FILM REVIEWS:
ANOTHER HAPPY DAY (USA 2023) **
Directed by Nora Fiffer
The title of the film ANOTHER HAPPY DAY does not sound like a feel-good happy movie rather than a sarcastic phrase implying that another happy day may not be in the works. The film opens with a heroine snuggling into her bed, first laughing and then breaking into tears. The first impression of her is neuroticism and when a later scene that follows shows her a recent mother still breastfeeding her baby. She is, assumed Hewish, though with a black husband (and also hence, a black baby). Must films always have a mixed couple to be politically correct? Things have gone really to the point of absurdity when films like a black ANNIE or a black Andrea Arnold’s WUTHERING HEIGHTS showing up in the cinemas.
Thirty-five-year-old Joanna (Lauren Lapkus) is a total nut. She’s also an artist and a new mom. But she’s not making any art and she’s terrible at taking care of her newborn. Worse, her husband (Jean Elie) fancies himself to be a mothering expert. Desperate for some company, Joanna tumbles into an unlikely friendship with her estranged aunt Miriam (Marilyn Dodds Frank), a reclusive theatre actress. Miriam seems the perfect companion for Joanna -- she’s artsy, honest, eccentric, and she hates babies. But all goes haywire when Joanna tries to mother her aunt instead of her baby. Another Happy Day is a tender and tense comedy exploring postpartum depression, intergenerational friendship, and what it means to be family.
The film contains a few uncomfortable moneys. A few of them occur which turn out to be Joanna’s dreams. Others like her sitting down with a baby bouncing up and down on a cushion are also disturbing for fear of the bay. It is puzzling what these scenes intend to do as the film is supposedly a comedy.
As far as performances go, Lauren Lapkus’s character is neurotic and annoying and the actress annoys the audience well with her neurotic antics. The same can be said of Marilyn Dodds as her Aunt Mariam.
It is hard to like any of the characters in the film - almost every single one of them loser-neurotic. Joanna’s husband is definitely not a winner when he is delirious about getting a $ 1-an-hour raise at work. He is also obsessive about being right about rearing a baby. Joanna’s mother on the phone does not sound like a loving mother either, but one who only cares for herself.
ANOTHER HAPPY DAY is just another indie movie, credit goes for it being an indie low-budget product but not particularly memorable in any respect, but maybe for Joanna’s annoying neurosis.
ANOTHER HAPPY DAY arrives nationwide on Digital Tuesday, October 1st.
Trailer:
THE BECOMERS (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Zach Clark
A body-snatching alien comes to Earth, reconnects with their partner, and tries to find their way into modern America.
Forced to flee their dying planet, two body-snatching alien lovers arrive separately on Earth. Determined to find each other, the aliens jump from body to body, but they quickly learn that it's not easy to inhabit their new, fleshy hosts and that life in modern-day America is more complicated than they could have ever imagined.
THE BECOMERS can be described as INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, which is an American indie, low-budget style. The low-budget indie feel is felt through the film from its cheese special effects that likely cost nothing to a minimal invasion of the planet look. All the actors are unknown and the script though neat in the sense that it can be a sci-fi mystery/thriller does suffer compared to a doctored Hollywood high-paid screenplay.
The script contains many loose ends that are left unexplained. The first alien is seen moving from body to body The first is when a stranger, obviously already possessed with the body snatcher, stumbles to a car that bears a screaming pregnant woman about to deliver a baby. Through the beam in the eyes, the audience might assume that the alien has not snatched the mother’s body. The mother is seen dumping the baby into the fire (what looks like a baby doll rather than a real baby) before the mother goes about snatching another body. Why the bodies have to be swapped ever so often is never explained.
Being such a low-budget production, many scenes and dialogue look very cheesy. The cult segment is one that is particularly important. The chanting is cheesy and director Zach Clark who also wrote the script knows it and ups the angst on the tackiness. This particular cult scene turns out to be the most hilarious segment of the film. Otherwise, certain parts move along so slowly that one might have to keep concentrating on the film.
THE BECOMERS is entertaining enough as a deliberately cheesy, sci-fi body snatching if one does not have too high expectations. This is no big bulge in Ridley Scott’s ALIEN.
THE BECOMERS arrives on VOD in North America on Tuesday, September 24.
Trailer:
A DIFFERENT MAN (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Aaron Schimberg
Aspiring actor Edward (Sebastian Stan) undergoes a radical medical procedure to drastically transform his appearance. But his new dream face becomes a nightmare as he loses the role he was born to play, and becomes obsessed with reclaiming what was lost.
The different man in A DIFFERENT MAN has a facial deformity that makes him look like a varied version of THE ELEPHANT MAN. When the film first begins, the audience is shown the man’s daily routine as he does his daily chores which include a ride on the subway. Some people stare at him, others avoid him, and some glaringly pretend not to notice. Amidst all this, the man goes about his duties,, obviously living a lifetime with the ailment,
But there is hope. At a clinic, he decides to undergo a life-challenging test in which there is a chance that his looks can become normal. “There is no reward without risk,” he is told by the medical technician more than once. He decides to take the risk. Initially, he sees his face falling apart while getting sick quite often. But to his (and the audience’s) surprise, he slowly turns to look normal.
During this time, he meets a playwright at a bar who is writing a new play. “Can I watch it?” he asks. “No” is her reply. “You are going to be in it.” After writing it, the, one who is also directing the play casts him in it. All this time, he is transitioning, Oddly enough, they get to meet another man with the same facial ailment, apparently a Brit from his strong accent. This Brit is extremely confident in himself, not letting his disability hinder him at all. The Brit eventually steals the man’s part from him a the story in the play changes - all these changes angering him.
Sebastian Stan who is also tone seen as the young Donald Trump in THE APPRENTICE does a might fine job as a DIFFERENT MAN. Stan is a quite handsome actor with his dark looks,
A DIFFERENT MAN is a well-made drama that covers the prejudice behind good looks and how looks can deceive people. But it can hardly be described as pleasant entertainment with scenes of vomiting and peeling off of loose bloodied skin of a face, not to mention the frequent outburst of anger of the main character.
Trailer:
DIVORCE (Poland 2024) ***
Directed by Michal Chacinski
DIVORCE comes on Netflix as an original international movie. As Netflix international original movies go, many are duds. (I review at least two of these a week.) But as far as the film title DIVORCE sounds, the film is actually quite good, succeeding as a sufficiently funny comedy, complete with a few pokes at institutions.
The main institutions made fun of are the institution of marriage and of course, following the institution of divorce. And of the church court, that is all high and mighty over their religious powers over the individual. “We work and live here for 50 years.” These are the words seen on a banner at the start of the film.
The film is about a couple, Malgosia and Jacek, who had separated a long time back, but they did not nullify their marriage in the church court. Jacek’s fiancée wanted a white wedding, and for the church to approve his second marriage, he had to divorce Malgosia first. But getting the church to approve a nullification of marriage was not a piece of cake. They only allowed it in cases of exceptions, such as if the groom was impotent or if either of the parties were addicts. Since none of it was true in Malgosia and Jacek’s case, they had to appear before the court over and over again pleading the authority to grant them a divorce. Did it work out in the end? Does it really matter so long as the audience is having fun/
The best thing about DIVORCE is the humour that is derived from everyday circumstances. It is clear the director has a keen sense of humour as it is the timing and staging of all the humour that is as important as the ‘funniness’ of the jokes. Jacek is pro-church wanting to have a church annulled marriage whereas Malgosia is more upset that the procedure would unroll her current situation. She is anti-church, becoming increasingly upset when the church calls her for an unplanned interview.
DIVORCE opens for streaming this week, from Wednesday on Netflix. Watch it for pure entertainment - guaranteed for a good number of laughs.
Trailer:
JAILBREAK: LOVE ON THE RUN (USA 2024) ***½
Directed by: (See below)
True crime documentaries are always a hoot to watch, as these stories are often more intriguing than crime fiction films. And Netflix is well known for true crime documentaries. The new one JAILBREAK: LOVE ON THE RUN belongs to this category.
The title LOVE ON THE RUN is likely derived from the classic Francois Truffaut Antoine Doinel 1979 film L’AMOUR EN FUITE which translates to LOVE ON THE RUN.
The Netflix documentary Jailbreak: Love on the Run (2024), about the infamous prison escape involving Vicky White and Casey White, was produced by Aaron Ginsburg, William Green, and Alec MacRae. It does not have a single director credited but features a team of executive producers, all 15 of them, including Lana Wilson, Dan Abrams, and Angie Dorr. It is surprising that though no one director is given credit the dc is extremely well put together.
When Vicky White, a highly respected corrections officer, aids the escape of a violent felon nearly twenty years her junior, it reveals an unexpected love story amidst the ensuing high-profile manhunt and media frenzy.
The start of the film introduces the day and occurrence of the jailbreak. Vicky is accompanying the convict Casey to the courtroom for his hearing. They never showed up.
The film then flashes back before when the interviewees talk about Vicky and a bit about Casey. The audience learns a lot about the two characters.
On April 29, 2022, at 9:30 a.m., Vicky White, the assistant director at the Lauderdale County Jail in Florence, Alabama, escorted Casey White to a police vehicle, then left the detention centre. A surveillance video showed Casey in handcuffs and leg shackles. Casey, who has an extensive criminal history, was already serving 75 years for a 2015 crime spree. He was at the facility for pre-trial motions after having confessed two years earlier to the 2015 stabbing death of 59-year-old Connie Ridgeway. Vicky told fellow officers she was taking Casey to the county courthouse in Florence for a psychological evaluation, and then going to see her personal physician since she was not feeling well that day. The task aroused suspicion since inmates being taken to the courthouse are supposed to be escorted by two deputies. Authorities believe she was not challenged because of her position. The two never returned to the detention centre. The Lauderdale County Sheriff's Department was given a surveillance video, taken at a local gas station, of Vicky White's patrol car 8 minutes after the pair left the detention centre. The deputies checked the courthouse's itinerary and found that there were no hearings or evaluations that day. Authorities feared Vicky may have been forced or coerced into helping Casey escape. They immediately initiated a statewide manhunt hoping to find her unharmed and to recapture Casey.
What happens after is revealed after the doc reaches the halfway mark, which will not be revealed in this review.
The story is told mainly from interviews with Vicky’s fellow prison staff put chronologically together mixed with archive footage. Quite a feat!
The doc plays like an entertaining intriguing thriller, the best of what true crime documentaries have to offer. Whether the audience root for the two is left to the individual.
LEE (UK 2023) ***
Directed by Ellen Kuras
Lee, the directorial feature from award-winning Cinematographer Ellen Kuras, portrays a pivotal decade in the life of American war correspondent and photographer, Lee Miller (Kate Winslet). Miller’s singular talent and unbridled tenacity resulted in some of the 20th century's most indelible images of war, including an iconic photo of Miller herself, posing defiantly in Hitler's private bathtub.
Miller had a profound understanding and empathy for women and the voiceless victims of war. Her images display both the fragility and ferocity of the human experience. Above all, the film shows how Miller lived her life at full-throttle in pursuit of truth, for which she paid a huge personal price, forcing her to confront a traumatic and deeply buried secret from her childhood.
At the battlefront, Lee (Kate Winslet, who looks quite like her from old photographs, especially when wearing the same hairstyle) is shown saying: “I have to be at the battlefront.” followed by, “Where is the powder room?”
Lee is less a biography of Lee Miller than a film about a woman journalist covering the war. Elizabeth "Lee" Miller, Lady Penrose (April 23, 1907 – July 21, 1977), was an American photographer and photojournalist. The film is a U.K. production though. Miller was a fashion model in New York City in the 1920s before going to Paris and becoming a fashion and fine art photographer there.
The part of the bio does not so much concentrate on Lee Miller going from a career as a model but more of her enlisting as a photographer to chronicle the events of World War II for Vogue magazine. It begins with her, at an older age being interviewed by journalist, Antony Penrose (Josh O’Connor).
During World War II, she was a war correspondent for Vogue, covering events such as the London Blitz, the liberation of Paris, and the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau. Her reputation as an artist in her own right is due mostly to her son's discovery and promotion of her work as a fashion and war photographer.
The film has a strong female slant. Given that it is the love child of both the director and Winslet who are female, the protagonist as a female also stands for female strength. This can be best observed in the one scene where she pulls out a knife at a soldier attempting to sexually abuse a lady in the street.
Though the film lacks the power of most films on war correspondents reporting in war zones, in fact, there are too many of these after Peter Weir’s THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY did so well critically and at the box office. But this film LEE stands out from the really stunning cinematography and atmosphere of the period of Occupied France in WWII.
The film has a troubled production history. The movie took eight years to make and, at one point, due to precarious funding, Kate Winslet (who also produced the movie) paid the entire cast and crew's salaries for two weeks. The film made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 9 September 2023. It was released theatrically in the United Kingdom by Sky Cinema on 13 September 2024.
LEE is in theatres in Toronto from September 27
Trailer:
MY OLD ASS (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Megan Park
My Old Ass is a 2024 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Megan Park. It stars Maisy Stella in her film debut, Percy Hynes White, Maddie Ziegler, Kerrice Brooks, and Aubrey Plaza.
Elliott Labrant (Maisy Stella) , who has been advised by her future self not to fall in love, is sure she can follow the advice she has been given. That is, until she meets the boy her older self (Aubrey Plaza) warned her about.
MY OLD ASS refers to a teen and her older 30-year-old self. If one thinks the film is something similar to FREAKY FRIDAY or BIG, it certainly is not. The film is more of a romantic comedy-drama than a light comedy. The film aims high at succeeding in a fresh take on a coming-of-age story, and one that involves a bit of fantasy as well as romance.
Though the characters are teens and go about their high
For a film about a family about the cranberry farm business, it would be a big flaw in the film if no cranberry farms are on display. Thankfully, the harvesting of cranberries is shown in detail in all its grandeur right near the end of the film.
Though Aubrey Plaza gets star billing, Plaza only has a few scenes in a supporting role as the older girl.
As a coming-of-age story, the question arises: "How do you know what you want?” Elliot surely does not, When she does magic mushrooms with her friends, she encounters her future self able to answer a few of her questions on life. With the advice come certain warnings. One is not to have sex with a new boy Elliot has me - Chad(Percy Hynes White). But Chad is so endearing and apparently with no fault at all that Elliot can find, Elliot gradually falls in love with Chad, even though she has had flings only with females. so is she bi? That is yet another question Elliot is puzzled with. And with Chad being the perfect, charming beau, Elliot is even more puzzled at the reason her older self has warned her of him. Though the two have light fun times with Elliot also having fun times with her other friends, the film has a deadly serious message. Director Park’s script is a mature one, and she knows how to steer her film in the right direction, resulting i turning out to be a romantic comedy, bordering on drama, with a difference.
MY OLD ASS is essentially a teen romantic comedy that follows all the cliched Harlequin romance novel trappings set in a fantasy coming-of-age scenario that basically works for the reason that everyone, director, production crew and actor all take the project so seriously.
The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2024. It was given a limited theatrical release in the United States by Amazon MGM Studios on September 13, 2024, and it opens in theatres in Canada on September 27th.
Trailer:
NIGHT OF THE HARVEST (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Christopher M.cater and Jessica Morgan
NIGHT AT THE HARVEST is described in the press notes as a spine-chilling thriller where masks and costumes are not just for fun but part of a terrifying ritual. The audience is prompted to prepare for a journey into the heart of fear, where every shadow hides an unknown threat and each twist reveals the mysteries behind the Harvest.
NIGHT OF THE HARVEST is the third horror feature film created by the Carter Ink Films team of CHRISTOPHER M. CARTER (co-director, writer, and director of photography) and JESSICA MORGAN (co-director, producer, and lead actor). Their experience shows as the film contains good scary production values. Carter, who has won several awards for directing, says his passion for the Halloween season brought the film to life—exploring the roots of the ancient Samhain tradition and coupling that with a family dynamic is what inspired the story.
NIGHT OF THE HARVEST set on the day before and the day of 31st October, Halloween contains differences from the typical Halloween horror flicks for several good reasons.
- the film does not contain any Scream Queens like Jamie Lee Curtis. There are many female characters in the film, and they are given equal screen time
- no one can be certain who the villains or victims are. Anyone can be disposed of at any time in the movie.
- the film tries its best to call itself a harvest movie rather than a Halloween film
- a few neat scenes take place in the cornfields
- , and there is more than one slasher in the story
The film opens with a nerdy male entering a home with an elaborate decorative set up for Halloween. The male hopes to score with the girl organizer who claims this is her favourite holiday. As she pours the alcohol and retakes off to the other room, a masked figure suddenly appears and kills the guy while also attacking the girl. The girl turns out to be one, Madison who is featured in the story that follows.
A year after surviving a brutal attack, Madison is still grappling with the trauma of that night. Seeking a sense of normalcy, she reluctantly agrees to join her sister, Audrey, and her friends at a Halloween bash, hoping for a night of fun and distraction. But the festive atmosphere quickly turns deadly when a masked killer begins to hunt them down one by one. Madison must confront her deepest fears and uncover the sinister secrets that bind her to this horror.
Big sister advises younger sister: "It is easier to make a decision when you don’t have a choice.” The little sister wants to know what thought of her if she went to a Halloween party after the tragedy of her escaping the killer during the past one. If one might complain of the dialogue, one must admit that this kind of advice could have been given or a mother could use this saying often making the film more down-to-earth and believable.
NIGHT OF THE HARVEST plays well as forgettable Halloween entertainment with a heavy dose of violence. The film opens on Digital Platforms on September 20th.
Trailer:
SLEEP (South Korea 2023) ***
Directed by Jason Yu
SLEEP is a horror film from South Korea - with a difference. One difference is that horror films from South Korea are not common though there are tons from Japan.
SLEEP follows newlyweds Hyun-su (Lee Sun-kyun, PARASITE) and Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi), whose domestic bliss is disrupted when Hyun-su begins speaking in his sleep, ominously stating, “Someone’s inside.” About to be challenged is their wall plaque motto that reads “Together We Can Overcome Anything”. From that night on, whenever he falls asleep, Hyun-su transforms into someone else, with no recollection of what happened the night before. Overwhelmed with anxiety that he may hurt himself or their young family, Soo-jin can barely sleep because of this irrational fear. Despite treatment, Hyun-su’s sleepwalking only intensifies, and Soo-jin begins to feel that her unborn child may be in danger.
SLEEP is also different as it has a strong story in which the audience is teased on two accounts. The first is whether there is any supernatural demon inhabiting the sleepwalker. Secondly, one wonders during the first half of the movie, who is the crazy one. The sleepwalking husband or the wife who becomes obsessed with the problem, The problem is further enhanced by her mother who believes an evil spirit is at large. There is a lot of scare anticipation in the film - a good sign, though the climax does not really match the build-up. Many of the audience would expect more blood, gore and violence in their horror fare, and though there is some, the film plays more on mystery and anticipation.
SLEEP is a new thriller from director Jason Yu, who worked with Korean legends Bong Joon-ho and Lee Chang-dong before making his debut film, SLEEP world premiered in Cannes’ Critics’ Week.
SLEEP in theatres and on digital SEPTEMBER 27th.
Trailer
