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Written by: Gilbert Seah

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Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 29 March 2024

HOT DOCS 2024

 

 

Just Announced—2024 Festival Full Line-up!   The 2024 Hot Docs Festival's full line-up is officially out! With 168 documentaries from 64 countries and 83 world and international premieres, this year’s Festival will showcase compelling stories of visionary filmmakers and intriguing subjects from Canada and around the world, offering you an unparalleled opportunity to engage with a wide range of topics. From the opening night screening of Luther: Never Too Much to Big Ideas presented by Scotia Wealth Management to the $50,000 Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary, the 31st edition of the Festival will bring you a wide range of programs and events to celebrate the finest documentaries together. Members' and package holders’ exclusive booking window is now open! Become a member or buy a 12- or 20-ticket package today and book your must-watch documentaries before single tickets go on sale to the public on April 2.

 Capsule Reviews of Selected Docs:

THE BONES (Canada/Germany 2024) ***½

Directed by Jeremy Xido

Paleontology is the study of ancient life, from dinosaurs to prehistoric plants, mammals, fish, insects, fungi, and even microbes.  For fans of JURASSIC PARK, this is the doc to be watching!   It reveals the true evidence of the world of fossils by traversing the globe alongside paleontologists (one featured in the doc has a role in Spielberg’s JURASSIC PARK) on a quest to unearth dinosaur fossils that may hold the key to save humanity from extinction. It is shown that the bones disappear into the hands of fossil dealers, who stand to make millions by selling them on the open market.  A cinematic adventure that reaches from the Mongolian Gobi Desert to the floor of a Paris auction house, "The Bones" exposes the clash between science, post-colonial reckoning, and hard-nosed capitalism.  Educational inspiration in a field that very few know about.  THE BONES arrives as a special screening at Hot Docs on Friday, May 3rd, 7:30 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 7.

Trailer: 

 

 

THE DAY ICELAND STOOD STILL (Iceland 2024) ***½

Directed by Pamela Hogan

 

  THE DAY ICELAND STOOL STILL is October 24, 1975. On this well-planned and orchestrated day, 90 percent of Iceland’s women walked off their jobs and out of their homes.  Fed up with the gaping inequity between the value of women’s labour and women’s wages, female employees, wives and mothers just stopped—stopped working, cooking, cleaning and looking after their children—together on that fall morning.  The country came to an abrupt standstill, but a revolution had begun. Fascinating archives and inspiring animation accompany new interviews with the women and activists who were there that day. Through interviews and archive footage, the film documents the days before, on and after what the women call “Strike Day”.   Like Strike Day, this is a well-documented and orchestrated feel-good film that would have both genders cheering for the victory of women in the workforce which is equivalent to a citron for mankind.  Iceland is at present the country in the world with the most female equality.

 

DEVI (Nepal/South Korea/UK 2024) ***

Directed by Subina Shrestha

 

This doc is all about Devi.  The doc follows Devi as she interviews other rape victims and how she copes with her injured past.   In 1997, 17-year-old Devi’s life took a harrowing turn. Arrested during the onset of civil war in Nepal, she was accused of rebellion, subjected to torture, and endured the unimaginable trauma of rape while in custody. Branded a “victim,” Devi faced the weight of social stigma and battled depression and isolation. Her story didn’t end there, however. Devi is an immersive vérité film (the doc plays just as it is, with little or no theatrics or dramatics) that follows her remarkable journey. From joining the rebel frontlines to ascending through the ranks and eventually serving as a member of parliament after the war’s end, Devi defied all odds.  The doc shows how difficult it is to make a change in society where men accept this fate of women.  Devi complains, and with reason that three of her attackers are now serving in Parliament.  How then can there be change?   But with all due respect to DEVI, the doc repeats itself too often with Devi making same complaints again and again.

 

THE FABULOUS GOLD HARVESTING MACHINE (Chile/Netherlands 2024) ***

Directed by Alfredo Pourailly de la Paz

 

This doc about the father/son relationship spans more than 5 years from the time the father, nicknamed Toto suffers health problems from the strenuous work of extracting the precious metal manually to the success of the son’s making of his fabulous gold harvesting machine to make the gold harvesting job easier.  The setting is Tierra del Fuego in Chile, Toto’s 60-year-old body cannot take it anymore.  But he has to work to earn a living with the little income he gets from his artisanal gold-digging process is just enough to sustain himself. He fears he might die but at the same time loves life. His son, Jorge, is quite the mechanical genius while also proving himself an apt rodeo rider in one scene.  Nothing fancy but nothing wrong in this doc that moves like a home movie mostly narrated by Toto himself.

(Screening: Apr 28 04:00 pm, Apr 30  08:30 pm)

 

THE HERE NOW PROJECT (USA 2024) ***½

Directed by Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel

 

Every doubling in the percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases the temperature of the earth by 4C.   The HERE NOW PROJECT consists of videos taken by people in the year 2021.  The doc tells the story.  Witnesses to environmental phenomena pick up their phones to share this moment with the world.  Drawing from thousands of hours of in-the-moment footage, Emmy Award–winning filmmakers Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel chronicle the year 2021: a pivotal chapter in the fight against our new climate reality. Seen through the eyes of everyday people around the world, The Here Now Project transforms the common act of shooting a cell phone video into an act of resistance.  The state of Texas is under a winter storm warning; a tropical cyclone hitting Southern Indonesia for the first time; swarms of locusts destroying crops in Kenya; and intense pollution in the Sea of Marmara, Turkey; these are just a few of the videos capturing the catastrophes due to climate change around the world,  Warning: Because these are people’s videos, they contain everyday people’s language like: “Holly F***!” “Colder than a miner’s arse.”  and of course, the very common saying, “You must be f***ing kidding me!”  Evoking a sense of agency and celebrating the power as a population, the film captures the simultaneous, global nature of climate change and highlights the deep human resilience, resourcefulness and courage needed to confront it. At once epic and intimate, its message is clear: We’re all in this, together.  A mesmerizing and unforgettable doc!

NEVER LOOK AWAY (New Zealand 2024) ***½

Directed by Lucy Lawless

 

The doc NEVER LOOK AWAY celebrates famed photojournalist Margaret Moth, warts and all.  Born in Gisborne, New Zealand, as Margaret Wilson, she got her first camera at age 8.  Moth covered the Persian Gulf War, the rioting that followed Indira Gandhi's assassination, the civil war in Tbilisi, Georgia, and the Bosnian War. She had been described by colleagues as quirky, tough, fearless and funny.  The doc works avoids being a biopic by omitting Margaret’s past.  When the first boyfriend (the17 year-old), Jeff Russi asks Margaret of her past, her reply is that she had forgotten.  So, no mention of her childhood is found in the doc.  Risks come with a price.  No one is invincible - Margaret Moth included,  In July 1992, Moth was shot and severely wounded while filming in Sniper Alley in Sarajevo.   Director Lawless also goes personal, trying to understand the woman who faces danger and dismisses family life.  What is behind her anger?  Why is her background leading to this state?  

ROUGE (USA 2024) ***

Directed by Hamoody Jaafar

 

The basketball doc is all about basketball, so non-basketball players might want to stay away though the filmmakers try to include other issues like racial prejudice and black poverty into the equation.  The coaches and players of Rouge River High School are examined.  The doc is more successful in looking at the school coaches who are an inspiration for the younger players.  In the 1950s, legendary high school basketball coach Lofton Greene led the racially integrated River Rouge High School Panthers to a record number of state championships in a league of otherwise segregated schools. Now, almost 70 years later, LaMonta Stone, a former Panther himself, has returned to the struggling industrial town of River Rouge, Michigan, to coach the Panthers as they chase the school’s 15th State Championship. Stone and three of his star student-athletes, including seniors Brent Darby Jr. and Ahmoni Weston, and junior Legend Geeter, strive to fulfill generations’ worth of work on and off the court by preparing for their next chapter of life.

THE STRIKE (USA 2024) ***½

Directed by Joebill Munoz and Lucas Guilkey 

 

THE STRIKE tells the story of a generation of California prisons as they endure decades of solitary confinement and, against all odds, launch the largest hunger strike in US history. Told through intimate interviews and archival verité footage, the film goes beyond making a case against solitary confinement by illuminating the power of organizing this prisoner-led resistance, and in doing so, flipping the true-crime genre on its head

The strike refers to a hunger strike, inspired by reading about Bobby Sands who protested with a hunger strike till he died after 66 days.  The doc reveals how it took years before the strike began.  The ex-prisoners say that they are already dead, so what is there to lose?  And how do the prisoners who enter the hunger strike communicate among themselves?  THE STRIKE is an extremely engrossing doc for the mere fact of how human beings can be so cruel to another in the name of punishment.  Informative, educational and scary, THE STRIKE should serve as an important and urgent message to generally be kind to one another.

 

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

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Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 26 March 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

 

INFESTED (VERMINES) (Frane 2023) ***  1/2

Directed by Sébastien Vanicek

 

` Spiders have always freaked humans out as creepy crawlers.  One can imagine the horror of a spider killed and dozens of little baby spiders crawling out of the mother’s body.  And it is of no surprise that spider horror movies are almost a genre in itself with films like ARACHNOPHOBIA, EIGHT-LEGGED FREAKS, TARANTULA, EARTH VS. THE SPIDER, most of them not very good.  From France, premiering at Cannes last year arrives INFESTED (previous title: VERMIN), arguably the best of the lot, and is as creepy as hell.

The film has a solid good build-up of suspense and thrills to the final climax.  It begins with the introduction of the deadly spider nested in the sands of a sweltering desert.  A group of Arabs hut for these creates and one shoots for jot having discovered a nest only to be killed by one jumping and stinging him on his face.  A few of these spiders (not tarantulas as they look different) are captured in small boxes and sold as exotic pets.  One comes into the hands of Kaleb (Theo Christine), a teen Arab living in a Paris suburb.  The visually striking buildings where the action is set are the Picasso arenas in Noisy-le-Grand, near Paris, designed by architect Manuel Núñez Yanowsky in the 80s.

Kaleb is about to turn 30 and has never been lonelier. He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, infesting the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.

The script that is co-written by director Vanicek and Florent Bernard devotes a lot of time to the characters of Kaleb and his sister and friends (friends that argue, fight, and call each other names half the time).  The dialogue is crisp and ripe with swear words and slang, and the way one living marginally would speak thus creating an atmosphere of credibility as well as sympathy for those living at the edge of poverty.  The word putting can be heard dozens of times.  Putting is French for whore but it is more used s a curse word for ‘fuck’ and ‘shit’.  The janitor, an old Asian lady is bullied by the resident youth, but is rescued in one scene by Kaleb only to be scolded by her instead of her thanking him.  Such is life!  Will the band of so-called friends and family of Kaleb band together to find the new menace of their apartment building?  The spiders reproduce rapidly within the hour with offspring much larger than their parents.  The result is infestation.

The spiders are partly created by CGI with some of them actual real creatures.  Director Vanicek keeps his film smart, fun and scary, a sure-fire formula for a successful spider horror movie.

INFESTED is the first feature film for director Sébastien Vanicek, who had directed a few shorts before.  The film was nominated for two Cesars, for Best First Feature and Best Visual Effects.  Vanicek has pitched the movie to producer Harry Tordjman, who loved it and introduced him to Netflix.  They loved it as well and thought the movie deserved a theatre release before ending up on Netflix, which is a big deal in France as the minimum legal delay in 2023 between a theatre release.  INFESTED is available for streaming on Shudder Friday, April 26th with a special screening on the 24th at the TIFF Lightbox.

Trailer: 

 

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

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Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 25 March 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

 

THE ANTISOCIAL NETWORK (From Memes to Mayhem) (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Giorgio Angelini and Arthur Jones

 

A Netflix original documentary the film begins with words that would make anyone sit u, listen and watch this somewhat intriguing documentary:

You can fix code but you can’t fix people.

The weakest part of any system is the people that put it together.

The jokes (made on their system) that they made would turn into conspiracy theories.  This misinformation has reshaped society,

(we) started something and never intended for it to end this way.

And now I am trying to clean up my own mistakes.

A meme is a word that has been popularized lately and practically unheard of in the past an amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) or a genre of items that is spread widely online, especially through social media.

A group of lonely teenagers formed an online community and bonded over their isolation, but their collective beliefs warped reality.

Despite the doc having its tech-savvy subject, the film adds its human emotional element by including a bit about the personal lives of the three who invented this antisocial network.  Their stories are narrated by the subjects themselves and they share the common element of being lonely and misplaced kids with alter-personas on the net.  All are tech-savvy and know the ins and outs of social networks.

In terms of information education, there is quite a bit of this doc especially in Japanese culture as in the the worlds of Otaku and 2channel, as explained in the film.

Most of the voiceovers provided by the three subjects create a more credible platform for their stories.  Directors Giorgio Angelini and Arthur Jones clearly and constantly include tactics like animation, colour and dialogue to keep their audience glued to the subject,

THE ANTISOCIAL NETWORK (From Memes to Mayhem) is a socially relevant and informative doc that is both relevant and entertaining in today’s internet culture,

THE ANTISOCIAL NETWORK won the audience award at the Documentary Spotlight Section at the SXSW Film Festival.  A noteworthy doc to be seen that opens for streaming on April 5th on Netflix.

 

BAGHEAD (UK/Germany 2023) **

Directed by Alberto Corredor

 

Written by no fewer than 3 writers Christina Pamies, Bryce McGuire and Lorcan Reilly and directed by Alberto Corredor in his debut feature based on his short film in 2017 with the same title, BAGHEAD (not to be confused with the 2008 Mark and Duplass comedy) bears a certain similarity to the acclaimed horror TALK TO ME which by inevitable comparison proves to be the inferior movie, not for want of trying.

There is a certain attractive scare of the image of someone with a sack over his head.  When the sack is pulled up, the head of a different person can be conjured up, or even maybe the head of a monster.  This premise must have inspired the filmmaker to conjure up BAGHEAD.  A few other scary scenarios are added in - the picture of a prisoner tied down and unseen in a dark basement; an inheritance of evil; the signing of a contract that cannot be invoked and a shapeshifter.  To create a more human emotionally effective story two human elements are added.  One is a father/daughter lost relationship and the other is a girl/girl relationship between the protagonist and a girlfriend (the word lesbian is never mentioned but the lesbian relationship is assumed).

Following the death of her estranged father (Ken Loach’s regular actor: Peter Mullan), Iris (Freya Allan) learns she has inherited a run-down, centuries-old pub.  She travels to Berlin (as this is a German co-production, though hardly any German is seen or spoken) to identify her father's body and meet with The Solicitor (Ned Dennehy) to discuss the estate.  Little does she know, when the deed is signed she will become inextricably tied to an unspeakable entity that resides in the pub's basement - Baghead (played and voiced by Anne Muller) - a shape-shifting creature that can transform into the dead.  Two thousand in cash for two minutes with the creature is all it takes for desperate loved ones to ease their grief.  Neil (Jeremy Irvine), who has lost his wife, is Iris' first customer.  Like her father, Iris is tempted to exploit the creature's powers and help desperate people for a price.   This shape-shifting creature can transform into the dead and can provide two minutes with a loved one for a fee of two thousand dollars. Iris is tempted to use Baghead’s powers to help people in need and earn a profit, just like her father did before.  But she soon discovers breaking the two-minute rule can have terrifying consequences. Together with her best friend Katie (Ruby Barker), Iris must battle to keep control of Baghead and figure out how to destroy her, before she destroys them.

The film suffers from the cliched jump scares that one can always do without.  The dark atmosphere of the pub and often used settings add to the horror and potential scares of the film.  However, too much plot ends up with a muddled ending as the climax disappoints after a solid buildup.

Performances are ok at best, and it is good to see veteran actor Peter Mullan lending his hand to a new director’s debut feature.

BAGHEAD streams on Shudder on April the 5th.

Trailer: 

 

 

THE OLD OAK (UK/France/Belgium 2023) ****

Directed by Ken Loach

 

THE OLD OAK is directed by Ken Loach who makes a film every 3 years or so, usually excellent fare, something worth waiting for.  THE OLD OAK, Loach’s latest film is no different.  Loach is a British film director and screenwriter known for his socially critical directing style and socialism as evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty (Poor Cow, 1967), homelessness (Cathy Come Home, 1966), and labour rights (Riff-Raff, 1991, and The Navigators, 2001).  Loach's film KES(1969) was voted the seventh-greatest British film of the 20th century in a poll by the British Film Institute.  Indeed, this is my favourite Loach film.  His last two films I, Daniel Blake (2016), received the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, making him one of only nine filmmakers to win the award twice and SORRY WE MISSED YOU are unforgettable social dramas.

In the film, THE OLD OAK is the name of a pub in a northern English town where coal mining has its day.  Pub landlord TJ Ballantyne (Dave Turner), living in a previously thriving mining community in County Durham, struggles to hold onto his pub and keep it as the one remaining public space where people can meet in the town. Meanwhile, tensions rise when Syrian refugees are placed there, but Ballantyne strikes up a friendship with one of the refugees, Yara (Ebla Mari).

TJ’s wife had left him and his son is not speaking to him.  The fact is mentioned in the film but the details are not shown on screen. With the town going to bits, he had contemplated suicide by looking into the sea but was saved by a happy dog running to the beach.  The dog, which he named Marra saved his life and brought him companionship and a reason for living.  Any film with the protagonist and a faithful dog means that there is a great temptation for the dog to be killed in the story for dramatic effect.  In the last film LAND OF MINE, the protagonist a Dane sergeant had his dog blown up by a mine.  Will Marra face the same demise?

The Brits are not happy with the new refugees in their town.  They claim that they are not racist even though they are.  They cannot speak a word of English and their pub, The OLD OAK is now crawling with them.  Loach offers a reason for the Brits to be this bitter.  They themselves are victim, in this case, the victims of big mining companies that use and underpay them and then leave town.  Many have lost family members during the mining operations.

Director Loach offers a possible solution to the conflict - keeping the back room of the pub for the refugees and Brits to eat together for free but the plan falls through.  Still, a happy ending is required for a film with such strong undertones.

Loach’s THE OLD OAK is not his best, but it is still an excellent film, all things considered.  The film is an easy watch, pulling all the right political and social-emotional strings while offering an insight into the frailties of the human race.

Trailer:  

 

LA CHIMERA (Italy/France/Switzerland 2013) ****
Directed by Alice Rohrwacher

 

 

LA CHIMERA follows the adventures of a linen-suited British archaeologist first name of Arthur (Josh O’Connor) as he digs up tombs and sells treasures in the likes of Indiana Jones.  Arthur has the uncanny ability to be able to foretell where treasures are buried.  Unlike the Spielberg movies, this is art-house Indian Jones, putting a spin on the latest Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.  LA CHIMERA has its major surprises and is an utter delight in its delivery, presentation and originality.

The audience first sees Arthur aboard a train (the film is set in 80’s Tuscany) where he beats up a socks salesman for insulting his smelly feet.  Arthur is shown to be impatient, angry and a man who gets what he wants, no-nonsense tolerated.   Who would not be angry with someone who insults your feet in front of pretty girls in a train compartment?  Arthur is a handsome fellow and O’Connor, in a remarkable role, portrays him with a certain suave and likability.

It turns out that Arthur has just been released from prison for the crime of grave robbing, the only one caught the last time he was tomb digging with the gypsy Romans, who are eager to get up with him again.  Apparently, the Romans had paid Arthur’s way out so that they could continue to rob graves with him.  But Arthur is visiting the aristocratic mother, Flora (Isabella Rossellini) of his beloved missing girlfriend.  Flora is also awaiting her daughter’s return and is glad to see Arthur again.  Flora is holed up near a dilapidated train station among many squatters.

The Romans are shown to be a colourful and playful art and director Rohrwacher delivers many of the film’s funniest and brightest moments of this group, many members of which love to dress in drag.

Nothing more should be said of this lush and colourful adventure that director Rohrwacher takes her audience to except to mention that there is a surprise around every corner.  Watch for the film’s ending which has a nod to Alfred Hitchcock’s final scene in NORTH BY NORTHWEST, in which Cary Grant reaches out to Eva Marie Saint as she almost falls off the cliff only to reveal the final scene where Grant lifts her to the top of the bunk bed on the train.

Trailer: 

DOGMAN (France 2023) ***½

A film by Luc Besson

 

“Wherever there is an unfortunate, God sends a dog.” is a quote that is used in the film.  The unfortunate in the film is Kaleb (Caleb Landry Jones), a man dished out all the misfortunes of life.  His saviour is the canine species, a whole lot of dogs that bid Kaleb’s every command.

It all begins with an emergency at the Detention Centre.  Kolbe is injured and in drag.  He is questioned by a psychologist, who leaves her daughter with her mother in the middle of the night to handle this emergency.  At first hesitant, Kaleb eventually opens up to the psychologist.  His story unfolds as he tells his story, shown to the audience in flashbacks,

French director Lucy Besson is well known for his innovative films, his most successful and best films being LUCY, LEON, NIKITA and of course, THE FIFTH ELEMENT.  DOGMN i a lazy revenge fantasy something that is likely never seen before and the strangest film to be seen on the screen this year - a good thing.  If Besson’sfilm lacks credibility - the audience is supposed to believe that all of Kelly’s dogs can understand his English-spoken commands and can steal jewelry from a mansion.

Besson is French and his French imprint is clear in the film as he chooses Edith Piaf for Kaleb to perform in drag.  The film ends with an English version of Edith Piaf’s ‘Je Ne Regrette Rien’.  As in Besson’s films, DOGMAN is excessively violent and innocent people do get killed off as well, for dramatic effect.

The lead role of Kaleb is performed by American actor Caleb Landry Jones, known for quirky roles as in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN and.  Jones has never failed to impress and DOGMAN is perhaps his best role as both a handicap and a drag queen.  His drag performances are superb, especially his rendition of ‘Lili Marlene’.

How the filmmakers got all the dogs trained to perform all the tricks seen on the screen is something that needs to be seen to be believed.  A variety of breeds are used and they are mostly adorable.

Not without flaws, Besson’s latest DOGMAN with its incredible plot and hard-to-believe situations is filmmaking that looks as impressive on screen as his futuristic FIFTH ELEMENT.  It is compulsive watching, for sure, though not for everybody, one cannot go away saying that the film is unforgettable in its execution.

DOGMAN opens in theatres on April 3rd.

Trailer: 

GLITTER + DOOM (USA 2024) **

Directed by Tom Gustafson

 

GLITTER + DOOM is a gay romantic musical based on the music of the Indigo Girls.

In a fantastical romance set to the hits of the Indigo Girls, a carefree circus performer and struggling musician fall in love at first sight, in a local dance club– until the real world comes calling. Their whirlwind summer is interrupted by the realities of pursuing their dreams. Punctuated by an all-queer supporting cast, GLITTER & DOOM attempts to be a creatively ambitious musical about the power of love.

Glitter comes from a rich family, but wants to be a circus clown. Doom, on the other hand, is a singer-songwriter from poor surroundings, trying to break into the local club scene. While Glitter has an over-abundance of self-confidence, Doom has self-doubts. They meet and have under a month to fall in love, before Glitter leaves for clown school in Paris. Meanwhile, Doom needs to produce a promotional music track to confirm his breakout club gig.

There is something that is wrong with the film.  One glaring concern is the actor playing DOOM.  He has a British accent and the accent comes through all throughout the film.  Nothing is explained about his accent.  Or he is an actor who should be hiding it in an American film where the characters have no British connections,  The two characters are also so egoistic not to say annoying, and the script has the audience believe that these two characters are geniuses in their own field.  Doom’s mother also appears in the middle of the film adding another unnecessary subplot to the story.

The music is from the Indigo Girls, repurposed, rearranged, and sometimes mashed up. The songs are sung by the two principals, with a small ensemble doing some dancing around them at times. The entire combination has a magical effect.

For musicals, the characters break out into song at the most misappropriate moments be it at the supermarket or in the fields in the moonies.  The choreography is passable and nothing too spectacular, looking a bit too gay for the average audience.  At its best, the musical numbers are not overdone, with the songs sung mainly by the two principals with dancers around them.  The film was shot in Mexico during the Covid pandemic, where Mexico was quite liberal in its lockdown procedures,

The ultimate question is whether Glitter and Doom will make it at their romance and live happily ever after as well as achieve their dreams or goals in life.  It does not take a genius to be able to guess the answer to these questions,

GLITTER + DOOM is a film that has limited appeal and thus would be a rough sell to the general market.  Unless one is young and queer and full of annoying energy or if one is a complete Indigo fan, this romance comedy about two very annoying young men who do not know what they want or roughly do but do not know how to achieve it is largely a boring affair.  The film runs almost two hours with songs that are amusing at most,  Indigo Girls gave permission for the filmmakers to use their music which consists of a catalog of more than 300 songs, which helps lift the film a little

GLITTER + DOOM premiered at the Indie Out LGBT Toronto Film Festival as its Closing Night Gala.  The film is available digitally on April 9 to rent/purchase on all major platforms.

Trailer: 

MONKEY MAN (USA 2024) **1/2

Directed by Dev Patel

(Written by Guest Reviewer Andre A.)

Monkey Man, directed by and
starring Dev Patel, is a film that seeks to meld the gritty essence of
crime-action cinema with layers of Indian mythology, social critique, and
martial arts extravagance. The film narrates the journey of a young man, who, clad in a monkey mask
reminiscent of Mexican wrestlers, engages in underground battles within an
Indian city. He embarks on a vengeful crusade against unscrupulous developers,
whom he holds responsible for his mother's death. Known as Monkey Man, he draws
inspiration from Hanuman, an iconic figure in Indian mythology, representing a
fusion of cultural reverence and urban vigilantism.

However, the film’s realization falls short of its grand ambitions.
Cinematic techniques like excessive slow motion, erratic camera movements, and
blurred visuals compromise the story’s clarity and can be overwhelming,
particularly for viewers sensitive to fast-paced visual shifts. These excessive
stylistic choices eclipse the action sequences, including the much-anticipated
initial confrontation between the protagonist and the antagonist, and diminish
the narrative’s impact.

Monkey Man also suffers from an overload of clichés and a convoluted plot that
weaves through a myriad of themes, including economic exploitation, personal
vendetta, prostitution, and religiosity, attempting to encapsulate the entirety
of Indian societal issues. While aiming for a grandiose spectacle, the film’s
narrative becomes overstretched and perplexing, leading to viewer disengagement
rather than compelling insight or reflection.

The portrayal of hijras as cultural icons who
transform into powerful warriors adds to the narrative’s inconsistency, veering
from a story of personal revenge to a bewildering bloody action spectacle. The
primary plot of a young man avenging his mother’s murder against the backdrop
of systemic injustice is lost in the chaotic blend of numerous themes and
references.

Dev Patel's dual role as the director and protagonist
in Monkey Man appears to be an attempt to transition from his renowned
dramatic talents to action-centric roles. Yet, the film falls short of
leveraging his full potential and does not live up to the expectations
engendered by Jordan Peele’s production involvement. Despite its high
ambitions, Monkey Man struggles to provide a cohesive and engaging
cinematic journey, leaving audiences desiring a more streamlined and impactful
narrative amidst its tumultuous mix of visual and thematic turmoil.

Trailer: 

 

 

REMEMBERING GENE WILDER (USA 2023) ****

Directed by Ron Frank

 

REMEMBERING GENE WILDER, a heartfelt and entertaining portrait of the life and career of the beloved actor, featuring an extensive array of highlights from Wilder’s most memorable films as well as interviews with his closest friends, family, and fellow comics.  The doc features interviews with Mel Brooks, Carol Kane, Alan Alda, Ben Mankiewicz, Rain Pryor, and Karen Boyer Wilder, among others.

Gene Wilder was an American actor, comedian, writer and filmmaker. He was mainly known for his comedic roles, but also for his portrayal of Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971). He collaborated with Mel Brooks on the films The Producers (1967), Blazing Saddles (1974) and Young Frankenstein (1974), and with Richard Pryor in the films Silver Streak (1976), Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) and Another You (1991

Gene Wilder’s doc begins with his appearance in the first scene with his rendering of the song “Come with Me, and You will be, in a World of Pure Imagination….” taken as many low from Mel Stuart’s WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY.  Everyone loves Gene Wilder, a very funny man who made his name with Mel Brooks, rising to fame for his title role in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN.

The doc does the comedian justice with clips from many roles at the doc’s start.  It goes on with how fate changed the life and introduced fame to Jerome Silberman.  He did not like the name Silberman and wanted something Wilder.  I\Fate has it that in 1963, Wilder was cast in a leading role in Mother Courage and Her Children, a production starring Anne Bancroft, who introduced Wilder to her boyfriend (and later husband) Mel Brooks. A few months later, Brooks mentioned that he was working on a screenplay called Springtime for Hitler filmed as THE PRODUCERS with Zero Mostel, for which he thought Wilder would be perfect in the role of Leo Bloom.  Wilder won an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Wilder’s comic inspirations (and I am proud to say are also mine), were Danny Kaye (a clip of Kaye’s brilliant act in UP IN ARMS is provided), Jerry Lewis and Sid Ceasar from YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS.

What the doc also achieves is exposing the real character of Wilder - revealed as a genuine human being.  The man went through more than most, with the death of his first wife, comedian Gilda Radner, that the doc devotes quite some time for.   The doc also allows the audience to laugh and cry as clips of Wilder's best films are shown.

Director Frank keeps the atmosphere of the doc bright and cheerful with a fairy tale ending similar to the spirit of Wilder showing that dreams can come true, thanks to fate, as Charlie the boy experiences in WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY.

The film opens on April 5 in Toronto at Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema.

Trailer: 

THE TEARMAKER (Italy 2024) ***

Directed by Alessandro Genovesi

 

Everyone loves a listen to a good fairy tale when one is a kid and sometimes even more so as an adult if there is an adult fairy tale.  THE TEARMAKER, a Netflix original from Italy is an adult fairy tale.  This wonderful tale is based on the 2022 phenomenon book of the same name written by Erin Doom.  Doom also wrote the script for the film.  This is a world where the world’s young women and men want stories that analyze their feelings, including love and friendship. They also want to cry. To produce tears.

The film begins in a fairy tale atmosphere with a car driving in the country.  A daughter kisses a mother’s cut better.  The daughter sees a wolf and despises the creature while the mother tells her that the wolf is not evil, but only always depicted as evil in fairy tales.  Then because of the wolf, the distraction causes a catastrophic car crash.

Within the walls of Grave, the orphanage (order, respect and obedience - the only three rules of the strict orphanage) in which Nica has grown up, stories and legends have always been told by candlelight.  The orphanage is appropriately named Grave. The most famous one is about the tear maker, a mysterious craftsman with eyes as clear as glass, guilty of having manufactured all the fears and anxieties that dwell in people’s hearts.  But, at the age of seventeen, the moment has come for Nica to leave all these dark childhood stories behind. Her greatest dream is about to come true. Mr and Mrs Milligan have begun the adoption procedures and are ready to give her the family she’s always wanted. However, Nica is not alone in the new house. Rigel, a restless, mysterious orphan, is also taken out of Grave, and he’s the last person Nica would wish for as an adoptive brother. Rigel is intelligent, and astute, plays the piano like a bewitching demon and is mesmerizingly handsome, but his angelic appearance conceals a dark temperament. Even though Nica and Rigel share a past filled with grief and deprivation, living together seems impossible; especially when the legend comes back to haunt their lives and the maker of tears suddenly grows increasingly real and draws nearer. Even so, gentle and brave, Nica is ready to do anything in order to protect her dream, because only by facing the nightmares that torment her will she finally be able to soar freely like the butterfly after which she was named.

People cry for fear, anger, anguish and despair  But in the world of THE TEARSMITH are hollow shells as they are unable to cry.  Truthfully, a good cry brings out a lot of emotions and makes human beings feel better,  This is the premise of the imaginative adult fairy tale of THE TEARMAKER, the stuff of legend and stories told from the grave that eventually, the audience is told become bedtime stories.

THE TEARMAKER is an Italian Netflix original film that opens for streaming on April 5th.
Trailer: 

WICKED LITTLE LETTERS (UK 2023) ****
Directed by Thea Sharrock

  

This period piece, supposedly based on a true story that few have heard of till perhaps now, is set in the 1920s when there was a scandal brewing in Littlehampton, England.  Littlehampton is a charming seaside resort town and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England.  Residents there have started receiving anonymous, poison-pen letters, really vulgar ones brimming with curse words and scandalous prose.  The film has these letters explicitly read, so audiences should be forewarned of the really foul language used.  

Who is writing them and how can they be stopped?  Edith Swan (Olivia Colman) — pious and respected (if not well-liked) — is one of those residents.  The letters assassinate her character in the most blue-tinged language imaginable and, when they stack up, her autocratic, scripture-quoting father Edward (Timothy Spall) insists the culprit be found. With law enforcement reluctantly investigating, Edith bandies a pet theory that her neighbour Rose (Jessie Buckley) might mean her harm.  Rose is the opposite of Edith: loud, brash, a lover of spirits and dancing, and unapologetic about all of it. When the police arrest her in the letters case, assuming her guilt because of her “loose moral character,” it doesn’t sit well with Police Officer Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan). With her superiors unwilling to listen, Moss gathers a group of unlikely yet resourceful female volunteers to get to the bottom of the mystery.   

This wicked little film blinds the fine line between good and evil.  While working like a whodunit, it does not take a genius to correctly figure out the culprit of the letters.  But that is not the point of the film that sneaks quite a few messages of racial prejudice, suffrage and religion into the storyline.  

Olivia Coleman delivers another Oscar-worthy performance, one able to get a laugh of loud or two amidst all the drama.  Veterans Gemma Jones and Eileen Aitkins have cameos amongst heavyweights Coleman and Timothy Spall.  A real gem and surprise at TIFF last year where it had its world premiere. 

WICKED LITTLE LETTERS opens April 5 in Toronto (Varsity & Varsity VIP), Vancouver (Fifth Avenue) and Montreal!

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 24 March 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

 

AUTUMN AND THE BLACK JAGUAR (Le Dernier Jaguar) (Canada/France/Germany 2023) ***½

Directed by  Gilles de Maistre

 

If the director’s name sounds familiar, AUTUMN AND THE BLACK JAGUAR is the third film from Gilles de Maistre and Prune de Maistre following the hit family films MIA AND THE WHITE LION and THE WOLF AND THE LION.  It marks another successful wild animal and human adventure story.

Growing up in the Amazon rainforest gave Autumn (Lumi Pollack) the rarest of friendships - a lost jaguar cub she discovers named Hope.  When a tragic event forces Autumn to leave Hope for the unknowns of New York City, she dreams for years of going back to the rainforest and her friend.  Aged 14, and having grown accustomed to city life, Autumn discovers her childhood village is under threat from animal traffickers and decides she must return to the Amazon to her beloved jaguar. Anja - Autumn's endearingly clumsy biology teacher (Emily Bett Rickards, providing some slapstick humour) - unsuccessfully tries to dissuade her from this reckless plan. Joined by Anja, Autumn embarks on a journey to reunite with Hope and save her from those who seek to destroy the rainforest and its wildlife.

This is a decent family film, entertaining while having a solid message on the environment and the saving of endangered species.

Some excitement is provided as well, as in one scene where Hope the jaguar fights off a menacing snake.  The encounter between the jaguar and the snake is more exciting than the silly-looking battles in GODZILLA X KONG.

The issues covered in the film include deforestation in the Amazon which is huge and out of control.  There is also animal trafficking like almost nowhere else in the world. Our films often come from a message that is more optimistic, taking a child’s point of view. and the film will speak equally to children from France, Colombia, China or Morocco. As in the Whitney Houston song "The Greatest Love of All”,  the lyrics go:  Children are the future, and they will lead the way. …. The director has made documentaries dealing with childhood for 40 years, and especially child suffering.

There are two real jaguars used in the film - no CGI.  The filmmakers retrieved two baby jaguars from Mexican breeders (animal trade is legal there) and the animal coordinators immediately took care of them and their well-being.  Jaguars are on the verge of extinction, mainly due to deforestation.

The film has a few sappy moments.  For example: Autumn is told by her mother activist before she is gone: that she is to say the words: “I will always be loved.  There is nothing to be afraid of.  There is nothing I can do wrong.”  To this effect, Autumn decides at the one-third mark of the film to leave NYC and travel back to the Amazon to save the black panther.  “My father doesn’t understand me.  You do not understand me!  I know it is dangerous.  My friend is in danger and I have to save my friend.”   She says to her biology teacher who ends up trailing her.

AUTUMN AND THE BLACK JAGUAR opens in theatres on March 29th.

Trailer: 

FEMME (UK 2022) ***

Directed by Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping

 

With his performances as a drag queen at a London gay club, performance name: Aphrodite Banks, Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, CANDYMAN) has a place among London’s celebrated drag artists.  One night after a show, Jules steps out to get some cigarettes and is brutally attacked by a man (George MacKay, 1917), out with a gang of his friends.  Although Jules recovers physically, he withdraws from the outside world, traumatized.  Months later, he recognizes his attacker by chance in a gay sauna.  Without make-up and wrapped only in a towel, Jules is able to approach the other man incognito and find out who he is. He begins an affair with the closeted Preston, with a plan to take his revenge.

Actor Stewart-Jarrett and George MacKay are both excellent performers who carry this sexually charged revenge drama.  The dark and seedy atmosphere of the gay London clubs where bare walls showing bricks are reminiscent of the real gay clubs in London.  Wherever there is a venue available, the gays will gather and party. Directors  Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping keep their film on track as a steamy thriller though a few flaws exist in terms of credibility.  The main one of Preston not recognizing Jules is one main factor.  There is even a segment where Preston notices a scar from the bashing on his head.  Jules dismisses it as a scar from a fight which Preston believes totally.  “Give me a name and I will fuck him up,” is Preston’s response to Jules.

The film features both Preston’s friends (if one can call them friends, as they are just hang-outs) and Jules’ as well.  These characters build up the world around the two main characters.

The villain of the piece, Preston, the gay drag basher is depicted in the film as totally despicable with zero redeeming qualities.  This makes him too easy a target as a villain in the story.  Preston admits that he has a short temper.  Preston is manipulative, always angry, rude, demeaning, untruthful and of course, violent.  He is also shown as a drug dealer and a showoff, driving his uncle’s BMW half the time.  He is violent in both sex and behaviour.   The only change in behaviour is shown as a change from dominant to a little submissive for the purpose of sex.   If Preston had a few redeeming qualities, the revenge would not only be more difficult to plan out but create a more interesting story.

Actor George MacKay, best known for his performance in 1917, does a marvellous job as Preston.  MacKay has donned many different types of roles to enhance his career, this one, one of his boldest.  His portrayal of this explosive and volatile character makes the movie, though his conversion from dominating to submissive does not quote work, though this is not totally MacKay’s fault.

FEMME premiered at the 2023 Official Selection, Berlin International Film Festival where it received a standing ovation and was picked up by Elevation Pictures and opens at TIFF Lightbox on March 29th.

Trailer: 

GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE (USA 2024) **

Directed by Adam Wingard

 

GODZILLA X KONG is the sequel to the largely successful 2021 epic GODZILLA VS. KONG.  The latter film is set five years after the dragon-like extraterrestrial King Ghidorah awakened the monstrous "Titans" around the world and was defeated by Godzilla.  Kong is monitored by Monarch within a giant dome on Skull Island, which has been taken over by the storm that previously kept it hidden from the world.  Kong is visited by Jia, the last Iwi (Kaylee Hottle) native and young adopted daughter of Kong expert Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall).  Jia is deaf and communicates with Kong via sign language.

In the new film, Kong and Godzilla now unite together against a mysterious Hollow Earth threat known as Skar King, an orangutan-like kaiju. The film also focuses on the previously untold origins of the Titans and Skull Island, which in reality is a complete bore on screen.  The battles in the origins are depicted in a segment that looks out of place with the rest of the movie, confusing as it was not announced that it was a flashback.

 Last year’s Japanese GODZILLA MINUS ONE is the better movie, a film that won an  Oscar for Best Visual Effects.   It had a more streamlined story and was more controlled and made more sense than this latest nonsense.

GODZILLA X KONG is all over the place and a basically emotionally hollow experience.  The plot includes some mumbo-jumbo about Dr. Andrews and her adopted daughter Jia not being able to belong.  It seems that this inconvenience is just put in the story for some human effect in the film, but the cliche-ridden ploy does not work.  The film’s climax is the big battle between the monsters, all done with special effects, which means it is a complete emotionless bore again, with exploding pyrotechnics that mean nothing.

The film includes a short tribute to GODZILLA MINUS ONE (2023) with a shot of the ground bursting beneath Godzilla's footfall for the film's Rome sequence

Comic relief is provided by two actors, Dan Stevens who has worked with director Wingard before in the horror film THE GUEST and Brian Tyree Henry as podcaster Berbie.  The latter wins more laughs than Stevens who is a more serious actor.  Stevens plays a veterinarian called Trapper who specializes in Titans.  In a red Hawaiian shirt, Aviator glasses and a goofily charming grin, Stevens could have been Dr. Andrews’ romantic interest. 

The best King Kong/Godzilla movie remains the 1962 Japanese classic entitled KING KONG VS, GODZILLA.  As a young kid, my parents brought me to see it several times.  The night segment in which a train travels through the mountains where a monster appears remains the most frightening in a child’s (my) memory.

GODZILLA X KONG is less a movie than a video game in which the players are someone else.  The film proves that two actors in Godzilla and Kong costumes can provide more entertainment and two CGI-generated tag team monsters.  Despite all the expense and effort (the production reportedly costs $150 million), the ‘movie’ should have been better than it turned out.

GODZILLA X KONG opens in theatres everywhere on Easter Friday.

Trailer: 

 

HEART OF THE HUNTER (South Africa 2024) ***

Directed by Mandla Dube

 

The film is based on the book of the same name by Deon Meyer.  This book was dense and complex, exploring historical, political, racial and cultural divisions as tangled as described in other police stories from the country of South Africa.   The book earned rave reviews, being named one of the best thrillers of 2004 by the Chicago Tribune, and long-listed for what's now known as the Dublin Literary Award. 

Tiny Mpayipheli, a giant man with a gentle demeanor, once earned his living as a government gun for hire.  Tiny (named for irony?  He is supposedly 6 ft 5 inches in the book) was once a feared assassin and freedom fighter, trained by the Stasi and KGB. In post-apartheid South Africa, he's happily working in a garage.  The film disposes o the name Tiny for Zuko.  Now leading a quiet, ordered life in the countryside, he is reluctantly summoned back into the game when a trusted old friend is kidnapped. With just seventy-two hours to deliver the ransom, with an army of security forces deployed to stop him, and with a diabolical double agent perilously close to assuming absolute power, Tiny races a hijacked motorcycle across the wilds of backcountry Africa in a thrilling epic adventure.

The fight scenes are done with a wry sense of humour.  One fight scene at the start of the film takes place in an abandoned upper floor of a building, the two fight with just one piano in the background.  The piano is obviously there for dramatic effect as they fight and bang against the keys, making plunking sounds.  Why else is the piano there and one except for no other reason?   More humour is provided in the dialogue, especially in the use of overused cliched sayings like Sometimes a few will suffer so that many can benefit.  To make an omelet, it takes to break a few eggs.  And another:  The stone that the builder refuses eventually becomes the cornerstone.  Another really silly line brings out laugh-out-loud humour.  “I tell you not to give him her son) sugar early in the morning. “The mother says Zuko.  “You’re my sugar,” he says humorously to her.  These bits enhance the film’s entertainment value and lend a lighter touch to an otherwise serious action film.  And another piano appears in another part of the film.

The film has a good build-up in terms of story, plot and suspense, one assuming that the film follows the book closely.  Zuko is also retired and living with a woman and her son, which gives the story a romantic slant,  The romance is well executed with strong Chemistry between Zuko and his woman, the woman who is then kidnapped for interrogation by the bad guys when Zukogoes off to do his job.

Zuko is supposed to fight for the Alkebu-lan though he says he is doing this for his new family and not for the Alkebu-lan shit, it being the ancient name of Africa meaning “mother of mankind’s ‘Garden of Eden”.     HEART OF THE HUNTER is an above-average international (South African)  action thriller, full of thrills, action, suspense, romance and colourful locations, not to be missed.  The film opens for streaming on Netflix on Easter Friday.

Trailer: 

REST IN PEACE (Descansar en paz) (Argentina 2024) ***

Directed by Sebastián Borensztein

 

REST IN PEACE is an Argentinean crime drama that plays like a true story as it blends a real-life terrorist attack, the largest one in Argentinian history to its story,  The drama surrounds the protagonist, by the name of Sergio who is heavily in debt.  He figures there is no way out, until…..

It is all about debt and desperation,  “Do you love yourself?  Do you love your family?’  asks the debtor to Sergio.  Sergio’s worried look tells all.  “I want all the money by Monday,” the debtor adds.  The threat to the family begins with photographs taken of Sergio’s wife and daughter.

The first 30 minutes of the film are dedicated to illustrating Sergio’s desperation.  He has kept it from his wife till a thug from a borrower shows up at his daughter’s bar mitzvah.  “You cannot afford to pay back your debt but you throw parties?”  asked his biggest lender.  A family party almost disintegrates into fistfights as Sergios’ father and brother.

Then a bombing is heard on the news  - the AMIA bombing,

The AMIA bombing occurred on 18 July 1994 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and targeted the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA; translates to\:  "Argentine Israelite Mutual Association"), a Jewish Community Centre. Executed as a suicidal attack, a bomb-laden van was driven into the AMIA building and subsequently detonated, killing 85 people and injuring over 300.  To date, the bombing remains the deadliest terrorist attack in Argentine history.  In 1994, Argentina was home to a Jewish community of 200,000, making it the largest in Latin America and the sixth-largest in the world outside of Israel.

Sergio, cornered by debt, decides to take advantage of a coincidence and an unpredictable circumstance to disappear.  After many years of living away from his country, he moves to Paraguay, under a false identity, a chance discovery provides the irresistible temptation of wanting to know how the people of his town have moved on in his absence. The question becomes an obsession: Can an entire life disappear and be forgotten? Can you start from scratch and never look back?

The film concentrates more on drama than the crime itself, though the film is described as a crime drama.  The drama is that of Sergio as the film is divided into three parts.  The first is Sergio's debt, the second is his new life in Paraguay under his new identity with his new life and the final part of the re-unification of his family.  The three parts are quite different but interesting enough as an entertaining film.

The script also blends into the social media platform Facebook.  As Sergio tries to hide his identity, he discovers Facebook.  The film is set in the time when Facebook was first reduced and becoming popular,   For anyone wanting to disappear, Facebook poses a threat.  Sergio enquires about Facebook at one point in the film.

REST IN PEACE is a Netflix original film from Argentina that opens for streaming on March 27th, 2024.

Trailer: 

RYUICHI SAKAMOTO | OPUS (Japan 2023) ***

Directed by Neo Sora

 

The word OPUS means work: especially: a musical composition or set of compositions usually numbered in the order of its issue.

The film is the work of Ryuichi Sakamoto (January 17, 1952 – March 28, 2023).   Sakamoto was a Japanese composer, pianist, record producer, and actor who pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto influenced and pioneered a number of electronic music genres. 

With regards to his contribution to film: as a film score composer, Sakamoto won an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Grammy, and two Golden Globe Awards. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) marked his debut as both an actor and a film-score composer; its main theme was adapted into the single "Forbidden Colours" which became an international hit.  His most successful work as a film composer was The Last Emperor (1987), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Score, making him the first Japanese composer to win an Academy Award after which he continued earning accolades composing for films such as The Sheltering Sky (1990), Little Buddha (1993), and The Revenant (2015).  He was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the Ministry of Culture of France in 2009 for his contributions to music.

On March 28th, 2023, legendary composer Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away after his struggle against cancer. In the years leading up to his death, Sakamoto could no longer perform live. Single concerts, not to mention sprawling global tours, were too taxing. Despite this, in late 2022, Sakamoto mustered all of his energy to leave the world with one final performance: a concert film, featuring just him and his piano.  This is the film.

Curated by Sakamoto himself and presented in his chosen order, the twenty pieces performed in the film wordlessly narrate his life through his music. The selection spans his entire career, from his popstar Yellow Magic Orchestra period to his magnificent Bertolucci film scores, to music from his meditative final album, 12.  Intimately filmed in a space he knew well, surrounded by his most trusted collaborators, Sakamoto bares his soul through his music, knowing this may be the last time that he can present his art.

RYUICHI SAKAMOTO | OPUS  a film shot in black and white with just the maestro and his piano with the opus heard on the soundtrack is a celebration of an artist's life in the purest and unadulterated form, serving as Nakamoto’s definitive swan song.

The film screens at the Ted Rogers Hot Docs Cinema in Toronto as well as other cities across Canada on March 29th.

Trailer: 

SOMEONE LIKE YOU (USA 2024) **

Directed by Tyler Russell

 

Based on the novel by #1 NYTimes bestselling author Karen Kingsbury, SOMEONE LIKE YOU is an aching love story. After the tragic loss of his best friend, a grieving young architect launches a search for her secret twin sister.

The film begins with a C.S. Lewis quote: “If you love deeply. you will hurt badly.† C.S. Lewis was an Irish-born scholar, novelist, and author of about 40 books, many of them on Christian apologetics, including The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity. 

The film is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Karen Kingsbury,  Kingsbury who co-wrote the film and also produced it, is a #1 New York Times Bestselling novelist who writes Life-Changing Fiction(TM) and has been called America's favourite inspirational author.  There are more than 25 million copies of her award-winning books in print, including several million copies sold in the past year. Karen's last dozen titles have topped national bestseller charts.

Architect Dawson Gage fell in love with London Quinn in high school, even though she told him not to. Ten years later, the two are still best friends when tragedy strikes. Now, the grieving Dawson is compelled to do one final act of love for London. He launches an impossible search for her secret twin sister, twins separated during their parent's procedure. 

States away, And Allen has no idea she was adopted as an embryo. The news rocks her world and sends her into a spiral that culminates in her leaving home to meet her biological parents. But what will happen when Andi walks through the door of the parents she never knew? All while she’s missing the parents who lied to her? 

With one set of parents grieving the loss of a daughter, and the other set grieving the truth they never told, only Dawson can show Andi everything she missed about her twin sister. But neither of them imagined the attraction they would d feel for each other. Except maybe the audience of this film.  Now can Dawson help Andi make her way back home, even though he has fallen desperately in love with her?

At its worst, this is one of those annoying films that is filled with lyrics of songs that dictate how audiences should feel throughout the film.  The film tries its best to stay away from being goody-goody Christianity-based,  But still, it cannot help but have to add a few segments like Andi suggesting to say grace at the dinner table at her new parents.  The abandoned adopting parents also say: it takes a lot of faith to believe, though God is never mentioned.

After a slight argument with the couple London and David about attending church in which London says she will likely never go there, David is clearly annoyed which indicates that this could be one of those Christian faith movies. The script contains quotes from the Bible as in the scan during the final where St. John’s Gospel is quoted.

A mixed bag of tricks. SOMEONE LIKE YOU is at its worst, too sappy and faith-based, though it covers a good bit of a far-fetched story on forgiveness and the surprises that life can offer.

 SOMEONE LIKE YOU opens theatrically across Canada beginning on Tuesday, April 2nd.

Trailer: 

 

STOLEN TIME (Canada 2023) ***½

Directed by Helene Klodawsky

 

STOLEN TIME is a documentary about unsung hero Melissa Miller.  This unsung hero fights battles in a different type of battlefield.  She is a personal injury lawyer for the most vulnerable - the elderly.  From the very start of director Helene Klodawsky’s documentary, she gets the audience all riled up at the injustices committed by the conglomerates who earn big profits at the expense of the elderly in nursing homes.

The audience hears of unspeakable acts.  There is no nurse working in one nursing home for 100 days.  A change in medication cannot be realized for a substantial period of time.  Elderlies are sedated without consent to the point that they cannot eat, drink, or move.

This is a compelling call for justice, as the film follows charismatic elderly rights lawyer Melissa Miller as she takes on the corporate for-profit nursing home industry—an industry notorious for its lack of transparency and accountability. As the legal battle unfolds, families, frontline caregivers and change-makers chronicle an urgent crisis with ramifications—and inspiration—for us all.

The film chronicles Miller’s most challenging case yet: a mass tort representing hundreds of families fighting some of the world’s most powerful long-term care corporations. 

Her adversaries stand accused of neglecting their vulnerable charges as they reap huge profits. Booming elderly populations worldwide add urgency to holding these corporations to account.

In STOLEN TIME, desperate families turn to the courts as a last resort.  The audience witnesses shocking testimonies and images from researchers, advocates and, most notably, frontline caregivers whose work is often undervalued but disproportionately blamed for what goes wrong.  The film is a rare and required inside look at a crucial legal battle and an emerging elder justice movement.

Much insight is provided regarding the litigation.  The insurance companies are the ones that will be paying out and the staff is normally blamed.  The corporations that made lots of money from the homes run off scot-free.

The film also deals with the Pandemic.  The government passed a legislature to protect the homes from lawsuits.

Caregivers are also given the spotlight.  They are overworked, frustrated and underpaid.  Nursing homes can be joyful places and sometimes, there are.  The system has been set up for failure.  Up to this time, Melissa’s mass tort is still continuing,  The film chooses for its climax the wins of Melissa’s court cases, in which a monetary settlement is awarded to the plaintiffs.

STOLEN TIME asks the question how far would one go to protect our loved ones?  This shocking eye-opening doc on the abuse of the elderly in nursing homes can hardly be called entertaining for what it reveals on-screen.

Playing  in Toronto:

Tuesday, April 2, and Wednesday, April 3, at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema in Toronto

Presented as part of Doc Soup, a screening series from Hot Docs.  A bonus is filmmaker Helene Klodawsky and elder rights lawyer Melissa Miller being in attendance, with a Q&A on both nights.   In addition:

Doc Soup will also be streaming Stolen Time online for subscribers.

More info: hotdocs.ca/whats-on/films/ds-stolen-time

 Trailer: 

 

 

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 04 March 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

 

24 HOURS WITH GASPAR (Indonesia 2023) ***

Directed by Yosep Anggi Noen

 

The 24 hours of the title refers to the 24 hours left Gaspar has left to live, as predicted by his doctor after a malfunctioning mechanism that keeps his heart working. Gaspar has a heart condition with the heart on the left side of the body.  (Writer’s note:  I know someone with this condition, heart on the left side of the body,  who functions perfectly normally without any contraption.)  Question:  Does Gaspar have one hour more or less if it is daylight-saving time?  The film countdowns the number of hours left starting from the 24 count, and with the sound of the heartbeat on the soundtrack,

24 HOURS WITH GASPAR is essentially an action film set in a futuristic dystopian society of Jakarta, Indonesia.  Laced with heavy voiceover throughout talking about philosophy and how human beings should react, the film tries to be a worthy adaptation of Sabda Armandio’s 2017 novel ’24 Hours With Gaspar’.   To the director and his D.P.’s credit, the film has a seedy and depressing dystopian atmosphere, a look that appears characteristic of all films in this genre.  The explanation given is the spread of some plague, which is likely inspired by Covid-19 that the real world is still recovering from.   When the film begins, the characters hang out in a FIGHT CLUB setting, where fight after fight is carried out with a winner eventually becoming a loser and so on.

There are two stories on display in the film, the two stories however linked.

Gaspar (Reza Rahadian), a somewhat punk amateur detective, investigates a government-involved mass slaughter case.  During the process, he stumbles upon clues about his friend who disappeared without a trace during childhood and traces a human trafficking villain. However, due to a malfunctioning artificial heart, Gaspar has only twenty-four hours left to live. With little time remaining, aided by friends Agnes and Kick, he seeks to exact revenge.

This gloomy-looking present is contrasted with the bright sunlight and pastel colours of repeated flashbacks where 11-year-old Gaspar (Ali Fikry) is a lonely lad who makes a cherished friend Kirana (Shofia Shireen).  Of all the wishes in the world, the lonely boy wishes for a friend, so he becomes obsessed with her when she goes missing after he returns from a procedure at the hospital regarding his heart.

The action set-pieces are exciting enough, though nothing as spectacular as in some Martial-Arts or Hollywood action films.  The narrative, however, is blurry and more clarity would help the story along.  There is more voiceover and less character dialogue in this film compared to other films in this genre.

24 HOURS WITH GASPAR had its world premiere at the 28th Busan International Film Festival on 6 October 2023, competing for Kim Jiseok Award.  The film was scheduled to be screened in Indonesian cinemas in 2024. However, the plan was altered with Netflix acquiring its distribution rights, releasing it on 14 March 2024.  The film premiers on Netflix streaming beginning Thursday 14th of March.

 

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THE ANIMAL KINGDOM (LE REGNE ANIMAL)(France/Belgium 2023) ***½

Directed by Thomas Cailley

 

Films of the dystopian genre often have one parent and one daughter or son escape from predators while etching out survival in the country.  THE ANIMAL KINGDOM puts a bit of spin on the genre with a father and son left alone in the dystopian futuristic society in which the mother had turned into an animal.

Set in the near future, Thomas Cailley’s The Animal Kingdom (La Règne animal) is a trippy French thriller about a mysterious phenomenon that is gradually transforming parts of the population into human-animal hybrids.

There is a disease unexplained (the film avoiding to offer any clues) that turns humans into animals.  Mother is supposed to be recuperating and getting better.  But the son is transforming.  The father tries his best to protect his son.

When humans start sprouting things like feathers, beaks, wings, or scales, these “critters” – as they are derogatorily called – are considered dangerous.  In fact, they are sent to specialized centres in an attempt to stop their mutations and control their seemingly violent tendencies.  When his afflicted wife is sent to such a facility in the south of France, François (Romain Duris) moves with his teenage son Émile (Paul Kircher) to be near her.  But a convoy carrying mutants (including his wife) crashes, scattering the occupants into the forest.  As François searches the wilds for his wife, he loses his grip on Émile, who himself has started to transform.

  Also in the mix are a policewoman (Adèle Exarchopoulos) who is at odds with her colleagues, Émile’s school friend (Billie Blain) who has overcome issues of her own, and a bird-like mutant (Tom Mercier) who opens Émile’s eyes to the humanity of the creatures in the forest.

The film’s impressive most intimate moment occurs when father and son are searching in the forest for their transformed mother.  The father is playing the mum’s favourite song, cheesy though he admits it may be, while both are screaming her name “Lana” in the car as it whizzes by the forest.

Though not a comedy, director Thomas Cailley captures a few laugh-out laughs with his superb timing - either dramatic or comedic.  When Emile’s wound from a supposed dog bite, is stitched up at the hospital, the nurse tells him, that if happens again, he has to be put down.”  “The dog, not the boy,” he says in what is a rare lighter moment in an otherwise serious movie.

The film was shot during the pandemic which makes the incidents in the film - the unknown disease and the scramble to contain and understand the disease all the more relevant.

The film runs a bit over 2 hours with a few stretched-out parts.  The film could have been shortened and made more efficient.

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM is more of an emotional drama of relationships set in a sci-fi setting rather than a sci-fi dystopian thriller.  It succeeds well with director Cailley bringing his roller-coaster emotional ride to a satisfactory climax.

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM opened Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2023,  winning many awards, including five at the 2024 Césars(Visual Effects, Sound, Cinematography, Costume Design, Original Music) and New Voices New Visions at Palm Springs 2024.

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM opens on March 15in Toronto (TIFF Lightbox) and Vancouver (VIFF Centre)!

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THE ART OF LOVE (Turkey 2024) **

Directed by Recai Karagoz

 

Directed by Recai Karagö and written by Pelin Karamehmetoglu, THE ART OF LOVE is a combination of art heist and romantic comedy which explains the title of this Netflix original light comedy.  Original in concept it might be, or parts of it, but the film is a total dud.

For one the chemistry of the two leads just isn’t there for the making.  The actress and actor both prance around as if they are the best-looking human specimens on the planet, attitudes included.  The result is two arrogant characters that the audience will not care for. 

After learning that the art thief, Guney (Birkan SokulluHakan) Alin (Esra Bilgiç) has been chasing her ex-lover, an officer working for Interpol concocts a plan to catch him red-handed.  How she discovers and convinces her boss that billionaire Guney is the thief is beyond belief.  The reason they have broken up is not revealed at first, not that anyone cares.

Apart from a  few stylishly shot scenes, (there are lots of use of reflections), there is nothing particularly exciting or interesting about any of the film’s parts.

After a third of the film’s running time, one can surely predict where the film is headed.  Unfunny and not really romantic, the film ends up a boring dud.

THE ART OF LOVE opens for streaming on Netflix on Thursday, March 14th.

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CLUB ZERO (Austria/UK/ Germany/Denmark/France 2023) ***½

Directed by Jessica Hausner

 

CLUB ZERO is often a pitch-black horror film added with deadpan humour and a bit of satire on food consumerism.

The club of CLUB ZERO refers to the group of students led by their teacher of the course called Conscious Eating that leads towards removing the need to eat.  At an international boarding school, an unassuming, yet rigorous, Miss Novak (Mia Wasikowska) joins the teaching staff to instruct a new class on “conscious eating.” Her impressionable teenage students each have their own reasons for joining the class – to improve fitness, reduce their carbon footprint, or get extra credit. Although early lectures focus on mindful consumption, Miss Novak’s discussions soon become increasingly disordered and extreme. A suspicious headmistress, concerned parents and the failing health of her students lead everyone to question the inscrutable Miss Novak’s motivations for teaching the class. As a few devoted pupils fall deeper under her cult-like tutelage, they are given a new, even more sinister goal to aspire to – joining the ominous CLUB ZERO.

Director Hausner’s film competed for the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year.  She is known for her earlier films such as LITTLE JOE and HOTEL.

Words on the screen warn at the film’s start that there is disturbing behaviour control and eating disorders displayed.

At the time of the writing of this review, CLUB ZERO had attained a Rotten Tomatoes Rating of only 57%.  Who really cares about whether the film really comes together as a cohesive whole or whether it is satisfactory?  This film is so compelling in its viewing that many would just be mesmerized by where the events in the story would lead to.

The film is to be praised for its creation of atmosphere, fear, dread and anticipation.  The pounding new-aged sounding soundtrack, and the weird art decor in many of the wealthy homes including the school are all to be praised.

There was a complaint years back that there have not been enough female-represented films.  The opposite seems to be true these days as this film emphasizes the strength of the feminine gender.  The protagonist is female and most of the pupils’ mothers have an important say.  The protagonist also prays to the Almighty Mother, a female God who guides her through (though not necessarily correctly) her daily routines and goals.

The dialogue is also deliberately ambiguous and mind-boggling titillating.  Take a sample of the film’s dialogue lines many of which create much audience anticipation;

• The parents pay a lot to send their children to this school.  They expect not to be bothered.
• You have been chosen to follow the great path.  Once chosen there is no turning back.
• It is not easy to do the right thing.  You don’t have the slightest idea of what you are capable 

The film contains good irony.  It is realized that the parents of the children who had stopped eating because of Miss Kovacs now need to trust her to convince their children to continue eating,  Will the parents get her re-instated after she had been fired and if so, will she convince the children to resume eating?

CLUB ZERO opens theatrically on March 15th.

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FRENCH GIRL (Canada 2024) ***

Directed by James A. Woods and Nicolas Wright

 

Sweet Gordon (Zach Braff), an affable English teacher in Brooklyn, has beaten the odds; a French Girl, Sophie Tremblay (Evelyne Brochu) has fallen in love with him and he’s fallen even harder back. But their future is thrown into limbo when she interviews for an executive chef position in her hometown of Quebec City.  It is a variation of MEET THE PARENTS.  But another threat is looming.  To Gordon’s dismay, her future boss (Vanessa Hudgens) also happens to be her former lover, a celebrity Chef with oceanic eyes and a hit TV show.  Can love survive the odds of a possible breakup?  All fans of romantic comedies will easily die you the answer.  So, Gordon Kinski follows his girlfriend and chef Sophie Trembla\NCto her hometown of Quebec City where she is testing for the Michelin 3-star restaurant of super-chef Ruby Collins.

Firstly the title of the film should be QUEBEC GIRL.  There are distinct differences between France and Quebec, in terms of culture, language and practices.  At least all the actors playing

Written and directed by James A. Woods and Nicolas Wright, both of whom are from anglophone and francophone parents put their experiences of their parents into the conflict of cultures in the romantic comedy.  The credibility is a major plus and the film has sufficient set up quirky incidents to both keep the film moving and to keep the interest of the story going while keeping boredom and cliches at bay.  Most romantic comedies do not have a villain, but this one has in the form of Sophie’s ex-lover, Ruby whose evil motives are revealed at the end of the film.  The gay ex-relationship between Ruby and Sophie is taken as a given and is accepted as the same as a straight relationship, even with a farming family.  This updates the film to the present where gay relationships are no longer frowned down upon.  A host of solid Quebecois actors join the cast led by the famous Lucy Card who pays Sophie’s father.  It is the Quebec French. that is spoken throughout the film and not the French French.  The swear words heard in the dialogue are ‘tabernacle’ instead of ‘putain’, for example.

The one flaw of this romance comedy is the hilarity that is lacking.  The humour is amusing at best and there are too few if any laugh-out-loud moments.  At the Q&A after the promo screening, the two writers/directors when asked where they got their jokes from, confessed they took it from A.I.  They might be joking but the jokes in the film often fall flat.  One that is unfunny is the running gag of the family goose that keeps chasing Gordon around the farm.  The comedic set-up piece of Gordon kicking out his future father-in-law by accident in an MMA match generates a few laughs as well, though it moves the plot along.

FRENCH GIRL is a satisfactory entertaining rom-com that is interesting for its different set pieces and different premise but lacks the edginess and hilarity that is often missing in this film genre.
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HIGH & LOW (UK/France/USA 2023) ****

Directed by Kevin Macdonald

 

Kevin Macdonald is a top Scots director who has astounded the film world with his excellent documentary films like ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER in 1999 and TOUCHING THE VOID in 2003, docs that made my Top 10 List of those years.  HIGH & LOW does not fall behind and tells the highs and lows of the controversial design celebrity of the House of Dior, John Galliano.

Director Madonald’s film begins with the December 2010 encounter at a Paris bar one evening when a drunken Galliano insulted a group of Italian women in Paris with antisemitic slurs, which was caught on camera.  The video resurfaced in February 2011, just before Paris Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2011/2012. Facing public and legal scrutiny, he was fired from his role as creative director at Dior.  What did the man say?  At the Paris bar La Perle, he was quoted as saying: "I love Hitler... People like you would be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers would all be fucking gassed." The video is revisited after the halfway mark of the movie.  It is a powerful scene that obviously affected the life and career of Galliano.

Galliano dressed some of the most beautiful and prominent men and women in the world for almost 15 years at Givenchy and Dior and was widely recognized as one of the most successful fashion designers of the 1990s and 2000s. However, his career abruptly ended when he was caught on camera in 2011 hurling antisemitic and racist insults at bystanders outside Paris's Café La Perle.

The doc is not a biopic of Galliani though there is some mention (only briefly, of him being abused by his father) of his childhood.  But it does inform of his humbler begins studying at St. Marvin’s School in London.  It is not an easy watch as Galliano is often out of control with his alcohol, drugs and overwork.

HIGH & LOW showcases archive footage of the breathtaking haute couture and high-fashion runways of the period, and features extensive interviews with Galliano himself, alongside conversations with Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Penelope Cruz, Charlize Theron, Anna Wintour, Edward Enninful and more, this nuanced look at Galliano confronts the toxic work culture behind-the-scenes of the fashion industry. 

There are two excellent achievements from director Macdonald’s documentary.  One is the intercutting with Abel Glance’s French masterpiece NAPOLEON, the film whose costumes and look inspired the designs of John Galliano.  The intercutting occurs throughout the film and shows the influence the film had on Galliano.  The other is Macdonald’s ability to get Galliano to earnestly speak his mind. candidly on camera.  MacDonald asks pertinent questions to Galliano:  “Do you think you are racist?”  and also elicits important responses.  Macdonaald’s film is well constructed and well crafted and delivers in the same spirit both uplifting and gut-wrenching as Galliano’s mixed excess lifestyle.

The film opens in theatres on March 15th.

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RE: UNITING (Canada 2023) ***

Directed by Laura Adkin

 

The film follows Rachel, played by Michelle Harrison, who receives life-changing news, she secretly grapples with her mortality while playing host to her friends who have grown up and gone their separate ways since college. 

Director Atkins's film’s premise is nothing fresh, the subject is already covered well and very well in two films by inevitable comparison.  One is Lawrence Kasdan’s THE BIG CHILL (1983) in which a group of seven former college friends gather for a weekend reunion at a South Carolina vacation home after the funeral of another of their college friends.  Then there is Denys Arcand’s 1986 THE DECLINE OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE (Original title: Le déclin de l’empire américain) in which sexual revelations emerge when a group of academics and their partners spend a weekend at a country retreat.  The former was nominated for 3 Academy Awards and the latter for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.  Director Adkin has tough shoes to fill.

` Adkin’s film is Canadian like Arcand’s and set in Bowen Island, British Columbia, Canada.  It is the story of six friends reuniting at a giant waterfront house 25 years after their college graduation.  Bowen Island is an idyllic destination in the middle of Howe Sound, just a 20-minute ferry ride from Horseshoe Bay, West Vancouver. Quiet and alluring, a short distance from Vancouver, it’s a welcome escape from the stresses of city life.  As the host of the reunion says: “Forget all the stresses of city life.  It is time to party.”

Director Adkin aims for a lighter version of THE BIG CHILL or THE DECLINE OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE going for more humour and more quirky characters.

Among the six are the main character Rachel, the host of the perfect house, a loving husband (Jesse L. Martin), and happy kids, but seems to be carrying the weight of a secret.  Natalie is a neurosurgeon with a penchant for shooters. The male characters are made more complicated.  There is Danny, played by Adkin’s husband David James Lewis His character is the perennial party animal we meet naked in bed one morning (at the start of the film), still handcuffed to a one-night stand he may or may not recognize.  The film was shot during COVID-19 with all the prowls in place.

Laura Adkin, born and raised in Vancouver, BC, began her career almost 20 years ago as an actor then moved behind the camera as a producer, writer and director. Her directorial debut The Goodnight Kiss received the Bravofact grant and went on to play festivals around the world earning many awards.

The film plays in Toronto at Cineplex Cinemas Yonge-Dundas with a Q&A with Adkin on March 15th, in Vancouver at Cineplex Odeon International Village with a Q&A with Adkin and select cast on March 16th and at The Vic Theatre in Victoria with a Q&A on March 17th. In Toronto and Vancouver, the film will be screening until March 21st.

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UPROAR (New Zealand 2023) ***½

Directed by Hamish Bennett and Paul Middleditch

 

There is something to be said bout this rare gem from New Zealand that features a Maori teenager, an unknown but with acting experience in the title role, which means that he has to carry the movie on his own shoulders.  The Maori actor is to a hunk of great physique but looks are not everything.  Julian Dennison plays 17-year-old Josh Walker.  Dennison delivers another powerhouse performance after DEADPOOL2 and  Taika Waititi’s HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE.  There is one reading scene in the film that illustrates the fact, the one in which Josh ‘wow’s his teacher who invites him to go audition for a prestigious drama school.

The story is set in 1981, the year the South African rugby team toured New Zealand, sparking protests across the country about the government’s decision to let them play, given South Africa’s apartheid policy.  Mandela is in prison and there are protests to free Mandela.  While this battle for the nation’s identity rages, 17-year-old Josh Walker  (Julian Dennison) has to figure out his own place in the world.  Robert Muldoon was the then Prime Minister of New Zealand.

Within the first 10 minutes of the film, a lot of information is disseminated to the audience, so much so that one has to be totally alert.  The audience learns of Josh Walker’s family - his widowed mother, Shirley (played by Minnie Driver) and a disabled older brother Jamie (James Rolleston), who is in a numb stasis after an injury has kept him from continuing his rugby career.  Their mother Shirley spends most of her time working to keep the family afloat.  While rugby is on everyone’s mind at home and in school, one of his teachers (Rhys Darby) pushes Josh to audition for drama school. This opens up new ways of looking at the world, and soon he starts to see the activism in his community differently.

The film succeeds as a bright and funny coming-of-age story with a Maori teen trying to find his identity and place in a racist society.  A few feel-good moments will have many cheering in their seats.  On the more serious side, the racism examined exists in South Africa and New Zealand.  A lot of good people surround our young titular hero.  There is his drama teacher etching him on, his hard-working motor working as a cleaner in the school making ends meet for the family and mostly his disabled brother who offers him the best and most direct advice of all - that it is ok to be different as the world is different and to stand up in society.  The film contains moving moments as well.  Josh’s drama teacher admits that he is a coward.  He says in an intimate moment to Josh that he is against apartheid but is afraid to speak out of fear of losing his job  Yet, he does what he can on the side like forming his drama society known to the authorities.

UPROAR premiered at the Special Presentation TIFF Next Wave Selects Section at the Toronto International Film Festival last year and opens in theatres on March 15th.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 02 March 2024

CANADIAN FILM FEST 2024

 

Canadian Film Fest (CFF) presented by Super Channel, the indie-spirited festival dedicated to celebrating Canadian filmmakers, today announced its lineup for the 2024 edition. New this year, CFF is extending the Festival to six days and expanding its shorts programming by screening six dedicated Homegrown Shorts programs, including a spotlight on Toronto filmmakers. CFF will return to Cineplex’s Scotiabank Theatre in Toronto, showcasing 11 features and 45 shorts and will take place March 18 - 23, 2024. Tickets go on sale March 4 and can be purchased at canfilmfest.ca.

CFF will transport cinefiles across Canada with feature films from Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia. The Festival will kick off with Ian Harnarine’s Doubles, about a Trinidadian street vendor who travels to Toronto to decide if he will help save his estranged father from dying. The film is adapted from Ian’s acclaimed short Doubles with Slight Pepper, which won Best Canadian Short Film at TIFF 2011 and Best Live Action Short Drama at the 2012 CSAs. Other festival highlights include Audrey Cummings’ Western Place of Bones starring Heather Graham and Tom Hopper about a bank robbery gone wrong in 1876; Anna Fahr’s compelling Valley of Exile, about two sisters seeking refuge in Lebanon after fleeing their home during the Syrian civil war; Winnipeg director Sean Garrity’s moving film The Burning Season chronicling an affair unfolding backwards in a reverse narrative; and the deeply personal documentary WaaPake (Tomorrow) where director Dr. Jules Arita Koostachin shares the impact and suffering of residential school Survivors.

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Capsule Reviews of Selected Films 

THE BURNING SEASON (Canada 2023) ***

Directed by Sean Garrity

 

Seasoned (sorry, had to use the word) Winnipeg director Sean Garrity returns with another adult relationship drama in a tale told backwards, except for the opening scene in which two youths watch a hiring shack promising each other to tell no one about it.  The film ends with a prologue that returns to this scene.  The film then begins with Chapter 7 in which Alena and Tom meet at JB and Poppy’s wedding only to have JB’s and Alena’s affair exposed.  The film then moves back chapter by chapter to Chapter 1 and then the prologue to tell director Garrity’s story.  The tactic works in the way a mystery unravels with the reasons behind each chapter revealed.  Actor Jonas Chernick has played in many other of Garrity’s films including their breakthrough film INERTIA which won the Best Canadian Feature at TIFF in 2001.  Garrity’s THE BURNING SEASON, as in his other films, is an adult drama that feels close to home, never forced and thoroughly entertaining.  The film has been chosen as the Closing Night Film of CFF.

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DOUBLES (Canada 2023) ***

Directed by Ian Harnarine

 

Chosen as the Opening Night Gala for the Canadian Film Fest, DOUBLES (the title deriving from a popular Trinidadian dish) is a heartwarming film about a son’s struggle to keep his family afloat and his dream of owning a restaurant alive.  The dream is a decent one but still one that has to be worked diligently on.  When the story starts, Dhani (Sanjiv Boodhu) is serving food as a street vendor with his mother while his father lives in Toronto, apparently according to Dhani, had abandoned them.  Dhani needs the land deed of the land signed over to him and his mother so that they can have a better life and so travels to Toronto, only to find the father in ill health and unwilling to sell the land, it being passed down generations.  That is much as the story, a familiar one goes.  The Trinidadian cuisine, simple but looking delicious is on full display here as the Trinidadian customs and practices.  Dhani speaks English with a Trinidadian accent. made light so that North American audiences can follow.

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LOOK AT ME (Canada 2023) ***

Directed by Taylor Olson

 

The film begins with a warning that the film includes strobing images, internalized fatphobia and an insecure male protagonist who many might find disturbing.  LOOK AT ME, the quote taken from the phrase made famous by actor Sir Lawrence Olivier is a fictional autobiography of Taylor Olson written and directed by Olson based on his play.  This is not his first feature and the sophomore effort shows.  He directed BONE CAGE in 2020  and one of his actors in BONE CAGE appears as Simon, Taylor’s male fling in this film.  Taylor is bi-sexual.  Taylor is a self-destructive actor who has an eating disorder matched only by his destructive nature in relationships.  Not a bad film, quite original in delivery but yet a difficult watch owing to its disturbing nature.  One does hope that things will turn outwell for Taylor for all his efforts but the film shows him his own worst enemy,

 

PLACE OF BONES (Canada 2023) ****

Directed by Audrey Cummings

 

PLACE OF BONES begins with the feel and atmosphere of a classic western.  An image of a grave is seen with a cross lying over it,  Nearby is the homestead of what is assumed to be the living quarters of the widow and his daughter.  The two women live in a harsh and unfair dangerous environment and have to protect themselves.  Mother and daughter argue as normal mothers and daughters do, but band together when danger lurks.  The first arrives in the form of a wounded man with two gunshots who lies near the grave.  A saddle bag of cash is found beside him.  The setting is 1876. A mother and daughter alone on a remote ranch fight for survival against a gang of ruthless outlaws.  Directed by a woman, this is a rare and excellent, brutal and exciting western complete with a HIGH NOON-styled showdown that looks at the western from a feminine point of view.  Taken with much humour and a pinch of salt, the women folk in the film are demonstrated to be much smarter than their male counterparts.  “Most men will not admit that the trouble they get into is entirely due to their doing,” is what the mother, tells her daughter, at one point.

 

WITH LOVE AND A MAJOR ORGAN (Canada 2023) **
Directed by Kim Albright

Written by Julia Lederer and directed by Kim Albright, this female-oriented film is a strange one - as strange as the art gallery that the protagonist attends, consisting of paintings with just a black spot or black rectangular shapes. The film is set in an alternate world where hearts are made of objects and suppressing emotions is self-care, a lonely woman rips out her own heart for the man she loves, only to discover that he has run away with it.  People are ruled by LifeZapp, an app controlling every detail: eating, sleeping, and whom they interact with, all except for their emotional well-being.  Hearts are removable objects that reflect our personalities, things we can dig out of our chests to make life less emotional.  I feel like trudging in my gut, she says at one point in the film after attending a self-help session. The film feels the same way, watching it a trudge of confused ideas. One wonders what the message (if there is one) is or where the film is leading. The dialogue is also laced with poetry that hardly makes any sense except maybe for the rhyming.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 24 February 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

 

5 LBS OF PRESSURE (USA 2023) ***

Directed by Phil Allocco

 

The film 5 LBS OF PRESSURE (the title is derived from the force that comes out from a particular gun) begins like the steam in a pressure cooker - waiting for the nozzle to be opened to be hissing out.  The first 30 minutes introduce the audience to a variety of its many characters.  Nothing can be determined of the plot yet but the decision to devote screen time to its characters works.  It is an absorbing watch as one wonders where the plot leads or who the main protagonist is.  Each character has a past, and most of them have volatile personalities - uncontrollable explosive or under control.  For a crime drama, it is hard to feel sympathetic or emotional for any character, this film included.  The best alternative is just to make the characters watchable,

The opening scene takes place outside a bar called the Mirror Bar.  Nothing is seen but there is the sound of gunfire.  Flashback to “Four Days Earlier.”  Adam DeSalvo (Luke Evans) is approaching the end of three years’ probation following 16 in prison for flareup. Adam’s kept his nose clean, but he is not seeking a fresh start elsewhere.  Fresh out of prison after serving time for murder, Adam (Luke Evans) returns to his old stomping grounds to seek out a son who doesn't know him (Rudy Pankow). Eli (Zac Adams), the brother of the man he killed is looking for revenge. Mike, is trying to escape a life of crime living under the thumb of his gangster Uncle Leff (Alex Pettyfer).

More like a crime melodrama than a crime thriller and a crime drama, interesting though each character is, the story falls ten into cliched territory together with the fact that too many incidents happen that credibility is stretched too far.  Every character is down on his or her luck and things do not look as if it is going to get any better  The main protagonist is Ada, determined after the frost 20 minutes or so, who serves time because of a killing when he was a kid.  Down on his luck, he survives time in prison in the hope of seeing bis boy, the photo of his baby kept by him (sob-sob) all the time.  He still loves his girl, who wants to protect the son from him.  The three eventually meet for more heart-breaking melodrama.  One can tell things are not going to look good see, for obvious reasons.  Another story involves Mike played by Rory Culkin, brother of the HOME ALONE kid star, who is forced to drug deal.  As if things cannot get worse, he falls in love with his violent uncle's lover and decides to run away from the money tube made from a drug deal that eventually goes wrong.  All the bad stuff culminates at the Mirror Bar the scene which bookends the film.

There are some plusses in the film that include the gritty dark atmosphere of the film.  The film was shot in Manchester, England, a grim and dark industrial city where the black of the coal can still be seen on the buildings.

5 LBS OF PRESSURE is a decent crime thriller and melodrama, not without flaws but interesting enough for its story of down-on-the-luck losers with no way out, no matter how hard they try,  The film  opens in theatres and on-demand on March 8th,

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AMERICAN DREAMER (USA 2022) **

Directed by Paul Debtor

 

Based on a true story.  Sort of…  That is what the audience is told at the beginning of the comedy/drama AMERICAN DREAMER, which means the filmmakers have taken the liberty to do changes to the true story for the purpose of entertainment.  American Dreamer, based on a true story from Chicago Public Radio’s The American Life, is the story of Dr. Phil Loder (Peter Dinklage), a twice-divorced, frustrated, underpaid professor of economics, whose grand dream of home ownership (the American dream?) is tragically out of reach.  When an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity comes his way, Phil strikes a deal with Astrid Finnelli (Shirley MacLaine), a lonely, childless, near-death widow who offers her sprawling estate for pennies. The deal is that he is to be a live-in at the estate, inheriting it when she passes as she has no offspring.  This is what he learns and signs with the real estate agent, played with gusto by Matt Dillon,  But Phil quickly learns the deal is too good to be true and the American dream is not quite what it used to be.

For those familiar with the work of Peter Dinklage, who rose to fame after his debut in THE STATION AGENT, he is a fine actor of ‘little’ status.  Lately, his height has not hindered him from playing roles of normal beings as evident in films like I CARE A LOT and SHE CAME TO ME.  In fact his character requires him to be kind of a Don Juan that all the ladies in the film wish to and do get to go to bed with (him).  Here the Emmy and Golden Globe Award Winner serves also as producer.  He is joined in the cast by Academy Award Winners Dillon and MacLaine.  Needless to say, fine performances are delivered in the film.

Hapless professors in colleges have recently been fond fodder in films like THE HOLDOVERS and AMERICAN FICTION,  In AMERICAN DREAMER the professor is again the hapless hero and once again as in AMERICAN FICTION, the professor takes his frustration into the lecture room that gets him in trouble with the authorities.

A few things that do not work in the film are Loder’s slapstick comedy like falling off half the time, either cutting himself or breaking things.  The obsession of Loder having to own property is also not that credible though it is based on a true story.  The other fact that stretches credibility is the woman’s attraction towards Loger.  Height aside, the personality of the man is annoying, angry and stressful, not to mention his dirty habits like being untidy, keeping a filthy unkept drawer and eating sandwiches out of vending machines, not to mention his constantly disheveled appearance.  What is really interesting is MacLaine’s character talking about past lives as MacLaine in real life does believe in and has written books on past lives as well claimed sight of phenomena like UFOs.

But there is something that can clearly be felt missing from this comedy-drama, be it the conviction of getting the story’s message across.  For sure is the fact that there is a message on the American Dream and the futile desire for material wealth.  But it is too bad that the message fails to hit harder at the audience that got lost in the way.

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KUNG FU PANDA (USA 2024) **½

Directed by Mike Mitchell

 

When KUNG FU PANDA opens, the titular hero Po (Jack Black) is about to retire from being the Dragon Warrior, to step down to take on the new position of the Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace.  The same might be applied to the 4th installment of the KUNG FU PANDA franchise.  Perhaps it is time to retire the hero as ideas are running scarce, as this sequel shows,

Po is once again the goofy-eyed lazy and chubby panda who prefers eating dumplings to practicing his Martial-Arts.  Still, he prides himself on kicking butt.  Instead of hearing the words ‘Inner Please’, he hears the words ‘Dinner please’.

The jokes turn out pretty lame.  Examples are the quotes of ‘words of the street’ like you can’t trust anybody, used at an appropriate moment.  There are also jokes on little voices.  Po hears the voices of different Pos who all say the same thing, that Po does not want to hear.  Whatever humour that makes an animated feature (take Eddie Murphy’s Donkey as the best example in SHREK) is clearly missing here.

Still, director Mitchell (TROLLS) and writers Jonathan Abel, Glenn Berger and Darren Leake all do try their best to give this 4th installment everything they got.  For one they have created a supervillain that can steal the superpowers of all of Po’s past villains as Tai Lung, Lord Shen and Kai the Collector thus making her more than invincible.  The chameleon (voiced by Viola Davis) can shapeshift as well as harness the powers with the use of Po’s trident.  A new character in the form of a fox called Zhen is voiced by Awkwafina who livens the story up several notches.  She is Po’s new friend and sort of disciple.  But a fox is a cunning animal as will be revealed later in the story.

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SATANIC HISPANICS (Mexico/USA 2022) ***

Directed by Mike Mendez, Demián Rugna, Eduardo Sánchez, Gigi Saul Guerrero and Alejandro Brugués 

 

SATANIC HISPANICS is a horror anthology of different horror stories bound together by the thread called ‘The Traveller’ of a man questioned by the police as he tells the stories.

SATANIC HISPANICS is directed by top Latin filmmakers and showcases the skills of Hispanic talent, both on and off-screen.

It all begins when police raid a house in El Paso, they find it full of dead Latinos, and only one survivor.  Known as ‘The Traveller’, he is taken to the police station for questioning. There, he recounts tales of horrors from his life, chronicling portals leading to other worlds, mythical beings, demons and the undead; he speaks of legends from Latin America.  “Death is never the end.  There are portals between life and death and sometimes the portals don’t close.”

The first one occurs in Chapter 2 called ‘Tambien Lo Vi’ (translation: ” I saw it too”)  with a character called Estrada who has a special sight.  He can see what others cannot see.  Apparently, he can see this portal between death and the living.   This chapter does not make much sense but it contains solid scares and has great atmospheric effects,

Chapter 3 is called El Vampire and yes, as the traveller says to the cops: It is a Vampire Story.  This segment is clearly the silliest but it is not without laughs.  A vampire is enjoying the best night in his life on Halloween drinking blood unaware that he would lose an hour of night owing to daylight savings time.  He has to make it back to his coffin before daylight.   A funny comedic set piece involves two cops witnessing him after killing three victims, thinking that it is all a prank.

Chapter 4 is called Nahuales.  It begins when the cops question the vial of red fluid which the traveller claims he obtained from a shaman’s ceremony after it was over. A nahual is a human being who has the power to transform either spiritually or physically into an animal.  The traveller goes on to relate is story that makes this chapter.  This tale is the most violent of the lot and with the least humour,

Finally ‘the traveller’ tells his last story in Chapter 5 about a guy called Malcolm.  At this time, the two cops have already lost their patience as has the traveler who has to leave his custody or his predator will get him as the traveler cannot remain in one place, he always manages to be several hours ahead of it.  This story involves a weapon called ‘the hammer of Zanzibar’ which is a giant dido used to, yes, fuck up the demon.

SATANIC HISPANIC is a horror anthology in the old tradition of classics like the 1945 British DEAD OF NIGHT, famous for the last episode about a mad ventriloquist.  Though the film is a mixed bag of tricks, it is still a blast of gore and laughs, a few better than others and a few funnier or scarier than the others, the anthology showcases the talents of the 5 Latino directors Mike Mendez, Demián Rugna (of the recent WHEN EVIL LUKS), Eduardo Sánchez, Gigi Saul Guerrero and Alejandro Brugués.  The film premiered at Fantastic Fest in 2022 and opens on Shudder on March 8th.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 23 February 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

 

500 DAYS IN THE WILD (Canada 2023) ***½

Directed by Dianne Whelan

 

Award-winning director and cinematographer Dianne Whelan is the only person to complete this epic journey of discovery—hiking, biking, paddling, snowshoeing and skiing across the country.

The film begins with a very angry woman throwing things into the fire one evening, She is full of disappointment and anger, mainly of the deaths of too many indigenous women.  The woman turns out to be filmmaker Diane Whelan who wants to get away from it all -  people and technology.  She sets to make a doc on the longest trail in the world, travelling from east to west (as to follow the sun, she says) starting from the TransCanada Highway in St. John’s Newfoundland,  The trail contains 487 different routes on water and land which she will travel by bike or canoe.

Whelan is not an extreme sportsperson but an extreme filmmaker.  Here she will be filming herself as she has filmed sports extremists in the past.  For a woman in her 50s who is not an extreme athlete, it was sometimes gruelling, occasionally harrowing, often exhilarating and always surprising. She started out alone, disillusioned with the state of the world and worried about climate change, to look for different ways of caring for the land and each other.  She ended the journey a bit wiser, more hopeful, in love and with a passion to share this story.

In case one is wondering about the filming process, Whelan makes it clear from the very start of her doc how this is done.  She is doing most of the filming on her own, as she carries a tripod and camera on her bicycle.  She mentions that she is also getting the help of friends with the filming as well as the use of drones.  The latter seems awkward as one of the purposes of other ventures is to get away from technology.  Guess, it is impossible to get away completely from technology,

Whelan also makes it clear that is is mighty dangerous out there.  First of all, she is a woman, not to mention being all alone most of the time.  She could be attacked by a bear or by nasty people.  And there is no lock on the tent which is her daily living quarters.

The most dangerous part of Whelan’s journey is by canoe through the world’s largest freshwater lake, Lake Superior.  She paddles by canoe while large shipwrecks of steel ships lie beneath its cold waters.  It is said that water is so cold that dead bodies do not float in the water. (Whether this is true needs to be examined as the density of water is at its maximum at 4C).

The journey takes Whelan to the famous Bruce Trail around Toronto.  It was then -18C and after crossing a stream she and her friend of 20 years, who was helping her along were both soaking wet.  Everything is frozen.  The trail is not a straight path, up and down hills and with fallen small trees often blocking the paths.

500 DAYS IN THE WILD is a beautiful film that also displays the beautiful country of Canada in all its 4 seasons and terrain.  Director Whelan also makes sure the message of getting connected with Mother Earth gets through to her audience.

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CODE 8 PART II (Canada 2023) ***

Directed by Jeff Chan

 

A sort of Canadian filmmaker’s dream come true, it all started with his 2016 short film called CODE 8, a science fiction action short film directed by Jeff Chan, co-written by Chan and Chris Paré.  The film is a futuristic vision taking place in a world where 4% of the population is born with some supernatural ability.  The idea is somewhat similar to the Marvel X-MEN comic book series where certain humans are harvested and schooled for their unique super-powers.  Instead of being billionaire superheroes, most ‘specials’ live in poverty and resort to crime, forcing the police to become more militarized.  Starring Robbie Amell, Stephen Amell (the Amells are cousins) and Sung Kang, the film was expanded into a feature-length project, also titled Code 8.

The feature film CODE 8 in 2019 is set in the early 21st century (could be the present), when the public becomes aware of people with superhuman abilities, known as Powers.  This results in the government passing a law requiring all Powers to register their abilities.  Although they are initially popular in the workforce, as the Third Industrial Revolution begins, Powers are marginalized.  A crime syndicate known as The Trust has flooded the streets with an addictive drug called Psyke, made from the spinal fluid of trafficked Powers. Police departments begin using drone-deployed robots, called Guardians, and facial recognition software to combat Power-related crime while a citywide Powers ban is debated.  Connor Reed (Robert Arnell), a 26-year-old Electric (electrokinetic) looks after his mother Mary, a Cryo (cryokinetic), whose ailment impedes her from controlling her powers.  In this film, he comes across baddie Garrett (Stephen Arnell) as well as crime boss Marcus.

All these characters and the identical background appear in the latest, CODE 8 PART II.  But it does not require watching the short of the first CODE 8 as the script is easy to follow.  Once again as stated by the opening credits the film centres around the 4% of people living in fictional Lincoln City who possess special abilities. It follows the journey of a teenage girl, Pavani (Sirena Gulamgaus) fighting to get justice for her slain brother at the hands of corrupt police officers., led by Sergeant ‘King’ Kingston (Alex Mallari Jr.).  After becoming a witness to the cover-up, she becomes a target and enlists the help of an ex-con, Conor and his former partner-in-crime Garrett.

Highlights of the film include the police robotic canines nicknamed K9.   Meticulously designed so that they function almost like real dogs but programmed so that they are almost perfect animal machines so that no crook, Powers included, can escape from their clutches or mechanical paws.

The film is a blend of sci-fi, action, super-hero action and drama and does not concentrate on any of these genres.  The film is a pleasant enough entertaining watch, suitable for the family with a possible message of the immense potential danger of A.I. and the subject of falsifying effective policing in a community. The producers are already thinking of another sequel, with the film’s ending priming for a continuation.  Why not, if Netflix is picking up the cost tag?

The film is shot around Toronto and Hamilton.  The film’s rights have been acquired by Netflix.  The film opens on Netflix for streaming on February 28th.

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DUNE PART 2 (USA 2024) ***

Directed by Denis Villeneuve

 

Frank Herbert’s novel DUNE is a complex and complicated novel not easily be transformed into a film.  The first attempt directed by David Lynch (MULHOLLAND DRIVE, BLUE VELVET) was a mess that most audiences could not understand.  When Canadian helmer Denis Villeneuve was offered the job, he negotiated a two-film deal due to the novel’s complexity.

Most of the story of DUNE PARTY 2 has been established in Villeneuve’s first DUNE in 2021.

At the end of DUNE Part 1, Baron Harkonnen gives command of the conquered Arrakis to his nephew, Rabban (Dave Bautista), and orders him to restart spice production to recoup the cost of the invasion that occurred in DUNE Part 1.   Paul Atreides (Timothee Chamalat) and Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) are found by Duncan and Kynes, and Paul discloses his plan to marry one of Shaddam's daughters to avert the civil war that would ensue from news of the Emperor's treachery.  Duncan sacrifices himself to enable Paul and Jessica to escape;  Kynes is mortally wounded and lures a sandworm to devour her and the Sardaukar. In the deep desert, Paul and Jessica encounter Stilgar's tribe, including Chani (Zendaya), the girl in Paul's visions. 

In DUNE PART 2, Paul Atreides continues his journey, united with Chani and the Fremen, as he seeks revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family, and endeavors to prevent a terrible future that only he can predict.

Director Villeneuve’s film lasts a full 2 and three-quarter hours.  The production sets, set decor and art direction are nothing short of stupendous making a watch on iMAX a solid must.

On the other hand, the film contains a lot of CGI special effects.  The film is a demonstration of CGI gone mad.  It is hard to get excited watching 20 thousand CGI figures battling another 20 thousand CGI figures on the big screen.  The film’s most exciting part is the old-fashioned hand-to-hand combat (between Butler and Chamalat) at the end.  Despite the main actor Chamalat’s emotional performance, the story can hardly be felt by any audience.  The first half of the film is boring as nothing much happens, the only pleasure derived from the film being the production values.

The all-star cast contains big names including Austin Butler (ELIVS), Florence Pugh, Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem, though a few of the faces are hardly recognizable under the makeup.

At best, DUNE PART 2 is visually stunning in all departments and despite its lack of a human story with emotional impact, the film should satisfy sci-fi space fans, hands-down.  As for the future, Villeneuve has expressed interest in making a third film based on Dune Messiah, the second novel in the series

The film’s production budget is listed as a hefty $120 -190 million.  With all the hyop]e of the DUNE book and this being the first blockbuster of 2024, DUNE PART 2 will most likely make a profit considering the first DUNE in 2021 made $440 million on a budget around the same size as this one.   The estimated gross for the first weekend is projected at $65 million.

DUNE PART 2 opens in theatres on March 1st.  See it in iMAX.

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MY NAME IS LOH KIWAN (South Korea 2024) ***

Directed by Kim Hee-Jin

 

For North Koreans trying to flee their country, making it often takes crossing the border to China that is only the beginning of a torturous journey toward freedom. That journey and the motivations of North Koreans who want to defect are the subject of the recent and excellent documentary called BEYOND UTOPIA.   The Chinese government has a hard-line policy of finding North Korean refugees, arresting them and detaining them and then forcibly sending them back to North Korea, where they will face investigation, torture and a range of harsh punishments.

MY NAME IS LOH KIWAN, based on the book of the same title tells the difficult story of fleeing North Korea to China and then to Belgium from the point of view of twenty-somethibg Loh Kiwan (Song Joong-ki).  Films on or about North Korea are few and far in-between and one knows very little about North Korea.  A film like MY NAME IS LOH KIWAN is a welcome entry to Netflix.  The recent refugee film IO CAPITANO which opened last week about two Senegaleses making a death-defying journey against all odds for a better life in Italy, this film also shows the difficulty in perilous joinery from a different adventurous look.

It is not mentioned in the film whether this is a true story, but it is, possibly partly.

When Loh tells his mother before his defection that he regrets putting her through all the hardship while is is still young and able, his mother replies: “Having a healthy son is all that every mother wants.”  Dialogue like this one tells a lot about the personalities of the characters and also sets the tone of the film.

Besides dialogue, a lot can be read from the actions of the characters.  When Loh just lands in Belgium and the broker waves him off, the broker gives Loh his card and tells him to call if he (Loh) ever wishes to return to China.  The next scene shows Loh crushing the card.  Loh walks past a litter bin on the street but he does not toss the crumpled paper away. Another scene at the film start has Loh wiping away what appears to be blood on the street.  Nothing is explained at this point

Escaping from China, North Korean defector Loh Kiwan sets out to fulfill his mother's dying wish, to find a place where he can truly own his name and live on his own terms. He travels to Belgium to seek refugee status but ends up being in limbo with no means to make a living or put a roof over his head. Marie, who used to represent the Belgian national shooting team and is now battling her inner demons, chances upon an exhausted Kiwan and steals his wallet. The two end up in a heated confrontation.

The film depicts Loh’s very difficult and tiring defection process showing his impoverished living conditions and the equally gruelling enrollment procedure for refugee status.  Mostly, the moving film credibly and effectively shows that life is not always dished out on a silver platter and one like Loh has to make do while taking one step at a time.

Director Kim appears to love the use of flashbacks.  He uses it once at the film’s start when he tells the story after Lot wipes away the blood on the street and again after the immigration officer questions if it is Loh’s mother who gave him the money to travel to Belgium.

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THE PARADES (Japan 2024) **

Directed by Michihito Fujii

 

What happens when one dies?  This is the magic question that many filmmakers examine,  from Albert Brooks’ excellent DEFENDING YORU LIFE in which the dead has to defend his or her life to move forward to the afterlife.  Albert Brooks falls in love with Meryl Streep at this point.  But another film that really surprises is the 1999 masterpiece Hirokazu Kore-eda's AFTER LIFE, a film that reaches out gently to the audience and challenges us: What is the single moment in our own lives we treasure the most?  In the film the dead is asked to recall the happiest moment, which is filmed and the dead will take this as a memory for eternity forgetting everything else.  This film put Kore-eda on the filmmaking map.  In THE PARADES, a similar premise holds.

Japanese director Michihito Fujii (HARD DAYS, THE LAST 10 YEARS) has hard shoes to fill.  The title of the film THE PARADES is so called because from the parades held every month, the deceased gather to find the person they long to see again, slowly reaching into the depths of everyone’s hearts.

Though the film takes 15 minutes or so to establish to the audience that the main character is already dead, those going into the film likely already know the fact.\, an thus have to play along patiently.  The film begins on a beach covered with trash, a sorry sight, where Minako (Masami Nagasawa) wakes up.  She is servicing her lost son Ryo, She frantically runs around asking anyone insight whether they have seen him.  She encounters Akira (played by Kentaro Sakaguchi), a former gang member Katsutoshi (played by Ryusei Yokohama), a former film producer Michael (played by Lily Franky), and their friends, only to realize that she has already passed away. She is unable to move on to “the beyond” due to unfinished business in this world, she is told.

Though intriguing as the plot can be, the story also dwells on the stories of the others, which tends to eclipse the main story of Minnako.  Unfortunately, there are too many other stories, and these including the story of Mink can hardly be described as terribly interesting.  Director Fiji’s director character might be a reflection of his own character, but he comes across as a person too full of himself.  His character is always able to get what he wants.  Even the Yakuza gangster, the most interesting of all the dead characters follows his advice.

THE PARADES is essentially a ghost story of regrets and redemption.  It has recently been done in ALL OF US STRANGERS and in other after-life films like DEFENDING YOUR IFE, AFTER LIFE and done much better,  The stories are also not convincing enough as they seem to be just put on for show.

As they say in many funerals, the film is a celebration of life rather than about the end of it.

The Netflix movie THE PARADES will be released globally on Thursday, February 29, 2024.

Trailer: 

SPACEMAN (USA 2024) **

Directed by Johan Renck

 

Tech space giants are charging an arm and a leg to travel into space.  Most vacancies have been filled.  But many do not really have the reality of the tedium and danger of such an excursion.  The recent disaster of the vessel designed to look at the Titanic shipwreck going bust is a case in point where millionaires have died while paying for the trip.  SPACEMAN illustrates and demonstrates the other side of space travel - dangerous, unhealthy, psychologically damaging and the possibility of other mishaps.

SPACEMAN  is a 2024 American science fiction drama film directed by Johan Renck and written by Colby Day.   It is based on the 2017 novel Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfař.  The film stars Adam Sandler in a serious role, Carey Mulligan, Kunal Nayyar, Isabella Rossellini, and the voice of Paul Dano. As an astronaut, Jakub Procházka (Sandler) is sent to the edge of the solar system to collect mysterious ancient dust and finds his earthly life falling to pieces, he turns to the only voice who can help him try to put it back together.  It just so happens to belong to a creature, Hanus (voice of Don) in the shape of a spider from the beginning of time lurking in the shadows of his ship

Adam Sandler (Jakub) is not a happy camper.  To make things worse, the toilet isn’t working from the very start of the film.   When he asks for the toilet to be fixed, Control tells him the camera gets first priority.  (What is a Sandler movie without a toilet joke?)

The accents are out of the ordinary,  Sandler puts on a slight but weird Czech accent while Carey Mulligan as his wife, Lena keeps her British accent.  The rest of the cast spot a variety of different accents.  Jakub looks dishevelled owing to his beard throughout the film.  6 months apart insulation is enough to make anyone go mad.

The special effects and art decoration are worthy of mention.  Jakub is often seen floating in his cabin without the effect of gravity.  This is likely the first space film that shows how untidy and cluttered, again mentioning the malfunctioning toilet the inside living quarters of a spaceship can be, in contrast to neat, efficient and modern as in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001A SPACE ODYSSEY or any other space movie.  The reason is to emphasize the discomfort and monotony of a long flight into space.

Adam Sandler has proven his acting mettle in man-child comedies but in serious films like PUNCH DRUNK LOVE and UNCUT GEMS gaining the respect of critics that many comics do not have.  SPACEMAN adds to the list but unfortunately is not one of his better Sandler films.  Despite incidents occurring at a regular pace as the film progresses, the whole exercise involving the beginning and end of time and Jake’s realization of the failure of his marriage is a turgid affair.  The introduction of Hanus the talking spider does not help either.  No one is ever sure what is happening or what could happen.  The way life’s discovery and regrets for Jakub are realized is not convincing enough.  

SPACEMAN debuted in theatres beginning last week (the review was not posted then, as a link was not made available till this week) but opens for streaming on Netflix.  SPACEMAN is a Netflix original Adam Sandler film.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 20 February 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

 Lots of small-budget indies opening this week.  The standout of the lot is RIDDLE OF FIRE which premiered at Midnight Madness TIFF last year.

COMING TO YOU (South Korea 2021) ***

Directed by Gyiro Byun

 

A documentary from South Korea on personal LGBT issues!

Gyuri Byun's emotional heartfelt Korean documentary centres on two working-class mothers, Nabi and Vivian. Like many in South Korea, where there is a distinct lack of legal protections for queer communities and gay marriage remains illegal, neither women gave much thought to LGBTQ+ rights or its growing advocacy among the country's younger generations. Therefore, their lives and perceptions were upended when their respective children came out to them — Nabi's as trans, and Vivian's as gay. Reluctant to accept this news at first, both women's reactions reveal deep-rooted discriminatory beliefs about queerness. This is not uncommon in South Korean society, which makes their respective transformations all the more impactful — both women grew to not only accept their children's gender and sexuality but became activists in their own right as members of Parents, Families, and Allies of LGBTAIQ+ People in Korea. Both Nabi and Vivian grapple with the pain and loneliness their children feel, the struggle to access gender-affirming care, and the yearning for societal and familial acceptance. Without shying away from their initial discriminatory opinions, Byun's impressive film tells an unflinchingly honest story of hard-won allyship and gives faith to the idea that people can change their minds.

Director Byun’s doc can hardly be called groundbreaking as the issues of coming out have been covered countless times since the times when gays were ostracized till now when gays are largely accepted.  However, the emotions experienced by the 4 subjects (each given around equal screen time)  are still felt everywhere and it is still heartbreaking to see what the subjects went through.

The emotions and reactions are different.  Nabi’s trans wishes to do an FTM (female-to-male transition)but the mother disapproves initially.  She says on camera that she hates her mother.  After much thought and examination, the mother, Nabi finally relents.  An emotional “Thank you, Mother” means so much to Nabi after she is acknowledged.  The issue of how difficult the operation needs to be approved (needs to be approved by a judge; needs parental consent despite the fact that the person has come of age) is also observed in the film.   On the other hand, Vivian’s son still loves his mother.  The process of coming out to his mother is a curious one.  He leaves a letter to his parents while returning later.  The letter is a coming-out letter that describes how much he is going through.  The surprise for her is that the son has come out to his friends first.

Vivian 55, is a veteran firefighter while Nabi 50, is a flight attendant.  The process of acceptance of their LGBT children forms a major part of the film.  The climax of the film shows both of them at a support group meeting where they speak out.

  COMING TO YOU has won many documentary awards as it was screened in international festivals.  The film premieres via VOD and digital outlets on March 22nd, 2024

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DAD & STEP-DAD (USA 2022) **

Directed by Tynan Delong

 

DAD & STEP DAD is a micro-budget DIY (Do-it-yourself) movie that prided itself as a film with no script (actually not a thing to be proud of) while containing lots of improv.

An improv film suffers from a lose-lose situation.  If part of the film is changed because the improv did not work - then the film can no longer be considered improv.  On the other hand, if the entire film is improv, then it will have to include the parts that do not work.  A film that is planned and well-written would most likely turn out better than one that is unplanned.

DAD & STEP-DAD  comedy about family, communication, insecurity, and the fragility of the male ego, the film follows Jim and Dave, a dad and a step-dad, as they struggle with bonding during a weekend upstate with Branson, the son they share.

DAD & STEP-DAD first began as a series of improvised shorts created by DeLong, Colin Burgess, and Anthony Oberbeck in 2018, allowing the trio years to hone their characters and comedic sensibility before growing the project to feature-length. Inspired by cinéma vérité documentaries, ASMR, and Japanese environmental music, the formally and tonally unique character-driven slow-burn was shot in four days during the summer of 2021 with a production budget of $18,000 and is entirely improvised, based on a robust outline and several rehearsals.

The three actors are comedians with an impressive acting resume.  To their credit, they interact in their scenes credibly and the chemistry works well.  Though occasionally repetitive in their dialogue, expected for improv, it is what it is.  The characters of the dad and set-dad etch out different personalities.  The character of the mother appears unnecessary, except to put some tension in the relationship between the stepdad and the family.

The 13-year old son Branson is played by 30-year-old actor Brian Fiddyment.  Fiddyment looks 30 despite the way he is wardrobed in the film and not 13.  This is odd casting indeed.  One assumes the credibility of the characters is not of importance.

On the positive side, the film has garnished rave reviews for an improv film.  Already named one of “The Best Movies of 2024 (So Far)” by Esquire, DAD & STEP-DAD became an instant cult comedy hit and screened as part of the inaugural New/Next Film Fest in Baltimore, programmed by veteran curator and taste-maker Eric Allen Hatch, where Paste praised it as, “a movie made for next to nothing by a group of filmmaking friends, Dad & Step-Dad is the closest thing in body and spirit to the kind of DIY cinema that put New/Next’s forerunner, the Maryland Film Festival, on the map some 15 years ago.”

The film is released by NoBudge.  NoBudge, the premiere streaming platform for young and emerging filmmakers launched by filmmaker Kentucker Audley in 2018 —and where 15 of DeLong’s short films can currently be found— makes its first move into the realm of distribution

A year after a packed premiere in New York at the Nitehawk Cinema Prospect Park and a week of sold-out screenings at Spectacle theatre, DAD & STEP-DAD celebrates their long-awaited arrival to digital platforms worldwide on Friday, March 22.

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THE FOX (Les Fuchs) (Austria 2021) ****

Directed by Adrian Goiginger

 

An introverted young farm labourer (Simon Morzé), indentured and seemingly abandoned by his poor family as a child, volunteers for Austria's army but soon finds himself part of Nazi Germany's vast military machine. When he discovers an orphaned fox cub he adopts it and clings to it as the last vestige of his humanity amidst the carnage of WW2. Based on the true story of Franz Streitberger, the director's great-grandfather.

What is interesting to watch and also to note is the behaviour Franz under the circumstances of his youth.  Being sold by his father out of poverty to a richer farm for the reason that he is unable to fend for his son, Franz grew up solitary serving as a farmhand to his new owner till he reached his adult age he was then set free to go.  The scene where the son realizes that he is being sold and yet refuses and has to be taken kicking and screaming by his father is a scene defiantly difficult to forget.  Franz’s new owner wrote about Franz that he is of good character and a hard worker but not a happy one.  After enlisting in the army, his fellow soldier asks him to tell him a story to break away the monotony.  To his surprise, France is silent, giving absolutely no story to tell.  Franz has difficulty adjusting to his fellow soldiers causing him to go screaming in the forest on the first day after an incident regarding him keeping the cheese that is shared with the rest of the soldiers.

The transition of Franz from the boy to the adult is too abruptly done.  It takes a while for the audience to relate to the protagonist of the film.  One might initially wonder the reason for the full half hour of the film devoted to the boy when the rest of the film centres on the adult Franz.  The reason is clearer towards the end of the film, as the audience needs to understand the feelings of the boy.  The story is based on the true events of the director’s great-grandfather.

The story shifts to Franz as a soldier who discovers a fox cub with a broken paw.  Franz gets the paw healed and looks after the cub for a year or so.  And yes, the fox cub is so incredibly cute that anyone would fall in love with it.  But looking after the cub as a soldier out fighting in the war is a dauntless task.  The fox cub is extremely cute, in fact so cute that one can see the reason Franz decided to adopt it.  (It is difficult to dislike a movie with such a cute animal, believe me.

The war fought by Franz is with the Germans against France, Britain and their allies.  The evil of Hitler’s Third Reich clad the Nazis are never their issue here and omitted as it has nothing to do with the story of Franz and his fox cub.

There is a romance in the story as Franz, the solitary and socially awkward Franz deals with his romantic fling with a French girl.

The main purpose of the story is to relate Franz’s attachment to the fox cub to his childhood experience of being sold by his father to the richer farmer who could then tend and feed Franz.  The purpose is made clear as the film’s climax and is emotionally gut-wrenching.

THE FOX (LES FUCHS) is a gut-wrenching emotional true story set in WWII told with conviction and credibility.  From Austria, the film has garnered multiple awards and comes with this reviewer’s high recommendation.  The film opens on Prime and Apple TV on March 22nd.

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THE FRAGILE KING (South Africa 2022) ***½

Directed by Tristan Holmes 

 

The emotional drama based in part on the true events of the director’s relationship with his grandfather forms the basis of this low-budget but effective gut-wrenching film.   The film is not about royalty.   The ‘king’ referred to in the title happens to be the last name of a grandfather and son, the subjects of the story.  The story focuses on the relationship between two estranged characters Michael and his grandfather, Gerald King.

After the tragic death of his mother in a car accident, 15-year-old Michael King (Alex de la Rey) is sent to live with his grandfather Gerald (Andrew Buckland), whom he hardly knows. The emotional gulf between the traumatized boy and cantankerous old man is immense, but during a road trip across South Africa's Northern Cape to reunite Michael with his estranged father, a relationship of understanding and trust slowly emerges. After going their separate ways, the two reunite a year later, and through one final unexpected journey, the King men finally come to realize a true sense of love and belonging in each other.

It is hard not to get emotionally connected with a subject that is unloved by all including family.  Michael is loved by his mother but that love is soon lost.  His mother is not the ideal role model, a woman who brings her son bowling, skipping his school while she skips work at the same time.  Drunk often, Michael feels destitute and can be seen to long for a more responsible parent.  The longing is made worse when his mother dies in a car accident,  He meets his grandfather who had abandoned both his daughter and her son.  Unwanted, Michael is brought to the home of his biological father after a road trip and discovers he is not wanted by the father’s family as well.

Alex de La Rey plays the boy, who is the major focus of the story and film.  Needless to say, the success of the film lies solely on his shoulders.  Fortunately, Alex is a very talented, photogenic and convincing performer for his young age.  He also possesses an impressive bio as follows.  Alex de la Rey is a recent graduate from St John's College, South Africa, where he was enrolled for 10 years from the ages of 9 to 18.  THE FRAGILE KING was his debut in the film industry at the age of 15 in 2019 when the film got started.  Prior to this debut, Alex has been heavily involved in theatre both with and independently from his school.  He was the recipient of 'Best Director' and 'Best Playwright' for his student production "CO7ID" - which tackled the social problems and mental health issues within the privileged first class of South African scholars that arose as a result of quarantining - at the National Festival of Excellence in Dramatic Arts (FEDA).  This South African teen will definitely go far and be an actor to be reckoned with.

THE FRAGILE KING, winner of Best Director at the New Renaissance Film Festival and the Jury Prize for Best International Film at the Overcome Film Festival is a powerful tale of heartbreak, healing and self-discovery.

THE FRAGILE KING makes its North American premiere on SVOD Indiepix Unlimited on March 22, 2024.

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GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE (USA 2024) ***½

Directed by Gil Kenan

 

The GHOSTBUSTERS franchise has been super successful beginning with the first with GHOSTBUSTERS in 1984 with the cast of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, the late Harold Ramis and Annie Potts.  Two successful sequels followed together with a most horrible reboot in 2016 also called GHOSTBUSTERS, a female version set in an alternate universe.  That was totally awful.  The original GHOSBUSTERS was fun but by no means a masterpiece so thankfully, this new and latest version entitled GHOSBUSTERS: FROZE EMPIRE succeeds easily as an entertaining sequel, also directed by Gil Kenan who also directed the second sequel GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE which is a sequel to it.  The film is co-produced by Jason Reitman, son of Ivan Reitman, the director and producer of the original film

The Ghostbusters franchise consists of American supernatural comedies, based on an original concept created by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis in 1984. The plot ostensibly centres around a group of eccentric New York City parapsychologists who investigate, encounter, and capture ghosts, paranormal manifestations, demigods and demons.

In GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE, the Spengler family decides to leave Summerville, Oklahoma and go back to where it all started – the iconic New York City firehouse – and help the original Ghostbusters, who've developed a top-secret research lab to take busting ghosts to the next level. But when the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an evil force, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second Ice Age.

The impressive casting includes the original cast of GHOSTBUSTERS, Bill Murray, Dan Skrpyd and Annie Potts and the cast of GHOSTBUSTERS III: AFTERLIFE which is a sequel of.  A big risk in casting is the introduction of a new character, the Firemaster played by comedian Kumail Nanjiani, best known for the rom-com THE BIG SICK to fight the evil ice villain.  Annoying initially, the Pakistani/American actor eventually proves himself funnier than most of the other cast members.

The film works for a variety of factors.  Firstly, the blend of comedy and scary effects works well, with the ghosts being scary fun while not too frightening for the kids.  The Splenger family (played by Paul Rudd, Carrie Coons, Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace) are the heroes of the film, a family with normal problems with the kids having growing up problems like other families.  There is enough family in the story without boring audiences.  All the beloved in the GHOSTBUSTERS franchise is included, especially the equipment to aid in the capture and containment of ghosts.  Their equipment includes proton packs, used to control and lasso ghosts; ghost traps, used to capture ghosts; and PKE meters, handheld devices used to detect psychokinetic energy.  The famous and catchy GHOSTBUSTERS song is reserved for the end, a song that will have GHOSTBUSTERS fans cheering in their seats.  There is a subplot looking at the ghosts’ perspective of the afterlife with Mckenna Grace as a ghost needing to prove herself.  subplot.  Everything in this film appears to work, and fans and not-so-diehard fans should not be disappointed,

GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE is available to be viewed in iMAX and opens in theatres worldwide on March 22nd.

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GOLDEN YEARS (DIE GOLDENEN JAHRE)(Switzerland 2022) ***½

Directed by Barbara Kulcsar

 

GOLDEN YEARS is a sincere senior comedy-drama, unlike most Hollywood senior comedies in which the older stars still cannot get over their aging process.  The aging process in GOLDEN YEAYS is covered with heart and credibility, with the points of view of both the male and female gender.

Alice and Peter are celebrating their retirement – and with it, a new phase in their lives.  The film opens with Peter leaving his office after his retirement.  “Who is taking over the office?” he asks.  He finds out that it is going to be the room for a new computer server,  However, shortly after the couple’s retirement party, a sudden tragedy befalls Alice’s best friend Magalie.  The film shifts, comfortably from Peter to Alice as the film now clearly indicates that both points of view will be examined in the story.   Peter, sympathetic to the suffering of Magalie’s widower, Heinz, invites him on the retirement cruise their children gave them.  Alice had hoped this trip would infuse fresh life into their marriage, but instead of enjoying their time together, they find themselves drifting further apart.

The important question of sex still arises for Peter and Alice and indeed for many older couples as well.  Peter has lost interest in sex, period not particularly for Alice but for anyone.  Naturally, Alice is upset.

Thus, disappointed and hurt, Alice doesn’t reboard the cruise ship during a shore excursion and instead embarks on a journey of self-discovery, taking her across Southern Europe and bringing her into a community of older people finding joy outside traditional notions of gender, marriage, and the later years of one’s life.

During the retirement party at the film’s start, a friend talks about retirement and life’s three regrets.  `1)  I should not have worked so much.  2) I should have shown my true feelings and 3) I should have dared to live one's life.

For the first two regrets, Peter and Alice have those for sure.  As for the third, the film shows them daring to do what they should have done with their life.   As for Alice, this means abandoning the cruise ship and for Peter, to do what he enjoys without Alice’s nagging.  The insightful film shows that the two of them can still have the love they had shared throughout their marriage while still doing the things they wish, with a little separation - no harm done.

GOLDEN YEARS is a different look at one's senior years from both a husband's and wife's points of view, demonstrating that one does not expect that love can still exist through separation and the key is to be able to live one’s life joyously doing what one wants without nagging and restraint,  GOLDEN YEARS is funny, romantic, charming and also entertaining fare.

Barbara Kulcsar (The Two of Us, Blush) directs from a screenplay by Petra Volpe (Heidi, The Divine Order), skillfully balancing drama and comedy in an affectionate story of an older couple.

GOLDEN YEARS opens on digital on March 26th.

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IMMACULATE (USA 2024) **

Directed by Michael Mohan

 

Directed by Michael Morgan and written by Andrew Label this under 90-minute horror movie is short and not-so-sweet, but short because it is short of material, which means that the film requires more technique like atmosphere and anticipation to achieve satisfactory scares. 

A devoutly religious woman named Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney from the recent ANYONE BUT YOU) is offered a role at an illustrious convent in the Italian countryside. The explanation for her going to Rome is that her convent closed in the United States. But this eager young beaver is all devout and ready but does not realize what’s in store for her.  Her faith is to be put to the test. On her arrival and introduction to the Reverend Mother, she is warned by the other sisters of some nasty goings-on.   “Death is part of life here,” Cecilia is told.  When she sees that the place is crawling with patients who are not all there in the upstairs department, Cecilia is told to play along, unless the patients get violent.  The audience is put on horror anticipation mode, spoilt by silly jump scares, but a few chills still keep the audience's interest at bay,  Her seemingly picture-perfect new home is soon revealed to hold horrifying secrets.  Sister Cecilia becomes pregnant, apparently without intercourse, and the pregnancy is deemed a miracle by all.

The film, being set in Italy and shot in vivid colours like red, has the feel of an Italian Giallo film and also Roman Polanski’s classic ROSEMARY’S BABY, as Cecilia will eventually give birth to a devil baby.  What she is going to do with that has the same scare as the climax of ROSEMARY’S BABY.  The arrival of Cecelia at the Italian convent also felt similar to the arrival of the girl at the Music Academy, actually a witch’s haven in Dario Argento’s Giallo classic SUSPIRIA, which had been re-made horribly by Hollywood,  A girl alone in a scary and strange environment where evil lurks is an often fond and scary scenario for a horror film.

The film is mostly a one-handler with the success of the film largely lying on Sydney Sweeney’s shoulders.  But she can only do so much as what transpires onscreen has been seen at one time or another in a horror film.  It does not help that nothing is explained about the pregnancy.  The ending before the climax where the priest chases and attacks Cecilia plays like a cheap slasher film where the killer never dies.  The priest is burnt in an explosion in a room but is still able to come after Cecilia.   The climax *(not to be revealed here) sort of sums up the film, but it takes too long to reach this point,

The beginning scenes are effectively scary though they might’ve little to do with the story.  A sister desperately tries to escape the convent before the opening credits roll.  Her legs get caught in the railings of the front gate and the nuns pull her legs back breaking them,  The next scene has her in an enclosed space.  She lights up a match (indeed where would she get a match from at this point in time or place) and it is revealed that she is enclosed in a coffin.

IMMACULATE had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 12, 2024.  The film opens in theatres on March 22nd.

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PROBLEMISTA (USA 2024) ***½

Directed by Julio Torres

 

PROBLEMISTA is the story of Alejandro, as the voiceover narrates at the start of the film.

Alejandro is an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador struggling to bring his unusual ideas to life in NY.  He wishes to work for Hasbro, the world-famous toy manufacturer, responsible for toys like Lego.  He leaves El Salvador but needs to be sponsored by a company or employer in order to fulfill his dreams of working in the U.S.   As it goes, he gets fired from his first job for the reason that is to be seen to be believed - the segment that could appear as an SNL skit.  As time runs out on his work visa, a job assisting an erratic art-world outcast, Elizabeth (Tilda Swinton)  becomes his only hope to stay in the country.

There is the running joke of updating the file software in order to coordinate all of Elizabeth’s artwork which is quite funny, as is most of Torres's humour.

Julio Torres has the enormous gift of looking below 20 when his real age as of the day is 37.  He wrote, directed and starred as a preschool character in his debut feature PROBLEMISTA.  Who is this Julio Torre?

Julio Torres was born in 1987 in San Salvador, El Salvador. He says he has always wanted to pursue a career in writing for comedy.  Torres worked as a writer on The Chris Gethard Show before he was hired to write for Saturday Night Live.   He worked at SNL from 2016 to 2019, writing sketches including "Papyrus" and "Wells for Boys”  He was nominated for four Emmys as a member of the SNL writing team.  Torres is definitely a very gifted talent and this fact is evident in his debut feature.

Acting heavyweights Oscar Winner Tilda Swinton and Isabella Rossellini (narrating the film) lend their hands to the film, showing their faith in Torres.  Swinton is simply marvellous and unrecognizable as the neurotic Elizabeth.

There is an odd scene in the film where he is invited to an apartment to perform a cleaning that ends with him getting sucked off by the Asian employer.  He gets paid nonetheless and the gay issue is brushed off.  In life, Torres is gay.  He said in June 2020, a fact that is evident in the theme throughout his film, ”I never want to claim to speak for anybody else's experience. I am not here representing gear-paid immigrants. I am not here representing Salvadorians, Hispanics, or gay people. I can only share what's in me and that may or may not ring true with people, but I have never wanted to use any of those things as a calling card.

PROBLEMISTA has the feel of a Spike Jonze film though Torres’s film clearly has a distinction of his own.  Occasionally all over her place with a message that is left ambiguous, the film is still entertaining, inventive and playful showing PROBLEMISTA as a worthy debut for the talented JulioTorres, a new comedic filmmaker and a talent to be reckoned with.

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RIDDLE OF FIRE (USA 2023) ****

Directed by Weston Razooli

 

 

The film plays like a fairytale that contains witches, a princess with a castle and an enchanted forest,  and three ‘innocent’ children.  They get lost in the woods and encounter evil creatures.  But if one expects to watch a family-type Grimm’s fairy tale - no such luck.  But director Razooli’s film offers quite a surprise.  Director/writer Weston Razooli’s fresh and inventive neo-fairytale RIDDLE OF FIRE marks one of the best surprises this year at the cinema.

Three rascal children run afoul of an enigmatic coven in Weston Razooli’s whimsical neo-fairytale, which evokes a menagerie of esoteric genres and dreamy cult-film vibes.

The film begins with the three rascals riding their bikes and arming themselves with weapons that can hurt like a paintball gun  The three plan to hijack the latest video game from Otomo in a warehouse.  They call themselves the Three Immortal Reptiles, and are made up of two brothers and a girl. For Hazel (Charlie Stover), Alice (Phoebe Ferro), and Jodie (Skyler Peters).   But they are unable to play the game as their game console is password protected by the boys’ mother who is ill in bed with the flu.  The kids beg for the password but the mother utters a very stern no.  But the kids aim to win their mother’s heart and the password, by getting her favourite blueberry pie from the store.  The story goes all over the place - but in a good and humorous way and the kids end up having to bake the pie on their own after getting the ingredients that includes one speckled egg.  The search for the speckled egg ends up with the trio finding themselves whisked away through woodlands dark, running afoul with the infamous Enchanted Blade Gang, an enigmatic coven led by an honest-to-badness witch (Lio Tipton) who is able to cast spells to enchant others.

Director Razooli’s story takes place in the least of expected places for a fairy tale- in the area around Ribbon in Wyoming - which makes the film every weirder and dead-pan.  Razooli is clever enough to get his audience on this side of the kids.  All the adults are enemies or obstacles for the kids with the only adult that has a good heart being the mother with the ultimate prize of the password for the game console.  It is a kids adventure in the spirit of the Enid Blyton children’s books like The Famous Five but for adults in an adult setting.  RIDDLE OF FIRE is that rare film that can play both at a children's film festival and at the Midnight Madness section at TIFF.

The kids are not perfect kids.  They steal and lie and fight among themselves but they are real kids, more real than one can imagine - not like the goody-goody ones in the Disney world.  The dialogue among the adults, the kids and the fairytale poetry is often pricelessly funny.

RIDDLE OF FIRE premiered at the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes followed by screening at TIFF’s Midnight Madness section.  The film is not a horror movie but is more quirky than most.

RIDDLE OF FIRE film in theatres on March 22nd.

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SHAYDA (Australia 2023) ***

Directed by Noora Niasari.

 

Inspired by Niasari's childhood experiences, the story follows an Iranian immigrant woman in Australia, Shayda (Cannes Best Actress Winner for HOLY SPIDER, Zar Amir Ebrahimi) who is raising her young daughter in a women's shelter.

It takes a while for the film to set its footing and for the audience to determine what the story is in SHAYDA.  The audience soon learns that Shayda and her daughter have moved into a female shelter where she looks after her daughter with other mothers facing the same dire circumstances.  There is of course friction between mothers, between the young children, all heightened by the stress of leaving one’s home.  The audience soon learns that Shayda has been abused by her husband.  She is filing for divorce and he is filing for custody.  Presently, the child is with her.  In the preparation of the court case, the audience learns the details of the physical abuse.  He had grabbed Shayda and pushed her against a wall, thus having sex with her claiming that she would not leave him now that she would be pregnant with the second child.  Most of the important incidents are revealed secondhand through words, and not seen in its execution.  Yet the abuse can still be emotionally felt.

SHAYDA is being blamed for the abuse done to her by her husband and for her running away with her daughter.  This the audience learns from Shayda’s telephone call with her mother.  “People are talking,” the mother says.  “He is a good father.  After he graduates and becomes a doctor, he will get his life together.”   Everyone seems to have a good impression of doctors.  But in another scene, the husband tells the daughter that he wants to cure all the sick cows in Tehran.  So, whether he is studying to become a veterinarian or a human doctor is never made clear.

Women in Iran have been portrayed in a really bad light lately.  The film demonstrates the empowerment of women and sends a necessary and strong message that women must stand up and fight for what is right in their lives.  And men should know better and be more sympathetic.  The film picks up when Shayda attempts some normalcy in her.  She wears a shiny dress and goes dancing in a club, wearing what she wants to wear and not dictated by Iranian norms.  But the danger of her daughter being abducted and her worries about her abusive husband still loom in her mind,

SHAYDA has already made the film circuit through film festivals worldwide.  SHAYDA had its World Premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival on 19 January 2023, where it won the Audience Award in the World Cinema Dramatic competition.  In August 2023, it was screened as the opening film at the Melbourne International Film Festival for its Australian premiere, and it closed the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. It was also scheduled for screening at the Toronto International Film Festival last September.  SHAYDA was also Australia’s entry for the Best International Feature Academy Award this year.  It opens in theatres on March 22nd.

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YOU’LL NEVER FIND ME (Australia 2023) ***

Directed by Josiah Allen and Indianna Bell

Patrick, a strange and lonely resident, lives in a mobile home at the back of an isolated caravan park.  After a violent thunderstorm erupts, a mysterious young woman appears at his door, seeking shelter from the weather. The longer the night wears on and the more the young woman discovers about Patrick, the more difficult she finds it to leave.  Soon she begins to question Patrick's intentions, while Patrick begins to question his own grip on reality.

The film is essentially a two-hander with two actors enclosed in a claustrophobic setting.  It is a simple premise and a low-budget production, but the directors prove that there can always be more than meets the eye.

So the story has two people stuck in a shack because of a furious storm that shows no relentless stopping.  The girl seeks shelter from the storm.  In an initial scene, she bangs on the door, to which the man responds with a loud: “Fuck Off”.  The man gives her shelter and the cat-and-mouse game begins.

Who is the predator?  It is the mean-looking loner who is different from the world?  Or is it the intruder?  Directors Allen and Bell keep their audience guessing from the very start.  He could be a serial killer hiding out in the woods away from civilization.  On the other hand, perhaps, the girl, the intruder knows the man and has planned a visit to exact an act of revenge.  The plot thickens with lots of lumps in the gravy.  It is near the two-third mark and more hints are given to the audience to bow the audience’s mind with no clear result in sight  It is a good tactic to keep interest at hand with the audience always wondering who the villain is.  Perhaps both of them are.  This could also be a possibility.

“Like I said, I think you will be here for a while.”   The power is out before flicking causing the light to go on and off and the music from the radio to sound intermittently.  All these effects create a more sinister atmosphere of dread and danger.

The title of the film YOU’LL NEVER FIND ME could refer to the old man’s lodging.  “What are you hiding from?” she asks him at one point in the film adding that wherever one might be, tap water will never taste differently.

The grounds where the man resides are locked.  “If the gate is locked, how did I get in?” quizzes the girl to the old man.  “That is exactly what I was going to ask you.” answers the man.  The conversation is left hanging.

“I would like to leave now, “ says the girl.” The gate’s locked,” the man retorts.  “I will find a way for you, “ she replies to which volunteers to take her there when the weather improves.  The question of her earrings comes into the discussion whence finally gets upset saying that she will then leave.

The ultimate segment comes when the two are stuck together in the house and playing cards.  “My name is Patrick, by the way,” the man volunteered his name to which she did not reply with her name.  “You look familiar,  Have we not met before?” he asks.

YOU’LL NEVER FIND ME has an excellent build-up - too good that it is hard to reach a climax that meets the audience’s anticipations.   Watch the film for the buildup anyway, and forget the muddled ending. The film streams on Shudder on March 22nd.

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YUNI (Singapore/Indonesia/Australia/France 2021) **
Directed by Kamila Andini 

The third film of director Andini to premiere at TIFF, YNUI is the story of an Indonesian teen school girl by the name of Yuni, played by Arawinda Kirana.  Yuni loves the colour of purple (not THE COLOUR PURPLE film), has a clique of close friends, and characteristically teenage views.  She longs to study in college, hopefully winning a scholarship in the process.  Her loving family is more bound to tradition than she is.  When her family receives the first one, then a second proposal of arranged marriage for her, Yuni’s grandmother urges her not to refuse this “blessing.”  With each passing day, at home and at school, Yuni sees her horizons closing in.  Director Anini paints a troubled teen life and the audience gets to learn what Indonesia is like as well as what teen girls have to face.  But director Andini  takes on a bit too many issues that include her literature teacher turning out gay and proposing to her as well.  Whether Yuni wins her scholarship is not the key issue of the story here, and one wonders what (the key issue) is after the film concludes with an open ending.  Perhaps director Andini wishes her audience to figure it out.

YUNI won TIFF’s Platform prize in 2021.  The film premieres on VOD and digital on March 22, 2024.

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