It’s hard not to experience FOMO – fear of missing out – at Provincetown International Film Festival.
At this year’s 27th edition of the event, which ran June 11-15, four movies, or several movies and a special event, were often going on at once. Unless you’re a superhero with special powers, or a paramecium that can split in two, you have to strategize to get the most out of the experience.
But that’s part of the fun.
I saw seven movies this year, and still found time to eat, drink, and hang out with friends and filmmakers. (As for food, I stopped by The Box Lunch on Commercial Street twice for the greatest wrap ever invented, “The Guac.” No onions, extra hots. I’m getting misty-eyed just thinking about it.)
I also attended the annual award ceremony, always a highlight at the event. This year, Ari Aster (“Hereditary,” “Midsommar,” “Beau Is Afraid”) received the Filmmaker on the Edge award and Emmy-Award-winning Murray Bartlett (“The White Lotus,” “The Last of Us”) received the Excellence in Acting award. Director John Waters interviewed Aster on stage, and producer Christine Vachon spoke with Bartlett; both were breezy, entertaining chats before a packed Town Hall.
Over the years, I’ve seen many biographical documentaries at the festival, focusing on Marlon Brando, Linda Ronstadt, Liza Minnelli, Tab Hunter, the kid from “Death in Venice” and many others. This year, I caught films about actresses Jayne Mansfield and Marlee Matlin, singer Jeff Buckley and Beat writer Jack Keroauc, along with a movie about “Rocky Horror” (stage musical and movie) and an autobiographical narrative comedy about the love life of a woman in New York.
As for the movies:
“My Mom Jayne” (105 minutes). It’s actually about two people, sex symbol
Jayne Mansfield and daughter Mariska in Mariska Hagerty’s “My Mom Jayne.” (Courtesy of Provincetown International Film Festival)
Mansfield, who died at age 34 in a 1967 car crash, and the film’s director, Mansfield’s actress daughter Mariska Hargitay (“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”), who, at age 3, survived the accident. Hargitay pieces together details of her mother’s life to create a portrait of an intelligent, gifted young woman who willingly traded on her voluptuous figure and played the “dumb blonde” for stardom. Meanwhile, Hargitay emerges as a genuine, grounded person who shows her vulnerability as she uncovers family secrets and what amounts to her mother’s Rosebud. **** (out of four)
Marlee Matlin in Shoshannah Stern’s “Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore.” (Courtesy of Provincetown International Film Festival)
“Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore” (97 minutes). Shoshannah Stern, in her directorial debut, focuses on the life and career of Matlin, who, at 21, became the first deaf actor to win an Oscar, for “Children of a Lesser God.” Through interviews with the actress and others, the film reveals the challenges she’s experienced with success at such an early age, her struggles with substance abuse, her relationship with abusive boyfriend Wiilliam Hurt (her “Children” co-star), her friendship with supportive Henry Winkler, the pressure of representing the deaf community and her fight for inclusion in film. It’s an inspiring story, told with an engaging honesty. ****
“It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley” (106 minutes). This is another sad story of a
Jeff Buckley in Amy Berg’s “It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley.” (Courtesy of Provincetown International Film Festival)
life cut short: Singer-songwriter Buckley drowned at age 30 after releasing just one, highly acclaimed, album. Director Amy Berg uses vintage footage of Buckley performing, recordings of his voice messages to loved ones, interviews (with his mother, lovers and fellow musicians) and more to give a sense of his remarkable artistry, troubled background and complex personality. If you aren’t a fan before seeing this doc, you will be after. What a voice. What a loss. ****
Richard O’Brien appears in “Strange Journey; The Story of Rocky Horror,” directed by his son, Linus O’Brien. (Courtesy of Provincetown International Film Festival)
“Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror” (89 minutes). Linus O’Brien directed this look at the musical “The Rocky Horror Show” and its film adaptation, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” and their enduring impact on audiences. He interviews his father, “Rocky Horror” creator-actor Richard O’Brien, along with Dad’s fellow cast members Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick and others to explore the 50-year history of “Rocky Horror,” its cult status as a camp classic, the ongoing international midnight screenings featuring audience participation, and its message of “Don’t dream it, be it.” ***½
“Messy” (90 minutes). Alexi Wasser directed, wrote and stars in this
Alexi Wagner’s stars in – and wrote and directed – “Messy.” (Courtesy of Provincetown International Film Festival)
autobiographical romantic comedy – well, more a sex comedy about someone seeking true romance without success. Wasser plays the central character, Stella Fox, as a charming, fast-talking, promiscuous New Yorker who says she’s happier when she’s single but can’t help throwing herself into one relationship after another. Its funny dialogue is reminiscent of a Woody Allen movie, but its underlying portrayal of compulsive self-destructive behavior calls to mind the not-so-cheery “Looking for Mr. Goodbar.” (Wasser appeared at the screening and, after the film, came up on stage, looked at the audience and said with endearing self-deprecation, “People stayed!”) ***
“Kerouac’s Road: The Beat of a Nation” (89 minutes). Ah yes, Jack Kerouac, another artist who died young. This doc, directed by Ebs Burnough, mostly concentrates on Kerouac’s most famous book, “On the Road,” and its impact. When it sticks to this, whether looking back on the writer’s career (Kerouac’s writer girlfriend Joyce Johnson is among those interviewed) or the book’s influence on others (actors Josh Brolin and Matt Dillon speak), the movie works.
But Burnough adds three modern stories – about a couple living on the road, a woman going to visit her estranged father for the last time and a Black teenager trying to survive in crime-ridden Philadelphia – that are so loosely related to Kerouac that they belong in a different movie. **½
“Honey Don’t!” (90 minutes). Director Ethan Coen, working with a screenplay he wrote with wife Tricia Cooke, chooses style over substance with this half-baked neo-noir comedy, the second in a lesbian B-movie trilogy” (‘Drive Away Dolls” being the first). Margaret Qualley plays private detective Honey O’Donoghue, who’s investigating mysterious deaths in a desert community. Aubrey Plaza and Charlie Day play cops, and Chris Evans a corrupt preacher. **
** Click here for Tim Miller’s previous movie columns for Cape Cod Wave **
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Tim Miller, Movie Critic
Tim Miller is co-president of the Boston Society of Film Critics and a Tomatometer-approved critic. He teaches film and journalism at Cape Cod Community College in West Barnstable. You can contact Tim at [email protected] or follow him onTwitter @TimMillerCritic. Or you can ignore him completely.
