Category: Miv Evans

By Miv Evans

This documentary tells the story of a young Korean immigrant who is plucked off the lawless streets of Chinatown by a justice system that shows no justice.  It’s a David and Goliath tale but this time, David has no sling until the battle is over.  As well as shining a painful spotlight on the plight of child immigrants, it also highlights the searing inequities of life in America in general.  It’s definitely not pretty.

Chol Soo is born in the crossfire of the Korean war to a single mother.  When she marries an American, she abandons both her land and her child.  12 years later, and newly divorced, she swoops back in and takes Chol Soo to live in a country he’s never even heard of.   He’s isolated both in school and in his neighborhood.  His mother beats him daily, simply because she can.  Chol Soo often runs away and, as time goes by, he stops going back home at all, and drifts onto the streets that are ruled by violent gangs.

By association and a minor rap sheet, he comes to the attention of the local police.  And when they need a fall guy for a major crime, he’s their victim of choice.  Despite evidence to the contrary, 20 year-old Chol Soo is convicted of murder and handed a life sentence.  He undoubtedly would have stayed there had it not been for the fortitude of an intrepid investigate journalist.

K.W. Lee was a Korean reporter when he came across Chol Soo’s case.   He realized a grave injustice had been done, and in an attempt to highlight the young man’s plight, Lee turned to the Korean community for support.  And support him they did.  Not only did they fight for justice, but they inspired a whole generation of Pan Asian American activists.  They even wrote a song, ‘The Ballad of Chol Soo Lee’ that filled the airwaves for months.  The charismatic young Korean became the symbol of their cause.      

With so much publicity, Chol Soo’s murder conviction was eventually revisited.  It could be assumed that the result of this retrial is where the story ends but, in fact, this is not the case.  

Chol Soo’s saviors had done such a great job of alerting Chicago to his plight, by the time he returned to court, he had reached the status of an icon.  That’s a high bar for anyone to balance on, but if you’re a street urchin who’s only known hardship, it’s difficult to know where to start. In other words, when Chol Soo finally got handed a sling, he had absolutely no idea what to do with it.  

Premiered at Sundance 2022.

Released August 19, 2022 in UK and Ireland.

DIRECTED BY
Julie Ha & Eugene Yi

PRODUCED BY 
XTR
contact@xtr.com
www.xtr.com

DISTRIBUTED BY
MUBI
546 Bryant St
San Francisco
CA 94107
efe@mubi.com
www.mubi.com

Read more movie reviews by Miv Evans

Posted by Entertainment Magazine

By Miv Evans

The Duke is a biography; a family drama; a coming-of-age story and an art heist.  All four threads are stitched together by a commentary on 60s working class Britain.  Despite a few hitches, it works like a charm.

THE STORY

This film is a true story about Kempton Bunton (Jim Broadbent), who lives with his wife, Dolly (Helen Mirren) and son, Jackie (Fionn Whitehead). While Dolly works her fingers to the bone, Kempton has a more casual approach to employment.  He treats his low-paying jobs with distain so he can conserve his energy for the more pressing  issue of becoming the next Robin Hood.  He’s a man with an overwhelming sense of justice, launching campaign after campaign in his efforts to help society’s poorest.  His latest crusade is to lobby the government to pay for pensioners’ BBC TV license, which many can’t afford.  But despite stalwart efforts, he makes zero progress.  He’s still deciding on his next step when he learns that the government has paid £140K for a portrait of the Duke of Wellington.  Kempton is incensed.  By the time he’s calculated how many TV licenses all that money could have bought, his campaign is resurrected.

THE BOSS

There could be no better depiction of a working class eccentric than that honed by Broadbent, but it’s Mirren who kidnaps the screen.  She’s unrecognizable as the long suffering battleaxe, Mrs. Bunton, and clearly relishes her role as Newcastle’s Queen Char.*   Despite limited power, she shoulders the weight of her erring husband and son with aplomb.  And if she doesn’t get her way, she settles for impaling them with her acerbic tongue.   

THE HITCHES

As charming as this story is, it takes a long time to find its stride.  While Kempton’s skirmishes are fun, it’s clear from the start that he’s a laggard and has no plans to change.  It therefore risks the audience thinking the story has nowhere to go when that same message is repeated over and over.  It also takes time away from the laying down of clues that lead to the unexpected twist that comes at the end.  This twist, while welcome, fails to resonate as it should because so little time is spent on its set-up  Truth might be stranger than fiction, but strange generally needs to be explained.

THE U-TURN 

Kempton died in 1976, so never witnessed the government’s decision 24 years later to pay for the TV license of seniors over the age of 75.  It was a belated but greatly appreciated gift to those in need.  Although this grand gesture is not recognized as Kempton’s legacy, there are a number of Brits who might think otherwise.  Either way, it’s clear Kempton wasn’t just a good guy.  He was a visionary who possessed such a pervading sense of justice that it transcended all else.  The formidable Dolly couldn’t have had a more deserving hero, even if she’d married the Duke himself.            

*British colloquialism

Streaming now on Roku

Publicity by Block-Korenbrut Public Relations

Distributed by Sony Picture Classics

More Reviews By Miv Evans

By Miv Evans

WHO ARE THE JANES?

This is a documentary about a group of middle-class women who went rogue.  It happened half a century ago but their clandestine activities are suddenly back in the spotlight.  They’re the renegades who gave illegal abortions.    

HOW IT BEGAN

It’s Chicago in the late 60s.  The Baby Boomers that followed the Silent Generation are making a lot of noise.  They’re campaigning for civil rights, protesting the Vietnam war and joining ranks with the Black Panthers.  Amongst them is one Heather Booth, a 19-year-old sophomore.  As committed an activist as she is, she becomes exasperated with the chauvinism that infests the movements she’s working so hard to support.  It seems circa 60s male isn’t as enthusiastic about women’s rights as he is about his own.  So when Heather steps in to arrange an illegal abortion for a desperate girl, she’s unfazed by the avalanche of identical requests that follow.  Far from discouraging them, she spreads the word that anyone in need should call her dorm and use the code name ‘Jane.’   And thus Heather’s activism finds its home.  When willing helpers join the crusade, the ‘Jane Collective’ is born.  The girls are young and look more like ‘rock chicks’ than revolutionaries.  But revolutionaries they are, changing the lives of countless, grateful women.

THE OUTLAWS

It’s the recollections of five of these women that lead this documentary through its twists and turns. The unsung heroines of the 70s are now IN their seventies and their stories are compelling.  They knew they were risking life in prison but their only tales of courage are about others.  Even when they got arrested, they kept going, intrepid warriors charging through with sabers rattling.  With such exciting material, it’s unfortunate the filmmakers failed to recreate the drama that each day brought.  It’s equally unfortunate that the tumultuous ending is casually skipped over and the ladies never get chance to bid us a final farewell.

ROE V WADE 

While the Supreme Court ruminates about whether to uphold Roe v Wade, perhaps the objectors could take a look at this film.  Or perhaps they already know that hospitals had to open septic abortion wards for women who arrived in agony, at death’s door.  In many cases, they got wheeled straight through.  But if girls and young mothers dying is of no concern, perhaps they should read the studies that claim crime nose-dives 20 years after abortion becomes legal.  These studies are highly controversial, but not as controversial as America returning to the dark ages.  That would be embarrassing.  

TAKING RESPONSIBILITY

Needless to say, these rogue women became highly adept at evading the law – that is, until a disgruntled bystander reported them to the police.  It’s ironic that these opinionated people have nothing to say about who should pay to raise the child they insist be born.  Not them for sure.  They’re too busy voting for a political party that’s against universal healthcare.  It seems anti-abortionists only care about fetuses.  Once the kid is born, it’s on its own. 

Premiered at Sundance Film Festival January, 2022

Coming to HBO in 2022

By Miv Evans

‘Reparative’ or ‘conversion’ therapy is an attempt to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender.   As bizarre a notion as this may sound, an Evangelical church in Washington state convinced thousands of Americans they could ‘pray away the gay.’  Needless to say, the church got extremely rich.      

It all began in the 70s.  This may have been an enlightened time for some but, for others, taboos around same sex relationships were rampant.  In an attempt to leave the homosexual lifestyle so despised by their Christian faith, a group of men started a support group.  Within weeks, they received over 25,000 letters from people asking for help.  The group quickly grew into a movement known as Exodus International.  Its rallying cry was “Change is right around the corner!”  It endured for 37 years and was the largest conversion therapy organization in the world. 

Initially, treatment was limited to counseling and 12-step programs.  This was injurious enough to its victims, but then ‘aversion treatment’ raised its ugly head.  This more sinister approach administered electric shocks and induced vomiting and paralysis.  In other words, it was a sadist’s paradise.  If anyone died during their torture, it didn’t get reported.  Unless, of course, suicides are included.  They were four times higher than the U.S. norm and predominantly young.   

Amongst the many who had been ‘saved’ by this therapy were five superstars.  They travelled the globe to preach about their God-inspired change.  Audiences were spellbound by these ‘ex-gay’ epiphanies.  But the same time the celebrities were extolling their miracle, they were struggling with a hidden truth.  Their same-sex attractions had never gone away.  One by one, they came out as LGBTQ, disavowing the very movement they helped start.  Their declarations were the catalysts that pulled back the curtain on the abominations being carried out in the name of the Lord.

The American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, and virtually every recognized health organization, discredited the therapy.  They said It was unscientific, ineffective and likely to cause lifelong psychological and spiritual violence and devastation.  These revelations went viral and with an entire country watching, church leaders had no option than to close Exodus down.  As far as the public were concerned, that was the end of it.  But Big Church wasn’t going to give up those Big Bucks without a fight.  

Some of the Exodus ministries quietly rebranded themselves and the Restored Hope Network, another faction with a God complex, made a silent debut.  All these websites make great efforts to try and separate themselves from the disgraced mob of 2013.  But nobody can misinterpret the meaning of ‘overcoming sinful relational and sexual issues.’  So the assaults never stopped, despite proof of their tragic consequences.  But how else do you net millions from ‘treatment centers’ when you’re not even qualified to take a pulse?    

Clinicians lose their license if they harm a patient, but Evangelicals hide behind religious freedom.  This means they can do what they want, to who they want, if they claim they’re carrying out God’s will.  Isn’t it strange how religious fanatics always know exactly what God’s will is, and how, coincidentally, it lines up with their own?    

The documentary Pray Away is streaming on Netflix.  It chronicles the journeys of leaders, members and survivors of Exodus International.