You can do what you want.

This week I am recommending the new film from Julia Hart, a stoner comedy starring Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat, the 35th anniversary 4K restoration of Kathryn Bigelow’s surf crime classic, a Beth B retrospective here in Chicago, and an experimental Palestinian film about cultural erasure.

On August 20th, THE Angelica Jade Bastién will be joining me for a talkback after the final screening of Olivia Wilde’s THE INVITE!

In Julia Hart’s latest charmer Don’t Say Good Luck, Sunny Sandler stars as Sophie Birenbaum, a theatre kid whose life is changed completely when she gets cast in the lead of her high school’s production of Waitress: The Musical at the same time that her mother (Melanie Lynskey)’s terminal illness returns. Like Hart’s previous forays into teen films, her this film manages to hold equal space for all of Sophie’s big emotions, whether they are about her mother, the pressure of unexpectedly playing the lead, or even just drama with boys. For my column this month I spoke to Hart about her work in the teen film genre. Here’s a bit from our discussion:

Can you talk about bringing teen film tropes into modern times?

I was a high school teacher for five years, and I absolutely loved it. I loved the relationships that I developed with my students. I was pretty young at the time. I was 25 when I was teaching 17- and 18-year-olds, and of course they were looking to me for the answers, yet I was still figuring it out. It was an incredibly important and special time in my development and my growing up. I felt like they were teaching me as much as I was teaching them. I also choreographed the high school musical when I was teaching English.

So while working on this film, I actually went back to the school where I taught before we started shooting, and I sat in on the after-school rehearsals for their musical. It was really special to be back there.

For me, creating stories and telling stories that contain characters who, as you said, exist in the common tropes and plots that we expect from movies about teenagers, but showing them that there are different ways to handle things or different outcomes. Part of it is inspired by the relationships I had with teenagers in my first career, but also by wanting to show aspirational ways to show up for themselves and each other.

You can watch the film now on Netflix.

I wasn’t able to screen Dylan Meyer’s directorial, the stoner comedy The Wrong Girls, before I headed out to Locarno, but I can’t wait to check it out when I get back! Here’s the official synopsis:

Two codependent best friends living paycheck to paycheck and bong rip to bong rip get caught in a case of mistaken identity that throws their lives into chaos.

Short, sweet, to the point. The titular wrong girls are played by Meyer’s wife and creative partner Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat, while the rest of the supporting cast includes LaKeith Stanfield, Tony Hale, Geena Davis, Kate McKinnon, and Cate Blanchett. Inspired by her friendship with her best friend Maggie McLean, who serves as a producer on the film, Meyer has been delvoping the story for the past fourteen years. There’s also, I glean from the press notes, several cats in this movie (voiced by Seth Rogen and Kumail Nanjiani). Here’s what Meyer has to say about cats:

I actually think cats are the opposite of wrong girls because they are land-on-their-feet guys. They’re unbelievably, immaculately clean for the most part. They’re just superior. When I was looking at foils for Frankie and Molly, the idea of judgment coming from inside their own house felt important. Cats are like family members—they live with you, they’re with you every day, and if they could speak, they’d provide insight and commentary on all kinds of private moments and personal decisions in a way no one else could. They’re really inside the circus with you.

Truly, I cannot wait to catch up with this film! It’s opening in select cinemas this week. Find tickets and playdates here.

Well, I was going to link out to podcast from 2015 where I spoke at length about Kathryn Bigelow’s neo noir surf crime epic Point Break, but alas that podcast seems have gone the way of the dodo. Instead, I’ll just remind y’all that this film rips, and share a little writing from the great Angelica Jade Bastién, from her essential essay “The Grace of Keanu Reeves”:

The first time we see Keanu as FBI Agent Johnny Utah in the beloved surfer-crime drama Point Break (1991), he sits on the hood of a car seemingly unperturbed by the rain pouring down on him. It takes a moment to recognize the shotgun that sits in his lap. His hair slick. His tight black shirt and jeans clinging to his impressive body. The camera holds close to his lips as he unfurls a piece of gum and puts it into his mouth, and then we see a sequence of him blasting through a gun course at Quantico. This introduction gives rise to the kind of action star Keanu grows into, much different than his 1980s predecessors who tended to be powered by an unerring confidence and machismo. Their emotional landscapes weren’t as developed as their biceps. The opening of Point Break illustrates how Keanu’s relationship with the camera informs his onscreen masculinity. He carries himself with a supple vulnerability, at times even a passivity, that seems at odds with the expectations for an action star.

Restored in 4K for its 35th anniversary, you can see the film in theaters via Fathom Events August 16th and August 19th. Find participating theaters and get tickets here.

Lastly, I so wish I could attend Revisiting Desire: A Beth B Retrospective at FACETS this weekend, which will include a pre-recorded Q&A between the filmmaker and Dr. Kirin Wachter-Grene of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The films screening in the retrospective include The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight (1983), Black Box (1978), Amnesia (1992), Vortex (1981), Letters To Dad (1979), Out of Sight, Out of Mind (1995), Thanatopsis (1991), High Heel Nights (1995), Belladonna (1989), and Visiting Desire (1996). You can get tickets for the screening here.

This week’s pick from the Palestine Film Index is Razan Alsalah’s experimental short film Canada Park. Described as a “video poem,” Alsalah once again utilizes Google Streetview as a way to explore the disappearing nature of Palestine as a recognized state. Mixing this tech with early 20th century colonial landscape photography of the Holy Land, animation, and text narration, Alsalah shines a light on the story of how the Palestinian village of Imwas was confused with a biblical village named Emmaus. Eventually, Imwas is erased from history and this so-called Emmaus becomes a religious tourist site. You can watch the film now on DAFilms.

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