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When Richard Jenkins takes the stage in Andrew Cohn’s “The Last Shift,” the actor delivers one of the most heartfelt performances he has given in years. The play is about a man’s devotion to his job and the ways in which his employer takes advantage of his pride. Jenkins’ everyman qualities are put to good use as a 38-year employee at Oscar’s Chicken & Fish, as we see him for the first time preparing a chicken specialty he calls the “Stanwich.” He moves slowly but precisely, and he remains focused on taking care of Oscar’s in the evenings and all of the customers who come through the door. A fine melancholy touch occurs when the film captures Stanley during his final week at Oscar’s, as Stanley is preparing to leave at the end of the week to care for his ailing mother in Florida, which is one of the film’s many poignant moments. Jenkins portrays the kind of hard worker that we often see in Ramin Bahrani films, and this includes his Sisyphean pursuit of making good fast food every night, which he accomplishes with beautiful ease in the film.
Shane Paul McGhie appears in the film as Jevon, a young father who has recently been released from prison and who was a former columnist who had stopped writing. As part of his probation, Jevon is required to work at Oscar’s. Stanley’s pride in his work has left him unaware of how much money he is not being paid for his continuous labor, something that Jevon brings to his attention with exhilarating clarity as the two share some compelling scenes in the quiet restaurant. As the two share some compelling scenes in the quiet restaurant, they gently clash over ideas of work that might be described as generational—pride Stanley’s in his work has left him unaware of how much money he is not being paid for his continuous labor, something that Jevon These dialogue-driven scenes take place in Oscar’s kitchen, which is transformed into a cinematic setting by the bright colors of condiments and other items on the shelves, as if they were all different colors that the multitalented Stanley could use at any time. Jenkins and McGhie are the glue that holds the film together through its highs and lows, and they embody two characters who prove that they have a lot to contribute to the world.
It is the excitement of seeing a film stand up for people like Stanley and Jevon that clashes with a dialogue about race that is little more than white noise. As soon as “The Last Shift” starts pitting Stanley and Jevon against one another over issues of race and privilege, it’s difficult to accept the film’s sincerity. After all, Jevon is written as one of the most stereotypical characters at the festival—does he really need to be fresh out of jail in order to find his way into Stanley’s kitchen? However, the story goes even further in developing Stanley’s deep prejudice, which includes confronting a disturbing event from his past that he discusses with his friend Don (Ed O’Neill), but this narrative pursuit comes across as sloppy and pointless in comparison.
Eventually, “The Last Shift” returns to its original emotional journey, which involves putting the audience members’ emotions into Stanley’s unfair treatment as a hard worker, and this is where its storytelling passions are most strongly felt. I found Cohn’s script to be particularly poignant, and my audience responded with a resounding roar when Stanley discovers the restaurant’s parting gift.
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Do you want to see scenes of adoring crowds? Do you want to root for the underdogs? You want to see people from different walks of life in a small town come together and discover a new passion in life. “Dream Horse” provides all of these cheap but timeless thrills and more, to the point where the image used to promote the film (shown above) could have served as the only piece on a vision board dedicated to the film. Furthermore, if you keep this information in mind while watching this film from director Euros Lyn, it will serve as a significant spoiler.
Although unabashedly popular, this is the kind of film that was made with care, right down to Toni Collette’s performance, which sells every high and low experienced by her character Jan, who decides to breed a race horse. Aside from that, the film contains numerous beautiful establishing shots of the small Welsh village in which she lives, giving the impression that this film can be equally concerned with composition as it can be with having fun with a story that was previously told in the 2015 documentary “Dark Horse” (which also played at Sundance).
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Jan is a grocery store employee who decides to breed the horse in order to make some money, but also in order to discover a new passion in which she can believe in herself. She is accompanied by her husband Brian (Owen Teale), and she rallies a group of people from the town to join the fight, resulting in broad comedy and rag-tag team-building scenes that are sure to please. Additionally, Jan receives a great deal of assistance from Howard (Damian Lewis), a former racehorse syndicate leader, who guides the couple and their horse Dream Alliance through the high-pressured world of horse racing.
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A solid vision for such a film, one that balances feel-good highs with expected lows, as well as when it comes to sprucing up the proceedings—attaching a camera to the side of Dream Alliance while racing is an amusing little jolt of energy, and the race sequences as a whole gain some significant momentum—lyn has an excellent vision for such a film. It’s more that the story seems to be running on autopilot all of the time. It also goes for the easy laughs, such as when Karl Johnson plays the town drunk, whose antics are constant but who is actually very lonely and sad, as in “Dream Horse.” Also included is Lewis’ Howard, who is given a subplot about a gambling problem, which the film more or less carelessly supports by the film’s conclusion in order to achieve a clear victory.
One of the more perplexing films I saw while in Park City was Michael Almereyda’s “Tesla,” a sort of philosophical celebration of perhaps the most overlooked inventor in history that I found to be quite strange. Ethan Hawke plays Nikola Tesla in the film, eschewing any Serbian accent and gliding around on roller skates throughout the course of the film, which begins with him gliding around on skates.
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“Tesla,” which premiered just months after Alejandro Gomez-similarly Rejon’s focused “The Current War,” avoids the shadow cast by focusing on different time periods entirely by leaning entirely into the artifice of the production. A slide show of Google searches is not uncommon during the course of the film, and it is not surprising when Kyle MacLachlan’s portrayal of Thomas Edison whips out his iPhone, or when Jim Gaffigan appears to have just walked onto the set to play George Westinghouse, among other things. Scenes are created using painted backdrops, and they are frequently set in bars or modern bistro establishments, as if parodying one’s expectations of how such historical scenes should be recreated should be. In contrast to the dialogue-driven script, which is meticulous from the beginning of Eve Hewson’s professorial narration to the end, this looseness serves as a strong counterpoint.
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“Tesla,” which appears to have been inspired by a wealth of Tesla knowledge, antidepressants, and a desire to break free from the constraints of period pieces, is for those who don’t want biopics to take us from cradle to grave, but instead want to journey through different life sequences as if it were a musical. It’s a tricky film, and one that lost my interest as it descended further into its historical abyss, but it does have some memorable moments that stem from its refusal to adhere to any of the established rules. I think the best part is when Ethan Hawke, dressed as Tesla, performs an off-key baritone version of Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Rules the World,” complete with off-key baritone singing. However, with this and other baffling choices, “Tesla” proves to be a completely liberated biopic, so much so that it is out of reach for most people.
For more personality quizzes check this: Promising Young Woman Quiz.
