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FILM REVIEW:
TISH (UK 2023) ****
Directed by Paul Sng
Newcastle upon Tyne is currently quite a modern city close to some nice beaches, myself having visited the North England town a few years ago as I met with a resident who was in Athens when I was there. (I recognized his Geordie accent when we were at the hotel counter, a point that made us good friends.) The subject of this eye-opening documentary, Tish Murtha lived and worked in the city.
Patricia Anne "Tish" Murtha (14 March 1956 – 13 March 2013) was a British social documentary photographer best known for documenting marginalized communities, social realism and working-class life in Newcastle upon Tyne and the North East of England. In 1976, aged 20, she left home to study at the School of Documentary Photography at The University of Wales, Newport, set up by Magnum Photos member David Hurn. After graduating in 1978, she returned to Newcastle and set out to document “marginalized communities from the inside”. Unlike other photographers who came to document social poverty in the region at the time, Murtha did not just document it, she actually lived it as the third of ten children of Irish descent, brought up in a council house in Elswick in Newcastle. She captured the lives of her friends, family and the community around her while she was on a job scheme for the unemployed.
Paul Sng’s powerful film celebrates the work of Murtha and her commitment to fighting for communities like the one she grew up in. This was the Thatcher era de-industrialization of local communities. Her striking black and white photos convey a tenderness and intimacy that set her apart from her peers and her work would become a powerful record of a world decimated by a new and ruthless form of capitalism.
The film brings back memories of the excellent film about two boys living similar lives to the youth of this community. Clio Barnard’s THE SELFISH GIANT, a contemporary fable about 13-year-old Arbor and his best friend Swifty, both excluded from school and outsiders in their own neighbourhood, making deals with a local scrap dealer, where they embark on a dangerous job collecting copper from wires and cables left behind by the electrical companies.
The film follows Tish’s daughter Ella as she revisits key moments from her mother’s life and work. She is accompanied by people who remained close to Tish throughout her life, and who are committed to ensuring her remarkable legacy is recognized.
The doc’s most riveting segment involves the interview with Tish’s brother He talks about her while the actress voicing Tish, talks about the lost generation of youth under Thatcher’s rule as Tish’s photographs are shown depicting the deplorable conditions of the Newcastle area. Her words that were heard in Parliament were being and effective, as her photographs speak and reveal the horrors of the times. Youth would graduate from school but there were no jobs and no hope for them. Another moving segment involves the formation of juvenile bands run by sadistic ex-WWII army personnel who would mistreat the kids, while the project would get funds from the government with help from the taxpayer,
“The photography world and those who operate it make you sick at times.” These are the words of Tish when dealing with authorities oblivious to the poor.
TISH is an excellent blended doc that ties together the photographer's work with the conditions of her childhood horrors, which earned the BFE nomination for the Best Edited British Documentary or Non-Fiction Programme.
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FOR SALE (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Christoper Schrack
Horror comedies are not particularly popular as a film genre Disney’s recently HAUNTED MASION flopped terribly at the box office as did other horror comedies like HAUNTED HONEYMOON and THE SPIRIT IS WILLING, The latest entry opening this week on digital platforms is FOR SALE about a hunt house being on the real estate market. One thing good is that this is a low-budget indie production so that it does not have high aims at recouping huge production costs.
Mason McGinness (Andrew Roth) has always been good at two things: selling himself and finding ways to cheat people into buying when they shouldn’t. One day, his brazen swindling catches up with him and he finds himself fired from his job and kicked to the curb by his ex-girlfriend, Alison. Mason finds a small realty company that needs someone to sell a piece of property that is considered “unsellable.”
“What do you fear most? asks his interviewer to Mason. “Failure. Fear of failure.” comes the answer. The realty company manager smiles under his breath with a few cautionary words.
“Sometimes I cannot believe my own luck!” exclaims Mason at one point, Is this bad or good luck that is being mentioned? The catch of selling the property? It is the infamous Scarlett Clay house -- a haunted house where anyone who inhabits it ends up dead. Now, with the help of a quirky psychic named Claire, Mason must find his humanity to get his life back... or die trying.
The ghosts start appearing only after the first half of the film has passed. The first half of the film deals with Mason’s sorry life. The film proves to be both scary and funny with a few jump scares provided as well. For a very small indie film, FOR SALE achieves its humble goals.
Mason is the sweet-talking swindler salesman that everyone hates - even in films as they can be so annoying. Fortunately, actor Andrew Roth who plays Mason achieves the difficult task of making his character sympathetic so that though one might disagree with his tactics, one feels sorry for him, and hopes he makes it in the end. But so far things are not looking too good for him. He has to sleep in his car, So when he comes across the house to sell, Mason is none too pleased as he can sleep in the bedroom of the house, that is if he can be brave enough to live in a haunted house.
FOR SALE is a handmade film in the truest sense – a crew of three, a cast of ten, and produced by director Christopher Schrack and lead actor Roth. Despite its humble budget, the film went on to receive multiple awards on the festival circuit, including BEST FILM (Magic of Horror 2023), BEST COMEDY FEATURE (International Comedy Film Festival 2024), BEST ACTOR and BEST DROP DEAD FUNNY (Haunted House FearFest 2023), as well as receiving numerous other nominations.
Gravitas Ventures will release the film on digital platforms on May 7, 2024
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H2: THE OCCUPATION LAB (Israel/Canada 2022) ***½
Directed by Idit Avrahami & Noam Sheizaf
Hebron is the only Palestinian city with a Jewish settlement. There is conflict in the past and the conflict grows.
The Palestinians in H2: Hebron live like prisoners under Israeli lockdown. Across the neighbourhoods of the H2 area of Hebron – the 20 percent of the Palestinian city where some 700 Israelis live in illegal settlements and the Israeli military has full control – the streets are mostly empty of H2’s approximately 35,000 Palestinian residents. Patrolling the streets and manning the rooftops, instead, are Israeli soldiers and armed settlers in military uniform on the lookout for any movement from Palestinian homes. Besieged, Palestinian families describe conditions in which they are attacked, deprived of vital supplies and services, and have had their livelihoods cut off.
This is occupied Hebron. History has shown that there can never be peaceful living in an occupied territory. France, occupied by the Nazis, Singapore occupied by the Japanese during WWII and Vietnam occupied by the Americans, the most unsuccessful of all occupied in history and mentioned in the doc all enforce the point,
This doc is more timely after the Hamas attack on the West Bank. Peace has never been easy between the Palestinians and Israel and continues to be the case. The doc serves as both an account of the history of Hebron and a lesson in current affairs.
Along a one-kilometer road in the heart of the Palestinian city of Hebron lies H2 — a neighbourhood with a Jewish settlement closely guarded and highly surveilled by the Israeli military. At the end of this stretch of road lies the Cave of the Patriarchs, a holy place for both Jewish and Muslim faiths. This is where both the Hebron Massacre of 1929 took place— effectively birthing the Jewish settlement movement — and where the policy of ethnic separation was first implemented by the Israeli military. Rich with a history of Jews and Muslims and the only city in the State of Palestine with a Jewish settlement, H2: THE OCCUPATION LAB has acted as both a microcosm for the entire conflict and as a laboratory for the methods of control implemented by the Israeli occupation of the West Bank for over 50 years.
The film is shot in Arabic Hebrew and English with English subtitles and comprises many residents of both sides talking about their experiences living in a difficult and dangerous place. One complaints of the modern and numerous checkpoints within a small radius of the city and this is not for borders but for travel from home to a grocery store or to schooler to work. One wonders the reason the people will just not move out of Hebron,
H2: THE OCCUPATION LAB, nominated for Best Israeli Film at the 2022 DocAviv Film Festival, is a clear-eyed case study using archival footage and interviews to tell the city's history and how it has fuelled the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
H2: THE OCCUPATION LAB is an immensely watchable and informative documentary, taken right out of current headlines that proves once again the impossibilities of different cultures living in harmony together.
The doc premieres via VOD and Digital Platforms on May 10, 2024.
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KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Wes Ball
The original PLANET OF THE APES ended up with to many sequels that made the entire series quite silly. The second one had the apes attacked by some ugly creatures that ended up with the entire Earth being destroyed in BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES and the third has astronaut apes escaping the end of the Earth in ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES. The franchise got too absurd and uninteresting after that. The reboot fared much better and KINGDOM comes as a nice surprise. KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES runs a hefty 2 hours and 25 minutes, but director Wes Ball keeps the audience intrigued from start to finish. The production sets are nothing short of magnificent, the jungle, the sea and beaches and interiors. Story aside, director Ball manages to achieve the feat of having a solid film despite a flimsy storyline.
300 years after the events of War for the Planet of the Apes, ape civilizations have emerged from the oasis to which Caesar led his fellow apes, while humans have regressed into a feral, primitive state. When the ape king Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand), armed with weapons forged from lost human technologies, perverts Caesar's teachings to enslave other clans, the chimpanzee hunter Noa (Owen Teague) embarks on a harrowing journey alongside a human woman named Mae (Freya Allen) to determine the future for apes and humans alike. Noa is a young chimpanzee hunter living nearly 300 years after Caesar's time and likely his descendant, while Mae is a feral young woman who joins Noa on his journey while having an agenda of her own
Canadian actor Kevin Durand makes a solid impact in his performance as the villain of the piece, Caesar. Too bad that one is unable to see the face of Durand under all the ape makeup. Durand is one of the best Canadian actors working today, his performance also stealing the show in the recent ABIGAIL.
There are many loose ends in the script. One is the existence of the human character played by William H. Macy. Where did he come from and why is he the sole survivor and what makes him so pro-ape that he would turn away his heritage just to live without notice in the Kingdom, His character finally gets its comeuppance.
One of the best surprise ending in motion picture ending is the climax of Franklin J. Schaffner’s PLANET OF THE APES, where Charlton Heston rides off on the beach only to see a buried Statue of Liberty revealing that the Planet of the Apes is in fact Earth. KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES attempts a shock ending as well, the ending of which of course, will not be revealed in this review as it would be an unforgivable spoiler. The shock and surprise is there nevertheless, but the ending does not really make much sense when related to the whole story. There are too many loose ends that come with the surpass twist.
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LAZARETH (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Alec Tibaldi
The Covid-10 Pandemic rocked the world from March 2020. As of 21 April 2024, the pandemic has caused 7,044,637 confirmed deaths, making it the fifth-deadliest pandemic or epidemic in history. LAZARETH poses the question of what would happen if a similar more dangerous disease outbreak occurred that cannot be contained.
LAZARETH is the name of the man raised from the dead by Jesus in the Bible. In the film, LAZARETH is the place that serves as the rebirth of a family made up of an aunt and her two nieces after the almost complete death of a contaminated world.
As the film’s premise of a crippling Pandemic disease similar to the recent Covid-19 pandemic, the story comes too close to home for comfort. Writer and director Alec Tibaldi is aware of this fact and uses it to milk the most from his script.
The film opens like a fairy tale where a young girl is told a story. It turns out that the tale is the story of what will happen in the rest of the film, with the fairy tale turning into a sort of dystopian nightmare.
Following the death of their parents, Lee (Ashley Judd) adopts her nieces, Imogen (Katie Douglas) and Maeve (Sarah Pidgeon), and raises them in a remote cabin as a deadly pandemic rages on around them. For over 10 years, the girls are raised to never leave the woods, avoid any and all interaction with outsiders, and ultimately rely on Lee as their only connection to the outside world. Lee has convinced the girls this is the key to survival in what is now an infectious and violent world. But when Imogen and Maeve discover an injured man in the nearby woods, Lee’s absolute control begins to disintegrate as their faith in her, and everything they’ve ever known begins to unravel.
`The film has a female slant with three females as the main characters living in Nazareth. The first intruder is a male who is under instruction by the females. When the group of intruders finds Lazareth, there is an abused female, by the male of the group.
Director Tibaldi ups the ante in the film’s last half. Intruders have compromised Lazareth and they will return. Lee tells the two girls: “We have been preparing for this.” Lee hides her truck so that the intruders will believe that they have left. “No one will do anything until Imogen’s signal,” instructs Lee. The audience is primed with anticipation as the film shifts gear into suspense mode.
LAZARETH is intriguing for the fact that its story could happen to the world if the Pandemic went out of hand into a full-blown scale, which most people will remember as a time that shook the world.
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LAZARETH opens in Select Theatres and On Demand on May the 10th.
LET IT BE (UK 1970) ****
Direct3d by Michale Lindsay-Hogg
The definitive Beatles movie and a must for all Beatle fans!
Let It Be is the twelfth and final studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It was released on 8 May 1970, almost a month after the group's public break-up, in tandem with the documentary of the same name.
Let It Be is a 1970 British documentary film starring the Beatles and directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. The film documents the group's rehearsing and recording songs in January 1969 for what was to become their twelfth and final studio album Let It Be. The film includes an unannounced rooftop concert by the group, the last public performance of the four together.
The film was originally planned as a television documentary that would accompany a concert broadcast. When plans for the concert broadcast were dropped, the project became a feature film production. Although the film does not dwell on the dissension within the group at the time, it provides some glimpses into the dynamics that would lead to their breakup. After the film's release, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr won an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. Footage filmed for Let It Be was later used in Peter Jackson's 2021 documentary The Beatles: Get Back.
A restored version of the film will be made available on stream on Disney+ for the first time on 8 May 2024. This review is of the restored version. The version begins with a 5-minute footage of two world-class directors Lindsay-Hogg and Peter Jackson who made the Beatles documentary called GET BACK with used footage from Lindsay-Hogg’s LET IT BE. They put perspective into the do, the original 1970 LET IT BE, which we are told was supposed to be a Beatles concert movie.
The film observes the Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) from a "fly on the wall" perspective, without narration, scene titles, or interviews with the main subjects. The first portion of the film shows the band rehearsing on a sound stage at Twickenham Film Studios. The songs are works in progress, with discussions among the band members about ways to improve them. McCartney dominates the proceedings while his bandmates show comparatively little interest. Also appearing are Mal Evans, providing the hammer blows on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", and Yoko Ono at Lennon's side at all times.
The album’s most famous songs LET IT BE, GET BACK, THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD and DON'T LET ME DOWN are all performed and heard on the film’s soundtrack.
There was trouble in Paradise during the making of the movie especially with what to include in the final cut, John Lennon described Let It Be as a film "set up by Paul for Paul" that was typical of the projects that, in alienating himself and Harrison, had brought about the Beatles' break-up.
Still, the film is a nostalgic look down memory lane especially with George Harrison and John Lennon no longer with us, the re-issue of LET IT BE is totally magic, myself having seen the film when it was first released and now once gain with opening commentary by directors Peter Jackson and Michael Lindsay-Hogg.
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FILM REVIEWS:
ENTER THE CLONES OF BRUCE (USA 2024) ***
Directed by David Gregory
Who is Bruce Lee? After first seen as the side-kick of THE GREEN HORNET, Bruce Lee rose to fame as fast as his unexpected death in 1974 due to a brain disease. Born in San Francisco but thought by most to be Asian born and bred, Lee starred as the lead in the game-changer film for Golden Harvest Studios’ THE BIG BOSS before making other blockbuster box-office Hong Kong hits like FIST OF FURY, WAY OF THE DRAGON and ENTER THE DRAGON before tragedy stuck. At his death, many fans believed that this strong and invincible star was still alive. So much for the power of the media and films.
What ENTER THE CLONES OF BRUCE LEE attempts to do is to look at the clones of Bruce Lee, given stage names like Bruce Li and Bruce Le, followed by dozens of Bruceploitation films that all made money. Bruce Lee fans are apparently inexhaustible for Bruce Lee action-packed martial arts flicks.
The two Bruce Lee clones Bruce Le and Bruce Li as well as the lesser-known ones, Bruce Liang and Dragon Lee, all speak to the camera, now in their later years about their fame and films. The problem is that they are hardly that interesting and still follow in the shadow of the real fame of Bruce Lee. They talk about their fake names, how they copy the movements of Bruce Lee and the filming sequences of the rip-off films.
What is more intriguing about the doc and also more interesting to Bruce Lee fans is the history of the arts films, starting with swordplay films. The film pays tribute and devotes screen time to the Shaw organization that promoted all the Hong Kong Swordplay films followed by the martial art films. Though Bruce Lee was never employed by Shaw Brothers but by an independent Studio at the time called Golden Harvest, the story is more than intriguing. The reason Bruce Lee was never employed at Shaw Studios was that Lee was too cocky and the famed directors at the time that included Chang Cheh and Low Wei did not think Lee was worthy. Director Change Cheh’s stars David Chiang (interviewed aged) and Ti Lung are also featured in the film. Other stars at the time such as Jimmy Wang Yu (the original ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN, a high Shaw hit directed by Chang Cheh is also mentioned.
Also interesting are the other stars that made big after starring with Bruce Lee in his films. Among them are Jim Kelly, a black-muscled actor and Angela Mao who is also a Kung-fu fighter.
ENTER THE CLONES OF BRUCE is at its best sporadically entertaining. There are so many stories following the fame after the death of Bruce Lee that one can understand the decision of what to include in this doc. The clones though emphasizing the fame of Bruce Lee are unfortunately not as interesting as the real biography of Bruce Lee. There have been countless rip-off forms claiming to tell the story of the late Bruce Lee but a true biopic doc of Bruce Lee is what is needed for the Bruce Lee fans that will finally tell the truth and do the star justice.
ENTER THE CLONES OF BRUCE plays at the Ted Rogers Hot Docs cinema in Toronto on May 31st.
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DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE (Fiesta en la madriguera)(Mexico 2024) ***
Directed by Manolo Caro
Down the Rabbit Hole is a metaphor for adventure into the unknown, from its use in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It is also both the English title of and metaphor of the New Mexican Netflix original comedy that opens this week. Though described by Netflix as a comedy, it is too dark, disturbing and weird to be actually considered a comedy. The film DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE is based on the Spanish short novel called Fiesta en la Madriguera (which in direct English translation means Party in the Burrow) by Juan Pablo Villalobos. The short novel has been praised for being masterful, comical and cruelly happy. The same can be said of the film.
The film opens with the introduction of Tochtli, a bald boy who likes hats, dictionaries, samurais, guillotines, and the French. The hat fetish is observed at the start, where on the boy’s birthday, he has to choose one of the many hats he has hung on the walls of his room. And now, all he wants is a new animal for his private zoo: a Namibian pygmy hippo. But he gets a woodpecker, one of the endangered species from Brazil. His father, Yolcaut, is willing to satisfy his every whim, even if that whim is an endangered exotic animal. Because Yolcaut will always manage. ‘Because Yolcaut can’ is the saying that both the father and son constantly repeat. Tochtli lives in a palace. A burrow covered in gold in which he lives with thirteen or maybe fourteen people: thugs, prostitutes, dealers, servants and some corrupt politician. And then there is Mazatzin, his private teacher who teaches the boy Literature that he claims is terribly important as it allows one to learn about oneself, for whom the world is a place full of injustices where the imperialists are to blame for everything. The reason is that Yolcaut is a high-end drug trafficker who kills those who go against him. He tries to keep this from his son but Tochtli is one smart cookie. He is an avid learner, picking up difficult new words from his teacher. He soon discovers the truth about his father,
The film is the chronicle of a delirious journey to fulfill a whim. Severed heads, rivers of blood, human remains, mountains of corpses! The burrow (rabbit hole) can be considered to be the metaphor for Mexico that the audience already knows: Mexico is sometimes a magnificent country and sometimes it is a disastrous country. Things are like that. Life, after all, is a game and a party.
The film is fresh in that it is told from the boy’s point of view about adult things like drug trafficking and killings. The title though innocent as it seems describes not a child’s but an adult movie with an adult theme.
Despite being in Spanish, the film comes with a few fresh looks at life. In the zoo, for example, the boy is taught to keep picking up the animals’ shit in order to remember to keep humble.
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE (Fiesta en la madriguera) opens for streaming on Netflix this week.
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THE FALL GUY (USA 2024) ***
Directed by David Leitch
THE FALL GUY is the title of both the new 2024 Ryan Gosling action romantic comedy as well as the hit ABC TV series that ran from 1981 to 1986. Both the series and film share the common protagonist - stuntman Colt Seavers.
In the TV series, Lee Majors plays Colt Seavers, a Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a bounty hunter. He uses his physical skills and knowledge of stunt effects (especially stunts involving cars or his large GMC pickup truck) to capture fugitives and criminals. He is accompanied occasionally by fellow stuntwoman Jody Banks (Heather Thomas). Both Lee Majors and Heather Thomas have cameos in THE FALL GUY film, so watch for them.
In THE FALL GUY film, Hollywood stunt performer Colt Seavers, who primarily works as the stunt double for famous action star Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), is severely injured during a stunt gone wrong. Blaming himself, Colt abandons his career and his girlfriend, camera operator Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt). Eighteen months later Colt, now a valet for a small Mexican restaurant, is contacted by Tom's film producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham). She says Moreno is directing her first film, a science fiction epic called Metalstorm, and wants him to join the production in Sydney, Australia. However, when Colt arrives on set, he learns that Jody never asked for him and is still angry about their breakup. This is an excuse for the romance to rekindle and for a happy-ever-after ending. Gail reveals that Tom has disappeared after getting involved with drugs, and she wants Colt to find him before his absence causes the film's cancellation. This is the excuse for the action in the romantic action flick. The story element in the film is quite hokey but action fans will likely overlook this shortcoming and focus instead on the action set pieces complete with elaborate stunt work and the romance between hotties Gosling and Blunt. In this respect the film delivers.
If there can be too much of a good thing, THE FALL GUY has too many stunts that go on relentlessly. One scene has Colt do a fire/rock stunt three times. The romantic comedy element in the film is given a new stunt work setting which is a welcome change. the recent CHALLENGERS was a romantic drama with a tennis setting. Romantic-themed films need fresh settings to entice audiences these days.
At its best, THE FALL GUY is a tribute to stunt people, the most overlooked contributors to action films. THE FALL GUY is directed by former stuntman David Leitch. Needless to say, the stunt work performed in the film is spectacular. Leitch was a stunt double for Brad Pitt five times and two times for Jean-Claude Van Damme. Leitch and his crew won two awards for The Bourne Ultimatum at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. n American filmmaker, stunt performer, stunt coordinator, and actor. Leitch made his directorial debut in the 2014 action film John Wick with Chad Stahelski, though only Stahelski was credited. Leitch also directed the 2017 thriller film Atomic Blonde, starring Charlize Theron, and 2018's Deadpool 2.
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JEANNE DU BARRY (France/Belgium/United Kingdom/Russia/Saudi Arabia 2023) ***½
Directed by Maïwenn
Co-written, directed by and starring Maïwenn with co-star Johnny Depp as Le Roi (King Louis XV the new French film JEANNE DU BARRY about the illegitimate affair between the King and a commoner is filmed entirely in French. In case one is wondering, Depp is fluent in French an spoke for hours during his interview with Maïwenn.
Based on true historical events in France, regarding Royalty and the royal court, JEANNE DU BARRY tells the story of the woman and her life with King Louis XV.
Jeanne Vaubernier (Maïwenn), a common girl eager to rise socially, uses her distinct charms to get out of her condition. Her lover, the Count du Barry (Melville Poupaud), who is getting rich thanks to Jeanne's lucrative gallantry, wishes to introduce her to the King (Johnny Depp). He organizes the meeting through the intermediary of the influential Duke of Richelieu (Pierre Richard). It is good to see Pierre Richard again, Richard who used to make so many comedies with director Francis Veber). This meeting exceeds his expectations: between Louis XV and Jeanne, it's love (or is out lust?) at first sight... With the courtesan, the King rediscovers his taste for life - so much so that he can no longer do without her and decides to make her his official favourite.
The one huge plus about the film that makes it entirely compelling are the film’s production values. The extravagance of King Louis XV and his court is matched by the extravagance in the film’s production values. Mention is made of the forty dishes the King partakes of, for a meal, all tased by the King’s Taster. The people at his court including his ugly daughters are all robed in magnificent garb with hairdos of multiple styles and colour, The film has been nominated for Cesars in the departments of production and costume design.
.The unfamiliar practices of French royalty are also of immense interest, In 1768, when the king wished to make Jeanne maîtresse-en-titre, etiquette required her to be the wife of a high courtier, so she was hastily married on 1 September 1768 to Comte Guillaume du Barry. The wedding ceremony was accompanied by a false birth certificate, created by Jean-Baptiste du Barry, the comte's older brother. The execution by guillotine during the French Revolution on accusations of treason is omitted in the film, which concentrates mainly on her romance with the King, Also intriguing is the behind-the-scenes of Versailles of the time the elegantly masked power struggles, finely weaving links between the 18th century and our time
Depp performs well, exceeding expectations and speaking fluent French as the King, apparently fully recovered from the brutal court case he was acquitted of. But this is Maïwenn’s film from start to finish, she plays the extravagant beauty that seduced the King. The credibility issue is in question here. Though Maïwenn is a pretty actress, undoubtedly, she is not an absolute ravishing beauty, so to believe that the King would single her out among a hundred other women in court and to invite her to his bed needs quite a lot of believing.
JEANNE DU BARRY opens only in theatres, where it should be seen on the large screen, beginning May 2, 2024.
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LOST SOULZ (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Katherine Propper
Though a work of fiction LOST SOULZ is a cinema verite piece centred on American rapper known as Sol. In order to appreciate this feature, it is best to learn a bit about Sol, like listening to one of his cool tracks on youtube before venturing out into viewing the film.
Sol is 35 years old and the feature is one about young people, youth and their love of freedom. Dol rose to fame as a hip-hop artist when in 2012, he released his second studio album Yours Truly, which received critical acclaim and rose to number one on the iTunes U.S. Hip-Hop Albums Chart while also charting on Billboard's Heatseekers Chart. Sol has collaborated with other artists such as Macklemore, Blue Scholars, Grynch, and The Physics.
When aspiring rapper Sol (Sauve Sidle) is discovered by a group of Gen-Z musicians after performing at a house party, he joins their tour through the heart of Texas and embarks on a once-in-a-lifetime road trip. Sol and his new collaborators bond over their shared pains and longings for the lives they left behind. Bold and brash, yet surprisingly sensitive and vulnerable, these young artists pour their souls into the music they create together.. The director studied filming in Texas which explains why her film is set on the culture of the youth of Texas.
The novelty of Sol’s newfound family fades as the demons Sol left behind come back to haunt him, including his guilt over abandoning his ailing friend. His sense of self is put to the ultimate test as he seeks refuge from the rootlessness and loss that has defined his existence. The film benefits most from the easy-to-watch ensemble’s winning chemistry to shine, especially when they perform songs, many original and often impromptu at various points in the film.
Though keeping in with the spirit of the free-spirited, one must criticize caution regarding glamourizing Sol’s character in the film. His character is not one that always sets a good example for youth to follow. For one, he abandons his best friend he is living with at a party when the friend overdoses and has to be taken to hospital. He leaves the family he is living in to travel with a group of new friends, all of questionable character for freedom and fame.
.Written and directed by Katherine Propper, born and breeding L.A., she claims that she draws upon experiences including working on director Terrence Malick's (BADLANDS) editing team. Her short films can currently be streamed on The New Yorker, Short of the Week, and Omeleto. In LOST SOULZ, her feature debut she has both fictional and non-fictional worlds in her filmmaking, This can be observed by the blending of the camerawork with videos taken from a cell phone though the latter tends to be a bit much. After all, one pays to see a movie, not a podcast and the tactic wears thin after a while.
The ultimate question is whether one might be converted to Sol’s music after listening to his songs. There is definitely a strong possibility.
LOST SOULZ premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival 2023 and opens in the U.S. and in Toronto at the TIFF Lightbox on May 3rd.
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NEW LIFE (USA 2023) ***
Directed by John Rosman
Director John Rosman's feature directorial debut, NEW LIFE is a two-character-driven story that upends traditional horror conventions through its intimate exploration of mortality. The film follows the story of a mysterious woman on the run (Hayley Erin) and the resourceful fixer assigned to bring her in (Sonya Walger). As their two stories inexorably link, the stakes of their pursuit rise to apocalyptic proportions.
The predator and prey both suffer similar demises that one can feel sympathy for. For this reason, the audience is kept guessing as to who will triumph in the end with director Rosman keeping the suspense ongoing.
The reluctant predator is sympathetic as she herself is suffering from an illness - ALS. (ALS) is a disease that weakens the muscles used to move, swallow and breathe. It can, in some cases, also cause changes in behaviour and thinking. The effects of ALS grow more severe over time and eventually become fatal. Elsa knows her timing is approaching and she is presently walking with the aid of a cane, and even so, is prone to falling down when the disease attacks. The symptoms and progression of ALS may vary greatly from person to person, which can make the disease difficult to diagnose, manage and treat. The recent horror film THERE IS A MONSTER tackles the topic of ALS, as a monster that attacks the protagonist - the monster of the title that is only revealed as ALS in the final frame. The prey, Hayley, however, is suffering from a new and unfamiliar but deadly contagious disease.
ALS is a disease that has no cure and life expectancy is around 5 years. The film is based on a real-life case that director Rosman dedicates the film to, recalling a story he worked on about a young woman diagnosed with ALS (Summer Whisman).
What is most disturbing about the film is the treatment of good-natured kind people. When Jessica steals canned food from the garage of an elderly couple, the couple (Blaine Palmer and Betty Moyer) take her in with kindness. But they succumb to the disease and eventually die a horrible death. The same goes for an isolated bartender, Molly (Ayanna Berkshire) who out of her kindness offers Hayley a job and lodging only to also succumb to the disease. Hayley is totally unaware of the fact and is running away believing that she has committed a murder.
A small but efficient thriller that forces the audience to think, NEW LIFE, blends several genres such as horror, cat-and-mouse thriller, dystopian futuristic and action. It has been getting rave reviews. NEW LIFE kicked off its festival run with its world premiere at the 2023 Fantasia International Film Festival and quickly became a festival favour rite, earning critical acclaim and continuing with buzzed-about screenings and stops at FrightFest London, Overlook Film Festival, Panic Fest, Florida Film Festival, Santa Fe Independent Film Festival, and the Heartland International Film Festival, where it took the 2023 Audience Choice Award.
NEW LIFE opens in Select Theatres & On Demand May 3 From Brainstorm Media.
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SECRETS OF THE NEANDERTHALS (UK 2024) ***
Directed by Ashley Gething
With exclusive access to the famous Shanidar Cave in Iraqi Kurdistan, SECRETS OF THE NEANDERTHALS follows a group of archaeologists from the University of Cambridge and Liverpool John Moores University, led by Professor Graeme Barker, as they team up with their Kurdish colleagues to excavate this iconic site for the first time since 1960. Over a number of seasons, they make a startling discovery - a new body, ‘Shanidar Z.’ This is the first articulated Neanderthal skeleton to be found in the region for almost a quarter of a century. The film follows lead palaeoanthropologist Dr. Emma Pomeroy as she painstakingly excavates these precious remains and sets about reassembling them with the team in Cambridge.
The doc includes the esteemed contribution of American archaeologist Ralph Solecki. Ralph Stefan Solecki (October 15, 1917 – March 20, 2019), as can be seen in the doc’s archive footage. Solecki was born in Brooklyn, New York in October the son of Polish immigrants – Mary (nee Tarnowska), a homemaker, and Casimir, an insurance salesman. The doc traces his best-known excavations were at the Neanderthal site at Shanidar Cave, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. His publications include early works on aerial photography and photo interpretation as well as two volumes on Shanidar
What are the Neanderthals like? The focus of the doc is often on the Shanidar Cave excavation in Iraqi Kurdistan which is understandably captivating. Archaeologists unearth new evidence that sheds light on Neanderthal behaviour and rituals. The documentary also explores intriguing sites in France and Croatia, adding depth to the Neanderthal story. They are assumed to be ugly people of lower intelligence and slow in thinking. At one point, the doc convinces the audience that they resorted to cannibalism, but not out of starvation. It is believed that they ate the flesh of another that they might have respected so that a legacy could be continued. Of course, these are just theories. These thoughts make the doc intriguing in how archaeologists and historians come to their conclusions on their findings. But there are two sides to the coin, Archaeologist Ralph Solecki found pollen in the skulls dug up which led him to believe that they are also cultured gathering flowers in caves where flowers could grow during the ice age.
This flower burial theory has also come under fire. The process is shown which reveals how many theories can easily be formed and mistaken.
What looks a bit tacky, though one can understand the use of the use of actors to re-enact the Neanderthals to enliven the proceedings. Gabriel Andreu plays an older male Neanderthal while Ibbi El Hani plays a younger female Neanderthal.
Archaeology and excavation is very tedious and painstaking and the doc emphasizes the fact. At times, the doc feels that way as well, despite the fact that it is all too important to learn about human history, and how they developed.
The subject of the secrets of Neanderthals is not one that audiences can get super-excited about, not for a doc or for any film for that matter. But the filmmakers do their best, stressing the untiring dedication of the archaeologists and restorers as well as emphasizing the importance of knowing one’s past.
The film is largely narrated by Sir Patrick Stewart of STAR TREK, whose low authoritative voice brings credibility to the proceedings. SECRETS OF THE NEANDERTHALS opens for streaming on Netflix this week.
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UNFROSTED (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Jerry Seinfeld
I first heard of Jerry Seinfeld’s new movie UNFROSTED when I attended the funnyman’s stand performance in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island last summer, when he touted his new film. UNFROSTED is a 2024 American comedy film directed by Jerry Seinfeld (in his feature directorial debut) from a screenplay he co-wrote with his writing team of Spike Feresten, Barry Marder, and Andy Robin. The film is loosely based on the true story of the creation of Pop-Tarts toaster pastries, written by William Post, one of the Kellogg employees,
Of course, news has leaked involving the making of the movie. One incident had a crew member freak out, screaming at the top of is voice causing everyone to freeze. Seinfeld diffused the incident by saying: “This is a pop tart movie. This is not important. Nothing is important!” followed by laughs from everyone,
The film appears to be designed to be silly - from the song “Wooly Bully” to the cereal ‘Grandma’s Holes’ that did not make it commercially. A few of Seinfeld’s jokes are blue, so families going to the film should be aware.
Being set in the ’60s the comedy qualifies as a period piece and director Seinfeld keeps the period atmosphere real enough.
Being a standup comic, Seinfeld has included an impressive list of comic and standup cameos including Cedric the Entertainer as Sty Smiley, Toy Hale as Eddie Min, Joe Hamm as yes, Man #2, Bill Burr as President John F. Kennedy and Dan Levy as Andy Warhol. Of the cast, Amy Schemer is excellent as the Head of Post as is Hugh Grant as the complaining Thurl Ravenscroft, an English actor cast as Tony the Tiger. Thurl Ravenscroft was a real-life character.
UNFROSTED has got panning reviews on the day it made its debut on Netflix. To be fair to Seinfeld, the film is funny, thanks to its comedic timing, only that the subject matter might annoy critics. One wonders, though the reason the pop-tart was made so popular. Was it that tasty? Myself, I liked old fashioned corn flakes which Post stole to make Bran flakes. But muesli, the healthy choice (without the sugar) should be everyone’s healthy choice. But as Seinfeld had said during the film production: “This is not important! The is a pop tart movie. Nothing is important.”
Hilarious enough despite its silly subject, FROSTED is an easy watch on Netflix.
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- Written by: Gilbert Seah
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FILM REVIEWS:
CIVIL WAR (USA 2024) ***½
Directed by Alex Garland
CIVIL WAR is set in a dystopian near future when an ongoing war is being fought between the government of the United States and the Western Forces (WF), led by Texas and California. Does the division sound familiar? The story concentrates on a team of journalists who travel across the United States during the rapidly escalating Second American Civil War that has engulfed the entire nation. The U.S. Government has become a dystopian dictatorship and partisan extremist militias regularly commit war crimes.
Among the journalists are a renowned war photojournalist named Lee (Kirsten Dunst), her colleague Joel (Wagner Moura) and Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), an aspiring young photographer who accompanies Lee and Joel on their journey. Also reluctantly travelling with them is Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson), a journalist and Lee and Joel's mentor.
The film’s best segment belongs to actor Jesse Plemmons (POWER OF THE DOG, KILLERS OF A FLOWER MOON) who plays a redneck in one 4-minute scene that is well worth the price of the admission ticket Donned in red-framed red-coloured shades depicting his characters as a redneck, his character is an unnamed soldier who captures two reporters and then asked to free them by the other reporters. His question: “Where are you from?” would result in an answer promising death or freedom. Plemmons completely embodies the role of a redneck - crazy, the type that would storm Capitol Hill in the name of America for whatever ridiculous cause he believes in.
Director Garland does not skimp on the violence or length of the violent scenes. The result is a tough and disturbing watch that reflects the troubles faced by the current somewhat divided America, as seen by the eyes of a British (Garland is British) outsider, and what could happen. The poster describes the film as an adrenaline-fuelled thrill ride through a near-future fractured America balanced on the razor’s edge.
The other segment demanding mention is the climatic storming of the White House where the then President of the United States is about to be assassinated by the Western Forces (WF). What would the President (played by Nick Offerman) look like? More like Trump or Biden? The answer is left to be very last end with the image of the President being shot while him making a last quote for the reporters.
CIVIL WAR never seems to amaze as director Alex Garland (King of dystopian society stories) has always a surprise or two up his sleeve as in his previous films. Garland wrote the novel THE BEACH which was made into the Tilda Swinton/Leonardo DiCaprio film and screenplays like 28 DAYS LATER, 28 WEEKS LATER and SUNSHINE, also directed the 2014 film EX MACHINA). Forget the film’s flaws like the somewhat incredible premise or the unexplained reasons behind certain segments.
CIVIL WAR cost $50 million to make, making it A24’s most expensive film to date. had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 14, 2024, to a positive response. It is scheduled to be released in the United States by A24 and by Entertainment Film in the UK on April 12, 2024
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THE GREATEST HITS (USA 2023) *
Directed by Ned Benson
Find the right song, change your past. Find the right person, change your future, These are the two captions on the film’s poster that totally describes the entire film, not that it is not predictable enough.
Harriet (Lucy Boynton) finds art imitating life when she discovers certain songs can transport her back in time – literally. While she relives the past through romantic memories of her former boyfriend (David Corenswet), her time travelling collides with a burgeoning new love interest in the present (Justin H. Min). As she takes her journey through the hypnotic connection between music and memory, she wonders – even if she could change the past, should she?
The dialogue is often downright silly. One is assumed to be moved by dialogue like: “I wish I do not like you,” says Harriet to which David replies: “I wish I do not like you too.”
The silliness of the film’s romance is matched only by the silliness and non-credibility of its premise. It does not take a genius to foresee the outcome of what can be classified as a totally formulaic Harlequin-type romance. Harriet will eventually come to items with the present and fall in love with David. Though predictable, there is a little neat plot ploy in the script near the end of the film.
One can hardly blame Lucy Boynton for this awful film, as she does her best given the horrid material. The same can be said for actors David Corenswet who gets mainly to show his abs and Justin H. Min who plays Harriet’s lovers. The film stops short of any sex scenes, and the chemistry between the couples is barely credible at best.
More interesting than the fantasy plot is the examination of Harriet’s two male boyfriends, Harriet must love facial, hair as both share fascial hair - David with a mustache and the dead boyfriend, Max with a mini-beard. Max is more stubborn and would not generally agree or listen to what Harriet says while David is more accommodating,
Totally boring, predictable and a boring excuse for a romantic fantasy, THE GREATEST HITS is a Fox Searchlight picture that heads head straight for streaming where one can be grateful that this dud has stayed out of the theatres.
THE GREATEST HITS will be streaming exclusively on Disney+ in Canada on April 12th, 2024
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HOUSEKEEPING FOR BEGINNERS (Poland, Serbia, Australia, Croatia, Kosovo, North Macedonia and United States 2023) ***
Directed by Goran Stolevski
Dita (Anamaria Marinca) is forced to raise her girlfriend's two daughters even though she has never aspired to be a mother. HOUSEKEEPING FOR BEGINNERS is a touching tale about an odd family's battle to be together emerges when their separate wills collide.
It would be hard to imagine a more hectic and disruptive household than Dita’s. There are so many ‘members’ of the household as there are problems.
The film disproves the saying that a family is one that one cannot choose. Dita chooses hers - both straight and queer, mostly queer, Despite lofty aspirations, director Stolevski has taken too much on his plate with one issue with one family member tossed in and out of another. At times, it is difficult to follow all the members of the extended family. Dita is also over-patient and over-kind, something that is quite hard to accept given the circumstances. Despite its flaws, the saving grace is the performance of Anamaria Marinca as Dita.
The film tackles a few world issues like human trafficking, poverty, and LGBT+ issues as well as social issues like familial relations.
The film premiered on 6 September 2023, at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Queer Lion. It was selected as the Macedonian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards.
The film is shot in Albanian, Macedonian and Romani with English subtitles.
HOUSEKEEPING FOR BEGINNERS opens in theatres on April 5th.
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IN BED (Keilu ein mahar) (Israel 2022) ***½
Directed by Nitzan Gilady
IN BED is set over a hallucinatory 24 hours, the line between violence and intimacy getting dangerously tried following a shooting during a Tel Aviv parade in writer/director Nitzan’s (WEDDING DOLL, his first feature in 2015) giddy, erotic thriller drama.
Tel Aviv, the then present day. Two friends, Guy (Israel Ogalbo) and Joy (Moran Rosenblatt) are taking part in the city's LGBTQ+ Pride Parade celebrations. Prepared for a night of hookups, drugs and dancing, their fun is suddenly cut short when a violent shooting sends everyone in the crowd running for safety. The shooting is real real-life incident that occurred in Tel Aviv. Fleeing the scene into the safety of Guy's home, they take in a fellow pride parader, Dan (Dean Miroshnikov), a fellow parade attendee, and bring him back to Guy's apartment to wait out the mayhem. A manhunt for the shooter begins outside. Back in Guy's apartment, however, the three are determined to still have a good time. Still in shock and with plenty of drugs at their disposal, a dark, sex-fuelled odyssey begins. As the drugs continue to distort his perception, a paranoid and strung-out Guy discovers the line between intimacy and violence is getting dangerously blurred.
Speaking from experience as a gay partier in his younger days, IN BED brings a lot of wonderful personal memories and experiences. For one, the world-renowned DJ Offer Nissim is credited as providing the original music for his film. Offer Nissim is one of the best DJs in the world, who has performed in Toronto at FLY in one of the best nights ever at FLY. (I was there when he DJ’ed.) FLY was packed solid and every partier there just had a small space to dance but everyone, me included had the best time ever. It was the BEST FLY night ever in Toronto. Offer Nissim, being an Israeli Jew brings his experience and energy to the film The film begins with popular gay anthems heard on the soundtrack as Joy and Jay head for the streets to celebrate Israel's Gay Pride.
Director Gilady does everything hit for this gay drama and thriller, capturing the super-charged energy of a Pride parade from the points-of-view of young honey partiers with colourful atmosphere, costumes and of course uplifting music from DJ Offer Nissim.
The happy delirium is interrupted by the gloom brought by the gunner in what the news denounces as a disgrace to Israel. The paranoia can be seen in the emotions of Dan, who is shaking with her, made worse by his intake of drugs during the parade. The film is based on a real-life shooting that occurred in 2009 in Tel Aviv, What makes it so scary is the public being told that the suspect could have come from the LGBTQ+ community.
There is a scene in which Joy gives Guy a hard-on in the bathtub they are sharing. Joy almost induces Guy to have sex with her but Guy says: “This is wrong.” This best-friend relationship between the female and gay male makes total sense and hits a truthful spot in many best-friend relationships. The scene is a subplot to the story but a real and emotional one.
IN BED, a sexually charged gay dramatic thriller with exhilarating party mixes by world-famous DJ Offer Nissim is a must-see for every gay partier! IN BED opens on VOD/Digital Platforms on 4/12.
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IN FLAMES (Canada/Pakistan 2023) ***
Directed by Zarrar Kahn
IN FLAMES is set in present-day Karachi, the capital of Pakistan centering on a medical student, Mariam (Ramesh Nawal) as she struggles to keep her family together while being stalked by forces she can’t entirely understand. She is grieving the fresh loss of her grandfather and doing her best to support her grieving mother (Bakhtawar Mazhar) and brother (Jibraan Khan) while preparing for her upcoming exams. It does not help that she is suffering from fainting spells that require her expensive medical costs. The mother claims Mariam had asthma as a child but never as severe as she is suffering now
IN FLAMES is a female film in which the females have to struggle and fight to survive in a cruel male chauvinistic world. The male threat comes in a number of ways from her uncle, an incident involving a man throwing a brick at her car to the man masturbating in front of Mariam’s window.
The estranged uncle (Adnan Shah Tipu) re-enters their lives and declares himself their new patriarch, making noises about handling their finances out of the kindness of his heart. Mariam’s mother is grateful for the help. Mariam, on the other hand, sees disaster looming, warning the mother not to sign any documents. She fears, and with reason that he intends to secure the family’s property.
Meanwhile, Asad (Omar Javaid), a charming fellow student freshly back from Canada, offers the possibility of romance and security, but even that is fraught with its own specific dangers. And after a motorcycle accident, Mariam finds herself even more alone and vulnerable. Something seems to be stalking her through the streets, something that never quite comes into focus but whose presence she can feel at every turn.
The film occasionally feels like a horror movie because many scenes are shot in the dark with many of them involving Mariam’s nightmares, when she wakes up screaming or unable to breathe. The use of a religious faith healer also creates the feel of the supernatural. But the greatest horror occurs in Mariam’s real life. Her exams are approaching but instead of spending time studying, she suffers trauma, personally for her breathing attacks and missing Assad and filial with the relationship wither mother topped with financial difficulties. No one would wish to be in her place.
Director Khan’s film is a slow burn with a slow but effective build-up of tension and trauma for Marian. It does not help that she is living in squalor with broken and dirty walls and neighbouring dirty streets. Assad’s accident is only heard but not seen, an accident that occurs in the dead of night and so nothing is seen by the audience.
Nawal and Mazhar both deliver strong and powerful performances as the traumatized and desperate daughter and mother.
The film had a prestigious premiere at the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes followed by screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film opens on April 12th, 2024.
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LOST ANGEL: THE GENIUS OF JUDEE SILL (USA 2022) ***½
Directed by Andy Brown and Brian Lindstrom
Within the first 10 minutes of Judee Sill’s biopic doc, the audience already learns that she is a heroin addict, served time, did armed robbery (actually saying: This is a fuck up, mother sticker!) and a singer/songwriter of exceptional talent who sadly died of a drug overdose. What follows is a detailed life story of Judee Sill as she rises to fame and how she got to where she did.
Judith Lynne Sill (October 7, 1944 – November 23, 1979) was an American singer-songwriter. She was influenced by Bach and wrote lyrics drawing on Christian themes of rapture and redemption.
Sill was the first artist signed to David Geffen's label Asylum. She released her eponymous debut album in 1971, followed by Heart Food in 1973. In 1974, Sill recorded demos for a third album, which was never completed. Sill was fired from her record label for calling Geffen a fat fag in public, something she regretted and tried to apologize for, that Geffen never forgave.
The doc is made up mainly of archive photos and the use of archive interviews. There are only a few montages of Sill, mainly in her performances. Added in, are some animation sequences to add flow to the material.
One of the very insightful segments that highlight the film, undoubtedly is the breaking down of the composition of her song ‘The lamb ran away with the crown’ as Judee sings it. Again this is yet another one of her wonderful songs.
She had a long-term relationship with the poet David Omer Bearden, who contributed lyrics to Heart Food and toured and performed with her. The doc dedicates a fair amount of time to this troubled relationship. Sill dedicated Heart Food to him. As Asylum's first published artist, Sill also had a close friendship with David Geffen and wrote "David Geffen, I love you" in the sleeve for her first album. Their relationship soured after comments she made in frustration about not receiving enough promotion for her second UK tour.
After a series of car accidents and failed surgery for a back injury, Sill struggled with drug addiction and dropped out of the music scene.
Judee Sill is a name that many including many singer/songwriters have not heard of, not for want of talent but for her many misfortunes that prevented her genius from being famous. This biopic does justice to the genius and work of Sill and includes quite a few renderings of her songs that should help promote her fame in the music business, if never too late.
There is life after death. Sill struggled with addiction for much of her life and died of a drug overdose in 1979. She did not find commercial success, and no obituary was published; however, several artists have since cited her as an influence. Her demos were released with other rarities on the 2005 collection Dreams Come True.
LOST ANGEL: The Genius Of Judee Sill opens in Theatres, on Digital and on Demand (Apple, Amazon, Vudu, major platforms) in the US and Canada on April 12.
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THE PEOPLE’S JOKER (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Vera Drew
THE PEOPLE’S JOKER parodies characters from the Batman comics, and the main character is a transgender woman based on the Joker, played by co-writer and director Vera Drew. in a dystopian world monitored by electronics and cameras by Batman after his retirement, a young child grows up in Smallville, Kansas idolizing the performers on a sketch comedy program, UCB Live. The unnamed protagonist's mother (Lynn Downey) is disturbed when her child asks, "Was I born in the wrong body?" and immediately books a session with Dr. Crane (Christian Calloway) of Arkham Asylum, who prescribes Smylex: a drug that forces its users to put on a happy face, even if they feel depression, anxiety, or gender dysphoria. This explains the origin of the film’s Joker. The villain of the piece is a closeted gay Bruce Wayne who had abused Mr J (Kane Distler) as a child.
The film’s main story is set fifteen years later. Joker has grown up and moves to Gotham City to join the cast of UCB Live, where a computer designates him a male Joker, who will be allowed to have an individual identity in the cast, unlike the women, who are all assigned to be nameless Harlequins that serve as back-up dancers. The process to become on-air talent includes paying $15,000 and enduring improv comedy classes from UCB cast member Ra's al Ghul. The hero strikes up a friendship with Oswald Cobblepot, another struggling comedian who cannot afford the entrance fee and the duo decide that they will instead make their own comedy troupe. To avoid rules that outlaw unapproved humour, they will call their act "anti-comedy".
Joker falls in love with Mr. J, a fellow member of the Red Hoods Gang. How does Penguin know that? “Do you want me to introduce the two of you?” “How do you know?: asks Joker. Because you’re laughing at a joke is so bad I wouldn’t tell and cartoon hearts are popping out of your eyeballs.” As in this sequence and in many others in the film, the film is all over the place, grabbing at straws at humour and inventiveness. “Acting like a slut while looking like a bitch” are the words of one catchy song that bursts out of nowhere. All this could be either a plus or a negative for audiences, depending entirely on how one wants to look at it.
Drew takes the film one step further with Joker falling in love - and with a trans. They talk about love while riding a boat through an amusement park’s Tunnel Of Love. (HR Hugginhink’s Funny Tunnel Of Love, it is called).
The controversial film had an equally controversial release. According to Drew, "a media conglomerate" sent her "an angry letter (misreported as a 'cease and desist') pressuring them to not screen" shortly before the premiere. Some media outlets assumed this to be Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company to DC Comics, but neither Drew nor Warner Bros. have confirmed this. On September 14, 2022, a day after the film had premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, subsequent screenings of the film were cancelled. The TIFF website stated, "The filmmaker has withdrawn this film due to rights issues.
THE PEOPLE’S JOKER opens in Toronto with these upcoming Toronto dates:
Apr 12-13 / Toronto, ON @ Fox Theatre
Apr 27 & 30 / Toronto, ON @ Revue Cinema
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PURE O (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Dillon Tucker
PURE O stands for the words Pure Obsessional, a crippling form of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder).
OCD is an offensive word that is used to describe someone who worries a lot about small details and has a strong dislike of anything that is not perfect or to describe the behaviour of someone like this. It is best to know the definition of the term before venturing into the film. Wikipedia offers this timely description: Compulsions are repeated actions or routines that occur in response to obsessions to achieve relief from anxiety. Common compulsions include excessive hand washing, cleaning, counting, ordering, repeating, avoiding triggers, hoarding, neutralizing, seeking assurance, praying, and checking things. People with OCD may only perform mental compulsions such as needing to know or remember things. While this is sometimes referred to as primarily obsessional obsessive–compulsive disorder (Pure O), it is also considered a misnomer due to associated mental compulsions and reassurance-seeking behaviours that are consistent with OCD.
In PURE O, a rehab counsellor (Daniel Dorr, FURY, 20th CENTURY WOMEN) questions his sanity when he is diagnosed with a crippling form of OCD known as Pure Obsessional. With the help of his friends, a therapy group, and his addiction recovery clients, he discovers the life-affirming power of community to fight through the darkest moment of his life.
“You will get better, In this community, we help each other.” These are soothing words to a person just diagnosed with who finds it extremely difficult to understand the state of anxiety he is in.
Compulsions are repeated actions or routines that occur in response to obsessions to achieve relief from anxiety. Common compulsions include excessive hand washing, cleaning, counting, ordering, repeating, avoiding triggers, hoarding, neutralizing, seeking assurance, praying, and checking things. A few of these are demonstrated in the film. People with OCD may only perform mental compulsions such as needing to know or remember things. While this is sometimes referred to as primarily obsessional obsessive–compulsive disorder (Pure O), it is also considered a misnomer due to associated mental compulsions and reassurance-seeking behaviours that are consistent with OCD. The rehab counsellor in the film constantly suffers from the thought of hacking his fiancé Emily and then committing suicide. Besides him, the sufferings of the other members of his support group are also brought into focus.
PURE O, as expected is not an easy watch due to its subject. In terms of educating the audience director Tucker, who himself suffers from OCD does a tremendous job. Actor Daniel Dorr delivers a credible and nuanced performance. But the film suffers from an ending in which director Tucker tries too hard resulting in a condescending tone that undermines an otherwise sincere effort.
PURE O was nominated for the Grand Jury award at 2023 SXSW and received critical acclaim. Script Magazine called it "vulnerable, honest, and remarkably, it feels real, “ and Signal Horizon said the film is “ one of the most poignant and optimistic films I have ever seen.” PURE O opens Friday, April 12 - Digital release on major platforms. Territories: US, Canada, UK.
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STOLEN (Sweden 2024) ***
Directed by Elle Marja Eira
STOLEN tells the all-important indigenous story of the Sami people of Sweden, reindeer herder. As in many films on indigenous people, it is always land or something close to land that is the focus of the story, like Martin Scorsese’s FLOWERS OF THE KILLER MOON. Less epic in scope with a much smaller budget arrives the Swedish entry STOLEN directed by Elle Marja Eira and written by Peter Birro and based on Ann-Helen Laestadius’ book.
The film works better in the first half where the audience sees herds of reindeer and is introduced to a family of herders treated by unknown forces. It helps that the story unfolds from a young indigenous girl’s point-of-view made even more pressing when her pet reindeer calf is killed right in front of her eyes. STOLEN also Dackels current issues like climate change the ecosystem and the infringement of rights of indigenous people including prejudice, colonization and the suppression of the Sani language in English colonized schools.
The film centres on a Sami family that is made of Elsa, Mattias, Nils Johan, Marika, and Ahkku. Much like the rest of their tribe, the family’s livelihood depends on reindeer. But someone is slaughtering and beheading them, and the police and society are doing nothing about it. Since it’s customary for every member of the Sami to mark a reindeer, by making a small slice off its ear, little Elsa chooses a white calf and is told by her mum that the animal is not her's butt borrowed from Mother. Things seem to be going fine until one fateful day, Elsa witnesses a man called Robert brutally murder her calf that she had named Nastegallu and he walks away unscathed after committing such a crime. Young Elsa sees the culprit but is unable to say anything due to trauma.
STOLEN opens for streaming on Netflix on Friday 12th of April.
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WHAT JENNIFER DID (UK 2024) ***1/2
Directed by Jenny Popplewell
The face of Evil
When Jennifer Pan calls 911 to report that her parents have been shot, she becomes the primary focus of a captivating criminal case.
WHAT JENNIFER DID is a film title that will arouse one’s interest. What did Jennifer do? The Netflix original doc opens with two intercept segments. One has a teenage Jennifer at the police station recounting what happened that night at her family house in which her parents were shot - her mother dead and father wounded in the head and hospitalized. The other segment is the 9-11 call and police arrival at the home. The voiceover informs that this is a case that the police have never seen before and never suspected where it would lead. If the voiceover claims that the crime is close to home - it is. The crime took place in a residential home in Avenue Roadi in Markham, Ontario, which is very close to her this film reviewer used to live, From the beginning the doc works like a murder thriller mystery - very much like the recent fictional film THE ANATOMY OF A MURDER that won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for its director, Justine Triet and co-writer in which the wife of the prorated fall of her husband, dead from the balcony fall b echoes prime suspect of a murder. “I did not kill him,” Sandra Huller who plays the wife insists. Did Jennifer shoot her parents? What did Jennifer do? is the question asked to the audience of this documentary.
The doc is made up of re-enactments, reviews and archive footage. Except for actress Samantha Chang who plays young Jennifer, the cast from Alan Cooke who plays the homicide investigator, Bill Courtice as the lead investigator, Deborah Gladding and the victim liaison officer to Jennifer’s friends are all played by themselves seen in interviews or through archive footage,
The film is shot in English and in a bit of Vietnamese as the family arrived from Vietnam.
By inevitable comparison with THE ANATOMY OF A MURDER, the way WHAT JENNIFER DID unfolds with lots of cliches from the false clues to the crime investigation. Ironical the fictitious ANATOMY has a predictable outcome but is generally free from cliches.
The film includes details about the Vietnamese Pan family which enhances the interest of the film. The doc is directed and also written by Jenny Popplewell (AMERICAN MURDER: THE FAMILY NEXT DOOR (2002). The family owns two cars a Mercedes and a BMW. The mother does line dancing and is an auto manager while the father is a machinist. Jennifer is seen as racist as she describes her ‘attackers’ as black and one with a Jamaican accent,
The doc originated from the U.K. with a Canadian setting.
WHAT JENNIFER DID, a Netflix original documentary that opens for streaming this week is intriguing for its content - a crime drama depicting evil in its vilest form, its good execution as a documentary and its immigrant family subjects.
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- Written by: Gilbert Seah
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FILM REVIEWS:
ALAM (The Flag)(France/Tunisia/Palestine/Saudi Arabia/Qatar, 2022) ***
Directed by Firas Khoury
Director Khoury looks at the Israeli/Palestinian conflict from the eyes of youth, five Israeli-Palestinian high-school classmates — struggling under the burden of forced forgetting — weigh the risks involved in remembering a different history. They live in an Israeli-occupied country. Marked each year by celebrations, Israel’s Independence Day coincides with the commemoration of Al-Nakba (the Catastrophe) — the day Palestinians memorialize their dispossession and displacement. For Tamer (Mahmoud Bakri, a member of the acting dynasty begun by veteran Palestinian performer Mohammad Bakri) and his high-school friends — Safwat (Mohammed Abd El Rahman), Shekel (Mohammad Karaki), and Rida (Ahmed Zaghmouri) — the social and psychological dissonance of being Palestinian in Israel is a daily struggle that is only heightened in the lead-up to Nakba Day. The film concentrates on Tamer, who has a romantic fling but stays away from the over-used coming-of-age story. Not much of a story - only about a flag that initiates violence, the film is a sincere and honest look at the forever never-ending conflict.
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BOY KILLS WORLD (South Africa/Germany/USA 2023) ****
Directed by Moritz Mohr
When his family is killed, a deaf man named Boy escapes to the jungle, where he is trained by a mysterious mentor to enact vengeance on the murderers. Bill Skarsgård stars as "Boy" who vows revenge after his family is murdered by Hilda Van Der Koy (Fame Janssen), the deranged matriarch of a corrupt post-apocalyptic dynasty that left the boy orphaned, deaf and voiceless. Driven by his inner voice, one which he co-opted from his favourite childhood video game, Boy trains with a mysterious shaman (Yayan Ruhian of THE RAID) to become an instrument of death and is set loose on the eve of the annual culling of dissidents. Bedlam ensues as Boy commits bloody martial arts mayhem, inciting wrath of carnage and blood-letting. As he tries to get his bearings in this delirious realm, Boy soon falls in with a desperate resistance group, all the while bickering with the apparent ghost of his rebellious little sister, the one who has disappeared and the one he has sworn allegiance to.
There might be little nuance to this mayhem, but heaps of heart, particularly in Boy’s naive sincerity.
Of the cast, one will recognize South African actor Sharlto Copley (DISTRICT 9), a veteran of weird South African films who plays a wacko spokesman for Van Der Koy. In addition, the story includes to other compelling characters, Jessica Rothe as a hardened enforcer who communicates via her sick LED motorcycle helmet, and a hilariously mumbly Isaiah Mustafa, whose frequent exposition transforms into surrealist asides on account of Boy’s bad lip-reading
If the action martial arts flick BOY KILLS WORLD shares the same mayhem as the best of Sam Raimi’s horror and action films, it is the fact that Raimi serves as one of the producers of this film. The actioner stars Bill Skarsgard, all handsome with a chiseled and muscled physique, brother of Alexander and son of Stellan Skarsgard. Bill marks another feature debut of Bill after the two Stephen King IT horror films.
The action sequences though appearing chaotic are well shot and exciting enough - if not too violent. The climactic fight has two good guys fighting the very powerful shaman villain, something similar to combining forces to fight an extra strong villain, as in King Hu’s memorable DRAGON INN. There is also a twist in the plot that seems a bit too fantastic to believe, so much so that one wonders whose side Boy is on. Boy is totally drenched in blood and cuts in the climactic fight scene.
BOY KILLS WORLD looks like another cheap run-of-the-mill martial arts flick but it surprises and succeeds as fresh, hilarious and exciting entertaining. The plot could be dismissed as crazy rubbish but this crazy rubbish is excellent crazy rubbish. Highly recommended as a crazy mayhem action film! The film premiered in the Midnight Madness Section of the Toronto International Film Festival last year and turned out to be a surprise gem.
BOY KILLS WORLD opens only in theatres on April 26th.
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CHALLENGERS (Italy 2024) ***** Top 10
Directed by Luca Guadagnino
Luca Guadagnino is an Italian film director and producer known for his 'desire' trilogy films I AM LOVE, A BIGGER SPLASH and CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, the latter film that shot Timothee Chamalet to fame. His films are characterized by their acute observations, emotional complexity, eroticism, and sumptuous visuals and if anything else, always something to look forward to.
The three characteristics of Guadignino’s films emotional complexity, eroticism, and sumptuous visuals are not only present in CHALLENGERS but pushed to their limits.
Written by frequent collaborator Justin Kuritzkes (including their next film QUEER), the plot follows a professional tennis champion, Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) who plots a comeback with the help of his wife, Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), a former tennis prodigy who retired after an injury, as he goes up against another player, Patrick Zweig (Josh O'Connor), who also happens to be his former best friend and wife's former lover. Nothing more should be revealed in the story except that her strategy for her husband's redemption will take an unexpected turn.
The chemistry among the three stars is stellar, their performances bouncing off each other like the balls of a winning tennis match. In preparation for her role, Zendaya spent three months training with pro-tennis player-turned-coach Brad Gilbert. Gilbert also served as a consultant on the film. As can be observed in many of her tennis games in the film, Zendaya serves a wicked backhand, using both hands and completing it with a full backswing over her shoulder. As for O’Connor, his serves seen from the starting point from the back of his shoulder are impressive. As for Faust, he makes two jumps over the tennis net, once when goofing around and another when running to Tasho’s rescue after her knee injury.
Thai cinematographer, Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (who has worked on the films of Apichatpong Weerasethakul such as in UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES) shoots the tennis matches with verve and style. There are many excellent framed shots, the best of which shows the two tennis combatants Art and Patrick to the left and right with Tashi, watching their match in the centre of the same frame though they are distances apart. The climatic overhead shots of the two players over the net make the perfect ending.
The film’s music score deserves mention. The film's original score was composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. A remixed version was released in collaboration with Boys Noize. The sound mixing alternating between intensity and also alternating with silence is very effective in shifting the mood of a scene.
If one wonders what the movie is about or who is the main character, then director Guadagnino and writer Kuritzkes have achieved their goals. Art and Patrick play tennis or are they playing a love match for the prize of Tashi?
Romantic comedies are this reviewer’s least-liked genre but the romantic thriller is another ball game, CHALLENGERS, best described as a romantic thriller hits the mark, making CHALLENGERS Luca Guadignino’s best film so far.
CHALLENGERS opens only in theatre on April 26th.
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CITY HUNTER (Japan 2024) **
Directed by Yûichi Satô
CITY HUNTER is based on the manga series "City Hunter" by Tsukasa Hojo (published 1985 - 1991 in the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump). It was serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1985 to 1991, with its chapters collected in 35 tankōbon volumes. The manga was adapted into an anime television series by Sunrise Studios in 1987. The anime series was popular in numerous Asian and European countries. City Hunter spawned a media franchise consisting of numerous adaptations and spin-offs from several countries. The latest is this latest live-action film adaptation from Japan opening this week on Netflix.
The series follows the exploits of Ryo Saeba, a "sweeper" who is always found chasing beautiful girls and a private detective who works to rid Tokyo of crime, along with his associate or partner, Hideyuki Makimura. Their "City Hunter" business is an underground jack-of-all-trades operation, contacted by writing the letters "XYZ" on a blackboard at Shinjuku Station.
One day, Hideyuki is murdered, and Ryo must take care of Hideyuki's sister, Kaori, a tomboy who becomes his new partner in the process. However, Kaori is very susceptible and jealous, often hitting Ryo with a giant hammer when he does something perverted. The story also follows the behind-the-scenes romance between Ryo and Kaori and the way they cooperate throughout each mission.
The film follows a similar premise. Set in present-day Shinjuku ward, Ryo Saeba (Ryohei Suzuki) works as a "sweeper." He likes beautiful women and when he sees one, he doesn't hesitate to talk to them. Nevertheless, when he receives a request from a client to carry out a mission, he does excellent work with his elite gunman skills, physical ability, and cold attitude. After Ryo Saeba's partner Makimura is killed, he begins to work with Makimura's sister Kaori (Misato Morita). They form a new team to uncover the truth behind his death.
At its best, the cinematography and filming of Shinjuku are impressive, sometimes raining, looking like the set of BLADE RUNNER. The crowd scenes and the mayhem ensuing are all executed with style and excitement.
But the film has a too cartoonish effect, which likely suits the manga and animated previous versions. The lead character is played by Ryohei Suzuki with maniac childishness, downplaying the seriousness of the kidnapping and the huge crime at hand. The humour is less funny when executed coming across as silly and infantile.
The fact that Rio loves sexy girls does not help the film’s image as well. The film comes across as male chauvinistic and sexist with girls portrayed below their potential. Ryo cannot control himself as the saviour of Shinjuku, flirting with all the girls and any pretty girl who happens to fall in his path. Ryo has few redeeming qualities except that he kicks the butt of the bad guys.
The film’s story is simple enough to follow for a manga film, but nothing out of the ordinary. The action set pieces are satisfactorily done.
CITY HUNTER looks like manga and with its production values could have been a better film under more capable hands that favours a more forward execution.
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THE DOOMSDAY CULT Of ANTARES DE LA LUZ (Chile 2024) ***
Directed by Santiago Correa
The first and yet most disturbing cult sacrifice in Chile!
The crime committed in this documentary is the sacrifice of a 2-day-old baby by a religious cult. When the doc begins, it talks about the hierarchy of crimes committed. The worst of which will be punished in prison when the prisoners themselves will kill those imprisoned for the worst of crimes. The prisoner convicted of sacrificing a baby would never survive. In this disturbing and revealing doc, the psychology and reason behind the crime is examined, from the point of view of a crime journalist, who claims that she is interested in what goes behind the commitment of the crime. Ultimately, the motive behind the crime was not the usual motive for example of stealing a car or of a crime of passion. The motive behind this crime was saving the world.
The title of the doc comes from the leader of the cult who’s himself the name Antares. Ramón Gustavo Castillo Gaete was a Chilean musician and leader of a doomsday-oriented religious sect stationed in Colliguay, a rural area in the Valparaíso Region, where he claimed to be the second coming of Jesus and was known as "Antares de la Luz" (from Spanish, "Antares of the Light”). In 2012, one of the cult members, 25-year-old Natalia Guerra, became pregnant with his child, who he believed to be the Antichrist. Castillo's infant son was ultimately immolated in a bonfire on 23 November of that year as a human sacrifice, to prevent the supposedly incoming end of the world on 21 December 2012. After Chilean authorities were informed of the murder in April 2013, a nationwide manhunt headed by the Investigations Police of Chile began, which soon spread to neighbouring Bolivia and Peru, the latter of which where he hung himself to evade capture.
This doc works primarily for the enormity of the crime and the curiosity behind the motive behind the crime. The look at human nature and behaviour behind what happened is the most intriguing as to what is the reasoning behind the man who calls himself Antares is made to act the way he did.
The doc also plays like a part courtroom drama. As Antares’ followers were at the scene of the crime where the 2-day-old infant was killed and tossed into the fire, they faced a trial for manslaughter. Would they be found guilty? The defendants’ lawyers argue that they could not act on their own will, being manipulated to think that Antares was God. On the other hand, the prosecutors believe that this crime should not go without any punishment.
The story from start to finish is told from the mouth of one of its main followers, Pablo. Pablo describes in chilling detail how he was fed the plant drug, hallucinating and seeing visions thus making him think Antares is God. It is intriguing to see how Pablo could be so easily convinced of the falsity and indeed many wold have followed the same. Not shown is the death of hanging by Antares, thus escaping the punishment due to him.
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 30-something 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 revealing her own 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, with the auteur serving as the 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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HACK YOUR HEALTH: THE SECRETS OF YOUR GUT (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Anjali Nayar
The doc HACK YOUR HEALTH: THE SECRETS OF YOUR GUT often feels like a Biology lesson. It begins by telling us the importance of the gut, then explains microbes, particularly the Mirobione. What is more interesting is of course, how all this affects human beings. The doc treats the subject lightly, often including cutesy animation in order to make a point.
The microbiome is the community of microorganisms (such as fungi, bacteria and viruses) that exists in a particular environment. In humans, the term is often used to describe the microorganisms that live in or on a particular part of the body, such as the skin or gastrointestinal tract. These groups of microorganisms are dynamic and change in response to a host of environmental factors, such as exercise, diet, medication and other exposures. The doc praises the 9% good bacteria in our bodies. So for humans, bacteria that live in your gut help in the digestion of food, and bacteria that live on your skin help to break down the lipids to produce a natural moisturizing factor for your skin. These microbes that live on your skin or in your gut are also wonderful in providing colonization resistance. They're basically taking up all the space so that the pathogens that might want to try to invade humans don't have the opportunity, and that's really our greatest protection against microbes that want to colonize us but don't help in our health.
The microbiome affects each individual human being differently. To prove the point, the doc interestingly picks several different people who are interviewed to talk about their bodies:
- one Japanese cannot feel hunger. He can eat but never feel the satisfaction of having eaten and is envious of the fact that people can feel that they are full. His full-time job is competitive eating. The doc includes a clip with him doubling down on hot dogs.
- one black woman complains about her weight. She says she has tried everything to lose weight but whenever she loses weight, she gains more than she had lost.
- a white girl complains about the pain she feels in her gut. She has that pain forever and it hurts her ever so much
- one is a pastry chef who can eat nothing but vegetables, which makes her job increasingly difficult. She does have a craving to eat a hamburger and rare beef.
The 4 subjects’ microbiomes are studied as their brains are observed during an MRI conducted with each person with food pics shown to them, As expected, each individual’s brain reacts differently,
Most of what can be seen in the doc is available out there in books and of course on the internet. But the film gives us the pleasure of having assembled all the information together, making learning about gut education, entertaining and of course useful.
HACK YOUR HEALTH: THE SECRETS OF YOUR GUT is a Netflix original doc opening for streaming this week.
HUMANE (Canada 2024) ***
Directed by Caitlin Cronenberg
HUMANE is director Caitlin Cronenberg’s feature debut, written by Michael Sparaga. If the director’s last name sounds familiar, that is because Caitlin is the daughter of horror master David Cronenberg and the sister of Brandon Cronenberg. Her film will be much anticipated for this reason and might be judged a little too harshly.
The film is a dystopian satire taking place over a single day, mere months after a global ecological collapse has forced world leaders to take extreme measures to reduce the earth’s population. Lack of essentials such as drinking water is no longer a problem in poor countries but for everyone due to reasons like overpopulation, careless use and global warming. “All international borders will be closed and all countries will have one year to meet their population reduction goals.” This is the voice heard (Colm Freore’s) as an announcement by the Government at the start of the film. In the wake of this environmental collapse that is forcing humanity to shed 20% of its population, a family dinner erupts into chaos when a father's plan to enlist in the government's new euthanasia program goes horribly awry.
Director Caitlin takes the film down to a more personal level. In a wealthy enclave, a recently retired newsman, Charles York (Peter Gallagher) has invited his grown children (a host of Canadian actors led by Jay Baruchel of GOON) to dinner to announce his intentions to enlist in the nation’s new euthanasia program. Right after dinner before the children leave, the euthanasia people led by Bob (Enrico Colantoni) appear at the door to carry out their duties.
As it turns out, although Charles and his wife, Dawn Kim (Uni Park from KIM’S INCONVENIENCE) have agreed, Dawn has chickened out and disappeared. Dawn insists that a replacement be made by one of the other members of the family.
The film takes a direct stab at ex-President Trump. Trump has blamed the pandemic on the Chinese without much proof. Blame is Trump’s strategy in the Pandemic rather than finding a solution, resulting in many hate crimes among Asians in the U.S. In the film, The blame of the ecological collapse is again blamed on Asians resulting in the hate crime of Ann’s Asian restaurant burnt down to the ground.
“We are hardly family, ” says Rachel (Emily Hampshire), one father and daughters, “I only see you one or two times a year during family birthdays. I know more about the girl who does my nails.” When told that they have to decay on a replacement, an all-out war begins in which each member distrusts every other and tries to kill off a sibling to survive and have a larger inheritance. Director Caitlin ups the ante with a bit of violence that includes stabbing and swiping to the head with a walking cane.
Director Caitlin shows total control of her material as her film succeeds in maintaining a constant atmosphere of seriousness and desperation, even though the premise is futuristic and hypothetical.
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UNSUNG HERO (USA 2024) *
Directed by Richard Ramsey and Joel Smallbone
Warning! UNSUNG HERO is a faith-based film that many would avoid! And with reason.
UNSUNG HERO begins with the caption on the screen - This is a true story. Most films would state that it is based on a true story. The fact that this statement reads “this is a true story’ upholds the fact that the message of the film would be straight in one’s face, and for the worse of it. The company behind the film is called For King + Country which implies a faith message is forthcoming.
When David Smallbone's successful music company collapses, he moves his family from Australia to the United States in search of a brighter future. With nothing more than their six children, their suitcases, and their love of music, David (for KING + COUNTRY's Joel Smallbone) and his pregnant wife Helen (Daisy Betts) set out to rebuild their lives from the ground up. Based on a remarkable true story, the mother's faith stands against all odds; and inspires her husband and children to hold onto theirs.
True story or not, the fact does not make for a good film or even a compelling one. Just because UNSUNG HERO is termed a true story does it make the film a credible one. It depends on how the film unfolds with regard to performances, story buildup, atmosphere, music and others. UNSUNG HERO turns out incredibly boring right at the one-hour mark and it does not take a genius to figure out how things will eventually turn out for the Smallbone family.
The Smallbones is a family with 6 children. The script does not make any attempt to distinguish any one child from another, except for the eldest daughter who turns out to be the star singer.
The film has a more female slant, the family is held together more by the mother rather than the father whose pride gets in the way. The family is also saved from poverty by the daughter.
There are quite a few faith-type messages in the story. One key message is the strength of the family and how the family needs to stay together despite all odds. The other is the strength of the church as the Smallbones are helped with donations from the church. The vanity of Pride is yet one of the other messages. David has immense pride that almost causes the downfall of the family.
The film contains a few songs, that are supposed to be chart-busters.
UNSUNG HERO is the typical faith-based feel-good movie that critics detest for the main fact that it is manipulative, cliched, artificial and unoriginal. This is not to mention that the music is scored so that it tells the audience how to feel and react at different parts of the film.
UNSUNG HERO plays like it is staged by a Sunday Day School teacher for her Sunday School class. And it feels like an adult forced to sit through a Sunday School lesson. UNSUNG HERO opens on April 26th.
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- Written by: Gilbert Seah
- Parent Category: Articles
- Category: Movie Reviews
FILM REVIEWS:
ABIGAIL (USA 2024) ***½
Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett
It is best to enter the screening of the new Universal Pictures horror comedy ABIGAIL with no prior knowledge of the film or story whatsoever. Of course, this is clearly impossible as the film’s poster gives it away, not to mention the hype that has been going around the film already. Yes, ABIGAIL (Alisha Weir) has superpowers, that of a vampire and she does away with her kidnappers with ghastly violence one by one.
But even if one knows this fact, the directors can still make use of the fact to their advantage. Take Alfred Hitchcock’s THE BIRDS or Steven Spielberg’s JAWS. The first sight of the attacking birds or shark does not appear till the second half of the film, prompting the audience's anticipation. In the same fashion director Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett tease their audience with Abigail’s first revelation of other powers during the film’s second half.
Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett are to be credited for their ability to blend horror and fun. The script contains lots of laugh-out-loud humour as well as genuine scares that will keep the audience at the edge of their seats quite so often. The laughs are often goofy and driven by the often hilarious cast ensemble. Take, for example, one of the kidnappers, Dean (Angus Cloud) suddenly appearing in Sammy’s (Kathryn Newton) room saying: “I saw the way you looked at me. Maybe we could…” to which Sammy replies: “Get the fuck out of my room!” or the heavy, Peter the Quebecois (Canadian Kevin Durand) running to bash down a heavy door unsuccessfully, only to remark: “It is locked.” Durand is the funniest of the lot and steals every scene he appears in. From the film’s excellently crafted beginning where the 12-year-old ballerina, Abigail is first seen rehearsing in a huge empty theatre to the music of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake before she is kidnapped, the film is never short of excitement and laughs. The script by Stephen Shields and Guy Busick which is smart and funny combined with the excellent timing of the directors proved a deadly combination.
The assorted gang of misfits are all unknown to each other and given fake names just as the crooks in Quentin Tarantino’s RESERVOIR DOGS were given colours in order to each other. The other misfits are Frank (Dan Stevens) and Joey (Melissa Barrera) and Rickey (William Catlett).
Cineastes will be thrilled with the nods to many famous films including DRACULA’S DAUGHTER, OCEAN’S ELEVEN (The Rat Pack), RESERVOIR DOGS, TEN LITTLE INDIANS (…AND THEN THER WERE NONE) and every Dracula movie among others.
The story involves the misfits putting their stupid prejudices and mistrust aside and working together to outsmart Abigail, who is the main predator.
Though the climax drags on a little at the end, there is a neat twist with a surprise appearance. The film is dedicated in loving memory to actor Angus Cloud who plays Dean in the movie.
ABIGAIL opens everywhere in theatres on Friday, April 19th.
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AHEAD OF THE CURVE (USA 2020) ***
Directed by Jen Rainin and Beth Medow
Curve (magazine) is global lesbian media. The magazine covers news, politics, social issues, and includes celebrity interviews and stories on entertainment, pop culture, style, travel, and a website that hosts an internet forum focusing on lesbian issues, active since 2000.
The film focuses on the beginnings of the magazine as seen from the eyes of its founder, known amicably in the doc as Franco, who is in almost every frame of the film. Frances "Franco" Stevens in San Francisco in 1990, first published Curve as Deneuve but was renamed in 1996 after a trademark dispute with French actress Catherine Deneuve. The film says the magazine was so called because Franco had a cat called Deneuve and the magazine name translated means ‘new’. But the film does include an image of the lesbian vampire film cover THE HUNGER which starred Catherine Deneuve.
Diane Anderson-Minshall was editor-in-chief when the magazine was acquired in October 2010 by Australian media company. Avalon Media.Merryn Johns became Curve's editor-in-chief. With the change in ownership, Curve became headquartered in Sydney, this fact not mentioned in the film.
The doc works best when it deals with the magazine itself - its contents, the difficulty of it being made, how it grew in popularity and what type of articles made its sell. This provides insight to those working in magazines particularly gay themed ones, like Dragon Magazine and Banana Magazine, two Toronto gay Asian magazines (like Curve) that catered to a niche gay target audience. This reviewer started his film reviewing career writing for free for Dragun Magazine that lasted less than three years. Curve covers articles of importance, often getting gay women in politics to submit articles or well known personalities who have come out to agree to be on the cover. When Budweiser and Subaru advertised with Cure, the magazine became more mainstream and popular. The doc also documents many lesbians from small town America who probably were the only gays in the village. They claim that the magazine was their only connection to the gay world.
The film also follows its founder, Franco, talking about the magazine. Franco goes about in a motorized wheelchair as a result of an accident of boxes falling on her feet.
Nothing is also mentioned of other gay magazines, particularly the male ones that would either complement or be in competition with Curve. Curve magazine got a bit of free publicity when it tried to out gay actress Michelle Rodriguez. Many then, got to hear of the magazine for the first time. Nothing in the film was mentioned about the controversy, which made a big impact on Curve. It is quite clear that the editor and publisher of Deneuve/Curve are not well versed with legal and business practices.
Like the magazine Curve, the film would have limited appeal being catered to the niche target audience of lesbians. But the directors make a conscious effort in making her doc more widely appealing in its content. The result is an interesting and insightful documentary that affects more of the LGBT community. A fair bit of screen time is devoted on the importance of LGBT rights. Ex-President Trump again, rears his ugly head in passing back the law that lets employers fire LGBT employees.
AHEAD OF THE CURVE opens on NETFLIX ON APRIL 22 marking the start of LESBIAN VISIBILITY WEEK 2024
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BLOOD FOR DUST (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Rod Blackhurst
BLOOD FOR DUST is a 2023 American action crime thriller film written by David Ebeltoft and directed by Rod Blackhurst.
In noir fiction form, Cliff (Scoot McNairy), a traveling salesman drowning under the weight of providing for his family and the myth of the American dream, finds himself on a dangerous path after a chance encounter with Ricky (Brit actor Kit Harrington playing an American role), a colleague from a dark past. By accident, Cliff meets Ricky at a strip club and this is where the trouble starts. Trafficking guns and drugs are now on the agenda, which Cliff keeps from his woman.
Noir fiction stories are characterized by their use of dark and gritty realism, exploration of moral ambiguity, and often the use of unconventional narrative structures. The atmosphere created in the film is definitely on the side of the nitty, gritty realm especially when Cliff travels from small town to small town frequented by visits to seedy bars and equally seedy strip clubs. Cliff’s characters are flawed (drinking and having an affair) and compromised, as are the characters generally found in noir crime novels by authors like James Ellroy (L.A.CONFIDENTIAL), who could pretty much be the writer of this piece. Credit is to be given to scenarist David Ebeltoft. Cliff is an honest salesman who has avoided the temptation of going into the shady business but he has a hard time providing for his family. The first half of the film is devoted to bringing out Cliff’s haricots and surroundings giving the film a solid atmosphere and placing. The film is set and shot in (Billings) Montana. The film thus possesses realism and psychological depth though it might require a bit of patience due to its slow burn.
The owner of the New England Patriots American football team, Robert Kraft, is one of the richest men in America and a political crony of Donald J. Trump. In 2019 he was arrested for visiting a day spa in Florida where he paid sex trafficked women for illegal sexual services. The sex-trafficked women working at the day spa were arrested, charged and convicted of prostitution. A privileged white man gets away with breaking the law while accepting no responsibility for his actions or choices and is then allowed to proceed in all of his ways with impunity. While the real victims were punished. Because that’s America and America is broken.
BLOOD FOR DUST is director Blackchurst’s creative reflection of this truth and a film for our current moment about the desperation so many of us face as we struggle to provide for the ones we love and change our stars in the face of systems, institutions and power all designed to disenfranchise and beat us down
Director Blackhurst builds the suspense and suspense to a climactic shoot-out at the end. BLOOD FOR DUST has garnered favourable reviews in general and should satisfy both action fans and crime nori fans, but more of the latter.
BLOOD FOR DUST opens in elect Theatres & Digital on April 19.
Trailer:
DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD (Romania/Luxembourg/ France 2023) ****
Directed by Radu Jude
The director of BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN returns with a much ruder piece with a milder title DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD.
DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD paints a very bleak picture of the world, particularly Romania but doused with a hilarious adulterated sense of humour. The capital Bucharest is where most of the action takes place, shown as an overcrowded city where traffic is found and with run-down buildings and rubble often seen around the city. The residents talk about trash not collected for months with rats running around yet they say that the world is shit but the people are good.
The film has been presented as a tale of Cinema and Economics in Two Parts: "Overworked and underpaid, Angela drives around the city of Bucharest to film the casting for a 'safety at work video' commissioned by a multinational company.” This part "A" of the film also contains edited elements of a 1981 film about a lady taxi driver in Bucharest (Angela played by Lucian Bratu) and Angela's own Tiktok videos. Part "B" consists of the shooting of the safety promotion campaign video in front of the entrance to the chosen employee's factory.
Are these people in director Ray Jude’s movie good people? Maybe they are but they do not show the fact as they are extremely rude. The main protagonist is Angela (Ilinca Manolache), a bombastic production assistant working 16-hour days while, on her own time, honing a quippy online brand featuring her alter ego, a self-pronounced friend of misogynistic media personality Andrew Tate, currently facing human trafficking and other charges in Romania. Angela is first shown totally nude waking up in the morning, with the camera now shying away from her tattooed body. “Blonde skank,” is what one driver calls her. Angela has her own curse words at motorists: "Why’re you so nervous? You should get treatment.” Or “You are hurrying to your own funeral!” If not cursing she is telling horrible jokes. “What did the blind man say at the fish market?” “Hey, girls!“ But Angela is shown, despite her outwardly rude personality to have a kind side. She gives money to a needy beggar while drinking her coffee and chiding the cafe’s owner for chasing the beggar away.
The film’s title comes from an aphorism from the Polish poet Stanisław Jerzy Lec. The film touches on labour, exploitation, death, and the new gig economy. Part comedy, part road movie, part montage, it is a film that is innovative, fresh, hilarious and a solid satire if not being too rude and naughty.
The film though running a bit long at 163 minutes, is so, much bad guilty entertainment that one wishes it not to end.
DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD premiered at the 2023 Locarno Film Festival on 4 August 2023, where it received the Special Jury Prize. It opens in Canada on April 19th. In Toronto, slightly later - May 4 at TIFF and Carlton Cinemas.
Trailer:
FOOD, INC. 2 (USA 2024) ***½
Directed by Robert Kenner and Melissa Robledo
The filmmakers never intended to make a sequel for 2008’s doc Food, Inc. – the Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning documentary that showed viewers how the food system could be changed with ethical shopping.
So what has changed since 2008 that warrants the making of a sequel? The number one reason is the Pandemic that occurred that changed the world, especially in terms of food supply and distribution and second are the changes in food production in the small handful of multinational corporations.
The first film targeted two large companies, Monsanto and Perdue. Monsanto was revealed for its unethical practices in the introduction of genes into plants in what is now known as (GMO) genetically modified crops. The doc also revealed that Perdue Farms harvested chickens in the cruelest of ways.
FOOD, INC. 2 contains lots of information that continues to anger the public, especially with the growth of the fast food industry since the 1950s. From the mistreated immigrant workers (the audience is informed of workers tied to their transporting vehicles) to the minimum wage workers in fast food restaurants ( a black woman is interviewed as saying she can hardly support her family, resorting at one point to sleeping in her car).
The food companies are nothing more than businesses wishing to satisfy their shareholders. Bigger sales, mean eating more and bigger earnings. Food is sold everywhere including clothing stores where racks of candy are placed near the checkout counters. The doc also addresses ultra-processed foods.
Most of what is seen in the docs is nothing really new. FOOD, INC. 2 like the first FOOD , INC. seems to be throwing at the audience any material it can get its hands on. But this might be understandable as there have been so many violations by the multinationals. But there are the details in the practices that are new and disturbing.
One of the most interesting details involves the company PepsiCo initiating a research study as to the correlation between energy and sweeteners. When the researchers showed results that PepsiCo was not happy about, the company claimed that the results were incorrect and removed funding instead of using the results to improve their products. This behaviour though totally intolerable is expected as why would a company spend money to harm its image instead of improving its sales?
The doc ends, as many docs do, on an optimistic note, in both plant and animal food farming. One is the justification of soil fertility with animals consuming plants while putting them back into the soils and the other deals with the farming of an alternative seafood source such as kelp farming,
If there was a message from the two FOOD, INC. docs, the message from the 2008 film, the same message holds for the sequel, which would be to push the government for better controls and power by the FDA and USDA, and to eat more organic food.
FOOD, INC. 2 opens April 19 in Toronto (Hot Docs Cinema)! The film also opens throughout the spring in other cities.
Trailer:
INFESTED (VERMINES) (Frane 2023) *** 1/2
Directed by Sébastien Vanicek
` Spiders have always freaked humans out as creepy crawlers. One can imagine the horror of a spider killed and dozens of little baby spiders crawling out of the mother’s body. It is no surprise that spider horror movies are almost a genre in itself with films like ARACHNOPHOBIA, EIGHT-LEGGED FREAKS, TARANTULA, EARTH VS. THE SPIDER, most of them not very good. From France, premiering at Cannes last year arrives INFESTED (previous title: VERMIN), arguably the best of the lot, and is as creepy as hell.
The film has a solid good build-up of suspense and thrills to the final climax. It begins with the introduction of the deadly spider nested in the sands of a sweltering desert. A group of Arabs hut for these creates and one shoots for jot having discovered a nest only to be killed by one jumping and stinging him on his face. A few of these spiders (not tarantulas as they look different) are captured in small boxes and sold as exotic pets. One comes into the hands of Kaleb (Theo Christine), a teen Arab living in a Paris suburb. The visually striking buildings where the action is set are the Picasso arenas in Noisy-le-Grand, near Paris, designed by architect Manuel Núñez Yanowsky in the 80s.
Kaleb is about to turn 30 and has never been lonelier. He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, infesting the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.
The script that is co-written by director Vanicek and Florent Bernard devotes a lot of time to the characters of Kaleb and his sister and friends (friends that argue, fight, and call each other names half the time). The dialogue is crisp and ripe with swear words and slang, the way the living marginally speak, creating an atmosphere of credibility as well as sympathy for those living at the edge of poverty. The word putting can be heard dozens of times. Putting is French for whore but it is more used s a curse word for ‘fuck’ and ‘shit’. The janitor, an old Asian lady is bullied by the resident youth, but is rescued in one scene by Kaleb only to be scolded by her instead of her thanking him. Such is life! Will the band of so-called friends and family of Kaleb band together to find the new menace of their apartment building? The spiders reproduce rapidly within the hour with offspring much larger than their parents. The result is infestation.
The spiders are partly created by CGI with some of them actual real creatures. Director Vanicek keeps his film smart, fun and scary, a sure-fire formula for a successful spider horror movie.
INFESTED is the first feature film for director Sébastien Vanicek, who had directed a few shorts before. The film was nominated for two Cesars, for Best First Feature and Best Visual Effects. Vanicek has pitched the movie to producer Harry Tordjman, who loved it and introduced him to Netflix. They loved it as well and thought the movie deserved a theatre release before ending up on Netflix, which is a big deal in France as the minimum legal delay in 2023 between a theatre release. INFESTED is available for streaming on Shudder Friday, April 26th with a special screening on the 24th at the TIFF Lightbox.
Trailer:
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 Arena 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.
Trailer:
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- Written by: Gilbert Seah
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HOT DOCS 2024
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Capsule Reviews of Selected Docs:
THE BONES (Canada/Germany 2024) ***½
Directed by Jeremy Xido
Paleontology is the study of ancient life, from dinosaurs to prehistoric plants, mammals, fish, insects, fungi, and even microbes. For fans of JURASSIC PARK, this is the doc to be watching! It reveals the true evidence of the world of fossils by traversing the globe alongside paleontologists (one featured in the doc has a role in Spielberg’s JURASSIC PARK) on a quest to unearth dinosaur fossils that may hold the key to save humanity from extinction. It is shown that the bones disappear into the hands of fossil dealers, who stand to make millions by selling them on the open market. A cinematic adventure that reaches from the Mongolian Gobi Desert to the floor of a Paris auction house, "The Bones" exposes the clash between science, post-colonial reckoning, and hard-nosed capitalism. Educational inspiration in a field that very few know about. THE BONES arrives as a special screening at Hot Docs on Friday, May 3rd, 7:30 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 7.
Trailer:
THE DAY ICELAND STOOD STILL (Iceland 2024) ***½
Directed by Pamela Hogan
THE DAY ICELAND STOOL STILL is October 24, 1975. On this well-planned and orchestrated day, 90 percent of Iceland’s women walked off their jobs and out of their homes. Fed up with the gaping inequity between the value of women’s labour and women’s wages, female employees, wives and mothers just stopped—stopped working, cooking, cleaning and looking after their children—together on that fall morning. The country came to an abrupt standstill, but a revolution had begun. Fascinating archives and inspiring animation accompany new interviews with the women and activists who were there that day. Through interviews and archive footage, the film documents the days before, on and after what the women call “Strike Day”. Like Strike Day, this is a well-documented and orchestrated feel-good film that would have both genders cheering for the victory of women in the workforce which is equivalent to a citron for mankind. Iceland is at present the country in the world with the most female equality.
DEVI (Nepal/South Korea/UK 2024) ***
Directed by Subina Shrestha
This doc is all about Devi. The doc follows Devi as she interviews other rape victims and how she copes with her injured past. In 1997, 17-year-old Devi’s life took a harrowing turn. Arrested during the onset of civil war in Nepal, she was accused of rebellion, subjected to torture, and endured the unimaginable trauma of rape while in custody. Branded a “victim,” Devi faced the weight of social stigma and battled depression and isolation. Her story didn’t end there, however. Devi is an immersive vérité film (the doc plays just as it is, with little or no theatrics or dramatics) that follows her remarkable journey. From joining the rebel frontlines to ascending through the ranks and eventually serving as a member of parliament after the war’s end, Devi defied all odds. The doc shows how difficult it is to make a change in society where men accept this fate of women. Devi complains, and with reason that three of her attackers are now serving in Parliament. How then can there be change? But with all due respect to DEVI, the doc repeats itself too often with Devi making same complaints again and again.
THE FABULOUS GOLD HARVESTING MACHINE (Chile/Netherlands 2024) ***
Directed by Alfredo Pourailly de la Paz
This doc about the father/son relationship spans more than 5 years from the time the father, nicknamed Toto suffers health problems from the strenuous work of extracting the precious metal manually to the success of the son’s making of his fabulous gold harvesting machine to make the gold harvesting job easier. The setting is Tierra del Fuego in Chile, Toto’s 60-year-old body cannot take it anymore. But he has to work to earn a living with the little income he gets from his artisanal gold-digging process is just enough to sustain himself. He fears he might die but at the same time loves life. His son, Jorge, is quite the mechanical genius while also proving himself an apt rodeo rider in one scene. Nothing fancy but nothing wrong in this doc that moves like a home movie mostly narrated by Toto himself.
(Screening: Apr 28 04:00 pm, Apr 30 08:30 pm)
THE HERE NOW PROJECT (USA 2024) ***½
Directed by Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel
Every doubling in the percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases the temperature of the earth by 4C. The HERE NOW PROJECT consists of videos taken by people in the year 2021. The doc tells the story. Witnesses to environmental phenomena pick up their phones to share this moment with the world. Drawing from thousands of hours of in-the-moment footage, Emmy Award–winning filmmakers Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel chronicle the year 2021: a pivotal chapter in the fight against our new climate reality. Seen through the eyes of everyday people around the world, The Here Now Project transforms the common act of shooting a cell phone video into an act of resistance. The state of Texas is under a winter storm warning; a tropical cyclone hitting Southern Indonesia for the first time; swarms of locusts destroying crops in Kenya; and intense pollution in the Sea of Marmara, Turkey; these are just a few of the videos capturing the catastrophes due to climate change around the world, Warning: Because these are people’s videos, they contain everyday people’s language like: “Holly F***!” “Colder than a miner’s arse.” and of course, the very common saying, “You must be f***ing kidding me!” Evoking a sense of agency and celebrating the power as a population, the film captures the simultaneous, global nature of climate change and highlights the deep human resilience, resourcefulness and courage needed to confront it. At once epic and intimate, its message is clear: We’re all in this, together. A mesmerizing and unforgettable doc!
NEVER LOOK AWAY (New Zealand 2024) ***½
Directed by Lucy Lawless
The doc NEVER LOOK AWAY celebrates famed photojournalist Margaret Moth, warts and all. Born in Gisborne, New Zealand, as Margaret Wilson, she got her first camera at age 8. Moth covered the Persian Gulf War, the rioting that followed Indira Gandhi's assassination, the civil war in Tbilisi, Georgia, and the Bosnian War. She had been described by colleagues as quirky, tough, fearless and funny. The doc works avoids being a biopic by omitting Margaret’s past. When the first boyfriend (the17 year-old), Jeff Russi asks Margaret of her past, her reply is that she had forgotten. So, no mention of her childhood is found in the doc. Risks come with a price. No one is invincible - Margaret Moth included, In July 1992, Moth was shot and severely wounded while filming in Sniper Alley in Sarajevo. Director Lawless also goes personal, trying to understand the woman who faces danger and dismisses family life. What is behind her anger? Why is her background leading to this state?
ROUGE (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Hamoody Jaafar
The basketball doc is all about basketball, so non-basketball players might want to stay away though the filmmakers try to include other issues like racial prejudice and black poverty into the equation. The coaches and players of Rouge River High School are examined. The doc is more successful in looking at the school coaches who are an inspiration for the younger players. In the 1950s, legendary high school basketball coach Lofton Greene led the racially integrated River Rouge High School Panthers to a record number of state championships in a league of otherwise segregated schools. Now, almost 70 years later, LaMonta Stone, a former Panther himself, has returned to the struggling industrial town of River Rouge, Michigan, to coach the Panthers as they chase the school’s 15th State Championship. Stone and three of his star student-athletes, including seniors Brent Darby Jr. and Ahmoni Weston, and junior Legend Geeter, strive to fulfill generations’ worth of work on and off the court by preparing for their next chapter of life.
THE STRIKE (USA 2024) ***½
Directed by Joebill Munoz and Lucas Guilkey
THE STRIKE tells the story of a generation of California prisons as they endure decades of solitary confinement and, against all odds, launch the largest hunger strike in US history. Told through intimate interviews and archival verité footage, the film goes beyond making a case against solitary confinement by illuminating the power of organizing this prisoner-led resistance, and in doing so, flipping the true-crime genre on its head
The strike refers to a hunger strike, inspired by reading about Bobby Sands who protested with a hunger strike till he died after 66 days. The doc reveals how it took years before the strike began. The ex-prisoners say that they are already dead, so what is there to lose? And how do the prisoners who enter the hunger strike communicate among themselves? THE STRIKE is an extremely engrossing doc for the mere fact of how human beings can be so cruel to another in the name of punishment. Informative, educational and scary, THE STRIKE should serve as an important and urgent message to generally be kind to one another.
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FILM REVIEWS:
INFESTED (VERMINES) (Frane 2023) *** 1/2
Directed by Sébastien Vanicek
` Spiders have always freaked humans out as creepy crawlers. One can imagine the horror of a spider killed and dozens of little baby spiders crawling out of the mother’s body. And it is of no surprise that spider horror movies are almost a genre in itself with films like ARACHNOPHOBIA, EIGHT-LEGGED FREAKS, TARANTULA, EARTH VS. THE SPIDER, most of them not very good. From France, premiering at Cannes last year arrives INFESTED (previous title: VERMIN), arguably the best of the lot, and is as creepy as hell.
The film has a solid good build-up of suspense and thrills to the final climax. It begins with the introduction of the deadly spider nested in the sands of a sweltering desert. A group of Arabs hut for these creates and one shoots for jot having discovered a nest only to be killed by one jumping and stinging him on his face. A few of these spiders (not tarantulas as they look different) are captured in small boxes and sold as exotic pets. One comes into the hands of Kaleb (Theo Christine), a teen Arab living in a Paris suburb. The visually striking buildings where the action is set are the Picasso arenas in Noisy-le-Grand, near Paris, designed by architect Manuel Núñez Yanowsky in the 80s.
Kaleb is about to turn 30 and has never been lonelier. He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, infesting the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.
The script that is co-written by director Vanicek and Florent Bernard devotes a lot of time to the characters of Kaleb and his sister and friends (friends that argue, fight, and call each other names half the time). The dialogue is crisp and ripe with swear words and slang, and the way one living marginally would speak thus creating an atmosphere of credibility as well as sympathy for those living at the edge of poverty. The word putting can be heard dozens of times. Putting is French for whore but it is more used s a curse word for ‘fuck’ and ‘shit’. The janitor, an old Asian lady is bullied by the resident youth, but is rescued in one scene by Kaleb only to be scolded by her instead of her thanking him. Such is life! Will the band of so-called friends and family of Kaleb band together to find the new menace of their apartment building? The spiders reproduce rapidly within the hour with offspring much larger than their parents. The result is infestation.
The spiders are partly created by CGI with some of them actual real creatures. Director Vanicek keeps his film smart, fun and scary, a sure-fire formula for a successful spider horror movie.
INFESTED is the first feature film for director Sébastien Vanicek, who had directed a few shorts before. The film was nominated for two Cesars, for Best First Feature and Best Visual Effects. Vanicek has pitched the movie to producer Harry Tordjman, who loved it and introduced him to Netflix. They loved it as well and thought the movie deserved a theatre release before ending up on Netflix, which is a big deal in France as the minimum legal delay in 2023 between a theatre release. INFESTED is available for streaming on Shudder Friday, April 26th with a special screening on the 24th at the TIFF Lightbox.
Trailer:
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FILM REVIEWS:
THE ANTISOCIAL NETWORK (From Memes to Mayhem) (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Giorgio Angelini and Arthur Jones
A Netflix original documentary the film begins with words that would make anyone sit u, listen and watch this somewhat intriguing documentary:
You can fix code but you can’t fix people.
The weakest part of any system is the people that put it together.
The jokes (made on their system) that they made would turn into conspiracy theories. This misinformation has reshaped society,
(we) started something and never intended for it to end this way.
And now I am trying to clean up my own mistakes.
A meme is a word that has been popularized lately and practically unheard of in the past an amusing or interesting item (such as a captioned picture or video) or a genre of items that is spread widely online, especially through social media.
A group of lonely teenagers formed an online community and bonded over their isolation, but their collective beliefs warped reality.
Despite the doc having its tech-savvy subject, the film adds its human emotional element by including a bit about the personal lives of the three who invented this antisocial network. Their stories are narrated by the subjects themselves and they share the common element of being lonely and misplaced kids with alter-personas on the net. All are tech-savvy and know the ins and outs of social networks.
In terms of information education, there is quite a bit of this doc especially in Japanese culture as in the the worlds of Otaku and 2channel, as explained in the film.
Most of the voiceovers provided by the three subjects create a more credible platform for their stories. Directors Giorgio Angelini and Arthur Jones clearly and constantly include tactics like animation, colour and dialogue to keep their audience glued to the subject,
THE ANTISOCIAL NETWORK (From Memes to Mayhem) is a socially relevant and informative doc that is both relevant and entertaining in today’s internet culture,
THE ANTISOCIAL NETWORK won the audience award at the Documentary Spotlight Section at the SXSW Film Festival. A noteworthy doc to be seen that opens for streaming on April 5th on Netflix.
BAGHEAD (UK/Germany 2023) **
Directed by Alberto Corredor
Written by no fewer than 3 writers Christina Pamies, Bryce McGuire and Lorcan Reilly and directed by Alberto Corredor in his debut feature based on his short film in 2017 with the same title, BAGHEAD (not to be confused with the 2008 Mark and Duplass comedy) bears a certain similarity to the acclaimed horror TALK TO ME which by inevitable comparison proves to be the inferior movie, not for want of trying.
There is a certain attractive scare of the image of someone with a sack over his head. When the sack is pulled up, the head of a different person can be conjured up, or even maybe the head of a monster. This premise must have inspired the filmmaker to conjure up BAGHEAD. A few other scary scenarios are added in - the picture of a prisoner tied down and unseen in a dark basement; an inheritance of evil; the signing of a contract that cannot be invoked and a shapeshifter. To create a more human emotionally effective story two human elements are added. One is a father/daughter lost relationship and the other is a girl/girl relationship between the protagonist and a girlfriend (the word lesbian is never mentioned but the lesbian relationship is assumed).
Following the death of her estranged father (Ken Loach’s regular actor: Peter Mullan), Iris (Freya Allan) learns she has inherited a run-down, centuries-old pub. She travels to Berlin (as this is a German co-production, though hardly any German is seen or spoken) to identify her father's body and meet with The Solicitor (Ned Dennehy) to discuss the estate. Little does she know, when the deed is signed she will become inextricably tied to an unspeakable entity that resides in the pub's basement - Baghead (played and voiced by Anne Muller) - a shape-shifting creature that can transform into the dead. Two thousand in cash for two minutes with the creature is all it takes for desperate loved ones to ease their grief. Neil (Jeremy Irvine), who has lost his wife, is Iris' first customer. Like her father, Iris is tempted to exploit the creature's powers and help desperate people for a price. This shape-shifting creature can transform into the dead and can provide two minutes with a loved one for a fee of two thousand dollars. Iris is tempted to use Baghead’s powers to help people in need and earn a profit, just like her father did before. But she soon discovers breaking the two-minute rule can have terrifying consequences. Together with her best friend Katie (Ruby Barker), Iris must battle to keep control of Baghead and figure out how to destroy her, before she destroys them.
The film suffers from the cliched jump scares that one can always do without. The dark atmosphere of the pub and often used settings add to the horror and potential scares of the film. However, too much plot ends up with a muddled ending as the climax disappoints after a solid buildup.
Performances are ok at best, and it is good to see veteran actor Peter Mullan lending his hand to a new director’s debut feature.
BAGHEAD streams on Shudder on April the 5th.
Trailer:
THE OLD OAK (UK/France/Belgium 2023) ****
Directed by Ken Loach
THE OLD OAK is directed by Ken Loach who makes a film every 3 years or so, usually excellent fare, something worth waiting for. THE OLD OAK, Loach’s latest film is no different. Loach is a British film director and screenwriter known for his socially critical directing style and socialism as evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty (Poor Cow, 1967), homelessness (Cathy Come Home, 1966), and labour rights (Riff-Raff, 1991, and The Navigators, 2001). Loach's film KES(1969) was voted the seventh-greatest British film of the 20th century in a poll by the British Film Institute. Indeed, this is my favourite Loach film. His last two films I, Daniel Blake (2016), received the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, making him one of only nine filmmakers to win the award twice and SORRY WE MISSED YOU are unforgettable social dramas.
In the film, THE OLD OAK is the name of a pub in a northern English town where coal mining has its day. Pub landlord TJ Ballantyne (Dave Turner), living in a previously thriving mining community in County Durham, struggles to hold onto his pub and keep it as the one remaining public space where people can meet in the town. Meanwhile, tensions rise when Syrian refugees are placed there, but Ballantyne strikes up a friendship with one of the refugees, Yara (Ebla Mari).
TJ’s wife had left him and his son is not speaking to him. The fact is mentioned in the film but the details are not shown on screen. With the town going to bits, he had contemplated suicide by looking into the sea but was saved by a happy dog running to the beach. The dog, which he named Marra saved his life and brought him companionship and a reason for living. Any film with the protagonist and a faithful dog means that there is a great temptation for the dog to be killed in the story for dramatic effect. In the last film LAND OF MINE, the protagonist a Dane sergeant had his dog blown up by a mine. Will Marra face the same demise?
The Brits are not happy with the new refugees in their town. They claim that they are not racist even though they are. They cannot speak a word of English and their pub, The OLD OAK is now crawling with them. Loach offers a reason for the Brits to be this bitter. They themselves are victim, in this case, the victims of big mining companies that use and underpay them and then leave town. Many have lost family members during the mining operations.
Director Loach offers a possible solution to the conflict - keeping the back room of the pub for the refugees and Brits to eat together for free but the plan falls through. Still, a happy ending is required for a film with such strong undertones.
Loach’s THE OLD OAK is not his best, but it is still an excellent film, all things considered. The film is an easy watch, pulling all the right political and social-emotional strings while offering an insight into the frailties of the human race.
Trailer:
LA CHIMERA (Italy/France/Switzerland 2013) ****
Directed by Alice Rohrwacher
LA CHIMERA follows the adventures of a linen-suited British archaeologist first name of Arthur (Josh O’Connor) as he digs up tombs and sells treasures in the likes of Indiana Jones. Arthur has the uncanny ability to be able to foretell where treasures are buried. Unlike the Spielberg movies, this is art-house Indian Jones, putting a spin on the latest Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. LA CHIMERA has its major surprises and is an utter delight in its delivery, presentation and originality.
The audience first sees Arthur aboard a train (the film is set in 80’s Tuscany) where he beats up a socks salesman for insulting his smelly feet. Arthur is shown to be impatient, angry and a man who gets what he wants, no-nonsense tolerated. Who would not be angry with someone who insults your feet in front of pretty girls in a train compartment? Arthur is a handsome fellow and O’Connor, in a remarkable role, portrays him with a certain suave and likability.
It turns out that Arthur has just been released from prison for the crime of grave robbing, the only one caught the last time he was tomb digging with the gypsy Romans, who are eager to get up with him again. Apparently, the Romans had paid Arthur’s way out so that they could continue to rob graves with him. But Arthur is visiting the aristocratic mother, Flora (Isabella Rossellini) of his beloved missing girlfriend. Flora is also awaiting her daughter’s return and is glad to see Arthur again. Flora is holed up near a dilapidated train station among many squatters.
The Romans are shown to be a colourful and playful art and director Rohrwacher delivers many of the film’s funniest and brightest moments of this group, many members of which love to dress in drag.
Nothing more should be said of this lush and colourful adventure that director Rohrwacher takes her audience to except to mention that there is a surprise around every corner. Watch for the film’s ending which has a nod to Alfred Hitchcock’s final scene in NORTH BY NORTHWEST, in which Cary Grant reaches out to Eva Marie Saint as she almost falls off the cliff only to reveal the final scene where Grant lifts her to the top of the bunk bed on the train.
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DOGMAN (France 2023) ***½
A film by Luc Besson
“Wherever there is an unfortunate, God sends a dog.” is a quote that is used in the film. The unfortunate in the film is Kaleb (Caleb Landry Jones), a man dished out all the misfortunes of life. His saviour is the canine species, a whole lot of dogs that bid Kaleb’s every command.
It all begins with an emergency at the Detention Centre. Kolbe is injured and in drag. He is questioned by a psychologist, who leaves her daughter with her mother in the middle of the night to handle this emergency. At first hesitant, Kaleb eventually opens up to the psychologist. His story unfolds as he tells his story, shown to the audience in flashbacks,
French director Lucy Besson is well known for his innovative films, his most successful and best films being LUCY, LEON, NIKITA and of course, THE FIFTH ELEMENT. DOGMN i a lazy revenge fantasy something that is likely never seen before and the strangest film to be seen on the screen this year - a good thing. If Besson’sfilm lacks credibility - the audience is supposed to believe that all of Kelly’s dogs can understand his English-spoken commands and can steal jewelry from a mansion.
Besson is French and his French imprint is clear in the film as he chooses Edith Piaf for Kaleb to perform in drag. The film ends with an English version of Edith Piaf’s ‘Je Ne Regrette Rien’. As in Besson’s films, DOGMAN is excessively violent and innocent people do get killed off as well, for dramatic effect.
The lead role of Kaleb is performed by American actor Caleb Landry Jones, known for quirky roles as in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN and. Jones has never failed to impress and DOGMAN is perhaps his best role as both a handicap and a drag queen. His drag performances are superb, especially his rendition of ‘Lili Marlene’.
How the filmmakers got all the dogs trained to perform all the tricks seen on the screen is something that needs to be seen to be believed. A variety of breeds are used and they are mostly adorable.
Not without flaws, Besson’s latest DOGMAN with its incredible plot and hard-to-believe situations is filmmaking that looks as impressive on screen as his futuristic FIFTH ELEMENT. It is compulsive watching, for sure, though not for everybody, one cannot go away saying that the film is unforgettable in its execution.
DOGMAN opens in theatres on April 3rd.
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GLITTER + DOOM (USA 2024) **
Directed by Tom Gustafson
GLITTER + DOOM is a gay romantic musical based on the music of the Indigo Girls.
In a fantastical romance set to the hits of the Indigo Girls, a carefree circus performer and struggling musician fall in love at first sight, in a local dance club– until the real world comes calling. Their whirlwind summer is interrupted by the realities of pursuing their dreams. Punctuated by an all-queer supporting cast, GLITTER & DOOM attempts to be a creatively ambitious musical about the power of love.
Glitter comes from a rich family, but wants to be a circus clown. Doom, on the other hand, is a singer-songwriter from poor surroundings, trying to break into the local club scene. While Glitter has an over-abundance of self-confidence, Doom has self-doubts. They meet and have under a month to fall in love, before Glitter leaves for clown school in Paris. Meanwhile, Doom needs to produce a promotional music track to confirm his breakout club gig.
There is something that is wrong with the film. One glaring concern is the actor playing DOOM. He has a British accent and the accent comes through all throughout the film. Nothing is explained about his accent. Or he is an actor who should be hiding it in an American film where the characters have no British connections, The two characters are also so egoistic not to say annoying, and the script has the audience believe that these two characters are geniuses in their own field. Doom’s mother also appears in the middle of the film adding another unnecessary subplot to the story.
The music is from the Indigo Girls, repurposed, rearranged, and sometimes mashed up. The songs are sung by the two principals, with a small ensemble doing some dancing around them at times. The entire combination has a magical effect.
For musicals, the characters break out into song at the most misappropriate moments be it at the supermarket or in the fields in the moonies. The choreography is passable and nothing too spectacular, looking a bit too gay for the average audience. At its best, the musical numbers are not overdone, with the songs sung mainly by the two principals with dancers around them. The film was shot in Mexico during the Covid pandemic, where Mexico was quite liberal in its lockdown procedures,
The ultimate question is whether Glitter and Doom will make it at their romance and live happily ever after as well as achieve their dreams or goals in life. It does not take a genius to be able to guess the answer to these questions,
GLITTER + DOOM is a film that has limited appeal and thus would be a rough sell to the general market. Unless one is young and queer and full of annoying energy or if one is a complete Indigo fan, this romance comedy about two very annoying young men who do not know what they want or roughly do but do not know how to achieve it is largely a boring affair. The film runs almost two hours with songs that are amusing at most, Indigo Girls gave permission for the filmmakers to use their music which consists of a catalog of more than 300 songs, which helps lift the film a little
GLITTER + DOOM premiered at the Indie Out LGBT Toronto Film Festival as its Closing Night Gala. The film is available digitally on April 9 to rent/purchase on all major platforms.
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MONKEY MAN (USA 2024) **1/2
Directed by Dev Patel
(Written by Guest Reviewer Andre A.)
Monkey Man, directed by and
starring Dev Patel, is a film that seeks to meld the gritty essence of
crime-action cinema with layers of Indian mythology, social critique, and
martial arts extravagance. The film narrates the journey of a young man, who, clad in a monkey mask
reminiscent of Mexican wrestlers, engages in underground battles within an
Indian city. He embarks on a vengeful crusade against unscrupulous developers,
whom he holds responsible for his mother's death. Known as Monkey Man, he draws
inspiration from Hanuman, an iconic figure in Indian mythology, representing a
fusion of cultural reverence and urban vigilantism.
However, the film’s realization falls short of its grand ambitions.
Cinematic techniques like excessive slow motion, erratic camera movements, and
blurred visuals compromise the story’s clarity and can be overwhelming,
particularly for viewers sensitive to fast-paced visual shifts. These excessive
stylistic choices eclipse the action sequences, including the much-anticipated
initial confrontation between the protagonist and the antagonist, and diminish
the narrative’s impact.
Monkey Man also suffers from an overload of clichés and a convoluted plot that
weaves through a myriad of themes, including economic exploitation, personal
vendetta, prostitution, and religiosity, attempting to encapsulate the entirety
of Indian societal issues. While aiming for a grandiose spectacle, the film’s
narrative becomes overstretched and perplexing, leading to viewer disengagement
rather than compelling insight or reflection.
The portrayal of hijras as cultural icons who
transform into powerful warriors adds to the narrative’s inconsistency, veering
from a story of personal revenge to a bewildering bloody action spectacle. The
primary plot of a young man avenging his mother’s murder against the backdrop
of systemic injustice is lost in the chaotic blend of numerous themes and
references.
Dev Patel's dual role as the director and protagonist
in Monkey Man appears to be an attempt to transition from his renowned
dramatic talents to action-centric roles. Yet, the film falls short of
leveraging his full potential and does not live up to the expectations
engendered by Jordan Peele’s production involvement. Despite its high
ambitions, Monkey Man struggles to provide a cohesive and engaging
cinematic journey, leaving audiences desiring a more streamlined and impactful
narrative amidst its tumultuous mix of visual and thematic turmoil.
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REMEMBERING GENE WILDER (USA 2023) ****
Directed by Ron Frank
REMEMBERING GENE WILDER, a heartfelt and entertaining portrait of the life and career of the beloved actor, featuring an extensive array of highlights from Wilder’s most memorable films as well as interviews with his closest friends, family, and fellow comics. The doc features interviews with Mel Brooks, Carol Kane, Alan Alda, Ben Mankiewicz, Rain Pryor, and Karen Boyer Wilder, among others.
Gene Wilder was an American actor, comedian, writer and filmmaker. He was mainly known for his comedic roles, but also for his portrayal of Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971). He collaborated with Mel Brooks on the films The Producers (1967), Blazing Saddles (1974) and Young Frankenstein (1974), and with Richard Pryor in the films Silver Streak (1976), Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) and Another You (1991
Gene Wilder’s doc begins with his appearance in the first scene with his rendering of the song “Come with Me, and You will be, in a World of Pure Imagination….” taken as many low from Mel Stuart’s WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. Everyone loves Gene Wilder, a very funny man who made his name with Mel Brooks, rising to fame for his title role in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN.
The doc does the comedian justice with clips from many roles at the doc’s start. It goes on with how fate changed the life and introduced fame to Jerome Silberman. He did not like the name Silberman and wanted something Wilder. I\Fate has it that in 1963, Wilder was cast in a leading role in Mother Courage and Her Children, a production starring Anne Bancroft, who introduced Wilder to her boyfriend (and later husband) Mel Brooks. A few months later, Brooks mentioned that he was working on a screenplay called Springtime for Hitler filmed as THE PRODUCERS with Zero Mostel, for which he thought Wilder would be perfect in the role of Leo Bloom. Wilder won an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Wilder’s comic inspirations (and I am proud to say are also mine), were Danny Kaye (a clip of Kaye’s brilliant act in UP IN ARMS is provided), Jerry Lewis and Sid Ceasar from YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS.
What the doc also achieves is exposing the real character of Wilder - revealed as a genuine human being. The man went through more than most, with the death of his first wife, comedian Gilda Radner, that the doc devotes quite some time for. The doc also allows the audience to laugh and cry as clips of Wilder's best films are shown.
Director Frank keeps the atmosphere of the doc bright and cheerful with a fairy tale ending similar to the spirit of Wilder showing that dreams can come true, thanks to fate, as Charlie the boy experiences in WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY.
The film opens on April 5 in Toronto at Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema.
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THE TEARMAKER (Italy 2024) ***
Directed by Alessandro Genovesi
Everyone loves a listen to a good fairy tale when one is a kid and sometimes even more so as an adult if there is an adult fairy tale. THE TEARMAKER, a Netflix original from Italy is an adult fairy tale. This wonderful tale is based on the 2022 phenomenon book of the same name written by Erin Doom. Doom also wrote the script for the film. This is a world where the world’s young women and men want stories that analyze their feelings, including love and friendship. They also want to cry. To produce tears.
The film begins in a fairy tale atmosphere with a car driving in the country. A daughter kisses a mother’s cut better. The daughter sees a wolf and despises the creature while the mother tells her that the wolf is not evil, but only always depicted as evil in fairy tales. Then because of the wolf, the distraction causes a catastrophic car crash.
Within the walls of Grave, the orphanage (order, respect and obedience - the only three rules of the strict orphanage) in which Nica has grown up, stories and legends have always been told by candlelight. The orphanage is appropriately named Grave. The most famous one is about the tear maker, a mysterious craftsman with eyes as clear as glass, guilty of having manufactured all the fears and anxieties that dwell in people’s hearts. But, at the age of seventeen, the moment has come for Nica to leave all these dark childhood stories behind. Her greatest dream is about to come true. Mr and Mrs Milligan have begun the adoption procedures and are ready to give her the family she’s always wanted. However, Nica is not alone in the new house. Rigel, a restless, mysterious orphan, is also taken out of Grave, and he’s the last person Nica would wish for as an adoptive brother. Rigel is intelligent, and astute, plays the piano like a bewitching demon and is mesmerizingly handsome, but his angelic appearance conceals a dark temperament. Even though Nica and Rigel share a past filled with grief and deprivation, living together seems impossible; especially when the legend comes back to haunt their lives and the maker of tears suddenly grows increasingly real and draws nearer. Even so, gentle and brave, Nica is ready to do anything in order to protect her dream, because only by facing the nightmares that torment her will she finally be able to soar freely like the butterfly after which she was named.
People cry for fear, anger, anguish and despair But in the world of THE TEARSMITH are hollow shells as they are unable to cry. Truthfully, a good cry brings out a lot of emotions and makes human beings feel better, This is the premise of the imaginative adult fairy tale of THE TEARMAKER, the stuff of legend and stories told from the grave that eventually, the audience is told become bedtime stories.
THE TEARMAKER is an Italian Netflix original film that opens for streaming on April 5th.
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WICKED LITTLE LETTERS (UK 2023) ****
Directed by Thea Sharrock
This period piece, supposedly based on a true story that few have heard of till perhaps now, is set in the 1920s when there was a scandal brewing in Littlehampton, England. Littlehampton is a charming seaside resort town and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. Residents there have started receiving anonymous, poison-pen letters, really vulgar ones brimming with curse words and scandalous prose. The film has these letters explicitly read, so audiences should be forewarned of the really foul language used.
Who is writing them and how can they be stopped? Edith Swan (Olivia Colman) — pious and respected (if not well-liked) — is one of those residents. The letters assassinate her character in the most blue-tinged language imaginable and, when they stack up, her autocratic, scripture-quoting father Edward (Timothy Spall) insists the culprit be found. With law enforcement reluctantly investigating, Edith bandies a pet theory that her neighbour Rose (Jessie Buckley) might mean her harm. Rose is the opposite of Edith: loud, brash, a lover of spirits and dancing, and unapologetic about all of it. When the police arrest her in the letters case, assuming her guilt because of her “loose moral character,” it doesn’t sit well with Police Officer Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan). With her superiors unwilling to listen, Moss gathers a group of unlikely yet resourceful female volunteers to get to the bottom of the mystery.
This wicked little film blinds the fine line between good and evil. While working like a whodunit, it does not take a genius to correctly figure out the culprit of the letters. But that is not the point of the film that sneaks quite a few messages of racial prejudice, suffrage and religion into the storyline.
Olivia Coleman delivers another Oscar-worthy performance, one able to get a laugh of loud or two amidst all the drama. Veterans Gemma Jones and Eileen Aitkins have cameos amongst heavyweights Coleman and Timothy Spall. A real gem and surprise at TIFF last year where it had its world premiere.
WICKED LITTLE LETTERS opens April 5 in Toronto (Varsity & Varsity VIP), Vancouver (Fifth Avenue) and Montreal!
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