FRENCH EXIT
Director Azazel Jacobs’ supremely peculiar film is also wry and wiling with one phenomenal leading lady at the helm. Michelle Pfeiffer is magnificent as Frances Price – an infamous socialite who has spent her dead husband’s (Tracy Letts) inheritance and well…being poor just isn’t her thing. When given a chance to go to Paris and stay at a friend’s apartment for free, the choice is easy. Frances, her slapdash son Malcolm (Lucas Hedges), who is secretly engaged to Susan (Imogen Poots), and their cat named Small Frank bolt to France. After their arrival, the last stacks of cash are dwindling, and once gone – Frances is peacing out.
Pay less attention to the super thin plot and more on the surefire splendors such as its setting and eclectic characters (Valerie Mahaffey as Mme. Reynard is sensational) who become Frances and Malcolm’s roommates. Oh, did I also mention the cat talks? Without a doubt, the weirdness prompted by Jacobs and writer Patrick deWitt is wild and wondrous, yet nothing compares to Pfeiffer. There are several special scenes and none of them would feel the way they do without her. Her portrayal and all-around presence on-screen is tremendous.
MLK/FBI
The showdown between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and J. Edgar Hoover is brought to light in newly declassified files, detailing the revolution lead by MLK and how hugely threatened the FBI was by it. This leads to government malfeasance to discredit his leadership by exposing his private life and humiliating him. In this fascinating and infuriating documentary from director Sam Pollard, the gross surveillance and harassment of MLK by the FBI is jaw-dropping; however, it provides even more proof that its roots of racism and abuse of power goes beyond government agencies and traces back to the depravity of the American institution itself.
This discerning and revealing portrait scrutinizes the FBI, and rightfully so. At the same time, Pollard humanizes MLK, learning his stresses, fears, and flaws. He wasn’t perfect, though no one is. Will it tarnish his legacy? It shouldn’t, but it’s up to the audience to decide. Yet, regardless of the feelings that may arise concerning the FBI and MLK – the significance and pertinence of what happened then and what’s happening now can’t afford to be ignored for one more second.
Brandon Vick is a member of The Music City Film Critics’ Association, the resident film critic of the SoBros Network, and the star of The Vick’s Flicks Podcast. Follow him on Twitter @SirBrandonV and be sure to search #VicksFlicks for all of his latest movie reviews.
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