“Alive Inside”
(NR), Directed by Michael Rossato-Bennett
Screens Tuesday, September 9, 7 p.m. at the Little
First-time director Michael Rossato-Bennett’s
deeply affecting documentary, “Alive Inside,” spotlights the crusade being
waged by social worker Dan Cohen as he seeks to drastically alter the way our
country cares for the elderly. As founder of the nonprofit organization Music
& Memory, Cohen travels to nursing homes across the nation, demonstrating
how playing meaningful music for patients with Alzheimer’s and dementia can
allow them to reconnect with memories seemingly lost to them forever.
It’s genuinely moving to see the effect Cohen’s methods have
on certain patients, as the music reawakens something deep within them and the
light returns to their eyes. The film is at its most compelling as it argues
how a $50 iPod is infinitely more beneficial to a patient with dementia than
the laundry list of pharmaceuticals they’re typically prescribed, though it loses
focus and eventually settles for repeating itself as it expands further out to
tackle the more generalized topic of elder care in our country. But as a
poignant examination of aging in a society always
looking toward the future, “Alive Inside” is a singularly emotional experience.
“Starred Up”
(NR), Directed by David Mackenzie
Available now on VOD and iTunes
Scottish director David Mackenzie’s searing prison drama
begins with a sequence in which 19-year-old Eric (Jack O’Connell) arrives for
processing at a maximum security prison. He moves through each step with the
calm demeanor of someone who’s well-versed in the procedure — if there was any
question the boy isn’t a veteran, it’s answered by the time he reaches his cell
and immediately begins crafting a crudely constructed shiv from the melted
remains of a toothbrush. Eric has been “starred up,” the term for a juvenile
prisoner being prematurely moved up to an adult facility due to excessively
violent behavior.
He’s soon assigned anger management group therapy sessions
led by dedicated, but troubled, volunteer counselor Oliver (Rupert Friend).
Eric’s father, Neville (Ben Mendelsohn) is already on the inside, where he’s
been (and likely will remain) for all his son’s life. At first, Neville is
content to allow his son to make his way through the prison with little
interference. But as Eric begins making connections through the group, he’s
seized by the need to exert a guiding force and act as a father for the first
time. Letting his son know exactly what he thinks of those he’s choosing to
associate with, he acts as something like the jailhouse equivalent of a
helicopter parent. O’Connell gives a ferocious, powerhouse performance, and
Mendelsohn is equally good: the friction between the two functions as the raw,
wounded heart of the film. Despite its often shocking brutality, “Starred Up”
emerges as a surprisingly tender and deeply humane look at the ties that bind
us.
“The One I Love”
(R), Directed by Charlie McDowell
Available now on VOD and iTunes
In “The One I Love,” Elisabeth Moss (“Mad Men”) and Mark Duplass (“Tammy”) play Sophie and Ethan, a married couple
whose relationship is on the rocks. In addition to the general ennui that can
sometimes develop in certain long-term relationships, they’re also dealing with
the fact that Ethan cheated and Sophie hasn’t entirely forgiven him yet. Taking
the advice of their therapist (Ted Danson), the couple agrees to spend a
weekend at a couples retreat and attempt to reconnect with one another. The
site of the retreat is a spacious country house with an extra guest house on
the property — seemingly an ideal location for them to rediscover what made
them fall in love in the first place. To say much more about the plot would be
a disservice to what director Charlie McDowell and writer Justin Lader have set out to accomplish. Suffice it to say that
what starts out as a low-key relationship drama morphs into something else
entirely, adding a blend of dark comedy, mystery, and even science-fiction to
the mix.
Moss and Duplass are both
pitch-perfect in their roles. As Ethan and Sophie rediscover one another, the
actors are called upon to find subtle variations in shading and inflection to
play within their characters, and they deliver performances that alternate delightfully
between playful and prickly. McDowell and Lader keep
finding surprising ways for the central mystery to play out, and though the
answers they provide don’t entirely satisfy, the journey of getting there more
than makes up for it.
This article appears in Sep 3-9, 2014.
