Rent anything from indie flicks to perfectly-timed documentaries
MISS JUNETEENTH
Watch on Vimeo, supporting Austin Film Society
Juneteenth might be over, but the chance to support independent filmmaking that explores the experience of black women Deep in the Heart is at hand. This feature debut by Channing Godfrey Peoples mines the mother-daughter relationship for all its worth. Life is hard enough for Turquoise Jones, but she wants for her daughter what she once had: the Crown. It’s a fraught proposition, made no easier by the men in their lives, but it’s full of vigor and fight and all the things that make life worth living. This is small cinema with a big heart.
TOMMASO
Watch on Kino Marquee, supporting Austin Film Society
Ostensibly the story of director Abel Ferrara life in Rome, Tommaso depicts an American in Italy doing his best to learn the language, do his art, and raise a family, all the while working on his recovery from alcoholism. Willem Dafoe is on quite a run and continues it here in the titular role, alongside his young wife Nikki (Cristina Chiriac) and a small daughter that keeps things very real. The meetings are some of the best depictions of AA I’ve ever seen on film. A very European movie with the verve of a big city and a little fantastical ideation to boot.
DIANA KENNEDY: NOTHING FANCY
Watch on Vimeo, supporting Austin Film Society
A cantankerous, old British woman would be the last person you’d expect to be the world’s foremost authority on Mexican cuisine, but there she is, and she’s happy to tell you where to shove it. Elizabeth Carroll has captured the essence of Diana Kennedy in all of her glory. The charge of cultural appropriation is taken head on, and the audience can decide how that falls. What’s indisputable is Kennedy’s love for Mexico, Mexicans, and all things culinary south of our border. Don’t watch hungry!
YOURSELF & YOURS
Watch on Cinema Guild, supporting Austin Film Society
This is the type of film I’d expect to see set in Manhattan. Maybe Brooklyn. Maybe the LES. But here it’s Seoul, with a small cast of characters churning in and out of each others’ lives. Hong Sangsoo has crafted a comedy that ellicits small, knowing laughs, which characters that are full of pathos and often unbelievable. Literally. The story revolves around Minjung (Lee Yooyoung) who everyone–audience included–has a hell of a time getting ahold of. She’s slippery and desirable and impossible to pin down. This is an urban dramedy worth a watch.
CAPITAL IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
You really should read Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty. But if 800+ pages seems a but much, even to understand something as important and large-looming as global inequality, at least watch the eponymous documentary, 103 minutes of tough truths about the current state of the world. Using interviews with various experts, including Piketty himself, as well as appealing visuals, this film paints a grip picture of a world tearing itself apart as the rich get richer. Come on get happy!