Joel Fry-days: Fortune’s Smile (2011)

This is an odd little short. Its tone kept me off-kilter, and it took me a while to decide whether or not it seemed to be going for some type of magical realism, though I ultimately came down on the side of liking it. And look, I know that I’m biased, but Joel Fry is really great in it!

Ivan’s call center job is sucking the life out of him. One night, when he happens to walk into a pub called The Fortune, he contemplates new possibilities for himself. An encounter with an eccentric old writer reignites his own writing dreams, which he’d all but given up on, and Ivan starts to hope for a different path for his life.

As I said, the feel and tone of the short is a little elusive. When Ivan first walks into The Fortune, I found myself wondering if this was going to be like the pub version of the mysterious shop that sells you an enchanted object and isn’t there anymore when you try to go back. Some of its clientele—like Lester, Ivan’s new writer friend, and Harriet, a former It Girl turned theatrical producer—are larger than life and lend a slightly unreal quality to the whole thing. Contrasted against the droning monotony of Ivan’s job, I can see why he’d be taken with it.

The script is all right. The voiceover is used too sparingly to really fit, and the dialogue relies a little too often on characters repeating one another’s lines back to each other, a la, “I thought you were all through with that!”, “Well, I’m not through with all that.” Still, there are some nice bits here. I like the air of mystery and romance Lester very intentionally cultivates for himself, there are some well-used quotations, and I enjoy how things come out in the resolution.

The best part, though, is Joel Fry’s performance as Ivan. He turns in some lovely, understated work here. Ivan reminds me a little of both Hugh from Bank of Dave and Trevor from DogBoy, in that he’s insecure, soft-spoken, and generally uncomfortable. Each of these characters still feels distinct and different, though, which I imagine isn’t easy with characters who are a bit wallflower-ish.

With Ivan, we see Fry’s physicality coming through in his discomfort, or lack thereof. When Ivan is at work (and sometimes when he’s with his girlfriend,) he’s constantly rubbing/touching his face or fiddling with his hair. He largely averts his eyes from other people’s, and he apologizes as he stumbles over his words. But when he’s with Lester, listening to the old man’s stories or thinking about his own writing, Ivan is eager and fairly relaxed. He smiles, he speaks more confidently, and he’s more likely to look people in the eye. In any given scene, all you have to do is look at him to know if it’s draining or invigorating for him.

There are so many small moments of his that I really like. Compared to Day Murch’s Lester and Sadie Frost’s Harriet, Fry’s work is very understated, which makes for an interesting contrast with their more colorful performances. When Ivan’s girlfriend is griping about him getting back into the play he’s been writing, he tries to tell her about Lester encouraging him. She flatly responds, “Has he read it?”, and Ivan’s face crumbles in the smallest, quietest way before he admits, “Not yet.” I also really love a scene where Ivan is talking to Harriet. I won’t spoil the details, but Fry is so good here! As Ivan begins, he’s nervous but excited, and over the course of the scene, we see his confusion growing even as he hangs onto his hopeful smile. Just wonderfully done!

Accent Watch

Sounds like his usual Southern British English.

Recommend?

In General – I might. It’s kind of a weird one and the script stumbles a bit, but on the whole, I liked it.

Joel Fry – Yes. I know I’m sounding easy to please here, because I’ve loved him in practically everything I’ve watched for Joel Fry-days, but I do honestly love what he does with this character.

Warnings

Drinking/smoking, language, suggestiveness, and thematic elements.

Y tu Luna también: Narcos: Mexico: Season 2, Episode 7 – “Truth and Reconciliation” (2020)

*One major spoiler from episode 6*

The writing’s starting to appear on the wall now. You can’t necessarily predict how it’s all going down, but it’s evident that things are heading for a collision.

At the end of the previous episode, Félix made his harshest power move yet—he ended the Sinaloa-Tijuana feud by allowing the Tijuana guys to kill Cochiloco, thereby satisfying their inflamed egos and putting the remaining Sinaloans in their place. But that move is now backfiring on him. One plaza boss wants to get out from under Félix altogether, and Walt gets an anonymous tip that another wants to meet with him. Meanwhile, predictions for the upcoming election spell disaster for Félix’s politician friends, and he searches for a way to save his own ass by rescuing theirs.

I won’t spoil who the potential defectors are, but the way it plays out is pretty compelling. We have tense action scenes in which lives are in peril, and we also get quiet one-on-one scenes featuring terrific acting and dialogue. And despite Walt’s annoyance at having to go follow an anonymous tip in the first place, preferring to stick with Amado and the planes, a major fish offers to place itself on his hook.

The political situation in Mexico has been an ongoing plotline this season, more so than in season 1, and it really takes on an important role now. For years, the PRI has been the reigning party in Mexico, doing what they like with impunity. But after their negligent response to a massive earthquake, a leftwing populist leader, Cárdenas, has gained a groundswell of support and could actually unseat them. As Walt puts it in his narration, “When hope catches on, that shit spreads like a prairie fire.”

This is an issue for Félix, not just because he’s in bed with the PRI, but because Cárdenas is vehemently anti-narcos. Mr. X reminds him, “Cárdenas takes office, and you’re in a jail cell the same day.” It’s an interesting situation for all involved, because after the events of season 1, Félix doesn’t trust any of these politicians anymore. He’s essentially holding them ransom for his own cover. And virtually anyone in the party who interacts with him makes it clear that they despise him. But Félix’s continued survival depends on convincing them that they need him to survive.

And that’s where the election predictions come in. Through an office called SNIPE, a computer program tabulates voter data to predict outcomes (Walt’s narration reminds us that this was cutting edge in 1988 Mexico,) and the data is handing the election to Cárdenas easily. When Félix is introduced to this, he’s clearly out of his depth—he calls a predicted 54% victory in Mexico City “a coin toss,” while the politicians in the room know it’s a landslide—but he somehow finds a way to catch up very quickly and turn it to his advantage.

In recent episodes, we’ve seen a new angle from Félix. His grip on power is tighter than ever, and yet he seems to be having more and more trouble hanging onto it. As a result, his moves are getting more precarious. In the past, we’ve seen him have to dig deep as he pulls out a gambit he’s not sure will work, promising something he thinks will save him but unsure if the other person will bite. But first with the Colombians and now here with the PRI, we see him promising things he’s not even sure he can do. Although he still presents a very controlled exterior for the most part, we the audience can see how the spinning plates are starting to get away from him. I really like how Diego Luna plays this, the way we see Félix act calm and collected in front of those he’s playing metaphorical chess with but freaking out in private. And in this episode, we see yet another example of a classist elite mocking him to his face (what is their obsession with being snobs to the powerful, dangerous drug trafficker?)—Félix doesn’t react at all in the moment, but one look at his face can tell you he won’t forget a word of this.

Joel Fry-days: 10,000 BC (2008, PG-13)

Look, this movie has 10% on Rotten Tomatoes—I knew what I was getting into. Every actor has stuff like this in their filmography, and because I’m me, I can’t just not watch it if I can get my hands on it. I had to see it for myself, and now I have.

When a band of “four-legged demons” (a.k.a. slavers on horseback) attacks the hunter-gatherer Yagahl tribe, one of the captives includes the beautiful Evolet. D’Leh, who’s in love with her, vows to rescue her. His mission takes him across the known world—he encounters frightening beasts and rallies other tribes in his quest to rescue Evolet and the rest of his people.

We’ll get this out of the way first: history accuracy, I don’t know her. Yes, this is a prehistoric action movie, but these characters have all kinds of things that humans didn’t develop until much later. I have no idea how the geography works. And while some of the other tribes D’Leh meets are specifically Black and meant to be from what is now Africa, the members of the Yagahl tribe are cast with an assorted range of Black and brown actors…but Steven Strait, who plays D’Leh, is white. Of course he is. Oh, and part of the reason Evolet’s beauty is so striking is because she has blue eyes.

For the most part, the story is just dull. Generic prophecy, generic action, generic love story. There’s just not much to it, and the most interesting action set pieces come at the beginning, with a dramatic mammoth hunt, and the end, with the climactic showdown against the slavers. In the middle, the film drags, and I don’t have any interest in D’Leh’s big savior narrative.

The moments I like are mostly small—the moments where we remember that prehistoric people were still still people. Two captured boys from different tribes navigating the language barrier. A pair of Yagahl crying out when one of their friends is killed. D’Leh struggling to keep his composure when another tribe invites him in and their hospitality involves spicier food than he’s ever eaten before. Little human moments in the midst of the larger disengaging plot.

10,000 BC was Joel Fry’s feature film debut. Kinda wild to have your first movie being a big action film with CGI beasts, although he wouldn’t have gotten in on too much of that stuff. Fry plays Lu’kibu, one of the Yagahl. He has a moderate amount of screentime but very little to actually do. Lu’kibu is among the group of captives, and mostly he’s there to help fill out the large group scenes. He has maybe six or seven lines, sprinkled throughout the movie.

So yeah, not much there. To the extent that Lu’kibu has any characterization, its, Are we sure that this D’Leh guy is really all that? Any time someone is expressing doubt in D’Leh’s abilities or leadership, there’s a decent chance that it’s Lu’kibu. That’s what most of his limited lines are about, and it comes through in Joel Fry’s facial acting as well. Lu’kibu’s side eye is another one of those “prehistoric people were still people” moments for me, and I admittedly find it kind of amusing.

Accent Watch

I don’t know. All the Yagahl use some kind of accent, but I have no idea what it’s supposed to be.

Recommend?

In General – No. A Big Dumb Action Movie can be fun under the right circumstances, but this one just isn’t very interesting.

Joel Fry – Naw. As a Joel Fry movie, this is more a series of glimpses than anything else. There’s just not much for him to do.

Warnings

Violence, scary moments for kids, drinking, and thematic elements.