There's an old expression, "Earn your attitude," that the creators of Smile Again, Jenny Lee, a churlish soap opera shot in San Francisco, might have considered before they filmed this story about a washed-up 20something tennis player. Attacked by a man with a lead pipe, Jenny (Monique Hafen) is left barely able to walk, her ability to play competitive tennis threatened.
Swiss-born filmmaker Carlo Caldana sets his dyspeptic tale in a gorgeous slice of lower Pacific Heights, where an insufferable brat like Jenny might feel at home. While it's not essential that we love her, Jenny wears out her welcome well before the end of Act I. She spends most of her screentime hectoring everyone in sight to lend her money, pay her bills, or listen to her whine. There might be a market for well-photographed poppycock shot in our fair city, but for it to work the material would have to reflect the taste and sense of humor of the average Cafe Flore patron. Jenny Lee feels stale before it can be unwrapped. Opens Friday at the Roxie Theater.
About 10 minutes into German director Maren Ade's laugh-out-loud father-daughter gem Toni Erdmann, you grasp that you're on a special cinema ride. With its politically incorrect humor and flagrant nudity, the film might be a tad long, but I'd be damned if I know what to cut.
It launches on a sad note, the death of practical joker/retired music teacher Winfried's ancient dog. Equally pressing on this naturally jolly German senior's disposition is a growing feeling that his beloved adult daughter, Ines, is on the wrong path at work, a consultant job that's turning her into a sadly serious young woman. The heart of the piece is Winfried's decision to "goof" on his kid at work in an escalating series of practical jokes that would test the strongest family bonds. In his most egregious stunts Winfried dons a tacky black wig while sitting in on Ines' high-level business meetings, eventually inspiring a father/daughter debate on the nature of happiness.
The leads are terrific, Peter Simonischek as Winfried and his outrageous alter ego Toni Erdmann, and Sandra Huller as Ines, a part that includes a scene of complete frontal nudity that will probably not make the cut in a projected Hollywood remake. Toni Erdmann is a front-runner for Oscar's Best Foreign Language Film honors. Opens Friday at Landmark's Embarcadero Center Cinemas.