Capital Projections: ‘You’re No Good’ edition
Capital Projections is The DC Line’s selective and subjective guide to some of the most interesting arthouse and repertory screenings in the coming week.
LINDA RONSTADT: THE SOUND OF MY VOICE
A new documentary profile of singer Linda Ronstadt reveals a smart, psychologically astute mind behind the sweet voice and hit records. What directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman don’t explain is why her intelligence doesn’t always come through in her music.
Ronstadt was born in 1946 in Tucson, Arizona, to Gilbert and Mary Ronstadt. Her father, of German, English and Mexican descent, loved to sing for his children, preferring the canciones of his Latin heritage. By the time Linda was a teenager she performed in a folk trio, and in 1966 she scored her first major hit — “Different Drum.” Ronstadt launched her solo career not long after, her voice settling into a comfort zone of folk and country music before breaking out with pop hits like the 1974 chart-topper “You’re No Good.”
Ronstadt has not always been confident about her talents, yet she has long been outspoken on other matters. The film naturally covers her romantic involvement with California Gov. Jerry Brown, whom she met in 1971 and dated for more than a decade. In one candid interview from the 1970s, she discusses the sexism of rock ’n’ roll and the decadent lifestyle that accompanies it, explaining that it not only hurts women but harms the men and their art. But as hungry as Rondstadt was to perform all kinds of music — from R&B hits like “Rescue Me” and “Ooo Baby Baby” to Elvis Costello’s early ballad “Alison” to classics from the Great American Songbook on her album What’s New — she wasn’t always the most reliable interpreter. On career highs like the 1974 album Heart Like a Wheel, every song choice seems personal and every performance felt. But when she took to singing standards, her lush pipes, even buttressed by legendary arranger Nelson Riddle, failed to convey the complex emotions of material like “Lush Life” (which admittedly flummoxed even Frank Sinatra). One wonders why the thoughtfulness she demonstrates in interviews hasn’t consistently translated to her art.
Ronstadt, now 73, retired from performing in 2011 and has since announced that Parkinson’s disease has left her unable to control her voice. The Sound of My Voice is a pleasing dive into a storied life and career; its subject seems willing to analyze herself, but the filmmakers give her mere lip service.
Watch the trailer.
Opens Friday, Sept. 13, at Landmark E Street Cinema. $12.50.
THIS IS NOT BERLIN
While the new Linda Ronstadt documentary explores how an artist found her musical identity in 1960s Los Angeles, writer-director Hari Sama dramatizes his own artistic development in this superficially wild but ultimately predictable coming-of-age film. Set in 1986, the film tells the story of 17-year-old Carlos (Xabiani Ponce de León), a restless Mexico City teen whose father would like to see him become an engineer. Carlos knows his way around a soldering iron, and his ability to fix broken keyboards gives him an in with the regulars at an underground bar where he and his best friend Gera (José Antonio Toledano) become immersed in a thriving experimental music scene.
Inspired by his own youth and perhaps his own experiences as the member of an experimental rock group, Sama tells a personal tale, and his young charges effectively navigate the excitement and danger of growing up in a volatile era. Yet certain elements seem impersonal or, even worse, ridiculous. When Carlos begins to explore a growing performance art scene in Mexico City, in which artists upended traditional mores via nude street theater, you kind of just want to give everybody a bath. Sama himself appears to be conflicted about the experience; while the provocative demimonde that Carlos and Gera explore holds a forbidden appeal, it’s their families who inevitably come through for them. One wonders if the movie would be more convincing with a steadier hand behind the camera; unfortunately, cinematographer Alfredo Altamirano favors a shaky handheld approach that may seem gritty but distracts from the cast’s steady, reliable acting. Maybe that’s a metaphor for the film, whose superficial shock value masks the real pain of finding your voice.
Watch the trailer.
Opens Friday, Sept. 13, at Landmark E Street Cinema. $12.50
AN UNEXPECTED LOVE
The American Film Institute’s 30th annual Latin American Film Festival starts this weekend, and while the broad slate of 53 features from more than 20 countries covers a lot of challenging ground, it opens with this crowd-pleasing 2018 rom-com from Argentina. The leading man, however, is so winning that you may well forgive the well-worn formula. Ricardo Darin — who may be Buenos Aires’ answer to George Clooney — stars as Marcos, who decides to separate from Ana (Mercedes Morán), his wife of 25 years, after they send their grown son off to college. Navigating the strange new world of 21st-century singles, Marcos and Ana see other people — but, as the title may suggest, has love been right in front of them all along?
You’ve seen (or avoided) dozens of movies like this, but director Juan Vera, who co-wrote the script with Daniel Cúparo, treats the material with more intelligence than you’ll see in the average Hollywood middle-age crisis. I mean, when was the last rom-com you saw that opened with a passage from Moby Dick? Even though An Unexpected Love isn’t exactly Ingmar Bergmann, its psychological examination of relationships is far more pointed than the usual fare, and Darin, a reliable presence in movies such as Wild Tales and Everybody Knows, handles every emotional beat with an effortless conviction. Read about more Latin American Film Festival titles in my Washington City Paper preview.
Watch the trailer.
Thursday, Sept. 12, at 7:15 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 15, at 12:30 p.m. at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center. $15.
THE NET
The development of the internet has inevitably led to a more closely connected world — but, with the rise of social media, is that a good thing? This 2003 documentary from German artist Lutz Dammbeck (who will appear at the upcoming National Gallery of Art screening) looks at the origins of the net, beginning with the team who developed this technology in the 1960s, including Marshall McLuhan, Timothy Leary, Stewart Brand, Ken Kesey and Nam June Paik. Dammbeck further examines the net through the cautionary example of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski (pictured above), who famously opposed the technology. Critic John Seven writes: “By the end, we may not totally understand why the Unabomber came to be, but we do know that we are part of the same matrix as he is and six degrees of separation from Ted Kaczynski seems a likely reality for any of us.”
Sunday, Sept. 15, at 4 p.m. at the National Gallery of Art in the East Building Auditorium. Free.
DOWNSTAIRS
When silent star John Gilbert (The Big Parade) made the transition to talkies, he developed a reputation for having a squeaky voice that was at odds with his persona as a great screen lover. But as his performance in the Greta Garbo feature Queen Cristina demonstrates, there wasn’t actually anything wrong with his voice. This 1932 drama, based on a play that Gilbert had tried to bring to Hollywood for years, gave the actor a chance to play against his usual romantic type, here taking on the villainous role of a chauffeur who tries to scam both his employer and his fellow servants. Unfortunately, this well-regarded film failed to revive Gilbert’s flagging career, and he made only a few more pictures before he died in 1936 of a heart attack at the age of 38. The Library of Congress (disclosure: I work there, but this isn’t my program) will be screening a 35-mm print of this rarely revived title. The feature will be preceded by a 1932 Laurel and Hardy short, Towed in a Hole.
Watch a clip.
Thursday, Sept. 19, at 7 p.m. at the Mary Pickford Theatre on the third floor of the Madison Building at the Library of Congress. Free. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
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