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TOP PICK OF THE WEEK
Montana Story
*** The horizon may stretch romantically in this family drama from directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel (The Deep End, What Maisie Knew), but the film doesn’t revise the Western so much as trap two characters inside one. Owen Teague and Haley Lu Richardson star as estranged siblings Cal and Erin, who reunite on their family’s Montana ranch when their dad suffers a stroke. Because the plot finds its skeleton key in off-screen family history, the dialogue suffers from lead-weighted exposition that challenges Teague (It). But as the family outcast who’s unafraid to speak viciously, Richardson (Support the Girls, After Yang) fares better as the siblings tread on eggshells toward reconciliation. Past trauma aside, the film works best when observing banal yet loaded interactions touching on class, race and rural authenticity, like Cal giving a property tour or Erin buying a truck on a nearby reservation. Here, the film lets us see the kids for who they are—the embarrassed offspring of cowboy tourists. They’ve been molded by Big Sky Country, but they’re also hoping for a redemptive exit. Despite its genre trappings, Montana Story is ultimately an anti-Western: an ode to stunning, rugged country best left and loved. R. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Living Room.
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Pleasure
*** A Swedish 19-year-old going by “Bella Cherry” (Sofia Kappel) arrives in Los Angeles with a singular desire—porn stardom by any sex act necessary. That’s about the breadth of her character, as Pleasure focuses on Bella’s on-set experiences, including the girl-next-door foray in which she first registers the camera’s power; an outlandish bondage scene that prioritizes performer comfort; and others that are horrifyingly unsafe. Alongside mostly adult-film actors, Kappel excels in a debut that could scarcely demand more, considering that she makes porn production convincing when writer-director Ninja Thyberg switches to a documentary-style vantage point. Plumbing the formulaic and often unregulated construction of what the industry calls “pleasure,” the film dispenses so thoroughly with seduction that even Bella’s desires (sexual or otherwise) remain abstract. In turn, Thyberg sometimes weighs in too heavily with hip-hop or opera soundtrack selections to assure us certain scenes are appealing or upsetting (or not a well-performed kink). All told, Pleasure is a fascinating, disturbing, inherently ungratifying success story (like a joyless Nightcrawler). Though porn’s exploitation of labor should surprise no one, Pleasure’s research-driven portrayal is still valuable. Obviously, sex work is work. But is it workable? NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Cinema 21.
Downton Abbey: A New Era
*** The secret touch in series-to-cinema transitions is finding a compelling reason to get the band back together—and Downton Abbey: A New Era has some fun with it. Compelled by “financial issues,” Lady Mary Talbot (Michelle Dockery), née Crawley, agrees to allow a film to shoot at the titular estate, which elicits everything from enthusiasm to outright disdain from her elders. Simultaneously, another group of characters embark on a trip to the South of France to inspect a villa bequeathed to the Dowager Countess (Maggie Smith), leading to the unraveling of the mystery as to why. Balancing so many beloved characters can’t have been easy, but screenwriter and series creator Julian Fellowes weaves them all together delicately enough and handles moments of gravitas with grace. A New Era may be a tale of rushed romances and obscenely affluent people falling ass-backwards into even more wealth, but those potential pitfalls are diluted by whimsical storytelling leading to a satisfying ending. The Crawleys live in a fantasy world with its own rules—and Fellowes clearly demonstrates that he understands his audience and the depth of their passion for his characters and the universe they inhabit. PG. RAY GILL JR. Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Eastport Plaza, Evergreen Parkway, Fox Tower, Living Room, Lloyd Center, Mill Plain, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Progress Ridge, Studio One, Tigard, Vancouver Plaza.
Men
*** Let’s talk about the dress. It’s pale pink, it’s long sleeved, and it’s worn by Jessie Buckley, the star of Alex Garland’s dreamy and blood-chilling thriller Men. An archetypal symbol of femininity, the dress is the first of many clues that Buckley is playing not just a woman, but all women—just as her co-star, Rory Kinnear, is playing all men. Haunted by the death of her husband (Paapa Essiedu), Harper (Buckley) flees to an English country estate to recuperate. Almost the moment she arrives, she’s tormented by seemingly everyone in the area with a Y chromosome, including a little boy who calls her a “stupid bitch,” a silent stalker who appears in her garden naked, and a priest who hides his predatory nature behind courtly manners and long locks. All of these men are played by Kinnear, but it doesn’t seem strange to Harper that they have the same face. Why would it? The idea of a woman being persecuted by males who represent a single malevolent force feels sickeningly real. It could be argued that Men’s points about gender are obvious—and that its attitude toward topics like race and mental health is offensively glib—but like Garland’s previous films, Ex Machina and Annihilation, it digs impressively deep under your skin and into your psyche. Harper may be afraid, but she isn’t powerless. And as she goes from fleeing to fighting, the film solidifies its power over you. R. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Academy, Cedar Hills, Cinema 21, City Center, Clackamas, Evergreen Parkway, Fox Tower, Hollywood, Laurelhurst, Living Room, Lloyd Center, Mill Plain, Studio One, Tigard.