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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 14 August 2023

The Toronto International Film Festival runs 7th to the 17th of September 2013.   Check this site continually for updates, especially of capsule reviews.  In general, capsule reviews have an embargo date and time lifted on its first public screening. 

Capsule Reviews:

ABOUT DRY GRASSES (Turkey/France/Germany/Sweden 2023) ***

Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

 

Dedicated teachers or just plain teachers and their demise have been favourite fodder for dramatic stories in films.  At TIFF alone this year, there are similar stories to be told in THE TEACHER’S LOUNGE and L’ETE DERNER (THE LAST SUMMER)but not so elaborate as Nuri Bilge Ceylon’s (WINTER SLEEP, ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA) masses.  Elaborate it is as the film runs a full three hours and 20 minutes allowing Ceylon time to tell his take without rush or even urgency.

The film is set in a tight-knit community that seems to only experience two seasons, just summer and winter in Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s masterfully character-driven return to the screen probes into power dynamics and the darkest regions of the human soul, as reflected ninth film’s setting.

Middle-aged Samet (Deniz Celiloglu) is a quick-witted and quick-to-anger elementary school art teacher–cum–amateur photographer in a traditional village who dreams of a posting in his native Istanbul.   shares lodging with his more attractive and likable colleague Kenan (Musab Ekici) and spends his nihilistic days developing an inappropriate fixation on 14-year-old teacher’s pet Sevim (Ece Bagci).  When a love note written by Sevim is confiscated in a school-wide search, Samet’s rotten-to-the-core fantasies grow.  The search clearly violates personal privacy, an issue that will never be tolerated these days in North American or Western schools.  Meanwhile, Sevim, who suspects her teacher of stealing the letter, makes her heightened discomfort with his behaviour known to the school authorities and an investigation is launched. Enter Nuray (Merve Dizdar), a fellow teacher whose past political activism has rendered her disabled, allowing her to choose postings anywhere in the state — just the escape Samet needs. The only problem is that Nuray seems to favour Kenan.

The film is beautiful to look, at the vast ice and snow of the landscape and even the flowing river during summer.  The film is poetic and reflective of the emotions of its characters.  But the film is far too long, good as it is, and can be shortened without compromise.

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AFTER THE FIRE (France 2023) ***
Directed by Mehdi Fikri

 

Injustice against minorities is often favourite fodder for French films, (BATIMENT 5 (LES INDESIRABLES) and LES MISERABLES by Ladj Ly being prime examples.  In an immigrant French suburb of Strasbourg. Karim, a 25-year-old man, has died at the hands of the police. Devastated by the news, his estranged sister Malika (Camélia Jordana) reunites with her family, compelled to seek justice for her slain brother.  Theplice claim the death is due to an epileptic fit due to drug taking.  Strategizing with mentorly community organizer Slim (Samir Guesmi) and suave private lawyer Mr. Harchi (Makita Samba), Malika soon begins to face a courtroom battle with overwhelming media exposure, while contending with the growing chaos of her hectic everyday — missed daycare meetings, a failing business, and a strained marriage. But she and her siblings Driss (passionately played by rapper Sofiane Zermani, a.k.a. Fianso) and Nour (Sonia Faidi) are anchored by their renewed blood ties. Together they harness the fire of public outrage against a racist criminal justice system.  Director Fikri shows some sympathy for the authorities with the pathologist and the guarding police officer allowing Malika total photos of the bruises from the beatings of the dead brother’s corpse while also showing the judicial process and the court case preparations.  The sight of the bruised body also gets the emotions of the audience going.

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ANATOMIE D’UNE CHUTE (France 2023) ***** Top 10

Directed by Justine Triet

 

The film that both received great applause during the screening at Cannes and the coveted Palme d’Or (Best Film) is a taut courtroom drama and thriller that keeps one glued to the set from start to end.  Great performances from all especially the lead, Sandra Huller and including the dog that voids and has its eyes rolled whitened.  Sandra (Sandra Hüller) is a successful German writer who lives in the French Alps with her husband Samuel (Samuel Theis) and their visually impaired son Daniel (Milo Machado Graner).  A brilliant, decibel-bursting opening scene suggests tensions in their isolated chalet, so when Samuel is discovered dead in the snow beneath one of their windows, suspicion is quickly aroused.  Did he take his own life, or was he pushed to his death?  When the investigation proves to be inconclusive — its varying angles hinting at the microscopic examination to come — Sandra is ultimately indicted and put on trial.  The prosecuting attorney is understandably nasty and able to twist all the evidence against Sandra, forcing her to unveil all her personal emotions and her life.  The twist near the film’s end ties all the ends tidily in what is an excellent film all around.

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UNE ANNEE DIFFICILE (A DIFFICULT YEAR)N(FRANCE 2023) ***
Directed by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledan

 

Writer and directors Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledan of C’EST LA VIE return with a similar feel-good commercial French comedy with few relevant messages to boot.  It is mainly about two friends who join a movement out of chance with the hope of a little romance..  When Bruno (Pion Marmaï) and Albert (Jonathan Cohen) first meet, neither is in a good way. Bruno has just stolen a television, while Albert responds to being evicted with a bumbling suicide attempt. Bruno manages to save this doped-up stranger’s life — only after getting vomited on — and a friendship is born. They have something in common: each suffers an addiction to buying stuff, and both are drowning in debt. They take classes from debt-reduction expert Henri (Mathieu Amalric), though he, too, has a long record of overspending that threatens to follow him forever.  They join an activist anti-consumer anti-climate change group, both falling for the group’s beautiful leader (Noémie Merlant), who manages to persuade them to participate in elaborate demonstrations that Bruno hopes will spark a love affair.  An entertaining enough fare lacking in any power in the messages put across.  

 

 

ARTHUR & DIANE (Germany 2023) **
Directed by Sara Summa

 

 

 

Writer-director Sara Summa stars alongside her real-life brother Robin Summa, in this playful auto-fictional road trip from Berlin to Paris with she takes with her brother Arthur and two year old son, Lupa.   The mission to renew an expired MOT — a certificate confirming a vehicle’s compliance with road safety and environmental standards — on their shared car, a rusty childhood relic, they also plan on visiting their aging mother along the way.  Arthur and Diane travel from Point A to Point B without much director nor purpose (for example, they diverge to a lake to swim)  The film feels the same way.  Though a quite a neat exercise in filmmaking, one cannot help but feel bored and listless rather than charmed or excited, - though director Summa at least does not try to manipulate her audience.  The ultimate question though out the movie is: Are we there yet?”

BOIL ALERT (Canada 2023) 

Directed by Stevie Salas and James Burns

 Review embargoed till after 315 pm screening Sept 15th Friday)

BOIL ALERT follows an indigenous woman, activist Layla Staats as she undergoes a journey through First Nations reservations to shine a light on the devastating struggle for clean water and discovers herself in the process. 

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THE BOY AND THE HERON (Japan 2023) ***½

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki

 

The film is a labour of love and an elaborate effort from the legendary Japanese animator Miyazaki who astounded cinemagoers with SPIRITED AWAY and other classics.  The film is based on Genzaburo Yoshino’s novel How Do You Live?   During the Second World War, young Mahito Maki (Soma Santoki) suffers a heartbreaking family tragedy and must move immediately to the countryside, where his father (Takuya Kimura) works for a family making planes for Japan’s military, as Miyazaki’s own father did.  Isolated, Mahito begins exploring the mysterious landscapes and encounters a grey heron, persistent in its presence. The boy also happens upon an abandoned tower. Curious, he enters. From there, The Boy and the Heron expands into a wondrous, often startling phantasmagoria.  The story is too complicated to follow and a bit too ambitious in the director’s storytelling, but the animation is nothing short of superb, mixed with great colours, Japanese folklore, and myth while accompanied by a marvellous soundtrack.   The animated grannies (see image) are hilarious and a real treat.  Another visual classic from Miyazaki.

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THE BURIAL (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Maggie Betts

THE BURIAL is so-called as a so-called family funeral home business that is about to be buried by an oil conglomerate.  As he turns 75, Biloxi, Mississippi funeral director Jeremiah O’Keefe (Tommy Lee Jones) feels blessed by his wife and children and the legacy he’s proud to leave to them. But debts force Jeremiah to sell parts of his business to a corporation rapidly buying up funeral homes, cemeteries, and insurance companies to profit from what its CEO, Ray Loewen (Bill Camp), refers to as “the golden age of death.”   When Jeremiah’s contract with Ray is in dispute, he solicits the services of Willie E. Gary (Jamie Foxx), a flamboyant personal injury lawyer who hasn’t lost a case in 12 years — but who doesn’t know a thing about contract law.   The performances are nothing short of superb, flamboyant Foxx’s performance playing against sombre and controlled Jones’.  Many of the courtroom segments are clearly performed for the sole reason of eliciting audience audible cheers.  There is a disclaimer at the end of the film stating, that much of the dialogue and many scenes have been changed for dramatic effect.

THE BURIAL is a feel-good large-budget courtroom drama that relies on Oscar winners in the leads and cheap theatrics that could be achieved much more cheaply like the 1997 2-week made efficient Australian, also David and Goliath courtroom piece, Rob Sitch’s THE CASTLE.

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

 

 

LA CHIMERA follows the adventures of a linen-clothed 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, competing with 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.  Arthur is a handsome fellow and O’Connor portrays him with a certain suave and likability.  It turns out that Arthur has just been released from prison, the only one caught the last time he was tomb digging with the gypsy romans, who are eager to get up with him again.  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.  The film’s ending 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.

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CHUCK CHUCK BABY (UK 2023) **
Directed by Janis Pugh

 

Director Janis Pugh’s feel-good romantic comedy that is filled with popular songs, sung in part by Helen played by Louis Barely and set in a chicken factory sounds more promising than it really turns out,  Helen has a complicated domestic situation: she lives in the same crummy terrace as her oafish husband Gary, from whom she is separated but seemingly not actually divorced, and shares the place with his new, much younger, girlfriend Amy (Emily Fairn) and their newly arrived baby.  Also on the premises is Gary’s terminally ill mother Gwen (Sorcha Cusack), for whom Helen acts as a carer but is the quasi-maternal figure that Helen appears to long for.   The film is Welsh and set in a small Welsh town, so living comfortably with an in-law, is common there though odd in North America.  The individual segments are lively done but fail to come together as a whole.  The feel-good ending feels like a complete cop-out too.

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THE CONVERT (Australia/New Zealand 2023) ***½

Directed by Lee Tamahori

 

Since breaking into the filmmaking scene with his debut ONCE WERE WARRIORS, New Zealander Lee Tamahori’s newest action-filled historical epic stars Guy Pearce as Thomas Munro, a newly arrived preacher in a colonial town in early 19th-century New Zealand who finds himself at the centre of a long-standing battle between two Māori tribes.  It is a more ambitious film with closeups of ships, and Maori villages with superb cinematography and indigenous wardrobe.  Munro soon learns to navigate the complex dynamics at play within the community and with the iwi. Epworth itself leases its land from the local iwi headed by Maianui (Antonio Te Maioha) whose nation struggles with the aggressive might of his counterpart, Akatarawa (Lawrence Makoare), whose ruthlessness in claiming territories threatens Epworth’s tenuous stability.  The film also shows the greed of the British white man and the problems thus caused by its influence and wars.  Another worthy effort from director Tamahori that offers insight into the history of dispeople.

THE CRITIC (UK 2023) ****.

Directed by Arnold Tucker

 

The period piece, a black satire THE CRITIC based on Anthony Quinn’s novel Curtain Callis set in the year 1936, prior to World War II.  The Nazi-like blackshirts have a scene bearing up a gay Jimmy Erskine, the theatre critic played by McKellen near the end of the film.  Ambition and status is the subject at hand.  Gemma Arterton and Ian McKellen star as adversaries forced to take desperate measures to save their careers, in this scintillating tale of ambition and deceit in the theatre world.   The dialogue is ripe and ready for this yet another extraordinary performance for cinema and theatre actor McKellen.  When asked how he could live with himself after dishing out blackmail and deceit, Jimmy spews up the script’s best line: “It is a struggle.”  McKellen delivers an unmatched Academy Award Winning performance of a critic - more beast than beauty, (he has not won but has been twice nominated in FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING and GODS AND MONSTERS).  Arterton and Mark Strong also deliver worthwhile performances in a wonderfully created atmospheric and wicked piece worthy of classic period drama.

THE DEAD DON’T HURT (Canada/Mexico/Denmark 2023) ****

Directed by Viggo Mortensen

 

Impressive and ambitious second feature after FALLING by actor Viggo Mortensen has an 1860s setting in an elegantly realized feminist western starring Mortensen himself and Vicky Krieps as immigrants attempting to forge a life in a corrupt Nevada town. There are a lot of French spoken in the film.  French-Canadian flower seller Vivienne Le Coudy (Krieps) and Danish carpenter Holger Olsen (Mortensen) meet in San Francisco. Vivienne is irreverent, fiercely independent, and refuses to wed, but agrees to travel with Holger to his home near the quiet town of Elk Flats, Nevada. There, they begin a life together — Vivienne grows roses and waits tables at a tavern and Holger builds barns until the couple is separated by Holger’s decision to fight for the Union in the burgeoning Civil War.  Left on her own, Vivienne must fend for herself in a place controlled by corrupt Mayor Rudolph Schiller (Danny Huston) and his business partner, powerful rancher Alfred Jeffries (Garret Dillahunt). Alfred's violent, wayward son Weston (Solly McLeod) aggressively pursues Vivienne, who is determined to resist his unwanted advances.  A bit disorienting at first as the story unveils in non-chronological order without titles, the tactic forces the audience to think a bit and puts all the pieces into place.  Necessarily violent, this is a violent revenge western.  Director Mortensen sets up all the I justices down toward the couple before exacting the well-deserved revenge that would have the audience cheering.

 

DEATH OF A WHISTLEBLOWER (South Africa 2023) ***

Directed by Ian Gabriel

 

THE DEATH OF A WHISTLEBLOWER is a combination of suspense thriller and real-life whistleblowing that does not really blend together but is not due to lack of trying.  When an investigative journalist is killed, it falls to his colleague to expose the corruption that cost her friend his life.  From returning director, Ian Gabriel comes this high-energy political thriller highlighting the devastating risks faced by South African whistleblowers.  The film ends with a list of South African whistleblowers who have lost their lives due to other convictions.  When her friend and fellow reporter Stanley Galloway (Rob van Vuuren) is murdered for daring to release catastrophic state secrets, investigative journalist Luyanda Masinda (Noxolo Dlamini) is thrown headfirst into a dangerous search for those responsible.  Stanley is the latest victim in a string of suspicious killings across South Africa intended to silence those committed to rooting out government corruption.  Unintimidated, Luyanda is propelled into action, scouring her friend’s files for details about the explosive story he was chasing, knowing it holds the key to exposing his killers. Luyanda uncovers what Stanley had learned about the government’s latest privatization scheme and the double-dealing profiteers who stand to benefit.

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DUMB MONEY (USA 2023) ***1/2

Directed by Craig Gillespie

 

DUMB MONEY is a timely drama comedy written by Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo based on the 2021 book The Antisocial Network by Ben Mezrich and chronicles the GameStop short squeeze of January 2021.  Keith Gill (Paul Dano) and Gabe Plotkin (Seth Rogen) find themselves on opposite ends during a tug-of-war, in Craig Gillespie’s take on the outrageous battle of wits between amateur investors and hedge fund billionaires that became the infamous GameStop Wall Street scandal.  DUMB MONEY captures the rabid creativity of the internet and the power of the community many found there in 2021.  What started as a silly gamble quickly turned into a national battle of wits between the haves and the have-nots, with nurses and college students.  The film is necessarily manic, and what better actors to portray crazed personalities than SNL’s Pete Davidson, Paul Dana (last seen as Spielberg’s dad in THE FABELMANS) and of course, Set Rogen.  One crazy scene has the brother played by Davidson and Dana running naked on the track in the middle of the night.  The music soundtrack contains lots of street music that adds to the film’s manic pace.  Everyone loves a David and Goliath story.  And the big guys like Wall Street fund managers do not play fair. 

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ESTONIA (Estonia/Sweden/Finland/Belgium 2023) ***
Directed by Miikko Oikkonen

 

 Just after midnight on September 28, 1994, MS Estonia was caught in a catastrophic storm on its way from Tallinn to Stockholm.  The cruise ferry is fully loaded and dangerously lilting from side to side; the 989 people aboard, a mix of guests and crew (including Kaspar Velberg), begin to panic. As the ship begins to sink, one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th century is underway: a tragedy that will involve numerous nations, hundreds of lives lost, and many families impacted forever.  This is a TV series about the account of the disaster, with real footage coupled with dramatic re-enactments.  The series is made up of 8 episodes of which two are seen in this film at TIFF.  The film is revealed primarily with two main characters, a rescuer,  Ari Luoma-Aho (Pelle Heikillä) and a priest Mikaela Karlsson (Cecilia Milocco).   The film documents the direct countries arguing and blaming each other, the withholding of passenger information and the frustration of the friends and relatives of the passengers. The film documents the direct countries arguing and blaming the other, the withholding of passenger information and the frustration of the friends and relatives of the passengers.

 

FALLEN LEAVES (Finland/Germany 2023) ****
Directed by Aki Kaurismaki

 

A love story of sorts between two lonely working-class people showing that love can still be found,  Ansa (Alma Pöysti) and Holappa (Jussi Vatanen), spend their waking hours in drab workplaces, bars full of stone-faced patrons, and sparsely decorated homes in which a radio is the height of modern technology.  FALLEN LEAVES is simply wonderful because of all the little details and observations Kaurismaki inserts in his film.  His distaste for the Russian invasion of Ukraine is made loud and clear as a message from the radio broadcasts heard throughout the film.  The film pays tribute to lots of oldies, particularly David Lean’s BRIEF ENCOUNTER, the Finnish poster seen in the background, both films share similar stories of lost love opportunities.  Even the dog in the movie is called Chaplin, another tribute to another Master of film.

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THE FEELING THAT THE TIME FOR SOMETHING HAS PASSED (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Joanna Arnow

THE FEELING THAT THE TIME FOR SOMETHING HAS PASSED follows Ann (Arnow), a 30something Brooklynite who passes time in her long-term BDSM relationship, low-level corporate job and quarrelsome Jewish family, with Ann’s parents played by Arnow’s real ones.  For nine years, Ann has been involved as a submissive partner with an older man (Scott Cohen) who can’t even remember what college she attended (Wesleyan, Arnow’s alma mater).  Ann decides to move on to other men (including one who wants her to wear a pig costume) and finally meets someone with whom she might find love.  Director Arnow is unafraid to go all out for her film including full frontal; nudity.. Director Arnow is fond of using the style of Director Roy Andersson especially in his use of deadpan humour and stationary camera.This is clearly an Arnow’s styled film, the auteur serving as star, writer, director and editor of the film.  Though not autobiographical, the press notes claim that the film is based on the filmmaker’s experiences. 

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FOUR DAUGHTERS (France, Tunisia, Germany, Saudi Arabia 2023) 

Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania

 

FOUR DAUGHTERS is a film about the four daughters of Olga, a Tunisian, the film’s French title being LES FILLES D’OLFA.    This is hardly the subject of a film that might sound interesting to a male audience but this prize winner for Best Documentary at this year’s Cannes Festival is a powerful piece of filmmaking that both genders should watch.  Using actors to fill in the gaps, the film documents the story of Olfa, a Tunisian mother of four daughters, with her two eldest  disappearing as teenagers.  The two have been taken away by a wolf, Olfa says of the two older daughters on camera while the two youngest daughters Eya and Tayssir (as themselves) are still living with her.   The missing ones are Ghofrane (Ichraq Matar) and Rahma (Nour Karoui).  Olfa plays herself, with actor Hend Sabri also standing in.  Majd Mastoura plays all the disappointing men – Olfra’s husband, her lover whom the kids initially see as a step-dad, and a Tunisian officer who refuses to help.  A compelling documentary about female abuse with a strong statement that the female gender is just as strong as the male and will do anything in order to prove themselves and to survive!

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FRYBREAD FACE AND ME (USA 2023) ***

Directed by Billy Luther

 

FRYBREAD FACE AND ME is a Navajo Indigenous entertaining coming-of-age story of a pre-teem named Benny who is sent to the reservation to spend the summer with his grandmother.  A city boy with long hair so that he looks like a girl, he loves Fleetwood Mac.  A lifelong city kid, Benny is a fish out of water in the rural northern Arizona community. Grappling with feelings of abandonment, his initial isolation is enhanced by not being able to communicate with his loving, Navajo-speaking grandma (who has refused to ever learn English). Making matters worse is his bullying uncle Marvin, who sees Benny’s sensitivity as a weakness.  But Benny’s summer takes a new twist when Dawn (a.k.a. Frybread Face), his bold and brashly confident cousin, is also unexpectedly dropped off at Granny’s.   A refreshing look at a coming-of-age story in a different Navajo setting, Benny learns about rodeo, driving and sheep herding.  Director Luther goes for more humour than drama though Benny does lose it a few times.

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GOD IS A WOMAN (Dieu est une Femme) (Switzerland/Panama 2023) **
Directed by Andrés Peyrot 

 

Though many might not have heard of the Kunas, the Kuna community is one of the largest remaining Indigenous tribes in Latin America. Based in the Guna Yala islands off Panama’s Caribbean coast, they organized a revolution in the 1920s that helped establish their independence. In 1975, they attracted the attention of Pierre-Dominique Gaisseau, an Oscar-winning French filmmaker and anthropologist. He moved with his family to spend a year documenting the Kuna’s matrilocal society. He promised to share the resulting film with the community, but that never happened.  This doc is about the Kuna’s claim for the film.

as they seek to lay claim to a 1975 documentary that captured their community, but never was shown to them.  One of the most motivated is Arysteides Turpana, who studied in France and doggedly pursues the film’s trail through the bureaucracy of government ministries.  Though one can hardly feel the same zest as the Kunas, the doc still serves as a cautionary tale raising questions around how and why documentaries are made and for whom, and a testament to the power of what it means to see yourself on the big screen.

HAJJAN (Saudi Arabia/Jordan/Egypt 2023) ****
Directed by Abu Bakr Shawky

 

Following his 2018 Cannes Competition debut, Yomeddine, Egyptian Austrian writer-director Abu Bakr Shawky brings a western of a different sort - one set in the hot and dry deserts of Saudi Arabia.  A grand Arabic epic, both in concept and execution complete with an evil villain, Jasser (Saudi actor Abdelmohsen Al Nemer) who does not show his evil till 45 minutes   It is also a renegade, mythic coming-of-age adventure by director Abu Bakr Shawky is set in the legendary, high-stakes world of Bedouin camel racing.  The camel racing is something seldom seen in North America and the filming of the races is as exciting as the chariot races in William Wyler’s BEN-HUR.  Director Shawky also sneaks in a message of the empowerment of movement with the female characters in the story playing a major part.  Intelligent, exciting and fresh, HAJJAN is a welcome surprise to TIFF.

 

HELL OF A SUMMER (USA 2023) **

Directed by Finn Wolfhard, Billy Bryk

 

A tribute to horror slasher movies, HELL OF A SUMMER has its main protagonist named Jason, an obvious tribute to the FRIDAY THE 13th franchise, also set in a summer camp.  Some masked killer is doing away with all the camp counsellors before the kids arrive the following week.  The victims are all good-looking human specimens and the counsellors assume that they are being done away in the order of the best looking.  The main suspect is the least good-looking of the lot, Jason.  The violence and vote are still there but the directors concentrate more on the humour, which is amusing at best.  Again horny teenagers are done away with in a variety of ways from axe in the head to stabbings and so on.  Nothing that audiences have not seen before, and the film is barely amusing at best!

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HOLIDAY (Italy 2023) **
Directed by Edoardo Gabbriellini

 

This is a courtroom drama done all wrong.  It is void of suspense or mystery because it begins with the defendant's release, so one knows she is likely innocent.  Whether this is true at least forces some curiosity into the audience.   Just before her 20th birthday, Veronica (Margherita Corradi) is released from prison after a long and public trial in which she stood accused of brutally murdering her mother and her mother’s lover. She was found not guilty in court, but the court of public opinion is another matter, and now every move she makes is under society’s microscope.  She has become a social pariah, and only Veronica’s father (Alessandro Tedeschi) and her best friend Giada (Giorgia Frank) — who was also there on the fateful summer night when the couple was found stabbed and floating in the pool at a swanky seaside villa — are by her side. Now, with the ordeal in the near-distant rearview, Veronica, who maintains her innocence, is simultaneously beating a drum in search of a fugitive while trying to reclaim her young life, which was abruptly frozen just as she was discovering her sexuality, thus adding the coming-of-age element into the story.  A disappointing and confusing drama that misses its mark.

THE HOLDOVERS (USA 2023) ***** Top 10

Directed by Alexander Payne

 

Written by David Hemindson and directed by Alexander Payne, this film won the runner-up roil for the Audience Choice Award at TIFF, but should have been the prize winner.  The film is an updated variation of the Charles Dickens’ A CHRISTMAS CAROL, in which the miser is replaced by a very strict and unflinching schoolmaster whose past catches up with him with the help of a troublesome student who eventually brings out the man’s good side.   The film is both sad and funny with Paul Giamatti delivering a career-best Oscar Winning performance.   Set in the early 1970s (the year no revealed till the new year is shown on the TV), the film follows Paul Hunham (Giamatti), a disliked teacher at Barton Academy, who's responsible for supervising students who are unable to return home for the Christmas holidays. During this process, Paul is forced to deal with one particularly rebellious but troubled student, Angus (Dominic Sessa), who is grieving the loss of his father.  One also learns the all-important lesson that there is much more alike in human beings than one can imagine.  Extent funny and quotable dialogue too!

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I DON’T KNOW WHO YOU ARE (Canada 2023) ***

Directed by M.H. Murray

 

I DON’T KNOW WHO YOU ARE is an impressive and knock-out debut by both director Murray and lead actor Mark Clennon.  Gay Toronto musician has a complex personality that few including the audience can understand - hence the film’s title,  Benjamin (Lennon) is not a likable character, has problems with social interaction, and often displays attitude when comes across instead of his insecurity and a failure to commit in life and in relationship.  His character is less likable to the audience as director Murray surrounds this man with faithful and sincere friends and a decent and loving boyfriend.  “Call me Benjamin, not Benji”, he tells a friend at a party.   After being raped, he fails to go after his attacker leaving him free to assault others.  Benjamin is also broke and frantic trying to raise money for an HIV treatment after the rape.  Though director Murray’s character is a hapless fool unable to care fro himself, he shows a broken-down system where the city is unable to help the weaker and minority population.  A worthy and unforgettable debut of a film.

I TOLD YOU SO (Italy 2023) **

Directed by Ginevra Elkann

 

The film is set in Rome during one sweltering hot Indian summer in January when temperatures are around the 40C mark and all the characters are sweating to death. Amid the bustling streets and piazzas, Gianna (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) is honing a decade-long obsession with her ex–best friend Pupa (Valeria Golino), an aging, bankrupt porn star from the ’80s desperately clutching to her golden days with cosmetic retouches and corny appearances.

Gianna depends (but mostly co-depends) on her sweet daughter Mila (Sofia Panizzi), who dotingly cares for a housebound older woman (Marisa Borini) — and is trapped in a cycle of bingeing and purging — as well as on her forthright priest, Father Bill (Danny Huston), a half-Italian, half-American former heroin addict, whose sister (Greta Scacchi) has arrived to the Italian capital to bury their estranged mother’s ashes according to particular wishes.

The Father, too, is a true piece of work, though he remains a committed sponsor to Caterina (Alba Rohrwacher), an artist struggling with addiction, who recently lost custody of her young son to her heartbroken ex (Riccardo Scamarcio).  The drama, jealousy and humour do not really work and sympathy for the characters is lost.  It is good to see Danny Hudson and Greta Scacchi together in an Italian movie.  The film is shot in red and haze to depict the heat of the sun, but the gimmick wears thin.

LES INDESIRABLES (BATIMENT 5) (France 2023) ***½

Directed by Ladj Ly

 

LES INDESIRABLES (BATIMENT 5) is co-writer and director Ladj Li’s second feature after his excellent Cannes Jury Prize–winning debut, LES MISERABLES (TIFF ’19), which was also French’s entry for the Oscar’s Best International Film that lost all its glory to the over-rated PARASITE.  

LES MISERABLES' actor Alexis Manenti who played the racist white cop with the nickname ‘Piggy’ now plays the unlikeable, white new deputy mayor who has some slight good in him but carries policies out the wrong way.  In LES MISERABLES,  his cop says “Le loi, c'est moi!”  (The law - it’s me!)  In this one, his mayor, Pierre says: “The law is harsh, until it is the law!”  Pierre is woefully unfamiliar with the less affluent members of his constituency and soon realizes he’s in over his head.  Manenti is a superb actor and it is clear the reason director Ly chose him again for his second feature.   Newcomer Anta Diaw, is also especially good in the main role of the running mayor, dramatizing a most divisive social theme.

As Pierre’s administration unleashes an aggressive campaign targeting immigrants, Haby decides to put herself forward as a candidate in the forthcoming mayoral election. But can she and her team act fast enough to prevent their community from being evicted wholesale?

Director Ly also includes a few more intimate scenes at the start of the film to show the plight of the poor.  These include a bus driver strike, a disastrously executed demolition, and a scene in which a family must move a casket carrying the remains of a loved one down multiple flights of stairs.

Director Ly proves himself apt at shooting spectacle.  The fire on the upper floor of a building is shown at a distance as well as a  demolition of a building at the film’s beginning.  The riot scenes are also well-shot.

LES INDESIRABLES (BATIMENT 5) pale in comparison to Ly’s masterwork LES MISERABLES for its lesser biting humour and spirit (that one begins with tParis’ celebration of winning the world cup), but still shows the director in fine form, tacking key issues, in this case, mis-sue of power and the law as well as poverty housing.  Praise to director Ly for carrying out his convictions out into film.

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IRENA’S VOW (Canada/Poland 2023) ****
Directed by Louise Archambaul

 

IRENA’S VOW follows her solemn silent and personal vow Irena makes when she witnesses a German officer killing an innocent Jewish baby by crushing it with his military boot.  It is a terrifying scene that makes the entire audience gasp in shock and sets the raison d’ete for Irena’s actions for the film.  In occupied Poland, a former nurse (Sophie Nélisse) risks her own life to shelter a dozen Jewish men and women from the Nazi war machine.  The setting is Warsaw, 1939: when the Nazis invade Poland, and nurse Irena Gut (Sophie Nélisse) is displaced and forced to work in support of the German war effort, eventually assigned to run the home of a Nazi commandant (Dougray Scott) where she hides the Jews.  Director Archambaul keeps the tension mounting throughout from start to end, with the fear that the Jews will be discovered at any moment.  But one knows Irena survived since the film is based on her story.  The film shows the triumph of the spirit over impossible odds, all made the more astonishing that the story is all true.  One of the best Canadian films of 2023.

 

JE’VIDA (Finaland 2023) ****

Directed by Katja Gauriloff

 

Shot in black and white in the languages of the rare Skolt Sámi and Finnish, this engrossing tale tells the emotional journey of a woman now in her old age, confronting the past she struggled to bury after abandoning her family and community decades earlier.  She and her niece are summoned to her mother’s house which is sold and to beeped out.  So, Iida (Sanna-Kaisa Palo) journeys back to the far north of Finland to her childhood home. She’s joined by her artist niece Sanna (Seidi Haarla) — whom she barely knows — as the related but distant pair are tasked with clearing out the small house of Iida’s estranged elderly mother who recently died.

The film traces different parts of her life told in flashbacks- her as a child with her grandfather fishing; her schooling in a boarding school and her courtship.   One can not only see but experience the hardship Iida got through.   Beautiful cinematography of winter in North Finland making up a wonderful film to watch!

 

 

KANAVAL (Canada/Luxembourg 2023) ***
Directed by  Henri Pardo

 

The film KANAVAL the term for Carnival, in Haiti begins with the carnival celebrations in Haiti.  Haiti is a country that has always faced political turmoil and the time of unrest is presently felt during the carnival time, especially for Erzulie (Penande Estime), a young mother involved with revolutionaries, and her young son, Rico (Rayan Dieudonné).  Director Pardo’s film traces the story of one young boy’s journey from a small port town on the coast of Haiti in 1975, during the town’s carnival celebrations, before a traumatic event forces him and his mother to flee to Quebec.  The story is told from Rico’s point of view.  It is a younger coming-of-age story combined with rites of passage as he wrestles between right and wrong and who he can trust.  Canada, Quebec in particular is shown from both sides, from the loving couple who take Rico in to the racist bullies who’ll not leave Rico alone.  The film is a bit over-ambitious, especially in introducing Rico’s imaginary and scary friend but director Pardu gets his message across in the end.

KNOX GOES AWAY (USA 2023) ***½

Directed by Michale Keaton

 

Impressive, moody and atmospheric hit-man noir sophomore effort directed by Michael Keaton based on Gregory Poirier’s script who plays the lead role of Knox.  Knox is a hitman losing his memory (a very fast version of an Alzheimer’s type illness), putting him in a race against time to help his estranged son (James Marsden) cover up a messy crime.  Knox has to put everything right before he goes away.  It all begins one night, though, his estranged son, Miles (James Marsden), shows up at his door. Covered in blood and barely able to speak, he begs his father for help covering up a violent crime. Knox sees only one way out, developing a tricky scheme with multiple steps that require precise execution.  Keaton elicits superb performances from Marsden, as one has never seen before, Al Pacino and Marcia Gay Harden.  A few bouts of humour that do not really work - the beginning diner scene but the film succeeds as a totally engrossing suspensor aided by the minimal use of music.

L’ETE DERNIER (LAST SUMMER)(France 2023) ****
Directed by Catherine Breillat

 

French director Breillat returns to the screen with another provocative film as in one of her best films MA SOEUR.  Breillat films can never have the adjective ’pleasant’ to describe them, but their unpleasantness and unease make her films so memorable.  In the latest film by French provocateur Catherine Breillat, a prominent lawyer’s passionate affair with her 17-year-old stepson threatens both her career and family.  Anne (a radiant, fierce Léa Drucker) is a prominent lawyer in her forties who lives with her loving yet overworked husband Pierre (Olivier Rabourdin) and their two young, adopted girls in a stunning, sun-soaked villa on the outskirts of Paris.   A woman of plenty with as much to lose, Anne soon falls under the spell of the tousled-haired Théo (Samuel Kircher, a revelation in his first role), her husband’s rebellious 17-year-old son from a previous marriage, when he comes to stay with them. Their steamy affair seems less premeditated than accidental as Anne, coaxed out of her conjugal ennui, gradually gives into Théo’s advances, excited not only by his physical beauty but also by the thought of being lusted after by someone half her age.  Though the film is a remake of the 2019 Danish film Queen of Hearts by May el-Toukhy, Breillat’s version has her imprint all over it.  Superb performances by all especially from Druker in the lead. 

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LIMBO (Australia 2023) ***½

Directed by Ivan Sen

 

LIMBO is a meditative, slow burn but by no means uninteresting study on justice and law enforcement that investigates the cold case of a murdered Indigenous girl in an outback mining town.  There is a hotel named Hotel Limbo in the film.  The protagonist of the piece is no faultless hero.  He is is Detective Travis Hurley (Simon Baker), seen shooting heroin in a motel in one scene before arriving in the eponymous outback town.  The town is filled with labyrinthine tunnels; many of the dwellings, including Hurley’s motel, are built into the earth and stone to provide escape from the oppressive heat of Southern Australia.  This is gorgeous black and white cinematography on display, well worth the price of the film.  Hurley is in town to close a 20-year-old case of case of a murdered Indigenous girl, Charlotte, whose killer may still live locally.  From the mood and atmosphere of the film, one would not expect a mystery whodunit to be solved.  Director Sen’s purpose for his film is more ambitious, with LIMBO succeeding as an engrossing tale about regret and time lost and unrecoverable.

 

LOST LADIES (India 2023) ***½

Directed by Kiran Rao

 

 

 

 

 

This very funny comedy from India having its world premiere at TIFF could very well be called HEY DUDE, WHERE’S MY BRIDE?  Two young brides in India in 2001 accidentally swapped before their big day.  New brides Jaya (Pratibha Ranta) and Phool (Nitanshi Goel), veiled in their crimson, filigreed marital saris, are accidentally swapped when Phool’s timid groom Deepak (Sparsh Shrivastava) mistakenly escorts Jaya out of their overnight train. Now, self-possessed and secretive Jaya temporarily enters Deepak’s joint family, while docile and fragile Phool finds herself abandoned at a remote railway station.   Soon, Phool is befriended by a railway urchin and his accomplice, and sheltered by the coarse but matronly tea kiosk owner Manju Mai (Chhaya Kadam).  Jaya, on the other hand, experiences doting sisterhood, innocent flirtation, and an opportunity to flex her intellect in Deepak’s raucous household. Meanwhile, in a gradually unfurling investigation led by goofy and power-tripping local police officer Shyam Manohar (Ravi Kishan), the grooms cluelessly search for their respective wives.  India is shown in old its expansive splendour, landscapes that many have not seen before but to be much admired.  Certain scenes like the first report at the police station are pricelessly hilarious.  The film is merrily paced to a tinkering and hummable score and the entire film pure delight.  The funniest line is uttered by a street samosa seller when she questions one of the brides and finds out that she is lost and does not even know the address of her groom, but yet claims that’s she is smart to know how to cook, sew and do chores.  “There is nothing wrong with being a fool, but it is shameful to be proud of being a fool.”

MANDOOP (Saudi Arabia 2023) ***
Directed by Ali Kalthami

 

The term Mardoop has several meanings and the first two meanings are flashed on the screen, which the audience learns soon refers to the film’s main protagonist.   Unlucky try hard Fahad Nassir (Mohammed Aldokhi) is, at best, mediocre at his call centre day job. He’s been showing up for work late, exhausted by his nighttime hustle working as a delivery app mandoob (courier) cruising the streets of Riyadh, filling orders to save money for his aging father’s medical treatment.  When Fahad’s mistakes catch up with him and he is fired from the call centre, he decides he won’t go quietly.  He learns to back to his stash and steals six cases of counterfeit whisky he hopes to sell to the first buyers he can find.  Caught up under the weight of real-world pressures while courting the comforts of delusion, Fahad has now initiated his free fall further and further into a lifestyle he is completely unprepared for.  This is a cautionary tale that has a setting one is unfamiliar with - in the Kingdom.  A bit difficult to follow due in part to customs North Americans might not be familiar with - like the wearing of Fahad’s and others’ headdresses.

MOTHER, COUCH (USA 2023) **
Directed by Niclas Larsson

Writer/director Larsson’s MOTHER, COUCH reveals the drama among three estranged children as they come together when their mother refuses to move from a couch in a furniture store.  Star talent is on display that includes the talents of Taylor Russell, Ewan McGregor, and Rhys Ifans as the adult children, Ellen Burstyn as the mother, and F. Murray Abraham and Lara Flynn Boyle as the furniture store manager and daughter respectively.  However, the film is played more as a surreal fantasy dysfunctional family drama than anything else.  There is nothing wrong with surrealist drama but this one is delivered in confusion and incoherency.  The dialogue spilled out by McGregor at one point on a beach looking for his young daughter also is a flowery monologue that makes no sense at all.  The best performance belongs to Taylor Russell as the distraught chain-smoking daughter who does not give a f*** at what is happening.  MOTHER, OUCH!

MOUNTAINS (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Monica Sorelle

 

‘Behind a mountain is a mountain’ is the Haitian quote seen on the screen at the beginning of the film.  Indeed whether the mountain refers to problems, daily routines, or humdrums of life, there is always another around the corner.   Monica Sorelle’s narrative feature debut is a slice-of-life portrait of an immigrant worker and family man gradually contending with his class aspirations and housing insecurities in a rapidly gentrifying neighbourhood.  Though the main character is a male, she infuses the power of women, through his wife, quiet, foreboding and strong in keeping the family together.  Based in the immigrant enclave of Little Haiti in Miami, Xavier (Atibon Nazaire) is a middle-aged, working-class Haitian demolition worker who hopes to one day buy his beloved seamstress wife, Esperance (Sheila Anozier), a new and spacious suburban home. Meanwhile, their doted-on college dropout son Junior (Chris Renois) struggles against his father's rigid expectations by day while quietly pursuing a career as a stand-up comic by night.   There are long shots of demolition and the routines are captured realistically though they do slow down the narrative.

 

SIMPLE COMME SYLVAIN (Nature of Love) (Canada 2023) ***
Directed by Monica Choki

 

Simple like Sylvain is what being with Sylvain is like, as Sophia Magalie Lépine Blondeau) discovers.  Sylvain (Pierre-Yves Cardinal) is a simple carpenter hired by Sophie to fix up her country home.  Sophia is a 40-something dissatisfied professor who teaches love relationships and hangs out with literary and art-loving folk who look down upon ordinary people.  Opposites attract here — she’s the brains and he’s the brawn — and they quickly begin a tumultuous affair.  But Sophia has a hard time reconciling the reality of their differences, especially when they introduce their family and friends to one another, and their disparate political leanings and varying viewpoints become comically apparent. As their affair continues, the tension between their different worlds comes to a very uncomfortable head.  The first major argument comes fast and furious and Sophie is distraught.  What follows too is fast and quick compared to the film’s slower pace in the first half.  Director Choki creates a credible somewhat angry fable of relationships that does not conform to the standard romantic drama.

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A NORMAL FAMILY (South Korea 2023) **

Directed by Hur Jin-ho

 

Credit must be given to the source material for its compelling tale of family struggles on decisions of how far one might go to protect one’s child.  The question is: What would you do?  Based on the celebrated Dutch novel Het Diner (The Dinner) by Herman Koch, which has sold more than a million copies and has been translated into several languages.  In A NORMAL FAMILY, one family member says that nothing good ever comes from one of these dinners.  And rightly so.  There are several of these dinners during the film including one at the climax.  The film plays more like a mystery than a drama and the most interesting aspect of the film is the fine one between good and evil and how that line can be crossed due to various reasons some not for evil. 

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PAIN HUSTLERS (USA 2023) ***½

Directed by David Yates

 

The film introduces its protagonist Liza Drake as an awful person.  As her co-worker interviewed by the crime squad describes her; she would do anything it takes and is an awful person.  But the film paints a different picture - that of a desperate person, initially a pole dancer who tries her best to make it good for her epileptic daughter and herself.  Based on the real-life story of capitalism run amok in a journal article — chronicled by journalist Evan Hughes in his 2022 narrative non-fiction book, The Hard Sell — the film lures one into the glamour and excitement of success, however, it may be achieved.  Liza Drake (Emily Blunt) is a single mum working as a dancer at a bar when she meets Pete Brenner (Chris Evans), a greasy drug rep for a pharmaceutical startup on the verge of bankruptcy. With a hunch about her talent, he recruits her to peddle a new kind of opioid designed to give pain relief to cancer patients.  The film is interesting enough to show all the ins and outs of the pharmaceutical marketing business and how these companies make their money at the expense of sufferers.  A Netflix original film, PAIN HUSTLERS is also besides being entertaining, is informative and insightful with a message to boot.

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PERFECT DAYS (Japan 2023) ***1/2

Directed by Wim Wenders

 

PERFECT DAYS is an almost perfect little simple film about a simple man, content with his daily job as a public toilet cleaner.  He wears his form as a badge and does his job efficiently and diligently with pride and dignity.  One can also learn how to properly clean toilets from this man.  Kôji Yakusho, in one his best performances that won him the Best Actor prize at Cannes this year,  plays Hirayama, the cleaner of these toilets, named after the protagonist of Yasujiro Ozu’s last film, An Autumn Afternoon.  Hirayama lives alone in a small house full of plants, his days going by according to quiet rhythms that never seem to change.  But there is much surprise in store for the cleaner and the audience as German director Wim Wenders delivers another prized movie.

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THE PROMISED LAND (BASTARDEN) (Denmark/Germany/Sweden 2023) ***** Top 10

Directed by Nikolaj Arcel

 

THE PROMISED LAND comes across as an efficient enough epic, epic in emotional and storytelling proportions that come with an all-important message to boot.  It is a gripping adventure drama, compelling and riveting from start to finish.  Mads Mikkelsen stars as Ludvig Kahlen, the illegitimate son of a maid and a nobleman, who defied his low status to succeed in Denmark’s military.  He took 25 years to attain the position of captain whereas a nobleman with royal blood would have taken much, much less time.  He demands more!  But director Arcel slowly but surely demonstrates that ambition, wealth and fortune are inferior traits to charity, kindness and devotion.  The cinematography depicting the harsh first and blowing winter snow and ice demands mention.  THE PROMISED LAND aka BASTARDEN displays filmmaking at its best, executed with verve and conviction, by a director and actor both at the top of their form.

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A RAVAGING WIND (Argentina/Uruguay 2023) ***½

Directed by Paula Hernández

 

A RAVAGING WIND is a metaphor for the enormous changes that will affect two fathers in their relationships with their offspring.  The two fathers are strong-willed males with their own unique way of rearing children - both of which are imperfect.  One is a famous Protestant preacher, aided by his feisty daughter who is beginning to exert a will of her own.  The other is a no-believing father whose slightly mentally and physically challenged son is continually beaten by his car mechanic father.  When the vehicle of the first family breaks down, the two families meet.  the film is set in the Argentinian countryside.  A RAVAGING WIND is a welcome unfamiliar dysfunctional family drama in an unfamiliar setting, both enhancing the curiosity and interest of the audience.  What results is largely unpredictable.  Director Paula Hernandez goes outside her comfort zone in a male-dominated environment that still can prove the resilience of the female against strong adversities.

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A ROAD TO A VILLAGE (Nepal 2023) ***1/2

Directed by Sabin Subba

 

Insightful, sad and moving A ROAD TO A VILLAGE is that rare film from Nepal that follows a rural Nepal family as it struggles with poverty amidst tempting modernity.  Since the road to the village had been constructed the family becomes exposed to the marvels of technology that includes a new TV set and cell phone that the brother of Maila (Dayahang Rai) affords to buy after going to work in Malaysia.  Maila is a poor bamboo basket weaver whose life has changed relatively little since the time of his parents and grandparents.   Maila’s seven-year-old son, Bindray, has always been clever and resourceful, making toys from plants and soccer balls from socks and paper, but now he is eager to drink Coke, wear sunglasses, and listen to hip hop. What’s more, Bindray begs his father for a television: an item with as his neighbours would now prefer to buy a cheap tarp than an artisanal bamboo mat.  The film offers a look into struggles that have no immediate solution.  It is heartbreaking to watch Maila’s family suffer so much and director Subba paints an unforgettable picture of a family facing problems of basic survival.  The most moving scene has Maila crying by himself at night after losing face, confidence and dignity while his wife watches on.

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RU (Canada 2023) ***

Directed by Charles-Olivier Michaud

 

Based on the Governor General’s Award–winning novel by Kim Thúy who also serves as producer of the film, RU is the story of the arduous journey of a wealthy family fleeing from Vietnam in 1975 after the fall of Saigon, then spending time at a refugee camp in Malaysia, before landing in Quebec.   The story is told from the point of view of the daughter of the family, Nguyen An Tinh.  The mother is also called An Tiny but in Vietnamese, the names have different meanings for different types of ‘peace’ from the different characters used that sound the same in English or French.  There is not much story in the film, the story is replaced by experiences of what the family goes through from the time the soldiers break into the house in Vietnam to their selling in winter Montreal.  The art direction is nothing short of superb, down to the very detail of the ‘stubby’ beer bottles used during the time.  The Canadians are shown their best, thanks to Canadian director Michaud, where hospitality and kindness are shown to strangers looking for sympathy and a new home.

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EL SAVOR DE LA NAVIDAD )Mexico 2023) **
Directed by Alejandro Lozano

 

Three stories that told during the festive season in Mexico City that intertwine together for a feast at the end, all in the celebration of food.   Mexican-American superstar Salma Hayek Pinault produces this supposedly heartfelt Mexican dramedy that unfortunately lacks not humour but heart, but not for want of trying.  One story is a romantic sob story between Valeria and Gerardo. When Gerardo sneaks into Valeria’s kitchen to help her prepare traditional dishes for the Christmas dinners of several families, he realizes her deep commitment to cooking is all about love. He tries to express his sudden feelings for her but to no avail.  Another deals with a trans, one of the adult children who promises to attend dinner after a four-year absence. Then there are two brothers,  Chava and Santi take on shared duties as Santa Claus in the public arena to make ends meet for the season, but through a series of misunderstandings end up fighting.  It is difficult to say which is the best of the three stories as they are all equally awful.  The introduction of a controversial trans character does not help matters any better.

SEAGRASS (Canada 2023) ***

Directed by Meredith Hama-Brown

 

SEAGRASS has an idyllic opening on a ferry where two young sisters (Remy Marthaller and Nyha Huang Breitkreuz) playfully run around enjoying the view and the trip aboard the ferry.  They are going to a retreat with their parents traveling via the ferry.  Set in the mid 1990’s, a Japanese Canadian woman, Judith  (Ally Maki, THE BIG DOOR PRIZE) grappling with the recent death of her mother brings her family to a self-development retreat. When her distressed relationship with her husband (Luke Robertws, GAME OF THRONES) begins to affect the children’s emotional security, the family is forever changed.  The film covers several key issues and explores questions relating to fear and security, it is about a distressed family, motherhood,  grief, shame, intergenerational trauma and racial identity.  It is about all these seemingly disparate things, but the thematic tissue that connects them all is “fear” and the various ways that uncertainty affects our relationships and sense of stability. Director Hama-Brown steers her relationship family drama into its emotional climax that includes a little suspense to boot in what can be termed s meticulously crafted gem.

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SHAME ON DRY LAND (Malta/Sweden 2023) ***½

Directed by Alex Petersen.

 

SHAME ON DRY LAND plays for the film’s major part in confusion with the pieces of a puzzle that need to be put together.  Director Petersen makes sure his audience has to work to decipher the story, which actually comes quite neatly together by the last reel.   The film begins with what appears to be a former swindler suddenly appearing at the residence of a groom and his bride, seeking redemption after years away at sea.   Dimman (Joel Spira) is clearly the wrong man for the job when he’s enlisted for some seriously shady business.   Dimman is an uninvited and unwanted guest, but he’s sincere in his efforts to make amends. Alas, that ambition is derailed when Kiki (Jacqueline Ramel) — the charismatic woman who helped Dimman put his life back together — tasks him with tailing a mystery man who turns out to have his own nefarious agenda.  The film is set in a sun-baked setting: Malta, where a wealthy community of Swedish expats is preparing for the nuptials of two of their own, though no Maltese or Italian can be hardly heard at all - only Swedish and English. SHAME ON DRY LAND, a challenging mystery film noir shows that it takes a lot more effort to put together a puzzle than to actually solve it.

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SLEEP (South Korea 2023) 
Directed by Jason Yu

 

Review embargo lifted after midnight Sep 15th screening

 

 About to be challenged is their wall plaque motto that reads “Together We Can Overcome Anything”. 

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SMUGGLERS (South Korea 2023) 
Directed by Ryoo Seung-wan

 Embargo lifted after 930pm, screening Wed 13th

How far must a man (or woman) go to make a living?  That is the question posed by SMUGGLERS when all the oysters and other fish end up dead in the sea due to a chemical plant nearby spilling its toxins into the sea.  “And they don’t even get a fine,” says one fisherman.  Credit must be given to the suspenseful and credible underwater and boating sequences, especially the first one when customs show up by boat and an accident occurs.  Using their specialty in diving and knowledge of the waters, old friends Choon-ja (Kim Hye-soo) and Jin-sook (Yum Jung-ah) start to smuggle goods.  But when notorious smuggler and criminal Mr. Kwon (Zo In-sung) expands into their territory, a violent confrontation results. With the help of Jin-sook and their haenyeo friends, Choon-ja risks her life to plan for the most mind-bending and dangerous job, one that could become her biggest break — or the end of it all.  The trouble with this supposed action movie is that director Ryoo plays the film for laughs and very funny ones at that.  Coupled with over-acting and a story that lost interest in an overlong film, SMUGGLERS is a film best kept under keeps.

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SOLO (Canada 2023) ***
Directed by Sophie Dupuis

 

SOLO follows the relationship struggles of Simon (Théodore Pellerin) and Olivier (Félix Maritaud), a handsome, charming fellow drag artist from France.  They begin a  tumultuous relationship for the reason of a clash of different personalities.  Simon is a skilled makeup artist by day and a sensational drag artist by night.  Young and carefree, his energies are overwhelmingly set on honing his act and partying.  Just as Simon is getting accustomed to this exciting new relationship, his long-estranged mother, Claire (Quebec screen icon Anne-Marie Cadieux), swoops back into his life.   Director Dupuis shows Simon is a good-hearted person with reasonable needs, but it’s just as obvious he’s caught in a pattern of codependence, desperately seeking approval from two strong personalities equally incapable of granting it. In the end, the one person Simon truly needs to commune with is himself.  The drag shows are bright and sassily performed complete with elaborate costumes.  Director Dupuis captures the behind-the-scenes of the drag shows with credible effect.  SOLO is entertaining enough though the depiction of Simon’s relationship struggles appear manipulative to a fault.

SONGS OF EARTH (Norway 2023) ****

Directed by Margreth Olin

 

If there were not a more stunning cinematographed film at this year’s TIFF, the Norwegian SONGS OF EARTH is it.   I have been to Norway twice, but many of the scenes in this film can only be reached on foot and not on tour cruises or buses.  The film is indeed a sight to behold and to be seen on the big screen. Filmmaker Margreth Olin brings viewers to experience Norway’s landscapes of mountains, glaciers, and fjords, guided by her 84-year-old father, Jørgen, enabling us to escape the hyperactivity of modern times and absorb the profundity of nature.

With the film’s first image of a lone elderly man trekking through an untouched snowy landscape, we sense that director Margreth Olin is taking us somewhere special. That promise is fulfilled over and over in this stunning cinematic experience that’s unique from anything else in this year’s documentary selection.  It makes the audience wonder why they would not give up all their worldly financial ambitions to live and experience nature’s paradise.  The film unfolds in the 4 seasons from spring to fall, reminding one that in winter, it is 24 hours of darkness, but beautiful darkness.  The 4 parts are bookended with a prologue and epilogue.  Jørgen speaks during the entire film, delivering his view on nature.  Its artistry has won the support of executive producers Wim Wenders and Liv Ullman both serving as the film’s executive producers.  The film follows Olin’s 84-year-old father, Jørgen, who has been exploring Norway’s wilderness all his life. A vigorous trekker who uses two walking sticks to explore the mountains around his hometown, he invites his daughter to join him over the course of four seasons to share his insights.

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SORRY/NOT SORRY (USA 2023) *

Directed by Caroline Suh and Cara Mones 

The doc re-examines the case of Louis C.K., who was accused of sexual harassment in 2017. They explore his comeback and the unseen effects of this on the women who spoke publicly about his behaviour. The difference between C.K.’s and other similar cases is that C.K. asked permission of the victims he fancied.  All he wanted to do was to masturbate in front of them.  But  C.K. got away with heinous behaviour for so long and how he staged a comeback soon after the scandal. Nine months later, he was back on stage and, within a few years, he was selling out large venues across the country.  The doc unveils in 7 parts.  Rather than condemn the man, the film also looks at him, as not being innocent but being a human being with foibles that should be forgiven.  He never assaulted anyone. The victims beg to differ, in what is an interesting look on both sides.  The film sides the victims clearly.  C.K. refused to be interviewed for the doc which explains his shame despite pretending to have overcome the charges.

SPIRIT OF ECSTASY (France 2023) ***** Top 10

Directed by Héléna Klotz

A stunning second film from director Héléna Klotz (11 years after her ATOMIC AGE) sees the director in top form adapting a script she co-wrote with  Noé Debré.  The film follows  Jeanne Francoeur  (French pop star Claire Pommet in her first but impressive role), a young non-binary person (who dresses like a man but looks like a girl but nothing else is disclosed about her non-binary character) from a long line of gendarmes.  Jeanne lives on a military base with an abrasive father, forced to care for their younger siblings while dreaming of breaking out of the family’s milieu by becoming a high-powered financial analyst.  Life can be as tricky as it is wonderful,  The question is whether Jeanne should give up her ambition of being a quant (short for a quantitative analyst)  or give up her family.  The clever script shows that it is possible to have both.  “You are very clever at talking shit,” says Jeanne’s job interviewer at one point in the film.  The same can be said of this film, which is extremely smart, confident, funny and totally winning.  The additional bonus is the stunning cinematography, particularly of the night scenes.

SUMMER QAMP (Canada 2023) **

Directed by Jen Markowitzz

 

At Camp fYrefly in rural Alberta, queer, non-binary, and trans teens get to just be kids in a supportive space, surrounded by counsellors who can relate to their experience.  Toronto-based filmmaker Jen Markowitz brings her camera on the queer kids can spend a few days hanging out and just getting to be kids together “without any of the explanations,” as one camper puts it.  The director aims the film to be warm, funny, and moving ― and made with obvious consideration for, and clear cooperation from, the people in front of the lens.  Good intentions do not always translate to good documentaries.  Markowitz's doc seems all over the place, especially concentrating the doc on the kids and what they say without much focus on anything else.  The doc obviously gets monotonous after a while.  Yes, the audience gets it.  These kids undergo a difficult time in their growing-up lives but the campers in the doc are seen to each have to say the same thing many times.  It is at least good to see the kids so happy at camp.

 

SWAN SONG (Canada 2023) ***
Directed by Chelsea McMullan

 

SWAN SONG is more about the legendary ballet dancer and artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada than of the ballet Swan Lake.  The film is called SWAN SONG as it shows Kain’s inside the National Ballet of Canada’s 2022 production of Swan Lake, directed and staged by the legendary Karen Kain. The segments involving prepared answers in the interviews are obvious for the lack of the word ‘like’.  Director McMullan, who co-directed last year’s EVER READY with Tanya Tagaq on throat singing, has an eye for vulnerable moments, as when Genevieve Penn Nabity, a junior member of the company, is offered an opportunity she’d never expected.  One complaint is that director McMullan takes her doc to an overdone happy Hollywood ending.  Kain is praised so many times that it becomes annoying.  Kain, before the opening night was worried as a lot went wrong during the final dress rehearsal but then Kain kept saying that everything went perfect on opening night, going on to rise everyone over and over again.

TAUTUKTAVUK (Canada 2023) ***

Co-directed by Lucy Tulugarjuk and Carol Kunnuk

 

The titles warn at the beginning of the film that the film is based on sensitive material -the material is soon revealed as child abuse and living the aftermath. The setting is the snow and ice-covered northern Canadian Arctic province of Nunavut.  Very little is known about this sparsely populated Canadian province and the film hopes to change that while exposing the problems of its residents.  The two co-directors play the 2 sisters in the story.  After experiencing a traumatic event, Uyarak leaves her community and family in Nunavut to live in Montreal.  When COVID lockdowns close off the Canadian Arctic from the rest of the world, Uyarak is further separated from her closest confidant, the eldest sister, Saqpinak. Uyarak doesn’t remember much about one terrible night of domestic violence, but Saqpinak does. Through Zoom calls, Uyarak talks about healing from years of trauma and abuse, and how counseling and cultural reconnections are helping. Most of the film is pro-indigenous. Slow-moving yet epic, a story of intimate problems that balloons to a larger scale of uncontrollable proportions, TAUTUKVUK which translates to ‘What We See’ plays also like an educational documentary that is also quietly entertaining.

Trailer:

 

THE TEACHERS’ LOUNGE (DasLeherzimmer)(Germany 2023) ****

Directed by İlker Çatak

 

Germany’s entry for Best International Feature for the upcoming Oscars in 2024, THE TEACHERS' LOUNGE is a riveting and compelling drama set in a school in which all hell breaks loose after systematic racism rears its ugly head.  THE TEACHERS’ LOUNGE is where most of the drama takes place.  The film follows a newly hired 6th grade teacher, an enthusiastic Carla to teach gym and mathematics.  She gains the respect of her class initially and everything appears to go well until a series of thefts occur at the school (hints of THE WINSLOW BOY) and one of her students is suspected (with hints of covert racism), Carla is outraged and decides to get to the bottom of the matter on her own.  But her sleuthing finds her up against outraged parents, opinionated colleagues and aggressive students, causing everyone to turn against her.  Cancel culture?  Adding to the suspense are the film’s stabbing music and a backdrop of endless hallways that Carla traverses looking for an answer.  In the midst of it all are the adults trying to solve the problem by finding a viable suction using all their adult experience.and education  The school principal herself has a doctorate degree and at one pint in the film tells her staff: “Let me use my experience to solve the problem.”  She also resorts to a democratic vote as to what action should be taken.  A cautionary tale evoking raw emotions!

Trailer: 

TOGETHER 99 (Sweden/Denmark 2023) ***
Directed by Lukas Mooodysson

 

 

 

 

 

 

Writer/director Lukas Moodysson returns audiences to his Together (’00), a film that established the director’s keen take on human frailty.  Director Moodysson once again proves his prowess in comedy based on keen observations and hilarious depictions of human behaviour and dialogue.  The film's setting is 1999, 24 years since the events in the film’s predecessor, and the passage of time has not been kind to the community. In fact, the membership has dwindled down to two: Göran (Gustaf Hammarsten), the de facto leader, and the sensitive Klasse (Shanti Roney). Clinging to the ways of their 1970s selves, the pair seem poorly equipped for the world on the eve of Y2K.    They claim that they have been entered into the Guinness Book of Records for being the smallest commune in the world with just two members.  The two hope to up their membership by recruiting past friends.  But as their former housemates, a motley crew of misfits who have identity and meant problems, arrive to celebrate Göran’s 60th birthday, it becomes clear that even those who left the commune long ago are just as flummoxed by the changes that surround them.  Over the course of the evening, connections and conflicts are renewed along with many of the romantic sparks that made commune life so complicated.  Performances are spot o, especially from the film’s two leads and every character’s nuance is hilariously displayed on film.

Trailer: 

THE TUNDRA WITHIN ME (Norway 2023) ***
Directed by Sara Margrethe Oskal

 

At the height of winter, Lena (Risten Anine Kvernmo Gaup) leaves her life in Oslo with her young son in tow and returns to her hometown in Sápmi, in northern Norway. A contemporary visual artist, Lena has returned to begin a residency involving women reindeer herders in her Sámi community. Indigenous daughter leaves the reservation or land giving up family, friends and culture to pursue a career in the big city.  She returns with a son to her mother and rediscovers her roots - kind of a late coming-of-age story,  She finds romance in the process.   This story of a misplaced Indigenous person is a well-worn territory with few surprises despite the Nordic reindeer herding setting.  Still, there are a few pleasures to observe, like the odd Sami humour and the difficulty of reindeer herding, especially from the female point of view. Lena’s art is also hilarious.

THE UMBRELLA MEN: ESCAPE FROM ROBBEN ISLAND (South Africa 2023) ***

Directed by John Barker

 

THE UMBRELLA MEN: ESCAPE FROM ROBBEN ISLAND sees the return of the beloved ensemble cast and the spirit and setting once again in the beautiful old quarter of Cape Town – the Bo Kaap.   This is the sequel to last year’s THE UMBRELLA MEN that was screened also at TIFF, a high-spirited heist movie set in the Cape Malay community that is rich in language, identity, music, and heritage—all again represented on-screen in its iconic splendour. After that heist in the first film, the usual suspects, Jerome, Morty, Mila, Keisha, and Auntie Val life is sweet. But that’s when Tariq takes a hand. Not before long, Jerome and Morty are banged up in the recently reopened Robben Island Prison and Keisha, Mila and Auntie Val need to bust them out and team up to take down an outta-control Tariq, who has plans of world domination and clear their names so that they can get to the Bo Kaap as free men.  The sequel, a combination of prison break-out and heist movie with women now in the forefront is as entertaining as the first.  The sequel is only screened at Industry Selects.

 

VAMPIRE HUMANISTE CHERCHE SUICIDAIRE CONSENTANT (Canada 2023) ***

(Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person)

Directed by Ariane Louis-Seize

The title of the movie VAMPIRE HUMANISTE CHERCHE SUICIDAIRE CONSENTANT (Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person) tells it all.  A young teen vampire is unable to kill her victims to feed on the victim’s blood to survive.  Sasha (Sara Montpetit) is a teenage vampire — well, “teenage” is relative in their world — with an empathy problem.  Unlike the rest of her clan which includes her worried vampire parents, Sasha’s fangs don’t come out when she’s hungry or sensing fear; she needs to feel a personal connection to her prey. And then Sasha meets Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard), an actual teenager convinced he’ll never enjoy anything in life. She befriends him, introduces him to her world and its secrets, and he happily volunteers to be her next meal. Which would be great, except for the whole empathy thing.  The film serves too, as a novel coming-of-age story.  Director Louis-Seize plays her story deadpan without resorting to theatrics or cheap humour.  For example in the dancing scene, Sasha and Paul just move their bodies right and left instead of breaking out into over-styled choreography.  The blood and gore though present, are toned down a notch or two in this worthy and amusing take on the teen vampire genre.

Trailer: 

VIVA VARDA! (France 2023) ****
Directed by Pierre-Henri Gibert

Known recently for her films like the Oscar-nominated Best Documentary VISAGES, VILLAGES and AGES PAR AGNEDS and for her earlier classics like CLEO DE 5 A 7 and VAGABOND with Sandrine Bonnier who appears too in this doc, Agnes Varda of the late French Novelle vague is a force reckoned with all these years.  Her artistic independence and female voice strokes one as a very strong woman while her sensitivity in her marriage to filmmaker Jacques Demy who died from AIDs revealed her as a sensitive human being.  She made a wonderful film about Demy’s childhood and love for filmmaking in JACQUOT DE NANTE.  Director Gibert captures all the importance and urgency in her work and life in a doc just so short that one just does not want to end.  Pierre-Henri Gibert, a documentarian specializing in cinema history, chronicles her expansive career, embodying her curiosity and whimsy, but filling in notable gaps.

WHEN EVIL LURKS (Argentina 2023) ***1/2

Directed by Demian Rugna

 

WHEN EVIL LURKS from Argentina, marks one of the best possession horror films in a while.  In a remote village, two brothers attempt to release a demon from a possessed person.  But they get more than they bargained for as this person is just a bundle of boils and pus and downright ugly to look at if one can bear to look at him.  There is a lot of audience anticipation, violence and gore, evil in its vilest form and a confrontation climax where the evil is finally dealt with.  Director Rugna creates new rules for his demon possession pic.  It is not the Roman Catholic church against Satan.  The new rules include not turning electric lights on as the demon can hide in their shadows; no guns can be used to eradicate the possessing demon and staying away from animals which the demon can easily enter.  There is also a special gadget that can be used at the end of the film to fight the demon.  WHEN EVIL LURKS builds up extremely well but suffers a slight letdown at the end.  Still, this horror flick has plenty of innovations and scares to offer.

Trailer: none

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

 

This period piece, supposedly based on a true story that no one has heard of till perhaps now, is set in the 1920s when there is a scandal brewing in the charming seaside town of Littlehampton.  Residents have started receiving anonymous, poison-pen letters, brimming with curse words and scandalous prose.  The film has these letters explicitly read, so audiences should be forewarned of the foul 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, she gathers a group of unlikely yet resourceful female volunteers to get to the bottom of the mystery.   This wicked little film blinds the thin 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 Colman 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 of the festival.

WIDOW CLICQUOT (France/U.K. 2023)

Directed by Thomas Napper

Yet another piece of the difficulties if not impossibilities of success in farming.  From JEAN DE FLORETTE to this year’s THE PROMISED LAND and THE BEAST, farming in Europe must be torturous.  And worse if, one is a woman.  WIDOW CLICQUOT has to remain resilient while fighting nature’s elements and the chauvinistic males around her to succeed in developing champagne amidst the Napoleon Wars,  The film tells the true story of Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, the “Grande Dame of Champagne,” otherwise known as as Veuve Clicquot.   At the age of 20, she became Madame Clicquot after marrying the scion of a winemaking family. Though their marriage was arranged, a timeless love blossomed between Barbe-Nicole (Haley Bennett) and her poetic, unconventional, and erratic husband, François (Tom Sturridge).As a beautifully mounted period piece, coupled with the wine-making process and all its intricacies.  Too bad the film is shot in English and not in French.

 

WORKING CLASS GOES TO HELL 

(Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Croatia, Romania 2023) ***½

Directed by Mladen Djordjevic

The factory that the community works in has a fire with 9 workers killed.  The boss/owner is suspected of arson in order to sell the property to an incinerator company.  The town folk demonstrate but it is of no use.  Then return a member from Belgrade with the rumour that he can summon the spirits of the dead.  Stoic labour leader Ceca (Tamara Krcunovic) refuses to give up hope, but her position grows tenuous when the collective begins to develop a fascination with the pagan practices of its newest member, Mija (Leon Lucev). After Mija leads the union in a ritual that belies a satanic undertone, strange occurrences begin to be reported around town, including the enigmatic manifestation of a decrepit man, seen stalking the most corrupt citizens. This is sly satire at its best.  Quietly but deliciously wicked!  Director Djordjevic’s satire is practically humourless and his sex scenes are graphic and totally un-erotic.  The town gets what they want in the end.  But it reminds one of the old adage that warns of being careful of what one wishes for.

 

Trailer: 

WOODLAND (WALD)(Austria 2023) ****
Directed by Elisabeth Scharang

 

Drawing inspiration from Wald, a 2015 novel by the bestselling author Doris Knecht, as well as her own traumatic experience of witnessing the 2020 Vienna attack, writer-director Elisabeth Scharang retreats to the woods in this atmospheric and soul-stirring film.   The attack is not shown in detail, just fragments in flashbacks, sowing it best to leave it to one’s imagination.  The lead character is Marian Malin (played by the brilliant Brigitte Hobmeier) has everything she could hope for: a successful career, a deep romantic love, and time to pursue her passions. Everything is perfect until she and her husband (Bogdan Dumitrache) witness a deadly terrorist attack in the heart of Vienna, her homeland’s capital. Plagued with post-traumatic flashbacks, Marian is unable to function in the city and flees to a Lower Austria country house that once belonged to her grandparents. There, in what seems like relative safety, she freely roams the woods and rekindles a connection to the simple place she once called home. But it is not without its presence, including old friends Gerti (the revelatory Gerti Drassl) and Franz (Johannes Krisch), both of whom stayed in the village and for whom Marian’s return summons questions about life-defining events.  The story sounds quite simple but the story is revealed with great conviction.  Director Scharand gets her audience to feel what Marian feels in what can be described as a moving and riveting film.  The film also includes the topic of an outsider coming into a society that takes a general dislike to namers like Sm Peckinpah’s THE STRAW DOGS and the recent French drama AS BESTAS.  

 

 

YOUTH (SPRING) (Luxembourg/Franxe/Nerehrlands  2023) ***½

Directed by Wang Bing

 

Running at 3 hours and 30 monies. YOUTH (SPRING) is a candid examination of the youth garment workers working in the textile capital, Zhili, China.  Unlike the youth of Western countries, these young people live in closed and often filthy quarters, worn more than 8 hours a day, and away from their families.  Yet, they share the common trait of their western counterparts of lively spirit, off flirting with the opposite sex and also running into mischief.  The work ethics of the textile companies also come into question.  The bosses are rude to the young workers, calling them morons and refusing to look at fir pay for their work.  Shot over the course of five years, from 2014 to 2019, in the city of Zhili, one of the main hubs of the country’s textile industry, the film condenses 2,600 hours of footage into a three-and-a-half-hour document of considerable visual strength and impact.  What emerges is a vivid portrait of not only a regional economy, but the love, tenderness, and friendship experienced by its young textile workers. These 20-year-olds have migrated from their hometowns to work for a period of time in the sweatshop capital of China. They share everything. They stay and eat in common dormitories, meet in corridors or on balconies, and, above all, spend 15 hours a day at work, the constant hum of sewing machines forming the soundtrack of their destinies. There is no story or narrative but what occurs onscreen tells more stories about human youth than anything else.

 

THE ZONE OF INTEREST (Poland/UK/USA 2023) ***** Top 10

Directed by Jonathan Glazer

 

Winner of the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes (2nd Best Film), Jonathan Glazer’s (UNDER THE SKIN) THE ZONE OF INTEREST is a horror film about the Holocaust without a single scene of concentration camps.  It depicts the banality of evil so well put forward that the audience is left just as silent as in the recent Christopher Nolan nuclear war vehicle, OPPENHEIMER.  Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), always dressed in white as if to symbolize purity, and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Huller), live so close to Auschwitz camp that one can hear the horrors from the nearby camp (as in a prisoner drowned by the guards for fighting for an apple).  They live in a beautiful home, with food, vegetables, fruit and herbs cultivated next to a swimming pool and river flowing with clear water close by.  They argue about household problems and are oblivious to the horrors of the war that are going on.  The thousands gassed are discussed as a matter of efficiency of transportation in a meeting among Nazi officials.  The most chilling film of TIFF that many critics claim should have won the Palme d’Or Prize for its groundbreaking filmmaking.

SHORT CUTS

EXPRESS (Canada 2023) *
Directed by Ivan D. Ossa

 

EXPRESS is an African-Canadian short about a hardworking young man looking to take his first step into the high-flying corporate world.  He is all prepared with his ultra-prepared but obviously pretentious speech that fails to impress rather than impress.  As the short progresses, the young man is waiting for the all-important phone call from the company, the call that he strongly believes will get him the poison and make him a success in life.  Things turn ironic when his buddies take him to a club of dancing when the call arrives.  Well made well-performed with a message to boot, the short established director Ossa as a new talent to be reckoned with.  Shown as part of the Short Cuts 4 program.

 

MOTHERLAND (Canada 2023) ***

Directed by Jasmin Mozaffari

 

This 24-minute accomplished short, shot in English and Persian could easily be stretched out to a full-length 90-minute feature but the fact that it runs only 24 minutes makes it short, sweet and efficient without any lagging parts,  Director Mozaffari’s new film (after FIRECRACKERS) tells the story of a man whose personal crises are compounded by the tensions that surround him as an Iranian in America circa 1979.  It is set on campus where he runs afoul of Americans and dishonesty with his girlfriend.  Shown as part of Short Cuts Program 6.

 

 

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Details

Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 30 July 2023

FILM REVIEWS:

 

 

BACK ON THE STRIP (USA2023) *

Directed by Chris Spencer

 

After losing the woman of his dreams, Merlin (Spence Moore II) moves to Las Vegas to pursue work as a magician, only to get hired as the frontman in a revival of the notorious black male stripper crew, The Chocolate Chips. Led by Luther (Wesley Snipes) - now broke and broken - the old, domesticated, out-of-shape Chips put aside former conflicts and reunite to save the hotel they used to perform in while helping Merlin win back his girl.  Chips is also one-legged after a car accident.

BACK ON THE STRIP is a comedy about a Las Vegas magician wannabe who loses his girl and wins her back, thus also functioning as a romantic comedy.  The Strip could refer to either taking one’s clothes off or the Las Vegas strip.  The film also provides some opportunity for mild dirty jokes about big penises though nothing vulgar is shown on screen.

Robin accepts a marriage proposal from another man, with Merlin looking so, so sad.  “If he wants Robin back, he has to get the magic back.”  This is one of the many corny lines the script is filled with.  Amusing at most, not really funny.  “Do you expect me to shake my stash every day of the week?”  “No you get Sundays off.   The serious lines are just as corny.  Example: “It does not take a spark to light a flame” “Depends on who’s lighting the flame.” Besides the corniness, the script contains embarrassing jokes, like Merlin jumping up and down trying to get his wig stuck up a tree, showing his ‘shlong’ embarrassing all the guests.  And what is the name of the magician in the story?  Merlin, of course, if one has not already noticed.

“Awkward, messy and a little painful.”  His mother describes Merlin’s first Vegas act to bad sex.  The same three words can also be used to describe this film.  The film takes almost 30 minutes before the idea of male stripping comes into the story.  Before that, the film is all over the place, including showing Merlin as a kid, which might have lost the interest of the audience already.  The overused joke about the standing ovation is once again used at the film’s 30 minute mark.  Any opportunity for jokes about Luther’s one leg is also missed.  Oe expects the film to sprit up once the stripping starts.  It does not.

The film stars Wesley Snipes, the once popular star making a reappearance after a long absence including the time he got in trouble with tax evasion.  An inside joke or two could have been sneaked into the script to provide some laughs.   Tiffany Haddish also has star billing in the film, playing Robins’ mother though she has nothing much to do except provide some voiceover.  Kevin Hart has the role of an uptight father in the film.

BACK TO THE STRIP mostly fails to enchant or entertain with its lazy script, co-written by director Spencer and Eric Daniel with and lame performances.  The film could be funnier with better comic timing and editing and needless to say, a funnier script with more original jokes. No one really cares too, if Merlin gets back his girl Tobin, which is the film’s major flaw.  This is not THE FULL MONTY and certainly not MAGIC MIKE.  And if one wants to see a hijacked wedding, best to go see THE GRADUATE again.

BACK ON THE STRIP will be released in theatres this Friday, August 18th.

Trailer: 

BAD THINGS (USA 2023) ***

Directed by  Stewart Thorndike

 

BAD THINGS, a sexy horror flick premiering on Netflix, a Netflix original can hardly be called original.  The opening sequence sees the corridor of an empty luxury hotel which reminds one right away from a similar scene from Stanley Kubrick's classic horror film THE SHINING.  The scantily clad ladies also reminds one of 80’s sexy horror flicks like CRUEL INTENTIONS which is one step before the sexy ladies perform BAD THINGS.   One of the first rooms of the hotel shown is decorated in pink.  (The film also features Molly Rongwald who was in a film entitled PRETTY IN PINK.) To make things also nastier and sexier, the ladies are also lesbians.  The film begins with one of them carrying a chainsaw.  But the purpose is not to decapitate or dismember any human being but to remove a tree trunk blocking the car coming into the hotel’s driveway.  It does not take a genius to guess that the chainsaw will feature again later on in the movie.  One of the girls has inherited the lush hotel from her grandmother, who left it to her, not her mother.  The hotel comes along with baggage and one is not talking guests luggage here.  The hotel has a history of 4 deaths and a fire that still renders the 3rd floor flooded.

The girls arrive in the dead of winter.  The landscape is snow and ice white, which makes the atmosphere more chilling.

For a group of friends in the Northeast, a weekend getaway at a snowy resort sounds like just what the doctor ordered. An opportunity to reconnect, relax, and recuperate among serene, snow-capped mountains and trees.  But peace doesn't last long as the ghosts of guests past and relationships long buried come to light.  Soon enough, their trip transforms into a psychological tailspin and bloody nightmare, as both long-deceased guests and the space itself come to life, and the group turn on each other in a race to stay alive.

What kind of BAD THINGS do the girls do?  The first one is when one shoves her lover all of the sudden, out of the blue onto a piece of furniture. There is no reason for the push and the girl apologizes for doing so.

One thing that stands out in this horror flick are the performances of the relatively unknown cast.  They create credible characters and clearly give their characters all they got, despite the rather messy script that occasionally is all over the place.  But there are also good anticipation scary moments, like the automatic doors opening and closing without anyone visibly entering or exiting the building or the sight of the dining room filled with people (or ghosts) that suddenly disappear the next moment.  Some haunting dialogue too, as says one girl says out of the blue: “When I am tired I do not feel my fingers.”

BAD THINGS also moves fast in its short 90 minutes running time, making it an efficient horror flick that is both fun to watch and to be scared by.  The film premieres on Shudder August the 18th, 2023

 

BIRTH/REBIRTH (USA 2022) ***
Directed by Laura Moss

 

BIRTH/REBIRTH tells the birth or rebirth of a dead daughter.  The birth/rebirth is the result of an experiment a pathologist conducts to her success.  It is a re-telling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein classic with a few notable differences.

Firstly it is a female re-telling.  All the characters are now female.  The doctor is still a doctor but a pathologist.  A new character, a mother is involved and the monster is also a female.  Secondly, there is more humanizing in the story.  All the characters are displayed as human beings with real emotions that matter.  Thirdly, the story takes a different direction after the ‘monster’ is created.  The monster is also not a monster but a ‘previous human being’.

Rose (Marin Ireland) is a pathologist who prefers working with corpses over social interaction. She also has an obsession — the reanimation of the dead. Celie (Judy Reyes) is a maternity nurse who has built her life around her bouncy, chatterbox six-year-old daughter, Lila (A.J. Lister). When one tragic night, Lila suddenly falls ill and dies, the two women's worlds crash into each other. They embark on a dark path of no return where they will be forced to confront how far they are willing to go to protect what they hold most dear.

Director Moss does her utmost best to make her Frankenstein tale as credible as possible. She invests the first third of the film into examining the 2 characters of her story.  She shows a diligent rather worried human being, Rose, just not a crazed experimenter.  When the two initially meet, Rose has her nose hit by the door and the following scenes show her with a bleeding nose, which causes the audience to have some sympathy for her.  Celie the mother is shown to be a caring yet desperate mother who would do anything to bring her dead daughter to life, regardless.  Her desperation into searching for her missing daughter initially also takes some screen time.  Director Moss clearly establishes the raison d’être of both women to continue the Frankenstein experiment much further.

BIRTH/REBIRTH is largely a female  picture.  The two protagonists are female, the experiment is the daughter and the director of the film is also female.  Director Moss keeps the female issues at hand, not letting them cloud the main story.  Both actresses Ireland and Reyes are totally convincing in their roles.  The interaction of the two characters, initially strangers then forced to bond together make a large part of the storyline,

BIRTH/REBIRTH is an impressive directorial debut from Laura Moss (a filmmaker from NYC whose work has screened at Tribeca, Rotterdam, and SXSW+ who has reimagined Mary Shelley’s classic horror myth Frankenstein into credible modern setting with real people with real issues.  As believable as it is, the film is more mysterious than scary with the story leading into a different ending that would also only lead to disaster.

BIRTH/REBIRTH opens Exclusively in Theatres on Friday, August 18th.

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BLUE BEETLE (USA/Mexico 2023) ***

Directed by Angel Manuel Soto

BLUE BEETLE is the name of three fictional superheroes appearing in a number of American comic books published by a variety of companies since 1939.  The film is based on the third, which is connected to the first two, referenced for continuity,

The third Blue Beetle, created by DC Comics, is Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña), a teenager who discovers that the original Blue Beetle scarab morphs into a battle suit allowing him to fight crime and travel in space.  Over the years, Reyes became a member of the Teen Titans and starred in two Blue Beetle comic series. In DC Comics' 2011 "New 52" reboot, though this part is totally omitted in the movie.

The film’s storyline largely follows the comic book but with a few changes.  His girl friend is different and is human, niece to the villain.  In the comic book, his girlfriend is a young sorceress.   An alien scarab chooses college graduate Jaime Reyes to be its symbiotic host, bestowing the teenager with a suit of armour that's capable of extraordinary and unpredictable powers, forever changing his destiny as he becomes the superhero known as Blue Beetle.

To the director and scriptwriter’s credit, the film gives positive ideas with regard to Mexican immigrants as well as female issues.  The Mexican family for Jaime is shown to be one very close together but falling foul to begin loud, nosy and uncontrollable.  In  most families, regardless where they come from - Indian, Chinese, Spanish, Italian et al. all share the same traits.  But the film makes the audiences more sympathetic and root for the Mexican family.  They are seen as overlooked, hard-working and looked down upon.  The female slant is strong in the film.  Jamie’s grandmother, aka Nana (Adriana Barraza), who steals every scene, hands down,  is given a strong voicerous role.  The villain is also female (Susan Sarandon) and the mother too, all have their say in the film.

One problem with this film is its originality.  Most of what transpires in the film has been seen in one film or another.  The transformation of human to blue beetle as well as the transformation of the villain to machine is too similar to the transformer films.  The humour in the super antihero film reminds one of the ANTMAN films.  And there are also similarities of Jaime learning his superpowers as Peter Parker did in the SPIDER-MAN films.  The film also runs a bit long at over two hours and could be trimmed shorter and thus more efficient.  The special effects are not too bad.

BLUE BEETLE is from Warner Bros.  Both Disney and Warner Bros. have milked their super action hero movies to death just as Disney has made their Star Wars films a total disaster that no one wishes to watch any longer.  As such, BLUE BEETLE is expected not to make much money and a sequel is less likely to be made. It is a shame as the film is not that bad, flaws aside.  BLUE BEETLE puts a positive look at female and Mexican immigrants, something films have failed to put across as effectively as this one.

BLUE BEETLE opens only in theatres August the 18th.

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A LIFE TOO SHORT: THE ISABELLA NARDONI CASE (Brazil 2023) ***½

Directed by Micael Langer and Cláudio Manoel

 

The murder of Isabella de Oliveira Nardoni was one of the most infamous infanticide cases in Brazil. On the night of 29 March 2008, five-year-old Isabella died from severe injuries after being thrown out of the sixth floor of the building where she lived with her father Alexandre Alves Nardoni, stepmother Anna Carolina Jatobá and newborn siblings in North São Paulo. Investigations concluded that the girl had been physically abused by her caretakers and both were condemned for intentional homicide.

When a 5-year-old girl falls from her father's apartment, her mother then embarks on a quest for justice - and is put under the national spotlight.

The girl was found on the lawn of the multi-storied building.  The safety net was cut by a pair of scissors or knife.  The father and step-mother claimed that their apartment was broken into by a burglar who had thrown the child from the balcony.  The child’s mother was called to the scene, the mother who believed the step-mother and the father, her ex.  But upon investigation, it was determined by the police investigators that no one saw the burglar and the  step-mother and father had conflicting testimonies.  The above facts of Isabella’s death were fed to the audience in the first 15 minutes of the film, making this  crime documentary a compelling watch.  Who was or were responsible?  Directors Micael Langer and Cláudio Manoel up the ante in this suspenseful mystery and though unclear who were responsible, their film documents the painful investigation including the trail that took place.

Investigators eventually found Isabella's blood in Nardoni's car and in his apartment, on a towel and a diaper, her vomit on his T-shirt, footprints of her flip-flops on a bed next to the window through which she was thrown, and traces of nylon from the wire safety screen on his T-shirt.  The police also found fragments of the safety screen on a pair of scissors inside the apartment.  All the facts are eventually revealed step by step to the audience.   The investigators and forest experts determine that though there was circumstantial evidence to suggest that Isabella was thrown to her death from a bedroom window, her injuries were not consistent with a falling death. Only her wrists were broken, in addition to the fact that she was still alive, albeit barely, when she was discovered.  The IML (Instituto Médico Legal, or Legal Medical Institute) personnel announced that they found injuries unrelated to the fall on Isabella's body. The injuries suggested that she had been punched and asphyxiated before being thrown out of the window.

On 18 April 2008, both Nardoni and Jatobá were indicted by the São Paulo Civil Police. They continued to claim innocence.

Though non-fiction, the case sends shivers through anyone’s spine.  The only thing missing in the doc that still remains a mystery is the real motive behind the murder.  A LIFE TOO SHORT: THE ISABELLA NARDONI CASE, a definitely a compelling horror true crime story debuts on Netflix streaming this week.

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THE MONKEY KING (USA/China 2023) ***
Directed by Anthony Stacchi

 

THE MONKEY KING has never failed to fascinate.  It is part of Asian culture.  The first animated feature of the monkey king I had seen - my parents took me to see it when I was 5 years old - and also the first anime feature to ‘wow' the west during the early animated years was ALAKAZAM THE GREAT, released in 1960.  A monkey king who learns the secrets of magic goes on a spree and causes no end of aggravation for the gods, who finally imprison him. In order to make up for all the trouble he's caused, he is sent on a mission to accompany a prince who is the son of the gods on a journey through a land filled with dangers, monsters, cannibals and demons.  The new Netflix animated feature THE MONEY KING that opens this week on Netflix follows a similar storyline.  THE MONKEY KING is also the title of several other movies and a TV series.

The new Monkey King is a 2023 computer-animated fantasy action comedy film directed by Anthony Stacchi, an animator and special effects artist who worked in films like JAMES THE GIANT PEACH and BACK TO THE FUTURE.   The film, inspired by the epic Ming Dynasty classic Journey to the West and produced by Peilin Chou with the famous Stephen Chow as executive producer, features the titular trickster, played by Jimmy O. Yang, who battles the Dragon King (Bowen Yang).  It also has supporting voice roles including Jo Koy, BD Wong as Buddha, Jolie Haong-Rappaport, and Stephanie Hsu.

Director Stacchi’s film opens and runs at a frantic pace that might be too fast for younger children to follow.  Within the first few minutes of the film, lots of information is decimated to the audience.  The earth is in balance with the demons and Gods in their places.  Then a monkey is born out of a stone - the monkey king (aka the stone monkey) and all is thrown into disarray.  The plot is rather silly as are most of the humour and characters like the Jade Emperor, full of himself, who is given blue eyeshadow and a high pitched girly voice.  Unfortunately the goofiness is not as funny as say in the Looney Tunes cartoons or in the Shrek franchise.  The goofiness does create a few laugh-out loud laughs or so, but the hilarity could have been brought up a few notches.  The animation is colourful and the animation looks frantic, but the action suits the film’s look.

There is no coming-of-age story for this money kid/king who wishes to belong, nor are there any life lessons or messages or social commentary.  THE MONKEY KING is clean and simplified animated entertainment that would satisfy if one does not expect too much from one’s entertainment.

          THE MONKEY KING was selected as the closing film at the 22nd New York Asian Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on July 30, 2023.  It had a preview at the Annecy (France) International Animation Film Festival on June 14, 2023 and opens August 18th on Netflix.

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PIGLADY (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Adam Ray Fair

 

The starting credits and the film’s poster is quick to point out that the film is based on true events and the film shot where the actual events took place.

PIGLADY is loosely inspired by the Susan Monica Murders, and a majority of the film was shot on the property adjacent to where the actual events took place, and where human remains were found eaten by her pigs!  From the film’s initial frame, there is an atmosphere of dread and evil.

A group of 4 friends, (two male and two female) while on a Christmas vacation to their family cabin in Southern Oregon, learn of a local rumour of an antisocial woman who allegedly murders people and feeds her victims to pigs.

The other supporting players in the story include two cops who are intent on busting the pig lady.  One believes that the pig lady had stolen one of his family’s pigs and poisoned his dog when he was a kid.  That is the reason he reveals to his partner for wanting to bust her.  Another supporting player is a junkie, a cocaine snorting and weed smoking vagrant who has a trailer parked on pig lady’s property and who is working for her, doing odd jobs.  She is aware of his drug habits yet invites him over to her place, leaving the audience wondering what she is intending to offer him.  He rightly initially declines the invitation.  One other supporting player is a girl at the start of the film who is killed by the pig lady just after giving birth to a new born baby.

Written and directed by Adam Ray Fair, PIGLADY is a low budget horror film much in the vein of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE.  Both films take place in hillbilly type country and deal with weird and ugly folk that one would wish never to encounter with.  Instead of a chainsaw, the pig lady wields a machete, which she has used already to kill the young mother.   She can also throw a mean axe.

Every horror film creates suspense from audience anticipation.  Director Fair has the junkie finally accept the invite from the pig lady and enters her house.  She then offers him coke which he snorts before…….    Another tactic used in the film is the appearance of the pigs before the PIGLADY shows up.  A lot of anticipation is also created by the appearances of her close by wherever the 4 friends are, whether in their cabin or outside chopping wood.

The dialogue is aimless but one can argue that these are the kind of words spoken by people in the backwoods.  The girls talk about the men clinging on to the last of their masculinity while the men are mostly interested in taking a drink or smoking a joint.  They are just waiting to be slaughtered by the pig lady.  The audience's curiosity is how the pig lady would eventually get her comeuppance.

Director Fair delivers his horror with lots of anticipation, guts and grossness with PIGLADY ending up entertaining in a grotesque and disgusting kind of way.

Gravitas Ventures will release PIGLADY on digital platforms on August 22, 2023. The film has a running time of 1 hour 39 minutes and will not be rated by the MPAA.

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STORAGE LOCKER (USA 2022) ***
Directed by Ray Spivey

 

What evil lurks behind those doors?  Those doors behind the storage lockers?  Campy as it sounds, this new horror flick going straight to streaming, produced, written and directed by Ray Spivey is exactly what it intends to be, campy horror, and lame as its storyline and premise might be, delivers what one would expect.

A comic book collector Packer Stanley (Avery Mayo) while on a run to buy new collector items, is mugged and the cash he has reserved for his wedding honeymoon stolen.  His fiancé ditches him and the small town boy has no alternative but either give up his comic collecting or get more money with his collection, which is what his finance does not want.   

Believing that he has broken up with her, he meets two beautiful, mysterious dodgy sisters, Diana and Apollonia, who run a secret collectors society.  The sisters had just lost their father in a collector’s dispute.  “I would do anything to bring my father back,” one of them says, “You don’t understand.  I will tell you a secret.”  One can tell that Packer is in for something nasty.    The two mysterious sisters own a storage locker facility.  Packer ingratiates himself into their business and is inducted into their secret collectors society.  The sisters' father Kirby Leto was gunned down five years ago and a rival collector George Fisk is a suspect.  George tries to shoot Diana one evening and Packer takes the bullet.  Apollonia is a wannabe witch (she is actually learning the trade, believe it or not) and uses a spell to save Packer’s life.  She is also developing the magic skills to bring her father back to life.  Unfortunately she has created a demonic soul trapped in a small boy's body.  The boy grows like the cancer growing through his body and threatens everyone.

To acquire the rarest of the rare, Packer, the obsessed rare comic book collector must battle a demonic presence in the sisters' deadly storage facility.  somewhat bumbling protagonist that one can at least feel some sympathy for, as he is totally hapless.  Packer is good looking and suave enough to be the film’s hero and the two sisters pretty enough to engage the audience’s attention.  Everyone loves a good monster and the film has a solid one.  The dark and creepy corridors in the storage locker facility makes also a good scary setting for a horror movie, though not much of the facility can be seen as the camera is always in front of the characters’ faces.

The film, entertaining as it is as horror with a twist of humour, has won numerous awards at the Hollywood Blood Horror Festival including Best Feature & Best Director, and has also screened at other festivals including Shockfest, IndieFest, NY International Film Awards, and WorldFest Houston.  Freestyle Releasing releases STORAGE LOCKER on digital platforms on August 22, 2023. The film has a running time of 1:51:52 and will not be rated by the MPAA.

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UNTOLD: HALL OF SHAME (USA 2023) ***

Directed by Bryan Storkel

 

The first 10 minutes of the new doc UNTOLD: HALL OF SHAME immediately draws the viewer immediately into the subject of the steroids/professional athletes scandal.  Even if one has not touched steroids, the mystery of the subject and how it has affected the United States and the world of sports is something one cannot hide away from.  There is a shot of Victor Conte flexing his muscles, at an older stage in life, not possible if he did not inject steroids in himself.

Victor Conte is nicknamed the Dr. Frankenstein of BALCO Laboratories.  Victor Conte Jr. (born 1950 in Fresno, California) is a former bassist with Tower of Power and the founder and president of Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO), a sports nutrition centre in California. He served time in prison in 2005 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute steroids and money laundering.  He currently operates Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning (SNAC Nutrition).  He is responsible for the creation and large distribution of THG, also called the Clear (Tetrahydrogestrinone, an anabolic steroid) a largely undetectable steroid used among the athletes in the sports world.

HALL OF SHAME shows two sides of the coin, arguing as well for instead of against the use of steroids.  Most may not agree with the arguments.  Conte claims all is fair in the new world of steroids and it is a new level field.  The pressure and lure to break sports records are factors that cannot be overlooked.  It is hard to say ‘no’.  “Show me a person not on steroids and I will show you a loser.”  Conte confidently claims at the start of the documentary.  (Reviewer’s note:  Myself, I had taken steroids too in my younger days to build up muscle to look good.)

Who else has served time with respect to steroid use beside Conte?  The answer is the track star like Marion Jones, the only athlete imprisoned in connection with the BALCO case after pleading guilty to a perjury charge.

Other users featured in the doc include baseball slugger Barry Bonds, who, as the film informs, was likely headed to be inducted into the Hall of Fame before his sudden explosion of home-run-hitting power.  While Bonds has steadfastly denied using PED, the questions have kept him out of the Hall despite his record-setting resume.  A sprinter Tim Montgomery, who improved his time in the 100 meters from 9.92 seconds when running clean to a world-record-setting 9.78 is yet another abuser.  For Canadians, it seems only yesterday that the news of Olympic winner Ben Johnson was stripped of his gold medal.

HALL OF SHAME also shows the painful process by which Conte got caught by then ORA agent Jeff Notvitzky.

The most impressive feat this doc achieves are the candid interviews director Storkel has obtained from both Conte and Notvitzky both often denying what the other says.  The archive footage of all the record breakers that have used steroids also add to the urgency of the doc.

UNTOLD is a series of sports documentary films distributed on Netflix.   HALL OF SHAME opens for streaming on Netflix this week.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 29 July 2023

A record of three French films open this week.  Not to be missed is THE BEASTS (France/Spain) which won the Cesar for Best Foreign film.

 

FILM REVIEWS:

 

AS BESTAS (THE BEASTS) (Spain/France 2022) Top 10 *****
Directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen

 

Antonio (Denis Ménochet) and Olga (Marina Foïs) are a French couple who love the rural life, settled some time ago in a village in the interior of Galicia in Spain. They lead a quiet life ther , seeking closeness with nature, (Antonio says he loves the land and refuses to sign his land away to a turbine company) although their coexistence with the locals is not as idyllic as they would like.  A conflict about the modern windmills with their neighbours, the Anta brothers (Luis Zahera, Diego Anido), will cause tension to grow in the village until it reaches a point of no return.

The main problem between the couple and the brothers is the sale of the land to a turbine company.  The sale can only take place if votes go in the favour of selling the land.  The brothers want out of farming while the French couple refuse to sign.  The brothers use underhanded tactics to scare the couple, a few very nasty ones.

The script covers all the corners of the conflict.

One is a civilized discussion of conflict solving,  Antonio initiates a talk at the local bar, buying the brothers drinks.  The audience sees both sides of the story.  Antonio also tries to convince the brothers that the money obtained from the sale of the land is not enough for a settlement anywhere else.  The old adage goes that one cannot argue with idiots.  And the Anta brothers are clear idiots who are not only stupid but have no education nor common sense.  One of the brother’s slowness is attributed by the other brother from falling off a horse when younger.

The other discussion is between husband and wife, Antonio and Olga.  At night in bed, they discuss their options.  The wife offers valuable points in her arguments.  “We did not come here to fight.  The brothers will never change.  They are uncontrollable.”  But Antonio makes the valid point that they are out of options.  And money.  They have used their savings and need one good harvest at least if they decide to see their land.

Antonio has also made a complaint with the local police who do nothing to elevate the situation or help the couple.  All they say is: “We will talk to them.”

THE BEASTS is a gruelling edge of the seat thriller with things escalating from bad to worse to unbearable for the poor French couple.  Director Sorogoyen stages very intense confrontation set pieces with rising tensions and danger  The intensity of the situation is meticulously built up to a climax that will knock the audience off their seats,

THE BEASTS is not as  pleasant as JEAN DE FLORETTE neighbour farmer against neighbour farmer drama or even as pleasant as slasher/horror flick Sam Peckinpah’s THE STRAW DOGS.  The more harrowing fact is that the film is based on a true story, documented in Santoalla (2016) and re-written with fictional characters, with incidents feeling horribly raw and authentic.  The want for land brings out the worst in human beings.

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BILLION DOLLAR HEIST (USA 2023) ****
Directed by Daniel Gordon

 

BILLION DOLLAR HEIST is a documentary, well researched  that would appeal to a wide audience for a variety of reasons.  First and foremost, everyone loves a good heist movie.  The doc deals with cyber security and hacking.  Almost everyone these days has had an encounter with viruses and have heard news of cyber attacks.  Besides the topical relevance of the subject, there is the curiosity aspect that audiences have that they would like to learn more.  The element of danger and threat to the world is an urgency audiences cannot dismiss.  All these factors make BILLION DOLLAR HEIST an intriguing doc that many would not want to miss.  And most important of all, BILLION DOLLAR HEIST is a well researched, necessarily technical, well executed and totally compelling documentary.

Global, dynamic, and eye-opening, BILLION DOLLAR HEIST tells the story of the most daring cyber heist of all time, the Bangladeshi Central Bank theft. This feature documentary traces the origins of cyber-crime from basic credit card fraud to the wildly complex criminal organizations in existence today, supported by commentary and fascinating insight from highly regarded cyber security experts such as Eric Chien, Mikko Hypponen, Keith Mularski and renowned journalist, broadcaster and best-selling author of McMafia (which was adapted into a BBC / AMC series), Misha Glenny. A tale of epic proportions, BILLION DOLLAR HEIST shows how the key players on both sides of the law are embroiled in a global game of cat-and-mouse – with our money and security on the line.

Director Gordon also makes his doc more accessible by drawing in past virus attacks like the “I love You” virus.  Everyone remembers that virus and those who have had the misfortune of opening the email saying “I Love you”.   This doc serves as a firm reminder of how vulnerable computer users are.

Director Gordon is humble to list cyber attacks as the 4th largest problems of the humans race.  He lists the first three as: the Pandemic followed by weapons of mass destruction and followed by climate change.  But he demonstrates how this 4th largest treat - cyber attacks can create havoc on the world humans comfortably live in.

As the doc progresses, one eventually wonders how the doc would end.  Would the perpetrators of the heist be caught and brought to justice?  It might seem so, as the cyber experts seem to be able to trace and inform the audiences of how they entered the bankings system and steal and laundered the money.  But the doc does not end with a happy ending for the banking systems.  The cyber attackers got away with $81 million, just short of a billion.  The doc ends with a severe warning that the worst is yet to come.  One can only shudder in suspense and only time will tell how much more damage hackers can create in the future.  Everyone needs to be diligent and not open suspicious emails.  But it only takes one person to make the mistake to create total havoc around the world.  One wonders the reason these hackers would not decide to do some good instead of bad.  But such is the evil of man.

BILLION DOLLAR HEIST will be available to stream or own on August the 15th.

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BIRTH/REBIRTH (USA 2022) ***
Directed by Laura Moss

 

BIRTH/REBIRTH tells the birth or rebirth of a dead daughter.  The birth/rebirth is the result of an experiment a pathologist conducts to her success.  It is a re-telling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein classic with a few notable differences.

Firstly it is a female re-telling.  All the characters are now female.  The doctor is still a doctor but a pathologist.  A new character, a mother is involved and the monster is also a female.  Secondly, there is more humanizing in the story.  All the characters are displayed as human beings with real emotions that matter.  Thirdly, the story takes a different direction after the ‘monster’ is created.  The monster is also not a monster but a ‘previous human being’.

Rose (Marin Ireland) is a pathologist who prefers working with corpses over social interaction. She also has an obsession — the reanimation of the dead. Celie (Judy Reyes) is a maternity nurse who has built her life around her bouncy, chatterbox six-year-old daughter, Lila (A.J. Lister). When one tragic night, Lila suddenly falls ill and dies, the two women's worlds crash into each other. They embark on a dark path of no return where they will be forced to confront how far they are willing to go to protect what they hold most dear.

Director Moss does her utmost best to make her Frankenstein tale as credible as possible. She invests the first third of the film into examining the 2 characters of her story.  She shows a diligent rather worried human being, Rose, just not a crazed experimenter.  When the two initially meet, Rose has her nose hit by the door and the following scenes show her with a bleeding nose, which causes the audience to have some sympathy for her.  Celie the mother is shown to be a caring yet desperate mother who would do anything to bring her dead daughter to life, regardless.  Her desperation into searching for her missing daughter initially also takes some screen time.  Director Moss clearly establishes the raison d’être of both women to continue the Frankenstein experiment much further.

BIRTH/REBIRTH is largely a female  picture.  The two protagonists are female, the experiment is the daughter and the director of the film is also female.  Director Moss keeps the female issues at hand, not letting them cloud the main story.  Both actresses Ireland and Reyes are totally convincing in their roles.  The interaction of the two characters, initially strangers then forced to bond together make a large part of the storyline,

BIRTH/REBIRTH is an impressive directorial debut from Laura Moss (a filmmaker from NYC whose work has screened at Tribeca, Rotterdam, and SXSW+ who has reimagined Mary Shelley’s classic horror myth Frankenstein into credible modern setting with real people with real issues.  As believable as it is, the film is more mysterious than scary with the story leading into a different ending that would also only lead to disaster.

BIRTH/REBIRTH opens Exclusively in Theatres on Friday, August 18th.

Trailer: 

HEART OF STONE (USA 2023) ***

Directed by Tom Harper

 

HEART OF STONE is Netflix’s original blockbuster that its to compete with this year’s action blockbusters like the new INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY and MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE DEAD RECKONING PART 1.  The film aims, according to press notes, to succeed as both an action blockbuster but one with more emotions of the story’s characters.

The heroine of the story is Rachel Stone (Gal Gadot).  Stone appears to be an inexperienced tech, on an elite MI6 unit headed up by lead agent Parker (Jamie Dornan, Kenneth Branagh’s BELFAST). What her MI6 team doesn’t know is that Stone actually works for the Charter. The Charter is an organization so secret that even other spies don’t know it exists. Former intelligence operatives and government officials from all over the world have put their previous political allegiances aside, and now use their skills and cutting edge technology for the greater good — a cross between the UN and International Rescue. Led by the Four Kings, the Charter steps in when other agencies fail to step up.When a routine mission is derailed by mysterious hacker Keya Dhawan (Alia Bhatt), Rachel’s two lives collide. As she races to protect the Charter and strives to beat the odds, her humanity might just be her biggest asset.

The heart of the Charter is the Charter’s massively powerful AI, capable of accessing any person or organization’s entire online presence and history, and then using that data to accurately predict future behaviour, anticipate decision-making, and even advise on responses.  This brings the film in line with the advances of AI.

The film opens with an elaborate covet mission that aims to take down a highly protected arms dealer.  The setting is the stunning Alps and of course the covert mission goes wrong, offering the chance to provide some awesome stunts and action packed scenes while introducing the story’s character.

HEART OF STONE delivers what it promises, an action blockbuster with Gal Gadot with more human characters and emotions.   The film opening on Friday August the 11th is worth a look.

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PASSAGES (France/Italy 2022) ***½

Directed by Ira Sachs

 

The film PASSAGES explores the explosive love triangle between an established male couple, Tomas and Martin, and Agathe, a woman who enters their lives in modern-day Paris. The couple also own a home in the French countryside. Agathe is a girl whom film director Tomas meets in a bar, right after wrapping up his latest feature, also titled Passages.

For Tomas, being with a woman is a novel and an exciting experience that he is eager to explore, despite being married to Martin.  However, when Martin starts his own affair, the mercurial Tomas refocuses his attention on his husband.

Director Sachs delves into the destructive aspects of love rather than its charitable nature, a theme that has been prevalent in his previous films.  The gay couple, Tomas and Martin, are long married, but they struggle to understand each other fully and often succumb to bursts of anger despite still loving each other.  Martin cannot comprehend Tomas' new found attraction to a woman, and Tomas, in turn, grapples with his own intense desires for the opposite sex. This disparity in their understanding of love and relationships reveals their emotional immaturity, and it becomes evident that they have reached a critical juncture in their maturity as a couple.  The love triangle involving two men and a woman, rather than three individuals of the same sex, is a fresh perspective that aligns with what Director Sachs intends to portray.

The film is based on a script co-written by Sachs himself and Mauricio Zacharias, and it feels honest and authentic, drawing from the director's emotions and experiences. The lead character, Tomas, is also a film director, mirroring Sachs' own profession.

Director Sachs skillfully captures both the explosive and intimate moments within relationships, sometimes occurring within moments of each other. When Tomas confesses to Martin that he slept with a woman for the first time, they argue and fight, with Tomas even threatening to move out of their apartment.  However, in a tender moment, Martin kisses Tomas on the lips and confesses that he still loves him.

PASSAGES boasts an exceptional cast, featuring three of Europe's leading actors - Adèle Exarchopoulos, Ben Whishaw, and Franz Rogowski.  German actor Rogowski has already won several acting awards and has been seen in films like A Hidden Life, Transit, and the recent Freaks Out, which was screened at the local Italian International Film Festival.  British actor Whishaw is unforgettable in Women Talking and as the limping man in The Lobster, while Exarchopoulos gained fame for her role in Blue is the Warmest Colour.

Director Sachs skillfully brings the tale to a logical and satisfactory conclusion, creating a cautionary yet realistic film that explores the destructive effects of love and lust.

PASSAGES, shot in both French and English,  opens on August 11 in Toronto (TIFF Bell Lightbox) and Vancouver (Vancity), followed by August 18 in Montreal and Quebec City, and will be screened throughout the spring in other Canadian cities.

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THE POD GENERATION (Belgium/France UK 2023) ***
Directed by Sophie Barthes

 

The film begins with Rachel (Emilia Clarke) waking up and getting ready for work in her futuristic looking apartment.  Instead of hearing Siri or Google , the audience hears Elena as she speaks and wishes Rachel a good morning while reminding her of her appointments and making breakfast for her.  She wakes her husband and off she goes to work.  As this is a feminist slanted film, Rachel is the soul amain bread winner of the couple, while the husband, Alvya (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a botanist does his research, as the audience see him self-pollinating fig tree as wasps are now extinct from the planet.

The pod referred to in the title of the film is a pod womb, where the mother can carry her child, instead of her natural womb.  In a not-so-distant future, AI is all the rage and nature is becoming a distant memory.  Tech giant Pegasus offers couples the opportunity to share pregnancy on a more equal footing via detachable artificial wombs, or pods. In this way, she can bear a child without the inconvenience of pregnancy.  Rachel’s company approves and supports her, as Rachel is a big contributor to the success of the company.

But at what cost? Rachel and Alvy, a New York couple, are ready to take their relationship to the next level and start a family. Rachel's work gives them a chance to fast-track to the top of the Pegasus waiting list. But Alvy, a botanist and devoted purist, has doubts. Nonetheless, his love for Rachel prompts him to take a leap of faith. And so begins the wild ride to parenthood in this brave new world with all its twists, turns, and bumps along the way.

THE POD GENERATION feels and is a feminist film in the way, being written and directed by a woman and with female issues.  Bearing a child is a strong female issue with more to discuss with regards to the concept of a sharing womb.  The company Rachel works for has more females in view than males and her supervisor who calls her into the office is female as well.  The issue discussed with her supervisor is also a female issue, one of having a child in the new future.  Besides being overburdened as a feminist film, the film touches other genres like sci-fi, romantic drama, relationships, environmental issues, social satire without really delving deep into any.  The script is repetitive in issues like the acceptance of the pod and the pod problems. 

As in many sci-fi futuristic outings, there are many scenes with decor of white and sparseness of furniture.   With this and director Barthes' creation of the pod technology, an effective creative and dystopian atmosphere is created.

 It is also strange that this UK, French and Belgium co-production has a setting in an American city - New York City.

There is a special advance screening August the 6th at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, with a virtual Q&A with director Barthes.

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RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE (USA 2023) ****

Directed by Matthew Lopez

RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE is a 2023 American romantic comedy film directed by Matthew Lopez who wrote the screenplay with Ted Malawer.  Based on the 2019 novel of the same name by Casey McQuiston, the film stars Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine as the son of the President of the United States and a British prince, Prince Henry respectively, who fall in love. 

Alex Claremont-Diaz (Perez) is the son of Ellen Claremont, the first female President of the United States, who is running for re-election. During a royal wedding, he has a physical altercation with Henry (Galitzine, also seen in the gay comedy HANDSOME DEVIL), a British prince. The incident is photographed and highly publicized with both parties forcing Alex and Henry to pretend to be friends with each other to prevent it from becoming a full-blown diplomatic and media crisis that would distract from Alex's mother's (Uma Thurman) election bid. The two become close over time and start falling in love.

In comedy, timing is everything.  The adage can be observed in both this film and the recent box-office hit BARBIE.  BARBIE had good ideas like Barbie world and the origin of the Barbie doll done in the style of the apes in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY, but BARBIE was just not funny.  I did not laugh out loud even once.  Director Greta Gerwig makes good films like LADYBIRD but comedy is not her forte.  In RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE however, director Lopez demonstrates expert comic timing in the first scene where the huge expensive wedding cake (the cost made known to the audience, something of the order of 700,000 quid so that the crash of the cake is such anticipated as is feared). Just before the cake comes tumbling down, there are the camera shots of faces of important guests, then of Prince Henry and then Alex, just an excellent bud upon edits leading to the great comic moment.  Nothing else in the film beats the moment, but it is the one important catalyst that spurs the relationship between the two dignitaries.  Another good comic moment is used for its full tackiness, which would elicit a good laugh-out loud moment for many.  As the Prince is going down on Alex and he pulls down Alex’s trousers, the scene is cut to show the Washington monument.

Director Lopez also excels in the dramatic moments as in the confrontation scene between mother (Madame President) and Alex.  Credit is due to the film’s source material, the novel which takes the story, indeed a great love story, into many unexpected turns, taking the audience into new emotional heights.

Director Lopez skimps on the sex scenes, though they are erotic enough and done in good taste, in comparison to the recent other gay film Ira Sash’s PASSAGES, which goes all the way. The film did earn an R rating in the U.S.

Director Matthew Lopez is an American playwright and screenwriter.  His play The Inheritance, directed by Stephen Daldry, premiered at London's Young Vic in 2018, where it was called "the most important American play of the century.”  The Inheritance is the most honoured American play in a generation, sweeping the "Best Play" awards in both London and New York including the Tony Award, Olivier Award, Drama Desk Award, Evening Standard Award, London Critics Circle Award.  It is therefore of no surprise that Lopez, openly gay, directs his film with confidence and absolute flair.

RED, WHITE & BLUE has a special screening at TIFF Bell Lightbox Thursday 10th before going on streaming on Amazon Prime.

 

Trailer: 

 

STAY AWAKE (USA 2022) ***
Directed by Jamie Sisley

 

STAY AWAKE has a repeated disturbing scene where the mother is passing in and out of consciousness in the car as her sons are taking her to hospital.  The sons are singing songs asking their mother to guess the title (Film tunes are heard: “Everyybody’s Talkin’ of Me” from MIDNIGHT COWBOY for example) in order for her to STAY AWAKE.

The opening sequences show the love each family member has for each other.  The mother cooks for her children,  “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” she instructs them.  The film’s initial scene has her cooking them a meal before the camera focuses on a pill, one assumes is an opioid.  The mother is overweight, which can contribute to her lack of confidence and her drug taking.  Audiences could be unsympathetic to such a woman, a drug addict and opioid user, but the purpose of the film is not to justify the use of opioids but rather to examine the effects it has on families.

The opioid addict is the mother with the two loving sons.  From the first scene, the mother character is one that everyone looks down upon.  She gets the opioid meds by pricking her finger and putting a bit of blood in her urine sample at the doctor’s.  She overdoses ever so often and has to be driven to the hospital by her sons.  Her sons have to pay for her rehab and the son’s lives are practically constrained by their mother’s addiction.   The elder son is clearly upset at her and lets her know it.  The question is why cannot she control herself and not change.  This is where the film gets deeper into the dilemma of addiction.  Or is not and the mother makes it clear that she wants to stay clean but she just cannot.  That is what addiction does to a person.  Sessions with her therapist/doctor at the rehab centre also paint an eye-opening look at the problem.  And the difficulties both the staff and patients have.

STAY AWAKE is understandably a difficult film to watch and can hardly be described as entertaining.  The film suffers during the initial 30 minutes or so with the script’s storyline dealing with addicts and their family that one has seen before in one film or another.  But the film slowly but surely invests time and care into the creation of the films three characters so that one does feel for each person, though not always on their side.

The film besides covering the mother’s addiction and strife towards recovery but also deals with the coming-of-age of each son.  The younger has a scholarship to a prestigious college and has trouble with his girlfriend.  The script is smart enough to have the mother offer solid advice, showing that the mother still can have a profound effect on her offspring.

The film clearly gets the audience to roof her characters, keeping the audience in suspense and on the edge of their seats whether the family will survive.

The film is available on VOD August the 15th.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 18 July 2023

FILM REVIEWS:

 

 

KOKOMO CITY (USA 2023) ***
Directed by D. Smith

KOKOMO CITY serves as a prime example of guerrilla filmmaking. After facing rejections from five directors, D. Smith took matters into her own hands, acquiring a camera and becoming the driving force behind the film. Smith impressively took on multiple roles, including producer, writer, director, composer, and cinematographer, even though she was a novice in filmmaking.

The documentary opens with a powerful account from Daniella, a transgender woman from New York City, recounting a harrowing incident involving a man she brought home for sex. The tension escalates as Daniella reveals that she was forced to defend herself with a gun. This candid and gripping narrative sets the tone for the film, showcasing its raw energy and unfiltered honesty.

The heart of the documentary revolves around the lives of four Black transgender sex workers - Daniella Carter and Dominique Silver from New York, and Koko Da Doll and Liyah Mitchell from Georgia. These resilient individuals shatter the barriers imposed by their profession, courageously sharing their experiences and struggles.

KOKOMO CITY sheds light on the challenges faced by transgender individuals, depicting the lack of respect and sensitivity they often encounter from others. Director D. Smith, herself a trans woman, brings a unique perspective to the film, having experienced firsthand the struggles in the music industry after her transition.

The film's soundtrack, curated by Smith, features a diverse range of songs, including Randy Crawford's "Street Life" and the evocative "Sissy Man Blues" by Kokomo Arnold, from whom the film derives its title.

As a minimalist documentary, KOKOMO CITY primarily consists of the four subjects sharing their experiences directly with the camera, supplemented by interviews with a few men who have interacted with them. At certain points, animated drawings are incorporated to emphasize specific points, adding a creative touch to the storytelling.

The documentary offers an intimate portrayal of black transgender sex workers, delving deep into their lives and experiences. Although the subject matter might be niche and unconventional for some viewers, it remains compelling and thought-provoking.

Tragically, one of the documentary's subjects, Koko Da Doll, was fatally shot in Atlanta in April 2023. This news adds a layer of poignancy and sadness to the film, emphasizing the harsh realities faced by the transgender community.

Despite the challenging subject matter, KOKOMO CITY has received critical acclaim and accolades. The documentary was honoured with the NEXT Innovator Award and the NEXT Audience Award at Sundance 2023, in addition to the Audience Award in the Panorama Documentary section at Berlin 2023.

KOKOMO CITY is set to open on July 28 in various cities, including Toronto (TIFF Bell Lightbox), Vancouver (Vancity), Montreal, and Quebec City, offering audiences a unique and emotionally charged cinematic experience.

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THE LADY OF SILENCE: THE MATAVIEJETAS MURDERS (Mexico 2023) ***

Original title: La dama del silencio: El caso de la Mataviejitas
Directed by María José Cuevas

 

A lady speaks in voiceover over archive photographs describing her mother, how loving she was and how she poured all her love to her and her children.  The voiceover goes on to announce that on that fateful day between 1 and 130 pm, she received a phone call from her nephew that her mother had been strangled by a telephone cable.  This is one of a series of killings targeting old women that has the police of Mexico City totally baffled.  This doc which opens for streaming on Netflix tells the story - thriller style.

The excellent clip is followed by credits that move in the style of the opening credits of Alfred Hitchcock’s NORTH BY NORTHWEST greeting the audience in the Netflix original documentary THE LADY OF SILENCE: THE MATAVIEJETAS MURDERS.

Between 1998 and 2005, a wave of murders targeting elderly women hit Mexico City, triggering the hunt for and capture of a most unlikely suspect.

The investigators break down the stages of the serial killer’s actions.  The first is the stalking in which the killer follows and finds out where the victim lives, whether she lives alone and when is the possible time to attack.  The next is the seduction phase.  The killer will then pose as someone who can offer the victim services such as a government official who can offer a senior card to access financial aid.  The third is the attack phase where the killer is in the home and strangles the old lady with anything like the cord of a telephone or tape recorder, the rope tying up the curtains or any cable lying around.  The killer would normally take a souvenir to remind him or her of the victim.

The doc should satisfy the curiosity of audiences fascinated by the motive or motives of serial killers.  The doc references a few past international serial killers, as the Mexican police seek aid from other countries in finding this serial killer, not having much experience since Mexico had no history of serial killings since the 1940’s.  There are clips of serial killers from archive footage - from Ted Bundy to Jeffery Dahmer and even France's most notorious serial killer nicknamed the monster of Montmartre who follows elderly ladies to their homes, tortured them in order to find where they hid their savings and then strangled them.

Director Cuevas also details how Mexican police also garnered the help from other countries.  There is a segment that shows the French educating and giving a course on serial killers.  He notes the difficulty of the Mexican police and how procedures in France might not apply in Mexico.  Often there is no connection between the victims and killer which makes it difficult to identify new possible cases.

Director Cuevas includes a nostalgic segment on grandmas with a clip from an old Mexican movie with old age star Sarah Garcia as a loveable granny.

THE LADY OF SILENCE: THE MATAVIEJETAS MURDERS plays like a taut suspense documentary full of cinematic pleasures that finally satisfy the audience’s curiosity on serial killers and this one’s particular capture.  The doc drags on during the last 30 minutes after the killer is caught with the doc's different focus on Mexico's judiciary system and the killer's new celebrity status.

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THE MURDERER (Thailand 2023) ****

Directed by Wisit Sasanatieng

 

THE MURDERER begins like a typical horror movie.  It is the dead of night and ominous music can be heard in the background.  A white man appears and is drenched in blood.  He hears a voice saying: “Help me, help me, please.”  followed by a scream.  The next scene that follows is a completely different one with a police investigator, a real goof of a policeman questioning suspects, the actor playing him, a well-known Thai comedian who overacts in a goofy way.  THE MURDERER is the new Netflix film opening this week that can be described as a blend of different genres - horror, comedy, suspense, romance and family drama.

The story unfolds in flashbacks as the police investigator questions various suspects in the investigating room, the two words printed large and clear so that no one would miss the purpose of the room.  There has been a mass murdered in which 7 family members have been slaughtered brutally.  The chief suspect is a white man.  It is revealed that a Thai girl who is 29, has just married a white man, a Brit and has brought him home to her family in the North of Thailand.  To set the record, this is the first film to be shot in this Thai dialect, according to the press notes.  The white man is given the term ‘ferang’ by the family.

As the film is told in flashbacks, there are titles such as 1) the arrival of the white man 2) the suspect 3) the girl 4) the fortune teller’s prediction etc.  all of which does not  really gel together.  But who cares as long as the audience is being entertained?  On the positive side, the script by Abishek J. Bajaj is rather smart with neat little unexpected plot twists and turns.   AN upcoming nasty storm is also in the background casting menace over the situation at hand.  The film also plays as a whodunit, the obvious suspect - the feared or white man being the one, but obviously too obvious to be the true killer.  Nothing is what it seems and the script is full of hilarious surprises as well.

This very silly yet brilliant blend of slasher horror and wacky comedy (from Thailand) with rarely a dull moment will definitely impress horror fans and put its Thai director on the filmmaking map.  Smart too is the reverse racism depicted in the film.  The white man, the outsider is the victim here, with all the Thai family firmly disliking and having bad thoughts about the white man.  Worse is the person in authority, the police investigator who believes the white man is guilty at the very start.

And there is good news for those that enjoy this horror romp!   Yongyoot Thongkongtoon, director of content for Netflix Thailand had announced three films and two series.  The first film was released on November 16 last year and can already be streamed on Netflix.  The LOST LOTTERIES is a madcap heist film about five losers on a mission to retrieve a lottery ticket from a mafia gang in a firecracker factory. Next is HUNGER about a woman from a family-run local noodles joint who is invited to join a top high-end restaurant and rounding up is MON RAK NAK PAK which follows a travelling cinema troupe as it goes on the road to bring the joy of live-dubbed films to local audiences.

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NORTH OF NORMAL (Canada 2022) ***1/2

Directed by Carly Stone

 

Based on Cea Sunrise Person’s 2014 memoir, director Carly Stone’s accomplished NORTH OF NORMAL recounts the author’s tumultuous, unconventional childhood.  In the 1970s, Cea’s hippie grandparents, Grandpa Dick (Robert Carlyle) and Grandma Jeanne (Janet Porter) flee the repressive climate of the United States for the untrammelled wilds of Alberta and British Columbia with Cea and her teenage mother, Michelle (Sarah Gadon), in tow.  Surrounded by permanently-stoned adults acting with little regard for any conventions (especially sexual ones), Cea lives a blissfully ignorant, near idyllic life.  This is the coming-of-age passage and story of Cea and unlike many other films of this genre, the passage takes a decade or more to journey through, not one summer or year. 

The film is stunningly shot, one assumes in northern Ontario and not in B.C. or Alberta since this film is a project of Ontario Creates.  River Price-Maenpaa and Amanda Fix who play Cea as child and teenager, deliver exuberant and credible performances in an otherwise charming and realistic film of the strength of family bonding.

NORTH OF NORMAL premiered at TIFF in 2022 and opens in theatres July the 28th.

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PARADISE (Germany 2023) ***
Directed by Boris Kunz, Tomas Jonsgården and Indre Juskute

 

The PARADISE being referred to in the new German sci-fi thriller is the near-future world where there exists a new technology that can transfer a person’s life years to another human.  With this comes a price.  Aeon is the company promising that one can “Donate your time and start a new life.”

The audience is shown how the process works by a segment at the film’s start, showing one of the company’s top salespersons by the name of Max, interviewing a prime candidate to convince him to donate his years.  He is promised 700,000 euros for taking 15 years of his life.  He is convinced by Max that he cannot make this amount of money in 15 years and that money will buy him and his family a new life - they are currently refugees.  This is quite the attractive offer one can hardly refuse.

The next scene shows Max awarded top salesperson of the year at AEON, and praised by the CEO, Sophie Thiessen who gives a speech revealing more information for the audience.  But the gist of this is that the donor gets older while the receiver younger in years.

Aeon faces trouble from activists who they deem as terrorists.  A terrorist group called  the Adam Organisation rises up, believing that Aeon is exploiting another system to allow the rich to get richer and the poor to eke out a (much shorter) living.  They target all the receivers and in an early scene, infiltrate the Aeon facility and eliminate all 15 receivers. 

The main plot of the film concerns Max and his wife.  After Max’s wife is forced to give up 40 years of her life as payment for an insurance debt involving a fire in their luxury apartment, Max desperately searches for a way to get them back.

The film also takes a slight diversion by examining the two responsible to bring Tom and his wife to justice. One is a black woman, herself a remuneration subject , looking much younger than her real age of 64, and thus totally loyal to Sophie Thiessen.  The other is a bearded investigator who is also top notch at what he does.  They embrace the motto of the company they work for: "Your life; your chance; your your choice”.   When questioned about using illegal tactics (software and devices not known to the police) to track down the company’s enemies, they justify that they just work for security; not for world peace.

PARADISE feels less like a sci-fi thriller, assuming that is what it is aimed at, because the film spends too much details to make it credible as well as a complete world.  To the latter effect, PARADISE succeeds.  The film creates a dystopian new world complete with rules and problems and examines how people on both sides - the donors and receivers, as they are called live their lives, with their conscience.  When donors are approached the interview process is also shown, to show how the donors are convinced.  The script also goes right down to the details of pricing.  It costs 700,000 euros for 15 years, thus working out to giving up 40 years of Elena’s life to pay her debt of 2.5 million euros.

PARADISE streams on Netflix beginning this week.

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SHRAPNEL (USA 2021)***
Directed by William Kaufman

 

Directed by William Kaufman and written by Chad Law and Johnny Martin Walter, SHRAPNEL is an action flick about a man protecting his family when one daughter goes missing after being kidnapped.  With his wife and other daughter in tow he tracks down the bad guys, TAKEN-style.

The film opens and plays like TAKEN where a father goes all out, no holds barred to find and rescue his ‘taken’ daughter.  Instead of showing the daughter taken, the film opens with the father finding the daughter’s car mysteriously missing in Mexico and unable to explain how the car disappeared, has to go back to the United States.

Sean, the father (Jason Patric) then teams up with her former marine partner (Cam Gigandet) and faces off against the cartel responsible.

“You promised to keep us safe.  You didn’t! Get out!”  exclaims the other daughter to the father as he tries to speak to her in her room.  He exits and closes the door.  Some drama is necessary and added to the action set pieces at times.

Patric and Gigandet are two action stars and it is good to see them both together in one film.

Gigandet joins the action only at the last third of the film.  He is the more handsome of the two and gets to deliver the funny lines to enliven the proceedings.  The magic question is whether the two will survive storming he cartel chief’s stronghold.

The film is set in the border towns around Mexico and the United States but filmed in the state of New Mexico.  It is a dry but still beautiful country, well demonstrated by the d.p. Mark Rutledge, with lots of poverty on display.

The film contains a lot s of violence and shows how far a father will go to protect his family.

Director Kaufman’s SHRAPNEL is a no-nonsense action flick that skimps on subplots like romance, redemption etc. but still touches these issues without compromising on the action.   With loud shouting, jittery and held camera and chase stunts, SHRAPNEL is a low budget effective thriller that delivers its product without any shit.

SHRAPNEL opens in theatres, on Digital and On Demand July 28, 2023.  From Saban  Films.

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TALK TO ME (Australia 2022) *

Directed by Danny and Michael Philippou

 

TALK TO ME is a 2022 Australian supernatural horror film, the hit at the Adelaide Film Festival, directed by Danny and Michael Philippou, in their feature film directorial debut.  Written by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman from a concept by Daley Pearson.  The concept is a n embalmed hand.  If someone holds it and says the words: ‘Talk to Me’  followed by 'Let Me In', then whatever spirit is in the hand will possess the person holding it, while a candle is also lit.

TALK TO ME opens with a young man, Cole, stumbles through a crowded house party as he attempts to locate his brother Duckett, who is injured.  While Cole is escorting him out, Duckett stabs Cole before fatally stabbing himself.  The stabbing is enough to have the audience jump out of their seats and prepares the audience for what is to come in what is a very scary jump-out-of-your seat horror possession flick.

17-year-old Mia is struggling with the second anniversary of her mother Rhea's suicide and her emotionally distant relationship with her father, Max. m She finds solace in her best friend Jade's family, consisting of Jade's mother and little brother Riley. Mia, Jade, and Riley sneak out to a party hosted by Hayley and Joss. The main attraction is a mysterious severed embalmed hand, which they use to conjure spirits by lighting a candle and saying, "Talk to me," which allows them to meet the spirit. Next, they say "I let you in" for full possession; the candle is blown out after 90 seconds to "close the door"; otherwise, the spirits will stay. Mia goes first and is possessed by a spirit that threatens Riley, although the possession exceeds the time limit.  Apparently the hand had been passed from someone else and continues to pass from one person to another,

There is nothing really new in the concept of possession from a possessed object LET THE RIGHT ONE IN and the scares like banging on one's head loudly on a desk or table.  Ari Aster did it in HEREDITARY, his first horror film.  But the rehash of material is at least well-put together  culminating in a sufficiently scary film from down-under.

UNKNOWN: COSMIC TIME MACHINE (USA 2023) ***½

Directed by Shal Gal

 

The best documentary features ( 4 in total) arrive on Netflix once a week, every Monday except the last one on the 31st, to entice and fascinate.  They belong to the UNKNOWN series and begin in July of 2023.  UNKNOWN is made up of four docs, with a new feature-length documentary releasing each week through July 2023, and its alternative focus makes it one of the best Netflix shows especially if one wants something a little different.

The one reviewed here is the 4th of the series entitled UNKNOWN: COSMIC TIME MACHINE.  For the cinephile who loves the space genre or astronomy and space studies, like myself, this one is a  must-see!

13.8 billion years ago, atoms and molecules of hydrogen combined together to form stars and the galaxy.

COSMIC TIME MACHINE (which isn't about actual time machines) follows NASA as it worked to make the James Webb Space Telescope, which from the news in July 2022 as the first photos from this expedition were well publicized.  The time machine element comes from the theory of light speed measured in light years.  The telescope captures an image of stars millions of light years away, a light year being the distance light travels in one year.  Light travels at 300,000,000 meters per second, so one can imagine the enormous distance traveled in a year that is made up of 365 days multiplied by 24 hours ,utilized by 60 minutes by 60 seconds.  So what is photographed has therefore happened way the past by the time the light reaches the telescope, the telescope functioning like a time machine.  This concept is briefly explained in the film.

The Cosmic Time Machine of the film title refers to the James Webb (named after the second administrator of NASA) Space Telescope (JWST) - the largest space telescope, made to conduct infrared astronomy. Its high-resolution and high-sensitivity instruments allow it to view objects too old, distant, or faint for the Hubble Space Telescope.  This enables investigations across many fields of astronomy and cosmology, such as observation of the first stars, the formation of the first galaxies, and detailed atmospheric characterization of potentially habitable exoplanets.  Webb operates in a halo orbit, circling around a point in space known as the Sun–Earth L2 Lagrange point, approximately 1,500,000 km (930,000 mi) beyond Earth's orbit around the Sun. Its actual position varies between about 250,000 and 832,000 km (155,000–517,000 mi) from L2 as it orbits, keeping it out of both Earth and Moon's shadow.

The doc can be divided into these main parts:  the design of the James Webb telescope including the difficulty of testing and probability of error (the first ;punch failed); the actual launching followed by its travel to its destination obit at L2; the first image taken, as announced by President Biden followed by the explanation of what the dots and brightness of the image represent.  It is all so elating and mesmerizing to see how everything works and how mankind is able to work together to accomplish a miraculous goal.

Amazing, mind-boggling and incredible!  With the telescope’s search for life, the way humans understand the universe will dramatically be changed.  The doc streams this week on Netflix.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 18 July 2023

FILM REVIEWS: 

BROTHER (Canada 2002) ***1/2

Directed by Clement Virgo

 

BROTHER is Toronto’s own director Clement vein’s latest drama after he wowed audiences in 1995 with his debut feature RUDE, proving him a reliable filmmaker.  This time around Virgo adapts David Chariandy’s award-winning 2017 novel about two brothers coming of age in 1990s Scarborough, where they reconcile their dreams and expectations with the violence that confronts them around every corner.  The film is shot in non-linear fashion often intercutting the lives of the two brothers as kids and as grownups.  The tactic works well and is never confusing at any point.

The film begins with the two brothers, Francis and Michael attempting to climb a dangerous transformer tower.  It becomes apparent soon that the elder, Francis has lost his life and one wonders whether it is due to this dangerous climb.

Lamar Johnson (TIFF ’18 Gala premiere The Hate U Give; TIFF ’18 Rising Star) and Aaron Pierre (The Underground Railroad) play the inseparable brothers Michael and Francis. 

The story is split into two time lines intercut multiple times throughout the film.  As the title implies, the story is told from Michael’s point of view with the relationship between him and his brother, Francis the focus.  

One timeline has their mother (Marsha Stephanie Blake), every night, before leaving for work, give them strict instructions to stay indoors and keep the TV off, but the two inevitably become entangled in what’s going on outside, both in person and through nightly news reports. Michael, a timid teenager, is always protected by the slightly older Francis, who, in their father’s absence, steps up to be his mentor.  The two also make an attempt to meet their absent father, who has no desire to see his children.

The other timeline is set ten years later.  Francis is gone and Michael, unmoored, struggles to take care of his mother, who is now incapacitated by grief. The film slowly pieces together their tragedy, jumping back and forth through time to capture its weight, and to track how a mother’s painstaking efforts to protect her children can only extend so far.

Michael and Francis are buffed, excellent human specimens.  The film should have at least one scene showing them working out as males do not get a full muscled chiseled body so easily.

The story set in the black community of Scarborough, a suburb of Toronto, shows despair of an outer city, the crime as well as police brutality  especially towards the black community.

Director Virgo uses music to create the effective atmosphere of the period.  Francis loves music and is a talented DJ.  The dance and music scenes are well choreographed bringing the film to a soaring high.  Virgo uses the famous song written by Jacques Brel “Je ne me Quitte pas” to conclude his moving film.

BROTHER is one of the best Canadian features made in 2022.  It is one of the three (RICEBOY SLEEPS and CRIMES OF THE FUTURE) being the other two, nominated for the Best Canadian Feature by the Toronto Film Critics Association,  The film gets my vote for the esteemed and grand prize.  BROTHER opens in July 28th, 2023.

Trailer: 

A COMPASSIONATE SPY (USA 2022) ****

Directed by Steve James

 

Director Steve James's latest project is the spy documentary, following Ted Hall, a compassionate spy.  The reason he is said to be compassionate is revealed quite early in the film. Steve James is the director of the hit HOOP DREAMS, which earned him an Oscar nomination.

A COMPASSIONATE SPY opens with Joan Hall interviewing Ted Hall for archive purposes, as she explains. The interview introduces the subject of the doc - no nonsense added - to the audience and takes place in the year 1998 at Cambridge.

A COMPASSIONATE SPY is a gripping real-life spy story about controversial nuclear physicist Ted Hall, his wife Joan, and the explosive secret they kept over a remarkable 52-year marriage. Through a long interview with the subject and his wife, the story is told using archive footage and dramatic reenactments. The film tells the story of Manhattan Project physicist and Soviet Union spy Theodore Hall. The reenactments take a fair amount of the film’s running time and help humanize the story.

One of the film's most educational and informative points is how the Soviet Union is looked upon at the time. Most Americans think of the Russians as an enemy, especially in current times when Russia is invading Ukraine. However, at the time of WWII, it was not the case, as the doc is quick to point out and insistent to make the point loud and clear. The Soviet Union is a great nation and was not the enemy. The media during WWII was quick to highlight that the Soviet Union lost 20 million lives in their fight against the German Nazis, especially when Germany was invading Russia. It was pointed out that Russia was protecting the rest of Europe from Nazi Germany. The doc includes clips from the propaganda film MISSION TO MOSCOW, directed in 1947 by Michael Curtiz, about Ambassador Joseph Davies (played by Walter Huston) being sent to Russia to learn about the Soviet system and returning to America as an advocate of Stalinism. As noted, Ted Hall, when passing nuclear information to the Soviets, is not considered treasonous, as the Soviets were considered notably friendly but a respected nation by the United States.  However, the film shows that after the war, the Soviet Union was deemed an enemy, and Ted and his wife Joan were then investigated as spies.

Director James's film plays like a suspenseful dead-serious espionage thriller. But he includes a few light moments, like the romance, as revealed in Joan's interview.  Another uplifting point of the movie is the inclusion of the Irving Berlin song "This is the Army" played on the soundtrack. The song is played over footage of Ted complaining of his uniform while being in the army in Los Alamos, where he worked when Oppenheimer was also present.

The documentary premiered out of competition at Venice in 2022. The release of the film is timed after the opening of Christopher Nolan's blockbuster multi-million production OPPENHEIMER, about the man and his invention of the atomic bomb. A COMPASSIONATE SPY opens on August 4 in Toronto (Hot Docs Cinema) and Vancouver (Vancity)!

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POISONED: THE DIRTY TRUTH ABOUT OUR FOOD (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Stephanie Soechtig

 

“We have (America) the safest food supply in the world.”  The identical statement is uttered by more than one interviewee in the film POISONED.  It is obvious that the statement is spoken by the heads of the monitors of the food industry like the heads of the USDA (animals) and the FDA (produce).  But advocates for the dangers present in America’s food chain strongly disagree.

POISONED : The Dirty Truth about our Food is a doc on food contamination and how it affects America.  The doc covers: a few litigation cases against companies regarding food poisoning; what the authorities are doing - whether enough or just going by the book; the work done by the activists; and where America is headed. The doc attempts clearly to be an eye-opener and often uses cheap tactics to make its point.  But to the film’s credit, it is very informative and there is much to be learnt behind what is bought at the grocery store.  It also answers a few curiosity questions like:  What is the most dangerous vegetable to eat and why?  (It is romaine lettuce.)   How does America fare compared to Europe?  As expected, very badly.  In America, they test the meat of the chicken after slaughter if they are contaminated.  In Europe, the chickens are vaccinated against Salmonella, which makes more sense as it eradicates the problem from the source.  The statistics from the results also show the difference between the two processes,

The  hero of the doc is William Marler, who is featured in the major part of the film.  In 1993, Marler represented 9-year-old Brianne Kiner in litigation against Jack in the Box following an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak, securing a $15.6 million settlement.  He subsequently directed his practice toward foodborne illness, representing many more people affected by diseases such as E. coli, hepatitis A, and Salmonellosis.   He has been involved in litigation relating to most of the large foodborne illness outbreaks in the United States, representing individuals against large companies such as Chili's, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Dole, and ConAgra.  The second hero of the story is Darin Detwiler, who lost his 16-month-old son Riley to E.coli during the 1993 Jack in the Box outbreak.  He is now an educator on the subject of food contamination.  He was offered the settlement on condition that he kept quiet about the death of his son.  This only illustrates the evil companies do to cover up their bad practices.

The best part of the doc are  the practices shown on camera at the Perdue chicken plant.  The company that has a poor record for poisons safety was kind enough to allow filming.  The segment is eye-opening and is the doc’s most compelling segment.  It is interesting to note that the doc does not attack the company as it granted the filmmakers permission to film.

POISONED is based on the bestselling book “Poisoned: The True Story of the Deadly E. Coli Outbreak That Changed the Way Americans Eat”.  The doc raises more issues with the food industry and the fallout from contaminated food but only barely touches the solution to the problem.  One may argue that there might not be any possible solution.  The onus, according to the doc, is on the public.  The public is supposed to initiate the cause by pressuring their legislators to make a change in Congress.

Trailer: 

REVEILLE (Germany 2022) ***½

Directed by Michael Akkerman

 

REVEILLE is an anti-war German film that has so far garnered a whole slew of awards at international film festivals.  It is a carefully crafted story that goes deep into the war fighting machine showing all the innocence of youth lost amidst the violence and horrors of WWII.  The setting is the battle fought in the specific battle at Mignano Gap in Italy, 1943.  During World War II, this was the location of the German Bernhardt Line - a German Army defensive line in Italy during the Italian Campaign of World War II. The Bernhardt Line was defended by XIV Panzer Corps (XIV Panzerkorps), part of the German Tenth Army.

While Germans are generally shown in movies as the bad guys, they have been recently shed in a different light as in the multi AcademyAward winner German production (not the American one) ALL QUIET THE WESTERN FRONT where the fighting is shown from there Germans’ point of view and the excellent Best Foreign Film Oscar nominee the Danish film LAND Of MINE set after WW1, where a group of young Germans are mistreated when given the task of dismantling German mines in the north of Denmark under the command of a Dane sergeant who clearly has something against the Germans, as is every Dane in the area.

REVEILLE joins the ranks of the list of memorable anti-war films that show the Germans’ point of view.

The message in the movie is delivered amidst suffering wounded POW soldiers and the morality of their captors. The film begins with Articles of the 1929 Geneva Convention:  As soon as possible after capture, POWs shall be evacuated to depots far removed from the danger zone.  As this is not possible for the severely wounded in the film, they may be kept in the zone only if removal proves more dangerous. 

The film is at his most effective when the two different points of the soldiers are shown.  At the film’s start, an American squad is shot, wounded and captured by a German squad.  While a few Americans are killed and one badly wounded that he can hardly walk a few steps without fainting, they are taken in by the Germans.  After an order from a higher German command, a German squash is sent out to ‘recce’ a hill.  They are then ambushed by the American squad.  The audience sees two points of view - the captured Americans followed by the captured Germans.  War is shown at its futility and there are no clear winners.  Only casualties.

There are many incidents that are not black and white as to what should be done, when looked upon on principles of humanitarian reasoning.  Take the incident when the American sergeant asks one of his men: “Why are you shooting?  They surrendered.” asked the American sergeant to one of his men.  “His face was blown off.  I was doing him a favour.”

There are many incidents like the above that would ask the in REVEILLE is dividual in the audience what would he or she have done?  This is what makes this film so emotional, raw and disturbing.  There are clearly no solutions.  And immediate human instinct is often the solution carried out.  The script is based on archival documents and interviewing family members of soldiers who had survived the second world war.

REVEILLE is available VOD August 4th, 2023.

 Trailer: 

 

SHORETCOMINGS (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Randall Park

 

The first few minutes of a film often reveal to the audience the tone expected for the rest of the film. For instance, James Bond films always begin with a thrilling 10-minute action sequence, unrelated to the main story, but setting the tone for an action-packed adventure. Often, no other action set piece in the film can match the intensity of this opening sequence. In the case of the new Asian comedy/drama SHORTCOMINGS, much more can be inferred from the film's opening sequence.

The movie starts with a film within the film, where Mrs. Wong is denied the booking of her suite in a posh hotel mainly catering to white clientele. The concierge tells her that she meets most of the requirements, but he 'no likee likee.' Undeterred, Mrs. Wong leaves the concierge to speak to her husband and returns with the news that she has bought the hotel, and the email confirmation should arrive shortly. This scene is reminiscent of a moment in the popular movie "CRAZY RICH ASIANS," where Michelle Yeoh's character is denied a hotel room on a rainy evening. 

The Mrs. Wong movie is being screened at a local Asian American Film Festival attended by Ben (Justin H. Min) and his girlfriend Miko (Ally Maki), with whom he lives in a luxurious Berkeley, California apartment owned by her father. Miko is also the co-organizer of the local Asian American Film Festival. During the festival, Ben and Miko have a heated argument over the film. Ben dislikes the way the Asian American audience applauded the movie, as he believes films should better represent their culture. Miko counters with the question, "Is it wrong that they are enjoying themselves?"

Ben aspires to be the next Eric Rohmer, but instead, he manages a struggling arthouse cinema, watches Criterion Collection DVDs, and frequents diners with his best friend Alice (Sherry Cola), a queer grad student with a habit of serial dating. Ben also obsesses about unattainable blonde women, which prompts Alice to remark, "God, you're predictable." When Miko moves to New York for an internship, Ben starts to explore his desires and ambitions. However, the film encounters problems in terms of direction. It struggles to decide whether it aims to be a romantic drama that explores relationships in an Asian American setting or a crowd-pleaser like the film that Ben previously criticized.

SHORTCOMINGS ends up being a compromise of both genres but fails to excel in either.  One flaw is Ben's character; he cannot seem to make up his mind, or in other words, the script cannot decide how to portray Ben's personality consistently.  At times, Ben appears shallow and predictable, while at other times, he shows a more apologetic and thoughtful side towards Alice.  The film injects humour through Jacob Batalon and Scott Seiss's performances as dorky cinema staff, but it is Sherry Cola who steals the show as Ben's female best friend.

SHORTCOMMINGS received critical acclaim at both Sundance 2023 and Tribeca 2023 and opens across North America on August 4th.

Trailer: 

 

SOULCATCHER (Poland 2023) *

Directed by Daniel Markowicz

 

SOULCATCHER belongs to the group of Netflix international films that allows not only Americans but people all over the world to experience films from other countries.  SOULCATCHER is an action flick from Poland that is shot in Polish.  Unfortunately it is quite bad.

A military contractor hired to seize a weapon that turns people into savage killers seeks revenge when his brother falls victim to the device.  There is a confusing fight between the hero and his brother in which the latter is killed leading to the chain of events that occur.

The action sequences are lacklustre at best. many shot in the dark resulting in the audiences unable to see exactly how the fights are choreographed. If one has seen the JOHN WICK films and even the lower quality TIL DEATH DO US PART , the ones here are no way anywhere in comparison.  The performances are nothing exceptional either, not for want of trying since the performances are hampered by the lazy script.  There is nothing else in the plot that creates anticipation or any excitement.  Sitting through the whole movie is a mission in itself.

Trailer: 

STAY AWAKE (USA 2022) ***
Directed by Jamie Sisley

 

STAY AWAKE has a repeated disturbing scene where the mother is passing in and out of consciousness in the car as her sons are taking her to hospital.  The sons are singing songs asking their mother to guess the title (Film tunes are heard: “Everyybody’s Talkin’ of Me” from MIDNIGHT COWBOY for example) in order for her to STAY AWAKE.

The opening sequences show the love each family member has for each other.  The mother cooks for her children,  “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” she instructs them.  The film’s initial scene has her cooking them a meal before the camera focuses on a pill, one assumes is an opioid.  The mother is overweight, which can contribute to her lack of confidence and her drug taking.  Audiences could be unsympathetic to such a woman, a drug addict and opioid user, but the purpose of the film is not to justify the use of opioids but rather to examine the effects they have on families.

The opioid addict is the mother with the two loving sons.  From the first scene, the mother character is one that everyone looks down upon.  She gets the opioid meds by pricking her finger and putting a bit of blood in her urine sample at the doctor’s.  She overdoses every so often and has to be driven to the hospital by her sons.  Her sons have to pay for her rehab and the son’s lives are practically constrained by their mother’s addiction.   The elder son is clearly upset at her and lets her know it.  The question is why cannot she control herself and not change?  This is where the film gets deeper into the dilemma of addiction.  Or is not and the mother makes it clear that she wants to stay clean but she just cannot.  That is what addiction does to a person.  Sessions with her therapist/doctor at the rehab centre also paints an eye-opening look at the problem.  And the difficulties both the staff and patients have.

STAY AWAKE is understandably a difficult film to watch and can hardly be described as entertaining.  The film suffers during the initial 30 minutes or so with the script’s storyline dealing with addicts and their family that one has seen before in one film or another.  But the film slowly but surely invests time and care into the creation of the film's three characters so that one does feel for each person, though not always on their side.

The film besides covering the mother’s addiction and strife towards recovery but also deals with the coming-of-age of each son.  The younger has a scholarship to a prestigious college and has trouble with his girlfriend.  The script is smart enough to have the mother offer solid advice, showing that the mother still can have a profound effect on her offspring.

The film clearly gets the audience to root for its characters, keeping the audience in suspense and on the edge of their seats whether the family will survive.

 

TIL DEATH DO US PART (USA 2023) **
Directed by Timothy Woodward Jr.

TIL DEATH DO US PART (not to be confused with the 2017 Taye Diggs film of the same title) tells the story of a runaway bride - why she abandoned the marriage and how to remain apart from all the groom and friends.

The film begins with the wedding best man (Cam Gigandet) preparing and reciting his best man speech “Love is an intense feeling of love and concern….”  a very mediocre speech and he knows it.  The film unfolds in two parallel timelines  - which makes the film quite confusing.  One timeline sees the bride (Natalie Burn) and groom (Ser’Darius Blain) on a boat with a long time married  couple (Jason Patric and Nicole Arlyn).  The other has the bride escape from the wedding and is pursued by 7 grooms (played by an assortment of good-looking and built actors) who are out to kill her.  The question of what all this is about is answered slowly but surely as the story progresses.  What the bride is trying to do is to escape ‘the organization’, something like the same existing in the John Wick franchise.  The bride and groom are part of an organization of top notch hit persons and they are contracted for life.

The film is sexy and violent.  One fight sequence in which the bride has the best man in a choke hold for several minutes is for example, uncomfortably sexy.  There are lots of arm to arm combat with the bride able to give chokeholds with her legs.

There is nothing spectacular in the script by Chad Law.  The analogy of the shark and the dolphin is one neat idea in the script.

The film’s press notes claim the film to be brimming with stylish violence and blood-soaked action, seamlessly blending the slick, kinetic thrills of John Wick with the dark, twisted revenge tale of Kill Bill.  But the film lacks the originality of the two and turns out to be a poor man’s wannabe of the two films.  Most of the fights take place in a mansion where the bride disposes of the 7 kills one by one, so there is not much variation in the action set pieces.

The is the second film starring Jason Patric and Cam Gigandet, the other being SHRAPNEL that opened last week, also a lacklustre action flick.

If lowbrow action with a bride in a bridal outfit throughout the film kicking the butts of 7 groomsmen sounds exciting then TIL DEATH DO US PART is your type of movie.  At the time of writing, the film has a 100% score on its Rotten Tomatoes rating - but take the score as a caution, as the score is based only on a few reviews.

TIL DEATH DO US PART opens in theatres August the 4th.

 

Trailer: 

ZOM 100: BUCKET LIST OF THE DEAD (Japan 2023) *

Directed by Yasuke Ishida

 

The title ZOM 100 refers to zombies and the 100 things on the protagonist’s list that he wants to do before being bitten by one.

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead is also a Japanese manga series written by Haro Aso and illustrated by Kotaro Takata. It has been serialized in Shogakukan's seinen manga magazine Monthly Sunday Gene-X since October 2018, with its chapters collected into fourteen tankōbon volumes as of June 2023.  The film is a condensed version of the series.

In short, the film is about the protagonist caught in a zombie apocalypse in Tokyo.  He forms a bucket list.  The rest of the film has him doing them and ticking each one of them, not in order, off on his list.

The film is best described as a teen comedy, though hardly funny at all.  It runs a lengthy 2 hours and streams on Netflix, one of their more forgettable international excursions.  The other awful one streaming on Netflix is SOULCATCHER from Poland. It is a tough toss which gets the prize for the worst one opening this week.

Akira Tendo (Eiji Akaso) works at an abusive company where he suffers endless late hours, power harassment from his boss, and illogical tasks.  Akira has to do two all-nighters on his first day.  He spends his days feeling more dead than alive.  One morning, the town is overtaken by zombies and the familiar landscape is already devastated. Seeing such destruction, Akira shouts with glee that he doesn’t need to go to the office anymore. Showing his innate positivity, Akira comes up with a list of 100 things he wants to do before he becomes a zombie, including cleaning his home and camping on his balcony and sets out to complete his bucket list.

The bucket list consists of 100 things among them being:

• clean my room
• put things ninth supermarket cart without looking at the price
• ride a motorcycle
• set off fireworks display
• be a superhero and see mankind
• have drinks with a flight attendant
• f\go paragliding
• go as a trio on a road trip

As many of these items are lame, they are in reality as lamely executed as the film which is also all over the place.  There are at times scary zombie scenes, a romance, a coming-of-age passage and abuse in the workplace.

The film, though advertised as a zombie movie, is not really one.  Following the adventures of a young man just out of school getting his first job, it tells of this first dream job and first infatuation with a girl at work.  Overworked, Akira does not have the guts to quit, the silly reason given being that he had tried so hard to get the job in the first place.  “Shut up and do what you are told,” is what his supervisor tells him. .Then comes the zombie apocalypse that occurs without any reason given.  The adventures that follow the hapless hero turns\ out to be a comedy though the laughs are few and far between.  The film is amusing at best and perhaps might elicit a smile or two.

Trailer: 

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 14 July 2023

 

 Solid documentary CONCRETE VALLEY and solid blaxploittion comedy THEY CLONED TYRONE come with highishest recommendations.

The much anticpated OPPENHEIMER also opens and the film soars.

FILM REVIEWS:

THE (ALMOST) LEGENDS (Mexico 2023) **
Directed by Ricardo Castro Velazquez

 

If Hollywood silliness like BARBIE is not enough, one can look south of the border to observe silliness in the form of two half-brothers trying to make good in an equally goofy Mexican movie  THE (ALMOST) LEGENDS.

Quite a lot happens in the film’s first 10 minutes, requiring a certain alertness to absorb all the proceedings.  Narrated by Valentin ( Guillermo Quintanilla), the super idol/singer from the unknown beachside tourist town in the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa, he tells of his family and his love for two things - his singing aboard a ferry and racing in a rally.  He also has two sons from his two families.  When he dies, he reveals that the story is not about him any longer but about the two sons, half brothers and also half-wits at that.  It is all goofy, cute and a little hilarious looking at Mexican humour.

The story does not really matter, but the setting is colourful enough, director Ricardo Castro Velazquez  going all out colourful.

Romeo (Benny Emmanuel) and Preciado (Harold Azuara), the two half brothers meet again to honor their dad's memory in a car rally full of adrenaline and banda music.

Not as hilarious as it should be, the film has s a lagging middle.  It also does not help that it is hard to care for two half brothers succeed when there is nothing really at stake.

THE (ALMOST) LEGENDS titled “Los (casi) ídolos de Bahía Colorada”, a Netflix original comedy debuts on Netflix this week.

Trailer:

BARBIE (USA 2023) **

Directed by Greta Gerwig

 

“It’s a Barbie Girl…. in a Barbie world.”  …. as the popular song goes.  If one is unfamiliar with Barbie dolls and the line of the song is all one knows, one is not smarter after leaving the new Barbie movie - entitled BARBIE, of course.  The doll pastiche fantasy plots its audience into the pink coloured Barbie world in which all girly dreams come true.  Everyone living in Barbieland is Barbie - the mayor and all the citizens,  except for Ken.  Barbie is everyone and everywhere.  Ken is just Ken.

Barbie is played with silly aplomb, cheerfulness and nativity by Margot Robbie, destined to play the titular girly heroine while Ken is played with dumb handsome innocence as pink-clad Ken,  Ken is head over heels in love with Barbie and wishes to be part of her life.  Big Barbie is just Barbie.

The character Barbie and the film BARBIE is based on a fashion doll and fictional character manufactured by American toy company Mattel, Inc. and launched on March 9, 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration  The character of Ruth Handler (Rhea Perlman) appears too, in the movie making an effect on the character of Barbie at the end.

The story of BARBIE is straightforward.  Barbie lives in her fantasy world of Barbie land when everything is Barbie-perfect.  She has a male admirer called Ken.  Ken is all dressed in pink, like the typical gay male, but Ken’s sexuality is totally dismissed and ignored in the story.  Ken exists just for Barbie and Ken wants to be in her life.  Barbie has an existential crisis - the running joke in the film.  She has to leave Barbieland to enter the real world to find out what has gone wrong with her, and she must make it right.  Not that anyone really cares.  In the process, Barbieland is about to turn into Kenland.  Heaven forbid!  Will Farell has a supporting role as the oafish CEO of Mattel, the company that owns Barbie.

Barbie has a significant impact on social values by conveying characteristics of female independence, and with her multitude of accessories, an idealized upscale life-style that can be shared with affluent friends.  This is the inspiration behind the husband and wife team Greta Gerwig and Noah Bambauch that wrote the script.  Unfortunately, they try too hard with the result of a pretentious rather than glossy look at the world of females in a male dominated world.

From the film’s confused messaging and often not only over-the-top way of reading its adult message, one can gather that the film’s target audience is not the ]girls that play with these Barbie dolls but the adults that used to play with these dolls.  Still the kids would still go see the film and be a bit confused, somewhat.  The film is to be praised for its stunning set and art decoration and its creation on a fantasy and animated looking Barbieland, all dressed in dreamy pink.  Apart from that, nothing else really is worthy of note.  The film should have been funnier for all its silliness.

Trailer: 

 

CONCRETE VALLEY (Canada 2022) ***½

Directed by Antoine Bourges

 

 

The film is shot in and around Thorncliffe Park.   The area is familiar to myself as my tennis club courts are right by the residential apartments.  The film consists of both interior and exterior scenes.  Director Bourges makes good use of the area in the storytelling.  For one, the film begins with the protagonist losing his path in the valley forest and the family also has a picnic outing in the valley later in the film.

A bit of the neighbourhood described should interest those watching the film. The neighbourhood (formerly containing a racetrack), just north of downtown Toronto. embodies some standard urban planning ideas of the era – high concentrations of similar housing types, strict separation of retail and residential development, and the assumption that everyone has a car. Low-rise buildings are clustered inside the enclosure created by Thorncliffe Park and Overlea, while high-rise buildings line the outside of Thorncliffe Park.  Residents on Thorncliffe Park Drive are at considerable walking distance from shops, although this problem is mitigated somewhat, even in winter, by well kept sidewalks and walkways and by frequent bus service.   Walking around, one would see many immigrants.  Though a generally safe place, there had been a shooting incident once.

In CONCRETE VALLEY, the audience is introduced to an immigrant family from Syria.   Rashid (Hussam Douhna), a doctor from Syria, struggles to adjust to his life in Canada after five years in Toronto’s Thorncliffe Park with his wife, Farah (Amani Ibrahim) and son Ammar (Abdullah Nadaf).  He tries to hold on to his old identity by working as an unlicensed doctor for his neighbours.  While Farah becomes more involved in their local community, tensions between her and Rashid begin to take their toll on their fragile marriage.  Director Bourges shows both the positives and weaknesses of his characters, not taking any sides in the couple’s quarrels.

The use of non-actors to play the major roles serve two purposes.  The first creates a certain authenticity in that the audience is not faced with cheap theatrics and acting according to the interpretation of the actor or actors.  However, if the non actor is not a doctor as in this movie, it might show.  Fortunately in this movie, it is hard to tell.  The film feels authentic and unforced, a good thing.

Director Bourges, himself an immigrant, paints a favourable picture of immigrants as hardworking and helpful in the community making positive contributions to society but not without their own personal problems.

CONCRETE VALLEY is a slow moving drama but is nevertheless captivating enough to hold interest throughout with its endearing immigrant family facing both integration and personal problems, occasionally with both mixed together.  The entire film looks much less pretentious than previous Canadian immigration films like last year’s downright awful SCARBOROUGH or this year’s recent equally bad SO MUCH TENDERNESS which looks too forceful and artificially staged.

CONCRETE VALLEY has a theatrical release across Canada beginning on July 21st, screening at TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto, with more Canada-wide dates coming soon. 

Trailer:  

DAKOTA NATION VS. UNITED STATES (USA 2023)***
Directed by  JESSE SHORT BULL & LAURA TOMASELLI  

 

LAKOTA NATION VS. UNITED STATES chronicles the Lakota Indians’ quest to reclaim the Black Hills, the sacred land that was stolen in violation of treaty agreements. A searing, timely portrait of resistance, the film explores the ways America has ignored its debt to Indigenous communities, and ponders what might be done today to repair the wrongs of the past.

The United States government stole the Black Hills – a mountain range in the U.S. states of South Dakota and Wyoming – from the Sioux Nation in 1876.   The U.S. calls the Lakota Indians Sioux but whatever they are called they are the Lakota Indians.  The land was pledged to the Sioux Nation in the Treaty of Fort Laramie, but a few years later the United States illegally seized the land and nullified the treaty with the Indian Appropriations Bill of 1876, without the tribe's consent. That bill "denied the Sioux all further appropriation and treaty-guaranteed annuities" until they gave up the Black Hills.  A Supreme Court case was ruled in favour of the Sioux in 1980.  As of 2011, the court's award was worth over $1 billion, but the Sioux have outstanding issues with the ruling and have not collected the funds.

The Black Hills is sacred Lakota land.  There are lots of shots of the land’s beauty with animals, fish and flowing streams and vegetation.

A lot of interviews are given by the Lakota elders who speak of the i justice to their people.  Many of them have got higher education and gone to work with the white man.  But their duty is to their people, and they often return back to their land to fight for their rights - which according to them is the right thing to do.  There is also a segment examining schools that take away the children to educate them the white man’s way.  The beliefs, practices and tradition of the Indians are taught to be bad and the children taught about Christianity and Jesus.  The funny thing is that a lot of the parents thought it ok for the children in order to succeed in their future.  “They did not know better and thought it was the best for us,” says a disgruntled Lakota who went to tone of the school.s

The film takes the occasional lighter tone with the song “Home on the Range '' ironically played when the Lakota Indians have lost their land.  Clips of old films are also shown like the comic one from THE PALEFACE with Buster Keaton.  The scene shows Keaton, the white man or paleface showing an Indian in full headdress a deed of his land with the Indian bowing at Whitman's feet.

But it is a serious doc with serious issues.  The film is told in 3 parts, the last part called “Reparation” which clearly shows there is none.  When the land is stolen, the supreme court of the noted States awards 100 million for the land which is an insult.  The Indians liken it to stealing  car and then paying peanuts for it.  They or course refuse the money and want their sacred land.

Moving, relevant and important, the doc reminds every non-native in North America that they are living on stolen land. 

DAKOTA NATION VS. UNITED STATES is available on VOD platforms July 21st, 2023.

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OPPENHEIMER  (USA/UK 2023) ****
Directed by Christopher Nolan

 

One of the most anticipated films of the year, OPPENHEIMER, is an epic biographical thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Based on the 2005 biography American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, the film chronicles the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, a theoretical physicist who was pivotal in developing the first nuclear weapons as part of the Manhattan Project. 

The first third of the film is filled with lots of jargon on atomic Physics including the concept of fusion (combining of atoms) and the opposite of it, fission, the splitting of atoms as  well as the usage of isotopes.  There is also the mention of the dual property of light, with its wave and particle nature.  Those versed in Physics and Science will be delighted at the script but those who are not will just have to grin and bear it.  It is great when the script gives its audience the benefit of intelligence to comprehend the facts.

Cillian Murphy delivers a magnificent performance carrying the drama fully from start to end as the troubled protagonist.  Murphy is best known for Danny Boyle’s 28 DAYS LATER and also as the creepy villain Scarecrow in the BATMAN movie.  The cast also includes a slew of cameos, many unrecognizable from their great performance as well as the make up.  The best of these performances belongs to Academy Award Winner (for Churchill) Gary Oldman who plays American President Truman.  Cameos include Kenneth Branagh, Benny Sadie, Rami Malek, Matthew Modine, Tom Conti (as Albert Einstein), Casey Affleck and Josh Hartnett among others.  Emily Blunt plays Oppenheimer’s wife, Kitty and Robert Downey plays a villain for the rest time, Lewis Strauss.  Every good story need a villain and Downey  Jr. provides a most hated conniving villain.

OPPENHEIMER is to be praised for its direction, main performance and particularly its visuals, aided by director Nolan’s re-imagination of the damaging effects of the hydrogen bomb.  The film contains many moments of jaw dropping shots in which the theatre went into complete silence.  OPPENHEIMER marks the best of adult Hollywood blockbuster movie making.  Nolan clearly does it best.

There is no segment on the images of the dropping of the bombs of the two Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki  The horrors of the bombing and fallout are shown from the imagined Oppenheimer’s point-of-view, of the American faces.  This is quite a clever and solid deviation from atom bomb films.

OPPENHEIMER runs 3 hours long and will definitely get a complaint or two despite it being a totally engrossing thriller from start to end.  This is clearly an adult thriller and drama, excellently made Nolan style, which means it gets a bit confusing in its facts (consider his last film TENET which is impossible to follow even though one might see it a half dozen times).  Warner Bros. upset with Nolan (thesis Nolan’s first film not with WB) for leaving for Universal also has BARBIE opening this week.  Forget the pink pretentious rubbish.  OPPENHEIMER is the one to go see this week.  OPPENHEIMER premiered at Le Grand Rex in Paris on July 11, 2023 and is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United Kingdom and United States on July 21, 2023, by Universal Pictures.  The film  opens everywhere, 21st of July, but best to see it in IMAX.  For the first time, sections in IMAX were shot using black-and-white analog photography.

Trailer: 

 

SHARKSPLOITATION (USA 2023) **

Directed by Stephen Scarlata

 

SHARKSPLOITATION is a documentary about films that exploit the horror films where sharks are the horrors.  It is a sub-genre, in other words, a genre of a genre.  Therefore, it is not a documentary about anything terribly important.  And as expected it is an ok watch, not very educational in terms of the importance of its subject matter and only interesting for those who have a keen interest in shark horror films.

Shudder, AMC Networks’ premium streaming service for horror, thrillers and the supernatural, releases this week on streaming, the new documentary, SHARKSPOITATION from filmmaker Stephen Scarlata.  In the wake of blockbuster classic Jaws in 1972, a new sub-genre was born. This new documentary explores the weird, wild cinematic legacy of sharks on film and the world’s undying fascination.  The film features multiple interviews including of Roger Corman, producer of SHARKTOPUSs and DINOSHARK; Joe Dante, who directed Corman’s Piranha; Carl Gottlieb, writer of all the JAWS films, Jaws 1, 2 and 3; Johannes Roberts, director of 47 METRES DOWN, and Mario Van Peebles, who starred in JAWS THE REVENGE along with marine and environmental conservation advocate Wendy Benchley, who was married to late Jaws, author Peter Benchley.  Benchley is also featured as an interviewee in one segment.

The following two paragraphs illustrate the mediocrity of the subject matter in the doc:

The doc begins with an expert explaining the two reasons behind the interest in shark horror films.  One is that the shark is a natural monster.  The second is that there is an inherent natural fear of high amounts of soft water, that underlines the fear of sharks beneath the water.

The second is the quality of dialogue said by the interviewees featured in the doc.  One has the title of horror film historian.  Is there a market for this type of education or a demand for it?  Another has the tile of doctor, and is a horror and shark expert.  There are, of course, a few famous talents such as the King of low budget horror movies, Roger Corman with a few of his products.  Joe Dante, the director of GREMLINS who also made films for Corman has his say in the doc.  Corman tells Dante that if he makes two successful films for him, he would not have to work for him any more.  Clips of JAWS rip-offs like PIRANHA, SHARKOPUS, ORCA THE KILLER WHALE (a bigger budget one with Richard Harris and Charlotte Rampling) and many others, too many to mention are also shown.  The dialogue or words spoken by those interviewed are often more than not just babbling.  Mario Van Peebles says that if you are in the water in such a situation, you are shit out of luck.  Not much quality information or even humour here.

Best to skip unless one is totally interested in shark horror as there is nothing really of urgency to be learnt here, though interesting to watch clips of old movies of forgettable low-budget generally awful shark horror films.  SHARKSPLOITATION is mildly entertaining at best!

Trailer: 

THEY CLONED TYRONE (USA 2023) ***½

Directed by Juel Taylor

 

Don’t let this dumb ass nigga mother fucking sounding film title THEY CLONED TYRONE fool you.  THEY CLONED TYRONE,  a Netflix original mf film is one crazed, totally off-the-wall and over-the-top comedy about pimps, drug dealers and gangstas that is an absolute blast.  Besides boasting star names like Jamie Foxx (RAY, DAY SHIFT and the upcoming STRAYS), Kiefer Sutherland and John Boyega (STAR WARS and THE WOMAN KING), it is the direction by Juel Taylor (his debut feature) and the script he co-wrote with Tony Rettenmaier that does the trick.  The screenplay was optioned from The Black List by MACROMedia.  It was conceived as a genre-busting homage to the Blaxploitation films of the 1970s,

A series of eerie events thrusts an unlikely trio made up of a pimp, his ho and a drug dealer onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy in this pulpy mystery caper.  The trio are:

Fontaine aka Tyrone:  He finds his clone.  Or is he the clone?  He is the Captain America and drug dealer in the conspiracy equation required to keep the peace of the hood.  He is the most serious of the three, also the one who wants to destroy the conspiracy.

Slick Charles:  He is the pimp who is proud of being the best pimp around.  However, he has trouble keeping Yo-You in control.  Slick is fast talking and is given the best, funniest and most foul mouthed dialogue in the script.  He runs around like a chicken with its head cut off.

Yo-Yo:  She is the hooker who claims she has retired and is only selling her body so that she can have enough money to go to college, hopefully in Miami.  She also is given hilarious lines.  Her name is given because no matter how much Slick tries to get rid of her, she always comes back  like a yo-yo.

Mall Security:  That is the nickname Sutherland calls his character likening his character to that like mall security - only  a very big mall consisting of all the existing clones.  He is the main villain but his character claims that he is just the guy the main villain calls when he wants a job done.

The film references other films like HOLLOW MAN (particularly Kevin Bacon) and SOPHIE’S CHOICE for the fun of it.

The dialogue and props include shops with names like “Got Dranks!” say it all.  Take these sample lines of dialogue:
“Who that?  Ugly black ass mother-fucker.” 

“Am I seeing shit?”

“Ghost of Christmas past ass nigga!” when Slick Charles sees Fointaine who has been shot dead suddenly appear.

THEY CLONED TYRONE blends in several genres - sci-fi, blaxploitation comedy, a bit of political thriller and crime drama.  But the film borders eventually on blaxploitation type goofy humour.  The film is surprisingly good comedy, if not anything else, and has attained a rotten tomatoes approval rating of 95% at the time of writing this review.  THEY CLONED TYRONE premiered at the American Black Film Festival on June 14, 2023. It began a limited theatrical release on July 14, 2023 before streaming on Netflix a week later.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 26 June 2023

AFIRE (German title: Roter Himmel) Germany 2023) ***½

Directed by Christian Petzold

 

German director Christian Petzold revealed that he wanted to make a series of films loosely inspired by the classical elements of water, earth, fire and air.  Starting with relatively successful and critically acclaimed UNDINE in 2020, a tale of a water nymph, fire will rise for his new movie AFIRE.

AFIRE (Voter Himmel) is a 2023 German drama film directed by Christian Petzold, starring Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel and Enno Trebs. The relationship drama focuses on four people who are trapped in their holiday home on the Baltic Sea by uncontrolled forest fires.

In a holiday home on the Baltic Sea not far from Ahrenshoop in hot, dry summer four young persons meet. There is a forest fire and slowly and unnoticeably they are enclosed by the walls of flame. Trapped they get closer, and then the desire, love and sex overtakes them.

Pardon the pun, by AFIRE as in the other Petzold films, is a slow burn.  That does not mean that the film is boring, but it is quite interesting to see how the director weaves and reveals the individual personalities and nuances, strengths and weaknesses of his 4 characters.  The news of the fire is only heard on the radio, but one knows that the fire will eventually affect the story’s 4 characters.

The main character is a sulking and pouty Leon (Thomas Schubert) who arrives at the holiday home for the sole purpose of finishing his book and meeting with his publisher.  He is tense and nervous at the response he is going to get, thus behaving oddly and way irritated.   He is more introverted than the friend Felix he is travelling with, whose home they are residing.   Leon is slightly overweight and self-conscious, never taking pff his clothes to swim or never swimming at all, despite being at a beach home.

Felix (Langston Uibel) is the opposite- extrovert, always taking off his shirt and always winning and flirting with the others.  It is soon revealed that he is gay.  Felix is preparing his portfolio at the beach home in order to enter an art school, but he is constantly distracted.

Nadja (Paula Beer) is the unexpected girl in the beach home that Leon and Felix suddenly find.  Despite she being quite the flirt and having loud sex nightly, Nadja is a very nice person.  And a great cook.

Devid (with an ‘e’ is the rescue swimmer at the beach who is also Nadja’s lover.

With the seaside setting and the youthful characters, Petzold’s film feels very much like the French Eric Rohmer’s youth innocence youth comedies like THE GREEN RAY (Le Rayon Vert) and PAULINE AT THE BEACH (Pauline a la Plage), but only much more serious.

AFIRE won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 22 February 2023.  The film opens on July 14th, 2023 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.

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BIRD BOX BARCELONA (Spain 2023) ***
Directed by Alex and John Pastor

 

 BIRD BOX BARCELONA is a follow-up or remake or less likely a sequel, depending on how one wants to look at it, to the highly successful 1985 Sandra Bullock dystopian vehicle BIRD BOX directed by Dane Susanne Blier, based on Josh Malerman’s 2014 source novel.   The central character follows Bullock’s Malorie as she tries to protect herself and two children from entities which cause people who look at them to kill themselves. 

Why did Netflix bother to make BIRD BOX BARCELONA?  To make more money with the cash cow.  BIRD BOX began a limited release on December 14, before streaming worldwide on Netflix on December 21, 2018. The film received mixed reviews from critics but went on to become the most-watched film on Netflix within 28 days of release, according to Netflix.  BIRD BOX BARCELONA is set in Barcelona, Spain follows a male lead and his daughter, instead and treads several differences.  The film follows the father (Sebastián) and daughter (Anna) as they join up with to try and survive a dystopian future in which no-one survives looking at entities that have invaded and roam the earth.  More religion is brought into the plot (Is God saving the world or destroying it?) and there are more expansive action set pieces that are done with CGI.  The film is in Spanish with a little English.

Both films are all right watches, not too bad and not too good either, the main flaw being there lack of a credible plot.  Incidentally, both BIRD BOX films are currently streaming on Netflix so there is a choice of watching either one, or maybe both if one has the time.  

Trailer: 

THE DEEPEST BREATH (USA 2023) ***½

Directed by Laura McGann

 

Dangerous sports that toy with death make intriguing stories.

Hot on the heels of current headlines following the deadly demise of OceanGate's Titan submersible, in which five people aboard were declared lost, likely in a violent, deep sea implosion comes a documentary THE DEEPEST BREATH on the dangerous sport of freediving.

Freediving, aka breath-hold diving, or skin diving is a form of underwater diving that relies on breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus such as scuba gear.  Besides the limits of breath-hold, immersion in water and exposure to high ambient pressure also have physiological effects that limit the depths and duration possible in freediving.

Written and directed by Laura McGann THE DEEPEST BREATH is a breathtaking (sorry, had to use the pun) and emotional and educational journey into the sport that is made more poignant as it covers the intimate life of freediver Alessia Zecchini, following her goals, dreams and heartbreaks.

The doc mentions at the beginning that additional footage and archive ones as well were added to enhance the storytelling.  The beginning  segment shows Alessia doing a free diving stint only to arrive at the surface, passing out and having to be given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.   The constant danger of the sport is clearly established.

The doc follows the subject, an Italian freediver, Alessia Zecchini.  Alessia Zecchini (born 1992) set world and Italian records in freediving. A third way through the doc, another sportsperson is introduced, sort of out of nowhere,  He is an Irishman, Stephen Keenan who later meets Alessia. forming an unbreakable bond of romance and friendship.

Alessia has an illustrious career and is still alive and breaking records all the time.  But director McGann concentrates her doc during one portion of her life, a portion that is both most devastating and exhilarating.  The main setting is the year 2017, when she began her outdoor training with international coach and safety diver Irish Stephen Keenan, who died during a training accident with Zecchini in June of that year.  In the same year she beat the AIDA world record with −104 m depth in the Vertical Blue competition on May 10 on Long Island in the Bahamas. During the last days of the competition, Natalia Molchanova's record in constant weight (CWT) of −101 m (which had been held for six years), was beaten three times. On May 6, Zecchini was the first to go down and take off the tag at −102 m; breaking the world record. Four days later, Hanako Hirose dropped to −103 m but minutes later she went on to detach the tag at −104 m, setting another world record.  Natalia was herself missing in action and died during one free diving event,

The free diving segments are stunning and are as mesmerizing as they are scary, many scenes shrouded by darkness owing to the lack of light at great ocean depths.  Also educational is the subject of lung collapse, a danger facing most divers that can often cause them to back out during a dive.

THE DEEPEST BREATH debuts on Netflix July the 19th.

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MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART 1 (USA 2023) ****

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie

 

In the 7th instalment of the Mission Impossible franchise, M:I. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART 1, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team are confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful foe known as "The Entity", Hunt is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than his mission.

It is  matter of hunting down the two halves of a key that can open something Hunt and the others do not know what.  In the wrong hands, the world will be destroyed.  In typical M:I style - the message will self-destruct etc, and the audience is plunged into another adventure - and a solid one in this latest instalment.

Action blockbusters (JOHN WICK 4; SPIDERVERSE) have demonstrated that story is only minimal in importance to the action set pieces.  As for the latest edition to the Mission Impossible franchise, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART 1 has the best action sequences including stunts performed by Cruise himself.  The one and  most dangerous stunt is the segment involving Hunt speed diving from the top of a mountain cliff to the top of a speeding train.  Speed diving is an extremely dangerous sport and involves landing at close to 80 miles per hour.  I have skydived twice and landed around 10 miles per hour and slowly descended from heights at that.  The speed diving sequences are amazing,   Another action sequence worthy of mention is the car chase down the Spanish Steps in Rome.  The Spanish Steps have been seen in many films before from the classic Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn film ROMAN HOLIDAY.  The chase in the little Fiat 500 is both exciting and hilarious, the little car often spinning out of control as pursued by an armoured truck.

 The most impressive action sequence, not only in this film but for any action film this year is the train crash scene at the film’s climax, the setting being the Swiss Alps.  After, much scouting and trouble finding an old WWII railway bridge to blow up in Poland, the filming eventually settled to the small village of Levisham, North Yorkshire, North Yorkshire Moors Railway, for a sequence set in the Alps in Switzerland with a train going 60 miles (97 km) an hour through a bridge being blown up.   Needless to say, it is best to watch the film on IMAX.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART 1 received a nomination for Most Anticipated Film at the 6th Hollywood Critics Association Midseason Film Awards.  If part 2 is going to be anywhere close to Part 1, Part 2 would also be one of the most anticipated films to come.  So far, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING PART 1 gets my vote for Best Action blockbuster of 2023.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One premiered on the Spanish Steps in Rome on June 19, 2023, and is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on July 12, by Paramount Pictures. It has received critical acclaim. A direct sequel, Dead Reckoning Part Two, is set to be released on June 28, 2024.

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MR. CAR AND THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR (Poland 2023) **

(Polish title: Pan Samochodzik i Templariusze)

Directed by Antoni Nykowski

 

Poland attempts a family adventure fantasy to the likes of Ian Fleming’s CHITTY CHITTY BAND BANG, the car that flies and floats on water.  Based on the Polish novel of the same name MR. CAR AND THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR introduces a car (very ugly compared to Chitty) that can travel the waters for its owner, Mr. car to retrieve a hidden treasure after overcoming an adversary in a fight at a lighthouse.

The voiceover touts the attraction of a hidden treasure.  Is it the riches or the mystery of the unknown?  For movies that deal with treasures, one would expect an Indiana Jones type hero and some treasure that can provide both riches and a curse if fallen into the wrong hands.   This is true in the Netflix origin Polish adventure, MR. CAR AND THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR, which is unfortunately a poor man’s version of Indiana Jones.  The film might prove interesting if one is Polish or can speak the language, which the film is shot in.

When an art historian (cross reference Indian Jones who is an archaeologist), Mr. Tomasz, who sometimes introduced himself as Tomasz the Vagabond, was called by his friends Mr. Samochodzik finds an ancient Templar cross, he must join forces with an unlikely group of adventurers on a quest to unlock the relic's secrets.

The car of the film’s title is an unusual vehicle inherited from Tomasz’ uncle-inventor. This car, although ugly, "a cross between a canoe and a wheelbarrow", as the malicious people called it, had incredible capabilities: with a Ferrari 410 engine, it could run at a speed of 280 km per hour.  Thanks to the screw used, it served as a motor boat. In this vehicle, Mr. Tomasz went to Poland to decipher another historical mystery, to catch thieves and smugglers trying to steal valuable historic items. 

The bad guys are some Danes and a suspicious group of Polish youth who follow Tomasz’ search in the Teutonic castles and the headquarters of the Templars.  A little romance is provided by a female reporter who is at loggerheads at the film’s start but the arguments only show that the two will eventually come together.

Mr. Car has a cult status in Poland. Series of books written by Zbigniew Nienacki in the 60-70s are great adventure-treasure hunter stories and are still quite popular. The film is based on  the second in the series.  To note is that there is a series on the books made in 1971.

To find the treasure you need a lot of knowledge, cunning and... a lot of luck.  But who really cares?   Though aimed at a family audience, the film is uninteresting at most, cliched and quite a brutal watch.  The film is also a bit violent (example: a head sizzling birth under a hot lamp at the film’s start), though little blood and gore is shown.  Special effects are possible at best.

MR. CAR AND THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR opens on Netflix this week for streaming.

QUICKSAND (Colombia 2023) **
Directed by Andres Beltran

 

It is 30 minutes though the movie QUICKSAND that the couple falls and is trapped into quicksand.  The rest of the film shows how they survive their ordeal while also being attacked by a vicious snake protecting her nest of eggs.

The big question is how a film can remain interesting for a full hour of its running time if the couple trapped in quicksand would, expectedly sink and die within a few minutes.  For one thing, it is impossible for a human to sink entirely into quicksand, due to the higher density of the fluid. Quicksand has a density of about 2 grams per cubic centimetre, whereas the density of the human body is only about 1 gram per cubic centimetre.  At that level of density, sinking beyond about waist height in quicksand is impossible. Even objects with a higher density than quicksand will float on it if stationary.  Continued or panicked movement, however, may cause a person to sink further in the quicksand.  In the film the couple is trapped in the quicksand.

Quicksand is a trope of adventure fiction, particularly in film, where it is typically and unrealistically depicted with a suction effect that causes people or animals that walk into it to sink until fully submerged and risk drowning. This has led to the common misconception that humans can be completely immersed and drown in quicksand; however, this is physically impossible.  In the film QUICKSAN\D, there is a scene when Sofia (Carolina Gaitan) falls and sinks head into the quicksand.  Her ex (Allan Hawk)jumps in the pull her out.  So uhh for the film’s accuracy for the truth.

The couple is then trapped in the pond.  Since this increasingly impairs movement, it can lead to a situation where other factors such as exposure (i.e. sunstroke, dehydration and hypothermia), drowning in a rising tide or otherwise aggressive animals may harm the couple.  The script uses snakes that bite Sofia’s ex.

Director Beltran has his hands full with a misguided horror project based on a script by Matt Pitts that has limited potential.  The metaphor of the couple’s troubled marriage, which is ending in divorce mired by muddy troubles akin to being trapped in quicksand without any progress is all too obvious.  Under the extreme reassurances of being tapped near death in quicksand , the couple has to pull their resources together, ousting their difference in order to survive.  It does take a genius to force where all this is leading to, least of all moving into cliched story telling.

QUICKSAND contains a few genuine scary moments, such as the impending snake attack segment.  But  the film also show the couple trapped in quicksand standing still with the head level above the fluid.  But in  truth,  a person would be at waist level if trapped in quicksand due to the density of the human body.  It is impossible for a human body to sink completely innquicksand!  There are  more things that need to be unlearned about quicksand in this sorry case of a horror movie.

QUICKSAND makes Its Exclusive Streaming Debut onm Shudder on July 14.

 

Trailer: 

UNKNOWN: KILLER ROBOTS (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Jesse Sweet

 

UNKNOWN: KILLER ROBOTS is a Netflix original documentary that touches on the topic of Artificial Intelligence form the military point of view.`

The doc opens appropriately with the introduction to A.I. and robots with a woman, Emilia Javorsky of the  Future of Life Institute touting both its practicality and dangers.  She tells of A.I. eliminating poverty and creating peace but warns of the risks that A.I. poses.

A good example of A.I. robots is given on these smart killer drones.  It is  to just a matter of going from point A to Point B.  It is more like going out to find milk.  The robot has to decide which grocery store to go to, acquire the milk and bring it back safely.  If under threat, then it has to deal with the threat accordingly.

The absurdity of a manless war just using AI robots is akin to one funny scene in John Hughes 1985 college robot comedy WEIRD SCIENCE.  In one scene, a professor in a lecture hall is delivering his lesson.  Among the seats scattered throughout students were a couple of recorders taping the lesson.  Later on in the movie, there is a scene in the same lecture hall.  The camera pans the seats and there are no students present but a whole lot of recorders.  The camera settles in front of the room where the board is.  There is no professor present but a recorder delivering the lecture.  So this absurdity, though hilarious, is quite a realistic truth.   Will war just be fought using machines?

Very interesting is the doc’s segment on drone swarms.  The drones can collectively form a swarm and hunt a target.  Like its nature counterpart, swarms of birds or insects behave collectively following simple rules  There is no leader, but the swarm behaves collectively.  The concept of drone swarming is explained where a platoon can perform the function of a battalion and a battalion can perform the function of a brigade.  The aim is to save the number of lives of men and women in warfare.  The question is how autonomous machines will change the face of warfare into the future.

The danger and possible misuse of A.I. is understandably touted in the doc.  This is a prime example of well intentions missed by the bad people.  To this extent, currently many top company CEOs like Elon Musk are asking for a pause in A.I. development.  The one major question is to prevent A.I. to make the decision of killing humans, leaving the decision to be made only but humans.  One thing that is not argued is that humans could be crazy or non-rational and do worse than A.I. that could make a better decision based on a huge number of human inputs.

UNKNOWN: KILLER ROBOTS is a satisfactorily made doc from Netflix, nothing too fancy or made with extensive research.  However, the doc is informative and educational, especially in these times when Artificial Intelligence is all the hype.  There is much to learn still from this doc and from any new information arising from the topic of A.I.  It is important to know both the potential and risks of this new technology that will very soon transform human lives.

UNKNOWN: KILLER ROBOTS opens for streaming on Netflix this week.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 21 June 2023

 

ELDORADO: EVERYTHING THE NAZIS HATE (Germany 2023)***1/2

Directed by Benjamin Cantu and Matt Lambert

 

In Berlin of the late Golden Twenties, the Eldorado is legendary a decadent and hedonistic nightclub in which gays, lesbians and trans people dance cheek to cheek with the rich and powerful. They let loose to the electrifying music of the Weintraub Syncopators, intoxicated by the smells of perfume, rouge and manly sweat. But the Eldorado is also a space of contradictions, in which some openly gay visitors come dressed in Nazi uniforms.

It is inevitable that a documentary be made about the infamous German nightclub/cabaret of paradise known as the Eldorado.  The Eldorado was the name of multiple nightclubs and performance venues in Berlin before the Nazi Era and World War II.   The name of the cabaret Eldorado has become an integral part of the popular iconography of what has come to be seen as the culture of the period in German history often referred to as the "Weimar Republic”.

`The doc is made up of both archive footage and re-enactments.  It is a very erotic doc as everything on screen looks so sexy, hot and forbidden.

Though the locales offer ostensibly queer entertainment of some kind for the pleasure (the decadence; the drag shows; the off the wall patrons; the gaiety; the fabulousness) of heterosexual, the doc however, concentrates on the LGBT+ patrons.  The doc, essentially a history lesson, and a  very colourful and gay one at that, paints not only an account of the old now defunct club but also a few of the characters that frequent the club.  It is a good mix of subjects that keep the doc intriguing, especially making it more personal with these personal stories, though the doc appears to be taking on too many subjects without any clear direction.  Even so, it is an entertaining trip into the past, into nostalgia and into the time when all these tongs were forbidden.  One also gets to appreciate the freedom one has today.

Germany’s law off Paragraph 175, which was also the subject of another documentary and title of that film, is also examined in the doc as it plays relevance to the era. Before 1933, homosexual acts were illegal in Germany under Paragraph 175 of the German Criminal Code. The law was not consistently enforced, however, nd a thriving gay culture existed in major German cities. After the Nazi takeover in 1933, the first homosexual movement's infrastructure of clubs, organizations, and publications was shut down. After the Röhm purge in 1934, persecuting homosexuals became a priority of the Nazi police state. A 1935 revision of Paragraph 175 made it easier to bring criminal charges for homosexual acts, leading to a large increase in arrests and convictions.

Ernst Röhm is one of the more interesting subjects in the doc.  Röhmwas the leader of the SA, a paraarmy that did the dirty work like violence and cleaning up behind the Nazis.  Röhm was outwardly gay and because of his allegiance to the Nazis and his power and his persona; friendship with Adolf Hitler allowed to practice his lifestyle.  He was one of the frequent patrons of the eldorado.  Other subjects examined are three trans patrons and a couple Gottfried and Lisa who carried out a different lifestyle with a third person.

ELDORADO is currently streaming on Netflix.

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Every Body (USA 2023) ****
Directed by Julie Cohen

 

This doc on intersex gendered people is an extremely educational, informative and emotional experience.  This doc gets my vote for Best Documentary for this reason.

The film begins with couples celebrating their soon to arrive babies.  Balloons bursting of blue or pink hues h=erald the arrival of a male or female child.  But the doc questions what if the baby is born neither male or female.  It is not always black and white.  0.07% of babies are born intersex - that is with both male or female genitals.  

EVERY BODY is a revelatory investigation of the lives of intersex people. The film tells the stories of three individuals who have moved from childhoods marked by shame, secrecy, and non-consensual surgeries to thriving adulthoods after each decided to set aside medical advice to keep their bodies a secret and instead came out as their authentic selves. Actor and screenwriter River Gallo (they/them), political consultant Alicia Roth Weigel (she/they), and Ph.D. student Sean Saifa Wall (he/him) are now leaders in a fast-growing global movement advocating for greater understanding of the intersex community and an end to unnecessary surgeries. “We are not going to be quiet!” the claim!  Woven into the story is a stranger-than-fiction case of medical abuse, featuring exclusive footage from the NBC News archives, which helps explain the modern-day treatment of intersex people.  

The doc eventually gets to its main business at hand i.e to deliver the message of ‘no more intersex surgery’.  This is what all the intersex people are trying to bring across.  Many are forced to undergo surgical operations initiated by theirs-rents son that they can fit into a male or female category, without their consent, being too young to decide at the time.  The parents mean well, but the children suffer.  It is clearly a human rights issue.  The best thing of course is to ban intersex surgery.  The #NoIntersexSurgery Movement is currently one that is taking the work by storm as an event in footage of demonstrations around the world including Dublin, Nigeria and Amsterdam.  The song ‘Stand by Me’ serves like an anthem to the movement.  It is encouraging to see that there seems to be positivity for the intersex people, unanimously,

          The best portion of the doc is the closing credits.  As all the credits appear on the screen, so do the intersex cast and crew from the subjects interviewed to the producer, director, casting director, director of photography and others.  It is so emotionally rewarding to see these people, yes 0.07% of the American population manage to find themselves and make a statement.  These intersex people prove that there is no black or white in terms of male or female, and that they are indeed beautiful people and very attractive at that, all being in their younger days.  Running at an hour and a half, this doc comes with my highest recommendations!

Focus Features and Universal Pictures Canada will release EVERY BODY in-theatres on Friday, June 30th coinciding with Toronto’s PRIDE celebrations.

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INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY (USA 2023) *** ½

Direct by James Mangold

 

INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY premiered at Cannes to generally mixed reviews, many implying that the franchise has been used to death.  The lead Harrison Ford playing the titular hero, Indiana Jones is already past 80 and the age shows.  Indiana Jones/Ford does not hide his age as the script contains a few jokes about Indiana’s age.  The tents needed to be perfumed by Ford is needless to say, more difficult to be done.

THE DIAL OF DESTINY in the film’s title refers to the time dial invention of Greek mathematician/scientist Archimedes.  In grade school, students were taught in Physics, Archimedes Principle That states:  The apparent loss in weight a body has simmered in a liquid is equal to the weight of the liquid displaced by it.  The script has some reference to  liquid displacement in the film but it is more about time travel and the name Archimedes just used  his part living in Greece during the attack of the Romans, whether or not this is accurate.  Oh, how fond it is of Hollywood to make up and change history.

This 5th and supposedly final instalment of the Indiana Jone franchise has the similar plot of archaeologist Jones hunting down an ancient relic that holds mysterious powers.  If the relic falls into the wrong hands that will be the end of the world or maybe even the universe.  The relic in this case is Archimedes’ Dial of Destiny.

In 1944, during World War II, American archaeologist Indiana Jones and his colleague Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) are in Europe to recover artifacts stolen by the Nazis. They prevent Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) , a Nazi scientist, from obtaining the Archimedes Dial, a device capable of time travel.  Twenty-five years later, Jones is uneasy over the fact that the U.S. government has recruited former Nazis to help beat the Soviet Union in the Space Race.  He is about to be forced into retirement from his teaching position because of his opposition to the practice. Voller, now a NASA member and ex-Nazi involved with the Apollo Moon-landing program, wishes to make the world into a better place as he sees fit by obtaining the dial, pitting him up against Jones once again.  Basil's daughter and Jones's goddaughter, Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) accompanies Jones on his journey for the dial.

Ford is once again the gallant hero.  Though older, Indiana Jones gets to do all the great stunts which includes one scene of Indiana riding a horse through a busy parade and down the subway system.  Not so glorious is his and Helena’s scuttering through an under-sea cave, full of centipedes, bugs and other crawling insects.  The film can roughly be described as a series of action set-pieces, a few meticulously crafted strung together by the typical action narrative.  After a while, especially during its over 2 hour running time, these action sequences that include some typical ones like a motorbike chase and running atop a running train are a challenge to keep fresh and exciting.

INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY opens in theatres June the 30th.

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JOY RIDE (USA 2023) ***½

Direct by Adele Lim

 

Childhood best friends Audrey (Ashley Park) and Lolo Sherry Cola), accompanied by Audrey's former roommate Kat (Stephanie’s) and Lolo's cousin Deadeye Sabrina Wu), set out on a journey across China to find Audrey's birth mother.

With names like Evan Goldberg and Set  Rogen on the producer’s list, one can expect a lewd and rude comedy in JOY RIDE, the new Asian comedy that is co-written by Lim and  Cherry Chevapravatdumron and Teresa Hsiao.  Lim co-wrote the hot Singapore based Asian comedy CRAZY RICH ASIANS. 

This time the story shifts to both mainland China, showing off some stunning natural beauty as well as to Seoul in South Korea.  There is lots of clever writing that is based on Asian culture as well as some rude jokes in the countries’ native languages.  In fact the film’s funniest laugh-out loud joke occurs in one unexpected scene, in which this reviewer, who understands this bad word was the only one to laugh out loud, as the word is unknown to non-Hokkien speaking audiences.  (The word is pronounced ‘chee-bai’ which means ‘cunt’ that is shouted back by an admirer of the star Kat when she is told to f*** off.)

The lewd jokes come fast and funny, sometimes too fast for one to catch them all.  But if a joke or two is missed, there are plenty more to come around every corner.  A few are misses, but a lot are hits as well. 

Though JOY RIDE is by no means flawless, one must give credit to its director Adele Lim for an excellent effort.  She co-wrote CRAZY RICH ASIANS in 2018 and left writing on the sequel, following reports that she was offered significantly less pay byWarner Bros. than her white, male co-writer Peter Chiarelli.  Way to go, girl!  The Malaysian-born director shows great promise in her writing, providing the main storyline for JOY RIDE.

Though the story of four friends discovering themselves in a foreign country on a road trip is not really uncharted territory, there are a few unexpected surprises in the story.  Audrey has a big fight with her best childhood friend Lolo and says some very nasty words that are hard to take back.  It does not take a genius to guess thatchy will  make up, and they do it in a restaurant (cliched territory here) complete with applause from the customers.  The revelation of Audrey's birth mother and where it takes Audrey is a solid twist in the story.

The script also has some inventive humour like the thousand year shots, made of Chinese century eggs in a shot glass.  Being an ex-Singaporean growing up eating century eggs (an acquired taste), I could down many such shots, but for those who have never eaten a century egg, the thought of it is really disgusting especially when taking in the ammonia smell and its rubbery texture.  The bar scene is a hoot.  The reference to the K-pop Korean stars is also worthy of mention in the very inventive and funny k-pop musical number segment.

Though JOY RIDE runs on a familiar plot of girls on a trip like a road trip, there are sufficient inventive Asian and rude jokes to entertain and cause a laugh riot.

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LOVE GETS A ROOM (UK/Spain 2019) **
Directed by Rodrigo Cortés

 

The beginning credits emphasize the fact that what follows is a true story or at least based on true events.  The titles indicate the setting as the January of 1942 in Warsaw, Poland.  The audience is told that in a narrow ghetto 40,0000 Jews are confined by the Nazis in the middle of the city.  No one can leave or enter the perimeter, which are guarded by German troops.  Outside, the audience is informed, life goes on but inside, people die of illness, hunger and the cold.  But amidst all this, the audience is to believe that art goes on.  Inside, and cut off from the outside world by a towering wall, LOVE GETS A ROOM follows Stefcia and her fellow Jewish theatre actors as they fight to keep their passion for performing alive. 

As life in the Nazi-occupied ghetto becomes a fierce fight against cold, hunger, and epidemics, the actors, against all odds, embark on a daring mission to stage Jerzy Jurandot's play, risking their lives to create something beautiful in a world of chaos and destruction.

Written and directed by visionary filmmaker Rodrigo Cortés, the film takes the audience on an emotional journey back to the tumultuous time of World War II.  With what the press notes describe as masterful direction and outstanding performances, LOVE GETS A ROOM attempts to provide a poignant exploration of the power of love, hope, and sacrifice in the face of unimaginable adversity.

LOVE GETS A ROOM is a prime example of a film that tries too hard and relies on past films on theatre to make important points - a fact that fails as audiences are often familiar with war time theatre films, such as the famous Francois Truffaut’s 1980 masterpiece LE DERNIER METRO (THE LAST metro) being the best of the lot.  Director Cortés uses the all too often used tactic of the play mirroring the true events the actors are facing.  In the play, the main lead is torn between two overs, just as in the main story, Stefcia is torn between two lovers. She has to decide who to go with - to escape with the one who loves her who she does not love anymore, or stay with the one she loves.  And she has a little daughter to compact matters,  The worst of the film’s flaws is the use of cheap theatrics to make a point.  In the film, the flaw occurs with a German entering the theatre amidst a performance firing a rifle many times and making lots of noise and drama to make a silly point.  The German wishes to dispose of a resistance fighter that has nothing to do with the characters of the story.

LOVE GETS A ROOM is based on true events during Nazi occupied Poland and Is rich with period atmosphere.  But this well-intentioned retelling of Jewish history is marred by cheap theatrics, sappiness and cliche-ridden tricks of at theatre within a theatre setting.

LOVE GETS A ROOM  finally gets a release, finally gets a VOD release on Friday, June 30, 2023.

 

MATTER OUT OF PLACE (Austria 2022) ***½

Directed by Nikolaus Geyrhalter

 

MATTER OUT OF PLACE is a film about waste in remote areas and about people who are trying to clean up the mess.  The film captures the dispersion of garbage and is observing the endless and unending work of garbage collectors and waste managers around the world.

MATTER OUT OF PLACE, as the audience is told at the beginning of the film is any object or impact that is nonnative to its native environment.  What follows are two stunning images - one of the fjords in all its beauty and the other, a much closer look at the water all covered by junk like plastic bottles and other disgusting waste. 

Waste on the shores, waste on the mountains, waste everywhere, waste on ocean floors and deep down in the earth.  In his unique imagery consisting of minutely composed pictures, director Nikolaus Geyrhalter traces immense amounts of waste across our planet.  On his journey, director Geyrhalter illustrates the sheer endless struggle of people to gain control over the vast amounts of waste that we produce every single day.  Collecting, shredding, burning, burying – a Sisyphean task, which ostensibly solves the global problem of rubbish that is stealthily growing.

The collection can be seen in one extended segment in which a rubbish man on a three-wheeled truck collects individual rubbish bags from local neighbourhoods.  It is not long before his little truck is full of bags, some rubbish spilling onto the truck and road as they are not all properly bagged and secured.  These bags are then loaded onto a bigger lorry and these lorries queue up one by one by a huge landfill to dump out their loads.  Amidst all the goings-on, it can be observed that there are poorer people at the landfill scrummaging through the waste to see if there is anything valuable that can be exchanged for money.  One can just imagine the stench of the landfill.  (Myself, I had been to one and I could not stand the really strong God-awful smell.)

As to correcting the situation of dumped garbage, volunteers are shown bagging a beach of all the plastics and other waste, to be carried away in full trucks.  The cleaned beach after the cleanup looks much, much better.

Similar to Canadian documentary filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal of MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES and INTO THE WEEDS, director Nikolaus Geyrhalter blends stunning visual compositions of their frames in wide angled shots in a mostly calm setting.  The camera is often steady and the audience sees from a distance what is going on and for some time.  Both directors are concerned and are environmental activists through their documentaries that make a difference.

The film’s country of origin is Austria but many languages are spoken in the film including German, English, Albanian, Nepali, Swiss and German.

MATTER OUT OF PLACE opens on DVD and Digital on June the 27th.  It will also debut soon on iTunes, Vimeo-On-Demand and Amazon .Prime.     

MASCARADE (MASQUERADE) France 2021) **

Directed by Nicolas Bedos

 

Click on link below for review:

https://toronto-franco.com/article/21-cinema-movies/381-film-review-mascarade-masquerade

 

NIMONA (USA 2023) ****

Directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane

 

From Netflix, arrives a new animated feature entitled NIMONA.  NIMONA is an epic tale about finding friendship in the most surprising situations and accepting yourself and others for who they are.  According to Head of Animation Ted Ty the film took 8 years in the making.  The film is based on the National Book Award-nominated, New York Times best-selling graphic novel by ND Stevenson.

When Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed), a knight in a futuristic medieval world, is framed for a crime he didn't commit, the only one who can help him prove his innocence is Nimona (Chloë Grace Moretz), a mischievous teen with a taste for mayhem — who also happens to be a shapeshifting creature Ballister had been trained to destroy.   But with the entire kingdom out to get him, Nimona is the best (or technically the only) sidekick Ballister can hope for. And as the lines between heroes, villains, and monsters start to blur, the two of them set out to wreak serious havoc — for Ballister to clear his name once and for all, and for Nimona to…just wreak serious havoc.

The knight Barrister and his white beau are reminiscent of the gay couple in Stephen Frears’ groundbreaking 1985 film MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE.  Hanif Kureishi (East Indian) and Daniel Day Lewis with his blonde hair colouring in that film is reproduced in NIMONA as Ballister’s boyfriend knight, Ambrosius (Edward Lee Yang)  also has coloured blond hair.

It is very encouraging to see how films have progressed in terms of tolerance to minorities.  In NIMONA, the key protagonist knight Ballister is gay.  The homosexuality is never questioned but taken as a given which means that being gay is accepted - no questions asked,  NIMONA is herself gay with her kinship to the female director of the Knighthood.  Ballister is also not of royalty but of the common man, the commoner never ever reaching the heights of knighthood.  Him being knighted also means himself being accepted as a hero and a protector of his Kingdom.  The film also portrays the love between knights Ballister and Ambrosius as something very precious and wonderful, enhancing a different aspect of a love story.  NIMONA, its script, story and direction are all to be complimented for being so progressive in the world’s acceptance for one another.  NIMONA has already achieved a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and the film is a strong bet to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature next year.

The animation of the shapeshifter proved more challenging especially during the rigging process of animation, when the animators need to transform the creature whether enlarging or reducing its size.  Netflix hosted a special screening of NIMONA in Toronto at the TIFF Bell Lightbox that I attended.  The event included a Q&A with Canadian Ted Ty, Animation Director on NIMONA. Ted is Global Head of Character Animation for DNEG Animation, based at their Montréal studio. and he explained the painstaking process of animation in this respect.  The animation is also amazing as the animation of Ballister’s face looks so much like actor Liz Ahmed’s in real life.   It is the eyes that do the trick.

 Trailer: 

 

PRISONER’S DAUGHTER (USA 2022) **
Directed by Catherine Hardwicke

 

I was first amazed by actor Brian Cox way back when in 1991, the Scots Shakespearean actor played a repressed gay father in Nigel Finch’s THE LOST LANGUAGE OF CRANES.  Cox’s performances have continued to astound and he has played anything from Churchill to roles in super action hero films like X-MEN.  Cox is once again in top form in a film that unfortunately does not give the actor the chance to show his potential.  Cox still makes the movie and is the one reason to see it.

Cox comes up against Kate Benkinsale who plays his daughter in the film.    Beckinsale has a whole lot of movies in her resume including the UNDERWORLD films and art films like THE LAST DAY OF DISCO. Beckinsale hold her own when appearing with Cox, showing off her true talent in acting.

Powerhouse director Catherine Hardwicke (best known for being the director of TWILIGHT) gets to bring Cox and Beckinsale together in the indie film PRISONER’S DAUGHTER.  She devotes equal time to each character.  The story is as basic as the title implies - it is about the PRISONER’S DAUGHTER.  The father, Max has been in prison and unable to look after her daughter Maxine who is now a single mother after a bad marriage with a son, Ezra (Christopher Convery) who suffers from epileptic fits.  As the film opens. Maxine has just lost her waitressing job after her ex (Tyson Ritter) shows up at her work and punches Maxine’s supervisor.

A father fights for the love of his daughter and grandson, after serving twelve years in prison.

The main problem of PRISONER’S DAUGHTER is the cliched and predictable story with all the expected subplots that will lead, obviously, to the father’s redemption.  A lot of dialogue steers the plot points to the final redemption, that would provide the necessary ‘happy’ ending to the story.  This is not until the son, Ezra gets kidnapped by Maxine’s ex and other diversions.

Here comes the cliched plot points.  Father Max is diagnosed with terminal cancer.  He is allowed free time iut of prison before his death 5 months or so if his daughter will take him in with him at her place qhile he is under house arrest.  Max and his daughter do not get along, after he had deserted her, in the past, being too busy at his ‘questionable’ work and then in prison.  But when she needs money for her son’s seizure meds, she has no option but to take him in.  The usual stuff she imposes includes him not revealing that he is his grandad.  And to add to the melodrama, the boy is  bullied in school.  Grandad who used to be a professional boxer now teaches him the ropes.  And so on, and so on with no surprises in the story.  As expected, there will be moments when the heartstrings are tugged, and quite emotionally.

The film does contain a few charming segments like the pep talk Max gives to his grandson following which he says: “Now go apologize to your mother.”

PRISONER’S DAUGHTER opens in theatres June the 30th.

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RUN RABBIT RUN (Australia 2023) **
Directed by Daina Reid

 

RUN RABBIT RUN is an Aussie psychological horror thriller that is made by the director of a few of THE HANDMAID’S TALE episodes.  The HANDMAID'S TALE's Elizabeth Moss was supposed to thus play the title role but the role went instead to Australian actress Sarah Cook.  Sarah Cook isn’t half bad as Sarah the fertility doctor and she bears the same similar befuddled unsettled pretty but could be scary look as does Moss.

RUN RABBIT RUN works as a scary suspense thriller as the story is always one step ahead of its audience.  The audience is near sure of exactly what is going on.  There are no deliberate confusing parts about who is a good thing.  The audience anticipation factor is high too and that is a good sign.  When this factor is high so are expectations.  In this respect the film fails to deliver its shocks and ends in what comes through as a rather expected and tepid climax.

Why the film is called RUN RABBIT RUN remains one of the film’s mysteries.  There is always a rabbit running around in the film.  Mia loves rabbits and she is shown carrying and hugging one at a few points in the film.  Her mother’s Sarah is not so lucky to get bitten by one.  Perhaps she deserves it and she is mean to that rabbit, asking it, in one of the film’s few humorous scenes to fuck off.

As in many horror films set in the woods or in the country, RUN RABBIT RUN has overhead shots, in fact quite a few of the cars driving along a long winding road with lots of vegetation,  The cinematography is actually quite stunning, courtesy of d.p. Bonne Elliot showcasing the beauty of the landscape of the state of Southern Australia.

The main positive point of the film is the lead Sarah Snook’s performance as the unsettled mother.  Clearly she shows her distress on screen, not knowing what to do and not knowing what is going on.  Is her daughter being possessed by the spirit of her dad sister or is her daughter going mad?  Or maybe she is going half bonkers as well.   The only other well-known actor in the film is Greta Scacchi who plans Joan, her mother in the nursing home suffering from Dementia, though she is Alice, Sarah’s missing sister.  She thinks Alice is still alive.  When Sarah and her daughter, Mia visit, Mia thinks she is Alice and all hell breaks loose.

The film suffered from a really thin plot and it shows.  Director Reid’s film is thus a slow burn and one can see her trying to fill up the film’s running time of an hour and a half.

The film also tackles the issues of single parenthood.  Sarah has to look after Mia alone.  Though her husband and his new wife want to help, Sarah keeps her trouble to herself, which is expected.

 The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 19 January 2023 and will be  released on Netflix on 28 June 2023.

 Trailer: 

SO MUCH TENDERNESS (Canada 2022) **
Directed by Lina Rodriguez

 

It is 7 and a half minutes into the film before the first line of dialogue “Does the smoke bother you?” is heard on the soundtrack as a female speaks to another seated on the passenger side of the car.   The question is asked as she waves the cigarette smoke away with her hand.  The answer would hardly matter.  There are long shots of the back of a neck and of blank faces.  Having fled Colombia after her husband was murdered, an environmental lawyer rebuilds her life in Toronto with her tempestuous daughter, only to risk losing everything when her traumatic past re-surfaces. 

All of Rodriguez’s films including SO MUCH TENDERNESS are slow burns and much patience is required to sit through any of her movies.  It is apparent that she is a perfectionist in the creation of every vignette in the film.  Rodriguez has made her style imprint in her filmmaking and it does not involve compelling viewing.  SO MUCH TENDERNESS gets really frustrating as it seems to be going and it is difficult to fathom what is the goal of Rodriguez’s film.  Rodriguez attempts to inject a bit of suspense in this story as in the segment where the mother faint recognizes a stranger and follows him for a while and into a subway station. 

Despite director Rodriguez ’s (who serves also as writer and producer) well intentions and diligence in depicting the immigration process and unease at settling in another country, SO MUCH TENDERNESS ends up quite a bore.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 19 June 2023

BIOSPHERE (USA 2022) **
Directed by Mel Eslyn

 

BIOSPHERE is the type of low budget smart-ass drama comedy typical the Duplass Brothers.   Their films include their debut feature THE PUFFY CHAIR followed by BAGHEAD and others.   Their films are an acquired taste as can be seen in BIOSPHERE’s first segment.  BIOSPHERE is directed by Mel Eslyn and stars Mark Duplass, one of the brothers.  Other brother Jay serves as executive producer.

The film opens in the not-too-distant future.   Billy (Mark Duplass) and Ray (Sterling K. Brown), lifelong best friends, brothers from another mother are seen jogging and making small talk and arguing while jogging in an enclosure, the BIOSPHERE.   They discuss, yes, of all things “The Mario Brothers”.  One has to be deemed the hero, Mario and the other the sidekick or brains or stable man behind the scenes. Luigi.  They make lively discussions if you consider these little small talk amusing.  If you think the small talk is a waste of time, and that you can do better with your time, best forget this movie, as what follows, segment after segment will likely annoy the hell out of you.  On the other hand, if you are in this kind of humour, you might be in for a treat.

It is soon revealed that Billy and Ray happen to be the last two men on earth.  Their 

survival is largely due to Ray, a brilliant scientist who designed the custom biosphere they call home, outfitting it with both creature comforts and the necessities to sustain life on a doomed planet. When the population of their fishpond—which supplies essential protein—begins waning, the men find themselves facing an ominous future. 

So the question is what is this film supposed to be?  It is a bromance or sci-fi survival parody?  Or perhaps a coming-of-age passage for two overgrown men child?  Or perhaps there is some hidden lesson amidst all that transpires.  Or maybe it all really does not matter,

Unless one is a Duplass fan, BIOSPHERE feels like a talkie in which nothing really concrete is being said.  The dialogue is not as smart as the writers Duplass and Brown think they are.  Neither is it that humorous but just as annoying as listening to two strangers arguing about nothing,  the two being stuck in a biosphere and having to survive one another makes everything the more torturous.  When one of their fish (the female) dies and there is no more mating and hence no more protein to be had (they probably should have grown soya beans and made tofu) their existence is at stake.   There is one intriguing fact about the fish changing sex to survive like the clownfish, which the film references. Clownfish carry both female and male reproductive organs. In the female-dominated clownfish community, the female is the largest fish. She mates only with the breeding male, usually the second-largest and most aggressive male in the community. The rest of the community are made up of sexually immature males. When the female dies, the breeding male will get first choice of food and begin to gain weight, eventually becoming female.

The apparent message in the whole exercise is whether man has the capacity to change under extenuating circumstances.  Maybe if one is forced to sit through these 90 minutes of male brother bonding rubbish, one might, though not really likely.  BIOSPHERE is recommended for Duplass fans.

But the film gets a below pass rating for the one reason is that it is extremely intersex racist.  Billy goes through a whole segment speaking at how embarrassed he is or unable to cope with his testicles disappearing.  The filmmakers should be sensitive towards the intersex community, and in this respect, this film is extremely racist and unforgivable.

BIOSPHERE premiered in Toronto at the Toronto International Film Festival last yer and opens in theatres and on VOD July the 7th.

 

TRAILER:

THE CRUSADES (USA 2023) **
Directed by Leo Milano

 

For many, high school is supposed to be defined by wild parties, backseat hook-ups and a devil-may-care attitude.  But, when three friends at Our Lady of the Crusades, an all-boys high school, receive earth-shattering news about an upcoming merger with their rivals, they make a pact to have one last, epic weekend before their lives turn upside down.   Along the way, however, they unknowingly make a dangerous enemy, "The Wrecking Crew", hell-bent on settling their vendetta at all costs.  While dodging the authorities, love affairs and their sadistic archrivals, the choices they make over the weekend might end up changing their lives more than they ever could have imagined.

The raucous comedy is directed by Leo Milano and co-written with the other writers, based on his own high school days.  The good looking Rudy Pankow playing Leo Grecco is assumed to be Milano’s alter-ego in the film.  Pankow is well-built, handsome and able to do silly but cool antics with his hands, something he gets to do repeatedly in the film.  Other than that, he is shown to be a smart-ass trying to hit on a  teacher and getting too smart for his own good.  Sometimes  he tries too hard to be cool as in the scene when he is biting on a toothpick during a party as if that is the coolest  thing on the planet.  It is not and quite a disgusting habit.  In the end,  Leo turns out more of an annoying egoistic personality than the self-doubting hero that would have been more appropriate in the story.  The other secondary character that appears a lot is another goof-ball played by Ryan Ashton as Jack, who almost gets beaten up in a rival fight but saved by arriving cops.

There is little to no background on each of the high school kids, which thus portray them as forgettable and cardboard personalities.  Only one scene references Pankow’s  parents but no parent is ever on show.  There is as a result, no grounding narrative with the film moving along from comedic set piece to set piece.  The actors playing the high school kids like older than high school students, looking at best like college students.  The actors playing the teachers are funnier than the students, especially the gym/weight-lifting coach Krieger (Nicholas Turturro) who has a mouth larger than muscles.  The film’s funniest scene is the one when the latter gives his ‘must-bulk-up-sissies’ speech to his gym class belittling every single one in the process.

` The film moves into serious mode during the last third.  The transition from comedy to drama is uneven and ends up quite contrived, despite director’s Milano’s good intentions for storytelling his own personal experiences.  The romantic fling between Leo and love interest does not generate much interest either..

Though the comedic set-pieces are funny enough, a few times even eliciting loud laughs, THE CRUSADES fails to ground itself as a memorable drama, which is what it intended to be.

THE CRUSADES premieres theatrically and day-and-date on VOD on July the 7th, 2023.

Trailer: 

 

THE OUT-LAWS (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Tyson Spindel

 

Owen Browning (Adam Devine) is a straight-laced bank manager about to marry the love of his life, Parker (Nina Dobrev). When his bank is held up by the infamous Ghost Bandits during his wedding week, he believes his future in-laws (Pierce Brosnan, Ellen Barkin) who just arrived in town, are the infamous Out-Laws.

As a comedy, not so much as an action comedy though the film by necessity contains some shoot-out scenes including a bank heist, the film is a hit and miss.  Watching it as a Netflix original comedy, there is less at stake and audiences will be more forgivable at the OUT-LAWS not being as funny as it should be.  THE OUT-LAWS is not as funny as Adam Sandler (Sandler is co-producer) as his MURDER MYSTERY comedies.

There are a few inspired segments like the one in which Owen dresses up in a Shrek costume while robbing a bank.  Own is silly as he is and wearing a Shrek mask i quite hilarious,

THE OUT-LAWS benefits from an apt comedic cast who manages to provide laugh-out loud humour despite many missis amidst the many hit-and- miss jokes.  The film takes a while to land on its feet and the humour in the first third just staggers along

A lot of weight of the film’s co edit success lies in the hands of Pierce Brosnan, ex-James Bond (he has starred in no fewer than 4 Bond films) and also delved into Hedy (MRS. DOUBTFIRE and this one), also demonstrating his ability to sing MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN, which won him some notoriety, whether good or bad.  InTHE OUT-LAWS he gets to show some dancing moves in the wedding segment at the end of the film.  Borsnan, being Irish, gets to do an Irish accent.  Ellen Barkin plays Brosnann’s wife in the OUT-LAWS, she is also Irish and has made her name in films like DINER and THE BIG EASY.  They make good comedic couple as well as one you wish you would not have to deal with.

Of the other in-laws, Richard Kidd has always proven himself apt in comedy being in the Chipmunk films and other comedies.  Kind plays illy at his best.  Julie Haggerty from AIRPLANE! is also funny at heart.

The lead character falls into the hands of comedian singer Adam Devine who is best known for his PITCH PERfECT roles and the voice in the BATMAN LEGO movie.  Divine co-produced this comedy with Adam Sandler under the Happy Madison Films banner and Devine is quite funny in his man-child role, the kind of role made famous by Sandler who has not gone into some serious roles and more serious outings.

Not as funny are Poorna Janannathan (Tunisian actress) as the chief villain, Michael Rooker as Agent Oldman or Dobrev as Owen’s fiancé.

Do not go out of the way to watch this forgettable comedy about weddings and in-laws.  Sporadically funny at parts, but a bit too much swearing and violence for the family, it still makes warm and funny entertainment in the living room, the kind Netflix infamous for putting out.  THE OUT-LAWS gets a bare pass.

Trailer: 

THE LESSON (UK/Germany 2022) ***
Directed by Alice Troughton

 

The film opens with a celebrated author being interviewed on stage.  “What exactly is it that drew you to tell this story?”  asks the interviewer.  What happens on screen for the next hour and 45 minutes or so answers the question.

Liam (Daryl McCormack), an aspiring and ambitious young writer, eagerly accepts a tutoring position at the family estate of his idol, renowned author J.M. Sinclair (Academy Award nominee Richard E. Grant). But soon, Liam realizes that he is ensnared in a web of family secrets, resentment, and retribution.  Sinclair, his wife Hélène (Academy Award nominee Julie Delpy), and their son Bertie (Stephen McMillan) all guard a dark past, one that threatens Liam’s future as well as their own.  As the lines between master and protégé blur, class, ambition, and betrayal become a dangerous combination in this taut noir thriller.

The synopsis above indicates that there is more than Liam’s success that forms the plot of this literary mystery heightened melodrama.  It is a melodrama hidden in the guise of a grand literary work.  There are the skeletons in the closet of the Sinclair family and the coming-of-age of not only the son Bertie but of the budding author, who at the time of hiring of the tutor is a nobody.

From the film’s title implies that there is only one lesson to be learnt or taught, Liam delivers many lessons to Bertie, each one to be approved by the mother.  The purpose of Liam’s hiring is to ensure the son , Bertie gets into Oxford by passing the so-called difficult entrance exams, which Liam is supposed to know all the insides out.  The film unravels like a play with the words, prologue followed by the different acts that are plastered on the screen.  What this one lesson is is up to the audience to figure out.

The film features rising star Daryl McCormack in the leading role of the tutor.  For those unfamiliar, this Irish born actor has already made his name in the U.K. after winning the BFTA award as Best Actor opposite Emma Thompson in the film GOOD LUCK TO YOU, RICO GRANDE.  He is unafraid to show off his good looks and shows some skin in THE LESSON when he undresses to jump in the water for a swim.  Richard E. Grant also fares well as the stiff upper lipped Sinclair..

Despite a few cliched moments in the plot points, THE LESSON moves on at a sustained and intriguing pace, making it good sort of flaky literary entertaining fare.  As they say, don’t expect too much and one should not get disappointed.

But the film arrives with high expectations.  The Lesson recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival where Alexandra Heller-Nicholas from AWFJ (Alliance Of Women Film Journalists) said that it was “one of the most fun and fascinating movies of the year thus far.”  The film opens in Canadian (and U.S.) theatres on July the 7th at the TIFF Bell Lightbox and other Cineplex locations.

Trailer: 

TIGER WITHIN (PLAN A) (Israel/Germany 2022) ***

Directed by Doron Paz and Yoav Paz

“Just because the war is over, it does not mean we can’t kill Jews anymore.” says a German man who, the audience assumes, has taken over the house of a returning Jew, after the German has struck the Jew’s head with the butt of his rifle.  The German’s wife and son look on.  This is the beginning scene of PLAN A.  It is clear that the earth of the audience is sought, at the injustice done on the Jews.  The voiceover can also be heard: “What if your entire family has been killed…. you parents and children.  All killed for no reason.  What would you do?”  The film obviously asks the same question to the audience of this controversial film.  This opening segment is the most effective one in the film, a scene that is revisited once more later on in the film.

PLAN A is based on a true story - the audience is informed.  PLAN A is based on the incredible true story of the “Avengers,” a group of Jewish vigilantes, men and woman, who after surviving the holocaust are vowing to avenge the death of their people by poisoning the water supplies in German cities and to kill six million Germans, one for every Jew slaughtered by the Nazis – “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”  In reality, there exists a Plan B and Plan C.

The trouble with the plan is the fallout from the poisoning.  There will be innocent people who will be poisoned and die and children. The Jews would therefore be just as guilty and not much better than the Nazis.  The plans also come into other problems, like securing the tasteless, colourless and odourless, thus undetectable poison for the water.

The film spends a lot of time on the individual characters of the story, which is not as interesting and dwarfs the main matter at hand.  One is already sympathetic to the plight of the Jews but the film keeps hammering the point, with a lot of the film’s dialogue reminding the audience of the concentration camps.  There is one good point brought out by a character in the film:  “There are so many of you prisoners in the camps, in the long lines that outnumber the Germans.  How come you Jews never go to do anything but just follow the lines to the gas chamber.”  

The film is in English and a German/Israel co-production though the film’s dialogue is often muffled.  The atmosphere and dim mood of the period piece look convincing enough.

If after viewing the film, one wishes more information on the subject after whetting the appetite, here is where it can be sought, check out:  'An eye for an eye': The Jews who sought to poison six million Germans to avenge the Holocaust - Israel News - haaretz.com.

PLAN A achieves its purpose of reminding the world of the horror of the killing of innocent Jews in the concentration camps and that the only true revenge is to show the enemy that an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth is not the way to go.

The film is available on numerous VOD platforms such as Apple TV, Prime Video (to buy/rent), GooglePlay, Vudu, Comcast, Spectrum, Cox, Verizon, DIRECTV,  Frontier, and Dish from July the 7th.

Trailer: 

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