Lily plays a grandma
In Grandma, from writer-director Paul Weitz, Lily Tomlin plays a character who is a lesbian—a big one. Elle Reid is a loud, proud, majorly out lesbian who is unapologetic in her feminist, humanist views and isn't exactly shy about expressing them to all and sundry. Tomlin has played a lesbian character before—in Tea with Mussolini, co-starring with Cher, Maggie Smith and Judi Dench—but it was miles from the raw, funny and brilliantly complex character of Elle Reid she plays in Grandma. So let's take a moment to rejoice that one of Our Own is playing one of Us—spectacularly.
Elle has just broken up with her lover of four months ( Judy Greer ) at the movie's outset when Elle's 18-year-old granddaughter, Sage ( Julia Garner ), appears. The somewhat ditzy Sage, with her Harpo Marx curly blonde hair and diffident manner, is pregnant and needs a little more than $600 ( $630, to be exact ) in order to have an abortion late that same day. Elle, a respected, published poet, has just cleared up mountains of debt, going so far as to cut up all her credit cards in the process, so she's broke. But she's also a practical woman of action. Her daughter—Julia's mother, an uptight, finger-wagger—is the last person either wants to go for the money.
So, hopping into Elle's vintage 1950 car ( Tomlin used her own for the movie's 19-day shoot ), she and Julia drive around the L.A. area trying to scrounge up the cash. Along the way, as they encounter everyone from Elle's ex-husband ( a surprisingly moving Sam Elliott ) to the owner of a bookstore who obviously had a thing for Elle ( Elizabeth Pena, in her last role ) to a funny transgender tattoo artist ( Orange Is the New Black's Laverne Cox ), the two span the wide generation gap and slowly find common ground. At one point, Elle decides to sell some signed, treasured first edition books, including Betty Friedan's seminal The Feminine Mystique, which Julia has never heard of. "You don't know what The Feminine Mystique is?!" the genuinely stunned Elle queries of Julia. "A character in X-Men?" her granddaughter tentatively guesses. That response allows Elle to go on yet another frustrated rant about the sea change that has taken place culturally.
The fearless Elle—who takes no prisoners as she and Julia roam the city—isn't nearly as caustic as she sounds but she's not exactly a warm, fuzzy Mimi, either. Tomlin gives this tart-tongued woman a wonderful humanity and the audience knows all along that Elle is grappling with life after the death of her beloved partner Violet a year and a half earlier. ( "Violet" is tattooed on the inside of her right wrist. ) Eventually, the other missing piece—Elle's daughter, Judy ( Marcia Gay-Harden ), enters the scene and other aspects of Elle's life become clear.
Director Paul Weitz wrote the movie specifically for Tomlin, and his gift to her becomes a gift to all of us. Without her performance, Grandma is a diverting, slice-of-life generation-gap dramedy. With her, it's elevated to art and Tomlin is firing on all cylinders. ( She must have been thrilled after first reading the script. )
It's been 40 years since the sensationally talented Tomlin made her film debut in Robert Altman's masterpiece Nashville. She's had great film roles in the ensuing years and is having a great career resurgence with both this part and her Emmy-nominated role ( her 22nd! ) in Grace and Frankie, but Tomlin's acting in Grandma is altogether on a level that her work in Nashville was—it reminds us of how deeply gifted this unique woman is. And it's a pleasure to stand back and watch her go.
Laird Cregar
On Aug. 28-Sept. 3, the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave., partnering with the Film Noir Foundation, will present Noir City: Chicago 7, the annual film-noir festival that returns for the seventh edition with a raft of little-seen 1940s and early '50s noir classics.
With 17 films in the lineup, there are enough shady dames and vicious killers prowling through the dark underworld to keep noir fans enthralled. Crime of Passion and Witness to Murder—two unsung Barbara Stanwyck thrillers both on the bill this year—are hallmarks of the series' dedication to presenting rarely screened gems. Many of the entries are presented in restored 35mm versions.
This year I'm particularly happy to see two Victorian-era thrillers in the mix—1945's Hangover Square, with queer star Laird Cregar in the title role, and 1941's Ladies in Retirement starring Ida Lupino ( both screening Aug. 31 ). Hangover Square, from director John Cromwell, is a doozy—dripping in the gothic atmosphere of a foggy, threatening London in which Cregar plays George Harvey Bone, a composer driven to murder every time he hears a dissonant chord. Bernard Herrmann, the acknowledged dean of film composers, supplied the masterly "Concerto Macabre" that is played at the film's furious climax. ( The soundtrack has just been released, at long last. ) George Sanders is the acid-tongued police detective who pieces together Bone's crimes and Linda Darnell plays the sluttish cabaret singer who uses Bone with drastic consequences.
Cregar had played character roles but had a hit the previous year with The Lodger, a fictional variation on the Jack the Ripper murders in which he starred, just four years after he began in films. He didn't want to film Hangover Square, tired of playing demented killers but eventually changed his mind and determined to give the character a romantic edge. Always a big man, Cregar lost more than 100 pounds to film the role but died from a heart attack after losing the weight too quickly. Ironically, two months following his death, the movie was released to great acclaim and Cregar's future as a leading man seemed assured. http://www.musicboxtheatre.com/features/hangover-square
On the same evening, the series will also present an ultra-rare screening of 1941's Ladies in Retirement, director Charles Vidor's early example of film noir. Ida Lupino plays Ellen, a refined spinster and companion to a vain, retired actress living in the English countryside who manages to get permission to bring her two sisters for a visit. But the outlandish behavior of the sisters ( expertly acted by Elsa Lanchester and Edith Barrett )—who are clearly certifiable—drives the actress crazy and she demands they leave, setting the stage for murder. Lupino is sensational as the repressed Ellen, as is Louis Hayward ( her real-life future husband ) as a ne'er-do-well whose presence in the home escalates the tension. http://www.musicboxtheatre.com/features/ladies-in-retirement
Upcoming movie calendar
Highlights from films opening in Chicago, Aug. 28 and Sept. 4 ( or available digitally )
We Are Your Friends ( 8/28 )—It's the latest from hunky heartthrob Zac Efron. This time out, he plays a DJ trying to hit the big time in Hollywood and, naturally, hedonistic complications galore ( in the personage of his mentor's luscious girlfriend ) throw up roadblocks along the way. Emily Ratajkowski, Wes Bentley, Shiloh Fernandez and Jonny Weston co-star. See the interview with Efron, Ratajkowski and director Max Joseph in this issue.
Grandma ( 8/28 )—Lily Tomlin shines in this dramedy from writer-director Paul Weitz. Julia Garner, Marcia Gay Harden and Judy Greer co-star. See the review above.
Tangerine ( 9/4 )—It's Sean Baker's audacious comedy, a day in the life of two feisty transgender hookers and their raucous adventures on the streets of Los Angeles on Christmas Eve. Shot entirely on an iPhone but you'd never know it. Playing at the Gene Siskel Film Center ( 164 N. State Street ). http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/tangerine
Bloodsucking Bastards ( 9/4 and 9/5 )—It's a blood-spattered horror comedy set in an office described as a cross between Office Space and Shaun of the Dead. Director Brian James O'Connell ( a Chicago native ) and cast members will attend the two screenings Sept. 4-5 at Facets Cinematheque, 1517 W. Fullerton Ave. www.facets.org/cinematheque/films/sept2015/bloodsucking-bastards.php .
