Tokyo Cowboy (c) Purdie Distribution
Film: Tokyo Cowboy
In Cinemas
Having a very limited roll-out in arthouse cinemas, Marc Marriott’s Tokyo Cowboy is a charming and simple story, less about a stranger in a strange world and more about a lost soul finding his purpose. Hideki (Arata Iura) is a business strategist in Japan who sees potential in organizations that seem like lost causes to others. When his company decides to sell off an unprofitable cattle ranch in Montana in their holdings, Hideki intervenes and says they could use the ranch to start a Wagyu business in America. On a short leash by his boss Keiko (Ayako Fujitani), who is also his longtime girlfriend, he travels to Montana with a Wagyu expert and English translator Wada (Jun Kunimura) to start the conversion. However, when they get there, the ranchers, including former owner Peg (Robin Weigert) see no viability to this plan as they would need corn to make this work, and the land will not support crops. With Wada conveniently leaving the story (in a fun way), Hideki has to fumble forward with Google Translate, trying to find a way to make his plan work. But he keeps doing everything wrong, including the clothes he wears, the car he rents and his uptight work ethic. Only when he finds an unlikely alliance with a Mexican ranch worker Javier (Goya Robles), who is also an outsider to the all-white ranch, does Hideki learn to fit in. Although nothing in the actual plot is at all surprising, there are so many little delightful moments of truth and human observation that you forgive the familiarity of the story. If you don’t think Hideki (and his perfect suit) will end up at least once in the mud, you haven’t seen movies like Doc Hollywood or even Cars and their ilk. The cast sells the story impeccably, from the likeable Arata Iura as Hideki all the way down to Scout Smith as the front desk worker at the motel, who serendipitously is learning Japanese and loves watching anime. Marriot has said he came up with this story after his own experience working in Japan, and he is equally fond of and critical of the unwavering characteristics of both the American and the Japanese. And he even has a diversion into the Mexican American world in a wonderful scene at Javier’s niece’s quinceaňera. Tokyo Cowboy is a generous and life-affirming family film (racism is almost nil) that teaches the most important lesson us humans have the hardest time to learn: empathy.
Lover of Men (c) Special Occasion Studios
Film: Lover of Men: The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln
In Cinemas
There are two Presidential rumors that are generally accepted except in the history books: that Thomas Jefferson had a long-running affair with enslaved Sally Hemings, and that Abraham Lincoln was secretly gay. The latter’s tabloid gossip headlines is the subject of the new documentary “Lover of Men: The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln” and that theory is debunked—it actually was never much of a secret at all. Just in time to coincide with the hit Broadway show, Oh, Mary! by Cole Escola, about the Lincoln presidency, although not with quite the historical accuracy of “Lover of Men.” Shaun Peterson’s film gives viewers all the evidence (i.e., letters and historical records), and it’s pretty persuasive (the film doesn’t give voice to dissenting opinions). With testimonials from scholars of both American and LGBTQ history, interspersed with actors playing the major players, Lincoln, we’re told, didn’t show much interest in girls from the start. Our 16th President had a habit of sharing bed with men, starting with hometown friend Billy Greene and then the love of his life, Joshua Speed (come on, that’s a stage name), who lived with Lincoln for around 10 years before he broke Lincoln’s heart by marrying a woman. Even after marrying Mary Todd and becoming president, Lincoln supposedly had a strong connection with two other men, including the soldier assigned to be his bodyguard (wink, wink), David Derickson. This is all intriguing stuff, as well as putting into context why men showing affection to other men in the early 19th century did not have the stigma it would later. Only the last section of the film feels very “preaching to the choir” as it goes through how homosexuality in the early 20th century is seen as an unhealthy disorder leading to the church making it a major no-no before circling back to its Lincoln point for why this revisionist erasure of his love of men is now in effect. Unlike the DNA evidence that now links Jefferson progenies to Hemings’ heirs (irrefutable proof that some Jefferson scholars still don’t accept), there isn’t anything concrete to prove Lincoln wasn’t just more comfortable with men and that’s all. Except everything we just learned from Peterson’s well-researched and provocative documentary.
His Three Daughters (c) Netflix
Film: His Three Daughters
In Cinemas and Streaming on Netflix September 20
When you have a story about three sisters, comparisons are inevitable to either Chekov’s unhappy Russian sisters, King Lear’s scheming daughters or Woody Allen’s upscale New Yorkers siblings. Writer-director Azazel Jacobs conveniently cherry-picks elements from each to produce his tale of three daughters and their dying patriarch Vincent, who is in hospice care in his New York City apartment. The two biological offspring, the eldest Katie (Carrie Coon) and the youngest Christina (Elizabeth Olsen) arrive back to their Bronx homestead, where the middle stepdaughter Rachel (Natasha Lyonne) has lived with Vincent for what seems to be most of her adult life. The consistently uptight Katie immediately clashes with the seemingly aimless Rachel over many things, but mostly with Rachel’s pot smoking in relation to their father’s failing health (where she should be more concerned about the sheer number of times her sister lights up). Rachel, on the other hand, resents Katie for only coming home now as their father is close to death, even though she only lives in another borough. That leaves poor Christina, who lives in another state with her husband and child, in the middle, ducking into Vincent’s bedroom to escape the vitriol as much as she’s driven by her love for her father. Even though most of the action takes place in the apartment (with only a few moments in the neighborhood with Rachel), the movie doesn’t feel like a play, which is always the risk of such a claustrophobic setting, with Jacobs always giving us unique shots of the apartment, including a clever camera placement with Christina disappearing out of frame as she’s doing her yoga stretches. And, of course, there are the actors, who are at the top of their game. The way each wound and are wounded by the others is a master class of flip-flopping the audience’s loyalties from moment to moment. But stealing the movie, however, with only one scene (in what context would be a spoiler) is theater actor Jay O. Sanders as Vincent. It is a heartbreaking moment. I have some quibble here and there with some story choices (each daughter has one major resolute personality trait which hinders any satisfying character growth), but overall, His Three Daughters is a complex and unwavering look at a family at a tragic crossroads.
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