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MANSON MADNESS, from p.32
ous points about the Manson family. It’s the second of three films about Manson to be released this year, following “The Haunting of Sharon Tate.� Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood� hasn’t yet had its public premiere, but it apparently addresses Manson and the Tate/ La Bianca murders in some way. Despite their authors’ wishes, “The Family� and Vincent Bugliosi’s “Helter Skelter� (which was adapted into a made-for-TV movie) began the long process of mythologizing Manson into a demonic boogeyman with the power to commit mass murder by proxy. “Charlie Says� begins with an intertitle quoting Joan Didion’s very common sentiment that their murders marked the end of the ‘60s. Harron’s debut film, “I Shot Andy Warhol,� showed her compassion for women who’ve been rejected by society and committed violence. “Charlie Says� doesn’t avoid the Manson
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IDENTICAL OPPOSITES, from p.32
crowd. These moments hint at a romanticism missing from the rest of “Asako I & II.â€? Hamaguchi’s sensibility is too arty to embrace melodrama, but the film doesn’t have enough substance to justify its air of gravity. The last half hour goes in a fairly dark direction, but instead of developing the characters, RyĂ´hei remains a pleasant yuppie while Baku offers a sense of danger and, when he reappears, a connection to celebrity. If Asako can’t choose between them, it doesn’t point to anything particularly deep. Although Hamaguchi has made nine films,
family’s crimes. Tex Watson passes the knife to Leslie mid-murder and invites her to take over, with her face getting splattered with blood as she stabs Rosemary LaBianca. If “Charlie Says� feels like a particularly edgy made-forHBO movie, it’s blunt without being exploitative. Harron uses female nudity to show how Manson objectified women while telling them this was in the interest of their own liberation. But the film’s decision to depict a sparing amount of graphic violence glosses over reallife details that would make the women look like gleeful participants, as when Krenwinkel wrote in blood on the wall. “Charlie Says� does a good job of using visual style to differentiate between its moods. Since the Spahn ranch didn’t have electricity, the scenes there are lit by candles, giving them an infernal orange glow. Even the exteriors aren’t filled with Southern California sunshine. The jail looks properly drab. If one thinks of the ‘60s as full of DayGlo color, the film deliber-
his 2015 “Happy Hour� was the first one to really make an impression on the American and European festival/ arthouse circuit. More than five hours long, it takes romantic melodrama toward novelistic complexity. “Asako I & II� is relatively lengthy too, slightly under two hours. It covers 10 years in its characters’ lives, with several leaps in time and location. But the heft it aims for never arrives. Even its turn toward more difficult emotions near the end feels like an obligatory gesture away from rom-com territory towards phony seriousness. If “Asako I & II� had a stronger sense of humor, it could’ve mined comedy from its protagonist’s indecision. At times, it heads for a more com-
ately sets out to disappoint that expectation. The release of two Netflix films about Ted Bundy this year and evergreen popularity of true crime books, TV shows, and podcasts has led to a debate about the ethics of depicting serial killers. More generally, is it dangerous to show how seductive dangerous men can be? Despite the inclusion of an interview with Sharon Tate (Grace van Dien) on TV, the film argues for the decency of murderers while barely paying lip service to their victims. Real compassion for both female killers and victims might require actually developing Tate and LaBianca as characters. “Charlie Says� is torn between a story everyone already knows and a new one about life after being branded public enemy #1. It’d be a much better film if it could devote itself to that latter story. CHARLIE SAYS | Directed By Mary Harron | IFC Films | Opens May 10 | IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave. at W. Third St. | ifccenter.com
plicated doubling, such as Asako and RyĂ´hei’s interactions with her actress friend Maya (Rio Yamashita.) Even DJ Tofubeats’ droning electronic score, which suggests ‘80s Philip Glass on a wobbly turntable, belongs to a more adventurous film. But the story remains fairly banal, and neither the direction nor performances lift it above. This film is scared shitless of its potential for mystery. ASAKO I & II | Directed by RyĂťsuke Hamaguchi | In Japanese with English subtitles | Grasshopper Film | Opens May 17 | Metrograph, 7 Ludlow St., btwn. Canal & Hester Sts. | metrogrpaph.com
If you are a survivor of child sexual abuse, New York law allows you to take action against the perpetrator and institution that protected him or her.
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GayCityNews.nyc | May 9 - May 22, 2019
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