The Sarasota Film Festival continued. We saw several more films, two very intense, painful to watch, and one that was disappointing. We then sampled the offerings at Beulah, another restaurant new to us.
FLICS
Clash. This Egyptian film covers one day and night in 2013 and a group of individuals involved in one of the many riots between the pro-military and the Muslim Brotherhood after the ouster of President Morsi. Two journalists, members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and other citizens at the protest are rounded up and forced into the back of a metal police van. They are of different social classes and religions, adults and a few children, some separated from their family members, and they are trapped together in a horrific environment. The film is loud, painful, and seems to go on forever. The truck is shot at, it is hot inside, the individuals fight and bicker and some get hurt. People cramped in another police truck nearby die from the heat and the crowding. If one of the aims of good cinema is to transport you to someplace you’ve never been before, this film puts you squarely in that van.
Katie Says Goodbye. Far from the clanging and clamor of Cairo, this film is set in the spare desolate Southwest. The sky goes on forever and there is little besides cheap trailers and a small diner and gas station. Teenager Katie is kind and almost demure. She waits tables at the diner, but also does double duty as a prostitute servicing locals and truckers passing through; it’s how she supports herself and her deadbeat mother. When she becomes involved with a new guy at the car repair shop, an ex-con, aspects of her life begin to unravel. Katie is a strong and complex character in a world of not-so-nice people.
The movie is raw and powerful and I found myself rooting for this determined, yet guileless young woman who lived midst adversity. The film was well received by the audience and we had the chance afterward to be part of the Q&A exchange with first-time director and writer Wayne Roberts.
Marjorie Prime. Touted by the film festival as “Hot, Hot, Hot,” and starring Jon Hamm (of “Mad Men” fame) along with Geena Davis and Tim Robbins, Marjorie Prime did not wow me. Instead, I found it flat and very slow. 85 year old Marjorie is failing and suffering from dementia. She lives with her daughter Tess and son-in-law John. At times, she relives some of her past in conversation with a hologram of her husband Walter when he was in his 40’s. She seems to take pleasure in these conversations and John also engages with him, particularly by feeding him specific memories to add to his store of information. Despite focusing on the role of memory and how memories can be suppressed or altered, and offering up fanciful technology, the film failed to captivate me. I would call it a failed experiment.
FUNKY AND FUN
Beulah. With an attractive dining area and mirrored bar shelves lined with green and blue glass pieces, Beulah draws you in. One side of the menu is a selection of pizzas, the other everything from salads to roast chicken, crab cakes, lamb or veal. The Caesar salads were generous with lots of Parmesan squares on top (we could easily have shared one). The Chief Penguin sampled the sausage pizza (good, not great) while I ordered the veal scaloppini with asparagus and a rice timbale. The veal was done with a butter lime sauce and was delicious! Beulah has a warm vibe and our waiter was welcoming and attentive. Definitely worth another visit! 
GOOD READ
Glory over Everything: Beyond The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom. While not literary in the way that Colson’s The Underground Railroad is, this novel is a good read full of secrets. It’s 1830 and Jamie Pyke, a former slave and a character from Grissom’s previous novel, is now living as a wealthy white man in Philadelphia. Successful in business, he’s gained a reputation as a painter. His household consists of his faithful butler Robert and Pan, the black teen son of Jamie’s mentor and guide, Henry. It was Henry who took Jamie under his wing when he fled from Virginia to Philadelphia 20 years earlier. When Pan goes missing and it’s feared he’s been taken by the slave catchers and sold, Jamie undertakes a harrowing journey to North Carolina to rescue him.
Credits: All photos JWFarrington. Header: coloring detail done from 100 Glittering Mandalas.
