Please Baby Please
Directed by Amanda Kramer
Starring Andrea Riseborough, Harry Melling, Demi Moore, Ryan Simpkins, Karl Glusman and Mary Lynn Rajskub.
Give Me Pity!
Directed by Amanda Kramer
Starring Sophie von Haselberg
Films directed by Amanda Kramer can often be summed up with a few generalising statements. The message of the piece is clear and thought provoking, the sound design is pretty spectacular, the story is creatively told in a short runtime, and yet there still feels like there’s quite a lot of dead space. Perhaps this is because Kramer makes her point so well and so quickly, and the middle sections of her films lull because you kind of know what to expect from there on in.
Such is the case with 2018’s Ladyworld, for example, which saw a group of teenage girls trapped underground after an earthquake. Putting a spin on Lord of the Flies, Kramer’s approach is not at all straightforward, and yet, the outcome is somehow unsurprising. But it has to be said that no director would take the same electrifying, mesmerising route as Kramer to achieve their ends. With two brand new films released this week at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam, and her own dedicated ‘Focus’ section at the festival too, Kramer is fast becoming one of the most exciting filmmakers in the world.
The festival opened with Please Baby Please, a stylish and absorbing psychosexual alternative to West Side Story. Set in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the film sees a strait laced couple forever changed after witnessing a murder perpetrated by a 50’s style leather jacket-clad gang of boys. The experience seems to awaken new feelings in both Arthur, a quiet clarinettist, and Suze, loving housewife. Arthur, played stupendously by Harry Melling, fixates on and fantasises about one of the gang members, bemoaning his upbringing as a male forced to be masculine. And Suze just wants more attention from her husband. Andrea Riseborough is magnetic in the role, fascinating from second to second with her New York accent and expressive eyebrow makeup. “What is our marriage then? A strange sort of friendship that started out with a few sexual privileges?”, Suze asks of a friend, increasingly desperate for an answer.
Please Baby Please is beautifully designed, from the T-bird style costumes of the villains to the vintage décor of the apartments, not to forget Suze’s brilliant hair and make up. But the entire world Kramer has conjured here is intricate and impressive. Arthur works part time at a cinema showing silent films – including a scene of two men fighting underwater – which are presumably illegal in this world. Suze envies a rich upstairs neighbour (a delicious turn by Demi Moore) for her dishwasher. It’s a familiar and nostalgic setting turned on its head, highlighting the vulgarity and the dirty underbelly of the city – somewhat reminiscent of films like Pickup on South Street or The Asphalt Jungle in this sense.
There are times when Kramer seems to get tied down illustrating the setting, and you may find yourself wishing for character or plot development to inch forward. But there is plenty to absorb while the film takes its time to reach a conclusion. Kramer examines our ideas of gender identity and attraction, through Arthur’s predicament but also with the excellent casting of Ryan Simpkins and Mary Lynn Rajskub in ostensibly male roles. Not to mention the occasional music break – the John Waters-esque cherry on a fascinating, if frustratingly slow, piece of cinema.
As you would expect from Amanda Kramer, Give Me Pity! is a different kettle of fish entirely. Sissy St. Claire has her very first Saturday night TV variety special, and it’s going to be wild. A cacophony of 80’s America, Give Me Pity! sees St. Claire try to cope as something malevolent tries to invade the show. We see music and dancing, overblown patriotism and glittery outfits – it’s an 80 minute spectacle. But the film is certainly best when Sissy’s segments go slightly awry, and the sinister forces rear their ugly heads; particularly strong is a section featuring the host reading letters received from her adoring fans. At the centre of it all, Sophie von Haselberg’s impressively controlled turn holds both the special and the film together, allowing for excellent character insight and development in a short time. Yet it doesn’t stop the film from feeling like a collection of vignettes, rather than a journey for St. Claire. The tension bounces up and down without much thought for consistency, and fizzles out entirely before the end. Here, Kramer gets carried away with concept, and the story and structure are not well thought out. It’s an enjoyable watch, and very well produced: the production looks brilliantly frozen in time, and St. Claire is always engaging.
Amanda Kramer’s oeuvre is so varied and interesting; it’s unsurprising that the director would be chosen for a Focus section at a prestigious film festival like IFFR. With these two new pieces, Kramer reaffirms everything we already new about her strength as a creator and director, and improves on some of the flaws in her other works. In the end, Give Me Pity! feels like a minor work, literally a TV special which could almost be a video nasty if it indulged a bit more in gore. Please Baby Please is more masterful, more expressive, more of a statement, and may come to be one of Kramer’s standout films. This double release, tantalising as it is, only increases the anticipation for whatever Kramer is filming next. Because one thing can be said about this director and the work she is producing: there’s nobody in the world making films quite like these.
Please Baby Please – Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Give Me Pity! – Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Dan Sareen
