into show-jumping with “Tux.” That’s how she gets to hang out with the mysteriously desirable (to her high school classmates) beanpole Bradley (Devan Key).

The cast ranges from competent on down the scale, with the director/actor being the weakest link. At least Mancuso manages the “mean girl” basics as Zoey — sexy sneer, evil glint in her eye. And the horse — whom they keep calling “he” and “him” when she PLAINLY is not — has lots of personality.

The script works in “faith” messaging, as Mandy learns how you don’t give up on someone, or some horse, and how if your “faith is stronger than your fear,” you have succeed at show jumping.

The jokes are of the bad pun variety — “What do horses eat on their pancakes? Maple stirrups!”

“Bland” isn’t the worst thing your family-friendly movie can be. “Predictable” can be comforting.

“A Champion Heart” may not be a blue, red or whatever ribbon-winner. But it is a perfectly safe Netflix title to park small children in front of when they’ve gotten on your last nerve.

MPAA Rating: G, general audiences

Cast: Mandy Grace, Devan Key, Donna Rusch, David de Vos and Isabella Mancuso

Credits: Directed by David de Vos, script by David de Vos, Stephanie de Vos  A DeVos/Devotion/Netflix release.

Running time: 1:28

Here’s a French road dramedy that points us in one direction, turns in another and finds a little heart and charm, almost in spite of itself, along the way.

“Ulysses & Mona” is about a pretty art student, Mona (Manal Issa) who is “tired of naked men (artist models), bowls of fruit and Byzantine mosaics.” She wants inspiration, mentoring.

The celebrated artist Ulysses might fill that bill. He retired from painting some years back, but he’s put some symbolic conceptual pieces (him, in an African mask, posing in a plastic bubble) up on the Internet.

Let’s see if he’ll be my mentor!

She tracks Ulysses (Eric Cantona) down at a remote estate, living alone with his dog, playing tennis against himself, pestered by an inquisitive neighbor boy (Mathis Romani). What Mona doesn’t know is that Ulysses has lost his wife, disconnected from his family and shut off the world.

“I admire your work” isn’t going to change that.

Mona is not used to being put off (see “pretty art student” reference above). She dons her cutest tennis skirt and shows up with a racket. No match today. She finds him bloodied, lying on the court, knocked out by his tennis ball machine.

Rushing him to the hospital changes everything. That’s where he gets the x-ray that tells him he has a brain tumor. That’s where he decides he has use of “an assistant.” That’s when he talks her into joining him on the road, helping with the driving, documenting what she sees.

Mona’s art takes a back seat in the old Volvo they travel in as Ulysses visits and connects with those he’s estranged from. She picks up on how this is a “farewell” trip, and takes on a new role — calming troubled waters, prodding those he’s hurt into giving him a last chance. She helps the grumpy artist soften, just a smidge.

It’s only occasionally cute and rarely unpredictable. And despite the film’s scenic format and brevity, none of it feels of much consequence. Losing the “art” thread was a poor choice on er-director Sébastien Betbeder’s part.

But a few standout moments stick with you and the afterglow is warm. You won’t mind spending time with “Ulysses & Mona,” even cooped up in a car.

MPAA Rating: unrated

Cast: Manal Issa, Eric Cantona, Mathis Romani

Credits: Written and directed by Sébastien Betbeder. A Film Movement Plus release.

Running time: 1:22

May, direct to streaming
Looks better than one might have hoped, but almost certainly not commercial. VOD is not a bad move, all things considered. Sitting on it was not the smart play

Timothee Chalamet, in full desert-gear as described by sci-fi pilferer of Bedouin culture Frank Herbert.

He looks a LOT like young Kyle MacLachlan. Which fits.

Oscar Isaac, as many have suggested, could be in different and a full beard in a new “Star Wars” outfit. He’s got the Jürgen Prochnow role, that of Daddy Atreides,in this latest version of a book first filmed in 1984,with visionary David Lynch behind the camera.

The one overriding gripe many of us had, watching that original film lo those decades ago, was that Lynch & Co. realized they’d barely gotten into the book and thus had to cram everything that happens in most of it into a truncated 30 minute blur to finish the job.

It was still two hours and 17 minutes long, and felt like they’d skipped over half of it.

We knew somebody would come along and try to better “Dune.” Like Ralph Bakshi’s abortive “Lord of the Rings,” fans recognized this as maybe more of a mini series than a single movie.

But the SyFy Channel didn’t have the oomph to do it justice in three installments in 2000.  William Hurt played the Duke/Dad in that one, Alec Newman was son Paul.

We later learned how close Alejandro Jodorosky came to getting a version off the ground a decade earlier, pre “Star Wars,” when the sci-fi stakes were lower and artier.

Denis Villeneuve (“Arrival,” “Blade Runner 2049”) brings the “visionary” back to the project. But all those stills floating around the Internet — released to this outlet and that one — don’t make the case that we’re going to see anything new.

Herbert’s desert culture/blood feuds and “jihad” and worms and “Spice” book came out before the West had paid much attention to the Islamic world, desert culture and tribal mores. It read as kind of “old hat” by the time I got around to it in the ’80s (Herbert was coming to a sci-fi writer’s conference at my college).

This December, we’ll find out if there’s anything new under the “Dune.”