The Lesson: The Anxiety of Influence

 

T.S. Eliot's famous Formalist essay "Tradition and the Individual Talent" attempted to discern how much the legacy of the past -- in his case, hundreds of years of English poetry -- weighed on a young artist trying to make his or her own way. Eliot, a young St. Louis native who had been transported to London to try to change modern poetry felt both that one must understand and even accept the history of one's art, but that also an artist is obliged to break away from that Tradition to establish something new.

None of this really pertains -- except in an obtuse way -- to Alice Troughton's sharp thriller concerning a "Great Man" writer, played very well by Richard E. Grant and a young, aspiring (Black) writer who desperately wants to be Great, but might be consigned to Teach, as those who "can't do" do. 

In the opening scene (via the film's clever frame-tale) Daryl McCormack's Liam Summers is being feted on British TV for a Major New Work by a Major New Author. This scene brings to mind the brilliant and disturbing Tar, which has a similar frame tale and in some ways an equally bleak ending. When asked what inspired Summers to write his novel, he pauses, and most of the rest of the film attempts to answer that question.

The interior tale of The Lesson has Summers being hired to tutor The Author, J.M. Sinclair's moody Gen Y son, to help said Lad enter a prestigious English Undergrad program presumably at Oxford, or Cambridge. Sinclair's wife, played with cool French disinteredness by the great Julie Delpy, has hired Summers and may, or may not know that Summers is a Sinclair aficionado. Sycophant, perhaps, and also an aspiring writer himself.

Sinclair is Tradition, and Summers is the Individual Talent. 

The action takes place at Sinclair's small but gorgeous country estate, and once Summers arrives and takes up residence, the film plays out like a tight, Harold Pinter-style family drama. Sinclair is a tyrant and egotist, of course, and wife Helene realized some time ago that he only wants her for her French street cred. Oh, and some night time nookie in the writing room. So, she the have an Arrangement as most power couples do. 

But something is rotten in Somerset, so to speak. As Summers dines with Father, Helene and Moody Young Bertie it becomes clear that something more than just the classic Upper Middle Class disfunction is going on here. Stares, or Glares are exchanged like poison darts, while Father controls not just what they eat, but which Famous Russian Romantic Composer's music they are listening to. Through it all Summers tries to learn what is really going on, as he attempts to crack through Bertie's adolescent angst.

The Plot becomes more complicated as we learn that Sinclair is long overdue for his new Novel. Enquiring minds want to know what it is about, and when it will come out. Summers wants to know, too, and at one point about 2/3 of way through the film Sinclair invites him into his inner sanctum and shares that he has a draft of his new book. Summers is invited to read and comment on it, and, in turn, Summers asks Sinclair to read and comment on a draft of his first novel.

How this all plays out in the third reel, and what the deep dark secret is that is driving the overly vicious family dynamics you will have to find out for yourself. I don't put spoilers in my reviews and then say Spoiler Alert up front. OK, I did that with one review, but that is not typical.

Driving the claustrophobic action forward are fine performances all around, including deft work by Crispin Letts as Ellis, the don't ask don't tell Butler. Set design and Camerawork are top notch, and one note should be made of Isobel Waller-Bridge's excellent Score.

Great stuff. 

Won't ask, can't tell

 

It is hard for me, as a Hetero/Cisgender White Man, to imagine the difficulty a Gay Black Man would have had (or even today does have) just living in the world. It is even harder to imagine what that same man would have had to endure in the Armed Forces, considering I also have never served.

Having watched the The Inspection, I can at least say I have some idea of that difficulty. Elegance Bratton's dreamily photographed, yet hard-hitting film tells the apparently true story of one such man, Ellis French, who enrolls in the Marines after a tough young life with a Mom who "just don't understand". Dad is apparently absent (what else is new?) and Ellis seems to believe that the Armed Forces will give him a sense of belonging, and structure that growing up poor, and uneducated hasn't done.

Many enter the Military with similar expectations. They are usually disappointed in the reality of life in the Corps, or whatever branch in which they serve. Mainly because Basic Training is really, really tough. And, until recently, primarily Male, and Hetero. At moment in time our hero enrolls, there are some women, but the Military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy makes being openly (or even closeted) Gay dangerous business.

In Jeremey Pope's nuanced performance, French doesn't hide being Gay, but is never open enough about it that others should really know. But, alas, they do, and the resulting ridicule, and regular beatings from white, black and Latino men give us a small window into the suffering that any non-conformist in the Military must endure.

French does endure, not much aided by his Commanding Officer, Sargent Laws, played with brutal forcefulness by the great Bokeem Woodbine. Although there are some who support French -- including a closeted Officer -- none can be obvious about it. The dichotomy between trying to create a soldier, and suppressing the 'disgusting' gayness that Laws should feel seems to be non-existent. The irony is that commanding officers, especially during Training, both love their trainees and must act like they hate them: tear them down and rebuild them as fighting machines so they can go into battle and prevail.

At some level, Laws must feel this conflict, but he simply cannot show it, if he does. Woodbine plays the character with such conviction that, were it not for Pope's beautiful portrayal of French, Laws would steal the show. Or French's mother, played with similar grace by the equally great Gabrielle Union might do so as well, as her "cold cold heart" melts only slightly as she watches her son try to progress to some accomplishment in life: graduating Basic Training.

Hard to watch, but worth the effort.