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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 05 November 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT (India/France/Lux/Neth 2024) ***½

Directed by Payal Kapadia

A female film all the way directed by also by a female,  The hit at this year’s Cannes is a hazily lit, dreamy and idyllic-looking feature bringing together three women, each of whom have their own problems.  Prabha (Kani Kusruti) and Anu (Divya Prabha) are roommates and nurses at a Mumbai hospital. Prabha is married, but her husband went abroad to work many years ago. Now drifting into middle age, she focuses on her job. Anu, by contrast, is young and full of dreams for her future, which she hopes will include the handsome Muslim boy she’s secretly seeing. Prabha initially regards the potentially scandalous affair as an annoyance, but she comes to sympathize with Anu’s passion, perhaps because she, too, feels the tug of frustrated ardour, thanks to the attentions of a poetry-writing doctor.  When Prabha’s friend Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam) is evicted from her home by heartless developers, she decides to return to the coastal village of her youth. Prabha and Anu tag along for a holiday. Far from the city’s perpetual clamour, the women’s feelings and sense of life’s possibilities are given free rein.  The film celebrates womanhood, showing how each needs to support another in the face of male-related problems.  In unity, females can face the world with strength and resilience—great shots of Dubai life and the beautiful Indian beach areas.

THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE (Pigen med nålen)(Denmark/Sweden/Poland 2024) ****


Directed by Magnus von Horn

Premiering at Cannes this year followed by screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival, THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE is an excellent historical drama though a very depressing one.  The film is shot in black and white with a setting in post-WWII Denmark, which is made even more depressing by the story in which bleakness piles upon bleakness.  If one can stomach the bleakness, a superbly crafted film is in for the taking, though definitely not of a feel-good nature.  The film is based on true life events - that of a baby killer, one of Denmark’s most infamous killers.  A woman pretends to take in babies from mothers who seek a better life for their babies, but the woman kills babies instead using several methods.

The protagonist is Karoline, a young woman trying to survive after the war.  Vic Carmen Sonne is remarkable in her portrayal of  Karoline, a young seamstress trying to survive on her own since her husband was declared missing in action.  Fortune smiles upon her when she develops a connection with Jørgen (Joachim Fjelstrup), the owner of the factory where she works. Yet a cascade of misfortunes soon reminds her of how little protection she enjoys. As the film progresses, one can only pity Katroline as things get from worse to worse..  Can things improve even a little?  Firstly when the film begins, Karoline is evicted from her squalor apartment.  She finds lodging in an even more horrid room with no running water and a window that cannot be opened.  She is warned not to have any visitors though one can only imagine who would want to visit such a place.  

Her woes improve a bit as the events set her on the path toward Dagmar (Trine Dyrholm), a shop owner she works for as a seamstress, who offers a particular service to women in need.  The dynamic they form will have major repercussions for them both.  They fall in love and she is impregnated by him.  Just as one can think the film is leading towards the kindness of human beings, Dagmar’s mother stops the romance between her son and her and tosses her out on the street.   She takes a needle to a public bath and tries to abort the unborn child, hence the title of the film THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE.  There she meets the baby killer and things do NOT get any better.  Karolyn and the baby killer strike up a camaraderie, even when Karolyn discovers the truth.  More of the darkness is included with the reappearance of Karolyn’s supposedly husband missing in war with a disfigured face.  Why he has not responded to her letters is not really explained in the film.  The ugliness of his facial injury is not hidden from the audience.
For all its bleakness and depression, THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE is a compelling film with strong performances, stunning cinematography, and production values. I ranked it one of my Top 10 films of 2024.

THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE, the Danish entry for Best International Feature for the upcoming Academy Awards opens in theatres on Nov 27th, 2024.

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MARIA  (Italy/Germany/Chile/United States 2024) ***

Directed by Pablo Larrain

MARIA is the third film in Larraín's trilogy of 20th-century iconic women, preceded by SPENCER (2021) and JACKIE (2017).   

MARIA, the film about Maria Callas, is set during Her final years in Paris in the 1970s. It is not a Callas biopic, as neither were the two other Lorain films, JACKIE and SPENCER, about Jacqueline Kennedy and Lady Diana Spencer.

Angelina Jolie portrays the diva, the diva that she is.  She is proud and pompous like a peacock who does not care for anyone else except for the wealthy and famous in her social circle.  Vanity project or Oscar bait?  Could very well be both.  It is noted that Bradley Cooper’s MAESTRO on Leonard Bernstein did not win him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.  But to give credit where credit is due,  it should be noted that to prepare for her role, Jolie spent seven months training to sing opera. In the scenes set during Callas' heyday, an estimated 90 to 95 percent of Callas' original recordings were used, with Jolie lip-synching along to these songs. However, Jolie's singing comes to the fore during the film's final act.  It is reported that the film received an eight-minute standing ovation at the Sala Grande Theatre during its world premiere, reducing Angelina Jolie to tears.

When the film opens, Callas is suffering from ill health, often taking too much medication.  She has lost her ability to sing and perform, but her reputation still precedes her.  One would wish more information be given on how she lost her goal abilities.  Still, she is headstrong aided by no less, her personal butler and housekeeper.  She often asks her housekeep how she sing, noting that the housekeeper has no operatic experience.  Yet she trusts her judgment.  Her two employees obey her at her every request, and the butler supports her and beats up a reporter who is hounding her and threatening her that her audience no longer respects her.  The reporter is pushed severely by the by=tler, and he clerkly deserves what he got.

The film celebrates an Italian cast, though Callas was an American-born Greek soprano.  Angelina Papadopoulou plays young Maria Callas, while Pierfrancesco Favino as Ferruccio and Alba Rohrwacher as Bruna plays the Callas’s Italian household.

Callas loves her pets dogs - two of them, often seen following her around her residence.  “It is 99% about food and 1% about love,” she remarks, which is very true for all dogs.

The best thing about the film is the images of the real Maria Callas, which include her aging during the closing credits.  The audience gets to see the real person in her glamour with it fading during her latter years.

MARIA is pretty much the same as Larrain’s other two films of his trilogy JACKIE and SPENCER, with elaborate and meticulously orchestrated production set pieces but empty vehicles on the whole where the sum of the parts do not really add up to a strong narrative or purpose.

Despite the chaotic often unrelated segments and often glorified scenes of Callas, the film is still magnificent to look at, and does Callas justice that is due to her.

MARIA opens in select theatres on November 27th and streams on MUBI from December 11, 2024.

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NEVER LOOK AWAY (USA 2024) ***½

Directed by Lucy Lawless

The doc NEVER LOOK AWAY celebrates Margaret Moth, warts and all.

Born in Gisborne, New Zealand, as Margaret Wilson, she got her first camera at age 8.

She was the first news camerawoman in New Zealand, originally for the local DNTV2 station in the South Island before working for the national TVNZ channel.  She changed her name to Margaret Gipsy Moth reportedly because of her love for parachuting from Tiger Moth airplanes and her desire to have her "own" name.

The doc initiates the audience to the woman with her first fling with a 17-year-old while she was 30.  The doc then follows Moth as she moved to the United States and worked for KHOU in Houston, Texas, for about seven years before moving to CNN in 1990.  Moth covered the Persian Gulf War, the rioting that followed Indira Gandhi's assassination, the civil war in Tbilisi, Georgia, and the Bosnian War. She had been described by colleagues as quirky, tough, fearless, and funny.

The doc works avoids being a biopic by omitting Margaret’s past.  When the first boyfriend (the17 17-year-old), Jeff Russi asks Margaret about her past, her reply is that she had forgotten.  So, no mention of her childhood is found in the doc.

Risks come with a price.  No one is invincible - Margaret Moth included,  In July 1992, Moth was shot and severely wounded while filming in Sniper Alley in Sarajevo.   Because of this injury, considerable damage was done to her body, and her speech became slurred. Despite her injuries, she returned to work in Sarajevo six months later, joking that she was going back to look for her missing teeth.

War is the ultimate drug.  Better than rugs like LCD and heroin that CNN photojournalist Margaret Moth partakes.  CNN camerawoman Margaret Moth made the wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Lebanon, and Operation Desert Storm in Iraq, real for North American television audiences. While her fellow journalists took cover, Moth ran towards danger, camera in hand, to get the shots. Colleagues including Christiane Amanpour attest to her bravery but it is Moth’s friends and lovers who reveal the self-destructive nature of the artist behind the lens. Innovative reconstructions of her near-lethal assignment in Sarajevo’s Sniper Alley, which turned Moth into headline news, are paired with unsettling interviews with witnesses to her daredevilry, forming the grit of this unconventional portrait. In her directorial debut, actor Lucy Lawless reveals the fearlessness of a fellow Kiwi woman  The document ends with Moth being diagnosed with colon cancer and dying in the arms of an old friend fellow CNN cameraman

at the age of 59.  The film’s ending minutes are spent concluding on the courage of the woman and the large impact her journalism had on stopping wars.

Director Lawless also goes personal, trying to understand the woman who faces danger and dismisses family life.  What is behind her anger?  Why is her background leading to this state?

If the name of the director Lucy Lawless sounds foamier, she is a famous New Zealand actress. She is best known for her roles as Xena in the television series Xena: Warrior Princess, as D'Anna Biers in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series, and as Lucretia in the television series Spartacus: Blood and Sand and associated series. Since 2019, she has starred as Alexa in the television series My Life Is Murder. NEVER LOOK BACK is her directorial debut.

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THE SHADE (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Tyler Chipman

THE SHADE begins with a car driving into a graveyard.  A man and his son exit the car to enter the graveyard.  The man begins to set fire to a tombstone.  The boy witnesses the grave being set afire together with his father burnt to death. an indeed traumatic experience for the boy.  The film time cuts to the future where the boy, Ryan now a teen of 20, wakes up from the nightmare, suffering mental trauma and taking medication for it while seeing a therapist routinely.

A grieving young man struggles to protect his family from an unspeakable darkness.

Ryan Beckman (Chris Galust), a 20-year-old college student from a declining town in the northeast, struggles with a debilitating anxiety disorder following his father's death. His older brother, Jason, returns home unexpectedly while battling his own demons. Together with his younger brother James, Ryan struggles to break the destructive cycle threatening their family as ancient darkness closes in on them.

THE SHADE, directed by Tyler Chipman and co-written by the director and David Purdy covers several genres and can best be described as a drama, thriller, psychological thriller, and horror.  It runs a lengthy 2 hours, a bit long for a typical 90-minute horror feature, but the extra time allows the film both character and plot development.  The excellent blend of psychological horror and family relationship drama makes THE SHADE stand out as a compelling film.

The film spends its first hour introducing the family unit, with its problems and Ryan’s troubled relationship with his mother and his returning older brother Jason.  One night, he enters his brother’s room to confront him with the extra loud music blaring only to vaguely see a woman there before Jason punches on him.  More agony to the family arises when Jason is found dead in’s room.  Ryan tries to protect the youngest brother who seems to cope quite well.  At the same time, pressure mounts because of Ryan’s horrid low-paying pizza job.  His buddies include a motor-mouthed Latino, who provides some comic relief to an otherwise serious future and his girlfriend who seems supportive until Ryan becomes a bit too much to handle, explaining her disappearance from the story for a while.

The film rests on young actor Chris Galust who does a solid job as the troubled 20-year-old.  Tony Award winner Laura Benanti also deserves mentioned as Ryan’s troubled mother, who is at a loss for how to deal with her three sons.  Also of notice is the cinematography which is also excellent right from the beginning of the burning graveyard scene.  A lot of scenes take place in the night, allowing the d.p. to show off the talent.

THE SHADE is an impressive directorial debut that has won multiple accolades during film festivals.  Among the noted ones are:

WINNER Best Special Effects – Days of the Dead Film Festival

WINNER Best Directing – Days of the Dead Film Festival

WINNER Best First Time Filmmaker – Days of the Dead Film Festival

WINNER Jury Award Best Feature Film – Snowdance Independent Film Festival

THE SHADE is available Video On Demand on November 22nd.

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WICKED (entitled onscreen as WICKED PART 1) (USA 2024) ***½
Directed by John M. Chu

Wicked is one of the most successful Broadway musicals and the film adaptation was originally set for as way back as 2021.  Unforeseen circumstances like scheduling and the Pandemic resulted in delays and even a director change from Stephen Daldry (BILLY ELLIOT), but the end result is worth the wait.  Musical and theatre fans are in for a real treat with musical numbers combined with special effects, animation and romance.

WICKED is a 2024 American epic musical fantasy film directed by Jon M. Chu from a screenplay by Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox. It is the first of a two-part film adaptation of the stage musical of the same name by Stephen Schwartz and Holzman, which in turn was loosely based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Gregory Maguire.  The film stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, with Brit actor Jonathan Bailey as Prince Charming, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode, Peter Dinklage (voicing the donkey professor), Michelle Yeoh, (as Madame Morrible and Jeff Goldblum (as the Wizard of Oz) in supporting roles.  The eclectic cast gives the film political correctness with an African American Erivo, an Asdia Yang, a Malaysian Chinese Yeoh and even a Brit who plays Prince Charming.  The film is also too obvious in its message on minorities.  Here, the animals are the minorities that are caged and eventually lose their ability to speak.  There is also an invaliding wheelchair who is portrayed by an actress in the same boat.

WICKED is directed by Chinese American John M. Chu.  The films that he has directed often include musical elements, including the dance films STEP UP 2: THE STREETS (2008) and STEP UP 3D (2010), musicals JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS (2015) and IINTHE HEIGHTS (2021), and the live concert films Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (2011) and Justin Bieber's Believe (2013).  It is as if all these films prime Chu for the big budget $145 million over-the-top musical extravaganza.

WICKED is a musical extravaganza all the way,  The film is lengthy with a running time of 2 hours and 40 minutes, and this is only for part 1.  The phrase ‘to be continued’ appears proudly on the screen at the end of the movie,.  For Broadway, theatre and musical fans, I would give the film 4 stars and three stars for others, as the musical and choreographed numbers can be a bit too much, less overbearing.  For example, the first 10 minutes of the choreography do not add anything to the film but add to its production costs.

Because of the scope of the musical and the intent of including all the songs in the musical as well as the addition of new ones, the filmmakers have decided to split WICKED into two parts.  Though WICKED is just touted as WICKED, the opening credits say WICKED PART 1.  Part 2 arrives next year in November and is also directed by Chu.

WICKED opens in theatres on November 22nd.

Trailer; 

WITCHES (UK 2024) ***½

Directed by Elizabeth Sankey

The new British documentary from MUBI that took the London International Film Festival by storm is a compulsive eerie, creepy and understandably creepy piece of work for the reason that what transpires on screen seems so real and close to home.  The titles at the start of the film inform and insist that what is seen on the screen is based on true events with actual people.  The woman featured in the film is the film’s director herself, sharing her own horrid experiences.  WITCHES has so far received two nominations at the British Independent Film Awards 2024, for the Raindance Maverick Award and Best Feature Documentary.

The film is a profound exploration of the unexpected yet compelling connections between postpartum mental health and the history and portrayal of witches in Western society and popular culture.

Following on from her critically acclaimed feature ROMANTIC COMEDY, also released by MUBI in 2019, director Sankey now uses her trademark video essay style to turn the camera inward, focusing on her own experiences with postpartum anxiety and depression.

Using her own experience of being admitted to a psychiatric ward after the birth of her son, Sankey intertwines her personal narrative with historical and cinematic footage.  It is this woven cinematic footage that creates an eeriness and makes the film so compelling.  With the words spoken by the doc’s subjects, relevant footage from horror classics, the serious ones not the camp horror slasher flicks like Roman Polanski’s ROSEMARY’S BABY, George Miller’s THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK Robert Egger’s THE WITCH, Jane Campion’s ANGEL AT MY TABLE as well as oldies like Rene Clair’s I MARRIED A WITCH, all immediately recognizable because of the film’s famous faces. The film also features interviews with medical professionals, historians, and fellow sufferers, offering a multifaceted perspective on how women with mental health issues have been stigmatized and misunderstood over time while creating her own coven of women to reclaim their stories.

The doc at its most scary shows a mother and a baby isolated together.  Many mothers post-birth have fears of harming their babies.  Being alone with their babies is often the greatest fear these mothers may have.  On the other hand, for other mothers, the bond between mother and child is healing.  The doc shows that post-birth mental illness is not a rare disease and one that many have the fear of bringing out out into the open.

The scariest moments are the segments where past inmates talk about their mental anguish.  One cannot recognize herself in the mirror.   One has to lay out things like her spectacles and other items so that she knows how to proceed daily in life.  And in the institution, they are watched daily, anoint and day by the staff who look like witches.  The inmates are prisoners who are locked in with no way out.

WITCHES is arguably the scariest film of the year because it is a doc featuring interviewees who experience real horrors of potential mental psychosis and nonfiction is more real than fiction.

WITCHES had its world premiere at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival and its U.K. premiere at the London International Film Festival and is available exclusively on MUBI from November 22nd, 2024.

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Details

Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 04 November 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

LEAD AND COPPER (USA 2024) ***
Directed by William Hart

The documentary LEAD AND COPPER is about the Flint water crisis - a public health crisis that started in 2014 after the drinking water for the city of Flint, Michigan, was contaminated with lead and possibly Legionella bacteria.  In April 2014, during a financial crisis, state-appointed emergency manager Darnell Earley changed Flint's water source from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (sourced from Lake Huron and the Detroit River) to the Flint River.  Residents complained about the taste, smell, and appearance of the water.  Officials failed to apply corrosion inhibitors to the water, which resulted in lead from aging pipes leaching into the water supply, exposing around 100,000 residents to elevated lead levels.   A pair of scientific studies confirmed that lead contamination was present in the water supply.  It is all-out saving money at the expense of human beings, least of all minority black people.

How did we not see this coming?  How could we let this happen?  Two questions were asked in the voiceover at the start of the doc when the voiceover says that the company deliberately falsified documents and polluted the waters.  The answer is quite clear as the two questions are also asked in many docs whistleblowing bad companies that are run by guilty and conscienceless executives.  The culprits here are different and do not include the CEO and top management but the government and governing bodies.  This a prime example that no one can be trusted least of all the Government. Flint isn't America's first major lead crisis, and it will not be the last.  The closing credits indicate all the counties that face the lead poisoning problem.

The Flint water crisis has a lot of grounds to cover, and director Hart has to decide what information to keep and what to omit.  Hart concentrates on personal cases, especially the one involving a Flint resident who took up upon herself to collect water samples and raise a stink about the lead poisoning,

On April 24th, 2014, Flint, Michigan switched water sources to the Flint River, a cost-saving measure enacted by former Governor Rick Snyder and his appointed Emergency Manager. This decision poisoned a city that had already been neglected for decades.

Over 8 years, through interviews of members of Congress, local officials, environmental and engineering scientists, former EPA employees, and the families affected by lead poisoning, LEAD & COPPER investigates how city, state, and federal policies contributed to environmental crises like those experienced in Flint, Newark, and Washington, D.C.

State and city officials lie to the population of Flint, Michigan about the safety of their water, leading to thousands of people being diagnosed with lead poisoning. Lead & Copper exposes the dominoes that fell that led to one of America's worst public health disasters.

The film contains interviews by important sources that lend their hand in making the doc real.  The interviewed include Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley, Former Flint Mayor Dayne Walling, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Congressman Elijah Cummings, Dr. Marc Edwards, Dr. Riché Barnes, and Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff.

LEAD AND COPPER belongs to the category of documentary that will enrage its audience.  And with reason!

LEAD AND COPPER is available on Digital/VOD from Tuesday, November 19th, 2024.

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THE LOST CHILDREN (Colombia 2024) ***½

Directed by Jorge DuranLali with co-directors  Houghton and Orlando von Einsiedel

THE LOST CHILDREN are four Indigenous Colombian children aged 11, 9 and 5 months and an 11-month baby, lost in the Amazon in Colombia after their small plane crashed.

The film is directed by Jorge DuranLali,  Houghton and Orlando von Einsiedel

  and one can detect their no-nonsense attitude toward making this truthful compelling true story transition to the screen.  The words at the start of the film inform that the footage seen is all taken by volunteer rescuers or the military or archive newsreel that certain names had to be changed for military security and that a few re-enactments were created.  This is a good sign as one naturally dislikes docs where reenactments are done to fool the audience that what is seen on screen is the real thing.  Here, the audience is told beforehand of the reenactments,

The doc then goes to show a swarm of termites, a hissing snake, spiders, other bugs and nasty insects of the jungle to emphasize the unwelcomeness of the Amazon.  The jungle is not a friendly place.

On 9 June 2023, four children were rescued from the Amazon rainforest, in Colombia after they survived a plane crash on 1 May.  The Cessna 206 plane was carrying seven people which included a woman and her four children.  All three adults were killed, leaving the children to fend for themselves in the forest.  The children's mother and two pilots were killed when their light aircraft crashed in the jungle on 1 May.  It seems that what has happened in real life is a perfect story to be filmed and to be told.  However, all four children—aged 13, 9, 4 and an 11-month-old toddler— survived in the jungle for nearly 40 days.  40 days is a long time, more than a month,  It is good to remember that these are children and not adults.   According to the rescuers, the children were malnourished and had many insect bites, but no major health issues. According to the media, the children belong to an indigenous community, living in or near the jungle.  The 13-year-old also seems to have been used to guarding the other children, when their mother was at work.  The film ends with her account of how they survived.

The plane crashed in a region of the rainforest that is difficult to access. When it was discovered there were survivors, a large-scale rescue operation was ordered by the authorities.

The doc also examines the difficulties arising from the rescue. 

President Gustavo Petro said finding the group was a "magical day", adding: "They were alone, they themselves achieved an example of total survival which will remain in history."

A moving moment includes a video shared by Colombia's Ministry of Defence showing the children being lifted into a helicopter in the dark above the tall trees of the jungle. They have been flown to the nation's capital Bogota, where ambulances have taken them to hospital for further medical treatment.

THE LOST CHILDREN is one of two original Netflix documentaries to open for streaming this week, the other one is called RETURN OF THE KING, a biopic of Elvis Presley.  These two docs are worthy of mention and provide compelling viewing and insight into their subject matter. 

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MEMOIR OF A SNAIL (Australia 2024) ***** Top 10

Directed by Adam Elliot

MEMOIR OF A SNAIL is done in the painstaking lengthy stop-motion animation process.  The film was developed over eight years. Don’t let the animation category discourage you, as this is an adult film with adult themes and a tale told in a rare and beautiful medium.  (In the US, the film was rated R "for sexual content, nudity and some violent content" by the Motion Picture Association.)  Among the voices are those of well-known stars like Kodi Smit-McPhee, Eric Bana, Dominique Pinon, Tony Armstrong, Nick Cave, and Jacki Weaver.  The film's plot, which is loosely inspired by Elliot's own life, follows the trials and tribulations in the life of lonely misfit Grace Pudel (Sarah Snook), from childhood to adulthood.

The snail in the title comes from Grace’s obsession with the mollusk.  She collects and keeps everything that bears a resemblance to a snail.  Grace sinks into loneliness, becoming a hoarder, collecting snails (real and otherwise), even wearing a “snail” hat that her father had knit.  One of her favourite pet snails was Sylvia, named after author Sylvia Plath.  But a lesson can be learned from this quaint creature.  Though it moves slowly, it always moves forward and never retracts its path.

MEMOIR OF A SNAIL has the feel of Charles Dickens classics like OLIVER TWIST and GREAT EXPECTATIONS with the protagonist surviving as a poor orphan and with young children meeting up with old folks who determine their future lives.  Like Dickens's stories, there is a happy ending for the long-suffering.  The director’s love for stop-motion animation is also evident in the film’s protagonist, Grace finally living a stable life, while pursuing her dream of being a stop-motion animator.

MEMOIR OF A SNAIL has quite a few best moments.  The best of these is the wisp of mist disappearing in the sky before forming the curled-up shape of the shell of an escargot.

The film is also charming in its presentation of sympathy for old people and gay relationships.  It is the classic fable of hope triumphing over life's despair with humanity.  There is the surprise kiss of the two step-brothers, their love that almost causes the death of one of them.  The old man in the park is treated with respect like many other old characters in the story.

MEMOIR OF A SNAIL premiered at the Annecy Animation Film Festival this year (it won the Cristal Award for Best Feature Film) which I covered remotely.  I requested a screener for MEMOIR OF A SNAIL but could not get one.  Thankfully, this excellent piece of animation got picked up and is being released in North America.  This film should have no problem receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature and is on my list for Best Animated Feature this year.

MEMOIR OF SNAIL opens November 15 in Toronto (TIFF Lightbox) and Montreal!

The film opens on November 22 in Vancouver and throughout the fall in other cities. 

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LA PALISIADA (Ukraine 2023) ***½

Directed by Philip Sotnychenko

LA PALISIADA is as strange and intriguing as any film that has opened this year.  Nothing much is explained and the film requires much intense concentration to comprehend and appreciate, and needless to say, the effort is worth the rewards.  LA PALISIADA (which perhaps means Police Story, not explained) is a neo-noir policier complete with criminals targeted in a corrupt police environment.  Two murders in fact, both with gunshots, with the common thread of the investigator.

  The film is a tale of two gunshots and several deaths – literal and metaphorical – told in a unique Eastern European neo-noir style, LA PALISIADA examines the wide-ranging ramifications of the murder of a police officer in Ukraine in 1996.  Not only was this a few months before the country signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights banning the death penalty, but having become independent in 1991 ( a suspect is in the film interrogated as to when Ukraine gained independence) Ukraine was at that time still languishing in a kind of stagnant post-Soviet continuum; a state of affairs that casts a long shadow throughout the film, and beyond.

  The plot revolves around forensic psychiatrist Oleksandr and his friend, detective Ilhar Sabitov, who battle their own complex relationships with one another and with the widow of the murdered police officer, as well as post-Soviet bureaucracy, politics, and demons from the past. In so doing, they unwittingly sow the seeds of new problems for the future – our present.

  What makes this film stand out too is the film’s unique visual style was created using a range of celluloid and digital techniques, including a retro video camera, the last surviving cassettes for which were ordered from various places around the world. Its non-linear narrative structure pulls us into the murky, complex world of post-Soviet Ukraine – a world that now has renewed urgency and relevance.

Director Sotnychenko demonstrates his sense of humour too, in one deadpan hilarious scene in which musical wares are sold flea market style in a stall set up on a railway track.  The stall has to be moved when a train comes along.  The salesman’s sales pitch is also nothing short of hilarious, showing a slice of Ukraine life.

LA PALISIADA is Ukraine’s entry for the upcoming Academy Award for Best International Feature.  The submission is shortlisted and then shortened to the 5 nominees.  The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited the film industries of various countries to submit their best film for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film since 1956. The Foreign Language Film Award Committee oversees the process and reviews all the submitted films.  Ukraine has submitted films for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film since 1997.  Of all the films submitted, only last year’s 20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL made the shortlist.  The question is whether LA PALISIADA will be able to achieve the same, as difficult and strange as this film may seem.

LA PALISIADA makes its North American I(including Canadian) premiere on the SVOD platform  FILM MOVEMENT PLUS on November 15, 2024.  Worth a look, for sure!  The film is in Ukrainian with English Subtitles.

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RETURN OF THE KING: THE FALL AND RISE OF ELVIS PRESLEY (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Jason Hehir

Elvis Presley aka The King aka Elvis the Pelvis has an an extensive career with many ups and downs, so it is understandably difficult  to tie viewers a comprehensive lot and the rock and roll date.  RETURN OF THE KING: THE FALL AND RISE OF ELVIS PRESLEY arrives just 2 years after the non-documentary ELVIS in 2022  directed by Australian Baz Luhrmann, who also serves as one of the talking heads giving his two cents worth about Presley.

RETURN OF THE KING: THE FALL AND RISE OF ELVIS PRESLEY charts Presley's life from his childhood poverty to his 1968 Comeback TV special, in which he had one chance to show the world he was still the King of Rock 'n' Roll and to discover the story behind Elvis Presley's triumphant '68 comeback special.

Many Elvis experts lend their hand to talk about him.  Among them are Bruce Springsteen, Billy Corgan, Elvis’s first wife Priscilla Presley, Conan O’Brian and the before-mentioned Lurhman.  They offer much insight into the material of the doc.

Lurhmann’s ELVIS dramatizes most of what is seen in this doc.  In ELVIS, what is emphasized is the influence of Elvis’s manager Colonel Tom Parker over Elvi’s show-business career, putting Elins in what might be termed a personal prison to the relationship between Elvis and Priscilla.  The doc, on the other hand, de-glamourizes the material and provides the same material in more documents in a more moderate one.  The doc shows Elvis’s performances, particularly the comeback shoe, but keeps the other earlier performances to a minimum.  There is more material on Elvis’s movies, including one embarrassing segment of him singing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” in one of his movies.  The influence of Colonel Tom Parker (played by Tom Hanks in the Luhrmann film) is mentioned in both films but highlighted a little less in the doc.

The doc omitted the period of Elvis’s life after the Comeback Special, especially the notable years from 1973 to 1977 when Elvis died.  1973–1977 are the years of his health deterioration and death.  To quote journalist Tony Scherman wrote that, by early 1977, "Presley had become a grotesque caricature of his sleek, energetic former self. Grossly overweight, his mind dulled by the pharmacopeia he daily ingested, he was barely able to pull himself through his abbreviated concerts.”

The doc can hardly be faulted for omitting the awful last years of Elvis because as the title of the doc indicates, the purpose is to show his fall and rise and not his fall again.  The doc therefore ends Elvis’s biopic on a high note, during his rise back to fame with his 68 comeback special.  Many fans would remember Elvis the King this way.

` RETURN OF THE KING: THE FALL AND RISE OF ELVIS PRESLEY and THE LOST CHILDREN are two must-watch original Netflix documentaries that should be seen for their relevant content.  Both films open for streaming on Netflix this week.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 02 November 2024

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 26 October 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

ABSOLUTION (USA 2024) ***

Directed by Hans Petter Moland

ABSOLUTION shows Liam Neeson once again in tough thug mode in a role with a character with no name (remember the Clint Eastwood man with no name spaghetti westerns?) but assigned the term ‘thug’ in the credits.  This is another variation of Neeson’s TAKEN action flicks, but this time he is on the other side of the law, but still a good guy, but suffering from memory loss as he is diagnosed with an advanced case of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.  People with CTE may experience executive function disorder, which is related to an inability to pay attention or focus. They might find it hard to remember instructions or manage multiple projects.  This seems to be the case for Thug after he gets himself checked at a medical centre,

Thug was a championship boxer in his younger days, thus providing a cause for chronic traumatic encephalopathy.  When one experiences a blow to the head, the brain bounces off the back of the skull, which essentially rotates the brain.  People may not experience any symptoms or notice any potential signs of CTE until years later.  Neeson previously portrayed a thug with amnesia in the 2022 film MEMORY.  The memorable line in that movie: “Never mind what you were before (he was a hitman) but what you are from now.”

So the film is about a thug who can still beat up his attackers, but with more vulnerability.  His daughter wants nothing to do with him.  Thug had been in prison as he confessed to his grandson who shows interest in football and boxing.  Oddly, Thug does not advise him against it because of his ailment.  The only advice he gives him besides boxing lessons is: "Learn to walk away. That is how I landed in prison.”

The film seems to be mediocre in concept but as in a poster seen at a doctor’s office: ‘Don’t forget to notice the details’.  The film covers all the odds and ends of the story i.e. the details, so there are at least no loose ends in the story.  Details include observation of the footwork of the boxers,  But before one can toss the film as another forgettable action flick, it should be remembered that the director of ABSOLUTION is Norwegian Hans Petter Moland who worked with Neeson in the 1999 film COLD PURSUIT, a mediocre remake of his original Norwegian thriller IN ORDER OF DISAPPEARANCE with Stellan Skarsgard.  IN ORDER OF DISAPPEARANCE was one of the Best 10 films of that year, unforgettable because of the details in the story.  The best segment and one that was not reproduced in the remake COLD PURSUIT was the segment in which the drug lord (who keeps claiming how much effort is required in work) had his ex-wife storm into his home to look for their son’s gym bag.

Though  ABSOLUTION never reaches the heights reached in IN ORDER OF DISAPPEARANCE, ABSOLUTION is still a gripping thriller as director Moland knows how to grab the attention of his audience.

ABSOLUTION arrives in theatres Friday, November the 1st without much fanfare.  But if one admires Director Moland, ABSOLUTION would be of interest.

DAHOMEY (Senegal/France/Benin 2024) ***
Directed by Mati Diop

The Golden Bear winner at this year’s Berlinale, Mati Diop’s DAHOMEY traces the historic repatriation of 26 royal treasures from France to Benin, simultaneously forging a speculative and political reflection on cultural heritage, collective memory, and the implications of restitution.  Diop directed the recent ATLANTICS which received rave reviews when screened at Cannes and at TIFF.

Benin, a French-speaking West African nation, is the birthplace of the vodun (or “voodoo”) religion and home to the former Dahomey Kingdom from circa 1600–1900. In Abomey, Dahomey's former capital, the Historical Museum occupies two royal palaces with bas-reliefs recounting the kingdom’s past and a throne mounted on human skulls. To the north, Pendjari National Park offers safaris with elephants, hippos and lions.

For centuries, the Kingdom of Dahomey, within the borders of modern-day Benin, was a central cultural meeting point in West Africa, a site of European colonial conquest and the transatlantic slave trade. In 1892, the French invaded and looted hundreds of treasures from the royal palace, alongside thousands of other works. Following years of appeals and reports, in 2021 an agreement was made for several of these artworks to be returned from France to Benin.

The doc, at the beginning, takes the view of one of the artifacts that calls itself number 26.  It talks in voiceover (speaking in Don), of what it experiences while being stolen and then returned back to Benin.  The star speaks in poetic prose, giving the doc an artistic feel.

A few artifacts are shown and described in detail.  One of them is a statue of King Ghezo, one of the country’s rulers in the past.  It is slightly damaged but was made of painted wood and steel fibre and still looks magnificent.

A large portion of the doc involves debates among the Beninese - University students.  The debates open one’s eyes to the thoughts and demise of the people.  Firstly, they main issue of concern is the return of only 26 figures out of a total of 7000.  The important question is the reason for their return.  There is a debate of whether the move is politically cultural.  One person says that Francois Mitterrand just wants to improve his brand by allowing the run of the 26 figures.  Another argues that there are two kinds of heritage - material and nonmaterial.  The artifacts are the material ones that have been taken away from the people and the other like the dances, colour and music that stay in the country and conniver be taken away from the people.  The point is also brought out of when the rest of the 7000 will be returned, if ever.

Other issues rain, making the problem more complex.  Who will be responsible for looking after and preserving the artifacts?  An elderly claims that he is too old and it is up to the younger generation to take responsibility.   The returned figures now reside in the Palais and how can children in remote villages get a chance to view the history? 

The doc also emphasizes the importance of history and the loss of the people’s native language due to colonization.  The debaters in the doc all speak French and cannot communicate or speak in their native tongue.

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DAHOMEY won this year’s Golden Bear at the Berlinale, was screened at the last Toronto International Film Festival, and opens at the TIFF Lightbox on October 18th.

HERE (USA 2024) **
Directed by Robert Zemeckis

The new film HERE puts the director Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks together, having had immense success from the past collaboration FORREST GUMP.  But director Zemeckis has had misses too, and HERE, a high concept film is unfortunately one of them, but not for what of trying.  HERE also demonstrates the worst of Zemeckis, sentimentality made worse with lots of segments set during the Christmas yuletide season.

HERE is a 2024 American drama film produced and directed by Robert Zemeckis, who co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Roth, based on the 2014 graphic novel by Richard McGuire.  It stars heavyweights Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Paul Bettany, and Kelly Reilly.

The story covers the events of a single spot of land and its inhabitants, spanning from the past to well into the future.  The film is best described as a generational story about families and the special place they inhabit, sharing in love, loss, laughter, and life, but with distractions.

HERE is a concept movie and credit should be given to Zemeckis for trying something fresh and innovative.  The concept is a piece of land that constitutes the term HERE and the film shows HERE from the time, it was just land that natives inhabited to the time when a house was built from colonial times to the present.  There is also a frame on the screen that characters move in and out from.  The film shifts forwards and backward in time, showcasing many families but concentrating on the couple Richard and Margaret played by Tom Hanks and Robin Wright, who sadly, separate because of the house.

There is also a black couple that is briefly considered in the story but then disappears.  The film should have concentrated more on Margaret and Richard’s parents rather than showing the past inhabitants of the land, which tends to be distracting though one can admire director Zemeckis's ambition for a grander movie.

It is noticeable that instead of closeups of the actors, the actors move close to the camera. The cameras are placed like someone watching a play which in this case is the lace called HERE.

The question that arises is what will dominate.  Would it be the story of the family of Richard and Margaret or the film concept?  The answer is unclear as director Zemickis wishes both to succeed.

The story of Margaret and Richard is a complex but real relationship issue.  They live in Richard’s dad’s house as they do not earn enough to live on their own.  Richard promises to have their own place for their family but fate does not allow it.  The result is their eventual separation.  Margaret also suffers from dementia due to old age but their love survives.  It is a stormy love story, but the shifts of this story in time and with other elements undermine the dramatics.

Hanks, Wright, and Bettany are nothing short of excellent in their roles.  Production values are also excellent.

HERE opens in theatres on November 1st.

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JUROR #2 (USA 2024) ****
Directed by Clint Eastwood

JUROR #2 is director Clint Eastwood's latest drama with a few mysterious bits thrown in.  It is an excellent film all the way, proving Eastwood to be in fine form.

Young journalist Justin Kemp is called to serve as a juror for the case of the Kendall Carter murder, where all clues and evidence indicate that James, her boyfriend, killed her. However, the verdict becomes stalled when Justin believes James could be innocent, as he may have accidentally killed her by hitting her with his car on Old Quarry Road the same night the couple fought in a bar. Justin keeps this a secret to protect himself and his pregnant wife, Allison. But doubts of James's guilt start to grow among the jury members due to inquiries from one of them, the old ex-homicide inspector Harold—doubts that even lead the tough prosecutor Faith Killebrew to question James's guilt. As the truth comes out little by little, only Justin can make the right choice: to save his family or to save the life of an innocent man.

At best, the story blurs the fine line between good and evil while tipping the balance of the scales with justice and truth.  Here, the audience sees a bad man who is innocent of the crime he is convicted of sent to jail while a good man who is guilty of the accidental killing of Kendall Carter goes free.  Director Eastwood pans the camera to a statue outside the courthouse showing the scales of justice to emphasize the point, though one might argue he might be overstating the point.

The film is aided by some superb performances that include Nicholas Hoult and Toni Collette, both non-Americans sporting a western accent.  Not to be missed out is actor Chris Messina who plays the defendant's lawyer, he again playing a suave lawyer that he did in I CARE A LOT.  J.K. Simmons also has an outstanding supporting role as another juror.

The film also reminds one of last year's excellent courtroom mystery drama, Justine Triet's ANATOMY OF A FALL.  Both films involve a victim falling to death and the reconstruction of the fall to great detail by the investigators.

After his last flop CRY MACHO (made $16 million at a cost of $32 million), director Clint Eastwood at the age of 94. proves that he still has what it takes in a meticulously assembled part-courtroom drama that debates the balance of truth vs justice in a cautionary tale where a husband and father’s personal principle is at stake.

Warner Bros is releasing the film in limited theatres after Eastwood's last flop, fearing it will fail at the box office.  Judging from how well Eastwood has succeeded in this film, let's hope that he will be given more projects in the future.

JUROR #2 opens in theatres this Friday.

LET GO (SLAPP TAGET) (Sweden 2024) ***½

Directed by Josephine Bornebusch

Written and directed by Josephine Bornebusch, the Swedish family relationship drama centres on a wife and mother Stella trying to keep her family together.  Or perhaps, she should take the alternative and LET GO,

Stella juggles the demands of a young son, a moody teen daughter, and a distant husband. Chaos ensues until a message prompts a family trip where she must overcome challenges to reunite them.

A few fresh takes on the daily drama.  In a message film, the message normally comes at the end. Still, in LET GO, the film gets preachy at the start with a voiceover touting the benefits of communication and the importance of sharing sorrow and joy, particularly joy with someone.  If not, it is just as if someone is not there.  The lack of communication is observed in Stella’s family - between her and her husband, her and her daughter and her husband and his mother.

When Stella finds out that her daughter has forged her signature in order to enter a dance competition (involving a pole), Stella confronts her daughter, who in retaliation accuses the mother of going through her things,  At the same time, the young son does not want to eat his pasta.  After all that, the husband, Gustav tells Stella he wants a divorce.  It is revealed that Gustav is having an affair and intends to leave his family to be with his new lady.  Stella refuses and only agrees to discuss the matter after a family trip - one taken to Skane where the daughter competes.

Skane is a southern county in Sweden, historic and has a population of more than a million, a nice area to view for Norther Americans.

This is not a “Are we there yet?” kind of comedy.  LET GO is a sincere family drama about keeping a family together, and is Stella’s aim.  The question of whether it would be better if she, instead,  LET GO is not an option for a brave lady.  LET GO is a female film all the way, with a female director and a female protagonist and with family foremost at its importance.  The film once again proves that females are more prominent in films today.  Gustav’s new girl is non-white, thus making the film more diverse and politically correct.   Though LET GO will not make the top 10 list of the year, LET GO is still an entertaining insightful little film that should have the audience rooting for the female protagonist trying to keep her family as one.

LET GO turns out, an excellent feel-good film about both patching up relationships and keeping a family going, avoiding all the cliches, while tugging too, on the heartstrings.  It also ends up being one of the most touching and moving films about family sen in a while.  If Hollywood sees the film, it would not be surprising that they would want to attempt an American remake.  A meticulously crafted top-notch film all the way!

LET GO is a Netflix original film in Swedish and opens Friday for streaming.

MARTHA (USA 2024) ***
Directed by R.J. Cutler

MARTHA is Martha Stewart, the perfectionist homemaker who is a household name.  MARTHA is a documentary that traces the rise and fall of Martha Stewart as it examines some details while keeping the entertainment value intact. It is a somewhat insightful cautionary tale of fame and fortune.

The documentary begins with a lively introduction of Martha Stewart as a perfectionist celebrity. The question is not whether one can be perfect (or not) but at what cost. The intro is also quick to point out that Martha was arrested, with the details to be revealed in the later part of the documentary.

The film plays like a biopic while concentrating on her downfall and revealing her comeback. Martha Stewart is an American (of Polish origin) retail businesswoman, writer, and television personality. As the founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, focusing on home and hospitality, she gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, merchandising, and e-commerce. In 2004, Stewart was convicted of felony charges related to the ImClone stock trading case; she served five months in federal prison for fraud and was released in March 2005. There was speculation that the incident would effectively end her media empire,[ but in 2005 Stewart began a comeback campaign, and her company returned to profitability in 2006.  Stewart rejoined the board of directors of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia in 2011 and became chairwoman of her namesake company again in 2012.  The company was acquired by Sequential Brands in 2015.  Sequential Brands Group agreed in April 2019 to sell Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, including the Emeril brand, to Marquee Brands for $175 million with benchmarked additional payments.[

The film contains several revealing scenes that show the true Martha.  One is her chiding one helper in the kitchen who used a small knife to cut an orange.  Martha tells her how much easier it is to use a big knife to cut the orange.  

The magic question then should come to mind is that if Martha Stewart was sent to prison after being indicted and sentenced as a felon, why is not Donald Trump, who has committed more horrendous crimes not in prison?  And still running for the Presidency? 

On seeing the documentary, Steward has expressed some displeasure.  She does not like the doc’s ending in which she is portrayed as a frail hunched aged woman.  (She is currently 84).  But she confessed that she liked the first part of the film.  She also wanted a rap soundtrack though the filmmakers refused and put in a classic soundtrack instead.  For all that it is worth, the doc takes Martha Stewart’s side and the audience should sympathize with this lady who did not more wrong than the average American.  

MARTHA is an interesting documentary that is detailed enough to show the life and rise and fall of a celebrity while keeping up the entertaining values.  MARTHA is a Netflix original documentary and is available for streaming this week

OUR DAD, DANIELLE (USA 2024) ***

Directed by S.E. King

The doc is the story of a larger-than-life IP lawyer in Sugar Land, Texas, who at 57, came out as a trans woman and is now navigating LGBTQ+ issues while fighting for trans rights, as she and her family challenge the idea of what modern love looks like.  The story concept was originally conceived as a comedy series but that did not work.  This doc is the result,

The subject of the film is Danielle, a trans who has transitioned.  In order to understand more about Danielle, the term transgender should be understood.

A transgender person (often shortened to trans person) is someone whose gender identity differs from that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.

Often, transgender people desire medical assistance to medically transition from one sex to another; those who do may identify as transsexual.  Transgender does not have a universally accepted definition, including among researchers; it can function as an umbrella term.

At the start of the film, the audience is introduced to Danielle.  He first mentioned to another human being that he was trans when he was at the age of 44.  As a kid, he had a mace or rather, female cave where he could wear women’s clothing insert.  Trans people make the best CIA or FBI agents, Danielle claims, as they are very good at hiding.

Danielle speaks a lot to the camera and the film contains a lot of footage of her.  Quite a bit of insight is also provided from interviews with Danielle’s wife, Becky, and her best friend, Anita.  Becky talks about their first comical first date, and how they fell in love.  If I had lost my wife and my kids, I would not have transitioned, says Danielle at one point in the film, showing how stronger her love for family is.  Anita talks about Danielle at work and how supportive and fun she is as a best friend.  These episodes show Danielle as a human being with love and compassion and as a freak of nature.  Danielle is currently a little overweight after transitioning and walks with the aid of canes.

It takes a tremendous amount of energy to live a life not of oneself.  Danielle was exceptionally good at hiding other family and she would not do anything to hurt the family.

Starting in 2018, OUR DAD, DANIELLE follows 4 years of Danielle’s life as she faces the unexpected adventures of transitioning alongside her wife and kids who undergo their own transition: adjusting to a new name, pronouns, and social fallout.  At best, the doc shows, as do many previous docs on the subject of trans, that a trans cannot live otherwise and that transitioning is the only option.  Danielle is shown as a success, but not without many trials and tribulations.

Over time, as the political landscape evolves and Danielle's world expands, she integrates into the LGBTQ+ community, using her legal prowess to help fight for the rights of her trans and queer brothers, sisters, and siblings.

OUR DAD, DANIELLE opens on Digital and VOD on Friday, November 01, 2024

Trailer: 

SPIRIT IN THE BLOOD (Canada/Germany 2024) **
Directed by Carly May Borgstrom

Young 15-year-old teen Emerson Grimm (Summer H. Howell) has just moved, to her disdain to the country with her family.  She hates the place and on the first day of school, is made fun of, as the new girl on the block.  At the same time, a young girl is found dead in a secluded religious mountain community.  What follows is Emerson, befriending an outcast in school, Delilah Soleil (Sarah-Maxine Racicot). The two lead a pack of teenage girls who decide to fight against the evil spirits they believe killed her by embracing their own dark nature.  They ignite the spirit in their blood, for bravery to encounter the monster in the woods that had killed the young girl

Director Carly May Borgstrom’s film is unfortunately all over the place, touching but never going deeper into the many issues it brings up like growing up pains, teen isolation, bullying, religious cults, and family relationships.  It is all difficult to identify or feel for any of the characters, all of them exhibiting bad behaviour.  Emerson’s father is rash and angry, and, at one point, he ditches his daughter out of the car in the country.  The daughter, Emerson also is no well behaved daughter, often angry and rebellious.  Her best friend Delilah is also a rebellious teen, smoking and having underage sex with the local boys.  The pastor leader figure in the  town is also overzealous and not sympathetic to the younger youth,

The story also contains a lot of plot loopholes.  The monster that is responsible for the killings suddenly appears at the end attacking both Emerson and Delilah.  Where did this mountain man come from?   The film that contains unsympathetic characters, for the most part, fails to interest for the most part of the film.  The film does pick up in intensity during the last third of the film, even though it defies logic.
A co-production between Canada and Germany and shot in Canada, SPIRIT IN THE BLOOD is an ultimate failure though not for want of trying.  SPIRIT IN THE BLOOD.  SPIRIT IN THE BLOOD is in theatres on November 1.

Trailer: 

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 25 October 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

10 DAYS OF A CURIOUS MAN (Turkey 2024) *
Directed by Uluç Bayraktar

10 DAYS OF A CURIOUS MAN is the third in a trilogy of Turkish films written and directed by the same people.  The first two 10 DAYS OF A GOOD MAN and 10 DAYS OF A BAD MAN were both made in 2023 and should be available on Netflix.  I have not seen these two and will likely not, judging from how awful 10 DAYS OF A CURIOUS MAN is.

Directed by Uluç Bayraktar and written by Mehmet Eroglu and Damla Serim, 10 DAYS OF A CURIOUS MAN (as are the other two) is a Turkish investigative crime drama that aims to be as stylish as the Philip Marlowe detective noirs but fails miserably primarily for the reason that the plot is so convoluted and difficult to follow while leaving lots of loose ends.  It does not help that all the characters have Turkish names that are impossible to remember and that the hero of the piece is a loser who gets beaten up ever so often and given the run-around.  Not that anything matters.

The film begins with a robbery that looks too silly to be credible.  A bag of money is taken from a car in the middle of the night with the thief, shown then to be a female laughing in the victim’s face.  the story shifts to Sadik Adil Ojal, a lawyer turned private investigator and now a fiction writer who is back again to ruin your week, month, and year because of his curiosity.  The film unfolds in the period of 10 days, beginning g with Day 1.  Sadik takes up the case of a camgirl and adult social media influencer, Mutena “Muti,”, the supposed thief ninth film’s first scene.  Muti lived in Sadik’s new neighbourhood and used to feed the stray kids every morning, but one day she disappeared without a trace. Out of curiosity, Sadik decided to solve the case and lead the audience in a wild goose chase before anything of value was revealed.

Apparently the first two films of he 10 DAYS franchise are much better, but no one would be checking those two out after this one.  10 DAYS OF A CURIOUS MAN is a Netflix original Turkish movie and opens for streaming this week.

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100 YARDS (China 2023) ***
Directed by Xu Haofeng and Xu Junfeng

100 YARDS can best be described as a China version of JOHN WICK4. Like JOHN WICK4, 100 YARDS excels in the action fight scenes, in this case, Martial-arts Wushu brand, with minimal emphasis on plot or story. If JOHN WICKS4 is your type of film, then 100 YARSD will do you justice.

The plot can be summarized as such: Two bitter rivals (Jacky Heung and Andy On) duel for stewardship of a wushu academy, in this martial arts caper from Xu Haofeng (The Sword Identity, The Final Master).

Xu Haofeng is a martial arts expert, writer, director, and choreographer (not to mention a celebrated novelist and Taoist scholar) in a class all his own. The film is written and directed in collaboration with Xu Junfeng.

100 YARDS, the martial saga is set in 1920s Tianjin, China. Upon the death of a well-respected martial arts master, two students become bitter rivals as they vie for ownership of his academy.  The 100 YARDS of the title refer to the radius at which the academy protects the people in the circle from bandits and thugs.   The beginning of the film has the death of the master of the academy propagating the chain of events of the story..  One is the master’s top apprentice, Qi (Andy On), the expected heir to the school.  His challenger is the master’s son, Shen (Jacky Heung), whose future was meant to be outside the martial arts circle, were it not for his obstinate passion to pursue his father’s practice.  Shen is destined to work in a bank.  Their dispute is to be settled in combat, but its outcome stirs only malcontent and, as the challenges between the two fighters multiply, customs become stretched and broken to the scandalized shock of their wushu comm

There is some romance added with girls attached to each of the two rivals.

The action sequences involve fights with short sabres, poles and slingshots, as well as bare fists.  The fifth choreography is nothing short of stunning but the lacks a strong narrative, one which is sometimes all over the place, jumping in time tied to test one's patience in watching the film.

100 YARDS had its international premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival and opens in theatres on November 15th.

Trailer: 

BIRD (UK 2024) ***
Directed by Andrea Arnold

Director Arnold makes excellent gritty movies involving females who stand up for what they believe is right.  In her latest BIRD, surrealism is added to the real and gritty, which does not really work as it undermines the credibility and emotions of the story that has already been carefully built up.   Twelve-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) lives with her father Bug (a devoted but emotionally chaotic Barry Keoghan) in a graffiti-strewn tenement. When Bug informs her that he’ll be marrying his new girlfriend soon, Bailey is furious and hurt, for what will become of her? Her mother lives with a violent, cruel man, and while Bug sports a ferocious love for his daughter, he can be oblivious to the needs of a fledgling teenage girl.  As she often does, Bailey retreats to the open fields on the outskirts of her hometown to seek comfort. It is here she is most herself, with an uncanny ability to communicate with animals and experience nature in a profound way. It is on one of these walks that Bailey has a mysterious, yet deeply meaningful, encounter that helps her when she must force a confrontation with her mother’s vicious partner.  Oscar nominee Keoghan and newcomer Adams both deliver outstanding performances that elevate the film.

BLITZ (UK/USA 2024) ****
Directed by Steve McQueen

BLITZ is the new Steve McQueen historical drama film that follows a defiant young boy, George (Elliot Hefferman), on an adventure in London during World War II. He finds himself in immense peril amidst the Blitz while his distraught mother, Rita (Saoirse Ronan), searches for him.

Being set in London and being about Londoners, non-Brits could be awash at some of the terms used in the film, though it will not likely affect understanding of the storyline.  The public is refused shelter in the subway where the trains run so the women protest:  “Open the Underground.”  The Brits refer to the subway as the Underground, a term not used outside London.  When George is sent away, the mother is told: “Think of the boy being sent to Blackpool, only better.”  Again, Blackpool is a seaside holiday resort frequented by middle and lower-middle-class Brits, not an esteemed but tacky holiday vacation spot.  And George is given advice by his grandad: “All mouth and no trousers”,  a frequent English saying seldom used in North America.  But director McQueen keeps his film typically very British and there is the British spirit about the film which makes it quaint and attractive.

Director McQueen splashes his film with songs of the period (like Ain’t Misbehavin’), creating a nostalgic period look of the 40s, similar to what the late Terence Davies used to do in films like his minor-masterpiece THE LONG DAY CLOSES, also about a boy growing up in London.

Though not really a coming-of-age of George, the film follows George’s various adventures.  The most pleasant one is his meeting up with three brothers on a train, also running away from their new lodging in the country.  Another adventure that seems borrowed from Dickens’s Oliver Twist, involves George being forced to steal jewelry in bombed destroyed shops by a mentally disturbed man called Johnny.  Johnny is calmed down a few times after getting too aggressively crazy by Beryl, played by one of my favourite British actresses, Kathy Burke who can play anything from drama (NIL BY MOUTH) to comedy (she played Perry in the Brit TV sitcom Kevin and Perry).  The black woman who entices George into the group of thieves can be likened to Nancy and Johnny to Bill Sykes.

Director McQueen also sneaks many key issues into the story.  A white Bris is chided and shamed for creating a barrier in his space in the shelter between him and a Sikh.  Women’s rights are championed and their work in the factory making artillery is appreciated.

A McQueen film is always a pleasure to watch, his artistry always comes across as masterful and stunning.  From disturbing topics like HUNGER to 12 YEARS A SLAVE to BLITZ, cinema audiences can be guaranteed a visual treat.  McQueen creates a wonderfully nostalgic look at the Blitz in 1940s London while sparing the blood, guts and violence, and showing the psychological effects of the tolls of war on the general population.  McQueen emphasizes effectively the need to destroy bigotry, hate and prejudice, which makes the film even more current now that Trump has won the Presidency.

BLITZ is an Apple+ TV original that will open this week for a limited run at the TIFF Lightbox before moving to the streaming service.

Trailer: 

HEATHER (USA 2022) **
Directed by Anthony Repinsky

HEATHER the film comes with the tag: “Be careful who you bully.”  One of the bullied transitioned, so, she would not be recognized by the bully years later.

A philanderer is lured into a kinky encounter by a provocative woman, only to discover she has undergone gender reassignment and was once the boy he terrorized in high school.

 `This transgendered-themed thriller is loosely inspired by a story told to Writer/Director Anthony Repinski by a friend who was bullied in high school.  She later transitioned and then was reunited with her bully, who ended up becoming her lover.  Though the film follows the incident quite closely, it is no guarantee that the film will be credible or intriguing.  The film’s most shocking scene, just as in Neil Jordan’s THE CRYING GAME, is when the trans woman pulls out his penis.

The second bullied man appears halfway through the film, the film then changes mode to more of a slasher film.  It is all the point that the trans realizes that she has gone too far and has feelings for the bully.

The bully played by Nick Matthews is a sufficiently despised character and Trans actor Pooya Mphseni tries to look like the prettier thing on the planet as the trans woman, HEATHER.

HEATHER comes across as an exploitative horror schtick rather than a sympathetic look at the trans community,  It also fails as a horror thriller lacking any real suspense or suspenseful set-pieces.

The film has a running time of 75 minutes and will not be rated by the MPAA. Buffalo 8 will release the film on digital platforms on November 8.

Trailer: 

HERETIC (USA 2024) **
Directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods

Sister Paxton (Chloe East) and Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) cheerfully go about their mission to spread good news about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Working down a list of doors to knock on, they arrive at the quiet suburban house of Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), who seems not only polite and hospitable but also genuinely fascinated by the history and teachings of Mormonism.  Mr. Reed is nothing that he might seem on the outside, and not turn out to have a hidden agenda, that is very sinister.  The sisters find themselves trapped and unable to escape in this chamber horror piece that stretches a bit too long with a plot stretched far too thin.  Despite Hugh Grant stealing the show, injecting humour amidst the horror, HERETIC just almost succeeds.

INFIDELITY (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Rob Maargolies

A married New York couple finds themselves in a love triangle with their rock star neighbour after exploring an open relationship, further complicated by their rebellious daughter and flirtatious confidante.

Infidelity (an act of) having sex with someone who is not your husband, wife, or regular sexual partner.  Consent does not come into the equation.  In this scenario, consent is sort of, accepted.

Thirty years into a loving, committed marriage, Lyle (Chris Parnell) and Holly (Cara Buono) begin to wonder if all this time they played things too safe in their lives after Holly is jolted by alarming medical news.  As they both grapple with the fact that Holly has never been romantically involved with anyone other than her husband, the two decide to test the boundaries of their relationship.  An unconventional love triangle forms after a flirtation arises between Holly and their charismatic, rockstar neighbour Hoyt (Dennis Haysbert). It soon attracts Holly's hilariously zany and flirtatious friend, Ethel (Douglas), and has surprising ramifications for the married couple's rebellious Gen-Z daughter, Greta (Willow Shields). As they all navigate this uncharted romantic scenario, boundaries are blurred as love is put to the ultimate test.

One of the film’s flaws is the existence of the daughter’s toxic behaviour.  She always argues with her mother, though her mother is doting on her, paying her rent and expenses.  Greta is also flirty and not afraid to take off her clothes in public, as in a concert she attends with her father, who is more liberal to her, but with limits.  Where does this toxic nature come from?  Especially when the two parents are a loving couple who treat her right all the time.  The film's funniest and best segment is the one dinner table scene where Greta brings her older wealthy new boyfriend to meet the parents.  If only more segments could match this one, as the film contains quite many bland segments.

Performances from an otherwise unknown cast deliver credible performances.

INFIDELITY is a film about infidelity with the audience kept at bay whether the husband and wife, both making an almost perfectly loving couple will indulge in the act.  Don’t worry - no spoilers in this review.  They both wonder what it would be like for themselves and the other spouse what it would be like with another sexual partner.  Living one’s entire life with just one partner arouses one's curiosity.  Indeed in the old ages, one partner is the norm, but in these current days, a rarity - whether for good or for worse.  The film at best, debates the fact, even though not in detail.  The film is touted as a dramedy and indeed it is one, light on both aspects of comedy and drama and not too heavy on either.  INFIDELITY is a low-budget likable film, sincere in its delivery, forming light entertainment at best, though not without minor flaws.

INFIDELITY is available on Digital and VOD on Tuesday, November 5th.

Trailer: 

THE PIANO LESSON (USA 2024) **
Directed by Malcolm Washington

The Piano Lesson is a 1987 play by American playwright August Wilson. This is the second adaptation, the first being a television film in 1995.  It is the fourth play in Wilson's The Pittsburgh Cycle. Wilson began writing this play by playing with the various answers regarding the possibility of “acquiring a sense of self-worth by denying one's past". The Piano Lesson received the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

THE PIANO LESSON is set in 1936 Pittsburgh during the aftermath of the Great Depression.  It follows the lives of the Charles family in the Doaker Charles household and an heirloom, the family piano, which is decorated with designs carved by an enslaved ancestor. The play focuses on the arguments between a brother (John David Washington) and a sister (Danielle Deadwyler) who have different ideas on what to do with the piano. The brother, Boy Willie, is a sharecropper who wants to sell the piano to buy the land (Sutter's land) where his ancestors toiled as slaves. The sister, Berniece, remains emphatic about keeping the piano, which shows the carved faces of their great-grandfather's wife and son during the days of their enslavement.

The film centres on the siblings’ quarrel about what to do with the piano. Their uncle (Samuel L. Jackson) tries to mediate, but even he can’t hold back the ghosts of the past.

There are 2 climaxes in the film.  One is the entrance of Michael Potts as Wining Boy Charles, drunk from too much whiskey.  He then plunks an exceptionally Blues song on the piano crooning the lyrics at the same time, lifting the film from what is a over heavy laden tone,  The other is the appearance of a spirit that apparently has come from the ancestors carved on the piano that rocks the house and send several meters thudding on the floor and walls.  This last segment looks like a possession piece right out of an EXORCIT film and feels totally out of place with reference to the rest of the film.  There is also a preacher sprinkling of holy water and quoting of the Bible trying to exorcist the spirits.

The film is a Washington family affair with Denzel producing and his two sons, Malcolm directing and John acting.

To the director’s and cinematographer Mike Gioulakis’ credit, the opening sequence set on a night in 1911 and other segments are well filmed.  The above sequence is shot in alternative red and colour as the piano is taken from a house.  The film is often stunning to look at, but the film suffers outstanding flaws including continuity and its staginess as it is based on a play and often feels like one.  Performances are top notch and the music by Alexandre Desalt is exceptional.  But good intentions aside, the film is a mixed mess.

THE PIANO LESSON premiered at this year’s TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL opening at the TIFF Lightbox on November 8th and on the streaming g strive Netflix on November 22nd.

Trailer: 

STARRING JERRY AS HIMSELF (USA 2023) **
Directed by Law Chen

Award-winning director Law Chen presents the remarkable true story of a retired immigrant caught in an international conspiracy, and the family determined to uncover the truth!

The doc concentrates on Chinese money scams.  The Chinese public has already been warned in the news of such scams.  Here is an excerpt from Vancouver, Canada City News about a similar scam Jerry in the film. The quote: “Vancouver police are warning the community about different types of scams that are specifically targeting those in the Chinese community.

The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) says since the beginning of this year, nearly six million dollars have been lost as a result of these scams.  ‘The first scam tricks the victim into thinking that’s police officer is calling them, and that they need to send money to not be in trouble. Of course, this is bogus, it’s fake. But the victim ends up sending money to a bank in Hong Kong,”

“A similar scam was also reported by the Richmond RCMP last month where a victim lost $1.5 million.”

This is a story about our producer’s father Jerry. Jerry is a retired Taiwanese immigrant living in Orlando.  One day, he gets an urgent call from the Chinese police. They informed him that he was the prime suspect in an international money laundering investigation where $1.28mm was illegally moved through his Florida bank account.  Under threat of arrest and extradition to China, the police force Jerry to cooperate and be an undercover agent in their case. Over the next few weeks, Jerry helps the police investigate an international money laundering case by taking surveillance photos of his bank, making top secret transfers, and even wearing a wire to spy on bank tellers.

After months of keeping the investigation a secret, Jerry finally reveals everything to his family. His three sons decide to document his ordeal and discover the truth about what really happened and how it changed Jerry's life forever.

The doc can be best described as a humorous cinema rewrite takeoff a true crime drama.  The beginning of the doc with its home videos that introduce Jerry and his three sons and ex-wife is entertaining enough before it goes into the more serious stuff.  The trouble with all this is that the audience already knows that Jerry is being scammed and there is hardly any element of surprise left for the majority of the doc.  The doc is also extremely manipulative in its delivery with lots of re-enactments attempting to convince the audience that all the events are happening in real time.  It is as if the filmmakers are scamming the audience the same way Jerry is being scammed,

Though credit should be given to director Law Chen, who also edited the film for taking a different approach in revealing the money scam, one can hardly forgive him for using all his manipulative tactics.

STARRING JERRY AS HIMSELF will stream with a VOD release on November 8, 2024, on HULU, APPLE, AMAZON and everywhere you buy/rent movies.

Trailer: 

UMJOLO: THE GONE GIRL (South Africa 2024) ***
Directed by Fikile ‘Mr Fiks’ Mogodi

UMJOLO: THE GONE GIRL is the first of four anthology HAPPINESS films following Happiness is a 4 Letter Word and Happiness Ever After.  This one is directed by Fikile ‘Mr Fiks’ Mogodi in his debut feature.  The films revolve around a group of friends.  It is produced by Lesedi Siswana through Blingola Media, with Bongiwe Selane serving as creative and executive producer.

UMJOLO: THE GONE GIRL tells the story of a young woman, Lethu who is on top of the world when she gets engaged to her perfect boyfriend until a doctor’s appointment changes everything.  Lethu has STD and could have only gotten it from her fiance, LuckyTwho would have got it from sex with another sexual partner,  The film is touted as a romantic comedy but coming from South Africa, it is radically different with lots of nudity, loud and groaning sex and colourful costumes and dances, making this romantic comedy stand out ninth romantic comedy genre, despite the rather familiar storyline.  The film is narrated by a plump guy who speaks directly to the camera, about relationship and their importance, with marriage at the top of the hierarchy of happiness.  This guys appears at various points in the film, giving the voiceover.  He could be a street stall vendor selling fruit and vegetables or a cook I'm[n the kitchen  One can never tell when or where he will show up,

The funniest couple is Thembu, a cheating husband who is always trying to make out with another woman, though he is always in the watchful eye of his angry wife.  Thembu still manages to sweet-talk her out of her anger.  The other couples are the run-of-the-mill who more than not, constantly declare their love for each other.  And have sex.

UMJOLO: THE GONE GIRL opens for streaming on Netflix Friday, November 8th, 2024.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 22 October 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

COLETTE AND JUSTINE (France/Belgium 2022) ***

Directed by Alain Kassada

COLETTE AND JUSTINE are the grandparents of the doc’s director, Alain Kassanda.

Born in Kinshasa and living in Paris, Kassanda embodies the classic immigrant dual identity: in the Democratic Republic of Congo, he is seen as French, while in France he is seen as Congolese.  Determined to understand the colonial legacy from which he comes, Kassanda convinces his grandparents— Colette and Justin— to sit for a series of interviews.  Together, they watch old news footage, remember a visit from the Belgian king, and recall what life was like as part of the nascent Black bourgeoisie who served the colonial administration.  Colette and Justin begin with one man’s search to understand himself and his roots.  But ultimately it is an evocative, poetic and thoughtful meditation on the intersection of political and family history and the multi-generational destructive reach of colonialism.

Alain Kassanda's debut film begins as a self-examination. How well does he know his grandparents? What does he know about his native Congo, which was partly imposed on his identity by colonizer Belgium? And what does he know about himself with that? In Colette et Justin, he travels through time and his personal family history, and he also beautifully brings the history of postcolonial Congo to life. He lets his grandparents look back on their lives, from their youth and first meeting to a complex political period. The Congo's first independent years pass by as a layered history, in which good and evil intertwine and Justin is assigned an important role.

Mixed with interviews with the grandparents, old photos and a few archive footage, director Kassanda creates a fascinating document of the history of a Kingdom seldom seen and hardly known that is both educational, informative and entertaining.

A segment is spent showing archive footage of the King of Belgium, visiting the town where the grandmother lives.  The King is celebrated, and everyone cheers him on in his car.  The grandmother says on camera that it was a grand occasion and she brought his mother, small as she was, to see the King.

Besides this happier segment, there are a few disturbing ones, including one where a black child is locked in an animal cage as observed by two other white children.

As in most colonizations, the colonized respect the colonists despite any abuse. The white man is often seen as superior and the master, probably because of the wealth and privilege that the poorer folk can see.

The doc plays like a history lesson, but a history lesson of a foreign land, which in this case is the Congo.  Though one might argue that life at present and in the past has nothing of interest to the present in North America, it can be argued that many keen observations can be studied, for example in the root of racism and prejudice.  Besides, the doc is also a very interesting one, as there is much that can be learned and observed from the past of the Congo.

For one, many are unfamiliar with the Congo.  The Democratic Republic of the Congo, also known as the DR Congo, the DRC, or Congo-Kinshasa, is a country in Central Africa. By land area, the Congo is the second-largest country in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of around 109 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populous Francophone country in the world. The national capital and largest city are Kinshasa, which is also the economic centre.

COLETTE AND JUSTINE arrives on DVD, Amazon Prime Video, and Vimeo On Demand on October 22, 2024. The DVD release includes director Alain Kassanda's earlier short film Trouble Sleep.

Trailer: 

CONCLAVE (UK/USA 2024) ***** Top 10

Directed by Edward Berger

Director Berger delivers another stunning and compelling drama CONCLAVE after his much-heralded Oscar Winner ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT.  The CONCLAVE is the process where a new Pontiff is elected by the cardinals after one dies.  It is an elaborate process as Berger illustrates.  Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) oversees the proceedings, assuming that the contest will come down to a battle between the reactionary, openly racist Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto) and the liberal progressive Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci). And matters soon turn complicated as rumours circulate, secrets emerge, and acts of sabotage are undertaken. 

 Adapted by Peter Straughan (GOLDFINCH) from the Robert Harris much-acclaimed novel, and shot by cinematographer Stéphane Fontaine (the Vatican is displayed in all its grandeur and unwelcomeness), the film is a masterwork of drama and irrelevance.  The ultimate choice of the new Pope comes as an unexpected twist at the end.  Performances are top-notch all the way around.    The musical score by Volker Bertlemann is necessarily intense, to the point of almost overdoing it.  One of the Top 10 Films at TIFF.

 Trailer: 

HANGDOG (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Matt Cascella

The term hangdog is an adjective that means shamefaced, guilty, browbeaten, defeated, or intimidated.  It can be used to describe the protagonist, Walt in the film,  a person who is having a hangdog expression or looking including characteristics of contrite, sheepish, ashamed, crestfallen, and wretched.  Assured and confident, Walt is not.  From the film’s opening scene in which a couple wakes up in bed with their cuddly pooch, the dialogue that follows indicates a slight comedy and a couple’s relationship.  And with a dog involved.  The scene follows when Wendy proposes marriage to Walt while he is naked in the shower just to get things off her chest, as he says.  There is trouble in paradise and perhaps the relationship should once more be examined.  This is the core of the story behind HANGDOG.

The catalyst of the story is the dog Walt is looking after, which gets stolen while Walt ties him up at a pole.  He is distraught and unable to tell his girl what has happened.  As she is retiring soon, there is the race of the time to recover the pooch.  He finds the culprit and takes action.

The story is set in Portland, few films do, so it is good to learn a bit about Portland as well.  Portland, Oregon’s largest city, sits on the Columbia and Willamette rivers, in the shadow of snow-capped Mount Hood. It’s known for its parks, bridges and bicycle paths, as well as for its eco-friendliness and its microbreweries and coffeehouses. Iconic Washington Park encompasses sites from the formal Japanese Garden to the Oregon Zoo and its railway. The city hosts thriving art, theatre and music scenes.  The script uses the most out of the setting.   There are scenes with the dog walking by the beach.  Walt also has dreams of being an artist and perhaps owning his own studio in his garage.  The film also shows various sights around Portland,

Walt is a fish out of water in his own skin. He’s now also a fish out of water in Portland, Maine, having recently moved with his girlfriend, Wendy (Kelly O’Sullivan, GHOSTLIGHT, SAINT FRANCIS), to be closer to her parents.  Without a job or a plan, and with a new dog competing for Wendy’s affection, Walt has reached peak anxiety.

In their debut narrative feature, husband-and-wife creative team Matt Cascella (Director and Editor) and Jen Cordery (Writer) capture the idiosyncrasies of the ‘little’ people of the city.  There is the nosy neighbour that would invite a neighbour over for a beer and the mother-and-son family of thieves among others.

Desmin Borges is quite the delight in the title role of the hapless hero who has fate against him too many times.  He is not too handsome and can be considered attractive in a goofy way.  He carries the entire film on his shoulders with his girl playing secondary.

HANGDOG is a charming bittersweet relationship comedy about two imperfect beings who work at what they have to make things work.

HANGDOG  opens on Digital Nationwide on October 25 and is also available to rent/purchase across all major platforms.

Trailer: 

HIJACK ’93 (Nigerian 2024) ***
Directed by Robert Peters

HIJACK ’93 is based on a true-life incident that took place some 30 years ago in 1993.  A hijack!  In an effort to dismantle their military-backed government, four men hijack an airplane, leveraging passengers on board in the name of social change.

HIJACK ’93 is a Nollywood film, complete with Nigerian actors speaking Nigerian or pidgin English.  Nollywood, a portmanteau of Nigeria and Hollywood, is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry.  The origin of the term goes back to the early 2000s, as traced in an article in The New York Times.  Though the Nigerian Film Industry is substantial.  Netflix provides viewers with a taste of Hollywood cinema.  HIJACK ’93 is an entertaining enough film, mixing true crime with some thrills, and tongue-in-cheek humour, in a Nigerian setting.

The tongue-in-cheek humour:

“You will take control of the plane and force the pilot to land in Frankfurt.  That is where your new lives begin.”  these are the instructions given to the 4 young ‘volunteered’ hijackers by the one in command.  The group is for the advance of Democracy and the demand is to reinstate the democratic leader that according to the group, belongs to power.  And what if it does go according to plan?  The answer: Sometimes it takes great risk and great effort.

There is also melodrama in the style of the original AIRPORT movie.  Like the pilot played by Dean Martin having an affair with flight attendant Jacqueline Bisset, the pilot of the Nigerian plane is about to be wed to a flight attendant.  There are a variety of screams on the plane as well, all this likely added to the film for ‘artistic’ entertainment.

HIJACK’93 is available for streaming on Netflix beginning Friday, October 25th, 2024.

Trailer: 

LOUPS-GAROUS (Family Pack) (France 2024) **

Directed by Francois Ozan

Directed by Francois Ozan, not to be confused with Francois Ozon, the Netflix original adventure fantasy family film is based on the card game The Werewolves of Millers Hollow (French: Les Loups-garous de Thiercelieux) created by the French authors Philippe des Pallières and Hervé Marly that can be played with 8 to 47 players.  The game is based on the Russian game Mafia.  It was nominated for the 2003 Spiel des Jahres award and a trendy game in France.

The film centres on a family, grafter Gilbert (Jean Reno) and the father and mother played Franck Dubosc as Jérôme and Suzanne Clément as Marie with assorted children.    Gilbert, who is slowly losing his memory due to old age has found the game in the attic and has been playing the game making up the rules as time goes along.  The family sits down to play the game.  Whilst playing this mysterious board game the family is transported to a medieval land beset by werewolves.

A few credibility problems in the story.  The reason the family is transported to medieval times is largely omitted asa well as returning back to current times.

In the board game, before the game starts, a person will be designated as the game master. That person then randomly gives each player a card, after which each player secretly discovers their identity by looking at the card.  All players are divided into two teams: the townsfolk (some of them having special roles) and the werewolves. The townsfolk's aim is to uncover and eliminate all werewolves, while the werewolves' aim is to stay undiscovered and eliminate all townspeople.

In the film which steals the basic concept of the game, the village where the family is time transported to experience a problem.  At night werewolves attack the village and kill innocent victims.  The villagers are thus fearful of strangers.  When the Jerome family suddenly appears in different attire, they are immediately suspected of sorcery.  But they do hold superhuman peers, as the players in the game also hold, the powers not immediately known or made known to each.  At the same time, the neighbours are holding a medieval carnival and everyone dresses up for the occasion.  So when the family is transported to the past, they initially think that they are in the carnival, until the first beheading in which the blood is discovered to be real.  This is the only violent part in the family film, though the beheading is shown off-screen.

For a family film, director Ozan’s is strong on messages, though too strong and obvious for one’s liking.  The one on the strength of women and how women should stand up when being abused is preached loud and clear in the movie.  The women in the old times expect to be beaten, as part of the marriage,   The other is the strength of the family.

The film suffers from being quite bland which is expected for a family movie.  The special effects are satisfactory at best, though the costumes and set pieces are well done.

LOUPS-GAROUS (Family Pack) opens for streaming on Netflix this week.

Trailer: 

VENOM: THE LAST DANCE (USA 2024) **

Directed by Kelly Marcel

Venom is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is a sentient alien symbiote with an amorphous, liquid-like form, who survives by bonding with a host, usually human. This dual-life form receives enhanced powers and usually refers to itself as "Venom". The Venom symbiote's first human host was Spider-Man himself, who eventually discovered its true nefarious nature and separated himself from the creature.  The character was portrayed by Tobey Maguire and Topher Grace in Spider-Man 3 (2007), with Tom Hardy primarily portraying the character in Sony's Spider-Man Universe films Venom (2018) and Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021) and once again in this latest film VENOM: TBE LAST DANCE.

VENOM: THE LAST DANCE features the Marvel Comics character and is a sequel to Venom (2018) and Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021), the fifth film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU), and the third and final installment of the Venom trilogy.  It was written and directed by Kelly Marcel. Tom Hardy stars as Eddie Brock and Venom alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Stephen Graham, Peggy Lu, Clark Backo and Alanna Ubach. In the film, Eddie and Venom are on the run from both of their worlds.  The story is by both Marcel and Tom Hardy, and it is quite simplistic, involving the world and even the Universe about to be destroyed and nothing much else.  After all, the simple plot is helped by the fact that Eddie Brock is alone with no family or girlfriend.

The super action hero flick suffers from a weak narrative, leading the film towards relying on special effects and action set pieces, though not too bad while tending to get boring after a while.  Tom Hardy as Brock with his wisecracking humour is the best thing in the film which thankfully lasts less than 2 hours.

The highlight of the film is the impromptu dance between Eddie Brock and Mrs. Chen.  Out of the blue, Brock sees Mrs. Chen playing in a Las Vegas casino.  They go into an elaborate dance in an inspired crazy sequence that can be watched more than once.  But also accompanying this are a few over-the-tip ridiculous scenes like the beginning where the villain monster growls and groans about taking vengeance on his offspring and destroying the Universe.

VENOM: THE LAST DANCE opens in theatres on October 25th,  Given the record of the last two VENOM films and the lack of a blockbuster in the recent few weeks.s the film should make a killing at the box office.

Trailer: 

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 22 October 2024

CINEFRANCO 2024

CineFranco, a celebration of French Cinema, one of my favourite Film Festivals returns to Toronto on November the 1st with a wide range of French films from all over the world, including the latest film QUAND VIENT L’AUTOMNE  from Francois Ozone currently playing in Paris.  Under the leadership and auspices of its directrice Marcelle Lean, this year’s films will be screened right in the heart of downtown Toronto at the Carton Cinemas.

The festival highlights new films from Masters including Lea Pool, Robert Guédiguian, Yvan Attal and Francois Ozon.

Please check the Cinefranco website at

cinefranco.com

for the entire program and screening times.

BonCinema!

Capsule Review of Select Films:

BRISE GLACE (BROKEN WATERS) (Canada 2022) ***

Directed by Karolyne Natasha

Karolyne Natasha does double duty in this film shot in Ottawa in both French and English as a mental patient, Isabelle who steals babies.  She comes under the watchful eye of a psychiatrist who goes out of her way to help her despite her pregnancy.  The film attempts to send a message on the plight of miscarriages, as Isabelle suffers mentally from a lost baby.  The anti-pharma psychiatrist's unconventional methods and unexpected pregnancy combine to unravel every part of both their lives.   The film is set in the cold in winter with the frigid air and ice and snow reflecting the isolation of illness.. The film is over serious in its delivery a few injected light-hearted moments would help.  The film is a woman’s film with the males playing an insignificant part in the story,

CHASSE GARDEE (Guest Place)(France 2023) ***

Directed by Frédéric Forestier and Antonin Fourlon

The comedy centres on a war between a Parisian family and the country folk. When a couple with two kids buys a house in the country to escape the pitfalls of city life, they get more than they bargained for when hunting season begins. The hunters use their farmland as their hunting grounds.  The family fears for their safety and wage a war with the whole village, comprising many hunters.  The film has a few keen observations of the country folk with a few good ideas like the very young mayor (because they cannot find anyone else to hold office) who is so young that he is still taking driving lessons and living with his mother and the switch in prices at the daily farmers market for city and country folk.  But most of the jokes could have been funnier.  Still, one can learn a few things from the film, like the French country cuisine of ceps (of the mushroom family), which enhances the film’s interest.  The best thing about the movie is the cameo by Thierry Lermitte, who steals the show as the hilarious lawyer father of the wife.

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UN COUP DE DES (Breaking Point) (France 2023) ***
Directed by Yvan Attal

A strange modern noir thriller, actor/director Yvan Attal’s (MA FEMME EST UNE ACTRICE) follows two toxic men of different personalities who despite falling for the same femme fatale work and play together.  Ever since Vincent saved his life years ago (shown at the beginning of the film), Mathieu has been in debt and in his shadow. Mathieu is now used and tired of covering his friend’s business. When he meets Elsa, Vincent’s rejected mistress who threatens to reveal everything, Mathieu also falls under the spell of the young woman.  The quiet innocent friend and loving husband soon gets caught up in a web of lies and deception. The rot has set in. And death awaits around the corner…  One wonders about the purpose or message of the stator - probably there is none - which also dampers the entertaining element.

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D’AVOUE JAMAIS (France 2024) ****
Directed by Ivan Calberac

A surprisingly good film, hilarious, insightful, and extremely well performed by veteran actors Sabine Azema and Andre Dussollier.   When ex-military Francois discovers 40-year-old love letters in the attic from his wife’s admirer, he goes ballistic and decides to go to Nice to beat him up.  But after 40 years, he cannot recall what the admirer, an old acquaintance of theirs looks like.  As Annie remembers, she tags along hoping to quell her husband’s anger.  The best surprise is the admirer, who turns out to be played by Thierry Lhermitte, who is a heartthrob in his younger acting days.  Annie treats the trip as a second honeymoon.  But things take a turn with twists in the story that include Francois finding out that his daughter living in Nice is a lesbian and that he himself has an admirer.  The film contains perhaps the funniest segment in a film this year - the one in Andre’s daughter’s bedroom where he discovers her lover under the sheets.  D’AVOUE JAMAIS is pure delight and is the type of comedy CineFranco is famous for.

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ET LA FETE CONTINUE!  (And the {party Goes On!) (France 2023) ***½

Directed by Robert Guédiguian

Robert Guédiguian veteran of cinema, a majority of them set in his birthplace of Marseille,  returns with his wife and muse Ariane Ascaride starring in AND THE PARTY GOES ON, a melancholic, reflection of times past full of nostalgia and good intentions.  The film is full of repeatable quotations and every character in the story has a good heart in Marseille, France. Rosa (Ascaride) divides her energy between her close-knit family, her nursing work and her political commitment.  But as she approaches retirement, her illusions begin to waver.  When meeting Henri (Jean-Pierre Darroussin), she realizes that it's never too late to achieve her own dreams, both political and personal.  Robsinso Stevenin also has a role-playing Rosa’s Armenian son, Sarkis.  The film also contains beautiful shots of Marielle and the surrounding sea.  Fans of Robert Guédiguian should be delighted.  Quite a few of Guédiguian’s films, except this one, have been picked up by TIFF and it is good that CineFranco can get this title.

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HOTEL SILENCE (Switzerland/Canada 2023)***
Directed by Lea Pool

Lea Pool is an established Swiss director with more than a dozen films many of them Swiss/Canadian co-productions like HOTEL SILENCE, her latest one.  My fav and her arguably best, is the 1999 SET ME FREE or EMPRTE MOI, a remarkable film covering half a dozen different genres in a is gel film.  A psychological drama follows a man suicidal at times, as he leaves home to discover himself.   At the age of 52 Jean is divorced and depressed.  He decides to set off on a one-way journey of no return to an unnamed country destroyed by war. But nothing goes exactly as planned. His despair soon seems minor in the face of the fate of those who welcome him, clinging to the slightest hope of reconstruction. As he comes into contact with them, the urgency to end the war becomes less pressing, to the point where Jean gradually rediscovers the meaning of his existence.  Pool demonstrates once again her expertise in covering tough subjects.  She manages to hit all the right nerves to move her audience  Slow but never dull, and beautifully shot in the war-torn country and stark wintry Canadian landscape, Pool’s film is matched by an extraordinary performance by Sébastien Ricard as the troubled man, Jean. The only complaint is that in the unknown country, everyone speaks perfect French.

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QUAND VIENT L’AUTOMNE (France 2024) ***** Top 10

Directed by Francois Ozone

QUAND VIENT L’AUTOMNE follows a senior lady Michelle (Hélène Vincent) living a peaceful retirement in a charming Burgundy village near her longtime friend Marie-Claude (Josiane Balansko).  She eagerly anticipates her grandson Lucas spending the school vacation with her, but things don’t go as planned with tensions arising from her daughter who takes Lucas back from her vacation with Michelle. Feeling lonely, Michelle loses her sense of purpose, until Marie-Claude’s son gets out of prison.  Described as the idiot son, fate then plays a twist in the story of Michelle’s life.  Director Ozone proves a superb storyteller with the twists and turns in his tale effortlessly unfolding surprises and twists to utter delight.  Though not a comedy, this charming drama of life is nevertheless lighter than his wicked comedies like SITCOM and LES AMANTS CRIMINELS.  His mark of excellence is everywhere in the film.   Though not a gay film, the gay element is beautifully brought into the picture in one scene where Lucas is asked by Marie-Claude’s son if he has a girlfriend.  When the answer is no, Marie Claude’s son gives him a look that girls have nothing to do with their lives.  Arguably Ozon’s career-best film.

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ROSALIE (France/Belgium 20230 ***

Directed by Stéphanie Di Giusto

ROSALIE is a handsomely mounted period piece complete with costumes, sets, props, and of course, drama.  In 1870s France, Rosalie is a young woman unlike any other, she hides a secret.  She was born with a face and body covered in hair.  She’s concealed her peculiarity all her life to stay safe, shaving to fit in. Until Abel, an indebted bar owner unaware of her secret marries her for her dowry.  Rosalie’s only wish is to be truly seen as the woman she is despite a difference she no longer wishes to hide. By letting her beard grow, she will finally set herself free.  This is not taken lightly by a village unkind to things little known.  Director Stéphanie Di Giusto captures Rosalie’s affliction in great detail showing how her bravery affects not only her husband but everyone around her.  Nadia Tereszkiewicz is marvellous as ROSALIE.

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SAGE-HOMME (France 2023) ***
Directed by Jennifer Devoldère

SAGE-HOMME means aid-wife and the mid-wife in the film is a male, the only male in his medical class of females.  The film shows what it is like to be a male minority for a change in what can be described as an amusing coming-of-age story with a different slant.  After failing the entrance exam to become a doctor, Léopold is relegated to midwifery.   Clearly, delivering babies is a challenging profession for a young man who comes from a hyper male background of three younger brothers and a macho father, and gets a baptism of fire in a world dominated by women, and particularly his boss Nathalie. Katrin Viard as Nathalie, absolutely steals the show in every scene she is in.  Though predictable to an extent with a happy ending, of course, SAGE-HOMME still manages to be quite entertaining with a few surprises up the director’s sleeve as well.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 06 October 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

BOOKWORM (New Zealand 2023) ***½

Directed by Ant Timpson

During a time of crisis, a freak electrical accident involving a faulty toaster switch results in another being going into a coma and then recovering, a washed-up American magician Strawn Wise (Elijah Wood) and his precocious estranged daughter Mildred (Nell Fisher) take to the New Zealand wilderness, in search of a mythical black panther.

Like in the LORD OF THE RINGS, it is Frodo (Wood) embarking a different kind of journey in BOOKWORM, one in which he discovers himself and achieves redemption from the daughter he had abandoned,

The script contains quirky dialogue expected from a film entitled and about a BOOKWORM.  “I am officially telling you your mom is ok,” says Strawn when he first sees his daughter.  “Does that mean that a professional has officially told you that my mom is ok?” comes the precocious reply.  “Do you want to see something amazing,” the dad later asks.  “Does it take a long time?” comes the questioned reply.  When told that it would not, she goes on: “Then show me something amazing.”  Many other dialogue samples making upshots can be termed ‘smart talk’ creating a wry and quirky observation of events in the film.    Mildred not only speaks cleverly but knowledgeably as she is widely read, as compared to her father.

The film clearly demonstrates how fresh and entertaining it can be with smart yet simple dialogue without resorting to expensive CGI special effects, action sequences and pyrotechnics. The young daughter has a lot of smart talk that comes naturally believable for the reason that she is well-read and a bookworm.  Though the term bookworm can take a variety of meanings, the one referenced in the film is an avid reader and lover of books.  Complaints often come from the fact that many writers treat children as if they can speak as adults - the best example being the Neil Simon plays where all the kids speak as adults complete with punch lines.

Even as a daughter-father relationship drama, the film contains quite a few thrills including a cliffhanger scene (literally) as the two attempt to cross two cliffs on a role while pursued by a black panther.

The film contains almost all the elements of a movie including drama, adventure, action, suspense and comedy.  There is a it of everything for everyone.

The ending is a bit stretched out both in length and in credibility which disappoints a bit as the film is otherwise quite well laid out and built up.

The film is a coming-of-age story set in a father-and-daughter relationship with the roles reversed.  The child-like father who in short can be described as a man-child with nobles undergoes a dramatic change and recovery under the guidance of his 11-year old daughter whom he finally connects with.

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DAHOMEY (Senegal/France/Benin 2024) ***
Directed by Mati Diop

The Golden Bear winner at this year’s Berlinale, Mati Diop’s DAHOMEY traces the historic repatriation of 26 royal treasures from France to Benin, simultaneously forging a speculative and political reflection on cultural heritage, collective memory, and the implications of restitution.  Diop directed the recent ATLANTICS which received rave reviews when screened at Cannes and at TIFF.

Benin, a French-speaking West African nation, is the birthplace of the vodun (or “voodoo”) religion and home to the former Dahomey Kingdom from circa 1600–1900. In Abomey, Dahomey's former capital, the Historical Museum occupies two royal palaces with bas-reliefs recounting the kingdom’s past and a throne mounted on human skulls. To the north, Pendjari National Park offers safaris with elephants, hippos and lions.

For centuries, the Kingdom of Dahomey, within the borders of modern-day Benin, was a central cultural meeting point in West Africa, a site of European colonial conquest and the transatlantic slave trade. In 1892, the French invaded and looted hundreds of treasures from the royal palace, alongside thousands of other works. Following years of appeals and reports, in 2021 an agreement was made for several of these artworks to be returned from France to Benin.

The doc, at the beginning, takes the view of one of the artifacts that calls itself number 26.  It talks in voiceover (speaking in Don), of what it experiences while being stolen and then returned back to Benin.  The star speaks in poetic prose, giving the doc an artistic feel.

A few artifacts are shown and described in detail.  One of them is a statue of King Ghezo, one of the country’s rulers in the past.  It is slightly damaged but was made of painted wood and steel fibre and still looks magnificent.

A large portion of the doc involves debates among the Beninese - University students.  The debates open one’s eyes to the thoughts and demise of the people.  Firstly, they main issue of concern is the return of only 26 figures out of a total of 7000.  The important question is the reason for their return.  The debate of whether the move is politically cultural.  One person says that Francois Mitterrand just wants to improve his brand by allowing the run of the 26 figures.  Another argues that there are two kinds of heritage - material and nonmaterial.  The artifacts are the material ones that have been taken away from he people and the other like the dances, colour and music that stay in the country and conniver be taken away from the people.  The point is also brought out of when the rest of the 7000 will be returned, if ever.

Other issues rain, making the problem more complex.  Who will be responsible for looking after and preserving the artifacts?  An elderly claims that he is too old and it is up to the younger generation to take responsibility.   The returned figures now reside in the Palais and how can children in remote villages get a chance to view the history?

The doc also emphasizes the importance of history and the loss of the people’s native language due to colonization.  The debaters in the doc all speak French and are unable to communicate or speak in their native tongue.

DAHOMEY won this year’s Golden Bear at the Berlinale and was also screened at the last Toronto International Film Festival and opens at the TIFF Lightbox on October 18th.

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JUSTICE (Poland 2024) ***
Rezyseria: Michal Gazda

Netflix has partnered with Poland lately for quite a number of original features - mostly romances and action thrillers.  With these many films, they are often hot and miss.  When the new Netflix original from Poland opens, the words state that the events seen on the screen have been modified to the director’s artistic vision.  The disclaimer follows that the events are not related to any living past or present,  Truth be told, JUSTI|CE begins quite impressively.

A discharged police officer, Gardacz is given a chance to regain his former life by capturing a bank robbery crew. Teaming up with a young policewoman, the ex-cop must act swiftly before the heist draws unwanted scrutiny from the new authorities.  The film is set in 1990 which explains the absence of cell phones.

The first image is that of a whimpering woman.  The camera moves back to reveal a shotgun, held by a trembling gunman.  The next image is outside the bank that is assumed being robbed and gunfire is heard.  The next scene introduces the audience to the hero protagonist of the story.  The hero is not a good-looking young stud but a scruffy older gentleman who has been removed from the police force due to his bad behaviour in the past, particularly dealing with communists.  The Minister re-instates him to the investigation giving him 2 weeks to succeed.  If the ex-major does, he will be given his old rank in the police force, much to the consternation of the female in charge of the robbery.

The investigation begins and it is clear that the two are at loggerheads, especially in the throes of the robbers.  The audience has obviously put month e side of the ex-major who appears smart enough to come up with relevant theories, not to mention his fierce way of getting things done.  So far, JUSTICE is impressive and looks like a compelling action thriller

A security guard was killed during the robbery.   Apparently h had his shift switched with another who is then questioned for the reason.  The investigations and the details in the story are also detailed, thus making this mystery thriller more entertaining than most.  The devil is in the details.

The robbers' identities are revealed at the film’s 30-minute mark after the film clarifies the correctness of Gardacz’s suspicions.  Director Garda ups the ante,  One of them Kasper is shown to be unstable, after losing his daughter to an adopted family.  Gardacz is on Kasper’s trail.

The filtrates eachidividual whether copper crook with vulnerability, making each of them credible as human beings, thus creating a thriller innwhuch the characters matter.

JUSTICE though a work of fiction, plays like a true crime drama, meticulously thought out and executed. JUSTICE, from Poland, is one of the better originals from Netflix, full of intricate details and plot twists that is entertaining from start to end.  JUSTICE is available for streaming on Netflix this week,

MadS (France 2024) ***

Written and Directed by David Moreau

Nothing in the movie is what it seems.  What appears to be an animal scouring around his car turns out to be an older woman.  Her supposed injury turns out to be something else.

And nothing is what Romain (Milton Riche) has expected.  He never expected to drop his lit cigarette in the car and to shop by the roadside as a result  If not the woman would not have entered his vehicle.   The question also arises whether the audience is put in Romain’s shoes, as he is high as a kite, after experimenting with a new drug at his dealer’s.

Eighteen-year-old Romain has just graduated and makes a stop at his dealer’s place to try a new pill.   He, of course, has snorted a few lines of coke as well.  As he heads off to a party with his girlfriend waiting for him there, hoping to score more drugs, he sees an injured woman on the side of the road and decides to help her, but when she gets in his car, she suddenly smashes her own head against the dashboard, bleeding out until she dies.  So is this a hallucination bad trip? Or is it something else?  One thing is for sure to the audience, it’s only the beginning of the wild night where anything else can happen and probably will.

The film MADS is advertised as a thriller/mystery/horror and works equally well in either of these genres.

Director Moreau ups the ante with strobing lights and weird noises on the soundtrack to let his audience feel the intensity and uneasiness that Romain feels.  It is not helped when his girlfriend Ana shows up and keeps asking him if anything is wrong, and whether it is her.  Things get worse when her friends show up, all intending to have a wild night partying.  While all this is happening, a voiceover goes: “Subject C39 achieved!  Contamination!”

Spoiler alert (this paragraph only:)  For what is lacking in the story - the film has a loose narrative based on the single premise of the end of the world scenario, which it makes up in interspersed scary scenes like the women suddenly appearing all bloodied in Romain’s bathtub or Romain suddenly violently beating up a girl at a party.  Some suspense is also generated with his father, away on business constantly calling Romain asking if everything is all right when obviously, everything is not.  The dad calls Romain at one instant when the alarm in his house goes off, and Romain has to check on what is going on, cycling frantically home to turn off the alarm system.  All the while, he is high on drugs and not wanting the police to show up, though he clearly needs help.  MADS plays like a madcap horror film, which is an intensive watch, making it a standout horror film because the end-of-world scenario has never been done beef this way.

MADS has premiered at several film festivals internationally and opens for streaming on the streaming horror service, Shudder on October 18th.  This one is worth a look.

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RUMOURS (Canada/Germany 2024) ****
Directed by Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson,

Out of this world are the words that can be used to describe this engrossing weird and absurdist satire, Guy Maddin style which is aided by performances of an impressive cast that includes Cate Blanchett as the German chancellor, inspired casting of heart-throb Roy Depuis as the Canadian Prime Minister and Charles Dance as the American President. The G7 leaders are gathered in order to issue a united statement on a world crisis.  The G7 leaders are so lost in working on this provisional statement filled with platitudes and nonsense that they don’t realize they’ve been abandoned by their servers.  It’s only then, when the cameras and aides have left, that things really go off the rails and each of their shortcomings comes glaringly into focus, not to mention a giant brain (that thankfully does not speak) and some zombie-like creatures.  Shot in colour and black and white (Maddin’s favourite medium) and filmed in English, French, German and Swedish.

SWEET BOBBY: My Catfish Nightmare (UK 2024) ***

Directed by Lyttanya Shannon

A woman's online courtship takes an unsettling turn when her romantic interest harbours a dark secret and sinister motives, leading to a harrowing ordeal.  It deals with catfishing - a relationship that lasted 10 years.

Catfishing refers to the case when a person takes information and images, typically from other people, and uses them to create a new identity for themselves. In some cases, a catfisher steals another individual's complete identity—including their image, date of birth, and geographical location—and pretends that it is their own.

Kirat and Bobby - a catfishing romance that destroyed the life of Kiran, a victim..  In real life, catfishing usually leads to swindle of money, but in this case, there is no real reason, which makes the story even stranger, though still quite believable.

The title of the story gives the ending away as the audience knows right away that the victim is caught in a scam by someone pretending to be her lover.  

SWEET BOBBY: My Catfish Nightmare is another true crime documentary from Netflix - the streaming service that delivers at present almost one true crime drama every week, many often stranger than fiction,  These crime documentaries are quite compelling to watch  SWEET BOBBY: My Catfish Nightmare included.

The film is unveiled like a documentary with the victim Kirat talking most often to the camera as she in interviewed by (one assumes to be) the director, and as she tells her story.  Her family that including her parents is also interviewed as is Bobby and Sanj, Bobby’s wife.  But the villain of the piece Simran, is portrayed by another actor.  At the film’s closing credits, it is revealed that Simian had declined to be interviewed for the film.  The doc can be described as cheesy, which includes obvious cheesy re-enactments, but the story unfolding in chronological order is nevertheless very compelling to watch, owing to its content.

The doc opens with Kirat, a radio show host starting an internet connection with Bobby.  Bobby is married at the time and Kirat in a long term relationship.  As the years pass, the two communicate via texts and emails involving thousands of conversations.  Bobby gets divorced and Kirat breaks her long term relationship.  Both have family connections in Kenya, which makes them compatible with each other.

The doc stresses the sad fact that humans now live in a world where no one can live without the internet.  With the use of the internet comes online frauds and scams.  And everyone would have at this time been caught in one scam at least, on average,  Today, it has become easier to find love online through dating apps and social media sites.  While this is convenient, and many people have found their true love, it also becomes a breeding ground for people wanting to commit crimes like catfishing. People ignore all the red flags because they are vulnerable, especially when finding love.

SWEET BOBBY: My Catfish Nightmare is a Netflix original documentary and it opens for streaming this week on Netflix.

WE LIVE IN TIME (UK/France 2024) **

Directed by John Crowley

WE LIVE IN TIME is touted as an inventively structured romance (but the question is whether it works) that explores the question of how to make the most of our time in this world.

Since their first encounter, Almut (Florence Pugh) and Tobias (Andrew Garfield) have rarely had a dull moment.  A meet-cute car accident, giving birth in the unlikeliest of locations, a world-class gastronomical competition… their time together seems fated to brim with striking, if not forced, events.

WE LIVE IN TIME alternates between three distinct chronologies, allowing the audience to experience this couple’s story in a way that heightens the understanding of how the Collision with present experience and how meaning is made through accumulation.  As the film begins, Almut is given a sobering medical diagnosis and options for treatment that may or may not prove effective.  What if the time spent in treatment wastes time that could be spent living life to the fullest?

John Crowley is a (born) Irish film and theatre director who was born in Cork, Ireland. His film credits include BROOKLYN (2015) and the flop THE GOLDFINCH (2010, which was actually not bad.   His latest entry WE LIVE IN TIME is unfortunately a sorry miss, but not for want of trying.  Actors Pugh and Garfield are both Academy Aid nominees, thus giving audiences high expectations for the film

WE LIVE IN TIME is a film told in non-chronological order.  The main reason for the tactic is so that the most dramatic parts of the story can be left to the end of the film to make a solid climax.  But one main flaw is that the ending of the story is often revealed at the film’s start which is true in the case of this film.  The audience sees the protagonist alone inches room idly g that his wife has already passed from her illness of cancer,

But this is not the only fault of the film.  Director Crowley is fond of using handheld camera but in the film, he uses the technique in the worst way.  He uses handheld camera for scenes like reading text on a cell phone or reading a memo - there is no way one can read the jittery writing.  The other flaw in the film is the resort to improvisation.  In one of the two climatic segments, the one in which the baby is delivered at a gas station, the segment looks too forced and manipulative to be believed.  

It is a pity that WE LIVE IN TIME, a definite misfire, despite good intentions and ambition on the director’s front, flops as the two main actors Florence Pugh and Andre Garfield are excellent actors who have proven themselves apt in better features.  The film tends to be melodramatic with the much-needed humour missing and left to the improvised segments,  Best to give this film a skip.

WE LIVE IN TIME, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival opens in theatres on October 18th.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 30 September 2024

Two intriguing features are worth a view.  One is actress Anna Kendick's WOMAN OF THE HOUR, an engrossing and compelling watch based on the true story of a serial killer who appeared on the famous TV reality show The Dating Game.  The other is an unexpected look at ex-President Donald Trump in THE APPRENTICE in which Trump is shown as a young eager to prove himself an entrepreneur corrupted by gay lawyer Roy Cohn.  

FILM REVIEWS:

THE APPRENTICE (Canada/Denmark/Ireland 2024) ****
Directed by Ali Abbasi

THE APPRENTICE is the young Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) under the somewhat crooked lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) who took the innocent man under his wing and made him the one the world now knows as the bad, very bad ex-President Donald J. Trump.  The film is also about Cohn, his principles, practices and his private hidden life like his homosexuality, which resulted in his death from AIDs.

A young Donald Trump, eager to make his name as a hungry second son of a wealthy family in 1970s New York, comes under the spell of Roy Cohn, the cutthroat who would help create the Donald Trump we know today.  Cohn sees in Trump the perfect protégé – someone with raw ambition, a thirst for success, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to win.  The rest is history.

  Alongside Maria Bakalova (Trump’s first wife Ivana) and Martin Donovan (Trump’s father, Fred), the film also stars Charlie Carrick as Trump’s older brother Freddy, and Mark Rendall as future political advisor Roger Stone. 

  “There is no right or wrong. There is no truth.  It is only about winning.  It is a gift to not care what people, think of you”.  These are the words Cohn uttered to Trump, which Trump obviously took to heart and practices to this very day.  And the other advice and words:  “You are young and you got a lot to go.  You are handsome.  You must fuck a lot!”

Warhol is also shown in the picture saying:  “I am an artist.”  When asked what he makes, his reply is “Whatever I can sell.”  Then comes Donald’s question: “And are you successful?”  And the film cuts off from there,

“You must be prepared to exploit your enemies and instill fear.” is one other important line of dialogue in the film.

Days after The Apprentice premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung released a statement saying they intended to file a lawsuit to stop the film from being released.  "This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked," Cheung said.  The threatened lawsuit never materialized but the threats saw the film struggle for months to find a US distributor, despite landing eager distributors in the UK and Australia.

Truth be told, the film humanizes Trump, showing him in a different light especially in his vulnerability blaming Cohn for all of Trump’s ‘badness’.  As they say, a film is only as interesting as its subject and Trump is one of the most intriguing subjects in the world today, becoming a single media circus.  THE APPRENTICE is not only intriguing but quite a good film.

Trump is actually put in a good light in the film.  He is shown as a romantic, one who loves his kid in the kid crying scene and one who is a hardworking, well sort-of-honest man but corrupted by Cohn, among others.  A few scenes show Trump in a bad light as the one in which he sexually abuses Ivana and the ones where he is shown popping ecstasy pills thinking they are diet pills.   The film sets Trump as a reluctant hero, so Trump should have no qualms about his portrayal in the film.  No wonder his lawyers have backed off from persecuting the film.

The ultimate praise to Trump is the casting of talented and good-looking actor Sebastian Stan as rhetorical nun g Donald Trump.  Stan, who recently appeared in A DIFFERENT MAN and has proven himself an actor to be reckoned with, with an impressive resume that includes films like AVENGERS, HOT TUB TIME MACHINE and CAPTAIN AMERICA.  In the scene where he puts down the NYC mayor, insulting him during an interview, he nails the Trump character.  Stan was also twin shooting THUNDERBOLTS and in this film, he lost and gained weight for the two different roles.

THE APPRENTICE OPENS IN theatres on October 11th.

Trailer: 

DADDY’S HEAD (Australia 2024) ***

Directed by Benjamin Barfoot

In the wake of his father’s untimely death, a young boy is left in the eerie solitude of a sprawling country estate with his newly widowed stepmother.  Struggling to navigate the overwhelming task of parenthood, his stepmother grows distant, leaving their fragile bond at risk of collapse.  Amidst the growing tension, the boy begins to hear unsettling sounds echoing through the corridors and is soon haunted by the presence of a grotesque creature bearing a disturbingly familiar resemblance to his late father.  As the boy’s warnings are dismissed as the imagination of a grieving child, the sinister entity tightens its grip on their crumbling lives.

The film DADDY’S HEAD's most frightening scene has a boy, the son of a man in the hospital all bandaged up from head to toe with tubes running all over him, including his nose.  No flesh of the man is observable.  The boy is told that the father’s lifeline is to be removed by him.   The film is scary for two reasons.  For one, it is a scary sight to look at and secondly, it is psychologically damaging for a boy to witness death and for him not the first but second, occurring just right after he has lost his mother.

As the story goes, the man with the accident has just re-married to a beautiful younger female, who is now the boy’s stepmother.  Though she is in no way interested in becoming a mother any time soon, she is still emotionally affected when told that the boy will be taken by Social Services and put in an orange if she does not become or others find him a guardian.  All the while, she notices the by emotionally affected and particularly quiet.  Then the horror begins.  Family is everything, (that is the film’s caption) and it is what one makes with one’s family that counts.

The film is well paced with a solid buildup in mystery and suspense.  Director Barfoot clearly knows what he is doing.  Barfoot is a self-taught filmmaker from Torbay, Devon. Beginning with animation films as a child, he quickly moved on to video where he taught himself an array of skills from cameras and editing to animation, visual effects and sound design. Moving to London with a short animated film he had made at home, he was nominated for a Broadcast Young Talent Award and began cutting his teeth in London with everything from film trailers, and motion graphic promos to documentaries for BBC. Whilst between these jobs, he continued to create his own work, experimenting with dark animated shorts to fully improvised comedies that he shot and edited.  Barfoot also edited and composed the soundtrack for DADDY’S HEAD.

However, one of the film’s flaws is the explanation of the monster that appears to the boy, who speaks to him in his father’s voice.   Where did the monster originate?  And what happened to it when the boy was growing up?   Unless the monster is the boy’s imagination implying that he did all the violent acts including killing the poor dog. DADDY’S HEAD which premiered at the Fantastic Fest Film Festival 2024, opens for streaming on Shudder, the horror network on Friday October 11th.

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IN HER PLACE (El Lugar de la Otra) (Chile 2024) ***
Directed by Maite Alberdi

Chile, 1955. When the popular writer María Carolina Geel murders her lover, the case captivates Mercedes, the shy secretary of the judge in charge of defending the accused. After visiting the writer's apartment, Mercedes begins to question her life, identity and the role of women in society as she finds in that home an oasis of freedom.

The film is touted to be based on true events.  The true event is Maria’s commitment of the murder but the Mercedes character is made up in what is otherwise a fictitious story.

As the film is set in the 50’s and deals with murder and a mysterious femme fatale, director Maite Alberdi’s film feels like a Hitchcock movie with the character of Gael looking like the Kim Novak character in VERTIGO.

The film has a strong female slant dealing with two strong women, Mercedes and Maria.  The film shows Mercedes' demise from being locked into a mundane routine lifestyle.  The film begins with her in bed next to her snoring husband.  She wakes up to make breakfast for her noisy two sons who leave no packs for her, after she had made breakfast for the family.  She lives in a small cramped apartment which the husband converts to a photography studio for his business.  So when asked to look after Maria's belongings, she fantasizes about being IN HER PLACE.  Director Albrerdi is fond of using close-ups to emphasize the points he wishes to make in the story, a tactic that works pretty well.

Though the film is slow-moving, it has an excellent build-up, priming the audience for something huge that is to come.  But often in films where there is a strong build and audience anticipation, they fail to live up to expectations.

`IN HER PLACE has been selected as Chile’s entry for Best International Feature for the next Academy Awards.

Netflix specializes in crime documentaries and this fiction film plays like one.  IN HER PLACE opens for Netflix streaming this week.

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THE MENENDEZ BROTHERS (USA 2024)***½

Directed by Alejandro Hartmann

THE MENENDEZ BROTHERS  is a 2024 American true crime documentary film directed by Alejandro Hartmann for the streaming company Netflix, in which brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were convicted of the 1989 murders of their parents, are interviewed about the case.

The documentary film tells the story of Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were convicted in 1996 for the murders of their parents on August 20, 1989.  In the documentary, for the first time in about thirty years, the brothers themselves talk about what exactly happened and why they did it. The brothers do this through audio interviews from prison, where they are still incarcerated.

At the film’s beginning, the voiceover touts the film’s intriguing nature.  It talks about Beverly Hills, and how safe and prestigious the 80210 postal code is the most sought-after and desired place to reside in.  It goes on to say that crime is minimal and that murders would not even be imagined, less one in which a couple has been shot violently in their own home,  Then it goes on to say that the brothers have a story to tell, over after thirty years for the very first time, both to expel their demons and also that the world can learn a few things from the madness.  Needless to say, this true crime drama. a doc constructed by interviews and footage of the cops’ investigation is a most intriguing piece, again proving that Netflix is one of the best streaming places to watch true crime dramas, especially when one loves this genre when reality is often stranger than fiction.

The interviewees in the doc are as carefully picked as the jurors for the trial.  These included the family relatives including the brothers’ grandmother and mother’s sister, Kitty, a juror and reporter involved in the case as well as  the lead prosecutor Pamela Bozanich of their case,

The two brothers were initially not suspects though they could be arrested on the spot of the murder.  Gun shells were in the son’s car which was at the scene of the murder.  There was gunpowder on the hands of the brothers.  The brothers told the cops they smelt smoke and they would not have if they had not been close to the murder.  For any domestic shootings, the family members would immediately be suspect. but being Beverly Hills, the Beverly Hills cops treat the citizens very nicely.

What is seldom done in a court film, fictional or doc is the display of emotions from the lawyers.  Each of the three lawyers, the prosecutor who threw up before the trial and the ones defending Lyle and Erik \, all different personalities show their vulnerability.

The behavior of the two brothers was strange and unexpected.  Lyle changed from a goofy college kid to the business-like personality of his father.  Lyle delivered an emotionless eulogy at the funeral.  The two went on an extravagant shopping free soon after spending money like water.

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MY HERO ACADEMIA: YOU’RE NEXT (Japan 2024) **

Directed by Tensai Okamura

Written by: Yôsuke Kuroda, Kôhei Horikoshi and directed by Tensai Okamura, MY HERO ACADEMIA: YOU’RE NEXT is the fourth film of the TV manga series that won popularity among manga enthusiasts,

In a society where heroes and villains continuously battle in the name of peace and chaos, Izuku Midoriya, a U.A. High School student who aspires to be the best hero he can be, confronts the villain who imitates the hero he's long admired.  In the film, the best hero is called All Might, but an imitation villain pretends to be All Might before chaining his name to Balck Might showing his true colours.

A bit of background is necessary to understand the context of this movie.  Those unfamiliar will be thrust without much explanation into the story, which can be quite confusing if not annoying.

My Hero Academia (Japanese: Boku no Hīrō Akademia) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kōhei Horikoshi. It was serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from July 2014 to August 2024, with its chapters collected in 41 tankōbon volumes as of August 2024. Set in a world where superpowers (called "Quirks") have become commonplace, the story follows Izuku Midoriya, a boy who was born without a Quirk but still dreams of becoming a superhero himself. He is scouted by the world's greatest hero, All Might, who bestows his Quirk to Midoriya after recognizing his potential and helps to enroll him in a prestigious high school for superheroes in training.  The manga spawned a media franchise, having inspired numerous spin-off manga, such as My Hero Academia: Smash!!, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, and My Hero Academia: Team-Up Missions. The series has expanded into light novels, stage plays, and various types of merchandise and media, including numerous video games. It has also been adapted into an anime television series by Bones. The first season aired in Japan from April to June 2016, followed by a second season from April to September 2017, then a third season from April to September 2018, a fourth season from October 2019 to April 2020, a fifth season from March to September 2021, a sixth season from October 2022 to March 2023, and a seventh season which premiered in May 2024. It has also received four animated films, titled My Hero Academia: Two Heroes, My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising, My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission, and MY HERO ACADEMIA: YOU’RE NEXT, this film.

MY HERO ACADEMIA: YOU’RE NEXT is set in a world where about 80% of the human population has gained superpowers called "Quirks" ). Quirks vary widely and can be inherited. Among the Quirk-enhanced individuals, a few of them earn the title of Heroes, who cooperate with authorities in rescue operations and apprehending criminals who abuse their Quirks, commonly known as Villains. In addition, Heroes who excel in their duties gain celebrity status and are recognized as "Pro Heroes". Heroes are ranked in popularity, with higher-ranking heroes receiving public appeal, although it is not uncommon for rookie heroes to gain popularity as well.

The manga feature is emotionless and boring to no-manga fans and to those who are not fans of the series despite some good animation. It is difficult to get excited to watch animated heroes fighting animated villains.

The film opens in theatres across Canada on Friday, October 11th.

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SING MY SONG (Canada 2024) ***
Directed by Barbara Kayee Lee

SING MY SONG follows Barbara “Kayee” Lee, an award-winning broadcast journalist and community advocate, on her decade-long journey to discover why there are no Asian pop stars from North America.  As a songwriter who doesn’t fit the pop star image, Lee is initially driven by the hope of having her songs sung by American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson, forcing Lee to confront her own internalized biases stemming from the lack of Asian pop stars growing up in the West. An insightful and, yet poignant search from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Hong Kong to Nashville, Tennessee that will make you think, cry, and laugh as you go along the journey with Lee to find her voice and fulfill her childhood dream.

The question is whether the film would be interesting to non-singer-songwriters.  But Asians aside, the film discusses problems faced by other minority races trying to succeed in any other industry besides music, like film or painting.  Still, the film delves in quite detail the music industry, especially on recording and singing.

Lee's pursuit of her musical dream intertwines with encounters with fellow Asian American and Asian Canadian singer-songwriters including the Far East Movement, Alfa Garcia, Kevin So and Umi Hsu. The documentary challenges the Model Minority Myth, unraveling its dual nature –celebrated for excellence in classical music yet sidelined as not "cool" enough for mainstream popularity. Through Lee's lens, viewers are compelled to reckon with the complicity within Asian communities and the systemic erasure of Asian musicians and pop stars in North America.

The doc also blends in the life of Lee, making it like a slight biopic.  Barbara emigrated to Canada when she was fourteen months old from Hong Kong and her mother bought her first guitar at a pawn shop close to Chinatown.  She worked the family farm in British Columbia.  The present?  Barbara has spent over twenty-five years as a community advocate for diverse representation and organizer of events to increase the profile and opportunities for Canadian and American Asian artists in mainstream music, film and media. She is the founder of the Vancouver Asian Film Festival (VAFF), the oldest Asian film festival in Canada, in its 28th year. Co-founder of the Mighty Asian Moviemaking Marathon (MAMM) in its 19th year and founder and producer of the Racial Equity Screen Office (RESO), creator of East by Northwest (EXNW) Global Creative Summit as well as founder of Elimin8Hate.org to combat anti-Asian racism.   She also started the Vancouver Asian Film Festival, championing Asian values.

The topic of being Asian in a Western country comes up for the reason of its relevance as a musical artist.  Lee talks about the difference between an Asian Canadian and a Canadian Asian.  The topic is discussed ingrate detail by another Asian American artist who had made it in Tennessee, Kevin So.

One can understand Lee’s lessons learned but the film’s conclusion with Lee’s speaking to the film’s audience tends to be preachy if not condescending.

SING MY SONG premieres on  AAM.tv (Asian AmerciaTV) on October 11, 2024

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STUDIO ONE FOREVER (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Marc Saltarelli

The documentary STUDIO ONE almost did not make it to the cinemas or VOD due to the pandemic and lack of funding.  The doc finally opens this week and for those who are gay and love the club scene, then the Disco scene, this movie will bring total delight.  For those gay,, who are older now and used to look young and pretty and used to do the club scene (myself definitely included), watching STUDIO ONE FOREVER reminds one of the times past when one was young and pretty and could pick up a new lover every night at the club, least of all make it on the dance floor or even have sex in the toilets.  And there were plenty of drugs.  For those in Toronto, there was the equivalent, sort of anyway, except that there were no celebrities, of STUDIO ONE, like the night club FLY, the place in which the gay series, the American one, QUEER AS FOLK was shot.

In STUDIO ONE FOREVER, director Marc Saltarelli and narrators Bruce Vilanch and David Del Valle dive into the history of the historic venue, offering a testament to an era and immortalizing the club's legacy for future generations. The documentary features candid, modern-day interviews with Chita Rivera, Sam Harris, Felipe Rose, Charlo Crossley, Melissa Rivers, Roslyn Kind, Lance Bass, and Thelma Houston along with former bartenders and patrons who recount their experiences at Studio One, and what the iconic club stood for.  Many of the bartenders and patrons interviewed, now much older, look especially gorgeous and hot with their archive photographs shown.

A beacon of dancing and freedom for gay men looking for identity in a world that saw them as outcasts, Studio One was a haven and the blossoming centre of nightlife in West Hollywood.  From merging the gay community and Hollywood elites like Bette Davis and Jimmy Stewart to being at the forefront of the LBGTQ+ rights movement and the fight against the AIDS crisis, the venue was more than just a disco, it was a movement.   

The film plays like a biopic of STUDIO ONE - from past to present.  The Studio One building was originally owned by William Fox and housed the Mitchel Camera Company. Mitchel manufactured Hollywood's early film cameras used by Charlie Chaplin, and for filming The Wizard of Oz. Later, it was used as the Norden bombsight facility during World War II. As the audience is informed, the floor has been reinforced during the War, which enabled it to be tested with thousands of Disco dancers pouring on the floor.  In 1968 the building was bought and transformed into The Factory nightclub, named after the furniture manufacturing business on the lower floor of the building.  The Factory became a popular 1960s-style discothèque that was frequented by Hollywood celebrities, but it only lasted a few years. And then, Studio One was founded on the same site in 1974 by part-owner Scott Forbes, a Boston optometrist.   In the 1990s it was bought by Sandy Sachs and renamed to Axis.  The space is currently called The Robertson.

The doc spends time talking about STUDIO ONE founder Scott Forbes who eventually succumbed to AIDs.  The doc also sadly looks at the impact of the disease.

STUDIO ONE FOREVER is available on VOD on October 8 via Gravitas.

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SUPER/MAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY (USA 2024) ***½

Directed by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui

There have been many, many actors who have taken on the role of Superman, but only one that remains the symbol of the iconic hero - and that is Christopher Reeves who played the titular hero from the Planet of Krypton in not one but in four Superman movies, only the first two being really successful.  The third was shot in Calgary with Richard Pryor and the fourth and last is best forgotten.

The story of Christopher Reeve is an astonishing rise from an unknown actor to an iconic movie star, and his definitive portrayal of Clark Kent/Superman set the benchmark for the superhero cinematic universes that dominate cinema today.  Reeve portrayed the Man of Steel in four Superman films before being injured in a near-fatal horse-riding accident in 1995 that left him paralyzed from the neck down.  As the voiceover goes: Everything can be changed in an instant.

  After becoming a quadriplegic, Reeve became a charismatic leader and activist in the quest to find a cure for spinal cord injuries, as well as a passionate advocate for disability rights and care - all while continuing his career in cinema in front of and behind the camera and dedicating himself to his beloved family.

This film includes never-before-seen intimate home movies and an extraordinary trove of personal archive material, as well as the first extended interviews ever filmed with Reeve’s three children about their father, and interviews with the A-list Hollywood actors who were Reeve’s colleagues and friends. The film is a moving and vivid cinematic telling of Reeve’s remarkable story.

Many celebrities speak of Reeve.  Most notable is actress Glenn Close talking candidly about Reeve and also about his best friend Robin Williams, who was in the same acting class before becoming famous, who with his wife, Marsha provided Reeve with immense support.  Close claims on camera that she strongly believes that if Reeve was still alive, Williams should also be alive and not have taken his life.

The film goes on to show that Reeve later directed IN THE GLOAMING (1997), acted in the television remake of REAR WINDOW (1998), and made two appearances in the Superman-themed television series Smallville (2003). Reeve died in 2004 from heart failure at a hospital near his home in Westchester County, New York.

Needless to say, the doc is a tearjerker and the directors have no qualms in preventing it from being one.  The film spends a good whole 15 minutes on is death with the reaction of his immediate family.

From the opening clips of the SUPERMAN film to Christopher Reeve’s accident and his fight with recovery, the doc is extremely well thought of and put together with the conclusion of not who the hero is but what a hero is, showing that the hero is not a super mighty being but a human being as witnessed in the life and work of one Christopher Reeves.

SUPER/MAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY opens in theatres on October 11th.

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WOMAN OF THE HOUR (USA 2024) ****
Directed by Anna Kendrick

WOMAN OF THE HOUR is the stranger-than-fiction story of an aspiring actor (Anna Kendrick) in 1970s Los Angeles and a serial killer in the midst of a years-long murder spree, whose lives intersect when they’re cast on an episode of The Dating Game.

In the 1970s Rodney Alcala went on a murder spree, luring women by posing as a photographer looking for models. Though already a registered sex offender and recently released from prison, he infamously appeared on The Dating Game, a show that introduced a set of three new bachelors each week, hidden from view as a woman asked them amusing questions before choosing a winner to go on an all-expenses-paid trip with her.

It is Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut in which she stars as the main character as well.  She is quite capable at it, creating both an intelligent and absorbing film that empowers women.  The killings by the serial killer are interspersed with Sheryl’s routine making the film play like an anthology of the killings bound together with Sheryl’s life.  Daniel Zovatto is nothing short of excellent in the role of the creepy ladykiller, Rodney.

.Actress Anna Kendick's WOMAN OF THE HOUR is an engrossing and compelling watch based on the true story of a serial killer who appeared on the famous TV reality show The Dating Game.  The film premiered at TIFF last year and opens in Theatres now.

Trailer