Variety (1983) - What If Travis Bickle Was A Woman?

When a naive girl named Christine (played by Sandy McLeod); down on her luck in 1980’s New York City; decides to take on a job at a porno cinema as a ticket taker; her self inflicted boredom leads her into a dangerous investigation.

1983’s Variety directed by Bette Gordon is most definitely the female take on Taxi Driver. As Travis Bickle is the creepy male counterpart misanthrope, who’s in need of a job, deciding to drive Taxi’s and taking people where they need to go, all the while noticing what he hates the most about New York City and taking his obsession of a woman to the idea that she’ll love him if he proves himself worthy. Christine on the other hand, is a more sympathetic character, she doesn’t look down on the New York City or anyone. Christine already knows her worth and through the female perspective Christine’s obsession with a man is about what’s wrong with the man himself as oppose proving herself to get the man to care. Variety paints a picture of a world where Christine’s innocence exposures the unfortunate cynicism of males and people alike. Christine gets preyed upon and gocked at just being a ticket taker at a cinema and has to watch her back constantly, while Travis Bickle is the predator and no matter how much he feels put upon, he’s still very much the one who would prey upon Christine. Ironically enough, Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver frequents a porno theatre daily as a place of solace, as Variety shows with Christine’s customers. In a way Travis Bickle spends his time waiting to control a woman as Christine spends her time trying not to be controlled by a man. Taxi Driver displays that power generally consumes men, as men being the main proprietors of power in the world. As Variety displays that women generally have love in their hearts, and would rather spend their time learning and understanding a person or system, than dominate it. Variety is the answer to the clumsy masculinity of Taxi Driver, and is much more heartbreaking and unique. Both though are great films exposing the common flaws of capitalism and the woes of loneliness, but out of the two, Variety was ahead of it’s time. 9/10. Check out Variety (1983).

• Maurice Jones

Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020)

When a talented Pennsylvania teen named Autumn (played by Sidney Flanigan) finds out she’s pregnant, she has no choice but to go to an abortion clinic in New York City with her cousin Skylar (played by Talia Ryder), when Autumn realizes she has no support in her small Pennsylvania town.

Eliza Hittman’s third feature film Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a harrowing, heartbreaking, matter of fact, absorbing observation of teen pregnancy in rural Pennsylvania. Shot Guerilla style under a grey color plate of grey/gloomy skies, Eliza Hittman accurately captures the mundane limitations of Autumn’s life. To her abusive ex boyfriend, her busy/ removed mother, her abrasive disinterested step father, and her empty grocery store job. The camera stays with Autumn at every frame displaying her thoughts straight from her face, as she tries to comprehend the situation she’s trapped in, while keeping it all from her family. This is a character study of a broken girl who’s in a desperate place; Autumn is a girl whom loves to sing and write music, but without support and love when in need of an abortion, being a teenage makes that choice even harder. Never Rarely Sometimes Always properly depicts how a teenage would handle getting an abortion in New York City from rural Pennsylvania. From not having a place to stay to sleeping on the subway waiting for an appointment, to not having the money for the procedure, to discovering the next to impossible steps that need to be taken in getting an abortion from how long the procedure takes to the questions that need to be asked to a patient for their own well being. Eliza Hittman’s film also looks set in 2007, but that’s cause that’s how life is in certain rural Pennsylvania towns. Things aren’t as affordable or adaptable with current items and looks due to the economic state of a town, which gives an interesting insight within the film about the assumptions of all of America and the expectations of all pregnancy clinics in America as well.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always is importantly about the historical and systematic forcefulness towards young women and women in general, to do things they don’t want to do for the pleasure of others, especially for men. Whether it be to have sex, take a wage decrease or to be banned from getting an abortion or forced into getting one. Women/girls have always been forced into something with disregard towards their well being and will. Never Rarely Sometimes Always shines a sobering, disturbing light on those ongoing facts of society, as well within the pregnancy clinic community, exposing the truth that some clinics don’t want women to have an abortion and give them false information to delay the process of getting an abortion. Sad but true. Never Rarely Sometimes Always wants us to feel Autumn’s pain in the abortion system but also wants us to remember that Autumn is a teenage. A teenage with hopes and dreams and a creative spirit that will always be there when times are at their toughest.

Sidney Flanigan is an incredible actress that will no doubt be seen in many great roles to come. Her attention to detail when showing hurt, pain, apathy or happiness through her face, is extremely accurate, and her depiction of a teenager with unsure questions and bashful secrecy and having a wall up, feels too real. On top of that Sidney Flanigan’s singing voice is a treasure you’ll be glad to be exposed to, and her singing in the film is the shining light amongst the film’s gloomy oppressive atmosphere. The whole cast is incredible, including Autumn’s cousin Skyler played by Talia Ryder, who plays Autumn’s one and only support, helping and leading Autumn to her appointments and making sure things work out, even to her own physical expense. The acting is real as can be and has reminiscent feels of certain Canadian film making and of the Guerrilla style of directors Harmony Korine or Gary Burns.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always is beyond powerful, and though about a depressing but important subject matter, involving depressing scenes; The film is ultimately about the teenage spirit and female bond, empowerment and support, in a world where women face abuse from every which way from men of all kinds, and with the fact that we live in a society where women/girls can have their rights taken away from them at a moments notice. Never Rarely Sometimes Always will leave you sobered and heartbroken, but informed knowing some of the scary/overwhelming ins and outs of pregnancy/abortion politics that keep women from living the life they choose, on the hard headed/bullshit “Pro Life” side of things, and the importance of abortion clinics existing in general. Eliza Hittman though, leaves us with the important feeling of two teen girls who support each other through thick and thin, giggling it out through impossible feats.  10/10. The best film of 2020.

-          - Maurice Jones

Vivarium (2020) The romantic dramedy version of Cube

When couple Gemma and Tom go house searching, they stumble upon an idyllic housing neighbourhood that looks as identical as the next house and as it’s next house. Pulled into the promise of their would-be home being ideal forever, Gemma and Tom soon learn a lesson in starting the Nuclear Family, as they soon realize they can’t seem to physically leave the neighbourhood they just visited.

Lorcan Finnegan’s and Garrett Shanley’s Vivarium is an immediate allegory for a hetero couple settling down before they’re ready, and having kids in suburbia amongst the ever-changing housing market. Going through the motions of raising a family, the cliché of adult hood and parenthood and your kids becoming the negative parts of you.  Your independence is stolen from you when having a child.  Preventing your kids from watching tv all day. The father getting away from the family and the mother being the main caretaker thus their relationship moving apart, as the father -figure becomes traditionally the abusive parent of the two, seeing a child as a threat to his Manhood. 

Lorcan Finnegan’s direction in Vivarium uses Irish sensibilities and comedic dryness, displaying a grey disposition amongst a clean green neighbourhood landscape of fake pink clouds, primary blue skies and green spotless grassy yards. This style creates a biting, sharp templates for the satirical conversations the film contemplates, between Gemma and Tom; A rejection of perfection in Suburbia, the young taking over the old, retired being another word for dead, the idea people raised in suburbs are sent out to inhabit cities with the same regurgitated values of their broken parents, continuing corporate structure in a capitalist wheel of profit from assembly line fixtures. Though these ideas are a little on the nose, they are effective, and the films focus is intended and poignant on the truth about the societal pressures of housing, marriage and kids.

Vivarium has touches and attributes of films reminiscent of David Lynch’s Eraserhead (1977), in the idea of an exaggerated degree of parenthood, expressing the extreme transformation from not having a child to having a child and the fear, trials and tribulations of parenthood. All presented in a comedic yet disturbing and sardonically odd, manic and twisted picture; much like a Twilight Zone or Black Mirror. As the Vivarium goes on, your feel the anxiety and anger encroach upon Gemma and Tom as they bicker between each other like a married couple, and then notice hopelessness and drain become them.

Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg do perfect work, with Jesse Eisenberg at his darkest acting yet since The Squid and The Whale (2007) and The Social Network (2010). And Imogen Poots finally gets to shine in her original British dialect, as strong as can be in a lead role that takes her from optimistic, frustrated, strategic, apathetic, determined and defeated in another great horror adjacent role.

Vivarium is perfect parts dark and satirical, classically telling a tale about something most of us go through or will go through. The type of satire that expands the Horror/SciFi genre and makes it better, as well as being the exact fuel both genres thrive on. Kids aren’t easy, finding the perfect home isn’t easy and neither is marriage. Lorcan Finnegan’s direction and Garrett Shanley’s screenplay conjure up the right pin point of what going through these milestones of society, feel like on the inside. Vivarium reminds us that genre pictures can never die as they are the glue of films that not only entertain us, but make us think. Vivarium is a must watch for any genre fan and especially for anyone trying to buy a house and start a family. 8/10.

-        -   Maurice Jones