Capital Projections: Death row edition
This week’s new films include two dramas set on death row. If that seems like an unusual coincidence, there’s a common theme of justice and forgiveness that runs through even more of this week’s offerings, including the biopic of a German POW-turned-British soccer goalie and a lighthearted tale of a socialite suspected of murder.
Capital Projections is The DC Line’s selective and subjective guide to notable movie screenings in the coming week.
JUST MERCY
In a world that seems unfair, audiences often find solace in movies that depict justice served, whether it’s meted out by a figure wearing a superhero costume or one in a suit and tie. In his latest film, director Destin Daniel Cretton (The Glass Castle) tells the true story of a man sentenced to death for a crime he didn’t commit and the lawyer who got that conviction overturned. The cynical moviegoer might dismiss this crowd-pleasing drama as awards-season bait, but even if the inevitable resolution seems by-the-numbers, at least one of its stars is worthy of an Oscar nom.
Based on a 2014 memoir by Bryan Stevenson, the film focuses on Walter McMillan (Jamie Foxx), who’s on death row after being convicted of murdering a young woman in Monroeville, Alabama. This happens to be the hometown of To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee. While residents like new District Attorney Tommy Chapman (Rafe Spall) are proud of their connection to a literary classic about racism in the Deep South, the biases that Lee wrote about in 1960 are still evident in the ’80s, when young lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) comes to town. The Harvard Law School graduate turned down more lucrative offers in order to represent clients unlikely to get a fair shake, and when he digs into McMillan’s case, he learns that the conviction was based entirely on the testimony of Ralph Myers (Tim Blake Nelson), who lied under oath.
Reduced to its plot summary, Just Mercy sounds like a typical courtroom drama, and even though the screenplay by Cretton and Andrew Lanham is based on real events, it’s easy to see an inevitable, predictable structure at work. Yet Cretton, whose 2013 breakout Short Term 12
was a moving study of troubled teens, does a good job of building up the rural Alabama setting. As Stevenson drives through impoverished neighborhoods, it’s clear that the Delaware native feels like a fish out of water. He also encounters resistance from white law enforcement, but he does win over the area’s African American residents once they realize he’s on their side.
Just Mercy features a terrific cast. Jordan is strong as Stevenson — even though his character seems underdrawn, rendering him little more than a hard-working saint. Nelson stands out in a more complicated role as a nervous felon who doesn’t feel right about his testimony sending an innocent man to the electric chair. But the movie is primarily a showcase for Foxx, whose subtle facial expressions convey McMillan’s stoicism as well as his conflicted emotions — from fury to hope. Since the film was officially released at the end of 2019, one hopes Foxx will be in the running for this year’s Oscars.
Watch the trailer.
Opens Friday, Jan. 10, at area theaters.
CLEMENCY
This well-meaning if heavy-handed drama from writer-director Chinonye Chukwu looks at capital punishment from a less familiar perspective: the executioner’s. Alfre Woodard stars as Warden Bernadine Williams, who as the film opens is watching over an execution by lethal injection. The procedure goes terribly wrong, which puts the institution under increased scrutiny. Meanwhile, awaiting his fate is another high-profile inmate: Anthony Woods (Aldis Hodge), who maintains his innocence.
Chukwu does her best to make Bernadine a well-rounded character: We see the warden socializing with colleagues at a neighborhood bar, and even watch as she tries to share an intimate moment with her husband, Jonathan (Wendell Pierce). But while Just Mercy by and large transcends its cookie-cutter template, Clemency seems a more obvious prison drama as it checks items off a list. From the grieving mother of the prisoner whose execution was botched, to the protesters gathering outside the prison, to the marital tensions caused by the pressure placed on Bernadine, too many scenes seem unconvincing. That’s no fault of Woodard, whose steely, unbending demeanor at the start grows softer as the film reaches its powerful conclusion. But the other characters rarely seem to come alive as Clemency uses its fictionalized scenario to question the death penalty.
Watch the trailer.
Opens Friday, Jan. 10, at Landmark E Street Cinema and AMC Shirlington. $12.50.
THE KEEPER
The press notes for this 2018 biopic emphasize that it’s a historical love story between unlikely bedfellows. Yet the central theme of forgiveness is more layered and contentious than that pat summary, and the sentiment seems all but impossible in today’s divided climate. David Kross (The Reader) stars as Bert Trautmann, a German POW held in a British camp after the end of World War II.
Bert is portrayed as a reluctant Nazi, bearing witness to atrocities that he could have stopped but didn’t. He seems to come across differently to everyone he meets. Camp Sgt. Smythe (Harry Melling) doesn’t care if Bert has a conscience; to him he’s just another kraut. On the other hand, when Jack (John Hanshaw) watches the prisoner play goalie in an impromptu soccer game, he wonders if Bert might be able to help the struggling local team he’s coaching. While Bert may indeed be of some use as an athlete, there’s yet another wrinkle: Jack’s daughter Margaret (Freya Mavor) has, after some reluctance, taken a shine to Bert.
The aftermath of the Holocaust may not be the most appropriate setting for a sports narrative — detractors might call this Bend it Like Boorman. But Trautmann, as portrayed here, seems like he was a decent guy, and the characters who come across as the real villains are not Nazis but the British subjects who refuse to treat the goalkeeper as a contrite individual. It’s a particularly surprising turnaround, especially since distributor Menemsha Films typically offers Jewish-themed arthouse titles. The Keeper hews to a familiar sports movie template, but its real triumph isn’t that of the underdog. The victor here is an element of our better human nature: the ability to see the best in others, even if you believe they’ve done you wrong.
Watch the trailer.
Opens Friday, Jan. 10, for a one-week run at Edlavitch Jewish Community Center of Washington, DC, 1529 16th St. NW. $9 to $13.
THE REPORT
Leather sportcoats, porn-star moustaches, wood paneling — it sounds like a picture of the 1970s in America. But this rarely screened 1977 drama, an early feature by director Abbas Kiarostami, instead offers a fascinating look at life in Iran before the 1979 revolution. The movie stars Kurosh Afsharpanah as a Tehran tax collector who’s accused of taking bribes. That’s not the only thing weighing on him — his neglected wife attempts suicide. The Report features melodramatic elements that have more in common with the work of fellow Iranian director Asghar Farhadi (The Separation) than with Kiarostami’s more experimental approach. Yet the film still features the attention to “dead space” — quiet scenes in which nothing in particular is happening — that are typical of Kiarostami’s later dramas. The National Gallery of Art is screening this title as part of its survey of Kiarostami’s early films. The gallery will also present a program (Jan. 11 at 4:30 p.m.) of the director’s early short films, including the rare 1980 title Toothache — and, yes, it’s about dental hygiene.
The Report screens Saturday, Jan. 11, at 2 p.m. at the National Gallery of Art in the West Building Lecture Hall. Free.
THE MAD MISS MANTON
This 1938 screwball comedy was directed by Leigh Jason, whose long career ended with the 1961 teenage delinquent movie The Choppers. Here, Barbara Stanwyck stars as Melsa Manton, a New York socialite who stumbles on a murder plot. (Personally, I’m more impressed that Stanwyck manages to walk four dogs at once.) Recruiting her girlfriends to solve a series of killings in a ritzy neighborhood, Miss Manton earns the contempt of local reporter Peter Ames, who looks down upon the Park Avenue vigilantes. Ames is played by Henry Fonda, who three years later would star with Stanwyck in the much better-known The Lady Eve. The Mary Pickford Theater at the Library of Congress (note: I work there, but didn’t work on this program) will screen a 35-mm print, preceded by the 1938 musical short Swingtime in the Movies.
Watch the trailer.
Thursday, Jan. 16, at 7 p.m. in 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.
ICEPICK TO THE MOON
Alabama-born Tim H. Reid, who performed in the 1970s and ’80s under the stage name Reverend Fred Lane, is a curious musical figure. His smooth jazz vocals and shaggy big band seemed like an anomaly on the roster of the New York-based Shimmy Disc record label, otherwise dominated by avant-garde pioneers like John Zorn. One wondered whether Lane — who fronted a band called The Kooks and sang bizarre songs like “Car Radio Jerome” — was a crooner or a comedian, or perhaps both. This 2018 documentary from Baltimore filmmaker Skizz Cyzyk tells the story of Lane and Raudelunas, the Tuscaloosa, Alabama artists’ collective that spawned him. The feature will be screened with short films from South Carolina musician-filmmaker Charlie McAlister, and the program will also include live music by Team Sardine.
Watch the trailer.
Saturday, Jan. 11, at 8 p.m. at Rhizome, 6950 Maple St. NW. $10.
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