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FILM REVIEWS:
BLACKBERRY (Canada 2023) Top 10 *****
Dorectedby Matt Johnson
BLACKBERRY sees the rise and fall of the company, Research in Motion (RIM) through their main product the smartphone, a smartphone that combines, text, the internet and the phone using their famous clicking keypad. The film follows the founders of RIM, two friends, Mike and Doug played by Jay Baruchel (who also executively produced the movie) and director Matt Johnson himself. They hire the fired CEO of another company Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton) who turns the product of RIM into a success and the companying a billion dollar company. This is where the film soars the audience to feel-good highs as then underdogs take on the world. The film’s second half sees, sadly the company’s downfall as greed, pride and of course Apple’s iPhone, with no keypad) revolutionaries the smartphone industry.
Many stars shone in BLACKBERRY Among them is dismartrector/actor Matt Johnson. hailing from Toronto itself and seldom heard of American actor Glenn Howerton, only previously seen before in limited TV series, the most notable being IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA. Howerrton down a bald wig to look like the balding character, a high-flying CEO and Harvard Business graduate, Jim Balsillie who arguably can be the one considered the genius the rise of Blackberry (or the company behind it, Research in Motion) as well as its downfall. The first question that will come to many an audience’s mind is: “Where did this guy come from?” Absolutely perfect in the role, Howerton stable to swing the audience to his side as he champions the BLACKBERRY product and also get the audience to despise him when he brings the company down. The film should bring this talented young actor, who looks much younger than his bald character to fame. Ironically, Johnson and Howerton are both comedians at heart, transiting successfully to comedic drama in the film.
The film looks like the period it is set from the 80’s to early 20’s from the props (Cathode ray tube monitors, range of Blackberry products on display, landlines in the office), wardrobe, set decor and even the choice of its throwback music soundtrack.
BLACKBERRY is the excellent case of Canadian moviemaking that does almost everything right especially in acting, directing, and writing, making modern Canadian history and high-tech both entertaining and a pleasure to watch. BLACKBERRY will be a strong contender (the film gets my vote anyway) for the Toronto Film Critics Association Best Canadian Feature next year.
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to rule the world, only to find that no one would listen? This is the intriguing story of how a group of geeks took over the world, which has been adapted into a true-story film featuring real people from Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The film focuses on the rise and fall of Research In Motion (RIM), a small Canadian company that initially lacked business acumen, but changed the tech industry with the invention of the world’s first smartphone. Who better to direct this movie than Matt Johnson (THE DIRTIES, OPERATION AVALANCHE), a gifted director known for his remarkable films featuring geeky characters and stories? With his growing popularity, Johnson is the perfect choice to bring this incredible tale to life on the big screen.
BLACKBERRY depicts the success of RIM through its main product, the smartphone, which combined text, internet, and phone capabilities using its iconic clicking keypad. The movie follows the founders of RIM, two friends named Mike and Doug, played by Jay Baruchel (who also served as an executive producer) and director Matt Johnson himself. They hire Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton), the fired CEO of another company, who transforms RIM's product into a billion-dollar success story. The film takes the audience on a rollercoaster ride of feel-good emotions as the underdogs take on the tech industry. Unfortunately, the film's second half depicts the company's downfall due to greed, pride, and the revolutionary impact of Apple's iPhone, which lacked RIM's iconic keypad.
BLACKBERRY boasts a talented cast, including director/actor Matt Johnson, who hails from Toronto itself. The film also features Glenn Howerton, an American actor who was previously seen in limited TV series, with his most notable role being on IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA. Howerton dons a bald wig to look like the balding character, Jim Balsillie, a high-flying CEO and Harvard Business graduate, who is arguably the genius behind the rise of Blackberry (or the company behind it, Research in Motion) as well as its downfall. Howerton's superb acting skills swing the audience to his side as he champions the BLACKBERRY product, and also garners their despise when he brings the company down. The film should bring this talented young actor, who looks much younger than his bald character, the recognition he deserves. Ironically, Johnson and Howerton are both comedians at heart, who make a successful transition to the genre of comedic drama in the film.
BLACKBERRY is set in the period from the 1980s to the early 2000s, which is reflected in the props, wardrobe, set design, and even the choice of the throwback music soundtrack. This film is an excellent example of Canadian moviemaking that does almost everything right, especially in acting, directing, and writing. It makes modern Canadian history and high-tech both entertaining and enjoyable to watch. BLACKBERRY will undoubtedly be a strong contender for the Toronto Film Critics Association Best Canadian Feature next year (and it certainly gets my vote!).
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BOOK CLUB: THE NEXT CHAPTER (USA 2023) **
Directed by Bill Holderman
Writer/director Bill Holderman and the main cast returns to the big screen after the successful box-office hit THE BOOK CLUB in 2014 that cost only $14 million to make and made $104 million. Four women have attended a monthly book club for 40 years, bonding over the suggested literature, and have become very good friends. The plot of that film has the 4 women read the well-known and naughty Fifty Shades of Grey and are turned on by the content. Viewing it as a wake-up call, they decide to expand their lives and chase pleasures that have eluded them.
Book Club: The Next Chapter , the sequel follows our four best friends as they take their book club to Italy for the fun girls trip they never had. When things go off the rails and secrets are revealed, their relaxing vacation turns into a once-in-a-lifetime cross-country adventure.
The returning four are:
Vivian (Jane Fonda), who owns and builds hotels, runs into Arthur (Don Johnson), a man whose marriage proposal she turned down 40 years before. They begin a flirtation, but she has always refused to settle down because she enjoys her independence. The magic question which no genius needs to get the incorrect answer is whether they will wed in the end. The story here has a surprise wedding planned by the other 3for Vivain but there is a hitch getting to the wedding on time.
Diane (Dian Keaton who has star billing) is recently widowed, and her daughters would like her to move closer to them in Arizona because they perceive her to be in danger as she lives alone.
Sharon (Candice Bergen) is a federal judge who's been single since she divorced her son's father over 18 years ago. Sharon is flaring with a police officer (Giancarlo Giannini)
Carol (Mary Streenburgen) has a successful marriage to Bruce (Craig T Nelson), who has recently retired, but they have recently rekindled their intimacy.
Holderman’s lazy script fails to explain the reason the film is called BOOK CLUB: THE NEXT CHAPTER. Nothing is mentioned of how the 4 met or the notion of any book club. Without the first 10 minutes of screen time, the audience sees each of the 4 women change among half a dozen outfits for no reason - a point emphasizing that Hollywood is just too much money to spend on garbage. Which is what the script is - falling into cliched territory with hardly any surprises on the way. The film is also an ego trip for the 4 ageing actresses - stars in their heyday, credit given to them, but are now resolved to playing ladies that are still able to have sex and get any handsome men their hearts desire. Needless to say, the script contains a huge number of lewd jokes to say that these four women are still cool.
The script co-written by Holderman and Erin Simms does contain a few laughs at the first third, judging from the screening I attended, though none came from this reviewer. This film is strictly for fans of Fonda, Keaton, Bergen and Steenburgen. And even then - there is a huge strain to enjoy this sequel as the original was barely passable.
BOOK CLUB: THE NEXT CHAPTER opens in theatres May the 12th.
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CALL ME KATE (USA 2023) ***½
Directed by Lorna Tucker
(photo of Hepbrun in LION IN WINTER)
She is known as Miss Hepburn but she would insist: CALL ME KATE. The doc on the 4 time Academy Award Winner - the most times every actor or actress have ever won the coveted Oscar (MORNING GLORY and in her last 3 films: GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER, THE LION IN WINTER and ON GOLDEN POND; the LION IN WINTER being my fondest role of Hepburn). Her most famous films include BRINGING UP BABY, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY and THE AFRICAN QUEEN.
The doc begins with the name Katherine Hepburn repeated a few times in voiceover, making the audiences wanton to repeat the star’s anew as many times as well. She is introduced by the legendary Angel Lansbury.
Katharine Houghton Hepburn (she lived to 97) was an American actress whose career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over six decades. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited personality, and outspokenness, her personality the first thing that is highlighted in the doc, cultivating a screen persona that matched this public image, and regularly playing strong-willed, sophisticated women. Her work was in a range of genres, from screwball comedy to literary drama, and earned her various accolades, including four Academy Awards for Best Actress—a record for any performer. In 1999, Hepburn was named the greatest female star (and indeed she is) of classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute.
Nostalgia flows from the beginning of the doc to the end. It repeats from the black and white archive footage, shots from other old films particularly the famous ones and the return to the look of old movies.
The dad point in Kate’s life, that many of hr fans are unaware of is the death of her eldest brother by suicide from hanging. She had gone to fetch Tom one morning for breakfast and found him hanging in his room. She took the body down and laid the cold body on the bed. Her parents dealt with the grief by instructing the family never to mention Tom and as if Tom had never lived. Bit Kate would live life for both of them. Tom had told her the night before his death that he had loved her but she did not think too much of that,
The film’s most touching moments is the love relationship between Kate and her husband and good friend Buddy. They married but she realized thatch had too much difference in personality. She wanted to go back to New York. But Luddy, her husband, in the words of the doc realized that he had married a madwoman.“Whatever you want to do Kate…. I love you.” And Judy packed up their bags and moved to New York with Kate.
The magic question asked to Hepburn as in an episode of the Dick Cavett show is what inspired? Hepburn credits her success to intelligent and inspiring parents and experiences that she went through before the age of 15.
If Katherine Hepburn has never inspired you, this doc on Hepburn certainly will inspire you and with great admiration for her determination, ability and body of work delivered with a huge dose of nostalgia .
CALL ME KATE is a Netflix original; documentary streaming beginning May th 12th. The doc makes an easy and light entertaining watch at home.
CARMEN (Australia/France 2022) ***
Directed by Benjamin Millepied
Benjamin Millepied, former principal dancer of the New York City Ballet and choreographer of the film "Black Swan," makes his directorial debut in CARMEN, a modern-day interpretation of Bizet's classic opera. The film opens with a breathtaking dance performance in the Mexican desert, where the mother of the protagonist is tragically shot by a gunman. The surreal and impressive scene sets the tone for the rest of the film, which features dream-like dance sequences and a majestic score by three-time Oscar nominee Nicholas Britell.
CARMEN tells the story of Carmen, a fiercely independent young woman who flees to the US after her mother's murder. Along the way, she meets Aidan, a border guard and Marine suffering from PTSD. Their journey together leads to a budding romance, but it is a poor imitation of the love story in the original opera. Solid performances are delivered by both Melissa Barrera and rising star Paul Mescal, looking really buffed as a marine should, compared to his physique in his last film AFTERSUN.
One of the film's strengths is the presence of Rossy de Palma, a regular actress in Pedro Almodovar's films, who plays the mercurial owner of La Sombra nightclub, a sanctuary of music and dance where Carmen and Aidan find solace and their unwavering love for each other. However, the film's attempt to blend reality with dance and music is uneven, and the dance and music sequences often feel disconnected from the rest of the story. The climactic dance scene between Carmen and Aidan is impressive, but it feels out of place in the film. Actor Mescal’s dance looks pale in comparison to Barrera’s.
Despite its flaws, "CARMEN" is an ambitious film that showcases Millepied's talent as a director and choreographer. The impressive dance and music sequences, as well as the strong performances by the cast, make it worth watching. In particular, Paul Mescal's performance demands attention and shows that he will continually be a talent to watch in the future. CARMEN opens in Toronto and Vancouver on May 5th, and in Montreal on May 12th, with more cities to follow throughout the spring and summer.
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EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH (Belgium 2021) ***
For full review click on the link to our sister website:
THE MELT GOES ON FOREVER - THE ART AND TIMES OF DAVID HAMMONS
(USA 2022) ***
Directed by Judd Tully and Harold Crooks
At the beginning of the doc on the black American artist who refused to follow convention - David Hammons, an explanation is given as to the reason the doc is called THE MELT GOES ON FOREVER. In one of Hammon’s artistic stints, he sells snowballs. When a customer buys one, the snowball is given to her in a plastic bag, which she keeps in her freezer for 6 months till her mother asks her to throw it out. It is then that this customer realizes that this was the work of David Hammons.
THE MELT GOES ON FOREVER chronicles the singular career of the elusive African-American art star David Hammons from Watts rebellion era ’60s L.A. to global art world prominence today. Hammons’ category-defying practice – rooted in a deep critique of American society and the elite art world – is in the words of one art critic “an invitation to confront the fissures between races” as the artist seeks to go beyond the dominant culture and his own to a new one for the 21st century.
Featuring eminent artists, curators and critics, a rich trove of archival footage, animation, and an evocative soundscape, The Melt is a record of the work of an artist who constantly defies the establishment and remains subversive at every turn.
For many unfamiliar with the work of Hammons, the doc provides invaluable insight of an artist who works on the fringe, often in poverty unable to buy expensive art materials and how he managed his own success. His works are often shown on full display in the doc, many meticulously and painstakingly done like the poles made up of beer caps.
THE MOTHER (USA 2023) ***1/2
Directed by Niki Caro
New Zealand female director Niki Caro and Jennifer Lopez join forces in an above average action drama THE MOTHER. Caro is famous for the New Zealand film, WHALE RIDER followed by the Disney live action hit, MULAN.
Jennifer Lopez plays the unnamed mother who is also a former high profile assassin. While fleeing from dangerous assailants, this former assassin comes out of hiding to protect the estranged daughter she left behind. Films about a strong woman protecting a child has been successful box-office fare in the past, as is evident by the two GLORIA films, particularly the first one directed by John Cassavetes starring his wife Gena Rowlands playing an ex-gangster moll protecting her neighbour’s boy, the son of the mob’s accountant turned informant. In THE MOTHER, the strong woman is protecting her daughter who she is forced to give up for the daughter’s safety. There is a play of emotions, though excessiveness is kept at bay.
THE MOTHER must be complemented for its extremely well executed and exciting action scenes. All the tension is achieved primarily through sharp editing. In the most impressive of these - the kidnapping of the daughter, now grown up and in school is superb taut edge of your seat suspense. From one camera shot of empty cartridges flying off the mother’s rifle to the look through the rifle’s sighting scope, to the falling of the shot dead bodies, the arrival of additional vehicles to the kidnap of the girl, there are about a dozen appropriate edits within the span of a few seconds. The other impressive similar scene arrives at the beginning of the film where two interrogating FBI agents are taken out - a foreshadow of the action to come. A chase with the mother on a motorbike is done with the use of a hand-held camera, the jittering framing adding to the nerve-wrecking situation. Comically too, are the procession of schoolgirls and a wedding just waiting to be run down by the mother’s bike and the chased prey.
Segments are set in Havana in Cuba. This is indeed rare for an American film to be shot in Cuba and the film sure looks as if it did. In reality, the film was shot in the old town of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria to substitute vapour Havana in Cuba. The Gabinete Literario, located there, was used as a casino. The south of the island was also chosen to film a party in a villa. Principal photography also took place in Vancouver, Canada.
Je-Lo, as is expected of Je-Lo the star singer actress with the great bod to show off, gets to show it off when she has to change her clothes in a car - a weak excuse to show off her body.
THE MOTHER is a Netflix original Jennifer Lopez movie and marks one of her better outings, streaming beginning Friday May the 12th.
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A NEW OLD PLAY (China 2021) ***
Directed by Qiu Jiongjiong
There are two big factors that initially turn one off from venturing into watching this occasionally magnificent and stunning period Chinese epic. The fritz is the almost 3 -hour running time and the second is the generally little known history of Chinese opera and its function in the twentieth century. But this is education and a grand one in the making. As a boyinnSingapore, I walked to the back of the stage of one such opera and noticed the singers in action, voicing extremely high notes loud and clear, nothin that I have heard being so astounding - an early experience I could never forget. This film A NEW OLD PLAY brings back immediately that childhood memory, expands on the subject and mesmerizes. A NEW OLD PLAY is understandably difficult to watch though not without its rewards.
The film opens in the dark of night with shadowy figures on the screen that can be made up of a man slowly pumping up, slowly the tires of a bicycle. It turns out that Qiu Fu, a leading clown-role actor in 20th-century Sichuan opera, departs this world and must reluctantly set off for the Ghost City under the escort of two underworld officials, the underworld being hell of course. Qiu Fu is familiar with the two escorts, him having performed operas with characters from the underworld - ever so often. Along the way, he meets old friends. As they recall the past, earthly scenes creep into the mists of the Netherworld.
The story is based on the family history of the film’s director Qiu. It depicts the birth of the New-New Theatre and Opera School—in Sichuan Province, in the nineteen-twenties—as a by-product of the civil war and the Nationalist Party’s victory. The troupe’s founder, a soldier and a true lover of Sichuan opera called Pocky (Qiu Zhimin, the director’s actual father), welcomes a seven-year-old foundling named Qiu Fu (Chen Haoyu), rejected by the other opera troupe, as observed in a stretched out but comical dinner scene alike to OLIVER TWIST in which the poor street urchin is derived from getting a helping of porridge. who becomes his prize student. During the Second World War, the company joined the resistance to Japanese occupation. After the adult Qiu Fu (Yi Sicheng) emerges into a star performer, he realizes his dreams. But the changing political times have drastic consequences on the opera.
As power shifts, the troupe is cast loose to wander meaninglessly through a broken world. Despite this unsettled destiny, shaped by war, famine and political turmoil, Qiu Fu becomes one of the finest clown-role performers in Sichuan opera. And yet, one day he finds himself clapped in a pigsty as a political revolution rages outside.
In the director’s own words, the film is a slice of his own history and his family’s; but also a travelogue of minstrels wandering together through this world and the next. They are his immediate forebears, and this is his ‘pre-biography.’
A NEW OLD PLAY, though not a bad film will be a hard sell to Canadian audiences as it is overlong and deals with a subject unfamiliar and likely uninteresting i.e. Sichuan opera.
A NEW OLD PLAY has a digital release on May 16 2023, coming to Prime Video, iTunes, & Vimeo-On-Demand.
TWICED COLONIZED (Canada/Denmark/Greenland 2023) ***
Directed by Lin Alluna
TWICE COLONIZED has been chosen to open the 2023 Hot Docs in Toronto for many reasons, the more important ones being its timely subject matter, the film being Canadian and that the film is made by and concerns indigenous people.
The film centres on Inuk activist Aaju Peter and marks a Toronto homecoming for Peter after her 2006 film, ANGRY INUK chronicled her campaign to preserve the Inuit seal hunt, the film that won the audience award at the 2016 fest.
The doc follows Peter as she continues her fight for Inuit, Indigenous, and First Nations communities to have a say in discussions about their own affairs. Warning: It is a very angry film as can be witnessed in the film’s first 10 minutes as Peter lashes out her points of view on several key issues like the seal hunt and the mining while emphasizing that the Inuits are children of ice, and all human beings are children of the sun.
“We knew from the moment we watched this potent film that it was the right doc to open our milestone 30th-anniversary Festival,” said Hot Docs Artistic Director Shane Smith in a statement from the festival. TWICE COLONIZED doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable truths as it sharply addresses Canada and Denmark’s colonizers past and present. It brings this urgent and crucial story to life. Captivating, riveting and angry. However, the film is clearly one-sided and though relevant and crucial points are made, there is always some good that has come from colonization that is not mentioned. Neither are there any solutions offered. At the start of the film, Peter complains of having to live in Denmark as she was singled out to move there as she was a top student in her school. Her father championed the fact. Peter complained about having been taught to brush her teeth daily and use the fork and spoon during meals. Brushing teeth is a plus and a positive lesson. Also, the education that Peter received eventually allowed her to be a lawyer to fight for the rights of her people. If she was not taken out of her indigenous school, she would not be able to accomplish what she has accomplished to this date. She also complains that seal-hunting is the right of her people. She claims that unemployment and teenage suicide rates among the Indigenous are the highest in the world. The rest of the world has advantages that her people do not have. True, but she is unwilling for any compromise. Also seal hunting is extremely cruel and should be banned or at least the number killed be limited as a compromise. Her experiences at the residential schools are omitted in the film with the excuse that she had been uprooted so many times that she cannot remember her childhood.
TWICE COLONIZED premiered in the World Cinema Competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Alluna and the director, Peter and other guests were on hand at the Hot Docs premiere on April 27 ahead of Twice Colonized’s theatrical release on May 12.
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- Written by: Gilbert Seah
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- Category: Movie Reviews
BALLOON ANIMAL (USA 2020) **
Directed by Em Johnson
BALLON ANIMAL is a coming-of-age story of a 24-year old female balloon animal artist, Poppy (Katherine Waddell) who works closely with her father (Ilia Volok) in a circus environment. Her father is the boss of the Valentine Travelling circus.
Poppy Valentine, a young circus performer who has grown up in her family's traveling circus, begins dreaming of what life would be like outside of its fences. Now in her mid-20s and with more un-welcomed responsibility weighing her down, she is desperate to figure out if this life is for her. As she slowly begins to take time for herself, finding independence and even love, she strains her relationship with those around her in the tight-knit circus community. Amidst her overprotective father, stressful circus expectations, and a blossoming curiosity for a life of her own, Poppy must decide if the risk is worth leaving everything she's ever known behind.
A very simple story told simply - perhaps too simply. At one point in the film Poppy and her two girlfriends from the circus make it out together on a night of the town - the one they are performing at. At the local bar that they visit, one of them says: “this is pathetic, there are only about 4 people in here.” The same can be said of the film. Though BALLOON ANIMAL is set in a circus environment, the amount of ‘circus’ shown is quite pathetic. There are no circus animals at all shown, no circus acts at all and believe it or not, not even a clown. One of Poppy’s friends says she is an trapeze artist but not trapeze swings are shown at all. The other claims to be a kids clown. Again not clowns or clown costumes are seen. The only circus act shown is a sorry introduction the circus show that lasts some 3 minutes or so. There is one scene where Poppy sits in the empty seats of a ferris wheel. The excuse given in the film is that the season of the circus is over and that the perfjoamcne are therefore done. Will the audience fall for it?
Another unexplained situation is the difference in accent between Poppy and her father. Her father has a clear East European accent, which is unexplained at all, while Poppy speaks totally American.
Waddell is supposed to be a 24-year old, but she looks in her mid-30’s. The Paris stylist of the film has her hair dyed in various colours from green to blue and other supposedly ‘youthful’ colours. Again, will the audience fall for it? The boy that Poppy’s a fling with, a pimpled face skinny lad, looks so much younger than her. Despite the fact, Waddell tries her best to be convincing. Ih she, and all her friends are at the age of their characters, it can be safely said thatbtheyare doing a good job.
BALLOON ANIMAL is available on VOD on Friday, April 7, 2023 in North America on Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, Comcast/Xfinity, Charter, Cox and other viewing platforms.
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OPERATION FORTUNE (RUSE DE GUERRE)(UK/USA 2022) ***
Directed by Guy Ritchie
The new Guy Ritchie action comedy begins with a gang of Ukrainian mobsters stealing a device known as "The Handle"; it's worth estimated at billions of dollars. The British government person in charge (Eddie Marsan) hires Nathan Jasmine (Cary Elwes) to retrieve the Handle before billionaire arms dealer Greg Simmonds (Hugh Grant) can sell it to the highest bidder. Nathan hires super-spy Orson Fortune (Jason Statham) to lead a team made up of Sarah Fidel (Aubrey Plaza), JJ Davies (Bugzy Malone() and others. The team travel to Madrid, seeking the courier intended to transport the hard drive containing the data from the Handle. Their search is interrupted by a rival of Nathan's, Mike (Peter Ferdinando) who seems to have also been hired to retrieve the Handle. Sarah manages to copy the hard drive's contents first. Learning that Simmonds plans to host a charity gala in Cannes, the team decides to infiltrate it by blackmailing Simmonds' favourite movie star, Danny Francesco (Josh Haretnett), into helping them distract Simmonds. Simmonds encourages Danny to spend some time in his Turkish villa in Antalya. Orson infiltrates the Ukrainian mafia house to hack their computers, disguising it as a robbery. The British government warns Nathan that the Handle is an advanced AI that can be programmed to defeat any security system in the world. The story is by coincidentally timely, with the current banking crisis at hand.
OPERATION FORTUNE is typical Guy Ritchie and his fans should not be disappointed with what his new movie provides - which is more of the same in terms of stylized British crime action comedy. It also stars action Jason Statham who’s collaborated with Ritchie many a time. If one wants to watch a serious crime caper auctioneer, the best of the best is THE SQUEEZE (1977) directed by Michele Apted. Director Ritchie has made his mark with his best film LOCK STOCK ANDTWO SMOKING BARRELS and his worst films like SHERLOCK HOLMES where he butchered the classic by swapping a mystery clue whodunit with fast editing action nonsense.
Fortunately, OPERATION FORTUNE falls in his spirit of LOCK STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS. The film contains exotic locations with filming shotgun Qatar and scenic Turkey. There is a car chase involving a vintage classic though the car chase which also involves helicopter is not really one to be remembered. There is sharp dialogue, expressive wardrobe worn by the stars as well as expensive set decor of the rich and wealthy. The characters that are equally flamboyant includes Danny, a Hollywood famous movie start and a billionaire arms dealer. So, there is plenty if opportunity for show. In fact, the film looks better that its $50 million budget spent on it.
OPERATION FORTUNE plays like Jason Statham as a Guy Ritchie type James Bond complete with tuxedo and suave fighting skills. The film is aided by spirited performances particularly by Plaza, Hartnett and Grant. Grant has been getting a lot of publicity for his ‘rude’ humour after the Academy Awards red carpet interview and his recent villain role in DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS. Aubrey Plaza is one of the most underrated actresses of the day, following her hardly seen comedy EMILY THE CRIMINAL. Gorgeous Hartnett surprises here with his stint at comedy.
OPERATION FORTUNE opens in Toronto April the7 th, though it has already opened internationally before the date.
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OUT OF THE LOOP (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Michael Alexander
"Out of the Loop" is a 2022 documentary directed by Michael Alexander that focuses on stand-up comics in Chicago. The film features interviews with many lesser-known comics in the city, including Deon Cole, Hannibal Burris, Godfrey, Lil Rel Howery, Jeff Garlin, and the late Judy Tenuta. They share their experiences and stories about the trials and tribulations of starting their comedy careers in a polarized and segregated industry.
While the material may be somewhat limited, the documentary achieves its aim of providing an entertaining and informative look at the comedy scene in Chicago. Director Alexander poses basic questions to the comics, such as when they realized they wanted to become comedians, where they first performed, and what their influences are. These questions help put their experiences into perspective and highlight the challenges they face, especially for female comics of color who often face additional obstacles due to their race and gender.
Despite its focus on the entertainment industry, "Out of the Loop" also serves as an educational look at a different field. The documentary is interesting and funny, with comics telling jokes even during their interviews. After watching the film, viewers may be inspired to watch other comics, both famous and aspiring, to compare their standards and what makes a master comic.
"Out of the Loop" has a running time of 1 hour and 28 minutes and will be released on digital platforms by Gravitas Ventures on April 11, 2023. The documentary is not rated by the MPAA.
Trailer: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19cVmMgrTq2vLQhinGhWhurOnTaB3pBaC/view
SIMULANT (Canada 2022) ***
Directed by April Mullen
Director April Mullen raises a thought-provoking question about the consciousness of artificial intelligence in her new sci-fi thriller. Set in the future, the film features Faye (Jordan Brewster), a woman who activates her late husband’s Simulant Evan (Robbie Amell), an android replica programmed with his memories, after a fatal car crash. Sims, which can dream and make love, are introduced in the story, stretching the limits of credibility. Faye struggles to love Sim Evan, but cannot bring herself to deactivate him. She seeks help from a programmer Casey (Simu Liu), who illegally hides Evan from authorities and helps him gain consciousness and become more human. Evan is determined to win back his wife's heart but must avoid capture by government agent Kessler (Sam Worthington), who oversees Simulant Compliance and the deactivation of dangerous and sentient Sims.
While the film's first act can be confusing due to the sudden introduction of characters like Casey and the coincidences of events, it eventually finds its footing. The story's surprises of revealing who is human or a sim can also be disorienting. The film contains a bit of action in segments where agent Kessler hunts down deviant Sims, who appear to have superhuman abilities. The audience is allowed to take either side, sympathizing with the Sims for their limited human qualities and desire for more powers such as overriding human commands. The Sims are controlled by four strict precepts, which are enforced and informed to the audience at the start of the film. If a sim disobeys a precept, it is known that the sim has been altered by Casey.
Director Mullen effectively utilizes the gritty landscape of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and its nearby rural lands to create the film's setting with some futuristic-looking alterations. The film contains elements of eeriness, a technical-styled score, fascination, and a futuristic art deco atmosphere, all essential to the success of a sci-fi film. Although not flawless, Simulant has the potential to engage audiences and spark discussions about artificial intelligence and its intersection with human consciousness.
Simulant opens on April 7th in theaters across Canada.
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THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE (USA/Japan 2023) ****
Directed by Aaron Horwath and Michael Jelenic
Live action adaptations have more often than not failed with horrid films. THE FLINTSTONES Warner ]Bros. Looney Tunes and The Marios Bros have seen similar fates. After the critical and commercial failure of the 1993 live-action Mario film, Nintendo became reluctant to license its intellectual properties for film adaptations. But surprisingly THE SUPER MARIO BROS MOVIE, a completely computer-animated adventure film based on the Nintendo's Mario video game franchise, with special appearance of Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen) is surprisingly inventive, hilarious and completely entertaining. The film has the feel of the Minion films as it was animated in the Illumination (The Minions) Universal Studio in Paris, France. Based on the Nintendo game, THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE is a U.S. and Japan co-production with a French touch.
The film combines both the elements of fantasy and reality. Being sucked by an oversized pipe in the underground sewers of Brooklyn Mario (Chris Pratt) finds himself in a colourful land filled with polka dot coloured mushrooms called the Mushroom Kingdom. The running joke is that Mario hates mushrooms. “Who does not like mushrooms?” screams Mario’s dad at the dinner table. In reality the Marios Bros are "blue-collar guys”, Italian-American plumbers from Brooklyn. There is also a little romance between Mario and the Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy) from the Mushroom Kingdom, before Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island retconned them as lifelong residents of the world of the Mushroom Kingdom.
Entertaining the film is, but not necessarily for the whole family. Though basically a fairy tale fantasy complete with princess castle and all, there is one very dark and eerie scar sequin in which little children might have nightmares watching. This is when Luigi ends up in Darklands, pursued by monsters with large jaws as he jumps over flowing lava in the dark for his dear life. Another is the big fight segment, gladiator style between Mario and Donkey Kong.
Brian Tyler composed the score for the film, working closely with longtime Mario composer Koji Kondo to incorporate themes from the games within the film's score. The composition features an orchestra, choir and bands, as well as "Italian instruments, accordions, live drums, mandolins and whistling human voices. Songs from Jack Black and Keegan-Michael Key were improvised for the film. Donkey Kong is introduced in the film accompanied by the title theme music from Donkey Kong 64, the "DK Rap", composed by Grant Kirkhope.
The film works too largely because of its humour. Comedians Seth Rogen and Jack Black voice characters and tokens infections laugh can immediately be recognized. The humour is largely of the goofy sort that adults should also appreciate, with lots of references to the Nintendo game like the Italian stereotyped but still funny jokes, the jumping around and thereferences to the games like jumping over planks and pipes.
THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE has a Wednesday opening and is projected to earn at least $73–105 million domestically on its opening week.
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HOW TO BLOW UP A PIPELINE (USA 2022) **
Directed by Daniel Goldhaber
HOW TO BLOW UP YOUR PIPELINE is a well-intentioned but unfortunately poorly executed environmentally friendly thriller drama that is all over the place trying especially hard to be a thriller like Henri-Georges Clouzot’s LA SALAIRE DU PEUR but failing miserably. Director Goldhaber ends many segments with an exciting part, like an explosion and then interrupts it with the background story of one (or two) of the activists. It is confusing at first as it goes back in the time-line not to say that it makes little purpose to employ this technique, unless one is making a series in which the end intrigues the viewer to watch the next episode. The virus young subjects leave much for the audience to care for. They just do what they think is right. The film gives mixed messages on what to do with the environment. Should everyone be as destructive by blowing up other pipelines and destroying property? The film also opts out for a cop-out happy ending. One might lay part of the blame to the film’s source material, Andreas Malm’s controversial 2021 non-fiction treatise of the same name.
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KIDS VS. ALIENS (Canada 2022) ***
Directed by Jason Eisener
The new horror comedy streaming on Shudder may sound cheesy based on its title, but that is because the film fully embraces its cheesy nature. However, this does not necessarily detract from the film's entertainment value. Director Eisener successfully leans into the film's cheesiness, resulting in an over-the-top and highly entertaining horror comedy.
KIDS VS. ALIENS is part of a group of Canadian films that are often erroneously recorded as American, despite not referencing any specific location. Although the film could easily stand in for America, it is evident from the absence of American accents, the scenery, and the presence of Canadian actor Calem MacDonald, that the film is Canadian. The movie was shot around Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, where the director was born and was financed by the provinces of Ontario and Nova Scotia. The film is reportedly based on the director's own childhood experiences.
Although the story revolves around kids and teens, KIDS VS. ALIENS is not a children's movie, as evidenced by the frequent swearing by the young characters and the graphic violence and gore that involves lots of blood and gooey substances. Actor Calem MacDonald delivers a standout performance as the traitor boyfriend villain, Billy, who ultimately gets his comeuppance. MacDonald's impressive physique is also on display in a bedroom scene where he takes off his shirt, showcasing his toned body that perfectly complements his good looks. Hailing from Nova Scotia, where the film is produced, MacDonald is a rising star who has appeared in Canadian series such as TRAILER PARK BOYS and the CBC comedy MR. D.
For a low-budget Canadian horror comedy, KIDS VS. ALIENS boasts impressive special effects and lighting that create a convincing atmosphere of an alien invasion at a beachside residence. The movie is set to stream on Shudder, the horror streaming service, beginning on April 14th.
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QUEENS ON THE RUN (FUGA DE REINAS) (Mexico 2023) ***
Directed by Jorge Macaya
As the breezy title implies, QUEENS ON THE RUN is a light (with some laugh- out loud moments) action comedy - more comedy than action, that aims to entertain simply with a simple story for its hour and a half running time. For the reason the film does not aim high, it succeeds as a female feel-good, road trip comedy but do not expect anything in the vein of THELMA AND LOUISE.
4 female ex-schoolmates decide to abandon their individual lives (not too funny here nor too convincing) and decide to take a road trip (with no husbands, no children just naked) they had always wanted to take. The motive is rather: “No matter what age, life is an adventure. It’s never too late to start over. No matter what age, there is a beast inside us waiting to wake up.” Of course, no surprises - they literally bump into some trouble which they get out of eventually based on their female verve and unity.
Nothing special, this Netflix original from Mexico serves as an entertaining and forgetful time-waster. Extra bnus for female audiences, which is the targte audience for this movie. Males - be prepared for abuse! But fun abuse!
RENFIELD (USA 2023) **
Directed by Chris McKay
RENFIELD is the new comedy horror fantasy that takes liberties on the Bram Stoker Dracula novel and updates the tale to modern times. The film’s central character is Dracula’s (Nicholas Cage) servant Robert Montague Renfield (Nicholas Hoult). Renfield finds a new lease on life in modern-day New Orleans when he falls in love with Rebecca Quincy (Awkwafina), a traffic cop, and decides to finally stand up to his creator in hopes of finally breaking free of his servitude.
Performances-wise, Nicholas Cage does a remarkable job as the deranged vampire, hamming it up the best he can and succeeding immensely bringing in most of the film’s pleasures. Hoult is the pretty boy hero and Awkwafina does what the rapper/ comedienne does best - doing Awkwafina as most audiences are familiar with in her roles such as in CRAZY RICH ASIANS.
The romance portrayed by Rebecca and Renfield is a strange one - as strange as one is human and the other a half monster. There are no kisses or sex, not even the holding of hands or a light peck on the cheek. It shows perhaps that love can overcome all boundaries. Or perhaps the romance could have just been left out more conveniently in the story.
RENFIELD in the Bram Stoker 1897 novel is Count Dracula’s servant. Arguably this insect eating half vampire is more interesting than his master, the count himself. In Stoker’s Dracula, he is the deranged, fanatically devoted servant, helping him in his plan to turn Mina Harker into a vampire in return for a continuous supply of insects to consume and the promise of immortality. Throughout the novel, he resides in an asylum, where he is treated by Dr. John Seward. The devotion in the novel is left intact but everything else about RENFIELD appears to be changed for ‘artistic entertainment’ purposes, which in the film’s case is for comedy fantasy horror.
The film contains lots of swearing, blood and gore and action fight scenes. The amount of blood seen is understandable as Dracula is a blood drinking vampire, but the insect eating scenes are more disturbing. There are lots of gore from broken limbs to decapitation, but all done in the fun and spirit of entertainment. Everyone swears in the film, particularly Rebecca, The action scenes are exciting enough though more could have been done in improving their continuity.
The best thing about the film occurs at the end during the closing credits. The film is deliberately made to look all scratched up like the old horror movies of Dracula and other horror classics, with dancers that are mentioned in the credits but can hardly be seen performing owing to the blurred images.
As a fantastic comedy horror, the film fails as both a comedy and a horror. The comedy is childish and bland though the storyline is just passably modified to suit current times. The film is definitely a horror fantasy though hardly an entertaining one, a rather muddled up blend of too many ingredients in one pot.
SWEETHURT (Australia 2022) ***
Directed by Tom Danger
From down under, arrives a new quirky comedy of the young entitled SWEETHURT. A play on the word “sweetheart”, the story is about being hurt when or after falling in love. There are two interlocking stories here one with a young indigenous male and another with a female. Bit are trying to get over their breakups.
In the director (Tom Danger( and scriptwriter’s (Logan Webster) heartfelt look at love and heartbreak as a young adult, SWEETHURT follows Jacob (Rav Ratnayake), who embarks on a road-trip to a small, beach-side town with his two best friends Mike and Drew, (Mehdy Salameh, Logan Webster) as well as his sociopath sister, Abby (Sam Germain), for what promises to be a fun weekend of going through their newly-deceased grandfather's stuff. When friends get together with an empty house in view, a party is just waiting to happen. And when a party is waiting to happen, all hell will break loose. Upon arrival, Jacob's true motivations are revealed; his ex-girlfriend, Olivia (Alannah Robertson) now with some new hunk Tyler, lives in the town, and Jacob wants one last shot at probably disappointing her again. Meanwhile, in the second story, Skye (Tyra Cartledge) has just had her heart broken, and the only one who can pick up the pieces is her best friend Carly (Rhiaan Marquez) - together, they go on a voyage through the night as Skye struggles with her burgeoning sexuality, having to deal with perverts, pirates, and worst of all - her parents. There is also a baby goat, of course.
The film features a pop-punky, fist-pumping, skateboardy soundtrack, evoking the ripped-jean vibes of the late 90s/early 2000s. SWEETHURT features pop-rock legends Third Eye Blind, current glam-rock megastars The Struts, underground pop-punk royalty Mest, as well as a collection of modern and classic bands from all over the world, creating a nostalgia-soaked instant classic of young adult angst, romance, friendship and partying until you pass out.
SWEETHURT is not as good or as hilarious or even as original as it wants to be, but not for want of trying. Take for example, the dialogue that tries so hard to be original and funny - the one referring to the scenic route, which means meeting up with the average guy before dumping him for a hotter one, once the average guy has introduced all his better looking friends.Audiences have seen films with wilder parties, crazier stories with young teen love anode course much funnier teen comedies with teen angst. Still SWEETHURT is amusing and entertaining and watchable for its short running time of 92 minutes.
SWEETHURT has made its rounds at various film festivals, already screened at Byron Bay Underground Film Festival, New Jersey International Film Festival, and Sydney Underground Film Festival.
Gravitas Ventures will release SWEETHURT on digital platforms on April 18, 2023. The film has a running time of 92 minutes and will not be rated by the MPAA.
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ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Peyton Reed
ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA is the long awaited and much anticipated sequel to ANT-MAN that entertained Marvel fans in 2015 with action combined with much comedy.
As in all MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) films, there is little story but a simple premise to go on. Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), along with Hope's parents, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) , and Lang's daughter, Cassie (Kathryn Newton), go on a new adventure exploring the Quantum Realm that pushes their limits and pits them against Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors).
The action super hero here, in diminutive size in Ant-Man , (Rudd) an Avenger and former petty criminal with a suit that allows him to shrink or grow in scale while increasing in strength. After the events of Avengers: Endgame (2019), Lang has become a well-known celebrity to the public, as well as the author of an autobiographical book titled Look Out for the Little Guy, which tells a different version of how he helped save the universe. When the film opens. Lang is signing copies of his book, a task that Cassie frowns down upon. Cassie wants to save the world. But she lands her family and the multiverse in grave danger instead.
ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA can be considered the most family friendly Marvel action franchise. In this film, family values are stressed. Even the grandparents (on the mother’s side) are brought into the picture. It is all about the daughter growing up right with solid values. The film is also funnier and often quite cartoonish, making the film suitable for little kids. Noticeably too, is the lack of swearing and violence.
The funniest and most winning creature in the film is MODOK (an acronym for Mental/Mobile/Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing), a character with an enlarged head and baby limbs. He is Pyn’s old friend Darren. When MODOK first appears on the screen, Scott or ANT-MAN’s first reaction is “Darren?” to which he replies: "I am now known as the ultimate weapon.” Vassie tells him: “Don’t be a dick.” later on in the film, words that the ultimate weapon then takes to heart to redeem himself. Not only is MODOK ridiculous to look at with his skinny arms and legs, but the character is given the funniest lines. One can forgive a string of film faults when given the good laughs provided by MODOK, the character that saves the movie.
QUANTUMANIA is likeliest the funniest of all the Marvel super action hero movies - no complaints about that. Lead actor Paul Rudd is also a comedian and director Reed has basically directed all comedies, such as BRING IT ON. Special effects, action, sets are typically what is expected from a Marvel film, but best is to see QUANTUMANIA for its humour.
ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA opens widely in theatres on February the 27th.
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BOY FROM NOWHERE (Canada/Philippines 2022) ***
Directed by S.J. Finlay
The Philippines has been given a bad rap by Hollywood lately. In Jennifer Lopez’s SHOTGUN WEDDING, her character’s wedding is hijacked by supposedly Filipino pirates and in the Julia Roberts and George Clooney vehicle TICKET TO PARADISE, Filipino rebels descend on their daughter's wedding. Both films ended up being filmed in Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic respectively. BOY FROM NOWHERE is based on true events with Filipino rebels. This film was shot in the Philippines.
Shot guerrilla style in dangerous parts of the southern Philippines, BOY FROM NOWHERE is S.J. Finlay’s feature film debut. It features a cast of non-actors whose lives closely mimic the tale of a boy caught up in a chain of events beyond his control. After losing his father and home when his fishing village is burned down in an attack, a lost and gentle young boy named Gary sets off inland to find his mother and her tribe. “Why is my skin not as dark as the others?” Gary is curious and wonders of his origins and he asks his father the question. Vulnerable and malleable, he battles hunger and solitude, drifting into the wrong crowd as he is brainwashed into becoming a child soldier for the local rebel faction until further loss leads him to find a more meaningful purpose for his life.
The film is beautifully shot showing the beauty of the Philippine countryside. But Gary ends up in the city of Malaybalay, far from home. Malaybalay, officially the City of Malaybalay is a 1st class component city and capital of the province of Bukidnon, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 190,712 people.
The underwater shots of Gary swimming (his tribe is fishermen) and of Gary playing basketball are well executed and worthy of mention.
It is obvious that the topic that director Finlay wishes to bring to the audience's attention is the existence of child soldiers. Gary is recruited through a young friend slightly older than himself, who ends up being shot into film. The film is based on real life characters and the friend actually survived.
Finlay’s film is sympathetic to the rebels, despite their guerrilla tactics and acts of violence to further their cause. The audience gets to hear their arguments and disgruntling against the government, one-sided that they may be. But it is the peaceful way of rebellion that director Finlay wishes to make known. It is farming to put food in the mouths of families, a fact more important than fighting and killing. The climax of the film has Gary decide whether o go with the guerrillas or the farmers.
Director Finlay pays tribute to quite a few classic movies in his film.. Gary sings during a karaoke session THE SOUND OF MUSIC Roger and Hammerstein song “Climb Every Mountain” which symbolizes his quest to succeed beyond all odds.
The film is shot in Basaya & Tagalog (English Subtitled) and opens on Amazon on February the 17th, 2023.
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CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (aka SWORD OF DESTINY)
(Taiwan/Hong Kong/USA/China 2000) Top 10 *****
Directed by Ang Lee
Hailed by critics and audiences alike, CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON the martial-arts sword saga has been on the list of many’s top10 films of 2000. 22 years later and February the 17th sees the 4K restoration on the big screen where epics such as this, should be seen and experienced.
The star of the piece is the legendary Green Destiny sword in which the bearer is able to wield exceptional power. The trouble and the story begins when a thief that turns out to be young Chinese warrior steals this sword from a famed swordsman and then escapes into a world of romantic adventure with a mysterious man in the frontier of the nation. Set against the breathtaking landscape of ancient China, the story is of two women whose fates intertwine. Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh) is a warrior who, in the name of honour, has long suppressed her feelings for legendary fighter Li Mu Bai (Hong Kong action star Chow Yun Fat). Jen (Zhang Ziyi), on the other hand, is a young aristocrat who longs for a life of crime and passion. When a famed sword belonging to Mu Bai is stolen, Shu Lien and Jen come face to face – not only with each other, but also with their destinies.
The film has everything an epic has to offer - adventure, action, romance (times two), a journey, the fight between good and evil and all in a period backdrop of beautiful ancient China with excellent cinematography by Peter Pau, of the bamboo forests where the climactic fight takes place and the barren desert and mountains. The musical is composed by Dun Tan with cello solos by world famous Yo-Yo Ma. The stunning fight cinematography is by Yuen Wo Ping (The Matrix).
The cast is excellent, especially a younger Michelle Yeoh who is nominated this year for her performance in EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE. But the prize performance belongs to Martial Arts film veteran star of many Shaw Brothers sword fighting action films, Cheng Pei-Pei as Jade Fox, the villain of the piece. Cheng Pei-Pei wowed audiences in her debut film, the Shaw Brothers production COME DRINK WITH ME directed by the legendary King Hu who went on to make classics like DRAGON INN, LEGEND OF THE MOUNTAIN and A TOUCH OF ZEN. Ang Lee’s film clearly pays a wonderful tribute to King Hu’s action films. It is Ang Lee’s first action film and he manages a feat that Chinese director Zhang Yimou failed in his Martial-Arts epics like HERO and HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS. Lee combined the fight choreography with edge of the seat excitement, the latter being lost in Zhang’s films. The flight of the combatants across the roofs and the tops of the bamboo trees are perfect examples of Ang’s and his team’s mastery.
In case one has forgotten, CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON went on to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Film now known as the Best International Feature. The film is definitely worth another viewing, especially after 22 years.
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MARLOWE (Ireland/USA 2022) **
Directed by Neil Jordan
When it was announced at Cannes that Neil Jordan (THE CRYING GAME) would be directing a new Philip Marlowe movie with Liam Neeson in the titular role, there was much commotion and hype. Added to the top cast were heavyweights Diane Kruger (INGLORIOUS BASTERDS), Jessica Lange, Alan Cumming and Danny Huston. The question is whether the film will meet up to expectations.
Based on the novel The Black-Eyed Blonde, the 1939’s-set film in Bay City, California with the oil and movie businesses in full swing, sees private detective Marlowe (Neeson) hired to find the ex-lover of a glamorous heiress. Initially it looks an open and shut case, but Marlowe soon finds himself in the underbelly of Hollywood’s film industry and unwittingly drawn into the crossfire of a legendary Hollywood actress and her subversive, ambitious daughter.
Who is this Marlowe character? In the words of Marlowe himself in the film: “I am just an ordinary Joe trying to earn a buck while staying out of jail.” The script also steals from other movies as in the scene when Marlowe says: “I am too old for this,” taken from the LETHAL WEAPON franchise.
Director Jordan plays it safe with the production values - sets, props as well as dialogue and references. Perhaps too safe! This film lacks punch! He pays homage also to film noir films kill Roman Polanski’s CHINATOWN in which a character (played by Faye Dunaway) is seen with a damaged eye shot with a bullet on the film set. There is always too much said that happening and it does require a lot off audience concentration to follow- a case of too much concentration paid by the audience for little reward.
The one positive aspect of the film is the creation of the Raymond Chandler atmosphere. “I have never ever seen a sober driver” says the owner of a drinks club in the city. At the film’s beginning , the audience first sees the femme fatale at Marlowe’s office, complete with silhouette. There is much dialogue that illustrates the precision of Marlowe’s detective skills.
Neeson’s Marlowe is an ok portrayal for all that it is worth. It is a far cry from his TAKEN franchise. His character is often referred to as a big man, and Marlowe does gets his fair share of beating up the baddies. As in all the Marlowe films, Marlowe will get himself beaten up.
The best Raymond Chandler Marlowe film remains Robert Altman's THE LONG GOODBYE with Elliot Goulding he title role followed by THE BIG SLEEP and FAREWELL MY LOVELY. Other films like Roman Polanski’s CHINATOWN and the Humphrey Bogart films put this one to shame. The ingredient missing in Jordan’s MARLOWE is the shock (or surprise) element. The big twist in the plot at the end (for example when the villain tuned out to have raped his daughter so that the Faye Dunaway’s daughter was also her sister) or the lesbian dancing partying neighbours in THE LONG GOODBYE were what made the old film noir films different Jordan uses action as an alternative in his film..
MARLOWE will open in theatres on Wednesday, February 15th.
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OF AN AGE (Australia 2022) **
Directed by Steve Stoleski
OF AN AGE comes with the heading ‘one of the most romantic films ever seen’. Whether the words are true to anyone is up to the individual. But there are a lot of darkly lit scenes in which faces are hidden and cannot be seen.
OF AN AGE is a gay falling in love film, sort of Harlequin-style. There is a slight obstacle though one could do with a stronger one, which obviously will be overcome for the two star crossed immigrant Aussie lovers to come back together again. Audiences have seen all this before. There is nothing really new in the film and director Stoleski takes his time with his film just trudging along without much happening. Stoleski begins his film with a 5 - 10 minute solo dance sequence in which the audience is introduced to the main character, Kol (Elias Anton) where the actor gets to display his talent, not so much in dance but for showing off his body, with lots of twists, turns and grinding.
One wonders the reason this mediocre film got made and picked up by Universal and Focus Features. The film is born and bred in Melbourne, Australia and the director had won a few talent awards and given money to do the movie. Goran Stolevski was born and grew up in North Macedonia before migrating to Australia as a teenager. He completed a Bachelor of Creative Arts at the University of Melbourne and a Masters in Film and Television at the Victorian College of the Arts. He won the Ruben Mamoulian Best Director Award at the 2016 Sydney Film Festival with You Deserve Everything, before attending the Berlinale Talent Campus and MIFF Accelerator as well as receiving the $50,000 Lexus Fellowship for his short film My Boy Oleg. Stoleski appears to be a Melbourne prodigy. OF AN AGE is Stoleksi’s second full-length feature, his first being a horror drama.
Set in the summer of 1999 as an 17-year-old Serbian born, Australian amateur ballroom dancer Kol experiences an unexpected and intense 24-hour romance with a friend's Ebony (Hattie Hook) brother, Adam (Thom Green).
The film begins with the girl, Ebony waking up on a beach not realizing how she got there and what had happened to her. She scrounges a coin to make a telephone call to Kol, who happens to be dancing and showing off his body to the audience. She is in quite a state and wants him to borrow a car to pick her up immediately. The car he borrows ends up to be from her brother, Adam which is how the two meet. Yes, they meet in the car. Apart from these sequences, that have nothing much to do with the story but wasting time. The film is generally a slow trudge with nothing much really happening. It does not help that Stileksi’s camera is always up close with closeups of faces and objects. If only he would pull back the camera more often. This kind of film creates a false sense of urgency, making the audience often more uncomfortable than not. It also does not help that Stoleksi plays with the sound editing so that it is often not easy to decipher the words uttered by the characters. They, speaking with an Australian accent does not help North American audiences either.
Focus Features and Universal releases OF AN AGE on February the 10th, and exapns on the 17th just after Valentine’s Day.
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FILM REVIEWS:
CALVAIRE (The Ordeal)(Luxembourg/Belgium/France 2002)
Click on the link for the full review on our sister website.
https://toronto-franco.com/article/21-cinema-movies/371-film-review-calvaire-the-ordeal
COCAINE BEAR (USA 2023)
Directed by Elizabeth Banks
Review embargo lifted Thursday at 4 pm ET
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EMILY (UK 2022) ***
Directed by Frances O’Connor
EMILY is British actress Frances O’Connor’s directorial debut. She has starred before in similar pieces such as PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.
EMILY is a 2022 British biographical drama film written and directed by Frances O'Connor in her directorial debut. It is a part-fictional portrait of English writer Emily Brontë (played by Emma Mackey), concentrating on a fictional romantic relationship with the young curate William Weightman (OliverJackson-Cohen).
As Emily Brontë (Emma Mackey) is ill and near death, her older sister Charlotte (Alexandra Dowling) asks her what inspired her to write her novel, the classic piece Wuthering Heights.
Going back in time, and sometime in the past, Charlotte, who nearly graduated from school, returned home for a visit. Emily tries to talk to her about the fictional worlds she created while Charlotte is at school, but Charlotte tries to dissuade her from these juvenile activities. At the same time, a slightly dashing gentleman, William Weightman, a new curate, arrives. While her sisters and several other young women seem enamoured with the young man, Emily is dismissive of him. While visiting the Brontë home, Weightman partakes in a game the Brontës have invented where they take turns donning a mask and impersonating a character with the other members, guessing who the character is. When it is Emily's turn, she claims to be possessed by the ghost of their deceased mother. Charlotte, Anne and Branwell become distressed, while Weightman is disturbed by the scene.
Emily goes with Charlotte to her school to learn to be a teacher while her brother Branwell goes to study at the Royal Academy of Arts. Both Emily and Branwell return shortly after as failures, Branwell proclaiming he is now more interested in writing and Emily at a loss for what to do.
The story continues with the characters interacting with each other, which involves a few more pressing issues, such as love and death.
Director O’Connor captures several unique scenes from the English period. The best of these has the four women and three beaus off for a picnic in the countryside when rain suddenly comes pouring down. It is a simple yet gorgeous scene in which the picnickers run for cover under a practically leafless tree. They laugh and charge in the rain, with their joy rubbing off on the audience.
A fine job for a first-time director, kudos to Francis O’Connor, her acting experience obviously paying off. She elicits solid performances from all her players, who do well credibly with their roles without any overacting. Often, the actors' nuances and expressions are sufficient to get the mood of a setting.
EMILY is well worth watching, never mind that it all sounds like a feminine film, with main female characters and issues like romance, social standing, and mores as the film’s issues. But the film covers the universal issue of accomplishing what others expect of one or what one expects of oneself against what one is capable of doing.
As for prizes, EMILY has received three awards at the Dinard British Film Festival: Golden Hitchcock, Best Performance Award for Emma Mackey and Audience Award.
EMILY premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival before being theatrically released in the United Kingdom by Warner Bros. Pictures on 14 October 2022 and opens in local cinemas on the 27th of February, 2023, a little later.
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EMILY (UK 2022) ***
Directed by Frances O’Connor
EMILY is British actress Frances O’Connor’s directorial debut. She has starred before in similar pieces such as PRIDE AND PREJUDICE.
EMILY is a 2022 British biographical drama film written and directed by Frances O'Connor in her directorial debut. It is a part-fictional portrait of English writer Emily Brontë (played by Emma Mackey), concentrating on a fictional romantic relationship with the young curate William Weightman (OliverJackson-Cohen).
As Emily Brontë (Emma Mackey) is ill and near death, her older sister Charlotte (Alexandra Dowling) asks her what inspired her to write her novel, the classic piece Wuthering Heights.
Going back in time, and sometime in the past, Charlotte, who nearly graduated from school, returned home for a visit. Emily tries to talk to her about the fictional worlds she created while Charlotte was at school, but Charlotte tries to dissuade her from these juvenile activities. At the same time, a slightly dashing gentleman, William Weightman, a new curate, arrives. While her sisters and several other young women seem enamoured with the young man, Emily is dismissive of him. While visiting the Brontë home, Weightman partakes in a game the Brontës have invented where they take turns donning a mask and impersonating a character with the other members, guessing who the character is. When it is Emily's turn, she claims to be possessed by the ghost of their deceased mother. Charlotte, Anne and Branwell become distressed, while Weightman is disturbed by the scene.
Emily goes with Charlotte to her school to learn to be a teacher while her brother Branwell goes to study at the Royal Academy of Arts. Both Emily and Branwell return shortly after as failures, Branwell proclaiming he is now more interested in writing and Emily at a loss for what to do.
The story goes on with the characters interacting with each other which involves a few more pressing issues such as love and death.
Director O’Connor captures several unique English period scenes. The best of these has the 4 women and three beaus off for a picnic in the countryside when rain suddenly comes pouring down. It is a simple yet gorgeous scene in which the picnickers run for cover under a practically leafless tree. They laugh and charge in the rain, with their joy rubbing off on the audience.
A fine job for a first time director, kudos going to Francis O’Connor, her acting experience obviously paying off. She elicits solid performances from all her players, who do well credibly with their roles without any overacting. Often the actors’s nuances and expressions are sufficient to get the mood of a setting.
EMILY is well worth the while to watch, never mind that it all sounds like a feminine film, with main female characters and issues like romance, social standing and mores as the film’s issues. But the film covers the universal issue of accomplishing what others expect of one or what one expects of oneself against what one is capable of doing.
As for prizes, EMILY has received three awards at the Dinard British Film Festival: Golden Hitchcock, Best Performance Award for Emma Mackey and Audience Award.
EMILY premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival before being theatrically released in the United Kingdom by Warner Bros. Pictures on 14 October 2022 and opens in local cinemas on the 27th of February, 2023, a little later.
FREE SKATE (Finland 2021) ***1/2
Directed by Roope Olenius
A promising figure skater flees from Russia to Finland to escape her inhumane circumstances.
Following a successful run on the global film festival circuit, Canadian distributor IndieCan Entertainment offers audiences the chance to experience the beauty and trauma of being a world-class athlete with FREE SKATE. FREE SKATE is from Finland, the country of origin, and tells the disturbing story akin to the #MeToo Movement, already too commonly known.
Director Roope Olenius' feature is written by lead actress Veera W. Vilo, who stars as the promising figure skater fleeing from Russia to Finland to escape her inhumane circumstances. The film is based on Vilo’s own experiences as a gymnast, her colleagues’ experiences, and disturbing stories of female athletes and dancers that have come to light after the start of the #MeToo movement.
FREE SKATE begins with a female body (Vilo) lying across an icy road in the midst of winter. It turns out that it is the body of a figure skater who then recovers fro 2 day of being in a coma. An address in her pocket allows her to be connected to her grandmother. It turns out that the country is Finland. Actress Vilo’s script is all over the place in the first half and is a tad confusing as to where each scene is taking pace. If one can distinguish Russian from Finnish, one can tell whether the action is taking place in Finland where the figure skater currently is or in Russia before her escape. Otherwise the film is difficult to follow.
Once the film’s half way mark is reached, everything becomes clear as to what is happening. The skater, after delivering a prize winning skating performance is granted an interview in the media. The skater decides to tell it all, how she jumped countries (Russia to Finland) with a story according to the interviewer, which everyone wants to know about, But with the story goes grave danger as the skater’s perpetrators are now aware of her whereabouts. It is at this point that the film starts to make sense and therefore becomes more effective and thrilling.. FREE SKATE is both a drama and thriller, a thriller because the baddies from Russia will not leave the skater alone and follows her to Finland. It is surprising that one of the villains is the skater’s father, who had been paid a sum of money to sell off his daughter. This man follows her to Finland and attacks his now mother who has put up the skater in her house. This is a difficult scene to take in and watch.
There is much to be entertained by FREE SKATE. There are excellent figure skating sequences to complement the drama and abuse faced by the skater. (The skater is unnamed).
The theatrical release, of FREE SKATE has been postponed from January owing to Cineplex Odeon wishing to prioritize Academy Award related films during the time before the Oscar ceremonies but FREE SKATE will be available as originally schedule on a number of digital and cable platforms in North America, including iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, iNDemand and DISH, starting February 28, 2023.
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GOD’S TIME (USA 2022) ***
Directed by Daniel Antebi
The phrase GOD’S TIME is taken from a phrase spoken during an addiction sharing session in which an addict talks about her abusive boyfriend, Russell who has moved in and kicked her out of her apartment while keeping her beloved dog as well. She talks about killing him with a gun her dad had given her but relents saying: “pray that he will die in GOD’S TIME.” She says the same words every time she shares. On the one time she does not say those words, a fellow addict who has fallen in love with her thinks that she is going to Russell’s place with the gun to shoot him. Dev attempts to stop her from doing the murder, saves her and Russell and perhaps hopefully has her fall in love with him. This is the premise of the new film GOD’S TIME written and directed by Daniel Antebi.
Best friends and recovering addicts Dev (Ben Groh) and Luca (Dion Costelloe) are secretly in love with fellow addict Regina (Liz Caribel). At every meeting they hear her share her wild fantasy to kill her evil ex-boyfriend. But one day she changes her share; now she sounds serious. This sets Dev and Luca off on a 24-hour odyssey through pandemic-gripped New York City to stop Regina from making a life-shattering mistake. As their friendship is pushed to the brink, Dev and Luca realize their bond is unbreakable in this kinetic, vibrant debut from writer and director Daniel Antebi.
Director Antebi’s film is intense just as addicts tend to be, and his film is aided by frenetic performances by all the lead actors. There are lots of shouting, screaming and fast talk that create a film that does not let the audience rest nor take a breather. The story covers quite the few issues like addiction and recovery, revenge, friendship, romance and all blended in relatively successfully. The trouble with a story covering so many issues is, as the proverb goes: “too many cooks spoil the broth”, none of them is satisfactorily resolved, except the best friend issue, which looks like a cop-out. The credibility of the story is what makes the film ticks. It is tough to see addicts trying to recover but often failing because of human weaknesses as well as human temptations. There is a whole lot of lying going around in the film. Lying and not telling both actually mean the same thing. Every addict can lie that he or she has come clean but one cannot lie to one’s conscience. Also words will slip out that will reveal the truth as the film demonstrates.
For all the effort put in, Antebi’s feature is not half bad, credit to him and his crew for trying so hard.
The very frenetic film GOD’S TIME premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Festival and won a Special Jury Prize for Best Performance for Liz Caribel. IFC Films will release the film in theatres on Friday, February 24 in NY, LA and select cities and on VOD platforms. Prepare for a wild ride!
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JUNIPER (New Zealand 2021) ***
Directed by Matthew J. Saville
The film follows a self-destructive teenager, Sam (George Ferrier) suspended from school and asked to look after his feisty alcoholic grandmother, Ruth (Charlotte Rampling) as a punishment. The story is based on the true life experiences of director Saville who also had a toxic grandmother who had broken her leg and he was forced to look after her. According to him, she was funny, angry and a force to be reckoned with. But like all exterior brave seeming people, she has a weakness. She is afraid of dying alone.
So, director Saville helms this tribute to his grandmother in this rather entertaining look at relationships and death.
Sam is forced to look after his grandmother who arrives in New Zealand from the U.K. His father (Marton Csokas) has to go the U.K. for business. They have no homie but have to leave Sam with Ruth. As the dad says: "She is the only one keeping us from going broke. We have no choice. Everything is going to be fine.” But Ruth has a nurse as well but she needs Sam when she is not around.
Ruth drinks quite a lot. Her normal is a jug half of gin and half of water with a twist of lemon.
The film’s best parts are those with Sam and his grandmother together. In one of these meetings, She pulls the plug out of the socket thus disabling her from buzzing him through the electric circuit. In anger, she tosses a glass at him but misses. Sam stands right in front of her and dares her to throw another glass at him. The glass hits him right in the temple. When he dares her to repeat the act, she remarks that she has run out of annunciation. At times Sam is so mad, he leaves her.
New Zealand is shown with its beautiful countryside with white horses galloping around. The sweetest scene has Sam dancing with her grandmother.
JUNIPER is fortunate to have as its main star the British Actress Charlotte Rampling. Rampling has starred in arthouse European films including Richard Lester’s A HARD DAY’S NIGHT and THE KNACK AND HOW TO USE IT. Though her most famous role is that of a Nazi prisoner in Liliana Cavan’s THE NIGHT PORTER, she has also starred in a number of Francois Ozon’s films including LE PISCINE (SWIMMING POOL). It is admirable that she lends her hand to first time filmmaker director Matthew J. Saville (thesis his first full length feature after making two shorts) as well as newcomer young actor the Kiwi George Ferrier. Now she has New Zealand as a place she has worked in on her resume. Rampling has also won won the Berlin Film Festival Award for Best Actress, the European Film Award for Best Actress, and was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. for her recent 45 YEARS.
JUNIPER opens in Canadian Theatres beginning February 24 with a VOD release to follow on April 4.
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METRONOM (Romania/France 2022) ****
Directed by Alexandra Belc
METRONOM is a political drama, the politics only coming forth at the halfway mark of the story. The first half of the rather disturbing film looks and feels like a teenage romance flick in which a boy and girl, very much in love with each other, are forced to separate because the boy is moving to Germany from Bucharest, Romania.
The title of the film is derived from METRONOM, a radio show clandestinely broadcast by Radio Free Europe, animated by the Romanian radio journalist and producer Cornel Chiriac from exile. Cornel got assassinated in Munich in 1975. The research conducted by the director Alexandru Belc was a personal foray into adolescence and into a teenager’s life in Romania at that time, the time of my parent’s youth. The setting is the dangerous times of the post ’68 era and the most interesting period of the communist regime, as it was the time of greatest social and cultural contradictions. Young people were all listening to Metronom that became a window to the western life.
The film begins with what looks like an innocent meeting between two young lovers, still in school, Ana and Soren. Soren has to leave for Germany and Ana is visibly upset. They are to meet one last time at a party held by a friend but Ana does not wish to go, but eventually changes her mind. Her mother does not grant her permission but her more lenient father says ok. When the time comes, mother gets her way, but Ana leaves for the party anyway. This is where and when the trouble starts - at this near half point of the film, where the film takes a strange and complete turn into a political suspense drama. That night, while partying with her friends, they decide to send a letter to Metronom, the musical program which Radio Free Europe broadcasts clandestinely in Romania. It is then that the Securitate, Ceausescu’s secret police arrive. They are brought into the police station, questioned, threatened and some beaten.
Director Belc tells this story through the eyes of the teenage girl (Ana), in love with a boy (Sorin) who leaves the country for good. The script becomes more and more a support for Ana’s inner emotions, and everything started gravitating around her. Every shot of the film is closely following her, she is the one who brings us into this innocent world of music, liberty, adolescence, and love. She is present in every scene, in every moment of the film so we can see the world through her eyes. If a scene starts without her, it definitely ends with her and vice-versa.
The film won its director, Alexandra Belc the Best Director Award in the Un Certain Regard Section of Cannes last year. It is clear to see the reason. Besides his extensive research into the authenticity of the subject, setting and atmosphere from the music, dialogue, props and performances, the film is a showcase of the meticulous care and effort devoted into a film that pays off in its delivery. METRONOM opens TIFF Bell Lightbox on Friday, February 24, 2023.
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