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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 06 February 2023

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.

Trailer: 

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.

 

Trailer: 

 

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.

Trailer: 

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.

Trailer: 

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.

Trailer: 

 

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Details

Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 31 January 2023

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

 

Trailer: 

 

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.

Trailer: 

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.

Trailer: 

 

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!

Trailer: 

 

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.

Trailer: 

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.

Trailer: 

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